Gloria Marie Combs is a mom, wife, life coach, published author, adult education advocate, pageant queen, small business owner and plus size beauty enthusiast.
Gloria holds two national titles under the Royal Productions Pageant System. She is currently American Beauties Plus Royal Majesty Elite and Royal Productions Reigning Queen People’s Choice 2022-2023. For the past 9 years, Gloria has dedicated her career to pouring into the lives of non-traditional learners in the state of Indiana. This passion led her to create A.L.E.R.T, Inc. an organization geared towards the advancement of non-traditional learners. Through her career Gloria has found purpose in her passion to serve her community and help others. Her platform thrives on raising awareness regarding the importance of access to adult education. Another facet of Gloria’s diverse career exploration, led her to develop a small plus-size boutique called Glo’s Glam Closet by Gloria Marie, LLC. The idea of providing trendy clothes and accessories to all women but exclusively to full-figured women, ignited a fuel inside of me that she did not know she had. As a plus-size beauty enthusiast, Gloria clearly understands just how important it is for women of all sizes to feel beautiful and included.
You have accomplished so much! How long have you been involved in pageantry, life coaching and fashion? I have been a certified life coach for three years and have been working in the profession for over 9 years. Working in an education setting motivated me to go back to school and earn my degree. I have since earned my associate’s degree in human services, my bachelor’s degree in social work and philanthropy. I am currently working on my PHD in social work. For my 9 year track record in social work, I have been given the honor of receiving 2 honorary doctorates. I have been an active advocate for adult education for about 5 years. I have been in the world of pageantry since 2016. My fashion interest came later. I really started to develop an interest to become a plus-size Beauty Enthusiast in 2018. That later manifested into building confidence in myself and loving the skin that I am in.
What have been some of your challenges? There are so many challenges to starting your own business. I feel like my biggest challenge was the fear of failure. Anytime that I have ventured off into something new in my life, I never saw it through to its completion. For that reason, everything I do now is intentional. I strive to do better than the last time each and every time. I’ve always struggled with self-doubt but I channeled that energy into self-improvement and motivated myself to do something different to grow and to develop a change mindset.
What are your greatest accomplishments? I would have to say my greatest accomplishment is helping dozens of non-traditional students earn their high school diplomas. Coming from a family of single mother dropouts, I knew that it was important to end that cycle and end a generational curse with my family. Although it was extremely challenging and I lacked a lot of support, I knew that earning my high school diploma and degree would open so many doors and create so many opportunities. Coming from being a high school dropout and now working on my doctorate is monumental. I wanted to share my joy of education with others and that is why I chose to become a life coach at the Excel Center Meadows. Every day I have the honor and privilege of making an impact in someone’s life. This inspires me to go above and beyond for my students and provide educational resources that make their educational pathway more accessible through education, mentorship and volunteerism.
What are your plans for the future? I have started the process of writing my autobiography and creating my own Queen’s Cookbook. This book will feature recipes from National Queens all across the world. Be on the lookout for it! I have so many plans for the future however, I am fixated on accomplishing my huge bucket list. I’m a firm believer that if you’re not busy living, you’re merely existing. So far, I have tried the world’s hottest gummy bear. Next on my list, is trying the world’s most expensive tea and fried crickets. Aside from my bucket list, I plan to grow my business and continue to operate locally and expand globally. I believe that my boutique Glo’s Glam Closet has the potential to grow and develop into something I never dreamed of.
How can people contact you? Search me on all major platforms including Facebook and IG. You can also visit my website at www.glosglamcloset.com. At this time, we are currently looking for 5 Glam Girls who will take part in a year wide ambassadorship campaign to promote Glo’s Glam Closet by Gloria Marie. Follow my pages for more information.
Facebook: Glo’s Glam Closet by Gloria Marie, LLC.
IG: Glambyglo00
Website: www.glosglamcloset.com
Is there any other information you would like to share? I would like to give a few words of encouragement to anyone who has been told that they can accomplish something or that they’re not good enough. Love you enough to give yourself a fair shot and grace to accomplish whatever you want to succeed at. Remember everything starts with you no matter how big or small your goal is. The first step is believing in you. Last step, never stop believing in you.