"She's really the visionary for everything," Flau'jae tells PEOPLE of her mom, Kia
Credit: Flau’jae Johnson
NEED TO KNOW
- Flau’jae Johnson opens up to PEOPLE about her relationship with her mom, Kia, who is also her manager
- Kia also tells PEOPLE how she navigates the balance between being a manager and a mom
- The mother-daughter duo are excited to embrace Flau’jae’s next chapter in the WNBA
Seattle Storm rookie Flau'jae Johnson and her mom, Kia, are making moves.
The eighth overall pick in this year's WNBA draft, 22-year-old Flau'jae has been about business since birth, according to Kia, 43, who manages her daughter's basketball and rap career.
"When Flau'jae was born, she had this serious mug on her face. Literally, I'm looking at this baby like, 'Is she going to smile?' She was looking like she's going to take over the world," Kia tells PEOPLE.
That unstoppable mindset is something Flau'jae likely acquired from "go-getter" Kia, a single mom to five kids. "She always shows up, and I don't even know how she does it," says Flau'jae, whose father was killed in a shooting before she was born.
Credit: Flau’jae Johnson
Although Kia didn't have experience in talent management, she has long "been this business savvy mom."
"I've always had to make my way because the normal check just didn't do it," Kia tells PEOPLE. "It paid the bills, but all the activities that they wanted to be a part of, I needed two more jobs, literally."
She got creative in making custom gift baskets and home-cooked dinners. "I've always been a hustler," says Kia, who, in addition to Flau'jae, is a mom to sons Tray, 26, Nixon, 9, Aythan, 2, and 6-year-old Aydin, an aspiring rapper.
"Nobody's going to speak better for my children than I am," Kia says. "Nobody's going to fight for them like I am. I'm not going to clock out. Agents are going to clock out. Managers are going to clock out. I'm always clocked in because they're my kids."
Credit: Flau’jae Johnson
In fact, Kia first saw the potential for Flau'jae to succeed in both basketball and the music industry, where she's collaborated with artists such as Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg.
"I wanted to start rapping, so my mom just came my manager, and then as things started to get bigger and bigger, she began digging all the way into the draft and studying and trying to figure out how we can really make something happen, how we can really build an empire," Flau'jae tells PEOPLE.
When Flau'jae played basketball collegiately for the LSU Tigers, with whom she won an NCAA title in 2023, Kia helped negotiate NIL deals on her daughter's behalf. "It surprised me because my mom, like, she never did any of this in her life, she was working as a dental hygienist, so for her to become a full hardcore manager and operating my business, and doing it well, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, mom, you are legit,' " she says.
Flau'jae, who recently teamed with e.l.f. Cosmetics on a year-long partnership, says Kia is "the visionary for everything."
Credit: Flau’jae Johnson
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"I see her on these Zooms and on these meetings and closing these million dollar deals, and I'm just like, 'She's not scared.' I think this was always her calling. Her being a mom, that's just who she is, but the business is really her calling and what she does. She does it really well," Flau'jae says.
Finding a balance between mom and manager is something Kia has learned to navigate.
"At one point, being her manager and her mom, I used to mix the two and then I had to separate them one day because of Flau'jae. I was like, 'Make the post or I'm going to take your phone,' and she was like, 'Mom, hold on. If you were my manager and not my mom, you can say make the post, but you can't take my phone. You're going to have to separate the two,' " Kia says.
Now, Kia has found ways to "take a step back and realize that this kid needs to be a kid at certain times and she needs her mom at certain times."
"So what I've started to do is that I text my daughter and I email my client," she says.
As Flau'jae begins her new WNBA chapter in Seattle, mom Kia will be cheering her on miles away in Atlanta.
Credit: Flau’jae Johnson
"I feel like she's trying to give me my independence. We talk almost every day still because we just talk every day, but she hasn't been calling a lot. She's just been checking in on me. I'll call her. I like to see my little brothers get ready and go to practice and stuff like that, so I call them," Flau'jae says.
Kia says she's "fine" being away from her daughter for one reason: "The smile on that girl's face every time I call her."
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