MOVER & SHAKER: LEXI HOAGLAND

We believe cowgirls come in all kinds and Lexi Hoagland is making it her mission to expand the industry by embracing them all.

Lexi grew up in Colorado, just outside of Denver, but found her way to Texas after graduating college as a way to spread her wings and explore who she is.
 
“I’m actually a triplet, a lot of people don’t know that about me,” she said. “I have two brothers, and we grew up doing all the same things, and we all went to the same school in Arkansas called Harding University, so post-graduation I knew I wanted to kind of spread my wings and go do something on my own. I ended up moving to Dallas to kind of figure out who Lexi is, who I am without my brothers.”

When she got to the Big D, she took a role in the construction industry on the business development side of things, and she quickly found – as probably many of us have – that while the city lights caught her eye, Cowtown captured her heart.
 
“I was spending all of my weekends in Fort Worth, in the Stockyards,” she explained. “I wish I had a better story to tell, but I just fell in love with the romance of the Western industry and knew I needed to be a part of it. The Western way was always present in my family, especially through my dad. He grew up farming and ranching and rode bulls for a little bit and rodeoed. When we were born, that lifestyle kind of stopped, but I feel like the morals were something that always stayed true within our family. When I was in Fort Worth, that’s what gravitated me there, was that it felt so familiar, and I just knew I had to do something within this industry.”
 
So, she made it happen, because, as you’ll see, that’s what Lexi does. She started networking and eventually ended up in a full-time role with National Roper’s Supply that they actually created for her. The more she was around the industry, the more she knew she really wanted to be a part of it.
 
“I would look around and think, ‘It looks like all these women in our industry are hanging out, and I don’t really know them, but I want to know them!’,” she explained. “And I had a little FOMO!”
 
Lexi started asking around, looking for a group that was connecting these types of people, and when she realized there wasn’t one, she made her own.

“I sat on the idea for like 9 months,” she admitted. “I didn’t really know how women who were like, 5th-generation ranchers would take to a newbie starting something like this and if it would even be welcomed. But I finally just said, ‘I feel like there is a need for the women in our industry to be able to connect’ so I created Cowgirls & Cocktails, where I host monthly events for women in Western and agriculture.”

While it’s aimed at the industry, it’s open to everyone.
 
“The whole mission is to build a longer table, not a taller fence,” she said. “And make it inclusive for everybody. We have women who are directly in Western and agriculture, but we also may have someone in medical device sales, or a chiropractor or all sorts. And that’s, to me, how we’re going to grow our industry.”

It’s not just cowgirls and it’s not just cocktails.

“I host a monthly event and keep them very diverse,” she explained. “Sometimes they’re happy hours, sometimes they’re learning opportunities, sometimes they’re shopping events. Every time, it grabs a new crowd, and it makes it so much fun!”
 
We can say first-hand, it really is so much fun! And as you can easily see, Lexi Hoagland is our kind of cowgirl – a mover and shaker with a genuine love for the lifestyle and a passion for putting women in the room where it happens. So, teaming up with her was an absolute no-brainer for us!
 
Mark your calendars, gals, because the next Cowgirls & Cocktails event will take place in our very own Stockyards store on Tuesday, November 12th, in conjunction with the launch of our upcoming Holiday 2024 collection, Gentry Road.

“This is something we’ve never done before, and the gals are going to go crazy for it!” explained Cheryl, enthusiastically. “We’ve never had a preview party before a launch, we’ve always launched for everyone all at once, so I think in addition to the opportunity to mix and mingle with the new fresh faces from Cowgirls & Cocktails, there’s going to be a huge appeal to our DDR devotees to get in there and get an exclusive early look!”
 
Keep an eye out for more info from us on the Gentry Road pre-launch party, and in the meantime, go follow Cowgirls & Cocktails on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the know about all the cool Cowtown happenings!