If you walk past the windows at Moxie on Second, you’ll almost always catch Christie Roberts in motion.
She might be adjusting a display, shifting a table a few inches to the left, or tucking a new kitchen gadget into a spot where it pops just right. There’s a light behind her movement, a kind of creative curiosity paired with a practical, down-to-earth warmth.
Before the door even opens, you sense the story. Christie wants you to feel welcome. She wants the space to feel alive. She wants it to matter.
And that instinct has been guiding her since she was a little girl rearranging the world around her.
Inside, the store hums with a kind of joyful order. Each shelf is thoughtfully arranged with bursts of color, inviting textures, and unique items that spark delight.
The Girl Who Couldn’t Stop Rearranging
Years before Moxie had windows on Second Street, Christie was a little girl standing in Montgomery Ward with her mother, studying displays and noticing the outfits on the mannequins.
She remembers those moments well.
Her siblings preferred to stay home. Christie chose the shopping adventures with her mom and aunt. She wanted to look. She wanted to see.
Mixing and matching clothes wasn’t a trend to her; it was instinct. Even as a child, she could turn three basic pieces into five new outfits, pairing them in ways that felt fresh and fun.
At home, she’d push her bedroom furniture around the floor until she found a layout that felt right. She reorganized her kitchen cabinets for fun. She made “new” rooms from old things because she could always see a possibility hidden inside what already existed.
“We didn’t have a lot,” she remembers. “So I learned how to make things special by rearranging them.” Rearranging wasn’t play. It was how she made sense of the world.
Where others saw a Saturday chore, she found therapy.
Seeing What Could Be
Christie never set out to be “creative.” She still hesitates to use the word.
But creativity followed her.
At the bank where she worked for twenty years, she reorganized offices and fixed layouts without anyone asking. When she moved into a marketing role, her instincts naturally shaped how things looked, how they felt, and how people experienced the space and their brand.
At the print shop with her husband, Shawn, she did it again, pulling together merchandise, displays, and ideas with a sense of possibility she didn’t realize was unusual. Christie’s marketing instincts brought new foot traffic to the print shop. Once customers were inside, branded merchandise and spirit wear followed naturally.
“I don’t sit still,” she laughs.
But it’s not restlessness. It’s readiness.
She notices what others overlook.
She moves toward what feels like it could be better.
She rearranges the world into something a little brighter.
For years, that instinct was at work, useful and unnoticed.
The Dream That Waited a Lifetime
Christie dreamed of owning a store long before she had one.
For decades, the idea lingered, a dream she carried for years. She considered different business concepts, but none took shape. Not everyone believed in her ideas, and there were moments when she almost believed the doubt too. The turning point came when Christie and Shawn were able to rent the space next door to the print shop, creating the opportunity for her to open a store of her own.
The first Moxie opened as a Bruin Spirit Store, offering school spirit wear while continuing to give a percentage of sales back to Bartlesville Public Schools each quarter. It was a modest beginning, rooted in community support from the start.
And just like she’d done since childhood, Christie began building something from what she knew and loved: kitchen gadgets, décor, clothing, and pieces that made her smile.
A couple of months later, when additional storefront space became available, Christie took the next step and expanded.
The Moxie on Second boutique adventure had begun.
Crafting an Experience, Not Just a Store
Walk into Moxie, and you’ll see Christie’s fingerprints everywhere: in the height of a display, the warmth of a candle scent, the way products seem to invite you closer.
“It has to look like it wants to hop off the shelf and go home with the customer,” she says.
Her team learns from her, not through lectures, but through shared creativity.
The child whose joy was to rearrange the kitchen cabinets as "therapy" teaches them:
- Dramatic
- Happy
- Visible
She hires people who want to be part of the Moxie family and invests in them with the same intention she gives her shelves. She teaches young employees how to arrange, how to greet, how to carry themselves, even how to hammer a nail properly and light a match for a scented candle.
Life skills, she calls them.
Leadership, whether she uses the word or not.
A Few Doors Down and A Few Steps Deeper
In 2025, Christie opened A Few Doors Down, moving local vendors into their own dedicated space and giving Moxie room to expand. After years of nurturing vendor relationships, she knew the next step was expansion, making room for more creatives to share their work.
She continues to experiment with new brands, new ideas, and new ways of making people feel delight when they walk through the doors.
Change doesn’t scare her.
If anything, it energizes her.
“I like adventures,” she says.
It’s the perfect word for her, not restless, but curious. Not impulsive, but brave enough to follow her instincts.
When the Community Held Her
There was a season when Christie discovered what Moxie truly meant, not as a business, but as a lifeline.
When her father and brother passed away within months of each other, the community wrapped its arms around her. Customers, friends, neighbors, people she’d barely met, they showed up, wrote notes, sent messages, and offered help.
“I was overwhelmed,” she says. “The love they showed me… I never expected anything like that.”
She thought she had created a place for the community.
She didn’t realize she had also created a place where the community would care for her.
The Meaning of Moxie
Christie works hard, 110 percent, every single day.
The hours are long, the responsibilities endless, and the creativity constant.
But she loves it.
“I want to feel like I accomplished something every day,” she says.
And she does.
She loves the customers.
She loves the stories behind the people who stop in.
Most of all, she loves that Moxie has become a place where people feel welcome, almost like stepping into a friend’s home.
When women look at what she’s built, Christie hopes they know this:
“That anything is possible, but you have to put in the work.”
“That loving what you do makes the long hours worth it.”
“And that life is too short to stay in something that doesn’t bring you joy.”
She never set out to inspire anyone.
But her courage, her grit, and her eye for creating beauty do.
What Moxie Says to Bartlesville
Christie hopes Moxie continues to be the place people mention with a smile:
“Let’s go to Moxie today!”
She hopes customers feel joy the moment they walk in.
She hopes her work keeps giving back to the community that has given so much to her.
And she hopes people see, in her story, the same blessing she feels every day.
“I feel like God has taken care of me,” she says.
“I’ve been blessed.”
The Heart of Moxie
Christie Roberts didn’t just open a store.
She created a place where people feel at home and delighted.
In every shelf, every scent, every laughing moment behind the counter, she brings her spark, and Bartlesville shines a little brighter because she said yes to it.
This Blog contains the full version of Christie's story. [Download an abbreviated story]
About Christie Roberts
Christie Roberts is the owner of Moxie on Second and A Few Doors Down in downtown Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Known for her creative eye and instinct for making people feel at home, Christie has built more than a boutique. She has created a welcoming space where community, creativity, and connection come together. Through her thoughtful curation, mentorship of young employees, and support of local vendors, Christie continues to shape a downtown experience rooted in warmth, possibility, and purpose.
About the Writer
Angie Thompson—a fundraising strategist and brand storyteller who helps nonprofits, organizations, and purpose-driven individuals shape messages that inspire action. Her work brings together message development, creative strategy, and community-rooted storytelling, informed by award-winning experience in film, television, and philanthropy.
Through Angie Thompson Consulting LLC and her Pivot Pulse™ framework, she partners with people doing meaningful work—and helps them communicate it in ways that resonate, build trust, and move others to engage.
Member: Association of Fundraising Professionals · Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits · Society of Lyricists & Composers · ASCAP
Disclaimer & Copyright
The narrative presented in this story is based on a personal interview with Christie Roberts. The views and memories shared are her own and are included with permission. This feature is part of the Women Who Say Yes to the Spark series and is intended to celebrate the subject’s leadership, creativity, and influence.
© 2026 Angie Thompson Consulting LLC. If you wish to republish or excerpt this story, please contact Angie Thompson Consulting for permission.