We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ke’uan May a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ke’uan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
What did my parents do right? They shown me the real world at an early age. In terms of more bad than good, I don’t say this in vengeful tone towards my parents. But my early birth at their young age was a world we were all not prepared for. Like elders say “babies raising babies”, I can say I kinda of grew up with my my parents. A divided house never made it easy but I never asked for a helping hand. In all, I’d say that we should all look at what are parents failed to do right, in the end it helps us to never show repetition of the same cycle as we become their age.
Ke’uan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Born from Greenville, NC. I always knew I’d be bigger than my surroundings. Those such as Mr.Beast were people I’d see that my life was shaping to be the same. From my comedic skits to my cinematic films, I enjoy bringing people together through the art of photography and videography. Becoming a motivator at an early age sparked my drive to become the social media influencer I am today. Starting on TikTok in 2020, 3 years later to have a mass of 375k plus followers and Instagram amassing 34k followers.
My involvement with sports have always been a love that can drive away. I began to host 7v7 events months after Covid erupted into our lives and we have transcended ever since. We have family from literally all over. Our football events, basketball, whatever event we choose, we drive to bring unity to each and every single soul we encounter. We embrace family, love, things that some of us may have had an absence of in a point of our lives.
I’m proud of the supporters God’s blessed me to have. Literally MILLIONS engaged monthly, and I believe it’s all because I never factored gaining financial elements with this lifestyle that’s current. NEVER do anything for the money, invest yourself into your work first.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Building my audience on social media was one of the best journey’s I’ve been on since my career started. There is no secret sauce, there is no short cut. You have to invest yourself into everything you genuinely desire to do in your life. Countless videos I’ve created, deleted, recreated, etc. But the end goal every single time was just reach someone who can relate to this in some way shape or form. To take advantage of the society we are in and use it creatively in a way that no one else can manipulate. Your first viral video will never be your last, you have to remember that. Just like we go watch a football game, we’re their audience. These players work hard so we see them play, social media is the same thing. I try to display my life in a way as a literal living example, so that those who take me as motivation in their lives can see first hand “what it takes”.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
One story I will share, many of you who read this are the very first to know…around this time a year ago I was homeless as I couldn’t attend my current college for my Fall Term. During this time my following on Instagram was at a halt and TikTok was in very stagnant waters. Nevertheless, I still kept creating videos to my style, to my genuine life. I acquired a job at “Earl’s” in Winston-Salem,NC as a dishwasher. One of the first co- workers I met, Chris, was chatting with me as we introduced each other. As I told Chris of my current situation, his first few words to me were “Oh you’re about to blow up kid”, in summary, I cherished those words, I stayed house to house, I stayed in my car, I grinded it out, and most importantly, I gained a stronger connections with God. During this time period of my life, I was never afraid, I never was doubtful that I won’t come from the cards I was delt. If your reading this, never submit to what life throws at you, everything is for a reason. After working for just a few months, my following via IG increased 10 fold, let alone the numbers of engagement reached the millions within the first weeks of success and we’ve consistently held 1M+ engaged users for 7+ months..life always comes full circle!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kiwi-shop.fourthwall.com/password
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/meraki.kiwi?igshid=MzMyNGUyNmU2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@keuanmay?si=eYKjCXptMs51fFRt