We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kisha Stanback. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kisha below.

Hi Kisha, thanks for joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

If I could back in time I would have started my business sooner. In the past couple of years I have had the opportunity and pleasure to see so many people launch successful businesses with FREE resources and passion. That’s all it takes, passion and finding resources, and of course time. When I initially opened my business I did all my research online and networked with other business owners. I am not saying it’s easy at all but I definitely believe that with time and resources I could have started my business when I was in college. I was even more passionate about jewelry and accessories when I was in college because walking to class was something like a fashion show. I was constantly surrounded by my target audience and had unlimited resources. I didn’t have much money in college but I had time and resources. I believe that launching a small business could have been and is attainable. I was also part of a poetry group called WOM at East Carolina University where I shared a lot of my poetry about what my brand represents. Years later, I share some of those same spoken word pieces at events to share the inspiration behind Accessorise.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Some say when you look good you feel good, but ultimately when you feel good you do just that, you FEEL good inside and out. I have learned that simply feeling good about yourself can enhance so many aspects of your life. I am almost 35 years old and didn’t truly start feeling “good” about myself until I was in my late 20’s /early 30’s. For a very long time I let other peoples opinions and media dictate how I viewed and what I thought about myself. Black Culture has always influenced fashion and beauty but now more than ever before. I saw more and more women that looked like or styled to look like me in television, print, and being the prototype of beauty. People were making surgical enhancements for things that are apart of me naturally, full lips, high cheek bones, textured hair etc. I had an aha moment when I looked in the mirror and really realized that I don’t look like anybody else in the world, that our features are unique to us and that’s what makes us beautiful. Accessorise was created to remind people to celebrate their features, to enhance your beauty and your life. To look in the mirror and understand that there is nobody else on this planet that has your features. Your skin, nose, eyes, lips… an accessory is something that enhances something that is already beautiful and what better way to d celebrate your beauty than accessoRISE.

I offer everyday pieces and variety of pieces currated to remind you of how able, strong, and beautiful you are.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Growing up, you would have thought I was the most outgoing child. I got straight A’s, played various sports, instruments, and was always at the forefront of something. I was never really good at any of these things except for writing poetry and public speaking. Writing poetry is where I felt the most comfortable and safe, but oddly I never really shared my pieces. I wrote about the stuff that was too hard to talk about like getting picked on because of my skin tone, my athletic build, and my Afrocentric features. For an exceptionally long time, I was uncomfortable with the way I looked and wanted to make changes. As I got older, I started noticing women like Serena Williams, Tika Sumpter, Naomi Campbell, my mother, and so many others that looked like me and could literally stop traffic with their beauty. I began to follow other women that resembled me and immersed myself in the diverse beauty of black women. The same features I and so many others that resembled me were tormented for were now hot commodities in plastic surgery offices. On a continued personal journey of self-love, I launched Accessorise in hopes to not only represent black women in jewelry but to magnify that you’re already perfect. My line strives to empower women of all different shades, shapes and sizes to love and celebrate the skin they are in.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social Media has probably been one of my largest opportunities as a business owner and full time Learning and Development consultant. I had a lot of success with growing my social media audience when I initially launched my business. My business is 100% online so it’s imperative to have a social media presence. When I first started I targeted newer influencers with a minimum of 5k followers and gave them free products in exchange for them to post content and tag me when they wore my pieces. I had great success targeting fashion and make up influencers. I would visit the comments and their followers always asked where they got their earrings or accessory pieces. My 2nd year in business an influencer went viral and Anastasia Beverly Hills tagged my business page and I began to grow organically from there. Currently there are so many influencers who have rates to promote your business. In any interaction with influencers its very important to have a contract and verify the influencers analytics.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theaccessoriseshop.com
• Instagram: @theaccessoriseshop
• Facebook: theaccessoriseshop
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kishastanback/

Image Credits
These are all photos that were taken by me or submitted by customers