We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marcus Brooks and Michaela Hardeman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marcus and Michaela below.
Marcus and Michaela , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?
Asking friends and family to support your business is tricky and we do not think it’s wise. Typically asking your friends and family for support creates pressure for them. If you have to ask them for support, they are not ready to support you. You have to first prove to your friends and family that you are not the little kid that they have come to know you as. Once they see your success they will come around and support on their time. If they do not then there is no harm, no foul. Before we started KaylaMar I (Marcus) had several network marketing companies that I worked with as well as my own personal training company. In those ventures I went as far as to pay for multiple friends and family to join and they never took it as seriously as the strangers who joined at full price. Friends and family are great for being there as you grow as a person, but strangers will be your biggest support in your business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Have you ever met online, fell in love, and started a business? Well, we did. We are Kayla and Marcus, and together we are KaylaMar LLC. We are a couple that is helping couples make dating more affordable and enjoyable. We met on the dating app Bumble during the pandemic. We swiped right, three days later had our first date, and thirty days after meeting we moved in together. When people ask us why we decided to move in so quickly, we always respond with, “When you find the love of your life, time is no longer a factor.” Once our family and friends started hearing our story and seeing our relationship with their own eyes (guess it is something you must see to believe) our phones were flooded with people asking for relationship advice and unique dating ideas. We pride ourselves on being honest and transparent about our relationship, so we responded. Shortly after, we founded KaylaMar LLC where we give relationship advice, share budget-friendly date ideas, and celebrate all things love. We put emphasis on celebrating Black love. Our passion is helping people disassociate the word “date” with the word “expensive.” Many couples do not go on dates due to them being too busy or they do not feel that they have the money. We have date night every Sunday and have gone on dates where we have spent anywhere from fifty dollars to zero. Dating should never be hard, and we are here to uncomplicate things. Every time we receive a message from someone that is in a healthy relationship or had an amazing date night because of us we cannot help but to smile. We created KaylaMar LLC to spread love and knowing that we are doing that means that we are making a difference.
How did you build your audience on social media?
When we hit our first million views on YouTube and ten thousand followers on Instagram, we were ecstatic! We will be launching products soon and thanks to social media we will be launching to over 1 million accounts across multiple platforms. We started off just posting what we thought was fun to try to get views. After we saw that was not giving us the growth we wanted, we started posting things that were fun, informative, inspiring, and remained true to ourselves then BOOM! We were an overnight sensation (At least in our eyes lol.) Growing a genuine community is what has helped build our audience the most. We make sure to respond to our comments, tell our viewers thank you when they share our content, and listen to what our audience has to say. We love our community and are excited to bring them more content and products in the future.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Whew…are you ready for this one? We used to have the mindset of no sleep, only work! We stayed up until three in the morning working, slept for three hours, and got right back to work. That ended up changing when we noticed that we spent more time arguing and fixing mistakes than getting the work done. We argued about ideas we had for the business, what we were going to eat for dinner, and who used up all the toilet paper. Not to mention the number of typos in business documents and video edits that took hours to correct. The business became more important than our relationship, and we tired ourselves out. Burnout is a real thing and something that should be taken seriously, especially when you have a business partner that is your life partner. We had to unlearn no sleep only work and learn that when we are not good physically, emotionally, and mentally that KaylaMar LLC will not be good either. We started having weekly date nights where we do not talk business, and we got back to our relationship being priority, which in turn made KaylaMar LLC better. This is where our passion for helping couples bring back the magic of date night came from. Date night saved our relationship and our business, and we want to help other couples feel the magic as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kaylamar.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaylamar0512/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KaylaMarO512/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE7BbtIDEmWi4ef57wLUdPQ
- Other: @kaylamar0512@threads.net
Image Credits
DeMarco Johnson Photography