We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anisah Nelson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anisah below.
Anisah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
Say it with me… TIME. Building a successful brand and business definitely is not something that happens overnight… I’m still not exactly where I want to be. When I started Kai Galore Skin back in 2020 (formally known as All Things Aesthetics) it was really……… the struggle to say the least. I was a very very new mom at the time, I had been working full time and attending school while contemplating taking a leap of faith and just quitting my job to fully pursue my dreams. As you can imagine, this wasn’t exactly what my friends and family saw as “practical” or “smart” nor did many of them understand my vision in the beginning. It wasn’t until they noticed me being absent from gatherings and more consistent in my practice, they watched me creatively use resources in effort of achieving different services or products or “trapping” as my clients & I would say lol, when I didn’t have the money to stock my back bar or equipment expenses; i packed all my equipment up and did house calls only for a year straight strictly formulating all my own skincare products and even my very own hard wax to make clients know I was dedicated and reliable. It was when I knew I had been doing something right on this path after almost 3 years now, when those same people went from those who didn’t see the vision to those watching me pay myself more than $100/hr, acquire investment deals, celebrity bookings and being featured in magazines! Safe to say, they get it now.
Anisah, 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?
For those who may not be familiar with my brand, I am Anisah Nelson from Kansas City Missouri and I’m the Founder and CEO of Kai Galore Skin Company better known as @kaigaloreskin. My brand is an all natural skincare and aesthetics company spreading the gospel that is self care in urban communities pushing skincare for the culture, by the culture; as all of our products are specifically formulated to aide common concerns skin enriched in melanin may face. Providing the proper care and product knowledge to relieve the stress on our communities that come with dealing with acne, hyperpigmentation, eczema, psoriasis, PCOS and other common conditions that require some TLC and confidence. We provide a wide variety of basic and advanced facial treatments, waxing services , and full body massages and spa party options! @kaigaloreskin also has our very own skincare product line offering various cleansers, masks, exfoliants & more! Check us out on Instagram!
I started this company almost 3 years ago in the midst of finding myself again after leaving a very toxic and traumatic relationship, I studied the in and outs of skin and aesthetics day and night, and begun my first apprenticeship & one day I looked up with 5x the clientele I started with tons of amazing reviews, investments in my brand, life changing self love stories from clients and even celebrity clientele now.
What I feel sets @kaigaloreskin apart from other is our passion, our mission & our execution. We come out in 2020 promising a skincare holy grail for the culture to alleviate stress that comes from acne, hyperpigmentation, eczema and other very common skin concerns in black skin, and that is just what we’ve provided ever since while we maintained our clients trust in their skincare/self care journey for the years to come!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
In todays time, social media is THE BIGGEST most effective way to market. Building a social media following can be easy or it can be challenging depending on how hard you’re willing to go for your brand. To start out I gave myself a goal of followers to acquire each week, once I started to see a flow of gains I would up the goal and continue to do so. At that point is when I begin to invest in promotion advertising on different social media platforms to help bring more attention to my brand. Anybody just starting a business and need advice on building social following the most successful marketing advice I can give is to put yourself out there NO MATTER WHAT, post business related content at least 10 times daily to ensure at least 1% growth in exposure!!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
A time I had to pivot in my brand and life in general was when I had a reality check and realized everybody’s pockets weren’t operating like mine at the time of me starting my brand. That forever changed the game for me on a marketing tip. Knowing how to market and who to market to, as well as finding my finesse in sales being able to close a 3 figure total with client who may have only had intention of spending X amount, or not at all. How you market your brand is how you’ll propel your success. Even on your slowest days, you will quickly learn how promoting yourself will take you over the humps it’s just about how hard you’re willing to work for it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kaigaloreskin
- Facebook: @kaigaloreaesthetics