We were lucky to catch up with Brandon Curtis recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Brandon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
I think what took my business to the next level was treating it like your only option. It can’t be something on the side it has to have your attention. So I currently work as a nurse so I see it as I have two full time positions currently until my business surpasses my nursing income. So for me that looked like posting consistently, at least every other day. Using all the marketing strategies I know work for larger corporations such as sms/email marketing, influencer marketing, etc. And a major one in my world of design is working with stylists. A huge milestone with my business was getting one of my garments pulled by Kaliis stylist Rylton (props go to my brother Jamar Fordham (@1saintjay) for that). Her tagging me in those photos opened me up to a bigger audience and converted to sales. The not so pretty side to scaling up though is all of the trial and error. Before you find a stylist that works you may waste time, money and energy to rush them a piece just for it not to be used for the shoot or for it to come back damaged. And as I stated earlier having to full time jobs is only sustainable in spurts at some point you will become burnt out and a bit jaded which happened to me earlier in the year, where I didn’t really feel attached to either “job”. Nonetheless through the hard work I can say I’m slowly scaling this business up.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Brandon Curtis I was born in Brooklyn NY and raised in Conyers, GA. I have Jamaican heritage with both of my parents being born or living periods of their life there. My brand is SociEx Studios and it aims to make designs based around biblical spirituality and to provide commentary based upon our current social climate. We have designs centered around the reprogramming of the mind as well as the need for affirmations during your times of trouble. We offer products such as leather jackets, t shirts, sweats , and are beginning to dabble in jewelry design. One thing im most proud of with the garments I’ve made thus far is that I have been able to stay true to my message and pull it off in a way that is unique and wearable. I often have people come up to me at events and say there is nothing else in the venue like my stuff and I love that. I want to pull in people who are curious and interested in wearing art that intention and thought behind it and not just a piece of clothing
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I attempt to keep in touch with supporters by asking questions ever so often. Sometimes I’ll Dm them just to thank them for their support. Also do polls and send sms or email campaigns.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Right around the time I was graduating from my Bachelors programs I realized that although I had trademarked my old brand name and had been going by it for some time I still didn’t have first use rights so I needed to pivot and find a name that was original and also was not limiting. It sounds easy but during that time I realized that my identity was kind of wrapped up in that brand name and being known as the guy attached to that brand. And it felt like all the work I put into making that name mean something was being undone. But in reality the brand is much stronger now and the name and purpose align more with where I’m headed as a person
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.sociexstudios.com