We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chigozirim Ibeh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chigozirim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

To be successful it takes 3 things. Discipline, empathy and being able to be a student. Discipline, while it sounds cliche, is very important. In everything you do, whether it’s training for a marathon or studying a new course, you have to remain disciplined in your approach and show up everyday with your best (however it looks on that day). Empathy. All of us are dealing with something whether it’s made public or not. A little empathy and compassion will not only garner and retain loyal clients/customers but it also helps you become a better leader and person. Lastly, being able to be a student. This means that for as long as you live, you will always be a student to life. Being able to take constructive criticism, learn from it and apply it to your business is essential. You never want to be a know it all. Even know it all’s make mistakes and in fact, do not know it all. Being able to be a student and be adaptable will help in more ways than one. An example of this was when I was first starting my hair business back in 2019. I was familiar with doing hair because I had done my own hair & family/friends for years so I thought it’d be relatively simple. Boy was I wrong! Learning about profit, capital etc not only threw my head for a spin but also made me feel like this is something that I shouldn’t turn into a business. But with my own research and experiences, I remembered that we learn something new everyday. And that knowledge, in however form it reaches us, is not meant to intimidate us but to help us on our journey.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hey there! My name is Chigozirim and I’m an entrepreneur & content creator. I’m 23 years old, born and raised in the heart of NYC, in the best borough (Brooklyn!) to 2 amazing Nigerian parents. Growing up, I always knew that I was meant to help people. At the time, I wanted to be a doctor because doctors help people. But later on through middle & high school, I realized that helping people doesn’t only have to be medically. I always thought of myself to be a “girly girl” in every essence of the term. I love to shop, do my nails/hair, any and everything pink, I played in my mom’s makeup when she wasn’t looking etc. However, as most of you may know, attending public school can prove to be either some of the best or worst years of your life. Fortunately, I had better years than not but in school, kids can be very mean and hurtful. Especially when you’re on the receiving end of those mean & hurtful experiences. But those moments did not break me. They instead fueled my passion and desire to look and feel as beautiful as my childlike and adolescent self would allow. Whether that meant styling my hair a new way or even feeling bold enough to wear my failed attempts at eyeshadow to school just because I liked it. With this, Crowned by Chi was born in 2019 after I graduated high school.

I was in my freshman year of college and found myself not only doing my hair but my friends’ hair before parties or other events. They always wanted to pay me for my time & efforts but I often declined. I felt bad taking their money because we were all students trying to keep our heads above water in school and also because I didn’t think I should be paid for doing something I thought was a hobby. But my friends later convinced me that I should not only turn my hobby into a business but I deserved to be paid for it since they always got compliments when they were out. I came up with the name Crowned by Chi because our hair is essentially the “Crown” on our heads. It’s often times what people see first when we’re looked at and I knew that every woman deserves to look and feel as beautiful as she can with and in her crown. Crowned by Chi offers services such as silk presses, natural hair coloring and lace frontal/closure wig installs. I’m mostly self taught but over the years I have taken hair courses with popular & prominent hairstylists in NYC to learn their techniques and pick their brains about business. What sets me apart from other hairstylists is that it’s not about the money for me. It never has been. It’s always been about making every woman who sits in my chair feel even more beautiful & confident than when she walked through the door.

Aside from being a hairstylist, I’m also a content creator. In this day & age where we are perpetually on our phones, content creating is how I not only reach new & potential clients and customers but also how I get to share a lot of my personality and new finds. Such as restaurants, events, stores, attractions, vacations etc. I also sell hair (Crowned Capitol) that offers lace frontal & closure wigs of all textures — straight, body wave, water wave etc. I also sell scrubs (Tons of Scrubs) which I started my senior year of college as a biology major student that loved science & fashion and wanted to combine the two! I also have a DFY (Done for You) digital product business, Chi Coaches, that teaches women how to use social media platforms such as Instagram & Tiktok to make money by teaching people about what they’re most passionate about (niche) or by selling convenient products that people need everyday. Such as planners, calendars, ebooks etc. I’m also in the process of becoming a makeup artist because like hair, makeup has been my original passion.

I know reading all of this it can sound very overwhelming but my parents always told me to shoot for the stars because the sky is not my only limit. So it’s been engrained into me from a young age that I absolutely can do everything I put my mind to and that’s exactly what I plan to do!

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

While I’m still growing my audience on social media, the most important thing I’ve learned and still learning, is that you have to be unapologetically yourself. On social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, everyone is virtually making similar content whether it’s a “Get ready with me (GRWM)”, “A day in the life of …” or even prank videos, what separates you? Your personality. As cliché, as that sounds, your personality is what truly separates you from every other content creator out there. The way you edit your videos, the way you begin your videos (intro), the way you end them(outro), the quality of your content, all play a part in distinguishing you to your audience. Branding is so important because with everyone creating similar content, your audience needs a tangible (& catchy!) way to be able to recognize your content. Whether it’s by a catchphrase or a thumbnail design, your audience needs a way to be able to point you out in a crowd. I say this to say, the way you brand yourself on social media is the way you’ll not only grow your audience, but cultivate a community of people. This is especially important because your audience often times turn into your biggest supporters. If you haven’t experienced this yet, a little word of advice is that a stranger in Oklahoma will be the first to support you compared to someone you’ve known since middle school. So continue to post your content! Regardless of how shy you are or how cringe or embarrassing you think your content is.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients for me has been word of mouth. In this day and age where social media and posting content is vital to beginning and existing businesses, word of mouth is an old school approach that still works wonders. My mom has always lived by and instilled into me (and other business owners), “If you treat me well, I’ll tell others. If you treat me bad, I’ll tell you.” Which essentially translates to if you treat/service me well I’ll spread the word to help grow your business but if you don’t do right by me, I’ll tell you so that you can improve your service. I’ve taken this rule of thumb so seriously in all my years of running my business and even while I’ve been starting new ones. A lot of my clients when asked how they heard or found my business, they often times tell me which exact clients referred them to me. I find this to be such a beautiful thing because I take pride in making my clients feel comfortable during their appointments so to have them willingly give out my information when they don’t have to is very heartwarming!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tonsofscrubs.com
• Instagram: @crownedby.chi ; @crownedcapitol ; @tonsofscrubs_ ; @chicoaches

Image Credits

@crownedby.chi
@tonsofscrubs_