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

Alright, Kayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

Prior to relaunching my skincare line this year and getting into content creation on social media, I worked for a popular shipping and logistics company. The entire year of 2021, I put my business and my aspirations on the back burner because I got caught up in what I like to call the “3D” world, which is essentially everyday mundane life. Wake up, go to work, take care of my son, pay bills, and it was literally an ongoing cycle that I quickly grew tired of. One thing about me: if my heart isn’t in it, I’m not going to do it no matter what it may be. Since being an adult my dream has always consisted of me being my own boss and using my personality and things I’ve learned in life to teach people. I realized that as hard as I am working for someone else’s brand or company, I could be putting in that same blood, sweat, and tears (I literally mean that! I’ve had some rough nights in that warehouse lol) into my own goals. Working somewhere that is the complete opposite of who I am as a person drained me! It taught me that it’s okay to take risks. It’s okay to fully invest in myself. It’s okay to not fit in with the status quo. I get crazy looks when I tell people I stopped working to fully commit to my personal growth and my business endeavors, but honestly I couldn’t care less. Working in that warehouse taught me that no dollar amount is enough for me to give up on myself.

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

I got into the beauty industry ,professionally, once I graduated from beauty school in 2019. One of the biggest reasons my products are made from clean and natural ingredients is because while I was in school the products that I used on clients were made from natural ingredients and they actually worked beautifully! So that’s when I realized that I could do the same thing but make it my own. A year later, Rima Beauty was born! Rima Beauty has products for just about any skin type and we plan on expanding our line very soon! You can trust that our products are made with love and they have a lot of thought put into them. I’m not someone who just orders prepackaged products from a vendor and slaps a logo on the bottles. Rima Beauty is my baby and I take a lot pride in it. Everything you see that is apart of my brand, I did it. I’m actually educated on how the skin operates. All of my knowledge, experience, and love goes into my products. And I say all of that to say that, you can trust that my products will work for you no matter what your concerns are. You can even send me and email or direct message with any questions or skin concerns and I will take the time to give you a free consultation to ensure you and your skin are being taken care of. What sets Rima Beauty apart from the rest is the fact that there is love involved in every thing. And the same thing goes for the content that I create! I post videos on YouTube and not the kind where you sit back and say “wow, she just did that for views”. My YouTube channel is my safe space to create, enlighten, and entertain. My main goal on my channel is to bring people along with me on my spiritual journey and teach them the things that I’ve learned along the way that may apply to them. But the twist is, I do it in a way that is digestible and funny. I call myself “the Internet Home Girl” because that’s exactly how I want my viewers to feel when they are watching my videos. Whether you came to my channel to learn a makeup look or to learn about manifestation, I want people to feel comfortable learning from me. I feel like social media is saturated with creators who are just pumping out content solely for views and their videos don’t really have substance (no shade at all! Just an observation…) and I aim for my channel to be the complete opposite. I literally want it to feel like you’re on FaceTime with your home girl!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Anyone who has been following my brand from its conception, knows that Rima Beauty was inspired and created because of the birth of my son. I came up with the idea while I was still pregnant and brought it to life when he was only a couple months old. The months leading up to my initial launch were… rough. I was struggling with postpartum depression and going through a messy breakup with my child’s father. Trigger warning, but there were definitely days where I heavily contemplated suicide. There were days where I was exhausted from being kept up by my newborn son. There were days when I wanted to just throw everything away and give up on Rima Beauty before I had even gotten started. I can’t even lie and say trying to launch a business for the first time and battling these crippling thoughts everyday was a walk in the park because it was. And honestly, I never thought that I would get out of that funk. I never thought I would be happy again. But here I am, two years later and my life has done a complete 180. I’ve relaunched and rebranded Rima Beauty and the orders are coming in! I’m no longer depressed and suicidal. I actually have my own little family now that keeps me going. I’m creating YouTube videos like I’ve always wanted. I am honestly so happy that I didn’t give up on myself because life right now makes it all worth it.

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

I won’t sit here and act like I’ve gone viral and I have thousands of followers across all platforms because I don’t. That would be a bold face lie and I’m not in the business of lying. BUT! I will say the small community that I do have is constantly growing and I love it! I feel like because I’m not an overnight sensation my audience has been growing with me and that is literally the whole point! For my audience to grow and learn with me. Because I haven’t gone “viral” yet, the people who like my content genuinely like me for me and I’d honestly rather that than a million people obsessing over me, waiting to cancel me as soon as I say something to ruffle feathers. I’ve been my authentic self from the jump and I have no plans on changing that. Some days I might come on camera face beat to the gods and another I might get on camera with no eyebrows (my eyebrows are really thin okay. Thanks mom), but it’s okay! I can do that with my audience because that’s who they have known and grown to love. My advice to anyone looking to build a presence on social media is probably going to sound cliche, but BE YOURSELF!! Please! That is what social media is missing. AUTHENTICITY! Do not come on to social media flexing and acting as if you have this perfect life because I don’t know about you, but when I find out someone’s entire persona is all for the camera, I gag. And not in the good way! If you don’t have it like that but you still love to be creative, SO WHAT?! Do NOT dim your light because you feel as if you don’t fit in with the average “influencer”. Come onto social media being the best version of yourself suga pie and I promise those who I meant for you will naturally gravitate towards you. We don’t chase, we attract.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rimabeauty.shop
• Instagram: Personal: @sunflowerchilee Business: @rimabeautyllc
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCuioJfwpd_V9cIYWmo97-nw