We recently connected with Kenly + Jack Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Kenly + Jack, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

As cliche as it sounds, being successful really is a mindset.

When Jack and I first met and decided to start a business together, we had no clue what our goal was or what we wanted out of it all. What we did know is that we wanted to be creative, sell product, and to be the owners of a small business… so we just DID IT! With no goals or plans at all whatsoever, we just went for it. Although this might not be the ideal process to starting a business, it worked out for us…and here’s why!

We both have always hated working desk jobs, so we created Curly Fries Closet as a way to be creative and for us to get out in the community and make some extra cash. So from there, I just started making things. I would make earrings out of guitar picks, bottle caps and gemstones. We would design stickers and prints and honestly anything that came to mind. We then decided to dabble with socks. We knew people liked socks!! Little did we know, it would become our best selling product.
From there, we ran with that idea and started seeing some growth in our little business. People REALLY loved socks and it was a unique product in the community because there wasn’t really anyone else doing it. We reflect often and wonder how the heck we got to this point, selling SOCKS. We never thought life would turn out this way for us, but we couldn’t be more grateful.

The reason I say any of this, is because our success came once we just started making moves. We let our passion to own a business drive us to take action and just START. At first, we weren’t too successful…but once we found our niche, and knew we could really grow from there, then we got serious about our plans and goals as a business.

We talk to so many people who have amazing business ideas, but they let their fears get in the way of executing. Our biggest piece of advice to being successful is to just take ONE STEP to get you there. Starting a business and putting yourself out there can be scary, but as you take it baby step by baby step, you will slowly start to grow and see progress. You might even start your business, and then a year down the road it might evolve into something completely different. That’s the fun of it!

Before you know it, you’ll have so many new friends, new skills and a new life. Success will come as long as you stop worrying about the failures you might have, or the way people might perceive you. Just START and the success will come as you work at it day by day.

Kenly + Jack, 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?

This is a story about two people who hate desk jobs.

Back in 2021, our worlds collided and we went on a few dates. I had expressed to
Jack my dream to own a business one day, and he was the just the go-getter guy
I needed to make it happen. When two free spirits get together, I guess it only
makes sense to start a business, right?

With me being a crafty girl and Jack being the ultimate hype man and business
wizard, Curly Fries Closet was born.

In fact, we weren’t even “officially dating” when we opened up shop. We started out
designing stickers, and making jewelry out of various things like guitar picks (LOL).
You could catch us at all the local farmers markets and pop ups. After a few rough
days of sales, we decided we needed to make some changes. An idea struck to
open up a product line for socks. THEY WERE A HIT!

Little did we know, they would become our BEST selling product and we would
soon be known as “The sock people” at every market. We decided to dive in head
first with that idea! WHO KNEW THERE WAS SUCH A DEMAND FOR SOCKS?!

We have seen our business grow so much over the years and have loved the
friendships we have made through it all. Curly Fries Closet has allowed us to
connect with the community on a whole new level! With lots of new products
and plans for the future, we hope we can keep expressing ourselves and showing
our creativity to the world!!

We are proud of how far we have come in the 2.5 years of chasing this dream!
Together we have learned so much and developed new skills we never thought we would.
The stresses that come from owning your own business that seemed so out of reach back then,
have now become part of our day-to-day lives and it is empowering to know that we have
figured it out all on our own.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

With basically zero education in social media, we were a little bit worried about how we were going to gain an audience on our different platforms. Not going to lie- our instagram page started out really crumby and we put very little thought into anything at all. We were just posting to post, with no goals, in hopes that our followers would want to buy our product. News flash, it doesn’t really work like that!

As we grew and started to sell at more markets and pop-up events, we knew we really needed to use that to our advantage to grow our social media presence. At all events, we offer 20% off to anyone that follows us on instagram and tags us on their instagram story. This method has helped us gain many followers and has been amazing for brand exposure. It has also helped us create a community of people that we can connect with and be friends with on social media! We have gained lots of recurring customers this way.

Another practice we have just recently tried to incorporate, is being more intentional with our posts. Making content that is meaningful and that will resonate with your followers is so important! We have seen that people love being able to connect with other people, even when it’s through a brand. It shouldn’t always just be about the product and what you are trying to sell. Humans love to see behind the scenes, the good and the bad, and the people behind the brand. It makes everything more authentic when they see the passion coming from you as a business owner and hopefully leaves a positive impression on the consumer.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Putting our product in as many locations as possible. We sell in stores located in Salt Lake, Provo and Orem and on top of that, we are always attending different events/markets around Utah. This helps with brand recognition and has helped us develop more credibility as people start to see is in multiple locations!

Contact Info:

• Website: curlyfriescloset.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curlyfriescloset

Image Credits
Brooke Bills Photography Katie Sue Photography