We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kenneice Wilson-Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kenneice, appreciate you joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

Both of my parents were entrepreneurs at an early age they both taught my sisters and me the importance of hard work. I remember playing on rolls of carpet with my sister at my father’s job sites, totally unaware we were my father’s marketing plan. You see my father had a floor covering business and he would bring us with him for a couple of reasons he was our babysitter and we helped generate more business for him. While he would be installing the carpet we would play and neighbors would stop by to get his card.

When I got older I believe I was in high school. my mother worked a full-time 9-5 as a retail manager however she would have side hustles from creating holiday baskets to selling art. I remember traveling on weekends, holidays, and summers to different festivals to set up vendor booths. So I learned early how to hustle and get creative.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is where I gained my experience in print media within Circulation and Major Accounts Advertising. I spent ten years learning how the oldest newspaper in the country developed and transitioned to digital media.

I later started working as an Account Executive for a beauty trade magazine that went out of business. Once that beauty publication was no longer available, it created a hole in the beauty industry for multicultural professionals. Several Atlanta hairstylists urged me to launch The Beauty Consultant Magazine.

In the spring of 2012, The Beauty Consultant Magazine (TBC) was published by TBC Media Group, LLC. It exists to fill a much-needed gap in the multicultural beauty community. More than just service providers, hairstylists, barbers, nail technicians, and other beauty industry professionals also play the role of confidant, counselor, and trendsetter.

I am proud of the magazine’s continued growth and the beauty industry’s resilience. The Beauty Consultant Magazine is the only multicultural beauty magazine for the trade and celebrates ten years this year. Covid-19 caused some internal issues, and we had to pause publishing our digital magazine however we continued to update our website. On July 4th of this year, we will publish our first digital magazine since the pandemic’s beginning. Make sure you follow along with our journey on both our website and social media.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

That I cannot do it all! I was literally burning myself out in the beginning from researching content, setting up interviews, attending trade shows, handling advertising sales, in every editorial meeting, design meeting, and even writing a few articles. My mother said you have a great team, trust them and let them do the job. My job was to oversee and bring it all together… to manage. I had to learn to take a back seat.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Wow, covid-19 has taught me many lessons and the main one was to get creative in both business and life. Up until the pandemic I have always held a day job and funded my publication/business. Like many people, I was laid off due to Covid.

So since 2012, TBC Media Group was just the company that published The Beauty Consultant Magazine. Now in 2022, we are so much more. TBC Media Group continues to publish the beauty magazine but we also handle sales for nonprofits, project management, and digital marketing and we are currently working on a new magazine that will launch summer of 2023. This pandemic has allowed me to expand my business and be fully self-employed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beautyconsultantmagazine.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beauty_consult/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeautyConsult
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-beauty-consultant-magazine
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beauty_Consult

Image Credits
the last image is my client and CEO of Traxx Girls and Co-owner of Atlanta Black Pride Weekend Melissa Scott