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

Kenzi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

For decades women have been the target audience for any and everything sexy. Whether it be for what we are or not wearing, we’ve been sold and told what sexy looks like, what it should sound like – what it feels like, too. From what I know about women I understand we are all multifaceted beings so any version of that will appeal to most of us. But what I hated most was being told WHEN to be sexy. That this passionate, fierce version of us should be reserved for a “special occasion”, which is typically 2 days out of the year (3 if he’s been a real good boy). Bullshit.

Every day that you get to wake up a beautiful, bad ass woman you should put something on that embodies that feeling for you. Remind yourself of how desirable you are on your own terms, on your time. That level of power and control I have over my sensuality is what pushed me to open The Redd Room. I want every woman to gain and maintain their confidence when wearing lingerie – because any intimate moment you hold with yourself IS a special occasion.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I transitioned from my teens to my twenties, it was becoming more difficult to avoid those lingerie ads. It was constantly being shoved in my face: “THIS is what sexy looks like! Shop today”. All the models looked the same, from skin color to body type – all of them reminded me that I’m not them. So I started to freelance model for myself, to boost my confidence. I liked how I looked because many people in my life did too. Then Rihanna’s lingerie line dropped and I just knew I wanted to be apart of her brand. She showed us that sexy can be for all body types. But after many attempts to become an ambassador, I realized I didn’t have the platform necessary to be chosen. I was lying in bed, staring in the mirror and said decided I should start my own brand.

Creating The Redd Room was a looot of work, which I knew it would be going into it, but my god it was a lot. From starting the trademark process, to finding reliable vendors, budgeting for inventory and scheduling product shoots it was challenging. I guess Covid wasn’t a big enough challenge for me in 2020. I wanted to push myself to fulfill my potential or at least come close to it. I sincerely believe, til this day, that I have a purpose in advocating for women empowerment. Selling lingerie is only the beginning. It’s damn near expected of women to want to wear lingerie for their significant other. I’ve yet to have a serious relationship myself, so I feel that concept is dated af. It tells me that my presence alone isn’t significant enough to wear something “special”.

I’m proud of The Redd Room and the kinds of women who have shopped with me, the ones who support me as a small business owner. To hear how happy and confident they feel wearing my lingerie warms my heart. My primary and only goal is for those who shop with me to understand that their version of sexy belongs to them. Find that fiery part of you, get familiar with her and proceed to own it. Don’t wait around until the “time is right” to visit that sultry side of you. You deserve to be your very own dream girl.

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

Thankfully, as technology has advanced, starting a small online business is a lot easier. Social media is what millions of us use to stay in touch, entertained and in style. So being able to use my social media to let others know about The Redd Room has been a game changer. I introduced The Redd Room in an authentic way – by letting my audience know who the face behind the brand is and creating videos of me packaging orders. Then I would post stories asking for their opinion on a new lingerie set I wanted to release or make a few posts they could interact with (i.e. “comment below”, “tag a friend” etc.) so I can respond back to them.

When it comes to starting your small business it is crucial that your audience knows who you are, that you’re a real person who has a name and face. Be personable in your content and your comment section as well. I absolutely love using automation features on social media, that way I can post without physically creating the post in that moment. Being a business owner means you will be busy with quite a few things so taking advantage of the automated system will save you some stress. It’s also beneficial to tie one social media platform to another, that way when you post on the platform you’re most active on it can be posted to the other platform you don’t like to be on as much.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the concept of my family and friends being ride or die supporters. I’m not saying they aren’t supportive or never have been, but at first I believed they would push/promote my business alone with me 24/7. That wasn’t the case. When The Redd Room first launched I had a lot of encouraging words from my family – they were proud of me. My friends kept cheering me on as well. Everyone around me shared a post or passed my business cards out to people for a while. It felt amazing. After a few months though, I noticed most of my promotional posts came from family and friends so when that slowed down, it all fell on me.

I had to realize this is my business. And although I would love nothing more than for my family and friends to consistently get the word out about The Redd Room – I know the reality is that they have their own life. They have their own interests and hobbies they want to tend to. And they should have every moment available to them to put energy into that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: the_reddroom
• Facebook: @thereddroom1
• Twitter: thereddroom1

Image Credits
ft. TanShanay, Mia, Maddie, Nyah D., Shanoa, Steez Vizuals