We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Nmah recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kevin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

My hero is Catherine Nmah. She also happens to be my mother. My mother is a 1st generation immigrant from the Republic of Liberia. She came over to the United States in search of higher education that she would otherwise been unable to attain in her home country. The lessons that I’ve learned from my mother have been innumerable to count. The first one that comes to mind is her unwavering faith. She dedicates every second of her day and every fiber of her body to make sure she is honoring her faith. The takeaway lesson that I have learned from watching her operate this way is 100 percent commitment. There is nothing anybody could say to her to get her to switch sides, she’s so commited that it shows me the dedication I need to have for anything I want out of life and business that if I’m not 100 percent focused, I’m selling myself short. The next lesson would be that you’ve got to be relentless and willing to do anything for your goals / passions / jobs. My mom is a single mother who raised 2 children in the Northern Virginian county of Arlington. She worked 2 jobs that would see her leave the house at 10a and she would not return until after midnight. All with the understanding this was not for her livlihood but for her children. Her “why” was my sister and I, once I could conceptualize that it made sense how my mother found the energy to do what she did. She was on a relentless pursuit to make sure our lives where better so we could focus on chasing our goals. The last lesson and the one that keeps me going with Meet The Curator is her even keelness. Rarely is there a moment that I mom is too excited or too sad. She has an emotional baseline that is a model behavior. As I’ve been trying to grow the business I have been the opposite of composed. I’ve been down in the dumps during the low moments and up on cloud 9 with our successes. However, when I think about how my mom is balance, I’m able to zoom out and look out long term so that way the ups and downs dont really feel that impactful, I know theyre just part of the journey so just embrace it.

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 back background and context?

I’m the founder of the lifestyle clothing brand, Meet The Curator. I got into the clothing manufacturing and designing business after having a come to God moment at my desk job. Working as a financial analyst I’ve done a couple of financial models and projections for the business I worked for, which got me thinking, if I only did what I was currently did for the rest of my life would I be happy? Satisfied? The answer was a resounding NO. Next was thinking about was the thing that I would be regretful of I didnt try it before I died and that came back with the answer of trying to start a business. I am a good employee but I’m very stubborn and believe I know what’s best for myself, so I needed to try and do something I love. Meet The Curator came from the idea that I was very much into streetwear clothing and aesthetics and questioned why I was buying other brands. So with Meet The Curator I aimed to solve the pain point of merchandise and apparel that didnt have a positive message, so thats what MTC strives to do. We want people to come and see themselves as the creator of the lives they want to lead. They are the main characters of their lives so what do they want that story to be? We want people to know that our clothes will be high quality but more importantly they are going to be wearing clothes they should be proud of because they’re curating their own lives. We focus on upper body merchandise products such as Tshirts, Hoodies, Jackets, Sweatshirts. With the goal of doing lower body products in the future.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

The journey of manufacturing products for Meet The Curator has been one of ups and downs. We are located in the DMV region of the USA. So we started with using our network and used big box companies like Customink. This was an easy and fast way to validate our idea and see if there was a market for our products. Once we did that we knew that we would want to have the profit margins and inventory levels at equilibrium. Said another way, we wanted to maximize the amount of goods we got for the capital spent. We searched smaller local manufacturers and that was our model for sometime. However, there was a moment when we decided to pivot because we wanted a way to really differentiate ourselves from competitors. We believe in the fit and feel for most / all body types is a very important metric to have correct for a clothing brand. So we went searching online, overseas and beyond for manufacturers who could deliver quality product and some other underpinnings, such as woven neck and waist labels, tags and labeling, packaging, etc.

The best way to find the right manufacturer is by having dialogue. You can start with their feedback platform on their website, or better is a phone number or email. Let them know who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. Do not be afraid to ask for the world, the worst is they can say is NO or in my opinion, “this will cost extra”. Once you’ve established a connection, then you are left with submitting your designs in the most precise details you can, so that way when it’s time to get a sample, youi’ve left no stone unturned. We’ve learned through this journey that everything can be negotiated. Do not be hurried, anxious or pressed (im old) aka thirsty., Stand firm with what you know in your heart and get them to send a sample. That way you can touch, smell, see and critique before you spend a bigger slice of your capital. Samples are the holy grail and theyre the way to finding your product and ultimately your supplier / manufacturer. Also, do not just have one manufacturer, this way you wont be scrambling if they go out of business, something we had to learn the hard way with our hat manufacturer.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

At Meet The Curator we love to connect in person with people. We believe that everyone we can come in contact with and listens to our story theyll have a better understanding of why we do the things we do. So the biggest way we keep in touch with clients is through our personalized email newsletter. It allows people the ability to know what we’re working on, what’s new and what stories we’re highlighting, whether that is someone in our network/community who is curating their own lives or a great business or charity that is line with our ethos. We also use social media to the best of our abilities. So whether that is Instagram, Facebook, stories, reels, lives, etc … All of those activities keep us on the mind of our community and we are grateful for every one of them.

Contact Info:

• Website: meetthecurtor.co
• Instagram: @Meetthecurator194
• Facebook: Meet The Curator
• Twitter: @Meetthecurator

Image Credits
Claude Langley – Visuals By Claude Meet The Curator