We were lucky to catch up with Kimberly “Goldee” Carter recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly “Goldee”, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?

I am a formally trained educator with a teaching degree from the prestigious Indiana University Bloomington campus. After graduating undergrad in 1998, I became a military wife; started my family; taught for several years; gained my Masters in 2006 and progressed to administration; and when I blinked, I realized that I had spent over 15 years in the public school system and I was no longer loving what I was doing. I loved that my teachers and students felt supported by me, but I was miserable because I did not feel that my efforts and passion were appreciated by my bosses and at times my staff. I always felt that my vision for education was a bit progressive for my time.

My brother had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was in the later stages and my journey as a caregiver for him put a lot of things into perspective for me as his health declined. In 2015 I had initially started a home-based business, LockZitude®, LLC by training to become a popular branded loc consultant—servicing a few clients on Saturdays managing their beautiful locs. In 2016 during a conversation with my brother, he asked me what I was waiting on to leave my job. There was a very pregnant pause because for the first time I was being asked a direct question about why I was continuing to subject myself to ongoing insanity when I clearly had the power to change my situation—a conversation that I had been secretly having with myself for months, but my brother called it out and forced me to speak about it. It was during this conversation that I articulated the fear of the unknown and uncertainty with finances because we had always been a two-income household. Although my husband was the primary bread-winner, my income did not hurt, but long story short, I resigned from my admin position in August 2016.

From the time I made the decision to focus on LockZitude® full time, business was GOOD and I eventually had to start declining new customers because I didn’t want to overwork myself the way I had all those years in education. Fast forward to 2020—the year of COVID-19 where businesses like mine were forced to shut down. I gladly complied because I had two immune-compromised individuals in my home, but this ultimately meant that with manual labor like doing hair—if my hands weren’t working, no money was coming into the house. I was blessed to have a few clients that continued to pay me while we were on lockdown to show support and appreciation for personal service providers and this was an amazing gesture that confirmed to me that I had made the right choice about doing this full time. During the lockdowns, my clients were growing concerned about not being able to get their hair appointments because with these types of locs [think of micro-sized dreadlocs in appearance], consistent maintenance every 4-6 weeks is essential and these lockdowns had some of my clients going 6-10 weeks overdue which could lead to breakage, so I was forced to find a solution that would help my clients, but still allow us to stay safe. So what did I do?

I developed a virtual self-retightening class where my clients could login for so many days and get a video tutorial from me showing them how they could manage their own locs until I was able to open my doors again. About half my clients took the class while the others chose to ride out the storm, but those that took the class sent pictures and texts showing their completed self-retightenings and their work looked almost as good as when I did their hair! From there, because I had a decent social media presence where complete strangers were frantically inboxing me for suggestions on what to do with their hair,  I created a more formal version of the training and began offering these classes to the general public. The accolades and appreciation for the self-retightening class was so significant that I began receiving requests for a complete loc training and in August 2020, I launched a spin-off company, 4 Brown Queenz® and released my first virtual business course, formally The Interlock Academy, that I later had to change to the 4 Brown Queenz® Loc Academy due to trademark limitations.

Since the launch of that first virtual academy, I have since invented and released a loc tool, the patent-pending D.A.P Tool® in 2022; launched an in-person loc academy course in 2023; and now in 2024 I am launching multiple levels of virtual trainings to support a larger array of needs in the loc’d hair community.

Designing and releasing these virtual courses is by far the most innovative things I have ever done in life. I understand the art and science of teaching and learning and the intricacies of curriculum design; however, I have always been intimidated by technology, but a horribly failed attempt to partner with “friends” during this journey left me having to be a one-woman show for everything where technology was concerned. I only knew how to create PowerPoints coming out of education; however, I was forced to figure out how to create video ads in social media to attract customers to my class and D.A.P Tool®.  I had to learn how to essentially create visually stunning and engaging instructional videos and the learning curve was steep.

I realized during this journey that all those years of burning the midnight-oil; analyzing data reports and trends in student performance were all in preparation for what I’m doing right now. I quickly had to become a website designer without any training whatsoever, but I figured it out and built the plane as I was flying it. I’m still teaching and empowering others. I went from teaching children, to teaching teachers how to teach, to now teaching adults how to create additional streams of income for their families all while I still get to love on my clients’ locs as their Interloctician. Now, if my hands are not moving, I am still able to bring in revenue with my virtual products and sales of my tool. Retail can be tricky, but it blows my mind sometimes to look at registrations and tool sales that come in as a result of my efforts. It has been an incredibly difficult journey, but I am so thankful for the lessons learned in stepping out of my comfort zone to do something that I had not seen done before.

Kimberly “Goldee”, 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?

Some of my story details are outlined in the backstory of my previous answer, but my choice to focus on natural haircare for black men and women was because of growing up feeling such a negative stigma about my kinky, coily, “nappy” hair. Today you see so much more representation of various braided and loc’d hairstyles represented in print ads and television, but this was not what I saw growing up and mainstream society did not portray black women’s natural hair as “beautiful”. In fact, our hair was often seen as problematic….needing to be “fixed” or neatened up with relaxers or other products. I grew very tired of the chemical processing of my hair and the constant discomfort of braiding, so in 2013 I made the decision to loc my hair and it was the best decision for me and where I was in life. I was the only black administrator in my school at the time in a predominantly white school and here I was with the Angela Davis blown out afro and afro-centric head wraps. My hair was often a topic of discussion with my students as I made my rounds in the building and they often complimented me on my hair. My staff would often compliment me and after I locked it, they were equally excited as the length kept coming. I knew my confidence to be my authentic self was transforming the way some of my students viewed beauty and I began seeing my young african american students wearing their hair in more braided and natural styles making it a point to stop by my office or stop me in the hallway to talk about their hair and I always made it a point to affirm the creativity and beauty when the opportunity presented itself.

As I started servicing clients in my home, during consultations I realized quickly that many of these adult women had had so much trauma to their self-esteem about their hair. So as I ushered them through their loc journeys, I watched their confidence soar over the years. My clients jokingly, but lovingly call me their “hairapist” because while they’re in my chair, the service is all about them. I have laughed and cried with my clients and celebrated huge victories with them. What sets me apart from others is that I take the exchange of energy very seriously. To touch someone’s crown is sacred to me and braiding and grooming of hair dates back to tribal traditions where there is something ceremonial about having an elder, a trusted member of the community groom your crown. My approach has always been to educate my clients about what I’m doing so they understand their role as a partner in their hair journey. I love what I do and I am appreciative of my clients for entrusting me to care for their hair over the years.

As I branched out from not only being a service provider, but also a teacher, I believe this reverence for the client/loctician relationship comes across to my loc academy students and is shaping future locticians to deliver next-level service for their clients, so I guess my classes are a way of paying it forward to the loc’d community. To truly love your hair is a refreshing feeling that I want others who look like me to enjoy, so this is my way of helping to make that happen.

We see in the news incidents where african american hairstyles are still being scrutinized in schools and in the workplace and that saddens me to know that the CROWN act has not been enacted in every state, but I will continue to do my part to support those individuals who want to lock their hair and embrace their natural kinks and coils in spite of what society thinks is acceptable regarding their hair.

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

When I first launched my patent-pending D.A.P Tool®️, the response was great. The tools were flying off the shelves because this tool was creating access to a quality tool that had not been realized before its release. The manufacturing process was a major undertaking in finding a company I could trust that I felt understood the vision, so when the tools were selling like hotcakes, it felt amazing, but about two weeks after deliveries went out  we started receiving random feedback from clients about broken tools. Keep in mind that before the tools ever hit the market, the tool had been tested by myself and other loc professionals without issue or concerns being voiced about breaks so I initially attributed the tool failures to “user error” because in this industry, I am aware that there are many people that are “self-taught” who really don’t know the intricacies of how to use an advanced tool like my tool. But the complaints kept coming in here and there. Now, statistically, when I look back, the percentage of breaks were not that huge compared to what was sold, but being the type of person that I am, I quickly realized that if we didn’t get on top of whatever was going on, this could ruin the brand before it really got started, so I devised a campaign to start replacing broken tools as long as the customer provided pictures and detailed explanations for how the breaks were occurring. Again, here’s my data analysis skills coming into play. I was analyzing the customer information and then reviewing meeting notes from the manufacturing company and analyzing what could have gone wrong in this “new process” they were running. I spoke to a trusted industry resource about what I suspected and he was able to confirm that my suspicion was very likely an accurate assessment.

Long story short, I was able to deduce that there was a defect because of a possible missed step in manufacturing, so I had to pull the tools off the market and start damage control. I had to replace so many tools that I would have otherwise been able to count as profits, so I went to the manufacturing company, shared the data with them in a very firm manner about the losses I was sustaining as a result of their poor workmanship and got a huge chunk of my money returned to me. I fired them on one day and hired another company the next day. It took five LONG months to refine the design and go through manufacturing again, but I successfully re-released the tool in September 2022 and have not looked back.

I did have to deal with some negative Nancy-types even though I was very transparent and fair about handling refunds because I believe in treating people the way I would want to be treated, but the negativity and stress of this undertaking made me think long and hard about quitting several times, because I couldn’t believe how nasty people could be when I was going above and beyond to make this situation right. Nevertheless, I powered through with the support of my family and I’m glad I weathered the storm. It took a while for some customers to decide to give my company another chance and I knew this would be the case, but there were so many supporters who patiently waited for the new release and sent me encouraging messages that I knew quitting was not an option.

I realized during this fiasco that I am so much stronger and smarter than I ever gave myself credit for and I realized that I didn’t have to be an “expert” at the table to have my voice heard and taken seriously. I understand processes and critical thinking and that is what saved me through this horrible public relations nightmare. I learned so much and know that these lessons will serve me well as I move forward and continue to grow my brand.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Along the lines of the public relations nightmare, I truly believe that the reputation I had established with my business as LockZitude® helped to build my reputation as a stand-up professional. I have been known for my transparency over the years coupled with high quality results with my clients’ hair, so when the tool disaster struck under 4 Brown Queenz® it was important that as I posted updates and information about the tool that my initial client base saw my face and heard from me as a reminder of what I stood for. There is so much scammer activity in the hair locking world on social media and my followers knew that I was a straight shooter, so I was characterized by looking out for my clients and supporters when I shared information to empower them over the years. This is what I believed help me build a solid reputation.

I don’t pay for followers or try to cheat the algorithms. I gained followers by just being my regular old random self. In a world of smoke and mirrors, I truly believe that people find authenticity to be refreshing and when people find truth and value in what you share, that attracts people. Some days I’m petty and I fuss about things facing loc professionals like myself; other days I’m sharing inspirational posts; and on other days I’m just silly. This has helped me grow my reputation in the market. I’m a wife, mother, daughter, and a sister just trying to live a happy and fulfilled life that includes helping others when I can.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.4brownqueenz.com
• Instagram: @LockZitude and @4BrownQueenz
• Facebook:@LockZitude and @4BrownQueenz
• Youtube: @goldeefromlockzitude and @4brownqueenzofficial