An Icon is Born — Tweenpreneur of KhalilGotTheJuice of KingCurls on Growing His Empire
I sat down with rising star and CEO of King curls.
The Young social media sensation, Khalil, is breaking gender barriers with the launch of KingCurls, a beauty brand aimed to normalize a narrative that males should practice self- care rituals & take pride in the health of their hair. The Curl Styling Cream is the first of many products to be launched under the brand that enhances the natural curl pattern of all hair textures.
KingCurls products serves to be an essential staple for pre-teens, teens and young adult males with hair. Khalil is a 17-year-old influencer with over one million followers combined on TikTok and Instagram. Trending and coined as “The CEO of Hair’ with content garnering a combined 200M views, he’s become a formidable player in a space predominately targeted to women and has grown to be an expert and go to person for all Gen-Zers when it comes to hair and beauty. Take a look at my exclusive interview with the rising star.
website: www.kingcurls.com
Instagram: @khalilgothejuice & @shopkingcurls & TikTok: @shopkingcurls
Question: How did the idea for your business come about?
- I came up with the idea for KingCurls back when I was a freshman in high school. I was in the midst of growing my hair back naturally after having previously put a chemical in it to make it a looser texture. During this growth period I was always going to stores looking for new products that would work for my hair. A lot of times I would also take my moms products. Eventually, I got tired of not seeing people like myself(boys) promoted among brands. Thus, I came up with the concept for a hair care brand dedicated to boys specially, so that others across the world would not have to go through what I had to.
Question: How do you find people to bring into your organization that truly care about the organization the way you do?
Answer: Over the course of the past year I have been working on my influence on Tik tok. I have gained over 1.1 million followers from creating content strictly tailored to hair care. I created a lane in Tik tok that nobody had seen before, which ultimately created a strong support system on my end. This large following allowed the right faces to notice my brand and take interest in helping the spread of the movement. A lot of people watched me grow from just a kid with a Tik tok to a kid with a Tik tok and a business which makes them want to see me win by any means necessary.
Question: What three pieces of advice would you give to others who want to become entrepreneurs?
Answer: I would say to stay focus, action oriented, and network. These are 3 components to my entrepreneurial character that I learned and applied to my business early on. I will say that it helped me not only see the vision for my brand but be it as well.
Question: If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Answer: I genuinely like the way that everything came together with my brand so I would not have done anything differently. I feel like the mistakes were bound to happen and I was lucky enough to come across small ones.
Question: What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur ? I would say that patience, determination, and humility. You will face a plethora of challenges that will force all three of these attributes to become necessary in order to prevail.
Question :What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?
Answer: In regards to content creation I have failed a load of times. I have spent hours creating hair related content for Tik Tok and sometimes they have flopped. Sometimes they don’t get the attention that I felt like it deserved. I take every failure as feedback so this helps create a fine line between good content and bad content.
Question: How many hours do you work a day on average?
Answer: On average I am working every time I am on my phone. Being that social media is the foundation for my business, it is imperative that I am always online looking for new ideas for marketing and new influencers to promote my brand.
Question: Describe/outline your typical day?
Answer: A typical day for me starts bright and early at 8:45am. I log onto my first class via zoom and work through 2 other periods until lunch time at 12:00pm. At this time, I get in my car and drive to the office to work on business related things such as orders fulfillment. At 1:10pm my next class starts and I remain in school until my last class period which ends at 3:00pm. By 3:30pm I am back in my car and on my way to physical school because I am a Track and Field athlete. Practice starts at 4:00pm and ends at 6:00pm. After practice I head to get food and go home to work on homework, social media content, and spending time with my mom.
Question: How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
Answer: I would say that the dynamic between my mom and I has changed a lot. Before starting a business I felt like we were not that close at all. Starting a business together created a bond that helped our personal relationship as well.
Question: What motivates you?
Answer: A lot of my motivation stems from the support system I have as a whole. This includes my immediate family, friends, and followers. There is never a day that goes by where I feel like I am lonely or do not have someone to talk to. My support system continues to encourage me to keep going because they see something in me that I don’t. This forces me to go harder in everything that I do because I know where I was at and I know where I want to be.