When the pandemic hit most of us lost the stability that came with our 9-5’s. Some of us self-proclaimed hustlers suddenly found ourselves facing months of zero gigs and no job opportunities. Kelsey, owner of Belle Beauty by KLS found herself among that number. Having to throw out her life’s plan of climbing up the corporate ladder, rather than starting from ground zero at a new corp Kelsey began building her own. Belle Beauty is an online beauty and hair boutique that offers hair extensions, lashes, wigs, and newly launched cosmetics. Kelsey understands the power of content and building a core audience. She’s master keeping her audience engaged by creating/sharing relatable video content via Reels and hosting entertaining lives where customers can win products. Recently the brand celebrated one year in business as well as its recently launched cosmetic line- now offering two high shine lip-glosses and two liquid matte long-lasting lipsticks (they are so good!). Most recently Belle Beauty expanded their cosmetic line into eye makeup with their new Waterproof Mascara! Running a beauty biz is no joke, but Kelsey makes it look easy with all she's accomplished in just a year! Take notes and hear more from the CEO below.

What inspires you to keep creating content?

I’m very much an artistic person, doing creative things overall brings me this sense of peace and happiness. Creating content for Belle Beauty gives me that same feeling. Out of everything that’s required of me as a business owner. Content creation is by far one of the more exciting tasks to finish in my workday. Also, the reward of seeing your followers responding to your content and visiting your website to learn more about your products is everything.

CEO of Belle Beauty by KLS: Kelsey Strobert

Whats your advice for creating content that sticks with your audience?

The content that sticks with my audience the most are my more relatable posts, and videos. I would give any business owner the advice of Reels & TikTok are your friends! So, find a fun relatable way to show off your products. When creating relatable content for your audience just remember your “why” behind the product. What’s the pain point? How will your product fix that pain point? Now put that in a 60-sec clip!

Drop your top tips for creating fire content

-Think about what message you are trying to get across in your content. What’s the overall goal?

- Videos, videos, videos! People love visuals & tutorials of products they buy. Videos are your best marketing tool on social media.

- Keep a schedule that sets aside time for you just to create. Think about what you would like to promote for the upcoming week, for example, I tried having “Content Saturdays”, using my Saturday mornings to make content for the whole week. So, on Monday, all I have to do is post my work. It not only saves time throughout your week, but you can really give your content the best version of you for the day.

-Lastly, have fun!!

School us on the importance of being consistent

Belle Beauty: Liquid Matte Lipstick in Lady in Red

Consistency…let’s talk Consistency! Lol, consistency is key! And if I’m being honest that’s something I’m currently working on. Being consistent in your business is something that can truly make or break it. Being a small business owner I’m customer service, I’m the logistics team, I’m the buyer, the designer, and my business partner and I are the event planners and so on. When you work so hard to build your brand and you just stop posting content or stop the “small” stuff in your business, it’s just that much harder to build up that momentum again to get the same response from your audience. For example, my business partner and I used to go live on Instagram every Sunday when we first launched the business, we were very consistent in the beginning. Our audience responded well to the lives, and we made sales each week but once life happened, the time we made for lives decreased. After going almost a month with no social media lives to connect with our customers the responses shifted and the momentum we gained was gone. Which resulted in us having to rebuild that trust with our audience all over again. So, the importance of being consistent is huge especially as a small business owner! That’s what sets you apart from others at times.

How was your first year as CEO of a beauty brand?

One year down, just the thought is like wow! My first year as CEO was a roller coaster of emotions! Not feeling big enough or worthy enough but knowing what you have to offer is just as good as the leading beauty brands out there. Being a business owner, you would think your biggest support system would be family or some of your childhood friends but honestly, it’s the people who don’t know you at all. Oddly enough seeing support from my followers on social media, other business owners and customers reacting to our products is so motivating to keep pushing! Yes, I’m the CEO of Belle Beauty by KLS but my team is what keeps Belle Beauty by KLS going & growing. A small team of 3 (Hehe) just my partner, my bonus daughter, and myself! My first year was a learning experience overall, we celebrated our wins and learned from our mistakes. Ready for year 2 with bigger goals for the brand!

Why do you think it’s important to represent black women in the beauty space?

I think black representation in any field is important but most important in the beauty field because often people feel they must be something they’re not, to be considered beautiful. Belle Beauty by KLS is here to show the beauty space examples of beautiful black queens, as well as show the possibilities of entrepreneurship! It’s our job to show our kids and other black women that we are beautiful just the way we are! Whether your hair is kinky, curly, wavy, or straight. If your dark skin, light skin, or mixed embrace who you are, that’s the most beautiful thing a woman can wear or be. Being a beauty brand, our goal is to make it so you can beautify the way you want to. Use our products to enhance your beauty, not change it. We offer our customers “Shop Your Texture” where you can extend your curls or fro without straightening and causing heat damage to your hair. Creating products that make life more “fabulous” for our natural ladies. Our next goal is to create an all-inclusive cosmetics line for all shades of beauty.

How do you choose what products to introduce to your audience?

That’s a tricky one and one we’re still working on but what has helped is watching the beauty trends, hosting lives where we can talk to our customers and get their feedback, see what’s selling and what our customers are responding to more. Overall, we try to align those things with the direction of the company.

What is the process for rolling out new products?

Before rolling out any new products for Belle Beauty By KLS, we make sure it's cohesive with our brand. We ask ourselves, is there a need for this product? Will our audience buy this product from us and is it profitable? After answering these questions, we sample the product, create the packaging, plan the marketing campaign for the release date and post-release.

Tell us about your latest product?

We just launched the start of our cosmetics line featuring our “Waterproof” Mascara, 2 high shine lip-glosses, and our liquid matte long-lasting lipstick. Our waterproof mascara is everything you need for your go-to look. For someone who doesn’t enjoy putting on lashes, our mascara is the next best thing. It gives 10x more the volume from your natural length plus it's waterproof which means it’ll stay on even during a teary eye moment with your girlfriends lol.

What inspired you to start Belle Beauty by KLS

I’ve always wanted to have my own business, I just didn’t know what it’ll be or if it’ll ever happen. My life was kind of “figured out”- make it big in corporate before 30, move to Seattle, and maybe then start a family. But once the pandemic hit, like most my world was turned upside down, and suddenly my goals in life changed. I was laid off from my career job and the importance of establishing my own business and being my own boss was now a must for me! Beauty was something I felt I had a love-hate relationship with. I would spend so much time and money on my hair to fit into “corporate standards' ', as I was evolving and embracing my natural hair, the corporate world wasn’t evolving with me. Being treated differently in management and getting less than what you deserve because you no longer fit the “look”. So, ideally, I wanted to start a hair company but as I started planning, it became bigger than just a hair company, I wanted to start a beauty brand. My goal is to have a beauty company that doesn’t fit into the box of today's beauty standards. So, Belle Beauty by KLS was born! Belle’ means a beautiful girl or woman, which my father called me growing up, so it made sense, you know and of course, KLS because that’s me!

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CONTENT CREATING AND BUILDING A BEAUTY BRAND