Meet Keisha Marie

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keisha Marie.

Keisha, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My journey to creative entrepreneurship started when I transitioned back to wearing my natural hair in 2010-2011. I discovered the new online community of Black women celebrating their curls and sharing their stories and was hooked! I knew I wanted to be an active part of this community, so I dabbled a bit with it starting in 2012 and eventually took the leap headfirst in 2016, a few months after giving birth to my daughter (my second child).

My first handle was Beemorenatural. It was inspired by my process of embracing natural beauty, which I later understood as self-love. I showcased how I took care of my hair as well as my infant daughter’s hair and was able to grow a respectable following of 1000 in 6 months on Instagram. I began doing small brand collaborations, giveaways, ambassador programs and immersed myself in learning all I could about being a social media influencer. While I started off as a natural hair blogger, I later adopted the more flexible lifestyle category and now create content that is centered around self-care, motherhood and the lifestyle of balancing the two!

Writing has always been a huge passion of mine and one that played the biggest role in how I established myself in this massive digital space. I began by writing for Black Moms Blog and eventually had work published on Denver.com, NaturallyCurly.com, and XONecole. During this time, I transitioned from Beemorenatural to Coffee, Curls, Hustle and then finally settled on Keisha Marie, Co. I read the book, Capture your Style, by Aimee Song and this not only helped me see the value in building my brand around my name, but it also helped me to see definitively that it is possible to earn an amazing living from creating valuable, digital content.

Creating content also helped energize my passion for building community and hosting events. I knew that I could use my blog and digital content as a catalyst for in-person events and meet-ups. Over the past few years, I’ve hosted several meet-ups, brunches, and watch-parties either solo or in collaboration with my close friend and now business partners! This lead to the inception of Black Creatives Weekend, a media company that I co-founded with my dear friend and fellow Denver creative, Charlie Billingsley. Our goal is to create spaces and content that celebrates, amplifies, and elevates Black creativity and provide the tools to sustain a healthy existence, and building generational wealth.

Has it been a smooth road?
This road has been anything but smooth! When I started my journey, I was a new-ish mom, with a one and a half-year-old son and three-month-old daughter and about five years into my marriage. But then things took a turn. I became depressed, I was felt stuck in my life at the time and ended up making several drastic changes. My husband and I separated, I did a “big chop” (cut my hair down to about 1 inch) and ultimately ended up leaving my job of five years at the time. I had to shake things up and make myself uncomfortable in every area that I became lax in and I began to awaken more and more to my true purpose.

I still don’t have things all figured out, but I know that doing creative work is inextricably part of my process. My obsession with social media, creating a beautiful, editorial feed, telling a story in a way that is to the point yet captivating. All of these things are now skills that are sought after and necessary to most businesses and I am getting my proverbial piece of the pie. I have been able to secure contracts for what I would make in a month because of my commitment to my creative craft.

The struggles have definitely made me appreciate every win and they’ve added even more color to my story!

We’d love to hear more about your work.
Keisha Marie, Co is my personal brand. I am a content creator who specializes in showcasing the beauty in transformation. I show you how to glow through life’s transitions by utilizing frequent twerk breaks, spending time with friends, writing away your tears, snuggles with your tiny humans, etc. I’ve grown my audience to almost 6k engaged individuals and I’ve also used those skills to aid other businesses do the same.

I’m most proud of how I have been able to build strong relationships and audience engagement from places like Atlanta, GA and Brooklyn, NY simply by showing up as my authentic self and being transparent in sharing my journey. What sets me apart is my kindness and commitment to everyone winning! I am all about collaboration, sharing what I’ve learned and helping others. I bring this to my freelance work as well as the content that I produce for my personal brand.

Black Creatives Weekend is a media company as I mentioned in an earlier answer. We have hosted several events in 2019 but our primary event is the company namesake: Black Creatives Weekend, a conference experience. This will take place on June 2020 and we are excited to share that we are partners of the Denver Arts and Venues Program and have secured McNichol’s Event Center for the three-day experience! The theme of the weekend is Manifesting Millions and it will include a variety of interactive and educational activations to aid Black creatives in building sustainable creative businesses, prioritizing mental health and showcasing their work!

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love that Denver provides the best of all worlds! There are few people that cannot come here and find something they enjoy or even grow to love! As a Denver native, it’s beautiful seeing the growth and the opportunities that have come with it and as a woman of color, it’s very important to me to see myself and my community reflected in those changes. I will love the city much more if the voices of those in underrepresented groups and considered and acknowledged in a more profound way.

Pricing:

• Blog Writing- starting at $50/article
• Social Media Copywriting- 3 posts= $100
• IG Audit/Strategy Session= starting at $150

Contact Info:

• Email: keishamarieco@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keishamarieco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keishamarieco/

Image Credit:
Dani Washington- yellow background, side laughing photo
Charlie B- Black hat photo
Blake Jackson- Photo with kids
Jessica Christie/Jay Davis Bags- Vintage photo

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