They say the key to generating real wealth is having multiple streams of income.
If you need a real-life example, look no further than Kandi Burruss, who is no stranger to this method. The Real Housewife of Atlanta has her hands in multiple endeavors, including but not limited to: her line of sex toys and lingerie, web-series turned late-night Bravo show Kandi Koated Nights, as well as her family-style southern food restaurant Old Lady Gang. Not to mention, she's still collecting those royalty checks from her time with the music group Xscape and the solo publishing work she's done for other artists.
On top of it all, she still makes time to be a wife and mother of two.
If you thought juggling those tasks was difficult for the young mogul, then you are seriously underestimating Kandi's level of hustle. Recently, she revealed the launch of her new line of cruelty-free cosmetics called Kandi Koated Cosmetics, and it's another example of the wave of inclusivity in the makeup world.
The luxury line will include lipsticks, glosses, eyeshadows, and eyeliners among a number of other beauty products. According to the website, the line's mission is "aimed at celebrating and accentuating beauty in all its diversity, with color palettes designed for a range of skin tones and everything from soft nude lipsticks to fierce metallic eyeshadows."
With the rise of more inclusive makeup lines, it makes perfect business sense for Kandi to enter this new realm entrepreneurship. Maybe it's the "Fenty Beauty effect", but the mark of any good business is fulfilling an existing need; and, boy, do we need good makeup that doesn't force us to search high and low for the perfect blend.
According to a recent Nielsen report on the beauty industry, over the last five years, the "number of unique facial cosmetic colours available on shelves has grown 22 per cent, outpacing the general pace of new product development in facial cosmetics by seven times."
Inclusivity sells, y'all.
For now, Kandi Koated Cosmetics will only be available at Bedroom Kandi Boutique Parties hosted by Bedroom Kandi consultants in your area. And if you want to get in the game yourself, you can sign up to be a consultant for the company and get your hands on the sex toys line as well as the new line of makeup. Get all the goods AND become your own boss: win, win!
If you're trying to step up your entrepreneurial game to Kandi-like levels, here's some advice she gave up-and-coming boss babes in an interview with Ebony:
"My advice to anyone out there looking to go into business is to first cut back on your spending…Pull back on your expenses and put money to the side until you've stacked up enough to put toward your dream. If you're not willing to invest in you, why would anyone else?"
Mogul talk.
Check out some behind-the-scenes footage of Kandi's grind for yourself right here. Will you be adding Kandi Koated Cosmetics to your beauty routine?
Featured image by Taylor Hill/Getty Images
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak
