Love her or hate her, there is no doubt that Kylie Jenner is smiling all the way to the bank. Her face gracing the new cover of Forbes Magazine together with the words “the youngest-ever self-made billionaire” have sparked some serious mixed reactions around the world.
Wherever you fall on the spectrum, there are a few lessons to be learnt from Kylie‘s most recent accomplishment:
- Success knows no age. Age is not an excuse to not succeed nor an advantage to succeed. Success is merely the sum and sequence of many determining factors, most importantly, the choices you make and the actions you take. Yes, Kylie had a more favorable upbringing than most but her success did not come from sitting and doing nothing. Maybe you think you are too old. Maybe you think you are too young. Quit looking for excuses and take action towards achieving your own dream today. It is never too late or too early to change your destiny.
- Branding and more importantly, celebrity branding creates a powerful pull. You are your brand and in the end people don’t buy the brand, they buy you. When you are branded, people buy from you because they like you or because they want to be like you. Branding increases your credibility, influence and following. Thus, the more branded you are, the more successful you will be.
- The importance of building a following that converts. Kylie currently has about 111 million Instagram followers. Do you think she would’ve been $900 million strong if she had 100 followers? Of course not. Following is really just another word for database: one of the most valuable assets of any business. Many make the mistake of thinking followers are just an indication of popularity or that creating a following stems from a need for it. However, by building a following congruent with your brand, you are creating and attracting your ideal target market. How do you build a following that will convert? With a lot of patience and consistency. By being consistent, you will attract your ideal clients to introduce and sell your product to.
- Congruent selling. Like we mentioned in no. 2 above, you are your brand. That means that the majority of Kylie‘s following are most likely women around her age group who wears makeup. Do you think Kylie would’ve made a killing selling bird feeders? Do you think she would’ve become a “$900 million makeup cosmetics queen” if she didn’t wear makeup herself? Of course not. The women who follow Kylie on Instagram admire her and want to look like her. Now you can see the importance of creating and delivering congruent products to the correct audience that address the specific needs of this audience i.e. following.
- Leveraging relational capital. What is relational capital? Simply put, it’s the value of internal and external social relationships. Yes, her family’s globally recognized name and success most certainly come with more and greater influential relational capital but it would mean nothing if used incorrectly or not at all. Kylie realize the power of her network and knows how to leverage it. Which relationships in your own network can you leverage? Do you know how to build a meaningful network?
We would like to congratulate Kylie on this astounding achievement and wish her massive success in all her future endeavors.
Authentic Entrepreneur 