Today we’d like to introduce you to Malcolm Coley.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
LocNationTM (The Movement) is a support and celebration of the natural hair movement with a focus on locs. LocNationTM was started in 2012 by two men (Malcolm Coley and Standley Charlescar) who just wanted to change the narrative of natural hair, specifically locs.
This digital brand started out as a simple Facebook page that just wanted to engage with people who have locs, which meant, everyday there were multiple postings of people who wanted to showcase their locs and loved what it meant to have locs.
The Facebook page started to grow and grow whereas, we understood it was time to take this a bit more seriously. The Facebook page amassed about 7500 followers around 2014 and thats when we decided to make an Instagram account that really took off.
In the midst of that, we traveled everywhere to attend hair shows across the country where the brand became stronger and stronger and our names were beginning to be more well known. We were featured in the Bronner brothers’s show and the world natural hair show as special guests. We have now amassed over 200,000 followers on Instagram, over 50,000 on Facebook and over 80,000 on tik tok. We are one of the loc’d brands throughout the world. When talking about natural hair and how much of a global phenomenon it is, you MUST mention locs, and when you mention locs, you HAVE to mention LocnationTM.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being an entrepreneur is NEVER straight forward thing, so the road has been extremely tumultuous. Some of the issues are just growing pains. It’s so difficult understanding how to manage your money as an entrepreneur because you never know when it’s going to come. That was one of the first things that we struggled with because it was new to us.
As we progressed, other things started to become apparent to use, literally things we had to realize, in the moment whereas we had to manage new relationships, making sure that the people we brought on our team was legit and managing our personal brands in order to make sure we managed ourselves correctly. This is all while managing and continuously building our brand. I’m sure we have a pretty good handle on it now though!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
So I’m a trained chemist, I got my Bachelor’s Degree from Seton Hall University in 2008. So I’ve worked in all types of Big pharma companies, manufacturing companies, doing analytical chemistry, formulations, all the way to research and development. I’ve had the opportunity to work for Merck, Pfizer, Shchering-Plough, and Dupont. My love for science didn’t stop there as I shifted into technology with a three-year stay at apple on the retail side. Understanding all of Apple’s products, systems and resources it helped to strengthen my love for tech.
Fast forward to today, I’m proud of what we started with LocnationTM because it taught me a skill that has walked me into many doors. That skill was digital marketing. Understanding that skill for digital marketing led me to create a Marketing company called “Influencers Lab Media” with my good friend and business partner Newdy Felton and a Gaming company called “Futures First Gaming” where we are bringing the black and brown community into technology and entrepreneurship through gaming. I’m so proud of all these businesses because each one i’m passionate about, each one I’m making an impact, and each one i’m shaping the world the way that I see fit.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
ATLANTA IS LITERALLY WAKANDA, I love the way black and brown people can come together in Atlanta and make things happen. So many black people that have progressive ideas and missions along with the means to make it happen. Not only that black and brown people in Atlanta want to see you win and thats why it means so much to have that type of energy around at all times. The thing I hate about Atlanta, one word. TRAFFIC…
Contact Info:
- Email: locnationtm@gmail.com
- Website: www.locnationtm.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/locnationtm
- Facebook: facebook.com/locnationtm
- Twitter: twitter.com/locnationtm
- Other: tiktok.com/@locnationtm
