Watch these two Millennials clean up by monetising being themselves.
Don’t get dirty on these two Millennials, but they’ve got life completely sorted and they’re not even thirty yet.
Stephanie Smith and Laura Henshaw, fondly known on social media as Steph & Laurs, are Keep It Cleaner (KIC). The girls, both in their mid-twenties––Steph, twenty-five and Laura twenty-seven––are responsible for motivating millions of Millennials into full-tilt health with their prolific catalogue of spunky wellness content.
The duo met while modelling in their earlier twenties and they pretty quickly became best friends. But it wasn’t until Laura started a health and wellness blog to balance her own personal life while studying law, that Steph began to think bigger about what they could achieve together. In fact, she had a literal dream about it. They were going to write an eBook together.
Stephanie, who admits in a YouTube Q&A that if she wasn’t a model would have been a Physical Education (PE) teacher, approached Laura about writing an eBook together along a similar theme to Laura’s blog. ‘Keep it Clean’, the first in a prolific catalogue of offerings, was released in 2015 and the pair have gone from strength to strength since.
The Keep it Clean eBook was essentially just a cookbook––and a basic one at that–– but, complemented by workouts and lifestyle posts on their Instagram page, the Keep it Clean philosophy grew. They’re not cooks, or nutritionists, or personal trainers. Just best mates, who are passionate about the same thing––being healthy, and sharing.
“The book is a reflection of what we both eat,” said Henshaw. “It was important for us to create something which people could make themselves at home. We didn’t want it to be too intimidating, we just wanted to use it as a way to share some of our favourite recipes.” Smith says.
And heck, they could be intimidating. They’re both drop-dead gorgeous, fit, confident, positive, and seem to have a life entirely figured out. But for some reason, it’s not intimidating as much as it is motivating––even for an ol’ Xennial like myself.
Cookbooks, workout videos, a website, vlogs, an app, a huge Instagram following, protein powder, a line of groceries (stocked in Coles!)––there’s not a lot of the wellness world these two feisty Millennials haven’t covered.
Fast forward a few years and eventually, they consolidated everything into one clean package––the Keep it Cleaner website launched in 2018. It was a gamechanger for the girls, opened up a whole new world of opportunities. The website is where you’ll find portals to all their offerings. And if you spend enough time scrolling, not only will you start to feel the motivation to clean yourself up, but you’ll most likely fall in love with these two unassuming and savvy business women. I did.
But it’s not all sugar-free cookies and pretty pictures for Smith and Henshaw though, the business women have actually created a neat little empire for themselves, and a fertile platform for any product their heart desires. This isn’t a fluke either; this is good business. Millennial-style entrepreneurship at its finest.
What are they doing right?
Millennial driven businesses like Keep it Cleaner (KIC) work because the ones behind it believe in what they’re selling. It’s a values-based business. What KIC is selling is a lifestyle. A healthy, mindful, and really pretty lifestyle. That type of platform opens up so any possibilities. Add personality and a nice smile to the mix and the public is putty in your hands.
But don’t you assume the KIC girls are just smiling their way to the bank. Stephanie Smith and Laura Henshaw work bloody hard for their money. The amount of content they produce and upload, on top of the hours they put into their own personal health and wellbeing is phenomenal. Don’t believe for a second it isn’t a full-time job––and then some.
How did it get so big?
Like most of their Mill-entrepreneur peers, the Keep it Cleaner brand grew legs from social media. Steph and Laura started with a strong following through their modelling and personal Instagram profiles and they built on that strength to launch their business. But the real success came from building their business around what they knew people wanted. Always a winning business strategy.
Steph told Millennial publication, Pedestrian TV, how and why she came up with the Keep it Cleaner model.
“I identified the need for it by putting myself in a younger girl’s shoes! Social media can be a shitty place, and we are all heavily consumed by it! I wanted there to be more of a positive influence online for girls/women and knew I had a voice (Laura and I both do), and it’s such a massive responsibility given our following. We just wanted to do the right thing with it.”
And by golly have they done the right thing. Keep it Cleaner is a perfect example of Millennials taking advantage of their skillset, their market knowledge and using their self-confidence to build something they believe in and not relying on “the grown-ups” (Boomers) to format their future.
Bloody inspiring.