We were lucky to catch up with Janaya Black recently and have shared our conversation below.

Janaya, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

After working in corporate America for over 30 years, I am definitely happier being a business owner. While working a 9-5 afforded me the opportunity to learn many important skills and provided a way for me to provide for my family, I have found so much more fulfillment in working for myself doing what I love.

In 2004, I began balancing being a filmmaker with working in the mortgage industry. With filmmaking being my hobby and passion, I had to use weekends and vacation time to pursue that endeavor. As my passion for filmmaking grew, I began to see my regular job as a safety net, and while I wanted to make films full-time, I was afraid to walk away from my guaranteed paycheck. After a while, I told myself that after my youngest child graduated I would go in to film full-time, but the year my daughter was graduating Covid hit. After that, I fell back into the comfort of my 9-5 due to the uncertainty of the market at that time.

Once things started getting back to some sense of normalcy, I still didn’t make my move because of complacency, but then I was let go from my job. After that, I figured why not? Looking back on it now, I really believe that was God’s way of taking me out of my comfort zone and forcing me to do what He meant for me to be doing.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a writer at heart and that God-given gift has led me into so many other amazing opportunities! I started out as an author and freelance writer for various new publications, and that led me to becoming the editor of a weekly newspaper. That experience opened up many other doors that created connections that led to my current position as the owner of my company Black-Smith Enterprises.

Currently, my company has produced more than 20 films and plays with my husband and partner Rockey Black. I believe that what sets us apart from other production companies is that our focus is faith based and family-friendly entertainment. Due to the fact that we have set a standard of not wanting to compromise our moral principals to follow trends with the stories we tell, and how we tell them, it has definitely presented some challenges in that it has been a little harder for us to find our core audience.

What I am most excited about with regard to how far Black-Smith Enterprises has come since it started is that by the grace of God we have continued to get better with our productions, get to work with some amazing people, built a good name amongst our peers, and we continue to gain support from new viewers.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson that I have had to unlearn is that success is about how much money you make. Television and social media have sold the lie that money is everything, when in reality is that it’s not. While money is key element to being able to be successful, and sustainable, in any business, I have learned that the most important key to success is loving what you do. If you love what you do, then the work you put in to become successful won’t seem like work at all.

This became apparent to me when I lost my job and began to truly pursue my gift of writing and filmmaking full-time. Once my safety net was gone, I was forced to really give my all to getting out there and trying to make it work because there was no other option. Looking back on it now, I really wonder why it took me so long to make take that leap.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The initial capital to start my business came from my 9-5 job. We started out looking for investors, but it just seemed like it never worked out for us because people would make promises and never follow through, so my husband and I worked 40 hours a week and would save what we could to fund our film projects on our own.

After a few years and several projects later, we started making a name for ourselves in our area and our films started getting more exposure. Then streaming platforms like Amazon Prime and Tubi made it possible for independent filmmakers to start making enough money to be sustainable, and it was at that point that investors began to come to us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.black-smithenterprises.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blacksmithenterprises
• Twitter: https://x.com/janayablack
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@black-smithenterprises2251

Image Credits

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