Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jalaysia Allen . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jalaysia , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

While preparing myself for my sophomore year of college the first thing I knew for sure I had to do was go school shopping. In my mind I knew I did not want to look like anyone else when it came to clothes. I didn’t want anyone to have the same shirts or pants I purchased, so anything I saw that looked too typical I walked past it. I walked out the store with nothing in my hand which was very frustrating because I still didn’t have anything to wear to school. Once I got back home, I rushed to my computer and immediately started online shopping. A couple of hours passed, and I didn’t even have a pair of jeans in my cart making my frustration a lot worst. I knew I had to figure something out very quickly. As the night went on, I finally stopped searching for a wardrobe and called it a night, but while sleeping I had visions of the wardrobe I was looking for. In my dream it was me making the clothing for not only me, but for other people as well. I woke up in deep thought and asked myself “can you do this, is this a sign from God?” As the day went by, I noticed loose pieces of fabrics, old jeans I haven’t worn, and left-over paint. At the moment I knew I could do it, so I dropped everything and started designing everything I had that I no longer wore making the old look brand new. While wearing them around the campus several people asked where I purchased them from and with the biggest smile on my face, I told them “I made them myself.” From that day forward I have been customizing clothing such as jeans, shirts, shoes, and dickies suit. With some of the customs my clients explained to me exactly how they wanted the clothing, but most times I was told to freestyle because the client “trusts my vision”. When freestyling I always have to go to sleep and wake up to actually know how I was going to customize the clothing. One evening a client came to me and told me she wanted something custom for her business, but she didn’t want to wear it. So, I told her to give me a few days to come up with something. That same night I had a vision of me manufacturing custom rugs for different business across the world. I reached out to her and told her my idea and she loved it. After I made her rug, she gave me the most brilliant idea. She said, “being that you’re into customizing some businesses may want their logo customized in their place of business”. I gave her the biggest hug and thanked her as much as I could. A few days later I made a post on social media asking did anyone need their walls painted and the first to respond was a shoe business. The owner of the shoe business needed four different custom pieces on one wall which took me 3 days to complete. After posting all my customs (clothing, rugs, wall art) multiple people continuously asked me “why don’t you do tattoos you can draw”, I always just shook my head and said I didn’t have time. Every single day I got asked the same question, so I gave in, bought everything I needed, and started practicing doing tattoos. I am now the owner of 4 successful small businesses which are Goated Kustomz, Goated Rugz, Goated Wall Art, and Goated Ink. My brand GOATED meaning Globally Overcoming All Things Each Day has gotten me though so much in life because it has really been the only real job I had in my eyes. It has been my only source of income since 2018 and although business slowed down sometimes, I still gave it all I had. Each day I lived without I told myself no matter what it was “I overcame it” because the next day was always going to be better.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

While preparing myself for my sophomore year of college the first thing I knew for sure I had to do was go school shopping. In my mind I knew I did not want to look like anyone else when it came to clothes. I didn’t want anyone to have the same shirts or pants I purchased, so anything I saw that looked too typical I walked past it. I walked out the store with nothing in my hand which was very frustrating because I still didn’t have anything to wear to school. Once I got back home, I rushed to my computer and immediately started online shopping. A couple of hours passed, and I didn’t even have a pair of jeans in my cart making my frustration a lot worst. I knew I had to figure something out very quickly. As the night went on, I finally stopped searching for a wardrobe and called it a night, but while sleeping I had visions of the wardrobe I was looking for. In my dream it was me making the clothing for not only me, but for other people as well. I woke up in deep thought and asked myself “can you do this, is this a sign from God?” As the day went by, I noticed loose pieces of fabrics, old jeans I haven’t worn, and left-over paint. At the moment I knew I could do it, so I dropped everything and started designing everything I had that I no longer wore making the old look brand new. While wearing them around the campus several people asked where I purchased them from and with the biggest smile on my face, I told them “I made them myself.” From that day forward I have been customizing clothing such as jeans, shirts, shoes, and dickies suit. With some of the customs my clients explained to me exactly how they wanted the clothing, but most times I was told to freestyle because the client “trusts my vision”. When freestyling I always have to go to sleep and wake up to actually know how I was going to customize the clothing. One evening a client came to me and told me she wanted something custom for her business, but she didn’t want to wear it. So, I told her to give me a few days to come up with something. That same night I had a vision of me manufacturing custom rugs for different business across the world. I reached out to her and told her my idea and she loved it. After I made her rug, she gave me the most brilliant idea. She said, “being that you’re into customizing some businesses may want their logo customized in their place of business”. I gave her the biggest hug and thanked her as much as I could. A few days later I made a post on social media asking did anyone need their walls painted and the first to respond was a shoe business. The owner of the shoe business needed four different custom pieces on one wall which took me 3 days to complete. After posting all my customs (clothing, rugs, wall art) multiple people continuously asked me “why don’t you do tattoos you can draw”, I always just shook my head and said I didn’t have time. Every single day I got asked the same question, so I gave in, bought everything I needed, and started practicing doing tattoos. I am now the owner of 4 successful small businesses which are Goated Kustomz, Goated Rugz, Goated Wall Art, and Goated Ink. My brand GOATED meaning Globally Overcoming All Things Each Day has gotten me though so much in life because it has really been the only real job I had in my eyes. It has been my only source of income since 2018 and although business slowed down sometimes, I still gave it all I had. Each day I lived without I told myself no matter what it was “I overcame it” because the next day was always going to be better.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

During my schools homecoming a sorority needed me to make 20 plus custom jackets and needed them in two weeks. I received most of the jackets 2 or 3 days after their deposit however there were some complications with getting the remaining jackets to me. 3 days before they needed all of the jackets done the remaining came, but those last 3 days were my busiest days of classes. Once I got out of class I realized I was running low and most of all the colors I needed so I took trip to the store to get more supplies. They were completely wipe out. After panicking I took a deep breathe and figured it out. I remade every color I was running out of my mixing two different paint colors I’d already had. I finished the jackets in time

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I started shipping out custom painted clothing some clients would send me pictures of the clothing but it’ll have cracks inside of the design. I bought different paints and different sealers and tried every outcome until there were no cracks in the painted. I painted different pieces of clothing and balled them up immediately after just to see if it would crack. The receipt I use now in my sealer and paint leaves no cracks no matter if the clothing is washed or dried.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @dagoatshop
• Facebook: LayDaGoat

Image Credits
#GoatedInk #GoatedKustomz #GoatedRugz #GoatedWallArt