We were lucky to catch up with Kemar McZenna recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kemar, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

To simply answer your question, Yes, I earn a full-time living from my creative work. My business is the only source of income. I initially started as a hobbyist videographer until one day I got paid for my hobby and that’s when I decided this was my calling to a career. While doing videography and editing I had to develop a new skill: graphic design, as I had realized that video editing required a bit of graphics. I post my work online to my social media platforms which leads to people asking me about other services I offer then this encouraged me to form a small team of creatives that specialize in photography and graphics as well as web developers based on the requests I would get daily. So, my advice to those who seek to make a living is being ready to learn new skills and market yourself enough to gain your clientele.

Kemar, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Being called to creativity, I took a leap, not often taken by others. Quit my 9-5 job at Megamart, my first ever job straight out of high school to follow my videography passion. I built myself from the ground up and aligned myself with the right people that I knew would be beneficial to me in the future of my career. I took on the lessons by myself and worked assiduously to become the multimedia guru I am today. With determination and a solid team, we put our skills to the test and started the company Kemstyle Studios in the year of 2012, catering to different levels of brands & clients. Though as small as this may have seemed, it set the foundation for what we know as Zenna Concepts today. Jamaica’s corporate brand space was lacking in creativity, they were a bit scared to step out of the safe zone and that’s where my company came in with different ideas that made their brand stand out and provide the highest quality of work in whichever task was given to us. I pride myself on delivering nothing but the best for my clients, and that is why I retain them for many years. If you want the best for your company this is the brand you should align with.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Just before the COVID period started my business was really starting to take off. I had a lot of clients and business was booming. In the two (2) years that COVID had lasted, clients started to leave one by one due to the non-priority of the service we offered in order to cut costs in their business. I was faced with the hard task of hanging it up or finding a new way to be relevant for brands. There was no going back to 9-5 even if I wanted to because no one was hiring at the time, so it was either get innovative or get left in the dust. With the pressure of failure and debt, my brain started to rein in new ideas and I started to offer live-streaming services to clients and figure out a way to put a spin on graphics and videos we were providing on a monthly to make dealing with COVID easier and give them solutions on maintain their revenue. These new services that we offered blessed me with new brand relationships that are still with us and trust that our team can maneuver through any obstacle.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

• Website: https://zennaconcepts.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kemstylebossy/, @zennaconcepts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kemar-mczenna-8715311aa?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@Kemstylebossy