We recently connected with Rayona Jeffries and have shared our conversation below.
Rayona, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
it takes humility, tenacity, and courage. you must force yourself out of your comfort zone, persuade yourself to network and encourage yourself to do things you don’t feel like doing, success is all about growth. most people measure it by status, money, and connections. However, you can have all of those things and still be stagnant. Success is about looking back and seeing how far you’ve come, who poured into you along the way and who you’ve poured into. if you can teach someone about wins and losses than you’ve succeeded at something or you wouldn’t be able to talk about it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started out modeling and fell in love with styling, In 2016 I launched Blake Porter Studio ” Fashion for women with women
with personality” an online boutique with wardrobe rental services. I serve stylists who need wardrobe for music videos, films, and photoshoots.
while building Blake Porter Studio i pursued a career in Project Management and work for an Adult education school where I lead government projects with DC and Maryland.
My experience in the fashion industry and corporate America sparked an interest in creating a creative space where entrepreneurs can thrive. My education from Virginia State University allowed me to utilize my marketing and mass communication skills to create and launch District Lab.
District Lab is s a multi-purpose creative space, perfect for workshops, chic networking events, intimate gatherings, and much more! We invite content creators, photographers, and bloggers to District Lab to co-create with our one-of-a-kind selfie installation walls to create footage for their projects. We also have a beautiful boutique fashion showroom for retailers and artisans that can be used for fashion-related events.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
The best source of growing clientele is customer service. I treat clients as individuals. work within budget and allow multiple payment options and in-house services at no additional charge once clients save the date. word of mouth is currently our strongest marketing component.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I manifested my partner Asante, I prayed and ask god to bless me with a team that i can trust and rely on. I met Asante through a mutual friend and we’ve been inseparable ever since. two heads are always better than one. it’s a good idea to always flush your ideas with someone you can trust. As creatives, we solely focus on the art and there are so many other components to a project,
Contact Info:
- Website: www.districtlabdc.com
- Instagram: getdressedwithrae
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/districtlabdc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayona-jeffries-27891846/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZKO6p1RH4ZeRU6W3HeNCdA
- Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/U97BRB9V2a2RzkAxwyCMVg
Image Credits
I am the owner of the images.