We were lucky to catch up with Zamiyah Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Zamiyah, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Speaking from personal experience, I believe that “consistency” is one of the biggest keys to success. Consistency is actually one of my new year’s goals and I definitely couldn’t achieve anything without it. I cannot tell you how many times I have started something and not finished– and now I regret it because I literally could’ve been so far. Even when it doesn’t seem like things are going somewhere, keep going! Some progress is always better than none! And when you look back, you’ll see how far you’ve come and it’ll be so crazy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So I am a lot of things– A Jack of Most Trades if you will. I owned and design clothing for my brand, The Original DNA (@theoriginal.dna), I am a Content Creator on most platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, and with all that I am still a college student at the University of South Carolina (go cocks!!!) along with being a member of my greek organization, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. (Z-Phi!)

I started my career in my freshman year of high school by starting The Original DNA. My whole childhood I was told that I was different and I even started to feel that way as well in relationships and life in general. I always felt like an outcast no matter how many friends or followers I had. So after I jumped in a tee shirt business class, literally hosted by my own aunt, I got started with my brand. I wanted DNA to represent the people who are unique, the social outcasts who may not even know what is different about them, and those who still were figuring out who they are. DNA itself isn’t an acronym but we stand for originality, uniqueness, and awarding the creative soul.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One thing you need to unlearn as a business owner is expecting everyone to support you. I learned this the hard way when so many of my friends would say, “Oh I can’t wait to buy!” or “I’ll support you with this that and the third!” It’s different when these promises come about concerning something you are passionate about and people end up letting you down. The only person you can really expect to support you is yourself! You are your own cheerleader, influencer, and even model at times and with this entrepreneurship game you have to understand that early!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Initial capital who?? No, but seriously, I started my brand in high school with no job and no business partner. I used a dropshipping service that allowed me just to create and not even hold products on hand! While it was a great way to work with no money upfront, I knew I needed products on hand at some point. So when I got into college and I got a job, I used my refund check and all to support my business. I started off with little inventory and now I am slowly starting to get more and more as my brand grows!

Contact Info:

• Website: theoriginaldna.com
• Instagram: @theoriginal.dna & @miyah.oliviaa
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKvzHf6mgk5stlV4jkLH1cA
• Other: TikTok: @miyah.oliviaa

Image Credits
Austin Scott Zamiyah Johnson