Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiana Johnson.
Tiana, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
What’s up guys, it’s ya girl Ana J, and I’m here giving a tell all “ask ana” segment!!! I’ve come a long way from where I started. Being that I grew up in an entrepreneur household, I knew that was also going to be the route that I took. It was just in my blood. My family owns the only MBE energy efficiency company in the US. So of course, there’s pressure from the parents for the children to take over when they’re ready to retire to create generational wealth. I still occupy an executive position at the business but I realized after being there for almost seven years, that, “It’s okay for me to have my own passions too.” That being said, I made sure to start focusing on the things that I wanted to really do. I own a non-profit called Urban Students of America, hereinafter referred to as USofA. My family is originally from the Westside of Chicago so growing up, I spent lots of my time there. I’m not here to say I’m from the trenches or anything, because that would be a lie, but what I will say is that I’ve been on both sides of the track before and that has been part of my journey. Growing up I was raised in Indiana and attended PWI for my education and I’m grateful for the education that I received in comparison to my peers that I grew up with from Chicago. The conditions that I faced going to school and just in my neighborhood were totally different than my cousins and friends who attended CPS (Chicago Public Schools).
I say all of that to say that my non-profit was centered around the underserved youth of the inner cities such as Chicago, IL, Gary, IN, Hammond, IN, East Chicago, IN, etc. There we inspired children to believe and work towards changing their predicaments. It started with them changing their mindsets. We got them involved with the community and helped to better it by bringing events that are appropriate for the community and safe. My organization did a lot in a little bit of time to encourage and uplift the youth that we were servicing but we weren’t necessarily getting the support that we needed to keep something of that sort going. Of course, we had grants, but that money ran out after a while. So after continuously getting the door slammed in my face after asking for support, I decided to put the organization on hold until I could financially back it myself. However, during that time of the organization, an idea came to light that to this day, I am still trying to get off the ground. A reality show for upcoming millennial entrepreneurs. The ones who look like me that wake up every day and keep trying even after they have thousands of reasons to quit. I recently moved to Atlanta, GA, and I am making connections that I could have never made back home due to a lack of resources. The reality show is still in the works, amongst other things that I am excited to announce. The show will create opportunities that will allow me to pour back into the community. So that those children growing up in unfortunate circumstances can have a chance to spread their wings and do what they really want to do with no restrictions.
My journey to where I’m at now led me to a passion I never knew I had. The love for handbags. The love to normalize black luxury in our black and brown communities. That passion birthed SxaJ(Something x Ana J). SxaJ is a luxury handbag line(for now) manufactured in Italy by lil ole me. 🙂 I want to be an example for my people that we can have nice shit too. I just believe that we make the billionaires and celebrities who they are by supporting them, I have 100% faith in my people that we can do the same for our own, and I have to be the guinea pig to test it out on then so be it. We will normalize luxury in the black and brown communities though because we deserve that shit, real talk.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Though the road has been rocky, the journey has definitely been beautiful. I think I may have answered lots of these speculations in my intro, but I’ve definitely gotten so many “No’s” and “Not right nows” before I had to start going through the door my damn self. Being a minority woman in America is a fight in itself but as I’ve been racing to get to my destination and reach certain goals, my mommie always reminds me to see the beauty in my journey. The truth of the matter is, is that if it weren’t for the journey, I wouldn’t be the woman of substance that I am today. The journey is important. The journey is necessary. I’ve had many times where I’ve believed in my vision so much that I was doing things that maybe my parents didn’t understand but it made sense to me. I’ve had to rely heavily on my faith and my relationship with God just to get me through the uncomfortable times after I’ve taken leaps of faith that my God has led me to. Financial struggles and mental health were big struggles of mine. It honestly wasn’t until I started trusting my journey and the process and myself enough that I began to notice just how much I really had and needed to start taking advantage of. I started thinking and believing that I was in abundance and everything good around me started happening in abundance. I’m super big on manifesting and good vibes. As an entrepreneur, the people and energy you let into your space must be highly guarded. As entrepreneurs, our being IS our product. If the owner is not right mentally and vibes are also down or dark, then you have to know that the slope your business is going down is not far behind. So just staying positive has helped me get over a lot of my obstacles. And just to be clear, just because I choose to stay or think positive doesn’t mean that I didn’t have bad days. It just means that in every bad day I had, I found at least one good thing to bring out of it. It’s all about perspective.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about ElitePro Lifestyle?
ElitePro Lifestyle is the parent company for the non-profit as well as the reality show that I am currently trying to get off the ground. ElitePro Lifestyle will take a non-traditional approach of a firm. Where many firms has only one practice, ElitePro Lifestyle will house many practices that will all tie into what our mission statement is, which is, “Bridging the gap between idea and opportunity.” Right now, ELP is like I said, in the works of building a network. Our first order of business is to get the show off the ground, and right now, we keep running into dead ends with finding the perfect home for it. We were advised to get a pilot going, and even with the pilot filming, it fell through. Now, I’m back to square one trying to find a home. However, finding a home for the show is only the beginning. Once the opportunity is presented to us I have so many ideas that I want to integrate within the organization. So it’s a lot that I can’t really touch on with that because there are so many different variables up in the air. I think that’s what’s going to make this interview so unique because you guys are interviewing me during a time that as the owner and the brand, I’m back at the drawing board to figure out how to take my brand to the next level. So 3-12 months from now, we could be doing another interview and myself and my brand will be in an entirely different tax bracket if the Lord says the same. lol
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I definitely feel like the industry that I’m in is going to see drastic changes to the entertainment industry. If I have my way, everyone will know me and the non-traditional approaches that I bring to being an entrepreneur. I’m always told that I’m ahead of my time and it shows. When I came up with the concept of the reality show, the potential producers at the time was like man this is an amazing idea, I just don’t think anyone is ready for it right now. The show is about millennial entrepreneurs. Now all you see in the blogs is about millennials AND entrepreneurship. Millennial entrepreneurs is what’s driving the markets right now, especially with social media and influencing.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: ms.anaj
