We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Darnell Brock a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Darnell, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Winter 97 has been a name that me and one of my co-owners have always had in the back of our minds. I’m talking about it goes back 8-10 years easily. We just didn’t know how we were going to utilize it. in 2014 we moved to Los Angeles chasing the music dream as many do. What we learned most was the poor business practices of so many labels, executives and management teams. It truly left a horrible taste in our mouth and the experiences around business were never good. From janky business people to faulty contracts, we had seen it all. Two years later I took it upon myself to reach out on behalf of my co-owner, music artist, songwriter and producer Days on 85, in hopes of building and connecting with genuine people who could possibly manage him and take his artistry to the next level. One day in September of 2020 Days on 85 says to me, “Snook, as hard as you have been going for me…you should just manage me yourself.” And that statement two years later has turned into a total team of 9. Five artists on the talent side, and four on the admin side to handle business structure & we haven’t looked back since,

Darnell, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The thing that my team and I realized was where are from in Spartanburg, SC, there is so much talent on a major scale. However, because we are so small, there isn’t much recognition that comes from our area. Due to this, our talent doesn’t usually understand proper business etiquette and operations because they haven’t been exposed to a market that really runs and thrives on the business behind the music. Winter 97 is solving this issue by providing proper business structure to the best brands in the upstate. We take off the stress of business operations so that the creative can focus on the best part of their brand, CREATING. All business correspondence flows through us, naturally providing a layer of insulation and protection to the business owner and weeding out any inquiries that aren’t serious. We are at the top of our game and the front of our industry because we base our business operations on one major key ingredient, INTEGRITY.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth is the best advertising that you can get because you can’t pay for it and it reaches to individuals that you potentially would miss if you ran ads on radio/tv/social media. We began making a major footprint on the scene when we first started because our first client was our co-owner Days on 85. Days on 85 is very connected in our hometown. He makes it his business to be around the music scene and artists/producers as it is his passion. There naturally became opportunity for him to speak on his newest business venture and management team which quickly spread the word of our brand and what we were doing. Before the year was out we had already grown the talent team to 3, Days on 85, Atom Blk & EVERYSECND. These clients were extremely key for us starting out because anyone in the city who needs an extremely talent and reliable photographer/videographer knows you have to connect with Atom Blk. And EVERYSECND is the most exclusive artist in our entire state. So with these two becoming family on our Winter 97 brand we undoubtedly were making a lot of noise and getting great recognition.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

You must have a foundation that you can rely on to ground you and always back your purpose for operating the way you do. When it comes to the Winter 97 team, anyone of them can tell you, we operate like a family. I know that’s cliche to say because a lot of business’ will claim this but I truly mean that we operate like a real family. We have weekly calls to check in on everyone, we have monthly dinners with the entire team to build our bonds and strengthen our trust in each other. We all show up to promote Winter 97 Wednesday’s when I go live with an entrepreneur or creative on Wednesdays at 7:00 pm. We push and promote each others projects, videos and publications. It is a family. One that has gotten a lot of love from both the members inside as well as the ones outside. This naturally brings about high morale because each of our 9 members knows they are a part of something bigger than them. Winter 97 is reaching into industries that we could have never dreamed and its only the beginning. God is great.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.winter97.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/winterninetyseven/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC_dSpr_E4wZvQlmvp36CpQ