We were lucky to catch up with Denzel Merritt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Denzel, appreciate you joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Thank you for having me! Actually, MixStar Audio began during COVID, and because of this we were forced to focus on more intimate events and productions that allowed us to follow CDC guidelines.

This led us to embracing business ventures we likely wouldn’t have other wise.

In a sense you can say COVID played a role in our initial development.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Of course, thank you for asking. I run an AV Event Production Company servicing Delaware and the surrounding areas.

I’ve gained over a decade of experience as an audio engineer, recording artist, event planner/promoter, and have received my Bachelor of Science in Show Production and Touring from Full Sail University in Orlando, FL.

My time in Orlando exposed me to an abundance of opportunities and new experiences from recording local artists, to live engineering different performances at different comedy clubs and venues in the downtown area.

After receiving my degree I moved back home to Delaware and shortly after received a position with a production company in Bronx, NY.
Having nothing to my name (no car, property, etc.) I took a chance and convinced my grandmother to allow me to use her car to travel back and forth the NY (a 2.5-3hr drive) where I would then sleep in the car throughout the week on the streets of NY.

Unfortunately this did not work out for me all that well as I promptly moved back home in order to save money to actually move to NY and better my situation.

Well this ultimately lead me to moving to ATL where I was able to expand my network and learnings as an entrepreneur.

After a year in ATL I moved back home to apply all of my experiences to the place I come from. This is what led to the beginning steps of the creation of MixStar Audio.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I first thought up this company as I was an Audio Engineer recording local artists. After a while I figured that I wanted to get more serious about my side hustle and turn it into a thriving production company, that’s when one of my best friend’s come along (Gerrin Velazquez) and invest’s into the company and ultimately becoming my partner!

It was a steady grind as we grew our clientele and team to the point where we could be in multiple places at once. By keeping our cost as minimal as possible we were able to maximize profits to over 600% gains from our established year 2020 to-date, and an initial $2k+ investment.

I kept wondering and asking people when the right time would be to quit my job and go all in on my dream. After getting so many different responses and findings, I thought it best to follow the beat of my own drum! It’s good to take the advice of others but you have to live with the decisions you make!

What made it easier to gain the revenue to quit comfortably was the fact that we bootstrapped our start up until it became a small business. In doing so we were able to keep our debt and expenses to an immense minimum which allowed us to reinvest profits and compound capital.

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

This is a tough one, even for the captain of the sports team! lol

I was able to gain experience as a team leader in high school sports, and various management roles in retail but all are different in comparison to managing your team for your own company and maintaining high moral.

It’s a daily reminder of certain principles that YOU need to keep yourself accountable for. Those principles are subject to your style of leadership.

Starting out during our expansion we gained team members and lost them almost just as fast it would seem, and I knew that I had to figure out why!

We can’t always look at our system and say “it’s perfect so it must be them”, sometimes we need to self evaluate and keep open lines of communication with your team so they feel comfortable coming to you with what may be on their mind.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mixstaraudio.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mixstaraudio?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MixStarAudio?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mixstaraudio/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@mixstaraudio1450