We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dimitri Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dimitri below.

Dimitri, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

Coming from Gary, Indiana, there’s not a lot of opportunity. You either make something for yourself, have one of the few great jobs, or leave. My introduction to media was through music. I was so fascinated, that I started playing instruments myself which eventually got me into music production. I was always a hustler. When mixtapes were popular, I was the go to guy for CDs and to put music on your MP3 player. Remember those? After a 6 year stint in the military and working odd jobs, I was apart of co-founding my first media company & recording studio “Kishindo Music, Media, & Marketing” with my partner D-Brown. With that, I took it upon myself to teach myself photography, videography, graphic design, and film directing. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had mentorship from film director Deon Taylor (Meet The Black, Fatale, Power), and Tommy Smalls (First Tuesday, Meet The Upshaws). It’s proven to be a worthwhile journey because of wealth it’s provided to me through the relationships I’ve built. And I’m not talking about with money. There’s been great people I’ve met along the way that’s put me in some great rooms and shared some great experiences with me that money can’t even buy. With that, how can anyone fail? Make sure you keep you some solid black women around you too.

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

I moved back to Gary, Indiana from Indianapolis in 2018. While living there, I worked a few 9-5s with my main one being in a tire shop. When I moved, I was adamant on not ever working a 9-5 again. I got into the media industry through music. My first endeavor was making and selling beats online, and in person. Through that, I met my most frequent collaborator, and eventually business partner D-Brown. D-Brown really showed me what it meant to be not only an entrepreneur, but leader. From there, I got into audio engineering and freelancing studio sessions. After about 16 months of doing that, D-Brown brought the idea to me that he wanted to start a media company (Kishindo Music, Media, and Marketing) and wanted me to run the studio side of it. But when we finally got started, I had my hands all over the business with him handling gaining marketing clients and doing promotion for the business. I drove all over “The Region,” Indiana dropping flyers off in storefronts and gas stations as well as cold calling potential clients. We offer an array of media and marketing services from digital, and physical services. We even offer billboard placement in the Chicagoland area. I’m most proud of my newest endeavor “GearHeadz Media.” At GearHeadz, we offer photography, and videography services. GearHeadz is still in its infancy. Maybe we’ll have another opportunity here in the future to tell you guys more about it.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I lesson I had to unlearn was every opportunity ends with money. Allow me to elaborate. When I first started selling beats, I wasn’t sending a single file without payment. Now, I will always advocate for anyone to get their money. But when it comes to a creative sport like music, or media in general, every good, or even great opportunity isn’t gonna end with you receiving payment. Chase the passion, not the money. Passion is infinite.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Support your creative friends. There’s a difference between someone who’s a creative, and someone who’s a great mimicker. That friend you that have blinders on to the grind, truly resilient, so no matter what, they’re always ok, support them. Even if it doesn’t seem like they need it, do it anyway. We need you guys. You can tell someone’s art isn’t genuine. When someone is chasing the vanity that comes with this instead of putting some type art with substance that’s drawn from a real place out into the world for someone to feel. Whether it’s fake street and drug stuff, or they’re lying about being good people, we don’t need them playing in this type of game. We need you as consumers to not support these people.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imjonesy49?igsh=NGprZnNjbG12em11&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ImJonesy49?si=EgiJ_7tc8qFf2B9T