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

Jamarious, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success can be attained in many different ways! Everyone has different meanings for success. I once heard that you will never get to the point where you know you’re successful. It is what you do that will put you in the category of success. You will always want to reach another goal once you’ve achieved your previous one. It is a constant cycle that will take you to higher levels. But there are ways you can get to the point that tell you that you’re on the right track. There are key factors I think that it takes to be successful and I am on the right track to become successful. I’d first like to start off with the most important thing which is finding your passion. Having a passion is something that you see yourself doing no matter if it’s free or not. It is what you fall in love with and what makes you happy. Once you figure that out, you’ll want to have a vision. When I say have a vision; you’ll want to stick to it no matter what. People will come in and out your life to test you or take your mind off the vision you have created for yourself. Now that you have the vision, you’ll have to create a plan to see how are you going to get to the goal you set for yourself. While creating the plan, you’ll have to obtain the knowledge and skills prior or along the journey. But no matter what, you will always be learning everyday on your journey through trial and error which will be called experience. If you want to be successful you will have to put in countless hours into your craft to see the results. Nothing in life happens overnight. That falls align with the next thing which is having drive and dedication. Having drive and dedication in other terms is having the traits of being a hard worker. Along people journeys, many people give up if something goes wrong but that is what makes or break you. How bad do you want it? You will now have to be patient and live in the moment by falling in love with the journey. Having patience and being consistent will take you to the next level. Having enough confidence will take you in the right direction if you change your habits and trust the process. Understand that you will have ups and downs. All of us have those moments. It is your habits that will determine your success.

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?

My name is Jamarious Simmons, a travel photographer/videographer that makes content for anything you need! I was born in Germany but raised in Fayetteville, NC. While growing up I played sports ranging from football, basketball, and track. Playing sports led me to receiving multiple offers to play on the next level. I committed to a school to play football. After long thoughts and conversations I decided to withdraw from the university and go to school close by where I could obtain my degree online. Throughout the process I had helped a good friend with their photoshoot and fell in love with photography. I saw myself creating art in many different ways. I then created a business called Gifted Lenses. I came up with the name because it was a gift from God. I never thought I’d get into photography and it was a hidden talent. Now Im the man behind the lens. The main objective of Gifted Lenses is to make you feel confident and be happy with yourself while capturing the moments that will last a lifetime. Everyone that leaves a session with Gifted Lenses feel better about themselves and learn something new. Here at Gifted Lenses, we cater to your needs no matter what it is. We do portraits, events, weddings, sports events, real estate and many more! What sets me apart from others is my professionalism, integrity, quality of work, and the stories that are being told through my pictures. When it comes to my business I am most proud and excited to have the opportunity to make my clients feel better about themselves and feel more confident in their beauty and style.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I have a story for when I first started my business and I have a story of when I went to the next level and started receiving more clients. The first story of how I put together enough capital to start my business. My very first photoshoot was of Jordan Houston-Taylor. She had asked me to take her graduation photos. I agreed and we finally made a date to take them in front of J.Cole childhood home. I didn’t have a camera at the moment so she let me use hers. I never knew I was going to eventually fall in love with photography but I had enough skill to have an eye for art. We took her photo with the help of her creativity. She’s an artist so she drew on her cap and it was basically inspired by J.Cole album 2014 Forest Hills Drive. We aligned the cap to his house and snapped the photo. After the photo was edited, at that moment I knew I was going to pursue photography. I told myself I was going get a camera soon. I was working at Walmart so I saved my check and two weeks later I headed to the pawn shop and purchased my very first camera. It came with a kit to get me started. The next couple weeks, I put countless hours learning the camera and watching videos on YouTube. Eventually I had my first client and the rest is history.

Another story was around 1 year and a half later where I wanted to take my business to the next level and start getting into videography. One of my friends, Kennique Bonner-Steward, a quarterback asked me to come to his college to record. I didn’t have any experience in recording sports but I wanted to get into in the future so I had accepted the request. I had 1 week to fly down to his college and I didn’t own a camera that could record up to 4k. At the time I was into stocks so I looked at some of my investments and said “I’m going to sell this particular stock, either I’m going to day trade and try to double it or take all of it and invest in my business.” After long thought, I decided to invest in my business by purchasing a camera and a computer to edit my work. The rest is history!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I feel like a lot of different things helped me build my reputation in my market. One of the main things was being honest. Being honest to myself and others took me a long way in my business. There were times where I couldn’t do a certain type of service because I had lack of equipment, so I recommended another person I am familiar with or developed a personal relationship with to do the job. Another big thing I could say is being professional and responding to request as soon as possible. It was plenty of clients or potential clients that I’ve came across where they told me different stories about businesses. All I could do is care for their needs and help them out in the best way possible. Before photography, I played sports and I feel like it plays a big factor with my business because I have enough knowledge to help my clients out in the best way possible. I am able to create content that fits their needs and the coaches on the next level needs through digital media.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.giftedlenses.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gifted1enses/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giftedlenses/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GiftedLenses
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giftedlenses/featured

Image Credits
Tenecia Toliver Naomi Williams Taylor Alexandria Henriadam Brower ZeeBlendz Rich Homie Quan Mariah The Scientist Toosii