We were lucky to catch up with Jaques Vivar recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jaques, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
So in 2016 i went through one of the craziest parts in my life. I was the leader of an international krump dancing crew that me and a few of my friends built together. I was also married to my first wife & from the looks of it to everyone else i was living in my purpose. I was an internationally known krump dancer, i was a web designer by trade & i was able to travel for dance & host great events for the las vegas dance community. On the other hand i was struggling in my personal life because of many reasons. So i took a leap, and did what was best for me and stopped trying to please others. I ended up getting a divorce and started over. Thats when the name Swarm which was a dance name of mine turned into Swarm Brand. Which was a clothing line to start. I started building the site out, built the products, and started selling t shirts, hats and more to my following. From there the brand just grew. I threw my first R&B dance battle in 2018 & then in 2019 Swarm Branding was built. I met my current wife in 2019 and we moved in together. When the pandemic happened i told her i really wanted to pursue making my freelance job as my full time position & i just started reaching out to clients to help them with their online presence. by 2022 i turned my part time freelance gig to my full time job. & in 2023 i hit my first 6 figure year as a business & were doing it again in 2024. Now i have a team of 3 people outside of me and we handle about 50 clients online presence from google ads, to website management, to social media marketing and management. On top of that, the clothing line is still flourishing, we host dance events in vegas monthly and we help street dance events flourish by investing and helping them get things set up, and help them become more professional.
What i have learned about business is as long as you do good work, your an honorable person, you keep your side of the street clean and you fulfill on what you say your going to do, you will be successful. Put the processes in place, do what you need to do to make sure the client is happy & you will be successful.
Jaques, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Jaques Vivar aka Mafioso. I am a krump dancer, rollerskater husband father & business owner. i was a graffiti artist at a young age and i was always into dancing. I stopped doing graffiti because my friend passed away from us crossing someone else out & i didnt want that to end up being me so i just started doing it on backpacks, paper and other things. Then people started asking me “hey can you do my name” and i would start charging in high school, which then turned into me doing logos for people in my 20s and becoming a graphic designer. In 2010 i got an internship at an app company where i learned how to build a website from scratch from a guy named Dan Harris. He taught me a lot and i still attribute a lot of my success to him. From there i worked at several different marketing companies and web design agencies until i went straight freelance. Then i started Swarm Branding & we offer graphic design, web design, social media, marketing and print media services to our clients. What sets us apart from others is we do our best every day, and we offer solid solutions. We under promise and over deliver. What im most proud of is the fact that we do great work for our clients, they continue to come back to us and we cant express it enough that we are honest, hard working, and we do our best to help our clients.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When i started Swarm Brand. it was a huge pivot in my life.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I didnt put any capital. I funded everything personally, i bought the clothing, saved the money, landed big clients to get my first office, and did everything myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://swarmeverything.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/murdamafioso
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071034829714
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaquesvivar/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SwarmBrand
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/swarm-branding-henderson?osq=swarm+branding&override_cta=Ask+for+information
