Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jarvis Minton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jarvis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I have a background in marketing from college and when I picked up the camera I found that there was a problem. The problem is an amateur photographer doesn’t have any clients, so to fix that problem, I start a marketing company with the idea to hire myself when the company needs media whether in Photography or Video. I didn’t start with t at first it was a long grind just to get to the point I am right now. I started as a photographer and I made my rounds in Dallas shooting with anyone and any business I could. I knew I didn’t wanna just shoot with a bunch of models all the time because there was no room for money behind that. I have to get straight to the businesses. One thing I knew as soon as I picked up the camera was connections are key so I started networking and that put me into some awesome situations. If there is one thing people know about me is that I am not afraid to talk to someone when it comes to opportunities. The way I see it there are people out there walking around with my check and I need to get it from them. Closed mouths don’t get fed so I make sure that everyone knows what I do and that I’m in the business of helping them. After two years of shooting photos, A friend of mine invited me to shoot the behind-the-scenes at one of their music videos. I’ve always been interested in video production putting out a few films back when I was in the army deployed to Iraq. That night I asked a lot of questions and I watch their every move. That was the day I picked up videography and fell in love with it. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love Photography but it’s just something about Video and being able to tell the story. As I start getting better and better with the camera people started asking me hey Jarvis can you help me put this video on my social media, can you help me with my website, or just simply can you just post it for me? I started getting this more and more and once I start seeing the pattern it dawned on me. I should start doing everyone’s marketing. Being that I’m already creating the contact anyway why not show them what to do with it once I create that masterpiece and charge them a monthly fee so that they could focus on running their business and my company does all the behind-the-scenes. One year before the pandemic started I opened up for business. My company is called Black Label Branding Co and I also have an affiliate media company. I always wanted to create the one stop shop experience but for businesses. I know how it can be dealing with a bunch of moving parts attempting to accomplish one goal. At the start of all this I have to be a jack of all trades and where every hat in the company. I had to learn how to build websites, graphic design, Advertise and more. I really stretched myself thin to the point that I was losing clients because I was not able to get everything done. But that’s a part of the learning process right. Believe me I failed a lot and I lost a lot of great clients just trying to figure it out. I didn’t have any mentors to teach me how to shoot with the camera for how to manage Business, I just figured it all out on my own. It wasn’t until just recently that I start getting mentors but I guess I had to reach a certain level on my own before I can understand what I was doing wrong once someone pointed it out that knew how to do it right. Now I’m surrounded by some of the best marketing and business minds in the world and that has propelled me forward in so many ways. My views on business is so much different now that I started talking to people that ran business at a high level. You would never believe how many businesses don’t have good marketing and branding. Our goal is to come up with the best price point for the client because everybody’s needs are different. I knew that If I wanted to get to where I wanted to be with this company putting together the right team was crucial. Over the years I’ve come across some great people that have helped me bring my visions to life when it comes to helping people grow their businesses. Today we are doing very well and we are always looking to help the next business grow.

Jarvis, 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?

What sets Black Label Branding Co. apart from other branding and marketing companies is that we care about the needs of our clients and we are not just trying to sell people something they don’t need. There are so many avenues in which you can market your business and it’s hard to run all of that and your business so we can solve those problems. We love to help companies push their purpose and attract the right clientele. Working with our company you will get a team of professionals that will help your company grow every step of the way. We offer website design, app design, SEO, graphic design, videography, photography, business consulting, and more. Our media company films everything from commercials to YouTube channels and everything in between. If your company needs a fleet of vehicles wrapped we can do that too along with printing any pamphlets, business cards, banners, flyers, etc.

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

There’s not too many pictures of me out there because like a lot of people I didn’t have the best upbringing in that put me in a certain headspace. I spent majority of my life just exiting but good things were happening regardless if I wanted them to or not. I need a change and purpose so you can see why joining the Army had tremendous impact on my life. I’ve never been a big picture of Video person until I deployed and I realize how important capturing these memories were so I bought a camera. I captured a lot of things and documented a lot of my experiences. This is when I started having interest in the camera. After I got out of Active duty army I did a few different things in management but for some reason I just wasn’t satisfied. I’ve been to this point my life I dealt with a lot of negativity and being that I didn’t have a support system I was navigating life on my own and believe me I made a lot of mistakes. I got a job as the manager of Aldie and I was working there for over a year. The job was really cool but demanding. One thing about me is if you’re going to be able to say anything about me is going to be that I work hard and that was exactly what I did at Aldie. I work circles around everyone even if I didn’t know what I was doing because the manager secretly was threatened by what I was capable of physically so he didn’t teach me truly how to be a store manager in the regional managers hot side of this. Back then I never really spoke up I kind of just let things happen in my life and that’s probably the reason I had so many problems I was such a pushover and I didn’t know my worth. I still think about that meeting to this day when they let me go at Aldie and asked me what the problem was and instead of me telling them that the manager didn’t teach me anything and would just tell me to hold off until he gets back I just sat there and didn’t speak up. I vowed that I would never hold back again and I would never give someone the power to take away my livelihood. After that I didn’t have a job for over a year besides my national guard income which wasn’t much. I ended up living with a mentor after some situation was in my life didn’t work out and didn’t have a job for almost a year. My mentor was on dialysis and one day I went with him because he said that the dialysis clinic was hiring and I should come and check it out and ask him questions so I did just that. Not even two months later I was in school training to be a dialysis tech. Never did I see myself doing this but it was great money and I haven’t worked in almost a year. I passed all my test with flying colors and before you know it I was on the floor saving lives one dialysis patient at a time. I did this for a while but I was unfulfilled. I had a camera at the time but I wasn’t using it and every day I looked at it on my desk and it ain’t me alive. One day I woke up with something on my heart I could no longer fight my creative urge. I decided right then and there that I wanted to get in two photography as a profession. After sitting there upstairs I hurt my mentor getting ready for work so I went downstairs and I told him what I wanted to do. When I told him I wanted to go to the art institute of Dallas to major in photography he never said I was crazy he just asked me if I was sure this is what I wanted to do and I said yes so he went with me to enroll. Because of my selfless service to the military I had some school money sitting there so I used it to start school. The main reason I started the art Institute was to learn the camera and I thought that’s what was going to happen but that wasn’t truly the case it was me going to college all over again and that’s not what I wanted out of my experience. A friend of mine reached out and offered me to go to a video shoot and I quickly said yes. That was the turning point of my career. That day I was a sponge and I soaked up anything and everything that they were doing, I watched their every move. I had so many questions that I’m pretty sure I became annoying. But I’m pretty sure it was that day I fell in love with Video. Not to mention those guys are some of my good friends now and we have all grown tremendously within our craft. The next day I was locked and I decided I was going to quit the art institute of Dallas and just enroll in another college, YouTube university . I spent the following year cramming my brain full of all the knowledge I could pertaining to photos and video. At this point social media was booming and that was the platform I needed to get clients. I was shooting with anyone and any business. I knew me showing up was the key factor. I started off shooting at this bar in Arlington because I have some friends I went to school with that we’re running it. Boom my first gig. I showed up every weekend shooting pictures for this bar gaining experience in networking my ass off. Eventually a friend of mine from high school nudged me on the shoulder. Jarvis what’s up bro how are you doing I’ll see you shooting pictures now in the conversation continued from there. By the end of the conversation he was offering me to shoot at a Waka Flocka concert in downtown Dallas that one of his friends is putting on at his venue. I didn’t think he was being for real and he said meet him there on Friday so I did and man was he telling the truth. That day alone propelled me to continue my journey with the camera. I continue to shoot at that venue until they shut it down and from there I met a lot of people. One night my friend said hey man come with me to my friends restaurant so I did in there I met my nail friend Amanda Fitzpatrick who are the time was a news anchor for channel 8 news. At the time she had a photographer but I said I do video as well so she took me up on it and everywhere she went I followed ambitiously. I met a lot of different people being her cameraman and eventually her photographer to. That went on for a while and I got to see how the industry was ran . From there I got into the fitness world and made a lot of connections there and that’s pretty much where I got my name with Photography, Video and marketing. I started helping people market for their jams and their personal fitness brands. I helped start quite a few supplement companies and apparel brands including my own. At this time I had no idea what I was going doing I was just shooting from the hip and because of my personality people were giving me chances regardless if I failed or not I learned a lot from each and every situation and that’s why I am here where I am today. Regardless of how many times I fail, when I start over I’m not starting over from the bottom I’m starting with experience. One thing I know about the camera is that it was my key to success. The camera put me in places and situations to meet the right people for the marketing. Eventually I got tired of doing everything myself. You can only wear all the hats in the company for so long before you start wearing yourself out and losing clients and that’s what happened to me. I knew that building a team was absolutely crucial to my growth and scaling my business. It’s been a long process but I’m finally meeting the right people that can help make my company the best they can be. The trick is finding people that are passionate about the work that they do. If everyone is happy with what they’re doing people can create at a high-level consistently and that’s what I need for my clients.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think that the passion in work ethic that I have has help me build my reputation. Sports taught me that if you’re going to make a mistake make it going 100% in that to me. I react in a doubt and I’m not afraid to jump off the cliff of opportunity. Most people know me as that energetic creative guy with all the ideas. After talking with me people feel like they can run through a brick wall because I’m such a motivator. I love solving problems for people and their businesses.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.blacklabelbrandingco.com
• Instagram: @blacklabelbrandingco.com