We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Justin Schnapp a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Justin, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
My name is Justin schnapp
I come from a background of poverty in and out of homelessness as long as I can remember. I started life at the bottom , made some mistakes and winded up in prison. I dug my self in a deeper hole than I was. I did my time formulated a plan to build my influence and worked hard to get back to square 1. I have been a musician and artist all my life music dance and art an all around artist. I worked in the sneaker/clothing resale industry and acquired a decent foundation of capital and i decided to get involved in the creative space adound me by creating a creative HUB , virva is more than a studio its a third place for creators ive brought thousands of people to downtown norfolk who have never been just to experience what im building . Honestly i put EVERYTHING I have every day into building and maintaining my space because It’s more for the community than my pockets I provide multiple avenues for the community to utilize my space to gain income with no overhead fee to them . This is a HUGE risk to me as I have nothing or nobody to fall back on but my community can rely on me and my space to seamlessly create and even just spend time around other creators to network and build together virva is more than a studio it’s a entire community I believe I walk the walk in community support . I love them I love the freedom I love the ups and downs equally because there’s a sub culture to our network that makes us all the more real. If I had a thousand tounges I couldn’t Tha k God enough for allowing me to do something like this .and no matter how hard it all can get at times I know God wouldn’t put me through anything I couldn’t handle
We embody the theory of the neon district of norfolk MUSIC,ART,ENTERTAINMENT !
Justin, 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?
I have been a artist all my life there is nothing that feels better than the natural high of being able to create or be proactive . I come from a background of non dreamers I was the black sheep always dreaming always thinking bigger . Virva network in all of its glory is the urban culture in a nutshell
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I want to grow our platform to have regional reputation and influence I want to be able to have the power to find talent and heart and be able to put that on a platform that replicates the success and discovery train every artist dreams of
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Wow!
So our first year was completely non profit I would actually pay our inhouse photographers filters engineers or editors to do work for the out side people seeking free services .
The renewal of our second year was a pivotal time where I offered engineers the opportunity to charge and pay the studio half overhead to sustain the space
As well as the other resources around
But it was a learning experience I’ve had alot go wrong and alot of headaches about this but it only makes the journey more REAL
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