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

Mark, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

“Everyone’s got a song inside, waiting to be free.” straight, Outta middle school I understood that.
It all started when I was about 15 and got my first MacBook. I was super excited because this was my first personal computer.. of course I did the usual which was browse the Internet and play video games, but Apple gave me a gem. They gave me access to GarageBand.
GarageBand is a music production software that emulates an audio workstation.
So of course, I spent hours locked in creating different melodies and loops wrapping and singing on a lot of the projects I made.
By the time I got to high school I was pretty advanced in music production. So of course, I dropped a few albums in high school and created a buzz. There did a few talent shows, got first prize in one of them for rapping.
I became popular for being that guy that makes music all by himself and that’s when people started asking me to help them make music too. At that age, I was too young to care about charging people so I did it for free met lots of great rappers and singers. so much so that I had enough talent to create a music group and label called BDI: Big dreams Inc.
on a high school I locked in and shows Music Business as my college major. I remember being so scared because they said that the graduation rates for Music Business were about 15 to 25%. I was a star student even taking time to tutor others in ProTools and logic. I guess I did have a lot of time in general. I joined many bands recorded a whole heap of different artists, spanning, different genres, like rock, classical country, and my bread and butter rap in R&B. The projects in college got massive getting to work in big Studios with SSL‘s and racks of different audio processes. Still with the same mission to make sure everyone got their voices heard and for the world to know that Miami is full of talent to people. I recorded 300 different projects in college. I laugh thinking about it now cause I ran through lots of hard drives. A lot of the files are corrupt, but it always brings me joy when an artist contacts me looking for recordings and I’m able to find them.
In college was around the time that social media became a thing so I was able to learn and grow as a photographer, videographer and editor of graphics to make album covers and music videos for the artist I was working with.
Needless to say, I graduated with flying colors and that’s where I made it into the real world.
I continue the mission to this day whenever someone needs that spark to turn their dreams into realities they can depend on me to get their first album and video out.

Mark, 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?

Really I got into multimedia and creative work because of my dad. He came into this country with nothing but dreams. He grinded a lot when he got here to make enough to buy his first DJ console, and then he created his own business started doing parties and events until I was old enough to lift up all the heavy stuff And that’s where I started going to his parties to assist him and just really learn how the technology works how to entertain a crowd with music. And now I keep his dream going, creating art and entertainment that bring smiles and connection through music and other mediums.

Have you ever had to pivot?

On top of having a day job, I was still going hard in the paint for my creative ventures outside of work. So you gotta imagine it I work 9 to 5 and then I tell people that around six I can meet up to do something and then at around nine I will do my second job doing photography and videography for a club promoter. I was young and full of energy so it didn’t phase me at first.
This is the type of wisdom that only old wiser me could have. I was very sleep deprived and he took a turn for the worse when being an important part of my day jobs team I overslept (or slept the proper amount.) and I was on the chopping block. The director said there was a lot of money on the line and my absence would’ve caused us to have to credit the client therefore I should be fired. My manager defended me and I’m very thankful for him doing that. (https://www.instagram.com/pinogreezyo) send some love he’s a music producer too.
But all that to say I really had to take a hard look in the mirror and acknowledge that I’m only just a man, that I can’t live this crazy life forever and I’ll have to pick how I use my time wisely to make room for personal care and rest. Zzzs is the most important meal of the day.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Angel investors. Angel investors are philanthropist who want to invest in projects for nothing in return other than the gratification of knowing that they were a part of making a dream come true. They’re out there and they wanna support your dreams. It would’ve been awesome to partner up with one we could’ve made some waves.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Map101yo
• Other: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-R34HfBwH_8ybjV4rLSZWRAuKHgwsnbO