We were lucky to catch up with Shavis Morgan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shavis, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Piggybacking off of our last conversation I had with you guys, we had spoken about the initial inspiration to pick up cameras in the first place and I can still say that it was initially a purely selfish endeavor of wanting to “cut out the middleman.” From a place of not wanting to have to hire photographers/videographers to shoot for me, in what I thought was going to become a music career. So the idea itself evolved quite a bit along the way. It went more like idea, idea, idea, and then finally execution.

The lead-up between idea and execution was mostly learning the crafts themselves because there was a surprising amount of effort and detail that went into not only taking good photos/videos but also dealing with clients/models, and understanding editing softwares. It seemed like every solution brought 4 more problems and it took a long time before I eventually fell in love with the work we could do. The idea changed naturally when I realized that it was easier to make consistent money from behind the camera rather than in front of it, at least in my case. Once our work was getting to be sufficient enough talent level to take on clients the next step was financing the right cameras and gear for us. Which was a task starting from where I was, at the time. Piece by piece, brick by brick the equipment that we wanted came to us, whether it took maxing out credit cards or saving for weeks or months to obtain. The goal was to take care of responsibilities, and everything outside of that went into the company. Throughout the entire period where financing the equipment was the main priority of focus, we began doing photo shoots for low rates or even free sometimes to build a portfolio that would warrant the price we wanted to charge. That in turn would kill three birds with the same stone. It gave us the general experience of performing the task, allowed us to get comfortable shooting subjects and working on the composition of our photos/videos, and it gave us plenty of hours spent on editing softwares to learn how to put things together.

Altogether this process took multiple years even before the official launch of the business. It also wasn’t like we always knew that was our goal the whole way along, like I said earlier… it evolved. It’s still evolving now. It’s just more developed than ever before now. The biggest issues stemmed from marketing ourselves and booking clients, as well as some inevitable problems working with said clients directly. People can be very demanding, inconsiderate, or even manipulative when it comes to negotiations sometimes. There has been a learning curve the size of the St. Louis Gateway Arch, but in the end it’s been an incredible journey and an enjoyable way to build and earn a living.

Shavis, 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 am Shavis Anthony Morgan.

Born but not raised in Denver Colorado, with a 17-year layover in Wichita Kansas.

Weighing in at 30 years of age.

Photography Level: 8 years.
Videography Level: 6 years. A tough 6. A lot of ground covered lol.
Audio Engineering Level: 9 years

End Of The World Media is a Colorado-based multimedia entity. We are “The Art Contractors” for all your A/V needs. The same way you would hire a contractor to finish your basement or build a deck… You come to us to bring your vision to life. From promotional advertisements to headshots for your portfolio, we can make it happen.

Photography/Videography, Editing, Audio Engineering, and Graphic Design. We shoot a wide variety of assignments or settings and we have the equipment to accomplish pretty much any idea you can come up with… and if we don’t, we can rent the equipment you’ll need to complete the task.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I was raised in a strict religious household. Jehovah’s Witnesses to be specific, so my life after leaving the roost has been a series of unlearning things that were no longer suited for me. There were definitely some positive things that I took away from the experience, such as public speaking… but the idea that everybody outside of my “inner circle” (fellow JW’s back when I was one) are “worldly” later in life just manifested into a lack of trust in others, was one lesson that took years to shake off and unlearn.

You cannot go through life looking at everyone outside of your immediate ideology or viewpoint as a bad person or an enemy automatically. Even if you may have had some bad experiences along the way. Life is more complex and beautiful than that.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

One book that I always return to when thinking about entrepreneurial thinking is “Contagious: How Things Catch On” by Jonah Berger. He has a great Ted Talk about this subject as well. It’s one that really struck me because of its examples of the reinvention of brands, and how to connect a story with your product or business in order to create community, exclusivity, or even novelty inside your brand. From Hot Dog Companies having a phonebooth that leads to a “secret” bar that turns into one of the hottest destinations in NYC, to a meat grinder company going out of business changing stride and releasing advertisements grinding phones, and other stuff that would never be necessary to grind in a meat grinder and revitalizing their company… It’s a great book for anybody that is looking to develop their brand and figure out how they should be marketing themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.eotwmedia.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shavisfromeotw
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eotwmedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCveeGQTEV6hzYemaN5McvUQ @eotwmedia

Image Credits
All photo credits are through us at EOTWMedia.