Today we’d like to introduce you to Darnell McKenzie.
Hi Darnell, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
When I first started my business, we ran under the name Quarantine Enterprise, LLC started back in 2012. We had a podcast called Quarantine Radio that focuses on interviewing Indie artists and up and coming entrepreneurs. Through the years of hearing other people’s stories, I wanted to shift our focus more on our strength as our foundation. Week in and out, we spoke about how people needed to master their craft to be able to expand their market. Before the pandemic, we actually were in a rebranding stage, which was ironic because our name was Quarantine Enterprise and our podcast was Quarantine Radio. It started to feel like miss opportunities. Then other people took the name after we allowed the rights to exp.
During that time frame, we had to really think, how can we use our talents to benefit others while building our legacy. I realized my foundation is my creativity; I had my camera for years but still felt lost. During the pandemic, I started watching a church and felt like God was speaking louder and louder to me. I ended up fasting with the church and things became more and more clear. I upgraded my camera, bought more equipment; once the fast was over, I hit the ground running, filming ads for up and coming entrepreneurs and music videos for independent.
Along with being able to use my gift to help others market themselves, I was also able to involve my family to work under me. That is sort of where new the name of Visual Dynasty came from; I am trying to build a family dynasty in this industry.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a struggle, from spending more than I was making when we were Quarantine Enterprise, LLC. I felt like I was helping everyone but myself during that time period. It became draining, and I fell into a depression that I also was in denial about. Getting closer to God really helped me.
The other thing was just being able to speak life into my situation while being a light for others as well. I really had to realize to truly be able to help others or pour into others; I had to fill my own pitcher up. The other thing is discovering your own lane; I didn’t want to bring the same formula of others. I had admired other people’s work, but I realized I also had to stand out to be able to show other people I could help them stand out. So it’s about finding your own lane as well as realizing you are in your current position because of God.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The main thing we specialize in is, understanding our clients, their personalities, what their business is to be able to tailor their visual for them. Capturing their personality and help their potential clients relate more to them. It is also great writing up a script for the client, but we also take pictures as well, so we try to tell a story through stills as well.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Best way to reach us is through our email (DMcKenzie@VisualDynastyProductions.com), social media (IG @The_Visual_Dynasty FB VisualDynasty), or website.
Contact Info:
- Email: DMcKenzie@VisualDynastyProductions.com
- Website: www.VisualDynastyProductions.com
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/The_Visual_Dynasty
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisualDynasty
- Youtube: www.YouTube.com/VisualDynasty
