Today we’d like to introduce you to Ian Griffin aka DaGenerall.
Hi Ian, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Let’s see, where does my story begin? I would say it started in 2017 during my freshman year in college where I attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence Rhode Island. Although I am grateful for the experience, it was a real struggle for me. Within the first two weeks of school, I changed my major 7 times, experienced a major culture shock which caused me to be unfocused and eventually failing classes my first trimester. I was confused about my path there and what I wanted to do with my life, so I went back to what I knew best and that was to play sports. I walked on the baseball team as a freshman but roughly around a month later the coach cut me and some other players. Having this happen gave me motivation to show the coach that I have what it takes and that I would be the best player on the team the next year. I immediately began to work out extensively in the gym for months. Other students began noticing and would constantly ask me for fitness advice.
Within my second trimester, I created a YouTube channel for fitness and vlogs. For months I only had 20 subscribers and each video would average around 30 views. My friends would laugh at me and make jokes about my channel not growing which gave me motivation to prove them wrong and show them I can make this happen.
Well, this is where my life Changed! During Christmas break of my freshman year, I decided to prank my little sister who was 9 at the time and tell her that I couldn’t make it home for Christmas that year and she was devastated. I filmed the whole thing while having my family play along. When I came back home and surprised her, she broke down crying and screaming uncontrollably. Her reaction to this day still surprises me and makes me feel a little emotional.
I posted the video, and it did better than all my videos I previously posted. It gained 300 views immediately and stayed that way for four months straight. One day, I woke to a lot of notifications from Youtube on my phone and realized God had answered my prayers! The video with my sister and I had begun to pick up traction. When I woke up the video had roughly 4,000 views. After refreshing the page after a couple of minutes, it jumped up to around 5,000 views. I kept refreshing the page in disbelief as every second it seemed like the video would jump to another 100 views. By the end of the month, I had 2,500 subscribers and 70k views on that one video. The video now has 1.8 million views. At this point, I decided that I could make this into something major and decided that I wasn’t going to go back to school. All that was left was to tell my family.
Eventually, I dropped out and got a job working at a restaurant to fund the equipment needed for the Youtube channel. I worked from 3Pm to 1am, wouldn’t get home until almost 2am and then stayed up teaching myself how to edit. I would then take a nap, wake up, film videos with my sister and repeat.
Our channel was consistently growing so I asked my mom for a new phone for Christmas so I could take my YouTube channel seriously and to the next level. My Mom and Aunt split the cost of my new phone and I told my mom that’s the best investment in me that she will ever make in her life. Once I received the phone, I immediately started teaching myself how to edit, do thumbnails and learn the overall craft of filming.
After a couple of months, we finally began to receive checks from our YouTube channel that was sufficient for me to quit my job. I was then able to buy a camera and used my mom’s laptop until I got one of my own for Christmas. The Channel now has 600k Subscribers and over 70 million views. During that time we also created music together which our first song has 2.6 million views. We were on the news, did radio interviews, had multiple live performances, meet and greets and more.
After a few months, my family and I decided to move to Atlanta due to a potential record deal along with an acting opportunity but due to covid a lot of the opportunities fell through. That’s when I decided to start my own record Label “3Heart Entertainment”. I bought all my own equipment and took months to teach myself how to record. I wrote songs for my sister and other influencers which gained millions in views and streams. I also pursued my solo career, releasing my second solo project called “Better Off Alone” which did better than I expected. The love I received in my new state was overwhelming. I sincerely didn’t expect that much love. I gained well over 100,000 views and streams on that project.
I then released a freestyle to Asian Doll’s “Nunnedat” song on Instagram and was surprised again by the amount of love received. I was blessed with Asian Doll commenting and reposting my freestyle video. I had the opportunity to meet her at two different events. I was then introduced to rappers Boosie and Yung Bleu who around the time had a song with Drake “You’re Mines Still”. A year later, Boosie put me in my first movie.
In 2021, I then released my biggest song to date “SRT”, and the reaction was again overwhelming. Clubs in Atlanta were playing my song, the “Walk Challenge” went semi-viral on Tik Tok, and it was being played on 95.5 in Washington D.C.
A few months after that I was blessed with an opportunity to open for Lil Durk Twice both in D.C. in front of crowds of 10,000 people. I also had brand deals with companies Adidas and Dtlr to model for a new released shoe. Some of my pictures were used on Billboards in Atlanta, D.C., and Baltimore. As of recently, I’ve been in three movies, 1 tv show pilot, and one short film.
Since living In Atlanta, I’ve grown so fast in a short period of time. I plan on keeping God first, then family second, continuing on my journey and believing that everything will continue to fall in place the way it should.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
This journey has definitely had its ups and downs. I experienced some of family and friends turn their back on me and which spark past family trauma that was mentally affecting me. During Covid, I went broke three times during the time that my equipment started breaking on me. Dealing with being overlooked with limited to no resources, etc., but the journey to spiritual and financial freedom has been and is still one of my hardest challenges yet.
Sometimes we can become our own biggest obstacle, but what I’ve realized is that life will be full of peaks and valleys and God doesn’t promise us an easy life but he does promise us if we have faith and stay true to him he will be there for us and guide us through any hardship. God created us that way on purpose so we can continue to call on him and learn to love perfection in the Imperfection. Our biggest mistake in life is thinking that we won’t make mistakes, it’s ok to make mistakes, and it’s ok to have to struggle sometimes or go through obstacles/challenges because God is just molding you into the person he wants you to be. So if you’re dealing with challenges/obstacles in your life, always remember when you’re looking for help, your help is already inside of you.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m in the Entertainment business but I’m a serial entrepreneur. I’m an artist, I write music for myself and others, I’m an influencer on all social media platforms as well as modeling for brands. I’m an actor, and I also sell clothes on my website. (In the near future I will be directing films). I’ve accomplished a lot by myself with the help of God with my music, acting, and modeling, but what I’m most proud of and known for is the Youtube channel with my little sister.
A year ago, I passed the channel on to my sister while I focused on other projects. As of today, as I’m typing this, we reflected back and decided to bring the family dynamic back to the channel. I created the channel almost five years ago and it gained 600k Subscribers and well over 69.4 million views.
I’m most proud of this not because of the views or the subscribers but because it brought my family closer, and it influenced viewers watching us to love and appreciate the ones closest to us. I can admit that I’ve taken that for granted sometimes in my past but I’m excited to venture back into that space with my family but with a better me and mindset this time. God first, family second.
I think that’s what sets me apart from others, that I’m authentic and true to myself. I’m a true leader and I lead by example not by words. I’m not afraid of life challenges and I wear my wounds on my sleeves so others can learn from them. I believe that’s what attracts people to me.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risk-Taking is very important. If you’re not taking risks, are you truly living? In better words, we take small risks daily from driving in a car, eating food other people cooked, etc. But in life if you want to receive big rewards you have to take big risks and you can apply that to every aspect of your life.
For me, one of my very first major risks was dropping out of college, going against my whole family beliefs and starting from absolutely nothing but believing in myself to know that whatever happens, I will not fail or quit. (This is not me encouraging people to drop out of school but a reflection of my own experience.)
My decision to be an entrepreneur is another big risk I decided to take.
Seeing my mom as a single mom having to work several jobs to move her family into a better environment set the foundation of the importance of taking risks. If she never sacrificed and took that risk there’s a 90% chance I probably wouldn’t be the person I am today.
I believe risk taking is important but only calculated risk with good intentions.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://3heartt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dagenerall__/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@dagenerall
- SoundCloud: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dagenerall/1475315278
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dagenerall_?lang=en
Image Credits
Dev Dooley Adidas Dtlr
