A Born Boss And Bridge Builder
Substantial is always looking for people that help define our reason for existing. In early March of this year, we had a chance to sit down and interview Quant Swindell during one of our Civil Talks and Substantial Conversation Zoomcasts that we developed to help inform and educate our community during this COVID-19 pandemic. Quant Swindell is someone we believe is a born boss and natural bridge builder. Take a moment and read why.
Quant Swindell is, in so many words, a survivor, blessed child of God, a hustler, an outcast, a family man, and so much more. “It’s important to know I’m a kid from Old River Road that wakes up every day and looks to lead through inspiration and perseverance. I am Founder of Born Bosses and one-third owner of Coastal Premiere Services with my partners Jermaine Harrison and Melvin Edwards.” From our initial introduction, we could hear and see his passion and drive. “I would say it stems from that empty hopeless feeling of just not having much, but genuinely wanting to do better. I call it that ‘empty ambition’, just being at the bottom and being counted out but KNOWING, I’m here for some reason, this can’t be all and when I find it, everyone is going to know and feel me coming.” His main goal is to live and be an inspiration, and he is always open to give advice or share intellect to help the next brother or sister. Swindell believes that this is imperative in breaking the generational cycles and disparities rooted in our communities.
Quant Swindell and his late father, Ike Jones, founded the company Born Bosses in 2016. “Born Bosses” was a little saying Jones would say and Swindell picked it up and ran with it. “I guess you could say what inspired me to start a business was just the hustle instilled in me from my mom. My mother was a 15-year-old single parent when she got pregnant with me, so what she couldn’t physically give me growing up, she instilled in me to try and figure out how to get for myself – she instilled in me survival tactics. My mom would set me up a candy store with her food stamps and I would sell candy for money. I remember my granny got me a trampoline growing up and I would charge $1 or $2 for other kids to jump. I was marketing before I knew what marketing was.”
Born Bosses is an umbrella company that serves as an identity and centerpiece for everything Swindell has going on, including a Born Bosses clothing line, which won the local clothing line of the year in 2017. Born Bosses the fragrance line and Born Bosses events enabled him to host fashion shows sponsored by Adidas. “I also did some modeling and was blessed to be on a couple of book covers. I wanted an identity above “Quant” for branding and credibility purposes.”
Although things were looking good, Quant delved into some of the challenges he faced running his own company and how he was able to overcome them. “My biggest challenge was myself, for the most part, conquering those inner battles. I went on a hiatus where I just burnt out and didn’t even want to be an entrepreneur anymore. I wanted to just go back to the security of having a 9 to 5 and a guaranteed paycheck. I closed my shop and went on a two-year hiatus. I went back to punching a clock and it just made me miserable. I was also going through issues within my home. My father passed away from lung cancer, and I remember my very last conversation in the hospital with my father. He cussed me out about Born Bosses and told me not to let it die. That moment, that conversation always sits on my mind.” A year later, Swindell enrolled in Pitt Community College to study graphic design and shortly after, he relaunched Born Bosses – another testimony to the “figure it out” spirit instilled in him to fight.
Like many other businesses in our community, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a drastic effect on Born Bosses. “COVID-19 has been a pain man. We planned our grand opening for two months and one week before. Then, the media really started emphasizing the severity of what was going on globally. It was hard to promote anything because of the fear of COVID-19, but we were already invested so we had to follow through. So we did the launch and then right after the world got locked down. I was like, God help me! We had just had a grand opening and now this.”
Quant had a positive outlook when discussing some of the long-term impacts of this pandemic. “I think this has a lot of people realizing that they should invest in themselves and create entrepreneurial opportunities. These corporations and companies are going to do what’s best for them as we can see. I think this pandemic is going to drive virtual platforms, entertainment, and businesses to the foreground as well. During this quarantine time, people are adapting to a more virtual way of conducting things and really getting to know the digital way of things. Virtual DJs and virtual exercise classes are the biggest things going on right now. I recognized it early and reached out to a couple of tech-savvy friends I know about ideas on creating virtual platforms. In showbiz, artists usually make their money off of shows to keep the bills paid so artists are losing millions not being able to perform shows. I envision some type of app where after a customer pays they get a QR code to access an all exclusive lobby with the artist or something like that.”
During this time of uncertainty, Quant is using his voice and platform as a bridge to his peers, or an echo that translates the delivery from one party to another. “I’m fortunate enough to stay tangible and relatable to my peers because I’m still one of them, while also being able to sit at different tables to be able to bring back vital information.” Born Bosses even sells 3D printed COVID-19 proof masks to show that they are willing to step up and do their part in servicing the community. These masks can be customized and can include interchangeable filters and since they are plastic, they can be sanitized and reused.
We believe that Quant and others like him are the true embodiment of Substantial and the reason we developed this minority publication. The word Substantial means: Of considerable importance size or worth, being strongly built or made, that’s our minority community, that’s Quant and that’s you. We are Substantial and so is our purpose.
You can stay in contact with Born Bosses below!
Instagram: Born_Bosses
Company Facebook Business Page: “Coastal Premiere Services LLC”
Clothing Line Facebook Business Page: “Born Bosses
Company Address: 2706 E 10 th St Suite B Greenville, NC