Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles Evans Jr.
Charles, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My path to where I am today is something I can still hardly wrap my head around – like many, it was far from linear and was littered with gut moves and wrong decisions. An LA native, I attended UCLA and studied Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics; undoubtedly on the road to medical school and a life as a complete lab rat. After graduating, I took the biggest risk of my life and moved to Mammoth Lakes, CA to live out my dream of becoming a professional snowboarder. Parents were… less than thrilled, to say the least.
For five years I traveled, competed, and filmed out of Mammoth Lakes, CA, which has become my home away from home to this day. After living in a dream for five years, I came down to earth and moved back to Los Angeles, working in Sports Marketing for Red Bull. I worked closely with Athlete Managers, Event Marketing Managers, and Communication to execute national-scale events, pulling off some wild things that only companies like Red Bull are willing and able to do. After my tenure at Red Bull, I worked as a Research & Development consultant on a medical device project focusing on the detection & measurement of blood trace analytes such a blood glucose for Type I and Type II Diabetics.
Unfortunately, this project reached a major roadblock, forcing me to survey the landscape and take a leap into something new. From there everything shifted towards Digital Marketing. I worked for two agencies in LA, learning the ropes, and building my skills before branching off to form my boutique agency, Black Falcon Media. The moral of the story is that life’s journey is incredibly unpredictable; you must be malleable and accept the fact that you won’t always be exceptionally prepared for every situation. Sometimes instinct and ability are all we can rely on.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The most significant and most consistent challenge I’ve been faced with has actually been an internal one; I used to always question my decisions and often struggled with justifying the moves I made, especially the more instinctive ones!
That R&D job coming to such an abrupt end meant that I nearly lost everything I had worked towards. It forced me to look inwards, and really find what I was passionate about. I questioned whether taking the risk and moving to Mammoth was a big mistake and a waste of time, I questioned whether not going to Medical School was a big mistake, I questioned whether I would have the ability to bounce back and pivot yet again.
In the end, that period introspection made me realize that what I needed to discover was that point of intersection between what my skills were and what I would be excited to do every day. That wasn’t an easy process by any means, but I was so enthralled by the potential of Digital Marketing, and realized that it would just take a bit of learning and experience to get in the game. From there, I just bet on myself to outwork everyone around me.
Black Falcon Media – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Black Falcon Media is a boutique performance-marketing agency focusing on paid media & digital marketing strategy, mostly through Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads.
There are a ton of really, really intelligent individuals in this field, and a lot of great agencies that are at the cutting edge of the industry, constantly coming up with fresh ideas and original approaches. But on the other hand, these agencies have a lot of mouths to feed and even more demand for their services, so their clients get handed from person to person, and they end up being put into a melting pot where the lines between individual accounts start to blur. This leads to business feeling left out to dry, and some pretty vanilla marketing that doesn’t let anybody shine!
At Black Falcon Media, we’re able to be highly selective with our clients, and when we work with someone, they become part of our family for good. This lets us avoid the “churn” that most media agencies encounter, and enables us to build long-term relationships, where our marketing approaches can evolve with our clients as they grow alongside us.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career- and I think anyone that’s been in this situation before will agree- is that moment in which I went all in on myself. Nobody to hold me back or help me up, no real resources, but just that overwhelming feeling of “I got this”. For me, that was an adrenaline rush that blew away anything I ever did on a snowboard. Betting on yourself, putting your head down to grind at it, and coming out on top is a feeling like no other. Now I’m in a place where I work with people I love, for people I love, and on projects that leave me feeling incredibly satisfied, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1223 Wilshire Blvd #138
- Website: BlackFalcon.Media
- Phone: 323-828-4408
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @ChuckerEvans
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Black-Falcon-Media-403806486662246/
Image Credit:
Venice beach photo: Mike Slebodnik from Square Pocket Design
Blake Nyman, Demi, Ded Cool Experiential Event @ Tags in WeHO
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