Must Know: Joanes Prosper Never give up on your dreams

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Ask Joanes Prosper for the advice he’d give his younger self, and he’ll talk about dreams, and never, ever giving up on those dreams.

Talk with him a little longer, and you quickly realize that for Prosper, founder and owner of the rapidly expanding Prosper Digital TV, dreams aren’t an outcome. They’re much more like a process, an ongoing commitment to a way to live, how to be, what to value and, most importantly, how to make it happen.

As Prosper talks about the success of Prosper

Digital TV, and about the lessons he’s learned and applied to his expanding business, he always returns to vision and dreams. These days, he’s also very likely to share his plans for the new and enhanced livestreaming offerings the company will launch this month. He’s especially excited about the added augmented reality capabilities Prosper Digital has added — the kind of technology used to create the scenes for Disney’s “The Mandalorian.”

He’ll also be happy to show you around the new studio spaces the team has been working at since early June — in partnership with Buttons and

Six+One Studios. In these spaces Prosper Digital can share advanced live-streaming capabilities that will allow clients access to outlets like Amazon, Facebook,

Twitch and other major platforms to reach customers.

But as exciting as these new production and technological capabilities are, Prosper is most proud of the team he’s built from around New York City and across the globe — and the quality of work they do, together.

“One of the things we always say is, as storytellers, our goal is to create lasting memories for audiences and equally provide a memorable experience for our clients,” Prosper said, adding that building a diverse team is key to making that happen. “One of our main company values is inclusivity, or as we say, ‘No Ego, Only We Go.’ We understand that our success is rooted in our collective abilities and not in the creative gifts of one person.”

Of course the growth of Prosper Digital didn’t happen easily or overnight. In a world driven by instant gratification, Prosper took a different path to his dreams. Like a lot of creatives, Prosper was drawn to the arts, specifically the entertainment industry, and to film. And like many artists, he had a personal story to tell — the struggles of immigration, of family and of the real tragedies and triumphs.

When Prosper first began his production company, one of the projects that fired his imagination was “Finding the Prospers,” a bio-pic of his Haitian family and the challenges they faced in immigrating to the United States. He shot hours and hours of footage, and traveled back to Haiti to ground his story in the place he was born. However, along the way, he realized that simply having a dream doesn’t make it come true — and that as a young professional there were skills and experiences he still needed. For his dream to become reality, he first needed to build his professional base.

Recognizing this, Prosper systematically set out to prepare himself and his company from the ground up. He committed to a different kind of storytelling, working with a variety of businesses and learning how to tell stories that resonate in a variety of settings and contexts. That approach has created a successful path.

In the past decade since it launched, Prosper Digital TV has grown from essentially a one-man operation into a multitalented video production and marketing company. Recently, the firm announced it won 10 international awards for its client work. This was all the more impressive in that some of the work was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s been so important to build the right atmosphere in our team — to value diverse opinions and inputs, to focus on storytelling, and to seek brands and causes that are seeking purpose-driven communications,” he said. “That’s what has made us successful, and that’s what we will use to take the leap into live-stream broadcast productions and into original content for television, film and streaming platforms.”

“Finding the Prospers” is back in development. He sees this as the beginning of a new chapter. By adding focus on creating original content, and looking to expand into live-streaming, Prosper believes his company is poised to build on the team’s successes, and is positioned to significantly expand its offerings to clients.

The company was named the Minority Marketing and Communication Firm of the year for 2020 and 2021 by the Manhattan Minority Business Development Agency. Prosper — who was named a top 40 under 40 professional by the Network Journal, a digital magazine for Black professionals and business

owners — has also been involved in some timely projects. He produced a public service announcement with the New York City department of Aging (DFTA) during the COVID-19 pandemic to help bring awareness to older New Yorkers dealing with social isolation. It featured Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the smash hits “Hamilton” and “In the Heights.”

Prosper Digital TV also won a 2021 Gold Telly for Branded Content for work on a Training Series for Medical Transportation Management, Inc. and the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission — helping to train drivers to assist with accessibility issues and giving a step-by-step guide for how to best support wheelchair passengers.

Recently, Prosper Digital was named among the top video production agencies in New York City. The ranking was recently issued by Clutch, a leading review and rating agency that ranks companies through a rigorous process of research, verified phone and online reviews, using the Leaders Matrix Methodology.

Prosper Digital TV also worked on “Stop the Silence,” an initiative to prevent ongoing gun violence and racial injustice, launched to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

The project, which included the documentary film “Emanuel” that aired on Starz, Amazon Prime and iTunes, also featured a virtual panel discussion produced by Prosper and his team. The panel included activist and Pastor Dimas Salaberrios, a producer of “Emanuel” and founder of “Stop the Silence” in partnership with Six+One Studios. Other notable producers of the film included activist, academic and Oscarwinning actress Viola Davis, NBA All-Star Steph Curry and actress, director and philanthropist Mariska Hargitay. They were joined by U.S. House of Representatives Majority Whip James Clyburn as well as author and pastor Dr. A.R. Bernard.

As Prosper continues to pursue his original content projects, leverage technology to adjust to the increased demand for livestreaming work and purposedriven content creation for his clients, he still recognizes that the team is the most important asset, and the base for future success.

“We are a company built on storytelling, on ideas, on inclusion and on bringing a sense of purpose to our work for our clients,” he said. “That will always guide us.”

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