We were lucky to catch up with Tyra Grayson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tyra, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Mainly by doing self care, you don’t know how much self care helps until you really take time to try it out. On off days or slow days I take time to not only do that, but learn something in my career I haven’t before, whether it be a new technique or new way to edit, and it makes me gain my confidence because if anybody can do it, I can do it too. I’ve always compared someone else’s journey to mine, and it would lower my confidence because I wasnt in the same career situation as them, and I came to realize that its not okay to try to rush your career or life in general, to please everyone else, everyone has their own way and their own stories so I’ve been keeping my confidence and self esteem together by learning new things, self care, and letting myself know I got this.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I go by TGD/TGDShotIt, Tyra Grayson Designs is the full name. This all started with me and my grandad printing t-shirts, he ran his own printing company for years, and I told him I wanted to learn how to make my own shirt. He would walk me through the process of designing it on the computer in CorelDraw x4 and then printing it, as the time went on, I fell in love with the design process and how creative I could be. I then started using Photoshop, learning more about it and what I could do. I started off doing shirt designs in photoshop and smudge painting different photos. The rest is history. I’m now a graphic designer because I loved that my creativity had no limit, and I now design things such as album covers, flyers, logo banners, etc. As for photography, it came shortly after graphic design. My grandad came to me one day and said: “I want you to use my camera, I don’t use it much and I want to see what you could do with it.” That day, I started shooting nature, pics of my grandad, as well as my friends and it, blew me away as well. I was a rapper and writer before I began all of this, and I fell in love with photography because I finally found another way to express my emotion, and that’s through a picture. I thank my grandad for helping me discover something that has now become a major part of my daily life. May his legacy live on.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
My top 3 areas of knowledge that were impactful, was to learn how to control my emotions, learning different ways on editing and handling storage for all footage and pictures, and overall never giving up.
The best advice I can give someone who’s just starting, is surround yourself with people who wanna see you win, develop long term industry relationships with people that you feel like is going to help your life for the better. Don’t photograph , video or edit for someone just for the money or just to say you’ve work for that person, because it will show. Do your job like its the only thing you’ve got. Your career is what you make it. Learn to control your emotions in a pressured environment, this is something I am still working on too. This industry and this career life in general is fast paced so also be sure to control your mental and take time for you because this life will tire you out and take over you, make sure to get your rest and self care time in.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I actually am, come 2024 I will be launching my production collective! Name reveal coming this November. Logo will be done by Artist Cal Scruby’s Graphic Designer Chase. It will be a collective full of designers, photographers, videographers and editors, and later on adding artists on producers. It will be a safe space for creators to talk and get to know one another and people can book us all as one team, or separately, so you get your own bag! I feel like this will be a good way to collaborate with more creators in all areas as well as arising creators. I am also going to be hosting seminars with some top notch creators in the industry and we will not only be giving career advice but software advice, mental health guidance and more. So stay tuned on how you can submit your portfolio to me and hop on the team!
As far as partnering goes, I’m open to any cooperate business, record label, app, sports companies and teams, production companies or anybody to partner with! I’m looking to secure more relationships always. DM me for any Inquiries !
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tgdofficial.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/tyraisme
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyra-grayson/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLWsHTfDoxqCo33srGLEhfA
Image Credits
My Headshot: Jeff Suttle Photography: By Me
