We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Garrett Hayes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Garrett with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
Short answer: I get my work ethic from my parents. They taught me from a young age to never be afraid of any kind of work, always be willing to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, and be willing to do the jobs that no one else wants to do.
To go deeper, however, I believe my work ethic comes from a variety of places as a result of my experiences. I’ve worked a number of different jobs and do a myriad of tasks throughout my life in many different sectors, from security to teacher, from custodian to athlete, and from salesman to videographer, even being a father, each job has given me a new reason or insight to work harder and fulfill my visions and missions.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My story is pretty straight forward with the laughter and tears just like any other human. I grew up in the Montbello neighborhood of Denver, CO. From a young age I was fascinated with and loved videography and photography (whenever I could get the opportunity to do it). Once I was big enough (because of the size of 90s camcorders) I would take the camcorder out of my dads hands so that I could be the one filming the family videos. My passion for creating videos and photos led me to winning awards in high school from local news and media companies. Going off to college, I put that passion to the side for a bit as I worked to walk on to the Colorado State football team, a pursuit that I would ultimately decide was not in my best interest for everything I wanted to accomplish at the collegiate level. It was my junior year that a conversation with two good friends about our passions, visions, and goals would lead us to creating a magazine for underrepresented and marginalized groups both at CSU and around the greater Northern Colorado area.
The magazine allowed me to incorporate multiple passions, the passion to create with photography and graphic design, and the passion to uplift people and tell the stories that tend to be pushed away. While our venture started off slow and rough, it would get to the point where we were a known name, not just on campus but throughout Northern Colorado to the point that a few publications wanted to buy us out and we were actually getting threats from local supremist groups. Due to differences in visions, however, my business partners and I would call it quits after six years and while I went on another brief hiatus from my craft, I would go on to create my videography and photography production company Square Visions, which will see it’s tenth anniversary next year.
Through my company I’ve been able to create so many amazing works, from recaps to inspirational videos, videos that advertise, video to make people laugh, and sadly, videos that were tear jerkers. For example, I had the honor of creating my brother’s funeral video, who will have been gone two years now come May 7th. I bring that up because his loss serves as another inspiration and motivating factor on my journey.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
There’s too many skills or qualities to count as to what was the most impactful. If we’re to narrow it down to three, it would be discipline, patience, and persistence. This would be my advice to anyone else, develop those qualities. Discipline. do what you need to do/supposed to do when you don’t want. Patience, Know your time will come, keep working . . . and be patient with everyone around you, EVERYONE needs that grace. Persistence. Keep pushing no matter what. I was asked for three but I have more, but these are the three things I pray for everyday.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
When it comes to being most helpful in the challenges of my life, it has always been my family. Between my wife and kids, my parents or my siblings, they have always shown me or given me lessons to abide by and apply to my work. Whether it’s been my kids and adaptability and patience, my wife and keeping passion and love even when you’re tired, my parents when it comes to work ethic, or my siblings when it come to learning to outwork the competition, they all have been instrumental.
Contact Info:
- Website: squarevisionsmedia.com
- Instagram: @squarevisionsofficial
Image Credits
Garrett Hayes, Square Visions, LLC.
