Meet Tanner Kerrins

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tanner Kerrins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tanner, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I’ve always had inspirational people to look up to who influenced by work ethic… People who inspire me to do better than normal. For example, I’m thinking of a girl I knew in High School, Cadence Lee. She was a junior when I was a freshman, and when I first met her, she had already placed in the State wrestling tournament all three years. The point of this is, no matter where I was in life, I saw someone like her, and knew there was more to be done. When I wanted to write a book, I would just write it and figure out how to self publish it later. If I wanted to direct a movie, I would write a script and fund it myself. Everything else, like my book becoming a best seller on Amazon, or my movie getting accepted to film festivals, those were bonuses. Even now, I feel there is more to do, and it’s all because of the people I surrounded myself with.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

To answer this question, let me refer to a quote which is ingrained in my mind… do what you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life. Everything I work on now, is simply passion projects. I love telling stories, and I don’t see that ever changing. The format might be different, for example, I might write a book, or direct a film, but at the end of the day I am still doing what I love. I try to tell stories about societal issues I see. I try to tell stories that focus on people who do not have a voice. More importantly, I tell tales that will get people to think even after the story has ended.

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?

1). A skill or quality to have is acceptance of failure, because failure is going to happen, but it’s what you do after that which matters.
2). Knowledge that there is ALWAYS something new to learn. No one knows everything.
3). Work smarter not harder.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

I remember vaguely when I was about the age of five, I saw a short Pixar film playing on TV. It was called ‘Knick Knack’ and it was shown right before Toy Story was supposed to be played. That short was so entertaining and creative that it sparked that desire in me to tell stories. Shortly after I remember running into the kitchen when my Dad was pouring coffee, and I told him, “Dad, I want to make movies, like on the TV.”

The most impactful thing my Dad ever did in that moment was turn to me and say, “well, go on and write it down. Tell a story.”

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Image Credits

Professional headshots done by Marielle Stobie

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