Today we’d like to introduce you to Vincent Garza.
Hi Vincent, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Thank you so much, it’s a pleasure to be here. People have been asking me for years to tell my story so figured this was a great way to get it out there for the first time.
My story is a unique one in how I got my start. I’m a self-taught graphic designer at heart. I was always into drawing and designing while growing up, always showing off my designs at school. During that time, I met someone who introduced me to Photoshop which is where my first passion began. Over the years, I learned as much as I could about design work.
Eventually, I went to college to get a degree in Graphic Design, but I dropped out to pursue the next part. During college, I met someone who was really into fitness and we hit it off very well. So well in fact that we decided we needed to pursue a YouTube career in fitness. With his social “front man” extroverted skills and my “behind the scenes” techie knowledge in design and learning video production, the channel grew to over 700k subscribers with daily / weekly views hitting 100k per new video posted (4-5x a week). During that time, we gained clothing and supplement sponsorships traveling all over the states and internationally. We eventually came out with our own supplement as well. Things were going very well, but as with most things, we had a falling out. We both have our sides of the story about why it went south, but it did.
I began working on my own business over the next ten years. Fitness is a big part of my life, but video production and art is where my true passion lies which is where the name Swole Nerd Productions comes into play. I’ve learned print production, more filming, and vector graphics. Graphics soon became my main focus until I had a friend hit me up. He wanted to start a YouTube channel and that’s where I specialize in. We started a channel back in October 2020 and it’s doing very well. We’ve worked with artists such as Snoop Dogg, Pauly Shore, Slim Thug, Bow Wow, Mike Jones, and so many more big names with more and more to come. During this time, I’ve built my video production company to include live streaming for seminars, drone footage, multicam setup, gimbals, and most recently a shoulder mount setup for quick on-the-go footage. Design wise, I’ve also worked with businesses to do their vehicle wraps, make banners for music artists, and most recently designed a couple cover photos for Kap G. I now have a few contractors who help out with my design work and one who helps out with my videos while I focus on my bigger video projects or gaining new clients. I also hire people out to help me film projects. Quick shoutout to my family, girlfriend Jessica, and my editor Aubrey Chanel. Without all of their help I would never have a day off or would stay scrambling to find good help. My family & GF always make time to help me out on last minute projects when I need help.
People are so focused on keeping the entire amount of money and overworking themselves til they burn out. I don’t mind paying a portion of it out if that means less stress on me. Delegating work to others has been the best decision I’ve made as a business.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Not a smooth road at all. I’ve had to deal with making over 120k down to literally zero income. I lost my car, my computer died on me which was my main source of income at the time and I couldn’t get a new one till four months later. I had to take jobs that only paid $8 an hour just to bring something in. I’ve had to overcome the hatred/trolls that came with the YouTube split and still do to this day.
I’ve had to learn to open up and be my own person- to become the extrovert that I never was (I’m naturally introverted). My most recent struggle was getting over Covid in Aug 2021. It set me back extremely bad eliminating all income I had coming in. I wasn’t able to work all month because of it and ended up in the hospital with it. It was a struggle getting back to editing and filming because my endurance and strength wasn’t there at all. I still remember taking my trash out and resting every 3 mins working up the biggest sweat ever. What should’ve taken like 2 minutes took me close to 10. It was a crazy experience to go through.
Lastly, no matter all the struggles and setbacks I’ve been through to get to where I am today, I’ve always persevered and pushed through them all. I’m still not 100% where I want to be yet, but everyday gets me closer and closer.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My work consists of Video Production / Content Creation, Graphic Design, and Print / Promo items
Video Production / Content creation
– This will be commercials, promos, YouTube/social media, adverts, anything and everything video-related.
Graphic Design
– Logos mainly, illustrations, flyers, business cards, banners, anything that needs a design, I can have created.
Print
– This consists of clothing, printed materials like retractable banners, table cloths, car wraps (design and application), cups, literally anything you can think of I can have made.
People know me as The Swole Nerd, but essentially I’m known as “The Everything Guy” people come to me because they know I can get the job done. if it needs a fast turnaround time, I make the impossible happen.
What I’m most proud of is my repeat clientele. They trust me to do a great job and I don’t let them down. My prices may be higher than some, but I back it up with my amazing customer service and making sure their needs come first. Customer satisfaction is extremely valuable to me.
What sets me apart from others? There are thousands of people who do what I do. Every day there is a new designer, videographer, etc., but what separates me from everyone else is there’s only one Vince G. I’ve put in the effort to grow as a person and market myself as the best in the business. Do you need something done? You know you’re in good hands when I get ahold of the project. Show confidence in your product and people will believe in you as well.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
People can work with me in many ways. I’m always looking for new designers or video editors to contract work out to. Because I deal with a vast majority of people everyone has different budgets and I would like to be able to outsource work to others who I feel are good for the job when my main people are tied up with other projects.
Collaborate, I’m down to whatever as long as it makes sense with my schedule. I sometimes work with other filmmakers and have picked up a few tricks from them. Not everyone knows everything so collaborating with others is a great opportunity to build our networks up.
Support me, spread the word on what I do. Refer me out to people, work with me and see the type of product I produce so you can gladly support me. Follow and share my social medias (Swole Nerd Productions) and of course word of mouth.
Contact Info:
- Email: SwoleNerdProductions@Gmail.com
- Website: SwoleNerdProductions.com
- Instagram: SwoleNerdProductions
- Facebook: SwoleNerdProductions
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCncnkmKFpedcE0TCz3hlSew/featured
- Other: facebook.com/VincentGarza88
