Today we’d like to introduce you to Rocky Garza.
Rocky, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up all over Texas, but the Dallas area mostly. I moved quite a bit growing up and I really believe that shaped my abilities and desires as an adult. I have never met a stranger and have always wanted to help others, speak to and in front of others and somehow found myself in a room with folks listening. After graduating college I went to work at a summer camp in East Texas called Sky Ranch. I worked there for 4 years before moving back to Dallas as a pastor at Chase Oaks Church in Plano.
I met my wife, who was an interior designer at HKS here in Dallas, in 2008 and we got married in July of 2009. About 6 months into our marriage, we decided it would be best for Sara to quit her job and start a photography business. We wanted to spend more time together and Sara wanted to pursue he desire of starting a business. We had always heard that you either love or hate photographing weddings, so we thought we would give it a try.We ended up shooting 10 weddings in 2010 and I still had my full-time job at the church.
Towards the end of that year, I was offered what I thought was my dream job. At that point in my life and so naturally I said no. I knew at that time I would be taking a job, that should’ve been about helping others understand who God is and instead, I would have said yes so that I would be famous. Since I knew that I didn’t want to continue doing what I was doing and I could no longer take the job was being offered, I into presiding to pursue photography with Sara.
We launched Sarah and Rocky photography at the end of 2010 and both with full-time in February 2011. We shot 50 weddings in 2011 and then shot about 40 weddings a year for the next five years.We absolutely loved working together, we loved traveling together and we love photographing weddings. But in early 2015 we found out we were pregnant with our son. And both came to the realization that we may not want to giveaway 40 Saturdays a year and had a kid. So I started asking myself if I could do anything what would I want to do.
I have always been intrigued by people and I have always loved helping them.I knew that I did not want to be a business expert for branding expert or strategy expert but instead I wanted to be a people expert. So naturally, I went to the network of people that I already had, which was creative entrepreneurs, and decided that I would build a curriculum around taking creative entrepreneurs on today retreats where we would identify who they were, their client was and how to build a successful business based off of a personal brand.
Over the course of the last three years, business has changed and I have gone from working specifically with creative sole proprietor entrepreneurs to now working with teams, organizations and conferences as a keynote speaker and people & culture development expert. Sara Is a now a photographer and interior designer and has her own businesses. I obviously also have my own business and we operate an air B&B rental in East Texas called the Wilde house. We have a two-year-old little boy named Ezra Wilde and live in Oak Cliff.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
At this point, its been eight years into the entrepreneurship World and I would say yes it is been mostly smooth.I also think I have a different perspective because we’re this far in. Has there been months we didn’t know if it would make enough money yes? Has there been months where we were sure exactly what we were doing yes? Have we rebranded multiple businesses multiple times in order to his figure out exactly who we should work with and what we should be doing, yes?
In the end, I would say the biggest struggles have been Realizing that you’re not actually in control. Knowing that really the only thing you can maintain some type of consistency in are the people that you know, the relationships that you build and the confidence you have in one another to continue to push through even when it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work. Owning your own business is not for the faint of heart. And it is definitely not for someone who wants consistency, security, and reliability.But if you’re willing to sacrifice a little bit of all of those things to build a different type of life then it is 100% worth it.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Rocky Garza – what should we know?
I am 1/3 unlicensed therapist, I am 1/3 crazy observer and 1/3 people, expert.
That being said, I help individuals understand what it means to be human. I’ve created a process called identity mapping where I walk individuals and teams to a process of understanding our thoughts fears hopes and dreams. After that we look at our core values which are why we do what we do, we look at her strengths which are how we do we do, and finally, we look at something we call identifiers which is the 30,000-foot view of what it is we actually do as human beings.
I use this process with individuals one on one over the course of four hours or with teams and organizations of up to 16 people over the course of 8 eight hours.Anything greater than 16 individuals at one time becomes more of a workshop and takes about six hours.
I would say that I most known for my Personal mantra which is punch punch punch hug. What I mean by that is that I think most of us desire to be pushed on, To be challenged and most importantly at the end to be affirmed for who we are.It is my desire that every individual would walk away from their time with me with the clearest understanding of who they are as a person that they’ve ever had.
At the end of the day, I would say what sets me apart most is that everything we do is done face-to-face with very little technology. I don’t have a webinar, I don’t sell anything to you online and I require for us to be face-to-face. For all of our processes.It is amazing the amount of work you can get done in a four hour period when you’re not distracted and you’re having a conversation with another human being.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
-vulnerability
-fearlessness
-generosity
-individuality
-trust
-and the most important is vulnerability:: creating the opportunity to see and be seen by others.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1300 S. Polk Dallas, Texas 75224
- Website: www.rockygarza.com
- Phone: 903-944-9141
- Email: rocky@rockygarza.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/rockygarza
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/rockygarza
- Other: www.linkedin.com/rockygarza
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