We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Square Business Kev O a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Square Business, thanks for joining us today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

I really stumbled into starting my business. A guy I knew from high school was opening a studio and asked me if I can run his instagram for him. One thing lead to another and artist that were coming to the studio asked if we shot music videos. I used by credit and got a camera from Best Buy then started developing a love and passion for bringing ideas to life. We had a falling out and thats really when I branched out on my own and started by business.

By the time I started my business, I had made connections with a lot of local artist, and other businesses to the point they were ready for me to work alone. That helped out a lot to make my brand a household name. I think you have to have a good following which in turn makes a solid clientele.

It was sort of like when I was with the guy from school, that was my internship for my own business. A lot of trial and error, leaning to speak up, organize what I actually do and present a final product that the buyer would love.

It took about 2 years to fully get my businesses started. It’s kind of hard to say when I actually started my business because I was still working with the other brand while I was creating my brand at the same time. To put a date on it, I started my own business October 6th 2018. From that date I was pushing my own brand but I had to buy my own equipment. Once I paid off everything, I gave the equipment I helped pay for back to the other brand, then I went public with my business exactly a year later, I dont know how that end up happening on the same date, October 6th 2019.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Kevin Razo, I come from Houston ,tx. Grew up in spring, tx then went off into the army 2 years out of high school. I was in the army for a little over 5 years then came home. I have 2 sons, Kaleb being the oldest and Jovani being my youngest, those boys are everything to me. They are my “why”. Everything I do all comes down to them. I stopped everything I used to do to make sure I’m here for them. They didn’t ask to be here so I feel like I owe it to them to be my best so I can be in their lives.

So for them I had to do something and working with the camera is what I do to bring home the bacon. I got into the industry from helping run a recording studio, and artist asking if we shot music videos. one thing lead to another and here I am 8 years later with my own video production company.

I basically create a vision to your memories. I film all kinds of events, birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, music video and I also do graphic design. The only problem I really have is clients dont understand what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to editing video or photos. Ive got used to it and understand people are just excited and can’t wait for the final product. If the shoe was on the other foot, I bet I would be impatient too. Other than that, thats the only issue I always have with clients.

But that sets me apart also. My work is more heartfelt I think. I like to bring out feelings when you watch a video ive made. I’ve had people cry when they seen the wedding videos ive made or memorial videos Ive made. Thats how I know I did my job, when theirs an emotional connection.

Thats what im most proud of, I like to go and read the comments or the client will call me excited and tell me how much they love their video, and that ends up turning into a loyal returning customer and thats always good.

I want future potential clients to know how much effort I put into my work. I dont care how small the project is, I want to go down in history for the work ive done. Just like the Mona Lisa, we all know the painting but we might not know show painted it, thats how I want to be. I want my work to last forever.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The name of my brand, “square business” media. When I started I dont know what it was but that name kept coming up. It’s an old saying I think from the 70’s. Here in Houston, we grew up saying it “square business”. To me it always meant “thats good” or “he’s good” maybe more of he’s a honest person or he does good business. Whatever you think it means, I felt like that sums up me. Ive always had a good reputation no matter what I was doing. I think it’s fair to say I am a square business person.

So when it came time to pick the name, I had to go with square business, but I didn’t know if I should put productions, empire, management, media at the end because I do so much different things under one umbrella. So I went with media because I cover all things related to media.

I would ask everybody I knew from school, the army, to the industry what they thought of the name “Square Business Media’ and everybody shut it down. People would ask what that means, thats to ghetto, not professional so it discouraged me to the point I starting thinking of new names.

But it took for one person to say yes thats a cool name for me to think everybody was wrong. That was my friend J-stead. A Houston rapper ive shot over 15 music videos with. After that day I had it in my heart I need to put this “Square Business Media” in everybody face and make sure they know the brand is here to stay.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When I started, their wasn’t know YouTube university. Everything ive learned was all trial and error. To this day im still learning, but a lot of it I just went out and tried it. A lot of people in Houston dont have the knowledge either so it wasn’t anybody to ask for help either. Or if they did know, they were too busy to teach or didn’t want you to pass them up, which is kind of fair to me.

Now with a.i. taking over, in the camera world it’s kind of frowned upon to use it. But the way things are going, it’s like if you dont get with the program you’ll be left behind.

I do wish people in Houston were more business savvy, it’s like we’re all winging it. It might be some people that know a little more then you but they dont really know all the answers.

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