We recently connected with The Southern Creative Grant Tyson & Mary Hartshorn and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, The Southern Creative thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Deciding to start your own business is always a risky decision. Grant started The Southern Creative in 2015 after his best friend passed away suddenly. Loss really puts things into prospective and shows you how delicate life is. After the loss of Aubrey, Grant was motivated to make changes in his life and really start living for what he wanted. He had talked about starting his own business for years, but like so many other people, wasn’t sure where to start. The first few months were difficult, but he started getting clients and growing. Fast forward to 2022. I joined The Southern Creative full time after years and years of working unfulfilling jobs that just made me miserable. Grant and I had been discussing my moving full time to The Southern Creative for years, but it always felt too scary…too risky. There is comfort in a routine, weekends off, and a pay check every two weeks. Often times small business owners struggle with maintaining these things. There are tons of risks in starting a small business and in leaving a corporate job to join a small business. We still have those days where we look at each other like what are we doing…but for the most part running The Southern Creative together has been incredibly rewarding. We both thrive in a creative environment and it is really special to get to work with your partner every day.

The Southern Creative, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Grant Tyson, Founder and Director

Grant has worked in the video production and photography industry for 15+ years. He has worked with a diverse range of clients such as Slam Magazine, New Balance, and Visit Florida. He has a passion for filmmaking and strives to deliver the highest quality product to each client he works with.

Grant discovered his love of filmmaking at a young age. He started making movies with his parents’ Hi8 Camcorder at the age of 7. After high school he decided to turn his passion into a career, which led him to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts in digital movie production. He founded The Southern Creative in 2015 and has been creating unique content ever since.

In addition to photography and filmmaking Grant also has a fondness for surfing, painting, and biking. You can find him outside enjoying the sunshine any chance he gets. Grant finds beauty in things people often overlook, many times inspiring his next project.

Grant’s expertise, dedication, and experience ensures that any idea you bring to him will be executed with the highest quality in mind. Any project you bring to Grant will be hand crafted with love and a strong attention to detail.

Mary Hartshorn, Managing Director and Producer

Mary has a background in communications and joined The Southern Creative team full time in 2022. Mary plays a pivotal role in shaping the direction and the overall success of The Southern Creative. She thrives on being organized and will ensure all “to-do” list items are checked off by the conclusion of your project.

Mary has a natural gift for storytelling and is able to ignite imagination and evoke deep emotion through her stories. Mary paired her storytelling skills and her love for organization while in college where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in communications. Mary also holds a Master of Science in Administration.

Mary has many hobbies including hiking, reading, and any sort of social event. She loves being with her friends and family and is an excellent listener and communicator, always bringing people together and making everyone feel welcomed and accepted.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The hardest thing to unlearn is constantly having to be “busy”. When you work in a corporate setting often times you have to look busy, even if you have nothing to do. We’ve had to learn, and are still learning, how to accept moments of stillness. When you own your own business, you own your time. If you are done with the days work at 2PM you don’t have to pretend to work until 5PM. You can go for a walk, you can go to the grocery store, you can read a book.

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

When you’re a small business owner you don’t get sick leave. You don’t get paid time off. You often have to work when you don’t feel like it. I (Mary) had COVID my first official day at The southern Creative, which turned into weeks of trying to shake off post COVID symptoms. We lost our beloved dog, Byrd, earlier this year. There have been many times over the last year where we have had to pick ourselves up and keep going. Owning a business is not an easy task. At the end of the day you just do whatever you have to in order to ensure the success of your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://creativesouthern.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesoutherncreative/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesoutherncreative
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBRLqBNR-nkpkJ0iGib82Ng
• Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/thesoutherncreative

Image Credits
Photos: Grant Tyson, The Southern Creative