We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Valentino Hernandez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Valentino below.

Hi Valentino, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

My name is Valentino Hernandez, most people know me as Tito or TitoValentino.
I play lead guitar in my band called
A Different Kind of Giant. I’ve been a guitar player and performer since I was a teenager. A Different Kind of Giant has been a published project for almost two and a half years.
The story I’m sharing with you here today is still ongoing, and you the reader are more than welcome and are invited to be apart of our story.
We started as a group of musicians who banded together with the goal of performing on a large scale while attempting to facilitate a business in a nebulous industry we call the music business. Through out the time we’ve spent pushing ADKG we’ve been able to grow as a business and a group. Again our story is still on going.
Some of the things that I’ve found to be critical towards our circumstance is the ability to connect and inspire. Whether if that’s through one’s art or simply spending time with others.
Getting along with people is a great example of this, when “networking” so to speak.
Some meaningful moments have been facing some of my most challenging moments. Those challenges have pertained to developing our friendships from within to create a stronger bond to push onwards and upwards together. Other challenges have involved effective communication, both internally and externally.
The meaningfulness behind these challenges are baring witness to when things come together in harmony at our rehearsals, at our shows, over a drink hanging out together, ect.
Life in general is going to be full of twist/turns, and obstacles. Put whatever word you want in place of that but the truth is life is hard for most.
And that’s okay. It’s apart of the ride.
You know you’re on the right path when your comfort level is being challenged. Hell, you might even lose a couple people along the way, and go through rejection at times. The musical journey isn’t suppose to be the most comfortable journey.
I think the absolute most meaningful part of this story is having the opportunity. The opportunity to be able to connect with others and shed some inspiration through our music.
It really gives us a voice.
And really is the bread and butter behind what we do. And all while having the opportunity to be able to perform, hang with your best friends and write some killer records at the same time.

I know through practice that creativity can contribute towards a lot of positive change in our immediate environment.
That being said I’d encourage people to engage in as much creative thought and expression as possible.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a guitar player, some writer and performer. I’ve been doing these creative acts since I was a teenager. I got into this music thing by participating as a teenager. Getting involved by connecting with others through friendships and starting to play. After a while you begin to recognize that you’re a part of a larger community and or something that’s happening.
I currently have a published EP available on Spotify, Bandcamp, and YouTube under A Different Kind of Giant. That’s the name of the group I play lead guitar in. And most proud of. I’ve played in previous bands such a Pallida Mors a while back. I currently play in another project with Thomas from The Fall of Troy that will be published this year.
Thomas Erak and The Ouroboros is the name of that project. Keep and eye out for that, That’s going to be a fun one!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I feel the most resilient act of this entire journey has been the ability to wake up everyday and continue to push forward.
The fact, that I never gave up on music, and I never gave up on myself.
The younger version of myself still exists in me and is still full of creative inspirations and imagination. The system hasn’t killed that person in me. It hasn’t burnt out my childhood dreams. If anything I’ve been able to cover the most ground now, during these years, hence our discussion right now.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

A Different Kind of Giant does manufacturer its own products. In this case we manually print our own t-shirts and tote bags. We had an idea of how to print t-shirts through YouTube videos and word of mouth through other friends that have experience with printing. another emphasis on why community is so important, a lending hand can make all the world of difference when learning something new.
Our vocalist Aaron has a few friends that print shirts independently and they were gents towards lending us the equipment to print.
Approaching and manufacturing our products independently really supports the authenticity that we’re creating and maintaining by knocking out the labor ourselves. Each shirt was printed with Iove essentially, each person knows that we banged out each one of those shirts that is being worn in the wild.
A distributor would be great at some point but I think this approach works for us for the time being.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/titovalentino__?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@adifferentkindofgiant

Image Credits

https://www.instagram.com/aarongroon?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

https://www.instagram.com/anabphoto?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==