Meet Leonel Velasquez | Director & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Leonel Velasquez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Leonel, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
When I first started on my creative journey, I was all in, putting in all my time into work without much of a balance. But, as I kept at it, I realized I needed to incorporate more of it. When it comes to balance, it’s just about making time for stuff outside of work, like hanging out with family, friends, or just going on random adventures. Those moments and experiences are like a breath of fresh air for me, especially when I’m going through any sort of creative block.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve been in the creative space for about 6 years now, starting with editing Call of Duty clips into montages. After a few months, I transitioned to editing YouTube videos and running an agency for design and production. However, I had to take a break from daily editing due to sort of losing the passion. I decided to get back into an old hobby, photography. It took me a couple months but I managed to get a local concert gig and spent the rest of the year going to every show I could. Eventually, I got into making music videos and more conceptualized pieces.

The most significant lesson I’ve learned is to just keep going; everything falls into place as it should. I’m really excited for 2024, I’ve got a couple of concepts lined up for the year, and I can’t wait to see what other projects I’ll get to work on.

My only message to others: create memories.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
To start off, I’d head to one of my favorite food spots in town, like Sushi Mon. The NC Museum of Art is a g0-to, but personally, I’m more into exploring nature. So, I’d take them to a couple of trails along Umstead Park. Friends have visited before, and what I love about my state is having both the mountains and beach within a 2.5-hour drive. With a week on hand, we could definitely go see both. The Outer Banks are stunning, and there’s some history there, like the Wright Brothers National Memorial, where the first flight happened. On the other hand, the mountains offer countless trails and overlooks, so it doesn’t really matter where we specifically go; it would all be equally great to explore.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Shoutout to my family and friends, especially my business partner Brandon, and roommates Adam, Eric, Olin, and Ryan, along with my friends Davin and Dalton. Can’t forget about FaZe Mito, he used to live stream him editing and was one of the main reasons I decided to get serious about editing. I wouldn’t be in my current position without them.

Website: https://leovel.co

Instagram: https://instagram.com/leocreated

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonelvelasquez/

Twitter: https://x.com/leocreated

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@leocreated

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@leocreated

Image Credits
Only image credit is on the personal photo. Photographer is Kaden Hawkins (@verarix)