Meet Eriq Hardiman – Rhone | Creator Of SZN’s Chnge

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eriq Hardiman – Rhone and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eriq, what do you attribute your success to?
Simply put, I would say community. SZNs Chnge is attempting to be an outlet for story telling for up and coming artists and creatives. We live to curate moments, create and celebrate art, and give flowers back to cities that gives so much to the culture. In order to do that though, we must first start with establishing a root in the community of creatives – reaching out to them, developing relationships, supporting and highlighting – all essential grassroots work that will establish resonance for our why. Community to us, says that you are not alone, and it highlights the efforts of others to develop deeper relationships. Develop a strong community and success eventually will follow, but it’s important to let the people know that they have the power to choose what is and will be successful.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It is rooted in Faith, honestly. I currently work in the advertising world of Dallas at a post production house – Charlie Uniform Tango. The challenge I had to overcome to arrive here was the challenge of not knowing it was even here to begin with. After graduating from Baylor University, I moved to Dallas and began the process of looking for my “fresh start”. I was always creative internally, but for sure moved here with the thought process of finding my best possible desk job to set myself up financially to invest in the creativity I didn’t (immediately) see in the city. It wasn’t until I sat down with my family and was introduced to my – at the time- future mentors who worked 20+ years in advertising and the creative industry I previously believed non-existent in Dallas. They worked with me doing a lot of the reforming, rebuilding, and guiding to best set me up to make an impact. I was wide eyed and not fully sure on where I was half the time – trying to learn the city as well as the industry in what seemed to be flash interactions with producers, production houses, social events – but I was hungry. During that time it called me to pray a lot and be patient – a game I wasn’t the most adept to at the time. I tried to busy myself, take small time jobs, send five or six emails a day to different locations, just waiting to hear a response. One day during the summer of 2019 I received an email from my current boss telling me to drop what I was doing and send my resume and the rest has been history. I’m working entry level and given the freedom to invest myself into each part of the industry and learn every facet of the business. As it stands I’m leaning towards learning how to become a professional editor – a passion I originally learned during my time in college. I’ve been blessed to build relationships – an art that comes in various lessons in itself. The advertising industry loves individuality and is always looking for ways to continue to innovate. I’ve learned to continuously show up, not take things personally, and that there’s no shame in asking and accepting assistance from from your community. It was actually through that that I derived some of the inspiration for “Genesis”, I wanted to create a space for mutual support for Dallas artists & creatives. Our goal is to highlight the amazing arts, styles, influence, and stories of Texas and bring them to life through carefully curated creative projects that we don’t plan on repeating. We believe that each story deserves a different way to be told. Just like my SZN finding my job or the lessons I’ve learned are all specific to a specific moment in time we want to create opportunities to allow the same for the creatives of the state.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Man, there’s so many, Dallas has such a life about itself. I would start with brunch downtown at Te Deseo, or quick bites at Sabody, Fuel City, Stackhouse, Chick fil a (everything is better in Texas), Ten Ramen. Drinks – my family and I dabble in mixology so probably the house first (lol), but I would go to Stirr in Deep Ellum, Parliament, Tacos’ N’ Tequila on a Sunday afternoon or Clutch, or possibly hit a few of the speakeasies in town. Definitely would have to hit the ATT Pavilion, Bishop Arts/Deep Ellum/Arboretum for photos. Hit one of the many thrifting events Dallas throws amazing events – depending on the time of year Busari Fest, Vibes Texas event, a Cornerstore Weekend, something at Creators don’t die (shoutouts to Meka). It really depends on the energy for the weekend. Definitely have to hit Legacy West too! Museums, Sunday fundays, the list is honestly endless, but ill leave it at that.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First and foremost all glory be to God for allowing us the space to create a platform to collaborate and move in purpose! Special shoutout to the family through all SZN’s, beginning with my partner and CEO – Christian Broussard (@BroussardFamily) he is the business mind to my creativity and the man who helps me see the full scope of projects we are planning to execute. Kasim Kabbara (@Icegawwd) the eye of our work, master behind the camera, without your creative input and talent the project would not have been able to come out as amazing as it did. Damian Lane (Goodomendame) & Maryse Bombito (@Mxryse) for your amazing talents in the world of graphics for executing and teaching me how to find my place in this realm, y’all literally created magic that helped astound not only me but every artist we had involved, and you consistently had fun in order to give it that extra step up from the expectation. Reginald Singletary (@Reggie_jay) Trent Doddy (@Therevdoddy) for pushing and forcing the idea to have every possible question and answered ironed out, your brotherhood has been a constant inspiration. “We’re also excited to announce that our team is slowly but surely building – we’re proud to announce Sasha Bowman (@versashi) has also joined the SZNs family! As well as family, friends, and the 28 amazing artists we were blessed enough to have involved for our first project! Without y’all man we wouldn’t have been able to start this process, we can’t wait to continue working with everyone and many more.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sznschnge/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardiman-rhone/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WassupEra

Image Credits
📸: @icegawwd Edited by: @wassupera / @goodomendame/ @mxryse Written by: @thebroussards