Meet J. Michael Hayes | Creative Director, Writer, Husband + Father

We had the good fortune of connecting with J. Michael Hayes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi J. Michael, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?

While we are all works in progress, constantly growing and refining, I’m really happy with the balance I’ve achieved in my life right now. Living consciously, or “mindfully” I guess is the popular term, is the key to that for me.

Whether it’s environment; my wife and I split our time between the city of Philadelphia and the island of Martha’s Vineyard, or as an entrepreneur and parent of three teens; daughter (15), and sons (16 and 13), balance of all the parts makes them each richer. We can appreciate what the city offers from fantastic restaurants and art museums to indie bookshops like Marc Lamont Hill’s Uncle Bobbie’s, and then embrace the quiet of island life: beach walks, cooking together, sitting around the fire roasting marshmallows. Running my own business allows me a certain flexibility to be present in the lives and activities of my kids, but they also get the benefit of seeing me put in the work to build something I love, and seeing the rewards that can come with living a creative lifestyle.

Career wise, my bread and butter is currently as the lead designer and creative director of my own branding and marketing firm Anansi Hayes Media, but I’m also a writer, and a musician. At any given time, I’ve got a number of projects going in each of those areas. The ONLY way to make things happen, to bring projects to completion, is to give each one its dedicated space and attention and then move on to the next. It is a balancing act. If you want to do good work or make great art, you have to allow yourself to be inspired. You need to fuel your inspiration. You have to step out of the studio, be present with your loved ones, experience nature, experience other great art, just go for a drive and blast your favorite album. If you have enough of that in your life and are disciplined when you sit down to do the work, you’ll be far more effective in the time you spend creating because your brain has been absorbing, processing and remixing all this diverse input you’ve been giving it.

Because of what I do, whether design, writing, or virtual meetings with my development partners, I spend a lot of my working hours in front of a screen. And I love movies, so if there isn’t music playing in the studio you can bet there’s a film or streaming series on in the background. But again, that’s more screens. To offset that I’m lucky enough to be walking distance from a beautiful beach. But I’ve also got a dear friend, Juli, who runs this amazing outdoor bakery. It’s called Orange Peel Bakery and it’s tiny but it’s been featured on a ton of shows like Hulu’s Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi. It’s a really special place located on the ancestral land of the Wampanoag where Juli grew up, originally known as Black Brook, on Martha’s Vineyard. Her stone oven, where everything is cooked, is outside and for a portion of the year she does these legendary pizza nights. A serious If-you-know-you-know kind of thing. Everyone from family members to James Beard Award winning chefs to Bill Murray will roll through. So religiously, once a week I shut down my computer and go sling pizzas outside with some incredible folks for 3 or 4 hours. I always leave feeling this energetic high, I mean it’s a lot of work and I might be tired, but I’m inspired and refreshed in a way that allows me to do even better work the next day.

So there it is, balance. I’ve never in my life been in a space of better creative flow than I am now and a huge part of that is mastering work/life balancing.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

My business grew out of a dream of sustainability. Being an artist is tough as hell, and doing that while raising kids just compounds the challenge. When my design work began to grow from a few free-lance side jobs to regular work, I knew the only way I would be able to grow the business, and create reliability on my end, was to service a wide range of clients and be able to provide a wide range of services.

I didn’t come out of design school or business school, so I was carving out my own path, learning along the way. It was all really practical but in a beautiful way. There’s a lesson I’d learned from Prince: keep talented company. I knew that trying to do everything myself would hurt the results in the end and I wanted do something of quality. So I set about finding collaborators that could deliver.

That was a challenge. There were plenty of nice and talented folks but finding committed people, people who were really ready for the same journey, that took a little time. It’s an industry with high turnover. Ultimately I found those people were already right around me, folks I had known for years and worked with in other capacities. We trusted each other and weren’t working from a place of ego or desperation. They were as motivated as I was and as a result of all those things we could produce amazing work together and work within a shared vision.

Now, Anansi Hayes Media is a small design, development and marketing firm on purpose. But our clients range from corporations to large institutions to local non-profits, small businesses and artists of all types. There are common threads with our clients: uniqueness of vision and commitment to quality. I’ve never had an interest in doing cookie cutter, one-size fits all work or imposing our voice and vision on the client, and that’s not what our clients want. They come to us, to amplify their voice. It’s an intimate process. We begin with creative consultation to make sure the client is ready and is making the right choices for their long term goals. We understand the process because we’re entrepreneurs and creatives too. We offer the same extensive range of services you’d receive from a larger marketing firm, except you’re dealing directly with folks who are providing the services and a team that is in constant communication with each other. We build relationships with our clients that can last years, many for over a decade.

I’ve learned the need for setting boundaries and keeping a calm, measured approach to the work. I keep very regular “9-5” type of hours. We don’t do frantic. We plan so that we can deliver on time and manage the unpredictable. We’re not designers who are working at midnight or on weekends. Those are the times for feeding that creativity, for living and breathing, kids, cooking, a great book, or just simply being. And that goes back to balance. It doesn’t always hit that sweet spot but more and more often, I’m happy to say, it does. And the results really speak for themselves, for us, our families and our clients.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I honestly feel so blessed in this regard, and I know that word is used to death these days, but I’ve searched for another and nothing else quite cuts it. I’m surrounded by so many incredible people, like my friend Juli Vanderhoop, who I already mentioned. That lesson I learned from Prince, and also studying Miles Davis: be surrounded by greatness. I guess with that in my mind I’ve been drawn into circles of unique and incredible talents. Not strategically, but I guess you’d call it manifestation or laws of attraction. There are a few key people that come to mind at this particular point in my life and career.

First and foremost my wife, Nekeshia, who is my all time biggest champion and reminds me to find joy in the little successes I have everyday, to love the process as much as, if not more than, the outcome.

My development partners, the husband and wife team of Marcia and Andrew Apollos. I’ve known Andrew for over 25 years and he’s been one of my best friends. We’ve been able to push each other forward in so many of our creative endeavors but also just in our life paths and as fathers. When you are living a lifestyle that doesn’t have a blueprint, seeing someone else on a parallel journey is so important, not only as an inspiration but as a sounding board and a confidant.

My co-writer, Clarence Young. Clarence is a brilliant and soulful author who writes under a few pseudonyms including Zig Zag Claybourne. His recent release, “AfroPuffs are The Antennae of the Universe” which I had a blast creating the cover art for, is a joyous sci-fi celebration with little I could even begin to compare it to but I can’t recommend enough. Through my friendship and collaborations with Clarence, I have been able to envision paths in my creative life that had previously seemed beyond my reach.

Through Clarence and a visionary collaborator of mine, Cerece Rennie Murphy, who is behind the innovative Virtuous Con, I came to Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes. Tananarive and Steven are both renowned horror and sci-fi authors who have segued into writing for film and television. Shout out to their brilliant work on Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone” series! They have been generous and unparalleled guides on my journey as a writer. They also have a wonderful podcast called “Lifewriting”, which is all about balancing life and a career in writing, and they offer a year long writing course by the same name. Their commitment, joy and motivation has been like superfood to me, nourishing my creative spirit.

One other person that’s been so instrumental in my journey is musician Oli Rockberger. Oli, who I’ve also known for over 25 years, has written for artists like Gregory Porter and recorded for Chaka Khan as a pianist, and Laura Mvula as a vocalist. He’s also a prolific solo artist, one of my longtime musical collaborators and my first design client. That design work directly led to doing artwork for Jazz legends like Ronny Jordan and Vince Guaraldi, effectively launching my professional design career. Oli is another person I can either share the deepest discussions with or just watch a Tottenham Hotspurs game. Balance!

All of these folks are perfect examples of something I share with clients building their businesses or brands: Don’t look up, look to the left and right. Those are the folks who can help you get where you’re going, be less concerned with being discovered by someone who already “made it” and more focused on building with your tribe.

Back to just loving the process.

Website: anansihayes.com

Instagram: @designerjessehayes, @anansihayes