We were lucky to catch up with Ruby Hoko recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ruby, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

For Artists, having support from your peers, especially in the beginning of your journey, is the equivalent to jet fuel. At least that’s what it felt like for me. My love for my craft was enough to propel me forward, but with encouragement from friends and family thrown into the mix, it had such an energizing effect on my performance and my will to keep pushing when I’d run into obstacles. That support, for every artist, is the wind in their sails!

I noticed as time went on and as my career progressed, especially on social media, it felt like support kinda dwindled.
I know plenty of talented creatives who have experienced the same thing. We work hard, create things we are proud of, and when we post on these platforms our creations get no love. It’s discouraging!

Blame it on the algorithms maybe, but this decline in engagement has brought artists to seek out support from their followings. Asking friends to interact with posts. Sending vids to peoples DMs to boost views. Making videos asking for people to like your content.. etc.

This may be an unpopular opinion but, I think these tactics have the opposite effect on your brand as an artist.
I think there’s a possibility for it to come off as desperate and it can drive your support away! I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh, I don’t want to offend my fellow creatives so let me explain. There’s psychology behind this!

FOMO (fear of missing out) is real! If you are essentially begging for support, you give off the vibe that what you’re producing isn’t getting any attention. People will subconsciously conclude that your work must not be exciting, interesting or “worthy” of attention. Sort of like “Why should I pay attention to this? Clearly nobody else is or else you wouldn’t be asking.”

People are more likely to invest their attention into your work if you have confidence. It takes a lot of bravery. You have to be willing to put on a show and not care how big the crowd is. Just MAKE BADASS ART. If you love what you do, and you look cool as hell doing it, people will be attracted to that.
If you are too busy pouring yourself into your creations to care who’s watching, I promise your work will be the most magnetic work you’ve ever created and people WILL pay attention. They’ll see that you’re going places and they’ll want to be along for the ride aka FOMO.

All of this to say, the support in the beginning is what should get you started, but YOU and your CONFIDENCE are what the success of your art depends on. Make art because it’s what you’re built to do, the attention will follow. Attention should never be what drives your art, it will always end up disappointing you.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a Photographer, Retoucher, Digital Designer, Producer and Creative Director. When people ask me what I do for work I usually answer with “I’m an Artist” because I feel like that’s what it all boils down to.

At 21, my only aspiration was to become a photographer full time. I thought it would be cool to take photos for a living. But as it turned out, making visuals is what I was built for. It’s just what my brain does best.

My obsessive, untamed love for making badass imagery led me to branch out into a few different creative fields outside of photography.. like retouching, digital art and working on film sets. Before I knew it, I had flung open up the door into the media production industry and made myself at home. (insert gif here of Jason Momoa whipping out a folding chair and taking a seat)

10 years later, I’m proud to say I can offer my clients a full service package. I’m able to conceptualize visuals that fit their brand, photograph the content, retouch the images and/or create digital artwork from those images, all while producing the whole process from start to finish.

I believe I offer my clients something very unique. I offer them a tailored experience that fits their needs no matter the size or complexity of the project. The cherry on top of it all: I’m an Artist. I truly and deeply care about each project. I listen. I strive to create the best every time. In a world where corners are always being cut, I just can’t bring myself to do that. My need to Art is too powerful.
I feel very honored, as a creative and as a Latina Female, to be trusted by such a long list of clients comprised of Fashion Designers, Models, Celebrities, Musicians, and Major Brands like Nordstrom, Fashion Nova and Snapchat.

These days you can catch me creating in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta, but I have my eyes on a few European cities next.
Art is my lifestyle and I’m in the business of beautiful things. I feel like I’m living my happiest dream.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When I decided I wanted to be a photographer in 2013, I didn’t know anything about photography. I taught myself everything. I had help from a few mentors and many youtube channels, but other than that, everything was all trial and error. Heavy on the error.

I’m about to expose myself… a lot of my first photos sucked. BAD.
To make them less awful, I wanted to learn how to edit. All I knew was that I wanted to make a beautiful image. What I didn’t know is that I had just inadvertently began my retouching career.

Don’t get me wrong, my editing work was just as bad as my photography back then.
In those early days, I was using some random photo editor from the app store and those mentors I mentioned before – they were very concerned by that. They suggested I switch to professional photo editing software. And so began my introduction to Adobe Lightroom – a more user friendly version of Adobe Photoshop.

I say user friendly, but Lightroom was still hard to figure out! I spent many hours being totally confused and I made plenty of mistakes. But over time, I realized that theres no right or wrong way to do anything. What matters the most is the end result and if your image looks good.

My images finally looked good. I felt like I would be able to offer editing as a service or get a side job doing it.
Thats when I learned that professional photo editors are called RETOUCHERS and they use PHOTOSHOP.

Photoshop was not something I had much confidence working with. I was actually super intimidated by it.
I had played around with it a little but always gave up because Lightroom was easier.
But one fateful day, I was offered a retouching job with a major major company…. and their retouchers only worked with, you guessed it, Photoshop.
I accepted the position with confidence, but internally I was sweating bullets. I knew I was about to epitomize the phrase “Fake it til you make it.”

I remember my first day on the job I watched over the shoulder of my fellow retouchers like my life depended on it. I remember saying “Hey, your way looks so much easier than my way! Wanna show me how you did that?” Knowing good and well that I had never done any of this before.
Every cell in my body paid attention to what they told me. I learned FAST. Looking back now, the speed at which I learned how to use Photoshop is nothing short of miraculous.

Nobody ever found out that I barely had Photoshop experience, but I owe what my retouching career is today to those retouchers and the time I spent with them at that company. (Youtuber Aaron Nace from PHLEARN deserves an honorable mention as well.)

Now, Photoshop is like a second language to me. I use it every day. I teach private lessons. I retouch for other photographers with demanding workloads or for those who simply don’t enjoy post production. I can do just about anything with that program.
My Photoshop skills have morphed into graphic and digital design, creating posters and album art for musicians and bands. Retouching is a cornerstone of my entire business and it has opened so many more doors in this industry than photography solely could have.

Retouching is a skill that I unknowingly honed over a decade. I feel so incredibly lucky for that.
My career would look entirely different if retouching wasn’t a part of it.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Breaking into this industry was tough, I’m not going to lie. There’s no rule book or else I would have followed it. In fact, it took me a while to catch on that there WASN’T actually a rule book. I was looking around at my fellow creatives’ careers wondering if they knew something that I didn’t.
I’m guilty of beating myself up over my perceived shortcomings.
I think they call that “compare and despair.”

It’s taken some time for me to get it, but the more I was around people in the industry, the more I realized that the tried and true “Fake It Til You Make It” philosophy can unfortunately sometimes morph into just “Faking It.”
Which isn’t cool.
I had been comparing myself to people and their accomplishments that might not exactly be what they seemed. It was like breaking out of the Matrix. From that point on, I put the focus on my own skill and abilities. I wanted to be the real deal and I wanted everyone I work with to feel it when they work with me.

I’m proud to have built a reputation around authenticity, quality, respect and providing personalized experiences.
I want the best for my clients and I treat their visions like I would my own. I’ve never been the one to just throw something together out of laziness and I never will be. If I come across something I don’t know how to do, I bring someone onto the project who does or I learn how to do it myself.

I’ve had clients tell me they love working with me because they feel energy they don’t usually feel on sets, that they feel inspired to be creative and that they are having fun in the process. Which is exactly what they should feel!
My clients comfort and experience matters to me. Their voice matters to me!
My Art requires collaboration and teamwork. I want my clients and crew to feel like they have left a fingerprint on the final product.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rueromani.com (rebranding to www.rubyhoko.com in 2024)
• Instagram: @ruby_hoko https://www.instagram.com/ruby_hoko/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rue-romani-9982031b4/