We recently connected with Sam Stotts and have shared our conversation below.

Sam , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

If I could go back, I would focus less on what I didn’t know or where I wasn’t at in business and I would focus more on networking within my industry. Networking sounded so intimating to me… chatting with strangers hoping they didn’t think I’m climbing a social ladder to get to the next step. It doesn’t have to be this disingenuous thing that sometimes we make it out to be. I wish I could go back and tell myself to just send the DM to a photographer I looked up to, asked them to grab coffee and just ask them questions. So many people who are 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 steps ahead of me are/were so willing to share how they got success. Share their failures, things that worked, things to look out for etc.

Instead, I waited. I stewed on why I was “stuck” not getting clients or not progressing in the market. I paid ALOT of money to join styled shoots, buy online courses and guides… and most of them didn’t help me at all. In fact, I think they put me back a step or 2. In the age of digital products, it’s so important to research who you are getting information from. Are they really an expert? Or did they just have a video or two go viral and now they are pumping out promises to help you make X amount in 6 weeks if you “just buy my online course”.

I fell for it. And I wish I had just plugged into the photography community faster. Asked to shadow / assist photographers for free to gain hands on experience.

Sam , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Sam! I’m born and raised in SoCal and fell in love with photography my junior year in highshool. I took a photo class to get out of taking a foreign language… let’s just say typical school wasn’t my strong suit and anything creative was. I went on a trip to Uganda my summer heading into junior year. While I was there, I used the camera my parents had bought me to document my trip & I remember taking a photo of one of the school kids and then showing them the photo. The reaction was something I’ll never forget. The way this child’s entire face lit up, grinning from ear to ear to see their own reflection. It was silly but amazing. These school kids were orphans. They didn’t own mirrors, something we in America are obsessed with. So being able to take photos and then show these kids the back of the camera so they could see themselves was something special. We went from smiles, to silly faces, to laughing until we cried. My love for photography started then and carried into my adult life.

After returning home from Uganda, I started taking photos of friends for graduation, family photos etc. Eventually moved into taking couples / engagement photos and now weddings. As my seasons of life changed and evolved, so did my photography. I now work as a photo and video duo with my husband. We serve clients worldwide for engagements and weddings. I absolutely love being able to bring every aspect of someone’s love story to life through photography and videography. Getting to work with my husband is not only fun, but we find we can really invest in our couples when we work together. Serving people who are getting married while we are married is something so sweet. We are reminded through every wedding what commitment we made and how treasured the service we are providing is. At the end of the day, the job we do is the only tangible thing that lives on past your actual wedding day.

We are honored anytime someone wants us to document their biggest life moments.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Believe it or not, after high school I didn’t pursue photography full time. I went the corporate route and tried a few jobs in different fields. Eventually wound up in Austin, TX where I worked at a local State Farm agency. I went from reception there to sales and then recruiting/hiring for the office. When the pandemic hit, I was one of several from our office that was laid off. Shortly after, I found out I was pregnant with our first kiddo and was in panic mode. What the heck was I going to do?!

To say I was stressed, fearful of the future, unsure about how we would raise a baby on one income with the world feeling so uncertain…. it was alot.

I ended up taking an online photography course. I had joined a free instagram live where Nicole Hill (founder of Horizon Found) chatted about 5 things you needed to do to be a successful photographer. It was the most positive, informative, and enjoyable hour of learning I had ever experienced. I ended that live and literally felt like I could just start a photography business and be successful. I didn’t know anything past that statement but I knew I could do it.

Fast forward from early spring 2021 to now and I’m doing it.

My family and I moved back to California. I did basically an entire year of free work. Building relationships, networking with other creatives in the wedding industry, building my portfolio. I ended up booking 3 weddings during that time. With zero wedding experience as a lead photographer – but you bet your buns I had the confidence and grit to make it happen.

2023 is the year my husband slowly started to join me. He would do complimentary videos during engagement sessions and even did 2 weddings.

2024 – a whirlwind so far. I am considered a full time wedding photographer and have brought my husband on to partner with me.  Our goal is to have him become full time by the end of the year. I’ve doubled my income from 2023 and it’s not even summer yet!  Now I don’t say that to brag at all. I say that to show that you can do it. It takes alot of hard work. Free work even. Alot of sacrifice, alot of time, and alot of putting myself in situations that will allow me to grow. I’m excited to see what’s to come from here!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Totally! I think it’s easy to see creatives and think we don’t work. When it comes to photographers: I constantly hear “well don’t you just click a button on your camera and then put on a filter and you’re done?”

That’s not the case at all. As creatives, our productive output can’t be done 8 hours a day/ 40 hours a week. We need time to just be. Time to do absolutely nothing. We can’t be “on” all the time. It’s not something we can just clock in and clock out the way I did doing admin work at an insurance job.

We need time to experience life, to experience new cities, see other peoples art, create just for the sake of creating. We need to mess up and try things that fail and try it again until it works the way we saw it in our head.

When we get to have those moments of just existing, it resets our brains to see your wedding day as its own event. It allows me to leave a shot list behind and fully immerse myself and my camera into the story that is you. So we can document you in a way that makes sense. So we aren’t just trying to keep up with trends.

Your story is better told when I’ve been able to rest.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sammariephoto.com
• Instagram: @sam_marieephotography & @sa.filmco

Image Credits
Sophia Savage (image of our headshot) all other images are mine.