We recently connected with Sandra Salvas and have shared our conversation below.

Sandra, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

The last job I was in was for 7 years at the Utah Office of Tourism. I built the creative process, direction, and image/video library from scratch and worked with incredible teams driving new strategies for content distribution. There was alignment, autonomy, and trust. I was thriving on building relationships with partners, creatives, and coworkers with common the goal of working along side each other to push the creative as far as we could. We had proven our team’s worth by the amount of hardware and awards received within the tourism sphere. I think eventually when you put that much energy into one thing, you’re going to hit a breaking point. There was suddenly a lot of turnover in the organization and with that comes new leadership and direction. I didn’t have the energy to start someone else’s strategy from scratch again, especially one I had already built. I loved what I did, but I felt like I was just done there. If I was going to work this hard again to build something, it was going to be for myself and what I wanted to do. So that’s exactly what I did.

I left in April 2023 and took the spring/summer off because I felt drained. I took time to decompress and reflect on what I wanted to do, and who I wanted to work with. By the time fall came around, I felt motivated to work on my website, send out a promo mailer letting people know I was available, and started to do some email outreach to those folks that were already in my network. I returned to social media to self promote and started to make a list of people I wanted to work with. Jobs started to come in. I wasn’t bustling by any means the first few months, but I committed to the hustle and leveraging the relationships I had made over the past 2 decades of my career.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a photographer, creative director, and producer. While I may operate in one of these roles at a time, it’s often that I operate in all 3 in each project. I am happy to operate in any lane of the above as clearly defined. If I’m just the photographer, I’m not going to try and produce or creative direct the project. I’m going to work with those people to execute the vision with my style of work. But I’m also not going to run away if a client needs me to take on more than one role.

I like to describe my style as a journalistic approach with commercial intent.
My focus is travel & tourism, adventure, and lifestyle. My storytelling highlights local voices and real people to deepen connections between people, place, cultures, and shared experiences. I had always been on the path to outdoor and lifestyle industries based on personal interests but my journey was not linear or direct.

For most of my career I was working in-house. I’ve worked for Skiing Magazine, Black Diamond Equipment, and The Utah Office of Tourism, designing and managing all aspects of the creative process from: intern to photo-editor, producer for video and photo assignments, photographer, and creative director, photo researcher, gear wrangler, studio stylist, and so on. Working on small teams to fulfill multiple roles.

As a photographer I help define treatments, shots lists, approach, story development, and basically whatever else the client needs me to support in the scope of work before I actually take the photos.

As a creative director I shape brand storytelling pieces from concept development to completion. It’s the stuff that happens before you can start planning a production. Defining the creative brief with what’s the story, the intent, the distribution strategy, the characters, timeline, scope of work, etc. It’s the piece of the puzzle that anyone can go back to in order to understand the who, what, where, when, and why.

As a producer, I’m the glue that brings together teams to help execute the creative vision to keep it on time, on budget, and on brand. I’m asking the questions based more on logistics and legalities and leaving creative nuances to the directors.

Every project I wrap as a success is the project I’m most proud of. I thrive on collaborating to bring together something that we all know was worth our time and money. Having work you believe in and can go all in on is a sign that I’m doing something right.

I’d say what sets me apart is my desire to cultivate strong relationships. In every project, I build strong relationships between the client, hired creatives and communities. The teams I work with operate without ego and only through respect, curiosity, and openness. We want to create the best work, but we also want it to be fun and a positive experience for everyone on the crew.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Working in-house I hired a lot of people over the years. I felt that because I supported a large group of creatives over the years they would surely support me once I went on my own. Hahahaha. It’s a ridiculous thought, but maybe it’s what I needed to make the jump. I don’t know what planted this seed in my head, but it was my own fault and is absolutely wrong.

The only person going to find work for me is me.

I have to put in the time to network, market, test, and all other sorts of hustle. Partnership opportunities definitely happen, but it’s me on the hook to keep top of mind and build those relationships even when there’s no work together.

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

I am who I am in all aspects of life. There’s no “work Sandra” vs “at home Sandra” Integrity is my #1 core value so remaining true to self, brand, and all relationships.
I keep showing up. Networking events big or small, emails, text messages, social media engagement, marketing mailers, etc. I’m here to stay and I’m going to keep checking in and showing up to foster relationships new and existing.
I’ve also realized that not everyone is going to want to work with me, and that’s OK. I can still show up and be kind and remain supportive of their brand without spending exhausting amounts of time trying to “get in”
You never know when people are going to leave one job for another, which is why your relationships within the industry you want to work in matter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sandrasalvas.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandrasalvas/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-salvas/