We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jacob Ruth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jacob, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

I got my first client through the early days of Instagram! I downloaded the app around the time of its release and got hooked on sharing the photos I took with all my friends. Overtime, I learned all the basics of photography and what type of photos work best on social media.

With these skills, I had picked up an internship at a company in my hometown called CHOOSE901! I was covering Moon River Music Festival in 2015 and my favorite band happened to be playing. At the time I would just post my favorite shots online and tag the artist. I posted my favorites of the band and they ended up seeing them and reposted them to their page!

That lead to some conversations and then lead to me really diving deep into the music photography / creative world!

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 sort of in a transitional period right now but still in the same field. My role started off as a photographer/videographer for bands & brands, but now it is sort of moving in a direction of social media specialist and creative lead.

My role started moving this direction because my own page started to gain traction. I had to learn how to brand myself, which is a really strange thing to learn. I never saw myself as a business but more as an asset to my client. For example, when it came to delivering photos, I would occasionally pitch my ideas of how the post should look and what type of content should be shown. I started to take some of the weight off my client by doing their social media, which for some people is a taxing part of the job.

That step of just taking on a small responsibility helped lead me to the direction I’m heading now!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think the best thing you can do to build a great reputation with your business is to be nice & learn how to communicate well. That sounds so simple but it’s one of the hardest things to do. Life is frustrating most of the time. Not just for you, but for everyone. Social media does a great job at showing a fake version of what it’s like to be alive.

Realizing life is not easy for everyone then translating that feeling into a good action for your community will help you build a strong credibility. In my career, artists have this pressure to “be on” all the time. They have to show a smile, be nice to a fan, answer correctly to managers, etc. That’s a lot of pressure for someone to go through, on top of running their business. It’s often overlooked that they are also normal people too. Being able to see that and learning how to communicate business in a way that isn’t a demanding as helped take a lot of pressure off my clients.

That has been truly the secret that has helped me build up a great reputation.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

My early days as a photographer were rough! I didn’t come from a creative family, so they didn’t see the arts as something you could make a living doing. Personally, I didn’t really have a lot of money to buy all the gear someone would need, so I asked for a camera for Christmas which felt like the biggest request in the world. I had to do a lot of things D.I.Y.

I used my phone and free apps to edit my photos for years. I didn’t use any sort of Adobe CC program until halfway through college. There were tons of resources I didn’t start with, but I have still made it work. That’s why I wanted to answer this question because I don’t wish it any other way. I love the way I started because it made me work harder to figure it out.

Your drive and self-motivation to learn & work is the best resource to grow as a creative and as a person. Whatever field you are in, to be able to tell yourself to work harder is always going to lead to better results.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jakeruthcreates.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobgruth/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-ruth-71a461107/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/user/ruthjake26?si=c7637f2b4226467a

Image Credits
All images taken by Jacob Ruth. Images are of JOAN, Harriette, Stephen Sanchez, ONLYNY, & Brother Moses.