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

Dee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

My journey becoming a fulltime photographer/videographer was a lot like trying to roller skate down a sand dune.

I started my career in the corporate world as an analyst combining psychology & statistics to build datasets & algorithms (like a total math nerd) that are now part of the social media insights we use every day! I progressed on to building comprehensive marketing campaigns and as much as I loved developing the strategies behind the creative, I always found myself wanting to be onset alongside the production crews capturing the images for the campaigns we were making.

I finally hit my “ah-ha” moment being onset for a week in Destin, FL with a production crew for a marketing campaign partnered with Hilton. We were filming long days on the beach and while the crew and cameras were melting in the sun, I felt happier than a seagull with a French fry! From that excitement I was ready to overcome my fears and brave diving into the production world!

I was clueless about cameras and didn’t even own one, so I signed up for a photography course thinking I just needed to master the technical elements. Little did I know that was just the tip of the iceberg as I had to learn how to manage clients, contracts, image rights, pricing, insurance, taxes, and so much more. In the beginning each project and client I worked with was a new lesson in “what not to do”!

After much trial and error, I finally started navigating my way to working with corporate clients headquartered in Texas capturing photo & video assets for their branding and lifestyle campaigns making more income freelancing than in my past corporate roles.

From there I started working on larger projects and teamed up with a talented photographer named Cassie to launch Naia Creative at the start of 2023! We noticed navigating the digital marketing landscape was overwhelming for many brands because the social media algorithms demand fresh content daily, but the traditional process of setting up a photoshoot hiring creative directors, stylists, photographers, and videographers to produce all the visual assets needed is expensive and not cost effective for most smaller and mid-sized brands. Then throw in the rise of influencer marketing and brands are now feeling lost in the Lollipop Woods of Candy Land.

Through Naia Creative we are able to combine forces Avengers style with brands to produce the content strategy and styled images they need in a fast and cost effective way so they can build and grow their business. In less than a year we have produced shoots for our brands throughout France, El Salvador, Costa Rica, the US and Hawaii. Now we are bursting with excitement to develop new brand partnerships and already have shoots in the works for 2024!

If I could start it all over again the biggest thing I would do differently to speed up the process is focus on finding friends and mentors from the beginning. I was intimidated thinking the creative space was too competitive or oversaturated so I tried to learn from online “experts.” However, technology and trends are moving so fast there is a lot of outdated information being shared online. The best advice I’ve received that made the biggest impact on my business has come from the community of friends and mentors I have developed in the industry. Having people to reach out to with questions that don’t look at you like you’re crazy has helped me achieve more and faster than I could have ever imagined, and having friends makes everything more fun along the way!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi There! I’m Dee Davidson, a Digital Strategist, Photographer, and Filmmaker for Coastal Brands.

I started in the corporate world building comprehensive marketing campaigns and had a desire to learn about all things cameras with photo and video production. After Covid I took the leap and went fulltime as a freelancer and built up a freelance photo and video business earning more than I did in my corporate roles.

In 2023 I teamed up with a talented photographer named Cassie, and together we launched our new company Naia Creative! We know digital marketing, content creation, and trying to reach a target audience is a HUGE hustle! So we produce professional cohesive photo and video images as part of a social media content strategy to help brands reach new audiences and grow their business!

Our ultimate goal is to make life easier for brands to get the dreamy content they want, and we have produced shoots featuring brands around the US, Hawaii, Costa Rica, El Salvador and more all without the brands having to sweat the details or costly campaigns that break the bank.

Sunny, coastal, vibrant, salty, adventurous content creation is our specialty, and we love building new connections and making beautiful photo and video content for our clients!

If you need a friend and a timeout from the social media content creation craze – I’m here for you!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

For me, I had to unlearn many of my corporate habits and mindset to become successful at running my own freelance business.

In the corporate world working long hours, doing more than what was asked, and saying “yes” to additional projects helped me succeed by advancing into management roles faster.

However taking that mindset into freelancing was disastrous! Working extra hours, saying yes to whatever clients asked, and doing more by sending a client 50 images when the project only said 20 meant I ended up spending more time while earning less and on the fast track to extreme burnout.

The hardest part of the business process for me was learning how to value myself and my time so that I could set a reasonable pricing structure and wasn’t constantly underpricing my work and over working myself.

I also was lucky enough to work under some excellent leaders in my corporate roles. When you have great leadership around you their experience will help navigate the waters so everything runs smoothly. However, starting out at freelancing I was brand new with zero experience and my clients were too. So when everyone involved is clueless it’s not a great recipe for success. The more experience I started gaining, the more experienced clients I was able to land and then I really started enjoying the production process as it become more streamlined and smooth sailing from start to finish.

Now on larger projects I work on production sets with crews and I have learned that is where the real magic and fun happens because you have so many experienced talented creatives collaborating together!

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

I turned my side hustle into my fulltime career!

When I got started a I had a demanding fulltime corporate job but had purchased a photography course so I would wake up at 5am to do one hour of studying every day. Then on the weekend I would practice taking photos with my camera.

As my confidence grew I started posting on Facebook to see if anyone would be willing to let me practice taking photos for free. I still worked fulltime, but started scheduling any free shoots I could on the weekends.

One day I delivered a few portrait photos I had done for free, and the lady loved them so much she Venmo’d me $100. In that moment I felt like I had hit the lotto!

I had my corporate salary so I wasn’t focusing on income, but the thought of having a paid client was a win. From that point on I started charging for my work and as my experience increased I raised my prices. I felt like I was living a double life with my corporate job by day and photography on the nights and weekends. I reached a point when I was booked 3 months out for photoshoots and was hitting a ceiling in my business due to I was so limited on time for photoshoots.

I knew if I could dedicate more time to freelancing then I would be able to earn more. So I took a leap of faith and resigned from my corporate role to freelance fulltime. I didn’t have a niche so I started saying yes to any paying gig I could get and my schedule was booked with the most random series madness photoshoots with weddings, a Christmas lights patent product shoot, baby announcements, family portraits, a fire works show, and real estate listings.

Once I had recurring revenue coming in, I started focusing on gaining clients with larger budgets but not focused on any niche. Through word-of-mouth referrals I was able to work with several large corporate clients with retainer agreements. I realized I had quit my corporate job only to build a business working for corporate clients so I was basically right back to where I started, but learned a lot in the middle.

That’s when I decided to take the leap again. This time teaming up with my business partner Cassie, to focus on building the business of our dreams working with people and brands that we love (because we have a tendency to become best friends with our clients), and traveling to inspiring places to create beautiful photo and video content for our clients!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naia_creative