We were lucky to catch up with Isaiah Gills recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Isaiah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

As a business owner, I am happier than I would be working a regular job. I have been both in a regular job and have tried to make photography a full time job. My journey did not start with photography, but I am glad it made it here. I graduated college in 2017 from Wagner College with a bachelors degree in physics not knowing what I would do with it. I got in to coaching mainly because it was all I really knew and a local program needed some help. Coaching gave me the drive to keep improving on something that benefited someone other than myself. Knowing that coaching recreational programs wouldn’t pay the bills, I started substitute teaching that eventually turned into full time teaching. I taught high school math for a year, that helped me stay connected still with the younger generation. After a year of teaching I started working in a gym as a sports performance coordinator. Working in a gym brought me to the pandemic, which officially opened my eyes to how big businesses are ran and how employees are not cared for. I couldn’t just stop working and letting bills pile up so I had to keep training and doing what I could. The first month I just let the realization of what was happening set in, but after that month I had to get up and get going. The same amount of time that I used to give to other companies, I began to use towards myself. It was not easy at all but I felt that it was more worth it in the end. This was my way of thinking and working for a while, and I refused to go back to what I just left. When the busy season started to slow down, I had to get a consistent job that would help pay for the bills but still give me freedom to do what I wanted to do. I started working in warehouses on night shifts, so that I could hustle during the day. Over time that started to stretch me thin and I wasn’t sleeping enough. I moved to Pennsylvania, where I struggled with finding a good job. I bounced around from warehouse to handyman work to whatever I could find or do. At this time, photography started to become a love of mine so I would fit that in as well with my schedule. This time, while working another night shift warehouse job, I finally decided that unless its on my terms, I would never work for another person again. I did not want to sell my soul to another employer, just to be treated unfairly or work my life away. My plan was a to find a job that would take care of my bills and also gave me enough freedom for myself. There was no way that I wanted to spend every moment of my life working for someone else and their goals, when I have dreams and goals of my own.

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

I am Isaiah Gills from Baltimore, Maryland, currently residing in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. I am a freelance photographer, that doesn’t hold myself to one specific niche. I have done sports, events, headshots, and portraits, really anything that has been brought my way. I have always wanted to be involved with content of some kind, but I never really knew what. I used to record all of my sports training videos with my phone and also edit them on my phone. I would make full on highlights just with footage from my phone or a collection of phones. Finally being able to have a legit camera in my hands pushed me to a level that I never saw myself at until now. My ultimate goal is to capture things comfortably and naturally. I am proud of my growth in this industry because I truly didn’t know where I would end up or how this would turn out. I have so much more to learn and so many more goals to crush, I am open to ideas from clients to fellow content creators. I never want anyone to feel like their ideas do not matter.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building an audience on social media nowadays can be super tough. All of the different algorithms can be overwhelming when you are trying to use multiple socials at a time. My main social platform is Instagram. Building my instagram presence took some time and consistency. With taking knowledge from my previous social media management role, I had to come up with a schedule of some sort. I needed to figure out when and what I was going to post. I made it a thing to post at least 4 times a week, if not once everyday. At this time, I was heavily using hashtags to get non-follower interaction. Because I was also just starting to get clientele, I had to give out a lot of deals to people. I had to be willing to do free shoots and give out cheap deals just so I could get my name out there. The more that I did, whether it was a random person or someone I knew, I knew it would be one more person or page shouting me out on social media. As time went on, I wanted to get a following purely off of my work, so I stopped using hashtags and relied purely off of who followed me at the time. Doing this meant that I would have to work little harder, but I was fine in doing so. I had to now post almost everyday. I needed the content to post everyday, whether it was a carousel or a single picture or video, something needed to be posted. The journey of social media engagement will never end unless media itself ends. Don’t get discouraged, just keep working. Whoever needs to see your work, will see your work.

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?

As a creative, we need rest. Our rest may look different from everyone else, because our work is also different from everyone else. Creatives are constantly thinking of either the work they are currently progressing through or their next project. There really isn’t a time that we aren’t “working” because we are always “working.” Sleep schedules are trash because ideas come at any time, shoots can be at anytime, edits need to be done same day, anything along the line of the business needs to be done. We are constantly working, so please be patient with us and allow us to have our time.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @GillsGallery_
• Facebook: GillsGallery
• Twitter: @YoungProspect24

Image Credits
Isaiah Gills of GillsGallery