Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kassy Menke. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kassy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned through practice, hard work, exploring creativity, classes/school and having some awesome mentors/teachers in my life.

Knowing what I know now, I think it would have been possible to have expedited the process but I am not sure that I would have wanted to. I am thankful for all the steps, lessons and people that have been involved in my journey. I am thankful for the “not so successful” moments because I was able to reflect and learn from them.

I think the skills that have been the most essential to me are to keep learning and never think that someone else can’t teach you something new in a field you are already versed in. I feel like we can all learn so much from each other and when you think you know everything, you close yourself off to so many other perspectives and opportunities.

There are always obstacles that can stand in the way and there are new ones popping up all the time but two off the top of my head are just a simple lack of motivation when I am not feeling well and budgeting. Sometimes things can get expensive and that can pose a challenge. I think every person has dealt with these in one way or another in their journey.

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?

Well let me just give a quick overview. I am a stage manager in live theater/performance, photographer (Kasandra Faith Photography), writer/reviewer (currently on medium.com) and an actor (freelance).

I like to wear different hats because I have multiple passions in life that I want to work on and pursue. I have always loved creative things but really didn’t think of it as a profession until my Jr. College days. That’s when I realized that I could turn my hobbies/passions into possible careers.

I think every artist/creative/professional all have their own strengths & weaknesses and I think we all have our own styles. For example, I love to shoot both digital photography and film. I think each medium has a different look. So why only stick to one when I love both? But not every photographer does this and that is totally okay!

I’m not sure what you mean by “what problems could I solve for my potential clients” because I think that is something that has to be dealt with in the moment or when in conversation of a possible collaboration. I guess I can say that I would do my best at solving whatever the issue is at hand and if I can’t solve the issue, I will reach out to others that might have a better solution than me. I know I don’t know everything and there are plenty of other people in the world that I can learn from.

I don’t think I have any one thing that I am most proud of when it comes to a specific project that I can think of at the moment. I will say though that I am proud of myself for continuing to try and work in my passions and hopefully be spreading a little bit of joy into other people’s lives through my work.

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

Yes! But some of them weren’t really even around yet. For example: social media groups in the fields you want to be working in. Back when I started in photography and wanted to take it more seriously, there weren’t really many photo groups on social media to be a part of and they have been such a huge help recently when looking to connect with other creatives, looking for advice or even just wanting to see other peoples work. This goes for so many different careers/interests! It is not just limited to photography.

Another thing I would have liked to have utilized more was reaching out to those around me in my circle and seeing if they knew of anyone I could talk to and learn from in the fields I wanted to get more into. I did this a few times back in the day but now in my professional career, I find myself doing it a lot more and with more confidence. You can always learn something new from others! I have learned a lot of the time, people find it flattering if you reach out to them expressing interest in their work and wanting to learn a little bit more about their process and if they have any tips & tricks to share.

I am sure there are many others but those are the two I can think of at the moment.

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

Yes. That your professors/teachers aren’t always right (especially if it is a personal opinion based response). I know this might be a hot-take and some will disagree with me but I had a moment in college where I had a professor tell me that some of my work was not worth my time and that if I wanted to make any money or success that I should stop doing what I am doing and pivot to something else. I am paraphrasing that conversation but I am so glad that I did not listen to this professor. They broke me down and I felt really bad about it. It really did make me question my skills, knowledge and creativity. After talking with some close people in my life and venting it out, I realized that it was just his opinion and that it doesn’t have to rule over whether or not my work had value. I had to love my work and I did. I even wrote an article about this particular moment to hopefully encourage others to keep creating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kasandrafaithphotography.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kasandrafaithphotography/
• Other: https://kassy-menke.medium.com/ https://linktr.ee/kassymenke

Image Credits
Lindsay Morrison (The image of me looking at my camera) Her Instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/lmorrison59/ Christy Meyers (Cell phone image of me in the tech booth at Actors Co-Op of Hollywood) Kasandra Faith Photography