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

Mariah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I currently work for myself full-time in my creative work but it was a long road to get here.

The journey of my creative work started when I graduated with my Bachelors of Arts in Photography in 2014 in Denver, the goal was to be freelance from the start but plot twist – it’s not that easy! I was working at Office Depot print department while juggling 3 other photography freelance jobs for different companies. I was exhausted and worked myself sick.

I took a break from my creative work and worked “normal jobs” in many different places (I moved a lot) for a few years including print project planner, art museum educator & receptionist, shop manager, and career advisor. Even though these jobs were not photography jobs, they taught me a lot about what I know today with branding, social media management, and design which leads me to where I am today as a full service creative company.

In 2018 I graduated with my Master of Arts in Creativity Studies, got married, and moved to Ventura California. This is where I really started to shine as I felt like I found my people, my place, and my element. I built a long list of social media and photography clients before October 2020 when my job at the time was hanging on by a thread and I could finally say “Okay, jump!”

Now I make a full-time living running Soul & Savor Creative Co. and I couldn’t be happier! I am also launching coaching services focusing on helping creative business owners with productivity and time management.

Mariah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in Southern Utah and have always been a very curious and creative child. Growing up I was always getting my hands into something fun and creative but loved structure and organization. In high school got really into photography. My Step-Dad was the Editor of our local paper and he would have me go with his photographers and shadow them so my photography journey really started in photojournalism. My parents encouraged me to go to school for photography and I was accepted into The Art Institute of Portland. I ended up transferring and graduating from The Art Institute of Colorado in 2014. My focus in school was food and real estate photography.

I currently live in Camarillo, CA where I run Soul & Savor Creative Co. where I help businesses in hospitality and wellness with photography, social media, content creation, and brand development. I love what I do because I am always learning new creative skills and helping businesses feel confident with their brand and image!

I also have a huge passion for the creative process and teaching. In 2018 I graduated with my Master of Arts in Creativity Studies where I focused on the openness of creativity in social environments and studied a lot of time-management and productivity skills as well. This has led me to launching coaching services where I help creatives with time management and productivity (creativity meets structure!)

Owning a business takes a lot of growth and changes, it’s not always what you thought it would be. I’m proud of myself for always thinking ahead, keeping good relationships, and changing my business with grace when I need to.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My advice to starting on social media is to do just that….start!

I think people get really intimated by always being “aesthetic” which sounds funny coming from someone whose job is to literally make things pretty and aesthetic. There are so many layers to Instagram including posts, stories, reels, now threads. If you are not in the industry it’s difficult to keep up but you will get there with actually jumping in and practicing!

Start by being authentic, post about you, behind the scenes of your business. Also, connect with others! Comment, share, like.
In time you will start to build a true following and THEN you can start on the aesthetics once you are comfortable with the world of social media.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

My favorite marketing tip is to just shoot your shot and reach out! Reach out with an Instagram message, email, wherever you can to reach your potential clients and make that connection. There is a big difference between being genuine and authentic and then just being spammy.

It’s intimidating because nobody likes to be rejected and you WILL get rejected but once it happens a few times you honestly get used to it. The worst they can say is “no” but the best they can say is “I have been looking for someone like you! Let’s set up a time to chat!”

Last year there was a reality TV celebrity from my favorite show who owns a food company and I had the random thought to just message her on Instagram explaining that I was a food photographer, interested in her product and thought I could help her brand. 2 months later I got a message back that she was interested!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mariahgreen.com and www.soulandsavor.com
• Instagram: @mariahgreencreative or @soulandsavor

Image Credits
I took all the photos