We were lucky to catch up with Nicole O’Connor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nicole, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today 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?

If someone had told me when I was a kid that I would be doing what I love in the creative industry and earning a full-time living from this work, I think that it would have helped me open my eyes to more possibilities earlier in my life and to more of those opportunities that were in line with my passions, even if they came with some risk. While this path – of walking away from a full-time job with benefits – certainly held some challenges in my journey into this creative field, I would not trade it for anything. It took time to grow and develop within the field and to learn from those who were more experienced. I also learned to not be afraid of asking questions and to follow my gut at times, while having respect and empathy at the forefront of my projects and my approaches to storytelling.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My passion for preservation of stories began at an early age with documenting the gatherings of family and friends with a camera in my hand. I have always been fascinated by stories of the past and our ability as humans to be able to preserve someone’s likeness in time, whether through photographs or video. I actually did not directly start in the film and photography field though. I entered a graduate program in Human Development and Family Studies where I focused my graduate career on building knowledge as a Marriage and Family Therapist. I learned the importance of utilizing resources to guide individuals, couples, and families through their experiences and while I was truly grateful for the opportunity to be trusted with these individuals’ stories, I realized that I wanted to build further upon my passion and interests in helping individuals and families preserve their stories creatively, rather than through a therapist-lens. I entered a graduate program in Arts Administration in which I learned not only about organizational development and the positive role of the arts in our society, but more importantly the value of following your passion creatively. For me, this led to a career as a photographer and filmmaker.

Through my program I was able to find an internship with a Boston photography studio which I continued working with for a few years after my program. Looking back, I truly valued this experience as it helped me better understand what it really took to run a business – a lot of hard work, pivoting when needed, and most importantly passion. Right before the pandemic, I joined forces with my husband – who had already been working in the field with another production company – and we created our commercial studio, Sevenpair Studios. Through this studio we aim to visually support nonprofits, foundations and businesses who are passionate about their work and who are making a positive impact on their communities. I also created our sister site, Shanachie (sean-uh-key) Studios, which focuses on family legacy work with the goal of preserving the stories of family members and their loved ones through visual heirlooms.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Working as a creative has been challenging yet rewarding all at the same time. It has been challenging in realizing that the success of your business is ultimately up to you, the owners. This includes creating a website, building your portfolio, reaching out to potential clients, balancing your role as business owners and as spouses – all things that we have learned and in which we are still learning and growing. Working as a creative is rewarding in that you have the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life who invite you into their homes, businesses, and communities, and who trust you with their story. It is fulfilling in that you can push yourself to learn something new each day and to grow in the skillset you want to pursue. While every year, month, day is different, I love that no day is the same.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My husband and I actually formed our studio right before the pandemic and we realized pretty quickly that we had to pivot in our approach to supporting our clients once it began. We could no longer film in-person so for many of our early projects, we developed ways to capture digital recordings for virtual galas or events. While different from what we were used to with in-person filming, with real people in their actual environments, I think it still helped provide connections with various communities and opportunities to help support each other during this time. We also learned to work together as studio partners and started to develop processes for how to run our business and ways to approach projects moving forward. With the uncertainty of the world at that time and realizing that we had to pivot pretty quickly, I think it helped build confidence by simply allowing us to try new things right away and to know that it would be okay if it failed. We would just try again, together.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sevenpairstudios.com
• Other: www.shanachiestudios.com

Image Credits
Sevenpair Studios