Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ryan Dearth. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ryan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?
I didn’t have much capital to start my business with in the first place, and honestly, I’m not sure I could have done it with much less. Looking back, I made a lot of good decisions to keep my overhead low and allow myself the emotional space to fail over, and over, and over again. The failure has helped me grow into the photographer that I am today. I continue to build failure into my practice now, which allows for more tremendous success as I learn from every mistake.
What I would change is the discomfort I had with reaching out for help from my community, peers, and the potential mentors I could have had. Learning to have advisors and champions has been one of the most challenging and positive parts of my career. I wish I had understood the opportunities that were available sooner – it could have significantly boosted the trajectory of my career. But I have to remember – we’re all learning, we’re all human.
Ryan, 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 have been doing photography as my profession for over a decade. Still, even before that, I’ve always focused on how people relate to one another, and what makes us similar and different. For this reason, I primarily work with people – doing portraits and lifestyle photography that centers on who we are, what we do, and why we do it. I work hard to collaborate with my clients and subjects to tell more complex stories that provoke profound questions and emotions and inspire change.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
I alluded to this in the last question – about building champions for your work. A champion, for a photographer, is someone who is either in a position to hire photographers or to influence those who hire them, who will recommend you and defend your work to get you the job. In a sense, it’s like highly targeted word-of-mouth marketing that repeats and repeats.
I’ve found that champions of my work have led to the biggest and best jobs I’ve ever had. Photo editors, creative directors, and art buyers all care deeply about their work and the art they’re creating, and trust is key to the process. Without knowing you, it’s a huge risk to hand over a large budget for an important project. When you have an insider you’ve worked with before, it’s like having the inside track to building that trust – like being set up on a date by a close friend.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Photography wasn’t exactly a side hustle so much as a passion that I worked hard to grow into a business. I’ve enjoyed photography since I was young and considered going to art school to pursue it out of high school. It didn’t work out that way, but I continued with it through college. I eventually applied for an internship with a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist before finishing my non-art-related degree at CU Boulder. That internship changed my life. It helped me understand what it meant to run a legitimate photo business and that by doing so, I could be a functional, contributing member of society.
Once I graduated, I understood that I needed actual equipment, a portfolio, marketing, a business plan, etc. I couldn’t exclaim that I was a photographer and magically have clients! So I used my degree to get a corporate job that paid well, and I decided to work towards my goals for two years, at which point I would reassess my life and either continue in the corporate world or give photography a go.
Long story short, I carried my camera with me every day for two years, challenging myself to make work, bought the gear, built a website, and assisted people from whom I thought I could learn. Two years later, I was miserable in the corporate world and happily (if stupidly) jumped into my career in photography. I was not ready, but I got by on chutzpah and luck for the first year.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ryandearth.com
- Instagram: @dearth
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-dearth/
Image Credits
Miguel DeLeon – https://migueldeleonphoto.com/