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

Hi Samantha, thanks for joining us today. 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?

My journey to full time artistry starts off by taking a huge leap of faith, and filled with tons of fear. Back in 2017 I had enough of working my 9-5 and also juggling my side business and being a mom and mentally I just couldn’t handle my boss at that time. With a tiny bit of encouragement from my spouse I decided to up and quit with no plan whatsoever.

While I don’t recommend not having a savings or even a consistent business coming in before you pursue an artistic career full time I’m happy to say that paid off for me… eventually.

It took me years and year to build up my client base, and get myself to where I was actually being profitable and consistently bringing in enough income.

I do attribute my success to not having a choice but to make it work though.

When you are left with no choice you do that you got to DO!

I wish when I started pursuing this as a full time career that I would have charged what I actually needed to, and actually ran my numbers.

Pulling numbers out of thin air is not a good business practice! haha!

Samantha, 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 am a mom of 3, and have always had a passion for the creative side one way or another.

I always had a camera in my hand even back in Highschool, and in my very early 20’s my then boyfriend has surprised me with a DSLR and the rest was history!

My niche is motherhood and I am most known for my maternity portraits! Living in Florida I am BLESSED to get to create the most epic art for stunning mommas!

I strive to help women feel confident in their evolving bodies through each phase of motherhood from maternity to baby & beyond.

I am most proud of the impact I’m able to have on women and how they see themselves. It’s truly touching to hear such kind words and feedback from my momma’s and I think every single women should have at least one moment in their life that they truly feel like the goddess they are!

I love going with the flow and letting my creative freak flag fly and that means most of the time going into the ocean with my pants on, laying in dirt, climbing trees, and acting a fool to get the shot!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

There’s a few things that would immensely help the industries ecosystem and that would be:

1.Everyone has a budget, and everyone has a different opinion of what’s “affordable” or “too expensive ” – instead of saying things like ” looking for a cheap photographer ” or ” not looking to spend an arm and a leg ” just simply put what your budget is instead.

2. The easiest thing you can do for a local artist is tag them in their work you post, like their social media posts, interact with their social media pages, leave a google review ( of you’ve worked with them “.

These free acts help our small little businesses immensely!

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

There is no one set way to be successful.

There is not a specific way that you have to run your business.

You name it I’ve tried it and there was a point where I felt forced to run my business in a way that was nor serving me mentally and ultimately cost me clients as well!

Learn all the things, take bits and pieces of different business models and use what serves you and your clients the best at the end of the day.

Copying someone else’s business model or pricing is a surefire way to end up burnt out, and stressed out.

I’ve tried IPS, I’ve done shoot and burn.

I’ve gone from phone consultations and zoom meetings to not.

You learn as you grow and you learn to adjust as scenarios unfold.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.samanthahaynphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samanthahaynphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samanthahaynphotography
• Other: https://vimeo.com/samanthahaynphotography