We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Lawson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

For me, success has come when I leave space for my staff and clients. Sure, each session has a timeline for the day and an order to things, but the women that come into my studio are there to fall deeper in love with themselves. When a client needs something not “on the schedule”, the schedule can wait. I’ve had multiple clients come in and need to sit and talk out their feelings for an hour before we even start hair and makeup, or need to process and decompress after their shoot because of something happening in their lives. Many have had a deep inner and outer emotional connection to an image from their shoot. My boudoir session is so much more than just taking the photos and selling the products. The whole goal is to have you see yourself in a real and raw perspective so you can see and FEEL how beautiful you are, inside and out. Sometimes, that includes some inner work too, and I welcome it with open arms. Those emotions will come through in your images as well!

I have always made it my top priority to make my home-studio a safe space. Nobody ever really knows what anyone else is going through! So if you come in needing to cry, or needing to dance around and get energy out, or everything in between, DO IT! I encourage it! Your session day is YOURS.

I’ve known photographers that consider this to be crossing the line between personal and business, Luxury and not Luxury. For me, self-love work is my specialty. I’ve learned that leaving space for whatever the day has in store for us is how I do it best and it’s what everyone needs. Success has always come from facing the realities of the present, being honest about what I’m dealing with, and discovering ways to love myself even more through the process. I encourage my clients to do the same, and I believe that is where my success in my career has come from.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Some random things about me: My name is Sarah, I’m 30 years old and have been photographing since I was in high school. I have a wonderful husband and two little girls that are my whole heart and soul. My favorite movie is Emperors New Groove. I have a deep connection to music and love singing and having dance parties with my family!

In 2012, I started getting more involved in photography, but wasn’t surrounded by super supportive people. It remained a hobby for a while because of that. I then got an opportunity to become a second wedding photographer for a well known photographer nearby, and leaped at the chance! I mean, whats more fun than photographing love, right?? I was with her for 2 years and it was an amazing experience. I realized though that it drained me seeing any of our wedding couples a year later, already split up. Now all the photos we took were ones that they hated by default and never wanted to look at again. I realized that I wanted to photograph in a way that everyone was left uplifted and empowered for years to come after their shoot.

As my self-love, confidence-building journey began, I started shifting those that I let in my life to be only those who loved me as I was and supported me and my passions. I met my now husband and realized he is the MOST supportive man I’ve ever known. He encouraged me to take my dreams by the reins and make it happen! Which is exactly what I did. I’ve now been doing luxury boudoir full time for about 4 years and it has been the most incredible experience!

I have a home studio just outside of La Quinta, CA and can travel anywhere from there to LA or San Diego. A session day includes professional hair and makeup, a 90 minute boudoir experience session (fully pose guided!), access to our 150+ item client closet, professional retouching, and a personal reveal/ordering appointment that same day! Typically our session days run from 11am-5:30pm with a 2 hour break after your session time. When you go on my website, there is a link that takes you to our boudoir magazine. There you can find all the information on session days, prep, pricing, testimonials, etc. At the bottom of our magazine, there’s a button that allows you to choose your date and book your session!

I absolutely love our products! We have luxury albums that are gorgeous and amazing quality, wall art such as canvas prints and metal wall prints (my personal fave!), digital collections, polaroid boxes, retro viewers (a client fave!), and so much more! Every collection can be customized to exactly what you want to take home with you.

Our studio is a one of a kind safe and fun environment for every woman that walks through that door. I capture you in posing, but also in the raw. If you bust up laughing at something while not in a pose, I capture it. If you go to relax from a pose and you look gorgeous just sitting there, I’ll tell you not to move and I’ll capture it. The whole session is focused on helping you see yourself from an outside perspective! You’ll probably be nervous coming in, who wouldn’t be?! As we go through the experience, that will disappear and we will have so much fun! And remember, this session is meant to help you fall deeper in love with yourself AS IS. You don’t need to already be confident before your shoot. There’s nothing you need to do prior other than have fun putting your looks together, and be ready to be pampered! So come as you are, and feel how stunning you are. You deserve it!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I am very passionate about the human body. The way it moves, the way it can speak, the way its kept alive and connected, sometimes in ways that nobody understands! Capturing that for each individual woman is such a creative outlet for me. Being able to express the underlying emotions through one image and a movement is just so incredible.

But more importantly, what keeps me going is that EVERYONE. DESERVES. TO. FEEL. BEAUTIFUL. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you look like, what you’ve been through, where you’re at in life.. you will always deserve to feel beautiful in your own skin! That’s what I’m here for. To show you that those downfalls in life do not define what you’re worthy of. You are worthy of feeling gorgeous. You’re worthy of feeling worth it! You’re worthy of receiving all the amazing things. You deserve to love on yourself and take care of your needs too! It’s so easy to get lost in the routine of life, going above and beyond for your boss, your kids, your spouse, your family, and anyone else! This specific experience is to highlight you. Because everyone deserves to have a moment in the spotlight.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I have a VIP Facebook group of some awesome badass women!! We have almost 1k members and it’s been a great space! I schedule posts out for the week, go live every chance I can, and have my admins post as well. Posts are anything from my work, specials/sales, etc… to random, fun posts to learn more about our members. Past clients will post testimonials and new clients are able to ask for prep advice and more! I’m really proud of the space we’ve created.

I also have an email list. This is super important to have because who knows what could happen to Facebook. It’s becoming restrictive and limited, so the email list is a backup of communication should it be necessary. The email list gets a monthly newsletter from the studio and sent any updates to policies or products.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.boudoirbysarahmich.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/boudoirbysarahmich
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/boudoirbysarahmich