Marina Williams – TMPB EP. 36
December 2, 2022
On this weeks episode of That’s My Personal Business we have the one and only Marina Williams!
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Marina Williams is a 25 years old, creative portrait photographer based in Salt Lake City Utah. She studied photography in college while running a photo business on the side, and after college was offered a job shooting full time for a kids clothing company in Utah. She worked there for a year and then left to be freelance! She’s built a HUGE following on Tiktok and Instagram of creatives and photographers over the last few years, and has now tailored her platform to revolve around photography and business advice for other creatives.
On this episode Marina is talking all things community and continually growing as an artist and educator. We are also pulling back the curtains on what her success + growth have been like on Social media. She shares what it’s been like to grow so quickly on the internet, and on an app as new as Tik Tok. It was amazing to have such a candid conversation about something we view as nothing but positive in this industry.
Marina opens up about the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of Social Media fame. She shares honestly about what it’s been like both personally and in business, and how she’s handled both sides of the coin. In addition to all her photo talent, this year Marina Williams started moving into more of an educator realm in her business! It has been an incredible shift to watch from an outside perspective- and this shift has included building a variety of incredible resources for her audience. Including her community Made to Make! We’re so lucky that in this episode she shares her tips and tricks for those looking to break into the biz.
One of our favorite takeaways from Marina Williams was her perspective on copying vs. inspiration:
“My favorite thing is seeing people recreate my photo shoots. I love when they tag me and they say “look, I tried what you did!” Or they post a video or message me.
Just seeing people taking my ideas and trying it themselves to kind of experiment and get better at photography is the most the biggest compliment, the most inspiring thing. Every time someone tags me a TikTok and tells me, “oh I was inspired by Marina and I did this!”, I save it to my little collection. I look back on them, it makes my day, seriously.
I feel like people really only talk about how much they hate people copying them, and I’ve definitely been there too. I think there’s a difference between copying and replicating and pretending that things were your own idea versus being inspired by. I’ve definitely had my fair share of people rip off my photo shoot ideas down to the caption and pass it off as their own, which really hurts my feelings, but I don’t ever say anything about it. I just move on.
I just think that happening is so minuscule in comparison to the beginner photographers– the young kids that just got their first DSLR and don’t know how to use it and message me, kind of like, “Hey I saw what you did! Such a cool idea, I’ve never done something like that. I never thought to take self portraits and I wanted to give it a try. Look how it turned out, what you think?” And I want to encourage that as much as possible. I don’t know, I just think the world needs more art. I think that if you’re not being like, territorial about everything you do, you’re just going to encourage people to support you more and they’re not going to feel afraid to do so.
I feel like the reason I’ve been able to get a loyal following is because I try to make them feel like not to be afraid to message me or be inspired and recreate my stuff. At least I try to.”
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One of our favorite pieces of advice- shoot everything. Everything that makes you uncomfortable, whether that’s low light, crazy poses, or artificial light. Marina shares how the greatest tip for growth is to make ourself uncomfortable in our work!
This is an incredible episode with lots of honesty, insight, and education- perfect for any seasoned or aspiring photographer to dive into. You’re going to love it! See you in there, and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. xx
You can view Marina Williams’ work on her website, Tik Tok, and IG! Listen to our episode below or on Apple Podcasts!
