Meet Amy Gray | Agency Owner, Photographer, Digital Marketer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Gray and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I wanted to stay home with my children, but I really needed to work, too (both financially and mentally). When our daughter was born, I was blessed to be able to take over my mother-in-law’s already successful hotel and resort childcare agency at that point (2005). I had never seen myself as an entrepreneur of any sort, previously, but when I found myself in charge of Sitterwise, the bug bit hard! It was just four years later that I started doing photography professionally, and then another six or seven years and I somehow had a marketing business on top of that. While the childcare agency was an outgrowth of my mother-in-law’s personality and interests, photography and marketing were reflections of what *I* love to do. I remember a fun day as a child when I organized my friends to publish a newspaper on my mom’s old typewriter. I was editor of my high school paper, always the family picture-taker and an avid scrapbooker. Photography, communication, and marketing just come naturally for me, and I’m so thankful that I get to do these things for my “job.” I almost always feel like I’m playing, not working.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I love beach photography so much that I am really sad when there’s an especially pretty sunset and I don’t have a shoot scheduled. I remember being terrified before my first few beach sessions, because photography on the beach comes with some big challenges for a new photographer. In time, I’ve learned strategies to make the most of every type of lighting situation, to wrangle large groups, to pose families with little ones and families with adult children, and (most of all) to somehow bring out that special smile that captures the personality of my subject. Figuring all of this out meant a lot of trial and error, and I’m always looking for ways to improve my craft. Digital photography is a dynamic art, with new cameras, lenses, and software available regularly. I enjoy finding out what new tools can take things to the next level and then working them into a system that is doable at scale. Apart from that, I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is the importance of persistence, even when it seems like business growth is slow. I determined to be consistent in my marketing early in my photography career, and that consistency paid off. Marketing really is like one of those old-fashioned merry-go-rounds. At first, it takes a ton of effort to make the thing move, but as it picks up speed, less and less effort is required, and you reap the benefits of your faithfulness to the plan.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Easy! Coronado! A week at the Beach Villages or the new Shores property at the Hotel del Coronado would be incredible, and if they wanted to relax, we wouldn’t need to go far. I would suggest renting bikes, rollerblading along Mission Beach, touring the museums in Balboa Park, and of course doing a photo session on the beach at Coronado or Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach! We would need to include a trip to Seaport Village and a tour of the Midway and maybe the Star of India, too.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Stephanie Nivinskus and I met in Forest Home Family Camp’s Craft Cabin, where all of our kids were busy creating mementos of our weekend at camp. We were both delighted to stumble across another entrepreneur and to be able to talk shop with a new friend. Stephanie’s business, Sizzleforce Marketing, is a carefully curated team of fractional CMO’s, digital marketing strategists, content marketers, copywriters, website designers and developers, branding experts, and social media marketers. We had a lot to talk about! Stephanie has invited me to attend a number of business conferences over the last several years, and I’ve learned so much and grown as a business owner through her encouragement. The last time we attended a conference, we ended up ditching most of the sessions to hang out in the hotel room, enjoying the uninterrupted peace and quiet and working together on both of our websites. It’s astonishing what we got done in those few days of focused collaboration.

Website: amygrayphotography.com

Instagram: amygrayphoto

Linkedin: amycothrangray

Facebook: amygrayphotography