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

Hi Spencer, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My journey to running my own business started with a desire to experiment with my own ideas and just generally follow my interests. Over time, I realized that being good at a craft, in my case, photography, was only the first step in making money with that skill. The second part of that equation was developing systems for the business.

Nowadays I look at any business, as comprised of roughly 40% competence at the service you’re offering and 60% the process of doing the work to get paid, and that would include all your admin systems, your marketing, your client management, and so on.

It definitely took me a few years to understand that concept, though, and I see a lot of other artists who struggle to recognize that as soon as they attempt to make money with their craft, that is now a business, and to be successful you will have to learn business skills in addition to being good at your craft.

Now that I see them as two separate links in the chain I’ve learned to enjoy both sides of the work, which has been great.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My wife and I actually have three businesses in the visual media space, an adventure lifestyle brand which is basically my name-brand, a design and hospitality photography brand called SALT HAUS, and a drone photography brand called Sacramento Drone Photography, which we just launched last month.

My work in the adventure lifestyle space is focused on capturing adventure in a more raw, emotive way, while maintaining the classic laws of timeless composition. It’s a combination of the good life we all long for, those campfires under open skies with stars overhead, with the real life of adventure where motorcycles break down and you end up dirty and exhausted miles from anyplace with only a packet of tuna for dinner. In my work I try to bring both sides of that story to create more emotive, timeless, story-full images. The romantic and the rough, when brought together, tell a story that all of us can relate to, and in some way, we all long for.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
In my area I’d first get coffee at my local spot, Pause Coffee House, which is where I do a lot of my laptop work, then we’d head up highway 50 to Lake Tahoe, which remains probably my favorite place on earth. Depending on the season, and the person, we’d either ride motorcycles or go paddle boarding, and then stay at either the Coachman Hotel or Black Bear Lodge in South Lake. Returning to Sacramento, I’d make sure we got in a coffee at Temple Coffee in Folsom, and sushi at Kru and dinner at Canon. We’d have to stop by Origami in East Sacramento for the Japanese fried chicken at least once, and the ramen at Kodaiko downtown would also be on the list.

One of the preferred choices for an evening for myself and my family is paddle boarding on Lake Natoma. In the hour prior to the sun setting nearly everyone leaves, which is a shame for them, but leaves the lake to us when it’s at its most beautiful.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My wife, Codi Backman certainly is at the top of the list for her belief in me, and that we could make a life of being self-employed work, even in dark times when I doubted it. She’s always been the most encouraging person regarding my work.

My family also has been deeply involved in a lot of my lifestyle and adventure work. Because of the work I do, I often pull my brothers and Dad into my adventure and motorcycle shoots, and they’ve gone on some crazy adventures with me.

Website: spencerbackman.co

Instagram: @spencerbackman

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerbackman/

Twitter: @spencerbackman

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8ISJSYyVhYEJeuVoj-JjZQ

Other: https://www.salt.haus/ https://www.sacramentodronephotography.com/

Image Credits
Caleb Kuhl Abram Backman

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