The Thomas Sawyer Podcast

I've wanted to have Amber on the podcast for so very long and things finally lined up where we were able to make it happen. Mainly I finally reached out because even I still get insecure about asking people. We hopped on the mics and talked about her finding photography in high school, creating work to be viewed in person vs online, being the only young black woman in the room, and being a creative who works a 9-5. Great talk!

One of my friends gives me solid constructive feedback that I try to implement as quickly as possible. The thing she said to me most recently is, “I’d like a better picture of your work – not so much the finished product, but what do the clients of a Cleveland videographer actually look like.” So I immediately shot a text to a client of mine who’s down for anything and here we are. Today’s guest is Ryan Young, the CEO and vision of the Young Team. We get into the nitty gritty of bridging the gap between creative and corporate, running a business in the midwest, and challenging your creativity. Great talk!

Living in Cleveland means that Lauren and I both spend quite a bit of time in the car and we typically use these windows of time to talk throughout the day. On this day, we got into a pretty heavy talk about perfectionism, how it manifests in our generation, and our perception of it’s manifestation in older generations. 20 minutes into our car-ride phone call I had to stop Lauren and said, “Wait, this is a podcast.”

There are two types of people you can interview; ones who come strictly to answer the questions asked of them and ones who want to have a dialogue. Ylonda was very much the latter. She came ready and open to talk about her experiences of her childhood, her marriage, her career, and her health – and she didn’t shy away from engaging me on any topics either. Absolutely loved this talk!

I’ve met and/or talked to quite a few people in my lifetime and I have yet to find someone with a more coveted job than Greg. He spends his days getting kisses and giving belly rubs to puppers of Cleveland, Ohio and occasionally beyond. I want to sit down to see what that life was like and also hear more about all that he’s doing to help destigmatize negative stereotypes for Pitbulls. Great talk!

I haven't seen my friend, Madeline, in quite some time because she's been traveling the country playing music so it was nice to sit down with her for an hour or so and chat. We talk about essential self and social self, fear, and insecurity. Great talk!

I love talking with charismatic people. We always end up steering away from main topics on tangents that leave me laughing. Those are my favorite people to interview. Kayla is definitely a charismatic person and, honestly, you need to be if you're going to be a wedding photographer. I loved chatting with her about her work, traveling all over the country in a camper for her project 50 Shoots in 50 States, and the crazy way she met my best friend. Great talk!

We all need someone to push us to be the best version of ourselves that we can be, but how hard do we need them to push? For me, it’s as hard as humanly possible. I don’t want someone to care about my feelings – I want them to care about my future. Lauren is my someone and, man, does she push me. This week I was reflecting on that and realized just how vital that is in my life so I asked her to sit down so we could talk about it.

Always interesting interviewing someone whose use to being the one who asks the questions. I asked JD to be one of the first guests on my podcast in season one, but due to my inexperience I completely screwed up the audio and the talk was lost. In addition to discussing the harsh realities of starting a podcast, we talked about being vulnerable and allowing yourself to take a step back from things without the fear of losing momentum. Great talk!

I went into this conversation with one goal – apologize. Mariangela and I met through Instagram years ago and at the time I wasn’t in the best of mental states. Long story short, I snapped at her and I wanted to say sorry and what better way then to do it publicly. We also got into her story – growing up in Venezuela, moving to the states, finding her passion for photography, and dealing with abuse. A very deep and honest conversation!