Ep. 032 – Sam Guillermo: Fearlessness and Normalizing Normal

Matt Stagliano 0:23
I know that when we were out at WPPI, we didn’t have a chance to really hang out. We’re at Kayla’s VIP party, and you were shooting a lot, and I was really kind of hanging out. And we got to talking, and I immediately knew not only about the way you were dressed, but by the way that you talked. I was like, This cat’s pretty stylish. I want to talk to him in depth. So I’m glad you’re able to join me here. Thanks for being here,

Sam Guillermo 0:45
glad to be here, glad to be here.

Matt Stagliano 0:47
And you know, it was fun that evening where we were all hanging out in this amazing house. You got a picture of me in front of I don’t know if it was a real Rothko. I’m going to assume it was based on the rest of the house, but you got this picture that I was immediately in awe of, and one of the things that I saw throughout that entire night was your ability to connect with people instantly. And so I want to talk about that in a minute, but let’s first talk about your story. Give me a little bit of background, because outside of the stuff that I’ve read on the web, here’s always a bigger story there, right? So bigger story. Take me back as far as you want to take me back to, and then get me caught up, and I’ll sit here and take notes. Yeah, so I was born, um, yeah. First there were the dinosaurs.

Sam Guillermo 1:43
I guess my story begins early childhood, living my life, my creative medium, was actually more circled around music. Music was my forte. Music was my outlet. Music was all I did. I grew up in a very religious household. My dad is a pastor. I grew up a minister’s kid from Brooklyn, New York. If you pick up on my accent every now and again, if I say coffee or I’m going downstairs, you’re going to hear a little bit of it coming out. Growing up in New York, you know, big city, tons of opportunities for anything creative. Really did music as my primary gig for age 13 to 25 at 25 I got married, and I also thought to myself, well, I’m married now. I need to get a grown up job. So I did that, and I got myself a corporate gig, which for any creative who goes from doing creative from the get and goes into a cubicle and starts pushing papers. Is instant death. Between the five years that I did that, I also got in line into what I thought was going to be my future, which was following in my father’s footsteps, which was ministry, yeah, put my resume up there, went to school, got all the things. And then, um, I surely, I got a phone call and said, Hey, our guys moving to Germany, there’s going to be a vacancy. Can you fill it? And at first I was just like, I don’t, I don’t know. Like, I’m in Brooklyn, New York. We got the apartment. Like, everything’s kind of falling in line, but I’ve met I’ve reached the cap at corporate ladder like it’s I either leave this job and keep continuing climbing the corporate gig, or jump and take a risk. And ultimately, my ex and I jumped and said, Let’s go for it, and we uprooted our entire lives. Moved to Maryland, to a place where we knew nobody. Had nobody. All we had was a job, and because we no longer had to live in a 450, square foot apartment, we were like, yo, let’s start the family, because now we don’t have to put the baby in the sock drawer. And we did, and we can see that we had my son, and there’s a dip in here, and I promise it’ll get better for the listeners or viewers, but the dip happened at around the sixth month of my son being born, between a hodgepodge of things and just the perfect storm, I guess, having no tribe, focusing on work and not the relationship and everything else that was involved in that we decided to split, she kind of left and did the whole thing. And because my job was tied to my marital status, within 48 hours or more or less, I lost my son, my wife, my job, my chosen community, anything and everything that I knew, I lived in a Walmart parking lot for a little bit, and the only thing I had with me was my camera. And I was like, I don’t, I don’t qualify for anything out here. So I’m gonna take every gig, and I would shoot for food. Like, legitimately shoot for food. Like, I’d be like, Is there gonna be food there? Is there gonna be a buffet? That’s all you got. That’s all you have to say. I’ll be there. I would literally borrow friends computers to edit, and that would be my life. I would charge my camera in my car. I would drive to these places, oftentimes not knowing if I had enough gas to get back and kind of live my life that way for a while. And it wasn’t until somebody knocked on my windows. Like, Hey, you look familiar in my head. I’m going, huh, I hope not. Long story short, it being somebody from the LGBTQIA community that was part of a photo group on Facebook. They’re like, I’ve seen your work, and up until then, I’ve only done like, you know, street photography and like, landscapes and cityscapes and all that kind of stuff. They’re like, Oh, what are you doing here? I was like, Well, I live here, and this is, like, awkward exchange. Like, okay, then they leave, they come back an hour and a half later, and they’re like, Hey, I spoke to my husband. I would like to offer you our guest room. And like, uh, yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll do that. Immediately. They took me in, and they have three beautiful kids, husbands used to be in the Marines, and look like it. They start opening up about their lives and tell me stories and all this other stuff. And they end up telling me they’re part of the LGBTQIA community. They’re part of this. And that the third and I’m going, in my head, I’m going, Whoa, an entire community that I had othered, that I had marginalized, that I had made up my mind about in my previous life, are the first people in line to take me in, to feed me and see me get better, coupled with sitting down and being a student and pairing that With a lot of therapy, I ended up eventually shooting a boudoir session, asking my peers if it was any good. And they’re like, this is better than good. And I’m like, I have nothing to contrast this to, because I don’t know about this. Again, living in a religious household, being in a church world like I didn’t even know what boudoir I didn’t even know what the language was. I was like, What I What is this? I remember somebody told me, like, compared to other other other dudes, that’s what they they said, compared to other dudes. Like, they’re mostly fixated on genitalia, and it seems like you’re telling a story through your photos. And I’m like, Well, yeah, I kind of try not to look at people as objects and more like, in tune with their stories. And I’ve noticed the trend that a lot of the stuff that I used to piece into into my story, with the religious stuff, the music stuff, I tend to lean into it in the photo stuff. Like, for me, it’s not necessarily the subject matter, but the subject that’s more important to me. I get super excited about the subject. The subject matter really doesn’t matter to me. Like, if it’s a wedding, I don’t really care if it’s a wedding, it’s a wedding, but if I’m tied to your story, like you guys went through this thing, and you found you found yourselves again in you were hiking, and you know, you had broken your leg, and he picked you up and took you out of, you know what? I’m invested in the story now, so the moment that happens, I’m in, and that’s kind of what has been happening with every person that comes into the studio, whether it is a boudoir session, whether it’s a legacy video, whether it’s whatever it is, I get really tied to the story. And if people don’t tie into my story as well, and we figure out that we’re not really meant for each other, and we can’t tell each other stories The way that we need to or want to, then there’s a gazillion other creatives that I can shoulder tap, that that can that can cover it for but it’s much more about the subject than the subject matter for me, and that’s a little bit of my story. I mean, we can go in, in in Super depth about the caveats and in betweens there, because there was eight years of in betweens, uh,

Matt Stagliano 8:56
so there’s a lot I want to dig into. It was funny. I was just laughing about the corporate stuff because I did the reverse. I went from corporate to creative. I couldn’t imagine going from creative to corporate, and what that must have sucked out of your soul to be sitting there doing TPS reports every day and PowerPoint presentations and just knowing you want to play guitar or paint or take photos or whatever it is, you know, creatively. So one of the things that you had mentioned in there is you were shooting kind of anything and everything, street photography, anything that would show up on the camera. Do you feel like because that period of time where there was this beautiful naivete, and just like you didn’t know what you didn’t know, and you’re just learning as you go. Do you feel like that made you develop your voice faster? Or do you feel like it made it just I found my style. This is how. I want to shoot. This is how I want to tell stories. Was that even a thought in your mind? Well, I

Sam Guillermo 10:04
encourage everybody to kind of shoot everything in the beginning, especially because then you figure out what you like and what you don’t like, what invigorates you and what takes life away from you. Now it’s very rare, like I kept myself at around 12 weddings a year, if, if I do weddings, and I have to be, like, really invested in the story, it has to be something different, like, are we skydiving? You guys are going to do the sky, the vows skydiving? That’s that’s what I’m doing. That’s what I’m signing up for. Otherwise, I don’t want to do the same old, same old. Yeah, I look for for new experiences and things that’ll excite me in that regard. But like, I think, being a jack of all trades, master of none, in the beginning, especially let me know what I’m good at and what I’m not good at, and and allowed me to figure out what my strengths and weaknesses are. It also was an ego check too, because saying yes to everything and placing yourself in uncomfortable positions where you need not be in, and then realizing the hard way that you did not satisfy the needs of the client. That’s a lesson learned. I always tell people, go ahead, shoot everything in the beginning, fail fast and fail forward. Do all of that in the beginning, because you’ll eventually find the place where you’ll be comfortable at and I think some of the stuff that prepared me for that was wasn’t even in the music space, like, I came from a space where, like, you had to learn music on the fly. Like, immediately, I remember there was an MD, a music director at Madison Square Garden for a show that I went to a tent I’m sitting to attend to see the show. And I see an empty that I know, that I recognize on the phone, looking really, really nervous and agitated. But I just want to say hi from a distance, so I just yell his name and say hey. And he looks at me like with, thank God, like a relief. And hangs up with the person, and I’m going, Ah, like, like, I’ve seen that look before. And I’m going, this is not okay. And he goes, What are the odds that you can learn, like, maybe seven songs in an hour? And I’m going, what are we talking about right now? He’s, like, our guy got stuck in a snowstorm in Ohio. He wasn’t able to make it. Can you just play? I was like, I don’t even have sticks, bro. Like, what do you what’s going on and like that kind of go for it, trusting yourself with the the knowledge that you already have into scenarios that you don’t know what the outcome might be, kind of prepped me in the photo world as well, where, like, I would say yes to things that I maybe did not even know and jump in, like, the first video gig that I got, I knew nothing about video, and I was just like, yeah, yeah, no, I got you got no worry about it. I’ll cover the entire thing. It’ll be fine, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m like, driving at every light. I’m looking down, reading the like, the manual. Okay, all right, cool. I’m showing up an hour and a half early, just figuring out, okay, so my shutter speed needs to be 1/50 for, like, 24 frames a second, and I’m going, all right, cool. And this is, like, when the we were capped at like, half an hour for recording, and we had to, like, had to be ready to go and, like, just, like, hurry up and record again, that type of thing. So, yeah, I took a lot of risks, but eventually I found my niche, and I doubled down on it, and it was great. It’s beautiful. And a lot of people are scared to kind of do that, and they live this always in 10,000 things and never doubling down. But once you figure out what gives you life and what you’re passionate about and what drives the hunger, always double down. Once you find it, run after it, the

Matt Stagliano 13:59
fearlessness that you show in doing that, that ability to dive into that great void, just trust, like, that inner voice that you have like, I know I’m capable of shooting a video, I know I’m capable of playing on stage. I know I’m capable of it. That resistance wants to build up right where you want to throw up all over the place, and you’re like, Hey, dude, you’re really comfortable where you’re at. Why Fuck it all up now? Like they’re gonna know you’re an imposter, right? But there’s this, there’s this feeling in you like, yeah, I can I got this. I can do it that is more uncommon than you think. It’s that fearlessness where you’re able to dive in and trust yourself, right? I find that a lot of people don’t have that. They like to stay comfortable. They like to stay in a position where I know I’m safe, right? Or they do take things on and they’re not reading the manual in track. Offering, they just show up and they kind of wing it, and then they don’t meet the client expectations, right? You’d mentioned that that was a fear of yours, and I know even today, when I have a client come into the studio, I still get that feeling right? Years later, I know I’m going to do fine in the shoe, that there’s going to be stuff that comes out of it that’s great, but am I going to meet their creative vision? And I find that I have to often sit back and have this like all right self, they came to you because they like your stuff. Just do what you do. Just put all the other stuff aside and do what you do. And I love hearing those couple of stories in there about the wedding, about the band, because it does show your ability to just kind of throw it all on the line and move forward anyway. I think that, coupled with what I heard with hanging out in the Walmart Parker lot being taken in by by people, you’ve got this natural ability to connect with folks, and that human connection, that soul connection that you make with clients, is unrivaled in anything else. I think when you do get that invested in story, the work itself is better, and the viewer feels that, whether the viewer is the subject themselves or someone in Instagram land, right, they feel that connection. Do you feel like your background in ministry and in music and in corporate, all of those things that have combined to allow you to connect so quickly? Do you attribute any one of those as being more influential than another.

Sam Guillermo 16:46
I think peopling, if that’s a word, I think peopling is the greatest strength that any creative that does storytelling in any medium is their greatest asset. I’m an introvert, naturally, and it’s only in the last maybe couple, five or six years that I have forced myself to be an extrovert and put myself out there and start conversations and even the WPPI thing of us meeting Like I saw you in a YouTube video years ago, giving a tour of your studio space, and I almost fucking died when I saw you, because I was just like, oh shit. Like, like, I’ve met like, I’ve met John Mayer, Lady Gaga, all these people before, they were like, huge, huge, huge people. And I’ve never been like, fuck, like I’m I felt, I felt almost paralyzed not to approach you. And it was because, like I had done the almost like the the work a couple years ago of going, no stop telling yourself that go up to them, at least say hello. And I went up and I said hello, and I said, I just wanted to thank you, because I stole a shit ton of ideas from your studio, and I’ve applied them to my studio, and I just want to let you know I’m grateful that you put that up there, because otherwise I’d be stupid on all these little line items in my space and hit it off that way. And I think oftentimes as creatives, as business owners, and even just simply as people, we write ourselves off for not taking the jump. Yeah, I think my background in ministry, in corporate and all this other stuff has a lot of influence in the way that I am able to harness my vulnerability. But more than that, I think the fact that my family also, aside from me experiencing loss on a personal level, we went through bankruptcy. We also went without furniture and food for a while as well, in my personal in my like immediate family when I was a child, when you experience lack in that kind of space, you know that that’s not where you want to go back to. So any anything else, anything else is a better option than a no. So when you take an opportunity or you take a risk, you go the worst that can happen is that they say, No, the worst that can happen is that that door closes, but that one opens like that’s the worst thing that can happen, because you’ve already experienced loss, you already experienced the worst thing that could happen. So I think, coupled with all that stuff and experience, and when I do my workshops, and people ask me, Well, how do I become a better storyteller? Or whatever? I tell them go to therapy

Matt Stagliano 19:45
hearing your story about, you know, losing your marriage and your job and your home and everything all at once. That’s exactly what happened to me, in terms of, I lost my marriage, my. Job, my home, all within the same it wasn’t, you know, 48 hours, but it was in the same month. Ish, I started thinking in the same vein of, well, you know, this is, this is what happens. My life is done for what I realized, well, it can’t get any worse than this. Like you were saying, can’t get any worse than this. So take some time off. Figure out what you want to do. You’re not going to get this opportunity again. So really define what it is. And that’s when I picked up a camera and started shooting videos and started taking pictures. And you know, here we are, whatever 1012, years later, it was at that point, not only did I start therapy, right? It’s the greatest way to tell stories, but it also really started to instill in me the empathy and the sensitivity to other stories you get so jaded and comfortable in just kind of how your life is going, and you surround yourself with people whose lives are kind of going the same way, and you talk about the same kind of things, but when you go through an event or multiple events like that, and you have experienced significant loss, when you find that connection to somebody else, the conversation always goes somewhere else. It’s much deeper. It’s much more intimate. Some people will match your vulnerability. Some people will not, and that’s totally okay. It’s what you feel inside with sharing those parts of your story. And I found, for me, I used to be a very private person. I didn’t talk about anything. I was just more interested in keeping the conversation going, but never sharing anything about me, because I was so torn up on the inside, I was so full of shame and regret and depression and just confusion, that when I started to go through therapy and I started to peel back the layers in that onion and understand that, it started To feel good to unburden myself of all of this, or at least have someone here and not have that specter of judgment weighing over it right that you get from family or friends or buddies or whatever. I found that being able to share that gave me more power to be vulnerable in other aspects of my life, to open up when dating again, to get into another relationship and not make the same mistakes, to approach my clients, which I didn’t really have at the time, but they started to come along, to approach them in a different way, and what I found was that people thought that was unique, and I didn’t understand that part. When I started to think about it, it made me a little bit sad that more people weren’t like that. And so now, after 10 years of practicing this self awareness and really trying to understand how this whole meat bag works. It’s easy to spot when people are in pain. It’s easy to spot when they are very content, more peaceful or confused. And that is a skill that you develop, but it’s also a gift through just listening, and I hear you in the way that you speak about your subjects, in the way that you approach your work, that that vulnerability is a huge part. But I can also tell that you listen to the stories and are able to translate them through your art in such a way that other people can understand it visually without having to watch the video with the backstory, or read a blog article that the strengths and the beauty of your subjects comes through. It’s so readily apparent in your work. I fell down the rabbit hole of your Instagram earlier today and was looking through it, and I was just jaw drop at photo after photo, carousel after carousel, and I love how you intersperse quotes and inspiration in between all of it. It gave me such a sense of your personality and how much you’ve embraced this feeling of empathy and vulnerability that I just I wanted to recognize it secondarily. I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about that, especially as a male in boudoir, how developing that skill and that ability contributes to your work. Do you find that your clients are coming to you and then they find out about that. Or do you find that your reputation precedes you, personality wise, not necessarily artistically, and that people immediately feel safe and secure and seen and heard in your space? Can you talk about that a little bit?

Sam Guillermo 24:57
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Not gone on me that I’m I’m a man in a mostly female driven space, and it doesn’t come lightly, like the stories and the things that people come with are huge, and I don’t it’s a huge responsibility as well. Just like a couple months ago, the young lady came over and she said, I just finished a seven year long battle with my sexual assault case and that I just won. You are the first person I’m calling after the verdict. I want to get my power back. When you get that fucking inquiry and you go, oh shit, there’s it’s weighty. It’s weighty. I usually give everybody like the you know, you have, like, a scripted, like line shit that you say to clients, you know, you’re gonna go bullet point by bullet point. I was floored. Like, I She’s like, hello, and I’m like, I need a minute. Yeah, I didn’t mean it, because I was just like, wow, wow. And it’s, they’re not the only one. Like, there’s, there’s story after story that I can, I can share here with that. But like every one, single one of my shoots, my current wife is always with me. I always talk about that, because, again, most, not all, but most of my clients are female. Are women, and they come in for the shoot. They know that I’m a man. I immediately have to let them know what this is and what this isn’t. I got to let them know my vulnerability, where I come from. If I want them to be vulnerable, I need to be vulnerable first. I need to make space for their story to exist, and I gotta make sure that I’m checking in with myself. Because men don’t think about this, their words, their presence, their nearness, means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. They have gone to through very different things in different walks of life, and being able to sit down and actually have conversations with people that are not you gender or non gender, or between the spectrum, on the spectrum, whatever it is, and sit down with people and ask them questions and go, Hey, what is the presence, the words of a man in your space look like, feel like, when, when it’s when it’s there. And being able to hear that and not take it personally and just look at it as the symptom of our society, a symptom of the things that we go through, is very eye opening to just sit down and listen and hear. So I’ve done a lot, a lot of work, whether that’s therapy, whether that’s me tapping into and ask, just asking questions and being vulnerable and being a student. I don’t touch any of my subjects. I don’t care if they’re male or female, if there’s a wardrobe malfunction or whatever like, if it’s a woman that’s in front I’ll if I see something that needs adjusting, I’ll ask my wife, hey, can you and my wife will approach them, ask them, Hey, is it okay if I XYZ, we make sure that we check everything, even if the client is going, Oh, no, have at it. Like, tell me what to do. Post me however you want to whatever, blah, blah, blah. And I don’t want to throw the judgment out there, but I’ve seen photographers out there just like, manhandle these people, like, mannequins. Yeah, and I’m going, how? Why? Like, have you asked if that’s okay? Like, you don’t know what touch is to this person. I get it. They hired you to do the thing, but I don’t want to be manhandled in a situation, like there’s certain things that we need to be sensitive to in this space, because the only thing you can’t fake is discomfort. Like our clients need to be comfortable, yeah, if they’re not comfortable, and and I from the consultation, the scent in the room, the music that’s playing, the lighting, the temperature in the room, like everything’s in my questionnaire to tailor fit every single little nuance, the snacks that are going to be placed out if Is it water? Is it juice? Is it coffee? Like all of it is so that you feel like you are home, that you’re just around and amongst friends, so that when we’re finally taking photos, let’s just say I’m in front of the camera, like, let’s just say I’m taking photos. You know that’s that’s just them doing their thing. And it took a long time for me to figure out that it’s not about my technical aptitude, it’s not about my post processing, it’s not about my workflow in the space of storytelling, photography, portraiture, boudoir, whatever, when it’s a human on the other side of that lens that you’re trying to tell their story, it’s a lot more about peopling. And being able to make that other person as comfortable as humanly possible and find out if the aggressive, high energy is the key, or if it’s the soft spoken, take your time and speak it very, very nuanced. Which where do they land. How are they comfortable? How do they receive information, and how do they become vulnerable in front of the lens? And it’s up to us as the creatives, to tap into wherever that is, to pull that out. And I used to be scared shitless to pull that out of people, because I just want to be behind. I don’t want to be I want to be a fly on the wall. I just want to take the photo and go. And what I was seeing when I would be calling through my photos is like, I missed an opportunity, if I would have said this, or if I would have had that, if I would have done this, and I I was so tired at one point and looking at my work, going, God damn it, like if I would have just like, you know, leaned in a little bit into whatever it is that the scenario asked for, for me to pull that moment out. I would have had an amazing shot right there. And I was tired of telling myself that, so I finally said, Fuck it. The only thing that can happen is that I continue going through this fucking culling situation. But if I don’t do anything, that’s the only outcome. Tapping into that has been unprecedentedly like important in my work.

Matt Stagliano 31:30
I’ve had this conversation with the few folks I know. I spoke to Nino Batista about it, and Johnny quite a bit about the artist versus the technician, right? And I find that when we are technically focused, we tune everything else out, right? Because we’re worried about the settings on the camera and the light and, you know, all the all the technical aspects, and we forget about the fact that we’re creating individual, unique art. Master your craft so you can not have to be thinking about it in the moment, so that you can connect more deeply. You know, Chris Orwig has a great book called soulful portraits. Soulful portraiture met an amount of portrait masters a couple years back, gave me a copy of the book. It’s fantastic. If you don’t have it, I’ll send you a copy, and it is really about all of this that we’re talking about. It’s about taking the time to get to know your subject and listening and connecting much more deeply than just turning your photography into retail photography, which is okay, show up at 10 o’clock, go over there. Turn this way, turn that way. Take the shot. Great. Do you like what you see? Perfect? Get out of the building. The way that you go about it is very similar to how I’ve seen a lot of very, very successful people operate with their subjects. Because it isn’t about the camera or the perfect shot or the checklist that you have to go down. It’s about creating, collaborating in the moment. And if you’re not focused on creating those moments or just being present, slowing down and being present, you miss the good stuff. Because when we’re in that flow and that collaboration, that’s where the Holy shit moments happen like, oh, my god. I can’t believe I got that shot, and it’s only because I allowed them to think a little bit longer, or I didn’t feel the need to fill the air with words during a strange pause. I know that that was a thing that I’ve done for a long time. Was, oh, there’s silence. I feel awkward. I should say something. I found that in those moments where you can just be with that person, sometimes the presence is all they need, and then the real good stuff starts, then the parts of the story that you’re waiting for come out, because they’ve established trust with you. Without that trust, I don’t care if you’re doing headshots or if you’re doing boudoir, fine art nudes or commercial work. If you can’t build that trust with the subject in front of you, then it is going to be flat. It might be technically perfect work, but there’s a flat story to it. So the interesting thing in talking about the artistic side of us versus the technical side of us. I’ve kind of morphed it, and I’ve been thinking more lately about the relationship between vulnerability and creativity, and is there a connection there beyond what we’ve already talked about? And I don’t know if there is or not. I think it’s a question that I have to you know, kind of think about a little bit more, maybe write some different journals about it. What do you feel is primary to your work when you have built that trust, when you feel that there’s, you know, an equal exchange of vulnerability, or just, you know, an exchange doesn’t have to be equal. Where do you find you. Start to tap into or do you find that you’re able to create more easily there, rather than getting in your head and thinking, oh god, they’re uncomfortable. I don’t know what’s going on. I better just take the shot and we’ll move past this moment. Do you find that you become more creative, you start to play a little bit more you stay in that place of wonder, when you have that trust,

Sam Guillermo 35:22
I lean into discomfort. So like, if I feel like in a room there’s something, there’s the energy’s off, or like something’s happening, I’ll call it out. I’ll say, Hey, do you feel that like there’s something off? Like you’re like, moving in the in from the pose, before I take the shot, there seems to be like we’re at a sink from can we take five minutes? Maybe it’s we’re dehydrated. We need some water, whatever. Let’s calm down, because I think maybe we’re in a hurry, whatever it is. And in that space of calling it out, I’ve either pointed it whatever the situation is, whether that’s anxiousness, trauma, something happened, whatever it is, I will pinpoint it and call it out and let them know that, hey, I see you. I think that’s far more important to them, like, oh shit. Like, I’m not only vulnerable, but I’m being seen, but not in a harsh way. I’m seeing and being recognized that there’s, there’s something else happening, and they want to take care of it, because they want the best result. I don’t know. I equate it to music a lot, because that’s where I started everything at. And a lot of what you say, like, resonates with me, with like, the technical, sterile, straight through almost surgical approach to the to the art form, versus like you’ve honed in your craft so much and you’ve learned all that technical shit that is just background noise. It’s breathing. It’s the other stuff that’s that’s happening in the organs that we don’t think about. It’s the inhale, exhale, the heart pumping like you’re not thinking about these things. The body’s just working. And in the same realm, when you’ve honed your craft to the point where it’s second nature, it gives you the ability to feel the space and feel the moment. And me as a drummer in my previous life, that’s what I most enjoyed is when I entered a space and didn’t have to go, 123, 416, bars and then break and like, that’s not where I’m at. I’m I’ve learned the song so well that now every time I hit the symbol the way the symbol flexes, I can feel like the vibration and the beat and the temple, like going and coursing through my body. That is very different than looking at the the sheet music and going, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, horns and like, that’s very different. That’s very meticulous. It’s not unnecessary. There’s spaces for that. Like, if you go to, you know, Hollywood films and all these things that need to be sterile need to be all right. Q, we’re rolling. We got we got, uh, tape. Everything ready to go, bam, and it’s very well rehearsed, and it’s very sterile, and it’s very like meticulous. But in the art of storytelling and documentary, which is the spaces where we live in, it’s much more about the story and pushing that out there, people will forgive a shitty image. They’ll remember that moment, though, yeah, they’ll remember that moment like I can have the little flower girl in, you know, in movement because my shutter was way too slow for the moment, but the moment that that happened where she, like, got the flower to the to the bride, or whatever, and I captured that they don’t care that it’s not in focus. They don’t care that it’s whatever. But the bride will be like, like, they’ll remember that moment. They’ll remember that moment. They don’t care if it’s out of focus, they’ll remember that exact moment when that child passed that flower to her, and they’ll cherish that moment. And I think we need to create spaces that people will cherish, that people will feel breakthrough. There are people’s reveals when they see their images for the first time. I think that’s my new high, is seeing people react to seeing themselves empowered in a whole different space because someone listened and took and took everything into account I recently literally, now five days now, it happened this week, within a two day span period, somebody reached out to me, said, Hey, I’ve gone through this in my life. Uh, audio, immune. I tried to have kids for a long time. Failed attempt, failed attempt. We finally got a surrogate. They’re good where it’s going to be a child exchange in about two days. Can you make it? I go, you know, I’m a dwarf photographer. You’re like, Yeah, but I love what I. In your images, and I want that to be document that. And I go, Okay, I mean, whatever. Let’s go for it. And I was in. I was locked in. We spent the entire day there, and I got her, her husband, we connected. He’s a drummer. I’m a drummer. I brought little sticks for the kid to be the first gift, or whatever that made it into the shots, because he was playing paradiddles on like his wife’s shoulder for a minute while they were waiting for the for the surrogate to come and get ready whatever. I’m taking photo. I’m taking video. I’m I’m I’m a fly on the wall. I’m in your face. I’m doing all the things. I’m making jokes with the nurses. The nurses are like, can he come back? And it’s just like, I’m creating a perfect space for everybody to feel comfortable. I’m saying the right jokes at the right time, pulling stuff out. I’m seeing that the lady that’s doing the sonogram is going real quick through it, and I’m like, I’m asking questions because I want more footage of it, of course, show me what, what? What is it that you where’s the head? Oh, my God, that’s where the baby. And I’m just like, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, because before, I wouldn’t have gotten it. But I’m I know that I need to step into this, this moment, in order to get everything that I need, I need to speak to the mom now and go, Hey, how you feeling? How you holding up? You know you’re going to be a worm in about five minutes. How does that feel? And that just brings everything out. And I’m going click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, making sure that I’m there for the moment, pulling everything out, talking to dad, while everybody else is out of the room, because it’s just me and him, while they’re doing what they’re doing, going, this is the perfect time to be a dad. Bro, yeah, perfect. How

Matt Stagliano 41:50
you’re able to do that effortlessly. I think we come back to that fearlessness, right of hey everybody’s a little bit uncomfortable. I don’t mind being uncomfortable. Let me make the jokes. Let me do the things, right? I still have a job to do, which is kind of in the back of your mind, right? So you still want to do your job, but if you are the lightning rod for everybody’s weird feelings, you seem to be able to do that and shoulder that and not let it affect the work that you’re doing. And again, it’s an uncommon skill for someone to step up and do that and not have it feel contrived, have it feel natural and real and connected, rather than All right, you know, here comes the clown with the camera, and we’re just gonna make everybody laugh and make cheesy jokes, dad jokes, all this sort of stuff. And it just feels more awkward when you’re focused on just you, but you made it about them. That’s that sounds like it was an incredible day. And I can’t believe that that happened like this week. One of the things that I saw on your website, which I loved, and I was like, God damn it, I want to steal that so badly, what you want to normalize normal? And when I saw that phrase, and I hadn’t heard anybody put that together before, so I’m going to credit you with it, I hear normalize all the time. I hear ordinary and authentic and real and raw and all that sort of stuff. But you want in this space, especially in the boudoir space, you want to normalize normal, and it’s for every body. And I love the emphasis on body acceptance diversity in all body shapes and types and colors and sizes. Can you talk a little bit more about that, normalizing normality, normalizing the normal body, and what that’s done as you’ve developed kind of your boudoir business.

Sam Guillermo 43:53
So it’s a two fold and any for me, it’s taken an assessment of what I’m out here to do, I had to take a good look at myself and look in the mirror and figure out what it is that I wanted to do and what audience I wanted to appeal to. And yes, there’s going to be PC or not, but I don’t really care. Like you’re flooded with an in like, an enormous amount of stuff in your social media feed, the people that get the likes are the quote, unquote pretty people, right? Yeah, like the this, I’ll say the skinny white girl is, is, is the the power play for most people in the space of boudoir, what people fail to realize is that that’s not your client that will get you a shit ton of likes on Instagram from a bunch of thirsty dudes. That’s that’s what it comes down to, what I needed to do. And what I’ve realized is it when I looked at myself in the mirror was just like, Who do I want to have this experience? Yeah, it’s not that person I want. Everybody to have a seat at the table, to feel sexy, to feel accepted, to feel comfortable in their own skin, and normalizing normal is the thing to do. So like, I always tell this to my clients, they’re in the consultations. I was like, if you wake up in the morning you have a pimple, I’ll take care of that. Because that’s not part of you that came in for that week. You were stressed the out. We’ll get rid of the pimple. But I say, but if you have stretch marks, and if the scar doesn’t come from a place of trauma, we’re keeping all of that in because it’s part of your story, and more importantly, it gives the next person in line permission to come with their stuff. And I said, think further than yourself in regards to the representation that’s going to happen via your photo shoot, whether people see this, this session or not, is irrelevant. The fact that you’re making space for people just like you is moment enough for that So normalizing, normal for me, it means come with all of it, men, women, couples. If you come from a lifestyle situation, you have troubles. I don’t care. We’ve done it all. We’ve shot it all in the studio. We have everybody from great grandma who showed up to for her session all the way down to people who just need content to sell, and everyone in between, and everybody has a seat at the table. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, how short you are, how dark you are, how light you are, whether you’ve had a mastectomy, not had a mastectomy, whether you’re a man and you’re like, I don’t know how to be vulnerable in my own skin. I don’t I’ve never taken off my clothes, and that’s not how I feel. My strength. How do I lean into that? We’ve had it all, and I want to normalize that. Like, even the girls who I have that come in to, like, you know, I test, I do test shoots, because I got this new flash, or this new modifier, or whatever, I’m like, you know, the stretch marks are staying, right? You know that all this stuff is staying like, it’s not going to be porcelain skin, like the dude, the other dude, edits your skin, like it’s not going to be that. And on a selfish part, it’s just like, I don’t want to do all the retouching.

Matt Stagliano 47:08
Let’s get real for a second. I

just, I just don’t

want to edit skin.

Sam Guillermo 47:11
Let’s get real for a second. Like, you know, how much time, I mean, I get it. We’re doing the AI thing about voto, you know, not sponsored, but like, you know, hit the slider. Everything’s clean and new and perfect and like, but that’s not life. That’s not real life. Life is not perfect. Life has roadblocks. Life has, uh, ebbs and flows, has mountains and valleys. And I’m like, that should be representative in in your shoot. That should be representative in your stuff, like, even retouching your photo. I was just like, What do I keep? What do I take away? What do I keep? What I take away? And I’m like, How do I how to? And the the biggest pressure, so walking up to you was hard enough asking you to if I could take your picture. Fuck that. That’s so, like, not okay. So like, walking up to you, taking your photo, I’m going, okay, cool. And then sitting in front of the computer, going, Why did I do this? Like, why did I do this to myself? Like, and I’m going, what, like, how much do I how much time do I spend on this? And I literally took it took me, like, five days in front of their going,

Matt Stagliano 48:23
Okay, I gotta make something out of this lump.

Sam Guillermo 48:27
No, it’s not even that. It’s just like, as creatives, are we satisfied? Yeah, with the sliders. Yeah, because we know we can push this to infinity and make porcelain skin, get all get rid of all the pores, all the wrinkles, all this, all the story. And I’m going, I couldn’t do that, but that wouldn’t and I and I’m literally going, Okay, how do I do this? How do I do this? And you know what ended up being the catalyst for me driving your edit was going through your feed, going through your story, going through your and going, how do I see who this person is, and how can I impose translate that into who this person is and the work that they’re putting out? Okay, cool, and that’s what I took notes on. I took notes on how you took people in and how you represented them. And I’m going, yep, that’s where, that’s where I’ll go. And I was stuck for days until I did that. That’s that’s really

Matt Stagliano 49:27
interesting, and I’m humbled and also aghast. I’m just you get what you get, right? So you get the big Sharpay wrinkles in the forehead, and you get the big guy, I haven’t slept since Vietnam, bags under my eyes, right? And all of that is fine. This has been part of that acceptance, right? Therapy helps of just accepting yourself who you are. I, on the opposite end, didn’t have the balls to ask you to take a picture, and here I am watching this guy that’s amazing in front of me, and I know. This is kind of like the mutual admiration society for a minute. But I was watching you work around this entire house with everybody, like I said, connecting shooting through prisms and down on the ground and doing weird things with lights and seeing what you produced afterwards. I was like, There’s no way I could have done any of those fucking things that he was doing as quickly and as proficiently as he did it. So I was just floored by what you were doing. Now, one other thing you said in there was you were taking notes. I got to tell you, I’ve never researched anybody when, like and after the fact, like, all the connections made beforehand. So the fact that you went back and tried to, like, figure it all out and really represent it just gives me a whole nother level of respect for your process and all of that, because I think that’s often overlooked. We get so wrapped up in what we want to see that we don’t often think about how that person is going to be represented in the end result, we just know we’re going to like it, right? We know that it fits our style and that it’s going to do well on Instagram or whatnot. But sometimes we forget that there’s a person that’s going to see that and they may or may not like that style, because we haven’t taken the time to get to know their likes, their dislikes, their phobias, right, how they view themselves, their self worth, all of that. So I say all that because I see you so vocal about normalizing normal, and I don’t want to say it’s a trend, because it’s not. I think you’re on the vanguard in the way that you speak about it. You’re on the vanguard in the likes of Terry hoffard, aroha McKay, there’s a handful of boudoir and intimate photographers that I see now that are really being vocal about the need for this and to break a lot of the Avatar molds that we’ve seen out there of what boudoir is now. You also mentioned in there the uncomfortable guys, right? Dude bar, these guys that that are uncomfortable in their own skin. I’ve been one of them. I’m very open about that. I was in Missouri a couple weeks back beginning of June, really, and with Mitzi Starkweather, and she does these raw portraits as I am. And so I was shooting a brand video for her, and she said, Well, while you’re out here, we’re going to do an as I am shoot for you. And I was like, that’s cool. I didn’t know what to do. All I knew is that at the end, I had to do nude photos because I needed to see me and push myself past this body acceptance thing that I’ve been battling a long time. It’s very difficult for me to express in coherent words, the feeling that you get when you’re doing that. It’s this mix of despair and shame and power and confidence and pure, unadulterated fear, and you know, fear of judgment, fear of being laughed at, all of these things that enter our minds, and I’m supposed to be, you know, well adjusted male. I think you mentioned that there are guys that feel uncomfortable. Mitzi mentioned the exact same thing. I think there is this large group of men that feel the same thing, because we are so inundated with what is perfect, what is the Tom Brady six pack? So I think, you know, there’s this movement to bring guys out of the shadow a little bit more, and I’m here for it, man, like I’m just really proud of anybody, whether they take their clothes off or not, that they get in front of a camera and really look at themselves for the beautiful people that they are, whether it’s male, female or check the box, other doesn’t matter. I want them to feel that beauty when they see it. Not hey, here’s my wrinkles, here’s my pimple, here’s the gray hairs, here’s the love handles, all that sort of stuff. I want them to see beauty. And I love the fact that you have encapsulated it in the normalizing normal. The other thing, and I’ll kind of wrap up this topic with that, is you had said when you were talking to people and you were getting to know them, you have this questionnaire. You’re asking them all these things about how they want to be seen and heard, and what coffee they want and whatnot. Is there a question where you’re like, Oh, I’m gonna get everything I need. To know out of this one question on the questionnaire, and it’s the one that they always answer, and they’re always just like, well, let me tell you about this. Where do people really start to open up to you?

Sam Guillermo 55:12
I don’t even think it’s the question. Now, the questionnaire is very light. It’s very fanfare in regards to like, just what you want to experience on the day of the consultation. The is usually a video consultation. If you can manage a face to face, then that’s even better. But like, like I said, Before I open up with my own vulnerability, and I ask them one question. This usually gives me everything. The one question that that gives me everything is after I’ve been vulnerable. I’ve given my story, I’ve talked about my pain points, my arc and everything, and I’ve laid it all out. There I go, Hey, you can answer as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. It’s a simple question, but it’s, it’s packed full of shit right there. So the question is, what has been your journey with your body throughout the years? And I just shut up after that. I don’t say anything. I don’t and I wait for it to happen. Depending on what happens after that will depend if they’re going to be my client or not, because if you share a little and you don’t want to break out of there, and you don’t take the opportunity to be vulnerable at that point that it’s probably not time yet for this session. It’s probably not time yet for for what you thought you were ready for. But everything comes out there. Everything comes out there. From childhood trauma, from body dysmorphia, from everything. And it’s everyone, from men to women to the spectrum, like all of it, everybody has something that they’ve carried with them that has led them to this point to take their power back, to take hold of the narrative and be in control again. I think that’s what all of us are looking for, to have something that’s uniquely ours, and that’s what we want to give back as boudoir photographers, is give you exactly who you are that you have not seen yet. That’s the power of boudoir. That’s the power of this entire thing. I think, I think more men should experience this. I think more men should, should jump in. But we live in a society where women’s power and men’s power blanket statement, there’s nuances, obviously there’s pockets and whatever. So don’t like take it all. This is all with a grain of salt. Type of thing, I get comments, there’s everybody. No shit. It’s not for everybody. But like, when you look at the paradigm of like, what a woman’s body is, there’s power in that you create life. You do things like the shift that happens. There’s power in that when men are looked at, they’re not necessarily looked at in a body perspective. It’s more about protector finances. How can you status like all this? That’s that’s where men usually find their power. So there’s just complete separate things. But when both sides experience the other it’s Wow. You’ve seen a woman take charge in corporate America and take that business from zero to 100 what, and then on the opposite end, when a man taps into the vulnerability of what their body is, and they take a hold of it, and they’re able to harness it and walk into the world as a empowered by their own body. It’s It’s night and day, night and day, difference, to have that empowerment in any scope, to have untapped power, it’s

Matt Stagliano 58:40
a palpable feeling that can be seen and felt and never has to be spoken about. It just comes through that person when, when they are powerful, like that. And sometimes it is, you know, a job. Sometimes it is a transformational photo shoot. I just, I love being in this space, whether it’s portraits, whether it’s boudoir, whether it’s weddings, whatever it is you shoot. I love being in the place where you can make someone feel good about themselves. To me, yeah, a big payday is fantastic. Likes on Instagram are awesome, but watching someone truly be affected and changed by just being able to see themselves in well composed and well lit photographs is My mind is blown every single time, and it’s when I find myself gravitating towards people that come from a similar space yourself or Terry or Kara Marie, does it really, really well, you know, people that can very much let someone be themselves and capture that in a beautiful way, not a force posed way, but just a beautiful way. That, to me, is so much more interesting than just seeing someone. Would be, quote, unquote hot, or, you know, is a stud, or whatever, and she’s smoking whatever it is. That feeling that I get makes this all worthwhile on those days where I’m like, I don’t know why the fuck I became a photographer, but then you get a client like that, you’re like, oh, yeah, there’s the reason. All right, that’ll keep me going another year, yep, because that’s for me what it’s all about. All right, I’m gonna switch gears a little bit. I wanted to pull away from the heavy vulnerability and empathy conversation. I loved that, by the way, and I cannot wait for people to hear this. Just saying this right now. It’s gonna be a big episode. The questions I wanted to ask you, I’m gonna switch gears. If you could collaborate, whether as a subject or a partner, with any person, living dead, fictional, non fiction, but you could have them in your studio for a day. Who would it be?

Sam Guillermo 1:00:53
It’s actually you and Johnny.

Matt Stagliano 1:00:58
We can make that happen. I’m gonna wait for it next week? Hugging down there.

Sam Guillermo 1:01:04
I literally went to WPPI and met every single one of the people that I was just like, like, incredibly, like, inspired by, like, legitimately, you gave me without knowing, like, you just did a studio tour. You gave me courage to put a down payment, find a spot and open up shop. Like you, I saw, I was like, this fucking guy knows what he’s doing. Like, like, he thought, he thought this shit through, like, and I just thought it was like, I’m stealing all of his and, like, I literally put into practice, like, if you, if you had walked it, not to the, not this one, but the one previous, the studio, previous to this, you would have been like, you fucking thief.

You were to look everywhere gone, motherfuckers, just using everything that I got.

Matt Stagliano 1:01:55
That makes me laugh, because I have seen pictures of your studios. It’s like, This dude has so much taste. I was like, I would my place look that

good? I was like, I get concrete floors in this weird. That’s really, that’s really funny. Again, it’s the outside perception versus what we think on the inside, right? So that that makes me really, really that, all right, if you had one emoji to describe all of your art, what would the emoji be?

Sam Guillermo 1:02:22
Melting Face emoji.

Matt Stagliano 1:02:23
Melting. Face emoji. Why is that?

Sam Guillermo 1:02:26
I still, to this day have a lot of impostor syndrome. I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, and I feel like I don’t know. I’m always nervous, even though I know it’s gonna it’s gonna be like, even though I know some of the photos were like, Yeah, that’s a banger. I’m sitting there. I hit play, and I like watching the client. I’m going and, um, this imposter syndrome keeps on going in my head, and it doesn’t matter how excited I am about the project, as soon as I hit play, I want to throw up in that the

Matt Stagliano 1:02:56
truth. Now, do you feel that you feel that way with still photos or just video, all

Sam Guillermo 1:03:02
of it, all of it. I feel that way with music, like even, like we’re in the green room and we’re about to go on. I remember like, holding onto the green room door, going, 123, and going, because I just felt like and everything had been prepared. I had practice. I know these songs, like the back, I could play a blindfold. I could play with earplugs in like, I know what I’m doing, but I’m still insanely, insanely insecure when it comes to, like, presenting this to someone

Matt Stagliano 1:03:33
weirdest thing you’ve ever created that you’re super proud of, or what was the most bizarre commission that you were ever asked it

Sam Guillermo 1:03:40
to shoot. I’ve been asked to do a lot of weird things that we can’t talk about in the podcast. But the image that I’m most proud of happened during covid. We were locked down. Nobody knew what the world was going to happen. I went out with a my wife and a lot of friend that I really, really enjoy. We always make like, amazing photos, like we don’t go we don’t come unscripted. We don’t come in with a plan. We just whatever happens that day happens because we didn’t know what this virus was or whatever. We went out into the woods. We went hiking for a little bit, and we’re covered. There’s trees everywhere, foliage everywhere, the sun, we’re high noon sun, which is the worst sun, right? So, but we’re covered. We’re covered. There’s the sun’s not actually hitting us, because there’s foliage, leaves and all this stuff here, but for like a second, like we’re walking, you know, you do a double take, and there is literally a stream, like a god ray coming in from like it opened up a clearance, and it’s hitting this one tree, and I go, I go, Yo, you gotta go, you gotta go, you gotta go down. And there’s like, nobody else. It’s just me, my wife, and this model person and and they’re literally running towards the tree. And I’m like, I have an 85 it’s the only thing I have with me. I’m like, Why did I pick the long lens today? Yeah, they’re like this. They’re taking off clothes, and they’re running towards the tree. There’s clothes everywhere. As she gets to the tree, as and she goes, now what I said, Be one with the tree, and she literally, without without prompt, goes and goes like this, bam, right onto the tree. And there’s, it’s on my feet, there’s, there’s an image of that light just hitting her and the tree. It looks like she’s part of the roots of the tree. Oh, I love that image. I’ve printed that image. I’ve made play cards with that image. I’ve it’s been, it’s been everywhere, like in my house, you’ll find it in like, books, because I made bookmarkers out of like, I love that image. If I ordered like any, just put that on my casket, on my tombstone. That’d be

Matt Stagliano 1:05:43
good. That’s man, you knew it when you got it, didn’t you? And everybody

Sam Guillermo 1:05:48
asked me, What is that in post? I was like, No, everything you see shot in camera, just like that. Nothing.

Matt Stagliano 1:05:54
There’s no better feel in the world. No better feel so good. So speaking about feeling good, I know we were chatting before we got on the air, about something you have coming up in collaboration space with chiadi, right? Yeah, so talk to me a little bit about that. So,

Sam Guillermo 1:06:12
inspired by you again, sir, stealing a bunch of your ideas. I saw that you were doing a collaboration with it was a total of three photographers with yourself and doing that and offering that to people to come in and get images and portraits and stuff. So chiadi is also local here in Maryland, and he also shoots boudoir, and we get it off, I think, almost two years now, yeah, and yeah, it’s been, it’s been crazy, like, awesome, like, friendship, community, all of it were very similar. Or, like, all the things, and we’re, we’re talking, and I was like, Well, this is doing here. We could do it with boudoir. And we’re like, Sure, cool. So we did it, and now we’re collaborating and doing this, this shoot. We’re only having five spaces, two photographers, one session, and it’ll, it’s gonna, it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be real fun. Again,

Matt Stagliano 1:07:09
amazed that you kind of even saw like that we were doing it. So I’m pretty stoked. And she even did that. So steal away. I have no problem with any of that. I think if it brings more photographers together and provides better value for people that might be on the fence, right? They might be trying to choose between you and Chiari and trying to figure out, like, Who do I go to? Because, I mean, the work is so stellar, but you have different voices, right? They might be on the fence about getting a photo shoot. Well, here’s the perfect opportunity to get you know, kind of a two in one package. I love seeing photographers come together, put ego aside, put competition aside, and just try to do some different things to bring more value to the market. If you think about what we do, we can be replaced by a well crafted prompt, right by a lot of people, how do we provide value in a way that one we can justify the prices that we that we charge, because neither you or I are necessarily budget brands and still give people what they would love to have, and by combining forces with different photographers, I love to see this evolve, because I know I learn from photographers just by observing them, and I put more tricks into my bag, and I find things that connect well with clients. And I’m like, Wow, that’s amazing. The question that you ask every you know, what’s the journey with your body been like? That is a phenomenal question, and it’s just the right length, it’s got the right words, not a lot of fluff, perfect. I love seeing what other photographers do, and I get so inspired by that. So I cannot wait to see what you guys create, because then I’m just going to steal stuff back, and I’m going to be like, All right, I’ll shoot through a prism, all right, I’ll put some light flares up here. I’m really excited that you’re doing that. What else is next, right? So you, you moved into your new studio. Was it earlier this year, like January, or was it a little bit later in the year you got you, you moved your studio.

Sam Guillermo 1:09:22
You said, yeah, yeah. So we had no plans of So you met me in wvpi, March, getting in March, yeah, broken again, because we weren’t going to renew our lease again, the economy sessions, whatever. I don’t know. Other listeners, other photographers, may be having a field day and having a great time and booking all the things. But it’s not that case. So was it going to renew the lease? Was moving out, was selling a bunch of stuff. Everything was being on, be posted on Facebook, marketplace, and all that other stuff. Had no, no intention of opening up a studio or finding a place or doing anything. And then. Then it occurred to me, the first place where I rented an apartment in Baltimore City, the landlord had a commercial space downstairs. And I was just like, Huh. Out of curiosity, I just, I was like, Yo, Tom, uh, what’s with the space that was underneath that apartment that I rented from you. He’s like, he’s like, I still haven’t opened up that door, and it’s been over a decade. I said, wow, oh, can I have it? He’s like, again, I haven’t gone in there. You like, he’s like, as is, you fix it. And I’m like, all right. He’s like, you can give me whatever you want for it. I was like, I like those numbers, that’s my favorite price, that’s my favorite price, and I walk in, sure enough, I’m, like, flipped it within a month, put everything in there, fresh paint, new, new, new, everything. Put some furniture in there, whatever I had left that I didn’t sell. I put back in there. Yeah, we opened up shop. We signed in January and opened up in the end of February. And, yeah, it’s cool. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. And now, no, I can’t talk about that yet. Why not fuck it? I’ll talk about it. I’m gonna be talking to Tom to see if I could buy the whole fucking building.

Matt Stagliano 1:11:22
I want the whole building. I want the whole building. Yeah, the thing is, I’m gonna come back here in six months. I’m gonna bring you back, and you’re gonna be like, guess what? I’m now a real estate mogul. I own several buildings. They’re all studios with different apartments and different sets. I can’t wait, man, I know you are just gonna crush this thing. And, yeah, the building will be yours. But again, it’s that fearlessness, right? We come back to fearlessness and risking it all, because what’s the worst that could happen? He says, No, all right, people can find you where naked humans, and I’m gonna let you spell it so I don’t screw it up. Yeah? So

Sam Guillermo 1:11:54
it’s naked humans without the vowels, so that’s n, k, D, H, M, N, s.com, you can find all the stuff in there. We have a workshop coming up in September, September 21 and 22nd is a two day workshop with a optional third on a Monday with a video intensive. But first day is going to be all zeros and ones, information, workflows, posts, pre like, all the zeros and ones and information. Second day will be a content day with a plethora of different models that spanned the entire span of everything. I tried to get everybody the only person I don’t have. And if anybody is listening to this and you’re an amputee, please reach out to me. That’s the only thing that I need is in a disabled body to be a model for me, because I have black, white, big, small, elderly couple, you know, the all of it, the only thing that I’m missing right now is a disabled body to to model for this boudoir thing, so that everybody that comes to The workshop has a portfolio filled with different,

Matt Stagliano 1:13:01
normal people. It’s a big thing. You barely see diversity in work, you know, from one particular photographer, and it’s so important, because as more people see they want to see themselves on the other side of the camera. That sounds like it’s going to be an amazing workshop. And then the video intensive. Is it teaching video, or are you shooting video? What does that entail? So

Sam Guillermo 1:13:25
I’ve been able to capitalize and upsell video in boudoir and otherwise, people, whether they want to jump in or not, can harness that power and pivot a little bit in their business and add video things to their workflow that will make they’re leaving money on the table. So whether that’s just a customer or a client testimonial that you can record and put on your website or whatever like these are tools that you can use to further your business. So that day is going to be how to shoot, what to shoot, frame rates, getting your head wrapped around rec 709, and shooting log and color grading, what LUTs look like, and how you develop your own LUT, and how to make your photos look exactly like your video. What slow motion? What’s Do you need a gimbal? Do you can you just use a tripod? Can you do handheld? What and how you use all these things? Is the video intensive, because I didn’t have any any any training wheels when I came and tried to press record, when it came to video, I wish somebody had given me, like, what shooting log wrong? What? Like, I’m completely lost. How do I color this? This is very flat. If I knew how to work my way around that back, then I would have, I would have decimated the industry at

Matt Stagliano 1:14:40
this point. You should have reached out. Man, I got a whole course curriculum on video for photographers. It’s true. I think it’s something that I tap into a lot. You know, shore up the business in different ways. Not only does it make the client experience better, but it just brings in more money for the studio when you can do a small, short form video. Here they. Or video testimonials, interviews, weddings, right? Reels, clips, whatever it is you want to do. But there’s a lot of foundational stuff. And I heard you mention all those things people are going to love, love, love, love, that. And so I wish you all the success with it, man. I know it’s gonna kill it’s been, what, almost an hour and a half. I can’t believe we’ve been talking this long. And I knew this was gonna happen. I knew it, I knew it, but this has been one of the most enjoyable conversations I’ve had in a really, really long time, and I can’t thank you enough for being here.

Sam Guillermo 1:15:31
Thank you for having me, man.