Meet Faith Rachael

Today we’d like to introduce you to Faith Rachael.

Faith, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was attending GCU (Grand Canyon University) as a nursing student. I caught myself feeling more stressed, anxious and unfulfilled more than I was feeling happy, so I decided to change my major to Communications and pursue my dream of having a career in digital communications, particularly branding and public relations. In the process, I also started to become a bit obsessed with lifestyle blogs and exploring phoenix more now that I had more time to discover new things as a comm major and started bringing my camera with me along daily adventures and coffee runs to take photos of whatever caught my eye along the way.

Since I was originally from the Los Angeles area and had moved out to Arizona for school I grew enamored with exploring murals and local businesses all over the arts district, the parks with crazy rock formations and with my camera started taking portraits of my friends and fell in love with it. There was something about being able to capture a moment that perfectly reflected someone’s beauty, power or emotion that they didn’t always see in themselves. As I kept up my photography, I began taking senior photos and assisting photographers in weddings until I ultimately shot my own solo wedding (an absolutely surreal and stressful experience)!

While I was diving into photography, I also got really into journaling and writing, which developed into the creation of my photography website and blog, as well as writing for an online social publication called The Odyssey Online as part of the GCU Odyssey Community. I discovered an outlet that I could share my experiences, my journey and how I was making it through life as a college student who changed her major late, moved away from everything she had ever known and was also struggling with an anxiety disorder that sometimes made managing school and a job extremely difficult.

While I no longer consistently write for The Odyssey Online I had a lot of success and gained over 50k page views in my two years so far while being in school and have used that to start to build my own lifestyle blog and brand, network and continue to pursue my dreams of working in Public relations and developing brands.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Lots of struggles, balancing school and two part-time jobs at certain times, managing anxiety and school. I had over $2000 of my camera equipment stolen at Skyharbor airport one year while I was flying home for Christmas and had to put my photography and everything on a hold. That took a large toll on me and I used the downtime to network and build more connections in the EDM and music industry which is how I’ve been able to become an ambassador for some amazing brands like Pollen, Kritter Klips, Liquid Dreams to name a few.

We’d love to hear more about your work.
At the end of the day, I am a creative/creator, and that means that I am my business and my brand. I am still in the early stages but my goal is to continue to use my voice and skills to inspire and encourage others to be their best versions of themselves by sharing my life and showing that it is okay to be vulnerable, to show that it is okay to not have it together all the time. With my photography, I love to showcase individuals who are beautifully diverse in the effort to show beauty can look different in so many ways. And the smiles of clients or models when looking back at photos make everything worth it

I’ve had people tell me that my openness and personal approach to sharing on social media inspires them and reminds them they are not alone in their dysfunction. And in the articles, I’ve written for the Odyssey I have received a lot of the same comments and its moments like that which remind me that even though what I’m doing and trying to build may not be a traditional business and I may not have tens of thousands of followers but It is still important and it still helps people.

In this process, I’ve also been able to model for other local phoenix photographers and Gilbert businesses like Stardust Lashes and Aesthetics and Cactus and Vine Photography as well as local makeup artist FeaturesofRose (@FeaturesOfRose on Instagram)

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
My openness and my determination. I have had a lot of ups and downs, in fitness, health, school, life and I’ve talked/blogged about a lot of it on social media or in articles and because I’ve been open to talking about the downswings and how I have pushed through them I’ve helped to encourage others to do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://faithrrachael.wixsite.com/radlovephotography
• Email: faithrrachael@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faithrrachael/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/radlovephoto/

Image Credit:
Personal profile photo of myself (black and white): Bailie @CactusAndVinePhotography

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