Meet Ryan Heck

We were lucky to catch up with Ryan Heck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ryan, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Imposter Syndrome has always been around me, sometimes more powerful than others. It’s kept me from really pursuing my passion of photography, because I always felt lesser than others’ works that I had seen. So I kept it as a hobby. But in the end of 2023, I had made a decision to push past it and turn my photography hobby into a business. Big outdoor brands started communicating with me and asked me to shoot some of their products, and then coming back a few months later for more projects. It was still difficult for me to recognize that brands wouldn’t want to me continue to work with them if I wasn’t a great photographer.

In the summer of 2024 I found myself hiking in the early morning hours to climb a mountain, drinking coffee and taking photos while waiting for the sun to rise. I had been doing that almost every Saturday morning for the past few months, but seeing a certain sunrise made me just accept that, yes, I had Imposter Syndrome and yes, I was a good photographer and I deserved to be in this space. There was room for me doing this type of work.

For me , that realization made the business even stronger, and gave me so much more confidence to do hard things. I’m proactively pitching to brands, joining and even leading photography and UGC communities on social media, and soon starting to lead photography workshops abroad. Recognizing that my biggest barrier was myself and my Imposter Syndrome, when I come across periods of lower confidence I show myself a list of popular brands that I’ve worked with to get me out of the rut and back in business.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a professional photographer and UGC creator based in Oregon. The majority of my work centers around outdoor and adventure lifestyle photos, and I work with brands in the outdoor industry to capture their products in the wild. I do this part time, and for my day job I’m a social worker.

Doing photography has taken me to some amazing places, specifically in the Pacific Northwest. Being in the mountains can be truly humbling and sometimes very uncomfortable, but I find the experiences rewarding every time.

Since I decided to grow my business substantially in 2024, I’ve found myself more days than not utterly speechless when I’m opening my inbox to see a business inquiry from a brand that I’ve heard of, or wanted to work with. I still feel so new and I’m already working consistently with a brand that was #1 my “Bucket List,” so I feel so incredibly fortunate. A recent endeavor that I’ve been exploring is leading photography workshops abroad. I have the next few years laid out for locations and itineraries that I am so excited about. I’m feeling quite drawn to share my talents and experiences with others, especially in the beginner stage, to learn how to be more comfortable with their cameras and come to some beautiful places. I’m also working on building classes and communities on my social media to help individuals learn how to become content creators.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

At this point, while knowing how to use a camera is important, I think that that skill falls lower than gaining confidence in yourself, staying motivated to follow your goals, and consistently clarifying and considering your goals and your progress. My wife and I consistently have “strategy sessions” to help streamline our tasks for both of our respective businesses, and we also play to each others’ strengths and share tasks to help us stay on top of our goals.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

For me, 2024 was my year of growth in almost all aspects. Eating healthier, staying active through Saturday morning hikes, working out multiple times a week, and pushing to expand my skills as a photographer and content creator. Honestly, I’m not sure why it stuck this time when I’ve struggled to develop a routine before. But I did have goals that were well thought out, accountability with my wife and friends, and I enjoyed every minute of what I was doing (despite the difficulty of it). Ultimately, I would like to do this type of work full time and have more freedom and flexibility to travel and explore the outdoors, so I think that is another reason for this big push forward, to get me closer to that lifestyle. To sum it up though, I found it imperative to try to improve multiple facets of my life by setting goals. I don’t think change happens too well in a vacuum, and succeeding in one goal while letting other parts of your life flounder can lead to regression.

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