Meet Samuel Soliman

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Samuel Soliman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Samuel with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I think my work ethic comes from wanting to be the person my younger self needed. I feel as though a lot of young people don’t get access to mentors whether it be because of the lack of access or the lack of knowledge on how to get one. My dad passed away when I was in high school at a really pivotal point in my life. I was in my senior year of high school and had more questions than answers and I needed someone to answer them. After graduating, I felt as though I was really lost and had no direction and was just making decisions and moving towards nothing. I was really falling into a depression and it wasn’t until I found a mentor that really believed in me and pulled me out of it. It’s wasn’t until recently after reflecting back on everything that the person I am now is exactly who my younger self needed. A hard working, empathetic, creative who creates for himself first.

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

Samuel Soliman has worked as a freelance commercial director and photographer for the last 9 years. He has worked on a multitude of projects ranging from local businesses to a marketing campaign that has appeared in New York Times Square.

In addition to this, Sam co-owns a mental health clothing business called The Hood Hippie Love Yourself who has collaborated with schools and organizations ranging from Lancaster Pennsylvania to Baltimore county. Sam also owns a Filipino Food Catering business called Salamat Po! which has a goal of bringing filipino culture to Lancaster Pennsylvania. Sam also sits on the board of directors for Touchstone Foundation, an organization dedicated to creating and connecting mental health resources to young people in Lancaster County.

I think the most exciting thing about my job is the different people I work with everyday. I get to work with a multitude of different culture and people and I feel like I’m constantly in school ( I mean this in the best way possible) where I get to learn something new and exciting everyday.

I got into photography because of my dad. My dad was an architect and I would always see photos that he would take of me or my family growing up and I think only recently I found the importance in making sure memories are documented physically for future people to see and understand. I’m here in America under a program called DACA and coming from an immigrant family, I think I was expected to follow the traditional route of going to school and having security in a job and then staying there until retirement. I think I realized very early on that it was going to be difficult for me to choose a career path one because of this expectation and two because from early on I really valued putting time and energy into things that really brought me joy and could care less about the other things. I started out doing senior portraits and portrait sessions Photography lead to joining forces with my best friend running a clothing brand called The Hood Hippie Love Yourself, a streetwear mental health clothing brand. I think this is when I started to really believe that this art form that I chose can open a lot of doors. I created marketing campaigns to help sell the clothes out and one of the first campaigns we did, we sold out our clothes in less than 24 hours. I’ve been doing this for the last 3 years now and honestly it’s transformed the way I work and think and create.

I started the catering business with my family in November. I think this is what I am most proud of. One of the most transformative things in my life has been food, just understanding the process, the taste and cooking has always been so interesting to me. So my mom and dad’s dream has always been to open a restaurant. My mom has taught me a lot about life through cooking and food and realizing that there is no Filipino restaurants within a 40 mile radius of where I am at in Lancaster, I knew that it had to be done. I wanted to bring my culture to an area where it didn’t have a strong presence but also help my parents in the pursuit of their dream while I have the skillset and connections to make it happen.

I think that separates me is that I try to photograph things in a way that feels close to the ground, where you can really see a reflection of yourself in whatever photograph I take. I help to find creative ways to not only make a vision a reality but also help to create strategic marketing to help it have real tangible effect on people’s business.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Empathy , Diplomacy , Love

Empathy and love is probably the most impactful skill of my journey so far. In my career of storytelling with photo/video, being able to translate empathy and love into visuals is important. A lot of business and selling revolves around being able to connect with your consumer or customer base. It is easy to create good looking marketing material, it’s hard to create material that connects though. To improve this skill especially as a creative, I always think deeper into the content I’m consuming. If I’m watching a video, besides it being entertaining what about it do I connect with?

Diplomacy
I believe that being diplomatic in my approach has worked the best for me. Throughout my career, I’ve experienced clients and situations that have really tested my ability to be diplomatic. In one instance, I had a client that was a little apprehensive about the price of the service I was providing. Through a number of reasons from the client having a bad experience with their previous creative and only being able to sell my self through a 5 minute call, not enough trust was built between me and the client. The solution I offered was to take on one of their smaller projects at a fraction of the price point and deliver a stellar product which they agreed to. Not only was I able to deliver a product they loved but I was also able to show that I want to always provide solutions to problems instead of adding to their plate. At the end of the day, your career revolves around how people perceive you and I want to be perceived as a problem solver and diplomat.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

I think the most important thing I do when feeling overwhelmed is firstly to acknowledge it. Knowing that it’s a problem is the first step in finding a solution. Often times as a professional creative and business owner we feel as though we have to put our mental health on the back burner so our career can succeed but these things go hand in hand and in order for you to succeed you have to be the best version of yourself.

One thing I’ve recently started doing to lighten the load whenever I feel overwhelmed is to write a list of everything I have to do and sorting them into big, medium and small tasks. Big tasks require a lot of effort or time or both, medium tasks require not as much and small tasks require the least. From there I “budget out” my energy. I have $100 to spend for the day on these tasks with big tasks being $50, medium tasks being $25 and small tasks being $5. On months where I have a lot of projects, certain tasks go up or down in price. This way forces me to not overexert myself on months where my workload is really busy while also still being able to maintain my deadlines.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://samuelsoliman.com
• Instagram: sam.soliman
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-soliman-548bbb331