Today we’d like to introduce you to Celisia Stanton.
Hi Celisia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story starts in 2017 when I picked up a DSLR for the first time to take photos for the summer debate camp I started with my now-fiance, Andrew. From the moment I snapped my first photos, I was hooked. I kept learning what I could about photography, taking photos of anyone who would pay me any sum of money through Facebook groups and word of mouth. After a year of building a photography business as a side hustle, I discovered that there wasn’t any job that I loved as much as running my own business and capturing moments couples could cherish for generations.
So, I took the scary leap, quit my day job, and worked tirelessly to build Celisia Stanton Photography into a sustainable, thriving wedding photography business. And it worked! In the first few years of full-time work, my business grew significantly and I was able to help dozens of incredible portrait and wedding clients preserve their memories for decades to come.
Then, March 2020 hit, and the entire wedding industry was thrown into crisis. I was juggling multiple wedding reschedules in the middle of a global pandemic, and for the first time, the future of my business was uncertain. I live in Minneapolis, and that summer George Floyd was murdered by police officers a few miles from my house. As a result, I began sharing my beliefs and perspectives on systemic racism, power, and under-taught history on my Instagram account @celisiastanton for the first time. As a Black Latina woman raised by same-sex parents in the midwest, I’ve always had a personal investment in racial justice and the liberation of all people. But I’d often keep talking about politics and the issues I cared most about separate from my business. Before that summer, I’d always been told to be careful when sharing my opinions publicly to avoid alienating potential clients and sabotaging my income. But that summer was different – I just couldn’t stay quiet anymore. And the best part was that people seemed to like what I had to say. I found my personal and business platforms growing practically overnight.
As the year went on, my photography business started to pick up again, and I found I was attracting even more clients who often feel alienated by a wedding industry that centers and uplifts white, straight, cis, thin couples. I was thrilled to be able to serve clients from such diverse backgrounds and pleased that my business was falling back on track.
So, in the Fall of 2020, I hired a financial advisor to help me take my financial goals to the next level. Like many Black people in the United States, I didn’t know the most strategic way to manage and leverage my finances in order to build generational wealth for me and my family. So, I hired a highly-recommended and credible financial advisor to help guide me through saving and investing my money. Or… so I thought.
What I didn’t know at the time, was that I’d soon discover that my financial advisor had stolen my entire life savings– tens of thousands of dollars that he claimed to have invested for me. Before I knew it, I was part of a federal investigation into my advisor and his schemes. I was one of 23 victims of an investment scheme that had defrauded us of a combined total of more than 2.3 million dollars. Suddenly, I was learning first hand what the ‘justice’ in ‘criminal justice’ really meant.
In the months that followed, I found myself obsessively listening to true crime podcasts as a coping mechanism — albeit a strange one. While I had listened to true crime podcasts in the past, I was now listening to them from my new perspective as a crime victim and I couldn’t shake the feeling that the picture felt just so incomplete. I found myself with lots of questions:
Does the story really end with a headline arrest or a guilty verdict? How can we *actually* support victims? And what if the perpetrator, the criminal, is the government? The *same* government that decides what counts as crime in the first place. What does justice *really* mean? And who is it *really* for?
I would complain to my partner about all the issues I had with the true crime podcasts I was listening to, until one day he finally said: “Why don’t you just make your own true-crime podcast?”
So I did! And in May of 2021, I launched my podcast Truer Crime, a show which seeks to add more research, nuance, context, and questions to the ways we engage with true crime stories. And people loved it! We released 10 episodes in the first season and are currently in development for season 2. Truer Crime has also been featured in PopSugar, Mashable, and the podcast “Terrible, Thanks for Asking.”
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely NOT been a smooth road and I’ve had countless struggles along the way. One of the hardest was the beginning of the pandemic because large gatherings (like weddings) were no longer safe. The future of the entire industry, let alone the future of my business, was uncertain. But I had to keep running my business, and learn how to balance wedding cancellations and reschedules, while also making sure I could still make ends meet. However, this time also brought the growth of my social media platform, and by the fall I was attracting more clients who were value-aligned and my photography business grew quickly as a result.
Last fall when I was the victim of a financial crime, this was a particularly devastating blow as a small business owner. Due to the nature of the wedding industry, my income fluctuates a lot throughout the year, and it’s never completely stable. In fact, I discovered the financial fraud during the photography off-season, when my income is at its lowest. It was incredibly difficult to navigate this financial uncertainty, while simultaneously working through my own healing as a victim of a crime. At the same time, this experience opened new opportunities: I pursued writing and podcasting in the true-crime landscape, and I’ve started to grow Truer Crime into a successful business on its own.
As an independent podcast producer, I have definitely been up against additional challenges getting Truer Crime off the ground. I was able to hire a small team to help me produce, edit, and market the podcast, but most of my hours of work on the podcast were unpaid. And without a media company or marketing team behind us, we relied heavily on word of mouth and social media to get the word out. Especially with the podcast, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but it’s been one of the most exciting and rewarding things I’ve ever done, and I’m very proud of how we’ve grown Truer Crime into what it is today.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am the owner and lead photographer of Celisia Stanton Photography, a portrait and wedding photography business that serves fun-loving + adventurous clients with a team of several amazing associate photographers.
As a photographer, I specialize in portrait and wedding photography. In 2021, I was able to expand my photographer team to include 3 associate photographers who help me serve even more awesome clients each year. Because I am based in the midwest, many of my clients have trouble finding photographers with portfolios representative of their friends, family, and relationships. After I became more vocal about my worldview and beliefs on Instagram, I began attracting more clients of all different races, gender identities, and cultures. It’s been such a pleasure being able to serve them and help them feel confident and valued on their wedding day.
I am also the host of “Truer Crime,” a new podcast that seeks to add more nuance, context, and questions to the way we engage with true crime stories. What makes Truer Crime unique is the ways we seek to go deeper when telling these stories, always pointing to the systems that fail to protect victims and to really question what “justice” actually means. So far we’ve been able to cover traditional true crime cases like Darlie Routier, historical cases like the Tulsa Race Massacre and Joan Little, and lesser-known cases like Josiah Sutton and Michael Johnson/”Tiger Mandingo.” What we’ve found through our episodes is that many people have the same issues I had with true crime media as I did. It’s been so exciting to see how many people connected with Truer Crime, and how the show has helped people think about true crime media in a more critical and well-rounded way.
What matters most to you? Why?
When it comes to my business and professional life, what matters most to me is BALANCE. Part of the very reason I became an entrepreneur and started my own business was so I could have more control over my time and lifestyle. While I love what I do, I also view my work as something that enables me to truly live the life that I want to live. I deeply value my family, friends, and community, and feel so lucky to work in a way that allows me to be flexible with my time, while also doing work that can make a difference.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@truercrimepodcast.com | celisia@celisiastanton.com
- Website: truercrimepodcast.com | celisiastanton.com
- Instagram: @truercrimepod | @celisiastanton
- Facebook: facebook.com/truercrimepod | facebook.com/celisiastanton
- Twitter: @truercrimepod | @CelisiaStanton
Image Credits
Nicole Ashley Photography
Celisia Stanton
