051 Using photography to show your authenticity with Hannah Martinig

Today’s episode is an interview with Hannah Martinig.  Hannah is an Empowerment and Personal Branding Photographer based in Aylesbury.  She left the corporate world in 2019 to focus on her Photography Business full time. Hannah specialises in Body Confidence, Female Empowerment and Personal Branding. Her father was a photographer and she had always taken an interest in it from a distance and appreciated the skill involved. However, it wasn't until she got her first DSLR camera for Christmas in 2010, from her husband, that she realised her real passion for it. Hannah's focus is on the client; to give you a relaxed, positive and empowering experience and to create images to treasure long after the moment has passed. Hannah want to help you promote your business' biggest asset; YOU! And make you stand out from the crowd. And want to show the world the version of you that she sees when she looks through her lens and she want you to see that person smiling back at you in the mirror. Away from the camera, Hannah loves all things vintage and retro; She is a fan of Country music and an avid bookworm. She owns far too many pairs of Irregular Choice shoes and likes tea in a pretty cup from a teapot!  

I spoke to Hannah about some of the challenges that she has faced running business, and she shared some insights with me around the body confidence issues that she is passionate about helping Women to overcome.  And of course some book recommendations. Here are some of the key takeaways from this episode:

• Working from home with pets and children
• How photography which started out as a hobby, developed into a passion and then a Business.
• How fear of developing photography into a business disguised itself as a desire to keep it simply as a hobby, and particularly a fear that it would feel like a chore if it was something that had to be done every day.
• The realisation that body image issues come from external expectations and sources, and that photography could have a place in helping women with this issue.
• Hannah‘s photography focuses on creating positive and beautiful images of women as they are without manipulating or airbrushing the photographs.
• The female body in particular tells a story of our lives and children.
• Embracing our imperfections  Hannah was inspired to take her business full-time, but immediately after she did so we were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Hannah embraced the time became available to her as a result of the pandemic, to decide upon a focus, and to set her values and aims for her business.
• This also gave Hannah the opportunity to continue to work with businesses and realise that her skills of showing authenticity through the camera also had a place for business owners, who wanted show their authentic selves in their business... to show their personality and how they are relatable through photos.
• The importance of "People buy from people" and "know, like and trust" in branding photos. 
• Photos as the attention grabbing element of social media.
• Hannah talked about the importance of the person who a customer sees in the image must be the same person who they then meet.  Outdated or formal photos may not be an image of person that you are in reality.
• You know that you are following your passion when you know that you would still get out of bed every day and do it, and still enjoy it, even if your weren't getting paid. 
• Being perfectly imperfect.  How scars can be part of our story.  We are all unique and special.
• How it is now the normality within society to want to change ourselves.
• How we compare ourselves to the models who wear the clothes we life.  We are always comparing and measuring ourselves to others, in image, business, lifestyle.  We don't always know what others may have experienced to get there.
• But also how many of the images that we see of others (or ourselves) may have been manipulated, so we are actually comparing ourselves to something that is not reality.
• Whilst it is personal choice whether to have surgery or lip fillers, botox etc, there should not be a societal expectation that we SHOULD do that.
• Our bodies are amazing for growing babies, and this should be celebrated.
• Everyone to some extent can be body conscious.  How we feel about ourselves is fluid and fluctuates.
• Women are sometimes told that we shouldn't "let ourselves go".  But actually should we BE "letting ourselves go" - not caring about expectations from society and what others think about us.
• These comparisons are also part of what held Hannah back from starting her business.  Fear of what others think.
• There will always be parts of business that you don't enjoy, but as your business grows you can outsource the parts that you don't enjoy.
• Fear and excitement are the same emotion, so if you can flip the way that you are talking to yourself about your fears and make them into something exciting.
• The fear around not having a regular monthly wage... but again flipping this to realise that you could actually end up making so much more money than you did when employed.
• You can choose your own clients.  It is OK to say to clients that you do not want to work with clients if they are not the right fit for you.
• Being a role model to your children.  Hoping that your values rub off on your children.
• Hannah talked about her daughter being her own person, and not caring what others think, and that hopefully that will not change as she gets further into the teenage years.
• Hannah has a visual content club.  This allows members to spread the cost and the images over a year, with regularly updated photos to use in their content.
• Life is too short to not do what you love.  You never now when your time is up or it might be too late.
• Authenticity - be yourself - you will attract the kind of people you want to work with.  Business and life can overlap and are part of each other.
• For Mums in business, our children and family are often involved in our businesses or are the "why" behind the business.
• For Hannah, it is not just finding our about what you do, but also WHY you do it, and different again... WHY did you keep going - because our reason "Why" can change over time.
• Whilst Hannah loves Canva, I asked her to chose another tool today. And that was to use a good CRM.  The one that Hannah uses is Studio Ninja which is specifically for Photographers and those involved in events and creative industries.  A good CRM will manage your appointments, contacts, workflows, contracts.
• We talked about Mel Robbins as an author and podcaster - Hannah described her as a little life coach in your pocket.  How relatable she is.  How she talks about her struggles.
• Steven Bartlett as a role model - He has good stories, and great knowledge.
• A preference for an audiobook read by the author themselves
• Glennon Doyle book - Untamed - a book full of ah-ha moments. "Who was I before I became who the world told me to be"
• How something can be simple or obvious, but that doesn't necessarily make it easy.
• Networking works to grow your business, audience, but also to meet other like-minded people and others who can support your business in a variety of ways. 

Find the show notes and the links to recommended tools and books here.