We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anja Poehlmann. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anja below.

Alright, Anja thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I’ve been a full-time photographer and filmmaker for over 5 years now. Having started just 6 months before Covid meant that the first 18 months were very tough financially. I was just about to gain momentum when everything came to a screeching halt – I basically couldn’t work and make any money for a year. I used this time to really understand what it meant to run a business and how to market my services and over time, I’ve grown an audience and learned what it means to use my creative work to make a living.
I’m still making a less money than I did when I was employed but I have creative freedom over my time and the projects I’m working on. I’m a night owl – my brain doesn’t work well in the morning. Being able to work with my body rhythm rather than someone else’s schedule helps me a lot in getting the work done that helps me grow my business.
The main catalysts for my current success were the networks and memberships I joined in 2019 and 2020. The community support, mentorships and training to help me run a business – rather than make money with a hobby – played a huge part in where I am today. There were a lot of things I didn’t know I needed to know or do before going full-time – and to be honest, had I known about them, I probably wouldn’t have done it. If I’d had these business and marketing skills beforehand, everything might have gone quicker and with less resistance. But I’m a photographer, not a marketer or business person… Making money with creative work means doing a lot of not-quite-as-creative work. Today, I’m embracing it but I know my past self would have been scared of all the tasks I now have that I wasn’t aware of.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a photographer for families and small businesses based in Worthing, West Sussex. I got into photography while living in Hawaii in 2005 where I documented my life for 6 months. Coming back home to Germany, my dad got me a DSLR and things spiraled from there. I photographed everything and learned how to use a camera for more than just snapshots. Suddenly, people asked me to photograph their families and even weddings. That’s when I started my business (part-time only). I was still learning though and basically accepted every job that would pay me.

Fast forward to today, I have a better understanding of what brings me joy: photographing people and the beauty of normal life.
The main goal with all my work is to instil confidence in my clients: in families by showing up as their real selves in photos that will help children grow up knowing where they belong and in small businesses to show up authentically to their audience to build real connections with those they want to serve.

That means I take photos of my clients in their natural environment, with minimal interference (as much as possible). The idea is to capture moments of connection and authenticity. Based on the feedback I get from clients or even people who never hired me but have been following my work for a while is that I manage to capture people in a way that feels natural and honest. What I want is for my clients to look at their images and say “I love these images, they look and feel like me”. Usually it’s “I love these photos, I look so much better than normal” or “This looks like me and I can see all my flaws. I don’t like them”.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Having started my business just 6 months before Covid meant that before my work could gain momentum, I was shut down. I could have gone back to finding employment to make sure I could pay my bills but I decided to double down and use the “free time” (as in, when I wasn’t allowed to meet and photograph people) to learn what it meant to run a business. I joined a photography marketing membership and watched every single video that was available to the community. I learned how to create campaigns and a strategy, how to price my work, how to start an email list and how to communicate my value and service to my potential clients. I didn’t know what I was doing before and rather than giving up right away, I put everything I had into this business to try and make it work.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to help people see that we don’t need to fake a perfect version of ourselves to enjoy our lives or show up for our people or our businesses.
Honesty is one of my values and it shows in my work and the clients I get to photograph.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anjapoehlmann.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/by_anjap
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anja-poehlmann/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@anjapoehlmann
• Other: https://anjaproject365.substack.com/

Image Credits

All photos are mine
my headshot is by Jo Thorne