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

Hi Michelle, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

In a sense, I always knew that I never had or will have the personality for Corporate America. I’ve worked in healthcare as anything from a receptionist to an Office Manager to Director of Medical Supplies and (gulp) Insurance as a Commercial Lines Agent. I tried for 20 years to “fit the mold” for that type of career life but it always backfired. Always finding myself asking questions they didn’t want asked or pointing something out they didn’t want noticed, usually got me a one way ticket to the chopping block. My goal wasn’t to have a target on my back but if you can’t ask questions and learn more, you can’t have understanding and growth. It’s impossible. It was almost like a double edged sword for me…just do what they say and ask no questions.

When Covid hit and the office life shut down and we all began working from home, it was honestly a bittersweet time for me. Genuinely, I was missing some co-workers and the laughs we’d have but I was relieved to be out of the “stuffy” office life. About a month in, the insurance office I was working in laid off a lot of employees, myself being one. I felt an instant relief, honestly. I took that time to REALLY dig my heels in, build a decent (not perfect) site, learn basic SEO and hone a bit more of my craft knowing that when all is said and done, I’m truly happy and immensely blessed to be able to take what I’ve seen and learned throughout my “work life” and apply it to this business. I continue to ask who, what, where, when and why. But this time, I’m able to ask those tough questions, dig, find the answers and help not just myself grow, but others around me.

Michelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a New Jersey native but wishes I’d moved to Central Florida sooner than I did. I remember my mom always loving images my Uncle would take around my hometown of Cape May, She would have them blown up into these huge prints that she’d hang around the house so I would say the love of the arts certainly came from her. In high school, I took an elective photography class where we had 35mm film cameras and went through the entire process of how the camera works, rule of thirds, how to develop film…all the things. FINALLY I was in love with some part of school. Ha! But really, the deep dive into photography didn’t come in until about 2012, 15 years after high school, when I had my second daughter. Newborn pictures were VERY expensive for me at the time. My husband and I went ahead and booked the best photographer in the area and took the leap. I remember paying SO MUCH attention to what she was doing, where she placed things, the light etc. We literally went home that day and I said to myself “yep…I’m gonna try it”.

I spent forever on YouTube, I googled and read more, went through countless trial and error situations, borrowed friends kids, made zillions of mistakes, googled how to fix them and just didn’t…and still don’t want to stop learning. Honestly, thank the good Lord for digital because I think if we only had film, I’d be broke.

I always had photography as a side business apart from my normal 9-5. Not that I didn’t trust myself enough to go “all-in” with photography but in Cape May, NJ…a very busy location from Memorial day to Labor Day and a very quiet area the rest of the year, it was a little difficult for me to build the clientele. Moving to Florida changed all of that. Gone were the days of seasonal work and in came a consistently busy area of clients and vacationers. But I wasn’t sure how to grab those clients because I didn’t know a soul here. Ugh.

The church we attended at the time ran into a situation where they needed a photographer and of course, I jumped in. Many of the families that attended the church became my first Florida clients and some of them were kind enough to refer me out. Currently, most of my clients are vacationing families to the Central Florida area. I really find that letting families just be themselves helps remove a lot of the stress and awkwardness out of family sessions. And it also created genuine and memorable moments. I service anywhere from Orlando to Cocoa Beach to St. Augustine and areas in between but I’m always willing to go to new places. I do shoot some weddings in the area and I have actually been able to add a videographer to my team so we care certainly looking to expand the wedding portion of the business.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I had a pretty interesting teenage through young adult period. I learned a lot about life and people during that time but what I learned the most was seeing God in everything even when it seems too difficult. The last thing some people want is someone just running up to them and preaching something they don’t want to hear. So I feel like my mission through my work is to show people Jesus and just how good he is.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

A lot of people will scream at me for this but…social media, for me, just isn’t doin’ it. I’m a terrible social media person, personally and that is also projected onto the business side. Website SEO seems to be the winner for me. It’s not perfect, we’re still learning and YouTubing ALL THE THINGS over here (and some of it makes my head spin) but that really seems to have gotten the ball rollin’!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://michellecoombsphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelle_coombs_photo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MichelleCoombsPhotography