Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mimi Connelly. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mimi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I always exercised my creativity from a very young age. I spent most of my days creating resaturants and hotels in my living room with fake food, cash registers, table cloths, room keys, the whole nine yards. I would always have my parents and sisters come “visit” and “stay.” I’d spend a lot of time alone and creating my own little worlds. When I was twelve I wrote my first novel, although it was absolutely terrible, my parents always always supported me. They always made me believe I could accomplish anything I put my mind to. And that energy has never dwindled. I remember joking a few years ago about how weird of a child I must have been and my Dad cut me off, and he was like I never thought this, I was always astounded by your creativity. This will always stick with me becuase I know how lucky I am to have such supportive family members with my creative career that I know is rare. They have and continue to push me in all the right ways, push me to continue to live outside of my comfort zone, get creative with the types of content I’m sharing, and learn more about the social media world to better understand my career since all of this was obviously not around when they were my age.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a photographer and content creator based in Los Angeles, California. I started my career when I was fourteen, struggling with an eating disorder I turned to Instagram to find a community of support. This was back in 2013 when it was cool to get 11 likes on a photo. Since then the social media space has obviously grown and changed immensely, but being in the space and sharing photos for over a decade now I have been able to share my social media expertise with brands and infleuncers, take photography for clients in the lifestyle and food space, and share my own life journey and words on my own page, balancing my love for humor with vulnerability, my love for sharing raw life moments with curated photoshoots, and everything in between.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I started my account through such a vulnerable lens. I was extremely open about my eating disorder and my account acted as a psuedo journal. To me, this is why I have the community and following I do now. People relate to your hell far more than your heaven. I think humanizing yourself –even if you are a brand, is extremely important, real life stories, hardships, and even mundane moments is what people relate to. Tell your story, and tell it often. Find different ways and mediums to tell it and share it. People connect to other humans, they are going to buy into you first, before they buy into anything else.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think this goes for all entrepreneurs as well as creative types, our brains are always on. We’re always sifting through our brains and days of what can we turn into art, how can we better our craft and our business. It’s a never ending game. For many years this frustrated me, why couldn’t I ever turn my brain off and stop “working.” Now I have come to peace with the fact that this is how my brain works and it’s okay. I’m grateful for my love of work and creating. I have also learned to be better at saying no and recharging my personal battery so it all doesn’t seem never ending and constant.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mimiconnelly.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mimiconnelly/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimi-connelly-12227a99/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mimiconnelly?lang=en
Image Credits
Top photo of myself: Kennedy Roberts @karcreative (IG)