We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hannah Davis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Hannah, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Confidence and self-esteem have been two things I’ve been working on my entire adult life. As a kid you usually have a certain level of confidence about yourself and I’ve always been that person who was confident. However I didn’t have self-esteem and full confidence in myself until the last year or so. I realized around 21 years old that my confidence was somewhat faked throughout life and it wasn’t rooted in me being confident in myself but more so making others feel good and be confident in themselves. Although that’s not necessarily a bad thing to make others feel good, you should also feel good about yourself. Over the last two years I’ve done a lot of self-discovery and come to love myself for who I am. I look at myself in the mirror a lot more now than I did in the past and I admire the good qualities I possess without others having to say so. It really took me sitting down with myself repeatedly and writing out my best qualities, as well as recognizing the good qualities others saw in me when I didn’t see them.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a 27 year old photographer, videographer and soon-to-be drone pilot of my business HD Visuals. I discovered my passion for media during my last semester in college and decided to explore it more six months after graduating. I started HD Visuals officially in June of 2019 and have been going strong for four years now. I specialize in real estate, branding, special moments, and events. Recently, I’ve been studying to get my drone license so that I can start offering that service and growing as a videographer since I started offering those services last year. I also have had the privilege this year so far to work with The Rotary Club of Downtown Durham and Boys and Girls Club of Durham and Orange Counties.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would say the three biggest skills I’ve had to learn in this journey have been how to maintain and work a business, how to continually improve in my skills as a photographer/videographer, and learning to market myself. Being an entrepreneur is very challenging at times, especially as a small business owner because I am everything for my business. Which isn’t bad, but is sometimes very stressful. I am the CEO, main creative, editor, marketing specialist, and so much more. I’ve really had to work on my time management when it comes to running a business and prioritizing what’s most important first. I would recommend Atomic Habits by James Clear and Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy for any business owner who needs to learn how to complete tasks and juggle things accordingly. As far as improving my skills, I often purchase and take courses on Udemy so that I can keep offering the best parts of my skill to my clients. And lastly, when it comes to marketing yourself I would recommend just having fun with it and focus on documenting your journey over creating content. That’s something I’m still working on myself, but I always recommend it to other creatives.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
My ideal client is someone who wants to showcase their most authentic selves. As I said earlier, one of my specialties is special moments photography/videography and that is because I love capturing candid and authentic moments of my clients. I take a chance to really get to know the person I’m shooting with prior to and make them feel comfortable so that when we’re working they can be their most authentic selves. So I would say my clients are people looking to capture those moments whether for a house, an event, a baby shower, a birthday party, or updating their branding. I want to showcase their best qualities in my work so they see themselves in the best light when looking at it later.
Contact Info:
- Website: hannahsvisuals.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/hannahsvisuals
- Facebook: facebook.com/hannahsvisuals
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hannahsvisuals/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHefkkGElD3Elam-1JzjJKg
- Other: Google Business Page: https://goo.gl/maps/GtSfLLduDiTCErNN9
