Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Lisa Grieve.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started a blog and an Instagram after the same name while in college. At the time, it was a way to document my “unusual” life, going to school full time in Europe (at Trinity College Dublin) and spending weekends exploring different parts of Ireland or Switzerland (I went to the University of Lausanne for a year, as well). It was mainly a way to document what I was up to for my friends and family and was definitely not created with even a hope of developing an audience outside of that. Over time, though, I started to gain an audience. I think word spread a little bit about it in my local community back home as well as in Ireland. Once I realized four or five thousand people were following along, I started to take it more seriously. My now husband, then boyfriend, Porter, encouraged me to start treating it less like a hobby and more like something that could eventually be a career. So I started to take things more seriously and work hard at developing my editing skills and getting to know the ins and outs of the platform. I’m grateful I took his advice!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Working in social media is never a smooth road. If you use something like Instagram for your income, you’re relying on a company that can and does change how easily (or not so easily) people can discover your account and what you do on nearly a weekly basis. This is definitely rough at times, especially when the new algorithm strives to encourage creators to keep creating what’s proven to be successful, rather than stretch themselves into new artistic spheres. The way Instagram’s algorithm currently works coerces photographers and “influencers” (a word we really aren’t fond of!) into minimizing the risks they take creatively. If you’ve proven to be successful with one style of photography, it makes it difficult for you to switch things up without pushing you down the algorithm and exposing less people to your photography. This is definitely creatively stifling at times.
We’re professional photographers outside of Instagram, so that helps provide balance and keep things in perspective. At the end of the day, social media could be transient, and I think anyone pursuing Instagram should simultaneously be developing a skill they can put to work outside of the platform. For us, that’s been photography.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Recess City – what should we know?
Porter and I define ourselves as photographers, specializing in social strategy and content creation for boutique hotels, ethical & eco-conscious brands, and restaurants. We like to say that what you see on @recesscity is the tip of the iceberg. For every image we share, or collaboration we feature, there’s ten to fifteen other clients we’re photographing for and helping navigate the social media realm.
The two biggest things, I believe, that have led to our success have been our focus on ethical and environmental travel and fashion, and our ability to simultaneously offer our clients exposure and professional-grade photography. We were able to get our foot in the door collaborating with boutique luxury hotels and restaurants and brands NOT because we had this gigantic social following or were “too big to fail” (we’re still considered micro-influencers), but because we had a solid audience and a track record of delivering on exactly the kinds of images brands, hotels, and restaurants want and desperately need for their social channels in order to stay relevant and competitive in this day and age.
Which women have inspired you in your life?
I’m inspired by both women and men, past and present. I was lucky to have grown up in an all-girls household, where my mum and dad encouraged us to pursue whatever we were interested in. I never felt the pressure of having to go down a certain selection of paths or risk disappointing my parents. They encouraged calculated risk, trusting God, and knowing when to apply logic and when to go with your gut. I left school when I was 21 to sail in the Caribbean for a semester, I left to go to college abroad full-time in a country I had never set foot in before. These are the sorts of things I look back on, and have only now started to fully and deeply appreciate my parents’ ability to have given me the chance to fall or fly, so to speak.
My godmother, my mother-in-law, my closest friends and most every inspiring biography I read or podcast I listen to are very family-centric. I’m fortunate to have a lot of examples in my life of women who give themselves entirely over to the kind of sacrificial love I hope to one day use a template for my relationship with my own children. I have a big entrepreneurial drive; I’m type A and my mind tends to move a mile a minute, but pursuing whatever road I’m on at any point in my life won’t be worth it if I lose site of the reality that the relationships I have with the people that I love (my family & the ones I’m closets to) will eternally outweigh my impact beyond that. That’s a personal conviction I try to remind myself of when times are confusing or trying.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.recesscity.com
- Instagram: @recesscity
Image Credit:
@recesscity
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