Today we’d like to introduce you to The Michigan Guru.
Please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
When I was young, my mother was a photographer. On weekends when the whole family had time off from work and school, my parents would take my sister and I on trips across Michigan. My father would find places to fish and my sister, and I would join my mom on adventures to take pictures. My whole childhood was spent traveling our beautiful state of Michigan. I have all this built-up emotion and love for my beloved state that I am dying others to experience.
After I hit adult years, I wasted years of my life hoping from job to job. State to state. Dead end job to dead-end job. Every time I moved away, I always ended up back in my home state. It kept calling me home.
By 2019, I was dying to travel and revisit all the beautiful places and cities my parents introduced me to years before. So, I took a small part-time job as a local waitress and began saving every penny I could, bought a small simple $25 two-person tent, and headed north. My father lives in a small town just outside of Grayling, so my daughter and I pitched our tent on his property and traveled the whole upper north part of the lower peninsula. After arriving back home from that weeklong trip, I had amazing footage and photos and nothing to do with them. They just sat on my computer, unused for almost a year. Then one day a lightbulb went off in my head. Vlogging! I could travel, film, and photograph the state I fell in love with as a child! I could bring all the beauty I see and show the world. So, in January of 2021, I began ‘The Michigan Guru’.
As of today, I still work that waitressing job full time and fully fund ‘ The Michigan Guru’.
Alright, 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?
It has not been a smooth road. I have had to learn how to use, film and photograph with camera equipment I did not know how to use. Plus, I do not make any income from vlogging so traveling and holding down a job, pay bills, buy and upgrade to better equipment, all as a single mother AND find the funds to travel has been extremely challenging. Juggling it all is very tough but it’s a challenge I have come to adore.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a videographer. I am a photographer. A vlogger. I find it my personal goal to SHOW you Michigan. I want to show my viewers what Michigan looks like through MY eyes. How I see this amazing state. I am not out here trying to bring you the best picture you’ve ever see. I am not out here trying to show you the best travel vlog you have ever seen. I want my art to be the raw, amazing footage to be exactly the way it is. Naturally. If I have to hike all day, in the hot sun, through rivers and thick trees, you’re going to see that. You are going to see my sweat and dirt.
If I am out filming on a Michigan beach and pier, and I get absolutely soaking wet. You’re going to see that.
That Is the “art” of The Michigan Guru.
What’s next?
My plans for the future? To grow The Michigan Guru name. To have the name known in all homes across the world. I want the platform vlogging to live up to its name and fully fund itself that way I can travel longer and visit areas hard to get to in Michigan. There is so much state to cover!
Contact Info:
- Email: themichiganguru@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_michigan_guru/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAGZB7m4F3SbhMptr4xIXuA
Image Credits:
The Michigan Guru
