Daily Inspiration: Meet Brianna Eslinger

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brianna Eslinger. 

Brianna, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Let me preface this with the fact that I am not a writer. I am an expert in run-on sentences and strategic use of emojis via text. Well, my story starts like most creatives but takes an unexpected turn. From as early as I can remember, I enjoyed using my imagination and creating. I started taking art classes outside of school hours around 3rd grade. Every weekend I would check out “how to draw” step-by-step books from the library, and I’d stay up late at night practicing. I was always getting in trouble for doodling on my papers during lessons in school. What can I say? It seemed like I did my best work during math class. With a childhood like this, it may seem predictable that I ended up as a photographer & videographer even without knowing what happened in my life to get me here. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Let’s skip ahead to the year of my life that really changed everything for me, 2013. This is the year that I found out I was pregnant and that my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at 16. Looking back, this was the beginning of some challenging years, but this was also the marker for where I would start to grow as an individual, which led to my accomplishments and the successes I have today. 

I will try to give you the sped-up version of my story and how I got to where I am today. Like I said, 2013 changed everything for me. I was suddenly filled with a drive to do everything possible to create a wonderful life for my daughter, a life my mom would be proud of, and honestly, I was just trying to beat every statistic of a teen mom. I finished high school online early, I put together my portfolio for Kendall College of Art and Design during the spring of my senior year and got in on scholarship for “portfolio excellence”. I was basically home all day every day during my senior year, watching my daughter experience all her firsts and watching my mom fight a hard battle with cancer. I started my Illustration degree at Kendall College of Art and Design in the fall of 2014. I went to school full-time and worked part-time. I would visit my mom while she received her chemo treatments on lunch breaks. It was hard, but I did make the presidents list my first year at school. 

During this time, I fell in love with taking care of my mental and physical health by finding a workout routine that worked for me. The gym is the main reason I not only survived these hard times but grew. Working out improved my confidence, my mental health, and my physical abilities. I then saw how important preventative health care was, and my passion for it and helping others grew. In January 2016, I did leave Kendall College of Art & Design to pursue a career as a personal trainer. My mom passed away in March of 2016, it’s hard to think that she didn’t see any of my greatest accomplishments, but she was my driving force to follow my passions. In 2017 my plans of developing a fitness studio in Rockford, MI, started. I worked with many small businesses from 2014-2017, so the hustle of entrepreneurship wasn’t new to me. After a successful 2 years, I did sell my share of the business to my partner. During those years, I learned a lot about business. I worked almost all hours of the day while fulfilling the duties of a single mother. That, plus the stress of it all, started to take a toll on my physical health, which is ultimately why I decided to step away from the business in January of 2020. 

As for most, 2020 is what I’d consider the next pivotal year in my life. This is the year I put myself first. I prioritized self-care, which meant having a good work-life balance. This is the first year that I took a step back and recognized my accomplishments and realized, okay, I can do this; I can do anything in this life. From there, I started working in marketing and content creation for small businesses. I combined 3 of my passions being creative, entrepreneurship, and helping others. From there, and after much debate and research, I invested in a Sony camera in November of 2021 to bring better content to my marketing clients. Which is how I got to where I am now. I am currently a full-time photographer and videographer. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in wedding videography and couples’ photography. I also do brand work, maternity, family, and senior sessions. I LOVE this job. I strongly feel like everything I have gone through up until now has prepared me to be fully capable of this job. From back-end business matters to customer service, client experience, to the details of photography like composition, style, editing, to marketing, design work, heck even building my website. I have always been self-motivated and have always had a drive to be self-taught and grow based on hands-on experience. My experiences have given me the confidence to just dive in and trust the process. What am I most proud of? Geesh, I’d say never giving up, and so far, I have accomplished every goal I have had. What sets me apart from others? I’d say my genuine care for capturing moments for my clients in a way that they can truly remember their feelings and their loved ones. I want to get the candids, I want to capture the emotion and the details of what makes them, them, and the moment unique. 

How do you define success?
How do I define success? Hmmm, I think I’d say success is when you never let the bad days get the best of you. When you take the bad and make it good no matter how big or small because success looks different to everyone. Success is found in small everyday wins. Your small daily wins like getting out of bed when you feel like staying in it all day or doing a task you told yourself you were going to do, like a 30-minute workout those are the successes that help you accomplish those big successes in life like buying a house, buying a car, starting and selling a profitable business, living a life that you’re genuinely happy with or being a person you’re proud of. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.unfilteredcollective.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theunfilteredcollective/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theunfilteredcollective
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCMtCUrvTKtVn8L4gFX2E2w
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/theunfilteredcollective/

Image Credits
The Unfiltered Collective LLC