Meet Anja Imamovic: Professional Ballroom Dancer & Beauty Influencer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anja Imamovic and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anja, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Usually, we see risk as an uncomfortable, dangerous and unknown obstacle that stops us from succeeding or even just dreaming big. However, I see risk as something beautiful, challenging, exciting and freeing. First big risk I’ve taken was when I decided to moved from Bosnia and Herzegovina (where I was born) to Slovenia to study Pharmacy and continue my dance education. At the time I was just 17 years old. Few years after that, I met Kristijan (my husband) and together we decided that we want to move to Arizona and make our dreams come true. Kristijan and I are professional ballroom dancer and coaches for over 20 years, with our knowledge and experience we teach our students how to become better versions of themselves in dancing and in life, and we want to continue to share our passion for dancing here in USA. I can’t say that taking all of these risks always led to the outcome I initially wanted and to be honest, at first, it was very disappointing. However, once you are over that first emotional reaction, you are able to see how much you’ve actually grown and what all you were able to learn in that process, which maybe, made you realize that there is something more you can and want to do with your life. With that being said, since, I am also certified makeup artist, last year I decided to take another risk in my life and start sharing my knowledge and passion for makeup with the world by creating my own YouTube channel “Anja Imamovic13” which is something that is completely out of my comfort zone, first of all because I have huge fear of speaking in public (I don’t have problem dancing in front of millions of people but speaking.. umm No, Thank you 😊) and second, because English is not my first language, so it makes speaking even more “scary”. Quickly after I started uploading videos I realized that there are people who don’t and will never support me and my way of speaking, but there is way more people who are extremely helpful and supportive. In a little over a year, I grew as a person ,gained more confidence when it comes to speaking and using my voice, and met so many incredible subscribers that I love calling my friends. I think that risk that I took creating my YouTube channel was definitely uncomfortable at first but led to so many beautiful things and honestly, I can’t wait to see how far this journey is going to take me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Both, dancing and makeup are tools that help you express yourself, and the best part is that they are connected to each other. As much as I love doing makeup for my clients or just playing with makeup on myself, I never thought of sharing that passion with the rest of the world until last year when I decided to start my YouTube channel. I realized that sharing my knowledge, opinion and experience makes me fulfilled and just overall really happy. It was very hard on the beginning (and still is sometimes), because you are spending hours, even days preparing and working on the videos that sometimes, just “don’t do well” and the easiest thing to do is to start doubting yourself or worse case scenario, just quit. However, one thing I learned from my professional dancing career, that I’m trying to implement in my YouTube career as well, is patience. Seeking for instant gratification in these professions would be very unrealistic, so every time I “hit the wall” I remind myself why I started doing this on the first place, which helps me get back to creative state of mind. Another very important thing I had to learn the hard way is negativity you can and will get online. The moment you start sharing your life, yourself or your opinion online, you are opening yourself for criticism (both positive and negative). I love constructive criticism however, that’s not what usually happens online. In my case, I experienced a lot of just rude comments that were definitely not constructive or helpful, but their main goal was to hurt my feelings. It really had a huge impact on me (especially on the beginning) because, I didn’t know what I did wrong, why it’s happening and how should I react. I have to say that I am really happy that I had to experience that negativity early in my career because it thought me 5 important lessons : 1. Everyone has a right for their own opinion 2. You shouldn’t be emotional while doing business (in my case: while reading comments) 3. “How people treat other people is a direct reflection of how they feel about themselves” Paulo Coelho 4. You can’t please everyone 5. Any marketing is better than none. This last lesson definitely helped me understand that people who left rude comments under my video still had to watch my content to be able to express themselves but, I don’t think they realize how much they actually helped me grow my channel at the same time. So at the end of the day, I am truly grateful for every single person that came across my channel. All of these lessons helped me grow as a person and shaped me into human being that is ready for whatever the future holds for me.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
That is really hard question, especially nowadays with everything that is happening in the world. I have to be honest, my husband cooks amazingly so I would always choose home cooked meal over a restaurant, however there is one restaurant I love going to and that is Culinary Dropout, mainly because my friend works there and they have delicious food and cocktails 🙂 Another very good lounge bar with amazing cocktails is AZ88. However if my friend would be up for some delicious Italian food I would recommend Franco’s Italian Caffe, because they are definitely the best in town. I would personally love to take my friend to Sephora since that’s my favorite store for obvious reasons however, I know that is not everyone’s cup of tea 🙂 I also love going to parks and any Escape rooms because they are so much fun to do if you have bigger group of friends. Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am lucky that I am able to say that my husband Kristijan is my number one fan. It is very important to have person you decided to spend the rest of your life with, standing by your side every step of the way and encouraging you to do what you love. Besides him, my family plays huge role in my success because they are extremely supportive as well. And last but certainly not least, I have to give big shoutout to my friends and supporters on all my social media platforms, for believing in me and trusting me, because without them I wouldn’t be here where I am today. Thank you.

Website: https://www.proballroomdancers.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anjaimamovic13/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/anjaimamovic13
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AnjaImamovic13
Other: Tiktok : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJBNc1Ew/