How To Grow As A Mompreneur

On this episode of She's Crafted to Thrive, our guest is Christina Jones. She is a personal branding photographer, a mom of two cute kids, and a wife. And on this show, she really shares her personal journey of growth, starting out and working with smaller businesses to having her own business. And there's lots of gems throughout this conversation about how you can grow as a mompreneur as well. So stay tuned. Welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive. I'm your host, Nikita Williams, and This show is for all the ladies who are making and creating things that they love. You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles of juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and harmony. As women, we have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here where you'll see that you're not alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear and negative thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey. And on this podcast, you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives. I'm so excited to have Christina on, you guys. She is a local photographer, branding photographer, and she's a natural light photographer, which I love because that's like, in my opinion, that's just my favorite. And she's a great person. I've been following her on Instagram for a while. I can't wait for you guys to meet her and for us to get to know her even more together. So Christina, please introduce yourself.

Hi, thank you Nikita for having me. I'm super excited to be on your podcast today. So hello everyone. My name is Christina Jones. My business is Christina Jones Photography. And like Nikita said, I am a natural light personal branding photographer. I love working with female entrepreneurs and just helping them grow their business through custom branding photography. And I'm also from Florida. I'm based in Florida. Tampa St. Pete area, and I have a 2-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son, and I've been married to my husband Gary for, well, it'll be 9 years in April.

Wow, wow, 9 years! You're right behind me. Me and my husband have been married for 10 years, going on 11 in September. That's awesome.

That's awesome. Congratulations. It's fun being married. It has its challenges for sure, but it's fun.

That's awesome. Well, first of all, I want to say like big props for running your own business and having kids. Like I know that has to be a lot to juggle around. Um, for sure.

Yes, it is challenging, but you know, um, I say this all the time, you know, being a mom and Being an entrepreneur, I think it's one of the best things that I can teach my children, especially my daughter. Of course, you can climb the corporate ladder and, you know, I've been in the corporate world and, you know, there are some perks and benefits to that and I would never discount that because, you know, there are some great opportunities in that world. But just, there's something about just owning your own business and calling the shots and being creative and just kind of doing what you love to do. And also showing my kids hard work, that it's okay, especially as a woman, especially as a mom, as a wife, to work hard and to go after what you want.

Yeah, they can see you doing the work. If you go off to work, it's kind of hard for them to be like, "Oh, money doesn't grow on trees." No, Mommy had to work really hard for this money. They see you actually doing it. I think that makes a big difference too. Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. And my son who is 7, he'll ask me like, "Oh mommy, what are you doing today? Are you going on a photo shoot? Are you meeting with a client?" So he's starting to understand what it's like to run the photography business and just, you know, he's seen my husband who's also an entrepreneur. He's seen him leave and go to work like you said, but just, you know, I try to talk to him about like what some things that I do and he's met some of my clients and so I love getting them involved as well. But it really is fun to show them like what I do and just like show them the photos I'm editing and talk to them about, you know, each woman's story. It really is a special thing.

That's so awesome. I love that your son is like so like involved and so like, "Hey, what's going on, mom?" That's so cool.

Oh yeah, yeah, it is a lot of fun and just having a little person to talk to about it. I mean, my daughter Olivia, she's, you know, she's in her own world, but yeah, it's fun to just talk to him about it and just see his excitement for sure. It's really special.

That's so cool. So now, you know, I want to know what started— because I don't really know your story, like what got you into photography? And where you are now.

Sure, so it's kind of funny. I say I didn't grow up wanting to be a photographer. I grew up wanting to be in media, in editorial. I also wanted to be a newscaster, so I went to USF. Well, you probably don't know who USF is, but I went to University of South Florida in Tampa. I went initially for mass communication, so I wanted to be a newscaster. I saw Oprah and I was like, "I'm going to be the next Oprah." And then, I don't know, it just kind of progressed from working for marketing agencies. I've always kind of been in marketing, which I think is what got me excited about personal branding photography or branding photography in general. But just kind of went through, you know, working for small companies. I've always loved working for small companies and startups. And, but at the same time, you know, I love working on small teams, but at the same time, there was really no opportunity for growth. It was kind of like, yeah, you'll have your hands in a bunch of different things and you will learn a ton, but there's not really like that next level. And then my experience working with agencies, you don't get paid very well. So for the hours you put in, the creativity, you know, you provide and the excitement, you just— I felt like I wasn't being compensated for that. And then, you know, my husband and I, we got married, we started a family, and, you know, we needed the money. We needed money. We were young, you know, 24, 25, and we're like, okay, we want to be successful, but what is that next step? We have a family now, we have a son, we need to provide for him. And so I took this job as an executive assistant for an accounting firm. It was a good experience because I was able to work from home, so I had a little bit of flexibility to take my son to school and obviously work from home. But I quickly found that working from home sometimes, especially if it's not your own business, You never stop working. You always have— you're like at the beck and call of the person that you're working for. And I really didn't like that. You know, I wanted to contribute to, you know, this team that I was on and to the people I was supporting, but it just started to be super overwhelming. And it wasn't— it didn't give me an opportunity to be creative. You know, I wanted to be able to use, you know, the gifts and talents that I have to help someone grow, to help a company grow. I think that's what I always love about working with small businesses and working with startups, that you have those opportunities. But, you know, it can get really overwhelming. But it paid well. I had great benefits. And, you know, again, I was able to be there with my kids. You know, when I had my daughter, I was able to, you know, have her at home with me. But there was something about, you know, just not having that work-life balance. And I told my husband, like, if I'm not gonna have the work-life balance, I want it to be in my own business, you know? I don't want it to be working for someone else. Anyway, so I had my daughter, I started taking pictures of her in these cute clothes. I always wanted a girl so I could, a daughter so I could dress her up like a little doll, which I do. And now, God help when she's like, I wanna wear what I wanna wear. I'm like, but isn't this cute? Don't you wanna wear this? So I started dressing her up. I started posting pictures of her on Instagram and I just, I loved it. And I love just, you know, having that bonding experience with her, you know, obviously shopping for clothes for her. And I started posting them on Instagram and then I started tagging the brands that I was, you know, of the clothes that she was wearing.. And the first company that reached out to me to do a collaboration was Carter's. And I was like, okay. And I only had like maybe like 300 followers or something like that. And they were like, we will pay you to— like, we'll send you these clothes for free. We will pay you to take these pictures of your daughter in these clothes. And we'll, you know, basically include you in our social media campaign. And I was like, I was like, okay, what is happening here? Either she's really, really cute or I'm onto something. And I think it was a little bit of both. And it literally just took off from there. I mean, we worked with so many like small companies. We worked with Gymboree and Sperry and just so many like great brands that I would have never dreamed would have reached out. I mean, we just recently got a message from Oshkosh to— Oshkosh B'gosh! Yes, Oshkosh B'gosh! They sent us these clothes and they were like, we would just love for you to just take a picture of your kids in our clothes and here's a gift card. And it's just amazing the opportunities that you can get through social media. But so my daughter was kind of like, you know, she's getting a little older, she doesn't want to take pictures as much, but I just I just fell in love with taking pictures, just creating memories, telling a story for these brands. And I was like, okay, I don't want to stop. She wants to stop, but I don't want to stop. So what do I do now? And so I'm like, okay, I'll just open my business up locally. I'll see if there's any influencers or bloggers who need photography because I was that person. But instead of like hiring a photographer, I just bought a camera, professional camera, and started taking pictures.. But I know everybody doesn't want to do that. They don't want to, you know, go through that learning curve of, you know, figuring out how to take really great pictures. And so I opened my business locally and it was just, it's just been an amazing journey. Just meeting the women that I've met and the entrepreneurs and, you know, the ladies who have these amazing, you know, business ideas or they just want to take their business to the next level. And it's just been, like I said, it's just been an amazing journey just growing with them and learning so many things about myself. And it's just been a great ride. So long story short, Instagram started my photography business.

You know, that is so funny because I talk to so many photographers that have the opposite of this story. Like they first started photographing their kids because they one, loved photography in the beginning from the get-go. Like that was their thing. They just love photography. And then their kids came along and then it was just like, oh my gosh, I want to do this for other moms and all these other wonderful things. So I just think it's amazing that, that your branding first kind of like your marketing sense of working with small businesses, which, which really is your passion. And then your kids came along and it was like, oh, this wonderful thing. And then Instagram and then bam, you're a photographer. Like, it's such a cool, like, swing of like a really cool story because it's the opposite that I usually hear about, honestly. So that is so cool.

Yeah. And I tried to, I was like, okay, do I want to be a family photographer? Because I have kids, so that's a natural thing. And then I did a couple of family sessions and I was like, no, I love, you know, working with families and I actually do many sessions like during the holiday season and stuff like that. I'm like, ah, this is not, this is not lighting my fire, you know. And so there was a little bit of that, like, okay, what do I want to specialize in? But I've always loved, like I said, I've always loved working with small businesses. I've always loved, you know, just hearing, learning their stories. And so just that opportunity of being able to tell those stories through photography and obviously learning, you know, how to operate a camera and really create these images that people get excited to share and use in their businesses, it's like the ultimate joy, you know? So yeah, I could talk all day about it.

I'm sorry. I know, I know.

I love it.

No, I love it. I mean, so I guess my question to you now is like, so if you were to say something that inspired you, because for me, just listening to your story, it kind of feels like what inspired you to do this business was circumstances and then you fell in love with something you already were in love with.

Yeah, definitely that. Definitely. I would say, you know, starting the photography business, like, I love photography, obviously. I've only been doing it a few years, a couple years now, but I've always loved editorial. Like I said, I've always, you know, I would buy fashion magazines and, you know, always love going on these websites that showcased women, whether it was in fashion or lifestyle or health, you know, those kind of things. I've always appreciated good photography. It was just now I'm able to create it through my own, you know, the time that I put in learning it. But what really gets me going is, you know, like I said, meeting women and, you know, seeing them start a business or, you know, they've been at it for a while in their business, but they just want to take it to the to the next level. That is where, you know, that's what gets me excited. That's what makes me want to keep going and getting better at photography and, you know, learning how to run a successful business. That's really what it's about for me.

Well, I mean, like I said, I have worked with photographers for a very long time and your work is great for someone that kind of just picked it up and self-taught themselves. And your images are beautiful. Like I keep telling my husband, I'm like, so when I, start feeling a little better here, you know, I'm going to have her do my branding shots. Like, I'm like straight up, like, she's going to do my branding pictures because I just love how you interact with a— you can tell that it's not like one of those very stiffy sessions. Like, it feels very free-flowing, but at the same time, it allows that person to kind of really live in that moment as who they want to be. And I just, I can feel that from looking at your images, which to me tells me like the session must be like the bomb.com.

So Thank you so much, and I would love to work together. But I appreciate you saying that, and that's a goal that I always have, you know, at each session is, you know, want them to feel comfortable with themselves, with me obviously, and just feeling confident. I think it does— it should, you know, show in the photos that they are being themselves. That's part of, you know, telling that story is just being confident and comfortable with yourself. And I know that takes time, like that doesn't happen overnight. I'm still going through that journey myself, but, you know, I try to, you know, portray that through complimenting them, laughing, you know, playing music, asking them about their business, asking them what gets them excited, and it just you know, they, you kind of see them let their walls down and it's a beautiful thing for sure.

So with your business, do you find that you kind of have a lot of, like a lot of challenges to get through now that you're, you know, cause you've kind of shifted from taking pictures from, you know, for your kids to working with, you know, women in business and picking up a new trade or skill as a photographer. What are some of the fears that you've had to kind of work through? And I know a lot of fears, they don't go away. It's a, it's a mental exercise we have to always be working on. But what are some of the, like, if you were to name one or two of them, what are some of those?

Well, it was definitely the learning curve of, um, you know, okay, we're women. We have, you know, we have so many things going on in our minds. We're sizing each other up like, okay, what, who is this person? Obviously we're excited to work together, but you know, you still have those fears of, oh my gosh, I hope she likes these pictures. I hope she likes me. I hope she wants to book me again. I hope she refers, you know, people to me. So, you know, I always go through that mind frame, but then I have to tell myself, like, she wouldn't have booked me if she didn't feel confident that I could execute, you know, her vision. So, you know, and then also the time that I put into developing myself, I think helps build that confidence, learning, you know, those skills and also sharing, you know, the things that I've learned as a woman, as an entrepreneur, just genuinely wanting to help, I think gives that kind of, like I said, you know, lets them, causes them to put their walls down and also for myself.

So if we were to dig in a little bit to that second part, because I think that's the biggest piece that all of us seem to leave behind that fear. I feel like that fear can directly be a result of us not taking care of ourselves mentally and physically. So you were saying there are some things that you do. Can you go a bit deeper into those kind of— what are the things that you do?

So I'm definitely educating myself. I'm actually going through a beta course with another personal branding photographer and learning like from someone who's further ahead than me, how she's able to be successful in her business and just learning those things. I love watching YouTube videos, like on the technical aspect, and I'm super excited to be launching my own YouTube channel soon. So I'm super excited, a little bit nervous, but very excited. Oh, that's so cool. But just learning from other photographers who speak to me, who are, you know, very successful in what they do, you know, I love their style, but learning those, the technical aspects of that. From a self-care aspect of, you know, developing myself, I love to read, I love reading self-development books. Um, and then just taking time for myself, you know, like I said, I have two kids, two young kids, you know, my husband works late and so I'm with them a lot, you know, sometimes by myself. So just having that time, you know, to myself, whether it's, you know, just an hour in my room, like, doing whatever I want, or just taking a really long hot shower, listening to music, or, you know, sometimes I'll go to a coffee shop in the evening and edit, and it's therapeutic because, you know, we're pulled in so many different directions, and I think it's important to take that time, not just if you're a mom, you know, Even if you are working a 9 to 5 or a 9 to 8, you know, taking that time for yourself to recharge, you know, and I'm learning that balance as well. Not, you know, getting so caught up in, okay, I'm, you know, first year in my business, I have to make this work, you know, just developing those good habits of self-care now, you know, so that it doesn't turn into burnout and it doesn't turn into it feels more like work than, you know, actually having fun and learning and growing through that process. I hope that answers the question.

It totally does. Yeah, no, it answers the question, and I was gonna say something to what you were saying that, you know, it's hard to take that time to do self-care. Like, it's hard to really take the moments that we need to replenish ourselves, and I love that you're like, even if it's an hour or even if it's like just changing your circumstances, like your area of where you work, that can be a place of self-care. And I love that, you know, you shared that because I think sometimes we get so stuck in the routine of doing something that we forget that we need to replenish or refresh ourselves so that we can create something, right? Because if we're like, just like, oh, I got to go to work and I got to do all this stuff, we don't really have that creativity juice, I guess you would say, to be like, hey, let me go help you bring out something from a client that you're shooting for a branding shoot, if you're just like, "Yes, I gotta do it." You know, it's just, you need that time.

Absolutely. Yeah, and I think scheduling it in, you know, sometimes I'm like, "I'm just gonna take an hour whenever I can," and sometimes that just doesn't happen, you know. Saying no to certain things, even like time with family. I'm very, very close with my parents and my siblings. I have 3 siblings. We did lunch every single Sunday. We would meet up and we would hang out at my parents' house or one of my siblings' house or our house. And it was like clockwork every weekend and they expected that. And I think over time, especially as my business is growing, we have certain things going on personally, we have to kind of take that time away and say, okay, we have to take time as ourselves, as a family, you know, as a young family, and also for ourselves, you know. Of course, we love our family, like we—

Right, right, right.

But I think it's important to, you know, establish that, to be able to say, no, I can't go to lunch this Sunday, or I can't go to this event, or I can't, you know, do that, because you don't want to feel overwhelmed. I think it's important You know, to take that time to say no, because then you can be your best self when you are with them, and they appreciate that time that they do have with you because they know you're not going to always be there. Right. So I think it's important to also say no, to also say, I can't do that today. You know, I have to focus on this, or I have to give myself time to do that.

So yeah, I think that's great. I mean, setting those priorities. Because that's what they are. I mean, it doesn't mean you lack love or appreciation for your family. It just means, hey, I can't do that right now or today. It's not forever, it's just for now, you know, we'll see each other soon. Right, right. I love that you said that because I think as women, we, we beat ourselves up for not saying yes to everything. Like, we just feel like we should be able to do everything, and it doesn't— I mean, we just can't. We can't without, you know, making things not work so well for us later.

Absolutely, I 100% agree with that. And again, just with those relationships, whether it's with your husband or significant other, you know, with your kids, what is the saying, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Fonder, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes.

So yes, it's important. I mean, if I spent 24/7 with my husband or my kids, they probably wouldn't like me after a while. It's important because you don't give yourself time to grow. You don't give yourself time to develop yourself, to even like fall in love with yourself so that you can love them the way they should be loved. Like, how can I do that if I'm always with you? The same with my business, you know, how can I fall in love with that process if I don't take time time to work on myself and, you know, grow myself. How can I bring that, bring my best self to my clients if I don't take that time? It's just, you're just kind of churning and burning at that point.

Churning and burning. Yep.

I love it. Churn and burn. Yeah.

Yeah. That's so true. You know, you said something a second ago, which I really appreciate that, you know, we have to take that time in the sense of like away from our businesses. I think they're like our babies. Like we like to hold onto them, especially when it's new and it's something like there's a huge learning curve. Like you kind of like just want to stay in it and grind it out every single day and all that stuff. But when you take like time to breathe and leave it for a minute, you know, some perspective, you get so much more energy behind the next thing you're going to do with it or more growth behind it. And I know for myself, I'm very much like, I am the churn and burn when it comes to my business. Like I will sit for hours and be like, I got to figure this out. I got to do this. But I noticed that when I take time to be like, okay, that's enough. Let's take a minute. Let's step back. I come back to it with a completely different set of eyes, right? Like you just see things fresher, you have a fresher outlook. It's perspective.

Yes, absolutely. I love that. And I agree, you know, especially when, like you said, when you're so new and you're like, I'm proving something to myself, but also to others. And I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't think that you you know, should want to set an example or, you know, kind of inspire someone else to say it's okay to work hard. But like you said, having that perspective of, okay, I just had this experience, how can I apply this experience to whatever challenge or whatever I'm trying to figure out over here? How can I apply that? And sometimes it makes it a little bit easier. Sometimes you're like, you know what, it wasn't as big of a deal as as I was making it out to be at the time. So definitely taking that time away. And also I try to learn from people who aren't photographers as well. You know, there's a lot of small businesses or just, you know, people that I follow on social media that I'm like, they inspire me so much. And I just want to apply whatever that is that's inspiring me to my business. Business. So not always like everything has to be about photography. You know, there's other things that I can learn as a female entrepreneur, as a mompreneur, that I can apply, you know, as well.

So I think it's cool too, because in your business, what I've noticed you doing over the last few months, like the last 6 months, you've been introducing more things that aren't necessarily photography. Like you actually shooting, you're doing like, um, presets and things like that, which first of all, like, that's smart for any other photographer out there to create another streamline of income that doesn't mean you have to physically be shooting something. I think that's so smart, um, that you're doing that. But what I guess my question to you right now is based on what you just said a second ago, did you start doing that because you started to see other business women like doing other things that weren't directly linked to the service that they were providing?

Sure, so yes and no. There are photographers who inspire me who are doing other things, like I was saying, you know, I'm doing a beta course with another photographer who does personal branding. So I would love to do something like that. I think it's I think it's good to diversify, to have multiple streams of income. So whatever feels good to you with that. So presets, I always get at least 1 or 2 questions a day almost, it feels like, about how do you get your photos so bright and clean. I love that fresh— so it was kind of like that and then also because I was connecting with with other bloggers and influencers who use presets, who wanted a little bit of a different look to say, okay, here's another service that I provide where maybe I can't shoot with you or maybe, you know, whatever the circumstances are, but you can still have some piece of my business. And so a blogger just recently, or influencer just recently, posted a photo that she used of my preset and I was like, "Yay, Keri!" So just seeing, you know, being able to help people, you know, not in just in photography but being able to help them. Like I said, one of my goals this year is to help 100 women grow their business, whatever that is, whether that's through presets, whether that's through, you know, coaching or whether that's through a course or whether that's through a YouTube video. You know, whatever I can do to help women grow their business, that, or doing a podcast with Nikita Williams, whatever I can do to help another woman, you know, grow her business. That is my goal. That's what I want to do. So, um, obviously I have to make money. So if there's a way that I can, that I can monetize that, I'll do that.

You know what happens though? It's, you know, I had that goal. So I, in the past I've done that. I've worked with smaller businesses. I love working with smaller business like coworking spaces and like, yes, I love coworking spaces. Like that's kind of my world. I love, I used to do like, um, markets for creative entrepreneurs where I do trunk shows and stuff like that. I love that kind of stuff. But what I found in that is that every time I decided to help someone else, whether I knew there was going to be money on the table or not, money always followed. Like, it didn't matter. Like, you know, that's a great idea. Like, hey, I want to set our financial goals or whatever. We're like, oh, we want to do this, but it may not happen like today. It may not happen tomorrow. It may not happen next month or even this year, but there are certain things that happen in your business that you see happen because you decided to do something for someone else. Yes. Money follows. Like, it just does at some point. It's not as— it's not like a trade for service like we would like to see all the time, but it does come back to us in some way.

It's the law of sowing and reaping. So I'm a person, and I do believe in, you know, what you sow you will reap. So if you sow your time, you know, your talents, you encourage someone, you're gonna get that back. And like you said, you may not get it back today or tomorrow, but you may get it 5 years down the road. And I think when we do take our eyes off of someone, off of ourselves, and put them on someone else and, you know, help them succeed, that, you know, we're going to be blessed for that. So I do think that it's important to, you know, genuinely want to help someone else. And I do think that the money will follow. I think you know, absolutely with, you know, just that time that we put in, that time that we sow into someone else, you know, that it's just a law, I believe.

No, no, I— yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's important to, you know, to understand that and also not look at— not looking at it as, okay, I have to do this for this person so I can get the money. You know, but genuinely wanting to help people, wanting to see their lives better, you know, that's where that blessing will come back to you.

So yeah, we could go a whole conversation on that. I mean, I'm a spiritual person too. I mean, happy, you know, happier are those who give, like it's just if you give— and it can't, like you said, it can't just be like, oh, I need to do it so that I can get something. It has to be almost— not even has to be, it needs to be that I'm giving and I do not expect anything back. Like, if I give, I'm giving. I'm not expecting for, you know, or I'm not gonna give to someone that I know can pay me back. I'm gonna give to someone that maybe can't do anything for me and not expect anything. Not that we can't give to people who want to give us, I just mean principle is that if you just expect expect nothing else from it, um, maybe you'd be more willing to give, like people will be more willing to give if they're not just looking for something to happen afterwards. But all I'm saying is that it will happen. Like something will happen if you're giving from that place, like it will.

Absolutely.

Absolutely. Well, um, so what is the best advice you have ever been given?

Oh wow. Um, that's advice I've ever been given.

I know. I tell people, I ask this question and then people are like, that's a really hard question, Nikita. And then I'm like, well, it's only because I know that it could be more than one thing. It could be two things, but I feel like there's at least one piece of advice that you've been given in your life or in your business or raising kids or something that really affects you, like in all of the areas that you never expected to affect you in the way that it did?

Sure. So I would say the best advice, I'll say two. One is actually from Gina and she helped me with this tagline for my business, embrace yourself and whatever that means for you. But for me it was, you know, don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Don't be afraid to fail. Don't be afraid to, you know, try something new and maybe people are watching you on social media try something you do and it's not working. But there's, you know, that process of growth. You know, that's my word for 2019 is growth. Whether that's, you know, growth in finances, growth in my business, you know, as far as clientele, growth, personal growth. You can't grow unless you fail, unless you learn, unless you try something. And maybe it works, great, maybe it doesn't. I want to try something that doesn't work so I can say, I tried it, it didn't work, okay, what is the next step? What am I going to do now? You know, speaking in front, you know, public speaking. I always said I will never do public speaking. No, I'm serious, because I'm like, I know I'm gonna say something stupid or I'm gonna, you know, there's gonna be a long pause and be like, oh my God, I just lost my train of thought. What do I do now? It's just that fear of, you know, speaking in front of people. And then I just had this opportunity to speak in front of like 100 and something people.

I know.

Who does that? But just having that opportunity, it was just like, oh my gosh, this is exactly what Embrace Yourself is about, you know. I could have said no because I really was terrified. But what if I had said no and didn't do that? I would have lived with that guilt forever because— not saying that there wouldn't be other opportunities, but just knowing that I just said no to an opportunity for me to grow. I think, I think that's something.

I love that. Wait, wait, wait. I love that. I just said no to an opportunity to grow. I love that because, uh, yeah. How many times do we do something? We'd say no to something out of fear.

Yeah.

And then later we're thinking about that over and over again. That thing that, oh man, I wish I had done it. Or man, I wish I had even, even considered it before you had just said no.

Yes. I love that. Yes. I'm like that too when it comes to clothes. When I go shopping and I choose not to buy something and then I leave and I can't stop thinking about that thing, I'm like, why can't I stop thinking about that, whatever that was? I have to go back and I— that happens to me quite a bit. But I think it's the same concept of what if— I mean, it's something silly as clothes. What if I go and do this speaking engagement and I meet someone, you know, or maybe I didn't meet someone, but someone was there who was listening who was afraid to do something in their life, and now they've heard me say, "This is my first time speaking in front of a group like this," and then now they can go and do something that they're afraid, that they were afraid to do. So again, you're thinking about who am I impacting when I, or how is this going to help someone else, you know, if I make this decision, good or bad, you know, right or wrong. How is this, and I think that's a mom thing too, but how is this decision going to impact someone else to needs that encouragement. So my next piece of advice would be give yourself room to grow. So embrace yourself, like don't be afraid to try something new, but also if you fail at something, don't beat yourself up about it. Don't look at it— look at that as, oh my gosh, it's now— it's never going to happen for me. If I flubbed up, you know, speaking, I, you know, okay, fine. Now what am I going to do now to make that better the next time? Or, okay, I have to— how can I get another opportunity to speak so that I can grow again? So give yourself room to grow. And I say that because, you know, growing up, you know, and I'm not going to talk bad about my mom, you know, but I think sometimes You know, when we grow up, our moms want us to be a certain way. They want us to, you know, don't embarrass me, you know, wear this so people don't think this of you. Don't mess up because, you know, then people aren't gonna trust you or people are gonna look a certain way about you. So having those things spoken to me, you know, growing up as a woman, and it was like, oh my gosh, I can't make a mistake. I can't do something that is going to make me look bad because how am I going to learn, you know, how am I going to get better?

How am I—

how can I make myself look perfect so that people will think this way about me?

Yeah, you know, that generation, it's our parents back then. I mean, It was a different world back then. Like, they had to think that way to kind of survive in a lot of ways. They had to think that way in order to just get the things that they needed to get, you know. So they didn't know any other way to tell us to do that. Like, they didn't know any other way. It was out of protection, you know. I feel like it was out of protection. You know, even sometimes my mom will say some stuff to me and I'll be like, it doesn't connect to me because I didn't grow up in that way. Time. Like, I didn't grow up in that world. I mean, the older I get, the more I appreciate some of the things she has said, but I think it's just the way that they were raised themselves.

Right.

But now it's different. Like, now it's like all holds barred is done. Like, fall on your face and let everybody know it and just be proud. Yeah.

Yeah. Even like starting my business, you know, telling my mom I was going to go full time in my business. She was like, oh my gosh, are you guys going to be okay? "Are we going to be okay?" And I'm like, "Yes, we're going to be okay." We plan for it, but even, I mean, our plans don't always pan out the way we want them to, but at the same time, like, I can't live my life being afraid to put myself out there to make a mistake.

Yeah.

How are you going to grow that way? I just, and I've always had that mindset of like, even with a job, Like I would say, okay, I'm not going to hold a position for more than 3 years because I know after 3 years I've learned everything I'm going to learn and now it's time to go to the next step. So if there is no next step, then I have to either go to another company, whatever. But I can't imagine myself. And I think, like you said, it's a generational thing where you work for the same company for 30 years making the same money. It's like, you have to want more for yourself. And I know I'm kind of all over the place right now, but, you know, it's just one thing that taught me, you know, don't be okay with the status quo. Don't— it's okay to want more for your life and for your family and for your business. You know, I was reading something, the average photographer makes makes $36,000 a year. No, I'm not putting myself out here. She said no.

If I could see your face when you just said that, oh my gosh.

I'm not driving the miles, working on myself, challenging myself, and if you make $36,000 a year, I am not knocking that. I'm just saying for my life, for my, for, you know, what I want to be able to do, you know, whether it's, yes, like help my family, my parents financially. They're in their 60s. They're going to need, you know, help one day, you know, with certain things, or God forbid they lose a job or, you know, anything could happen. I want to be able to, I can't help my family, I can't help ministries or charities or things that are important to me outside of my family. I can't do that with $36,000 a year. I can't. That's just a fact. That's like, that's not enough. So how do I take that and not say, oh my gosh, I'm not going to be a photographer now. I'm not going to build, a photography business because the average person makes this. It's how am I going to impact as many people as I can? And you know, going back to what you said, you go and help people and the money will come.

Yep. So last thing, a lot of these creatives that are listening, a lot of this tribe, they might be photographers. There are definitely some moms that listen in. What are some tools that you use in your life, in your business that make things smoother? Smoother?

What is that? Okay.

Well, yeah, I'm not a mom, so I get that. I mean, like in business. Okay.

Less hectic. You know what I'm trying to say? Um, definitely. Well, Well, so not everybody believes in daycare, but my daughter's in daycare part-time. So I work during the week, I shoot during the week, and also I need that time to myself and to be able to, you know, do things like I'm doing here with you. So she goes to daycare part-time. My 7-year-old's in school, so he goes to school. But that definitely helps things go smoother, and she is home with me 2 days a week, so when she is at home with me I don't— I work a half a day, so I take the time with her. We go to the park, we go to the zoo, or we just sit and just, you know, have bonding time. So I use— so that's a tool. Daycare is a tool. Yeah, I mean, we definitely try to schedule in time, family time, to be with them. So the weekends are usually pretty busy for me. I'm usually shooting like all day, especially on a Saturday. Sunday, I say, you know, after 5 o'clock, that's my time with my family. That's my time to plan for the week. And then again, like I said, on Tuesdays, usually like Tuesdays and Thursdays, or at least 2 days during the week, I use that time to, you know, be with my kids.

Any tools in your business that you use that like—

Oh, to like help streamline my business? Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So I definitely use, um, uh, so I track, like, track my mileage. MileIQ helps me track that. So that helps me, like, keep track of how much, how many miles I'm driving. Um, I also just started tracking my time to, like, really see how much time I'm spending in my business because it does, um, you know, obviously, especially as a new business, not really knowing like how much time am I really putting in. So I do track my time. That's more so for like tax reasons and that kind of thing. Mileage time. I just streamlined my business with HoneyBook. So I love HoneyBook and that helps me with proposals, contracts, correspondence with clients. What else? I do want to start using schedulers for like social media and blogging because I do blog regularly and I try to post once a day on social media. So I definitely want to start incorporating schedulers to like help streamline that because it does take time to like blog and stuff like that. But I do usually work, you know, I get up super early, like before my kids wake up to like do those things so that I have time to, you know, get them ready for school and also so I'm not going into like family time in the evening doing those. So I do try to like schedule that early morning time to like plan and not interfere with those times. So I don't have a lot of tools, but those are the things that I do.

No, those tools were great. Those tools were great and the tips were awesome because I think all of them, you know, whatever, everybody's different. I just like for for my guests to tell my audience because some tools work for some people, some don't. Some things in your life that you do, like for instance daycare, some people are not okay with that and some people are like, oh, there's other people that do that? Like they're okay with that? You know? So I just want it to be a safe place so that whoever's listening, they feel like, hey, I could try that tool. I can look at that.

Yeah.

Someone else is doing. I just like to ask that question. So Thank you so much for sharing and—

Absolutely.

Thanks for being on the show. I'm so happy that you were on. This was so much fun. It just makes me like, okay, I need to figure out when I'm going to book my shoot with you. Cause I'm like so excited.

Oh yes.

I would love that. Yeah. So tell everyone how they can find you online. And if you have any projects here coming up, let us know what they are so that we can support you.

Yes, so my website is christinajonesphoto.com. My Instagram is @christinajonesphoto. Facebook is the same. I'm also on Pinterest, Christina Jones Photo. Look out for the YouTube channel. I'm super excited about that. We'll be sharing more like behind the scenes, also personal branding tips. That's really all I have coming up right now. But I would love to connect with anyone who's listening, just to chat, whether it's about motherhood or entrepreneurship or branding. So please reach out. Thank you so much, Nikita, for having me. It was such a pleasure. The questions were just, were great. They really had me chatting.

I could go on and on.

So thank you for that. All right, ladies, thank you for listening, and I hope this conversation inspired you.

Inspired you. Be sure to subscribe and tell a friend. That's it on this episode, and yes, you are crafted to thrive.