Confidently Beautiful with Ciera
Confidently Beautiful with Ciera
Mothers in Business Series: Balancing Family and a Flourishing Photography Career with Jostlyn Stilson
This episode celebrates the vibrant journey of mother entrepreneurs, featuring photographer Jostlyn Stilson as she discusses balancing her successful business and family life. Through candid storytelling, Jostlyn shares her insights on overcoming challenges, building connections, and staying present with her children while pursuing her passion.
• Highlighting Jostlyn's journey as a photographer
• Overcoming the challenges of anxiety in high-pressure situations
• Learning to balance work and family responsibilities
• The importance of community and connections in business
• Practical tips for managing time effectively as a mompreneur
• Encouragement for mothers pursuing their dreams
• Discussing the value of being present with children during busy seasons
Connect with Jostlyn on Instagram @jostlynphotofilm
Jostlyn's website: https://www.jostlyn.com/
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Connect with Ciera on Instagram @confidentlybeautifulpodcast
you're listening to confidently beautiful with Ciera, a podcast to help you stay confidently beautiful, because we all have confidence inside us. We just need to bring it out and I'm here to show you how body image, dreams, parenting, style, personality and more here we cover it all. Get ready to stay confidently beautiful. Did you know that I finally did it? I finally have an email newsletter and I'm so excited. I have put together a brand new website, confidentlybeautifulwithciera. com C-I-E-R-A. com, and you can sign up for my newsletter there. I will have a newsletter full of my favorite things podcast episodes that maybe you have missed. Anything beauty and self-care related is going to be there. It's going to be full of things that I hope would bring some value to you. So if this is something that you are interested in signing up for, head on to my website, confidentlybeautifulwithsierracom, and sign up for the newsletter, or you can click the link in my bio or in the show notes and it will take you directly there and I can't wait to be in your inbox. Welcome back to the Confidently Beautiful podcast. I am Ciera and I am so excited to bring you the second episode of our special series that is celebrating mothers who own businesses. So if you didn't listen to that first episode, go back one episode. You are going to want to listen to that, because this series is really inspiring and incredible. It talks about women who have built their dreams while they're navigating the demands of motherhood and everything else that life brings their way. In the first episode we talked with Emilee Roberts. She inspired. She talked about how she uses social media for her career as her main form of engagement with her audience and how she balances that with her life as a mom.
Ciera:Today I am thrilled to introduce you to a very special guest, Jostlyn Stilson. Jostlyn is not only a very talented photographer and a mom of two, but she has also been one of my closest friends since middle school. Her journey is a beautiful example of how passion and perseverance and creativity can come together to build a really thriving business, while she keeps her family at the heart of it all. Her family is everything to her. I know that. I know her personally and they are the reason why she does what she does. But she has this beautiful creative outlet that she is able to do and she has grown her business to be not only just a photography business but also to owning a photography studio. In this episode, Jostlyn shares her experiences of growing her business, the lessons that she's learned and how she has found the confidence to balance her career and her motherhood. She has very, very high demand times of the year that require a lot of time and energy, and she talks about how she is able to try and figure out how to manage that with also being a mother at the same time.
Ciera:Whether you're already a business owning mom or you're dreaming about taking that first step, this episode is packed with inspiration and encouragement and it is just for you. So cozy up, let's dive in. Jostlyn is going to share her journey of how she has built a thriving photography business, and she is definitely the photographer that you are going to want for Southern Utah or anywhere in Utah or even, you know, anywhere else she traveled. She is incredible. Dive in and let's listen to this episode. Thank you so much for joining us, Jostlyn. I'm so happy to hear a little bit about you and your business. Can you tell us a little bit about you, what your business is, how long you've been running it?
Jostlyn:Yes, I'm excited to be here. My name is Jostlyn Stilson and I am a wedding and portrait photographer. It's just my name Jostlyn Stilson Photography. I started out with a different name and then I realized that I needed to have my regular name as that, so I changed that a couple of years into my business, years into my business and, yeah, I've been doing it for uh. On on my website it says 14 years, but I realized today that I did my first engagement session this month, 15 years ago, which is wild, so crazy, so yeah, but I think officially I was doing um pictures for people a little bit more regularly in April so April of 2025, I'll be 15 years in and I also own a photography studio for other photographers to come in and rent for their clients, and I've been doing that for about two years.
Ciera:Very fun. It's such a fun, fun thing that you have created. And yeah, I've, I've been with you since the beginning, so it's been really fun to see you. All the way through.
Jostlyn:You've grown it and I was gonna say like, if we're, if we're talking about when I did your senior pictures, then maybe it's been more like 16 years, but yeah, yes, um, okay.
Ciera:so what made you want to start in this photography business world, and I mean even then expanding it even more to owning your own studio?
Jostlyn:So I don't know if you want like my life story, but it started. You know, when I was younger, my mom always was taking pictures. She wanted to make sure that her kids had a lot of memories and just because she didn't have that in her own childhood, there wasn't a lot of pictures taken, and so I just grew up with a camera in my face all the time. We were always going into the studio getting portraits done and um and so, and I I love that and I love looking back on all of my pictures. So that was always very important to me growing up. Um, I got my first camera when I was four and just as I got older and older, I would that would be like the next thing that I wanted for my birthday or Christmas is I want a new camera.
Jostlyn:So I I've had many cameras, but it wasn't until like more around like my sophomore junior year of high school, that it became popular to go outside and have your pictures taken. You know we grew up in the era of going to the studio and you know, going to Sears and getting our picture there, and, and it became more of a thing to go outside on location and have natural light. So we hired this photographer Her name is Deb with funny face photography. She no longer does photography now, but she was one of, like the biggest inspirations for me and I just thought that she had the coolest job and she was just so warm and inviting to like I could ask her anything and she would answer, and so she was big, a big inspiration as well, and so I think it was my end of junior year of high school that I it was kind of like an aha moment of like this is what I want to do is capture people's memories and and it's just such an exciting thing to be there for people's milestones of.
Jostlyn:You know, I've done birth photography, wedding photography, family photography, so all of the different stages, and that's just so exciting to me. So I figured it out then that I wanted to do it, but I didn't have a DSLR camera at the time. It just was a cute little point and shoot, and so I saved up money. It wasn't until my first year of college that I got my first like big girl camera, and from there I just started. So, uh, yeah, that was it was. It's been a fun like whole thing, part of my life that has grown into now my career.
Ciera:So that's awesome. Yeah, you would not be Jocelyn without a camera in your hands. That's just not you Like you totally.
Jostlyn:Yeah, yeah, and I and I in high school, I feel like that. That was like oh, I'm the one to document like what's going on, and that was it's so fun.
Ciera:What is I mean? I'm sure there have been a lot of things that have scared you in this whole process of owning your own business and trying something, and definitely capturing people's memories and biggest moments in their life is probably like a very stressful thing. You want to get it right. So what is one thing that has just really scared you that you've had to overcome?
Jostlyn:Yeah, exactly what you just said. I think that, overcoming my anxiety I still get nervous, depending on the type of shoot that it is Like. I think that that will always stay and I think a lot of photographers can relate to that. You know, a lot of us still get a little bit nervous before shoots. But in the very beginning, I think that it was pretty rough with my anxiety, especially for weddings. Think that it was pretty rough with my anxiety, especially for weddings. Yeah, you don't, you don't want to get it wrong and you want to be able to be dependable and you know, and I've, I've been through my fair share of mistakes in my business and so I think, just learning from those and, um, you know, doing it for so long, the confidence kind of naturally occurs there. So, yeah, I think that getting over the anxiety and and I think that for me it was just time, it was time and experience that's what I needed to do.
Ciera:Yeah, okay. So this is like the question that I think all of us, as moms specifically, but just women in general, I feel like is how do you balance the work life and the home life, like how do you manage all of that, like being you're married, you have two kids and you have a really successful business, so how do you manage it all?
Jostlyn:Yeah, when you, when you figure that out, you can just let me know, I know right, nobody knows.
Jostlyn:Right. But I think, for for me, photography, I do have the luxury of creating my own schedule and so you know, I, when the kids do have games or performances or whatever, I can make sure that I don't schedule, which is just really great. It's a great luxury for my line of work, cause there's a lot of people with their own businesses or working that they don't schedule, which is just really great. It's a great luxury for my line of work, because there's a lot of people with their own businesses or working that they don't have that. But as for, you know, balanced day-to-day stuff, photography has different seasons. Right now I'm in my busy season, so I don't see my kids as often as I want right now, but when I do see them I try and make that very meaningful and and I really focus on those small moments and so, like my schedule kind of is you know, I have set days that I have babysitters, um with, with the amount of workload I have right now, there's just no way around it. But on the days that I don't have sitters, like I'm, I'm very present, very, you know, very involved. But the days that I am working, it's a situation where I'm working, you know, as much as I can while they're in school and at the sitter, and then I go right into a photo shoot and then I get home. Luckily this time of year I get home, I get to be here for dinner, which you know in the summer months I'm not, so I'm here for dinnertime, bedtime, and then I go right back into working until about midnight. So it's kind of like some some days are like 12 hour days for me, which are which is crazy, you know just work, work-wise alone and then putting in all the kids stuff in there too, it's a it's a full day.
Jostlyn:But I think that finding that balance of you know my kids know that it is busy season right now and it's not going to be forever, and they're at that age where they can kind of understand that. I think when they were younger it was a little bit different. When I'm with my kids I try and make sure that the phone is away and I am a hundred percent focused on them. I think that's really important. I read this thing that you know, if you can try and get 10 minutes of uninterrupted playtime with each child, then that is going to be so great for their development and your connection with your kids. So yeah, so that that's been really helpful to do that. You know, just get through busy seasons and and then when it's slow, just to really like focus and slow down. And January through April is my slower season and we try and plan some trips in there and have some family times. So yeah, it's a juggle, but it works. It works for us.
Ciera:Yeah, I do know, like your family is definitely. You know that January through April time, like typically people are doing like family vacations in the summer times and like all that, and yours is definitely in that beginning part of the year, which I think is really cool that you are able to figure that out and manage it, because I'm sure it's. It's a different schedule than like everyone else, so yeah, definitely.
Ciera:This is a scary thing that you did. You jumped into your own business. You did it at such a young age and this is something that you've wanted to do for your whole life. What is a piece of advice that you could give somebody, whether they're wanting to start their own business or even just like accomplish some sort of dream that is just really big and scary to them? Do you have a piece of advice to help them feel more confident in doing that?
Jostlyn:I don't think that you will ever feel a hundred percent confident. I don't think you'll ever have zero insecurities at any stage of your business or your dream that you want to accomplish. So it's. So it's easy to say like, just jump in, just do it. No, I have different advice than that.
Jostlyn:I think what's been like so beneficial for me is to make friends and connections in the industry that you want to be in, so for me it's the wedding and portrait photography industry. There's lots of different avenues there. Like I, I make connections with planners for weddings and forests and and cake people and but also a lot of photographers. The photography community here in St George is awesome. Owning your own business can be really lonely, so I think for me, making friends with other photographers has been so beneficial, just so that we can we can bounce ideas off each other, we can vent to each other about whatever's going on.
Jostlyn:You know we we all root for each other, we all support each other, and I think that that's so nice to have, and I think that that can apply to any sort of business. Like my husband owns his own business as well and and he supports other people doing the exact same thing. Like he'll buy their gear, he'll watch their stuff, and he's made a lot of connections that way too. And and another another great thing with having those connections is that if you are booked as a photographer, you can send it off to your friends. You get a lot of referrals that way too, and we help each other out. So I um, I think that that is probably like the, the best advice that I could give with starting is to go and meet other people doing the same thing that you want to be doing.
Ciera:I really love that. You're the last person that I've interviewed in this series and that's the first time that I've heard that piece of advice, but I think that it is so applicable. I mean, I think we as people, like we want a sense of community and belonging, and so I think to have surround yourself with people that want something similar than you is so beneficial. That's a really good piece of advice. So thank you, I love that. Yeah, where can people connect with you if they want to find you online or if they want to book you for a photo shoot, cause they can look good because you're amazing?
Jostlyn:Please do. My website is my name, jocelyncom. My name is spelled J O S T L Y N, and that's my website. My my most recent work is on my Instagram, which is Jocelyn photo film on Instagram as well, so Awesome, and you are based in Southern Utah, but do you travel? I do, yes, I go all over.
Ciera:So get a little bit of information from you, and you are somebody that I was going back to when you were talking about being present with your kids. That's something that I've always admired about you. There's been so many times I especially think back in your early motherhood days when babies are playing on the floor and they're just playing and you just are always on the floor playing with them, like when we're Marco poloing or whatever, and I've always admired that about you. You've definitely been very intentional with your time with your kids. Thank you, I appreciate that Well. Thank you, jocelyn. This was really good, and I hope that our listeners got some really good information and some advice that they can put into their lives.
Jostlyn:Awesome. Thank you for having me.
Ciera:Thanks for listening. Connect with me on Instagram at confidently beautiful podcast and share this episode with someone in your life who could use a little reminder of just how amazing they already are. Stay confidently beautiful. Well, thank you for joining us, and I will. How do I want to end this? Thank you for joining, well. We oh my goodness.
Jostlyn:I think you do so good. All right, there we go.
Ciera:Thank you.