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From Cancer Diagnosis to Esteemed Photographer and Best Selling Author: Alyssa Rosenheck · All In with Allie

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  Right now, I am sitting with best selling author of the new Southern Esteemed
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  interior and architectural photographer, by the way, who didn't even realize she was
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  creative until thirty two. We're going to get into it. Whose talent has
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  been showcasing over nine hundred magazines. In those features, from Forbes to People.
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  You've overcome cancer. You have emerged as a creative thought leader and a
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  pioneer in photography. You're a guiding light and mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, just
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  to name a couple of things. No big deal. Alyssa Rosenhek, Welcome
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  to Allie with Ali. Thank you so much for being here. Well,
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  I'm grateful to be here. I'm sitting across from you and just honored to
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  be here. So thank you, thank you. So we met through July
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  one, and I don't know a lot of creative women in Nashville, and
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  I'm so grateful to Julie because she's introduced me to a few people. And
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  you and I went to our birthday party and we got to sit next to
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  each other and I got to know you a little bit, and we didn't
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  get to talk much, but you know how you just you meet people where
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  you're like, I like her, like the energy, the vibe, just
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  you. You have a presence about you and an energy. And immediately I
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  was like, I want to know, like, what, what's her story?
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  You are so sweet. Normally I like lean on like the peaceful psychopaths,
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  So hopefully are you one of those people that are like she's mysterious.
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  No, no, no, it's it's a daily practice to show up.
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  And first of all, just to honor Julie. She's such a light.
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  She's so incredible. I know, I love her. She's a soul sister,
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  and I'm just grateful that she brings such incredible women together. So yeah,
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  she's such a connector and I really admire that about her. And I'm
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  just so thankful that I got to meet you through that. And when we
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  decided to do this, I of course wanted to learn more about you,
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  and I did my research and you have one till of a story, which
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  it's so interesting. And I've been reflecting a lot on this too, because
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  we're all on our own journey, and on this journey there's going to be
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  the ups and the downs, and the best stories are the ones that have
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  like the craziest off and down up like uppies, right, but like also
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  those womens are like, holy shit, are we gonna make it? Are
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  you gonna be? Like? What's going to happen here? But when you're
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  in that moment of the low, you're like, I don't want to do
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  this anymore. I want to get off this ride. And you have one
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  of those stories that there's a couple of moments where it's like, I'm sure
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  when you were there, you were just like, what the freaking heck.
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  So let's just start from the beginning, baget all the way up. So
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  you were born and raised in Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Okay yep?
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  And how long did you say in Oklahoma? I left when I was eighteen?
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  Okay cool, yep. So born and raised. My life has reflected
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  a lot of seasons, and I feel like we all have those stories.
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  We all have those seasons, and it's up to us to survive those seasons
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  and be resources for others. And I really don't dwell in the season,
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  no, you know, yeah, and born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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  Left when I was eighteen, and a college athletic scholarship was my ticket
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  out of Oklahoma tennis. Right tennis. Okay, you've done your due diligence,
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  which I'm grateful for. I got a full ride. I wouldn't have
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  gone to school otherwise because we didn't have the money. And from there on
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  I was chasing fear and structure and stability, and most of my choices were
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  being rooted from that place of lack and fear. And it took me until
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  I was thirty two years old to realize it. My high level story is
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  cliff notes version. I went from the corporate world to working with two fortune
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  one hundred companies, to then having cancer and then becoming this creative entrepreneur.
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  But I really in the thick of it, like right now, I really
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  just like to lead with my humanity and my humanness void of the titles,
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  because every day is a new day, you know. And I think my
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  background, like yourself, was chaotic and shaky ground. We had fun,
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  angel and security, emotional abuse, physical violence, substance abuse. You know.
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  I was very well diversified for therapy at a young age. And my
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  mom grew up. I grew up with my mom who's a single mother,
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  and she was just doing the best she could with what she had and my
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  father is an unrecovered alcoholic, and it just broke me open at such a
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  young age, and I felt like I had to be an adult at such
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  a young age. And I wouldn't recommend it for any you know, this
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  is not something that you wish upon other people, but it made me very
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  responsible to the point where I was losing out on a childhood and losing out
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  on the things that you're supposed to be doing when you're twenty, and I
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  was just wanting that stability. I craved it so much. I came up
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  in a what sounds like, at a least high level, similar background as
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  well, and you know, substance abuse abuse verbally, physically, same kind
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  of vibe. Was your dad in the pic? I know you said your
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  You know your mom was a single mom, and it sounds like she did
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  an amazing job. You guys have a really good relationship, right, Was
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  your dad in the picture or growing up? Yeah? They My mother filed
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  for divorce, which took a tremendous amount of strength at the time in her
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  life, and I commend her for that, and it I feel like set
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  us on a totally different path. There was a lot of drinking I was
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  never physically abused, but I saw nice fights. I saw banisters being taken
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  out. I saw things of that nature that you can't like unsee. And
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  within that, he was in and out of our lives for a little bit,
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  a lot of empty promises, a lot of no shows. And then
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  I made the choice when I was in college to put a healthy boundary up
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  with him, and if he wanted to show up and be healthy, I
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  would meet him where he is, and if he didn't, then he had
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  no place and no privilege in my life. Wow, and how did that
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  go? I mean, we're strange. Yeah. Yeah, And then sometimes
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  he'll pop up. When the book, my book came out, he I
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  think took got his hands on it two years after it was published, and
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  that was interesting. So yeah, you actually I actually wrote down. I
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  found the blog where you talked about that, and what you said gave me
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  chills. It was so well said and reflected. Okay, I'm going to
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  read it. As a child, the chaos silenced so much of my voice,
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  but as an adult it is one of my most important tools to build
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  strong bridges, deep connections, and communicate boundaries. My gentle roar as an
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  adult is a form of self love. And then you were talking how you
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  responded to your dad because I guess he had reached out to you after you
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  read the book, right, and you said, I responded to my father
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  with this. You cannot ruin what you did not build. I do not
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  receive your threats, and I encourage you to get help. Fucking mic draw.
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  Yeah that brings you back, Yeah, it does. It just reminds
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  me again, I don't really dwell in these stories unless we're heaven. I
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  know, these beautiful conversations that are needed because you know those who are listening.
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  You're not alone. And I think the biggest thing is that our humanness
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  is a testament to our resilience, and it's so important to be living in
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  the visions that we have for our life and really make expansive choices that break
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  old patterns and really come from that place. And I didn't recognize that,
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  and maybe I needed to have these moments to to build a bigger, stronger,
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  bolder, gent or roar within myself. And then I mean, it
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  only facilitated really healthy, beautiful boundaries that my life now fully reflects. And
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  it's a very different life than the one that I grew up in Well,
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  that's one of the things that I actually wanted to ask you too, because
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  this is something that I've reflected with a few people who have similar backgrounds to
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  mine and my husband we talk about this, and you see people go,
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  you know, just to like overgeneralize two paths. Who grew up in instability.
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  I mean, people can go all different pastim how they race. But
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  like, let's say people who are brought up in an unstable house and they
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  either grow up to become the adult that they needed and the children, and
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  I feel like, that's what you've done for yourself. That's what I've done
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  for myself. A lot of inner child work, a lot of inner child
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  work. They unpeat the same mistakes and they become part of that generational cycle.
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  What do you say, why do some people go one way? Why
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  do people go the other way? I honestly don't know. I think it's
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  something within you. I mean what I had, the existing life and the
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  people around me, and the choices I was making when I heard I had
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  cancer, that's really when I made a very clear choice to clean out the
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  clutter and really start living in alignment with the vision I had for my life.
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  And up until that point, I had just been in survival mode,
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  purely fear based, and it took something external that was happening within my body
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  that I had no control over to really wake me up. And I know
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  from certain studies with children growing up in under resource communities there's a ten percent
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  resilience rate within them to get out of those those environments. I also know
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  that growing up in the environment in which I did, there were I would
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  never want anybody to go through it. However, it's maybe a really sensitive
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  human being. I can pick up on some therapists maybe listening and it's like
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  it's clearly a trauma or response, but I can I'm sensitive, I'm very
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  discerning, I'm intuitive. I think it makes me an incredible creative. It
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  makes me feel connected and present, and it makes me a really good leader.
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  And because I'm able to live in those those chronic states of discomfort and
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  whether through the storm rather than avoid it. Yeah. Yeah, and I've
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  heard you talk about that too. Well there, I mean, we're going
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  to get so much deeper into your story. But that's one of the things
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  that everybody has the power to take their story and shift it into whatever story
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  or victim story that they want to right, So like, yeah, you
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  can come from a certain situation, but what are you going to do with
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  that? And what are the gifts? So like what I used to do
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  is I used to tell this story of like, oh, I grew up
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  in this home and my mom was an alcoholic and oh, kind of from
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  the Vible. Like for me, then it shifted to wait. That taught
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  me to be on my game. That taught me to want to be better
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  for myself, Like it gave me this edge and this I would say almost
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  an advantage in a lot of cases because of what And I'm sure you can
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  relate to You're so empathetic and you're able to read a room probably way more
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  than the average person because of what you've been through, and that's an incredible
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  skill to have. Thank you. There's also a little bit of a chip
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  on my shoulder, for sure, And I feel like that continues to drive
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  me of not to be anything other than the fullest version of myself and a
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  kind version and an all this version. And sometimes that means me being direct,
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  and sometimes that means having tough conversations and pivoting. And I'm a big
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  believer that you can pivot as many times and reinvent yourself as many times as
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  you need, as long as it's in service to yourself and those you love
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  around you. And that's it. You know, show up for yourself and
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  show up for your community. So this you have, this drive, you
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  have, this grit? Was that? Was it the chip on your shoulder
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  that when you got into the corporate world and you were just like, Okay,
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  I'm not going to live. I know you say that you were driven
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  by fear, but you're like, I'm not going to repeat these You know
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  what I've experienced as a kid. I'm going to make something of myself.
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  And you just hustled your face off. Well I saw what it went,
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  what it did to my mother. My my parents are very different. So
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  my father has this if you initially meet him, it's this like big gregarious
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  personality right and just kind of sex you in. And then my mom is
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  this warm and too of creative, lovely human and she stayed at home,
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  but staying at home put out of financial disadvantage, and my father really tried
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  to ruin her financially, which in turn really set us up for instability.
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  So I knew I never wanted to put myself in that position or have to
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  rely on anybody for my independence. And so that was my driving force.
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  Not because I thought I could, you know, it was just I didn't
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  want to be a burden. I didn't want to have to ask, and
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  I wanted to make sure that I was going to be financially safe for my
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  life. And so and I did driver. Yeah it was a productive driver,
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  but and I wouldn't have taken aback. I mean, I had some
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  of the most incredible experiences, and the knowledge I gained from working for two
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  fortune one hundred blue chips dock companies was invaluable set me up to become where
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  I am today. So you worked for the two massive companies and then you
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  did medical device sales for a while. So I started out after college.
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  I thought I wanted to be a doctor, and so I did a premad
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  postback program and then I was like, nope, don't just kidding. It
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  was just, honestly, it was another fear choice. I knew I really
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  wanted to be a surgeon, but I didn't want to take on a quarter
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  of a million dollars worth of debt, and so I needed to get a
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  job and So I started out as a secretary working for a boutique developer,
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  and I did that for a little less than a year and I was making
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  like twenty eight thousand dollars a year. Yeah, I was buying, Yeah
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  big, I was you know. Yeah, I started somewhere somewhere and it
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  was humbling, but it was great. It was a very small firm,
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  and I of course was getting coffee and delivery newspapers, but I was also
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  starting to entertain some copy copywriting and copy editing and did my first big media
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  buy for the company. And that was cool to be exposed to. But
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  I wanted to go bigger corporate, I thought at the time. And so
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  I interviewed and got a position with three M in industrial sales and manufacturing.
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  And they're incredible. Yeah you talk very homely. Well, they're wonderful.
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  I feel like I left that company with my mini MBA. They invest just
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  shy of a quarter of a million dollars into each new hire. Oh wow.
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  And that was That was the first role I understood what value meant in
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  an entrepreneurial environment to really it's not it doesn't matter what your priorities are or
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  your agenda is it's how you can invest serve the person in front of you.
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  And that was the environment in which I learned that. And then the
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  market crashed in two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, and I
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  had this wild spidy sense just with what was going on in manufacturing in this
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  country that something was coming up. And so I just listened to my instincts
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  and started interviewing. And I quickly pivoted a month prior to what my job
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  would have been, which was going to be laid off, and so I
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  knew. I interviewed in Nashville, bought a car because I had a company
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  car at the time, and signed a lease and that was with the medical
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  device company. And you worked there for six years, and that was a
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  tough job for you. It was a lot. Yeah, it was again
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  really the experience. It was a lifestyle. It wasn't really a job or
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  a career. I mean it was a full lifestyle. You were like twelve
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  to fourteen hour days. I was the same buying medical device sales consultant,
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  and so you have the schedule of several different surgeons and you're on call,
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  and so there would be time would be getting highlights and the foils got to
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  go. I no, see, I lose my job immediately busy, But
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  it was an industry where your femininity was at a disadvantage. I wanted to
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  be hired for my knowledge and not the way I looked. I was tested
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  three times as much as my male counterparts. There are very few women doing
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  the doing the job that I was doing. But it was lucrative and it
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  helped give me financial independence, and for that I'm grateful for. But I
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  also I am grateful that I got the hell out of there. Yeah.
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  Yeah, I don't feel like I was living life in that job. So
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  the wake up call was the moment with your now husband. Take us through
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  that. So we have a story. We met here in Nashville at a
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  bar. People always think that we met the hospital. No, she ended
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  up marrying a doctor, which I you can know, I never wanted to
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  marry a doctor. I always wanted to be one. Well, I guess
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  this will do. So we met at a bar and we ended up dating,
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  and you know, fell in love and got engaged after like eight or
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  nine months, and then the timing wasn't right and I called off her.
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  Wedding invitations were sent out here. I just got real big, are you.
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  Yeah, invitations went out and I called it off. It takes such
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  courage. But when I see women, I mean, if it's wrong,
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  it's wrong. But I can only imagine if invitations are sent out, like
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  the amount of pressure on you. Yeah, and to make that move.
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  Yeah, timing wasn't right. We got in this huge fight and I was
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  like, this is not happening. So five weeks prior I called off the
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  wedding and then I moved to Chicago. I was like, I'm peace out.
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  When you work in a hospital setting, it's an interesting environment. There
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  is a level of intimacy that has achieved very quickly within these four walls because
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  I just think of the stress and the pressure. So people know so much
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  about you. And it was day in and day out after I called off
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  the wedding. It was like I would run into the staff that I hadn't
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  seen and they're like, how's the wedding? How is this? And it
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  was just an every day reminder. I was like, I can't do this.
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  I need to leave. I need a change of scenery. And so
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  the company I was with was a small, very private Swiss owned company and
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  they went through one of the largest acquisitions in medical device history, and through
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  that acquisition, I merged and went to Chicago with the company. Did y'all
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  break up? Yeah, full stop. I left. I just know y'all
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  are together now, and so that just makes me. Was he heartbroken?
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  You know when you're like, I don't care, I'm out. Yeah.
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  It was just that we needed we needed a break, we needed time,
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  we needed space, we need we both needed healing and I needed to rebuild
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  a different life there and so and there was there was a grieving. I
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  felt like it was a death for sure. But I'll never forget. I
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  purchased my first place in the city in Chicago, was my first like big
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  girl move. And I was standing in the living room and he had called
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  me a year a little over a year after us being separated and no contact,
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  and he called me and he's like, I think you're with somebody,
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  And I was like I am, and he goes, you know, you
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  were right. He's like, you saved my life by leaving. He's like,
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  I've been in therapy. Uh, you know everything that you said,
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  you know, I've been working on and I want us to try again.
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  If you can't, if you if you're open to that, and I was.
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  I had missed him every day. It just felt like it felt hard,
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  you know, and it's not like something was missing. And so we
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  decided to do slowly on and off for that last year. And then we
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  had had brilliant, like stable footing underneath us. And I was in Nashville
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  seeing him, and we were at a restaurant in Franklin, Tennessee, and
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  he looked across the table from me. We had just sat down ordered appetisers,
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  and he was like, you have a tumor growing out of your neck.
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  And I just stopped. I was just like, what are you talking
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  about? And he would know. He's ahead and net cancer trained surgeon at
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  one of the best the odds, Yeah, academic facilities, I mean,
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  and and so, and I'm stubborn. I'm like, you're like, I'm
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  hungry. I'm like, I'm going, I'm going back to Chicago getting this
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  get no, no, well, I and I just was so I've was
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  so driven by all leigation. I had to get back, you know,
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  for work, and so I left and I tried to take care of it
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  at Northwestern, and uh, it just it just was too long and not
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  right and very quickly, I resigned, and you know, we we just
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  re established what we wanted for our lives and where we wanted it to go.
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  And and I remember him looking at me and he goes, you know,
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  you saved my life by leaving announced my turn to saviors. Are you
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  kidding me? And I had a very survivable form of cancer. I had
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  fired cancer. It is if you were in the realm of having cancer,
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  it's very favorable. However, I think the moment that woke me up when
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  I acknowledged the fact that I had cancer was when we thought, very briefly,
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  it had spread to my lungs and I would not be sitting here today.
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  But that was a gift, I mean, my goodness, it just
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  made me so aware. And then also it made me recognize the power of
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  stillness and what can come through that and how you can realign and totally change
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  your life. Yeah, because that moment you talk about how it was that
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  was the wake up call for you, because you have been going, going,
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  going, going, going, going on hardcore. Yeah, all day
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  long. Probably I would assume or it sounded like not taking the best care
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  of yourself, and then all of a sudden you're faced with not having the
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  choice. And I think you actually said that, you were like, it
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  took cancer for me to listen to like what my body or what the universe
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  was trying to tell me. Do you think like if we were to zoom
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  out and look at this from a spiritual like life path situation, that the
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  chance like maybe God was whispering to you at different times to like, hey
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  go this way, go this way, but you couldn't hear it, and
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  it took something that big. Yeah, I think life is always speaking to
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  us and it's up to us to listen. And I wasn't listening. And
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  I think many of us do this, whether it's we're juggling kiddos and jobs
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  and marriages and friendships and you know, political climates and you know work climates
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  and all of these things, and we are just we're just on autopilot and
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  we're in this We're living in a very interesting time in history where it's our
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  attention economy, our attentions for sale at every second. And so I just
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  want to say, you don't need cancer to wake up, number one,
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  sure, but number two, you do need to sit with yourself at least
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  twenty minutes a day and if you say that you can't look at your screen
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  time, you one hundred yeah. And so I needed to sit with myself
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  and really start listening to what I wanted. And for the first time after
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  being diagnosed and really going through this journey, I sat with myself. And
• 26:08
  it wasn't pretty, it wasn't glamorous. I wasn't on my silk meditation pillow.
• 26:14
  I was in tears, and I was trying to navigate what life looked
• 26:18
  like and what that meant, and tried to expand boundaries that I had already
• 26:23
  put on my life and really open up a view to something new. And
• 26:29
  in order to build a new life, you have to break your old one,
• 26:33
  and that takes grieving too. You have to grieve who you once were
• 26:37
  and what you're willing to do and what you're willing to tolerate. And so
• 26:42
  it was a very organic transition for me. And when I stopped and I
• 26:48
  was in the stillness, it spoke to me through just a very quiet hum
• 26:55
  and like a little impulse and it was like by a camera, you know.
• 26:59
  And I my mother is very creative. Her whole side of the family
• 27:03
  is wildly creative. But I just had never given myself that opportunity. I
• 27:07
  thought creativity was a luxury of time I didn't have. I thought it was
• 27:11
  childlike, I thought it was silly. I thought it was just fanciful.
• 27:15
  And for the first time, I was like, stop, Like, I
• 27:19
  just want to have peace and prioritize my own healing and my own ease.
• 27:26
  And I hadn't had that in a very very long time. And so I
• 27:30
  picked up a camera. I purchased it online, I read the manual,
• 27:33
  and I started playing around with it and shooting in my condo in Chicago,
• 27:40
  and it felt like a form of prayer. It still does. It was
• 27:45
  a moving meditation for me. So you started taking these photos, And at
• 27:51
  what point did you come to Nashville Because you quit your job shortly after the
• 27:56
  diagnose. I resigned And then walk us through because I'm also curious, Like
• 28:02
  it's really easy to say, Okay, you just need to listen. You
• 28:03
  just need to listen to what your body's telling you. So what was the
• 28:07
  practical, Like, what what does that look like? What is like?
• 28:11
  What does listening look like? I am an energy girly, So if have
• 28:18
  you always been like that over the past ten years? Yeah, like okay,
• 28:22
  but what about at this point? At this point, no, I
• 28:25
  was just starting to uncover that, okay. And so I was starting to
• 28:27
  discover what was giving me energy versus draining me of my energy, what felt
• 28:34
  like peace, what felt like ease, what felt like a mental vacation,
• 28:40
  and the creative pursuits were that for me. So this camera, I was
• 28:45
  just getting lost in it. I was losing track of time. I was
• 28:48
  very curious. I felt very motivated around learning more and you know, and
• 28:55
  I was using my hands, which felt really good. It felt very back
• 28:59
  to basics. There was not a level of performance attached to it. It
• 29:03
  was solely for myself and it was me starting to say yes to myself.
• 29:07
  And I do believe this, but when you start saying yes to yourself,
• 29:11
  the world opens up and it starts to meet em at your yes. And
• 29:15
  so I stayed in Chicago for a little bit and when a few of my
• 29:22
  girlfriends there understood that this is what I was starting to do, and then
• 29:26
  one thing led to another. One of my girlfriends, her sister in law,
• 29:30
  needed a photographer for an interiors shoot, and I was very fearful.
• 29:37
  I had no clue what I was doing. However, I said yes,
• 29:41
  and I do believe also leaning into the things that scare you and make you
• 29:45
  uncomfortable, that's going to be your expansiveness and your ticket out of what you're
• 29:52
  currently not loving about your life. Right now, we got to talk about
• 29:56
  that because that is a recurring themes some and by the way, I feel
• 30:00
  like a lot of people think that you get to a certain level and you're
• 30:03
  not scared anymore. Oh no, every cyclical. Yeah, I just completed
• 30:08
  a big start to a project yesterday. Fearful, you know, but you
• 30:14
  have to embrace it. That's your green light. Fear is a green light.
• 30:17
  Okay, okay, are you referring to Matthew mcconaugheyes, No, oh
• 30:22
  really okay, yeah, that's like he's saying like green lights. So I
• 30:26
  thought that's what you were referring to. But okay, he's great. I
• 30:30
  loved him. He's great. Could you ever read that book? Oh it's
• 30:33
  so good listening to it. It's just an easy listen. But okay,
• 30:37
  So fear is the green light. That's so because a lot of people run
• 30:40
  away from it. They think it's like a red light. Yeah, no,
• 30:42
  they keeps stuck around. Yeah, if you continue to listen to your
• 30:47
  fear, it will keep you stuck. There's no growth there. Fear's a
• 30:52
  liar. So you get this camera, you're starting to enjoy it. It's
• 30:56
  giving you energy and take this project and you are green and they're just like,
• 31:03
  hey, can you do this? And instead of saying no, I'm
• 31:06
  not good enough, you go for it. I go for it. I
• 31:08
  intuitively style for the frame, I intuitively shoot and really feel my way around
• 31:15
  the space. And then this was really fundamental, and this was ten years
• 31:21
  ago. I entered in the first of all, I picked up a camera
• 31:23
  thinking it was just going to be my healing catharsis through cancer and just a
• 31:27
  hobby. And during this time in the interiors and architectural landscape was pretty antiquated,
• 31:34
  so there was a circuit of really talented photographers solely shooting for print.
• 31:40
  And having had such an expansive corporate background, I wanted to bring, of
• 31:48
  course, value to this new client of mine. And after delivering a beautiful,
• 31:56
  very overexposed now looking back at gallery, but that was the thing.
• 32:00
  Back then, it was like bright and airy, bright light and airy,
• 32:06
  I wanted to She was like, this is great. I'm like, well,
• 32:07
  what are you going to use it for? She's like my portfolio,
• 32:09
  and I was like, well, how about I try to pitch it?
• 32:14
  And I focused on an area of photography and the editorial landscape that nobody was
• 32:22
  focusing on, and it was the digital editorial outlets. And so I placed
• 32:28
  my very first chute and it became really a snowball and a synergistic effect to
• 32:34
  where my client was then getting exposure and in front of new people, she
• 32:38
  was gaining new clients, and then my portfolio was growing, and it was
• 32:43
  just a really nice cycle of helping sustain women, mostly majority women owned businesses
• 32:49
  nationally with saving them on PR costs and really making these galleries work for them
• 32:55
  and building up their digital visual libraries. What gave you the idea to go
• 33:01
  digital? I wasn't good enough for print at the time. WHOA, So
• 33:07
  you took what could have been I don't know, just something that people would
• 33:13
  see as a weakness. It turned into it made you a pioneer at the
• 33:17
  time, like, hey, this is actually the direction that everybody's about to
• 33:22
  be going, so go yep, that's kind of gangster. I love it,
• 33:29
  Thanks mama. Okay, but you didn't know it at the time.
• 33:34
  I didn't know it at the time, Right, it's always in hindsight.
• 33:37
  I felt that ping again, that little impulse like, no, be a
• 33:42
  value, try to add value here, be sustainable. And it was that
• 33:47
  constant innovative what's going to work, what's not going to work, what's gonna
• 33:53
  work, what's not going to work? And how can I push my limits
• 33:57
  here with you know, integrity and transparency and serving the client? Right,
• 34:05
  you had her business top of mind, like how can I give her more
• 34:08
  value for this? Like she took a chance on me. What can I
• 34:13
  do to make this even more worth her time? And I feel like so
• 34:15
  many people don't allow themselves because they're trying to get to the next point in
• 34:20
  the next pint? How can I climb Now? I'm very process driven.
• 34:22
  And then I also knew my blind spots. I wanted to understand the industry
• 34:28
  from a business fundamental standpoint, which meant I needed to understand contracts, which
• 34:32
  meant I needed to hire one of the best copyright and trademark attorneys in the
• 34:37
  industry who worked in the entertainment space with music and copyright, and so I
• 34:43
  did. That was my biggest expense and I had the funds from my corporate
• 34:50
  cushion, and so I invested thousands of dollars, thousands and thousands and thousands
• 34:55
  of dollars, getting contracts set up, having them teach me how to speak
• 35:02
  and what to look for, and you know how I can communicate these things
• 35:08
  to the clients, so I could I could become a professional photographer. Most
• 35:14
  of my job is about contracts and then communicating those contracts and becoming very transparent
• 35:19
  with my client and some of my clients of course, now after having my
• 35:25
  business for ten years, are amazing. But I had a lot of grenades
• 35:30
  in the beginning. And you know, there's also a lot of ego when
• 35:34
  you're when you're working with high level, high publicity situations, and it brings
• 35:43
  out, it brings out some monsters. Yeah, so I know that in
• 35:50
  the beginning, this was a hobby for you and you were just like,
• 35:52
  I mean, this was just purely cathartic, like something that was going to
• 35:57
  help you to just touch back to base, back to yourself. At what
• 36:01
  point was it after doing this for the client and saying, oh, I'm
• 36:05
  actually not bad at this, there's a business here. At what point did
• 36:07
  it change from hobby to business very quickly. It was hobby when I was
• 36:13
  really grappling with the idea that I was going through cancer. And it was
• 36:17
  hobby when I was starting to really return to my physical body and not being
• 36:22
  so cerebral. We lived so far in the future or in our past stories,
• 36:28
  and this was the first time I was really feeling my heart beat in
• 36:31
  my body and I was present and I was tethered to the moment with the
• 36:36
  camera in my hand. It was like my little superpower of just getting me
• 36:39
  back to where I needed to be, back to basics. So it was
• 36:44
  hobby for a few weeks. It turned very entrepreneurial after I started to see
• 36:51
  the synergistic effect. And then also when I put work out there, it
• 36:55
  wasn't masterful. It just came organically. More people can. If you build
• 37:02
  it, they will come mentality, and that's what happened. And you have
• 37:07
  to figure shit out as you go because I, again just having had the
• 37:12
  corporate experience with the two Fortune one hundred companies, I needed to know what
• 37:15
  the hell I was doing before I got myself in any deeper and I know
• 37:20
  right now we live in this kind of fake It till you make it.
• 37:22
  Society knowledge. You have to have knowledge and experience, be transparent, understand
• 37:29
  you know, communicate that you're you're new, that you're navigating things. There's
• 37:32
  no people embrace that and find it endearing. You don't need to be you
• 37:37
  don't need to be the expert right out of the gate. I love that,
• 37:39
  and so it was. It was a building time. And now after
• 37:45
  being doing it for ten years, I've seen a lot, I've learned a
• 37:49
  lot. I've made mistakes along the way. I've learned from those mistakes.
• 37:52
  But my goodness, it's still all about the client. And I haven't lost
• 37:57
  that fundamental principle of it still being an artistry, a moving meditation, a
• 38:02
  collaboration, sustainable avenue for women, women owned businesses, you know. And
• 38:09
  that's where my heart is. And you're so damn good. I mean,
• 38:15
  y'all, I want just travel with me. I need to take that.
• 38:21
  You make me look as good as you make everything else look like. It
• 38:23
  is unbelievable because when I followed you at first, I was like, oh
• 38:28
  wow, like you're obviously so talented. Knew that, But the more I
• 38:31
  dug deep and I saw your work and just like in your home. Oh
• 38:37
  my god, your home. By the way, we both have a Josh
• 38:38
  Young piece in our offices. I saw that I was drug. That's the
• 38:44
  only artist that I know on the planet. So it's fine. But it's
• 38:49
  just like, your eye is insane, and I love that, like like
• 38:53
  I love your love for light because that's something that I noticed too. And
• 38:58
  and you just like, how did you Is it something that you noticed that,
• 39:06
  Wow, this is a talent that I have. And then of course,
• 39:08
  like you improved upon it a little bit, or was it something that
• 39:13
  you look back you're like, Okay, the talent wasn't there, but you
• 39:15
  fostered it and you found your niche and that set you apart. That's an
• 39:21
  interesting question. I don't know. I know that, first of all,
• 39:25
  if you were in my creative brain on location. I just got back from
• 39:29
  a shoot in Scottsdale with a client. She's super talented. Her technical skill
• 39:34
  and design is unbelievable, and she's worked with so many photographers on so many
• 39:39
  different shoots, and it was really rewarding to see her tear up because she's
• 39:44
  like, Alisa, you the way you move around the space and the way
• 39:46
  you tee up these shoots. She's like, it has just been a really
• 39:50
  beautiful process and I feel like it's intuitive for me. Yeah, but it's
• 39:54
  not an easy intuitive. It's a struggle. I won't stop until I fully
• 40:00
  exhausted and satisfied that voice inside me I'm saying, no, you know it's
• 40:07
  not yet. Yeah. Right. And so with light, for instance,
• 40:13
  I love it. I mean is it is my life force, It is
• 40:17
  my emotional currency, It is my inspiration. The way it moves from room
• 40:23
  to room is a form of poetry for me. And I have to start
• 40:29
  my day each morning with light, with photographing it, even privately for myself.
• 40:36
  A lot of people do you know morning pages? You know, Julia
• 40:39
  Cameron's a big proponent of that. I take out my phone. I'm not
• 40:45
  on social media, and I really like to capture the light. I like
• 40:49
  to set the tone with that because I'm a big believer when you look for
• 40:52
  the light, and when you start your day with the light, you're able
• 40:55
  to try to find it a little bit easier throughout the day. And for
• 41:00
  me, intuitively, I know what looks good in a space. Technically,
• 41:07
  photography is a skill like any other skill, and you have to master that
• 41:12
  skill with practice in showing up for it every day. So it's just it
• 41:15
  sounds like it's best of both worlds. It's a combination. Yeah, And
• 41:19
  then you also have to stay you know, you have to stay on top
• 41:22
  of the newest technology and see if it suits you and see if it doesn't.
• 41:25
  But you have to be knowledgeable so you can so you can continue to
• 41:29
  be of service to your clients and your business. What's one way that you've
• 41:34
  had to stretch yourself in a new way, like with new technology that you
• 41:37
  didn't foresee coming and maybe you kind of were like, damn it, I
• 41:40
  don't want to do this, Like for me it was TikTok's like whenever TikTok
• 41:44
  first came out, I was like, I'm not doing that, and then
• 41:45
  you do it and I'm not doing it anymore. But I want to season
• 41:49
  right now really, which may you know, ruffle some feathers, but I'm
• 41:53
  just kind of like fuck it, I don't care, Like I'm not letting
• 41:58
  technology rule my life. I show up, I share what i'm inspired.
• 42:05
  If you look through my Instagram, it's really grown with me as I've evolved
• 42:10
  as a human being, not saying I'm so evolved. I'm just saying it
• 42:14
  has naturally had its course. You know. At first it was my litmus
• 42:17
  test to show my work and if I could even do it, if I
• 42:22
  could even share the baby, you know, and show my photography. There's
• 42:28
  a lot of fear around that. And then through time it became a client
• 42:31
  portfolio and now it's just a form of peace and a reminder of our creative
• 42:37
  courage and to look for the light and to notice and be present. And
• 42:45
  I think my biggest stretch hasn't been on the technology side. It's really been
• 42:51
  challenging myself creatively through other creative pursuits. And for me, it's been my
• 42:55
  writing. Okay, so what does that look like when again, I've had
• 43:02
  my business for ten years and in two thousand and seventeen, around that time,
• 43:09
  I really wanted to write a book and I didn't think I could and
• 43:14
  it was a bucket list item of mine. And I am somebody who doesn't
• 43:17
  compete with others. I compete with myself, and I'm like, let's see
• 43:21
  if you can do this. So was this the fear thing too for you?
• 43:24
  Okay? Yep, yep, yep. So I was like, I
• 43:30
  can't write I don't know where comma goes. I'm like a grammatical hot mess.
• 43:34
  But I love it too. I love I love journaling. I love
• 43:38
  getting my words to paper and just channel. And there had been a story
• 43:46
  that had been just living inside me for a very very long time, and
• 43:52
  the timing was aligned, and I started to write, and I started to
• 43:57
  open myself up to the idea that I could do this, and certain things
• 44:01
  found a place, people found a place in my life to help me get
• 44:05
  there. When you write a book, it is a team sport. When
• 44:07
  you launch a book, it is a team sport. And I came out
• 44:10
  with my first project and that writing right now still is my creative stretch.
• 44:21
  So how long was that process of deciding that you, Okay, I'm going
• 44:25
  to do this, And that was you saying yes to yourself and then I
• 44:30
  love when you say like, And then all of a sudden, the components
• 44:31
  started coming in. And I believe when you say yes to yourself, the
• 44:34
  world meets you at your yes. Yeah. It's not going to be an
• 44:36
  immediate yes. It's going to be like, you know, maybe open this
• 44:40
  door, or this door is slightly more cracked, or you're going to hear
• 44:44
  this name. Maybe not the first time, but maybe three times, you
• 44:47
  know. And so my process publishing is I don't know if anybody listening is
• 44:54
  interested in writing a book, or if you're interested. I think a lot
• 44:58
  of people are. Actually, yeah, I am too. Yeah. It's
• 45:00
  not a linear path, and it's not a publicized path either. And so
• 45:04
  my path to publishing, I in my mind had one of the best literary
• 45:08
  agents that I wanted to land a meeting with, and I landed a meeting
• 45:13
  with in New York. And she's wonderful and graceful and beautiful and experienced.
• 45:19
  And she looked at me and she was like, I'm happy to be your
• 45:21
  mentor, but I only work with the aby architecture that I just top one
• 45:25
  hundred. I have books that you can photograph, but photographers don't really write
• 45:30
  books. And I was like, that just lit the biggest fire underneath my
• 45:34
  fucking ass. I love that You're like, oh, Ben okay. And
• 45:37
  she's wonderful, she's so sweet, she's super talented. And then I definitely
• 45:44
  go went back to my hotel room, cried, gave myself. I always
• 45:46
  give myself a day to cry, and the love that next day. Gay
• 45:51
  Mark we're over it, we're moving on. I do it with big wines
• 45:52
  too. I let myself celebrate that day and the next day we're working on
• 45:57
  the next way. Really yes, yeah, and so you know it's just
• 46:02
  you got to be in that moment, celebrate it, new day. The
• 46:06
  next day, what are you going to do? So I went back to
• 46:10
  work. I was in New York, flew back to Nashville. I was
• 46:15
  on set for it was a project for Conde nash Traveler, and the publicist
• 46:22
  had just moved to Nashville. We're dear friends now, but I kicked her
• 46:25
  out of the room. I was like, there's too many people in here.
• 46:29
  I need to hear it, I need to feel it. Everybody leave
• 46:32
  and she's like, who is this bitch? So after the shoot, she's
• 46:39
  like that was wonderful and I was like, yeah, you just moved.
• 46:43
  I would love to introduce you to my group of girlfriends here. And she's
• 46:46
  like, that's amazing. I also have another person who just moved. I
• 46:50
  was like, she's invited, she's welcomed. And so through that relationship,
• 46:57
  I met my literary agent, who I then went back to New York,
• 47:01
  had a meeting with She immediately saw the vision of the book and what it
• 47:07
  was and the energy of the South I was trying to capture, and the
• 47:12
  new Southern style was born from them, and it was it was a heart.
• 47:16
  You know, this book from the outside looking in looks like a design
• 47:22
  book, but it's just it's so much more. It's about humanizing our differences
• 47:27
  through the lens of creativity. And and it was it wasn't that's an interesting
• 47:32
  That's been an interesting journey too. How so, this has been a story
• 47:37
  that had been living inside me. Being Jewish in the South has come with
• 47:42
  its own interesting experiences, I will say. And being Jewish and Oklahoma,
• 47:50
  my parents are also in our faith. My mom converted to Judaism before she
• 47:55
  had children. And if anything, it's made me very re open minded.
• 48:00
  I listen and I like to meet people with where they are, try not
• 48:06
  to judge, I try not to insert my own perspective and just listen.
• 48:10
  And so I wanted to bring an element of substance to an industry that only
• 48:15
  celebrated style. And this is a book of it's the first of its kind
• 48:22
  in the design industry. And I started out really authentic and before it became
• 48:29
  really performative now. Yeah, And so I launched it in twenty twenty during
• 48:36
  a really important time. While the timing was really pivotal. However, it
• 48:42
  was just challenging. It was really hard. Certain outlets didn't want to feature
• 48:45
  books from girls who looked like me, although this message came long before.
• 48:52
  And you're advocating for differences in the creative community and richness of yeah and ironic
• 49:00
  and I confront the culpable past of the South and issues that are still reminiscent
• 49:07
  of this day. But also how there is bridge building and how at a
• 49:12
  very local level people are incredible and rolling up their sleeves and helping communities and
• 49:17
  leading with creativity and really coming together in union, I mean in unity.
• 49:27
  And I think that's what we need even more now. I agree, Yeah,
• 49:30
  I agree. I was talking to a friend the other day and we
• 49:36
  were talking about actually, no, this is oh gosh, this was on
• 49:37
  I've been doing a lot of podcasts, and we were talking about this,
• 49:42
  about just how there are so many things in place that are designed to pit
• 49:47
  us against each other and make us think that this important, that this issue
• 49:52
  is so important that we have to fight with each other. And we were
• 49:54
  talking about like fake trolls and how they're designed just to create fights and more.
• 50:00
  And you're absolutely right, like, we just realized what's actually important and
• 50:05
  came together. We realized how strong we are, and then we can work
• 50:07
  through it. But we get so sidetracked and it's a problem. Yeah,
• 50:15
  there's you know, that's a whole other podcast. We do not have to
• 50:21
  get into that when you're doing all these podcasts. Questions, how do you
• 50:27
  protect your energy? I don't batch with with interviews. We're actually just talking
• 50:35
  about that because we did Julie before you, and I was like, you
• 50:37
  know, whenever we do things in person, what would be the best way
• 50:42
  to do this? And I actually said, I said I would not be
• 50:45
  able to do more than two of these, yes, because I thought of
• 50:46
  that direction here. Julie is such a beautiful, deep soul and I go
• 50:52
  deep too. Yeah, you go deep and at the end, you know,
• 50:54
  you just want to like, yeah, yeah, it's one to think
• 50:59
  about for sure, But no, I knew because you two are together and
• 51:02
  I had it just the timing could not have been better. I'm good to
• 51:06
  do too, It's just more than two that would be way way too much.
• 51:09
  I was just curious, how do you do you have any practices that
• 51:14
  you lean on, because I know you're really big on rituals and you're really
• 51:17
  big on daily practices. Just to check in with yourself, do you have
• 51:22
  something specific to protect your energy when I'm speaking, or if I'm doing a
• 51:29
  meet and greet, or if I'm around just someone who I am feeling very
• 51:35
  drained. It may not have anything to do with that person, but I
• 51:37
  am just certainly feeling the energy leave my body. I do this thing physically
• 51:43
  where I cross my arms just over my lower part of my tummy, my
• 51:49
  sacral and I just visualize their energy running over me down to the ground,
• 51:54
  being purified through the ground, and then just coming back up and I'm just
• 51:59
  and I also focus on my breath and focus on what they're saying, but
• 52:02
  just you know, having it purified by the ground underneath me. And then
• 52:07
  my mom always has said, Alyssa, if you ever feel like that,
• 52:12
  to visualize a white sphere around you and you are just protected by that white
• 52:16
  sphere of light and that whatever they're sending it's reflecting back and being purified through
• 52:22
  that light, so it's going back to them with love and just ease and
• 52:28
  peace. I was going to ask you because in listening to other interviews with
• 52:34
  you, you are so connected and you have this it's like this deep knowing
• 52:40
  of and I guess it must come a lot from your mom because she,
• 52:44
  you know, she shared those things with you. I think it's women,
• 52:47
  I really do. I think there's a sense of I think our power lies
• 52:53
  in being undecorated and really turning to nature for inspiration and just being grounded and
• 53:04
  not putting the titles on us and all this stuff, and just sitting in
• 53:07
  our power and our resilience and our softness. But I'm also direct. I
• 53:13
  think sometimes when people meet me they think that I'm so peaceful and calm.
• 53:17
  No I can be a total raging lunatic, but I try to channel it
• 53:21
  in a constructive direct way. But I don't know. I think we have
• 53:31
  a sixth sense intuitive knowing, and I think we all have it, and
• 53:39
  we have to listen to it again. It's part of the stopping and the
• 53:43
  stillness of it. And I feel like the more I continue to grow into
• 53:46
  and explore and expand into my creative practice, the more I embrace solitude,
• 53:52
  the more I embrace silence, the more I like to really sit with myself
• 53:59
  and be grounded in the most undecorated version of me. So I'm somebody who
• 54:07
  I appreciate all that I am into spirituality. I'm also an energy girly.
• 54:14
  But and this is a story that I'm telling myself, and I'm fully owning
• 54:16
  that I cannot fucking sit still to save my life. Why. I don't
• 54:22
  know. I am just like go go, go, go, go,
• 54:24
  go go all of the time. And part of it it is a season.
• 54:28
  Like right now, I feel like you're a busy mom of two.
• 54:30
  You know, you are a wife, and you have this beautiful podcast,
• 54:35
  you have this beautiful business. However, I think you have to get really
• 54:39
  clear in terms of what is nourishing you and what is taking away and really
• 54:45
  let that be the driving factor. I agree. I mean, clarity is
• 54:51
  a really beautiful gift. Yeah, and I know there's this phrase. I
• 54:55
  hate it. It is a pet peeve of mine. What is it?
• 55:00
  All the things? Oh, I've never said that before in my life,
• 55:07
  So I agree. Stop. But it's like we are not wired to do
• 55:13
  all the things. We don't even have to dream so big. We can
• 55:16
  just exist, we can rest, we can stop. And I know things
• 55:22
  need to get done, and oftentimes as women, we endure the emotional labor
• 55:29
  and that extra lift to get it all done, but we need to delegate
• 55:34
  too well. And I was reflecting on your story too, and I love
• 55:39
  so much how it started as this hobby that was purely like you didn't go
• 55:44
  into it wanting to monetize it. That's not what it was for you,
• 55:47
  right, And I wonder if that's why it took off in a way that
• 55:53
  it did. And I realized it wasn't an overnight situation, and you know,
• 55:58
  you put you did your due deal leigence, and you worked your ass
• 56:00
  off and you went all in on it, which I think there's that's a
• 56:04
  whole other set of the conversation that could be brought into it too. But
• 56:08
  it was so organic for you, And I wonder if I mean, there's
• 56:13
  I know there's something there when let's I mean, you're an energy girally,
• 56:16
  yeah, haven't you? Haven't you noticed that the things that have been most
• 56:21
  powerful in your life have come with ease. You work towards it for sure,
• 56:25
  However, it's not motivated. I think motivation is really important in terms
• 56:30
  of where your intention is. So if your intention is just to make millions
• 56:36
  of dollars and you want to drive the Bentley and do the thing, that's
• 56:39
  kind of like not high magnetism. Right, if you are on a healing
• 56:45
  path and it serves others and it serves yourself and it is really easeful and
• 56:51
  peaceful and you're you're you're finding a lot of value in it. I think
• 56:54
  that's really magnetic and I think it will draw more into your life if you
• 56:59
  can teach you to show up in that highest version of service to yourself and
• 57:04
  service to others and not ego. I think ego needs to be killed a
• 57:08
  little bit. I agree. And that was something I've been planning on like
• 57:13
  the last quarter of my business, and I've shared about this with my audience.
• 57:16
  But one of the things I was like, Okay, so what's my
• 57:19
  new goal? And I shifted it. And it's so easy, especially in
• 57:22
  an online space and in my industry to coaching industry, which I know you
• 57:25
  do some of that too in your business mentorship. But it's just like that
• 57:30
  next level money goal and you know how much money are you making each month
• 57:37
  and each year, and it's all about the money. How do you have
• 57:39
  a if somebody has a lack based mentality around money, how do you what
• 57:44
  are your top top two to top three nuggets for them to break through that,
• 57:52
  I mean, black based mentality around money. Where does that come from?
• 57:58
  Do you think worth in money are directly core? Absolutely okay? And
• 58:02
  the lie that you're telling yourself right, there's some sort of fear based scenario
• 58:07
  that is that's driving that. Right, money is the root of all evil
• 58:13
  or there's never going to be enough, right, So I think you've got
• 58:15
  to kill it at the root. You've got to do that in our work
• 58:19
  to get to the root of Like, where is this coming from? Where
• 58:22
  did I adopt this? Yeah? I think too growing up, you know,
• 58:25
  it was always discouraged to daydream, right, and we were supposed to
• 58:30
  be so structured in school and learn and you know, math and science and
• 58:35
  trust me, I'm married. Yeah, the math and science, no,
• 58:39
  but and those are very important skills. But I also think it's important to
• 58:43
  daydream and have fun and be childlike in play. And my goodness, I
• 58:49
  can say for ten years I've been living not only a creative life, but
• 58:52
  I've been able to make money from that creative life, and that is a
• 58:55
  beautiful thing. Yeah, I wouldn't have it any other way, and I'm
• 59:00
  not apologizing for it, and I certainly have my unlimited beliefs. I am
• 59:07
  human first and foremost. But I push myself. Hey, am I cutting
• 59:13
  myself short? Here? Am I playing small? Here? Do I need
• 59:15
  to reevaluate and gain more clarity of where this is coming from so I can
• 59:21
  push way through this and grow in the way I want to. You have
• 59:29
  talked about because you mentioned your creative process, and I want to talk about
• 59:31
  that too, because a lot of people listening that like if they're wanting to
• 59:36
  lean more into the playful side of their business and discover that for themselves.
• 59:39
  And you've got my wheels turning. You've talked about a holistic approach to your
• 59:45
  creative process. What does that look like like if somebody was like, Okay,
• 59:49
  I want to dive into photography or whatever. What does a holistic approach
• 59:53
  mean? And how can somebody adopt that? Because I know it served you
• 59:57
  really well, thank you, And it changes again. And there's no linear
• 1:00:00
  path to creativity. And I think about creativity every day. I mean,
• 1:00:06
  it is what I live in, It is what motivates me. I break
• 1:00:10
  it down to this. Creativity is a fancy word for listening. You have
• 1:00:15
  to listen to yourself and you have to listen to the world around you.
• 1:00:19
  And so often we don't because we are so busy, so distracted doing quote
• 1:00:23
  unquote all the damn things. Okay, we do one thing at a time.
• 1:00:32
  Do it really well. Carve out time for your creativity, and it's
• 1:00:36
  like a muscle, like anything else. When you show up for it.
• 1:00:38
  It may feel really uncomfortable, it may feel really vulnerable. But for me
• 1:00:45
  personally, how I embrace new creative projects. I don't put a lot of
• 1:00:52
  structure around them. Okay, it's more of a free flow. My life
• 1:00:57
  is very structured. I'm type A. I'm running it, you know.
• 1:01:00
  As a creative I am a business woman first, you know, and contractually
• 1:01:05
  driven, have a strong foundation, and then the creativity is the flow.
• 1:01:09
  And so normally my creative moments. It changes for everybody, but for me
• 1:01:15
  it's really in the morning, especially when I'm writing. I block off time.
• 1:01:22
  So if you are wanting to cultivate a strong creative practice, you have
• 1:01:28
  to listen to yourself, to the world around you. You have to incorporate
• 1:01:31
  strong boundaries and time for time, you have to create that space. I
• 1:01:39
  talk a lot about creative courage, and it's believing in a vision so much
• 1:01:45
  greater than yourself that your current reality doesn't reflect just yet. Creativity is living
• 1:01:52
  in your vision. It's not living in your victimhood, it's not living in
• 1:01:55
  your current state. It's truly co creating with the world around you. It's
• 1:02:01
  a nourishing gift that you're giving to yourself to others, and when you are
• 1:02:07
  living in that, it inspires other people to take permission and do it themselves.
• 1:02:14
  And creativity also requires rest. You have to rest, you have to
• 1:02:20
  sleep, you have to nourish yourself. You have to really go at it
• 1:02:23
  with a strong boundary to create that space, because again, this isn't something
• 1:02:30
  that's going to consume you all day long. However, I'm a big believer
• 1:02:35
  in creative dates. You know, if I'm going to a new city or
• 1:02:39
  if I'm traveling for work, I always fly in on the Red Eye and
• 1:02:44
  I take myself on a creative date before I get started, whether it's you
• 1:02:49
  know, a hike or a museum in a city. And then my days
• 1:02:52
  are normally very structured with the meetings and full day shoots and so or you
• 1:02:57
  know, they just get full of quick So it's time to myself to think,
• 1:03:01
  to be inspired by somebody else's work, to sit there and listen to
• 1:03:05
  something else, to someone else. What I'm hearing is that you're prioritizing the
• 1:03:10
  time to be creative and what you need to access that creativity because it's not
• 1:03:17
  just going to come. If you're running on fumes, or if you're stressed,
• 1:03:21
  or if you're trying to do all the things or whatever, then you're
• 1:03:23
  not going to be able to act. But if you don't know where to
• 1:03:25
  start, I would start with stillness or playfulness and create a boundary around both.
• 1:03:32
  What would that look like like, Okay, I'm going to set a
• 1:03:35
  time. Okay, let's say you have a hard time sitting still. Yes,
• 1:03:39
  this is the longest I've ever sat still in my life. What is
• 1:03:43
  giving you energy right now? And if it's not giving you energy, what
• 1:03:46
  feels so peaceful to you right now? If you're like God, I don't
• 1:03:50
  need energy right now, I just need peace, that's a sign that you
• 1:03:53
  need to rest. So like, take the nap, take the bath,
• 1:03:58
  take whatever time you need, Yeah, and then like, what what are
• 1:04:01
  you curious about? I noticed the other day something that gave me so much
• 1:04:08
  energy as I was hosting a masterclass and I did a coaching portion of it
• 1:04:11
  and I went forty five minutes over because there were more questions, and I
• 1:04:15
  was like this, I could do this all dame, and that it had
• 1:04:18
  been a minute since I felt that. Maybe it's like a free flow women's
• 1:04:24
  retreat. Maybe it's something you know, but then independent from anybody else,
• 1:04:28
  what areas light you up? Do you love to cook? Do you love
• 1:04:31
  to garden? Do you like to go for walks? Do you like traveling
• 1:04:38
  for fun? Yeah? And the days were like you can just go out
• 1:04:42
  and explore, Like that's when I am my most giddy and childlike. That's
• 1:04:46
  what you need to be doing more of. Yeah, it's whatever is giving
• 1:04:49
  you creativity is not something serious. It turns into something serious when it can
• 1:04:56
  be a business, but it starts with and what's giving you joy and playfulness
• 1:05:03
  and fun and gets makes you giddy. That's energetic. That's what's lighting you
• 1:05:09
  up. Yeah. Yeah, we get so bogged down with like and I
• 1:05:14
  love so much your story too, because you're big on the pivot and you've
• 1:05:16
  done that, so I would say masterfully in your career and the way that
• 1:05:19
  you went from one start contrast to where you are now, and you continue
• 1:05:25
  to do that. And I think all of us and anybody listening needs to
• 1:05:30
  give themselves the permission to, like you said, ask themselves the question,
• 1:05:33
  what's not working anymore? Yeah? What? Where are you blocked? Like?
• 1:05:38
  What is it? What's prohibiting you from moving forward? Why? What
• 1:05:41
  is that trigger? Do some work around that? But also the lighter side
• 1:05:45
  of things, don't go for structure, go for walks where it takes you.
• 1:05:50
  You know, take your camera, journal, paint, take a painting
• 1:05:55
  class, take a pottery class, take a cooking class. Put yourself in
• 1:05:59
  an environment where other people are learning the same thing as you are. You
• 1:06:01
  know, use your hands, get back to basics. Sleep, you know,
• 1:06:06
  eat foods that are going to be medicine for you, and just really
• 1:06:11
  be present anything. I feel like the most creative, My most creative moments
• 1:06:15
  are my most present moments and my most and those are my most connected moments.
• 1:06:20
  And I look at creativity. It's not like a silver bullet solution for
• 1:06:26
  all of your life's problems. But my goodness. It is a catalyst for
• 1:06:29
  growth. It will change your life. It is a truth teller for you.
• 1:06:32
  It is a vehicle for your voice, and it will become the architect
• 1:06:38
  of your life. That's beautiful. Thanks, Yeah, I was thinking of
• 1:06:43
  that's something that I need to do. I need to do something with my
• 1:06:45
  hands independent, like if I'm I am writing a lot right now for hopefully
• 1:06:53
  a brand new project that I'll be able to that was one of the questions
• 1:06:57
  i book, like please, but sometimes my writing is like me, just
• 1:07:08
  I need to get out of my head. And so a good way I'm
• 1:07:12
  doing that right now is through physical movement, whether it's being outside of nature,
• 1:07:18
  doing pilates, moving my body, or doing things cooking right now too,
• 1:07:24
  Like yeah, I love to cook in our new kitchen, and like
• 1:07:29
  just I'm not thinking about writing, I'm not thinking about photography, but I'm
• 1:07:32
  still using my hands and I'm doing things that are visually just peaceful and beautiful
• 1:07:39
  and I'm noticing it and I'm present and I'm connected. So and I think
• 1:07:44
  that that's such a great tip too, Like you can have your art and
• 1:07:47
  your main your main bay, but you can also have your side Chick too,
• 1:07:50
  and you can go and play in other areas and allow like take that
• 1:07:55
  break and it's a breath of fresh air, you know. I point nine
• 1:08:00
  nine nine nine percent. I'm shooting interiors and architectural spaces and they're beautiful and
• 1:08:05
  amazing. One of my clients that I've had forever and I love her,
• 1:08:09
  she's like a little sister Brooke Worthington Jewelry. She's amazing. Yeah, she
• 1:08:13
  just had a baby and she's like, will you do my new born session?
• 1:08:15
  And I did, and it was like the I had the most fun,
• 1:08:18
  you know, just because it was like different in nuance, you have
• 1:08:23
  to reincorporate the newness and you know, you have to switch it up.
• 1:08:29
  You have to not be so monotonous. That's boring. I agree, And
• 1:08:31
  also like if we're talking about creativity, you have to allow yourself to try
• 1:08:34
  different things and to get out of your box. Very good. So,
• 1:08:40
  okay, shifting gears a little bit. There are a lot of business owners
• 1:08:44
  that listen to this podcast, and I know you have built in addition to
• 1:08:47
  your business, this also personal brand where people are following along and it's kind
• 1:08:53
  of like the lifestyle at this point, And I was curious for anybody who
• 1:08:59
  was wanting to build their own personal brand, what tips come up where you're
• 1:09:03
  like, Okay, if I had to redo this, do it all over
• 1:09:06
  again, and this be good for business, what would I do? I
• 1:09:13
  am not led by personal brands. I will say that, Okay, it
• 1:09:16
  was an accident. I don't look at myself as a personal I look at
• 1:09:19
  like Martha Stewart as a personal brand. You know. I look at myself
• 1:09:25
  as maybe an accidental influencer. I don't really you know. I'm a photographer.
• 1:09:30
  I have a really incredible skill. I really try to provide a tremendous
• 1:09:35
  value and marketing for my clients. And I'm an author. I'm a writer,
• 1:09:44
  and I'm growing into that. I'm a back to basics girl. I
• 1:09:47
  keep it really simple for myself. I am a creature of habit. I
• 1:09:53
  think I know what I like. So if you're wanting to show up and
• 1:09:57
  build something strong, I think consistency and clarity trump talent every single fucking day.
• 1:10:06
  So be consistent with your pursuits, get real clear, have it drive
• 1:10:13
  you every day, plant those seeds and continue to show up. And then
• 1:10:16
  as a byproduct of that experience and that knowledge and that service you will just
• 1:10:23
  start developing a personal brand. But this was not my objective. I know
• 1:10:28
  that neither was your business. But I'm intentional with it, I know.
• 1:10:33
  I mean, I have a really beautiful team. You know, we are
• 1:10:40
  you know, different irons in the fire right now, so you definitely and
• 1:10:45
  it's it's yes, to expand that foundation, but more importantly, it's it's
• 1:10:51
  to push myself in this in those goals to see if I can do even
• 1:10:57
  do it. It's like that's where most of myne or you're it comes from,
• 1:11:00
  Like, okay, can tell you, is there something that you can
• 1:11:03
  share that you're like, an area that you're wanting to play in, or
• 1:11:06
  that you will be here soon. I have been apprehensive in launching something,
• 1:11:15
  and I'm launching something that has served hundreds of clients within the next few months,
• 1:11:20
  So stay tuned for that. I can't say anything. Okay, well,
• 1:11:27
  we'll be on the lookout for it. But also too, like I'm
• 1:11:29
  pivoting. I think I'm in the process of writing and writing something really special
• 1:11:36
  and it's a risk. The safer version would be to do another coffee table
• 1:11:42
  book. It's not another coffee table book, Okay, and we'll see you
• 1:11:45
  know. Oh nice, Okay, so when is it coming? We don't
• 1:11:48
  know yet. Oh we don't got anang. Well we're excited about that.
• 1:11:55
  Okay, we got questions from the audience. But before we get to that,
• 1:11:58
  I wanted to touch on something else. I heard you talk about that.
• 1:12:01
  Piauked my interest and it's where you use visualization. You've used your whole
• 1:12:08
  life as a toom. So for anybody who does not know Alyssa's background,
• 1:12:13
  you were a gymnast, like seriously, actually for how long? Oh my
• 1:12:17
  goodness. My mother put me in gymnastics because I was kicked out of LA
• 1:12:23
  at four years old? How are you kicked out of LA? I just
• 1:12:26
  couldn't sit still. I was you at four? Yeah, But she put
• 1:12:36
  me in gymnastics just to wear me out. And from four until fourteen,
• 1:12:43
  and I competed internationally. I was a high level gymnast. I had a
• 1:12:48
  freak accident, so I was training in the summer and this was like my
• 1:12:54
  life. I was training for the Olympics for you know, it was like
• 1:12:58
  the thing. I would go to school, train, do ballet, sometimes
• 1:13:02
  spend the night at my coach's house, trained before school and it was that
• 1:13:06
  type of childhood. I was doing a round off back handspring double back,
• 1:13:15
  and rather than doing the double back, I shot up straight in the air
• 1:13:17
  and landed on my neck. And from that point forward, I was around
• 1:13:23
  fourteen. At this point, I had such a fear of going backwards,
• 1:13:29
  and so my mom was so just instrumental during that phase of my life.
• 1:13:38
  She made sure that I had a healthy relationship with food. She made sure
• 1:13:41
  that I was socialized because I was one of the few that wasn't homeschooled at
• 1:13:44
  this point. And she came in and saw my struggle going backwards, and
• 1:13:51
  she flew me to one of the best collegiate gymnastics programs in the country,
• 1:14:00
  one of the top tiered sports psychologists at the time, and allowed me to
• 1:14:03
  train with them, and during that time I learned visualization. With the sports
• 1:14:12
  psychologist. I would train with the team and then go in and do visualization
• 1:14:17
  techniques and they would have me tense in sequence certain muscles in my body and
• 1:14:25
  then start visualizing my routine going backwards without balking and doing it numerous times,
• 1:14:33
  visualizing it until I didn't have that physical tension and that physical stress in my
• 1:14:41
  body to where I could. It was easeful, and ever since that point,
• 1:14:47
  if anything came out of gymnastics, it was visualization. And I've been
• 1:14:50
  able to do that ever since. When I thought, oh my god,
• 1:14:55
  who are you to write a book? What do you know? I visualized
• 1:14:59
  it. I visualized meeting with my agent. I visualized the feeling attached to
• 1:15:03
  that. I visualized readers reading this book and highlighting it and having it cultivate
• 1:15:12
  their own creative courage during their own hard stevens, holding their hand through their
• 1:15:15
  own life pivots. And I visualized all of that. What that felt like.
• 1:15:21
  Did I imagine a pandemic? No? But no, But you know
• 1:15:27
  I still did that to this day, even starting out in the morning.
• 1:15:30
  Sometimes I do it in the shower when I start my day, and it's
• 1:15:33
  like, how do I want to feel today? How do I want to
• 1:15:35
  show up today? For myself? Do I need rest? Am I going
• 1:15:40
  too hard? Have I taken a break? Do I need to continue?
• 1:15:44
  Do I need to push myself here? Do I need to confront this?
• 1:15:46
  How do I want to confront that? How do I want it to feel
• 1:15:50
  if things didn't work out in my favor at the end of the day,
• 1:15:55
  how could have it gone? Like, how can I have peace with those
• 1:16:00
  unfavorable outcomes? Visualize what it would have looked like with that favorable outcome,
• 1:16:06
  Show up the next morning. You know what has been one of your biggest
• 1:16:12
  manifestations from visuals visualizing? Would it be the book? Oh? My goodness,
• 1:16:19
  I honestly think I don't know. I'm going to get emotional. I
• 1:16:27
  think it's both the book and photography. I didn't think i'd create a bone
• 1:16:31
  on my body until I was thirty two years old. That is so please
• 1:16:34
  listen to that, you guys, like, that's I love your story so
• 1:16:39
  much. Thank you incredible, But like I was like, I bet you
• 1:16:43
  can't get it in my mind, I'm like, I bet you can't.
• 1:16:45
  You know, let's see if you can get an architectural digest, like just
• 1:16:48
  setting little little milestones, little winds for myself. And then I did.
• 1:16:55
  And you know, multiple times, did you visualize that or was he just
• 1:16:59
  like an intention that you se Yeah, I was like, let's see if
• 1:17:02
  you can do this for yourself and for your clients. And I did,
• 1:17:08
  and then that happened, and then the book happened. And when I was
• 1:17:14
  writing my first book, I was in our old home and our previous home,
• 1:17:17
  and it was in one of my favorite rooms that it was just filled
• 1:17:20
  with light, and I would just visualize my book being on our coffee table.
• 1:17:25
  Every morning I would wake up and be like, there's you know,
• 1:17:28
  and it wasn't, but it helped motivate me every day during the harder moments
• 1:17:33
  of writing a book. It is not easy. But now I think what
• 1:17:36
  I'm visualizing is so different than those bigger moments. It's the quiet moments that
• 1:17:43
  I visualize. I visualize really having a home filled with peace and warmth and
• 1:17:48
  that is safe. You know. I visualize being full in the normalcy of
• 1:17:57
  my day, not craving more, really appreciating the thing that I have,
• 1:18:00
  not showing up and being a raging lunatic, you know, like really honing
• 1:18:04
  in on like my words and my intentions, and you know, being grounded
• 1:18:11
  in that. Not making choices for my past or too far in the future.
• 1:18:14
  It's making choices and really what I'm feeling in my physical body. And
• 1:18:18
  you know, National has changed in such a way, a really beautiful way,
• 1:18:23
  a cool way, like we've got such an incredible community here, but
• 1:18:26
  also there's an ugly side of that, a shattered side, a transactional side,
• 1:18:30
  and it's you know, navigating that with discernment and grace and how I
• 1:18:36
  want a community a sisterhood to look like, you know, and how we
• 1:18:42
  show up for each other. I just love how your visualizations have shifted from
• 1:18:46
  like goals and career and achievements to more of like how you want to feel
• 1:18:53
  at peace. And I think that that that right there speaks to the level
• 1:18:58
  of success that you've created for yourself. It's like, Okay, I've been
• 1:19:00
  there, I've done that, I've gotten the accolades, but like what's and
• 1:19:03
  those things are great, but anybody who has reached a big goal of theirs
• 1:19:08
  usually they say around the same thing, which is like, okay, it's
• 1:19:11
  fool and all, but like, yeah, it really matters. It's how
• 1:19:14
  you feel. Yeah, it's it's how you feel. It's having really beautiful
• 1:19:17
  people like yourself around, you know, around, and it's it's in the
• 1:19:24
  community. I mean, I really believe that. But also I'm at this
• 1:19:29
  season where I'm forty one and you know, I'm I'm ready to expand my
• 1:19:33
  family and do more private things if that makes sense. Yeah, Okay,
• 1:19:42
  we got some questions. Yeah, from the audience. We'll do three because
• 1:19:49
  I don't want to talk to you to death. But these are good ones.
• 1:19:53
  I love good questions. So one was how and when to add multiple
• 1:19:58
  things or parts to your bi business facets to your business if you are multi
• 1:20:01
  passionate. Oof, there's it's never too soon for that. I think having
• 1:20:10
  multiple revenue streams makes you a strong, multi passionate entrepreneur creator. I like
• 1:20:17
  to have at least four revenue streams coming in. Okay, that's creates a
• 1:20:23
  stable table. Yeah, not all the eggs in one basket. So my
• 1:20:28
  revenue streams come from my interior and architectural photography, business and service based licensing,
• 1:20:33
  my book deals, some brand deals. I'm trying to think, what
• 1:20:40
  else are you mentoring? Oh? Yeah, I do, thank you.
• 1:20:44
  That is that five? Or would that be the four? The one?
• 1:20:45
  Oh? I don't know. What did I say? I don't know.
• 1:20:47
  I was in interiors and architectural photography, business licensing, publishing, brand deals
• 1:20:54
  and co mentoring. Yeah okay, yeah, I know people are gonna be
• 1:20:58
  listening, like, and what I mentor on? I really love to coach
• 1:21:03
  women in developing six figure photography businesses and really coaching on the business side of
• 1:21:10
  photography. We need a course. I do one on ones right now.
• 1:21:17
  There. I know you're like, no, you need I love you.
• 1:21:23
  Who are you are? The You are the light in this in this space.
• 1:21:27
  I just saw you light up. You're like, no, I love
• 1:21:30
  doing one on ones. I'm really able. I just finished, uh,
• 1:21:34
  one of my dear dear lights. We did, you know, six weeks.
• 1:21:42
  It was beautiful and she went from I believe she was making oh my
• 1:21:46
  goodness, maybe like eight hundred dollars a shoot. Now she's doing eleven thousand
• 1:21:55
  dollars months. Oh my goodness. It's incredible. Yeah. And I she's
• 1:22:00
  a single mama. She is ambitious, and she is a hard hard worker,
• 1:22:05
  and she took to everything I said. She was coachable. Yeah,
• 1:22:10
  she's coachable because I've also had non coachable Oh yeah, yeah, Okay,
• 1:22:17
  next question, and we kind of talked on this, but if there's something
• 1:22:20
  else that comes to mind, if you had to start your business over,
• 1:22:23
  what advice would you give yourself in hindsight? Mmm, I don't know if
• 1:22:30
  I would change anything. I think I'm pretty hard on myself, and so
• 1:22:36
  I'd probably say to be a little bit more gentle with yourself. But I
• 1:22:42
  wouldn't change a thing. I learned the right lessons at the right time.
• 1:22:46
  I grew at really beautiful moments in my life, and I've had I've had
• 1:22:51
  a really great arc, and I've had I've been able to collaborate with some
• 1:22:56
  of the most talented human beings in this country. I'm just really great for
• 1:23:00
  all of it, the good, bad and everything in between. It all
• 1:23:03
  adds up. Yeah, se who you are. If there was one thing
• 1:23:08
  that you could go back and undo, what would that be like a decision
• 1:23:14
  or I would probably have said no to three of my earlier clients. Why
• 1:23:21
  because they are just terrible? Yeah? I think you when you are living
• 1:23:29
  in your light and when you are working really hard and you come to the
• 1:23:33
  table with great intention, there are certain people who your light will uncover their
• 1:23:39
  shadows. And there are also people who are so committed to misunderstanding who you
• 1:23:45
  are as a human and they will go forever to try to like hurt you.
• 1:23:50
  And I have felt that, And I just if I could undo those
• 1:23:59
  three work relationships a client, Really, do you want to talk about it?
• 1:24:04
  Oh? We can? I mean, we can talk about ways I
• 1:24:08
  think in any growing business you have, you will have resistance and you will
• 1:24:14
  have you know, some grenades, I call them grenades. But you just
• 1:24:18
  have to really root yourself and who you are, the service you provide,
• 1:24:23
  the honesty you bring, and you just fucking work through it and you go
• 1:24:28
  full force and you don't apologize, and you you know, and you try
• 1:24:32
  to communicate. But if people are going to be in your life with such
• 1:24:39
  resistance and committed to not hearing or listening or willing, not worth your time.
• 1:24:45
  And I also think too, they're such an integral part of your story
• 1:24:50
  as well because they suck in the moment. But now mentoring photographers and you
• 1:24:56
  get to help them identify these grenades. Yeah, well, and I see
• 1:25:00
  the red flags very easy now. If anybody's coming to me, I place
• 1:25:04
  ninety nine point nine percent of my projects in editorial outlets. If somebody comes
• 1:25:09
  to me and they're like, I want to get I immediately I want to
• 1:25:12
  get in this magazine. It's not about the labor of love, it's not
• 1:25:15
  about the process, it's not about you know, the design. It's it's
• 1:25:18
  a no because it's just ego filled and it's not magnetic. You know we
• 1:25:25
  talk about, you know, some of our most powerful manifestations and things in
• 1:25:30
  our life, and they came from they truly came from a service driven place,
• 1:25:34
  a fullness there and it wasn't a chase. Yeah. Well, this
• 1:25:41
  is called the All In with Ali podcast, and I'm all about like and
• 1:25:44
  that's something that I've preaching, something that I try and do in my own
• 1:25:46
  life is like, if you find something that you love, like, go
• 1:25:49
  all in on it. You don't do all the things, but you give
• 1:25:53
  it your heart and soul and your energy, and you like you are a
• 1:25:58
  walking embodiment of that. And I know for a fact that's like you built
• 1:26:02
  it and they came right and you just walked toward what you were good at
• 1:26:06
  and what lit you up, and it got you to where you are today,
• 1:26:10
  which is so incredible and key aspiring. So thank you for sharing your
• 1:26:15
  story with us and your lights and I've just really enjoyed this conversation. Thank
• 1:26:20
  you, Ali, Thank you, and thank you for holding space for these
• 1:26:25
  incredible conversations and for the incredible women in your community, because you are a
• 1:26:29
  light as well, and so I'm just I'm really grateful. Thank you.
• 1:26:31
  I'm grateful to thank you your prob