Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Krystalyn Perry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Krystalyn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Well for me it was a no brainer! I am such a family-oriented person and so keen on wanting to leave a legacy behind, I needed my business name to be something that corporates that. With my 2 active businesses, Joyous Rose being the longest one (7 years). I named it after my grandmother. Her name is Joyce, and her maiden name is Rose. I love roses, I love bringing Joy to people’s lives and I myself am a Joyful person. So Joyous Rose just stuck out like a Donkey driving a tractor.

When it comes to Kay Vacations & Tours. I want my clients to know that I will always recommend vacations or tours that I have done or see myself doing. I like to connect with each and every one of my clients and just to be able to tell them to enjoy their ” Kay Vacation”. If you haven’t noticed by now, I am a goof ball. I always aim to please and make one more person smile each day.

Krystalyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Oh golly! I am still trying to get used to talking about myself. Where do I begin? …. Let’s start with Joyous Rose. Joyous rose started out as just my photography business. Now, how and why I made the choice to make it a business is a really long story that you can read from my book that is on Amazon (A jane of all trades and a Master with hell). The short version is, I almost lost my life. With that, it woke me up on where I was in life. Did I have anything to leave behind for my son? Have I done enough for stories to be told to him to help him remember me? Have I done anything to where he would have any interest to follow in my footsteps and be better? Questions like that and more haunted me for a while. My sister Krystal had been telling me for years to make my photography a business since i am so talented. So, that what i did. I took that first step on trying to leave a legacy behind and capture beautiful photos that would tell and keep my story alive. Fast forward to 7 years later, I wanted more out of Joyous Rose, so I added on Event Planning. After one of my recent jobs that I was a director at, I was over planning and organizing different events. I wanted to keep this going after I left. So now Joyous Rose is not only a photography company, it is an event planning and services. As much as I hoped that I would have business pouring in, I do not. Which brings us to Kay Vacations. I stumbled on becoming a travel agent by accident honestly. I already love to travel and helping others try to find trips for themselves was never a problem for me. I had made the decision to homeschool my son this year, so I basically said why not make travel my full-time business as well. Hoping between Joyous Rose and Kay Vacations I can have one stop shop thing going on. Also, it made it well rounded. I can take someone engagement pictures; help plan the wedding and get you those perks for an amazing honeymoon! A FULL PACKAGE!

With my photography I specialize in maternity, newborn, headshots and portraits. With Kay vacations, I specialize in Disney, Cruises, Mexico and the Carribean. I am always open to bookings outside of my specializations. I believe what sets me apart from both is I do everything as a WE aspect. It makes it more personal, and it tells my clients that I am right there with them every step of the way and will try to help their visions come to life.

I am most proud of myself not getting in my own way as I used to. I am becoming more confident and believing in every step that I put forward. I am no longer scared of failure because failure is how you overcome and grow.

I would like my potential clients / followers and fans to know that they will always get the REAL KRYSTALYN. No matter where you see me, rather that be online or in person. You will always get the Krystalyn who you have done business with. I also keep an open-door policy and mind for EVERYONE. I make a friend in everyone that I come across.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Yes, I wanted to give my side hustles a fair chance and truly focus on them since it is what I truly love doing. I am a big believer in faith. Since I was slowly becoming unhappy at my 9 to 5, I made the choice to take my businesses full time and I am faithful that it will scale up to where I want it to be.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Sure! 2 years after I started Joyous Rose and started to begin writing my book, I became depressed. You see, when I had to take my mind and thoughts back to the day I almost died and should have died according to the police it shut me completely down. I guess I can’t say completely because I know I needed to work to keep a roof over my son’s head. So, he was and still my push to keep going. I buried myself in work, community service and organizations to keep myself busy to not think about what was happening in my head. The book was left unfinished on page 1. I stopped marketing Joyous Rose and when people did reach out to me for a photoshoot, sadly I had to turn them away because I buried myself on someone else’s payroll. It was not until one day, I BROKE DOWN. I was talking to one of my employees where I was a director at, and we started talking about life and out of nowhere I lost it. My employee at that time was much older than me, old enough to be my mother. So, she had some really wise and kind words to say. After she shared a few things with me, she made me promise not to come back to work until what I wanted to say in my book was finished. She told me I wouldn’t be able to get any further mentally if I didn’t truly free my mind. I went home that night, locked myself in my room and wrote. I wrote exactly how I felt during that tragic time. I am a descriptive writer and my book showed just that. A lot of people may have not agreed with my words in the book, but it is MY STORY. Once my book was published and I started getting feedback from others stating, they know exactly how I feel, or I have touched their lives … It gave me that kick in the butt to get back to creating my legacy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joyousroseap.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/krystalyn.perry

Image Credits
Joyous Rose Photography WPPI Photographers Carnival Cruise Photographers