We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Allison Craig a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Allison, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I am happier as a business owner, but not in the glossy, Instagram-quote way people like to imagine.

There are moments where a regular job sounds wildly appealing. Clock in, clock out, health insurance that is affordable, and someone else worrying about payroll, taxes, marketing, 401ks, and whether Google decided to change the rules again this week.

The last time I really thought about it was during a stretch where everything felt like a lot at once. Kids needed me, clients needed me, my inbox was busy, I needed rest, and I remember standing in my kitchen late at night, working from my phone, and thinking, “It would be so nice to just…not carry all of this.” I had that very specific fantasy of my o ld nursing job where I could leave work at work and nobody could email me after 5pm.

But here’s the part people don’t talk about enough. I didn’t want a different life. I just needed a break for a minute. I needed some time outdoors, I needed a walk, and I needed to sign off and have some down time.

When I actually play the tape all the way through and imagine myself in a regular job, I know I’d be frustrated. I don’t do well with ceilings. I don’t do well with someone else deciding what’s possible, what’s allowed, or what’s “reasonable.” I like building something that reflects my values, my pace, my boundaries, and my creativity, even when that means it’s heavier sometimes. Heavy emphasis on the boundaries.

Owning a business has taught me that two things can be true at once: it can be hard and still be right. Exhausting and still deeply fulfilling. There are days I fantasize about simplicity, and then there are days where I look around and realize I built something that supports my family, gives me flexibility, and lets me do work I genuinely care about.

So no, I don’t want a regular job. I just want business ownership to come with a pause button sometimes. And learning how to build that pause into my life, instead of running from the responsibility altogether, has been one of the biggest lessons for me.

Allison, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Allison, the owner and one of the photographers behind Lentille Photography. We photograph motherhood, maternity, newborns, and families, but what we really do is make life easier for parents during seasons that already feel full.

I didn’t start out as a photographer; I was a labor and delivery nurse first. I spent six years in hospital rooms with brand-new parents, watching the emotional whiplash of birth, exhaustion, joy, fear, tenderness, and love all collide at once. I learned how to read people quickly. I learned how to stay calm when things feel chaotic. And I learned just how vulnerable those early days can be.

When I became a mom myself, I realized something pretty quickly. I was always the one taking the photos. I was the one planning everything. And I was almost never in the frame. That’s when photography stopped being about pictures and started being about presence. About making sure moms didn’t disappear from their own stories.

Lentille was built around that idea: that families don’t need another thing to manage, they just need someone to handle it for them.

We provide a full-service photography experience. Studio or outdoor sessions, a curated wardrobe for moms and kids (and even shirts for dads), optional hair and makeup, guided sessions that feel relaxed instead of stiff, and a clear process from start to finish. Clients are not guessing what to wear, how long things will take, or what happens after the session. We plan it. We lead it. We take care of the details so they can actually enjoy the experience.

The problem we solve is overwhelm. Most parents don’t need more options or more decisions. They need fewer. They need someone experienced enough to say, “I’ve got this.” That’s what sets us apart. We’ve photographed over a thousand families during our 13+ years, and we do over a hundred and thirty sessions a year. We know how kids behave at every age. We know when to push and when to pause. We know how to get real connection without forcing it.

I’m most proud of the fact that this business works because it’s built for real life. Toddlers melt down, babies need breaks, and parents are tired. We don’t fight that, we just plan for it.

I’m also proud that Lentille has grown into a brand that feels calm, intentional, and elevated without being intimidating. We are not the cheapest option, and we are very upfront about that. What clients are paying for is experience, consistency, and care. They’re paying for the peace of knowing it will be handled well.

If there’s one thing I want people to know about me and my work, it’s this: I’m not interested in rushing people through their lives. I want to slow things down just enough for them to see themselves in it. And I want to do it in a way that feels supportive, honest, and worth every bit of the investment.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media was never part of my master plan. I didn’t sit down one day and say, “I’m going to build an audience.” I was just sharing what I was living.

In the early days, I posted client work, behind the scenes moments, thoughts about motherhood, and honest observations about running a business while raising kids. There was no strategy deck, no content calendar, and definitely no viral ambition. It was simply me talking to the kind of women I already worked with. The moms who loved their families deeply, were overwhelmed more often than they admitted, and wanted to feel seen instead of sold to.

That’s what built the audience. Consistency and clarity, not perfection.

I showed up as the same person online that clients met in real life. Calm. Honest. Direct. Occasionally funny. I talked about what was hard. I talked about what worked. I didn’t pretend to have it all figured out, but I did speak with confidence about the things I knew deeply, like photographing families, running a sustainable business, and protecting your time and energy, and some politics here and there.

My biggest advice for anyone just starting is this: stop trying to attract everyone. Talk to one person, the person you already want to work with. Use their language. Answer the questions they’re already asking in their head. If you sound like you’re writing to an algorithm, people feel it immediately.

Second, don’t wait until you’re “big” to be opinionated. The posts that grew my audience the most were the ones where I said something clearly and stood behind it. You don’t need to be loud, you just need to be specific.

And finally, treat social media like a relationship, not a billboard. People follow you because they trust you. That trust is built by showing up regularly, saying something that matters, and not disappearing the second you feel unsure.

You don’t need to go viral, you just need to be recognizable. When someone reads your caption or sees a reel, they should know it’s you before they ever see your name.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Yes. What started as a side hustle very quickly became the thing that changed everything.

Photography entered my life while I was working as a nurse, specifically in labor and delivery. I loved the work, but the schedule was unforgiving, and I had this growing awareness that I didn’t want to build a life where I was constantly choosing between my career and my family. Photography began as a creative outlet. Something I did on the side, mostly for friends, mostly for joy. I had no grand vision of turning it into a full-time business.

The first real shift happened when I realized people were willing to pay me. As I refined my business and experience, others started to notice. The way I handled their babies, how I wrangles their toddlers, and the calm I brought into what can be a really vulnerable season of life. That’s when I understood that this wasn’t just about taking pretty pictures. I was solving a problem, and I was giving families something they deeply wanted but didn’t know how to articulate.

Scaling happened slowly and intentionally. I built the business late nights and weekends, learned pricing the hard way, raised my rates before I felt ready, and said no to things that didn’t align long before it was comfortable to do so.

Key milestones that stand out clearly: The first time I made more from photography than nursing in a year. Opening my first studio space. Hiring my first team member. Watching clients come back year after year, trusting me with every season of their family. Those moments confirmed that this was no longer a side hustle. It was a real business with staying power.

Another major milestone was realizing I didn’t want a high-volume model. I wanted depth. Fewer clients. Better experience. Higher standards. That decision changed everything and it allowed the business to grow without burning me out (and it’s the reason we’re still here over thirteen years later).

Today, Lentille Photography is a full-scale, sustainable business that supports my family, employs another incredible photographer full time, and serves well over one hundred families each year. It didn’t scale because I chased trends or shortcuts. It scaled because I treated it like a business from the beginning, respected my time, and built something that could last.

What started as a side hustle became my main career because I allowed it to grow at the pace of my life, not at the expense of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lentillephotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lentillephotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lentillephotography

Image Credits

Lentille Photography