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

Amy, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I have a sign that hangs in my home. It says “Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work.”

I pass that sign every time I leave my home and its a daily reminder to me.

Success to me, means never giving up. Showing up, every day. Putting in the work, every single day. Creating images and putting it out there for the world to see on a daily basis keeps our business at the forefront of people’s minds. Staying revenant matters and every day we do our best to show our community we are here, and we want to work, create and capture.

When times are busy and profitable, things are great. But is what we do in our “off” time that has kept us in business for 17 years. Busy season isn’t 12 months out of the year. So diving in, every day, even when it doesn’t feel like much is happening, is what we believe has kept us successful.

Some may define successful in different ways. We define successful as keeping our business open and thriving, providing for our family, keeping our kids super involved in the activities they love. As long as those things are happening, we are successful and thankful.

Amy, 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?

My name is Rye and I opened theRYEstudio in March of 2006, a photography studio that focuses on family portraits, high school seniors, kids, babies, headshots, and some commercial photography.

We purchased a 135 year old general store building 6 years into business to run our photography studio out of. It allows us to be as creative as we want. Our dogs and our kids are here with us almost every day. We have many different props, including a couch or chair in about every color possible. Outside our building we have many different color painted vintage garage doors to give us different textures to use, along with the brick building itself, which adds a lot of charm.

We strive in making people feel comfortable here when they walk in, and we look at our clients more as friends. We love getting to know the people we work with so we know how best to create for them.

We hope that Kansas City continues to allow us to capture their families and children’s portraits for many many years to come.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020, we were shut down because of Covid. We could not legally open our doors. We were terrified as this photography studio is the only income both my husband and I have. After a few days dealing with our panic, we decided to switch gears. We put a post out on social media that we would come to people’s homes and capture families at their doorstep. There was no charge, we just asked people donate whatever they felt, or if they could. In those 6 weeks we were shut down, we did over 200 porch sessions. We met so many new clients. So many people were thankful for us coming to them. Although the world was shut down, peoples personal lives were not. Pets got sick and people still battled other sicknesses and we were able to go to people’s porches and capture some of their last moments together. People moved into new homes and sold their first home they ever purchased together and we were able to give them those moments to relive. Special moments like prom, baseball season and dance competitions were cancelled, but some still put those uniforms on so they could remember.

We did our best to capture peoples lives during that time and because of that, we were able to still pay our bills. People were beyond generous to us. It was a scary time and full of unknowns, but I am proud of us that we didn’t just sit and be still. We came up with a creative way to continue to do what we do.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My business partner … aka my husband… walked in my studio for headshots one day. We hit it off immediately and with in 2 years he was working at the studio full time. He took over all the sales, which he is 1000% better at doing than I am. He gets the kids to giggle during their photoshoots and the dogs to get their ears up. He moves all the heavy props around for our shoots. He’s a core piece of why our studio is so successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theryestudio.com
• Instagram: ryestudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theryestudio