We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Antonette Jemelka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Antonette below.

Hi Antonette, thanks for joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

I have been doing photography for about ten years now, but three years ago I changed my business model when my new husband looked at my numbers and discovered that I was making about four dollars an hour. Truthfully, that didn’t surprise me. I’m a creative, and I didn’t know how to run a business. So I avoided running numbers and figured, ignorance is bliss! That was fine while I was single and living at home, however when you get married, have a honeymoon baby, and wish to live in Colorado with your, extremely left brained, new husband, four dollars an hour definitely doesn’t cut it.

I took the fast track and hired a business coach, someone who is doing what I want to do, and where I want to be (eventually). I did two years of her coaching program and went from having a hobby to a career! This was a huge investment for myself and my family. The first year was scary, the second year almost more so. When I started with my mentor, my husband and I had just had our first baby, and before investing in the second year I was pregnant with my second. To give a little context of why this was exceptionally difficult, my pregnancies are not the easiest. With my first I was sick the whole time, and about twenty weeks with the second pregnancy. I wouldn’t have been able to keep my business moving with out the support of our coaching community, or my amazing family.

I had to shift my entire way of thinking. From running a transaction based “business”, to being a high touch experience business; from being cheap, to valuing my art and my time; from digital files to physical wall art; meeting my clients once at the session, now meeting them multiple times throughout the whole process; from being instant gratification minded, to legacy minded, etc. Everything has changed for the better!

I have earned back every cent invested, and rather than being burned out I am loving my job/art more than ever before.

I did lose many clients during the transition though some stuck with me. Most everyone was very understanding of why I was changing and we were able to wish each other well! I now have clients who see my work and expertise as a worthy investment and genuinely fun experience!

I would say the “scale up” is still in process, but the foundation is firmly set!

Antonette, 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?

My name is Antonette Jemelka, I am a native to Colorado, and currently live in Castle Rock. I have loved photography since I was eight years old, I don’t have many memories without a camera to be honest. I was homeschooled through high school, my first love was basketball and the Colorado Rockies! I invested in my first DSLR at sixteen. I began photographing my sister’s kids, cousin’s kids, and going on photoshoots with my best friend. Moms in our various circles began asking me to take portraits of their kids/families. I started doing that for fun, then charging, then raised prices, and before I knew it I had a little business!

My Mom drove me to, and assisted me on every session. I can say with absolute confidence that I would not be where I am today without her undying, selfless, over and above support! To this day she continues to assist me, or watches my kids while my husband assists. Either way, my whole family support is the reason I get to pursue what I love while raising a family.

As my business has grown, I have gone through many life transitions since 2018 such as getting married, moving to Texas and back, having two babies while buying a condo then our first house and living with my parents in between those moves! It’s been wild, but all of these things have only given me more motivation to grow my business to not only feed my creative outlet, but also to provide another stream of income for our family.

My whole goal as a portrait photographer is to give my clients something that will bring them joy everyday of their lives, as well as preserve their family’s legacy with archival art they can pass down for generations.

We create statement pieces for the big walls, series that capture personality and relationships, and fine art albums to tell a story. Everything we create is customized to my client’s needs and style. I keep things very simple and elegant. I desire to communicate true authenticity through a lifestyle approach in my art. This is a more modern approach to portrait art that helps me stay true to my client’s aesthetic. Some desire big chunky frames, other something more plain. Whatever it is I help my client’s get where they want to be. Our biggest obstacles in this day and age is instant gratification and procrastination. My job is to keep my busy clients on track, make decision making easy, and educate them on why this archival artwork is worth a longer wait!

I want this to be a stress free process which is why we have a planning meeting before their session. I go into their homes and look at their walls. I listen to everything they tell me about the look they are going for, the spaces they want to fill, and even what sessions they want to do in the future. This helps me know exactly how to shoot their session.
I help them decide on outfits which many people get overwhelmed with. Before we even do that, we pick a location! There are so many options in Colorado. The scenery is obviously unbeatable, but we also have great urban areas, and I offer a studio option. The location can definitely determine what I suggest for outfits so we try to decide this first.

After the session I narrow the images down to the very best! I don’t want my clients getting overwhelmed by showing them hundreds of images to choose from. So I try to be very picky and strategic keeping in mind what we went over in the planning meeting. I create a video presentation so that they can simply sit and enjoy their images and relive the fun moments. After that I pull them up about two at a time to help them narrow down.

If my clients are getting anything framed, I do a framing appointment in my home, this is the only time I require them to come to me. There is a lot of setup, and I really get to spoil my clients at this appointment with yummy food and drinks!

The best day of the whole experience, delivery day! Once all the artwork is created, I inspect and sign every piece. I wrap it up safely in pretty packaging, and then deliver directly to my clients home. It’s better than Christmas morning! I love seeing their faces when they open their finished heirloom artwork. Those reactions are why I keep doing this knowing that down the road their children and grandchildren with love it more and more as it ages.

I love the custom aspect of my job. Each family is so different. Most people love getting at least one perfectly posted shot. But my very favorite artwork we create, and generally what excites my clients the most, is the artwork of an authentic moment. Running children, laughing parents, movement. This style is raw, modern, and evokes the most emotion. It is my absolute favorite.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn selling cheap. When I first got started, I always rolled my eyes when people told me about the high end photographers. I couldn’t believe they charged so much. So I aways told people how affordable I was and that they could take all the images and print as much as they wanted! Sounds great right? Well, I still had unhappy clients because I took so long to edit their sessions. This is the thing, it didn’t take me that long to edit one session. What took a long time was having so many clients because I was cheap, I easily got backed up. So yeah being “affordable” sounded great. But it isn’t sustainable. I was getting burnt out fast. Good photography is worth every penny, as is archival artwork. So now, I don’t brag about being cheap. I value myself, and the art we create together. I’m not the cheapest anymore, but I am serving my clients very well.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I’m currently trying to put together core values for my business. But I’d say number one is authenticity. I like to write handwritten notes to my clients when delivering Christmas cards, artwork, etc. I like to send notes in the mail ahead of our first appointment, or for any other reason really. I want them to know that I take time to sit down and write these notes out. They are worth that time to me. I enjoy doing shoutouts on social media if that’s their style. I definitely don’t remember every birthday or anniversary, but I’m trying. Specifically I don’t pretend with my clients, and I think they appreciate that. I want them to know that I am real, intentional, and human. I would say my favorite thing of all is gifting my best clients really amazing products that I don’t sell. Something they don’t expect! There are so many creative things out there that I simply can’t sell because too many products overwhelms the consumer. This offers me the opportunity to be really creative and show my clients how much they mean to me!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://portraitsbyantonette.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/portraitsbyantonette/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/portraitsbyantonette
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonette-jemelka-a54357162/

Image Credits
Portraits by Antonette