We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Crysta Tepa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Crysta below.
Crysta, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In order to share about the risk taken I feel like it’s important to give a bit of back story. I grew up in Hawaii as the child of an entrepreneur–my dad did many things as I grew up but for most of my childhood he was a surf board shaper so I watched as he used his creativity to support our family. He was very encouraging of going the non-traditional entrepreneur route & emphasized the time freedom perk of being your own boss. However, when I told him I wanted to be a photographer at 15 he told me, “no you don’t, don’t you want to make money?” luckily for me, the encouragement he had poured into me before that stuck & I thought to myself “just watch, I’m gonna do it.” I left high school at 15 despite having relatively “good grades” & studied on my own to get my GED. Simultaneously I worked to build my photography business. I started with senior portraits & photos of friends but soon fell in love with shooting marketing content for businesses. During the early days I would cold email hundreds of companies per day introducing myself & my photography services. Out of that I’d get one here and there that would agree to send me products to shoot. I built a little client base & remember hitting my big goal of making $1000 in a month soon after. However, after some time passed & constantly hearing that “weddings are where the money’s at” I began emailing local wedding photographers proposing to second shoot. I heard back from one named VIVIDfotos who was willing to interview me & during the meeting they asked if I’d be open to helping them write blog posts as well. Eager to work with them I went home, rewrote a couple of their current blog posts & emailed it to them with a thanks for meeting. They hired me & I worked with them for a few years which was one of the most incredible, invaluable experiences I could have asked for. The owners–a husband & wife duo–became huge mentors to me as business owners teaching me how to successfully run a creative business & pushing me to improve & learn new skill sets. During this time we were hustling with weddings almost every weekend & me working full time. Although, I was & forever will be grateful for this opportunity I was beginning to feel burnt out & had been neglecting my personal business of shooting marketing content for businesses. Toward the end of 2019, I hit an all time low of anxiety attacks & after an *embarassing* public breakdown I ended up getting the wake up call that I didn’t want to feel this way anymore & decided to start taking action to change my life & mental state for the better. I started going to therapy & rewatched the documentary ‘The Secret’ which explains the law of attraction & power of positive thinking & visualization. Soon after, I was sent the book ‘Super Attractor: Methods for Manifesting a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams’ by Gabrielle Bernstein which dug deeper into the mind & spiritual work behind creating a life I’d love. It all started working, beautiful, aligned synchronicities began to happen & I started to focus on things to be grateful for. I started to feel better & began to start thinking of what my dream life may actually look like. I felt like good things kept falling into place & I built my faith & relationship with God. In 2020 when COVID was at an all time high while I had empathy for everyone who was struggling I tried to continue focusing on what I could be grateful for. Good things kept happening in my life. Weddings had to be postponed so I got laid off from my job which I tried not to let get me down. Being in lock down living alone in a studio apartment forced me to slow down & I started meditating & journaling more. I also was being more active than I had been for years earlier with walks around my neighborhood & beginning to surf again. On one of those walks I ended up meeting the love of my life who was at the time my neighbor & who is now my husband (this is another fun story for another time). I focused on being positive as much as I could & a desire to start pursuing my own business of shooting for businesses was rekindled & I began to dream of the ‘what if’ I could support myself full time with my own photography business & get to help other women pursue their dream businesses too? I decided to take the risk to quit my day job & try to build something for myself. Soon after a photography client asked if I designed websites as well & after having designed my own & enjoying the experience I told her “not officially, but I’m confident I could do it for you” I am so blessed she trusted me and word spread organically & I continued to get more website design opportunities. 5 years later I am running my own 6-figure business, helping other women pursue their dreams, & funding my dream life.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I touched base a bit in the last question about how I started. I primarily offer website design, photography, & ‘Why’ Clarity Consulting services with my niche being helping other women in business to pursue their passion & have the freedom that business brings. I help women get clear about what set’s them apart & how they are impacting their dream clients so that they can feel more confident about the difference they make and market their businesses more effectively. I also capture photos of their businesses whether of services being done, their spaces, or models/clients enjoying their product or service. Then I take all of this content and infuse it into a thoughtfully designed website aiming to attract their dream clients. I believe what sets me a part is that I genuinely care about my clients and I help them to see what they have to offer and how to communicate that. Often, I find that clients provide an incredible product or service but they don’t know how to talk about it in such a way that truly helps. I feel incredibly proud & privileged to be able to help women live their dream life by elevating their businesses & helping them to look at their new website & content & feel proud–it’s like a business makeover. I want people to know that they are capable of absolutely anything that they put their mind to as long as they believe in themselves & put in the work. Don’t let not knowing what to do stop you from starting. I love the analogy that if you’re driving on a dark road, your headlights will only show about 20 ft in front of you. That doesn’t mean you can’t drive, you naturally trust that it’s okay to only see the next 20 ft and as you progress more will be revealed to you. Business is much the same. I believe in a higher power, personally I like to say God but many prefer the Universe or Source–who will help us when we pursue what we desire. I believe God puts each of our desires & gifts on our hearts because they are a part of us living our purpose & because we are completely capable of them. God will guide us & offer help in the next steps we need through life & business as long as we start. I believe resources, people, or ideas will blossom once you begin but often times people get too caught up in not knowing all the steps or seeing beyond that 20 ft so they don’t start. You must start to be great and trust that the next steps will be revealed to you if you try your best & be open to guidance. I also believe in the power of visualization & getting clear about your dreams & taking whatever small action you can daily to get closer to that. Everyone can do ANYTHING they want, you just need trust, belief in yourself, & to never give up no matter if it feels difficult because chances are it will. Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s not working. Staying consistent is crucial which is why picking a business that you’re passionate about can be so helpful because in moments when it’s hard you’ll have to persevere through that & doing so is much easier when you love what you’re doing.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My mission is to empower women to pursue their passion & if they have it, their calling to create a business. I believe everyone’s purpose is to help others in some way & often each individuals gifts & passions can accomplish this in a variety of ways. For example for me, I love being creative & capturing images & creating websites to market–this helps people to feel good about their business, attract more clients, & get to have the freedom to live a life where they’re their own boss which in turn will likely make them happy & content, be kinder to others, have more resources to give, & help inspire others to live happier lives & the cycle will follow.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I believe what helped me build my reputation was to work with integrity & stick to my word. As a business owner it can often be hard to stay on top of things without a boss holding you accountable. However, if you want the perks of being your own boss you MUST hold yourself accountable & get things done. It’s always been incredibly important to me to create clear expectations for my clients as far as what they are getting & the deadlines of when they will get it. With this, I always do everything in my power to deliver what was promised, be there when I say I will, deliver on time or earlier than when I promised, & genuinely do my best for each and every client I have. By working in this way & having respect & honor for what my clients are investing in me, they in turn are happy & content with the service which makes them speak highly of me and recommend me. In the creative industry unfortunately sometimes people do not produce or deliver what they had promised & that leads to unsatisfied clients who are hurt by their investment not being respected & who often spread the word about their bad experience. I understand how sometimes through different times inspiration & motivation can feel out of reach but a couple things that have helped me to overcome this is staying off of social media as scrolling & consuming often takes away my creativity & motivation. By staying off my own creativity has the room to grow as it is not consuming other people’s work & can blossom organically. The other thing that helps me immensely is simply praying for inspiration & guidance in my work. I love to ask God to give me the desire to create & finish what needs to be done & to give me the ideas and inspiration in order to bring it to life.
Besides this, instagram has been an incredible tool to build my brand & reputation, however, even as a photographer with a ton of content it was a major struggle for me to curate what to post, create captions, & stay consistent. This is why hiring an instagram manager who curates my content, proposes & creates my reels, & posts regularly for me has been the best investment I have ever made. It was important that she understood the values of my brand & my style, & I still recommend adjustments to get things just right but relieving this from my plate has given me the ability to focus my energy on the other parts of my business & allow it to grow! It also has allowed me a low-pressure space to talk to my audience on instagram without having the pressure of posting consistently while keeping the mission of my brand at the forefront.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://crystaylorcreative.com
- Instagram: @crystaylor.creative
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crystaylor.creative/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@crystaylorphotography3182/videos
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crystaylor-creative-honolulu-2
Image Credits
Personal Photo by @jennyennio elkinimages.com
All other images have been taken by me of my clients: @crystaylor.creative crystaylorcreative.com
Brow trimming client: @brows.by.ash brows-by-ash.com
Interior designer with swatches: @dahliahome.co dahliahome.co
Florist arranging flowers: @pneumafloral.co @pneumafloralco.com
Tattoo artist with tattoo gun: @hlstudio.ink hlstudio.ink
Physical therapist working on client neck: @physiowellnesshi physiowellnesshi.com
Artist painting: @sophianoelart sophianoeldesign.com
Personal trainer with group class: @strongherhawaii strongherhawaii.com