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

Denise, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

My first clients who really kick started a full fledged “full time” operating revenue earning business as a photographer for me were the beautiful high school Juniors and Seniors of 2017 during prom season. We were able to take advantage of the opportunity of the whole concept of the full “prom experience” that parents and the prom kiddos were looking for. The experience looked like and included an experience with bringing prom day pictures to a whole other level of energy and excitement. Our clients were hungry for more than the typical prom couple poses standing next to one another on a staircase looking awkward and timid.

Our one hour sessions ranged from old school cars, traveling flight shoots at a private airport on the runway- set up to look like the couple flew in and landed on an airstrip to an intimate dinner – fully set up table scape, stepping on the runway shoots, massive mansions, vintage horse and buggy shoots, farm shoots for the couples to giving them an opportunity to role play act as characters like Bonnie and Clyde.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Well aside from running my own Photography business- the dream and and goal has always been set up to evolve and grow as a Multimedia and Public Relations professional. And in that; over the years my passion for storytelling and community empowerment has made me a trusted voice across the Southeast. I stepped into the industry overall- first of all from purely natural interest from childhood as a Creative.

As a matter of fact let me just pause here to mention that even as the creator of a podcast recently…called “Truth Speaks” – I’ve been able to use my passion and platform to bring together real people uncovering their truths through thought-provoking, heart-centered conversations designed to foster genuine understanding and build meaningful connections.

Through Truth Speaks, I try to use my platform to uplift voices often overlooked—sharing powerful, authentic stories that reflect faith, resilience, and the human spirit. I do my best to let people know that I can relate and I do this by attempting to create space for truth to be spoken and healing to begin.

Who am I for folks who don’t know me?… Well, I’m a native of Five Points, Alabama, and my career began in journalism, where I’ve served as a Multimedia Journalist and Morning Show Editor for a local ABC affiliate in Columbus, Georgia. and as I said at the beginning of this interview I own a run a small photography, multimedia and public relations team that provides creative strategy and media production services for individuals, organizations, and community initiatives that make a difference.

Aside from all of that I am a proud U.S. Army veteran, wife, mother, author, and motivational speaker.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I am living in my “pivot”now honestly.

What do I mean by that?… I have been going hard for almost 30 years raising my children, taking care of my family, serving in the community, serving my country and building my career both as a full time employee and business owner. now that my children are grown, have degrees and careers of their own. About 2 and a half years ago I began to feel the weight of what I’ve had to do and let’s be honest- “chose to do” to take care of my family… I realized how heavy the load has been (both physically, emotionally and mentally) that I have carried for so long and have recently learned that it is perfectly ok to take a step back to breathe and take a break to access where I want to go from here.

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

Yes my side-hustle definitely became my full time career as it evolved over time. It grew from integrating supplemental earnings into our household to help get us through from year to year to getting contracts- though modestly… replaced a years salary. So at the end of the day- even though I’m far from ever having made millions- when I look back over the span of my career- do I have regrets about the path I chose to take? Absolutely not. I would do it again in a heartbeat… with a few tweaks to some of the choices that I made.