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

Yennifer , appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later?

This is a double edge sword response.

I never wanted to be a photographer. I always said that what was the point of me taking pictures if people will just store it somewhere in an album in a moldy attic or worse, end up in frames in a near by GoodWill. (I was purchasing frames and saw a ton of pictures of a kid from a few months to him as a teen)

I went to college for Journalism with a minor in Digital Filmmaking believing that I would be a photojournalist working for National Geographic somewhere in the Sahara Desert or something. But as I wrapped up my last semester in college, I started to hate my degree. I was just hating it and felt lost. I had wasted time and how would I explain that to my parents. My parents had worked hard and sacrificed a lot for me, and I couldn’t let them down. So, I stuck through it.

Here..I could say that it was the worst decision ever, but honestly it wasn’t.

This field taught me a lot and I became more curious about learning the truth behind things. Digital Filmmaking wasn’t a problem; I love it! I loved the production side of things and taking a journey with each film. College itself was so essential to me. It definitely opened my eyes to the world around me and about myself.

I honestly believe that the journey that led me to opening my business was super essential. I needed the tools of endurance, healthy boundaries, self-worth and healthy relationships to open the business I now have.

Graduated college and had a job as a newborn photographer for a company that worked with hospitals. I worked there for a month, kind of. I never stepped foot in the hospital that whole month. I was just doing paperwork and digital training which I was getting paid for. The company’s contract ended with the hospital and the hospital didn’t want to renew it. So, I was laid off/ fired. That same week I found a job at a daycare.
YUP…I was wiping butts and chasing 2 year olds in a playground. I went in at 6am and came out at 6pm. I cried the first day and felt like a failure. I had a bachelors degree and was working at a daycare.
I told myself I would save money and go just give in to photography. I never did because I wasn’t making enough. I was getting paid $10 the hour and did more than I needed to do. I was also teaching the kids Spanish; I felt that I needed to get paid more, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen so I had to do something.
So I quit.
You would think this is where my business really started but it didn’t.
I went on to be a nanny to 5 kids. I went to someone’s home and took care of her kids and her friend’s kids.
I did that for almost a year going in 4 times a week. On my “off” day I was suppose to be doing photography but I didn’t do it because I was tired. So, photography again took a backseat forced to come along the ride.
Later a friend from church told me that she had some friends that had a company who needed a customer service person. I didn’t think it twice. I was going to do that too! More money is what I thought. I said I would only work for one year and go full time. I worked for a company for 3 years.
I stayed there that long because I allowed boundaries to be trespassed and was gullible. I just didn’t have the experience in business to know that I was working for free. I honestly believed the things that they promised me. I stayed. I blindly believed that it would get better, but it didn’t. Should have I quit before, perhaps. But the desperation of finding something new led me to find a creative job as an assistant first and the producer to a branding company. I was craving for identity and purpose, and that creative job literally fell from the sky.

I transitioned into that creative job from the customer service one and loved it.

I learned so much about creative directing, web design, logs, branding, women in business and so much more. It was great team environment where we all respected each other for who we are and celebrated our differences. I was at an amazing place working from a co-working space that was a whole vibe.
But, yes, that right here comes the blow.
The company was having to do some readjustments, and I was getting laid off.
I cried for days. I felt like it was going good for me that I was finally saving enough money to buy a car and get on in life, and I get this news.

So, as friend said to me, “Sweetie, if you ain’t going to take a sh!t, get off the pot”.
I nervously laughed and said “I’m going full-time photographer.

In the meantime my bank account was with one paycheck, and I didn’t have enough photoshoots for the rest of the year to keep me afloat.

June 2nd, 2022, I became a LLC and started hustling and thanks to God in 2 weeks I had 3 more weddings for that fall and so many more photoshoots.

Some things I do wish I would have just learned earlier. I do sometimes wish I would have just jumped into being a full time photographer and to just do it. But I also when things are hard, I get a thought of “man, having a secured $$ every week is really good though”
But, although that is great and all I also know that I was helping someone else make their dreams come true. I had to get my dreams stop being dreams and become my reality.
So, I took a big jump with no backup plan.

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

My name is Yennifer Lopez and have my own photography business in Arkansas. When it comes to documenting people’s life events either it be big or small, I approach it with all my heart and dedication. Everyone knows to take a picture, but my “superpower” is to tell a story by staying focused and thinking ahead.

When I get to work with someone, they will notice that I’m detail oriented and genuinely want to help out. Not to toot-my-own-horn, but I really work hard to make sure your experience with me is top notch and the images reflect that too. If anyone knows about enneagrams perhaps they will get a picture of me when I say that I’m a 2 and 6.

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

I have a Bachelors of Arts in Print Journalism and a minor in Digital Filmmaking from the University of Central Arkansas (go bears!).

It was NEVER my intention to be a full time photographer until a few years ago when I noticed the freedom I had over my creativity, finance, and time if I continued to pursue it as a career.
I began learning about cameras at the age of 14 and when I was in high school I kept taking pictures for the school yearbook. That was fun! I went to all sorts of events and just enjoyed the little freedom I had while doing so. I wanted to do photojournalism as a degree and searched for schools that offered that, disclaimer, not very many in Arkansas. UCA, University of Central Arkansas, fell on my lap and I decided to do both journalism and filmmaking because was what was the closest. I worked for the university’s yearbook as a photographer and loved the taking pictures part.
With graduation coming in close, I just didn’t know what to do next and was losing interest/hope that journalism would be a good fit for me. To make a living here in Arkansas, I would have to do broadcasting and not print. I felt hopeless and frustrated. I had wasted years and now I was about to be on my own and didn’t know what to do.

Graduated in 2016 and applied to a job as newborn photographer at a local hospital. I wasn’t too excited for it, but I also was needing a job photography related. Needless to say, I only “worked” for that business for a month. I technically only did training that whole month via online watching videos and answering questionnaires and later I got an email from them telling me that they had terminated their contract with the hospital and couldn’t keep me anymore.
I was back to zero.
In the crazies, my friend told me to apply to the place she was working, a daycare. I wasn’t happy with that but bills would be coming my way, and I needed to do something. On my first day after I clocked out, I cried in my car all the way to my apartment, “what a disappointment I am. what am I doing with my life”. To clarify there is not shame in working at a daycare, I was just scared and my expectations weren’t lining up with what I had envisioned in my head my life would be after college. I never thought I was going to be smelling like dirty diapers, have dry glue on my arms and be called all sorts of names like “ms. jenni-per” “ms. gummybear” or “mommy”.

All this time though, I was randomly taking pictures of families, couples and a few weddings, but I didn’t want to do that because that’s not a real career, plus there are hundreds of photographers already! I worked at the daycare for 10 months and quit to then become a nanny where I was getting paid better. I quit that after a year and worked for a company for 3 years as their “multi-hat” person.
That journey of 3 years with that company would lead me to really evaluate what I wanted but I was too scared to take the leap. I wanted security which to me that translated to a consistent paycheck. The idea to not have that terrified me.
It would take the company to stop paying me for almost a month because they didn’t have the money for me to quit. But if it wasn’t clear already, I needed security which by then I had been hired part time at a design company called Silverlake Design Studio as the assistant to the creative director.
I don’t know if you are familiar with Veggie Tales, but they did a movie where they tell the story of Jonah. There is a scene where Jonah realized that he was disobeying what God had called him to do and storms he was facing where just there to remind him to stop and think to turn back to Nineveh.
My talent in photography and helping others was there and I needed to just lean into it. So after working for Silverlake Design Studio for almost a year, I was forced to choose between going full time as a photographer or to give it up and be full time elsewhere.
I chose full time photographer.
Yes, I cried. Yes, I was terrified! I didn’t know how I would pay my upcoming payments with only one paycheck siting in my bank. I didn’t have the next 6 months booked in weddings. I only had 3 more and few sprinkled family sessions for the fall. But I had to trust in me and believe the talent God had given me.
I needed to believe that this was the moment to take the bull by the horns and make it work. I had no choice.

I took the leap. I surrounded myself with empowering women who are hustling. I practiced and practiced with my camera. I forced myself to get up and get dressed and show up for myself. I acted like I was working for someone and did the work. I talked to other photographers in the industry to pick their brains. I had to get the grind on.

Any advice for managing a team?

From working with a branding company before I learned several things that I currently am learning to implement even if it is just a one person team sometimes!

Two things are SWOT and creating company values (even if you haven’t officially became a LLC, C-Corp etc.

What does this mean? Well, you need to sit down with your team members (individually and as a group) at least weekly to discuss your “S” Strengths, “W” weakness, “O” opportunities of improvement and “T” threats that can be avoided or dealt with in that week/future. The first 15mins check in with your team/individual and see how they are doing and then work through everything else. We all have feelings and our batteries run low sometimes.

Having company values is super-duper-mega-important. This is your backbone. Without it, you and your team will be running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yenniferlopez.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yenniferlopezphotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yenniferlopezphoto
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yennifer-lopez-b2494123a/

Image Credits
YENNIFER LOPEZ PHOTOGRAPHY