MAD LOVE MONDAY - Tammy Deren |Smiley Eyes Photography

Written by: Tammy Deren - Smiley Eyes Photography - The Photographer Studio

For me, life is nothing without passion. Each click of the shutter and every photo I take is designed to tease out the passion of my subjects. Sometimes it’s professional headshot of a new lawyer and in their eyes I see a desire to change world. Other times it’s a bride and groom with a serene stillness around them despite the busy wedding day – the stillness that comes from knowing you have found someone that touches your soul. In the same way a sculpture sees the story in a block of wood, I see the emotions behind each photo. I coax them forward and capture them with my lens.

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My name is Tammy Deren. I picked up my first camera when I was six years old, a Kodak Instamatic with 110 film! I took rolls and rolls of photos with that camera and I just never stopped shooting. Four kids, two thriving businesses, and husband later, I’m still clicking away.

I find inspiration everywhere and whether or not my camera is in my hand, I see the world through the eye of a photographer. A rainy day with fat droplets splashing onto a hot sidewalk, a meandering stream running past a campsite, bare feet sinking into flip flops – even the smallest moments inspire me.

Real passion cannot be contained – I decided to go official with my life’s purpose in 2006 and hung out my shingle: Smiley Eyes Photography.

I believe in giving back. Since not every photographer has the opportunity to work from their own fully stocked studio with lights, props and backgrounds, I opened my second business: The Photographer Studio.

This venture rents out three studios, two on the west side and one west central. The studios give aspiring photographers access to everything they need to create and share their beautiful art. The studios can also be rented as creative collaborative spaces for meetings, product launches, parties and events.

Being an entrepreneur is serious business, and ladies, you know with kids, a household and a career, it’s not easy to manage it all. I’ve been so fortunate to have a great support system, a strong work ethic, and wonderful clients that helped me to quickly build up the business. Today, I shoot in my three studio locations, on site at weddings and events, for magazine editorials, and even destination weddings. My work has appeared on the cover of Blush magazine and I’ve grown The Photographer Studio from one location to three fully stocked, bright and beautiful, in-demand studios. It’s hard work, but very rewarding.

Sometimes people ask how I do it – even I wonder some days! Taking photos is a very personal business, especially for families and weddings. My vision isn’t always what the client had in mind. I couldspend time second guessing my work or wondering if my studios are good enough, but the trick is to just keep going. My list of happy clients far outweighs the few complaints. When I do have someone that isn’t happy, I do my best to fix it. I take it all as constructive feedback, try to make it right, and move on.

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My advice for new boss babes is to determine if problematic issues were caused from an inefficiency within your business. If so, fix it so it doesn’t happen again.

My other piece of advice is set business hours and stick to them. It’s so tempting to answer every call and email even if it’s 9 PM, but that work/life balance is absolutely critical. Delegate, let your family help with the chores and household duties, and schedule time away from work. Remember, you can’t be productive or present for your clients, friends and family if you burn out.

When people meet me, they see a happy, upbeat, socially active girl that loves to smile, dance and laugh. That’s truly me, but I didn’t start out this way. Every day I work hard on my personal and professional growth. My life has had many ups and downs and I’ve had to overcome traumas that could have sentme in a much darker direction. I’ve learned that life is truly what you make of it. Sink or swim, walk or fly – that’s a choice I have to make every day. I choose to spread my wings and fly, and uplift as many people as I can along the way.

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Find the Photographer Studio

here

Find Smiley Eyes Photography

here

Interested in being featured? Contact us at yegbossbabes@gmail.com 

MAD LOVE MONDAY - Tara Dragon | Work Evolution

We go Q&A style with Tara Dragon, founder of Work Evolution AKA the place to consult with regarding flexible employment opportunities in Edmonton and area. We are so on board with her vision about flexible work opportunities as the new employee standard. Finally, a consulting firm for employers and employees to benefit from with a unique twist we l-o-v-e.

1. What is your Business all about?

I am the founder of Work Evolution and we are connecting the best employers with professionals seeking flexible employment. I am very passionate about helping professionals find meaningful work that utilizes their skills, education and talents while respecting the boundaries that they need for work-life balance. To do this, we are also changing the way that organizations think about employees and helping break down some of their barriers to accepting and/or hiring a flexible worker.

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2. What inspired you to start your own business?

I recently had a career in IM/IT and was a partner in a boutique consulting firm. I returned to work six months after my son was born and found work and roles that allowed me to balance time at home with time in the office and also gave me enough flexibility to attend my son’s activities and appointments when I wanted.

Looking around at one of my peer groups – professional women with young families – I saw that many were not able to find a balance that worked for them. Some asked their employers for flexible arrangements and were denied, forcing them to make a decision about what to do. Options that they reviewed included returning to the same role and same circumstances, not returning at all, or returning to a different role with more flexibility (sometimes in a different organization). Some of the factors that were frequently under consideration were: cost of child care, ability to spend time with their family, income, opportunity to use their experience/education, and their ability to stay in a job they considered meaningful. At the end of the day, the decisions were very important, extremely personal and often very stressful.

Rather than convert everyone to IM/IT careers (which can be very flexible), I decided to tackle the problem a different way and found that the model was appealing to parents of young families (they don’t want to be away from their kids all day, every day), folks approaching retirement (they often want to ease into transition with a flexible “bridge” job), and millennials (they want to have jobs that support all of their other interests and passions).

3. Do you have a go to quote / motto?

If you do the right things, the right things get done.

4. What’s a personal goal of yours to accomplish? (time frame?)

My personal goal for 2018 is to be more active and involved in the lives of those closest to me. I had a stressful work project in 2017 that reduced the amount of time that I had to connect with people. This year I want and  need to work at strengthening those relationships again now that I have left the consulting world.

5. Why do you love being an entrepreneur?

FLEXIBILITY! (Pun intended!) I love that I can work anywhere and at anytime. (E.g., I can take my son to gymnastics during the day and put in a few hours of work in the evening.) I also love to see the excitement and buzz around something that I am building.

6. What’s your best boss babe moment? (First moment of reassurance).

My best moments since launching Work Evolution have been the emails and notes from people that I don’t even know. I expect my family and besties to love my idea, but it’s extra-special when a stranger does!  For example, I received this on LinkedIn, “…I was just browsing on LinkedIn and somehow stumbled on your article and story about flexible work. Thank you for what you are doing to help others find flexibility in their careers. As an HR Professional, I have seen how this has affected colleagues of mine and understand how flexibility impacts me personally. It makes me sad to see that so many employers are so rigid in their belief that you can only do work within the confines of their offices. Kudos and all the best to you in this venture. I'm a fan…”

7. Work-life Balance: What you do you do to destress? What is your must-have moment of the day (me time)?

I wake up at 4:50am every week day and get in a 60-minute workout before the household wakes up. I also use this time to watch my guilty-pleasure shows: The Bachelor, Nashville, Grey’s and Dr. Phil.

8. What are you looking to learn from other YEGBOSSBABES in the community?

I would love to learn more about how other YEGBOSSBABES are achieving their work-life balance. I would also love to learn more about how I can support them through the services offered by Work Evolution and find any and all opportunities to collaborate.

Interested in being featured? contact us at yegbossbabes@gmail.com

MAD LOVE MONDAY - Laurel Redfern | Redfern Creative

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We go Q&A Style with Laurel Redfern, the owner of Redfern Creative.

1. What is your business? Why that field/service/product?

70% of my business is Graphic Design services, specializing in print.

My clients are generally small to medium sized businesses that don't necessarily require a full time designer on staff, but can recognize and appreciate the importance of branding and professional design. Templates and "online" designers simply don't produce a high quality finished product and it's noticeable.

I absolutely love designing catalogues and brochures but that's not all I design. Advertising (magazines, billboards, digital), logo design, flyers, event branding (posters, invites), signs, menus and stationary are my bread and butter. Really, any form of visual branding is what I do best and I will happily defend the position that print is not dead! Clients and customers still like to have tangible things to remember a conversation by, so why not make it beautiful? A glossy product book featuring your best sellers, a fancy wooden business card to leave behind or a thought inspiring ad in an industry magazine are all sure to impress.

The other 30% of my business is Calligraphy. This has been a passion of mine for years and I sell both original artwork and prints through my website. I currently offer a line of greeting cards as well and hope to expand into some different products in the future. I may even try teaching if I can work up the courage! Calligraphy is my love and keeps me creative, inspired and focused.

Everything I do is driven by my desire to create. I have always been fascinated by the idea of creativity, where it comes from and how to foster it.

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2. What inspired you to start your own business?

I had been working full time as a Graphic Artist for 13 years. Although I loved my job and appreciated the steady income and benefits, I was becoming complacent and getting less satisfaction from the role. It would have been very easy to stay there but the years were flying by and I needed to do something to get my passion back.

3. What is a personal goal of yours?

"I own my business. My business doesn't own me" That quote sums up my goal pretty perfectly. In this first year, I am ready and willing to give this everything I've got to make it succeed. Once I get there, I simply want 8 hours of work to do a day. The freedom to work on something I love inside my little tiny trailer in the mountains is really all I'm going for here. Although this answer might seem underwhelming, it took me a while to accept this idea and I want others to know it's a perfectly fine goal! Goals of global success are ok too ;)

4. What's your best Boss Babe moment? First moment of reassurance?

I had someone request a quote from me on a project I knew I could do an awesome job on. I presented a fair quote based on my applicable experience and was met with "your rate is too high". This isn't the first time this has happened and in the past I would have considered dropping my rate or maybe not even responding. It happened to be the day after the epic Oprah speech though so I just explained my rate. I also noted you could easily find designers that charge far less than me and many that charge more. I spoke to my level of skill with confidence and respectfully left it at that. Guess who called me back and gave me the job? I needed this reminder and maybe some of you do too. Stand your ground, speak confidently and know your worth... then impress the hell out of them because you CAN.

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5. What are you hoping to learn from other Boss Babes in the community?

When I browse Instagram and @yegbossbabes, it's always for inspiration. Before I decided to venture off into my own business, I had no idea this community existed. There is such a massive group of amazing, inspiring and resilient women in the city. In my own experiences, they've always been more than willing to offer advice and suggestions. When I'm feeling crazy for leaving a steady job, just seeing other women doing it makes me think... "hey, maybe I can do this"

Interested in being featured? email us at yegbossbabes@gmail.com