I had the pleasure of connecting with Allyson Lawson a few weeks ago, when she reached out for some personal branding portraits for her new business, teaching Barre classes in Downtown Shreveport at The Remington Hotel.
At her complimentary consultation, we connected right away and had a lot of fun as we planned out her photoshoot. The day of, we got a tour of the hotel, and took note of the best places to shoot (this place is timeless & is amazingly beautiful at every turn.) We even got to meet Remi the hotel’s pup!
We had an incredible time together, creating images for her marketing materials & online presence. I can’t wait to see her classes grow; heck, maybe I will even #meetyouatthebarre!
I asked her for an interview about her business, and here is what she said:
| Q: What do you do? What is your business? | I am a certified barre and pre natal barre instructor |
| Q: Where can people find you/your work? (i.e. website, fb page, etc) | I teach barre at the YMCA and The Remington Suites Hotel & Spa. I have a fb page for The Remington schedule – Barre Class at The Remington Hotel & Suites |
| Why was having professional portraits created, important to you? | I felt that it was important to have professional portraits taken of me to help promote my business. Barre is a form of exercise that is trending right now and there are several places in town that provide that service. I have to self promote my barre class for clients to come to me! I have to use different forms of advertising such as flyers, facebook, etc to “get the word out”! I think that it helps to put a personal touch to the advertisements when you can put a name with a face. They can see me and hopefully feel drawn in to finding out more about my classes! |
| Q: How did you get started in your field of work? | I have always been interested in working out, staying fit and trying to live a healthy lifestyle. I have taken all the different workout classes, yoga, pilates, jazzercise, etc and I like them all. It wasn’t until I took my first barre class that I truly fell in love!! I took ballet for many, many years growing up and I absolutely loved it! But as I grew up I felt a little silly still wanting to take ballet classes. The barre class was the next best thing for me. I could get my workout and go back to my love of ballet. I love creating a new class set every week but most of all helping other people workout in a fun and challenging way!! |
| Q: What is your key to success? How do YOU define success? | For me personally, success in my business is seeing clients come back to my class week after week! Success is also the positive feedback I get after my classes and I can see the smiles on their faces! |
| Q: What do you find is the most challenging about your work? | The most challenging part about my work is to make sure everyone is doing the exercise in the proper form. I don’t want anyone to get hurt on my watch! I have all differnt ages, skill levels and some pregnant women in my classes so I have to evaluate each person in the class and make mental notes as to what I think they can handle and make modifications accordingly. |
| Q: Tell us about the people you have met with your career? | I get to meet and work with all different kinds of people in my line of work. I have a wide range of ages starting from kids in high school and all the way up. I have people with ballet backgrounds and then some that have never stepped foot in a ballet studio. Regardless of all our differences, we are all in class for the same reason and that is to better ourselves. That’s why I love what I do! |
| Q: What advice would you give to other business professionals? | I don’t know that I have the best advice but I can give what I know! I would say to be an honest business person and to fully commit yourself into your career. I am humbled at the end of the day to know that I gave it my all and that I have no regrets. |
| Q: Where do you want to be in 1, 5, 10 years? | Where would I want to be… I would love to still be teaching barre! I have also completed my certification in pre natal barre and currently working on aqua barre, so in the next couple of years I would love to be teaching those classes as well! |
| Anything else you would like to say? | This has truly been a journey throughout my whole life to get to where I am today. I have come full circle from taking ballet at the age of 4 to now teaching it at 40. I would not in a million years have thought that I would be teaching barre but it’s funny how life has a way of working things out when you least expect it! |
To inquire with Heather about your own portrait session, please use the contact button above, for more information.
Heather McKinney of HM Photography & Boutique is a NW Louisiana based Portrait Photographer specializing in fresh & modern portrait photography.
See more of Heather’s portfolio HERE. Follow her on Instagram HERE.
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