Beryl Young, Founder of Be Young Creative
Name: Beryl Young
Founder: Be Young Creative
What's your elevator pitch? (Ie. In one sentence, what do you do?)
At Be Young Creative we show women of all ages and stages of life how to make time for for creativity and use it as a form of simple and accessible self care.
What's your story? Share how you got to where you are and WHY it is you do what you do.
I started my career journey in the early 2000s as an elementary school teacher. A role where I poured my light and my energy into keeping students excited about learning. However, my own light dimmed with the unexpected loss of our first daughter in 2009 when I was 20 weeks pregnant.
It was a camera and creativity that guided me through capturing the darkness of grief and rediscovering my own light. This transformation inspired me to create Illuminate, my first online course, supporting grieving moms in capturing a visual legacy.
From there I created the Momtography brand which grew out of my grief and was my first small business venture. It was born after the birth of my now teenager as I was navigating the challenges of being a new mom, working full-time as an elementary school educator, and dreaming of breaking free from the traditional job scene.
Passionate about photography and writing, I’d head to the local coffee shop while my daughter was napping to turn my popular local Momtography photography class into an online offering. One that would serve a wider audience and help more women like me. Juggling my roles, I found creative energy fueled my productivity and gave me a deeper sense of purpose. After completing and successfully launching my Momtography online photography course into the world, I took the leap, quit my teaching job, and unintentionally became an entrepreneur.
Momtography became a space for women to confidently and meaningfully capture life’s fleeting moments, sparking a stronger identity beyond motherhood. This was when I truly discovered photography can be self-care not only for myself but for other women feeling stuck in their day-to-day lives. I was featured in online publications, blogs, and news outlets to share the power transformative of creativity.
When 2020 brought forward a mental health crisis for our family, I was prompted to step away from my business, and reset. I put the Momtography business aside and ultimately transitioned back to full time work as a webinar producer and marketer for an educational company in the accounting profession.
However, my camera and my creativity remained a constant guiding light through this time. I brought Be Young Creative into the world in 2022 to reignite that spark of creative self-care for both myself and others. Using my SPARK Framework, I’m showing women both personally and professionally how to seek curiosity, prioritize connection, adjust their commitments, and regulate their capacity, in order to kickstart creative confidence.
While both my creative and business life have evolved over the last 13 years, today I bring my passion for photography and writing together with my professional skills in education and marketing. Here at Be Young Creative we’re building a community of like-minded women and professionals who want to make time to use creativity as a simple act of self-care. I do this to show women that when we take time to get curious about ourselves and our lives, the doors of possibility and productivity burst wide open and you can live with more joy, alignment, and live a personal and professional life you truly love.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
Being a FoundHer means living a life that is big, and bold. It means working hard and surprising yourself when you bust through barriers you thought were impossible to break. It means finding strength and resilience. And it means stepping into greater leadership and confidence and helping others do the same.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
I love that the business I've curated gives other female founders and women in business space to play. I've offered workshops and creative retreats that allow women to get out of their daily grind and play. And it's this space that often unlocks ah has and allows time to get out of creative blocks and cultivate steps forward.
What is ONE BOOK that you would recommend every female business owner read?
The Big Leap - Gay Hendricks
Who is a female entrepreneur you look up to and why?
Christine D'Ercole of Peloton. I loved when I found her on the bike, but I've loved watching her work outside of the cycling too. She has shown me that you can be multi passionate and find success truly bring yourself. I had a stage where I was looking for formulas and gurus to skyrocket success and lost myself along the way. Her journey and story and work in self-talk has helped me rediscover my owner inner wisdom and remember that it's ok to be and do more than one thing as long as you are being true to yourself.
What are the first five things that you did when you were starting your business?
*Started a blog / website
*Created content I was passionate about
*Created an offer around those passions
*Connected with local business owners who complimented my own
*Partnered with these businesses for PR and giveaways
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
I went full-time in 2013 after 3 years in business. I had no clue if it was going to "work" but I was miserable in my current full-time gig and I had spent 3 years working with a coach who helped me hone in my offers and make a plan to save money that would be my runway when I decided to take the leap to full-time.
Having that savings made me feel prepared to try and I knew that if I couldn't find success in 3-6 months I could always go back to a job then. (spoiler alert - I found success then and didn't go back to a day job until 7 years later).
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