If you’re hustling so hard that your soul has taken a backseat, you’re going to want to hear this. Today I’m talking with Juliana Tomlinson, a wedding photographer, speaker, and business coach, who had one of the most successful years of her life professionally, yet the hardest emotionally.
She booked her dream weddings, launched big programs, but also hit burnout so severe she didn’t even recognize the warning signs. We talk about how comparison, over‑commitment, and never saying “no” can lead to running on fumes, and what it really looks like to redefine success from the inside out.
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Redefining Success: What We Don’t Talk About
We often think of success in terms of numbers—bookings, revenue, prestige—ut what if those metrics are strangers to your soul? Today’s guest, Juliana Tomlinson, walked through one of her biggest years yet, only to discover that external success meant nothing if she was losing herself in the process.
The Warning Signs Were There
Juliana shared how the early warning signs of burnout went unnoticed because they were so embedded in her normal. She was always the one connecting people, saying yes, pushing forward, but that constant go-go-go meant she didn’t notice how the things that once brought her joy now made her feel suffocated. She described feeling a tightness in her throat, snapping at her miracle baby, and crying on the way to a destination wedding. The disconnect was real: the more she achieved, the less connected she felt to herself.
What Happened When Hustle Consumed Everything
Her story is painfully familiar to so many creatives: chasing after industry-defined dreams, treating every opportunity as essential, and letting comparison on social media dictate your pace. Juliana realized she wasn’t creating anymore. She was managing, executing, and delivering. Her art became output. Her body, her mind, her joy? Exhausted.
The Systems That Broke & What Needed Rebuilding
- Creativity starved: Her creative side took a backseat to the business machine.
- Overcommitting: She took every opportunity, not realizing she was building a business that didn’t fit her life.
- Lack of rest: Even downtime came with guilt. Rest was never enough.
- Delegation fail: She brought on help but micromanaged it, leading to more stress.
The Turning Point
The change began when she finally acknowledged she couldn’t do it alone. She hired Abby Martinez as her OBM, a move she describes as hiring her CEO. With Abby helping steer the ship, Juliana finally had space to heal, reflect, and rebuild. She also restructured her business around her real capacity, discovering that six to nine weddings a year is her sweet spot. And she recommitted to moving her body, nourishing her creativity, and letting her personal values dictate her business decisions.
What Success Looks Like Now
Success is no longer about the next booking or the biggest wedding. It’s about being present with her son. Protecting weekends for family. Choosing rest without guilt. Saying no without fear. It’s still ambitious, but it’s rooted.
She flipped the script: instead of building her life around her business, she’s building her business around the life she actually wants.
Connect with Juliana:
Website: julianatomlinsonphotography.com
Program: julianatomlinsonphotography.com/elevate
Instagram: @julianatomlinsonphotography
Instagram: @julianatomlinsoneducation
Review the Transcript:
Julie: Welcome back to the System for Everything podcast. Today’s system tip. Schedule your meltdowns like meetings, preferably with a snack and a supportive group text on standby. Today’s guest is Juliana Tomlinson, an award-winning and published wedding photographer, speaker, and business coach who helps photographers elevate their work, raise their prices, and attract high-end clients.
She is known for creating timeless and natural images for bride. To value, elegance and emotion, and for blending strategy with psychology and neuroscience to transform both posing and business growth. Thank you so much for being here, Juliana.
Juliana: Oh my gosh. Julie, thank you for inviting me. I am so excited to be a guest of your brand new
Julie: podcast.
I’m so excited you’re here. I met Juliana through Laylee Emadi’s Creative, uh, educator conference, and she did a lightning talk and. I was so captivated instantly I was like, why is this not an hour of my time? It was only five minutes, and I was like, I have to talk to this girl more. So we are gonna go ahead first and do the system reboot A quick reset to start our episode with some humor and humanity.
What is a hobby or ritual that actually refills your tank?
Juliana: Oh my gosh. Are you ready for to laugh? Karaoke. Karaoke. That is my joke. Okay.
Julie: My husband and I both love karaoke and our wedding after party, we had karaoke at our wedding. Oh, really? Yeah. People. Oh, I love that. Were so into it. We couldn’t believe how into it.
People were.
Juliana: We love karaoke so much. My mom actually created the, the cake tops in Brazil for us. So it was a kind of like a little miniature of my husband and myself singing. So that’s that. That was our cake top for our wedding. That’s how much we love karaoke. I love that.
Julie: Okay. What is the most ridiculous thing on your calendar right now?
That’s
Juliana: funny. Most ridiculous thing. Oh my gosh. I actually don’t know. That’s okay. Maybe I should actually, you know what? Let’s make that happen. I need to add something ridiculous to my ca calendar right now. Someone
Julie: invite her to something ridiculous immediately. Please,
Juliana: please, especially for this dress up.
Involved. I love it. Like a party, like a clown party that you have to dress up. I actually love these
Julie: type of things. I am really hoping someone invites you to a clown party.
Juliana: Can you imagine if you like, as a clown,
Julie: what is your, if all else fails, snack or drink, that is your go-to during busy season.
Juliana: Coke Zero for sure.
But with Lime, even my second shooters on wedding days, they know like when my energy level is going down, especially during the reception, they come like he’s a Diet Coke or a Coke Zero with lime. So yeah, that’s my go-to. And first snacks, well, can I say pizza? Because pizza technically is not a snack, but if the world is ending.
Julie: I would grab a
Juliana: pizza, a slice of pizza. It’s if, if you’re eating
Julie: it in between meals, then technically it’s a snack, even if you’re eating a meal amount.
Juliana: Right. Pizza for me is kind of like breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, like I am. Oh, I. Fascinated by pizza, like I love pizza.
Julie: All right everyone, you have met the personality.
Now meet the powerhouse. Here is my conversation with Juliana on the system for surviving success. Okay, Juliana, tell me about that crash point. Tell me about that season of your life. What made it so successful and so unsustainable?
Juliana: Yeah, so when you met me, uh, at that stage, I was speaking about the burnout that I experienced back in 2023.
Anyways, actually. My most successful year, so the year that I brought the biggest money into my bank account, I booked the best weddings of my career, was also the year that I crashed. So that season was a season of hustle, let’s say that way, but it was also was season of me, kind of like going after dreams, thinking that those were mine.
Mm, but those are not my dreams. I was chasing some, um, kinda like fairy lights, let’s say that way, kind of like whatever the industry was telling me was necessary to do, to grow. I was like, okay, that’s my dream ’cause I wanna become that. But I never stopped and actually asked me my, and asked myself why I wanted do those things and do you really want those things?
Or you are just doing that because. You want to, I don’t know, shine for other people, but was also the season that I photographed The most beautiful weddings I served amazing clients was the season that I was building my forever home teaching my, uh, elevate group. It was the year that I launched my Elevate Group.
It was an, an exciting season that ended with becoming a very scary one that led me to redefine what success was for me, uh, and redefine a balance. I don’t believe in business and life balance completely. Mm-hmm. But. I believe in redefining what is success and prioritizing things now. So yeah, that was, that was what that season was for me.
Julie: Were there any warning signs that you just completely ignored or, I mean, maybe didn’t even recognize at the time as signs?
Juliana: I love this question because. Recognizing signs. It’s something so important to me these days, but back then I didn’t even know what was happening. Maybe because I was leaving already.
Like I have always been that way, like so bubbly and serving people and going after, you know, trying, oh, Julie, you don’t know Carla, let me introduce the two of you. And then looking to my schedule, like how can I make this happen? And ignoring everything has always been my life that way. So I don’t think I was.
Ready to recognize signs yet because I have always been on the go, go, go, go, go, go, go. So looking back into my life I has, I’ve always been trying to please people and being there with them. So now looking back, there were signs that I didn’t know were signs, but the, the most. Like the ones that jumped out the most was kind of like these feeling that there was something in my throat that I couldn’t breathe.
Mm. You know, that push and, yeah, pull and push feeling. I don’t know how to explain exactly, but it was something different before I used to be so proud to say, like on interviews and things like that, like, I am so good in multitask, eh. Like your brain was not creating to multitask, so what are you doing?
Huh? But for me, it was like an amazing skill. Like, oh, let me tell you, I am amazing. I’m multitasking. But I never felt that way before that when I was multitasking that I was kind of like being suffocated. I was before I was just doing, so I think this was one of the huge signs, like when my poor baby was trying to talk to me.
He was so little. He was four at the time, uh, five actually at the time. And I was like becoming this very impatient mom. And if you don’t know my story, he was my miracle baby. So I dreamed and prayed for him for over six years. So when, when I got pregnant, he became like my, everything, my priority. And I would, I used to drop everything if he was just asking me to read a page of a book, but then I was like pushing him away and, and I’m like.
What’s going on? Like you always wanted this, like to stay at home, to stay with him, and now you don’t have patience for anything. Um, another sign, it was me traveling to friends to photograph a wedding, one of the past weddings of my career, and I went from my house. To Newark Airport crying the whole time, like the whole drive.
Oh. Like two and a half hours drive, uh, driving and crying. And I’m like, why am I crying so much? I’m going to France to do something amazing, and I’m here crying hysterically. Like I don’t wanna go. And I’m like, I love France. I love weddings. Yeah, those were signs that. I wish I didn’t ignore, but I also didn’t understand.
I thought it was like, maybe I’m PMSing or something. Like that’s the reason why I am crying. Yeah. I don’t know. Yeah. You were making excuses for it. Always making excuses.
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The wheels were were coming off, but from the outside it still all looked amazing. Yes. So I wanna talk about that disconnect and that pressure to stay in the fast lane. I mean, even when you were running on. Fumes, you know, kind of that, that hidden pressure of, you know, hashtag booked and blessed. Exactly, exactly.
I mean, did you, did you, did you feel pressure to keep saying yes, and if you did, what, where was that coming from? Was it from clients, was it from social media? Was it from yourself or all of them?
Juliana: I think it was mostly, I, I can only blame it myself. But social media was a huge part of it. Uh, 2024 is a year that if you go back and kind of like analyze my Instagram, you’re gonna see like almost no posts.
That was the year that I was healing and I didn’t want to go there because in fact, when I had one of my anxiety panic attacks, it was. Because of a social media post there. It’s ridiculous because it was one of my friends that I admire so much. I love everything she puts out and she posted something amazing and I start, I broke down, but maybe because it was a droplet, you know, like a time little droplet that kind of like made my cup overflow.
But because I was comparing myself to others all the time. And it goes back to me trying so hard to fit into a dream that I don’t even know if it was mine to start with. So when somebody told me, one of the mentors I hired told me that, oh, you needed to do A, B, and C to be a successful photographer or otherwise nobody’s gonna hire you.
I took that as truth and. I was working so, so, so, so hard, and putting that pressure on myself, saying yes to every single quote unquote opportunities that I thought it would, it was going to lead me somewhere, but it wasn’t leading me anywhere other than burnout. So when I saw other people reaching those dreams.
And I was like, there’s something wrong with me. And that’s when the disconnection came because I was like, why am I not getting this? And so and so is getting it. So the comparison became unbearable and that’s when I broke. And then I. Yeah, last year I had to rediscover who I am or rediscover my own plans.
Rediscover a successes for me and learn how to, it’s hard to say this because I don’t, I don’t believe, I don’t subscribe to this, uh, idea that you’re never gonna compare yourself, um, and that you are never going to. To be kind of like wanting what somebody else wants or have because we are humans. And one of the things that I discovered is that embracing your humanity is one of the most beautiful things and one of these steps to get out of this funk.
So by me now saying it’s okay to feel this, but it’s not okay to be there, to stay there. So what are the next steps to get out of that? That place of jealousy and comparison and feeling less than, so that’s, that’s what is different for me right now. But those were the pressures like comparing myself trying to go after a dream that I don’t even know if it was mine to start with.
Julie: I think. I think that is, that so many of us can relate to that hustle for worthiness, trap. And really working to untangle our worth from our workload. Yeah. Um, but even the, the, the best intentions and the biggest dreams, I mean, they need real support. So, I wanna shift for a second into the system side of things.
Were there any systems or habits that, that just broke down under the weight of that season? I mean, was it a logistics issue? Did you just have too many shoots on your plate? Was it deeper in that you. Didn’t have a lack, you had a lack of recovery time or you were emotionally exhausted? Were, were any of those like systems related?
Juliana: I think it was both. Like I was emotionally exhausted. Mm-hmm. Because as, especially as creatives, one of the things that I learned is that creatives needed to create and Yes. ’cause I. So into growing my business that I didn’t reserve that time to be a creative. I was on the business mode like go, go, go to grow pricing strategy business, and I forgot to be creative, so, okay.
That was one of the things, but I, I didn’t allow myself to rest to the point that if I was resting in my mind I was like, but I have so many things to do. Oh my God, I have that email list that I haven’t, you know, warmed up in a long time and I wanna launch this, but if I wanna launch this, I have to do that.
So that was a const, constant pressure inside of my head as well that did not help. Um, yeah. And another thing that I. Was not very good at was to delegate. I was, I hired people, I brought some people on board and because everything in the beginning takes time, right? To train somebody to, of course, you know, tell people, especially when you’re creative, you have like, oh, I don’t like this pink, I like the pink with an undertone of blah, blah, blah.
It’s like such a small nuance. So it takes time. But because in my head I was in that hustle, like, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. I kind of like did not work well with the people that I. Brought into my team. So I was not a good leader and I was not letting it go in order to grow. So that was one of my biggest mistakes because I knew that I, to grow, I needed to bring somebody on, on board.
But when I did, I didn’t trust them enough to let go of control. So I was trying to control and micromanage. Everything,
Julie: which just added even more work to your plate. This is why we say, don’t hire when your business is already on fire.
Juliana: Exactly. Exactly. You got it. You nailed it. Yeah.
Julie: Okay. So once those cracks really show it, it can be hard to unsee them.
So the big question becomes, what do we do differently next time? So. Tell me about how you rebuilt from there. What changes have you made logistically, mentally, emotionally?
Juliana: So this is a, a great question because as I was talking about the systems before, there are a few things cracked because I had systems in place, my business survived because I did not want to work.
I had to read an email like four or five, six times to kind of like. Just sit down and, uh, reply to something. Mm-hmm. So if I did not have systems in places from the beginning of my, my business, I don’t know if my business would’ve. Survived because I was kind of like an autopilot doing literally the minimum of the minimum of the minimum.
So I ended up booking six weddings, which was a blessing because I’ve kinda like found out that that’s my magic number. I want to stay between, you know, like six and nine maybe. Mm-hmm. And I only learned that lesson during the hardest year of my life. But those weddings, I didn’t. Put any effort to be able to, because I had those systems in place, so what I learned was, one, I need to hire somebody, so I just, right.
Exactly. There’s no way for me to do it. It all went, do it by, by myself. Yeah. So another beautiful surprise that came out of the conference that I met you was Abby. So Abby’s now my OBM and I I love
Julie: Abby. I love her. She’s, she is talking about Abby Martinez of Well-Balanced Business, and she is gonna be a guest later this year.
Guys.
Juliana: Yay. I love Abby. I had a meeting with her this weekend. I was like, Abby, it feels so good to have a CEO. And that’s what what I needed, and that’s how I feel she is for me. She’s not only my online business manager, not only my va, she’s my CEO. I was like, I needed somebody to help me with that lens. I need somebody to help me, to pressure me to get things done, but to hold my hand so I don’t crack.
So she was one of the. Biggest, biggest shifts that I did. I relaunched my program. I didn’t feel, I, I mean, we always gonna feel a little pressure because there’s a lot of work, but I did a tie, guys, I survived. Look at my smile. I’m alive again, and I have to attribute that to have somebody on my corner. Um, so Abby was one of the best things.
Another thing is gym, gym time. Uh, do I love it? Okay. I like it. I don’t love it, but
Julie: I love the honesty. But I need it. I hate it, but I hate it. You do it Well, I, I, I learn
Juliana: how my job,
Julie: I do hate it anymore. I do walking videos in my living room ’cause I’m, um, an 80-year-old woman.
Juliana: But that’s it. So when you, when we talk about Jim, we think about like this crazy.
Things like you have to lift so heavy and become like a, you know, dual or do nothing. Kind of like person, A gym rat. Yeah. You don’t have to, no. Moving my body was. Literally like what it took me from point A to point B, like this week was a very hard week for me because of the amount of work that I have had on my plate because I had a, a shoot with my students.
So there was a lot of work. So I ended up not going to the gym with the same schedule that I had before. And my body’s feeling it. Like today, I had to text my husband like, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. Uh, I know it’s because I haven’t moved my body away. Eat, uh, uh, healthy foods. I just need a little grace.
So those are the little things that I learned how to identify. Like today, I need a break. I need to maybe go get my nails done or sing some karaoke on my basement, you know? Yes. Because I had a, a heart week and before. I wouldn’t identify this as a sign that Juliana breathe, you know, like take a little break.
I would just keep going because I have people waiting on me, but I am not a neurosurgeon. People are not waiting on me to survive. You know? I don’t work in the er. Yes. So those are the things that I was like, I need to embrace my humanity and kind of like. It is what it is. People get tired and Im tired.
And, and
Julie: even when you say that, ’cause that is also the example that I always use, is like, I’m not a neurosurgeon. No one’s going to die, but like, you know, whose personal number I don’t have. Anyone who’s ever given me surgery, like true, you know, like they also have lives enough to get out of the, or. The lady that removed my gallbladder, Dr.
Jill, amazing, would not know how to contact her besides her office. ’cause I shouldn’t know that. And if you contact her on a Sunday, they’re not gonna answer. No. They’ll say, go to the ER or she’ll call you back. Yes. It’s a hard lesson if yes, but I love how much. No, we have to, clarity can come. After that chaos.
Yes. Okay. So before we wrap, I want to pull back a little zoom out and because your, your story holds a message that a lot of people need to hear. So if you could go back to a moment before that crazy season started, what would you do differently?
Juliana: If I could say one thing only is to reconnect with my why and as a business owner, we.
Almost a hundred percent of the time think that our why for doing our business is business related. And I encourage you to flip the script. Don’t create your goals based on your business, but on your private and pr, uh, in your private life, on your own family, your own dreams, and then you make your business work for that.
So I would’ve flipped that script. A long, long time ago, instead of going after the next big booking, the next big wedding, the next six digits, or you know, like seven. Because once you, I don’t know, there’s something about the 100,000 that everybody says like, oh my God, you have to do it. And once you get there, you’re like 200, 300, 500.
What is next? What is next? What is next? It’s always
Julie: gonna
Juliana: become a what’s next? Oh yes. And then that becomes your goal, and that becomes kind of like your identity. But what if your shift and you’re like, this is my schedule for the year. I am not going to book a wedding on the weekend that we are gonna celebrate my son’s seventh birthday.
That weekend is his. Yes. What if we don’t book the biggest wedding that comes in your life? Because you know what? I’m gonna surprise my mom in Brazil. What if, you know, you just shift everything to be home and, you know, sit down and color with chalk with your son on your, you know, on your street. Simple things that at the end, uh, is gonna create a bigger impact.
I know this may sound cliche and it’s so hard. I still, and this is one thing that is not like a, you do once and it’s done, it’s something that you have to revisit because yes, the temptations are gonna keep coming. Yes, yes, yes. Like last week I was so upset because I’m like, I really want to shoot something as beautiful as this.
And I’m like to be at that. Position this person had to give away entire week at home to travel to be there. I was like, do you really wanna do that in the busy season of summer with your son at home? And then I was like, okay, I do want that, but how can I get something beautiful is still making sure that my priority, it’s saved, you know?
So.
Julie: I love that and I think that anyone who is in that hustle spiral right now needs to rewind and listen to that back a few times. All right. Now tell me where we can find you online. Tell me about your latest offerings. I want you to take the time and promote and brag. ’cause we do that around here. We see.
Say our own names and we’re proud of it. Um, I know you especially have a signature program, elevate, and you, you coach creative business owners one-on-one, is that right?
Juliana: That’s correct. So Elevate is my signature program for wedding photographers. So it’s a six week program that I go through the entire season, the entire business with them.
So from. Encourage a delivery. So I kind of like flipped the script and I created this program from the client perspective. So it was kind of like, Ooh,
Julie: that’s good.
Juliana: Yeah, so kind of like, what do you need to do as a business to serve this client from the moment they inquire into the moment they deliver. So I walk with them through giving them.
Posing suggestions and way to elevate their work with psychology triggers and ways to connect, uh, like to connect with your viewer before they even talk to you because we are photographers, we don’t have to. We, we don’t talk, we we, it’s not like a video that I can be there connecting with somebody, but how can you make your photos connect with your viewers so you can book those clients?
They are your dream clients to take you to the next level. And then you’re going into marketing business, uh, branding the whole thing and how to deliver next. Experience for your clients so you can actually live the life of your dreams, you know your purpose. So this is all my signature program inside of Elevate.
Then I do coach Businesses 1 0 1. So that’s a separate offer, and you can find me at Juliana Tomlinson Photography and at Juliana Tomlinson Education on Instagram. And my website is Juliana Tomlinson photography.com.
Julie: Oh, thank you so much for coming on, Juliana. Okay, we have covered capacity, crash points and recalibrating success.
So now we’re gonna pivot into something totally unrelated and emotionally unhinged in the best way, uh, for today’s system’s shutdown. I wanna talk about a book I just finished, which is The Family Experiment by John Mars. I gave it a solid four and a half out of. Five, uh, this books takes place as most of his do in a dystopian future, um, which I’m normally not like a sci-fi gal, but his books just really do it for me.
Um, it is a 24 hours a day reality TV show that follows 10 couples as they raise a virtual child from birth to age 18. But in a condensed nine month time period, the prize. The right to keep their virtual child or risk it all for the chance of a real baby. I love hated this, like I devoured it, but I occasionally wanted to throw the book across the room.
It was so intense, especially reading it as a new mom. Um, there were moments where I physically could not look away, and there were others where I had to pause. Take a deep breath and just tell myself like, this is fiction. This is fiction. So if you are in the mood for something fast-paced, morally messy, and guaranteed to raise your blood pressure, this one is absolutely worth the emotional damage.
I gave it four outta five stars. Uh, if this episode hit a nerve or a stress fracture, come find me on Instagram at Dallas Girl Friday and let me know your biggest takeaway. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share with a friend who is one inquiry away from overload. See you next time on the system for everything.
