Today we’d like to introduce you to Audree Davis.
Hi Audree , thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey into entrepreneurship really started after becoming a mom. I got married young, left college without finishing my degree, and as our family began to grow, my priorities shifted. I remember having a conversation with my husband about what we wanted our future to look like, and I told him that I wanted to find work I genuinely loved, but I also wanted the freedom and flexibility to be present for our family and build our work around the life we wanted to create together.
I wanted to contribute financially and help support the goals we had for our family, but I didn’t want success professionally to mean constantly sacrificing the wife and mom I wanted to be. I knew I had a creative and entrepreneurial side that needed an outlet. I wanted work I was passionate about, that had purpose, was fulfilling, and that I could feel proud of building along my family.
I began by blogging, mostly as a creative outlet and a way to connect with other women in similar seasons of life. I discovered that I really loved storytelling and sharing in a way that felt relatable. From there, I moved into network marketing and online sales, and social media became a huge part of how I learned to connect with people, build relationships, market products, and generate income from home.
As my kids grew, I eventually returned to the workforce and continued building experience in retail, sales, management, and customer service. I’ve always loved working with people, and over the years I became fascinated by what makes someone connect with a business, how trust is built, how presentation influences perceived value, and how the experience you create can turn someone into a loyal customer.
Along the way, I continued teaching myself. I learned social media marketing, photography, content creation, branding, and strategy through research, hands-on experience, trial and error, and a lot of hours spent figuring things out as I went. I’m a completely self-taught photographer and creative. My experience today, more than 15 years across sales, customer experience, entrepreneurship, online marketing, and business has been built cumulatively through all of those different seasons.
I have come to realize that the things I had spent years learning weren’t separate pieces of my story at all. My love for connecting with people, my understanding of customer experience, my creativity, photography, and years of using social media could all come together into something of my own. That blossomed Audree Rose Creative.
Today, I get to work full time in my business helping other businesses through photography, social media marketing, content creation, brand development, and creative strategy. Now I get to help businesses build trust and showcase the quality, care, and excellence behind what they do. In a digital world where connection still matters, I love helping businesses share their authentic story, communicate the value of their product or service, and give people a genuine look at the people and passion behind the brand.
As I write this and reflect on the journey, the full-circle moment for me is realizing that I’m now living the life I described to my husband all those years ago. I get to do work that I genuinely love and am incredibly proud of while having the freedom and flexibility to build it around our family and the life we want together.
I also know I didn’t get here on my own. Building this business has required a lot of faith, sacrifice, hard work, and trusting God through hard seasons when I couldn’t see what was ahead. I’m incredibly thankful for my husband, my family, and the friends who have believed in me, encouraged me, supported the long hours and big ideas, and reminded me to keep going. I’m especially grateful for every client who has trusted me with a piece of something they’ve worked so hard to build. There’s a ripple effect to this work that I don’t ever want to take for granted. Their trust allows me to continue building a dream for my own family, while I get to use something I’m passionate about to help them grow theirs. I get to create for a living, support the people I love, and help other people bring their own visions to life, and that feels incredibly special.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I think one of the biggest turning points came when my kids were both in school and I decided to go back into retail sales. I had spent years working from home and building things on my own, and I thought it might be good for me to get out of the house, have a change of pace, and return to something I had always enjoyed.
What I realized was that the reality of long retail hours, working holidays, and having an evening schedule, was taking me further away from the life my husband and I had worked so hard to create. Being there for my kids’ activities, having the flexibility when someone was sick, and simply being present for the everyday parts of family life became much harder. Instead of feeling like I was moving forward, in many ways it felt like I was going backward. Around that same season, I also began dealing with some unexpected health challenges. That added another layer to everything I was trying to juggle. I needed the ability to create a healthier pace of life, one where I could take care of myself, be present for my family, and still work.
It was a difficult season, but it also brought a lot of clarity. It reminded me why I had started pursuing my own business in the first place. I had never completely stepped away from online sales and the digital space, but I realized it was time to stop treating that part of my life as something on the side and really commit to building something sustainable for the long term. I went back to the goals I had from the beginning, the freedom to be present for my family, the flexibility to care for myself and the people I love, the ability to contribute to our family financially, and the opportunity to build something meaningful that I was genuinely passionate about. Looking back, some of the seasons that felt the most like setbacks were actually the ones that gave me the clearest direction. Sometimes figuring out what doesn’t fit the life you’re trying to build is exactly what gives you the courage to go all in on what does.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Digital marketing is such a broad term, and over the years I’ve discovered where my strengths and passions fit within that world. I’m a very creatively driven person, so while I love the strategy behind marketing, I naturally lean into the visual storytelling side through photography, video, content creation, graphic design, and finding ways to make people genuinely feel something when they experience a business online.
A lot of that comes from my background in retail sales. I spent years working boots-on-the-ground with customers and saw firsthand how much the smallest details can shape someone’s perception of a business. Thing like how they’re greeted, how a space feels, how a product or service is presented, and how cared for they feel throughout the experience. Those things build trust, and I approach digital marketing with that same perspective. I want someone’s experience with a business online to reflect the same quality, care, and excellence they can expect when they experience that business in person.
That’s why I love capturing the human side of businesses. I’m drawn to the behind-the-scenes moments, the hands doing the work, the interactions with customers, the process, the personality, and even the seemingly ordinary details that tell a much bigger story. Through brand photography and video, I create Content Libraries businesses can use across social media, their websites, email marketing, advertising, and other digital platforms. My goal is to create media that doesn’t just show people what a business does, but brings them into the experience and helps them connect with the people behind it.
I also work with businesses on brand development and strategy, helping them gain clarity around who they serve, what they want to be known for, what makes them different, and how their marketing can support their long-term goals. I want my clients to feel confident in how they’re showing up and proud of what they’re putting into the world. I see myself less as someone providing a single service and more as a creative partner who can step into a business, understand the vision behind it, and help communicate that vision in a way that resonates with the right people.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work as a subcontractor and creative partner with other digital marketing and creative agencies, providing photography, video, graphic design, and media for projects where the strategy is already being developed. I really enjoy that side of my work because I believe strategy and creative should go hand in hand. You can have an incredible advertising strategy, website, or social media plan, but you still need strong visuals and storytelling to make those things connect and land the way you want them to.
Small businesses are really at the heart of my work, and I’ve intentionally built my services around the understanding that marketing isn’t one-size-fits-all. Not every business is ready or able to completely outsource its marketing, and I don’t believe that should keep them from having access to professional creative support. For some clients, I manage their social media and become an ongoing extension of their business. For others, I create professional Content Libraries they can take and use themselves. Others may need brand development, photography, design, or simply creative direction. I try to meet businesses where they are and give them the support and tools that make sense for their goals and stage of growth.
I think what sets me apart is that I care just as much about understanding the business behind the content as I do about creating beautiful content for it. I don’t want to create something simply because it looks good or because a trend says we should. I want to understand the people, the customer experience, the vision, and the value behind what I’m representing. Then I can take all of that and translate it creatively into something people can see, feel, relate to, and trust.
That’s also what I’m most proud of. I know firsthand how hard it is to build something of your own and then have to figure out how to communicate its value to everyone else. I had to learn so much of that process on my own, and now I get to take the experience, knowledge, and creative skills I’ve built along the way and extend them to other business owners.
My background in sales taught me that how you present what you do directly impacts how people perceive its value. Strong marketing helps people understand what you offer, see the quality behind it, trust the people providing it, and ultimately feel more confident choosing you. The photography, video, branding, and content I create should support the bigger goals of the business, whether that’s bringing more people through the door, selling a product or service, attracting the right customers, or creating long-term growth.
At the end of the day, I want the businesses I work with to have clarity in what they’re building, confidence in how they’re showing up, and creative work they’re proud to share, but I also want that media to work for them. I want it to communicate their value, strengthen trust with their audience, and help turn connection into customers. Beautiful content is great, but beautiful content with intention and purpose is what can actually help move a business forward.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If there’s anything I’d want to leave with other women, especially those juggling work, family, motherhood, and their own dreams, it’s that I don’t think pursuing something you’re passionate about has to mean sacrificing the life or family you’re building it for.
I also don’t think there’s a path where we somehow avoid sacrifice altogether. There have been late nights, seasons where I’ve had to say no, times when work has needed more of me, and times when my family has needed me to put work down. Like so many women, I’ve had moments where I’ve wondered if I’m doing any of it well enough. I’ve learned that balance isn’t something you find once and keep forever. It changes with the season, and sometimes you have to be willing to adjust what success looks like along the way.
One thing I’ve grown especially thankful for is the example entrepreneurship allows me to give my kids. They get to see firsthand that the life we have and the goals we accomplish as a family don’t just happen, they require hard work, discipline, sacrifice, faith, and a willingness to keep going when something doesn’t come easily. They see me work, they see their dad work, and they also get to see why we do it. I’m really proud to raise our kids in a home where they get an up-close view of what it looks like to work toward something you believe in.
So my encouragement to other women would be to define success by the life you actually want to build. Pursue your passions, but let them serve the bigger picture of what matters to you. Your career or business doesn’t have to look like someone else’s to be successful, and the balance that works for another family may not be the balance that works for yours.
At the end of the day, the work isn’t the whole goal, the life you’re building is. I’m incredibly thankful that I kept searching for a way to make the two work together. It hasn’t always been easy, and I’m still learning what balance looks like in every new season, but I’m proud that I chose to build something that supports our family, contributes to the life we want, gives me something I’m passionate about, and allows my kids to watch their mom pursue something she believes in.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.audreerosecreative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/audreerose.creative
Image Credits
All the images are taken by me except the headshots and images of my gear. Those were taken by Citlali Villegas Sacred Lens Photos.
