Meet Jill Liebhaber of Jookie in Lincoln Square

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jill Liebhaber.

Jill, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m an accidental photographer. After graduating Northwestern University in 2000, I fell into working at a kids photography studio in Lincoln Park. After five years of being at that studio, I was ready to move on to something else, like moving to Mexico to teach ESL or going back to school for a masters in art education. BUT THEN… I attended a big photography convention and was completely inspired by a photographer speaking there whose work was colorful, painterly, and artistic. It was less than a half a year later that I got a business loan and signed a lease on a storefront.

My studio was named after my oldest niece Delia’s guinea pig, jookie, and I’ve become known as “jookie Jill”. Twelve years later, according to Inc. com, I’ve become part of the 4% that makes it past 10 years, and I’m working on the next decade.

It’s funny, I’m really only a photographer because I love working with kids. If I didn’t photograph kids, I wouldn’t even be a photographer. Honestly, I think I’m still a painter at heart; photography is simply the medium that I use to create art of kids.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ha. Owning a business is like having a kid. It can be one of your greatest joys and also one of your greatest challenges, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to be passionate about what it is you do. Being a small business owner teaches you things you never knew you were capable of, makes you put its needs before your own, sometimes keeps you up at night, and has you constantly wondering if you’re making the right decisions. You hope that it in the end it will grow up without you goofing up too much.

One big struggle I worked through the first few years was how to get my pricing in place to be a sustainable business model so that I didn’t have to work all the time. I was lucky to be able to get mentoring right away from other knowledgeable, successful, long-time photographers through my professional association, Professional Photographers of America.

Another struggle has been ongoing – finding or making time to be more artistic and to work on my craft while having to take care of all the day-to-day aspects of running a profitable business. It’s not easy balancing being an artist with being a business person. The business side pretty much always has to come first. People are often surprised to learn that I only get to do photography about 25% of the time. The rest is sales, maintaining the studio and equipment, marketing, and administrative work.

Please tell us about jookie.
jookie is an upscale children’s photography studio focused on creating artwork for families’ homes. I specialize in working with kids (I especially love toddlers), but I let their parents take photos with them, too, if they promise to behave.

And dogs! Dogs are just furry kids, basically. I have been joking lately that I will turn jookie into a studio that only photographs families with dogs because they just make everything even more fun.

When kids come to jookie they think it’s my house. It has comfy sofas, fun toys, and lots of books. Plus, at the end of sessions, there is a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies and helium-filled balloons. Sometimes kids are having such a good time that they don’t want to leave.

Over the years, jookie has become known for creating artistic wall art for homes and also for the fun promotions I offer that are usually a fundraiser for important children-related organizations, such as, Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, The Cradle, Saving tiny Hearts Society, and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. For these charitable causes and many others, the studio has raised over $25,000, which makes me really proud.

I don’t want jookie to be just a successful business – I want it to have a meaningful place in my community.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
What would I do differently if I started over? Absolutely nothing. It’s all been part of a journey that could only have happened in a certain order with me knowing only certain things when I did. If I had to start over, I don’t think I would! I’d go through one of the other doors of possibilities to see where they would lead me. My very own Sliding Doors movie. I’d have moved to Mexico and lived a more adventurous life.

Contact Info:

• Address: 4656 N. Rockwell Street, Chicago, IL 60625
• Website: http://www.jookiekids.com
• Phone: 773-463-5665
• Email: jill@jookiekids.com
• Instagram: http://www.Instagram.com/jookiekids
• Facebook: http://www.Faceboook.com/jookiekids
• Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/jookiekids

Image Credit:
jookie, a portrait boutique, inc.

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