Stephanie McCauley

Stephanie McCauley is the founder of iSmile Studios, a family portrait studio that unwittingly disrupted school and event photography in their market.

After ditching a career in the insurance industry and opening a gift shop, Stephanie and her husband Lewis started a family and fell in love with portraits of their own kids. One day, she decided to close her gift shop and a week later, reopened it as a portrait studio. Knowing NOTHING about the industry, she recruited the best photographers in the area and apprenticed under them for five years as the studio grew.

In 2010, Stephanie approached her high school alma mater and asked them to give her a chance to take school photos. What started as an attempt to further market the studio turned into a completely new division of the company with annual revenue approaching seven figures.

You can frequently find Stephanie teaching webinars for some of iSmile’s partner vendors. She splits her time between upstate New York and Jupiter, Florida with her husband of 23 years, two awesome teenage sons, and three naughty basset hounds.