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August 13, 2025 16 mins

Jonathan Arlia, a Tucson native whose journey redefines how adversity breeds creativity and entrepreneurial success. In this episode, Jonathan reveals how crippling anxiety once dominated his life—and how through the power of affirmations, the law of attraction, and self-reflection, he flipped his challenges into a source of unstoppable drive and vision.

As the founder of Photography by Jonathan Arlia, Jonathan’s path began with humble yoga class shoots and quickly grew to include dynamic model photography and even live TV appearances. His commitment to integrity, kindness, and reliability is reflected not only in his art, but in his deep respect for every client and collaborator. Through persistent learning and embracing each setback as a lesson, Jonathan expanded his skills to include drone photography and immersive 3D virtual tours—ultimately establishing himself as a creative force with a perfect 5-star Google rating.


Connect with Jonathon Arlia
Website: www.photography-ja.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyByJonathanArlia

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-arlia/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photographybyjonathanarlia/

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Hey guys.
Welcome to Heart to Talk thepodcast.
I am the host and creator TeresaCaesar.
My intention for this podcast isto deliver to you wisdom,
inspiration, and consciousness.
Through solo episodes andconversations amongst insightful
people.
It is my greatest honor to bringto you talks that come from the.

(00:37):
Welcome back, my amazinglisteners today.
I'm so excited to introduce youto a truly talented individual
whose creativity and dedicationshine through every project.
Jonathan Alia is the visionarybehind Photography by Jonathan
Alia, born and raised in Tucson.
Jonathan combines a keencreative eye with an analytical

(00:58):
mindset, bringing integrity,kindness, and reliability to
everything he does with apassion for learning through
trial and error.
Jonathan's dedication has earnedhim a hundred percent, five star
rating on Google, and I'm justthrilled to have him here today
to share his story, hisinsights, and the secrets behind
his success.
So friends, let's dive in.

(01:20):
Welcome to the show, Jonathan.
I'm so excited you're here.
Me too.
Absolutely.
let's give some context to thisaudience.
So a few months ago, we bothwere invited to this networking
event at Kathy Bell's house.
And I was invited primarilybecause my good friend Lucy
Howell was celebrating herbirthday.
She was doing like toast andhula hooping as the sunset went

(01:42):
down and.
I had brought a deck ofaffirmation cards for Lucy, the
birthday girl, and then also thehostess, Kathy Bell.
'cause she's always sograciously opening her house.
Mm-hmm.
To everyone and bringingbusiness owners and just
connecting, which that's how Imet you.
Right.
So I love how we met because Iwanna say there was a group of

(02:03):
ladies sitting at the table andthey were opening up my deck and
you're oh, affirmations.
I love affirmations and all ofthat.
So I know we're gonna dive into.
How affirmations have beenpivotal on your journey and
whatnot.
But Jonathan, go ahead andintroduce this audience.
Tell us who you are, what youdo, Well, hello everyone..

(02:25):
I'm the owner of Photography byJonathan.
Earlier.
I established that company in2019, and I've been working ever
since.
Prior to that, I began myprofessional photography and
videography professions.
2012 there was a new.

(02:46):
Yoga class yoga right down thestreet from me.
And I checked it out and then Ikept coming back'cause I really
liked it.
And I became friends with theinstructor, Tim, and at some
point he asked me if I couldtake pictures and then he got a
inexpensive, camcorder so Icould do video.
From there it snowballed to, youknow, working with models and

(03:08):
learning this and practicinglearning that so awesome.
So primarily a lot of your workis with drone photography Yes.
I, I got my first drone in 2021with some grant money, and I
learned how to use it.
I got my license and uh, yeah.
That's amazing.
Well, your work is incredible.

(03:29):
I know that you have some big,like local clients,
organizations that you work withhere locally.
Do you work with people like na,nationwide International?
Is it more like SouthernArizona, Tucson?
It is mostly here in Tucson.
I love that.
And so what inspired you to getinto this work?
Is it something that just foundyou?
Were you always passionate aboutphotography and videography?

(03:54):
I have always been passionateabout photography.
I'm very creative, visualartist.
I remember being a kid, not even10 years old and walking through
Kmart, if you guys remember whatKmart is, but, kind of like
Target, I guess.

(04:14):
But I would walk through theaisles and I would definitely
stop when I got to the procamera section and I just.
You know, Google them.
I Google'em.
Not Google.
Google wasn't around them, butGoogle them.
Yeah.
And, yeah, it's always been apassion.
Oh, I do remember Kmart.
I remember the Thrifty's icecream from there.
And Leway, my, my, my, mygrandmother who passed away in

(04:37):
87, she introduced me to myfavorite ice cream, which was
exactly that thrifties at, atKmart.
And it's still.
Chocolate chip.
Oh, I love So, what is yourmission, with your business or
personal mission?
Well, my mission is always tohelp my clients realize or

(05:02):
photographic visions to bring itto life, to to provide their
photos or pictures or editedvideos or whatever it may be.
And obviously all the time, bareminimum, it's gotta do the job
they, it has to fill their needto what they're expecting.
But I always aim to.

(05:25):
Under promise and over deliver.
Well, I can see that you do justwith some of the work that I got
to see when we'd first met.
But in addition to like yourbusiness and how you serve this
community artistically,creativity with your gifts and
talents, I really would love todive in.
To the backstory, before you'vebeen become this, business

(05:46):
owner, whatnot.
You shared with me about howaffirmations were such a
powerful modality for youbecause you had struggled with
some anxie social anxieties.
Can you go down that path withus?
I would say pretty much fromabout 2000 to 2018.

(06:06):
I struggled with cripplinganxiety.
When you people hear the wordanxiety, they don't always get
how profound it can be.
How horrible.
Like, it's like, oh, just walkit off, shake it off.
And it's really not always thateasy.
It was hard for a really longtime.

(06:26):
I had to deal with it.
It was just a horrible thing.
But the great thing, part of mystory is I did overcome it.
I overcame all of that.
Um, one thing that really helpedhonestly is probably like in 20
14, 20 15, I was just listeningto the radio and I heard, about

(06:49):
the Midwest Center attackingAnxiety program.
Right away I ordered it and Iwent through the whole thing
like three or four times.
One of the things it did talkabout was negative thinking.
When I listened to it initially,I was thinking to myself, oh, I,
I'm a pretty positive person.

(07:10):
I don't, I don't have that manynegative thoughts, but I dug
deep and I really started to seea lot of it and started to
understand that we as humans,um.
We are literally builtgenetically to look for problems
and threats because we're tryingto protect ourselves.
We're trying to keep ourselvessafe and healthy.

(07:33):
But you know, that's a fight orflight response we hear about
all the time.
But you know, typically we'renot getting chased by
saber-tooth tiger.
We're, we're just going to anetworking event and might feel
a little bit anxious.
So affirmations, and of courseyou know this Teresa better than

(07:54):
I do, but affirmations are justtelling yourself, talking to
yourself, not doesn't have to beout loud, but telling yourself.
Kind of taking all the negativethoughts and flipping around
instead of, I'm scared of this,I can handle this, or I'm safe,
or, basically anything you wantin your life, you just tell

(08:16):
yourself, I can have this.
There's nothing really in myway.
I don't have to know the, thehow I know it will come to be.
This is what I know, this iswhat I believe, and it's life
transforming.
I agree.
It's amazing.
And so how cool that you foundthat program like if you had not
started to use affirmations inthis program that you found, do

(08:38):
you think you would've ever cometo this place that you are now
as this business owner?
And because I see you out there,you're social, you travel, you
have all these connections andhaving a good time doing it.
Was part of, it was part of thesolution, affirmations, along
with strong faith, the law ofattraction, what you think about

(09:00):
comes to be.
And I think over a period of afew years maybe what actually
happened was I kind oftransformed the, the, the
physical structure of my mind toadapt to the anxiety.
I I love that you said that, toadapt to it because feelings are

(09:20):
meant to be felt and that'sgood.
We're human.
If we're scared or we haveanxiety, that's okay.
But like you said, I love theword be like it's adapting to
it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That's another thing we can doas humans we're really good at
adapting.
So how often are you practicingthe law of attraction and all of
this?
Is it just something that's nowjust part of how you think and

(09:42):
you know, how you move?
Or do you do little, dailyrituals?
Normally I begin my day, goingthrough a list of 20
affirmations that.
Go to specific different areasin my life, my mind, people
social, social life, Beingmindful, being aware.

(10:03):
I, I've heard it, I've read itmany times.
Most of this begins withawareness.
Awareness of.
Where we are in the presentmoment, what's going on in our
minds, how we're feeling.
Um, I don't know how many timesI've caught myself like almost
bracing for something.
And it's not even anythingthat's actually even coming.

(10:24):
It's just bracing for somethingand maybe not breathing fully
enough.
That's so beautiful.
I wanna pivot now back to yourbusiness.
I'm gonna share in the shownotes, like the links,
everything you've provided, buthow can you know this audience
get in touch and follow yourwork or maybe even get in touch
with your services?

(10:44):
Mm-hmm.
There are a few ways.
Basically give me a call, textme, email me.
Um, my website has a contactpage which outlines any.
Legitimate way of reaching outto me.
I like to actually have a realconversation with people.
We can meet on the phone orzoom.

(11:06):
I do in in person coffeemeetings all the time.
Do you have any tips forphotography, videography,'cause
your services, are they mainlyfor like corporate large
organizations?
What about private individuals?
It has become, these days moreand more about B2B business to

(11:26):
business, although I do workwith individuals.
Tips.
I don't believe a lot of peopleunderstand how in depth and
massive the whole photographyvideography.
Subject is, we have our littlephones.
Everyone has phones.

(11:47):
Even little kids have phonesthese days, and honestly these
days they, they really, theytake amazing pictures, amazing
videos.
But there, there are legitimatereasons why photographers will
enter an event carrying 50pounds of stuff.
We're, we're not doing it to, towork out and get exercise.

(12:08):
Um, there are reasons for allthat stuff that we're bringing.
But even still for those, justgetting into it or trying to
learn more, go ahead and useyour phone.
Use your phone.
Learn composition and lighting.
Practice, practice, practice.
It, it, using your phone is agreat opportunity to practice an
environment which is low stress.

(12:30):
And not costly.
If you, if you go to a job thefirst time and you're not
exactly sure how to do it,you'll probably make a couple
mistakes but, one of the reasonsI'm at the level I am is I've
made mistakes in the past and Ihad to learn from it.
I love those tips.
You're right, when you do go toa professional for those

(12:51):
headshots or to showcase yourbusiness, you do get what you
pay for because you guys are theexperts, right.
In the lighting and like allyour equipment serves it.
So I, I think it's incredible.
And is there anything elsebefore I pivot to those ending
questions, is there anything youfeel called to share with this
audience, either about you oryour business?
It could be anything.
Well definitely check out mywebsite.

(13:13):
I created it over years toanswer a lot of questions, give
good examples.
And I, and I love talking topeople.
I love meeting people.
I am a very social, verypersonal person.
Don't be shy.
Reach out, call me.
That's just where the magic is,whether there's a transaction

(13:33):
that occurs or not, the, justthe transaction of building
connection.
Is just enough.
I feel like whether like I useyou for a business or maybe you
didn't come on the podcast, butjust never know,, you know, that
just like support or influencethat these these connections can
make.
And I think that's one thing Ihave done more of.
'cause I've been in a seasonwhere I've been just kind of was

(13:55):
isolated.
I had like my virtual community.
But since I've been intentionalabout building my.
My tribe and expanding it andgetting out there and just
making those in-personconnections.
I mean, I don't know if you canshare on this, how that has been
significant, on your journey.

(14:16):
Not only as business owner, asan individual, like just making
these friendships andconnections with people, putting
yourself out there.
Absolutely.
We're, we're nothing as a, as abusiness if.
If there's no one else involved,it's just us then.
Mm-hmm.
There are many, many networkingopportunities here in Tucson

(14:36):
every week.
I typically go to maybe one ortwo a week.
And honestly, for any, anyoneout there, entrepreneur or
whatever, and, and you're tryingto grow your business or maybe
just meet people, there aredefinitely resources.
That's such a good tip.
I love that you put yourself outthere.
Well, I'm gonna pivot into thetraditional closing questions of
this podcast.
So Jonathan, I'm gonna ask youthe first question.

(14:58):
What is your favorite book?
This is one that not many peopleare gonna know.
Uh, and it's an oldie.
It is the Last Battle by CSLewis.
That is the last book of theChronicles Narnia.
A lot of people, they kind ofstart with the lion rich in
wardrobe, and they might go in acouple more books and they don't

(15:19):
really, they just kind of forgetabout it.
But they're, they're allwonderful books for my
childhood.
I that's a good recommendation.
Thank you.
And then the second question,what is your favorite
affirmation that keeps youmotivated, inspired?
Right now that's gonna be, I amlearning to focus on love,

(15:43):
peace, prosperity, and serenity,so that I will manifest them
into my life.
Oh my gosh, I love that.
And the third question, what doyou wanna be known for, your
legacy simply?
For being a kind man ofintegrity.

(16:04):
And the last question, Jonathan,what are you most proud of?
That I have a good heart.

Theresa Cesare (16:16):
Thank you so much for tuning into this
episode.
Please download, rate,subscribe, and share this
podcast.
Also, be sure to visit mytheresacesare.com to check out
my inspirational merch, connectto my social accounts, and much
more may you continue to befilled with wisdom, inspiration,
and consciousness.

(16:36):
Otherwise, friends, I will beback in two weeks for another
episode of Heart to.
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