Meet Julie Hopkins

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Julie Hopkins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Julie, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Since I don’t remember everything that happened when I was 0 to 7 years old, a time when they say your subconscious is formed and highly influenced, I will say that the my long career as a ballet dancer and the intense training beforehand germinated my resilience along with loving parents and a dad who didn’t hesitated to teach me everything never discriminating on a gender basis. With this equipment under my belt I always was and remain open and flexible in my interpretation of challenges.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I tell stories for people, pets and professionals with my camera at my studio on S. San Vicente or at a preferred location. I love interacting with people and letting them see their best self through professional photographs, so choosing portrait photography as my specialty was a “no brainer”.

There are two areas of portrait photography that I enjoy the most: The first area is the family realm where families can include their favorite pet in the portrait. I want families to have their portraits, and those of their children, professionally framed and hung on the walls of their home so that the children benefit from seeing themselves with the family on a daily basis in their home. This action is proven to boost the self-esteem of children. The second area is helping professionals with self-promotion via headshots and personal branding. Professionals are often first seen by their public on the web either on a social media page such as LinkedIn or on their website. Consequently, having a collection of professional imagery to use for websites, marketing materials, speaking engagements, social media, books or articles is extremely important for today’s professional.

The photography service that I offer folks is very “white glove” as we have a strategy intake consultation before any session where we get to know each other and discuss how to prepare so that when they walk into their session they know what to expect and what kind of outcome they are planning for their images whether it be portraits for the home or professional imagery for promotion. For family portraits I also offer a scheduled in studio ordering session after their portraits are taken where I show people the images on a large screen and help them select their photographs that are shown on the walls of their home with a special program..

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Focus, discipline and self-care are qualities that have been the most impactful on my journey in life. Ballet has been such a beneficial influence in my life and helped me develop focus and discipline. As can other fields such a the martial arts and competitive sports. Self-care is a given to be able to excel in the ballet. However, as I matured self-care has been something that I utilize to be able to handle the many responsibilities that I have as a business owner. If I am not healthy I cannot be there for my elderly mother, my business or my friends. So, I have adopted a mediterranean focused diet, take yoga classes, enjoy nature with walks and hikes, intentionally keep in touch and socialize in person with friends, listen to interesting podcasts, read and meditate.

So, my advice for people early in their journey is to choose to be a life-long learner. As you improve yourself you can more skillfully help those around you and be present at the times when people need you most. Bettering yourself is not selfish, but just the opposite as being the best person you can be allows you to give back to society and to those who matter most to you..

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I think that the one challenge that I am facing currently is “overthinking'” which then leads to anxiety. Along with my business, I have an elderly mom who I am taking care of from a distance and other personal challenges. I use to ruminate all night long thinking about ways to resolve problems. I knew that this was not helping matters as I became sleep deprived and in the end did not come up with a solution. I now meditate every night as this helps me to remain present and slow down the overthinking. Yoga has also helped me to relax more readily under stress. I am sleeping better now, am not experiencing anxiety and take things as they come and know that I will figure it out.

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Julie Hopkins

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