Meet Hope Robinson

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hope Robinson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Hope, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

My purpose is to make women I meet feel seen… whether in friendship or photography and in whatever season of life they’re in. If I interact with another woman and she leaves me thinking “oh she feels safe”, that feels like such an honor. It’s what I was made for. In comedy or comfort, sorrow or laughter, if I can love someone well, it feels like I’m becoming the kind of woman that I myself needed throughout my life. An encourager.

I have come to realize there are few more precious things in life than seeing someone across a room and knowing your are welcome in their presence. Anytime. No matter who they are talking to. A timid glance at them, a smile and an open-armed response; a hug that draws you into whatever conversation they’re having… like you have an irreplaceable place in someone’s world. Worth. Knowing that someone knows and cares for you, just as you are.

That is my purpose. To seek to see others; to know of them what they choose to share. To be curious about what else there is inside them. Humans are where the hard and the holy so often mix by grand design and I am forever interested in seeing what God is up to in our stories.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I was always the annoying friend with a camera in my early 20s. The one capturing the dinner table, silly antics with friends and causing all the boys to roll their eyes in impatience when my phone camera came out… until they needed photos of them with the girl they were dating. Then they would be the first ones asking me what I had on my camera roll with them on it. I loved preserving those memories.

After becoming a mom, I started photographing professionally. My heart ached to capture beautiful, feminine, romanticized images of mothers with their families and young children. Motherhood was the strongest, most viscerally beautiful thing I’d ever felt for myself and I wanted to capture it for others. I wanted to deliver images that made them gasp and say “you’ve capture a photo of what I feel in my heart!”

I quickly realized my purpose in making people feel seen and my passion for photography meshed beautifully. Motherhood journeys are vulnerable. Many times they are laden with insecurities or physical and mental challenges beyond our control. I am often invited into these seasons of life to capture images that honor the varying struggles or challenges in a poignantly victorious manner. Many of my clients want to see images that remind them of the feminine vulnerability that is sustaining a new life (or multiple lives) with your own. They want to someday look back and see the beauty in the strength of their bodies during a time when they didn’t often FEEL as beautiful as they were.

To make another woman feel seen and understood during such a vulnerable season of life can be a huge gift to them and continues to be such an honor for me.

I continue to build a closet full of stunning, ethereal and feminine gowns for my clients to choose from for their sessions. No matter their style, I try to make sure I have options for every mama. Glitz and glamour or casual jeans annd a sports bra… I’m here for it. The smallest insecurity or desire is considered and held with care as I find a look that gives every mama the vibe she’s dreaming of.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

My business success truly started when I acknowledged that if I wanted a good life balance between home and my successful business, I needed help with customer communications and my workflow. I remember telling my event planner sister that I wanted to create something spectacular in my business but needed more time in my day for that to happen. I simply didn’t have the time or desire to ignore my baby while typing out emails to clients. She smiled knowingly and opened a folder on her computer that said “when Hope is ready”. Wow, talk about feeling seen! My sister knew me well and had been keeping ideas for my business throughout my early motherhood years as she watched other photographers utilize automated workflows. She introduced me to Honeybook, a CRM (client relationship management) platform and I dove right into creating business practices that would work for the life balance I wanted for me and my family. Once my client communications were automated and I had workflows for each of my services, I hit a sweet spot in running my business. I could be mom and wife and business owner while having healthy time boundaries and office hours, even with hundreds of upcoming sessions during my busy fall photography season. The “busy work” of contracts, invoices, payments and other emails was already thought out and organized by me at an earlier date and set up to function for each new client in similar ways.

I quite simply could not run my business in as professional a manner without the magic of Honeybook.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

As I try to find balance in marriage, family life and business, I’ve realized cutting out the things that don’t benefit me in each new season of life is so important. My mom taught me that.

I am the second eldest of six children and my parents are still happily married. Growing up, if life felt too busy or chaotic, my mom “trimmed the fat” on our weekly schedule. Sports got cancelled or extracurriculars got rescheduled until she could handle the basic daily life needs of her family better. Then stuff could be added back in… slowly. If it didn’t benefit us, it hurt us. There is such wisdom in that and I try to do the same. Boundaries are so necessary, as a wife and mother AND a business owner.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hopelouisephotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopelouisephotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hopelouisephotography