"HoneyBook is the brains behind my business."
"HoneyBook is an amazing system. It has given me a tremendous advantage in the industry as a fast and easy way to book all my events."
"I eliminated paper contracts and now my clients can easily sign online!"
“I was the first person to start floral milk bath photography for maternity. I had never seen anything like that done before and was desperate to create something different than what I shoot all the time. I remember shooting it and saying to my client, “This could be the ugliest shoot ever, I have no idea, but I’m going to try anyway.” I had no idea the photo would be beautiful, and no idea that anyone else in the industry would want to do sessions like this, too. I enjoy seeing other’s work and their take on milk baths. Some of the milk bath photos out there are so jaw-dropping and inspiring, I could learn from them!”
“My latest project is called ‘My Father’s Hands.’ I conceptualized this shoot from the perspective of a son. To these sons, their father is their hero and these fathers carry the responsibility of showing them how to grow into a man. I also wanted to combat the ‘absent black father’ narrative, as there are millions of black dads working hard to be great examples for their sons.”
“I have a passion for providing images to companies looking to be more inclusive in their marketing who previously didn’t have much to choose from. Eye for Ebony is only 11 months old, but it’s been viewed over 20 million times since I posted the first image. Major Fortune 500 companies using my images proved to me there’s a demand for images that capture all shades of life. I’m just thrilled I get to be a part of making that happen.”
“I’ve been privileged enough to have been to so many amazing places and countries in this world, but the most special place I’ve worked is this tiny little room in Glenn Memorial Hall on the Emory University campus. It was in this room where I sat with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, making small talk before he spoke to the bigger crowd. It was also in this room where Assoc. Justice Sotomayor and I talked about the devastation on her home island of Puerto Rico, and where she invited me to ignore all of the ‘rules’ from her office and follow her throughout her speech to photograph as many people with her as possible. Those little moments were pinch-me moments I’ll never forget.”
“Love Not Lost is a nonprofit with a mission to celebrate life, preserve memories, and support people in grief. We provide free portrait sessions to people facing a terminal diagnosis along with a beautiful photo album to allow their loved ones to be supported in grief and share memories with the generations to come. In the 21 months she was here, [my daughter] Skylar taught me how to love in the midst of pain, how to value the present moment, how to be grateful with every breath, and how to be a healthy person who can help others. Being her mom has been the greatest accomplishment of my life. Launching Love Not Lost is an extension of Skylar’s impact on my life, and watching it grow to serve so many people is another accomplishment I am very proud of.”
“From a work perspective, I’m best known for my debut feature documentary, ‘Adele and Everything After’, the story of Marty, a woman with an untreatable heart condition that made her faint every day, and her transformational relationship with Adele, one of the world’s first cardiac alert service dogs. I documented Marty and Adele’s story for more than 2 years, and spent 2017 sharing the film at festivals all across the country, where it played to sold-out audiences and picked up a number of awards. Early in 2018, the movie was released by Gravitas Ventures and it’s available to watch on VOD platforms like iTunes and Amazon, on cable TV and on DVD and Blu-ray.”
“My images have gone viral all around the world with 2 photo series. One was a series with my rescue dog and baby called ‘Zoey and Jasper,’ and the second was a series about dogs before and after their wildly unique haircuts called ‘HAIRY.’ I’ve had photoshoots with celebrities like Chris Pratt and even dog celebrities like Boo. But the thing I’m most proud of is that I have this unusual career at all. I was on track to become a doctor and have my undergrad degree in biology. I’m so thankful to have followed my inner compass and allowed it to lead me to where I am today.”
“At the age of 30, I found myself face-up, on a hospital gurney, staring at the ceiling in an emergency room, as a swarm of concerned doctors and nurses called a stroke code on me. Paralyzed and helpless, it was the single most frightening experience of my life. The 80-hour work weeks and the stress of my corporate job as my agency’s youngest-ever Vice President had caught up with me. After I recovered, I knew I needed a change. When I saw that the women that had done the flowers for my wedding were doing the flowers for a fine art film photography workshop in France, I was inexplicably drawn to it. I had never even held a camera before, but I reached out to the lead photographer and asked if I could join. So, I rented my gear and off to France I went. It’s no exaggeration to say that the week-long retreat was life-changing for me. I came back so rejuvenated and inspired. But, my fate was sealed when I got my film scans back. I was completely blown away by the images I had created. Within 6 months, I left my corner office and the 6-figure salary that went with it behind and started my own business.”
“During the early stages at Cassette, my CEO Angad and I were thinking about strategies to validate our product concept without risking time and development resources. We ended up launching a landing page I designed for the concept on Product Hunt, pre-development. This validated our idea with a 6,000+ person waitlist.”
“The first planner I ever produced was picked up by Chapters Indigo in Canada only 3 months after I launched my company. I achieved that with my insane persistence knowing I had a product they needed to be selling. I was also published in Fast Company the day of my launch because I personally reached out to every journalist in the magazine whose articles I enjoyed reading.”
“I live with clinical depression and ADD. Managing both plays a large role in how I structure my business and my schedule. Over time, I’ve realized that some of my greatest strengths as an entrepreneur come from this aspect of who I am, even as I’ve battled with shame and isolation in it. I also know that a higher percentage of creatives deal with mental illness than in the general population, so I have made it a personal mission to be open about my own experiences because I know that it may help someone else fighting the same battle. Depression thrives in the darkness, so shining a light on it can help to take away some of its power.”
“It’s literally okay to just be yourself. Nobody minds. Actually, it’s great. You’re never gonna be a cool disaffected person and by your late 20s that’s not going to be even remotely desirable to anyone anyway. Be passionate! Also, nobody cares if your work is ‘bad’ – PERFECT ISN’T BETTER!”