On Monday afternoon my sweet friend Kelly and I drove down to Fredericksburg, VA to join 80 other #babybossladies for The Gathering Event with Hope Taylor & Caroline Logan Raush.  They’re both two of my favorite photographers and I was casually fan girling out in the audience, haha!

To say that I was blown away by listening to the two of them speak would be a serious understatement.  Both Caroline & Hope started their businesses at very young ages and the amount that they have accomplished since (in such a relatively short amount of time) is truly amazing.  It was so refreshing to hear them speak directly from their hearts. Nothing that they said was sugar coated — their talks were as real and raw as it could get.  They told us about their journeys as business owners and the glitches that they faced along the way.  I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to have shared the less than ideal moments during their businesses (talk about bravery!), but it certainly helped to put everything back into perspective for me.  It humanized both Hope and Caroline as well as all of the other photographers in the industry that I admire.  I think it’s easy to forget sometimes that all of the trailblazers in our industry are real people.  That sounds so weird to say!  They make mistakes, face challenges, and have the same insecurities from time to time as everyone else does.  There is far more to their story than what we see on their Instagram feeds.

One of my favorite talks during The Gathering Event was about owning up to your mistakes.  Caroline shared some inspiring stories about a couple of mistakes that she had made, and how she chose to respond.  Instead of becoming defensive, putting up walls, or passing the blame onto someone else, she chose to own up and accept responsibility — and doing this benefited her in the long run.  Caroline’s sincere apology and willingness to improve a situation was so much appreciated and it resulted in her booking more clients. How awesome of a lesson is that?!  I love it.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about Hope & Caroline.  They are sweet, talented, inspiring and phenomenal business women.  I’m so thankful for the opportunity to have listened to them speak (yet again!).  I left The Gathering Event with a notebook filled to the brim with information that I can’t wait to incorporate into my business and the happiest heart ever.  Hope & Caroline, I can’t say thank you enough!!!