showing up with ‘warts and all’ with charlotte hopkins from kinbee
Like most of my clients, Charlotte Hopkins actually HATES having pictures taken or being the face of her business.
And yet her company is changing direction, so she’ll need to start showing her lovely face a lot more.
That’s why she finally decided to travel from Wales to my Exeter studio and get a folder of professional but authentic photos.
Did her camera shyness improve by the end of our shoot? Find out for yourself.
“I found Rosie's work 18 months ago, so I've been nicely stalking her since then. This was going to be my very first photoshoot for professional reasons, and I just KNEW it had to be Rosie.”
introduce yourself and what you do
Hello! I'm Charlotte Hopkins, and I am the co-founder and director of Kinbee, a training and consultancy company.
We create environments and spaces where people can thrive and flourish, and we do that through 1-to-1 coaching and training.
We support learning leaders to create impactful, inspiring, and effective strategies that make a difference and enable them to stand out as the very BEST in their industry.
Typically, we work with clients who are providing support for people who’ve gone through trauma. So, we collaborate with a lot of therapists and really closely with the addiction space, homelessness, housing organisations… We also work with the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales.
We'll be growing that side arm to work with individuals in a more holistic way. While previously it's been mainly about professional development, we’ll now be looking at bringing that personal and professional development together.
Where have you come from today?
I've come from over the river! (Cardiff, Wales)
what were your biggest anxieties leading up to the shoot?
My biggest worry and anxiety is… just presenting myself in a really visible way.
I'm definitely somebody who's hidden behind the brand of our company rather than being all “Charlotte Hopkins, here I am!”
And the new direction we're taking is very much about… “Charlotte Hopkins, here I am!” 😂
So, it's the actual being here. That's probably the biggest leap of faith I've had to take!
how did you prepare for the shoot?
I went to yoga and expected to lose a stone in one class!
In all seriousness, I did the usual kind of grooming: face scrub and that kind of thing. However, I think I just needed to mentally prepare and show up as who I am.
And yes, there may be your snaggle-tooth or a hair growing from the chin, but actually… that's who I am, warts and all!
So I think it was just about showing up, really, more than anything.
how are you feeling about being in front of the camera?
I HATE being on the camera. Does anybody like it? I don't know!
I can say there's a bit of fear and nervousness. There's definitely some anticipation, though. But some worry, too. It all makes me feel pretty vulnerable.
On the flip side of that, though, it actually felt really energizing and exciting.
do you have any upcoming projects you would like to talk about?
We've got this really exciting side arm to the business!
Our training and consultancy company does a lot of corporate work, but one of the things I've realised over the last two years in particular is that I’m a natural cheerleader.
I'm a supporter of people and really good at drawing out their skills, expertise, and what they do… and then bringing in that energy.
So, we're launching this new side arm in January that will be very much about 1-to-1 support to help ambitious people find themselves again.
It's a really exciting project that will allow me to use and showcase my skills to the best of my ability! It’ll also have this massive ripple effect not just on the people I work with, but the future generations, too.
And then, as I mentioned, I've decided to use ‘Charlotte Hopkins’ more because that's where the business has grown.
In all honesty, I don't think our previous website had drawn in a lot of people. Most of the work we’ve done over the last five years has come through word-of-mouth recommendations: talking to me, meeting me, and then realising that, as a business, we connect with people.
We feel that sense of belonging. We feel that relationship.
And I realised that's a massive strength of what I do, the growth of the business, and how we can share that a little bit more as well.
why do you think professional photos are important?
If I'm being entirely honest, up until fairly recently… I wasn't massively sure about why they were!
However, lots of people have asked me why I don’t have professional photos, but I think that was because I've actually been hiding.
Now, I believe what professional photos show is confidence, and they allow that personality to come through.
I think that's really important from a business growth perspective, but also just to unapologetically be who we are, warts and all.
“It ended up feeling really good to be taking that step and just embracing wholeheartedly who I am!”
how was your experience?
It's been brilliant. Absolutely amazing!
I felt relaxed, we've laughed… I think it’s been a long time since I’ve laughed so much that my belly hurt!
Everything I thought I was going to be (a proper goofball full of animation 🤭) absolutely happened, but it's been brilliant!
what was your favourite moment?
Looking at the final photos!
I came with many preconceived ideas of what it was going to be and what I was expecting to like, and all of that has been thrown 180 degrees.
I've chosen photos I absolutely love but wasn’t expecting to. For example, Rosie asked me to wear a red lip, and I didn't really think I could pull it off, but turns out… I absolutely can rock it!
Rosie definitely pushed my boundaries in terms of comfort zone, but in a really great comfortable way.
From dreading this shoot to rocking the boldest lipstick: if that doesn’t sound like a confidence boost, I don’t know what is!
It was so much fun to photograph Charlotte, and I look forward to following the launch of her new business adventure in January.
Charlotte Hopkins - Kinbee
Interested in having your own shoot with me? Send me a message!
