Life takes many twists and turns. One of my fondest memories with Christine was back when we were in elementary school running track and field together. We, along with my little sister, had all qualified for the state meet in Austin and having a friend drive down with us and stay in the Embassy Suites hotel with us was more fun than the meet itself! We traveled up and down the glass elevators for fun and enjoyed cocktail hour with our Shirley Temple’s and popcorn!

Fast forward all these years and we reconnected on Facebook a few years ago. Christine is now a motivational speaker with quite an amazing testimony. She is allowing God to use her pain for his glory. From her own website:

“Christine’s powerful story of how addiction started off simply, by her husband suffering a minor injury at work and being prescribed a mild painkiller to her trying one of his pills. This led her down a deep dark path of drug addiction.

It took many years but in the end, she lost her marriage, custody of her children and almost lost her life several times by overdosing.

Christine has turned her mess into her message and is now mentoring other women as well as speaking at churches, prisons, rehabs, business luncheons, radio shows and podcasts.  She is excited about how God is going to continue using her and her ministry to touch people’s lives in a powerful way and leave a legacy for future generations.”

It was an honor to be able to spend the day with a childhood friend and have lunch afterwards talking about a lot of the things that have happened in all these in between years. Christine inspires me because she is willing to step our of her comfort zone to be vulnerable on social media and in sharing details of her story. I feel there are so many people that can relate to her testimony of addiction and her story brings such hope that through the power of the blood of Jesus, he can set people free from the bondage of addiction. He brings new life as we can see in Christine’s example!

Christine’s personal branding session started off with her getting her hair and makeup done by the fabulous Kristen. We started visually telling her first “story” at Conversations Coffee Bar. They graciously allowed us to use their space to capture some photos of Christine in an element she is in often. Christine meets clients and works on her laptop in her local coffee shops quite a bit. From there we moved to Prairie Creek Waterfall in Richardson. Being a weekday, we had the normally busy location to ourselves! She had changed into her yoga outfits and she got a workout in on a rock over the falls while I captured it all on camera! Later we moved to a local shopping area and she set up her phone and light and we captured a mock facebook live! In four hours of shooting, we captured a huge variety of photos for her to use on her website, in brochures, on social media and more!

Which photo “story” is your favorite?

1) Bible Reading at the falls

2) Springtime neighborhood walk

3) Natural Health – yoga and oils

4) Facebook Live + Lifestyle

5) Coffee shop

One last thing! Each personal branding client gets an branding idea board after they answer a questionnaire and we discuss what the session should be like. The first board was Christine’s sample board (not my photos) and the second board is the real deal!