Brea Robinson

Hi, Everyone!  I'm Brea Robinson, wife to John, and mom to 3 kiddos - ages 13 (I have a TEEN!), 10 and 8.  Boy, boy, girl.  My husband is a dentist and we live in Atlanta, GA. 

After my 3rd child was born I learned to use my camera.  I was drowning in little ones and needed something for myself - a way to grow and learn in the midst of life with littles.  I was hooked on photography right away.  It was a life saver for me in those early years.

My work started to garner attention from friends on Facebook and I got requests to take photos for others.  They offered to pay me, so I decided  I should start a photography business.  I shake my head at myself in retrospect.  I had no idea what I was doing and no business taking money. 

It was fun at first, and I grew a lot as a photographer, but after a while I realized having a business was draining the joy out of photography and the life out of me.  It was taking tons of time away from my family with little financial return.

I raised my prices in hopes of having a "real business" but learned that once you do that, your friends and family aren't as interested, and most of your work becomes marketing.  

Meanwhile, my kids were growing.  I worried I was going to look back and regret all time time and energy I had invested in a (still unprofitable) service-based business.  The marketing was exhausting, I hated it, and it was bearing little fruit. 

I just wanted to take photos, and I didn't want to miss my kids' childhood.

I decided to let the photography business go, and I have no doubt that was the best decision.  But one of my marketing attempts had succeeded in a way I didn't intend. 

In order to reach local moms I started a Facebook group called Atlanta Moms with Cameras.  In the group I shared photography tips, answered photography questions and gave feedback on photos.  The group was really engaged and successful.  I realized there were lots of moms online who wanted to learn how to use their cameras.

I was having fun and got excited about the idea that I could teach photography online in this group.  But about that time, I realized very few people were seeing my posts like they once had.  Engagement plummeted.  It was, you guessed it, the Facebook Algorithm.  After a couple months of trying to push through and beat the algorithm, I realized this wasn't going to work.  I didn't have hours to spend on Facebook everyday trying to get people to interact with me.  

Sad face.

By this time we had 3 kids in school and we chose to send them to private school.  The school is connected with our church and it's "relatively" affordable, but with 3 kids in, things were getting tight. 

I started hearing about the idea of residual income vs. service based income and it dawned on me that this would be a smarter way for me to earn money and help my family.

I still wished I could teach photography online but that felt impossible.  So I tried network marketing for a while.  I tried to make that work online, but I hated it. 

Go live every day? 

Share a play-by-play of your life? 

Get people to engage with you? 

It felt like a bottomless pit and I could not push my introverted self to do any of that for longer than a week.

Plus, my heart was still in photography.

As I concluded that network marketing wasn't for me I came across some info on blogging.  The pieces of the puzzle came together in my head.  I realized the smart way to teach photography and to leverage an online audience is to have your own platform.  And there are smarter ways to drive traffic than Facebook.

I knew from my past business experiences that this wouldn't be easy.  But the activities it required me to do to make it work excited me.  Writing?  Love it!  Teaching?  Exactly what I want to do!  Make beautiful photos?  Yes, all day long. 

I believe the potential for a real business that makes money without requiring my constant attention is there.  I believe I can do this while my kids are at school and be present with them when they are home.  And that's why I'm here in Blog Smarter, to lay the foundation for a real business I will love, that won't drain the life out of me and that will help my family while keeping me present with them.

Can't wait to learn and grow along with all of you!

A couple of recent favorite photos, just for fun: