Rich Happy & Hot

Marie Forleo doesn’t mince words – her email to me a couple months back just read: I have a crazy fun idea… involves you. Let me know. I was already traveling, bound for Italy, and before I could even reply, she called me up and revealed her idea. But let me back up… if you don’t know Marie Forleo, you’ll want to check her out! As best-selling author, speaker, Nike Athlete, fitness personality, entrepreneur and all around AMAZING super woman, Marie is dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs through her Rich Happy & Hot brand. I got to know Marie better during her Rich Happy Hot Business School last fall, which was incredible! We felt an immediate kinship that can only come from being born and bred in Jersey  - those are bonds that don’t break :)

Back to the scheming: Marie wanted to surprise her Adventure Mastermind ladies (all 22 of them) with a sexy and fun photo shoot during their retreat in LA. That’s right, she wanted it to be a surprise, meaning the girls would have NO IDEA what they were in for when they showed up at the Presidential Suite of the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica. Now how could I turn down an exciting challenge like that?  I’m always up for a spontaneous photo shoot, and I love demonstrating to women (myself included!) that the planets don’t need to be aligned to jump into something, and that trust goes a looooong way!  To add to the excitement, I would be given a total of 4 hours of shooting time, so about 10 minutes per girl, give or take. I was so freakin’ excited and jumping up and down ready for the fun and to see how we would all pull it off…

Well I’ll tell you more about how it went down in the next installation, but suffice it to say, I had THE BEST team on the shoot with me – Robin Hultgren and Hannah Skye are both regular attendees at my photography workshops and now have become indespensible to me as assistants, confidantes and friends. Add to that my power house right hand man, David Glenn, and of course the shoot want smooth like butter.  But most of all, I have to give credit to the 22 brilliant women of Marie’s Adventure Mastermind – these girls had the strength to be vulnerable, the sense of humor to take it all lightly, and the cojones to go for it! Each woman and her shoot were so different, but all were a total blast!

Here are some of my favorite photos of the first four of the Rich Happy Hot women, and they’re not called Rich Happy and Hot for nothing – wow! I’ll be blogging lots more of them in the coming weeks :)

Location: The Huntley Hotel’s Presidential Suite, Santa Monica CA
Hair & Make-up: the girls’ own handiwork
Photo Assistants: Robin Hultgren, Hannah Skye, David Glenn

We had a studio set-up in the master bath for when the sun went down… this one is one of my favorites – so raw, so honest…

More rich happy hotness on the way… I’ll break down the process for those interested in doing Boudoir Marathon shoots like this :)

x. Christa