Helen Pace shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Helen, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first 90 minutes or so of my day are intentionally quiet. I like to give myself time to have my protein coffee and review my schedule, to prepare myself for whatever is coming. My calendar is pretty crazy, with kids and work and a nonprofit and running my business, so starting off slowly and intentionally is a great pace-setter for the rest of the day.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Helen Pace. I am a Certified Professional Photographer and the owner of Helen Pace Photography. I also co-founded and run a fiscally sponsored nonprofit in the wake of Hurricane Helene, called WNC Moms.
Within my photography business, my best work lives in the space between presence and invisibility. I connect deeply with my clients, yet give them the freedom to forget I’m there. In that quiet balance, authenticity emerges, allowing me to document unguarded moments and emotions. I tell stories in their purest light.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
Trust. Broken trust will break a bond between two people faster than anything else I’ve experienced. And, although challenging, the rebuilding of trust can bring them back together.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
“You are enough. Truly. And you’re doing your best and that’s perfect.”
I spent so much of my life, really up until I was 40, trying to make everyone else happy all the time. I thought asking for help was a weakness, that failing was the worst thing possible, and that feeling my emotions was a waste of energy.
Thankfully, I found a really great therapist and have worked really hard to unlearn those foundational beliefs. It takes work to change these things within ourselves, but the reward is so worth it in the end.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
The public version of me is absolutely the real me. I don’t pull punches, I don’t sugar-coat, I love deeply, I am scrappy and quick and funny, and those are often the things people tell me they like best about me. I think that you always know what you’re going to get with me, I am consistent if nothing else.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope that people will remember how deeply I loved them when I’m gone, especially my daughters. I think, for me, parenting is paramount to everything else that I do. I’ve got two teenage girls, one in college and one a sophomore, and parenting teenagers isn’t a cakewalk. They say when our kids go through an age that was hard for us, we feel it twofold: once for them, and once for ourselves. It’s one of the hardest parts of parenting, and maybe also one of the most healing. In the end, I want to raise two strong women who love their lives, wake up each day excited for what’s to come, and go to bed satisfied with what they accomplished.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.helenpace.com
- Instagram: @helenpacephotography
- Facebook: @helenpacephotography
