Small Business Branding Photography with Beauty Night Society and 20 years of wellness, building self-esteem and changing lives
Caroline was a participant of the first virtual program, ‘Money Moves’ led by The Forum. I went to take photos of her participating in the course from her home-work space. Shifting from in-person to virtual events has been a big change for event and community organisers, and the goal with photography was to show the accessibility of community and opportunity for connection via the Forum online platform, as well as to bring the program to life through images that can be used to share about future programs.
Caroline has been heading up and running Beauty Night Society for an incredible 20 years! Learn more about the community she’s built, dream partnerships, and her biggest takeaway about a money mindset from the program.
Caroline Macgillivray
Founder and Executive Director, Beauty Night Society
Share about the different moving parts of Beauty Night Society and how the community works!
Beauty Night Society is a Canadian charity that provides programs to build community and foster self-esteem for women and youth experiencing poverty. For our first 19 years, most of our programming took place in shelters, transition homes and recovery centres. Since Covid, we have pivoted to offer programming online. In addition to the special occasions gift bags we deliver, we offer programming several times a week.
What most lights you up about running Beauty Night Society?
I am grateful seeing people’s faces when they experience joy and healing! I love to watch them stand (or sit these days via zoom) with confidence.
Your new initiative is The Heroine’s Journey - can you share about this and how people can get involved
Heroine’s Journey is a healing circle led by Counselor, Klaus Klein of KDK Counselling, Support Worker, Junko Milton and myself. This weekly gathering is a safe space using meditation, journaling, and reflection to change the stories we believe to be true.
What did you get from The Forum’s Money Moves program that you have applied to running Beauty Night Society?
When we think small, we act small.
When the pandemic hit, we weren’t sure if we could survive without in-person programming. For my fitness business, it was affected too as studios had to shut down.
One of the biggest take aways was by healing my own scarcity mindset around money, that there was a great need for what I offered. There are also so many ways to bring in revenue to support the work I do to help reconnect people who have experienced trauma to themselves. There are people who value what I offer and through grants, crowdfunding, and learning how to ask made a huge impact.
The Forum runs programs that are designed to help all Canadian women entrepreneurs build resilient businesses. Learn more about the range of programs on offer here
Do you have a dream partnership, collaboration or event you'd love to happen this year?
I’ve been lucky to have two come true so far within the first quarter of the year! We raised over $12k through our walk run program to support the programming we deliver and continue to grow resources for the women we serve. We are also launching Beauty and Balance with Evio Beauty! The meditative beauty practices are healing and supported by Evio Beauty and their founder, Brandi Leifso! I’m excited to collaborate with her for our twice-a-month sessions!
A dream partnership to add to everything would be the support of a PR firm to help us spread the word and help improve our communions strategy.
Learn more about Beauty Night Society and how to get involved here!
Maxine is a photographer based in Vancouver, Canada, and works with small heart-centered businesses to create joyful, honest images so they can show up on-brand, and aligned with their values.