Sometimes things just don't go as expected. Whether that be a night out at a concert or a day in the sales room, we believe in learning from our missteps, both literal and figurative. Tune in!
This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Retouch Up! Use the coupon code GYST10 for a special discount!
This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.
Sometimes things just don't go as expected. Whether that be a night out at a concert or a day in the sales room, we believe in learning from our missteps, both literal and figurative. Tune in!
This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Retouch Up! Use the coupon code GYST10 for a special discount!
This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.
This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at RetouchUp. Retouchup works smarter, not harder. Welcome to Get your Shoot Together, the photographer's podcast where we discuss studio business life and keeping it all in line. I'm Keri Dairyberry and I am Mary Fishtailer. Hi, mary Fishtailer, hello, hello, hello, hello. I gotta tell you something hilarious. Oh, I think it's hilarious, all right. Well, I guess I'll be the judge of that, let me see. So maybe you guys will be the judge of that. You guys be the judge of it.
Speaker 1:So earlier today I was making a phone call to the podiatrist for my daughter Lucy, because she has some foot struggles, and so I'm making her an appointment. And I call in, the receptionist answers the phone and I said, hi, I need to make an appointment for my daughter Lucy, and she's like what seems to be the problem? And I say, well, she has an ingrown toenail. And she goes ew, no, she did not, she did, she went ew. And I went yeah, so, yeah, so I need to make her an interest office, yeah, the receptionist. And I said I said yeah, so she goes. Well, she, you know, is she already a patient? And I said yeah, and she goes okay, let me see if I can get her in, you know, as soon as possible. And she's looking and she goes we don't have a lot coming up. Is it infected? And I said, well, yeah, it does look like pretty angry. It's got a little bit of yellow ooze and she goes gross, what like? Is it your first day? I'm speechless. Are you a? You're not well, maybe, but I mean, what did she? Why else would you go to a pediatrist? Because you have perfectly.
Speaker 1:I don't understand this. This makes no sense to me. Imagine it was like you're like, you're calling to make your own appointment. I mean, I'm making an appointment for a little girl, but still, if I'm calling to make an appointment for myself and I'm explaining what's wrong actively with my body and I have to tell you what it is and the and the level of urgency it is, so that you can get me in sooner than later, right?
Speaker 1:And she's asking, and then her response is gross. I really don't even know what to say. It's never happened to me before. Like when she said ooh, the first time. Like when she said I said she has an ingrown toenail, and she says ooh, I was like oh, she didn't mean to say that. You know what I mean. Like oh, that just slipped right out, that fell out of her mouth, and she's probably mortified because she realized it was different. She's mortified and so I'm not gonna, I won't say anything because I mean we've all done that, we've all had a don't rub it in weird reaction to something. When you're like, oh, that was unprofessional, right. And then, and then when she goes on to ask me another detailed question and I have to give her more details about the medical issue that my daughter's having and she says gross, I was just like, honest to God, don't even know what to say. This really happened a few hours ago.
Speaker 1:Where does she think she works? I don't know where Melissa thinks she works. She works at a doctor's office. You, I mean, odds are, odds are good. If you're going to see a doctor, there's, there's, there's something happening. I would say 65 to 70% of the calls that she's receiving that day have something that maybe Melissa thinks is gross or ew. And I think that would be normal for a foot doctor's office, right, like 100%. Yeah, like if you're calling the podiatrist, it's because your regular doctor can't handle it right and so it's probably escalated to a level that requires a specialist.
Speaker 1:So for your feet and that's what they do. That's the, they're whole. They spent so much money in years to work on people's feet Like that's their actual job. I mean, I just didn't like throwing up my mouth right now just thinking about it, but that is their job and she took a job working for someone who. That's their job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I call the photographer's studio and I said my daughter has an ingrown toenail, gross might be, ew, gross, gross. Why are you telling me that that's a lot of information? I don't want that. Don't call the deli, don't, don't mention it to the pizza parlor, but I mean the podiatrist's office. And seems like you would have heard worse than an ingrown toenail. And so what did she say? What did she say? What did Melissa say? When somebody says they have like an acrotic toe, you know what I mean Like fungus or like athletes foot, I don't know. I apologize y'all. This, this, this, this podcast is just.
Speaker 1:It just bit the dust right out of the gate. We didn't know that. I'm sorry, I couldn't, I was so. I didn't. I didn't even know how to read, I didn't know how to react. All I knew was that they had one appointment that they could get her into and I felt like if I was, if I made too big of a deal I was, I was, honestly, I didn't say anything because I was worried I wouldn't be able to get her in. You know and so, but have you ever experienced? No, I've never in my life. It's like calling and scheduling a dentist appointment because you, you know how to have an infected tooth or whatever you have to be, you have to be like. I'll tell you when I get there, Like no, like what seems to be the trouble. Well, we'll talk about it when I arrive. Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want to over share with you. You only work at the front desk.
Speaker 1:Making the comments for a podiatrist Seems like a really personal question, seems like a really personal question and I'm not comfortable answering it. I will speak to the doctor. I don't want to gross you out, melissa. Oh, wow, well, you know, I mean, okay, don't get them Wrong. Line of work, melissa Wrong. Yeah, you know, yeah, she may want to find a new job. Really, truly Like, I don't think Melissa's in the right space. I don't think at all.
Speaker 1:This kind of reminds me of that TikTok that I sent you the other day, where that person responded to the neighbor's like comment and it was like, just be short and sweet, just be very short and sweet with it. Oh yeah, you can't even entertain this craziness. Hey guys, thank you so much. We've had so much.
Speaker 1:First of all, sorry we missed the week of podcast, but here Kira was in a hurricane. Yeah, I was getting hit in the face with a hurricane, no big deal. Yeah, I mean, while I'm on the, I'm in the P and W, I'm Pacific Northwest, just falling down at the gorge. My child, my child, you know, my child, baby Alex. Baby Alex had said to me because I was complaining about all my injuries, and baby Alex said maybe it's time for me to quit going to the gorge. I don't see how one awful tumble means that I can't go anymore.
Speaker 1:But, kira, I turned 55 last week, you know, and it was fun. It's not as fun to fall. It's not fun to fall Ever Did you? Did you see? Did you see the Kevin Hart thing where he raced like a football, like a, like a college athlete or college football player or whatever? They had a foot race and in the foot race Kevin Hart managed to pull all of his abdominal muscles like just running, I bet Right and ended up in a wheelchair. And then he posted this video where he's like being over 40 is real and no, I didn't see that.
Speaker 1:Well, this is true. You cannot do the things that you thought you could do once before and listened, and you need to. You need to respect it. I don't know. Okay, first of all, zero stars on falling. Y'all don't do it, do not recommend, do not recommend it all. It sucked and I still my knee hurt, my left eye still like green.
Speaker 1:Now, how long did you fall? Was it straight to the ground or did you tumble? I felt, kira, I must have stopped dropped and rolled Like I don't know, like I feel like I used all that elementary school training, like I don't know what happened. I don't know, it was the gorge. It was at the end of a Dave Matthews concert. Just pick up that, whatever you may.
Speaker 1:And it's all uphill and I think at some point we were like let's run or let's be funny, and I had on those thick, chunky, duck martin, my concert sandals I wear all the time and I rolled my ankle and then asphalt, and then I rolled and I like because I had my you know, like my glasses bruised my eye and I had bruised a kidney Like my right kidney is because it impact was so bad. I have bruised my back, my left knee, both of them. I mean, I managed, I, I I almost managed to hurt almost every part of my body. I'm so glad you're okay, though I mean, you know, I don't think that's what they had in mind when they said stop, drop and roll in second grade. Um, but I did it, did it. Yeah, I did it. Good, I mean, I really did.
Speaker 1:I mean, when you said you fell, I thought I, I don't know the gorge and but with I, I, here's what I envisioned A hill, a grassy hill, with a lot of people on it. And I thought when you fell, you fell like down some grass, like a grass hill. No, that could be fun, that could have been fun. People do that on purpose at the gorge. Yeah, this is, you know, when you're walking out of an amphitheater straight up hill Back into reality. Yeah, like, right by the corn dog stand Kira, right right where the like there's, like the you know, whiskey, saline bar, the snow cones, corn dogs, the poutine fries and Mary Fishtail are falling down. Did they? Did they rush? Um, like help to you. Like you were an 80 year old woman who fell, because I find like that, that's, that's no.
Speaker 1:Shockingly, shockingly, no one stepped on me, but nobody was. I again, nobody was concerned at the end of a Dave Matthews band concert. So everybody's in their own space, they're doing their own. Well, here's, I think. I actually think it's a good sign that no one rushed to your aid, because that's what happens when the very elderly fall and everyone is concerned. There's the audible gas of the entire grocery store, clutches their deck and then they run towards the person. Everyone's like call an ambulance and you're like I'm fine, no, no, you're not. Stay down, don't you? You have, you may have a concussion. Stay down, call you know. No, no one did that.
Speaker 1:So I feel like the lack of concern was more like oh, she's fine, yeah, I mean like she's just, like you, just, you know, I don't care how bad it was, like as long as that fall was, but you know me, I like I like jumped up like naughty a common each year like I'm like a Jim Simone Biles. At the end, I'm all good, don't worry, I'm good. And I'm like oh my God. And then I cried the whole way back and we're sleeping in tents and they're so low to the gritty of their cuts, are low to the ground and everything, and every time I had to like it up. Ow, one point Jamie told me to shut up. I hate falling, the worst. Told me to shut up. I guess I would be too loud in my pain. Oh, my God, seriously, I don't hear a start. Every, every, every injury that occurs, I have my friend, my friend, I feel, like all my friends, like there's a certain age where when you fall, it's so much more serious than what it used to be. You know, and it's just like we were. My friend turned 40 this year. My friend Meredith and we were.
Speaker 1:We were having a great time at our friend Bethany's house and we were doing an impromptu electric slide outside, like we were. You know cause, you know, the song comes on. You got to do it and and we're doing it oh, sorry, it wasn't an electric slide, it was the Cupid Shuffle, that's what it was, even worse, oh yeah. So we're doing the Cupid Shuffle like you do, and at the end, meredith, whose birthday it was, she decided she was going to do this big finish. And so there's like a big thing, yeah, like a big thing, you know. And so we're on the deck and there's, you know, bethany has a little boy and so there's, like you know, rope swing and stuff. So she, she goes to finale and she grabs the rope swing and she swings out on the rope swing and she gets about parallel with the ground and the ropes breaks and so she's like she's like six feet on the golf thing and she just falls onto the grass. It's a Cupid Shuffle, I don't know what's it more embarrassing?
Speaker 1:On her 40th birthday, the song choice On her 40th birthday. On her 40th birthday, she just full on wipes out from her rope swing injury and from the deck, from from a two step on deck, oh my God, and just knocks the wind out of her. She's bit, she bit her tongue, so she was bleeding, and then she just she just lays in the fetal position and just stops. And we were all so worried. I mean she was okay, but she had. She had to go to the chiropractor for like two months.
Speaker 1:I bet it starts getting old Guys, don't do it, don't fall for it. It's not, it's not. I don't recommend it, don't recommend it. Yeah, I don't know. Well, so that was that. So that was my 55th and my grand entrance into 55. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So Elizabeth Homan had a birthday right before mine and she texted me. She goes I've been checking out 55 for five days now and so far so good. And I texted her back and I'm like, well, so far not so good for me. Do not recommend no stars, no stars. But speaking of amazing stars, hey guys, thank you. We had such a great response from that last, our last podcast. Sorry, we were a week late, but thank you guys. Everybody who's written and texted, called us and messaged us. We really appreciate that. I'm glad that we're not just idle chit chat and we actually come up with some good ideas.
Speaker 1:So, speaking of great ideas, let's take a quick pause for the cause, so we can hear from our amazing sponsors at retouch up. Be right back, hey you. Is it 2am and you're still up retouching that one year old cake smash session, because there's just not enough hours to get it all done. Stop what you're doing right now and upload that session to retouch up. Never tried retouch up? No problem. Sign up for a free account at retouchupcom and use the referral code G Y S T to tell them you're one of our loyal listeners. With retouch up, there are no contracts, no minimums, no complications and nothing to lose. For a limited time, all listeners of this podcast can save $10 with the coupon code, just fall 10. That's G Y, s, t, f, a, l L 1 0 for all customers. That's enough to retouch like four headshots or get five extractions, or remove all the leaves out of the pool and the cars out of the parking lot on that real estate shot you just took. Get your life back with retouch up at retouchupcom. And we are back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so look, I have to, because we, we wanted, we promised our thing ourselves, a lot of things when we started this podcast, and I'm not sure if we stuck the most of them, but we did. We have stuck to this one, which is being incredibly honest about what's going on right now and this past, like two weeks, I've probably had more conversations with my business partner, jamie Hayes, than we've had in years, and it's literally one of us coming at it from. I don't know if I can do this anymore and I haven't felt this way in a long time. Wow, okay, so let's dig in. Let's dig in, because I think, if I'm going through this. Maybe you are Okay.
Speaker 1:So I think we all rolled through. We're rolling where we got a business, and then we have COVID. Right, we all got through COVID and then and this has been a tougher year, and I have to also be very transparent that when I really sit down and look at my averages and numbers, they're not that far off, but it feels like it feels like a mild gap or something. I don't know why it feels this way, and so I've been trying to like figure that out. And you know I'm a big Brene Brown Fan and I love the conversation, and she's talking about this with her spouse. But I think this works. Maybe it's a conversation you're having with yourself.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure how this would work, but certainly if you have a partner or someone you work with, how, when they come home for the day now this is in their home life, but she also practices this in her work life that you, you have a potential to be up to a hundred percent, and when you come in together you can go look, I've only got 20%, give up, and so your partner has to say I got you, I got 80 today, mm-hmm. And if you're both add up to under a hundred. You need to sit down and figure out, okay, how can we get back to a hundred? And I think we don't do that enough. And this is something that I kind of went back and re-read and Relisted to things and Jamie and I have been trying to work on.
Speaker 1:But it's because morale has just been low and I think, when I look at it, we've had some of our biggest sales ever in the past couple months and we've had some of our biggest disappointments. So we're on this roller coaster. I feel like I'm on that weird ride like at Six Flags, where, like they Shoot you up to the sky and then they drop you, and then they shoot you up to the sky and then they drop, like it's exhilarating, and you're going up the hill, go down and then you fall. It's just. It's felt like that for the past couple weeks and you know we all have that client that we've done everything we're supposed to do. We've done the consultation, we've done all this stuff. We we've been for it, we've been transparent with our pricing, we've even pre-sent them a quote and then it ends up being a complete and utter Failure, meaning they order little to nothing, like we had a session a couple weeks ago that I don't know where the wheels fell off. I do know where the wheels fell off.
Speaker 1:It was a multi-family session. They paid us quite a bit of money to drive down to the beach, we photographed it, blah, blah, blah. I mean it was a the dad's 90 second birthday and all the kids were there and all this stuff, and the one new wife got involved and it's well, you mean you can't just get digital files? Well, okay, well, this is our digital file. Oh, my god, my daughter got married and it was only this much and then it became a big shit show to the point where the whole family said forget it. Everybody was so disappointed because of all the back and forth that they didn't order a thing. And and it's I get. I get upset but I move on. I'm like okay, that sucks, I'm a big fail, fast fail forward, right. Like just okay, that sucks, keep moving. I'm really good at that, shockingly good at that, like I really. Now, when I get down it's bad, but I can really bounce back.
Speaker 1:Jamie has been taking these so more personal than I've ever experienced and I wonder, I wonder if it's because he's so much more Attached to the photography than I am. I mean, yeah, I'm not like, how would you? I mean I feel like maybe you would react more similar to so so that's interesting. Yeah, because you guys really are two sides of a coin. You know what I mean when it comes. Comes to that 100% Jamie.
Speaker 1:Jamie is Jamie is much more in tune with the create. I mean it's coming out of it. You know what I mean. Like he sees it as like his art. It's he's, he's creating it, it's part of him, you know, and so I.
Speaker 1:It's something I really struggled to break early on in my business because I Would get my feelings hurt when somebody didn't like something as much as I did and I had to. I had to break myself Of that almost to the point where I didn't. I had to make myself like not care if they liked it or not. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like, which is a hard. It's a hard ask when you are an artist and when you are, especially when you conceptualize something from ground, ground to end. You know I mean part of the work. You know wedding work is so much more intimate and Special. Then you know the commercial work, the headshot work is like, well, you don't like it, go back in there and sit down. We'll do some more, right? You know when, when it comes to like wedding photography, especially our children's portraits, I, I can totally see that.
Speaker 1:The last time that happened to me Was when I did a family session for a client and I want to say it was last year and, okay, I thought everything looked great. And I got To the sale and they just made faces the whole time and they just was, were like I, this don't, these don't look like my kids, oh, and they and I. That cut me yeah, deeply. You know. Well, you know this isn't I, I, yeah, I think you're right, I think that he, it's, it's a part of him, like I, at one point I remember him like he was, I was like is he gonna cry? Like I don't know how to handle this, like it's so, but he was like their dad is 92. This is probably that you know. And like they're gonna, they're so good, mary, like I feel, like I've got, like I feel like I would enter some of these in competition. They're that good and they love everything, but they're gonna let like he could not in his brain figure. And it's not money, these people. It's not you know what I'm saying like so all of those hurdles were, but it just would, broke down and it just he was so defeated and then it happened again, not that bad, but it came in a lot lower and then and it's been an absolute rollercoaster and it's just, and it's not about the work, no, that's what it sounds like. I mean, I, you know, I understand that it's disappointing and I can see how he would be cut by it because they didn't love it enough to, in his mind, take it home right, right, so, but they're not.
Speaker 1:In the first example you gave, it wasn't because they didn't like the work. It was mainly like what do you mean? Like too many cooks, like decision fatigue, and then, yeah, yeah, I mean and they're former clients, but this was before this the new wife, so like the second life, yeah, this is it. Yeah, I mean, that's the only change in the variable. So, but it's not, it's just like I don't know, it's been weird, and that's one example, the other, the other ones that have just not gone as well as expected, or Invitation sessions, or fun, some of it came in from a funnel.
Speaker 1:So what I have to keep reminding him is Jamie. They came in with no expectations. Like that's part of our marketing plan. We bring people in hoping they'll buy more, but there's no guarantee. And he's like, yeah, but we've never had this many people. Our percentage of people taking zero, like doing nothing or very little, it's gotten a little bit higher and I'm like you're absolutely right, but the ones that do buy are buying a lot bigger, so it balances out. So what my point is is that Money, dollar to dollar, we're very close, or even a little bit above, where we were this time last year, but it just doesn't feel like it because we've had these horrible like not I'm using way too big words, guys, it's not horrible, we just had these not as successful sessions. So my point is is that we all have this happen and so we've been working really hard.
Speaker 1:Coming home from the PNW and then you know, this week, looking at, okay, first of all, I had to sit down with him and say, okay, let's look at all of our sessions for the past. You know, six weeks, because you're sitting here doom and gloom, everything's terrible. This is a bus, this is a. But look at this, look at this one compared yes, we had this. You know, $32,000 sale and, yes, we did have a zero or we had a $500 sale, you know so, but it's that up and down that I think for Jamie, more so than me.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'm just, maybe I'm just heartless, like for some reason it is just rocked his world, like he. He, he literally called me the other morning and he said I think I know he wouldn't care me sharing this because he would shit he was like I can't sleep, he said. I literally laid in bed and I thought I'm gonna have to go to job, like I'm gonna have to. I'm like Jamie, you don't. I know it has been so crazy like his. I don't even. I've never seen him like this before. I have seen him jump to conclusions though oh yeah, well, that's for sure. Yeah, that's something that's definitely very Jamie Hayes, but so, yeah, but I could you know, and I also think that when he's shooting, you know, like me too, I'm like you when we shoot, you're kind of thinking, when you've got the shot and you're like this is going to be the thing that's on the wall, this is going to be the one that's in the album, this is the thing that's going to be, you know, and so he's always had that sort of visioning that went along, goes along with the shooting, because we don't want to overshoot, we want to shoot specifically for what we're trying to sell for right?
Speaker 1:So when it doesn't happen, I can imagine it being really unfulfilling. You know what I mean Like you're really proud of something and then it never. You never get to see a good fruition and it's exactly nothing you can control Exactly. And I know you and I talk about this when we do workshops. We talk about the fact that we really don't want to photograph it. It's not going to live somewhere, right, it really needs to live, and I think that's part of it. Like I think more than it, more than the money and more than all that I think. I think that that has been a big part. I think that he knows that image is going to die on that card and it's more than ever, it's bothering.
Speaker 1:And I do think you talk about getting older, which didn't mean to segue, but as we get older, life gets shorter. Right, I have, probably. I have more years behind me than I do in front of me, and so does Jamie, you know, just realistically, I mean, jamie's almost five years older than me. I just turned 55. I mean we have more years behind us than ahead of us. People are living longer, that's all I'm saying. Yeah, they are, but it just, and you know how it is and I'm, you know you get.
Speaker 1:I'm at that age now where I have good, great friends that are losing parents and things. So it just you get to that age and it just becomes, I think, heavier and I think, also coming from maybe not having a foundation, a family like we have, it is hitting him harder than I've ever seen it hit him before. It makes me very sad, you know, and I know you feel the same way. I mean we all love. We love Jamie he's. He's part of our part of our family. Protect Jamie Hayes at all costs. Yes, I know he's a little baby, but but it's just been so and I felt I've just felt so bad Like I just I wish I could fix it, but I can't fix it.
Speaker 1:It's just where things are because the economy is squirrely. I'm going to be honest, even me, jen Helen another day told me she goes you just probably have like $10,000 in your couch. I was like, no, I don't have. But I mean, yes, my husband, we've worked very hard, we've, you know. But even the other day I placed my Instacart order and I had to side eye it. I was like are you kidding me? Like I think I ordered some, like some pickles, cottage cheese. I was like what, what is going on here? And then that same day we got a letter from our mortgage lender that insurance rates have gone up so bad that our mortgage has gone up $600. Oh my God, because of the interest, interest, you know how that all those rates are changing. And I was like what the heck? So I'm even side eyeing spending right now. So our clients are side eyeing spending, they just are.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's it just, it's the economy we're in and you know what. We all love it when it's up, but we just we get all defensive when it's down. That's the nature of capitalism, yeah, it's just the nature of the democracy. It's the nature of what we live in. I get that and I don't take it too seriously, but for some reason this is just hitting harder than normal. So I don't know, I don't know, maybe it's just us going through this over here, but it's been a weird year. No, I don't think so. I think it is a weird year and I and you know I've, you know I want to do anything but work these days. That's where my head is at. I'm doing it, I'm doing it and I'm doing I'm still. Nothing is compromised. I'm still doing it at the level that I enjoy. You are. But well, you know, it's just.
Speaker 1:But I feel like I was just having this conversation with my friend at lunch today. It was like, okay, so today I really wanted to dedicate to doing a bunch of things for work for the fall season. You know that I needed to get done. And then my head was infiltrated with oh my God, it's almost October, I've really got to get Lucy's costume situated and get that. And then I promised her I'd do a photo shoot for it. Oh, she's having toe surgery tomorrow. I, you know, I really should stop everything and go to the store and get her the shoes she needs. And all of a sudden I was like I would much rather go and take care of all the stuff I need to for my kid than work on the stuff for fall right now. You know what I mean. Like it's just it. Just it just is. You know, you're not wrong. And and you know, and then, kira, you also have PPA President. You're still on the board and that's a huge I I honestly, the whole time I think I did better when I was on the board, specifically when I was on the executive committee and even president.
Speaker 1:I was so much more I don't know how to put it like not organized, because I think I'm still organized, but I just felt like I had more momentum. I guess it's because I knew okay, I'm here, I'm on this, I'm doing that, but since I'm done, I Don't know what's happened to me. I'm literally like no, but I don't think, I don't think nearly willing these days I'm going well, whatever, like I am not as disciplined as I was when I had much, much more going on at all. I think I think if we were to pull everyone, I think that you, because I keep saying, well, you know, the reason I don't have momentum is because I've spread too thin. I've got I'm p-bay president and I've got this job and I've got a lot of projects I'm working on. I just started a home project that I'm not gonna bore you about until some other podcast, but I mean, you know, I'm just, I'm doing, I'm doing too much and nothing is getting it full attention and everything is like the motivation to do anything. But I bet if we pulled a lot of our listeners.
Speaker 1:I think that this year has not has lacked in momentum. Okay, that's a really great way I think we got Life is happening. And then and I hate to keep talking about COVID, but that just was a hard stop. Right, that was a hard all of talking about COVID for a decade my rest of my life for sure. I just it was a hard stop for every single person and one way or the other even if you didn't, even if you were in a job that you never stopped working or whatever it just it was a hard stop. And everyone's life in the world and I guess we just got into we we're working very hard to find New and then getting back in and this year we're all in and yeah, covid's still there, y'all, by the way, and we're all in.
Speaker 1:But now it's like huh, you know, I don't, I don't know what to do. Like I got really good at the at-home and then I was getting really good at coming out of the at-home and mm-hmm, and we spent so much time Working on how to bounce back and how to come back and how to be stronger. I'm talking how to do all that and we and and we did, you know, we had, I had a great year, you know, and then, and then it's almost like you know, you've said this before like when you, when you reach your goal, and then you realize you have to start over and do it all again, and then how hard it is to get to start over and do it at the beginning of the year, I just think, but that that feeling has lingered all year. I think you're right like that and and I think you're right, I don't think I don't think that Jamie, I think it's very normal to feel like what he's feeling, because there just isn't we normally have so much everything.
Speaker 1:It's like shoot and sale and great sale, and see it on the wall and deliver it and love, and then shoot and then sail and then put it on the wall, you know, and then, but that's the momentum, that's what keeps us going, that's what makes the days pass quickly. Right, it's because it's that cycle, but you're seeing a break in the cycle, right, and I was in his. It's like Jamie's brain is very scheduled as as yeah, yeah, but I mean it's very, it's very regimented and structured in the same formula, right all the time, and when the formula he's been doing for years, which is to shoot, sell, see it on the wall, you know, and then he never sees it on the wall, yeah, it's almost like he can't. He can't move on, stabilitating. It's debilitating, yeah, but you know, I think you just down it because, like you know not to go back to the gorge, but, but you know, it's a.
Speaker 1:You're there with thousands of people and the place where I camp it's clamping really, but there's a lot, of, a lot of a lot of people and we gather every day and we hang out, but just, not not surprising, there's a lot of creatives that follow the Dave Matthews band and I just happened to be with three amazing writers from LA. They're all on strike right now and it was so interesting to hear their stories and talk to other creatives and there was a maybe theographer there and it was just very interesting. But they were talking about the same thing and they were saying you know, it's just, it's just been hard, and now they're on strike and now the momentum is even lower and morale is low, and so it's in all industries, by the way, I don't think it's just in our industry. I think you're seeing it in a lot of places.
Speaker 1:As a matter of fact, I was just interviewing potentially interviewing a new sales rep for us, because we have those outside sales reps and I was interviewing one on a zoom call before we got on, and she's a stylist and she was saying the same thing. She's like I've done this for 25 years and I'm at a point where I just I don't know, like I just don't. I Love what I do, but it's just not filling me up, or am I, you know? I don't know what's going on. So that's why she reached out to maybe start working, doing some part-time work for us, and we were having the same conversation and she's a stylist, like I think again, it's not just us and we need to remind ourselves of that.
Speaker 1:But it's really hard when you're just feel like you're just getting dumped on. You know what I mean and we're not. We live great lives, we'd love, we have great lives, and but when you say dumped on it, perspective, it feels like it in that moment. Right, it does like it does because like it's when somebody doesn't, when the work doesn't go to its full potential, you, you think it's not any good, or you, you know, in Jamie's case he takes it personally and maybe it means that they don't like him or that he's not good at his job. Yeah, yeah, you know, and because his, he takes a lot of his self-worth from being amazing at his job, right, and his confidence level, and I think that we think a lot.
Speaker 1:I think this is a profession where that is very common, very common, I think. I think being good at my job is something that is motivating to keep me going, and when I start to fill doubts again, it's really hard to get motivated. You're exactly. Yeah, it is, and I don't know, I just I think it's just, I don't know, I really don't, I don't even know where I'm going with this conversation, but it's just been a really it's been, it's definitely been a shift and I don't quite understand it and I don't.
Speaker 1:I feel like I just don't have any answers for him. Like I try to, like you know me, I like I really try hard. You know we can't just say big words, we can't just put big negative things out there. We have to go back to the data and the data proves that what you're saying is not true. But he said I see that, I see that I can wait. But why do I feel this way? Well, if I were talking to Jamie and I and I will, or I do and you do and you will tell you will see him on Friday I would.
Speaker 1:I would say, jamie, you have to stop putting your self worth in the finished product. Is this this kind of like? When you started entering image competition? Uh-huh, I don't care anymore, you give me, you married it, you married it, yeah, I. And then I'm not being. I'm not being that person, it's just. But I used to. I never I did care. But I have seen Jamie. He's walked out of image competition for like furious that they didn't like what he did because his self worth was on that back then, on that spinny thing.
Speaker 1:And, as a judge, how many times have you talked to someone off, alleged that said, this does not mean you're bad. This does not mean this doesn't even mean that the image is bad, right, this doesn't even mean that. It's not that everything you did wasn't correct, yeah, but you've got to disconnect your, your um confidence from the work. You've got to disconnect your self worth from the work, because but how do you do that, riddle me this, riddle me this. I mean, you do that because don't we do? But let me, but riddle me this, shakira, if, if we distance ourselves too much, do we lose some of the creativity or the passion or that, you know, that essence that we put into it, that we're so proud of what we put into it, because they love it so much.
Speaker 1:Well, if I give you all that, it's going to leave a raw spot, right. And then, if you, you know, then, if you, you know, come at me, it's going to irritate it, right, like, oh God, I'm the list of, I hate this conversation, but, like you know, it's going to be, like it's going to, it's going to hurt, but then, oh, so don't be, don't put too much of it in there so you don't get hurt. Well, if I don't put too much of it in there is, am I going to lose? Where's the balance? I, I hear you, I know you don't have the answer. I mean just saying no.
Speaker 1:I mean my own experience is yeah, when you, when I get it down to a formula and when I make it so that it I can churn it out and it's not and I'm not having to think about it so much and so that I can disconnect from it, so that there's not. You know, yeah, it gets a little, it gets a little boring. You get a little too disconnected. I'm coming at it from a place where I'm trying to reconnect. You know, like I'm doing a little bit more in my sessions right now to to excite me and to get me motivated again. But I have to do it and be careful and not put my value of like what kind of photographer I am in, or how successful or popular or talented of a photographer that I am based on the, the finished piece. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Well, and something that I think would be very comparable for you is if you had a commercial job or you had someone you did the headshots for, or a business you worked with, and the next time around they hired somebody else. Yeah, that that hurts. And then you start to think I mean, and it's happened recently, and so it. You start to think what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong? You know, is it me? So this is the point Because you're attacking, I'm attacking, we do that, we do that, we go right to ourselves.
Speaker 1:It's all our part of it and really it may have just been. The other person gave it to them for free, what? What idiot wouldn't take them up on that or what? But we immediately look at ourselves in the mirror and we go it's your fault. It's your fault, you did this. That's something that's so prevalent. You didn't follow up enough with them, you didn't make them feel special enough.
Speaker 1:You, you know all those things, but I mean, at the end of the day, jamie should find a lot of his self worth and when I think we, a lot of us, can, and I know I do and the fact that I know I can get into a situation with my camera and my gear and I can deal with it, based on my foundational knowledge that I have a photography, I can turn out a really good client work and I can meet my deadlines and I can you know what do you mean? Like I can do what I say I was going to do and get it done. Absolutely, you all are very similar In almost any situation. You're right, Right, and that's what makes me a good photographer and that's what I should have my pride in and my and you know, not not even what the image looks like, but the fact that I can do the job I said I was going to do in just about any situation. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right, and that's all good Jamie is is that person?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he's one of the best. I mean he really and truly. I mean I don't know, I don't know many people that that's. It's his whole stinking life. Yeah, photography and painting, like and paint the paintings kind of obviously a newer piece, but I just putting this out there. Guys, we have the same I have. We have the same situations at ours to do.
Speaker 1:Maybe you guys have had these moments and, hey, if you have any great advice you want to share with us, like on how to not look in the mirror and blame yourself just because they didn't buy or they didn't rebook you or they chose someone else or whatever, because we don't know why, like you know you not getting that commercial job and I don't think I'm just making something up that other photographer could have given it to him for free. We don't know that, but we immediately look in the mirror and pointed ourselves how can we talk ourselves off that ledge? Because what we do is hard enough and running a business is hard enough and in this economy and with everything else you have going on yourself, your life, your family, your partner, whatever your volunteer work, whatever it is you're doing have all that. Now you have to carry that weight on your shoulders and that's just. It pulls you down, and when I get too much of that on my back I stop functioning and then I can't. Then it's really hard. Now I'm really behind and now I'm, you know.
Speaker 1:So just a thought. You know I don't have any answers and I apologize for that, but I want to put this out there because I think it's very prevalent in our industry. I think it's very prevalent in a lot of industries, but I see it a lot in photographers, because we do love what we do so much and we are so creative and passionate, we put a heart and soul in it, but it really, I think it takes toll on us mentally as well. So, yeah, no answers, but just a thought. It does and that's okay, it is okay and you're good enough, and you're good enough and you are a bright and shining star. Yes, yes, sorry not to be a bummer, but I anyway try to stay upright and yeah, and yeah, and yeah I don't know what else to say, but anyway, it's just been interesting because it's been a long time since I've just it's just felt really heavy for the past, you know, a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:So it'll get better, it'll be fine and you know, like I said, the best, only thing I know to do is go back to the data and look at the actual numbers. Now, if I looked at the actual numbers and he was right, and that the sky, you know, hey, chicken little, this guy really is falling. Okay, we might have a problem, this guy's not falling, we just make it up because something went wrong and we take it so personally, and part of that's why it makes it so great. But I think that the other side of that coin is it also can be when it's good it's great, when it's bad, it's terrible. You know, cause we also think it's the bad also feels. You know, feels more than the huge, the good. Yes, it's hard to remember, it's just this. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So we do like to play things out of proportion, or at least we do around here, don't we? We do love it, yeah, we love it, but anyway, well, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. I appreciate it All right. Okay, let's wrap this one up. Let's do it. You guys can follow us on Instagram at get your shoe together. You can follow us on Facebook at get your shoe together. You can email us at girl at getyourshoottogethercom and subscribe to us. Everywhere we'rea contest or play, we will see you guys next time. See you guys.