From capturing life through a camera to sketching lives with words, Julia Boggio joins us to share her compelling transition from photographer to novelist. With her finger ever on the pulse of the photography industry, she infuses her romantic comedies with the kind of authenticity that only an insider could provide. Co-host Jacquie Tobin and I are captivated by Julia's storytelling prowess, discussing the economic side of writing, her enduring love for photography, and the remarkable impact of her viral moments, including a memorable Oprah Show feature.
The journey through the creative landscape doesn't stop at the surface. We explore the intricate emotional ties that bind us to our creations, whether they're photographs or written words. As artists and writers, we examine the necessity of stepping back from our work to market it effectively, despite the personal investment we've poured into each piece. Alongside this, I reflect on my own writing process and the delicate harmony required to juggle passion, family, and business, serving up an anecdote about the inspiration that life's twists and turns can bring to our craft.
LIVE contest!
You can order CHASING THE LIGHT here and SHOOTERS, on Amazon here.
Listen to my book podcast, TWO LIT CHICKS, here
Follow me on social Media:
X/Twitter: @juliaboggio / @twolitchicks
Facebook: Julia Boggio
TikTok: @juliaboggiowriter
Instagram: @juliaboggio
Website: Julia Boggio
From capturing life through a camera to sketching lives with words, Julia Boggio joins us to share her compelling transition from photographer to novelist. With her finger ever on the pulse of the photography industry, she infuses her romantic comedies with the kind of authenticity that only an insider could provide. Co-host Jacquie Tobin and I are captivated by Julia's storytelling prowess, discussing the economic side of writing, her enduring love for photography, and the remarkable impact of her viral moments, including a memorable Oprah Show feature.
The journey through the creative landscape doesn't stop at the surface. We explore the intricate emotional ties that bind us to our creations, whether they're photographs or written words. As artists and writers, we examine the necessity of stepping back from our work to market it effectively, despite the personal investment we've poured into each piece. Alongside this, I reflect on my own writing process and the delicate harmony required to juggle passion, family, and business, serving up an anecdote about the inspiration that life's twists and turns can bring to our craft.
LIVE contest!
You can order CHASING THE LIGHT here and SHOOTERS, on Amazon here.
Listen to my book podcast, TWO LIT CHICKS, here
Follow me on social Media:
X/Twitter: @juliaboggio / @twolitchicks
Facebook: Julia Boggio
TikTok: @juliaboggiowriter
Instagram: @juliaboggio
Website: Julia Boggio
Hey there, thanks for tuning in to Something New Every Week with your host, me, jason Group. Each week, I'm going to give you something new that's happening in our photographic world just some great conversations with my friends and what's going on right now. Something New Every Week is sponsored by Miller's Lab. Miller's Professional Imaging is the largest professional lab organization in the United States. They provide professional prints and press products for professional photographers in all 50 states and Canada and they're just a great company. If you don't know them, go check them out, millerslabcom. All right, another episode of Something New Every Week this week, and this could be the last. It should be the last episode of 2024. You might not hear this until 20, I'm sorry, 2023. You might not hear this until 2024, but we're glad that you're here listening. I am here with my co-host, jackie Tobin. Say hello, jackie.
Speaker 2:Hello Jackie.
Speaker 1:And we have a really special guest today, julia Bogio. And I said that right, did I get that right?
Speaker 3:Absolutely perfect.
Speaker 1:Yes, all right, for once I actually get the name right, and if you've listened to these episodes, I'd butcher people's names pretty much all the time, even if they've been friends with me for a long time. Anyway, julia is a new friend of mine, although we've run in the same circles for a very, very long time, and I'm glad to finally meet you. Julia is a very, very busy photographer and is also a writer with some very successful books, and I'm excited to hear more about them. I believe it's the third. Is it the third book?
Speaker 3:Yeah, third one coming out in February.
Speaker 1:Third one coming out in February and people have really enjoyed reading them and I haven't read any of them. I'm sorry at this point, but if you're going to, it's on my list of to-dos for this winter break and I want to hear all about it. One of the things that I really enjoyed this morning and I'll share them in the show notes and you have to check them out when you're listening is some of her TikToks, and I watched your YouTube video this morning on the Oprah Show. That was insane. So we're going to get into all of that and I know that you must be like that was 10 years ago, but anyway, like me, with the Guinness World Record, that seems to be something that's following you forever. Anyway, thank you for being here today, julia.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Awesome, awesome. Okay, Jackie, I'm going to let you take it now. Sure.
Speaker 2:Well, hello, julia, thanks for being here. I'm so in awe of you. I mean, I don't even know how you sleep, what you do to get by, because I mean, there's so many things that you're doing all the time. It's crazy, it's so impressive and, like we never met at WPPI I don't think we had at the photo conference. But and do you still actively photograph or you're mostly doing writing now?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm mostly writing now, but, that being said, I mean, I don't know if you've heard, but writers make really bad money. Yeah, I'm about to start doing headshots again for the publishing industry specifically. So, yeah, I'm turning back to photography again in my hour of need.
Speaker 2:Great. Well, speaking of that, I'm sort of going to jump around a little bit, but so I read Shooters. I think it was at the beginning of this year, maybe last year Did that come out?
Speaker 1:last year.
Speaker 2:No, that came out in March, okay, and that was a second in this photographer's trilogy.
Speaker 3:That was the first one. So first one is Shooters, second one is Chasing.
Speaker 2:Light, oh, Chasing Light, Okay. And then we have a third one coming out in February. Okay, Camera shy. So when I was reading Shooters and you've probably heard this before anyone who's in that photo world of wedding photography I instantly thought, oh my God, this is about WPPI. And the leading man reminded me of somebody who's very well known at WPPI Like how much was were you influenced by that show? And of, like specific people.
Speaker 3:So, specifically, shooters actually starts at SWPP, which is a London version of WPPI. The third book, which will be coming out at the end of this 2024, takes place at WPPI. Unashamedly, so the whole thing is in Las Vegas. But yeah, no, I think that anybody who reads my books will recognize types of people who that they've met through the years as photographers. So I mean, I said the main character was kind of loosely inspired by Jerry Guionis.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I spoke with Jerry on the phone so he knew about it and I'm sure he was thrilled. He even helped me with my marketing campaign for launch. So yeah, no, it's, but not just him. Like, just as you read it, you'll recognize like the types of people that you see at conference and like the people that you see when you go on, you know, a photography retreat and whatnot. I think that there's lots of sort of inside jokes in there for people who are in the industry.
Speaker 2:And like would you? I really enjoyed reading it, like and I've read that like it's been referred to and correct me if I'm wrong like a racy rom com or it's like I don't know if you would classify it as what do they say chicklet, but yeah, I don't think it is that. But like, do what was what is the feedback in? Well, fun and sassy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's fun. It's a romantic comedy, definitely. I mean, chicklet isn't a term that I am particularly fond of, because I feel like it's kind of set in a derogatory sort of way like these are books for women by women. So yeah, brush the side. But no, it's definitely a romantic comedy and as far as the raciness goes, it actually gets racier as the series. But you know, when I wrote the first one, I had in mind my father was going to read this, and then he read it and I think you could put a little more sex in it. And I'm like, okay, dad, that's funny Chains are off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, what I also like, really loved what you did, how you marketed shooter brilliant and I know you're doing something similar and even larger for the next book. But so can you talk about a little bit about the marketing campaign that you did for shooters?
Speaker 3:So I mean, it's really publishing, and you think that photography is hard for marketing, publishing as an entire, different level. I mean, there are so many books out there. Trying to differentiate yourself and it'd be different is just it's so hard. So I thought, you know, what do I have in my, in my little my, in my toolkit? And what I had was a black book full of the names of some of the best portrait photographers in the world, and it's a book about photography. So I thought, well, what if I just asked them, if I could send them the book and ask them to take pictures themselves reading it? And so I did that and I asked a few people and sent the books out. And then I kind of sat and waited, like hoping that they really got the brief, like I wasn't talking about iPhone photos, I wanted, you know, professional photos. And then they started coming back and I'm like, yeah, they got the brief, they were amazing.
Speaker 2:Some of these are like stunning environmental portraits, like things that I would like feature, you know, in my old magazine, which I won't mention, but it was real, they were really great and you were surprised by like I was.
Speaker 3:I was, I wasn't surprised, I was sort of just happy that they had put the time in to support me in that way, because you know they didn't have to. You know it takes time to take a beautiful photograph, but but they did and and it really did help me to give shooters the best sort of birth into the world. And then I did it again for chasing the light, you know, just sent it out to an even bigger group of photographers and said, can you do this? And again, what came back was just fantastic. But I'm not going to do exactly the same thing for camera shy, something a little different.
Speaker 2:And for shooters like you were having photographers like show how they were reading the book to Jerry, for example, like he and his wife Melissa, like he took a picture of them in bed and he's reading the book while they're being intimate, which is very Jerry. So I thought that was it might actually be true.
Speaker 3:But but yeah, so they put. They put a lot of effort in it as well, because they had to take their dogs to daycare so they could take the picture, because if they hadn't, they just said the dogs just want to left them alone, so they could do it. So I mean that level of support and care and attention really touched me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people, they really went all out for this. I was so impressed with like results and like that, that idea like do you have that like in your background of like coming up with marketing campaigns? And I know you worked in advertising before you became a photographer, you know, and I think a lot of photographers don't know how to market their own work.
Speaker 3:Yes, I, think I had my studio for. So I was a professional photographer full time for 15 years and you know, before that, as you said, I was in advertising, so I knew about branding. I knew had to create a good brand, so I did that for my photography business. I've done that for me as a writer as well, but you know it's hard and the thing that you know, I used to teach marketing for photographers and the thing that I always said to them was that your marketing should be just as creative as your photography, because marketing is creative. It's thinking about new ways to get your name out there and, you know, trying to avoid the same old, same old, and, you know, finding who your market is and that's, that's 100% creative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I feel like it is funny that everybody hear that Like just want to say that again, like right on my forehead, that's, that's amazing, sorry, jackie.
Speaker 2:I know it jumped in any time that you want to chase it because I'm, like now, dominating, but it is ironic that photographers are creative people but they're not always creative with their marketing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Promoting themselves. Yeah.
Speaker 3:No, and I think that I've always, um, I've always thought differently, I've always thought out of the box with what I was doing. So, like when I started my studio um, when was that? 2009? Uh God, it feels like a long time ago. Um, I started doing pinup photography and at the time, this had been very niche, especially in the UK, so it had been done in the vintage market, like people would do those kinds of things. But I brought it into the bridal market in the UK and so I created this new product and it went absolutely crazy over here, um, you know, and all the bridal magazines were talking about it and I mean it was a great source of business until, of course, everybody started copying it. But, uh, but, yeah, I mean just anything that you can do. That's a little bit different, I think helps to set your business apart.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, Julia, why do you think that photographers have such a difficult time marketing their work or marketing themselves? I mean and this is I think this is true across the board that you know photographers are very creative people. When it comes to creating photographs, they do a really good job, but then, when it comes to promoting their work, I can't tell you how many photographers I know super duper great people. Yeah, you know, you go to their website or you go to their social media feeds. I think this relates not so much to younger generations, but, you know, Gen Xers and things like that. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3:I think that some photographers have a difficult time separating themselves from their product and they get too emotionally attached to the image that they've created and they don't look at it as something that they now need to sell. You see what I mean, so like right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. I think there's an emotion, like you know. I see it as a writer as well. I mean you get really attached to what you've written and you know you feel you know certain ways about it and then you put it out into the world and you see reviews and it's like oh, you know, I didn't think of it that way. Or you know you put something out into the world and it's no longer yours. You know, we know it as creatives. That's just the way that it goes. And I think that, sorry, my husband is coming. He can say hello. He can say hello, he'll pop in. He's totally forgotten that I'm doing it. He's actually a good one to ask because he used to be to work in the studio with me, so he used to handle a lot of the sales for a long time. But but, yeah, I think I think the reason is is that emotional attachment that photographers have to their work? They need to learn to separate or else it's it's hard to sell something that you're so emotionally attached to.
Speaker 1:And you know, and you know sorry I'm stumbling on my words here, but I totally agree with that and many times so many photographers do get attached to their work, not only with their marketing. But I've seen this in competition as well, like when I was working with Jackie on, you know, the RF what was it called? Again, the RF 50, or the top 50 rising stars, 30 rising stars, as close 30 rising stars, as well as the print competitions. You know, sometimes people will come back to us and say you know, I'm really upset with my score. I and that would be a whole story about their photograph, and I'd be like well, is that doesn't match the story. If the picture did match that story that you're telling me, you would have scored 100, but it doesn't. And I find that across the board as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that's something that all creatives go through, everybody like an. I'm a writer as well, and you know, like I'll write something that I think is the most fantastic thing, and somebody else tells me it's crap. And then I look at it differently. I'm like oh yeah, I could have done this like you were saying before. You know, and when you were writing the books, like, did you test them out with?
Speaker 3:friends or your husband? Yeah, answer Again. And same thing with photography. You know you can show a person a photograph or a book that you've written, or whatever, and say, do you like it? And I'll go yeah, I like it, but that is not remotely useful to you, right? What you need is to choose the people carefully who you share your work with. So I've got a group of beta readers who are all writers themselves and who know the genre very well, and, yeah, I couldn't do it without them, because they find things that I just hadn't thought of. And that's the same thing with your work. You know you need to show it to people who actually know what they're talking about. I remember something that Luke Edmondson said once is that when you're putting an image in for competition, actually look at it upside down, because then it's a lot easier to see where the issues are than if you look at that. That's kind of by the by, but I just came to my head, so I can't remember him saying that.
Speaker 1:I say yeah, yeah same. So do you turn your book upside down and read it, or yeah, you read it.
Speaker 3:A lot of people do read it backwards, you know, trying to find the make sure that there's no misspellings or some punctuation. I haven't done that, no, but you know, I've got other friends who read the entire book, from beginning to end, out loud, because you can hear it differently when you're listening to it rather than reading it.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, go ahead, so I'm curious.
Speaker 1:you know three book coming up on three books now and you know you've done a lot with your marketing, often finding the energy to do stuff like this.
Speaker 1:And by the way, I just have to say that when I read about the first book, I was like gosh, darn it. She wrote something that I I wanted to write so bad when I worked at the FBI, but it could never do. So I have to say, just, I know we're we're 20 minutes into this now, but I have to say kudos to you for doing it. But and I should be told that maybe someday I'll just send you my notes, but I used to take notes on the way home on the train from the city and I'd be like I'm going to use these notes someday and some of them are pretty racy as far as juicy, but I don't know if that file ever gets out. It'd be pretty bad. Thank you, where do you find? Can you give me so as an artist? Where do you find that creative energy to sit down and do it? Is there a practice in place? Just, I do it when I have the energy. You have a kid, you have family. It's exhausting. What is your advice to that?
Speaker 3:I think, first and foremost probably extreme ADHD, so I'm very good at focusing on the things that I enjoy doing, and writing is something that I really enjoy doing, and so I think that just creating a practice every day I sit down, I try to write in the morning and then I try to do marketing in the evening or in the evening, in the afternoon Sometimes it works out that way.
Speaker 3:Sometimes I'm having such a good time writing that the marketing gets pushed aside. But aside from that, I do post every single day on Instagram and TikTok a marketing video which I create first thing in the morning before the writing. So, yeah, I think just creating habits that I try to stick to have helped me get through it, and now that I've done three books, now it actually feels easier in a way, because I know that I can do it, because I think only 3% of people who start a novel finish it, and so I feel like I'm already in quite a small even though it feels extremely crowded, but it's still quite a small bunch of people who have achieved that. So I feel like now that I've done it, it actually makes it easier for me to be like, yeah, there's something at the end of this process. So I'm not just writing into the wind. I'm doing something for a purpose so, and I have goals, setting goals extremely important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, creating habits and setting goals, that's really the key right there. Right, and I do often find that sometimes I know for myself all I need is a little positive energy back and that just creates like it's like the best Gatorade or whatever, like using a sports reference, like a Powerbar or something like that. That little bit of positive feedback definitely launches me forward. It's often that the negative feedback is what keeps you from doing it and probably what keeps people from not finishing those books. So congrats for finishing. That's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 3:And what you were saying about having lots of notebooks. I think two points there. Number one I wish I had kept notebooks while I had my studio because I could have just written what actually happened. Like that would have been a hilarious. There was a book that came out over here called Diary of a Bookseller, about a guy who owns a bookshop in Scotland, and it was exactly that. It was just like writing diary entries about dear diary. This customer came into that and I'm like, oh, I could have done that. Like we had so many crazy, crazy characters. But also I think that wedding photography, where I've sort of started, or photography in general, is a lot saucier and more fun than people expect. You know, like people don't think that there's like a kind of a sexy underbelly to it all, but there is, you know. I think that it's totally a great place to place these kind of books. So yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it definitely is, and like are you. I know that you have such a love for writing and for reading books. Do you still do your podcasts?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I've got a podcast called Two Lit Chicks. So I interview authors and, you know, talk to them about the books that changed their lives, et cetera. I'm actually on a break right now, until April, so I can get on with my other projects. But, yeah, no, and I've really enjoyed podcasting. I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but now I think I'm going to kind of miss it for the four months that I'm taking off.
Speaker 2:So and like who is one of your favorite writers? Do you have one favorite or a couple? Oh God yeah.
Speaker 3:It depends on the genre. There's a lot of writers out there who I admire and, of course, now that you've asked me, I would love to know what's happening. It's the first chat of my head. Oh, marion Keyes is a big one. I absolutely love Marion Keyes. I don't know if she's as big in America as she is over in the UK, but I don't know the name, but I can't think of what she's written.
Speaker 3:Well, she wrote Rachel's Holiday. It's probably her biggest one, which is sort of loosely based on her time in rehab, but she has this beautiful Irish way of looking at things that has that, you know, that humor, that like just that Irish humor. It's a great writer. I really love Marion Keyes and if I could have a career half as successful of hers then I'd be happy.
Speaker 2:Like have you met her or had her on your podcast, or is? That what you're called she's a hard fish to track down.
Speaker 3:She's a to catch. Yeah, no, she's really big. I mean I've had big authors. I've had Bonnie Garmes who wrote Lessons in Chemistry, I know I know Fuck yeah. And I've had Joanne Harris who wrote Chocolat, but those are really really big authors. But yeah, she's kind of on my hit list but I have to go to a book signing where she's there, and I'll have to ask her personally, because just trying to get to her through social media or anything is impossible. But that's another story.
Speaker 1:What is that work? You go to the book signing like can you be in my podcast? Here's my car.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pretty much you but I but I do get you know, I have had no, as I asked Richard Osman who, um, it's kind of started the whole cozy crime thing with the Thursday murder club and he's like, uh, no, that's a no, then can I take a picture of you with my book instead? Let's get the silver lining going on this.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's great of you after you get the no to ask for. Ask for a selfie on top of that.
Speaker 3:That's what you got to do. That takes moxie.
Speaker 1:So tell us about the new book, like give us a synopsis of the new book.
Speaker 3:Okay. So this, the third book, so this, so it's called the photographer's trilogy, but this is actually sort of an offshoot book, because I had a friend who beta read Chasing the light and said, oh, but what happened to this character? And I said, oh right, okay, yeah, maybe I'll just quickly, just quickly write a book for her. And it was quick, I wrote it in about three months, but yeah. So this story is about a woman who goes to Paris to get over a broken heart and she was she, her photographer, boyfriend, broker, heart. Shame on him. And she goes. She goes to Paris and she meets another photographer, different guy. He's an aerial photographer. So I actually had a great chat with Tony Hewitt about nice. Yeah, so he's, he filled me in, he's fantastic, and so, yeah. So she goes to Paris and she meets this French man and they have mind-blowing sex and then she's like, oh gosh, I'm having feelings for this guy, but I've just broken up with this guy so, and he's got a lot of baggage as well.
Speaker 3:So it's um, yeah photographer a baggage a photographer with baggage who knew he was a war photographer before he was a aerial photographer. So that's just a hint as to what it might be. But yeah, no. So so yeah, no, it's a fun, it's a fun book. It's um, you know, yeah, it's a, it's a romantic comedy again.
Speaker 1:Did any of your characters, did anybody get mad at you again and forgive me for not Reading anything other than the bios of the books, but any of the characters that you were based on Loosely get back to you and say, how dare you? Or get mad at you, or I love it.
Speaker 3:I've had the opposite. I've had care people going. Well, where am I? And I like give me time. I literally have a list of about like 10 future projects all based around different photographers Falling in love. You know different types of photographers, so pet photography, you know, concert photography, all kinds of stuff. So it's it's definitely a gift that can keep on giving, I think.
Speaker 1:I mean, the photographers are generally Really interesting people to talk, like some, some of them are super duper introvert, so it's heartbreaking that shelled down and you know getting getting into it. But once you build trust with them, most photographers have really interesting stories to begin with. Yeah, and I think having that attraction, that ability to attract people to you, is what makes photographers good photographers right.
Speaker 1:They're easily able to break down barriers quickly and I've enjoyed my travels with photographers, especially during my daily PPI days. Every photographer was so unique, so getting those stories out, and my pet peeve has always been that photographers in movies are either portrayed as psychopaths, like complete, like recluses, or psychopaths or incredible introverts that can't break out of their cells. So it's nice to hear like the partying photographer or one who gets, because it's really often like you just go down the line, kill the clowns from out of space. Bridget Jones' diary he's like weirdo in that one too, even though it's Clint Eastwood. I'm like you can go on. Can you name one movie that?
Speaker 1:a photographer has now portrayed that way.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. I remember. I remember the movie Closer where Julia Roberts played a photographer and she just like, is this big photographer? She walks on set. She literally walks up to the camera, looks through it, hits the shutter button and walks away. Is like we got it and I'm like what?
Speaker 1:That's kind of how Andy Leibowitz works, but yeah well, maybe, yeah, maybe at her level, but anyway, you think about writing outside of that industry?
Speaker 2:like, have you thought about doing a book? That's not about photographers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've got. I've actually I'm working on a romantic project right now as well and I've got a couple other ideas that are not don't remote remotely involve any photographers. So I know crazy.
Speaker 1:So no videographers in the future.
Speaker 3:Photographers in book two. Oh all right, they have not all weirdos. Yeah, we're all weirdos.
Speaker 1:All right, cool, jack. You have any other questions and I think we can, we can well, I can talk about the marketing campaign.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for that. I want to hear all that.
Speaker 3:Okay. Do you want to ask a question about it, or shall I just go ahead? Just tell it. Just tell it, okay.
Speaker 2:Good.
Speaker 3:Thanks. Okay, so for the third book, as I mentioned, I did campaigns for book one and two. That involved asking my photographer friends to take pictures themselves with the book, but I thought this time, for camera shy, I'm going to open it up to a wider pool. So the idea is that photographers can register their interests on my website I'll send you the link and from January 30th until the end of WPPI that's the, that's the competition period the idea is for them to take pictures of themselves with camera shy and they can either buy the book from Amazon it'll be available from January 30th or they can just register their interests and I can send them a PDF of the cover that they can then Photoshop into the image.
Speaker 3:I've got great judges lined up. I've got Kelly Brown is one of the judges Damien McGillicuddy and Sanjay Joghya and me, of course, and the prize. The prize I think it's a pretty amazing prize is that the first prize is you get to have a character named after you in the next book that I'm writing, exposure, which is the end of the trilogy and takes place at the fictional WPPI in Las Vegas. And second prize is a portfolio review with Damien. And then third prize is a marketing product from Kelly, but, yes, some some amazing prizes there and I think it'll be a lot of fun and I'm excited to see what people come up with and, as far as you know, as long as I don't know what the rules are, but I think that we can open it up to the whole world because there's no one you know there's anyone around the world can enter it. So, but yeah, so that's it. I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 2:That's so exciting. The book so, Camerci, is it like? Available for pre-order now on Amazon.
Speaker 3:Well, the yeah, the e-book is available for pre-order on Amazon right now, but the print book will be available from January 30th, so so yeah.
Speaker 1:That's exciting and, again, for those of you listening, we'll have to get this episode out quickly so that people can start working on that, because that's that's a cool project. I like that idea a lot and could be a lot of fun. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, offer some. What I think you should do as well on top of this is you should be getting on George to help promote this for Diop PPI, because it's so WPPI centric. Yes, and there should be some. There should be some something at WPPI about it.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Involved around the print competition. Or maybe you just get on Jerry for it because you know, I think you know. I don't know if they're doing an award ceremony this year, but how much fun would that be to see that. See that real before the award ceremony starts. Or, you know, maybe in the trade show theater or maybe in one of the big booths like Canon or Nikon. They can, they can play it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, I mean seriously like there should be, especially because it's so related around our lives and our community around Diop PPI and SWPP, which, will you know, I know they'll have a presence at Diop PPI as well. They're always there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And they're good people as well, and you know so. If you have any trouble with that, you need some help with George. Please let me know. I'm happy to pound on his door.
Speaker 3:But yeah, definitely You've got.
Speaker 1:Jerry too. Jerry should be. You know, there should be something, because it's exciting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think. So I think it's a really good, it's a really good prize, I think. And yeah, the fun, it's a fun project. I mean, I've had photographers look at what the other photographers have done and be like, oh, I wish I, I wish I could have done that too, and I'm like, oh well, now you can.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:No, that's great, Instead of just being, you know, and I guarantee you there's going to be one or two people who just blow, blow, blow it out of the water and yeah awesome, cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cool, and we'll put a link to that on our show notes.
Speaker 3:Oh, cool, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, is there any other place where we could see, like plug, where you can see all of this if they don't want to go to the show notes?
Speaker 3:I'm going to put it on my blog. So, julia, bogeocom slash blog, you have to put a link to that in the show. Most people can't spell Bogeo, bo, g, g. Oh Bo G oh and I'll also be putting it on all my social media. So I'm pretty much at Julia Bogeo on most social media, or my name should come up if you put that in.
Speaker 1:So I have one last question. So, tiktok, you're doing really well with TikTok as a. I'm a Gen X, I don't know what you are. You're much on your side.
Speaker 3:Give me some advice on TikTok. Consistency is key, yeah, so I struggled with TikTok for a long time and I was not getting anywhere and then I took a little course on it and she's just like you. Got to do it every day, every day, and I've seen, as time has. I've been doing it now since mid-October every single day and I've definitely seen an uptick in views and engagement and, more importantly, reads of my book. So so, yeah, I can see Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my teenage daughter forbid me for posting on TikTok for the longest time. And this past summer she allowed me to photograph her cheer team, and then we were allowed to make some TikToks together, and the chains are off now as well.
Speaker 3:Oh fantastic, go for it. But again, tiktok, it should be fun. If you're not having fun, then don't do it. You know, I think that's nice yeah cool Jackie, anything else?
Speaker 2:Well, I just wanted to ask you if you do any writing workshops, because I am, like you know, a wannabe novelist, Like I've been working on the same novel for like 10 years and like it's too close to me and so I can't like detach myself or create a character who isn't me, and so I just wonder, like, is that something that you consider doing in the future, or have you like writing workshops to help other?
Speaker 3:frustrated. I haven't thought about. I have thought about doing them myself. I'm not sure that I love teaching in that way, like, even when I was a photographer, I could teach marketing. I enjoyed teaching that, but I hated teaching the photography side because I just did it. You know, I didn't necessarily know how I did it or I just I just did it. But if you're looking for a good writing workshop, there's a. There's a one called Curtis Brown over here. It's run by a company. They are one of the biggest agents in the world and they have loads and loads of online courses that I've. That's actually how I started writing shooters, or how I kind of really ended up making it into something good was was while doing one of those courses. So I would definitely recognize, recommend Curtis Brown or read Z also does courses that are that are really good. But the thing I like about Curtis Brown is the. The sizes of the classes are generally quite small, so you get to know the other people and that's where you will find your beta readers. Oh great.
Speaker 2:Well, I think we'll all have a book in us. Jason and I used to talk about doing a book on WPP. I back in the day.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 2:We're frustrated that we never did it, but we congratulate you on all your success and all the books. It's just so fantastic and, again, I'm just so in awe of you and everything you've accomplished. So thank you for being here.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you for being here. All right, so that'll wrap up the last episode of 2023. Now I'm going to be pressured to put this out pretty quickly, so you're going to see this soon here, this soon, and thank you guys for listening. It's been a great year. I was read like you were saying Julia, like you're taking a break from your podcast Sometimes you need to. This has been a great year for podcasting for me. We've had some great conversations and, like you, who loves the photographers, personalities I love. All of these conversations have been really great. So I'm sorry, I have one last question New Year's resolutions both of you.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I don't know, write more books, Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, Jackie write one book. All right, get my past the chapter. I've had the same chapter for 10 years. Yeah, finish my chapter.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, you and I will have to keep each other. We'll have to stay on each other, because my goal is to work on more personal projects this year, so, let's, let's keep each other going on that. Okay, that's it. Thank you for listening to something new every week. Happy 2024, everyone. It's going to be a great year. We'll see you next year or this year, all right. Bye everyone. Thanks again for tuning into something new every week. I hope you enjoyed this episode and if you do enjoy these episodes, I love it If you hit that subscribe button on. However, you're listening to this again. We want to thank our sponsor, miller's Lab, miller's Labcom Great company. If you're not familiar with them, you should go check them out. Thanks again for tuning into something new every week. We will see you back here next week.