Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Jim Holling and I actually have two businesses one a sports photography business, dl Action Sports, and another more mainstream photography business, jimhollingcom Jim Holling Photography, and that encompasses anything except large weddings. That's the one thing that I don't embrace and do, and a lot of pressure, a lot of stress with larger weddings, but whether it's business events, headshots, bar mitzvahs I was shooting the marathon here in DC a couple weeks, which one? The Marine Corps Marathon.

Speaker 2: 1:04

Okay, that's a big one.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Yeah, that's a lot of runners. So anything though, except large weddings, I love doing the smaller, intimate weddings. Elopements, yes, yes. Surprise engagements are always fantastic, I love doing the smaller intimate weddings, elopements, yes, yes, surprise engagements are always fantastic, especially because you're almost, you know, guerrilla style, where you're popping out of the bush and they're like, what is this person doing? And to get focus on her, I mean, some photographers focus on the guy. No, they're not the important part of that discussion.

Speaker 2: 1:33

I love that I was like man that you can recognize that.

Speaker 1: 1:36

It's like you want her expression. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2: 1:38

I love that. I'd like to ask you about your background and how you got started and what led you to where you are today.

Speaker 1: 1:45

It's kind of an interesting thing. I was a photographer for my college newspaper back many, many years ago, and I was in television for about 25 years, really creating powerful stories with lens. It was always 30 seconds. At a time, though, I was a promotion director at various TV stations across the country Fix the ratings and move on to the next, so my resume really looks like a roadmap for the United States. And how this became much more of a career than a hobby is that one of my sons was playing high school baseball.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:19

And I had already just done the iPad app, the game changer, the scorekeeping app, and the coach says okay, who's going to do the iPad app? And I said well, I'll do it. And another parent said no, I'll do it. And the coach is like I've seen this before Flip a coin, I lost.

Speaker 2: 2:35

I lost.

Speaker 1: 2:36

I lost. And he said well, mr Holland, we know you take photos, do you want to be the photographer? And this was back in like 2016. And it just one thing led to another. Then all the other sports at the school said oh well, how come you're doing it for only the baseball team? You want to do it for us? And then was fortunate to be hired by Navy to shoot a few games and Virginia Tech when they were playing basketball in the Sweet 16 at Capital One Arena. And it's really the sports thing, really blossomed. There's just not a lot of money in sports photography. Every parent thinks they can do it better. They say, oh, what kind of camera do you have?

Speaker 2: 3:13

And it's not the camera.

Speaker 1: 3:15

You have to know how to shoot and you have to know the game. So it really kind of made the transition into the other business, jimhollingcom, much more general. I like to call it lifestyle photography Anything from corporate events, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties. I had three shoots this past Saturday, which was a very long day. I'm sure we know about that, yeah, and you're just like you get home at night you're like, okay, I don't want to look at my camera tomorrow.

Speaker 2: 3:46

I'm done.

Speaker 1: 3:46

But then you have to start editing all the pictures.

Speaker 2: 3:48

Oh yes.

Speaker 1: 3:50

But no, that's so. I've been doing this now for eight, almost nine years. Okay, love it. And what started out as kind of a side hustle, if you will, has really become much more mainstream. I'm like, okay, there's a there there, as you build your brand. And when I started doing photography and it started with the sports photography I made every mistake you can ever make. Camera was on auto setting or it was on the sports setting, and a real photographer came up to me and said okay, well, what's your ISO, what's your shutter speed? I don't know. And so I learned real quick, like, okay, if you're going to do this, you've got to figure it out. And what are you trying to achieve in every shot? So, in my mind, when I'm shooting something, whether it's headshots or in an event or sports, what do you want that end shot to look like? And you're adjusting all your settings, the lighting and everything else to do that?

Speaker 2: 4:47

Yeah, no, that. Everybody starts out that way. So it's all about finding you know what your niche is, your brand, what style you want to shoot, what are the type of events and things that you want to do, what makes you kind of stand out as well, too, right, right, I'd like to know, as far as branding and, I guess, marketing for yourself goes, what are some of the things that you're doing to get your name out there?

Speaker 1: 5:13

You know, I mean, I think it's trial and error on a lot of this stuff. I use some of the lead services like a Thumbtack and that kind of stuff, and it's okay. They've changed their pricing quite a bit over the years and some SEOs, some Google keywords somehow I've gotten tied in with a very good group of people for bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs and that's keeping me quite busy. On the weekends, nice and corporate events repeat hires. So again, I don't know if I have any great wisdom to say oh, this is the way everyone should do it, because we're always looking for more customers and more clients.

Speaker 1: 5:51

And I think it's much easier to retain a client than to find a new one.

Speaker 2: 5:58

That's right.

Speaker 1: 6:00

And to build your brand and do what you say. Say what you do. That's right.

Speaker 2: 6:04

And provide.

Speaker 1: 6:05

You know, I think, what separates me. There are a lot of great photographers out there. There is no doubt there's no shortage of people that can do some really great things. I think some of the things that separate me personality style being able to go into any situation, whether it's talking to C-suite people at a Fortune 500 company or the little girl who's got a one-year-old birthday party or something, and you've got to be able to adjust to the setting yes, make the people feel very much at ease.

Speaker 2: 6:34

Reading the room.

Speaker 1: 6:34

yeah, yes, and because if they're uptight, the pictures are going to show, it'll show.

Speaker 2: 6:40

Yeah, yeah, no, that's a good point that you make there. You definitely got to be a people person sometimes and know when to dial it back or when to turn it up.

Speaker 1: 6:51

And a lot of the issues. We're not Annie Leibovitz, we're not cover of the Rolling Stone or anything like that. They want to capture once-in-a-lifetime moments. I mean, if I was doing a bar mitzvah on Saturday afternoon, you have to catch the horror where they lift the young man or the young lady up in the chair. You miss that shot, you're not going to get invited back.

Speaker 2: 7:13

Yeah, no, so you know, you know Okay.

Speaker 1: 7:16

And you work with the team that's there as well and reading the room and really try to anticipate what the conditions are going to be at any shoot. So I try to do pre-site surveys for events and I definitely have my some of my more favorite you know venues and others like oh okay, that room is dark or it's horrible lighting.

Speaker 2: 7:40

I can make it work, but it's not my favorite. Got it? And speaking of a team, do you have a team with you or are you solo?

Speaker 1: 7:46

Just me. On several occasions you know I was doing some stuff for JDRF and all they shoot so like the estate games and we need to hire in extra help because it's maybe 30 different sports and 30 different things going on during the day. I've done some stuff down in Capitol Hill where they both want both video of the proceeding and images and I have found, if you try to do both, you do neither. Well, I mean, know your limitations, know the expectations of the client and if you need help, bring it in.

Speaker 2: 8:22

Love it, yeah. And then when you started your business, was it something where you were like, okay, I'm going to need a little bit of help, or did you figure it out on your own? Did you have maybe like a mentor or a coach?

Speaker 1: 8:35

I mean, I've done a lot of. You know I knew the basics of shooting. I've gone through a lot of online courses and a lot of asking other successful photographers. Okay, from a, what platform are you using for all of your images? I use Zenfolio and it's really Zenfolio or Smug seem to be the two predominant ones for photographers. What's your pricing model? And you know how do you monetize this. If you're going to spend X amount of time doing it, you want to be able to make it worthwhile your effort.

Speaker 1: 9:19

And I think I've had some great corporate clients. They look at me like your rates are too low. I said okay, you can pay me more.

Speaker 2: 9:26

Do you want me to test that out yourself?

Speaker 1: 9:29

You can please pay me more, that's good. Yeah, no, that's funny, so I was saying think, over the last couple of years, though, you learn the equilibrium. There was one photographer that I work with quite a bit, and this person raised their rates and the price themselves out of a number of jobs, and so it's a real fine line of what you're trying to do Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 9:49

It's just like figuring it all out and seeing what works or what.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Right, how much pushback do you get? And you know some people are just care about price. They're not interested in your style or the quality or anything like that. They just want bottom line, how much you're going to cost, and they're just going to be looking for somebody. I had a potential client last week. Somebody came in like a minuscule amount less. Well, they took that person just because it was a few dollars less. I'm like okay is what it is.

Speaker 2: 10:21

Yeah, that's how it goes sometimes. You just gotta keep on going, right yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:26

But it's always enjoyable to meet people and to hear their stories and what they're trying to capture, whether it's an event or for a headshot session. Okay, what are you going to use these for? Are we trying to replicate a look of a client? You know what you know and everyone everyone has a great story and it's really making them feel at ease, an important part of the equation and the conversation, and I think the results hopefully knock on wood. Knock on wood.

Speaker 2: 11:00

Yeah, it's real wood.

Speaker 1: 11:01

So we did good there.

Speaker 2: 11:02

Yeah, very good hopefully not gonna work. Yeah, it's real wood. So yeah, there you go. Okay, love it. And what do you think keeps you like driven to keep going and learning and keep your passion ignited?

Speaker 1: 11:13

you know that that's interesting. I love the uh capturing once-in-a-lifetime memories. I did a shoot probably three years ago and it was either right before COVID or right during COVID Family reunion. They hadn't gotten together forever and the patriarch or the matriarch of the family passed away a year later, but we were able to capture those images and those images will be with that family for generations to come.

Speaker 1: 11:44

And it's like, okay, everybody talks about building your own legacy and what do you want to be remembered for? And I really kind of like the idea of preserving family history for other families and really being able to provide a service that they're going to look back five, 10, 20 years from now and they're going to be. Yeah, I'm so glad we hired a photographer. They captured the right moment, they captured everyone and look, there is your great grandfather or your whoever it may be, and you'd be able to document a little bit of history.

Speaker 2: 12:16

Oh, absolutely, yeah, I totally can relate to that, because I feel like I don't have many pictures of my great grandfather barely any of my grandmother and I know that I definitely want to make sure that I'm able to capture that, or somebody can capture that for me, because I can't.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Well, and that was the reason I got into sports photography so early on I played sports growing up. I wasn't the fastest, the tallest or anything. And right during the middle of COVID I was scanning all of my old family photos and there was one shot of me ever playing a baseball game and nothing. So I said when our kids were playing sports I was going to be able to capture those moments. And now they can look back and I've shot thousands of athletes here in the Northern Virginia area and they come back year after year and say, mr Holling, thank you very much, man, this is so great and you know, they've got something that they can show their kids eventually. So I mean, hey, dad was really kind of a stud in high school, beautiful.

Speaker 2: 13:19

And then do you have, like I guess, your studio and you do on location. Obviously, Talk to me about your studio. What's the aesthetic or the vibe?

Speaker 1: 13:26

Well, it's interesting as you start into this venturing down, do you do the cash outlay into a studio and you rent a space. We are very fortunate that we live in a large house that has a very nice, open, large basement Beautiful that we've turned into a studio. So there's not that overhead every month where you're just passing that cost on to your clients. So for headshot sessions especially, we can keep that investment at a very affordable price point for people and it's easy for me since I know the exact setup.

Speaker 2: 14:09

Yes, right back. Just got to go upstairs and get this product.

Speaker 1: 14:11

Well, I mean, and it's very easy to do.

Speaker 2: 14:14

I love that. Have you ever thought, maybe like expanding, or do you like?

Speaker 1: 14:19

It really kind of depends. I'd say, in the next year or two that's going to be the big question of right, do I rent the studio space? I think my business model I would have to focus in much more on say, okay, I'm going to be the headshot person or I'm going to be the whatever you know specialty, and hone in on that. And right now, as I might have mentioned, I do all types of shoots. Right now, the only thing I don't do are large weddings.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Large weddings I'll do small intimate ones Great. But the larger ones now.

Speaker 1: 14:53

I mean, they pay very well, but the stress level and dealing with brides who might be having meltdowns, bridesillas.

Speaker 2: 15:00

Infamous bridesillas. Yeah, no, I wouldn't do that either.

Speaker 1: 15:04

No, my weekends are valuable and I'm just like that would be tough.

Speaker 2: 15:10

Oh yeah, and I love that you can say that with confidence, like that's not for me, right, and some people try to do everything and try to appease everything. But you got to know your limits because if you're not happy that it's going to show right, you're not going to be happy and there are some phenomenal photographers out there.

Speaker 1: 15:24

I, you know, I I search all of the uh photographers in the northern virginia, the dmv, and say, wow, that's a really great shot. Or you know, how did they do that kind of stuff? Yeah, I think we're always learning yes, we are um, whether it's different styles, different settings, like oh. I'd like to replicate that.

Speaker 2: 15:42

Yeah, personally, what's your style? Because I know it's hard to be like. What is your style? Because you don't stick to one style. It depends on the client. It's kind of a collaboration right Right. But personally, when it comes to your work that you do for yourself, what is your style like?

Speaker 1: 16:04

You know, for clients and I build myself as a lifestyle photojournalist kind of stuff. It's capturing the event. I love time lapse. I don't do it nearly as much as I could and should, but I was out, we were doing some work for Google. This is about four years ago Out in Mountain View and we were done by like 3, 3.30. And it was a beautiful sunny day. So I said I'm going to the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge and it's the quintessential shot. Everyone who has ever gone to San Francisco drives around to the north side of the bridge and looking back to the city and I'm doing some time-lapse exposures up there and I'm like, oh, it's a beautiful night and it's a very sunny day, there's no clouds. I get it back home and I'm playing around with it in post-production and I see all these streaks in the sky. I'm like, didn't I clean the lens?

Speaker 1: 16:48

And then I'm like wait a minute, star trails. You never see stars above San Francisco. But I'm the worst at editing. I've taken about 1.5 million shots in the last eight years. I have two of them that are printed and hung in the house, one of Monument Valley in Arizona and the other is of the Golden Gate Bridge. On that night that I was up there and it took me about a year of editing because I was just so painstakingly Perfectionist. Anal retentive or something.

Speaker 2: 17:18

Yeah, that's okay. I'm like that too sometimes when I edit.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Okay, no, it could be better, yeah, and then we printed it on acrylic and just nice, and it's like okay.

Speaker 2: 17:28

Very artistic. Yes, I love it yes. Okay, very nice. What are some insights or tips that you could give to other entrepreneurs? Maybe some struggles that you've been through and you've overcome, or a lesson that you learned that made me like you know what. Let me pass this along.

Speaker 1: 17:42

I think that getting your name out there and starting to build your brand and your business and I started this as a side hustle, if you will it wasn't going jumping off the deep end and you've got a mortgage and a car payment and you build your business brick by brick and just know you're going to make mistakes. I remember the first client that I ever did a paid shoot for. I'm embarrassed of the shots that I did for him.

Speaker 1: 18:08

And I felt like, oh my gosh, I didn't do a good job on that one. I just think that have a plan, be prepared to make mistakes, own up, own it. And if I make a mistake on a shoot, own up, own it. And if I make a mistake on a shoot, if you're going between all the different settings, just say timeout, can we redo that shot again?

Speaker 2: 18:29

Yes.

Speaker 1: 18:29

And just because you don't want to not do the shot.

Speaker 2: 18:32

Keep going and then it's like it's going to get worse Right, like it's where's that shot? So it's better to just own up to it. I agree with that. Be like hold on, wait, let me get that, and that way you get that shot right.

Speaker 1: 18:43

And I think you can't be everything to every person.

Speaker 2: 18:46

Yes.

Speaker 1: 18:46

Know what your focus is, and I think that a lot of businesses and I equate it to a restaurant business, where they serve everything, instead of they are the burger joint or they're the this or the this, they've got everything Know what you want to excel at doing and what you're comfortable, confident and good at doing. Yes, and just go, go for it and beat down the doors and you're in sales. If you're the owner of a local small business, whether it's one person, two people, you're the front-facing person of that company. So you've got to be able to do sales, you've got to be able to do the product, you've got to be able to do billing.

Speaker 2: 19:31

Oversee the employees, all that.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Well, yeah, and I had a case recently where somebody called me up and said why is this charge on my credit card? I said, well, that's kind of strange and it was a fraudulent credit card. Oh, no, and it's still ongoing court case and somebody had stolen a credit card.

Speaker 2: 19:51

Oh, my goodness. So you learn a little bit of everything, a lot of things, yeah, oh, my goodness Now, yeah, you can say that again Always learning.

Speaker 1: 20:00

Every day there's a new surprise, it's like what, and then we just yeah, but it's good and I think that the joy for me is meeting people, and I think back to and the referrals and they come back a year later. Oh, jim, this is so good and you know we want you to do, you know, our five-year-old's party, or we want you to do the next person in line for the celebration or a family photo shoot or something.

Speaker 1: 20:25

I still do a little sports? You should. It's fun to do. It's a lot of work. As I try to tell parents, it takes me eight hours to do one game. Holy moly. From the time you start the car, drive to the stadium, shoot the game, which is a two or three-hour game, download all the images, edit all the images and then Call through them. Well, we post them and then each player on every team has their own folder.

Speaker 2: 20:50

Oh, wow. So little Johnny has every and you want to get everybody.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Yes.

Speaker 2: 20:56

Wow I never think about that. I'm just like, okay, you just get that wide shot of everyone, but you kind of got to get those close-ups too and action.

Speaker 1: 21:05

Well, a couple of teams that I cover. There's a couple of players that are really good and they're going to get the majority of the images, but what about everybody else on the? If it's football, the guys who are in the offensive line and it's hard to get them from the sideline?

Speaker 2: 21:18

Yes.

Speaker 1: 21:19

They are just. They're a very valuable member of the team as well and you want to get all the cheerleaders and the coaches and the managers. And your job is to capture that once in a moment. Yes, Experience For sure Again, so they can come back 10 years, 20 years from now and say look, your dad, your mom was look what I did I scored that goal Me. You see that? Yes, here's the proof. Yep.

Speaker 2: 21:46

You got this. I love it. No, that's awesome. The fact that you can capture those moments like that takes talent too, because, like you've got to be Speedy Gonzalez in that Well, and you have to understand the game a little bit too.

Speaker 1: 22:07

I've almost been plowed into a number. I'm just both on football for you, oh my God.

Speaker 2: 22:10

And these guys are going just breakneck speed and I'm very good at knowing when to nope, it's not worth it.

Speaker 1: 22:13

Right, it's like there's this article coming. What's happening?

Speaker 2: 22:15

They've got all their football pads on and like and you're all there like just Yep. Oh, my goodness, wear your helmet. I'm just kidding, whatever.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Not whatever, but I kidding, whatever, not whatever. But I mean, like, whatever you want to do, do I? I do have a uh photographer that I've uh, that I know, and when he's shooting baseball games he's wearing a baseball helmet. I don't blame him okay, I've never done that and I've almost been hit with a ball a few times.

Speaker 2: 22:36

But I look the helmet looks dorky. But like safety first, y''all Right.

Speaker 1: 22:43

And I think that's where you learn. What do you want that shot to be? So I know if I'm going to shoot a baseball game. Okay, now where do you position yourself? Because you need to get the batter, you need to get the pitcher, you need to get the play in the field. You can't be everywhere all at once, no. So you, strategically, are on the first base or third base side, depending on you, know the team you're covering and if there's a left-handed hitter or a right-handed hitter, Wow, there's so many things you got to think about.

Speaker 1: 23:16

The greatest shots for baseball is like when there's a batter at the plate and you. My dream shot is you want to get the precise millisecond of when the ball is hitting the bat, but you don't want it blurred, so I'm shooting maybe one, five thousandth of a second. I mean real high speed. Yeah, when you're shooting the pitcher, you want it to be able to see this.

Speaker 1: 23:36

You know of when they're throwing it and the seams and it's great to be able to see the writing on the baseball. And again, you just so you know what shutter speed and what settings you want to be able to do, and that's just many of the parents or people who are just out there shooting, they put it on auto or sports setting and I'm like, that's not.

Speaker 1: 24:00

I started doing that because you didn't know any better, until you really start to learn the craft, and I learned early on. It's like whatever you want to shoot, learn how to be the best at shooting that. Whether it's shooting the monuments in DC great, learn how to do that better than anybody else. You don't need the most expensive gear to do it, but you do need a passion to do it, because you're going to be out there quite a bit, yeah, and you want to get out there and do your best, so you have to learn how to do it.

Speaker 2: 24:34

Yeah, no, absolutely. That is everything You've got to know how to find your niche. And when you do find it, know everything you absolutely can, like you said, like the settings, what's going to work best. Do you need to bump up your ISO? Is it super dark in there, like all those good stuff of whatever you're going to be doing?

Speaker 1: 24:48

And it's been fascinating the advancement of the cell phone over the years.

Speaker 2: 24:54

Oh my goodness, yes.

Speaker 1: 24:59

And a common question is well, our cell phone is going to put you out of business and it's like, no, it's just going to change the business. There are certain things that I will be able to capture, and I shoot with Nikon. Me too, I have a Z9, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 25:11

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1: 25:12

Oh, I was down shooting the James Madison Florida State baseball series a year and a half ago and the guy shooting for Florida State had two Z9s.

Speaker 2: 25:21

Two okay.

Speaker 1: 25:22

And I'm shooting with a D500.

Speaker 2: 25:26

And he says you want to try it out? Game changer, Look, I need one, oh yeah. I have a D750.

Speaker 1: 25:31

Yeah, and this thing can shoot up to. If you're shooting JPEG can shoot up to 120 images a second.

Speaker 2: 25:39

Game changer.

Speaker 1: 25:42

Oh, it's amazing how many better shots you're getting.

Speaker 2: 25:44

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 25:44

yes, but you know I shoot raw because a lot of the whether it's a high school, gymnasium or a football field, they're not lit very well.

Speaker 2: 25:53

So you need to be able to edit that.

Speaker 1: 25:55

Yeah, right, because your ISO gets cranked up. Yeah, and that's where a cell phone really can't do that. That's where a cell phone really can't do that, and a lot of people. If you're shooting a party, if we've got the cell phones out, it just changes what we have to do. Yes, Rather than I mean, I love that people are capturing images Now when they start to get in the way a little bit.

Speaker 2: 26:21

Pardon, I thought the DSLR, the mirrorless camera here worked out.

Speaker 1: 26:24

But I love it. I had a shoot a couple weeks ago with a young man. He was probably seven or eight, wanted to be a photographer.

Speaker 2: 26:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:33

He was following in my footsteps all day with his little cell phone camera. I mean, it was very cute, that's adorable, until we're doing the horror, and it's like all right mom, I might step on him. I need to get this shot.

Speaker 2: 26:47

I'm on job here.

Speaker 1: 26:49

Yeah, okay, but I think it is interesting that the advancements of the cell phone I love. When I go on vacation, I don't take my camera with me. So for the last two years we've taken a couple of trips to Europe. My camera stays at home and I capture it just on my iPhone and I run it through my Adobe product images and it's fine. It's capturing memories that we'll have. So, no, I think it's a great augmentation to what we do.

Speaker 2: 27:20

It will change the game, but I don't think it's the same as a camera.

Speaker 2: 27:22

I can clearly see the difference, at least to me, and I know when the cell phone takes it, it kind of like auto does something to it, it looks a little bit wonky or funny, like it looks good, but it looks kind of too AI-ed, which I don't mind AI, but like, if I want to take a picture, I don't want it to look like it was AI-ed, I want it to look like I took it and somebody knows what they're doing.

Speaker 1: 27:42

And I think some of the post-production software has really radically improved. I mean, I use for a lot of the shoots, I use Lightroom, adobe, lightroom, me too, and I'm not good at Photoshop.

Speaker 2: 27:55

I don't pretend to be good at Photoshop.

Speaker 1: 27:57

They are, I'm not. Yeah, yeah. And again, knowing your skill set and your strengths and some of the advancements that Lightroom has done with the denoise function, now you can take that over the top, but when I'm shooting, sports or something, or in very low light conditions.

Speaker 2: 28:17

okay, this is pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty nice. Exactly, I have to agree with that. I would like to ask have I touched on everything that you want to talk about? Maybe there's something that I have not touched on, whether it's about yourself, your business or maybe something else. You have the floor.

Speaker 1: 28:34

I think that my long-term goal for the business is to keep doing what I'm doing, maybe expand into other areas or specialize. Whether it's learning how to get the brand out there a little bit more is probably something I need to focus on. A lot of it has been through some of these paid service leads. You know that that could be a whole hour-long discussion right there. Referrals. But referrals are fine, but I think it's getting.

Speaker 2: 29:09

You can always reach more.

Speaker 1: 29:10

Right, right, and I think that's where some of the things that I, as a business owner, you've got to figure out and determine what's the best way to get new customers in the door.

Speaker 1: 29:21

Yes way to get new customers in the door. Yes, and once you get new customers in the door, as I said earlier, it's easy to retain them and get repeat business based upon your service. Yeah, and you always want good reviews. That's right. You want to provide outstanding service and quality. You don't want to be that person. I'll never hire that person again.

Speaker 2: 29:42

No, no Nightmare literally.

Speaker 1: 29:44

Yeah, and you hear about them every now and then.

Speaker 2: 29:45

Yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 29:47

Which is unfortunate.

Speaker 2: 29:48

Yes, it's part of life, though Can't please everybody as much as you try yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:51

And I think that we're very. You know, the businesses kind of goes up and down. There's some real peak season and then there's a couple weeks where you won't have anything, which is probably good.

Speaker 2: 30:07

After last saturday, when I had three shoots in one day, you're like okay, how my brain no that's totally relatable like sometimes you need to recharge and get back to your creative space.

Speaker 1: 30:15

But in order to do that, sometimes you do need to recharge, because if you're doing it back to back and you like burn yourself out, like, that does affect with like anything right in life and you feel, on the third shoot I was doing and it was, it was, it was a uh anniversary and I could just tell internally like, okay, you're, you're winding down, you're running on fumes here, so and you don't. I try not to schedule more than one shoot in a day and it was just the way it worked out that the in the final one was a repeat customer it's. I've done a lot of great work with this family and friends. I said, okay, I can do it.

Speaker 2: 30:48

Yeah, you've got the long-term special. I got you. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, okay, cool, all right. My final question is going to be one that I like to ask everybody when they come on here Uh-oh, do you have a quote or a saying that has inspired you or touched you in any way that maybe you would like to share with our listeners?

Speaker 1: 31:10

Oh, a quote, Maybe a song lyric, anything really, I think, from. I'll give you two From a. As my wife said, I can quote old movie lines forever. That's cool. It's like you can't remember to take the trash out.

Speaker 1: 31:25

But you can remember this and a song comes on the radio it's like oh, that came out in this year. She says you can't remember to do this, but you can remember that kind of stuff. But I think that you know I was doing a shoot back and this is back in Nashville, back maybe 25, 30 years ago, with a five-time Arabettex champion and just phenomenal, most fascinating 35 minutes I'd ever spent with this individual. And he says all you have you know. He said that talent is a relatively cheap commodity. You need focus and attention to be the best and I think that's where everyone. There's a lot of talented people, but how do you take your skills and your business to the next level?

Speaker 1: 32:15

You've got to be willing to sacrifice and put in the time and the effort to take it to it, Because I see there's a lot of great photographers out there, but how are they? And for any business owner, there may be a great chef, there may be a great you know whatever Remodeling home Right. Yeah, but all you have is time and energy. But yeah, I mean, I think that's one that always sticks with me. That you know you can really control your destiny on. You know working smarter and moving forward.

Speaker 2: 32:50

Yes, and then you know just continually.

Speaker 1: 32:54

What I try to do is just, you know, capture memories that are going to last a lifetime. Yes, and I think that's really just. If there's anything that describes what I try to do, it's capture moments of history that they're going to keep a lifetime. Yes, and I think that's really just. If there's anything that describes what I try to do, it's capture moments of history that they're going to keep for generations to come.

Speaker 2: 33:10

No, yeah, and that is everything. Honestly, to look back and not forget about who they were, what they did, what they did at the time.

Speaker 1: 33:17

Loved ones that may or may not be with them anymore. Yeah, special moments. And again, if the person was important enough to be invited to the event, they're definitely important enough to have their image taken and showcased.

Speaker 2: 33:32

Absolutely. And plus, not only that, you get to bring your family together to like have these moments. Maybe they haven't seen each other in a long time, and this photo shoot is what brought everybody together, so that is powerful in itself, right there.

Speaker 1: 33:44

Oh, without a doubt. And you know, as we all learned four years ago, you know we don't know when the next time we're all going to get together.

Speaker 2: 33:53

And you know you want to have those.

Speaker 1: 33:56

Yeah, unfortunately, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:58

Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 34:00

Thank you, I appreciate it. It was a pleasure.

Speaker 2: 34:02

Same and where can everybody find you?

Speaker 1: 34:04

Two different websites. One, jimhaulingcom. No-transcript.