Heroes

Italian.
Ooor maybe pastrami!

Yum.

Wait. I forgot what I was talking about for a second.

Ahhh yes.
Heroes...as in mentors, people you admire.
Fabulous people doing fabulous things.

Before my crazy season began this spring I decided to take some time for myself. Not only invest in me, but my clients and my business. I'm a huge believer in self improvement. I think it's vital for my business to better myself, and find a way to diversify my portfolio by surrounding myself with some amazing people in the photography industry. I wanted to be motivated, inspired and pushed to think beyond my own ideas.

I met with four dynamic people.

Jasmine Star. Jerry Ghionis.  Sandy Puc.  Lawrence Chan.

I thought I would fill you in a little on each of them!

Jasmine*

Her laugh proceeds her. I think it comes from her toes.
Her ability to make you immediately comfortable by quickly going through a list of her own faults - makes her relatable, okay even a little irresistible. She is witty, clever, animated and an extremely hard worker.
Her experience, persona and writing skills set her apart from the average.
She's different.
I like that.

I loved her presentation, her honesty and business skills. If you have a free moment, do yourself a favor and check out her blog! Her photography style has an editorial/fashion edge but I'm sure more then her photography will catch your eye there.

She was worth the travel to CT by car, and then by Ferry. Even with laryngitis and in the snow!

 What was even more fantastic was meeting up with a group of photographer's there who I have become friends with on the awesome photography forum '{B} School'.

Thanks girls for being so super (as J* would say)...fabulous!

Sandy Puc and Jerry Ghionis toured together and presented a fabulous show in NJ.

While Sandy brings her marketing aspect to the table, Jerry brought his idea of seeing things differently.

 Towards the end of the evening Jerry asked the audience to all stand.

'Feet planted firmly on the floor, twist your body to look behind you as far as you can go.'

We all did.

'Remember what you see", he said.

We all came back to the starting position and he said 'now put your hands in the air'.

We did some light stretches (which felt amazing after sitting for over six hours), then he asked us again to twist around.

'Now tell me what you see.'

I'm sure if you were there you would have seen the room illuminated from the light bulbs over every one's head. It was a moment of clarity for each of us. 

That two minutes of exercise gave us the ability (when we turned around again) to see so much further.

Stop what you're doing and try it yourself.

How interesting to see the results so immediately, right?

Now if only dieting could be the same! ; )  

What that showed me was that if you can push yourself just a little bit further,

you have the ability to see a whole new world. 

And last but certainly not least, I had the pleasure of speaking with Lawrence Chan from Tofurious.

We had a one-on-one Skype consultation.

If you know me, you are thinking, 'she did Skype'?!

No need to look out your window, pigs are not flying.

If you are a photographer, I would highly recommend it. 

Check out his site which focuses on everything from album/blog design templates, and branding and marketing strategy. 

Lawrence has the unique ability to draw the essence out of your work (and essentially you) to form your business identity and establish a fantastic branding/marketing approach. Simple really, but quite powerful. I enjoyed his thought process. Instead of just logic, he was interested in the psychology behind it. The 'why'. What makes you, well you? Not only was it informative, it was a huge moment of clarity for me. I know. I'm full of clarity in this blog post! I'm looking forward to letting you all in on the top secret discussion we had regarding some new ideas!

What have you done lately that helped you step up your game? Have you started any new projects?

Have you picked up that book, started that class, or even figured out a new way to organize that closet?

Learning anything new breathes fresh life into the ordinary day to day.

It stretches the imagination, helps you think bigger thoughts and gives a better perspective.

Have a happy weekend!