Latest / the Visual Historian - "A Photographer's Journey" / Story Time: Our Surprise Celebrity Wedding Guest—Bob Carlisle "Butterfly Kisses"

Transcript

Story Time: Our Surprise Celebrity Wedding Guest—Bob Carlisle "Butterfly Kisses" · the Visual Historian - "A Photographer's Journey"

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey you guys, welcome back.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the visual historian I'm kind of.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let this music get in you for a second.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna fade out.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I like positive energy in my day, don't you?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Something to get you a little bit more excited, a little more happy.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have a unique story for you today.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Today it's story time.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have been photographing weddings for the last 32 years, and um man, just when I think I've seen it all, I get shocked, I get impressed, I I I experience something new, um, which is honest to God part of the addiction to photographing weddings.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the simple fact that each wedding is different, you know, the people, the vibe, the locations, the lighting, we don't know what we're gonna capture candid-wise.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're always on our toes for that reason.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the worst thing you can do as a wedding photographer is uh be lazy or let your guard down.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: My cameras are always at my side, like literally, with the um the straps that I wear, and I'm always ready to get the shot.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, legit, it'll take me 1.8 seconds to get the uh camera to my face, or not even to my face.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I could just use the back of the screen these days, so I don't even have to have the camera to my face anymore, which I love, love, love, love, love.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that alone has been life-changing because it allows me to have both my eyes looking around the room as I'm holding my camera aiming forward, and I'm just waiting for something, and all I'm doing is making sure that they're in the frame and that focusing square is gonna be on the face that I want to get, and it's just awesome.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So today's story is very unique.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the bride and her sister actually, um, I've been I've been knowing them since they were kids, and uh photographing them on a grade school level, on a cheer squad, and you know, they're also in the area, so we see them at friendly functions, and they're just fantastic people.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when the last daughter was getting married, the mom, because I went to her house one day just to see the new house, and she was having some renovations done, and um, I always like doing walkthroughs if I can for jobs, and that's for uh commercial events or for weddings, it may be a little bit more difficult, but literally they live less than a mile down the road from me.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I stopped by the house to go see where we are gonna be doing all these images, and I knew the time of day, I could see the sunlight, I can imagine clouds and no clouds, you know, um how much of an external flash am I gonna need depending on the sun?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things, and I'm so, so, so glad I did that because it was great for me um in resting mind mind mode.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can think about what I wanted to do and where, you know, just to kind of preemp a couple of versions of I have an idea kind of thing.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm glad I did that because a couple things that I thought of ahead of time were perfect, like perfect, perfect, perfect.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the mom is telling me as we're walking to the car, she goes, you know, I have a secret to share with you that nobody knows but me.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And now you.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, so please don't let it slip.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, what kind of secret are we talking about here?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, you know that song Butterfly Kisses?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yeah.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: You kidding me?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: When that song was was new, man, it was like for eight years in a row, every bride had that song dancing with her father, or it was just playing at a wedding at one point in time.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like it just carried so much meaning, you know?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh go look it up.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: If by some weird reason you've never heard of this song before, uh go listen to it.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to think of the following things I'm getting ready to explain to you.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: She says, nobody knows about it, but I got in contact with Mr.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Carlisle's agent.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: How how she did this, I didn't even go into detail, but kudos to her.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Kudos, kudos, kudos.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: She had one her planner was a longtime friend of hers, and they just kind of like talked about it, and they just kind of like had an idea, some Google searching.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: How it happened, I couldn't tell you.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But lo and behold, they spoke to his manager and asked, Hey, can we pay you to come f come sing Butterfly Kisses for her daughter's dance with her father at the reception?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: This this one rose to barra, man.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Rose to bar big time.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, first things first, I had a secret I couldn't keep.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't tell anybody.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I did keep it.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't tell anybody.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife knew about it, but that was about it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, didn't even tell my kids about it top of the wedding because I didn't want them to accidentally slip somewhere.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, everybody knows everybody in a small town.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um when the day came and I knew this was gonna happen, you know, the level of preparedness that I wanted to be in my head, it always changes day of the event.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you have an idea where you're gonna put the light, you knew where you were going, but you can't foresee like all of the band lighting, all the LEDs.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't know these things sometimes until the actual day of the event, you know?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when the song was coming on, I kind of forgot about it going up into it, and then I realized, oh crap, that's Mr.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Carlo.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So um, they I believe they announced them.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was not in a panic, but you know, you're rushing for your settings and making sure things are clicking and lights are going off and all that thing.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he comes out.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, it was kind of like not a joke, but her father would play this song every time, every once in a while, like around when the bridal party would get together for an event, and you know, just for whatever reason, and you know, just that huge song that's an emotional tear tug, he would jokingly pull it out of his hat and play it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's like, Oh my god, the wedding's getting so close, you know, that kind of thing.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So when Mr.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Carlisle himself is up on stage, I saw the amount of pride in mom's face.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, dumbfounded was the entire room.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: The entire room.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was ready, and all the imagery that came next was priceless.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Priceless.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was literally after thousands of weddings that I have photographed, this was a first-time moment and a big deal.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: An extremely big deal.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And not because he was a celebrity, um, it was just the simple fact that this was a one-time thing.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they've never met before.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this was all on a whim.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the song plays, and I know in his ears, sometimes singers can't hear the song in real time, kind of thing.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, his nervousness, you know, made the song a tad off, and then he just like magically got on track.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And not that anybody cared, but he was so good.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's his song.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's and dad is grabbing his daughter, he's spinning her, like picking her up and spinning her around.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: These images are beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I am so happy and proud.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, will they go anywhere else beyond her wedding album?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a firm believer that your wedding is about you, it's not about me.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I I'm so proud of this moment, yet I did not abuse the privilege, and I didn't post it more than once.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I just didn't abuse the power, I guess.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always been that way.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I respect people in their positions.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I photographed a lot of celebrities, local celebrities, real celebrities, politicians, um, many people you see on TV.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: I was their guy.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I have never abused the privilege.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I always um respected being their photographer in their pocket, you know, the guy that they can call and rely on.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not the one that goes on Facebook Live and says, guess who's coming to my studio?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's just never been me.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's tacky, it's very tacky.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the difference of other areas of the country um compared to New Orleans, we're so much more laid back, you know?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just an amazing, beautiful moment.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And Mr.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Carlisle says I think he said it before I think I think before he sang the song.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Said he was so proud to be here, that kind of thing.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And oh, by the way, when I wrote the song for my own daughter, her name was also Brooke, which was the bride's name.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Vaclemt, shall we say?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, get you right in the gland area, you know, right in the throat.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was just the coolest thing ever.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was like everything was like meant to be, you know.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's like karma just works, and ironically, that was the band that played the wedding.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Karma played the wedding.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is so cool.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just realizing this.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, y'all.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have so many blessed stories over the years.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I would I would have to deep dive like per cool story.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have to everybody keep saying you need to write a book, and I'm like, yeah, but some stories I need to wait till everybody's dead before I can even release the book.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I sure as heck couldn't use real names.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, so that's that's just very interesting to me.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So just when somebody says, you know, I have a wedding and I talk to the bride, the future bride and her mom about this wedding coming up.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can't help it but have this new raised bar to compare to when somebody says they got something cool that's gonna happen.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know, man.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: That that's tough.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's very tough.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it wasn't just because of the celebrity aspect of it, it's because of the song.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's the kind of song it was made for his daughter, you know, butterfly kisses that night before she goes to bed.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh, gets me every damn time, you know?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what an amazing thing you can do if you try.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the mom didn't have to try, didn't, I mean, you know, we have a lot of ideas that doesn't go beyond personal conversation with the person you're talking to.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: But to have the oomph to try to find the manager, find the number, find an email, you know, and just go.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, the worst thing that could happen, they could say no, you know, but uh he gave them the price, they thought it was reasonable, flew him down, put him in a room.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: He had one song to sing, and he got to uh, you know, enjoy himself.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he did, though, just because of his celebrity ship.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's hard to hang around a wedding and be around people because everybody and their grandma literally is gonna come up to you and talk to you.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that they're being rude, it's just it's tough.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: It can be tough.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't I don't think he he hung around.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: He might have hung around in the green room for a little while and then he was escorted back to his room.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: But um, fantastic human being, down the earth gentleman.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right after the song, he did some pictures that I asked him with, you know, the bride and groom and her family, and you know, that kind of thing.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was it was just the coolest thing to be a part of.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't take weddings lightly anyway, they're already a big deal to me.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you start adding a celebrity or some really cool, unfathomable idea.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, having that responsibility, I do not take lightly.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it does not matter how long I've done this.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in my head, I'm running through all of the checklists, I'm running through all the things that I've gone through in my past that you know I've had experience of things not working, and you gotta adjust on the fly.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I have learned to do those tests before the moment happens.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: That way, if you have to change your flash or your your receiver-sender thingy, the batteries are almost dead, um, you know, you need to make those decisions quicker.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, wedding photography is not boring.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Every wedding has its own thing, every wedding has a time frame.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our New Orleans weddings are quicker than the weddings around the country.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you will listen to this podcast and a cocktail hour is normal for you, and a sit-down dinner is normal for you, that is not what we do.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, cocktail hour, maybe.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe, because that gives us a chance to do family portraits while they're having a cocktail hour.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's distracted and mingling and getting to know each other if the two different sides of the family.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's beautiful.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the sit-down dinner is kind of rare around here.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just not customary.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: We love celebrating life, we love keeping the energy high.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we love creating wedding memories that literally you're gonna talk about for the rest of your life.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: We know this.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not not putting down anybody else's kinds of ceremony.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I mean.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying we go from church, yeah, you're married, people are clapping, they get in the car, they go to the reception.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: We normally go back up church, take care of all the portraits that we need to take care of.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: We get in the lemmo, we zip dity-doo-da over to the reception.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: They usually bring the bride and groom, uh, bring them to the back somewhere, give them a bite to eat, you know, give them 20-25 minutes to chill, refresh your makeup, get a bite to eat so you're not, you know, having this long stint of not eating over the day, and you get ready to go drinking.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we are smarter about that than you've realized.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and then we announce them and party hardy.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it depends on whether you pay for a three or a four-hour reception, but it keeps everyone engaged.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: The amount of energy that happens on our weddings here in New Orleans, I'm so proud to be a part of.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: But, but even though I like the pace at how we do things, it's it could also be, you know, exhausting when it's a lot going on, when it's a huge bridal party, when the time keeps on ticking faster.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I swear it ticks faster when you're when you're busy.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: You blink and it's like, we're ready for cake.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, didn't even shoot the cake yet.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here we go.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: You just work faster, and uh, we don't have a longer length of time to chill.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we get a bite to eat when the bride and groom does, and then the rest of the evening is go, go, go, you know.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, that was my story time for today.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Mr.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Bob Carlisle, I know you're not listening to my my little podcast over here, but uh, you, sir, are a gentleman, you're a kind soul, and everybody, including myself, loves butterfly kisses.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is such a father-to-daughter song that I don't care who the burly dude, muscly guy is.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everybody, you know, could fall to their knees over the um the meaning behind that song and the fact that this beautiful young lady getting married was a small child at one time, and she was yours, and y'all had butterfly kisses or some little routine you did at at night every night, you know?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So cute.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's so damn cute.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, man, do I have so many stories over the decades?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just it's a wonderful life, dude.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I have always appreciated the the photography world, the industry, these moments that I get to take part of and uh share, you know.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just really cool, you guys.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So so listen, if you would like to be a guest on the podcast, um I do have a couple of rules and requirements, okay?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I created this podcast, one to get my own journey out and talk to my people of the past, the future, and my fellow creatives who are also in business.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: If this is you, please know that I want people listening to the podcast that are starting this industry or any kind of creative industry.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think us as working professionals, um, I would just greatly appreciate it if we talk about the journey and you know your own failures and recoveries and how you got to where you are.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there are kids in school, high school, like I remember nobody came to the school talking about photography.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was very difficult for me in the beginning learning this craft until I, you know, found other working photographers and how they were learning, where were they going?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's when it really took off.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, even though I was paying for mentorship, basically, um, it was no different than being in college, you know.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: When we had a seminar and it was four days long and you had to go out of town, that cost you a grand every time you left to go learn, you know, from the hotel stay to room and board, the food, obviously the program you're paying for.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: But as us working creatives are doing what we do, I think it's our obligation to motivate that younger soul um to do this and how to do this, you know.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not everything is easy like going to YouTube and looking it up.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: I can talk to them blue in the face on YouTube.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean what my topics are may actually help somebody go from zero to being in business and learning from there.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people use the word gatekeeping.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's so incorrectly being used, by the way, that word gatekeeping.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's horribly being abused.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not being used correctly, you know.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, you need to understand nobody owes you anything.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and people that are in business don't owe you anything at all.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: We worked hard to get to where we are.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know people way above me, and they won't even give me some ins and outs from time to time.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I know these damn people.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, well, thank you for you know making me your equal competition where I didn't think I was, I thought you were way above me, but apparently I scared you a little because you're not telling me anything new.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's not gatekeeping, okay?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's protecting your livelihood.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh businesses don't tell other businesses in the same industry their secrets or their secret sauce or how they manage their clients or who's their tax person that helps them with the code they weren't even aware of.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody owes anything to anybody.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's business to business, that's business to consumer, and it sure as heck is not newbie to pro.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So when you do come across somebody with the knowledge that is willing to share a portion of their journey, I know from experience that that portion could be life changing to the person thinking or needing some advice, or needed that push, or needed some help.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: They just can't find it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Anywhere else.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean they're gonna be your competition.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're afraid of competition, then you shouldn't be in business because that's what you're ready to do.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're by being in business, you're in the fight, man.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the flipping fight.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And what you're fighting for is your own existence, your own bubble.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, here in New Orleans, they there are a couple hundred photographers, easily.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm being generous by saying a couple.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a lot.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many opportunities to hire the new guy, the middle guy, the seriously expensive dude.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, there's so many options.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: I personally think it is your business journey.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Just getting yourself in front of people, staying relevant, respect your own circle, respect your people.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Love, man.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Love everybody who is even considering paying you for a service.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't even just about photography.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is every creative person out there.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: When somebody chooses you, I really hope you're giving it your all.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I really hope they only experience the best version of you.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is what they deserve to receive.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: When somebody pays, I don't care if it's a dollar or it's a million dollars.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Money is money.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: A money transaction, I think, deserves respect on both sides.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're gonna be a guest on this podcast, I would love to have you here.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a good friend of mine is a local DJ.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not the kind of DJ you're thinking of.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: The kind of events this guy does is um totally cool.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's a new concept that he is doing.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that I want him, I want to get him on.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want to advertise him.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I do want to show him off, but his journey is a great story to share.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I love this dude.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's a family man, he tries just as hard, he markets just as hard, you know, he does all of the things, and that is one thing I respect when I have a guest to share with you, it's because they're part of a journey that I think is shareable.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um am I trying to create another photographer to be my exact rival?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's nearly impossible, you know.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I have you know John Smith over here, you know, out the gate, somebody can be freaking fantastic, but doesn't know how to get in front of people.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know, I know existing photographers right now who are really good photographers, but they suck at marketing.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Suck.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like horribly, horribly bad.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all part of who we are these days.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're me doing this for 32 years, and I'm still no, luckily, I grew up on computers, you know, not like my kids did, like grew up on computers.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you do some research and you go back to the Atari days when it was new and Packard Bell and Dell Computers and IBM Computers, and the first time we could buy a book of programming code and spend half a day typing in these 12 pages that's supposed to make this game work create it, create a game on your own computer, and uh it doesn't because you mistyped three characters that you can't find.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: God, that was annoying.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we would delete the whole thing and start all over again.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh my god, we just spent an hour and a half.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: My buddy would read it, I would type it, or vice versa, and it never fails.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: We could not get this darn game to load, it just wouldn't work, and we could not easily find the code that apparently we missed a character or two or a spacing.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have a written code, you know what I'm talking about.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: All the character language needs to be cohesive, it's the way computers be computers, you know.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, I would love to have somebody, a fellow creative person in business, um, come share their journey over here.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter what you do, you know.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I got friends who are florists, they're wedding planners, event planners, commercial people, you know, DJs, artists, you know, painters, live painters for jobs.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I have everybody on the show because the craft that they're doing it it's separate from the business.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: The business journey tends to be a lot alike.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're all in the same time frame right now.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's 2026.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: September of 2026, and YouTube is still a thing, TikTok is definitely a thing.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many multimedia ways that you can be in front of people, and getting lost in translation is is very easy, to be honest.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the person that thinks, oh, if I have a lot of likes, if I have a lot of you know, hearts and likes and views, and I can be in business.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, if you had a million likes on something, and 998,000 of those likes were not even local people, there would never be an actual client of yours, then all it is is exposure.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're actually not reaching people who could actually pay for your services.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if you go to my socials, you'll see that I do not have tens of thousands of likes and followers and all that thing.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when I do a post and it says my post reached 1200 people, well, that's like 800 local people.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because my hashtags and my post and reach my Facebook marketing is to the same region that I'm in.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I care more about real people than I do a million likes that gets me nowhere, you know.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you're thinking, oh, but if you had a million views on YouTube, you can make so much money.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, you really can't.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: The percentage of what you make is ridiculously small.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: So as far as earning a living off of your likes, um, if you're not doing any kind of selling of products or um even the affiliate marketing, when somebody says, I have a link below, please use it.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta understand something.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, use the damn link, okay?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the person that has the link may earn a dollar from that transaction.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like it is create content creators are strongly being abused, and nobody's talking about it because nobody wants to get on anybody's bad side, they want to earn the money, they want to earn the business from these third-party companies who are putting ads on your socials, but the only people winning at this are those businesses with the ads.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about it, they're getting ads in front of your followers, your social content strategy.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and all it is, it just needs to be visible.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even have to be a press the button and go buy the product, it just needs visibility.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: So when they see it somewhere enough times, somebody's gonna press that button.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's gonna tell 10 of their friends, they know this, they're paying for exposure.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: So on my YouTube channel, I have ad campaigns monetized.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: I have it turned off right now.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Off.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: I have uh 400 plus videos out there.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I tell you, I think I've made less than 200 over the past five years.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's that's ridiculous.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And all it's doing is helping the businesses.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I turned it off completely.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: So when you watch my videos from here on out, um, there are no interruptions from ads that you gotta go ahead and wait for the uh 10 seconds to go by and then you can click next or skip.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no more, no more from me.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: If uh if businesses want to do any campaign work on my channel, they can contact me directly and I have a price for you.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: But no, the ads campaign is turned off.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, you guys have a fantastic day.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.