Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Striving to get to the top - With Wedding Photographer Stuart Wood.

Transcript

Striving to get to the top - With Wedding Photographer Stuart Wood. · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

• 0:00
  Stuart: And I read somewhere, and this is brilliant, I read somewhere, opportunities
• 0:04
  are never foghorns, they're always whispers, and you have to learn to tune
• 0:08
  into those, or they'll go straight above your head, and they're gone, you know?
• 0:14
  Becca: I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert,
• 0:17
  speaker and blogger, and you're listening to the Wedding Pros
• 0:20
  Who Are Ready to Grow podcast.
• 0:22
  I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
• 0:25
  examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
• 0:29
  If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
• 0:33
  and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
• 0:36
  love, then you're in the right place.
• 0:38
  Let's get going with today's episode.
• 0:41
  Today I'm chatting with multi award winning photographer Stuart Wood.
• 0:45
  Stuart is one of the most highly sought after photographers in
• 0:48
  the UK, shooting weddings both nationally and internationally
• 0:51
  in his signature editorial style.
• 0:54
  With a photography career spanning over two and a half decades, Stuart
• 0:57
  has built a career shooting for TV and magazines, capturing weddings
• 1:00
  and educating other photographers.
• 1:02
  I met Stuart at an event a couple of weeks ago, and I just knew you were
• 1:06
  going to love hearing his story.
• 1:08
  So today we're going to deep dive into that.
• 1:10
  Stuart, welcome to the podcast.
• 1:12
  Hello, Becca.
• 1:13
  How are you?
• 1:14
  I am very well.
• 1:15
  I've got a lot of work going on in my house today, so I'm hoping
• 1:18
  that the drilling isn't coming through on the microphone, but
• 1:21
  it is a bit of a wild house here.
• 1:23
  How's everything at your end?
• 1:25
  Stuart: Well, pretty quiet actually.
• 1:26
  We've just come back from a nice little holiday to Berlin, me and my
• 1:29
  wife and a couple of friends, so...
• 1:31
  And we're just getting over that really, all the walking, et cetera.
• 1:34
  So, , so it's quite a quiet house at the moment.
• 1:37
  Becca: Fabulous.
• 1:37
  Well, it's more of a quiet time of year, isn't it?
• 1:39
  I like this time of year when we start having the cozy evenings and
• 1:43
  it starts getting a little bit dark.
• 1:45
  Now, Stuart, I want to get straight in to your career because
• 1:49
  I often think we learn a lot.
• 1:51
  from people by understanding their journey.
• 1:54
  So the first thing I want to chat with you about is how you
• 1:57
  got started in the first place.
• 1:59
  So where did your passion from photography come from first of all, and how did
• 2:04
  you start making that into a career?
• 2:06
  Take us back.
• 2:06
  Stuart: Okay.
• 2:07
  Many, many, many years ago as, as a young boy, I was always fascinated with these
• 2:12
  black objects that clicked and we all had to hold still, you know, and that
• 2:16
  fascination will I'm sure live with me till, , till the very end, you know?
• 2:20
  So I've always had a massive fascination that developed into a passion.
• 2:26
  I started out, I didn't, I wasn't a photographer to start with.
• 2:29
  I had a rather strange journey to get there.
• 2:31
  I was a watchmaker and jewel apprentice to start with.
• 2:34
  That didn't work out.
• 2:35
  Went into supermarkets, Sainsbury's, about to become a manager at Sainsbury's.
• 2:40
  Oh, well, on the trainee management scheme anyway, knowing that would be the
• 2:43
  end of my wonderful hobby and passion because of the time I would have to spend.
• 2:47
  becoming a manager at Sainsbury's.
• 2:49
  So I thought about it, talked to my then girlfriend, who's now my good lady
• 2:52
  wife, sitting in the next room, Liz.
• 2:54
  Talked to my mum and dad then saying, look, you know, as far as we
• 2:57
  know, we get one shot at this life.
• 2:59
  I like working at Sainsbury's, but I've always dreamed about being a photographer.
• 3:02
  I'm going to give it up.
• 3:03
  And so I gave it up, went to Salisbury College, that was one
• 3:07
  of the top three colleges then.
• 3:08
  My manager at Sainsbury's said, you're mad that you're going to make a good manager.
• 3:11
  I said, it might be the worst decision I've ever made.
• 3:13
  But I've got to get this out of my system, and thirty odd years
• 3:16
  on, I'm still going, you know.
• 3:18
  So, I managed to get on a really, really good course.
• 3:20
  Thought I was going to be more of an advertising pack shot type photographer.
• 3:25
  Wasn't working at all.
• 3:26
  My lecturers, who were really great, took me to one side at
• 3:28
  Salisbury and said, No wonder you're being frustrated at the moment.
• 3:32
  You are, this is not you, you are a people person, you know.
• 3:36
  So, armed with that, excuse me, armed with that, Once I've got a fire in my
• 3:40
  belly, one, one good thing about me, and, and I have my faults, but one
• 3:44
  good thing about me is if I've got a, if I've got a vision and a fire
• 3:48
  in my belly, I'll give it everything.
• 3:50
  So armed with that and knowing that people sort of, I suppose feel a little sorry
• 3:54
  for students now and again, although they've always got enough for a pint,
• 3:57
  as we know, I spent the last year and a half writing to 250 celebrities, and I
• 4:03
  got 25 of them, and that changed my life.
• 4:06
  I won.
• 4:07
  The photographer, student photographer of the year award
• 4:10
  at the Photographer Gallery.
• 4:11
  And even as a student, because of what I was doing, I was being commissioned.
• 4:14
  by Country Living, which is a national magazine, you know, so that changed
• 4:17
  my life, you know, and that was great.
• 4:19
  Becca: Wow.
• 4:20
  So you went from supermarket potential manager to photographer.
• 4:24
  I just want to pause there for a moment because we make that sound
• 4:27
  like a really easy transition.
• 4:29
  And I know there's going to be people listening who are thinking I'm stuck in
• 4:32
  this dead end job that I absolutely hate.
• 4:35
  And.
• 4:36
  I feel like I'm not having the time to do my passion, but the thought of
• 4:40
  just making that leap is hugely scary.
• 4:43
  What support did you have in place to make sure, you know, you could
• 4:47
  actually make this change from permanent job to let's go back to college?
• 4:51
  Stuart: Yeah, well...
• 4:53
  Good, good question.
• 4:54
  The support I had was all my family.
• 4:56
  And, and some of, some of whom, the sort of, on the periphery of the family.
• 5:01
  Oh, you'll never do it.
• 5:02
  There's too many photographers.
• 5:03
  Cause you always get the, the, the naysayers and the
• 5:06
  doom merchants, don't you?
• 5:07
  For instance, again, going back to that, that, that project, the 250 celebrities,
• 5:11
  that they, some laughed at me, and said, who's going to say yes to you?
• 5:14
  Well, probably nobody, but it's the price of a stamp.
• 5:16
  So that's always my, my attitude really is like.
• 5:19
  As far as we know, we get one shot at this life, no matter what you believe.
• 5:22
  And I don't want to offend anybody's religion or beliefs or whatever.
• 5:24
  But as far as we know, we, we get one crack at this life.
• 5:28
  Why do you have to do something that you don't want to do?
• 5:31
  Why do you not just do what you want to do as long as you're not harming anyone
• 5:35
  else, of course, you know, and that's kind of my philosophy and that's, and that's.
• 5:40
  Good luck to anyone who does the same, you know?
• 5:42
  So, so, also, I had the, I had the then added benefits of not being married,
• 5:47
  no mortgage, and, and no children.
• 5:50
  You see, so I'm thinking, let, let's give it a go, and let's see what happens.
• 5:54
  It may be get, just a, a case of getting this thing out of my system,
• 5:58
  and then I'll go back to whatever.
• 6:00
  But, , but there we are.
• 6:01
  That, so that was it, really.
• 6:02
  It was a bit of a wing and a prayer, and a hope, and, and,
• 6:05
  and, but like I say, I, I am good.
• 6:08
  at embracing opportunity and I read somewhere, and this is brilliant, I
• 6:12
  read somewhere, opportunities are never foghorns, they're always whispers and
• 6:17
  you have to learn to tune into those or they'll go straight above your head.
• 6:22
  And the gun, you know, and I've always been good at doing that.
• 6:24
  And I always teach that as well.
• 6:25
  When I teach, you know, like you say, I, I teach all the photographers, lighting and
• 6:30
  photography and also the approach as well.
• 6:33
  Becca: Absolutely love that.
• 6:34
  And I love that you just went for it, even though the people around you
• 6:38
  were saying it wasn't going to happen.
• 6:39
  And funnily enough, there's actually some synergy with my own story,
• 6:43
  which you probably don't know.
• 6:44
  So we're going to have a little chit chat about that for a moment,
• 6:46
  because I went into television.
• 6:48
  That was my background, television and radio.
• 6:50
  I studied television at.
• 6:51
  University and I wanted to get into TV and I did a very similar thing to you that
• 6:56
  I just wrote to everyone on the credits of a TV show when everyone told me I was
• 7:00
  crazy to say, can I come and work for you?
• 7:03
  And I got a hundred no's and I always say that you might get a
• 7:06
  hundred no's, but it only takes one.
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  Yes.
• 7:08
  And I got one.
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  Yes.
• 7:09
  That was my first ever job in television.
• 7:11
  So it sounds like you took a similar kind of crazy man approach of like, let's just
• 7:15
  ask the question because you might get a hundred no's, but you might get one.
• 7:19
  Yes.
• 7:20
  So you obviously did get at least one.
• 7:21
  Yes.
• 7:22
  Tell us about what happened.
• 7:23
  Stuart: Well, I got 25 out of the 250, which again, the doom and gloom merchants
• 7:28
  out there would go, that's a 90 percent failure rate, but with that 10 percent
• 7:33
  success, it literally changed my life.
• 7:35
  You know, it gave me some experience that you can't buy because I, I like
• 7:40
  throwing myself in a deep end as well.
• 7:42
  So, I, I'd go and, the first one that I shot was a guy called John Inman,
• 7:46
  who used to be on Are You Being Served?
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  He was at Salisbury, at the Playhouse there, had plenty of time.
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  He gave me two hours, oh, this is great.
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  The next one was Melvin Bragg, from the ITV, from the South Bank Show.
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  And I went all the way down to London, what was it, London Weekend
• 8:00
  Teleport, whatever it was called, South, the South Bank Studios, anyway.
• 8:03
  And his secretary came out and said, we said half an hour, but he's got
• 8:06
  a meeting, you've got ten minutes.
• 8:07
  So I went from this thing going like, this is easy, two hours, to like ten minutes.
• 8:11
  But I, in that ten minutes, I said to myself, Get, get something, you know,
• 8:17
  get, dig deep and get something and I'm there now, sat on the train going back
• 8:20
  to Salisbury, that's, , on that day and they went, the ten minutes went great
• 8:24
  and I got a really nice portrait of him and I'm, , and I remember leaning back
• 8:28
  in the seat thinking, this is what I want to do now, it's, I love the buzz, I love
• 8:33
  the, , the adrenaline flow, you know, and moving on many years, you know, I've shot
• 8:37
  Radio Times covers and things like that and, sometimes you'll get two minutes to
• 8:42
  get a cover and you, and the adrenaline's flowing and all the rest of it.
• 8:47
  But I do like this.
• 8:48
  Apparently it's not very good for you that, but I do like
• 8:50
  that buzz that it gives you.
• 8:51
  Yeah.
• 8:52
  So, so I got a bit hooked on that.
• 8:54
  Becca: Yeah, I totally understand that.
• 8:55
  Again, working in TV, there is nothing more exciting than
• 8:58
  working on a live TV set.
• 9:00
  Incredibly stressful, but you learn so much.
• 9:03
  So you graduated from college, you'd done your photography thing, you'd
• 9:06
  started working with these celebrities.
• 9:08
  So, how did you make your first money?
• 9:10
  Was it in the media world?
• 9:13
  Stuart: Yes, because I always did weddings.
• 9:15
  Because as soon as I got a camera, you get friends saying, Oh, can you do my...
• 9:19
  Yeah, of course, you know.
• 9:20
  And then, sort of, to help eke out my grant, and I'm back in
• 9:24
  the day when we got a grant.
• 9:25
  Yeah, that was a long time ago, wasn't it?
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  I do a couple of weddings in a weekend for local photographers.
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  And just...
• 9:33
  You know, go and hand the film over afterwards and, and cash
• 9:36
  in hand, and that helped me get through, college, so that was great.
• 9:39
  And I always enjoyed weddings, but what I didn't like about them
• 9:42
  was the lack of creativity, which has obviously since changed.
• 9:46
  So I went, I left college.
• 9:48
  And, and hitting the streets of London twice a week with a folio, calluses on
• 9:52
  my hands, seeing all the magazines and all the TV stations, et cetera, channels.
• 9:57
  And, slowly but surely they'd give me a small job and, then if you
• 10:01
  do a good job, so on and so on.
• 10:03
  And my big massive break was the BBC threw me on Pride and Prejudice, the Colin
• 10:09
  Firth one, you know, the famous one.
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  And, they said, Stuart, go on this.
• 10:14
  You've done lots of TV before, haven't you?
• 10:16
  Yes, of course.
• 10:17
  I said lying through my teeth.
• 10:18
  'cause it's like the equity card, you have to sort of lag it to
• 10:21
  get, to get, get there, don't you?
• 10:23
  To some degree, yes, of course.
• 10:25
  I've done lots of experience, you know, so they threw me on this set
• 10:28
  and they said, we've thrown about other three photographers on this
• 10:30
  and nobody's come away with anything, so here's a good chance for you.
• 10:33
  And some, some of the crew were dreadful.
• 10:36
  They were absolutely horrible and, and deliberately spiteful and all this.
• 10:40
  Anyway, on the second day, I, I don't bite my nails, I bit all my nails down.
• 10:44
  Realizing there's an opportunity and they brought me Colin Firth and Jennifer
• 10:47
  20 minutes and I got the main shot, the main poster picture, the main Penguin
• 10:53
  book thing, you know, and, and that stayed in the folio for years afterwards.
• 10:56
  And it used to drop out if I was showing somebody my folio and
• 11:00
  they'd say, you took that picture.
• 11:01
  You know, unfortunately with all the BBC and you'll know this.
• 11:05
  I had to sign the rights away before I did the shot.
• 11:07
  If I had kept the rights of that picture, that's.
• 11:10
  still sells all around the world.
• 11:11
  But anyway, there we go.
• 11:12
  It, it was of its time, a means to an end and no regrets.
• 11:16
  And that was my big break.
• 11:17
  So, and then it's just plodding away, plodding away, plodding away, getting
• 11:21
  hopefully higher and higher aiming towards that massive radio times cover, which
• 11:25
  is, which is obviously the biggie, you know, and I didn't get that until 2007.
• 11:30
  I finally got it.
• 11:31
  And I famously said to my wife, when we're in the kitchen.
• 11:33
  I'm going to get it, or I die, whichever happens first.
• 11:36
  And I pointed to the wall and said it'll go there, and it'll never move.
• 11:41
  And I'm very, very proud to say, Becca, my first one of many, because once you've got
• 11:45
  one, it all seems to fall into place then.
• 11:47
  The first one of many, which was James Nesbitt in Jekyll, was 2007.
• 11:51
  It resides on my wall permanently now, and every now and again
• 11:54
  I'll stop and give it a wink.
• 11:56
  Becca: Oh, I love that.
• 11:57
  You know, there's so much that I love about having this conversation because one
• 12:01
  of my things that I find really difficult in the wedding industry is that people
• 12:04
  can look at someone like yourself with an incredible amount of success and think it
• 12:09
  happened overnight and just expect that they can do the same thing overnight.
• 12:14
  Actually hearing that you were doing all of the things to start with, you
• 12:18
  were pounding the streets, you were reaching out to the people, you were
• 12:21
  making the most of your opportunities.
• 12:23
  And it's through that hard work, through that proactive attitude, through that,
• 12:27
  you know, working hard that you've got to where you have today, rather than
• 12:32
  it just being an overnight success.
• 12:34
  So I absolutely love it.
• 12:36
  This is fascinating.
• 12:37
  I could keep talking to you about all of these things all day.
• 12:41
  Stuart: Becca, if I can interject that, I wouldn't have had it any other way
• 12:43
  because, you know, you learn so much.
• 12:45
  If you have to crawl through the mud to get where you need to go,
• 12:49
  you learn so much along the way.
• 12:51
  I don't want an easy ride, you know, I don't want a door opening for me that
• 12:54
  I'm, you know, that I'm not ready for.
• 12:55
  I want to get that experience, you know, and, and, and I've always
• 12:59
  said that, you know, the one I got along the way, you cannot buy.
• 13:02
  Becca: Yeah, and as I say to people all the time, it's a
• 13:04
  marathon, not a sprint that this is, you're in it for the long term.
• 13:07
  If you want this to be a long term successful business, the
• 13:11
  connections you make along the way, the things you learn on the journey
• 13:14
  are what makes the difference.
• 13:15
  And I also love that you've got your radio times cover,
• 13:18
  but it didn't happen overnight.
• 13:19
  It took you time.
• 13:20
  So people who are listening, you've got these big goals and big plans.
• 13:24
  Keep working towards it because it can happen eventually, but
• 13:28
  it might not happen overnight.
• 13:30
  So you've done all of this work.
• 13:32
  You've done broadcasts, you've done magazines.
• 13:34
  Let's get back to weddings.
• 13:36
  So you said that you did a few weddings here and there for people.
• 13:39
  You helped out, you did a few friends and family.
• 13:42
  At what point did you decide, right, weddings are going to be a
• 13:44
  real focus and part of my business?
• 13:46
  Stuart: Yeah.
• 13:47
  Well, I suppose, like you say, for the marathon, rather than the
• 13:50
  sprint, you have to evolve, you have to reinvent yourself, et cetera,
• 13:54
  because things are going to change.
• 13:55
  I mean, obviously in the 30, nearly 30 years I've done it, I've gone
• 13:59
  from film to digital and, and all the changes that that has, has, has caused,
• 14:04
  including, of course, one of my big set of clients used to be the magazines,
• 14:09
  but they're arent any now, you know?
• 14:10
  So I had to look at it, practically and think, I've got to find somewhere.
• 14:14
  That's, you know, I've got a product that I think is a pretty good product that I
• 14:17
  can sell, time to now to hopefully make some better money and, you know, purely
• 14:22
  business like looking at it, thinking, looking at the weddings and seeing
• 14:26
  what some of the top guys are getting.
• 14:28
  And then I started noticing that all of a sudden it wasn't
• 14:32
  just lying that I'm outside.
• 14:34
  Church, like they're going to get shot, cut in the cave, you
• 14:36
  know, rush off to the next one.
• 14:37
  It, there was a heck of a lot more and a lot of creativity involved.
• 14:41
  And especially that, what I'm, I know I'm good at, is connecting
• 14:45
  with people and quickly.
• 14:47
  And I can look at a portrait and I can tell if the photographer.
• 14:52
  He or she's connected with that person just by the look in the eye.
• 14:55
  And, you know, people tend to trust me and, and, and, and, and get on with it
• 14:59
  pretty quickly, which is an asset when, when you've only got two minutes to shoot
• 15:02
  a radio times cover, let's say, you know?
• 15:03
  So I thought I'm going to bring all the, I've got a, now I've
• 15:06
  got a set of unique skills here.
• 15:08
  I know how to like men and women differently, you know, and I need
• 15:11
  to work quickly, two minutes for a radio times cover, et cetera.
• 15:14
  And also that.
• 15:16
  That connection that I get, I've got a set of unique skills, you know, all
• 15:20
  told, I suppose, that I can now bring to this new approach to shooting weddings.
• 15:25
  So that was probably a dozen years ago now.
• 15:28
  I, I...
• 15:29
  Started doing that and, and honing my craft, to sort of where it
• 15:34
  is today now and still learning.
• 15:35
  I'm always learning and I'm always, I'm more passionate
• 15:38
  now than the day I started.
• 15:39
  And, you know, I will, there's one of my heroes, Norman Parkinson,
• 15:43
  the old fashioned photographer.
• 15:45
  He actually died on a commission, I think somewhere exotic like
• 15:49
  the Seychelles, you know.
• 15:50
  A drop with a camera in his hand.
• 15:52
  I, I hope to go that way when it's my time in many, many,
• 15:56
  many, many, many years from now.
• 15:58
  Of course, you know, I've got too much to do yet, but, but I can't think of
• 16:01
  a, unfortunately, we've all gotta go.
• 16:03
  I can't think of a better way of going, really.
• 16:05
  Becca: And it's a testament to that decision you made all those years
• 16:08
  ago to walk away from Sainsbury's walk away from supermarkets, walk
• 16:11
  away from management, to think, actually, I'm gonna follow my passion.
• 16:14
  Because the fact that you're still passionate about it all
• 16:17
  these years later shows that you absolutely made the right decision.
• 16:20
  So you just.
• 16:22
  Let's go into the wedding industry.
• 16:23
  Let's make some money from this.
• 16:25
  How did you go about getting those first clients?
• 16:27
  Because again, when people come into the industry, that's one
• 16:30
  of the big struggles they have.
• 16:31
  So how did you, because it's a different kind of approach to broadcast media, how
• 16:35
  did you start finding wedding couples?
• 16:37
  Stuart: Well, yeah, that's a, that's a really interesting,
• 16:39
  because again, everything I do, I seem to have to claw through the
• 16:43
  mud to get to, but that's fine.
• 16:44
  You know, now I started to hit the local wedding fairs.
• 16:47
  And I wasn't successful at that at all, because...
• 16:52
  I just don't think my style of photography, well, for instance, I'm
• 16:57
  trying to be modest here, I suppose, which isn't one of my fortes, but I'll
• 17:02
  tell you a story, we had a couple of friends around for dinner, and they
• 17:05
  said, we've got a couple of friends that are getting married, and they've
• 17:07
  been to the local wedding fairs, and we said, oh, have you seen Stuart,
• 17:09
  and they said, we've seen Stuart at a couple of wedding fairs, he's a really
• 17:13
  friendly, nice guy, and they said, are you going to use him, for your pictures.
• 17:17
  And they said, nah, we haven't even asked him, but he's way above my
• 17:20
  league or our league, you know?
• 17:22
  And they, so, you know, this was the problem I had.
• 17:24
  I could see folks looking at the pictures and kind of bananering
• 17:28
  away from them, you know?
• 17:29
  So I was not, I'm wasting everybody's time and mine by doing local wedding
• 17:34
  fairs because I thought, you know, with, with what I can produce, cause you know,
• 17:38
  the technical side of things and where I've worked, it's going to be very good.
• 17:41
  I thought I'd be sort of beating them off with a stick.
• 17:43
  I couldn't get them at all.
• 17:45
  So I started, so I managed to get a few, a few sort of, you know, more of the...
• 17:50
  A sort of, I, I dare I say the trendier guys, the more discerning guys that come
• 17:54
  and say this is different, you know?
• 17:56
  But it wasn't enough.
• 17:57
  So then I started going up doing some of these , they don't call 'em wedding
• 18:00
  fairs, they call 'em Mateliers , you know, and you've got like the, the Savoy
• 18:04
  and that, and the difference was they were been honoring towards the pictures.
• 18:07
  And I thought, well that's obviously, this is hopefully the, which
• 18:11
  it's, it's what I want anyway.
• 18:12
  This is where I'm destined to be, hopefully, you know, so I, I sort
• 18:16
  of up my game, I suppose, and.
• 18:19
  And went to those sort of venues and I started getting the likes
• 18:23
  of the four seasons, recommending me and then so on and so on.
• 18:27
  And, and, and that's, that's it basically.
• 18:30
  And I still, as you know, on the thing I met you at a week or so ago.
• 18:35
  Do a heck of a lot of networking all the time.
• 18:37
  You cannot.
• 18:38
  I went on a, a workshop with Greg Fink and he's one of the top 20
• 18:42
  wedding photographers in the world.
• 18:43
  And he's now a Mahito.
• 18:44
  I've converted him into a Derby County fan and all that, you know,
• 18:47
  even though he's a French guy.
• 18:49
  And, and I said to him, you, you know, you've made it.
• 18:52
  I'm not, I'm being patronizing, Greg.
• 18:53
  You've, you've, you've worked damn hard to get there.
• 18:56
  And he looked at me and he said, Stuart, if I relax for a year, I'd be gone.
• 19:00
  You know, and, and I think that was a really, really important
• 19:04
  lesson that, that, that the higher you go, the tougher it is.
• 19:08
  I'll live with that though.
• 19:10
  But, but.
• 19:11
  Becca: Yeah.
• 19:12
  And it's so true.
• 19:13
  You can't, you can't put a price on networking.
• 19:15
  You cannot put a price on building those connections.
• 19:17
  And there's always someone new coming in behind you, who's got skills, different
• 19:22
  ideas, different creativity and you're right, none of us can sit on our laurels
• 19:26
  and think, right, we've made it now.
• 19:28
  That's it.
• 19:29
  Because that'll be it.
• 19:30
  It will be it.
• 19:31
  You know, we've got to keep on going.
• 19:32
  We've got to keep on pushing.
• 19:34
  Now I want to pick back up on one thing you said, because I know that
• 19:37
  people will be shouting at the podcast.
• 19:39
  Because you make it sound so easy every single time.
• 19:41
  So I want to get into the nitty gritty.
• 19:43
  So you were doing the regular wedding fairs.
• 19:46
  They weren't working for you.
• 19:47
  They weren't your ideal client.
• 19:48
  You knew you needed to go to the high end.
• 19:50
  So you went to the Ateliers, the Savoy, the Four Seasons.
• 19:54
  People are going to be thinking, well, I dream about getting in with those venues.
• 19:57
  You So how did you do it?
• 19:59
  Stuart: Well, yeah, paid a lot of money to, to attend the ateliers,
• 20:03
  first of all, and thinking, I hope this works out, because, but, you
• 20:06
  know, hey, that's life, isn't it?
• 20:07
  You know, it's, everything's going to be a gamble at some stage, isn't it?
• 20:11
  But also, using my connections, I suppose, as well.
• 20:13
  For instance, I used to shoot, my, my team is Derby County, you know.
• 20:18
  Let's move on quickly where we are at the moment, but I used to shoot all
• 20:22
  the, the players for the, the program, the covers, et cetera, you know,
• 20:26
  and, , and they'd bung me a couple of seats in the press box for every game.
• 20:29
  And I'd be happy with that, you know, cause I'm meeting my players anyway.
• 20:32
  We just, we just won a promotion back to the, to the premier league
• 20:37
  and my captain, Matt Oakley, , as it were my team's captain, Matt Oakley
• 20:41
  was getting married the four seasons always gone really well with Matt.
• 20:44
  He said to me, Stuart.
• 20:45
  Do you fancy doing my wedding?
• 20:46
  I went, What?
• 20:48
  Photographing my captain's wedding at the Four Seasons.
• 20:50
  Go on then, you know.
• 20:51
  So I went, and met, the lovely Lisa O'Reilly, at the Four Seasons in
• 20:55
  Hampshire, who I call my guardian angel.
• 20:57
  And I met her, and we had a lovely meeting outside, and I said, and of
• 21:01
  course, you, you know this, Becker, I'm not backward at coming forward.
• 21:04
  I slipped into the conversation, is there any chance of, how do you
• 21:07
  get on your recommended surprise list, you know, as photographers?
• 21:10
  And she basically said, Stuart, we've got loads of photographers.
• 21:12
  Thanks.
• 21:13
  You know, it's okay.
• 21:14
  But then I kept in touch with her and then she saw the album that I'd shot for Matt.
• 21:20
  And she rang me up and said, We've never seen this space
• 21:23
  used like this before, you see.
• 21:25
  Can you come and see us?
• 21:26
  So I went down and saw her and, became one of her recommended guys and, and
• 21:30
  so on, you know, and then obviously once you've got one under your
• 21:33
  arm, you can work on the other four seasons, use the connections and so on.
• 21:37
  Will you introduce me to such a bloody, and, and Lisa has been, Brilliant over
• 21:41
  the years, she introduced me to a lovely Middle Eastern family that fly me all
• 21:46
  over the place as well, you know, and when I thank her, she goes, No, you did it.
• 21:50
  You pick the ball and run with it.
• 21:51
  I went, No, but you, you've always been there for me, Lisa.
• 21:54
  And very, very proudly, I know going a bit off kilter as I do here off topic, but
• 22:00
  one of my proudest moments is for the 75th anniversary of D Day, I took five years,
• 22:05
  I gave myself five years to shoot as many veterans as I could, men and women.
• 22:10
  And it became a massive, it became the main exhibition for
• 22:13
  the National Memorial Arboretum.
• 22:15
  Lisa, bless her, gave me the whole event space at 10 Trinity
• 22:18
  Square in London for an evening.
• 22:20
  And then, canapes, wine, all this.
• 22:22
  It was amazing.
• 22:22
  We got, we got all the vets down and entertained them and thanked them.
• 22:26
  And then it was shipped out to the National Army Museum at Chelsea
• 22:28
  the next day, till after Christmas.
• 22:30
  It became a handmade book that raised thousands for, for veterans
• 22:33
  charities and things like that.
• 22:35
  But she again, she was there to sort me out this venue.
• 22:38
  And so she's, she's been amazing and always has been.
• 22:40
  And like I say, yeah, she doesn't take any credit, but I'm always giving it to her.
• 22:44
  So, you know, again, going back to that word opportunity, I will
• 22:49
  hear that whisper and, and, and I'll, I will, it will register.
• 22:53
  A lot of people.
• 22:54
  It goes over the heads.
• 22:55
  I've always been good at hearing those whispers.
• 22:57
  You know, it ain't
• 22:58
  a, opportunity is not a door with a neon sign over it.
• 23:01
  You know, it's like, you've got to get, and this is what I, when I teach this on
• 23:06
  my courses, you know, you've got to get through that door and if need be, cram
• 23:11
  your foot in the door and go through it.
• 23:13
  Cause if you don't, somebody like me, well, it's that simple, you know?
• 23:17
  So I've always been good at that.
• 23:19
  And, and, and, and that's kind of obviously reaped its rewards.
• 23:22
  These days,
• 23:24
  Becca: and everything's coming back to the same thing, right?
• 23:26
  Relationships, building relationships, being a good people person, you know,
• 23:30
  you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
• 23:32
  All of these things come back to having great relationships and then
• 23:36
  making the most of opportunities and having amazing work as well.
• 23:40
  Now, I want to talk to you.
• 23:42
  Oh yeah, go for it.
• 23:43
  Stuart: Sorry.
• 23:43
  May I just say on that point as well, becca, just as important.
• 23:47
  you know, Lisa and all the other guys that recommend me know, , that
• 23:50
  they, I will represent them properly.
• 23:53
  You know, if there is an issue, you keep your mouth shut and you walk away.
• 23:57
  First of all, you don't make issues.
• 23:59
  You're kind and courteous, you know, et cetera.
• 24:01
  And, and I'm all, and I've had this right from the start when I've been
• 24:04
  representing the big magazines or the big TV companies, you know, you always
• 24:09
  represent them properly, excuse me.
• 24:11
  And then we'll know.
• 24:14
  that they can rely on you to do that, and, and they'll have no
• 24:16
  qualms about passing your name on.
• 24:18
  But if there's any doubt there, it won't happen.
• 24:22
  Becca: Yeah, absolutely.
• 24:23
  And it always comes back to the basics.
• 24:25
  Be a good person, be a professional person, and be
• 24:29
  friendly to everyone at the top.
• 24:30
  All the way down to the bottom.
• 24:33
  Now, Stuart, I would love to get into a conversation about pricing because
• 24:37
  I know that this is an area that a lot of my wedding pros really struggle with
• 24:43
  because we know, right between me and you, you could go out tomorrow and hire
• 24:46
  a wedding photographer for 150 quid, or you could go out there and hire a wedding
• 24:51
  photographer for 10,000 pounds, right?
• 24:53
  There is all ends of the spectrum.
• 24:55
  So when you realized, okay, I'm not for this kind of general market of wedding
• 24:59
  fairs, I need to be at the Savoy level.
• 25:01
  How did you come up with your initial pricing?
• 25:03
  How did you decide where that should fit?
• 25:05
  Stuart: That's another great question.
• 25:07
  Yeah.
• 25:07
  Cause you don't know, do you?
• 25:08
  Cause you think, blimey, you know, you sticking the finger in the mouth
• 25:12
  and sort of testing the air, isn't it?
• 25:13
  You know?
• 25:14
  So, and it is a bit of that.
• 25:15
  And obviously, you know, if you've got any friends, get some advice.
• 25:19
  Can you tell me what you charge, you know, or thereabouts and
• 25:22
  sort of gauge it by that really.
• 25:24
  And, , you know, hopefully get to a price.
• 25:27
  Well, they don't fall over when you tell them, cause there's not much point
• 25:29
  in you being there if you just, if you just set a price that nobody's going
• 25:32
  to buy you for, but never ever on the selling yourself, you know, I, I, I,
• 25:40
  again, this is my personal business.
• 25:43
  It's my personal point of view as well.
• 25:45
  I think I've got a damn good product to sell, you know, so, and I've
• 25:48
  had people come up to me saying, well, can you do it for the X?
• 25:51
  Because, we've got loads of guys.
• 25:54
  One of the charges X, but we can see the difference with you.
• 25:58
  And I'm going, there you go.
• 25:59
  You just answered your own question.
• 26:01
  I'm, you know, you wouldn't, I said, you wouldn't go into a, Ferrari
• 26:04
  showroom and say, well, I can get a mini for, nothing wrong with a mini or
• 26:08
  whatever car, you know, for a lot less.
• 26:10
  Yeah.
• 26:10
  But you're in my showroom, aren't you?
• 26:11
  You're in the Ferrari showroom, you know?
• 26:13
  So, so pricing wise, it's always an issue, I suppose.
• 26:19
  And, you know, but hopefully now I'm sort of hankering at the.
• 26:24
  At the higher prices rather than hanging at the lower ones, which
• 26:28
  is I suppose the big difference And i'm pretty pleased about that
• 26:31
  as well at this stage in my career
• 26:33
  Becca: Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:33
  And having the confidence and actually there's a lot less competition
• 26:36
  at the top than there is at the bottom, like people will battle
• 26:40
  you down for those bottom prices.
• 26:42
  There's everyone and their dog wants to give the cheapest photography,
• 26:45
  but there's not a lot of people going there for the top photography.
• 26:49
  Would you be willing to let us know on average, what are you
• 26:52
  going out for, for a wedding?
• 26:53
  Stuart: Well, yeah, because I mean, I advertise it anyway.
• 26:55
  My prices start from 3k.
• 26:59
  That's a very, very short wedding, to, to a full day at 4K, and then
• 27:03
  with, if you want the Italian handmade album, we're looking at 6K.
• 27:07
  There are, there are other sort of, I don't, I, I should, I've been told not
• 27:11
  to say packages, collections, darling.
• 27:13
  There are other collections, darling, upward of that as well that, you
• 27:16
  know, my sort of, my elite clients have as well, you know, but, but
• 27:20
  they're the, they're the sort of.
• 27:22
  The ballpark ones, if you like, and obviously for the, you know,
• 27:24
  for the 6K, you're going to get pretty much everything anyway.
• 27:28
  You know, the full day assistant, if they want second shooters, it's more, and, and
• 27:32
  the incredible best albums in the world, Graffi Studio, handmade Italian albums.
• 27:37
  You know, they're going to get one of those as well on top.
• 27:39
  So, so, and that's a bad deal.
• 27:43
  Becca: I think that's a very good deal.
• 27:44
  I think you should raise your prices, put them up,
• 27:46
  Stuart: keep up.
• 27:47
  Well, I'm working on it.
• 27:48
  As I say, you have to have a started, but here's the thing.
• 27:51
  Becca, because, you know, I'm, I, I have one last ambition, I reckon I've
• 27:56
  got 10 years left rushing around like I do, and that's to try and get to
• 28:00
  the very top, and I'm hearing that some guys up there, you know, are on
• 28:05
  forty, sixty thousand dollars a day.
• 28:08
  I probably won't get there.
• 28:09
  I might do.
• 28:09
  I'm going to give it the best shot.
• 28:11
  And so, you know, it will go up sort of, I suppose, incrementally
• 28:15
  as I, as I hopefully progress.
• 28:17
  Becca: Absolutely.
• 28:18
  Now, one of my bugbears in the industry, which we're going to have
• 28:20
  a little chat about is that a lot of people band around the word luxury.
• 28:25
  Okay.
• 28:25
  So all the time I want to be serving luxury clients.
• 28:27
  I want to be luxury.
• 28:28
  I want to be in the luxury end of the market.
• 28:32
  Actually, what does that?
• 28:34
  mean?
• 28:34
  Where are we talking now?
• 28:36
  I would put you at that point in the market.
• 28:38
  I would say yes, you are working at a luxury point in the market.
• 28:41
  So what do you think that word luxury really means when
• 28:44
  we're overusing it too much?
• 28:46
  And what do you think those higher spend couples expect that's
• 28:50
  different to the average Joe?
• 28:52
  Stuart: Yeah.
• 28:53
  First of all, yeah, it's, it's lost, lost its worth, hasn't it?
• 28:56
  Because everyone's a luxury photographer.
• 28:58
  You know, give them a year and, you know, look, I, I say good luck to anyone.
• 29:03
  I, I, here's another thing as well that I always, when I
• 29:07
  teach my classes, excuse me.
• 29:10
  You're going to see people that you personally think, but I'm better
• 29:14
  than her or him doing better.
• 29:17
  And I always say to my folks that rock up and let me teach them, you
• 29:22
  know, learn to say good luck to them.
• 29:24
  They're doing something that you're not, you know, and
• 29:26
  they're doing something right.
• 29:28
  Maybe they're better at marketing, branding, whatever, whatever.
• 29:30
  You know, so, but I, I know that, that I have an edge if I can get my branding,
• 29:37
  you know, absolutely spot on, which is I'm kind of working on all the time,
• 29:40
  like everyone else because of what I can deliver at that end, because not
• 29:45
  because, I'm a genius or whatever, whatever, but because of the, of the,
• 29:50
  again, crawling through the mud all those years ago, all the, all that experience,
• 29:54
  you know, getting two minutes with.
• 29:56
  James Corden and Paul McCartney for a Radio Times cover, blahdy blahdy
• 29:59
  blah, but you've still got to get the lighting right, you've still got to
• 30:03
  get this right, and all the rest of it.
• 30:04
  So all that, I know I can deliver at the top, at the very top end.
• 30:09
  For instance, I did a big, Middle Eastern wedding, in Zurich at the
• 30:12
  start of the year, and, and the mum came up to me and said, you're, I
• 30:15
  want you to get my, a portrait of my daughter, and you're the one.
• 30:19
  Guy to do it.
• 30:20
  I want a Vogue portrait and I said to her I'm gonna get
• 30:23
  you a Vogue cover So I got it.
• 30:26
  Not literally obviously, but I mean the standard of And believe
• 30:30
  it or not, I've just got the album order through for her album now.
• 30:34
  And as a little bit of a, sort of a joke, I gave her the straight picture of this.
• 30:38
  And then I also did a mock up of a Vogue cover.
• 30:41
  She chose the Vogue cover to go in the album because she
• 30:43
  loves it that much, you know.
• 30:45
  So, yes, that word, it's far too stretched and tarnished these days, isn't it?
• 30:51
  Because everyone's luxury.
• 30:52
  I think you've got to go out and prove that you are.
• 30:56
  And, and show that you are, you know, and hopefully, you know, cause
• 31:01
  I don't, I don't, I don't think we've touched on it at this point.
• 31:03
  I've, I've, employed the services of the very lovely Joy Proctor, you know, who's
• 31:07
  the biggest wedding designer in the world.
• 31:10
  And she looked at my pictures, and, and said, what do you want?
• 31:13
  And I said, I want to go as far as I can, Joy.
• 31:15
  So, and she actually said, Stuart, your pictures, these are her words, not
• 31:19
  mine, are every bit as good as the top guys, but your branding is terrible.
• 31:23
  And I said, okay, got it.
• 31:25
  And I spent too many years, Becca, and luckily I didn't waste them, thinking
• 31:30
  if I could just concentrate on becoming the best photographer that I possibly
• 31:33
  can, everything falls into place.
• 31:36
  It doesn't.
• 31:37
  But, the good news is, I didn't waste those years by becoming
• 31:41
  the best photographer that I can.
• 31:44
  And I'm not saying I'm the best in the world, I'm just saying
• 31:46
  the best that I can, okay?
• 31:48
  That's all.
• 31:48
  Now, what was the rest of the question?
• 31:50
  I forgot.
• 31:52
  What was the last one?
• 31:52
  Becca: Yeah, that, that was basically it.
• 31:54
  What are they expecting?
• 31:55
  What are high end couples expecting?
• 31:56
  Stuart: Oh, right.
• 31:56
  They expect, because this is the thing, and this is great, isn't it?
• 32:02
  Get out of your comfort zone.
• 32:04
  Get nervous.
• 32:05
  Get frightened, you know?
• 32:06
  That's good.
• 32:08
  Okay?
• 32:08
  That's great.
• 32:10
  You know, get out.
• 32:10
  It wasn't Bowie said, go out, out the safe water until your toes
• 32:14
  are hardly touching the bottom.
• 32:16
  That's where you'll get the best out of you, you know, and that's amazing advice.
• 32:20
  And it's absolutely true.
• 32:21
  You know, so of course, when you get to these people, they are used
• 32:26
  to the best of the best of the best and they know the difference.
• 32:30
  Okay.
• 32:31
  So you have got.
• 32:32
  To come up with the goods or you won't, you will not thrive at that level.
• 32:37
  It's just that simple.
• 32:38
  So that's what they're after.
• 32:39
  They're after, and I'm not suggesting I am, you know, whatever.
• 32:43
  That's a very English thing to say, I suppose.
• 32:45
  But, but what I'm saying is they will only have the best of the
• 32:48
  best of the best, and that's it.
• 32:49
  And you've got to raise your game.
• 32:51
  And if it means you don't sleep the night before, fine.
• 32:54
  That's good.
• 32:55
  You know, the thing I did again, I'm, I'm going off whatever,
• 32:58
  but I'll tell you this.
• 32:59
  I was asked, I write a resonant column for a photography magazine and this,
• 33:03
  professional image maker named the, the Mike, the editor rang me up just after
• 33:07
  lockdown and said, look, Photographers have a dreadful year, especially wedding
• 33:11
  photographers, for obvious reasons.
• 33:12
  We need an article to cheer them up.
• 33:14
  You're the guy to do it, because you're always very positive.
• 33:17
  And I said, funnily enough, I've been studying this very subject.
• 33:20
  Why is it that, like, during lockdown, some crawled under a
• 33:25
  rock, you never heard of them.
• 33:26
  Some like me, you know, because I had the time.
• 33:32
  What's the difference when we've, we've all got the same basic bit of
• 33:35
  equipment between our ears, you know?
• 33:36
  And I found this out and it's absolutely fascinating.
• 33:38
  This is a subject on its own, but we've all got a little thing in our head.
• 33:42
  Call the amygdala.
• 33:43
  Okay?
• 33:43
  And that makes you scared.
• 33:45
  Now we've all got it and, and we've all got a little voice.
• 33:48
  And I'm sure Becca, you can regale many a story of, this
• 33:51
  little voice saying, be, Becca.
• 33:52
  Don't do that.
• 33:53
  You'll make yourself look stupid.
• 33:54
  You know?
• 33:55
  Don't do that.
• 33:55
  You're all right, Becca.
• 33:56
  You're safe.
• 33:57
  Don't push it.
• 33:58
  All right.
• 33:58
  You're okay.
• 33:59
  And nature's put that in our heads.
• 34:01
  Okay.
• 34:01
  Now, most people, as Theroux said, what was it?
• 34:04
  William Henry Theroux, not Louis Theroux.
• 34:06
  Most men live a life of quiet desperation because this voice is
• 34:11
  saying, you know, stay where you are.
• 34:13
  You're fine.
• 34:14
  I don't listen to it.
• 34:15
  Okay.
• 34:15
  And, and not knowingly, , I Back in the day when I went to college, instead
• 34:20
  of doing the Sainsbury's thing, I've always sort of kicked off against that.
• 34:24
  And there's a guy called Seth Godin, that you'll find lots of, great
• 34:27
  motivator on YouTube and all that lot.
• 34:29
  He says, when that little voice is in your head, okay, telling you to stop that's a
• 34:34
  green light because you know you're onto something good and I've harnessed that now
• 34:38
  and it's great I tell you because we all get it so you know if you get if it makes
• 34:43
  you nervous the fact that you want to move into the ultra luxury part of the wedding
• 34:47
  industry good right because that's the green light go for the damn thing because
• 34:53
  and here's the thing don't waste too many years until it's too late All right,
• 34:56
  you don't want any regrets at the end.
• 34:59
  I'm going to go for it, and I kid you not, my ambition, and I'll either make it or
• 35:03
  I won't, is to become one of the top 20 Vogue photographers in the world, knowing
• 35:08
  that it's virtually impossible to get, but that's my goal now, and I'll either do
• 35:11
  it or I won't, you know, but I'm chipping away at it every day, because when I'm
• 35:16
  gasping my last in many, many, many, many, many years from now, there will be no
• 35:21
  regrets and that's what's going to happen.
• 35:23
  Becca: You'll either get it or you'll die trying.
• 35:24
  You've just got to go for it.
• 35:26
  And I think that's the motto that more and more of us need to live by.
• 35:31
  Because if we don't go for it, someone else coming up behind you
• 35:34
  will go there and do it instead.
• 35:36
  So yeah, I hundred percent agree with everything that you're saying.
• 35:39
  I've got one final question before we start to bring
• 35:41
  this conversation to a close.
• 35:43
  Because again, I know that lots of people in my world, people who
• 35:46
  are listening to this podcast are saying, right, I want to work with
• 35:49
  some of these higher spend couples.
• 35:51
  I know my work's good enough.
• 35:52
  But Becca, I just don't know where to find them.
• 35:54
  I don't know where they spend their time.
• 35:56
  So from your experience, Stuart, where do your couples come from?
• 35:59
  Where do they find you?
• 36:00
  Stuart: Recommendation, word of mouth, either from wedding
• 36:03
  planners or venues or themselves.
• 36:09
  Because.
• 36:10
  You won't find them in, well, there ain't a Yellow Pages anymore, is there?
• 36:13
  You won't find them on Google.
• 36:14
  This Middle Eastern family who love me to bits and say I'm one of the
• 36:18
  family, even though, with my Celtic skin, Irish extraction, I always
• 36:22
  say, you must have some weird Irish gene in your, in your Middle Eastern
• 36:26
  DNA then, because look at, you know.
• 36:28
  But, you know, they recommend me.
• 36:30
  They came across me by the lovely Lisa, of course, that I've already touched on.
• 36:34
  But you won't find them anywhere else.
• 36:36
  So to get to those people, you know, you have to crack the planners and,
• 36:41
  in my experience and the venues.
• 36:43
  And like I say, you will also get known amongst those, those people as well.
• 36:46
  Becca: Okay.
• 36:47
  So in summary from this conversation, what I'm taking away
• 36:50
  is you need to hone your craft.
• 36:51
  You need to crawl through the mud and do all of the things you need to
• 36:54
  pay your way into the right spaces.
• 36:56
  So you put yourself in the ateliers, you put yourself in that luxury area, and
• 37:00
  then you build incredible relationships.
• 37:03
  Would you say that's the key to success in a nutshell?
• 37:05
  Stuart: That's kind of what I, how I've done it, I suppose you'll get
• 37:08
  another 10 guys and girls on that will go, well, actually I did it
• 37:11
  differently, but that's how I did it.
• 37:13
  Yeah.
• 37:13
  That's how I, excuse me.
• 37:14
  Continue to do it.
• 37:15
  Yeah.
• 37:16
  So yes.
• 37:17
  Becca: Fab.
• 37:18
  I've absolutely loved this conversation.
• 37:19
  I really could carry on talking to you for another half an hour,
• 37:22
  but we're running out of time.
• 37:24
  So I'm going to end with the question I end every podcast with, which is this.
• 37:28
  Stuart, what's one thing you wish you'd known sooner in your business?
• 37:32
  Stuart: We've kind of touched on this earlier on, but I'll sort of
• 37:37
  continue or finish off, by sort of embellishing it a little bit more.
• 37:41
  What I wish I'd known is how quick the time goes.
• 37:45
  And so do not.
• 37:47
  This is a thing, and we touched on it a couple of minutes ago.
• 37:50
  Don't put it off for next year.
• 37:52
  Don't think, oh, I'll do it in five years.
• 37:54
  I'm not ready yet.
• 37:55
  You know, there's a, there's a great fan.
• 37:58
  It's, it's called, it's named, , I think the most motivated national,
• 38:03
  speech on, the internet, YouTube, it's on Peter Dinkle, the guy.
• 38:08
  The Game of Thrones.
• 38:09
  Watch it.
• 38:10
  It goes back to his college, and I think it's about half an hour.
• 38:13
  Watch it all, and it's very funny, but the last ten, I think it's about
• 38:16
  five minutes, are just amazing, you know, and, and he says, do not
• 38:22
  wait for permission from the world.
• 38:24
  Okay, because they'll, it will never ask you and, and he said, I waited
• 38:29
  too long and so did I, in certain instances, like I've said earlier, don't
• 38:33
  wait for people to ask you, go and do it, go and do it, make your mistakes.
• 38:37
  It doesn't matter.
• 38:38
  You'll make mistakes.
• 38:39
  It doesn't matter.
• 38:40
  Just go and do it and have no regrets.
• 38:42
  So, so, the, the answer to your question is I didn't realize.
• 38:46
  How quick the time was going to go and, and I'm, I'm more motivated than
• 38:49
  ever because I know I've got this nearly 30 years experience now, but
• 38:53
  I haven't got another 30 years to put into practice, you know, so I'm going
• 38:56
  hell for leather, and, we'll see where I end up.
• 38:59
  Well, I don't know where it will be, but it'd be interesting
• 39:01
  because it's always interesting.
• 39:02
  Becca: And I'm going to be interested.
• 39:04
  So if you're interested to watch your journey, keep going
• 39:06
  for it, you will get there.
• 39:07
  Those Vogue top 20 photographers, and when you do Stuart, host a party at
• 39:11
  the Savoy, all the four seasons to celebrate, and I'll come and drink a
• 39:15
  glass of champagne to your success.
• 39:17
  Absolutely.
• 39:19
  Stuart: That's it.
• 39:20
  That's a date, absolutely.
• 39:22
  Becca: If people want to find out more about you Stuart, if people
• 39:24
  want to connect with you, if they want to find out about your classes,
• 39:27
  all of that stuff, where's the best place for them to find you?
• 39:30
  Yeah,
• 39:30
  Stuart: I, I'm on the Instagram of course, and it's quite simple, and
• 39:35
  it's Stuart, S T U A R T, just simply, at Stuart Wood photo.
• 39:40
  I have Stuart Wood weddings.com is the website.
• 39:45
  If you wanna look at my magazine and TV stuff, which I still do.
• 39:48
  It's stuart hyphen wood.com.
• 39:51
  Unfortunately, the, the, apparently there's a Bay roller
• 39:54
  called Stuart Wood and he got on first with stewart wood.com.
• 39:58
  So, , I have to put a hyphen in between mine, so it's stuart hyphen wood.com.
• 40:02
  Becca: That is true because when I Googled Stuart Wood, that's who came up first.
• 40:05
  But as soon as I added the word photography, you came up everywhere.
• 40:08
  So that's my little tip for people that want to find you.
• 40:10
  Just add the word photography.
• 40:12
  And of course, I will put all of your links in the show notes as well.
• 40:16
  Stuart, it's been such a pleasure.
• 40:17
  Thank you so much for being here.
• 40:19
  Stuart: Pleasure.
• 40:19
  Thank you, Becca.
• 40:21
  Becca: Wasn't that the most interesting, fascinating conversation?
• 40:24
  I know so many of you will have taken so many little nuggets away from it.
• 40:28
  And it's a reminder, isn't it, that when you see someone on Instagram, when
• 40:31
  you see someone speaking on stage, and you think, I just want to understand
• 40:35
  how they got to where they got to, there's always a story to be told.
• 40:38
  And there's always a huge amount of hard work that's gone into the journey.
• 40:42
  If there's more people you want to hear from, you want to hear their stories.
• 40:45
  Let me know and let's get them on the podcast.
• 40:47
  Have a great week and I'll see you next time.