Famous Photographers that I met and the things they taught me

I had the freakin' amazing opportunity to go to David Jay's Free to Succeed Tour with Jasmine Star yesterday in Santa Barbara and it was sooo worth the 4.5 sweaty drive in my non ac car and the fact that my left arm is about 10 shades darker than my right. SO worth it. And worth not really going to bed. Except a small nap right off the freeway at about 4 am. ANYWAY. I learned so much from DJ and Jasmine!! They are FABULOUS photographers as well as INCREDIBLE people. They are so genuine and kind. I met Jasmine about 6 weeks ago the first week I moved to SD at a photographer's thing and she remembered me last night and gave me a big hug (and even remembered that I have a twin :) ). I also got to see Shyla, who I randomly met in San Fran last year at the Palace of Fine Arts!

Things I learned from DJ:

• Make your business about helping others; this is something DJ really promotes and truly lives by. I only hear good things about his and how he is always helping out other photographers.
• Prioritize your life and make your business serve YOU, not the other way around
• Too many people get stuck being a 'spinning top,' you go really fast but you don't go anywhere (sound familiar? oh yeah, that's me)
• Forget the HOW and focus on the WHY, why am I doing what I'm doing??
• Don't choose unhappiness over uncertainty (most people do, relationships, jobs, etc)
• Your main purpose in life is not to take pictures, figure out your own purpose, you can do that if you have the freedom to do so
  
• He really like acronyms, here's a good one - FREE - Focus Relationships Emotion Expandibility
• I have like 6 pages of notes, so I can't very well put everything on here. If they're coming through your city you need to go check them out, it will change your life and the way you think about your business. Check it out here!
  

Things I learned from Jasmine:

• Have DETERMINATION!!
• She talked all about branding, something, I, uh, need to work on. I am, I am working on it, I promise.
  
• Ask yourself, What am I doing? Where am I going? Why am I doing it?
• Something her very intuitive husband said to her when she made the decision to be a photographer "I would rather see you fail at something you love than succeed at something you hate"
• List your assest AND your liabilities and leverage those assets, no matter what they may be (hm, I like babies?)
• Figure out WHO YOU ARE
• Like I said, 6 pages of notes (probably better notes than anything I ever did at school. But then again, I'm sure I learned more here too). You need to check them out. They will rock your world.
  

DJ lives in Santa Barbara so afterwards he invited everyone to his house for a party. It was great! I lost horribly at foosball several times and brought down whoever was on my team every time.

I don't have a picture of Jasmine, sadly (she didn't go to the party, where this was taken), but I present to you David Jay, yours truly, and Gary Fong.



*Update, if you check out DJ's blog you can see my wildly blonde hair in a couple pics Gary took :) Check it out