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Goals and Metrics Q&A

young watcher is asking, What if we're working with another photographer who has different metrics, So, like you have a business that is maybe a partnership and they have different metrics, different things they're trying to achieve? You know, you have to be able to work with your partner. That's what you got in business for, and you have to be able to come to some sort of common ground on that. And, you know, truly, I think partnerships you could be better together, and I think it's a challenge. No doubt when you're on your own, it's easier because you're the only one who is making the goals and making the metrics and actually going through those. However, there are so many things that come from a partnership from having multiple people on the same team, and what comes with that is different viewpoints. There's just no doubt about it, different viewpoints from every single different person. But if you whittle away at those and you really work towards finding what is I think you know u...

nique and attractive about each person's ideas, you actually come away with a stronger set of metrics, and you would on your own I really You know, if you trust that person and you're in business with him, I really think I got to think that's the right way to do it in a partnership. We have a couple questions coming in on just clarifying how Maney metrics is too many metrics. How many is too far? Yeah, well, you know, I think anywhere from 5 to 10 metrics is if we need just, like a how to are applicable number that says, you know, what number of metrics am I going to work towards? I would say that 5 10 is a good number. I say 5 to 10 gives you a realistic range to shoot for. It should be fairly specific and cross, you know, into the number of events. Or, you know, if you're not event photographer into an amount that you want to do, you know, an amount of business and then probably broken down into more specificity for exactly the type of event you want to do or the type of shoots. So, you know, I think what are the easiest one to look at? And so if we just look at a wedding photographer, for example, a wedding photographer. You know, I like to have a metric for me. That has to do with how much my business is going to grow this year Going to grow my business 25%. I'm gonna grow my business X percent. I'm gonna reach this certain amount in in revenue or I'm gonna reach this certain amount of profit. I also want to have a metric for specific amount of weddings that I want to shoot. So, for example, for me this year, I want to shoot about 12 or 13 weddings. That's that's the metric I would have. So I'll say 12 weddings, and I'll even put a price tag on that. You know, my average packages about 6,507,000. And so, you know, I probably say I want to do 12 weddings that, you know, they that $7000 mark I'd go down in drill even further, and then I put metrics that correspond to where I want to see my business going. I know one thing that I continually working on is after events sales. You know, it's always been something that I've been on a path with. I'm gonna share that with you as we as we go about these days. And so I would personally diametric after events sales for me. And that's why I posted that up there. You know, I would time metric to a probably a dollar amount as an average. I know in San Diego I struggle a lot with meeting with them after the event because a lot of my clients are from out of town San Diego such a destination oriented place. And so it's so hard sometimes to talk with clients about what to do with their images when you can't meet with them. I'm sure a lot of you guys understand how that goes, you know, or if you don't even have a studio space, doesn't matter if their local or not. You got to meet him somewhere that isn't controlled and whatnot. We're gonna be talking about that sales in the segment on Day three, but I would tie a metric to post event sales. I'd also tie a metric to the amount of vendors I want to meet with, and that's why I have it in their vendor. Referrals is a big component of our business at Bomb and photographers getting referred by vendors, vendors, from coordinators to hotels and venues, two DJs and floors, always different vendors. Now, a lot of you might be saying, John, I'm not a wedding photographer. So what do you mean, vendors? What do I do? Well, I gotta be honest of you. I mean, there are referrals that exist everywhere, and there are people that work in your space, no matter what space you're in. If you do landscape photos, then you might need to go look at who could refer you. Maybe you need to get your work and copy shops and art galleries. If you are a travel photographers, surely there are people out there that are gonna be your advocates, and they're gonna refer you business. And so it's more looking at, from a standpoint of where am I gonna get my client sources moving on even further? I wouldn't have a metric that talks about. You know how I'm gonna get more client referrals. Something we did last year, for example, is throw a big part and I will be talking about that party that we threw. And I'm gonna be going details about how great that was. But It was really awesome to have a party, and we noticed a huge uptick and referrals from our clients that we invited to the party. It was really just to get together to celebrate our 10 years of being in business. But it was funny how, in the end, after what came out of that was a lot of client referrals. So what I'm trying to do is give you just really brass tacks, examples of metrics you can set yourself now. I kind of stayed at the top level of them, but you want to make him very specific. By now. You could probably repeat exactly what smart is. We've gone over it so many times, but you want to give him those. You know, we want to get in those tenants, but you need to have five, maybe upwards of 10 metrics that allow you to really achieve your purpose and what not. So I want to hear from you guys here. I want to hear a metric that each of you can have for your business and put in the spot right off the bat in the first segment here in the morning. But I want to hear from each of you. What's a metric that you guys can have for your business this year? Is your growing Julie? Let me let me start with you over in the corner. Well, I've been working on being active in my local chamber of commerce and just making relationships there. So for me, it would be going to the chamber luncheon every month or going to their weekly networking group and just being up just going out there because working at home alone in my office, I want any co workers. So it's really important for me to have a metric. That's what is it just you don't give me what's what's a rough metric for this one. Going out into the James Commerce community twice a month, twice a month in the chamber of commerce community and just being present and meeting people. Great. That's a great metric. That's something you can achieve. You can get out of bed and we're in. You know what you're going for? You know what you're trying to dio? Yeah. Great. Yeah, I actually I was laughing when you pulled this up, because I think that that's probably one of my goals. is actually 10 weddings at about 3000. Um, next year, I I think also probably one that will be really important for me is networking, and I'm not sure what that looks like, but given that I'm basically restarting my business, I have I have no network, so that'll be huge. So what, you think a good metric would be for networking? What do you think? It's something that you feel you feel like it's personal for you. It's a good way for you to approach networking, you know, because there's a lot of wasted network what would be good for you but would give you something that you can you can work towards instead of just because here's what happened. We just saying networking and I'm not picking on, you know, I'm just saying that's a great place to start and a lot of what we see Networking and I talked about earlier. I'm gonna throw a vendor party all through a client party, and we kind of stopped there, and we don't go into detail and say, I'm gonna throw client part, and it's gonna be in a summer. It's gonna be it's gonna invite this many people, and I'm gonna do this and the purposes this. And so what do you think? Taking this idea of networking and applying it. What's a good metric to go out with? I think, um, connecting personally. At least you know at least two vendors each month to Venice a month and maybe taking the coffee or taking him toe. You know, at least interacting with two vendors a month with the purpose of connecting with them, spending time with them, working with them. And that's a good metric for you to have, because the end of the year you'll have met with 24 vendors. And if you only need a book 10 weddings a year, then chances are as long as you get 40% roughly from these vendors, that's that's a great metric that's gonna help you achieve. You know, the other metric you had. Yeah, that's a great thing about metrics. They can actually help you achieve other metrics. They can work, you know, that kind of work around with each other. What would you say? The good metric? Um, I want to start buying an album for each of the venues that I work out after the wedding, just putting the album together and maybe meeting with the venue of the coordinator there so I can ask them how we can continue to network. That's great set. That's a great metric. I want to get my work in every single venue that I work at. And so every venue I worked at that I've never worked out before. I'm gonna make an album for them and take it over there. I'm gonna meet him, make sure they, you know, shake hands, kiss babies over there and make sure they know who I am. And they put a face to a name and put this That's a good metric app. That's a great metric. Thank you for sharing. Um, I would like to meet more vendors, wedding vendors. I know for my portrait business. I've put a lot of energy in the meeting doulas and, um, midwives and people in the birth industry. And that has been actually, Really I've put a lot of energy into it and done a lot and haven't gotten the return on that. So I'm putting more my business energy into my weddings so that let's look at that. What do you think it is if we could go back to? Because I think that that's something we all struggle with. Two. It's like when you look at a metric that you had from last year, you say I did it and I got nothing out of it. I got nothing out of that metric. What would you say is probably the reason, Or do you even can even try ticks expand on why it might not have worked? Well, I mean, I haven't got nothing out of it, but proverbial, I don't know. I think that what I do, Maybe perhaps it's something that I need to convince, not convinced. But there's not an already a market for it. So I have to create the market in some ways, Um, and there also is a market for it, maybe my parts that I don't know well, so if if it sounds like what you're saying is that part of the reason the metric of meeting with the doulas and meeting with these people to do then generate business, part of the reason that didn't work is because there isn't a market yet part of it. Part of it is what is their return. What it is, what are they getting out of it? And so I I feel like I have to work on that more. I've had some strategies, and I haven't followed through with them as far as that goes. But yeah, well, part of the reason why even bring it up is because sometimes metrics for this year can be based on the metrics we didn't solve last year and the holes we uncovered about him, you know? And that's the cool thing is that when you don't accomplish the metric, it's it's good that instead of just doing it well, forget that one. It's great to look at it and kind of looking examine and say, Why didn't that work? And sometimes ideas just don't work. You know, if it's a new idea, maybe we through this client appreciation party. We threw a 10 year party and no one showed up. First off, that was your stink second off. You know, maybe people did show up, but it didn't lead any more referrals. So we can just say, Well, I'm never doing that again, or we can say Okay, well, why was it you know why didn't it work? And what can I do to change that? And sometimes it's a quick, simple fix, and sometimes it's something that we should throw out. And so it's It's good to look back on your metrics from years past, many of you, many of you, maybe have had these goals set for your business on, and now you're maybe re shifting the way you're looking at it. But it's good to look back at him. And that's what I just saw in what your time. It's. I want to use that as an opportunity to bring it up. Is that you know, sometimes it's an idea we want to shove aside. Sometimes it's an idea we want to keep going with, but we want to modify it just. But if we never looked back, then sometimes we can't actually figure out where we're going in the future. And so it's good to look back on some metrics that you set One metric is wanted. Attend 45 Hillary review events over the next year, meeting with photo editors, art directors, ad agencies, both people that would directly really apply to the work I do, but also folks who could give me really great feedback and how to grow it, especially kind of the commercial side. I mean, really kind of attend those events, meet those people and show that my book you want to meet with 4 to Goto 45 reviews 45 reviews. But it's got to be with people that are specifically knowledge, knowledgeable about commercial. You said, Well, and travel editorial and then I want to do more commercial, right? Okay, specifically knowledgeable about travel editorial. So it can't just be anybody. You meet with anybody that you go to. It has to be specific to that industry. Andan you talked about commercial inside the metric up for that commercial. What would be a good metric for that? So someone that may represent kind of hotels that brands that would fit well with the type of photography that I do, and neither really kind of exotic locations or maybe boutique eco lodges that have a real strong, like wildlife for cultural component to it or cultural heritage component, because that would work well, a lot of my kind of archaeology or cultural heritage photographic work that I've done so great and you said a couple key words there, but I want to put out. So what wouldn't work? Well, as a metric is to say I wanted to meet with some booty. I want to meet with some hotels about my commercial work. And but what you did say, as you said, I want to meet with some hotels that fit this criteria. And so now you have a set of metrics. You know, you have a metric that has that has specificity to it, and then you can measure it and you can say, Well, that that is not equal friendly. So it does not. It's not the type of hotel I want to meet with. Move along. This hotel is eco friendly. It is boutique, you know, maybe even needed to find what you go friendly is we need to define what boutique is. But the more specific you get with that metric, the better you're gonna be able to accomplish it. There's a great, good Oliver. Um, one of my metrics I think that I would like toa accomplish would be to have my landscape work displayed in three coffee shops this year. So, you know, just have you know got a little space on the wall just to show something and kind of make it on display. So hopefully that could lead to cells. Or at least get my name out there because I'm starting to branch out and start doing more. Landscape photography came started as a hobby. Now it's starting to getting more interested in turning that into a business aspect of it and part of photography as well. I think that's great. That's very specific, you know, it's very specific. It's time focused. It's measurable. You can, you know, has all the characteristics there, so well, great, thanks everybody for sharing. I appreciate it. And I hope that that also helped the kind of all everybody else is watching to understand how we can take thought into a metric and somehow, you know, make something out of that. Um, you know, at the end of the day, Yogi, Yogi Berra said it best. If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there on DSO again. What I really want to encourage you guys to Dio is to think long and hard about going back to where we started. We started even before the purpose. We started with the idea about building a business around something more than just what you do. You know, Simon See Neck talks about it for those you don't know him. He has written several books. He's a fantastic educator in public speaker, and he has given one of the top 10 most watched Ted talks ever, and it's actually another name of it. I know that it's based on his book. Start With Why and in this talk he goes through and he talks about the three layers of a company and the three layers of really what we all start with when we broadcast and he calls it The outer layer is the what in the middle layer is the How and the inner layer is the why and most of us start with the what so we'll go out there will say Hi, my name is Jared and I'm a wedding photographer. That's what I do. And then if we're really, really getting specific and we see that by the way, everywhere we go companies do this all the time. Hi, I'm Ford and we make cars, you know, on. He goes on to talk about you know exactly all the different companies that start with what? And so that's great. So you started. But then, if you're really, really getting deep, you go into the next layer, which is the how and how is kind of maybe your unique, different shooters. It's, you know, it's it's what you you bring to the table that's completely unique. You know, maybe if your Toyota you say, hi, we're Toyota, we make cars and our cars are really fuel efficient and incredibly safe. That's how you make him you may. That's what makes him different and then as photography, that sometimes we say Hi, I'm a wedding photographer and I take I take pictures. You know, I take really emotional pictures. I take really bright pictures. I take, I take colorful pictures or my pictures are. They have a lot of emotion to them, and we go on with that. We talked about the how of what we do or, you know, I like to, you know, shoot in exotic locations and incorporate that into my work s so forth and so on. We talked about the have what we do but see Neck goes deeper and says it. Very rarely do companies start by talking about their why and for us as entrepreneurs as so is really what I want. I like to call solo preneurs were so low preneurs. I mean, if there's more than one of us, I mean, that's like the 1% of photo businesses typically were on her own with this, and it's still a preneurs. There is no reason why we shouldn't start with why and starting with why talks about starting deep down with why you do your business and why you get a bed in the morning. And really, that becomes our goal or our purpose, and you can start that with, I believe you know that's a great way to start. That is, you can start by saying I believe and that can be your why that can be deep down. What, you're really going for it again? Why do I say all this? Remember, the whole purpose of these three days is to help you build a business that's successful, and that's profitable. But to help you build a business that makes you happier and to help you build a business that allows you to achieve your dreams and works with your lifestyle and works on your behalf and helps you. And starting with why is such a wonderful point? Because it allows us to start with what makes us unique. You know, Apple started. He loves to talk about Apple, and it's so easy for us cause we all understand Apple Apples. Whole thing has always been think differently, think different. That's why it's easy. I talked about Starbucks. I talked about Southwest Airlines. You know, in do we have in and out here in Seattle. I think I don't know if I even get out of here yet. So in California, in and out is a big deal. And out of all the different hamburger chains you can go to, you can go to all these different burger joints. And yet in and out is the only line out the door, and they're doing something uniquely different. And they're just making burgers. It's burgers, and yet they have allowed the door and nobody else does. Why is that? Why is that that those people are doing something so differently, and yet it's just burgers. Starbucks just makes coffee. Why are they so popular? You know And so what I want to challenge you guys to do is to start with why, just like Simon Scenic talks about and turn that into your goal and then build metrics to help you achieve that goal to build metrics. So don't just get up in the morning and just get in your car and start driving as the You know, as the analogy went, I don't want you to wake up and just stumbled your computer and just start working. It's easier that way, but it's so much harder First accomplished things with metrics at our side, with metrics supporting what we're doing, you can actually get out of bed in the morning, go to the computer and know exactly what you need to dio, because you have a purpose. You have metrics that support that purpose, and you have action items that support your metrics. You need the tools to do that, and that's what the metrics and the action items that help you with those metrics. That's what they do for you. They give you the tools to achieve that goal, and that goal is again. It goes back to exactly you, and what makes you unique. It's not easy, by the way. It's not easy to figure that out. As a matter of fact, if it comes to you quickly, I'm gonna say it again when we go through the specialist in part, Jeff and I have some homework for you guys tonight, and this is the homework that I went through when I first was working with Jeff, and that homework kept me up all night and into the next morning. As I was telling, I say that if if figuring out the why doesn't take you very long, then you haven't done a good job with it. It should be heart wrenching. It should be gut wrenching. It all the way down to the core of you should be why you get out of bed in the morning. It should be when you peel back all those layers. It should be what exists at the bottom of all that. It should be what's below everything that gets in the way every single day of where we truly want to be. And I want to encourage you guys as we go to the next three days to dig for that to dig, and it's going to hurt, and it's gonna be hard. And it's not gonna be easy. And there will be times when you're like, I'm totally there in the back. You run. You might not there, but I just want to be there. But I won't encourage you guys to go through that and the dig deep. So at this point, I want to see, you know, check in. We have questions about all this on DSI. What, you guys, What were you guys thinking? Well, you just, like, hit the perfect topic today for our Internet because you have created such dialogue in our creative live chat room. Everybody is sharing with each other right now, like what they're going through, like things that they are personally setting for themselves and their goals in there and their challenges right now on their business. So you're really speaking to them, and it's great to see um, one of one specific question we had from her pro photographer. So you're starting your business and you set your goals and metrics. How do you adjust those as your business grows? Yeah, that's I mean, that's the thing. I never started my business with the intention of selling it. For example, I never thought that I would be. You know, I started off at my purpose, you know, had to do with being a photographer. And now my purpose has to do with being a photographer who also helps photographers. And it changes and it should change. And that's the whole reason why you set these is so that as you grow as the decades go on, your business continues to contribute to your happiness rather than being the opposite. You know, I meet so many people and we're going to talk about this a little bit. The next segment I meet so many people, so many photographers who are husband, wife, teams and then they have a baby and everything changes for them. All of a sudden, what was a lifestyle? Business is now no longer the same kind of business they wanted to be. They have a baby. They want their lives to be about that baby now, and I see it time and time again, and it's like, Oh my goodness, I built this business around me and my husband. I built this business around me and my wife and now all of a sudden I have a baby and I don't want it to be us every weekend shooting. And so that's why this stuff is so important is because if you build something deeper than that, if you build a business based on something that goes far beyond something like husband, wife, team and you build it on your purpose, then it can always adjust. And you never have to worry about making that adjustment. It doesn't matter if one of you wants to move towards something a little bit different, because if that falls in line with who you authentically are, then of course, it makes sense and metrics help you to readjust. So you change the metrics. I'll give an example. In 2000 and eight, we were shooting nothing but weddings. So we're seeing nothing. But weddings were doing about 80 to 85 weddings a year. And that was when the stock market, you know, I think was October of Oh, wait, I don't know. I'm not a finance goobers, so don't quote me on that. But it was around the weight of a wait, and we were, you know, I was sitting there at the beginning of 2009 might have been the in vivo seven. I might have my years wrong, but the story remains that I was sitting at the end of that season after stock market had crashed and my friends and finance, we're like, Oh my gosh, the sky is falling and everyone's freaking out. I'm like we're doing just fine. I don't know what's going on. And then I I was having coffee with a coordinator, and this coordinator friend looked at me and said, I never forget exactly where I was. He said it. I'll never forget what? You remember what he was wearing when he said it, because it's stuck out so much to me. He said, Well, Jared, of course you're doing fine. You're shooting weddings that were booked on last year's economy. You'll feel it next year when next this year's economy gets booked out for next year was like, Oh my gosh, I'm such an idiot. You're so right and I started freaking out. I'm like I ran back to the studio and I brought some better, like what happened, you know, like I just realized we are sitting on our laurels or rest on our laurels and that was when we started diversifying and adding a second segment to our business. Still still met with our original purpose. But we added a second segment and that's when he started doing corporate work. And so we started investing in corporate because we didn't want all of our eggs to be in that wedding basket. In hindsight, after having gone through all of that, I would have done a little differently. I still would have gone into corporate, but it wouldn't have been as a diversification method. But the point of that is is that we now have a huge corporate leg. Obama photographers. We shoot over 1000 upwards of corporate headshots a year. We shoot corporate events almost every other week for different companies that come to town, and that came out of a change in where we wanted to go and so we set new metrics that adjusted our course and we still shot a lot of weddings. But we found a way to slowly move into that and it took some time. But if we started with well, where we trying to accomplish what the metrics weaken set up to get there and then Okay, where the action items that allow us to achieve those metrics that then go back to that purpose that we have. So I hope that helps set a little light example when we had to kind of change the way we do things. But it's hard because we all go through life changes and our businesses, they're gonna change the course of time. I do this for 12 years now, and I've gone through from being in college to graduating to getting married to hopefully having kids someday. Me, my business. I've gone through so many changes, and I've needed to make sure my business can change with me. So it supports me rather than the other way around being stuck doing the same thing and not letting you can't have your life that you want, because your business is kind of pigeonholed you in the corner and we have a question from Leela. That's a follow. What was your original purpose and goal when you first started? When I first started out, When you first started, it was to be a photographer, okay, and there's no purpose there at all. I mean, there is, but my original purpose was I just want to shoot. I just want to have a camera in my hand. But I didn't go any deeper than that. And that's the what You know, that's the original mistake, and I'm gonna go through in the next. I think in the marketing segment or no in the next thing, we'll talk exactly about all the failures I made along the way to realize Oh my goodness, no wonder nobody knows why I'm any different than any of the photographer because all I want to do is just be a photographer. And that's what everybody else says. And what I really realized is that there's so much there's something much deeper than just being a photographer, and I'm gonna talk about my purpose in building a team and my purpose in how it plays out with not just being a photographer but giving other photographers an opportunity who normally wouldn't because they aren't business minded. And that's in the end. The company I created a bomb of photographers, and Bronson has been there since 2000 for, and it has been there since 2000 and seven or 2000 and eight and Bama photographers is about giving other photographers who don't want and can't run their own business opportunity to realize their passion. And so there's a lot that goes into that. But my purpose now goes back to that, but it sure didn't start off that way. Also, another question from our chat rooms is from love and Life studios. Who asked, Is it better to present to a client as what I can do for them or what they will get from me? And how would you word that in in a metric yeah, that's a great That's a great point. And really, what it comes down to is you want your purpose to be all about you and all, about what you believe about who you are and all about the things that you value and you want. Teoh in the end, that's gonna attract people who are similar to that. That's gonna attract people who have the same beliefs and have the same experiences and have the same feelings and have the same priorities in life. But you want us. That's what you want. Start with, I believe you know Simon, see not going back to his his examples. He talks about how nobody would have come and heard Martin Luther King gave his speech. If he said I have a plan, you know, like that's not inspiring at all, nobody would have come in showing up for that, he said. I have a dream and everyone has a dream. Don't we all have a dream We can all get behind a dream? History might be different than my dream, but I still love his dream. History might not be my top dream, but I can really understand his dream. He just said I have a plan. It's like, Well, shoot, get in line I got a plan like a 10,000 plans. I can't even get time to get around him, you know? And that's why his movement was so powerful. It's not like he was the first guy to talk about civil rights movements. You know, she's wasn't the first guy. He's the first guy, got attraction. That's because he appealed to an incredibly large cover people because he spoke about what was truly deep down. I have a dream. How much more fundamental can you get in that? And we quote that all the time. Why do you think we quoted so much? Because it's so powerful because we all feel that way. We can all jump on board with Martin of the King and experience that, and how powerful is it you again? We all start our businesses with something deep down that we wanted to dio and at the end of the day, getting the passion behind that behind what you bring going back to the question coming out of it from what you are and who you are and what you bring, what's authentically you and broadcasting that is your purpose. And then using the metrics to support that. That's what I would recommend. I would not recommend the alternative. And here's why. If you go around, you say you're going to be able to dream when you book me. That would be alternative of a part of the king said if he had said instead of state, I have a dream, he had said. You can also have a dream. I'm not sure many people would really so not. I'm not sure many people would have really bought in. I'm not sure how successful the civil rights movement would have been If he had said, you can have a dream to or come with me and I'll help you accomplish your dream. Or if you stick with me or if we change the world, you'll also be this. I say I don't believe that as much. I don't believe that. But I believe when you say I have a dream, I believe that you have a dream. I can I have a dream to now I want I want hear more about that. Tell me more about how you have a dream. Tell me more about how you're changing the world. Tell me more about your passion, for you know why you're really in business. Tell me about these things and then we can actually connect on that level rather than doing you know the alternative. Telling me what I'm gonna experience from it because I don't believe that as much. And I can't get on board with as much as I could get on board with what you believe. Great. Well, I want to finish today's this segment here on one final point, and I want to ask you guys before I do that, though, does anybody here have any inkling about something deeper for them for a purpose? Does anybody here have anything and it's OK if you don't? But I'd love to hear maybe just one thought from one of you about it. It's incredibly challenging and tough in a world where we are surrounded by companies that promote what instead of why, in a world where we go around and was telling us what they do instead of why they do it, It's really hard to kind of get out of that mindset. It took me years to get out of that mindset of No, no, stop talking about what I do and start talking about why I do it great. So I want to tell the stories of the stories that need to be told that that are out there in the world, the places that people aren't hearing about or have one in the job, that there's completely other stories. They're going on there and I want to help tell that story better. Through images and three photography, you want to dig deeper than what is out there right now. Yes, or that is sort of the surface layer that people are getting in the news of the media that tell the stories that are being told but that need to be told that people need to know about. So it's about stories. Could you do that without a camera? It's a way that you communicating, translate. And if you do it in a different medium in a camera, you're going to get a different story across than what you visually get with a camera. Were such visual people. People are so visual that a powerful image can stay with you forever, and I want to help help do that. And so the image is just a way for you to achieve this purpose. The working provide the business you run is just a way for you to achieve this purpose of telling a deeper story. Exactly. And so, see, you know you have a good purpose when the camera has nothing to do with it. It's just a way to achieve the purpose of the to use. You know you have a good purpose when it goes so much deeper than photography. Photography is just the way that you choose to do it, just like Starbucks chooses to create community through coffee they don't have to pick coffee. They could've picked anything. But they choose to create community through coffee, and a good purpose goes so much deeper than photography. Photography is just what you choose to achieve that purpose, and that's really what at the end of the day, I want you guys t think about. That's why that I believe statement can be so powerful because I believe doesn't necessarily have to have photography in it. It could be so much better than that. It could be so much more fulfilling that could be so much grander than just photography. And photography is so powerful, we all. I mean, I get emotional thinking about some of the images I've looked at over the years that have brought tears to my eyes. I get emotional about seeing my clients and, um, the way that those photographs have impacted them over the years, and I I'll never forget. I hope I don't start crying already. Um, I'll never forget when one of my bride's called me up about three or four years ago, and I shot her waiting in and they came to San Diego to get married. Um, they were. They were not local and just had amazing day with, um I met him for the first time, the wedding day, and he was a Marine, and he was carrying an affectionate and you could just see in his eye that she was all that mattered. And she I mean, what she did All I remember is the way that she talked about him. It wasn't It was the way he looked at her, but the way she talked about him, But it was their wedding was amazing. And I got a call from her two years later saying that he had been killed in Afghanistan. And she wanted me to come out and be with her the entire week as he went through a full barrel in Arlington Cemetery and got decorated with medals up in up in the Merchant Marine Academy up in New York. And so I went out there and spent an entire week with her family and photographed the whole thing. And I remember being at the funeral at Arlington, and I was crying so hard that I just had to move the camera button over toe to pee because I just couldn't even think anymore because I and I couldn't really seal that well either. Celtic points. You're not. Any of my focus has had so many tears coming down and there's an image I took that it was of her driving away in the car and I took it. I was behind them and I took it looking into the side, the side mirror. So it reflected back on her and she was looking out of his grave and she put her hand in the window. And to me, that's the most important image I've ever taken in my entire life. She's crying and she's looking as the car was driving away and it it drove me back to my purpose. You know, it drove me back and really, the camera that day was the tool that I used to fulfill my purpose and why I started my business. And but we have that potential do that every day. But if we sell ourselves short, we think it's just about the image, and it's just about photography. It's so much deeper than that. It's so much deeper that what we do go so much deeper than that. And there's a reason that we all do what we dio and we have the examples. I just give you an example of what I do. But that would take five minutes to tell someone. You need to sum that up in one sentence with a purpose that totally captures why you get out of bed in the morning. And it totally captures and embraces why you do what you do because you can't tell that five minutes story. But you can find a statement, and I believe that actually does capture that. And that's why I want you guys to Dio and the metrics get easy after that because those just support that purpose, That goal.