Lessons
Lesson Info
Eric O'Connor
Let me introduce you eric o'connor photographer for eleven years he runs a wedding started business in chicago he shares business tips with photographers and agile photog dot com which I think is a great resource to go to if your photographer and while he's not living this rock star life of a wedding photographer he's also running marathons and he's run thirteen marathons already amazing and just finished one two weeks ago so it's topic today is seven reasons why running a marathon is like running a photography business so thank you so marathons and business twenty six point two may seem like a perfectly normal number until you think about running twenty six point two miles less than half of one percent of people in the u s have run a marathon this seems a little bit crazy but what is crazier is that eighty percent of small businesses fail in the first three to five years yet we're all standing here anyway it doesn't matter we're going to try we're going to try and run a business and r...
unning a business is hard sometimes running a business it would be we think it would be easier to quit than to move forward way took my dog on a walk and he couldn't make it that happens to us in business we do social media we do advertising we do accounting we do the shooting we do the processing we do everything and sometimes we think that's it I'm done I'm gonna hang it up and get another job sometimes we're training and you think there's no way I'm going to run twenty miles I cannot get up one more time at five o'clock in the morning that's happened to me but then something happens we get in a group like this the running community and the photography community are amazing you get in a group of forty thousand people and you're energized people want to see you achieve they want to help you move in a new direction they really just want to cheer you on but sometimes when we get into a group like that that could be a little sense of inadequacy and we start to compare ourselves way start to compare ourselves to other people and we think about the things that we aren't doing we think about the things that other people are doing and we can't and we really want to move in that direction and maybe start following but I'm here to tell you when I'm running every single day I'm running next to people and sometimes I have the appearance of following them but we're going in completely different directions and working toward him clearly different goals remember that when you're in your business just because you see what other people are doing you're not necessarily following you're moving in a diff for direction this is a real thing sometimes you poop your pants thirteen out of thirteen marathons, someone has proved their pants next to me. I have never done that. However I did rip the crotch out of one of my suits and spent eight hours thinking, oh, my god, I hope my coats long enough to cover this way can probably all agree. If you ever get close to proving your pants and you're on a shoot, don't be a hero. Quit. Okay, sometimes you need to take a break. This is one of my boys. This is ryan. Say hi to ryan, everybody people love you. Do you ever get frustrated? Do you ever feel like you may actually smash something? If you get one more email or one more phone call it's? Time to take a break? Do you have people pulling you in different directions? Maybe it's put people on your own team, maybe it's your clients, you're overwhelmed and you need to take a break if you don't. You may be faced with the fashion pope faux pas that I was, and you get stuck wearing black socks with brown shoes. I was too dumb to stop running and I stress fractured my foot and had to go shoot weddings in a boot I don't recommend doing this, so take a break. You have a little warning on your iphone that comes up and says, if you don't turn me off, I'm going to explode. So I'm sitting at the pool at the bellagio and this warning comes up. I'm taking a break. I'm killing my phone. What I'm telling you is, get away, take a day, take a week taken afternoon, relax, recharge go to your happy place. This was taken fishing with my boys take a time to refocus and move back in the direction that you want to go life is too short to not enjoy what you're doing a year ago, I was in the e r the doctor came in and said to me, the bad news is you have pulmonary embolisms covering your lungs. The good news is one in three people die from this and it wasn't you. You're gonna have to take it easy. When you go to work, you may not get to run for six months. I run every day. You're going to have to push things back at work. I had to move client meetings, I had to call people and say, I have blood clots in my lungs, I would have to meet with you another time. I had to bring baby sitters with me. Jason and rob. Thank you. I didn't know if I could physically make it through a wedding, so they came to make sure that I could. It was a long year back. I had to walk blocks. I had to walk a mile. And then two weeks ago, I ran my thirteenth marathon. And so I got, like, thirty seconds. So this is finishing looking back on twenty six point to holding the camera over my head. And I can tell you a year of recovery, a re year of building a business. I shot my thirty six wedding the day before. And I will shoot forty weddings this year. I will also run another one run marathon in two weeks. Do epic stuff. This is edited. It's a family show. It said something else. So I want to leave you with this. Think about my year. One year ago. Whatever is standing in your way whatever is keeping you from going forward. Choose to do epic things. Tomorrow I do it for them every day. These are my boys. Tie ryan and sean and sue. Everybody say hi to my boys, please, because they will thank you, thank you.
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Outstanding! Definitely inspiring and making me want to move forward. :)
Olive Park
INSPIRED! THX!
a Creativelive Student
You bastards make me cray every time ! And I love you for it. Amazing heart and mind boost ! Godspeed to all of you.