Lessons

Lesson Info

Chris Jeyes - Land Rover

(call connecting) All right, well Chris, thanks for doing this call in. Yeah, of course. You and I met in 2014, 15? 15. 2015 yeah and for the Land Rover project we put together for the Discovery Sport at the time and then, I think the most fun we had is when we went to either the offroading school or to this Ridge line in Idaho to shoot the eclipse. I don't know, I think probably the Idaho was- Yeah, the Idaho one for me is probably the best one because I think that's just that perfect example of everything coming together at the right point in time for things to just happen and go and it's so rare when a good project comes along that everything just falls into place for and that one was just like right time, right place, right people, right connection and it worked, it was a good one. Quite stressful. So for people who don't know, you work at Land Rover USA and I've met you through just doing work with Land Rover and we've had a good relationship beyond sort of work for ...

the past few years so I know you're always super open and have a lot of insights because you also take photos to a very skilled level of cars. Yeah, and it's been fun seeing from like where we met to what you've done now. So I just wanna have you share your experiences and talk about what the COVID is doing to the business in general. And then you can take as much as you want and I think it'd be very useful for everybody. Okay. Yeah it's great to be on here because I think you are probably one of the most, I don't know, fun, enjoyable, valuable relationships that I've gotten out of Land Rover in many different ways. We did some cool work together and I think kind of started as a bit more of in a formalized relationship and then it moved to a bit informal. I think it got to a point where it was that's sort of the optimal way to operate, right? We have that open line of communication where we can talk about fun different things that are going on. We can communicate when we need things and likewise, when you have a great project it's there for us to be able to exchange those ideas and it's been a lot of fun and also have leaned on you heavily to sort of develop my own skillset as well and really grow my own, I guess, photography or enjoyment of photography. So it's been a fun ride and yeah, I've been at Land Rover now for five years. It's actually five years in June which is crazy to think about doesn't necessarily feel that. So weird, yeah we're timing for a birthday but... Yeah I guess so, but it's been a good ride I've done a ton of different things from, managing our website, social media, a lot of our online content through media partnerships, et cetera. So for the most part, it's been a focus on content and I've kind of, I dunno, uncovered my own love for creativity and storytelling through some of the projects that I've been really fortunate to work on more recently. The photos are at Taylor Automotive? Yeah, that's what all my is auto work is under. We'll it somewhere down here, cool. Cool, thank you. Yeah, it's fun because Land Rover, unlike any other brand, is sort of one that is almost like a canvas upon which you can create because it does represent that that notion of adventure and it's very rare that you find a brand that has a higher calling in the same way that Land Rover does, where you can effectively go out and create something that is maybe a bit beyond what you do with typical brands, maybe shooting in studios or sort of shooting on location. It takes you to some really interesting places so I've been very fortunate working with them. It's got a super rugged heritage that I think, aside from the G wagon and the Jeep Wrangler, like there's no other brand that makes well in land cruises, I guess, but there's another brand that makes like proper offroaders that they're not SUVs but can be also be offroaders and that's why I've always been drawn to the brand. It's because it's legit is not a lifted minivan that can go places it's like at most of the models Land Rover has been spinning out cars recently a lot, but the flagships to me will always be timeless and have a special self spot for the full size ranger horse so that to me is a dream and I'm really pumped about the new Defender. Hopefully, we get to go around and do some stuff, but for now, I'm really curious to how you guys are approaching the situation at hand that is constantly evolving, but as a company or in your job, what's going on? I think the whole, I guess, the whole ordeal is challenging for everybody you know it's not just independent creators, we're all relying on the fact that there's money coming into a business and money going out of a business, so in many ways we are just a really, at least our marketing team, is just a really large content creator, so to speak. And if we don't have enough money coming in, then we aren't necessarily producing as much. Good stuff. We took a lot of proactive steps to try and make sure that the business was right sized financially and able to sort of weather the storm as best that possibly could. I don't think there is any good, there is just as good as can be. But I think we're looking a lot at some of the historic stuff we've done leaning into the archives and sort of some of that historic imagery that doesn't necessarily cost us anything to share out and does generate a lot of sort of good feelings among people where we're looking into ways that we can, like all creators, do things within the confines of our existing circumstances so, we're not able to travel, we aren't able to have big production shoots. So we've gotta be a little bit scrappier in thinking about things in a different way. How can we repurpose things that we've done over here to fit this specific circumstance and how can we make best use of what we have available? I think that's really what we've been focusing on. And what is the marketing headed for 2020, 2021? Do you even know? Yeah, it's tough to say, if you asked that question two months ago, I would give completely different answer than I would right now. I think we're hoping that as this sort of world 'reopens' people will start to resume some of their normal activity. You know the financial markets have taken a hit, but not necessarily I think as bad as some people thought they would initially. And again, while we don't have a ton of people out and buying cars now in the same way that people aren't buying flights or staying in hotels, we hope that people will return to doing that sort of sooner rather than later and- Yeah, we can hope so. I feel like cars though it's a bit, from my perspective, it's a bit different because it's still a vehicle of individuality 'cause I bet you, it's kinda like a private jet and flying, right? So you can go places, you're not, depending where you are, but in both coasts, you can't pretty much go anywhere. But in the middle of the country right now, like I was just down in town in Montana today and you feel just like a normal day, like restaurants and it's just all back to normal. So I don't know for how long I hope that everything works out. You know it's a small community up here, but the dealerships, when I drive by them I'm always like, God, they have like three hundred F250s sitting shining in the sun and for two months they've been sitting there like, it must be a tough time. So really I'm glad that we're talking about this because I've curious about the state of all this. But I think, if anything, I think the role of a vehicle in people's lives is only gonna come much more important as things start to reopen because the idea of jumping on a plane has so many, I don't know, risks associated with it. The idea of getting into your car and going somewhere is arguably much safer. So I think domestic travel and cars as a whole play a much larger role in people's lives as they start to think about, how do I get back outside and how do I get some sense of adventure, even if I can't get on a plane and go to Europe or something like that. Yeah, a lot of people had, yeah, like you said, plans to go to Europe, so it's gonna be a very national summer I'm feeling. So lot of road shops, at least. Yeah so I'm excited for that, but going back to sort of the doom and gloom, before we jump to other things, like, what are the biggest things that you guys are facing? The biggest problems? That's a- From a marketing standpoint, you know from the supply chain. From a marketing standpoint it's trying to think about how can we be as smart with our budget as possible right now? And how can we use the limited resources that we have as best as we possibly can? Because the reality is that, as I said before, if we're not bringing in money, the business is less willing to spend money. You know marketing is always the first thing to kind of quote. Thankfully Land Rover and Jaguar as well, really strong brands, and they have a lot of meaning in people's lives overall. So, us taking a sort of brief hiatus and then slowly starting to come back in doesn't impact us in the same way that it does some other automotive brands that might be trying to build up some equity in specific areas and- Like fast fashion. Sorry? Kinda like fast fashion car manufacturers you know was like, yeah. Exactly. So yeah, I think for us, it's really figuring out how do we best come back into market in the strongest way possible? How do we best prepare ourselves and position ourselves for reentering? What's the right timing to reenter and start spending big dollars in media again, you know really- Right time in. And then also it's not just about when are you spending the money so that you figure out when the money's coming in, but it's also not being tone deaf, you know a lot of brands are trying to jump in the "We in this together" movement, and you know while I think it's really relevant for some, I think I've seen some very tasteless ads where you're sort of like, I don't understand why you are a part of this band wise- Assault rifles. Yeah, exactly. It's just there's some weird stuff out there so, yeah I think the timing of getting back into market for a number of different reasons. Okay. So just to bounce on what you said, so the budget been slashed or moved because some other brands I've talked to there's like the budget's still here, we've just moved it to later. Yeah, we've definitely re-timed a lot of things. I think we had some other activities where we maybe question it all together. So I think it's a mixture of both moving and taking some money out of the marketplace as well. Are you guys going for more, I've been hearing from certain brands, smaller ones, that they're gonna be focusing on more conversion versus brand, right? Like every initiative's gotta be tied to a sale. It's more of a small company mentality, but it seems like it's affecting everybody. Are you guys considering these kind activations like that? Yeah, I think there's certain tactics that are always going to be your most efficient tactics. You always wanna be present in search because that's the direct display of intent for it's customer. Google for example. But, certain other video tactics that are a little bit more awareness focused, we'll do a little bit less of, but I think we're not necessarily as focused on some of those conversion tactics because nobody's really converting to going to the retailer. So you are effectively spending money to get a lead that has no interest in shopping in the next month or... Yeah, so wasting money. Okay. So when you are going to be, sort of hiring creatives again as a company, what are the things that you're gonna be looking for for photographers, filmmakers or any sort of production companies? What sort of trait are you been looking for? Yeah if anything- Has that changed? I wouldn't say it's changed, I would say we're probably open to maybe a bit more, because I think to a degree we're going to be looking at how we can come back into the marketplace and how we can create some fresh and relevant and interesting content that takes into account everything that has just happened- Timely, yeah. Own deaf. Yeah. So, I think it's a good chance for us to think about who we working with and what potential new relationships we may work with. In many ways, it's a great opportunity for creators to kind of take a step back and start thinking a little bit more conceptually and spend some of that time really teasing out the nuance of certain stories that they want to tell in order to get to much tighter, better creatives, so that when things do finally start to lift, they have great ideas waiting in the arsenal to pitch left right and center. You know I think those are the people who have been thinking about our brands that will likely get the work from our brands. Cause they're ready. To reopen. So on that, how can these guys be of most value to you when the time is right? I think it's about, we've made this shift, we used to go out there and say, "Hey, create a story around this, "doing this in this region." And I think for a long time that worked, but it was kind of backwards instead of going out to the marketplace and trying to say, "Who's got some great stories "that we organically fit with?" And I think that's when you and I started working best together is, you would come to us with some really great narratives and really great stories and to a degree, our brand fit naturally in it because of who you are and so from that, we were able to make some really interesting and relevant stuff. So I think the people who are investing time in trying to find the right stories to tell when all of this lifts, and really have something interesting and unique to say, I think those would be the people that we'll be most interested in talking to. So, it's interesting because some other, I'm heard some other feedback that some of the brands were tired of people being like, "Hey, I wanna do this." And it is more like a conversation point, but I wanna do this, can we do it? And versus being it, I've just heard from other brand managers to be like, you know I'm tired of these guys pitching me stuff. All I wanna do is like, I want them to ask me how they can help 'cause I got things I need. How do you feel? how does that sound? It's a different perspective. There's always gonna be a balance, right? There's gonna be certain assets that I will always need for marketing channels. There will be feature and benefit related stuff that I will- You mean certain assets, like certain photos or certain videos? Like do you have an example? could help- Yeah so, I think, the best way to break it down is, you as an individual are focused on 95% story, 5% product integration, so to speak, it's gotta be organic, it has to fit within the scope of the story. And for us as a brand, when we're working in that awareness level, we're always looking at that sort of same measurement, 90 to 95% story, 5% product. And then as you move down the funnel, the sort of purchase funnel, and you look at sort of consideration level video, or conversion level video, that's really when we wanna start to dial up the features of the vehicle and start to play more at those rational. So as you shift from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel, you have to shift from more emotional to more rational. So top of the funnel, just for these guys who you know, may not be familiar with these terms, but like top of funnel would be inspirational video scene on YouTube, or Instagram or whatever, and then bottom of funnel well and then second step would be from sort of inspiration to what? So, yeah. So at the top of the funnel, more emotively driven, more based on the overarching narrative as you go into the middle of the funnel, it's kind of that balance between how are some of the things within this product enabling you to accomplish what you are looking to accomplish. And then as you move all the way down to the bottom of the funnel, it's very nuts and bolts as to how some of those specific features work. So for Land Rover, for example, that overarching narrative might be the place that you go and the things that you see along the way. When you get into that middle level of the funnel might be about how some of Land Rover's legacy in offroading have helped you get through certain parts of that. And then going even further, how specifically the waiting depth of the range Rover 35 and a half inches enabled you to get through this river to the other side. So it sort of, going from story focus to product focus, I guess. Okay thanks. I'm sure it's gonna help a lot. So in the, just going back to people who reach out to you because we had this conversation in the past, and I just wanna touch on you are in a place where people reach out to you quite often, just either so Instagram, LinkedIn, email, you name it. What have you seen from these creatives who approach you to work with Land Rover work and not work and what's the pet peeves and how can they do better? What have you noticed? Yeah, that's a good question. I think, you know one, it's always easy to just sort of go straight in with the whole, here's what I'm looking for, et cetera. There is to a degree, a little bit of 'romancing' that has to happen. You have to find sort of the common ground over some of the work, and some of what people have produced in order to find the right fit. We get a lot of people who just reach out with a very generic approach as if we're, another product on a list of products that they're going after. And those I will open, read, and I will usually write something along the lines, "If you ever come up with something specific to our brand, "I'd be happy to look at it." To get back to them. Yeah well, a little bit constructive, because I recognize that it's tough to generate new business. And so, you kind of have to be, you can't be eyes closed to that. There's a ton of people that'll just delete those emails so... I think that's, I appreciate about you, your willingness to always help them, help people be in these kind of interviews, I think it's probably because you're also creator in the weekends. So yeah, I really appreciate that about you. I think that's a big part of it. The fact that I know what it's like to go out and create something and put it out there for the world to judge makes me more cognizant of the fact that somebody else is effectively doing that every time they reach out to a brand on an email and saying, "Here's what my life has been spent pursuing. "Would you like to consider working with me?" I think it's a lot to say, and it's very easy to disregard, but yeah, I always try to be constructive with those guys and then, you know inevitably we have people that we have relationships for and it does have to be a bit of give and take, as you know sometimes you've had amazing ideas and that just timing hasn't been right and so that's the other challenge in the same way that, you know, we have to be open to having the dialogue with creators and helping them understand what we need. There's that sort of other side of it, which is creators have to be open to the fact that, sometimes brands will say no 10 times over because the timing's not right or, the product's not there, the market's not there so- Do you tell 'em to keep following up? Yeah, I always say to people to keep following up nine times outta 10, my silence isn't because I'm annoyed at you, my silence is because I just don't have the time to answer every email in a day. It's a common thread. The wheel gets the grease, but I think there's a certain point in which you say, okay, I'm not getting a response, six, seven emails, I'm not getting a response okay, maybe I'll to go reach out at another point. Okay, what's the best approaches you've seen? Something that shows attention and care for the specific thing that they're trying to pitch and the specific brand that they're trying to speak to. As I said, I get a lot of generic stuff, but you know, when I see somebody that puts together a story that is so rooted in the brand and is so rooted in either the specific product or, where we are in the marketplace, that's when things really come together. I had a guy pitch me something for Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion, about a gentleman who drives his car from Las Vegas to the track, races it and then drives home. That's at the core, the Jaguar brand, what our cars are all about. And it was the level of understanding that seeking out somebody who represented that, and then bringing forward that story. Now we didn't end up make it because the timing wasn't right and that's another one of those examples where you have perfect concept, but if the timing's not there. Yeah you can't do, yeah. So I'd say if you wind up in that position, I would respond by saying, your willingness to sort of create and collaborate on what may be needed in the interim in order to maybe accomplish the passion project later down the road, and try and get an understanding of what some of those roadblocks are. So is it a money thing? Is it a timing thing? Is it an alignment thing? And in some cases I would say to people, depending on the cost of the project, consider an investment for new business. More often than not, we're getting people who are submitting their passion projects as a way to basically say, "Hey, here's what I did on something "that I really, really love. "I've got tons more of that in the can. "I can also do anything else that you potentially need." And in some ways it puts some skin in the game. It shows us that they're not just pitching another OEM to get another OEM, but they genuinely wanna work with Jaguar or Land Rover and so they've already kind of, as I said, put some skin in the game to try and get the best. So you mean they've shot some spec stuff or? Yeah, we've had people shoot spec stuff. I had a photographer named Avery reach out who basically rented a car he went out into the Tennessee wilderness, he shot a whole bunch of stuff and it was really good work. And we actually put him on the listing of people for guys that we reach out to when we need some sort of quick OEM work. So it does work. OEM by Original Equipment Manufacturer is that what you mean? Yeah. Inside jargon for anything automotive basically. Got it, all right. Just trying to break it down, cool. Anything else to add on the way people reach out to you, pet peeves, we've come through that. One other thing I'd say is, study the person that you are trying to work with, you know the internet is full of tell tales on who people are. For example, some Instagram profiles are public and some are private, that would suggest whether or not social media is potentially a good avenue for you to reach out to. But you can find a lot about a person based on what's out there and on the internet, whether or not somebody's private or public on Instagram says whether or not they're sort of, I guess, open to people who they don't necessarily know in their regular day to day life. What does their LinkedIn profile say about them? Is there any press about them? What does their company bio say about them? All of those things or tales where you can start to formulate what is important to this person and what do they value? I get a number of people that reach out to me via Instagram just because my profile is public and I'm very open about working for Jaguar Land Rover and it's been a really great way to develop some relationships with some photographers that I probably would've otherwise never found. But yeah, I think doing your research on the person, doing your research on the brand, and knowing what you're going into is a really big piece of that it would seem like table stakes, it would seem like that's the norm and everybody should do that, but it'd be amazed the amount of times that I get people asking me how I got to do work or how I got to shoot something for Land Rover. And in my bio it says I work for Land Rover. So it's sort of, yeah, some people don't do their homework. Put some effort, okay, awesome. So now in, as a brand, has COVID changed the stories you guys wanna tell? I would say COVID has probably temporarily changed what we are willing to say about our brands. You always have to be cognizant of what's going on out in the world and sometimes it's not the right time to talk about a $250,000 SUV when some people are struggling to be able to get some food on their table. So I would say it's mostly changed what we are willing to say in trying to not be culturally toed deaf to what's going on. I think I've seen the famous meltdown of some influencers in their brands because they're so insulated from the world that they don't recognize the things that are going on around them and as a result, they wind up really aggravating a lot of people because you know, US brands and US influencers are followed by everyday people who go through everyday things and you never know who you're really gonna rub the wrong way. So I think it's, yeah, as I said, it's changed what we're willing to say. So it's important to keep you so saying for creatives it's important to keep sort of a pulse on the current narrative, so they can be more in tune with the sort of the current events when they talk to you and when they pitch you stuff and when they talk. Yeah, I mean COVID is a tricky one because it has such a massive impact. I would say there's sort of few other times where it's as important to be focused on what's going on in the world. But yeah, I think as I said COVID's definitely a bit more of an impact. Any really awesome project you have planned for 2020 for the brand? We have lots of great programs planned for 2020. I know that when a lot of the travel restrictions lift that we will very much get back to pursuing some of those projects. My hope is to really show Defender as the versatile and extremely capable sort of "Swiss army knife" of vehicles that it is and to really put it in the hands of some incredible creators and help them create what they would like to create. I think, when I think about the state of content creation and how brands are working with creators or outlets, it's interesting in the sense that, we have the opportunity to empower so many different people to create amazing things. And that may seem like a simple duh statement, but if you look at the course of art over time, so much art would not have been created without so many benefactor type of relationships supporting creatives and not to go too overly poetic in this, but if you think back to like Michael Angelo and those types of painters, some of their work probably wouldn't have been done without the financial back support of some of those individuals and so I think Land Rover as a brand has a tremendous opportunity to help so many incredible artists and creators out there do that. I think finding the right way that is sustainable, both for the brand and for the artists that we'd like to support is really the key, because, it's not realistic to say that we're just gonna go out there and sponsor every single project, we obviously have to be selective about it, but I'm hoping to use Defender a bit more in a way to enable certain artists go out and create different things. So that should be in the pitches, you heard it. (both laugh) And is there any sort of timeline for that stuff or? I think it's probably gonna be lots of planning this year and then next year into next summer, because I think that, so much of what we do we miss because we just aren't able to properly plan how to get it out into the marketplace. We aren't able to coordinate the logistics in the right way. And that's the other thing that I would say for a lot of people- You mean the Defender. Yeah. Is be cognizant of the fact that there is a lot of planning that has to go into these things and the lead times for brands are always different than they are for your own personal projects. Yeah. So the Defender has been delayed in a way then? I wouldn't say it's been delayed it's still gonna go on sale at the same sort of timeframe but I think the- Cause we did pre-order it last fall. Yeah, absolutely. And it will be going into retail very shortly, but it's just more of a question of, aligning all of the resources right 'cause we have to get the cars over, we've gotta get them prepped and ready to go out into the field, we've gotta plan who we're gonna send them to. We've gotta mix that in with a whole bunch of other use cases. Yeah, I love that you saying all this because for most creators, it's like, it's easy, keep the car ready let's go. So it's good that you talk about what's going on behind the scenes, which is all the logistics for you guys. So you're not trying to drag your feet it's just the size of the operation takes time. So just like you said, rightly it's not the same as your personal projects. For sure, yeah. So yeah, I guess if I could sort of pull it all together, so to speak, I would say for people who are out there use the time wisely, focus on the things that are not your necessarily your strong areas, whether that's business development or finance, find ways to take care of all the things that you put off doing when you know you're going about your regular routine, find ways to take care of those now, find ways to think about the brands that you really wanna work with the passion projects, and spend some real time in thinking about how you can be relevant to them and what sorts of great relevant stories there are for them. Do the homework on both the people and the brand, make everything custom, even though that's the hard way to do it, it's it goes a long way. You mean the decks for the pictures or the... Yeah the decks, the concepts, anything that you're doing should reflect custom work. I would say email that you sent out that is generic is a wasted email and a blemish on your reputation because people can smell it a mile away. I would say focus on authenticity. Where do you have a connection with specific brands and try and tease those bits and pieces out? I think so often we get people trying to do work in specific areas to put it on their resume. But when you find somebody that genuinely has a passion and enthusiasm for your brand, it comes through in a different type of way. It's a different type of thinking altogether. You can just feel it. You can a hundred percent feel it and the work reflects it even after the concept. So, yeah find things that you're passionate on, find ways to do work with those specific brands, really foster the relationships that you have with specific brands. Those are all the sort of things that you don't necessarily have the time to do when you're running from one project to the next. You have right now. But now you have the time to sit back and really focus on the business side of photography. Love it. Well then you wrapped it up for me, I think that this is awesome. Anything else we wanna add? Yeah let me think about that, that's a fun open ended question. Yeah it's pretty strong what you're saying about being custom. I've always believed in that. It takes more time so instead of reaching out to 50 brands, you gotta reach out to five over a month because every week is one deck, it could take a week sometimes to build something really cool. Oh, absolutely. Yeah but the success ratio, my experience is always superior. When you go to customer approach, then there's the bitch of timing, which is like, just everything's perfect just timing doesn't work, but that's just beyond our controls and it's just the cost of doing business I think, that's how I've come to see it like that. Yeah, I think that's the hardest part, I guess one, maybe final piece of advice that I'd give to creators is be patient with your brand teams. It's, as I said, one of the benefits of being a photographer or enjoying photography as a hobby on the side is that, again that knowledge of how much goes into something and you have the tendency to send that email and feel like you just put everything into that. And then somebody just ignores it and... That's painful. It's tough to wrap your head around the other side of that equation, which is that that email is one of 400, that'll get received in a day, arguably the least important because it's about something that may happen in the future. So just say, be patient with the brand teams, really nurture those relationships, find ways to add value that doesn't necessarily always result in the brand spending money. As I said about some of the spec work, I think that there's a lot of value in finding ways to give a little value to get a little value. Send a couple of things along and open the relationship that way and you'll see how quickly people turn around and they go, "Wow, that was really nice of you to do that." And you know now that I think about it, we actually have this thing that, and it's amazing how many conversations actually lead to that, but- It's not like YouTube, when people put value out, you feel like you owe them, so you subscribe and you keep watching same thing. Absolutely. No, it's really important. Love it, I think you've said a lot as I said, it's gonna be one of the best interviews because of your two perspectives. Okay. Creator and client. Listen, as you go through it, if there's, I know I have a tendency to be very long winded and not necessarily wrap up a point in some ways. No that's great. Where do I keep these? We're gonna let these roll. If you get to some of these and it feels like it would be beneficial to keep the theme, but sort of condense, tighten things up, let me know, I'm happy to go through it again and you can just send me a couple of pieces like this was great, let's do that. Okay, I'll let you know. I mean these have been pretty open, like it's, yeah I think people just need to sit down and listen just like the way it is. Just because they'll learn more. So I think that you weren't long winded at all, I think it was great. I appreciate it. Oh, for sure. It's a fun thing to get to do because I think, some of the most enjoyable projects, some of the most enjoyable relationships and some of the most fun that I've had with the brand have been working with, similar like-minded people who just have that sort of passion and enthusiasm for it so it really is a cool thing to be able to do. If there is, well lemme think about how I can phrase this. Yeah I was trying to think about whether or not, there's benefit to putting some form of like contact related information for people who want to do something based on this, or have had like an epiphany based on this. I don't know whether that's. They know where to find you. Yeah. Yeah we'll have your Taylor Automotive- Do the research part, right? Yeah, exactly. We're not gonna make it too easy, you gotta do your work, right? No we'll do it like that. Cool. All right dude, well this was excellent. Continue plugging away on this workshop. It's good, just picked up the AMG this morning. Oh dude, I can't believe you bought an AMG wagon, like on the list of like products that are ridiculous but awesome, AMG wagons. For sure, yeah there's like G wagon squared and the top of the list or big boat and then underneath that, there's like G wagon squared and then there's like the basic E63 wagon somewhere in there. What made you go for it? I've waited all my life so I was like, this is it. I did a few good stock market moves you know when like this whole thing went to shit. I sold a lot of stuff and I started taking aggressive positions. Nice. Yeah. So I was able to make some good returns on Tesla specifically. And I was like, okay well I guess I've earned it, I don't know. There's no grand plan I do a lot of things by instinct. It's like, this feels right, I'm with it all my life, you know this is the worst time to buy a car because it's very uncertainty in every side and every project is on standby, I guess. You know if you look at it from a perspective of like, doesn't make sense, but usually most of the things I've done that don't make sense end up being a blessing so hopefully the strive continues. Yeah to be, arguably, you know you were always doing a little bit of work for Mercedes but you know having one of their brand new products and shooting some fun bits and pieces, maybe they wind up picking up some of the tab on it. Maybe, I mean I guess when I bought my Defender back in the year, it's paid off five, sixfold. So just by working with you guys and what we've done. So yeah I don't know if the E63 wagon is not a fit to the photos I put out it's very different. Yeah but I was like, so I was having this conversation with somebody the other day we were talking about, edit style, or not necessarily edit style, but style. So arguably somebody could put up five or six outdoor photographers and I'd be able to pick out, at least I like to think I would, one of your photographs because I hope so you have a very distinctive style to it. I know how much blue hour stuff you do as opposed to golden hour. You gotta watch out for the work of my students 'cause some of the stuff I see on the hashtags, I'm like, well, this looks like my, oh no, it's their fault. (both laughing) They're getting really, it's not that I'm really good, but I'm saying they they've got it. Like they've understood how it works. Yeah so it's a bit scary. But I guess point point being is, we think about so many different things as tools in order to achieve an emotional, like response to a specific photograph, right? So you think about, lensing choice, time of day, subject, like all of the things that are typically in your normal arsenal for photography and yet, edit style and editing as a whole, you tend to reserve for, well, this doesn't necessarily fit my brand of photography, which is certainly an important thing is to have some form of recognizable style or point of view so to speak. But at the same time, like editing style and your choice over color palette, light and dark contrast, like all of those things are also elements in order to achieve an emotional output. So, I don't know, it's interesting to think about that as one of the ways in which you achieve your goals. I don't remember how we got onto this topic we're talking about. Well, because I said it wasn't the right fit, sort of brand wise you know, editorial guidelines. I'd love to shoot it and I will shoot it I just don't see it living on my channels because it's like, here's a monster that makes no sense and it's no use to most of the planet, that's not what I believe, but that's what most people will believe so I'm like, what the? Sure. (indistinct chatter) Maybe on your other one. Yeah, for sure. I think after the crisis or whatever I'll start talking about it, for now, like we're on the same boat there's no need to send creators false messages they don't know the whole back story, so. Yeah. Buy my workshop, support photographers. So for now I'll just keep it under wraps, but yeah, I mean it's photogenic. Oh, that's beautiful. Is it black or is it blue? Black on black on black. Nice, those wheels on it too the like the center locking look. Yeah, look 'cause it's not real, but yeah. But it is just like, it's perfect spec. Yeah I quite like it and it was a pretty good deal I think with COVID this dealership was in Atlanta, Georgia, and it's a Porsche dealership Interesting. And they were sitting on it for three months and a half, four months. Wow. So yeah, I was like, I'll buy it for 5,000 less than asking price and they like how about 4,000? I'm like, alright. And he was already a pretty aggressive deal on the Kelly Blue books he was already at the lower end of the spectrum so I was like. Oh, that's awesome. It's good, it's got 11,000 miles so it's like new. Oh, that's nothing. Yeah that was like it. Andrew and I got inside of it today and I was like, oh, it doesn't look like anybody's used it. Just a, if you look at the inter cooler at the front, it's got a few rock chips. That's the only thing where you see the usage. And the tires they're cracking on the sides a little bit, like fine cracks. Don't know what that is. Yeah you're gonna have a big bill with tires 'cause those tires are probably like what? 600 bucks a piece. I don't wanna know. I'm gonna find myself a tire sponsor how about that? Yeah that's a good call. Get a good set of like Nokian Hakkapeliitta and go snow drifting. Sick or some Blizzards. That's what I had on the, yeah I put it into race mode earlier just leaving an intersection is like full drift just without even trying too much like, whoa! Yeah there's a lot of horsepower in that It's like what? 700 horsepower or something like that? No, not as much, 630 or something, but with the altitude, I'm only getting 600 something, I'm not getting the full range 'cause of the altitude like damn it! Refund! Makes sense. On the other piece, Defender, I did mention to Joe, he said maybe more towards the end of month, he might be able to free something up and then we could have the conversation around that. Like I said, I'm just walking the line, I'm like, we'll do stuff for free, it's just, we'll just shoot some photos, go on some adventures. We have some shoots planned, so. What I said to him was 'cause I don't necessarily want to completely position it as free, like it's just not right. But what I said was is you had a potential couple of journeys that you wanted to go on, thought the Defender would be like a good companion for that, there was maybe some opportunities from crossover and if the brand felt like it was a good fit there afterwards, then you guys could figure something out about usage, et cetera so... I like it. That way it kinda like leaves it open to have more of the conversation afterwards. Yeah I love it, I mean I would just like to see it as a, the dream is like the long term loan, then you can make everything like continuous and yeah. If we could only get back to doing what we did on Discovery Sport, it would just be such a win. But- Yes. I'm gonna stop recording right now before I say.