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Putting the needs and wants of others before your’s is what is acceptable to society. If you end up putting your own needs and wants before anyone else’s, then you are considered to be selfish. I am sorry, however that belief is what is unacceptable. Am I saying to ignore everyone else’s needs and wants? Not at all. However, think about this. If you give, give and give to everyone else and keep putting your needs and wants last- the reservoir, being you will run out. When that happens, you will start feeling resentful and will end up shutting down. How can you possibly be good for anyone else? Women particularly fall victim to that, especially if they are married and/or have children. Many give of themselves and don’t get much in return. It is one thing to put the needs of the kids’ before the mother’s. However, the mother becomes so used to giving that she will end up putting everyone else’s needs before her’s. That always leads to anger,...

It’s February 29th and that means we all get an extra day this year. Let’s celebrate leap year by taking action to leap forward – not just today, but every day this year and every year. Finish something you started. This could be anything from an online course, a book you put down, a personal project etc. I always tell myself that a start is a start to nowhere if you don’t finish it. Identify one thing that you’ve talked yourself out of (for all the right reasons) and take action on it. This could lead to the start of something. After you’ve faced your fear or resistance and have overcome your inertia – follow up with a plan for completion. Toss out one bad habit . It’s easy to fall into a rut with bad habits. Identify one bad habit and change it. Start easy. If you find yourself starting your day in an unproductive manner change it. If you begin your day by checking your emails and then letting it consume your entire morning then start...

My grandmother on a motorcycle. circa 1920’s or ’30’s. Have you ever talked yourself out of doing something that you felt passionate about? Have you ever bought into others’ advice, even though it was contrary to your own beliefs? If you answered yes to either question then you are like most of us humans, and you second-guess yourself by buying into your fears. Now ask yourself – Did anything good ever come out of NOT doing something? Other than stopping yourself from following foolish pursuits that may have put you in harms way, stopping yourself probably never led to a positive outcome. In my experience whenever I stopped myself from following my own instincts, it not only didn’t move me forward – it set me back. So, why do we let resistance keep us from what we are meant to do? It’s fear of the unknown. And why do we let others’ resistance and fears stop us from taking a leap of faith? Can other people predict the outcome anymor...

I have spoken about social media or Facebook depression in the past. In a nutshell, social media depression is when someone is feeling worthless or hopeless by following connections who appear to have a better life. That person makes the comparison between his or her life and their’s and that has a negative affect on his or her emotions. The keyword here is that they appear to have a better life. The reality is that everyone has challenges to deal with, even those connections who make it appear that their lives are so perfect. It is human nature to have a need to share something wonderful or exciting, and that is all they are doing. I can guarantee that everyone has done it as well in the past- regardless of what challenges they may be facing in life. I can understand how this can have a profound affect on people’s lives, however there are steps that can be taken to minimize social media depression. Now let’s talk about you, how does this affect you? Let’s talk ...

You can’t delegate the things that mean the most to you. Your success is dependent upon mastering the details. Not just getting the project finished. You can’t outsource awesome. At least not at a price you’re willing to pay. The truth about beating the odds and realizing breakthrough is that you have to agonize over the solution and work tirelessly trying new things until the big thing ends up looking like what you had in your mind all along. That’s not easy. That’s not cheap. That’s not something you can hand off to anyone on your team, family, or circle of friends. You have to do it yourself. Otherwise you’re not going to win the way you feel you should. You’re never going to feel the satisfaction of accomplishment and triumph and domination until you schedule time to get your hands dirty looking for that ever so slight tweak that differentiates you mightily from everyone else pretending to do the exact same thing. Don’t forg...

Trust your gut instinct when it comes to making difficult decisions. You already know the right decision to make. Deep down, in that quiet spot in your soul where all is true and clear, you have the answer. And you need to trust your gut instinct. That immediate feeling you have when you’re with that person or hearing that idea. Logic will mislead you. Facts aren’t always what they appear to be. In truth, fear and doubt and frustration will bias your decisions. Deceiving you. You think your decision is well thought out, balanced, and risk appreciated. You are really just frantic, frustrated, and hoping no one notices. The way through that chaos is to listen to your instincts. Don’t be pressured by fear or anger. Don’t let someone else’s logic and reasoning persuade you to sell yourself short. Believe that no matter how hard things might seem at the moment, you’ll figure it out. And that this time will be better than last time because of all the lesson...

Go hard. Push hard. If you have an idea that matters to you — an idea that mean something deeply to you — then go for it. Push for it. Don’t “float a trial balloon” . Don’t “run a beta test” . Don’t limp into action.   Go hard. Push hard. Put everything you have into being successful. You won’t always end up with the results that you think you deserve right away. You won’t end up winning the prize on your first try.  But at least you’ll have given your bold idea the dignity of honest effort. You won’t be left wondering whether you could have been more successful if you would have only invested more ambition and creativity into getting to where you want to be. You won’t be confused as to what doesn’t work — you or your strategy. There’s something magical about the unique achievement made possible by the desperation of a competitor who lays it all on the line. That w...

It’s a Business – You may catch some lucky breaks in your career or you may be an incredibly gifted photographer – but if you want to make a living taking pictures and sustain yourself financially, you will need to manage your art and your career as a business. That means find a way to make a profit in pursuing your craft. It’s Not Personal – Keep emotions out of your business decisions. This is a tough thing to manage because it’s usually at odds with the passion that energizes the creative side of you. I think my best work is very personal but I try to avoid the pitfalls of letting my emotions cloud my business decisions that are in my best interests. That could mean walking away from a job or a bad contract. You’re Selling Value – If want to make money and stay in business, you need to understand your value or your photography’s value in the marketplace. Are you unique, have special skills or access to places other don...

You are probably wondering why I am saying that Klout is dead considering their site is still up, and there are still scores. The fact of the matter is, due to that they unsuccessfully had been able to award an accurate score to someone truly influential online as well as offline- Klout is meaningless. I understand that those who still support Klout only do so for the sake of accountability reasons. Sure, if you want to keep a strong social media presence going, you do need to make sure you are sharing good quality content as well as engaging with those in your networks on a consistent basis. In all honesty, you don’t need Klout for that. There are other ways you can make sure you are sharing good content on a regular basis and engaging with those who engage with you. You can set a schedule to share posts, and schedule a time to engage with your networks. If you are consistent, you will keep a strong social media presence. The fact that Klout had purposely manipulated scores, and...

I don’t think of my self as old, except at times when a part of my body doesn’t act or react the way it used to. But, I would say that many of my colleagues would call me old, chronologically speaking. The premature deaths of Glenn Frey, David Bowie, Natalie Cole and Alan Rickman – all in the span of a few weeks and all in their late ‘60’s, has given me pause to look at my own mortality. It has also given me resolve to make the most of each day. The fact is there is nothing we can do about our age. Gail Mooney with James Michener, Chesapeake Bay Photo © Thomas Kelly Unlike other things in life that we can change, we can’t change our age. But we don’t need to allow a youth-obsessed culture, define our value. I’ve grown weary of the dismissive attitude our culture has about aging. It’s especially frustrating for me as a photographer, filmmaker, and creative entrepreneur . Creativity comes from the spirit within. Our spirit never...

Being productive isn’t necessarily about doing more work in the day. If you’re not doing the hard work that success demands, you’re fooling yourself if you think you’re ever going to be successful. You’ve got to do the hard things if you want to enjoy the great things. It’s as simple as that. If you’re not working hard, you’re not working smart. But what if you’re already working as hard as you think you can? How do you do more if there isn’t any more time to work? Being exceptionally productive has a lot to do with your priorities. In fact, that’s the secret to getting more done each day. Managing your priorities. First, you have to know what those priorities are. You have to know what matters the most to you. Where you want to be in the long term and what you’re doing right now to get there. Once you know that, you have to work hard to maintain that focus. It’s called momentum. That’s the secret to pro...

One of the overwhelmingly apparent habits of high achievers is their insatiable curiosity. They question everything. They don’t just want an answer. They want the explanation behind the answer. They want the research behind the explanation behind the answer. They aren’t satisfied to believe what other people tell them. They own their facts. They know what they believe. And why they believe it. It’s important. And often overlooked. In the busyness of your daily schedule, it is easy to just accept the answers that someone else gives you. It’s easy to mimic the formulas that seem to be making someone else successful. The danger there is that you never truly understand what works for you. You never figure out the secret power you bring to the battle that no one else can exactly replicate. You’re too busy copying someone else’s battle plan that is built around their secret power. You’re trying to be like them and will l...

Many business owners are concerned about keeping their social media presence so professional that they end up turning out to appear non-personal or fake. Some unintentionally brag often about their success because they are proud. It is one thing to stay positive and inspiring on social media as people are attracted to that. However, like anything else in life, do so in moderation. There is a point when this practice becomes insincere and others begin to notice. Once that happens, your tribe that you worked hard to build will start to fall away. You will be seen as an insincere braggart which is just as bad as being a negative Nancy. I don’t encourage anyone to start being negative on social media either. What I encourage is for users to be genuine. Be personal. Be real, and here are four ways to do that. 1. Mention your Previous Failures Once in a While . The fact of the matter is, there is a lot of social media envy around. If all you ever do is brag about your successes, people ...

In the blogging world of photography and motion, there is a lot written about gear and how to use it, but precious little written about “the business”.  Chances are, if you are a photographer who has been in business for more than 10 years, then you know that technology has not only changed our tools, it has changed the way we do business. For starters, we are doing business in a global economy, and with that comes pluses and minuses. One big plus is that we are able to reach a much wider audience, than ever before. That is, if you have an understanding of how to do that and take advantage of the opportunities that are out there.  The minus or downside is, if we don’t adapt our dated business models, in a business that has seen monumental changes, we will not be able to compete. Commercial photographers are in the visual communications business.  We create imagery that delivers a message or tells a story for a variety of “markets” incl...

It’s not what you do that matters so much. It’s how you do what you’re doing that matters. What you do is just a ticket to the game. How you do it is what makes you a superstar. It’s easy to imagine that there is some missing thing out there you could start doing right now that would instantly catapult you past the tough obstacles in your path towards greatness. That’s not just silly — it’s dangerously wrong. To accept that is to admit that you’re basically in the business of looking for short cuts. If there were one big thing you could be doing, don’t you think you would have already figured it out by now? Stop asking yourself what you’re missing and start asking yourself how you can improve what you’re already doing? You could be more delightful, unexpected, and thorough. You could deliver much better customer service. You could give more value than people pay for. You could invest in being more personal and ...

It’s never as easy as you think it should be. All those beliefs and opinions you have that you hold as unchangeable — those are just a few life circumstances away from being changed. By you. On purpose. What you thought was clearly black and white is now shades of gray. I remember one such story vividly: Before I was the businessman that I am now, I spent 3 years in seminary studying New Testament Greek theology. It was an extremely conservative Baptist study of the Bible. One of the hot button topics that was frequently discussed was homosexuality. I was taught, along with hundreds of other students studying theology there, that the LGBT lifestyle was a choice — a deliberate way of living based on perverted sexual preferences. That’s what I was taught. Quite simply, those people were going straight to hell. No chance of redemption whatsoever. At the end of my third year, I was asked not to return to that seminary due to my views — that diffe...

It’s natural to believe that you need some grand gesture in order to turn your life around. That you need to throw everything away and start fresh. Lots of hard work. Massive amounts of unbelievably focused energy. If you’re only thinking big and quick, you’re probably overlooking small and guaranteed options for long-term success. You’re so busy hoping to find that one thing that will catapult you towards where you want to be that you’re ignoring the smaller stepping stones that lead you there almost automatically. Take, for example, time. There never seems to be enough time to get to everything that you want to do. You want more of it — but know that’s just not possible. No amount of scientific breakthrough will allow you to double or triple the amount of hours in the day. But what if you got out of bed 1 hour earlier each day? It doesn’t seem like much. In fact, when you’re groggy and sleepy it hardly seems like it’s ev...

You don’t have to get all the way there. But you do have to get started moving that direction. The problem with accomplishing big goals is that you often allow yourself to be tricked into thinking that you need to apply massive amounts of  effort over a short period of time in order to be successful. Steady progress is your greatest weapon. You need to build momentum. Build it. Keep it. Grow it. And ultimately, leverage it. Momentum is just a series of small steps applied with consistency. Day by day by day. It’s not a burst of massive energy over a few days. It’s an ongoing commitment to doing a little bit better each day than yesterday until you get  to where you want to be. What does that mean? It means you make one healthier food choice each day. It means you invest the time each day to build one stronger relationship. It means you trade one of your favorite TV shows to read a book that could help you. It means that you stand more and do one sma...

Be optimistic – I’m going to start with the hardest one of all, because it’s really difficult to be optimistic these days.  But I find that if I can maintain a positive attitude and turn my thoughts to what is possible, I actually open myself up to more opportunities in my life, instead of creating more roadblocks. Be open to possibilities . – Be more flexible in how you perceive things and who you are. Change is always happening, but it’s usually gradual.  Most people don’t take notice until “change” forces their hand to act.  It’s always better to be proactive than reactive so embrace “change” as an ever-present fact of life that creates opportunities for those who are open to seeing them. Collaborate – Photographers are very independent creatures and collaboration is not part of their norm. As the “photography” business continues to change, photographers will find that collaborati...

The year 2015 is coming to a close. How was it for you? For me, I had many ah-ha moments and learned a lot. Now, I am definitely not one to look highly upon New Year’s resolutions because more often than not, they are forgotten about by the first week of January. After Christmas, you always see weight loss commercials and it’s quite comical. Many people get pumped up about trying the new diet advertised after gorging themselves during the holidays. By the middle of January, those same people forget about that diet and go back to eating the way they did before. It’s quite predictable. However, I did not write this post to judge anyone. I’m just stating my opinions and observations about common New Year’s resolutions. However, I will share with you what I had learned about myself in 2015, and even well before that- and what I plan to do about it in 2016 and beyond. Since 2014, I found myself extremely bored with my life, disappointed with how my life turned o...