Are Your Dreams Audacious Enough?

There are several things I love about doing corporate photography. The hours tend to be long, but I’m always well fed and working in an indoor environment during standard business hours. Those things might seem simple, but as someone who has spend many long nights on set at music videos, I appreciate nice accomodations these days.

I recently spent 4 days in Toronto photographing the Summer Meeting for the Calibr organization. I’ve photographed all their events for over a decade now and we’ve traveled to Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Seattle, DC and other places. Somehow, we haven’t made it to NYC, but that’s actually a good thing because. I enjoy traveling periodically. Calibr always puts on interesting sessions covering a variety of topics designed to help African Americans succeed in the corporate world. Some of the sessions don’t apply to me as a freelance photographer, but many sessions have several takeaways for me. My favorite session this time around, was the one given by Marty McDonald on the subject of having the audacity to dream big.

Marty’s book, “Audacious: A Bold Guide to Building the Life and Career You Want and Deserve”, will be released this Fall. She spoke of how she approaced Target with a proposal that they stock her Elle Olivia, clothing line dedicated to bringing representation to your little ones, and letting them know that their future matters. Her thought process was simple. Target was lacking clothing that promoted this mindset, so she created it. She knew there were parents shopping with inentionality and they weren’t finding what they sought on the store’s shelves.

Many people -myself included, would have thought that there is no way one individual is going to get the attention of a major retailer like Target. I wouldn’t have even sent the email. That’s how sure I would have been that sending it woud be a waste of time. But Marty has a different mindset and that was the focus of her talk.

Yes, it is necessary to have skills in whatever area you chose to pursue, but without the right mindset -a bold, risk taking mindset, noone will respond to you. Marty spoke about how she never thought of doing a book until she spoke to other women who had book deals on the table. Her thought was, “I am not thinking big enough.” Marty takes steps to stay in an audacious mindset each day. It’s a process and not a one-time mindset shift. I understand her process and I have faith in it, but truth be told, I struggle with keeping a positive mindset 100% of the time. Fortunatley, my wife is better at this than me and she helps me re-shift when my thinking goes astray.

I’m looking forward to the book release this Fall.