Oprah’s Masterclass podcast is by far my favorite of all the podcasts (with Seth Godin’s Akimbo a verrrrry close second.)

I’m currently listening to Oprah’s interview of Simon Cowell. Here are some favorite lines:

“The good news is, it can’t get any worse from here.”

“When I first started…I was never off the phone. If I had to sit there for a minute I always thought, ‘There is something going wrong here. So I would just hustle - daily. I’m just just sitting there, daily, making it up every day. Trying to make a living…”

“I mean, what a lot of people do, ‘It’s the radio people’s fault, it’s the video’s…’ Ya right! It wasn’t good enough. End of story. You made the decisions. Take it on the chin and learn from it. It’s the only thing you can do. And there is a certain positive you can take from that. Because you’re not kidding yourself. If you start kidding yourself you’re dead. You’re dead.”

I learned very early on not to make ANY excuses in photography. If something wasn’t going right I knew it was me - not any one else. And I have learned to love the hustle.

This is the exact reason I will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER TELL MYSELF:

“No one will pay me that here.”

I have heard too many people - who have made it HUGE - talk, and they never fed themselves these types of lines, they hustled. And after a lot of years it paid off. I am a witness to that in my business and see where it takes me year after year.

If you need business advice call me - I’m really good at saying, “Stop making excuses. Stop spending hours on social media. HUSTLE - the rocky, muddy, up-hill-battle-with-rejection-after-rejection-after-rejection sort of hustle. And then you will see yourself standing at the top of the mountain looking back at all of your growth! And when you look out the other way you will see another mountain even bigger than the one you stand on - and you will want to climb that one! Because you know you can, and will, with the right amount of sweat equity, patience, and grace.”

Portra 800 for life. Canon 1V and Pentax 645nii (don’t waste your money on that camera - just buy the Pentax 645n - for those of you who are looking ;)) Goodman Film lab.

Call me to book your shoot: 801-473-2272! And if you feel so inclined, please send my website to everyone you know traveling to So Cal!

xoxo

christina