Moving The Mountain Podcast | Tiahna Somero

[00:00:05] Welcome back to a very special episode of Moving the Mountain, a creative leadership podcast today's very special guest

[00:00:13] Tiana

[00:00:14] Lynn Samarrow. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me

[00:00:18] We've known each other for quite a while now probably five or six years

[00:00:24] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. I'm pretty good

[00:00:28] You are a photographer here at Move Mountains Co and

[00:00:32] And the the main lead photographer here that is correct and you've done about how many seasons now with us

[00:00:41] so 2017 I came on in

[00:00:47] Brandon Tyler's wedding. So what was that mid-season?

[00:00:51] I think that might have been 2018

[00:00:56] 2018 until now

[00:00:59] So, I don't know how many seasons that is they've all come together in Uplur

[00:01:04] And up there in a blur and a blur. Yeah, how many weddings have you shot you think?

[00:01:10] Definitely over 300

[00:01:13] over 300

[00:01:16] Between just move mallet with move mountains. We could check production sheet. Yeah, we could but estimate

[00:01:24] probably 300

[00:01:27] Nice and then with everybody else mixed in definitely over 500 weddings. I wouldn't get well

[00:01:34] I don't know

[00:01:36] I'm not certain it's up there

[00:01:43] many noises

[00:01:46] That's what we get for living here or working here

[00:01:49] Well, thanks for coming on the podcast. Thanks for having me. How are you doing? I'm doing really good

[00:01:54] Yeah, I'm learning to find a balance between work and life. I don't like the sound of that

[00:02:00] I know you wouldn't but it's something I have to do for me now

[00:02:04] What is the difference between life and work? There wasn't much of fun before

[00:02:14] You feel like you have more of a life now. Yes. Yeah, I think

[00:02:18] What do you feel like is like was missing from your life that you have now that you didn't?

[00:02:24] Not I can't even say community because I've had

[00:02:28] community my whole life

[00:02:30] but I think it's just a

[00:02:33] rhythmic pattern of I

[00:02:39] Think I'm finding a balance between just shutting work off and focusing on family

[00:02:43] hmm

[00:02:44] And where I want to put my all my energy into and it's like for the last six and a half years

[00:02:50] I've put my energy completely

[00:02:52] Into move mountains and slowly move mountains

[00:02:55] And I've also like put away a few things that I wish sometimes I didn't do but it's just a time being

[00:03:01] But now it's like I'm ready at the age. I'm in to

[00:03:06] How old are you?

[00:03:08] I'll be 29 in January

[00:03:12] You said that joke earlier, it doesn't I couldn't fully do it because

[00:03:18] Just happy hit with like age discrimination or something

[00:03:23] Do you do age discriminate there's no doubt about that so

[00:03:38] Be laughing the whole time well

[00:03:41] So what do you feel like those things that were missing from your life?

[00:03:46] I isolated myself a lot really. Yeah, okay. I think that's why you could feel the sadness

[00:03:52] Yeah, I did when I was at your apartment. I took over your apartment and

[00:03:58] for context here

[00:04:01] When you moved out, yeah, it's definitely sad feeling it was so sad actually I left

[00:04:08] And I said, I'll just stay with a mice in my apartment

[00:04:11] It was really sad it I think I was solely focused on

[00:04:20] Trying to get so much done and what I've learned thus far is work will always be there work is always gonna be

[00:04:30] There tomorrow and it's not to just put your responsibilities behind you

[00:04:33] It's just learning to balance in life because for me

[00:04:37] I wasn't balanced then and I'd stay super late and not by the force of anybody else

[00:04:43] but by the feeling that I had to do it and

[00:04:46] I feel like now it's like, okay

[00:04:49] Once 530 hits or little past like that's my time to shut down

[00:04:54] Due devotionals or focus on other things that I don't focus on so it was just very much the same routine here

[00:05:01] where I would be

[00:05:03] Wake up come to the office

[00:05:06] Leave the office go home and then shut down and like isolate in that way. I have so many people here that I can

[00:05:14] Connect with but I also am surrounded by them all the time too. So it was like

[00:05:20] Finding that balance. So that's why I feel like where I'm at right now in life

[00:05:23] The balance is better. Well, I think doing weddings too and

[00:05:28] We have a pristic particularly strange company

[00:05:32] And so it's it is a lot of work and doing weddings

[00:05:37] Specifically weddings. I think can be some of them can be very

[00:05:42] Exciting and give you energy

[00:05:43] But I think a lot of them especially when you're doing like the triple header weekends

[00:05:47] And then you just go go go for four months. I think they demand a lot from you

[00:05:55] A ton from like the people around you demand a lot from you. They can be very draining

[00:06:00] I understand that it's like when you do kind of come home

[00:06:03] It's hard to maintain a social life because it's just like I have to unplug and like recharge because

[00:06:10] I gotta get out there next weekend. Yeah, all over

[00:06:13] Exactly

[00:06:14] It's almost like when you do the volume that we do when it's three to 15 weddings in a weekend

[00:06:20] Throughout the entire wedding season, which is the six-month period about

[00:06:24] It is so much energy just exerted out of you like it is I

[00:06:31] Don't think people can comprehend the level that we do things at and with me doing 72 weddings in what 2022

[00:06:40] That was a huge indicator of me that like I was by the end of the wedding season

[00:06:45] I felt like a shell of a person. I didn't feel like I had the ability to just be with my family

[00:06:52] Because obviously everybody in my family works weekdays and

[00:06:56] When I came home during the week

[00:06:58] It was more less a lesser group of people and now when I'm in the off-season right now even visiting home

[00:07:04] I'm able to spend time with my family and really like invest in that because that's

[00:07:10] Family has always been the biggest thing for me

[00:07:13] And so when I can go home and invest in that and like I'm like whoa

[00:07:17] I can feel that or if I'm shutting the computer off at 5 30 or whatever it may be

[00:07:21] I'm able to watch a movie with friends

[00:07:24] Like that's something that I did very little of and like I'm finding joy in that kind of stuff also seeing the sun

[00:07:32] Like this place is cool. It's a dynamic

[00:07:35] But being like I was never one to just go out and go for a walk or go out and hang out with friends

[00:07:41] It was always at night when I would go and hang out if we did

[00:07:44] and so

[00:07:46] Even just waking up and having coffee in the sun like I'm like, oh my word. I can breathe

[00:07:52] So I think it was a lot of self

[00:07:56] Doing in that way of like feeling like I have to be here nine to nine or

[00:08:02] Feeling like I it's just so much to handle or it's work

[00:08:07] Sunday through

[00:08:09] Monday and then take two days off or whatever

[00:08:13] So it's very much like now that I'm away. I kind of can separate myself between the two work and pleasure

[00:08:20] So I think that's I don't even know where we were going, but yeah, you were rambling there for a really long time

[00:08:27] The sizable amount of time

[00:08:29] Did you hear you?

[00:08:31] I was listening. I got it

[00:08:35] Yeah, anyways, so

[00:08:37] Yeah, I mean I think the whole point of that is is it can be very demanding the wedding industry in 72 like here in that number 72 weddings

[00:08:44] And for context and perspective

[00:08:47] That's also, you know doing engagement shoots coming to the office

[00:08:52] Very unsustainable lifestyle. I think that we were living probably even more so like, you know, that was 20

[00:08:58] I don't know 2022 was definitely a peak. I think for you of like wow, this is a lot

[00:09:04] 2022 was probably the worst of it for me

[00:09:07] 2021

[00:09:09] was

[00:09:10] Rough I think at some point

[00:09:13] you know as well, but I

[00:09:16] Think when we were a little bit younger kind of going back to those early days

[00:09:20] It was hard, but it was like it was a different type of hard. I thought it was yeah

[00:09:25] There's a little more fun. Maybe yeah

[00:09:27] I think the the more we've grown the more serious things get because the volume is so much higher

[00:09:33] So we need more team members. We need more data protection. We need more

[00:09:41] Equipment we need more people we need more of everything because our numbers keep going up

[00:09:47] We need to almost duplicate ourselves in that way

[00:09:50] And so when it's when we don't have the team to duplicate ourselves

[00:09:55] It ends up being feeling like a lot more serious

[00:10:00] um, I think

[00:10:03] In a few years like if we look back at this it's probably gonna be like man those times were easy

[00:10:08] Um, and so I think that's something that I want to start focusing on is like being present and being the now

[00:10:14] I sound so like woo-woo, but genuinely it's like life

[00:10:18] Life is so fast though. Yeah genuinely and when I've put so much

[00:10:23] And I'm not complaining, but like when I put so much time and effort into other people's big day

[00:10:27] Which I literally am in the field that I'm in because I enjoy it

[00:10:30] um, but

[00:10:33] When you put so much effort into so many other people's wedding day

[00:10:36] It can be draining and I don't know if people like touch on that as much

[00:10:41] Yeah, sometimes, um

[00:10:44] You know, and I think people don't understand quite how much we do and you know

[00:10:48] So it's like you want to show up and I think we do a really good job of showing up for people

[00:10:52] But the wedding industry just has such high expectations

[00:10:55] It's the service industry and I think the pressure and the

[00:10:58] Amount of expectation that our clients put on their wedding day. I mean probably they've probably been thinking about this day

[00:11:03] Since they were little girls. Yeah

[00:11:07] And so they're really kind of

[00:11:10] Um, that means the world to them is everything. So it's like you have to kind of match that energy

[00:11:15] But it's not just them. It's you know, we got

[00:11:18] 200 300 other couples that we work with so

[00:11:22] The way we've been able to kind of scale that

[00:11:25] service is really I think impressive like, you know

[00:11:30] uh, like

[00:11:32] Real win. I think yeah the team

[00:11:34] And I think there has been more pressure to like over the years because we didn't know what we didn't know

[00:11:40] Exactly and then our reputation started growing quite a bit

[00:11:45] And then it's like, all right. There's a standard here. We got to keep improving the standard

[00:11:50] And so

[00:11:51] You know, it became more serious. I think what we started were just kind of kids and kind of goofing around and having a lot of fun

[00:11:57] And I I do think that we've always taken it very serious though

[00:12:01] Like the amount of nights that we would spend 3 a.m. Lying on the concrete floor of our five by five closet

[00:12:08] office

[00:12:10] Is like I get flashbacks of those moments and those felt like the hardest moments at that time

[00:12:17] But now looking back at it, it's like

[00:12:19] We're seeing it as fun and playful and

[00:12:24] I'm like having flashbacks of like so many of the situations and it's

[00:12:28] It's hard running a company. It's not easy

[00:12:30] but I think when you have a team of people

[00:12:33] That come together and are collective and support the whole mission. It's even harder

[00:12:38] Absolutely

[00:12:41] No, it's it's

[00:12:43] A lot more to handle but it's

[00:12:46] It's when many hands make light work

[00:12:50] I remember that memory you're talking about

[00:12:53] Specifically that one night where we were there. I was exhausted. I was like sleeping on the concrete floor

[00:12:57] It was maybe like 3 a.m. We had to get up the next day to go shoot

[00:13:00] And we were importing as we did in those early days that same night like

[00:13:04] You know, we just did some things where it's just

[00:13:07] kind of

[00:13:08] Reminds me of uh, watch that interview with jeff bezos and it was the early days of amazon

[00:13:13] Where jeff bezos was like packing the packages

[00:13:16] and um, they're on their his living room floor and they're in there

[00:13:21] kind of like man, you know, and

[00:13:23] He's like, you know what to make this easy. Like if we got knee pads

[00:13:27] And the guy like no, he's like no, we need packing tables, you know

[00:13:31] And I think we've had a lot of those light bulb kind of moments where it's like, no, this is unsustainable

[00:13:36] Let's get more memory cards. Let's do this after the weekend

[00:13:39] But we were so much like stuck on and we still are but like stuck on like growth where it's like

[00:13:44] We wanted to import everything. We wanted to put up sneak peeks that night. We wanted to like get things shared

[00:13:49] Yeah, we didn't even have enough. We didn't even have enough sd cards though. Yeah, so we needed those sd cards

[00:13:56] simple simple

[00:13:57] Fixed but with money that we had at that moment

[00:14:00] It was

[00:14:01] We needed those sd cards for the next day because those were the only sd cards we had right and somebody on the outside

[00:14:08] Yes, very responsible

[00:14:11] We have come a long long way, but

[00:14:13] knowing or doing what we can with what we had and the knowledge we had

[00:14:19] We then grew into what we are now like

[00:14:22] literally

[00:14:24] The smartest idea would to be hello buy more sd cards

[00:14:28] So that we didn't have to clear them didn't have to import them didn't have to wait for things to be backed up

[00:14:33] so it's like

[00:14:35] Somebody on the outside could have easily told us that or knew that or if it experienced that

[00:14:40] But now it's like

[00:14:42] Now we know what we do

[00:14:45] Now we know what we do

[00:14:47] But there's always more to learn

[00:14:50] Yeah, I mean every year. I think we implement some kind of process where it's like, uh, that's a game changer

[00:14:55] It's been really nice

[00:14:57] So do you have a

[00:15:00] Nice to have before you do you work out? No, not at all

[00:15:04] I work out my mentality

[00:15:06] You do sound like a spiritualist

[00:15:09] The south has changed you tiana. You're not the same

[00:15:13] I'm down

[00:15:15] No, I'm just teasing. I really don't work on that's something I do need to work on working out

[00:15:21] Oh my mental health. I'm just kidding. That's important

[00:15:24] No, just finding that balance is what I want to work on. That's what I let's do a couple rapid-fired

[00:15:30] All right, but I do want to I want to get your favorite. Um, I'd like to get your favorite memory

[00:15:37] or one of them

[00:15:39] I mean, I would say one when the team was a part of the publication

[00:15:44] Oh, there's that was that was a fun moment because it was like

[00:15:49] We collectively did that as a team. Um

[00:15:53] That was a really good memory

[00:15:56] She doesn't know there's so many

[00:15:59] I mean, I just look back on my phone and all the like behind-the-scenes videos or just random clips

[00:16:04] um

[00:16:06] I'm trying to think of a good time

[00:16:10] Amazing

[00:16:14] I don't know. There's so many of them

[00:16:18] I think my favorite memory is all the memories before and the ones that

[00:16:24] Can continue to come anyways. What's your favorite memory?

[00:16:28] Favorite memory and move balance

[00:16:33] Actually, I do have a favorite. Oh, you do now just as I was about to say mine. Okay, go ahead

[00:16:40] My favorite memory is

[00:16:43] Honestly, I think when we first met

[00:16:47] Because

[00:16:49] Why is it disgusting the nosebleed? No, what that's not the first time we met

[00:16:55] Oh, no, that is no, it's not

[00:16:58] The first time we actually met was at brian and

[00:17:07] The first time we met was at brian and ryan's

[00:17:11] Rising tides Tuesdays together. Yeah

[00:17:15] That's when I met you

[00:17:16] Because we all went to lunch after and got Mexican food. Yep

[00:17:21] And then the second one was the sweet store

[00:17:25] Was that with carry cupcakes? Yes

[00:17:27] I did not know that was her at that moment, but now I do

[00:17:31] That's the story from another time

[00:17:33] But

[00:17:34] The first time when we shot together the funniest

[00:17:38] experience

[00:17:40] My aunt was like, don't you dare go to this random guys apartment and go into his room

[00:17:45] Like you stay in the parking lot and she was all nervous and I was just like, all right, let's go to rhoda island

[00:17:50] You had asked me about

[00:17:52] my work and my

[00:17:54] the

[00:17:55] process that I take to get the photos that I had on my instagram at the time

[00:18:00] And

[00:18:02] Then you reached out and I was like this guy's so random because I didn't know who

[00:18:06] Was following me and I didn't realize move mountains was strong brown

[00:18:09] I didn't understand that

[00:18:11] um, and then

[00:18:12] You said hey, would you like to do work with me? And I was like sure

[00:18:15] And then you said would you like to shoot the 2020?

[00:18:19] What was it 2017 or 2018 wedding season? And I said sure why not?

[00:18:24] And we did that engagement session. I came here hopped in your little ringy dink previous

[00:18:29] And we went to downtown providence and shot the engagement session

[00:18:34] and I remember

[00:18:36] Pulling this move of like going on my laying on my stomach, which I just cringe at

[00:18:42] But I specifically remember is my legs were like out and you were like walking over them and you tripped

[00:18:49] And

[00:18:51] You I just remember your face being like you're really good at this

[00:18:56] In that moment. It was like some sort of like wow, you're really good

[00:18:59] I think that was the only last bit of affirmation you ever gave me

[00:19:03] First and last yeah right there when you trip me

[00:19:06] No, I remember that couple

[00:19:07] And I remember that shoot we kept on saying you're fierce. Oh, yeah, they're so fierce

[00:19:13] It's like it's kind of weird having two shooters out in an engagement session

[00:19:17] Let alone like one of the shooters like on their belly. I cringe every time

[00:19:23] I don't remember that that much, but it was the angle

[00:19:26] I was fresh out of college and I needed that shot

[00:19:29] Yeah, and which we would advise any photographer nowadays like don't don't get in any awkward position

[00:19:35] Just use your bendy screen

[00:19:38] Yeah, if you have a swivel screen

[00:19:40] It's like looking at a photo from like a unnatural perspective is kind of weird

[00:19:44] You in photography if you break the rules properly

[00:19:48] You can break them

[00:19:49] If you know the rules and you break them on purpose with intention and it's done right

[00:19:55] Then you can do whatever you want. That is the best piece of advice I got in college

[00:20:01] Or some sort of way of doing that. I didn't really know the rules

[00:20:05] And I was figuring out that's that's how some people do it, which is fine

[00:20:09] Yeah, but now you there's we have a lot of guidelines with this mountain shooting. Yeah a lot

[00:20:15] Too many too many don't do anything

[00:20:18] Incorrectly

[00:20:20] Just center the subject

[00:20:23] You're almost doing nothing. Yes

[00:20:26] To get the shot do anything extra

[00:20:30] Gotta keep it simple you have to keep it simple otherwise in this

[00:20:35] Company if we had everybody doing everything we wouldn't have a consistency to our work

[00:20:41] And obviously every photographer has their own

[00:20:44] eye their own perspective at a wedding day, but

[00:20:48] I think what we do in our training process is really

[00:20:53] Guiding them to perfect imagery and we're not perfect by any means

[00:20:57] But it's what works for us and what has been

[00:21:01] I don't know a huge factor in keeping our quality up

[00:21:03] Is our expectations of what the photos should look like on a basic level if you want to have fun and go crazy

[00:21:10] Do that but make sure you have your solid

[00:21:13] Fully covered wedding day

[00:21:16] Yeah, and I think that's a mistake

[00:21:18] Most people make when they're starting out is like you don't know what you don't know

[00:21:22] it takes a long time to actually

[00:21:25] Just refine like having a good understanding of like okay. This is what I need to do. This is what I need to get

[00:21:31] This is when I need to get it

[00:21:33] And it's more of a process of elimination. It's like what what am I not shooting?

[00:21:37] Makes me figure out what you actually need to shoot

[00:21:39] But that does take you know independent if you have no mentor no guides

[00:21:43] That does take a little bit to kind of get and I would give

[00:21:47] Bit of advice for anyone like you're starting out with photography or videography is like link up

[00:21:53] with

[00:21:55] Someone who knows what they're doing. You know and that you admire their work and

[00:21:59] Train with them learn with them if you have to pay for a mentorship pay for mentorship if they'll let you second shoot with them

[00:22:05] Or just even assist

[00:22:07] um, I've I've offered to pay

[00:22:09] thousands of dollars with people

[00:22:12] That I admire their work. I'm like, hey, I will can I pay you and they're like no

[00:22:17] We don't want you to know what I know like they're they like kind of gatekeep and um

[00:22:21] The industry is not really like that, but some people are yeah, I think the industry has come a long way over the years

[00:22:28] But I do feel like

[00:22:30] It's a nasty industry. It really can be it really can be yeah

[00:22:34] It can be whole industry is not great. I don't love it

[00:22:37] I love people

[00:22:41] Signs you'll deliver I love you love beautiful images and I love images beautiful image

[00:22:46] I love the naturalness that you know, you can really capture the essence of somebody and

[00:22:52] Growing up getting my photo taken once in a while, you know, you get a photo taking yourself. You're like

[00:22:57] That's me like that's kind of how I feel like you kind of captured something there. Yeah, I feel like that's

[00:23:02] that's hard to do

[00:23:04] You know to capture a photo someone was like, wow, I like that photo

[00:23:08] I mean most people don't like photos themselves exactly and I think that's why I do what I do

[00:23:13] and most people don't like photos in the cells because

[00:23:16] When someone puts a camera in your face like you kind of stiffen up

[00:23:19] You know and like you're not you're you're up, you know, it's awkward. It's awkward. Yeah, it is so weird

[00:23:25] And that's not how you want to be captured. You want to be captured in like your authentic self. Yeah relaxed or

[00:23:31] you know

[00:23:33] And honestly, I feel like there's so many people in the industry

[00:23:37] that

[00:23:38] Have a spark to their photography and like you can be a photographer you can get trained everything but

[00:23:44] You can tell when there's a photographer that has that spark in their pictures

[00:23:48] It just feels like something right and I feel like that's when that person is living like their

[00:23:53] Most truest like form of art like living through their most truest form of art

[00:23:58] Is just like being able to capture people with that spark or being able to capture anything and having that spark to their photography

[00:24:05] I think it's just like it's so cool to see that when people can like fully invest in that and fully

[00:24:11] Just dive in and be able to experience it's energy

[00:24:15] You know, it's like you kind of capture that it's like, you know good photography has an energy to it where it's like

[00:24:21] You feel you just feel something. You know and

[00:24:24] um

[00:24:26] Yeah, if you do if you do it right

[00:24:29] You know, it's um, it's a nice medium. Mm-hmm next question

[00:24:36] No, let's stay here for a second

[00:24:39] Let's just sit in awkward silence

[00:24:50] Tiana loves amr or asmr amr our editor

[00:24:55] She loves amr. We all love amr, but asmr

[00:24:59] Asmr is like for me is like a

[00:25:02] Religious experience right here. Are you serious? Yeah, like enter like another like I wish we were writing the headphones

[00:25:09] What's the biggest tip you've ever gotten out of a wedding

[00:25:12] biggest money tip or

[00:25:14] advice tip

[00:25:16] Are people giving you advice at weddings?

[00:25:22] Giving life advice at weddings

[00:25:25] I've learned a lot of things at weddings. Yeah, you are never enough

[00:25:32] Okay

[00:25:40] You're never

[00:25:44] Gone

[00:25:47] You could

[00:25:48] This sounds like slander not every wedding is like this, but

[00:25:53] Sometimes you're never enough and sometimes you will never be enough

[00:25:57] But with that being said is knowing who you are

[00:26:00] Where you stand how much you value yourself. You'll learn that when people treat you like that

[00:26:07] That stuff doesn't really matter

[00:26:09] But you can look at it and learn from it

[00:26:12] um

[00:26:13] Because there are days where I've bent over backwards and it's been very hard

[00:26:18] But I count it all as a blessing and an experience because I've learned to

[00:26:24] Deal with a multitude and plethora of people

[00:26:29] But my favorite part is serving the people at the weddings

[00:26:33] So it's like I love bending over backwards and being able to serve somebody on the biggest day of their life

[00:26:38] I feel that that's like honestly an honor that they would even choose me when people request me. I think it's a huge

[00:26:45] I don't know if I will say that

[00:26:47] Honor

[00:26:48] No, it is a big honor when people like

[00:26:52] Reach out specifically for you to shoot their wedding

[00:26:55] um

[00:26:56] And I also think it's just an honor to be able to serve somebody on a big day because like if you really look at it

[00:27:02] Like it is somebody's biggest day of their life. That's how they view it

[00:27:06] Yeah, and to us it's work

[00:27:09] But that's interesting. Yeah in order for me

[00:27:13] Like to get through the day

[00:27:14] It's like I want to serve those people wholeheartedly to the best of my ability no matter the situation

[00:27:20] No matter how i'm treated by guests or

[00:27:24] Treated by the couples or anything like that like I put

[00:27:27] I want to lay myself down

[00:27:28] That's honestly like the way I would like to live life is just laying myself down

[00:27:33] And honoring people and being a light in any situation

[00:27:37] And this is why she's great

[00:27:40] And I think

[00:27:40] Don't kind of speak a little bit on work like people have this negative connotation of work, right? And you know when we look at scripture

[00:27:47] um

[00:27:49] You know both in the bible and the torah

[00:27:51] So god created work, you know what I mean like that light and he worked for six days and then he rested for one

[00:27:57] You know so work is a large part of life. It really is

[00:28:01] You know

[00:28:02] And so I don't think it's a bad thing to give

[00:28:05] Give yourself to work

[00:28:08] But there is a balance the the context of work in our life

[00:28:12] In our lives is you know

[00:28:14] You have work before you have a partner really not that work should become before your partner, but

[00:28:22] So it's a big component of life is work work. I mean it's how we survive

[00:28:27] Yeah, but I I guess I just say that because you mentioned like with the couples

[00:28:31] It's like it's their biggest day of your life, but like for you it's work

[00:28:35] um or for the photographer it's work the videographer it's work and

[00:28:39] Um

[00:28:40] Yeah, it is but it's also something you it feels like work. Yeah a wedding a wedding day doesn't it's not like

[00:28:46] I'd rather be shooting feeling you're part of like a photographer. I always feel like part of the wedding

[00:28:51] Yeah, kind of feel like a low-key celebrity

[00:28:54] Yeah, if it's if you're doing and other people just like hate you and you're like the help

[00:28:59] You're the scum lower than low

[00:29:02] All depends on the people all depends on the day. Yeah, but

[00:29:07] My mission at every wedding is to put my best foot forward and serve others

[00:29:11] Completely and wholeheartedly because I feel like I've been given a gift

[00:29:15] In the industry of photography no matter where I'm at and if I am provided with work

[00:29:20] I put my best foot forward in it and

[00:29:25] Be thankful for it because honestly like

[00:29:29] Being in the industry it can be very very hard and I've talked to a lot of people who are like oh off season is really hard

[00:29:35] very hard but

[00:29:38] I've been blessed completely so

[00:29:42] Off season is hard

[00:29:45] It's a very season industry very seasonal business

[00:29:48] um, you have to

[00:29:50] Really plan accordingly accordingly if you're um

[00:29:54] I mean if you're a solo per newer you gotta really be

[00:29:57] intentional with your spending habits and budgeting

[00:30:03] You know

[00:30:05] But there's probably a little a little bit less of that, you know because you probably don't have so many expenses as a solo per newer

[00:30:12] Yeah, you know versus a company

[00:30:15] Um

[00:30:17] Yeah, so

[00:30:20] Life work god in the Torah

[00:30:23] That's right any other uh aspiring words you have for

[00:30:29] Was it aspiring inspiring inspiring words for up-and-coming photographers?

[00:30:36] Um continue to seek

[00:30:39] Any option opportunity

[00:30:42] But you gotta look for it as well

[00:30:45] um and always to

[00:30:47] Never put yourself in a box

[00:30:49] Hmm and um break the rules but break them right let's talk a little bit about

[00:30:57] The client experience

[00:31:01] What do you want to talk about some of that else? Oh, what's your favorite candy?

[00:31:05] um

[00:31:09] Nerd clusters in the freezer those are the best they're so good. I'm like hooked on those lately in the freezer just

[00:31:18] Any temperature?

[00:31:19] nerd clusters at any temperature

[00:31:22] But the freezer is the best I haven't tried them frozen

[00:31:28] I just left mine in my car

[00:31:30] uh

[00:31:31] But that was satisfying

[00:31:34] also

[00:31:36] What is my favorite candy? I used to be a huge like sugar sweet gummy person

[00:31:42] Used to be but I think I've had my time with that

[00:31:46] but

[00:31:48] What I'm really big on right now is like cheddar popcorn and caramel popcorn mixed together

[00:31:53] That's disgusting. No, it is literally the best thing ever cheddar popcorn. Maybe

[00:31:57] Caramel popcorn isn't even good solo caramel popcorn is literally the best solo

[00:32:03] Not good at all. It's so good

[00:32:06] And now you're mixing them together. Yes, I do like movie theater popcorn a lot. That's good

[00:32:11] I actually enjoy stale popcorn. Yeah popcorn is fire. I like five day old popcorn

[00:32:17] It's crunching on carols. You are weird

[00:32:20] But five day old popcorn that's like stale

[00:32:23] Perfect. I know somebody that dips. I used to work at the movie theater. Really? Yeah, what didn't you do?

[00:32:28] I actually yeah, I had a lot of jobs

[00:32:32] I don't believe that you're like actually human

[00:32:35] Why? Because I think you might be an alien

[00:32:38] you know, there's that new um

[00:32:41] Premiere it's like um like a little teaser for the new curbie enthusiasm

[00:32:47] And the alien ship comes down in front of larry david and then the alien comes out

[00:32:51] And then larry david like pulls off his skin

[00:32:54] And he's an alien and he's like all right my worker is done

[00:32:58] He gets on the ship

[00:33:00] It's probably gonna happen

[00:33:01] Maybe there are like made me think like maybe there are like

[00:33:05] People that are aliens like among us. Oh, I wouldn't doubt it. Maybe they're just here for a purpose the nephilim

[00:33:11] Oh, yeah, there was a nephilim. Although. I don't know if those are aliens

[00:33:14] What's the definition of an alien?

[00:33:16] Very true

[00:33:18] Maybe we're kind of aliens, you know

[00:33:21] We might be aliens like I could pull my head off and be an alien

[00:33:26] You think that like you're the only person that really exists and then like everybody else is just

[00:33:33] No, it's only you

[00:33:38] It's only you

[00:33:41] Surprise

[00:33:43] I'm just kidding

[00:33:46] What do you mean continue?

[00:33:47] So like like you're the only

[00:33:49] Like you're the only person but like everybody's in on it like a Truman show kind of thing

[00:33:55] Um, I think that's serving like oh, I can't even believe I just said that disgusting

[00:34:00] What serving that's serving. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What is it serving? That's serving main character energy

[00:34:08] Yeah, when I was a child I used to get like kind of a little paranoid

[00:34:11] I remember like this one specific memory like I was getting out of my mom's astro van walking into elementary school

[00:34:16] and like I was like

[00:34:18] I was like I was like

[00:34:19] I was like if this happens or that happens then like

[00:34:22] This is true, you know, and I would like play like mind games with myself like that

[00:34:26] but I was like very

[00:34:28] Kind of I don't know like self-aware, but I like thought like

[00:34:32] Am I like what are people in my lives?

[00:34:35] Are they like actually people?

[00:34:37] Is everybody in on this it's kind of paranoid for like a

[00:34:41] 10 year old what happened to you?

[00:34:45] Let's not get into it

[00:34:47] The one thing I've never known

[00:34:50] Yeah, we never really did talk too much about personal stuff. But why would we?

[00:34:54] We're too busy

[00:34:57] Let's like ignore the real problems

[00:35:01] I think that's what I was going through

[00:35:04] When isn't uh just being here in the apartment and being here working

[00:35:09] It's like ignoring personal things. I don't know. I sometimes find work though as like a great

[00:35:20] Um

[00:35:22] It's like well if you got nothing else to do you might as well work, right?

[00:35:25] So it's a lot of people don't have anything to do

[00:35:28] If you have nothing to do over invest though too and like their friendships and things like that and then it's like

[00:35:34] Well, maybe you put a little too much time to your friendships

[00:35:39] That's why we come back to balance

[00:35:42] Because I think you need both I think you need life and I think you need

[00:35:47] Work, but you also need work to live

[00:35:50] life

[00:35:52] Yeah, you need work to you have to work. I think work kind of gives you purpose it gives you like

[00:35:58] It makes life not about you where it's like you're serving other people

[00:36:02] You're putting their needs first you're doing something you feel like you're contributing to society

[00:36:06] I feel like that's all really good

[00:36:09] it's it's like

[00:36:11] the adage of

[00:36:12] You know if you had all the money in the world, what would you do?

[00:36:14] I mean you'd probably still do something it's like why people really never retire because

[00:36:18] You gotta stay busy. You know

[00:36:20] You have a purpose. I think it gives you some some purpose exactly

[00:36:26] And yeah, I mean working here. It's like

[00:36:29] I'll see you and I spend your time but there were some real

[00:36:33] Pain points. I think where work can strangle you when you don't have the opportunity to step away when it is time to step away like

[00:36:41] My niece's birthday and things like that where it's like I can't go to this because

[00:36:46] I'd like to but I'm bound by like some type of emergency

[00:36:52] And I'm gonna think about that a lot lately too

[00:36:54] Like what is an emergency?

[00:36:57] Everything is urgent

[00:36:59] People make everything seem urgent

[00:37:02] Everyone's in a rush

[00:37:04] And it's like really how many emergencies are there really?

[00:37:09] It depends on what is actually urgent

[00:37:14] Nothing really

[00:37:16] I mean obviously if something is I think you should kind of live life a little unhurried. Yeah

[00:37:21] Coming from you

[00:37:23] I know i've grown he's grown so much in just a short amount of time to tell him

[00:37:31] Tell him

[00:37:33] Give him the low down. Yeah, probably like what three months

[00:37:37] Yeah, I have a major like life kind of shift you do this every year

[00:37:41] So I think every time you have gone through a pivotal moment in your life

[00:37:46] You either resort to a couple different reactions to the situation in life

[00:37:53] You shut down

[00:37:55] I have a bad habit of shutting down when things get too overwhelming. I just don't know what to do

[00:38:02] And I I think I get that for my dad because I remember like whenever whatever the market's doing really bad

[00:38:07] I would like go over my dad's house and be middle of the afternoon and he'd be like in bed

[00:38:12] just

[00:38:13] his mind is like

[00:38:16] He's overall he doesn't know what to do

[00:38:19] Yeah, you definitely have that I try not to but he's gotten better

[00:38:23] um

[00:38:24] But then

[00:38:27] You get kind of angsty

[00:38:29] Hmm

[00:38:30] This excuse me this has to get done. This has to get done. This has to get done. This has to get done now

[00:38:36] But then it's weird because then nothing else really gets finished

[00:38:42] I feel like me being great is pretty rare

[00:38:46] Yeah, I have my moments

[00:38:48] But it's pretty rare

[00:38:50] Me being okay is like

[00:38:52] average day to day but you're a fort

[00:38:55] you like

[00:38:59] melancholy

[00:39:02] Yeah, I do but I think where you thrive the most is in business

[00:39:07] But just maybe not

[00:39:10] The human connection

[00:39:15] Yeah

[00:39:16] Could you would you agree with that?

[00:39:18] I mean, I like people you like people. You're good with people but

[00:39:23] I think where you strive the absolute most is in

[00:39:27] methodical thinking of processes

[00:39:30] information data and productivity my mind is is usually like

[00:39:36] 10

[00:39:37] 20 steps ahead. So it's like I just want to obviously I'm just want to get all the stuff done so we can do this other thing

[00:39:43] and so it's like I'm like delayed by like

[00:39:47] lack of execution, so I get very frustrated

[00:39:50] And then because I like I'm trying to

[00:39:52] We're 20 miles behind. Yeah

[00:39:55] But work is always going to be there work is always going to be there

[00:39:57] but then I feel like life is you know, it's fine night and so

[00:40:02] It's like you have all the things that you want to accomplish

[00:40:05] You feel like you got to get them all done. You know, you could probably relate to this because you're 29

[00:40:13] But it's like you have you feel like I have x amount of time to do x y z and

[00:40:19] You kind of I don't know maybe me personally like I measure my

[00:40:23] Like success in life by like

[00:40:25] Do I have all the things that I wanted to have or do I

[00:40:28] Have I accomplished all the things I wanted to do

[00:40:31] And to degree it's like I want those things to be great

[00:40:34] And then you also have is like you want to be youthful still like when you

[00:40:38] Are able but I think I have this bad habit of like

[00:40:42] kind of being so

[00:40:43] tunnel vision

[00:40:44] That I'm so focused on the end goal that I like forget about life in the moment

[00:40:48] I think that's why I kind of feel like the last 10 years have gone by like

[00:40:52] Oh dang like I I probably should

[00:40:55] Get to a degree insanely fast

[00:40:59] I think I did a good job of like investing into like

[00:41:02] friends and

[00:41:04] My church like my community, but probably failed in like family life and then like relationships

[00:41:11] You really have choices with relationships which we're up to get into that but

[00:41:17] You know, I've been like, I don't know maybe not the best

[00:41:21] At what and I had a lot. I you know, I'm like, you know

[00:41:25] kind of

[00:41:26] In development

[00:41:30] Like I think I had a lot to learn. Yeah

[00:41:35] A lot to learn what with like relationships. Okay. Yeah. Yeah

[00:41:39] And I think I've seen and known you for long enough to see that there has been some growth

[00:41:44] Yes, some some

[00:41:46] anyways

[00:41:48] Favorite candy. Yeah, what's your favorite candy? Um

[00:41:54] I have a really hard time

[00:41:57] answering these questions

[00:42:00] Um

[00:42:02] I'll tell you what your favorite candy is a fan favorite. I seen you eat skittles

[00:42:08] A lot of skittles really just random. Yeah

[00:42:11] I like jelly bellies your

[00:42:14] You also like sweet tarts what you can't have because of the dye in it

[00:42:18] And I can't just have one sweet tart. I know you have that whole bag

[00:42:22] yeah

[00:42:24] Um, I don't know I've kind of veered away from sweets. I still enjoy it nerd clusters are on the top

[00:42:29] Right now. Yeah, the nerd the frozen the rope the frozen nerd clusters. Those are phenomenal

[00:42:37] Better than that. It's not it's not too much

[00:42:40] I used to be obsessed with like gummy worms those were my favorite like sat were gummy worms. Yeah, they're okay. Not bad

[00:42:48] Cummy worms are good

[00:42:50] um

[00:42:53] hmm

[00:42:55] Coming to rhodalin what

[00:42:58] What was on me? What's your favorite thing about rhodalin?

[00:43:05] I think that there's so much to offer and there is a lot here like the city and then you can be near the water

[00:43:13] I really enjoyed newport. I think it's really pretty there

[00:43:16] um

[00:43:18] I remember in college. I went there with a

[00:43:21] pier to do a shoot

[00:43:23] for somebody down there and

[00:43:26] It was like a weird moment in time

[00:43:29] Where it was like i'm gonna be back in this place

[00:43:31] It was like i'm not this this was the first time I even heard of rhodalin honestly

[00:43:36] Because being up north. I really didn't focus too much on rhodalin. Yeah, let alone newport and block island

[00:43:41] I had no no clue block island really existed until we started shooting there. Yeah, I didn't go to block island. I think till that was uh 20

[00:43:49] Probably 22

[00:43:50] Yeah, you know

[00:43:52] But it's a cool place. It's just i'm not a city city city gal. That's one thing. I just don't like about it

[00:43:59] It's not my favorite

[00:44:02] Yeah, the people that I know here is probably one of my favorite parts. Yeah, who's your favorite person?

[00:44:07] Definitely not you

[00:44:11] I don't have favorites

[00:44:13] Really?

[00:44:14] My favorites. I don't even uh

[00:44:17] I don't have favorites. I think every person that i've grown to know or learn or discover here

[00:44:23] has been

[00:44:25] An opportunity for a new friendship and I think it's been so cool to meet so many people that are like-minded without being from my town

[00:44:31] That's been the my favorite part is just getting to know

[00:44:35] All the people you've known and just the connections through it all

[00:44:40] How many people i've met through the industry of move mountains and the photography industry insane

[00:44:47] But then there's all these little tiny connections too. That's really funny

[00:44:50] like

[00:44:52] Yeah, do you think that we should just maybe give up move mountains?

[00:44:56] Why?

[00:44:56] I don't know. What do you want to do with it?

[00:45:01] I don't know

[00:45:03] Like what like would you ever just be like hey like guys, why don't you just stop doing this?

[00:45:08] Something big would have to happen in order for me to do that

[00:45:12] Oh

[00:45:13] But for me

[00:45:15] Like I am getting to a point in my life where i'm like, okay

[00:45:18] What's gonna be next? Right

[00:45:21] Where am I gonna put my energy?

[00:45:24] Yeah, me too

[00:45:26] I think we're in the same position of where we want to go like

[00:45:34] Next in life

[00:45:36] Yeah

[00:45:38] But I think once you cross that bridge too then like

[00:45:41] It's probably like oh you get married and have kids and you're like, you know what this

[00:45:45] Still wouldn't maybe like to work or you still need that like

[00:45:48] Well, yeah, definitely

[00:45:52] Yeah

[00:45:54] Why do you want to give up move mountains?

[00:45:58] Would you sell move mountains?

[00:46:03] What would you do for work?

[00:46:04] I think I would sell move mountains. I would I would like see if there was anyone internally that just wanted to run it

[00:46:10] You know, um, which essentially is what we're doing now. It's like

[00:46:14] You know, we're giving like a lot of autonomy to everybody

[00:46:17] Yeah, so whereas before it was like a lot of my decisions

[00:46:20] So it was like I was the one succeeding or failing

[00:46:23] You know and the team was like almost like a byproduct

[00:46:27] Of that success or failure based on like my decisions and direction

[00:46:31] and now it's like

[00:46:32] I want to give more autonomy and like the decision making and making calls and things like that where it's like

[00:46:38] All right. Well, that decision could go either way

[00:46:42] And if it's success then that's great. Hopefully you have to have more of those successes

[00:46:47] And if it's not then it's just like you understand you start to understand like oh wow like

[00:46:52] These decisions have real consequences. Yeah, and um real results. So it's like you

[00:46:59] It goes from just being like

[00:47:01] um a person playing a game

[00:47:04] um

[00:47:05] You know to a

[00:47:08] This affects

[00:47:10] Everybody's lives around me, you know, they're depending on me to make good decisions

[00:47:15] And so I think that's gonna be a nice phase for you guys to enter where it's like

[00:47:20] Man, it's like you guys really got to work together as a team and you got to

[00:47:24] uh really understand that

[00:47:26] um, you know, I'm not always gonna be there to

[00:47:29] To save you guys or take the fall or

[00:47:33] um

[00:47:35] You know

[00:47:36] Yeah step in

[00:47:39] Yeah, because I'm not gonna last forever

[00:47:43] Wow

[00:47:46] What did I say at the begin of beginning of the podcast what'd you say?

[00:47:51] Someone's not gonna last

[00:47:54] That's creepy

[00:47:57] She like predicted my death

[00:48:04] You've been more concerned with me. Yeah, yeah, like I always feel like you just

[00:48:12] Are you guys getting all this

[00:48:14] God say it

[00:48:16] No, you get so stressed out and like emo

[00:48:19] I don't get stressed. I'm not stressed

[00:48:21] Am I stressed right now? Not now

[00:48:24] But in your big pivotal moments in life, I'm like he's done. He's he's he's over it

[00:48:29] Uh, I feel like I don't but you're foreign you like to sit

[00:48:33] I don't really get well. I still get stressed, but like I don't let it affect me the way I used to

[00:48:38] Definitely not. I kind of feel like uh if it's it was gonna burn and it's gonna burn

[00:48:43] Mm-hmm

[00:48:45] Because I I've kind of been on that bridge so many times where it's like oh, it's burning and then

[00:48:50] It's like I would make it through

[00:48:52] so it's like

[00:48:54] If I hadn't have put all that emotional energy into react in the way I did

[00:48:59] How much better, you know, you just become more like resilient to

[00:49:04] Trauma. Yeah

[00:49:06] The important thing is that we got through it

[00:49:08] And we did it

[00:49:10] And that's what we're gonna say when move melons

[00:49:14] Is

[00:49:17] On its next journey. Yeah, it's like do you just keep going with it or do we

[00:49:22] Let us know down below

[00:49:24] Yeah, like keep going with it. Do we keep trying to build it up?

[00:49:27] Do you just plateau do we bring it back down soft landing do a crash and burn?

[00:49:31] And those are really the options

[00:49:34] greater great altitude

[00:49:36] Or

[00:49:37] You've really been thinking about this

[00:49:40] I mean, yeah, what would you do after that though? Because all you've known is work

[00:49:45] Um, I mean, I think there are easier ways to make money

[00:49:50] Yeah, sometimes I wonder if we start we over

[00:49:54] Do it

[00:49:56] We definitely do there's way easier ways to make money like what we're doing

[00:50:01] Why do we do it why do we do it like we could probably transition

[00:50:05] We should transition some of the brand into like a luxury brand like you like the top line leaders should

[00:50:10] Only be shooting luxury weddings

[00:50:12] Scaling up to like 10 and 15 and 20 then like 50,000

[00:50:17] per wedding

[00:50:18] with photo and video

[00:50:22] That should be like one of our biggest priorities

[00:50:27] I think we could keep scaling move melons

[00:50:30] I think working on a digital product. I think it's

[00:50:34] Be much more lucrative if it sells

[00:50:37] Do you think eventually there will be somebody new that comes in and

[00:50:43] Completely runs with it move melons

[00:50:46] Um, I think it'd be really hard to get like a new hire to just kind of come in and run with it

[00:50:51] I think the closest that we've seen to someone being able to run this company

[00:50:56] It's probably yawn. I would say

[00:50:58] um

[00:51:00] Josh probably could have done it, but I think it's not his priority

[00:51:04] I don't think it's something that he wants to do. Um, I think he's more like I want to go to work. I want to

[00:51:10] do a good job and

[00:51:12] Spend time with my family have kids

[00:51:14] Um, I think you do a really good job

[00:51:18] Assisting and running the company, but it's a high price. You pay a high price to have that responsibility

[00:51:23] That's the thing I

[00:51:25] am way better

[00:51:27] In a position supporting role in a supporting role

[00:51:30] Yeah, what I would like to see is our systems get just absolutely buttered

[00:51:36] And just be the smoothest

[00:51:39] System of gears like I want to see it just flow. Yeah with

[00:51:45] A healthy life balance

[00:51:47] Which we've worked on systems, but never like we've worked on systems over the past 12 months

[00:51:52] No, absolutely. It's only been 12 months that we've actually like working on systems

[00:51:55] The way it's insane. I wish there could be like behind the scenes footage of what we actually do every single day

[00:52:03] I know because technically we're a company that works Monday through Sunday Monday through Monday

[00:52:09] Like cool if like josh just like filmed us during the week

[00:52:12] Like working on stuff. What are you working on and then like

[00:52:16] We sent that to an editor every every week they put out an episode of like what happened what's happening at move

[00:52:24] Yeah

[00:52:25] Pretty much

[00:52:27] That'd be cool

[00:52:28] But I think it's like the stressors of like what people don't see behind the scenes of like

[00:52:33] Oh, and we have an issue with something. It's like it affects not only us but our clients and then it's just this big thing

[00:52:40] It's like where we constantly are learning how to combat those things

[00:52:45] It's not easy running your own business is not easy and that's why

[00:52:49] I've enjoyed doing it with move mountains and I like the behind this I like the story

[00:52:54] Uh because it is is

[00:52:56] there's you know, there's people involved and there's

[00:52:59] challenges and hardships and

[00:53:02] triumphs and

[00:53:03] Things like that trials and errors and successes and wins

[00:53:08] Um, tianna you have been a lovely guest

[00:53:12] One of the best guys through your teeth

[00:53:15] Not yet. It's always great talking

[00:53:17] Thank you. I appreciate it

[00:53:20] um

[00:53:21] One of our high level leaders here at move mountains co has contributed to a lot of success over the years

[00:53:28] and um

[00:53:32] She is now moving into a new stratosphere

[00:53:35] Probably only be shooting

[00:53:37] the very uh luxury weddings

[00:53:41] Um, still overseeing all the move mountains products and brands and things like that but

[00:53:47] um

[00:53:48] Thank you for tuning in to this episode tianna any um

[00:53:52] Parting parting words

[00:53:56] No, okay

[00:53:59] All right, and uh, we will see you on the next episode

[00:54:04] Stay tuned