We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Twitty a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brian, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?
There are so many moments we encounter along the way that bring divergence and demand improvisation, but I am a thoughtful person regarding the verbiage I use and I rarely reference these as problems, but maybe issues sometimes. I see these occurrences simply as part of the process and since enjoying inevitability is a key to being happy with your journey, I like to dive directly into any kind of issues. There is a great book about this concept entitled, The Obstacle is the Way and it truly is. That said, probably my most challenging moments have been clients who think they should control all the aspects of a project when they’ve paid me money for my expertise. I once had a client create a lot of deceptive scenarios in order to cancel a contract. This person tried to come sit with me during all my editing sessions for the video content I was creating and I told [the client] I don’t usually do this, and more specifically, I was very busy at the time and didn’t have time to do it during this project. [The client] also tried to bring people in to shoot content that I didn’t know at the last minute for multiple shooting scenarios. One of these people didn’t even have a tripod and asked to borrow one of mine. She ended up breaking the tripod and the client never recouped me for that. There were many areas in which the other shooters couldn’t match the tech specs of the video as well. It was kind of a poop show, really. In the end, [the client] had an attorney send me a list of areas I’d violated the contract that were mostly complete deception or maybe I’d missed a deadline by a day or two because she had not yet given me what I needed to complete the task. This correspondence also included a cease and desist of communication. Ultimately, I didn’t mind because I’d given [the client] much too low of a price due to her being broke and the person was an unknowledgeable control freak. I saw [the client] at a function later in the year and [the client] tried to engage me AFTER sending a communication cease and desist. I fully ignored the person and kept about my way. As I saw it, [the client] once was an obstacle in many different ways which I mostly handled well, but in that final moment, the person had already become unworthy of my energy.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I borrowed a teacher’s camera in high school so I could photograph my friends and myself skateboarding. This was when all cameras were still film cameras. He showed me the basics of getting started so I’d be able to use the camera without him. He was director of our yearbook creation and I already did layout design for that and I also began to dabble in photography, but eventually music took all of my creative time and I learned to play, program and produce music. Skip ahead many years to a time after digital SLR cameras had become common and that’s when I jumped back into photography. Initially, it was a hobby but I began to shoot everywhere and anything. I started posting my shots on social media in the early 2010s and eventually, I had gigs with some of my favorite activities like skateboarding and snowboarding. People had also begun requesting to purchase a lot of my scenic photography. I have a finance degree and I was working a financial job but after 6 years at that, a lot of changes were happening in my company and since I wasn’t in favor of some of them, I left the job in 2014 and that is when my full time visual business journey began.
Since this time, I have had the opportunity to shoot some of my favorite people in the world in skateboarding, snowboarding, a vast range of performing arts like music, theatre and dance, as well as a lot of other portraiture, process, real estate, product, food, art and more. I have won multiple awards. I won’t name drop, but I have a client list on my website, www.briantwitty.com as well as my LinkedIn page. I hope you will get in touch…
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
My initial funding was low and all executed by myself, but regarding capital, I think I stretched my scarcity of assets into a highly functional operation. To mitigate the lack of equipment, I placed myself in situations that would both allow me to shoot however I needed to shoot with the gear I had at my disposal as well as get me in doors to connect to new clients. I had some long term investments but those were essentially untouchable due to early withdrawal fees, etc. Another tactic I used was to eliminate unnecessary expenses en masse and focus on only the things I needed versus the things I wanted. These included things like going out for dinner, going on vacations, buying unnecessary clothing, etc. It was vastly helpful, but I don’t think my girlfriend at the time enjoyed it. Insert LOL emoji here.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I think sheer leg work and immersing myself in all the things I truly enjoyed with camera in hand is what really helped me grow into a known and eventually greatly experienced photographer. I went everywhere and legitimately wore myself out. Understanding the blue-collar ethic and implementing it can be a very effective approach to success, but always remember to try to progress with efficiency so you’re working more intelligently versus working too much. There is certainly a skill and mastery to balancing this. It also helped that I was making genuine connections, building relationships and that I was voted as best photographer in my city multiple times. I like to think my work shows my passion and skill in what I do. I hope it does because I truly love it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.briantwitty.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shootbt
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantwittyphotography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-twitty
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/shootbt
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8_ydL756Xlr0taEyWOdxDA
Image Credits
All images © Brian Twitty Photo & Video