We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Patrick Long a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Patrick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?
Having worked in Silicon Valley for many years and being a business owner, I have felt the pressure to never take time off. It took me years and several close calls of complete burnout to understand that extended time off is critical to remaining fresh and motivated. I am not talking about long weekends, but a minimum of 7 days.
My advise is to plan for it like you would plan any other part of your business. Put something on the calendar and keep it within your budget. Work with your customers to create the down time. I have been pleasantly surprised over the years how many people understand the need to step away. Don’t try to compare your vacation plans to vacations of friends, family or what you see on social media. The goal is a personal recharge, not a new self inflicted pressure. We all just need time away. Feel comfortable that you will have another vacation and you don’t have to create an over the top vacation because you may not have another one for a long time.
I would also point out that you are also creating a process for being away from the business for more than a few days. If you have a medical situation or family emergency, you already have solved many of the challenges of stepping away.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started working professionally in photography when I was sixteen years old. I was shooting film, which helped craft the discipline and patience that I still use today. Life happened and I moved. This was in the days before Internet and sending digital files from remote locations. I pivoted and picked up a BS in Physics and MS in Electrical Engineering. Spent 20+ years working on high tech optical/sensor systems with some of the top consumer companies in the world. I am back full time to business owner and photographer.
I always keep shooting and working on my craft. The time spent engaging with different companies around the world helped hone my business skills. Today I am focused on the art of photography and making it accessible to as many people as possible, while at the same time remaining commercially viable. And what I want to to make accessible is the archival quality pieces of photographic art that will remain with people for decades.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
First and foremost, I have always maintained a high bar for what I make available for my customers. Would this piece stand the test of time? Would this piece look at home in a gallery collection?
The second part, which took a little more nuanced, is understanding what my market was. My previous experience of working globally and the potentially vast audience of social media could have been a distraction. My primary market is much more smaller, which meant a higher personal engagement with people and peers locally.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I attended Design School at Stanford and several of the key takeaways was keep things time bound and fail fast. In business we almost always need to iterate, so fail fast so you can get to the better solution faster. Understand failures are are a part of business, so incorporate a method to make them as useful as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.luminacreations.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/Lumina_Creations
- Facebook: facebook.com/LuminaCreations
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-patrick-long?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BRUBuFn9DQbeExctKtvnS8w%3D%3D