The Soul Behind the Lens with Ali Rogers

On this episode, Ali Rogers, the creative genius behind Prana Lens, joins us to share her story of weaving a career tapestry colored with culture and heart-stirring human connections. From her Minnesota upbringing to globetrotting escapades, Ali's voyage through the realms of storytelling is a rich testament to pursuing a path lined with personal authenticity and artistic fervor, even when it veers from the expected.

We explore the courage it takes to chase dreams, the growth found in embracing life's sudden detours, and the resonance between personal fulfillment and the work we put out into the world. We also emphasize the crucial role self-care and boundaries play in sustaining success and authenticity within one's craft.  Ali's anecdotes, with luminaries like Rich Roll and Colin O'Brady, and her commitment to capturing transformational moments remind us of the joy found in staying true to one’s ethos.

This conversation is an ode to the art of organic storytelling and the beauty of collaborative synergy. Ali exemplifies how creative exploration can result in profound works. If you're seeking an inspirational nudge to follow your passion, this episode will not only move you but also arm you with the insights to navigate your journey with intention and grace.

More Ali: https://www.pranalens.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pranalens

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, cameo, and today we have the pleasure of hosting Ms Ally Rogers. She's a visionary storyteller with a passion for adventure you never know where you're going to see her show up and a deep connection to the human experience. So welcome, ally. I'm so excited to have you on today's episode. Thank you, thank you for having me. I'm excited. Of course, we also have my trusty co-host, mr Greg Braun. Hi, greg.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Good morning everybody. How are we doing?

Speaker 1: 1:05

And Greg likes to start us with a dad joke. So are you loaded up?

Speaker 2: 1:09

Yes, this one's going to make you chuckle. Ok, why don't eggs like to tell each other jokes? Because they'll crack each other up.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Chuckle. I do every single time. Ally is typically behind the camera through her beautiful storytelling with many different people, from the likes of Rich Roll to Colin O'Brady, to events like 29029, which is where I was first introduced to you. I didn't actually get to meet you then, I just saw you lurking in the bushes as I was climbing up the mountain, and then, of course, we see all of the wonderful footage from that event and it was Prana Lens which is your visionary. You're the mastermind behind that, and so we've connected a couple of times since then.

Speaker 1: 2:00

I've been fortunate to follow along your journey and, like I said, it's been really fun to kind of see like where is Ally? You're always somewhere and it's always like the most beautiful place ever, it seems, and I'm nature and just gorgeous. So I'm curious in getting to know Ally a little bit more, like how did this all come to be? Like, how did you get started in storytelling and working with these people in these events, Because you have just such an amazing eye for it? Is it something that you as a little girl were into? Like where did it begin? Take us way back, yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 3: 2:39

So a lot of this in doing I don't know if you've done a lot of anyogram or human design or any of these types of personality, astrology related things what often comes up for me always is this like a seeker of beauty and just a cutting beneath the surface, like wanting to always go deep. What's the layer beneath the layer, beneath the layer? And just like both, yeah, that seeking out new terrains, new vistas, more beauty, more depth, more of like the actual, I guess, human experience deep down in, like the combination of those two, I think is so ingrained in me and I just I don't think that that's anything I learned over time. I think that's just always been a part of me and you know how you spend most of your life thinking everybody feels the same way you do, and then as you get to a certain point in your adult, how you're like, oh, I'm very different from everybody. That's one of the things that I think it just has always been I'm grateful, has always been just kind of the natural default for me, so it's been impossible. I tried a nine to five one time and couldn't do it. I just always have to be in a beautiful place or seeking out beautiful experiences and people who are doing really interesting things, and I kind of like growing up in Minnesota.

Speaker 3: 4:05

That wasn't. You know, minnesota is not that exciting and I remember my family traveled a lot, but it wasn't until I went to college in Colorado and that opened up my world a lot. And then I did a lot of travel projects. So I studied abroad in Madagascar, I got funding to do a thesis project in French Polynesia and then I lived in New Zealand for a year after college and the Cook Islands and was really pursuing this whole like island photojournalism, island culture, and I grew up going to a French immersion school. So French and other cultures was always something that I had in my back pocket and I just remember always having that desire to go out and capture something, bring it back for people, put it together in a beautiful storytelling type of way, and that's just always been something that I've done as a passion and, you know, grew my business throughout my 20s living in Minneapolis, doing other things, you know commercial work, weddings, things that were a little more normal, but on the side I would always do these passion projects and beauty seeking and wellness and yoga and health and vitality and all the stuff that I was personally passionate about. I would just use my creative skills to create something with that and meet other people who were doing similar things that I could capture and tell their story and it was such a mutually beneficial. I remember having so many friends in my 20s who were super talented musicians or yogis or speakers and it was like it allowed me to foster my skills by capturing them and it was an outlet for me and beneficial for them.

Speaker 3: 5:46

I worked with a lot of yoga studios and conferences during that time too, and I think just like one thing led to another along that path, I remember in Minneapolis this gym opened called Fly Feet and it was really intense. I don't know if you've ever been to berries, but it's kind of that idea. Professional soccer coach would lead the classes with everyday humans like myself, but I felt like I was dying. I was at the edge of myself every single time. I was very athlete and I never done anything that was like hardcore athlete style stuff before I'd done yoga classes and like more chill strength training and things like that.

Speaker 3: 6:20

And this cracked something open in me and at the same time, I was listening to Rich Rolls podcast and I remember putting together this edit just purely out of inspiration because I was also shooting for this running gym studio. It's that kind of place. It was this dark room and they had just like a few neon green lights. It was like a very intense setting and it was right around the solstice, so the darkest part of the year and I remember I wanted to just do a passion project for them. So I took some sound bites from Rich's podcast where different guests were talking about the solstice and darkness and hitting your edge, and some of it was athletics, some of it was spiritual people. David Goggins was one of the voices I used. It was just such a vast array of people and I just sent it to Rich's website Just the basic contact form on a website and you're like I'm just going to cover my bases legally and be like hey, I'm used some of your podcast in this video that I was doing for this local running gym. Want to make sure you're cool with it. Yeah, it wasn't like here's my work, I want to work for you, but it was just this very synchronistic and I love the way this is my lens on life in general.

Speaker 3: 7:35

Is that it just there's no way I could have planned this, but what happened was a couple of weeks later, his wife, julie, on his podcast, gave out her email address. I don't remember why, but there was something that she had said in the podcast that resonated with me. So I just reached out to her on a very personal level to being like loved what you shared. I resonate with this and this is why and my email, my website signature, is at the bottom of all my emails and so she must have clicked on it, seeing Prana lens that maybe like it was interesting to her. So she opened it up and she was like, wow, and I had traveled to California a lot in my twenties for just again, seeking beauty, and so there was a lot of stuff on there that made her feel like, wow, she would be a good fit for Rich, because at the time he wasn't happy with his video person, and so it just started a conversation. And what's funny is she showed Rich. She was like, hey, check out this website. And he's like so weird. I actually saw that website a couple of days ago and his business partner had flagged my email and showed him the video and showed him the, so, like through multiple arenas he'd gotten my contact or he'd seen my website or something.

Speaker 3: 8:41

The reason I tell like that is kind of a long story is like that led to a bunch of conversations and then I ended up going out to California and working with him and that in and of itself that has other stories into it. But what I was saying is like it just all started with pure artistic passion, like I just want to create this thing and I'm inspired by this podcast, and here we go, I'm just putting it out in the world and then it just like very meant to be. And from Rich, I obviously have met everybody. That is everything to me right now, like 29 to 29. I wouldn't have known about that if it wasn't for Rich.

Speaker 3: 9:15

The first 29 to 29 I shot. I was supposed to go to capture Rich and to do a story around Rich there, and then Rich bailed at the last minute and I was like do you guys want me to come? Really? Yeah, and Mark and I talked about what I would do because I had some visions, obviously beyond just Rich, for wanting to be part of that, and so we did like a little test trial run that time and it was like it was the first event after COVID.

Speaker 3: 9:42

So there was so much emotion, so much vulnerability, so much storytelling.

Speaker 3: 9:46

It was beautiful, it was hot, it was there was just there was a lot to that event. That that like having somebody like me capturing people's emotions, like people feel safe with me, people want to talk to me, I want to talk, like there's something about that that I'm able to do at these events that they hadn't had up till that point. It all been like for show from the outside and all about being like really hardcore, and that's still part of it too. But there was this emotional vulnerability, transformational element of storytelling that wasn't there before. That we kind of started doing at that event and like and obviously I met Colin through Rich Rolls podcast and I worked really closely with him now and I don't think that would have happened otherwise. It's just it's like you look back on all these things and it's like it all comes. It all comes back to, just like you know, passion. With Colin it was a similar thing where, like it was, it was a second time on Rich's podcast when I was like dear God, this, what, who is this?

Speaker 1: 10:45

human Is this person?

Speaker 3: 10:49

human. Yeah, he's crazy, intense, badass, but also mostly he's just so sweet and kind and art felt and well spoken. And I was like this, this is interesting. And I remember reaching out to him afterwards and you know the typical like if you're messaging someone on Instagram and it's like, yeah, shoot me an email and we'll connect. And you know, like people who are really successful and have a lot going on, they're typically are not responding, at least my. It's not very common, but there's the cordial like yeah, here's my email, let's connect. Yeah, so I email Colin.

Speaker 3: 11:29

And I remember he was like, yeah, we should chat sometime, or like nothing. There was no next step and who's to say if there would have been or not otherwise. But what I did that night and again, this was not, this was not calculated in any way, it was purely, again, inspired passion. But I, after hearing him that day on Rich's podcast, I pulled up another podcast of his that he'd recently done and pulled some sound bites from that and put together a video that night using some YouTube. Some footage of him on YouTube that I'd found had an arc and it was like, yeah, there was a motion to it and I sent it to him the next day, within five minutes, I got an email back that was like can you talk right now? You grew up, you can't go anywhere.

Speaker 1: 12:11

I need to talk to you right now.

Speaker 2: 12:12

That's amazing.

Speaker 1: 12:14

I love everything that you're talking about here because it starts with Ali following her passion. So, if we can back up a second, I just want to unpack a couple of things. You mentioned, like you tried a nine to five. What did Ali think she wanted to do when she grew up? After you go to school, I'm going to get a job. What did you think you wanted to do, and what kind of nine to fives did you try? That maybe felt like this is not. I'm not passionate about this, even though I think I should be, or maybe I'm supposed to be, or this is what you're supposed to do when you grow up. What did that look like for you?

Speaker 3: 12:50

I mean when I was a little kid. There's like these home movies of me saying I want to be an artist. So I guess I tuned into that in an early age, or I want to be a vet or something like that. But in my more young adult life I think I never. I never saw anything. I was just like, at some point I'll figure it out, maybe I'll work in advertising, maybe I'll work in.

Speaker 3: 13:09

I had a stepdad who was very like, very by the book of. It needs to be. You know, my dad was a neurosurgeon, my mom was a nurse, my stepdad was an accountant type person, my brother's an accountant, like I really got a very normal job and so I just thought I'll figure out at some point. But I didn't really ever have a strict vision and the nine to fives that I tried. It was somewhere yeah, somewhere in my early 20s where I would try, you know, tutoring or I always tried to find things that had somewhat of flexibility or human to human interaction. This sitting, it never, never even entered my ether to think about going to an office and sitting in a cubicle type thing. I worked at a VEDA corporate on, but this was on the video team. This is where I felt like, oh, I've made it, but it was still that, even still felt like a box because it was it was corporate and it was nine to five and hour for lunch, and sit in a room with no windows and like not very inspiring, right?

Speaker 1: 14:08

No?

Speaker 3: 14:08

I had a great like the guy who ran that team. There was only myself, one other editor and then the guy who ran the video team and then one other guy, but he was a great mentor and he was very like. I learned a lot about editing and it helped me out in so many ways. But I would be I remember I can't believe I did this at now in hindsight, but I would like. I remember I was working on a wedding video edits while I was at my corporate job where I'd like go out for a walk when I was supposed to be in the office, like I could not.

Speaker 1: 14:37

She's a rule breaker folks.

Speaker 3: 14:38

She's a rebel.

Speaker 1: 14:39

I asked that question because I think that it's pretty relatable that people you know have this passion Greg and I can speak to this for ourselves with regard to our music or our athletics Like we have this passion, but then you reach that point in your adult, your young adult life or your adult life where you're like, well, I have to kind of figure it out and fall into some kind of mold because now I have to support myself or I you know, how do I blend my passion with what I can do to survive?

Speaker 1: 15:12

Right, and so it sounds like you know you kind of fell into that, but also just hung on and clung tightly to the fact that, like you were leading with your heart and with your passion, yeah, I feel like it was just a very naive approach to it and this answer is like I can't, not, I can't, this is the only option.

Speaker 3: 15:29

Luckily I was young and my bills were small, but yeah, kind of having that mentality of like this is going to be what it's going to be, let's make it happen.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Yeah. And taking chances to go live in other countries and explore, like, how did those opportunities come up? Did you seek those out? Were they things that you connected with other people? Because those are pretty amazing. Like Madagascar are you kidding me? New Zealand, like yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:54

Lamers.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 15:55

Yeah, right, yeah, I again I feel really grateful and fortunate that I got to go to Colorado College. It's a very like that was just. That was the community there. That was the baseline. Everybody was seemed to be doing interesting things, or the teachers. So it was on a block plan. You have one class at a time for three and a half weeks and then you're on a block break, and so it was a lot of adventurous people. It's a lot of worldly type of people, because you only have one class at a time. Your class could go to the Grand Canyon for three weeks. Your class could go somewhere else and go camping or go do a thing, and it was like a very project based approach to school and so then I think like it was natural to take that into into life. So I had a lot of encouragement just from the people that I was around, the professors, that I was around the community, because I remember Madagascar got suggested to me by someone two years older than me who was also in French, was a French major, and she was like, well, yeah, you can go to France like every other, everyone, or you can go to Madagascar. They speak French. Like I was like that's a little scary, but that sounds great. I was.

Speaker 3: 17:09

I was did you go alone? No, it was a study abroad program and there were actually three other people from my college and then five others from other parts of the country and nothing has ever compared to that in my entire life since then. The way we bonded that what's that quote about? Like you know, in suffering you bond together, or something like that. But it we, they were like the closest thing to they're closer than any brother or sister I could imagine having that group was because we I mean, we got malaria, we got bugs in our feet. We were constantly like throwing up. We were traveling over the country together. We would, because it was a roaming, it wasn't like a we're at a schoolhouse. We were in homestays at a schoolhouse for like the first month, but then after that we were traveling around in a rickety bus.

Speaker 3: 17:56

I get in hindsight. I cannot believe that. Her parents they cried, they had to sign for this to happen. The fact that we didn't die is out of control, but but yeah, things like that, whereas, like I never in a million years in my Minnesota upbringing would have thought to go to Madagascar for study abroad. But it's just like somebody suggested it and I had like cracked open this adventure aside of me by living in Colorado and getting into backpacking and doing all these things that weren't my normal, normal MO. Until you start to and you know this from your own lifestyles and you, you like start to get a little bit out of your comfort zone doing a few things, and it's exciting, and you like who you are and you go a little further and you go a little further into it and before you know, you're like, oh, you know, a year ago I wouldn't have made that jump, but I did all these little jumps along the way and it's like, no, that's not that bad, that's early, like that's not that far.

Speaker 1: 18:45

Yes, I love that.

Speaker 1: 18:46

That's a great way to break it down those small steps that make the bigger ones seem a little less daunting, because you've done all the small ones along the way and, like you said something about the group that you're with and the people that you were around and how that influenced you and how that's so important.

Speaker 1: 19:04

Like you are who you hang out with and so being there and around the influence and surrounded by other people who were doing that opened up a whole new world for you and you just were like, okay, let's do this, jump in, like it's who I am anyway, and maybe a sense of permission from other people being that way too and encourage that was inspired, so that's awesome. And then that translates into rich role and into colonel Brady and into these events that now you are who you hang out with and you continue to push yourself to do cool things, because you're surrounded by people who do cool things and like you were doing it anyway. That's awesome about sending, like I love that you just shared that story about sending an email to Rich's wife, or about submitting, like to just make sure your bases were covered. You could have not.

Speaker 2: 19:52

Yeah, because how many people don't? How many people have these ideas and then talk themselves out of it because of fear and they don't wanna look stupid and they don't wanna get rejected. And you're just like. We are the same. I mean, I have freaking chills, we're the same way. It's like tell me what shot I need to shoot, because who the hell knows? You know what I mean. And then it's just like, from there, look at your life from one thing it's insane.

Speaker 3: 20:19

I have so many countless stories of that where I was like I have a vision for something on a podcast inspired me and I was like, oh, I wanna do a video project around that. I reached out to the guy in Australia, whatever. And then he was like and then I reached out to Zach Bush and then this other couple that's like sort of famous in Australia that has a podcast and I like I never thought everybody would say yes. But they all said yes and I was like, oh shit, now I gotta like do the project. But like I'm talking to Chris Berger right now about working on something together and I was like, why does he wanna work with me? But both he does, so like let me figure this out.

Speaker 3: 20:53

It's kinda like we'll do it first, or just say just before you're ready.

Speaker 1: 20:59

Yeah, exactly Like shoot the shot, it's already a no. And if you don't ask, it's definitely a no. So shoot the shot, ask and then look at how this is all transpired. So, from Rich to Colin to Jesse, to the events that you go to, to the people that you've connected with, you never thought you would. What are some of your favorite experiences? And, like I wanna know some of the most wild things that you've done behind the camera and not to carry on the question any further, but I also wanna know what that did for you, Allie, as a person Like not just I'm capturing the shot, but like I know you were hanging out of a van window capturing Colin on his bike. I wanna know what does that do for Allie too, because the shot was awesome. Yeah, Holy shit, where you like oh my God, I'm hanging out of a van window. What am I doing? This is insane. This is absolute insanity.

Speaker 3: 21:55

Yeah, well, that's funny, the just like that. Actually, the hanging out the window was like no big deal to me, but in the moment I was like this is so cool and I was like this shot looks so cool, they look, he looks so professional and the sun was hitting the van and the van was white and it was bouncing off on to Colin on the bike and I was like other people pay like $50,000 for this shot with their fancy equipment or whatever and we got it just organically right now and I'm hanging out a window and this is amazing. Yeah, those moments are really phenomenal. But just to kind of back up and like a zoom out answer to that, one thing I'll say first is again go back to like I'm just a very soulful, spiritual, sensitive and I'm from Minnesota. Like the thing, when I look at all of this, the thing that I'm most grateful for and that has, like, really impacted me the most in working with all these people, is it's helped me grow into a more confident and directive Like coming into working with these people, I was very like, oh my God, everything was very.

Speaker 3: 23:02

I was very sensitive, I was very. I didn't speak up very much, I was not very. I don't know. I've just, I've seen myself grow so much in working with these people, being inspired by who they are and what they're doing, but also in stepping more into my highest self. Around them, has been like definitely a journey and it's been amazing and it's just, it's so fun.

Speaker 3: 23:27

I have all these pinch me moments, like even as I was living in Santa Barbara for a year and I was working for this running apparel company that was based there, run by women, and the athletes they were not famous athletes, they were normal, you know pro endurance runners, which is not that Like it's and they were.

Speaker 3: 23:46

I would get to go into their lives, capture who they are, tell their story, shoot them at races, do their. I got really involved in their lives and shot them in these beautiful settings doing really incredible things and, like similar to Rich, I was at his house all the time. I was very involved in his life. I love being on a team with Colin. It's like I get to wear a lot of hats and do a lot of things beyond just video and I'm part of his life and he's a friend and it's that's what I love most about all of this. It's like that I get to be in these worlds telling his people's stories, being around it, being in a smelly you know smelly van with four dudes, five, six guys for 48 hours and I Love it every second of it.

Speaker 3: 24:29

Love it every second of it, yeah right.

Speaker 1: 24:32

I just said that when all this started and you were in those situations like with Rich, for example, or some of the people where you were timid and uncomfortable and not 100% certain in what you were doing or how to present yourself, what was your pep talk to yourself, like, how did you put yourself in those situations and fake being confident or whatever it was that you did? What was your methodology there?

Speaker 3: 24:57

It's a really good question. I fumbled more than I was successful, I will say. I mean I had like with Rich. I had multiple like crying on the floor moments, but not in front of him.

Speaker 3: 25:09

But I think I just would keep going back to just like focusing on do my work, do my thing, do my like, reminding myself that I'm good at what I do, and not to you know, don't let the don't let things affect me, just like, because it would all. It would also come in waves, like people are people, people have their own chits. So like in some moments I would realize that it wasn't always reflective of me, it was just like just a moment and the thing is happening, and now another thing is happening and I'm here and I'm there and like I think it just I'm also grateful to have had other people in my life that would reflect to me my worth and what I'm good at. And I guess to answer your question was mostly like leaning on other people for reminders and support and then just continuing to focus on the work and let it ride.

Speaker 1: 26:01

It just keeps showing up. We have had professional athletes, we've had, you know, really high performing executive level guests, we've had high performing team leaders and thought leaders, and everyone has those moments where you're insecure and you doubt yourself, and often it's the same answer. I just kept showing up and I leaned into my support system, whether that be a supportive spouse or family member or friend, someone that you can have to be a soundboard, and it sounds like your experience in that situation was no different that, yes, I'm doing things that are big and scary and with people that I never thought I would be doing them with. Just stay focused on what you're doing, like do your job, you're great at it, don't get all caught up in your head.

Speaker 3: 26:52

Yeah, and I think, if it all works out and it all goes great, like what's the point, you know it has to be really challenging and push you and test you for it to be the rewarding experience that it's meant to be too. Like the first week I got out there, I started working with Rich for two weeks. Then a wildfire tore through Malibu. I lost my house. I had nowhere to live. I didn't know anyone. His business partner decided he didn't want me to work here, that I was too expensive, and then I like, okay, I'm not working for Rich anymore. I'll circle back.

Speaker 3: 27:23

The story does end up with I work with Rich, but I ended up like no plans, no money, and I was like I got an invite to go, you know, sail from Panama to Tahiti by way of the Galapagos with this couple from Ventura that had this boat that they were on social media, they were relatively well known and they took a liking to me and we, you know, decided to go out to do this together and before we even left the marina, they kicked me off the boat because they thought that I had stole. Like we went to buy some supplies at a store in town and I accidentally, I opened a toothbrush box thing and to test the bristles and I bought like $40 worth of stuff but the toothbrush like didn't make it into the basket somehow and I literally don't remember how it happened. But I got sworn by police and then they were like we don't trust you. It was such a crazy experience where I was like, and then I got kicked off the boat and I was like okay, wildfire got fired. I got, like, flew to Panama with all of my belongings. Now I got kicked off the boat, I met some random Airbnb in Panama.

Speaker 3: 28:31

I don't speak the language. What is happening? What do I do? Ultimately, it all worked out. I ended up going back and I rich, like, I ended up working with Rich and everything worked out the way it was meant to.

Speaker 1: 28:42

But it was just one of those moments where I was like you're being so like yeah, tested is a great word, because everything was stacking up against you and when you said that you were sworn by police, I had a toothbrush. The first thing that popped in my head was like the home alone scene where he's like son you can play with them.

Speaker 2: 29:01

Is this a play by the ADA?

Speaker 1: 29:03

Yeah, I'm like, oh my gosh, Ally had an on-home toothbrush moment.

Speaker 3: 29:07

And they were like they didn't believe me that it was an accident. They were like, well, they were like trying to figure out what my motive was. I had to go to, like a judge, a jail. I was like takes all over for multiple hours a day For a toothbrush.

Speaker 1: 29:19

An accidental toothbrush, oh right.

Speaker 3: 29:22

What a nightmare.

Speaker 1: 29:23

Well, and that's just another moment of like. You could have been like this ain't for me, like I got to throw in the towel. This is way too much. But you I'm going back to Minnesota. Nope, right, I mean.

Speaker 1: 29:34

And a lot of times I feel like you hear stories of people who do put their neck out there a little bit, try something new, take a risk. It doesn't work. I mean, that situation was like sounded like a shit show. Nothing was working. It was scary, I'm sure, and it would have been easier to retreat and just be like I'm going back to what I know, like this has been great, but it's too much. And I feel like often that happens for people and the ones that push through those turbulent times or those times that test you to, and again this kind of plays into the whole, like pushing yourself past limits you think exist, but like that pushed you past probably a lot of you know points that you thought you could even handle and you're like I'm still here, like let's do this game on, because I think you you just like, if you can.

Speaker 3: 30:22

I remember that moment. It wasn't like a I got to push through kind of energy, but it's. It was more like no, I see the thing like I felt the thing that I wanted, I had a taste of it. I California life and working for the expansion, the like feeling in your spirit that you know, you, you can have, you want, you can get a taste of it. You get derailed a bit by life but you're like, no, it doesn't feel right to just like surrender that. It's like I felt that already I'm going for that. That's the end goal, that's the prize, that's what I know I deserve and want.

Speaker 3: 30:53

Like can have may not look like I wanted it to clearly I'm not sailing to the Galapagos this week but but like I did, I can have that feeling. Okay, how do I? What's the, what's the other path that I take to get there? What do I try now? And like there's always like the litany is so cliche, but there's always a little Chrome. I remember Julie riches wife was texting me when I was in Panama. I was like, oh, here's this, here's, here's the sliver, here's the chrome, here's the like, just trusting that there's going to be something that's going to show you the next step.

Speaker 1: 31:23

We're allowing, we work on that a lot and we have that conversation a lot, greg and I, about just allowing things to happen as they're going to that often when we get most disappointed or derailed it's because we were trying to control something or make something that wasn't supposed to happen that way.

Speaker 1: 31:42

And if we would have just let things be and not surrender, like give up, but kind of surrender to the moment and give it a little breathing room to like solution presents itself or the alternative presents itself, and then you know how to pivot and you know where to cling on to that direction to take. So you ended up back and now you are back working with rich that translated then into working with all of the people that you had mentioned before.

Speaker 3: 32:09

Yeah, crazy story, crazy story like that's just, that's like the surface summary.

Speaker 1: 32:16

So when you meet someone and you're looking to capture their story, like we, we we worked with you briefly trying to figure out how we could work with you with our recording in Seattle and capture the story behind it, because the story behind the music is so rich and meaningful to us, and it just didn't work out. We couldn't make it happen. It was like last minute. It was too rushed and too many things, too many barriers in the way for us to make that happen between the three of us here.

Speaker 1: 32:44

But when you are working with someone, how do you know where to begin with them? Do you just kind of hang out and get a vibe for them and and then kind of let that lead? Or, you know, is it more structured and almost more rigid than that? Like here's, here are the deliverables we're trying to capture and then start from there. Like what the process look like, because you would never in watching what you put together. It's so fluid and so natural and so beautiful beautiful it doesn't seem like it would be like. Here's your checklist of items. So what's your process look like?

Speaker 3: 33:24

Thank you for that, by the way. Yeah, yeah, it's very, I guess, like organic for lack of better words just really does depend on the person, the story or the content, like what it is, that, who they are, what we're doing, where we are, what the thing is. Overall, I would say like the through line to all of it is generally, yeah, to get to know them, the, you know whoever, I'm filming a little bit about their story and not just like the superficial side of it. I mean, there is a little bit of that where you filmed. I'll often spend a half day or a day with someone and just film all the things that they would normally be doing in their business or in their life or both, or film them in a, depending again on the theme of the piece. There might be some beautiful nature and just some candid, casual, artistic B roll, and maybe it's a voiceover piece and maybe it's a there's an interview.

Speaker 3: 34:19

It really just, it really does depend, but for me, yeah, it's just. It always it has to feel. It has to feel organic and natural. So capturing someone in their natural element, based on whatever the, the direction or the narrative of the piece is, and that's something that we would. You know, we figure out together for you guys it was going to be you had something that you were doing and then, in order to tell that story in a broader way, we talked about these other things we could capture and add on to what you were already doing, and there was an end vision sort of. And we, you know, sometimes work on that kind of thing together. Sometimes people just want me to come up with it myself and sometimes it's.

Speaker 1: 35:00

You know, it really is long winded answer where it does vary, but yeah, just like anything else, it depends on the person and really what the end, the desired end product is. But have you ever found like have you run into situations where you're like I am just totally not vibing with this? I've been hired to do this, but I can't get into it? Does it have?

Speaker 2: 35:22

a panamal.

Speaker 1: 35:24

Well, obviously, I mean that was like I'm sure you weren't by that.

Speaker 3: 35:28

But yeah, you know.

Speaker 1: 35:29

I'm here, because sometimes you know you feel this energy with someone and you're like I like them, I want this to be wonderful. But there's just something that's like a little bit off, and I'm sure you know when you, when you do work with people, or especially if you're working with someone new, establishing what that vibe is, it probably doesn't always just click. You know, like I wish life were like that. But how do you like, how do you handle and manage that? Is that something that you run into as a hurdle at all?

Speaker 3: 36:00

Overall, I would say very rarely, I think, just because people who reach out to me and work with me they know enough about my style or me, it attracts a certain type of person and I, I'm sure I've turned down or yeah, I've definitely turned down some things where I was like, yeah, no, but overall I think I'm most I'm grateful to mostly get approached by people that I do actually jive with and then a lot of times, if I'm pursuing it or it's an organic, I know this person through another means and we've already talked about working.

Speaker 3: 36:38

I just keep going back to the word organic, where just I'm really grateful that most of my projects have been that way. I will say there are times where I get people that are a little rigid and not very natural on camera. That's where it's the hardest, where it's like I really don't want you to feel like, I don't want you to feel nervous, nor do I want you to act a different way on camera than you actually are in person and try to come off like. That's where it gets hard for me, because I don't know what. Oftentimes not anything I can, it's not anything I can do anything about.

Speaker 1: 37:08

Yeah, and I didn't mean to hone in on like some negative experience by any means. I think just overall, like when you think about, especially when you're pursuing your own passion or you're working through for yourself and building your own business and your own connections just the obvious experience that things aren't always awesome, like there are hurdles, that there are obstacles. So I didn't mean to put you on the spot there and like tell me about a horrible experience you had. I just meant more from like a zoom out.

Speaker 1: 37:37

Like you know it's not, it doesn't it does now, because you've created it this way with the people that you work with and the introductions that you have and the people you pursue with clarity in your vision of what your company does and what you do as a storyteller. But, like you know, sometimes just in what we do, you know you run into people and you're like, hi, I really want this to work but you know, for whatever reason, it's not so I was just more curious than anything, especially because you do have to get so intimate with people you know so behind the scenes and so involved in what they're doing to capture the essence of who they really are, if that's ever been like awkward and weird.

Speaker 3: 38:19

But yeah, overall, I'm very grateful that most of the people that I work with that I've attracted are people that have been wonderful to work with and that I jive really well with and are just natural and they're like, they're ready, they want to do this thing, they want to do it in this way, and that it tends to, yeah, work out really well. But as with anything, yeah, you've definitely there are moments where there's different power dynamics or there's different expectations or things aren't communicated properly. It's just things you learn over time about. Now I have kind of an alert. I have not red flags, but like I know what type of person to potentially avoid or to work within a different way or to speak to in a different way, or to have a contract for sure, you should always have contracts, but Always contracts always contracts, yeah, which I'll send you yours after we're done recording for this podcast.

Speaker 3: 39:19

I'm kidding yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:20

So what's your favorite project, type of project to work on? Do you have a favorite or do you just love taking on the new experience?

Speaker 3: 39:29

I could answer this question like three different ways. But I love the variety of what I get to do, like a retreat here, a wellness retreat in a cool, beautiful place with this type of person or this type of group of people. And then I get to go do some like really intense athletic thing, and then sometimes I'm just at home in a cozy house editing someone's story or editing some content from whatever other project I was shooting Like. I love that variety because I'm borderline, introvert, extrovert, like I can't always be out shooting and being my tank and I don't always want to just be alone in my house editing.

Speaker 1: 40:10

On the same way. Yeah, I told you.

Speaker 3: 40:13

But specifically in this moment I, just like I was saying before, I really am loving this feeling.

Speaker 3: 40:20

I think, because I've spent so much time working alone and for myself and by myself and I live alone and I'm currently single I just like so much of my life is solo that I really have been craving this sense of team and feeling like part of something and having colleagues, sort of people to co-create with. And Colin and I have been working together in that way on a lot of things since. I mean, he and I worked together off and on for three or four or four years now, but since August we've been working on a bunch of stuff pretty full on and he's got some wild adventures lately and I've more involved in what he's doing than ever before and that feels really exciting to me. And that biking thing was that we didn't really go into that storytelling wise, but that was really fun and things like that. I just where you just don't know what's coming in here, but you're all for it and you love the people that you're doing it with and the variety of it all is really exciting to me.

Speaker 1: 41:21

Yeah, and some of the things that you capture are probably things that you may not have ever been exposed to or experienced in your own right, which I think is really, really cool that, through connecting with people and capturing their essence and their story, you get to experience the flip side of that and kind of live through them, literally like capturing their stories, kind of living through them, which is a major gift, because seeing your work and seeing what you do is so.

Speaker 1: 41:57

It's the word I'm looking for. Genuine maybe is the best word. Like it's so genuinely put together that it doesn't even have there's no question. Like it isn't I'm not trying to believe it, it's just presented in such a beautiful, genuine way that it's like I feel like I'm right there living it, because you've put it together that way, because you are right there living it and very involved, and I just think that's really cool. It's not just a I got picked up to shoot this, you know, which is probably often the case Like I've got to shoot and I'm gonna go do what I need to do and I'm out and then I'll edit it and get it to you. It's like I'm living this and especially like you just mentioned with Colin, like you're involved and that feels really good to be a part of.

Speaker 3: 42:46

And I'm hoping to do more. I used to do more of this in my when I had a more spacious schedule in my twenties, but like creating more, creating something that I'm passionate about and putting that out into the world and doing it in an intentional way with you know, I really want to get back into more of that.

Speaker 3: 43:05

I love my client work, but I also feel like, I guess, the artist thing where it's like something is missing If I'm not creating something, putting it out in the world and for people to be like, oh, that's what she does, like, oh, I get it. Yeah there, a better balance of that is something I'm hoping for this year.

Speaker 2: 43:23

What do you mean?

Speaker 3: 43:24

It might just be a short little thing, but I have had this vision for multiple years now. Have you heard of the Schumann Resonance or this idea of the Earth's resonance? So the Earth's fields like I might be butchering the science on this, if anyone out there knows more than I do about it. But it's like the four to six feet off of the Earth there's a frequency that, based on lightning strikes and reverberations, the Earth's field has a vibrational frequency of 7.8 hertz and that happens to be the exact same frequency as our brain waves when they're in a creative flow, alpha, rest, rejuvenate state. It's becoming harder and harder to access the Earth's field because of all Wi-Fi and electromagnetic and just the modern world. And even if I'm even in Jackson and I'm on a hike and surrounded by nature, I still am not tapping into the Schumann Resonance. Like you have to go pretty far to get to it at this point. But anyways, there's all these biohacking tools now that can give you that frequency, can emanate it in your house next to your computer, offset some of the stuff that the world is. That's in the way of that, I guess. And I just zooming out from all that I feel like that's such a beautiful and powerful idea that the vast degree of vibrational frequency variants out there, and that we happen to have our brain waves in alpha state, happens to be the exact same as the Earth's field. I'm not articulating this very well, but I just think that's such a powerful thing.

Speaker 3: 45:03

I want to do a creative, beautiful, some sort of film piece around that and not just simple scenery and voiceover. I want to do something. It hasn't come into clear vision yet. I've tried coming at it from multiple angles but never really given it the time or energy that it deserves, because I haven't had that time or energy and I've tried to create little things with that idea along the way, like for a trail running apparel line for that company that I worked for in Santa Barbara. I did a little taste of that type of project and it went viral. Nothing in mind has ever gone viral and that went viral. It was like clearly the world loves this concept. I just don't know what to do. I don't know how to make it what it could be, I guess.

Speaker 1: 45:48

So more, yeah, being able to take more time for you to bring your own thoughts and projects to life and work with your clients. But give yourself some more space to do that.

Speaker 1: 45:58

I think that stuff like that is fascinating and that none of us as humans typically have a lot of well, I shouldn't say none, that's such a blanket statement but so many people don't have the time or capacity to even give themselves the time to think about those things. So when someone like you can take a vision and make it presentable for me to watch and capture, I feel something that I otherwise don't have the time to. Yeah, that's special. Do you know what I mean? That's how I feel about music, too. You create this sound, you create this frequency, you create this emotion that either resonates or it doesn't, depending on who it is, but just the fact that you can do that through an instrument or your voice and make someone feel something is special. And you do that visually and through storytelling and through what I hope to see more of these big idea capturing versus of a human, about human existence. Like that's amazing, that's really cool. So that's next. What else is next? What other big projects are you working on?

Speaker 3: 47:04

Well, so this time of year for me is always OK. I got to organize my hard drives, I got to delete this, I got to put the like. The year gets so nuts that I can't keep up with any of the things that I need to. You know the foundational elements of so. The non-sexy answer is just a lot of organizational and business related things, and there's some exciting stuff coming up with Colin that I'm working on got a camper van this fall, so I'm hoping to take that out this spring somewhere.

Speaker 1: 47:32

Right on. That's exciting. That's you that plays into the whole. Like giving yourself some more time and space to explore the stories that you want to come up with.

Speaker 3: 47:41

That's great, yeah, and with my work it's like a week out. I might find out about a project or these little dabblings of things I'm reaching out to people about right now. Some of it will surface, some of it may not, but it's kind of a. I also love the wide open calendar.

Speaker 3: 48:11

I'm excited to be here at the general of everybody just had a little bit more spacious. I know it's harder for some people to do, but just the spaciousness. I think we just we fill our calendars. People fill their calendars too full that there's nothing. There's no space to let any spontaneous gifts come in, you know, or pivot yeah that's a really great polarized vision of you.

Speaker 1: 48:48

Know, I'm big on like I got to make sure that we're doing these adventurous things and that we schedule them so or they don't happen, right, yeah that too.

Speaker 1: 48:56

But back to that whole conversation of like allowing, though. If I keep myself so bogged down with all of these things that I'm kind of not forcing but like making myself do, what am I missing? That would just appear in the spaciousness. So that's a really great kind of concept of like just allowing things. Give yourself some space, and I don't know what's happening. And I love it. I'm here for it, you know. That's great.

Speaker 2: 49:20

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:21

I do admire people who do like the. I don't know if you guys are big ass calendar club people, but have you seen Jesse Itzler's?

Speaker 1: 49:26

big ass calendar thing. I did have a calendar once and I do have a big calendar. It's not his, but it's a big ass calendar on my wall.

Speaker 2: 49:33

It's a big ass calendar, yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:36

It's like I love that, I wish I had, I wish I could. I can't, I can't even begin to lay out a year, but that would be such a cool feeling to look at that and be like, oh, look at all these incredible adventures I'm doing and these things I'm pursuing and some of those people go wild, man.

Speaker 1: 49:53

I've seen like some posts on Instagram where they're sharing that people buy those calendars, and then they feel like literally every day, and I'm like I can't. That is extreme to me, like that does stress me out.

Speaker 1: 50:04

I love the concept, though, of like scheduling your life first and kind of saying, well, we're going to do this once every quarter and we're going to do one big thing a year, and you know a lot of Jesse's principles, and the communities that you're involved in are really phenomenal things to live by and he's impacted our life and so many others that I do love that calendar principle but I feel like maybe like intentional spaciousness on that big ass calendar kind of fits into like what we're talking about and combining both of those things Like just a week of nothingness, like just a week to just sit with myself and see what comes up.

Speaker 3: 50:42

I'm gonna drop this little nugget and I know, again it's like a privilege thing that not all of us can do. But I'm what you were saying just made me think. Like Jesse, for example, I'm going, I shoot a lot of his mentorship retreats and often it's last minute. It's like, oh yeah, we have one on February 9th, 10th. Can you come to Atlanta for this thing? And I'm like, oh, actually, because my calendar's pretty open. Yes, I would love to, I can do that. And that is the way that a lot of these high performing, highly successful people that I'm around operate Like calling all of them. They plan what they need to plan, but they leave space for pivoting and spontaneity. And again, we can't all do that. But now that we're talking about this, I'm connecting even more dots in my head where it's like this is the. That's again like maybe a vibrational frequency of something with these the way that I look at my lips.

Speaker 1: 51:30

Yeah, it feels so reckless to be like, well, I'm just gonna leave space for you know, not knowing what's going on. I feel that way like no, that's freedom. But the most beautiful things happen. I feel like like when we've taken trips or made plans to do things and they go the exact opposite, or there's space and we're not sure how to fill it, then the most beautiful opportunities present themselves.

Speaker 1: 51:52

And you know that that makes a lot of sense, that it's that it is purposeful. It's purposeful space on their calendar left open so that when those opportunities arise, bam, you can jump on them. But you have to be really flexible. I mean, I can't imagine how flexible you must be with like having getting those phone calls and being like, can you be here? Can you be here and bringing all your gear? And like making all the plans, and that would stress me out. So you must have a good handle on logistics planning.

Speaker 3: 52:24

I would say it's like it's less about me being flexible and more about me being very well, I guess. Flexible schedule-wise, but also very like I always try to rent a car and I plan to go to the grocery store on my way and I I don't just at a certain point, the sustainability of travel, just like going the whims of whatever you're going to. I've learned how to prepare myself as much as I can for success and like making sure I have a comfortable place to stay and I'm getting a solid night's sleep and putting boundaries around the times that I'm shooting and trying to bring someone to help as needed or like little things like that. There is a lot more of that than it might seem like.

Speaker 1: 53:08

Well, I love hearing you say that too, because I also think that that's a very relatable feeling of like, especially when you work for yourself or when you're trying to perform or fulfill a certain need. You've been hired for whatever. Like this feeling of like I have to be all of these things right. I can't set these boundaries because I have to over-deliver, under-promise, over-deliver, not the other way, right? No, that way, under-promise, over-deliver, and like. Establishing those boundaries is what helps you continue to thrive and not burn out and knowing when, like, I'm going to burn out, I need to take some time and give myself some space. It's a really beautiful place to be, but, yes, I understand as a privilege and maybe not everyone has the liberty of putting such structure around those boundaries, but being aware of that as an entrepreneur and as someone who works for themselves, is so important. So I'm glad that you shared that and brought that up. I think that's so wise.

Speaker 2: 54:05

so wise you know.

Speaker 1: 54:07

yeah, Thank you All right. Well, it's been an awesome experience and conversation with you, getting to know you a little bit more, instead of just what you're able to do from behind the camera, but who you are as a person. It really shows through in your work that you're genuine and you're passionate about what you do and who you work with, and so thank you for spending some time with us, sharing a little bit of yourself with us and our listeners today.

Speaker 3: 54:30

Thank you so much for having me. This has been such a gift and I love you guys. Yeah.