Originality and Hustle: The Secret Formula with Cane Sampson

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. Be honest. If you could wave a magic wand and your work could look just like insert your dream photographer here, would you do it? I mean, every image would be exactly in their style and as great-looking as they make it. You'd be lauded. You'd be famous. You'd be a clone. Is that what you're trying to do? Or are you trying to develop your skills to become the best version of yourself? Sure. Shooting like your heroes is exciting, but sometimes it can go too far. So far that you lose sight of your own inspiration and your own vision. Our guest today is someone that is decidedly building his own path. Cane Sampson is a volume photographer in Virginia, and his passion for originality, it's just inspirational. If you feel a little stuck and you're looking for a boost of inspiration to blaze your own trail, this episode is for you. We're wrapping. We're whipping out the smoke machine and so much more. We're back with Cane Sampson in just a moment. Cane, welcome to The Professional Photographer Podcast. How are you today?

Cane Sampson: 01:26

I'm good. Thanks, Pat.

Pat Miller: 01:27

I'm glad you're here, and I'm excited to learn from you because I love your message. Today's episode is originality is everything. It's your twist on bringing your whole self and perspective to the business. We're going to share how you're the wrapping photographer and how your outlook was formed by the experiences you've had in your past. But the insight into how you got where you are right now is something I think we can all learn from. When you and I first had the chance to meet, you shared that you believe in 2 things, a consistent system and being yourself. How do you do those two things as a foundation for a strong studio?

Cane Sampson: 02:06

You know, one, I think you just have to when it comes to systems, you have to find that system first. A lot of people operate a business without having a system, and I think that's why a lot of businesses fail and, you know, struggle to scale. And, you know, just being yourself, you know, you just gotta bring you to the industry, to your client. And I think a lot of people don't do that, you know, because they're scared of or they just take it to the point of photography mixed with whatever they did before photography can't intermingle, which is, I think, you know, the wrong way to look at it.

Pat Miller: 02:38

It's an interesting, premise to build a strong studio because on the face of it, they're kind of opposites. It's, you know, systems and process and the stuff you need to scale. And then there's this curiosity and passion and originality that helps you differentiate. So I'm curious when you talk about systems in your studio, the things that have helped you grow to where you are now. Are we talking money? Are we talking client communications? What are some of the systems when you think of these are the things I've had to lean on in order to build the studio?

Cane Sampson: 03:09

Okay. So for me, like I always tell people, I don't watch the industry that much. I watch the stores that attract me. My favorite stores that I shop at, places my wife hate because I spend too much money there are Chick-fil-A. During COVID, I used to watch how Chick-fil-A could have a long line and how they was able to have a system with the employees standing outside with the tablets, and they was able to move people through efficiently without having you wait, like, long periods of time. So I would study what they would do, then I would study Costco, how Costco gets you in. And whenever they wanna sell your product, they give you samples. Those samples then hook you in. Then once you get a sample, they're like, oh, this right here is in this freezer section or this right here is right behind where they sell in the samples. And that's what I've done far as our business and far as our systems. It's like everything that I've done, it's drawn out to a tee. Whenever I set up my lights, that's a tee. My camera, that's a tee. Everything has measurements to it. And if I, for instance, bring my cousin on, he's fresh off of a plane from New Jersey. I just gave him the settings, the systems. I set everything up for him. He was able to reproduce that within an hour and a half in a hotel and shoot like me. As long as you have a system, you could be absent from the job, from the studio, from the location to have somebody else do it. So I believe in having that strong system is key. And like I said, just not watching the industry, but watching other things that attract you and making that part of, you know, your system and everything else.

Pat Miller: 04:37

Has that always been a part of your personality to look at how the machine operates and how you might be able to, you mentioned Chick-fil-A, operate with the efficiency that they have in order to scale. Is that just always been a part of you?

Cane Sampson: 04:48

Yeah. I always been an observer. I always liked the look. Growing up, they used to always say, you got 2 you got 2 ears, so you can listen more. You know what I mean? More than you talk. So I always did that. And, like, I listen and I watch growing up a lot. So and I always was wanna pick things apart, and then try to see how it was working. So I just do that in a mental aspect. I can sit somewhere and just watch, and people will wonder why you're so quiet. It's because I'm watching and I'm learning. So I think, you know, a lot of people need to do that. Just watch and learn. Watch and learn what attracts you, and then flip that and use that to attract others.

Pat Miller: 05:21

Now we're gonna talk about originality in a second, but I'm just so captivated by this point. Can you think of one thing that you systematized in the business that made it like you mentioned having your cousin come in and shoot for you so you didn't have to be present all the time? But can you think of another example where you took something that may have been artsy or seemingly unable to be systematized, and you did it, and now it's just one less thing that you have to worry about? Can you give us another example?

Cane Sampson: 05:46

Something that's more artsy. Are we talking more on, like, a design aspect or more like, just a normal layout when I'm setting up?

Pat Miller: 05:55

It could be that. It could be the way that you sell. It could be the way that you bill. It could be the way that you move people through the interest funnel to close a deal with them. Some of these things that traditionally people may think, well, that's a human task that can't be put into a system or a process. But by studying others or from your own experience, you thought, wait a minute. I can put this into a step-by-step process, and that's just one less thing that we have to worry about.

Cane Sampson: 06:18

I mean, when it comes to that right there, I think far as us, because it's the wife, she gets part of it too. She gets part of it far as being a I call her the machine. I'm just a hustler. And I think about different things. I know Farazas, when we look about how we finish with our customers, how we deliver stuff, like, we have a little system that the wife runs where it has everything in it from our emails to our follow-up emails when we finish with leagues. We have a you know, it's like a R and R type thing. It's like, you know, referral type thing. Like, I need you to refer me, and you get rewards. So we call it the referral rewards thing. So after we're done with everybody, we send out a group of things. We wanna know how we did. We wanna know if we did well. Can you refer us to another person? We reward you for the referral. And then just on a system side, we have our mats. A lot of people in the industry have mats. We started with ours in 2017 with, it was like a bathroom rug with some, Doctor Scholl's gels on it with a smiley face. And now we have that set out to a point where I just set up a backdrop with Scott, and I just roll that out and everything's detailed on that. But everything to us is just is just a a system of these emails, Facebook things, they all go out. And then setting up, we have our measurements and everything just measured out. So that's that's one thing. I don't know if I answered it all the way, but I hope I did.

Pat Miller: 07:40

Absolutely. That's a great example. And the reason why I'm drilling down on this is because it seems like the less you have to worry about, the more free brain space you have to go be original, and take risks. Would you agree with that?

Cane Sampson: 07:52

No. I definitely agree. I think when you start trying to do too many things that becomes a distraction. You have to hone down on what you're good at. Like, I always tell people this when I teach. We are the 5 guys of photography. You can't come here and get a chicken sandwich, a fish sandwich, anything. We do burgers and we do them well. But on a photography aspect, we do photos, composites, and we do them well with, you know, efficiency, and that's because of the system. And being able to do that well allows me to focus and be more creative on the other things, the marketing things or the things that, you know, we're gonna talk about far as being original.

Pat Miller: 08:28

I think we might have to pause this interview because you've mentioned Chick-fil-A and 5 Guys now, and I'm to get hungry.

Cane Sampson: 08:34

Yeah.

Pat Miller 8:35

let's shift a little bit. Let's get into the creativity and the originality because when we see the stuff that's on your site, and when I first had the chance to meet you, I'm like, wow. This guy, he's doing some really cool stuff. But photographers become good photographers by learning technique from others. But does that lead us to emulate others and try and copy technique as opposed to finding our own style?

Cane Sampson: 08:59

Definitely. Definitely. I think it definitely leads us to emulate in others rather than defining our own style. And I think, you know, it's only one of you, And we got to get to a point where we bring us to the photo shoot. Is no is it not gonna matter with learning from others? But when you emulate everything they do, you're just a carving copy. You're just another one of them rather than taking those skills, honing those skills, molding them, and making them your own. I always tell people my biggest, role models that I looked into when I came into the industry was Howie McCormick and Josh Shanna, and I learned a lot from those guys. But it took me to say I can't be Josh and I can't be Howie.Who can I be? I can be Cane. And those was the things that made me different. I bring my edginess, my creativity, my goofiness and my personality to a shoot. And everything I do is about sharing laughs or, you know, other talents that I have that help propel us rather than just trying to be like someone else.

Pat Miller: 09:55

And we learn the technique so we can take great images. When we start to fold in our personality when you first started to do that, did that require some confidence or a little bit of a boost or at least seeing your clients to react to you being yourself for you to build the confidence to continue to lean into it?

Cane Sampson: 10:12

Oh, definitely. You know, if I were one back a little from, like, that previous question with my mentors, like I said, I had to look at it and say, I'm not doing the sales that they're doing. We in 2 different locations. This ain't working for me or this ain't working for us. And I had to tell my wife I have to be me. And, you know, when she first heard that she was like, Like, let's just stick to the program. And I'm like, no, I have to be me. Like all these talents that I have or these things that I used to do in my past, I need to mix all of this together and just be me. And that's what started. I don't know if I'm jumping too quick, but that's what started me rapping and making, like, the parting videos and stuff like that. Like, when the people would see those videos, they was able to see my personality. When I was going to these leagues, like, this is our goofy photographer right here with the Old Town Road remix. And every year, I would make a new song or I will incorporate kids from a league. And that just went a long way for us, but I wouldn't have did that if I was just trying to be someone else. It said, no. I have to be Cane, the guy that used to rap. I have to be Cane. The guy that's always goofy in the car with his wife and kids. Like, I have to be that because once the leads was able to see that, all of our clients is just non-stop because we're not the guy to just say click you're done. No, that's not us. We're the guy like you come up here and I see something wrong with a kid. I'm trying to get that kid to smile. Trying to get that kid to laugh. I'm doing whatever it takes in my goofy self, my personality to bring out the best in those kids.

Pat Miller: 11:40

Now if you're watching this right now and you have not seen Cane's rapping videos, just look at my eyes and promise me you're gonna go to his website and see these raps. They are really high production value and really, really fun. We're going back to the day before you did the first rap video and you thought, hey. Maybe I'm gonna try this. How did you go from, I'm taking high volume sports photography and trying to do it my own way to, I know, I'll do a rap parody. How did you make that decision?

Cane Sampson: 12:11

I made that decision. That was that was pretty much easy. Again, I observed. I could look at Facebook, threads. I can look anywhere, Instagram, or whatever the case may be, and I can see how people's marketing. And whether it's a Facebook ad or whether it was like an Animoto video just to show something, I wanted to do something that was more. I wanted to do something to grab people attention. You only get people attention for a couple of minutes, probably like minute and a half, 2 minutes the most. And I'm like, what can I do to grasp the attention of potential clients I want? And at that time, that, Country Road song was the biggest song out. And I said, I know what. If I remix this and turn this into a photographer song, this is gonna get them. And I did that, in the I locked up with the video because I was playing in the adult softball league the day before. The day after we did the video, I split my lip in half. The whole lip was just split. So that was just perfect timing. And it worked. It's to the point nowadays, like my kids come home from school. His classmates think that's my song. They have, they have screenshots from the video saved on their cell phones. They asked my kids, when will your dad do another song? And when we was going out to league shoots, the kids would actually be playing the songs from the sidelines, from the when they played baseball, softball, all that football, the coach would actually put the song on, and the kids knew that word for word. And that just came from my personality in doing what I know best, you know? So that just shows you have to be you. If I would have never done that, I don't know what a trajectory of our business would have been at this point. But that right there was it was like a it was a turning moment for us. It showed me Cane just continue to be you.

Pat Miller: 13:58

Yeah. I love it. And the videos really are spectacular. You shared that the kids gravitated to it right away. The coaches saw the kids having a good time, so they got into it. How did the parents react, and what did that do for the volume business when you broke out and you were yourself and you started rapping and really bring all of Cane to the photo shoot?

Cane Sampson: 14:18

The parents reacted just like the kids in a way. So, you know, it was fun. It was it was something different because the parents never seen a photographer in my area do anything like that. It's always been the 123 smile, move on to the next. So when you come in and you're fun, they're like, this is who I want my kids around. Like, they're not just snapping photos. They're actually having fun. And again, when we did another video, I think we had one parent in a video, but COVID hit and we had all those guidelines, but we had it for a whole league to actually be in a video. That's how much they was interested in what we was doing. We had a whole league, basically, willing to come out parents, kids, everything. We're gonna do it like a cookout for the kids afterwards and everything. And the whole league was down to come out and be in the video with us.

Pat Miller: 15:08

Wow. When you stand out at that level, like, I wanna underscore what it does for the business. Yes. It's fun, and they remember you. But has it helped to the business now that you're doing something so unique? Oh, yeah. It definitely helped the business. It helped the business again because with that style of marketing or with that showing my personality, nobody else is doing that. So, like, anytime we send out emails, those links is at the bottom. Those links show people, like, we're friendly, we're fun, we're trustworthy. So it has definitely helped the business. We're the rapping photographers. Like, I really can't go nowhere without somebody noticing me. Like, I try to I don't even order uniforms no more. We used to have uniforms for every sport. I don't even order them no more because it's hard to walk around without a kid running up to me. So sometimes it's almost like stardom to a stardom to a degree, like, I'm a real artist, but it took the business to a whole another level. Again, just because it's like that new product or that new person, and we reinvent that wheel. Every year, we make a song now. Every year, we make a song and we put it out. I actually have a new one that supposed to do last week, but I was shooting. So when I'm busy, it's kinda hard, but we've seen, like, how it helps the business grow. So every year from that point on, we always do a new song. In the small business community that I run and when I'm talking with entrepreneurs, I always say that if it feels like it's hard, if it feels like it's work, you're probably not in your zone of genius. This has to be a complete blast for you because you're doing the work, but you're also expressing yourself. It's gotta be fun.

Cane Sampson: 16:40

It's fun. To my wife and kids, it's annoying. But it's fun to me. It's it just comes natural. Like, half of these songs I make, I don't even sit down and think about them. For us to get out for any league, we gotta travel just an hour and 15 minutes to get out the mountains. So that's where half of my ideas come from. Half of those raps, everything like that, they all start in that hour and 15 minutes that drive over or coming home. And I'll just record it. I hit record on my iPhone while I'm driving or I pass the phone on my wife, and I'll be like, hey, babe. When I get home, I gotta find the beat. Well, when I get home, I'm gonna record this one, and I'm a put this out. And it's just so much fun. It's just us being us. And it's like you said, it's it's not work at that point. It's me. It's just, again, the originality. I think when you get to that point, it's not work. It's more of a passion-type thing. And, you know, while I'm in that passion mode, it's just like, yeah, I'm fulfilling my purpose. I'm bringing smiles to kids without even touching the camera. Before I touch the camera, they see the video. They smile before I get there. You know, they laugh before I get there. So it's it's fun, you know. And I think once you tap into yourself and your originality, you'll see that. But as long as you, you know, trying to be a carbon copy, sometimes it's hard when you don't get those pictures right, those angles right, those focal lengths right, or the sharpness right, you're beating yourself up. But if you go out there and just be you and bring you every time, it won't feel like a job.

Pat Miller: 18:03

Love that. If you're watching this right now, first of all, we give you homework. You have to go watch one of these videos because Cane's videos are great. The second thing is don't get hung up on the rapping photographer. Maybe I have to be a rapper. No. That's exactly what we're not saying. What we're saying is what are you passionate about? Bring that to your clients and bring that to your business because you may be able to unlock a new original way to stand out. And I love the way that you go about finding inspiration. I've heard you say that you like to remix the inputs that you get. So when you're looking for inspiration, where do you look and how do you process it through your own filter?

Cane Sampson: 18:40

So when I look for inspiration, again, I always say being an observer. So the way that I do it is I look for what people ain't doing. Like, if people not doing a certain thing, I'm like, oh, this is a perfect time, perfect opportunity to do this. Like, if everyone is doing smoke, it's like, cool. I'll let everybody else do that. All of the attention is there right now. So now I'm a flip it in a different way because they're not expecting me to come with this type of thing. Like, well, we take the shutter button. We hit it one time, and we get 4 different looks. So I wanna change the game. I don't wanna follow what the crowd is doing. My mom always told me, don't be a follower, be a leader. So I try to watch and say, okay. They're doing this. Everybody eyes there. My eyes is, what's missing? What can I do to still systemize it? Make it fun. Make it cool and flip that. So that's what I do. And I go by saying what my brother always told me. He said the good create the great taker. So sometimes you have to look at something from the past. There's nothing new under the sun. You look you look at something from the past and then you remix it. Like what I'm doing now, what we call what our was our media was our media set, which I'll be presenting at imaging. It was something from a past, but I thought I invented it. Did more study and come find out someone else did it. But I said I gotta take my twist and remix that thing. So I think that's that's what a lot of products are nowadays. They're just a remix of something that already existed. So you just have to find something that you think is cool and you're like, oh, man. But this died out. Oh, how can I revive this? How can I, you know, spark and get the flame going and go from there? So that's what I do. I just look. Anytime I go to a conference, people why are you wondering? I'm just looking to see what nobody's doing here.

Pat Miller: 20:19

Mhmm.

Cane Sampson: 20:20

I look for what's missing, you know, what's missing, and then that creates opportunity for me.

Pat Miller: 20:25

And that remix comes when you see what others are doing, but then bring yourself--

Cane Sampson: 20:29

Mhmm.

Cane Sampson: 20:30

--to that. You are interpreting it. And I wanna go back to the confidence piece. If someone really hasn't stepped out and done this yet, if you had the chance to talk to them, like, imagine I was the photographer that said, you know, I'm thinking about doing this, but I'm not so sure. What would you tell them? What message would you have for them?

Cane Sampson: 20:45

Oh, man. When I get to this aspect, I like to always get into my hustle and moat. It's terms growing up in New Jersey. We go, you know, scared money don't make money, and also, like, you gotta take risk. That's what that really means. You have to take risk. It was a risk for us to jump out and do the music, and it was a risk for us to like, everything that we've done from first conferences and things like that that I went to, everything was a risk. But I always look at the reward. So I would basically say, don't be scared. Sit down, find what you really like, you know, and get out there and attack that thing. But I always I always ask a photographer first. I would ask you, what did you do before photography? That's what I would ask you. Because from there, you can mold your photography. You can mold that gift a little bit better and how you present that gift to your client into the world. Because a lot of people think you just getting into photography is just cameras, clicks, lights, and this and this. And that brings you to money, but that's not what brings everything. It's what you did before photography. Like some people would say I was an introvert and then they'd be like, oh, I was a bartender. No. You dealt with a lot of people and you had to get that tip money. So you had to be very friendly and smile and be sociable. Or if you was a person that, for instance, like myself, that raps or if you're an artist, graphic designer or whatever it is, bring all of those things into your photography business. Sit now, mold that, and bring you because you had a love more than likely for some of those things that you've done. And even if you didn't, you are accountant before photography. You go with numbers. Figure that out. Bring that to the industry. It's all about what you can what you did before and how you can mix that, mold it, and then give it to the people. That'd be the first thing I ask you. Because that's your superhero power, I believe.

Pat Miller: 22:32

That's great. Print that. That's that's really good. You mentioned, where you grew up in your life story, and you've shared with me how important hustle is to your day-to-day operations. If someone doesn't have that as a natural gene, explain how hustle influences your building of the studio.

Cane Sampson: 22:50

You know, hustle goes a long way. And some people don't like the word hustle because they associate all the negative aspects to it. But hustling is what you do. You get up every day and you go after it. So whether you wanna call it hustling, rise and grinding, whether you wanna call it prospecting, like, it's very important to the business. We wouldn't be here without that, without me deriving around neighborhoods where I see baseball fields and hopping out and passing out, like these little what does they call it? It looks like a postcard-type thing, like a rap card, basically. Handing out rap cards with my image is going to all these baseball tournaments, just walking around doing a Costco thing. Hey. I'll give you a sample of this. Boom. Boom. Boom. Of my work. If I can just get your kid or I can get you to introduce me to these other parents or pass these things around. And that helped grow the business, whether it was me getting up on in the mornings, dedicating an hour block to prospecting to, you know, get some things in line. So if I lose a league, then I got another one coming in, and I'm not worried about anything like, hustling, prospecting, rising, and grinding, whatever you wanna call it. It's so important to the business, and you have to do it. So, like, if you're introvert and find other ways to do it, like, you whether if you don't wanna talk on a phone, send out those emails, put out the, ads on social media with Facebook, how cheap they are, and you can get, you know, seen that way, but it's it's everything to the business. And if you're not a hustler, this photography stuff right now, it's it's survival with a fitness at some point, you know, in some different areas. You gotta get up and you gotta go get it, or you gotta learn to collaborate in order to help boost your brand. So find someone you can trust and collaborate with them and, you know, they can do that part that you don't like doing.

Pat Miller: 24:31

If this was my magic wand, and I could just give that power to every photographer in the industry to go out there and just sell and work it and just, be aggressive with, enticing opportunity and trying to grow that side of the business rather than sitting back and thinking, well, my pretty pictures will be the thing that grows the studio. I just love that mentality and that message. So I appreciate you sharing. I wanna talk about the client side for a minute, but I do wanna ask one more question about originality. How much further do you wanna go? Like, how big are you thinking? And you don't have to reveal your secrets, but if you're here now, how far in your head are you going to take this to do something new and really, become one of 1?

Cane Sampson: 25:14

So for me, honestly, I always look at throw this plug out here. I wanna be a keynote speaker. So Imagine 2025 keynote closing keynote. Yeah. I wanna that's where I wanna take it. I wanna get more into keynote speaking. When I came into the industry, I don't wanna be a person that sits. We only been doing volume photography for six and a half years, and we've almost spoken at every event, host our own workshops and everything like that. I don't wanna be someone that prides himself on saying I've been doing this for 30 years. I don't want that. Hustlers never look at the long term in that aspect. We always look at it as we do something for a period of time to transition out. So I have a few ideas in my head that I wanna do before I transition out. And some of those ideas, they definitely gonna be shared at imaging 2025 in Texas. So those are gonna be shared. You know, I just wanna show people how we can elevate the industry, how we can elevate our skills and enhance those things. So I'm a share a lot of that on that stage that day. It's not gonna be presentations and all of that slides and stuff. No. I'm coming to show up and show out that day. But I really honestly, I feel like I want 2 more years in the game--

Pat Miller: 26:26

Mhmm.

Cane Sampson: 26:27

--as far as on a teaching aspect and actually doing it. And then I wanna transition out. I wanna get more on the keynote speaking or coaching, photographers or something like that. So that's what I really wanna do.

Pat Miller: 26:36

Can't wait for your talk and imaging too. That's gonna be great. Alright. Let's transition a little bit because it's easy to have a conversation like this and just worry about us and what we're doing. And originality is everything, so I'm glad we spent so much time on it. But let's think about the client and the impact. You're working with these kids. You're making it look like they're on ESPN Sportscenter, the cover of a magazine. You're making them look like Bryce Harper or LeBron James. How do they react when you go with the smoke and the lights and the video? What does that do to them?

Cane Sampson: 27:08

Oh, man. That make them feel like an all-star. That's one of our sayings. We got the CL Photoz, where creativity meets quality, and then we also have where, if you look like an all-star, you play like an all-star. When those kids see those pictures and half the time, they see in pictures from us on the back of the camera, whether it's smoke or whether it's what we do best, the composites. They see it on a on, like, a gray screen. And they like, wow. Like, oh, you see that light? And man, it looks cool. And I'm like, I ain't even do nothing with the picture yet. So imagine, you know, when I go home and myself and my wife edits this picture for you guys, like, we're gonna do something cool for you. And the next thing you know, we hit that thing on social media, and kids, parents, they're going crazy. We show up to shoots, and kids are, like, they fight to be on our Instagram. Like, oh, like we, we had one kid, we show up to a shoot and we probably been photographing this kid now for like 3, 4 years. And he approached me at a shoot one day and he was like, why haven't I made it on your Instagram page? I'm like, I don't know. Like, usually, you know, we just pick someone or somebody asks us. He like, well, I'm asking now. I wanna go on. And now we put him on, and, I mean, he just lit up. And now I just see him. He done grew a little bit. And yeah. You know? They love it. The kids love it, you know. So they love having that feel of feeling like we're NBA player, NFL player, you know, we're this or we're that. They love it because the people they look up to, they look in like we have these type images also.

Pat Miller: 28:36

Now ask yourself if you're a photographer, when's the last time someone fought to get on your Instagram page? And ask yourself what you could do to get your clients that excited. So you show the kids the images and then it's time to sell. Has this helped the sales process? Are the parents buying more from you because it's not just the standard, you know, posed shot that someone gets from a standard volume photographer. Is it moving the business forward because of how unique it is?

Cane Sampson: 29:02

It's definitely moving the business forward, because of how unique it is. And there's not even just the uniqueness, the consistency. I don't shoot those kids. They can go back 4 years ago and they got that same consistent lighting up until this day. So it's not like I'm selling them a great quality product one day, and then the next day is crappy, and then they don't know if they wanna buy, and then the next time is good again. No. It's consistent every time, and they know that's what they're getting from us. So they know when their kids come and, you know, we get them jumping up, throwing a ball through their legs, and we could pause it on them, adding words, different graphics. They know what they're coming to get. You know, they know how creative we can be. You know, parents come to shoots also just like kids sometimes. So excited and, you know, we got 300 kids and it could be more than that depending on what location we had. And like, hey, can you do this and do this? I'm like, Nah. Nah. I set up a separate session for that, but we'll definitely capture something cool for your kid. Like, they be parents be extra excited because their picture was just if there was baseball in front of a bush, you know. And now that their kids is getting something so cool and unique, you know, the excitement is up for them, you know, because it's better than what they was receiving. So they're not used to that, But we're getting them used to it, and we're providing that consistency time after time.

Pat Miller: 30:16

It's an inspirational conversation. And right now, someone watching this says, you know what? I'm gonna go do the thing. But, you know, maybe I shouldn't. And what if the kids don't like it, and the coach might get mad, or the parents might think it's weird, or that's not on brand. Like, there's a little piece of them that they're ready to have come out, but they're not, oh, I can't do what Cane does. I mean, he does all this stuff. You know what I mean? There's someone that's scared to take that risk. Is the final question, what would you say to them so they could step forward and become who they deserve to be?

Cane Sampson: 30:48

Definitely. You know, you're you're not Cane, but you're you. And you can't be me, and I can't be you. Don't be scared. You know, the world needs to see whatever that gift is that you have. Your client deserves to see whatever that gift is that you have. You can't worry about the coaches. You can't really so much worry about the parents to a degree. You have to worry about that kid. What we do after Tom is bigger than pictures. You get what I'm saying? So it's about creating that memory for that kid. And if you're a photographer and you're watching this, you'll probably know if you've been photographing for a while, like, half the baseball leagues that we do, little leagues, have kids with cancer, and it's bigger than worrying about what a coach think or if he think that's weird, or you making a kid laugh, or you bringing little teddy bears to get your reactions. Long as you get that from that kid, then that's all that counts. You know, we've done numerous hospital visits and took those pictures to those families and those kids light up. So when I come, I'm not worried about a coach. I'm worried about that kid. That's what I'm worried about. And I'm doing whatever I have to do. So if you're going all out and you know, it's the point of, man, do I risk it? Do I hold back? Don't hold back. You hold back. What good comes from that? You know, nothing. So I think, you know, like, again, bring your originality, whatever it is, whether it's a family member, be like, hey, you always so goofy and you're no, you goofy. Bring that to the shoot. If someone said, you know, you're so creative. You always go above and beyond, but you haven't done that with your photography business, start being creative and going above and beyond. And all you can do is just watch it either flop or watch it grow. But if you don't do it anyway, it's just going stay stagnant and just flop and never have a chance to grow. So just take the risk, and I guarantee you the reward is gonna come. Even if it's not on the first one and maybe the second one, take the risk. And just remember whoever it is that you learned from or whatever technique, take that intermingle it with you, your originality, and just go crush it. Go be incredible.

Pat Miller: 32:45

Originality is everything. Cane Sampson, thanks for joining us in The Professional Photographer Podcast. I appreciate it.

Cane Sampson: 32:51

Thank you, Pat. Thank you for having me.

Pat Miller: 32:54

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of The Professional Photographer Podcast presented by The Professional Photographers of America. I'm already getting excited about the next conversation that we have. But before you go, I have a small favor to ask. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe and leave us a comment wherever you are watching or listening. Your feedback helps us ensure that we're bringing on the content that you want and that you love. If you're not yet a member of the Professional Photographers of America, let me tell you, you are missing out. PPA offers incredible resources like equipment insurance, top-notch education, and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. It's perfect for photographers who are serious about growing their business in a successful and sustainable way. At PPA, you belong here. Discover more about membership at ppa.com. That's ppa.com. Again, I'm Pat Miller, founder of the small business owners community, and your host for the show. Thanks for joining us on this journey. We appreciate your support, and we can't wait to see you next time on The Professional Photographer Podcast.