When everything breaks.
I click the button to open my keynote and get an error screen, “The file you’re trying to open is not supported on this device.”
I look up to 47 photographers staring at me eagerly awaiting the knowledge bombs I’m about to drop and panic surges through my body as I lock eyes with my mentor in the back of the room…
BUT then I woke up…
I wish! It wasn’t a nightmare! The alarm clock never came and I didn’t find myself nestled safely in my bed, but that’s not where the story begins.
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Stephen and I are were cranking away in our cramped office and the phone rings.
“Hey, is this Corey?” Yes.
“I’m such and such with this business and we’re putting together a photography conference and we’d love for you to host a break out session speaking about the Power of Light. Our headline speaker is Joe McNally.” I pause for a second thinking I heard that wrong. Joe McNally?! He might as well had said Micheal Jordan. I’m a HUGE McNally fan. HUGE! Oh course, I said. He proceeded to lay out the structure of the class. I was to create a keynote with 25 images and include a description of each one conveying The Power of Light. Easy! I eat this topic for breakfast. (I was very humble)
I had been leading workshops for some time by this point and was comfortable with the idea of standing in front of a bunch of my peers talking shop. No problem! But, meeting Joe was the real reason I said yes to be honest.
I get off the phone explain what the call was about to Stephen and we are pumped. I start in on pulling images and writing is underway.
The day of the conference comes and as usual I’m early. I meet the director of the whole thing and he leads me to the green room. I’m feeling pretty fancy by this point. "Hey, just headed to the GREEN ROOM… No big deal everybody.”, I think to myself. As we arrive and step one foot in the room a gleam of light proceeds to emit from the corner and there he stands Joe. Queue fan girl, but any nervous fidgeting was quickly eliminated as we shuck hands. Joe is such a cool and calm guy who doesn’t take himself too serious but LOVES photography. We small talked for a bit and I told him what I was there to do and he said, “Oh that’s cool! I’ll have to come check that out.” Now, I just assumed that was pleasantry and moved on with the conversation plus he was about to go on stage.
I sat in a large audience equally interested and enamored with his lighting demonstration. It wasn’t an easy location for him to shoot in either. I guess the size of the room wasn’t told to him until he literally walked on stage with his kit. Think of a basketball court size stage. But even with so many unknown factors he pulled it out and made a great demo.
The time came for the breakout sessions to begin. The director told me that because my class was so popular it filled up so much they had to remove a divider in the adjacent room to make it big enough for all the people that signed up. That’s cool! Did you hear that guys? The class is so big it filled up!” Again, I thought with zero humility. I was feeling super proud of myself for doing absolutely nothing to deserve it.
OK. It’s go time. I lay down my laptop and connect into the A/V and I click the button to open my keynote and get an error screen, “The file you’re trying to open is not supported on this device.” Oh no… I try it again. Same thing. I try it again but this time holding my tongue a different way this time. I don’t know it was something my Stepdad used to say. I wasn’t holding my tongue my right. I was getting desperate. I look up to 47 photographers staring at me eagerly awaiting the knowledge bombs I’m about to drop and panic surges through my body as I lock eyes with my mentor in the back of the room… There he was. Joe McNally was true to his word sitting in the back of my class arms crossed looking at me like what are you going to do now, bud?
Dread. Panic. Fear. Anxiety. HUMILITY. If it was a bad feeling it was surging through my body, but something else peaked through all the noise and that was an idea. Inspiration. I looked out to the crowd and before I could think about it these words came out of my mouth, “YOU are the power of light.” I seriously said that. I remember thinking, what did you just say??? I went on to elaborate. “When everything around you breaks the only thing left with is YOU. The keynote was a perfect illustration of that. It broke and I’m left standing here with everyone looking at me. Now what? You can’t just quit. Giving up isn’t an option. You have two choices. (1.) Run away screaming (2.) Bull your way through it and make something! I chose #2.
I’ve reflected on that experience over the years and I’ve come up with a few take aways.
Make sure that you’re front loading. Spend time investing in yourself. The know how. When I got Into photography I didn’t have any money for gear so I had to DIY everything and now when any of the nice stuff I use breaks I have an idea on how to MacGyver something together. I was fueling my creativity having to build everything.
Never assume. I designed my powerpoint on my desktop but used my laptop at the conference. They were different versions of the same application but one couldn’t read the other. Also, ask questions. Be curious. Never assume people know what heck you’re talking about and don’t assume you know what they mean.
Maintain composure. You set the tone of the shoot. If you’re frantic on set then everyone will be stressed and anxious. Keep it cool on the outside at the very last. Honestly, most of the time you’re more concerned about what’s going on than the people around you.
I went on to finish the talk… ALL 45 minutes of it! After shaking everyones hand who were very appreciative of the information I shared I was finally able to make my way over to Joe. He shook my hand said said good job. You really pulled that out of your ass.
Yes Joe. I did. Thank you for noticing.
