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You're listening to the Nick Amp podcast, a podcast that dives into the lives and stories

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of creatives, entrepreneurs, and outdoor enthusiasts.

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My name is Nick Amp and I'm a filmmaker and photographer best known for documenting stories

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in the mountains.

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We sit down with guests to uncover where they get inspiration from, dig into their experiences

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in the outdoor industry, and find a ton of actionable inspiration from their adventures

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in life.

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Welcome to episode 15 on the Nick Amp podcast.

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Lorelei is in the house today.

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What's up?

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I'm bringing her out of retirement again.

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She's the best co-host I have.

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And today we're going to get into something a little bit different.

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It still follows along what we are doing here and we're going to dive into more about how

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to be authentic, what it is, why it's important, who does it, and why you shouldn't be conforming

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to popular things and to explain why it's important.

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Okay?

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Simplest forms.

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When you're authentic to who you are, you attract the people that you want to be around.

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And when you're not authentic to who you are, you're going to be around people who are with

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you as a friend, spouse, whatever, that like you for the fake you.

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What are your thoughts on this Lorelai?

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Well, honestly, like, it's just more energy to be the non-authentic self.

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I mean, the point of authenticity is like being natural, being the person that you are.

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And that's not to say you don't work on things that you do and stuff like that, but it's

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more natural for you to just be who you are and learning to also love yourself for who

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you are.

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And that way you get people who are more like-minded as you and you can just have better connections

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with those people as in, like versus when you are fake or putting up a facade or someone

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who you wish you could be or something like that, that it's- you attract people who aren't

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necessarily your number one supporters, then they're not necessarily the people you're

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going to be getting along with either because they don't necessarily know who you are.

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So to get right down into it, what does authenticity mean in photography and filmmaking?

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Lorelai, you're not a photographer or filmmaker, but you do read books, so you do appreciate

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what art is.

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So you can give us an explanation from that aspect and I'm going to bring in the aspect-

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I'm going to bring in the perspective from being a photographer and filmmaker.

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I'm an outdoor photographer and filmmaker.

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If any of you don't know that, I go in the outdoors, go to the mountains, and that's

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where I like to be the most to capture the beauty of the nature.

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So just to get right into it, I think being authentic in photography and filmmaking is

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creating the work that you want to create.

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And a lot of people say art is just a medium of how you express yourself.

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I express myself through photography and video.

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For example, I love the mountains.

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I might create a pretty video telling a story about why the mountains are beautiful.

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Lorelai reads books.

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Can you share your perspective of people you read?

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Yeah, I mean, the books that I find that I enjoy the most are the ones that have characters

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that you can connect to when they make the characters real.

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And I think a lot of authors are able to do that when they have some sort of experience

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too with that kind of stuff.

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And it's like they make characters that are not superheroes.

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They have flaws.

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They're human, and that's what makes you connect with them.

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And I think that's making human characters that's an authentic way.

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And I mean, even with stuff like music too, as an art, when an artist makes a song and

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you know that they're singing it with their heart, that's really authentic because it's

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something that they experienced in life or something that they feel and they're pouring

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that into a song.

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And that is super authentic to that artist.

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And those are the most enjoyable pieces.

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So another example, editing.

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There's a whole filming side.

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There's the planning side to be your authentic self, tell that story.

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But editing could be anything.

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It's editing a video, editing photos, editing a book.

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Editing helps you show a different creative style of what you're doing, whether it's making

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the colors look different.

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So maybe an authentic thing to me is I like the colors green and orange.

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And those are the colors I put in my video.

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Those are the tones I use in my photos.

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And another thing would be editing would be editing the pace of my video.

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Maybe I make fast cuts.

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So in a book, I suggest I'm just going to pull at this.

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I don't read a lot, but maybe they edit their book to be a way it moves fast.

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One thing you can tell by how the scenes switch so fast is that it sounds accurate to how

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what you read, like the way they edit the book.

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I guess the editing the book kind of just more goes into grammar and stuff.

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But when they're creating the book, it could be like, is it more action-filled or is it

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a slow burn or things like that that are attractive to different readers?

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And also genre too, the different genres also.

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Some authors stick to just romance and other authors stick to just fantasy and stuff like

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that.

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Some of them can go into different genres, but most of the time they stick to one because

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that's what they love to write and it's what they're good at.

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Right.

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So being authentic, it can help you build a stronger personal brand and actually be

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more successful in whatever career you do.

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Whether you're in marketing, you're a photographer, you're a book writer, music, musician, because

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you just mentioned sometimes you just stay in romance, sometimes they just stay in comedy.

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For me, I'm in the outdoor industry and I can even get more narrow as a niche.

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I'm an outdoor filmmaker who likes to make an impact by telling people why we should

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protect the giant sequoias, why we should protect the trails in the back country to

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make sure we protect all those.

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It's a very specific niche.

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Having a specific niche helps create a personal brand so people always know you for that thing.

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And you might say, well, I don't want to be put in a box.

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That's absolutely not true.

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Being able to narrow down that much helps you stand out from the crowd.

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Like for Enveraille McClary, I had him on the podcast, we had a podcast about the Tahoe Bears,

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the late Tahoe Black Bears, why it's a problem over there.

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There's not more niche than you can get in that.

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That town doesn't have that many people there.

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You have the yellow tourists, but now he's known for that video.

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J.K.

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Rowling, the book writer, known for creating fantasy Harry Potter books.

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In all her stories, we'll be able to create that imagination for you.

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So don't be afraid to narrow down your niche and really dig deep into what kind of story

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you want to tell.

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Yeah.

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It's important to make sure that that niche that you're creating is something that you

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love.

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Otherwise, like you're going to be doing it and then it's going to start becoming difficult

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for you to stick with.

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And you're going to want to change your mind, but then you change your mind and it can be

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difficult sometimes to do that.

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Sometimes you can't do it, but it's hard sometimes when you change.

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If you're building a brand or something, all of a sudden you change, your audience is like,

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whoa, what the heck?

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Where'd this guy go?

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What's happening to him?

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You know?

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So you want to make sure when it goes back to authenticity, it's something who you are

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and something that you love.

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And you're able to put your heart and soul into it so that you can continuously doing

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it and not get tired of it.

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100% agree.

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When I compare us to watching a TV show, you know when the TV show gets to like season

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eight or something like that, then I start changing it up and you're like, I don't really

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like this anymore because it's not really what I started watching this for.

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And part of the reason they ran out of ideas, maybe that's not when they wanted to go with

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the show anymore, they wanted to change directions.

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All perfectly okay to change directions, but just know when you change directions, you're

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going to lose some followers, some people who appreciate your art because they followed

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you for your past art.

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And I want to talk about social media and maybe you're creating a TV show, you're writing

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a book, you're starting a business and most businesses have to use social media these

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days so when you change directions, it makes them less engaged with what you're doing.

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Yeah, I mean, you definitely have the chance to lose followers, but you also have the chance

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to gain them as well when you change like that.

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You'll start getting different people who are into those things as well.

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It's just a matter of how's word going to spread.

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If you're losing people, how's word going to spread to the new people to get them that

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would like it?

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It'll just take a little bit longer to get there.

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So before you start, make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to do.

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A little bit of a backtrack, start first, don't wait to start, start, but also outline

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what you want to do, most always you want to tell.

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And I'm not saying it's easy.

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I'm like the Kingo, changing and not being authentic to myself, but I've always tried

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really hard to be authentic to myself.

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That's not something that I've been scared to do.

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Sometimes it has been because I knew I was afraid that I would lose followers.

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Like I'll tell you, I started out as an outdoor landscape photographer, then I started, I

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moved over to landscape photography tips.

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Then I moved to travel photographer slash giving tips about traveling.

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Then I started giving tips about road tripping.

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Then all of a sudden I noticed that like raw videos are doing really good.

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Like iPhone videos that are like very poorly edited.

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And me, the supposed professional photographer and videographer is over here trying to make

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poor videos because I thought that that's what was going to perform on social media.

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How dumb does that sound, right?

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But you know what?

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It's hard.

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If you're going through that right now, I completely understand.

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Sometimes it can be hard to break away from what you really want to do.

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Then it took me over two years to finally get close to my voice.

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June of 2022, I finally realized, wait a second, I love coming out here to the outdoors because

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I love being able to capture these memories, remember and look back on them and tell stories.

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Before that, I was just trying to inform on social media and create content for social

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media.

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It's hard finding your voice, but it'll probably never stop finding your voice.

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But you got to be honest with yourself.

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Yeah.

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I mean, it's not to say like you can't grow or you can't change either.

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Like as a person, you're constantly, especially like in like your twenties and like changing

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from a teenager to an adult and then like starting your life and stuff, like everything's

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changing around you.

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So you have to change too.

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You're growing as a person and you're learning.

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A lot of times your interests and who you are changes and that's perfectly fine.

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It just comes down to learning yourself and knowing who you are.

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So you got to get to know yourself first before you can do anything, I guess.

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So yeah, we're at that stage in our life where twenties, your life changes a lot.

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A few years ago, I felt like I was just a kid and I was 20 years old and 23 now and

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I felt like I have a whole life's experience now just in these three years.

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And I understand it can be challenging when we're a world where social media, it rewards

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conformity, posting trending videos, trending audios, just posting the same ideas.

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I mean, that's not authentic to who you are.

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Yeah, I get it.

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If you're building up brand and you're trying to build a following and things like that.

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But still, if you're creative, just anyone who's trying to build a business, find your

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voice.

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Highly recommend, strongly urge you to not partake in what's trending.

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I understand it's fine if it's a fun trending video, but if you want to find your voice

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for real, create original work.

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And original work doesn't mean a whole new different thing.

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Maybe it's just a little bit different than something else you find inspiration from.

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Maybe you saw someone create a documentary on black bears.

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Okay.

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I might make a documentary on how black bears are endangered in Oregon.

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Okay.

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That's a little bit different, different location.

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Maybe I might make a video about taking a photo at Yosemite, most photographed place

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in the world.

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Probably one of the top ones.

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I'm at Tunnel View.

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I documented myself going.

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I've been there 10 times.

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This is an example for me, but I've never seen it with low clouds.

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Okay.

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That's an original story to me.

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Therefore, it's original work.

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See how it's just a little bit different?

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People talk about Yosemite all the time when they go there, but it's original to me.

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The fourth original to everyone else.

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Yeah.

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That's how photography is an art for you.

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It's an art in general, but for you and anyone, you're putting in there how you saw it.

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That's your personal mind and you're putting a little twist on it because that's how you

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saw it and that's how you want to convey it to other people.

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This is how I saw it.

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I hope you can see the beauty in it as well.

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Sorry about that.

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I had to restart the camera because one of the cameras stopped recording at 20 minutes.

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To move on, common obstacles being not to take on social media, your fear of being rejected

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by getting low views, being criticized by your followers by changing the directions,

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meeting client expectations.

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That's actually a big one.

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Maybe you're working with a client, has a business owner, photographer, and they want

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you to create work in a certain creative way.

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That's not really your authentic voice.

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How do you go about that?

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Well, one, take the paycheck and move on.

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If that's a big one and you just want to get paid, but if it hurts to your stomach and

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you want to convey your authentic voice in the work you're creating, even when you're

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working for brands, you can communicate that to them.

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Maybe they tell you no because they want to end their voice.

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So that's something that you can barter with.

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There's nothing, there's no rules that you can't negotiate.

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What types of videos you do for these brands, you can find a heavy medium, possibly, just

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depends on who you work with, but you don't get what you don't ask for.

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Yeah, typically people are, when they're looking for someone to do videos or photography for

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them, they look over their style.

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Is that the style you like?

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Or do you like a different style?

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My mom, whenever she wants to do family photos, she's super into candid photos and loves when

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photographers take photos of our family, just when we're not paying attention.

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She always looks for photographers who are good in a candid style.

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That's just something that you will find people who like the style that you do.

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Your style is unique to you and you will find people who like it.

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It's like the kind of people you want to attract to you.

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Break out of those old habits if those are the ones that you don't want to do.

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Create work that you want to get hired for.

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So I'm going to share with some practical tips that I've used myself to be more authentic

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to myself.

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Starting out, I make it a point to create work that I am passionate about, regardless

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of how it's going to do on social media, good or bad.

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I'm the type of person, if I'm not passionate about it, I don't want to do it.

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Lorelai has known that about me since we first started dating back in 2020.

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I just, something in me, I just can't do it if I'm not passionate about it.

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It burns me right here inside the chest.

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For those of you who are not watching on YouTube, I'm tapping my chest right now.

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But I pick work that I'm passionate about and that I want to do.

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So you say, Nick, how do you do that?

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Okay, let's take it a step further.

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Experiment with your video styles, your photo styles, the books you write, the music you

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write, the business that you're doing.

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For me, I make, I've made fun short stories, okay, and they weren't necessarily related

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to my niche as much.

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Yeah, I was in the outdoors, but it was more focused on the story itself.

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There was one where Lorelai picked up some snow, we're walking out by the lake and it

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shows I'm her friend of her and she's being mischievous.

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I'm going to throw snow on my back when I'm not paying attention, okay?

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And then I realize, oh, hi girlfriend threw snow on me.

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So I chased after her, pick her up and ended the story, right?

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Just so the typical story of a relationship playing around.

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And that's not necessarily telling stories about mountains and things like that, but

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it's really helped me experiment to find how to even use my voice.

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Because some of you might be listening, like, I don't even, maybe I have a voice, but maybe

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I don't know how to effectively communicate.

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That just comes with practice and experimentation.

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Lorelai, do you have any thoughts on this?

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Well, it's just, again, like I said earlier, you know, just learning yourself and learning

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what you like, like finding the enjoyment in things.

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Because you don't know if you're going to like it until you try it.

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I mean, that's what my parents always told me when I had to eat food that looked weird.

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You don't know until you try it.

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So and that goes with any experience, you know, like videos that you're creating or

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just things that you like to do.

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If you don't, if you don't know, just keep trying and you'll find something that you

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enjoy.

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And we had a lot of fun making those short stories.

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I mean, yeah, they were pretty fun.

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That tells you how much, if you have fun doing it, that's a good sign.

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Yeah.

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So make work that you also have fun doing, just like she said, make work that you love.

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Do something that you want to do forever.

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Other example, I edit photos.

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I've edited photos 10 different ways.

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You can ask Lorelai this.

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I'll send her a photo 10 times in a row and it'll look completely different.

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I'm like Lorelai, how's this one look?

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Or they'll look exactly the same.

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Yeah, yeah, she does look the same.

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But another thing I've been doing this last 2023, I've been trying to connect with more

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creators who are more in tune with their authentic self and they create work that they're passionate

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about too, because they, one, they inspire me to stand apart from the crowd, which is

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not something that I've ever been afraid of doing, but they just inspire me to do it more

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in a creative way.

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Two, I can pull inspiration from them, okay, they did an idea about taking photos of an

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astronaut.

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Okay, okay, maybe I can do something like that included in my stories.

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I talk with them and collaborate with them and I ask them straight up, what's your thought

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process behind this video?

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I just want to see their thought process because maybe their thought process is different from

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mine.

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Maybe I had no idea about certain topics in photography, like they use an external grain

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on top of their photos to make their photos look vintage.

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Yeah, you can use the in-camera lightroom ones, but maybe they use a painting overlay

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grain to give their photo just that personal feel.

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Maybe they brought props to their photo session and their video that they're making, and I

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didn't even think about using that thing like a lamp.

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I didn't think about that.

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So talk with other creatives, be collaborative.

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You can DM them if they don't respond.

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That's okay, move on to the next one.

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My main thing is focusing on creating relationships with others because collaborating is going

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to be the best way to find your own voice because you're sharing perspectives.

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Yeah, if you like what you see, why not go after it?

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Why not do something similar?

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If you like it, then if you like seeing it, then you might like doing it too.

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So Lorelei, not being a photographer or video person, I still show a lot of people who inspire

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me because I know that even though she's not in one of those, she will appreciate the body

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of art they create because they're just using their own voice and telling their own stories.

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One for example is Art Truro.

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He's based out of Texas.

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He's took photos of astronauts with flowers out in Texas.

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I don't know, it looked like you were on Mars, but with flowers, it created a certain type

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of feel.

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Like he's been there for a while.

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Maybe he was dead.

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I don't even remember, but he was dead and the flowers are growing out of his suit.

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He's a very good photographer and he creates cinematic photo sets.

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So imagine if you see a movie.

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Let's think of a movie.

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Okay, let's think of the Batman.

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Christian Bale one, okay.

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We're in the Joker scene.

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He's in the room.

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They're interviewing him, right?

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The Batman's interviewing the Joker.

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All the props there, Arturo does that for photos.

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So he takes like movie stills.

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I think it's super cool and he creates that work and he writes captions that are engaging

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and he's not afraid to show what he really wants to create.

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Another guy, Jondra.

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Two brothers.

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I don't know where they're from.

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They're not from the United States, but they're two brothers and they show adventure, fun

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vibes hanging out.

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Lorelai, I know, I couldn't tell how many times have I showed you them.

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A ton of times.

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They're really cool though.

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I like watching their videos.

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They're always fun to watch.

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They kind of make you feel like you're there with them.

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It's just such a fun like vibe that they have.

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Another one is Shy Guy.

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Shy Guy, he is super cool.

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He also just creates visually appealing stories.

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I just showed Lorelai before we started this, the video he made.

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He was in the elevator going up and the whole story was just about how he was waiting for

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it, putting music in, he was just immersed in the moment and his text said, your life,

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do what you want with it.

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And the thing about that is though, the reason why it was so special, it sounds simple, right?

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You guys who were listening might say, that was the basic story.

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But he was able to use his own voice to make you feel like you were there.

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That's where the powerful part came in.

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Yeah, a 15 second video made you feel something.

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And those are some of the best creators is when they can make such a short film and something

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with simple movements, but you feel so much from it.

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I literally watched the whole thing two times and I was like, Lorelai, this is not even

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that hard to set up.

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But the art of his simplicity was, that's amazing.

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So I encourage you, the listeners, to find your own inspiration, whether it's me or it's

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other people.

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And people that inspire you to make creative work, to be authentic to who you are and keep

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on doing it and don't stop creating your own work because you're not going to get better

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and find your own voice until you create your own work.

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So outline what you want to talk about, whether you're starting your social media, starting

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a business, because it'll be easier in the long run to build your own personal brand

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because you're already authentic to who you are and you're able to find career success

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quicker, because people know you're not changing up.

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Remember, it's like watching a TV show.

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I also encourage you to reflect on who you are as a person.

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Wow, Nick, deep question, Nick.

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We're always thinking about who we are.

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I don't know who I am.

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You're always going to be figuring it out.

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Okay.

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I know the story.

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Or like I said, we're always changing.

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So it's okay to change.

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It's okay to grow.

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So maybe in 2020, I like talking about landscape photography and the art of that.

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2023, I like telling stories that are more impactful into people's lives.

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Maybe I might make them think differently and I might get them to understand other people's

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perspectives just by me telling a story or making them feel a certain way.

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Maybe in five years from now, it might even be something different.

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Who knows?

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So I just really want to thank you for listening and encourage you to go follow us on social

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media.

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My personal account is then the Nick Gamp on all platforms or Eli is Lolo in the mountains.

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The podcast, we got a YouTube channel.

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If you guys want to watch us and see my pretty face, we're Nick Gamp podcast on YouTube and

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we're on all platforms for podcasts, Spotify, Apple music.

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We're on all platforms for podcasting, Apple music, Spotify, Google play, all of those

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and subscribe.

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Leave a review, tell me what you think about the video.

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DM me on Instagram, DM Lorelai.

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Lorelai, any closing thoughts?

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And just figure out what you like and keep doing it.

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All right.

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I'll talk to you guys next week.