Turning Back the Clock and Skillset to 2014

by Skip Cohen
 
I'm turning back the clock to March of 2014. It's seven and a half years ago since we launched the first Mind Your Own Business podcast. That was eighty-four podcasts ago on an idea that Rich Harrington of Photofocus had for a program to help photographers raise the bar on virtually every aspect of their business.

In trying to come up with a name for the podcast, I remember asking my wife, Sheila, for an idea. She immediately responded with, "How about mind your own business?" It was the perfect title for what we hoped we'd accomplish.

We started as talking heads, and in later years dropped the video and just went only audio. The goal was to have great, solid conversations with some of the most respected artists in the industry.

After a year or so, Rich needed to get back to focusing on other aspects of his business, and my good buddy, Scott Bourne, jumped in as my co-host. He and I had done over seventy podcasts under the GoingPro umbrella previously. When Scott moved on, he suggested Chamira Young. Chamira had been behind the scenes at Photofocus editing and fine-tuning the previous podcasts.

​Well, that was March of 2017. Since then, Chamira and I have done over 100 podcasts together with Mind Your Own Business, Beyond Technique, and Tamron Recipes. With her background as a working professional photographer plus her skills in publishing and design, she's become the perfect partner in each episode.

On January 17, she and I will be hosting a special Mind Your Own Business program at IUSA with three outstanding guests to talk about building a stronger brand, increasing revenue, and ways to keep the chaos of today's world from grinding down your creative spirit. And just to give everyone a sneak peek at the insight our guests will be sharing, we'll be airing podcasts with two of our guests, Alison Tyler Jones on the 14th and Myron Fields on the 21st. Both shared some remarkable insight into how they've stayed focused and kept building their business and relationships with their clients.

As I listened to this early podcast, I was a little overwhelmed and embarrassed by the image quality and the sound. I knew nothing about lighting, using a clamp-on desk lamp that you'd only find in a college dorm today for my main light...*sigh* only light! The sound wasn't particularly good either, but with each podcast, the content was always relevant, and over the years, thanks to support from some great friends, my skill level improved.

But here's the fun of Throwback Thursday - sometimes we can't appreciate how far we've come until we take a look in the rearview mirror. So whether it's an old video, an album, or older photographs, take a look at your earliest work. Pay attention to how far you've come, and then give yourself a BIG pat on the back!

​Happy Throwback Thursday!

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