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How the Wise One Grows
Welcome to How the Wise One Grows – where we live with intention by connecting to inner wisdom, one another, and the natural world through mindful conversations and meditations.
Join me, your host Holly Zajur, and guests for heartful interviews about topics like spirituality, wellness, and anything and everything that aids us in navigating the human experience.
Episodes alternate between guest interviews and guided meditations to help you integrate mindfulness into daily life.
The intention is to empower you with a deeper sense of awareness and confidence as you cultivate a fulfilling and authentic life. Each episode is an honest exploration of what supports people as they navigate life’s twists and turns– and a reminder that we are all in this together.
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How the Wise One Grows
[FLASHBACK] How to Overcome Self-Doubt and Create Your Dreams with Jada and David Parrish
Unlock the secret to conquering self-doubt and embracing your creative potential in this episode. Join us as we dive into the story of Jada and David Parrish, former wedding photographers turned conceptual artists. Discover how they bravely shifted careers and embarked on an ambitious 100-set project that showcases their artistic expression and personal development journey.
In this episode, not only will you get an inside look at Jada and David's path from photography to conceptual art, but you'll also learn practical strategies and tips for overcoming self-doubt, setting achievable goals, and unlocking your creative genius. Whether you're an artist, a creative professional, or anyone looking to break through personal barriers, this story of courage, creativity, and resilience is sure to inspire and guide you.
Tune in to hear Jada and David's firsthand experiences and the lessons they've learned about navigating the creative process, setting sights on new horizons, and making dreams a reality. This episode is a must-listen for anyone ready to push the boundaries of their creativity and achieve their full potential.
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biggest hurdle I had was self-doubt.
Speaker 2:I think it's stupid, it's dumb. Why am I?
Speaker 1:doing this, so I always had to battle that.
Speaker 3:Hi everyone and welcome back to how the Wise One Grows. So you know how sometimes we get that really annoying voice in our head saying you can't do it, you're not good enough that self-doubt soundtrack that might repeat in your mind. Well, in today's episode we are throwing it back to episode 19 with Jada and David, where we talk about how you can overcome that voice of self-doubt. So in this episode you'll learn Jada and David's story and how they overcame self-doubt and transitioned from wedding photographers to conceptual artists. You'll learn how to tap into your creativity and set goals and how we can continue to move through self-doubt, through the many waves of life that we face. I also just want to take a moment to thank you for listening today and supporting this podcast. If you want to support this podcast even further, you can follow on whatever streaming platform you're listening to right now. You can leave a review and share an episode you love with a friend maybe this episode and you can join the Dream Team for as little as $3 a month to keep this podcast going.
Speaker 3:I like to think of it as a monthly coffee date for our mindful conversations and meditations. But before we get started, let's take a moment to land here together with 3D breaths. So just take a moment to notice where your body makes contact with the earth. You can soften your shoulders down the back and gently rest your eyes, if it's safe, or just soften your gaze at a point in front of you and take a big breath in, fill your chest, fill your belly with air, exhale, open your mouth, let it out Again, inhale, chest and belly. Expand, exhale, let it go One more. Inhale and exhale and return to where your body makes contact with the earth as you slowly open your eyes and return to this space. So I spoiled it.
Speaker 3:We are here with Jada and David today, but I will formally introduce them to you. Jada and David Parish this is probably the only time Jada will get me to say Parish and not Zazer are a husband and wife creative duo based in Richmond, virginia. They use plywood and paint to construct sets and create bright, bold sceneries where their characters are confined, lost, curious or bouncing back and forth between moments of happiness and despair. In 2021, they completed their 100 set project, where they successfully built 100 sets and photographed 100 shoots in one year. Their work has been recognized by the International Photography Awards, the Chromatic Awards, and they were long listed for their Aesthetica art prize. Holy cow. It's really cool because as I'm reading that, I was kind of feeling emotional because I'm like shit, they did all of that in a year. Like what I just read to you is only what they have accomplished in the last year, not like the insane things they've done before. That point.
Speaker 2:Wow, molly, thanks for that, thank you. That lifted us up.
Speaker 3:Well, it's like really freaking cool, which kind of lends me to what I wanted to touch on first today, because today we're going to talk a lot about what you've accomplished in the last year, but a huge thing that a lot of people might not know is like you built an amazing business before that point and like you were huge wedding photographers and built a business out of just from the two of you, like in your apartment together. So I'm just so like proud of you reading that, how you went from building one huge thing and then taking this step into something that I think you've like said in my perception, is feels more like you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yeah. We started a wedding and portrait photography business in 2013 and we were like pretty like die-hard wedding and portrait photographers, like we would shoot like 30 weddings a year and do portrait sessions all during the week, and we were really into it. And then COVID hit and all of our weddings for pretty much the first six months of 2020 got rescheduled and we found ourselves with like an empty studio, a lot of time on our hands because all these weddings got canceled and we were just kind of trying to figure out how to use our time, how we could be creative during this weird COVID experience. So we got in the studio and we just started shooting, working on posing and lighting, using paper backdrops. But it just kind of kept evolving and the paper turned into these wooden sets that we started to build that were just so we would do sets with like two walls, and then we'd be like, well, what if we made it bigger? What if we added in more shapes? What if we did a different paint job? And we got really into designing these sets and taking these kind of like conceptual, creative portraits of people and it kind of hit us.
Speaker 2:We weren't sure what we were doing, but we really loved it, and so we decided we wanted to make a shift in things and started to have a desire to focus more on that. So we decided to announce that we were gonna step away from the weddings and wanted to focus on that, and we needed to build up a new portfolio of work in order to really make this transition. So that was kind of what we earmarked 2021, as was a the process of building a new portfolio, and we wanted to find a way to hold ourselves accountable but also make sure we were making the most of the time that we had. So we set a goal of building a hundred sets in that one year, and that is what really like ignited this next chapter in our lives fully and kind of is how we sort of transitioned from being wedding photographers to artists. So was it?
Speaker 3:like because I guess I don't even know this. But like did it just happen all at? Like y'all were just like, okay, we're kind of like don't know what to do, let's just play around in the studio. And then y'all started having a lot of fun doing other stuff and then it just kind of like kept going and going. Or was it like a premeditated like? Hey, like I feel kind of stuck with these things right now. I want to shift it up. What if we try this? Or like a combo of both?
Speaker 1:I think there was never. We never felt stuck. That was never a situation, because the year that COVID happened it was like going to be our best wedding year ever and like. So we were really into it and we were trying to grow that business as much as possible. I think it came maybe out of more boredom of time, because we had so much time on our hands, because literally everything got canceled. So I think the first thing that really happened was we were having a discussion and we had two books, we had a lighting book and we had a posing book and Jada was like I'll focus on the posing and you focus on the lighting, and then we could use our studio to like try and get better at that. So I think that's where it started was kind of like a maybe a hobby, more so like during that time, because I don't think we were thinking at the very beginning that it was gonna end weddings no, we, and like COVID, really got real.
Speaker 2:March of 2020 and February of 2020 we had just signed a lease on, like this giant new studio.
Speaker 3:I can't believe that was in February. Before that, yeah, it was a month before it.
Speaker 2:And so we got that studio really to have like wedding meetings and just do like kid shoots and stuff and it was like sitting empty. So we like we had our period of like COVID scaries where we were scared to leave the house and I was like laying outside bored watching airplanes pass over. And eventually that we like hit a point where we like we have this studio, let's, let's find a way to use it. So we just started doing these shoots and really working on the lighting and the posing and then things started to kind of evolve because we realized we really liked it.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I think it's like really cool about that that people probably don't know too is like Jada and David did theater together in high school, but in totally different ways. Like Jada was an actor and then David like built the sets and did the lighting. So in a lot of ways, as you're like directing people in these sets, it's like I mean like I've done a number of them with you and it feels like we're little kids playing again, but it like is like you're like making people act in it and then David's creating that.
Speaker 2:So I just think that's like a cool parallel to when y'all first met, even I think that's probably a part of why it feels like more true and authentic to who we are is because that was like something that both of us enjoyed doing as kids and we found like another way to bring that to the present moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I quite possibly could have messed up I don't know, there's never a mess up but early on I think I should have probably focused on theater because I, like, I thoroughly enjoy. I thoroughly enjoy like building and creating, and while I was building like a wedding photography business, I was no longer like building anything physical anymore. So I think that's part of maybe why I felt I feel currently like so much more filled because I'm building stuff and I think that's what, like, my body's meant to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you vote like from cars to everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've always done that. I enjoyed building, yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that is probably also why, like, our work usually isn't super happy, like and I think a lot of that stems from the fact that I spent so many years photographing weddings where I'm like documenting this like one, just like blissfully happy emotion, that's like the dominant emotion on a wedding day, and it was really refreshing to be able to explore different emotions within pictures.
Speaker 3:I didn't think about that element. Yes, what was it hard to step away from the business, like announcing that you weren't going to do weddings anymore? I was like, oh shit, they just did that Like. Was that scary? Was there like grief, sadness, or was it just like no, this is what we're doing.
Speaker 1:I think it hit differently for both of us. For me it wasn't as scary and it took a lot. I had the idea, maybe a little sooner than.
Speaker 3:Was David the instigator.
Speaker 1:I'm always the instigator yeah.
Speaker 3:And I also like to always announce like publicly, that I'm doing things, yeah, well, because when you announce it publicly, you have to do it, yeah so it makes me accountable for it.
Speaker 1:But I don't think I was ever nervous or scared about it and it was kind of interesting because we announced that we would stop doing weddings but we had like a year and a half of weddings ahead of us, so we had. We knew we had work ahead of us. So it's basically like putting a really long two weeks notice in.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So then you kind of had like a built-in cushion and it was like I'm studying this intention, I'm saying it out loud and very publicly, putting out there, and like I have these things that are like scaffolding me. In the meantime. It wasn't like you like just jumped off the edge of a cliff. Yeah, you were like here's my parachute.
Speaker 1:I think some people may have felt that way for us, like family members and stuff, but it was like really thought through in that sense, because we knew we had the work and we knew we had that cushion.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The amount of time to do it, and that's why the 100-Set Project was able to take place last year because we had weddings going through the whole, the whole period of that.
Speaker 1:Was it like sad letting go of weddings and like the J&D photography business side of stuff at all, or so J&D photo, where we did another announcement where we phase out weddings, and that was about 75% of, like, our business, and then so the rest of it was like family shoots, real estate, everything else that we like picked up along the way that had to do with photography, and so we're still doing that amount of work. So that hasn't come to an end yet. But for the weddings for me, I was ready. I had seen a lot of weddings and a lot of people get married and I like I never really thought I would go to that many weddings, like when I was a kid like, oh, I'm gonna go to weddings.
Speaker 3:No one thinks they're gonna go to that many weddings.
Speaker 1:So it was it felt. I think it felt good for me. I felt good inside when it was the last one came and we completed it. I felt very successful and I felt like the time was ready. It was ready for to go on to the next phase.
Speaker 3:Did you feel that way, jada?
Speaker 2:David is. He is always the instigator, so he wanted to quit the weddings and I was. I think I was more of like a little resistant, like oh man, that's scary. To be D Really, we're gonna just like tell everybody that, okay, it wasn't it wasn't an okay, though.
Speaker 1:It was like I don't want to do that, like now, maybe let's wait. So then, like I'll try again a week later. You kept like poking at it.
Speaker 2:But then I think I came to the realization because I was I was getting tired of doing them. Covid made me realize that like there's other things I could be doing with my life and I also came to the realization that like people are gonna keep sending me emails to to photograph their weddings and unless I like put a hard no out into the world, like I'm not gonna stop doing this ever. So eventually I was like, yeah, okay, we can post it. But I felt like so many like anxious, scary butterflies in my stomach when we did that. But then, after that settled, it felt very freeing. But it's just, you know that didn't saying that into the world, didn't stop the emails, so it was like a continue it is a continuous commitment, like over and over again, like no, I'm not available to do that.
Speaker 2:No, we're not shooting weddings anymore.
Speaker 1:And the most and the interesting thing about that was they're through the period of transition. There's low points where you financially yeah and so you do get those emails and you know that's a guaranteed, like paycheck and having to say no to it. I think that that was the hardest part for me, but I'm still okay with it.
Speaker 3:Like we pushed yeah, we're just like very committed to like we have to be in this mindset yeah well, that's like like honestly, a huge thing to celebrate on a couple of levels is like one, the fact that you built a business that, like you just get emails to do things like that all the time like shows how successful you were and even when you said no, it kept coming. But then like the will power and like the, I mean that's like a deep level of belief in yourself that you have to hold and to continue saying that again and again, like that's making that promise to yourself stronger and stronger with each of those times that's very true.
Speaker 3:It's a good way to look at it yeah, and I mean like I, I think I have a much harder time. I definitely have a much harder time saying no than you. But, like with the, when that temptation comes, like oh, this would be a paycheck or this would be something like more secure while I'm working towards this, but to really be like no, this is what I'm doing and. I'm gonna step fully into this.
Speaker 2:It's a lot easier to say no when you start to have doubts, and then you have someone next to you who's like no, yeah, we don't need to do that.
Speaker 3:I think we all need a David theme Like no, I'm not going to do that, but David is persistent. There's so many things I resist. We finally turned the sunroom into a little studio space for me, and David's probably been telling me that for two years.
Speaker 2:And I was like, nah, nah, yeah. It really is funny how many ideas he has told me that I'm like, no, I would never do that. And then, two years later, I'm like, hey, what if we did this? And he's like I said that, is that how you?
Speaker 3:feel about me with TV shows when you tell me a TV show to walk and then, five years later, I'm like Jaydev, you've seen this show.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's better percent.
Speaker 3:That's better percent. Well, for those who don't really know about the 100 set project, do you mind sharing a bit about that and what exactly it is? I guess we've kind of talked about why it started, but maybe just going into it a bit more.
Speaker 1:You want tag team, this one yeah you go first, ok. So what was that? What was last year? I need your help 2021.
Speaker 2:2021.
Speaker 1:So in 2021, in 2020, we started building the sets and we were starting to explore the wood and the paint and we were developing a voice and we were like let's try to put this together on a website to see if we have enough work, a portfolio, so we could share this with people. And we put the three shoots three or four shoots that we had up and we were like this isn't enough, this isn't a big enough portfolio, and so mostly me, right, yeah, it was mostly you, that is so true, and so we put a lot of thought into it, and I like to start New Year's the first day of every new year with what I want to do for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1:So it's really important for me not to be hungover on New Year's Day and it's really important for me to start that day with what I want to do for the rest of the year. So we decided to do a shoot and a set on the first and we built it before the first and we had it all set and I think it was supposed to be you Holly yeah, it was going to be me.
Speaker 3:And then I got COVID, holly got COVID, so we had to do an adjustment and we made it, jada and I think.
Speaker 1:Through that process we were like we should do a lot of these this year and, right as in the start, went.
Speaker 1:And then I think, we finished a shoot, we were proud of it, and I randomly saw Elon Musk quote. That was like if you give yourself 30 days to clean a house, it'll take you 30 days to clean it, but if you give yourself 30 minutes, you can clean the house in 30 minutes. So I was like let's do 100 of these this year and like let's just make that our commitment. And so that's what we ended up doing and that's how the project started.
Speaker 2:If you want to keep going with it, yeah, I mean, but it was kind of like arbitrary when we said 100. We just thought that sounded like a good number.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you didn't think it through.
Speaker 1:That's a lot. Yeah, we didn't think it through. 100 really doesn't feel like. It doesn't seem like that much. It doesn't feel like a lot at all when you say it.
Speaker 2:But there's only 52 weeks in the year, so that meant really doing at least two shoots a week. But when we started out the year we didn't have that clicked in yet, so we fell behind. So then that meant that then at certain points during the year we would have to do three or four sets and shoots a week, and I think there was maybe one week where we did a set every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, catch up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and building a set is a very physical thing on your body, but then also mentally trying to come up with the idea to stay creative that whole time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, super hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we definitely pushed the balance on our creativity last year, yeah, and then down to the styling the shoot, doing the math to build the set and then setting up the lights and the camera, and it was just a lot to think about. So doing three to four shoots a week was kind of insane, on top of doing a full-time job.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you were working that whole time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, shoot weddings and family photos and everything so how did you not burn out?
Speaker 3:This is, I feel like maybe I feel like we're kind of different on this, but I also feel like I've seen y'all balance a lot in the last year and kind of noting more and more that there are times of big growth in life where it's that expansion, and then there are times where it's more like OK, nurturing a little more listening so you can go back into that phase.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we were mission-oriented once we came up with the goal, and so being tired was just part of it through that and we knew there was an end.
Speaker 3:That's a good point.
Speaker 1:And it pushed us so hard and pushed us creatively and everything it made us gross. So so, so much. But then at the beginning of this year we did, we took a lot of time of rest. There was confusion of what do we do with it.
Speaker 3:Now there was a lot of like yeah, were you restless when that first hit.
Speaker 1:There was, it would go through waves. Yeah, that would go through waves, but I think we were at the end of the day, we were burnt out from it, so we really didn't need to take the time to rest and I think we caught up on rest just fine, and it was almost like we saved the rest for after the mission was complete.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we were super mission-oriented and that was really all that mattered. So if you retired, whatever, if you didn't feel good, whatever, we're doing this anyways to get your shit together. It was very. We were tough on each other.
Speaker 1:I think we were like Raleigh, your shit. We gotta do this.
Speaker 3:You don't have that difference. Did y'all waver with who was the motivator at times?
Speaker 2:I think so, because there would be moments where David, he has come up with a beautiful idea, he's ready to execute it, and then things just are not working out, the math isn't lining up, cuts weren't right or something happened and the countdown clock is on, and so there did have to be kind of a reinsurance back and forth.
Speaker 3:We can keep going like a cheerleader to get there. Yeah, we had each other.
Speaker 1:One of the weddings, Groom's father or Bride's father said something along the lines that you guys are now both on a canoe and there's going to be times where you both are paddling and it's going smooth, but sometimes one of you guys may be tired or down and it's the other one's job to paddle just a little harder to get you through, and I think that's kind of what we used through that process last year we used that through life a lot to help each other through it, but I really did enjoy that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I feel like it made us learn a lot about ourselves. Like I get a high off of having that adrenaline rush and countdown and like how are we going to figure this out? But in the back of my mind I know that we are going to figure it out, so it's not ever really a question. It's just like whoa, how? Are we going to do this.
Speaker 1:Running around really fast.
Speaker 3:And that's also how you were in school. You would save it to the last minute and you'd always get better grades than I would, even though I would like prepare so much longer. You would like turn in the paper late, but like be sneaky about it and still get an. A.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that doesn't happen, yeah, yeah. And then this year, I think has. This year was an interesting year so far because we were really in the groove with our hundreds set project. But it was time for it to end because it was, so you were ready for it 10. Yeah, it was exhausting.
Speaker 1:I think we also outgrew our studio and what we could build.
Speaker 3:I couldn't figure out.
Speaker 1:That's interesting I couldn't figure out any other ways to place the pieces of wood, Like I was running out of ideas.
Speaker 2:And then having that deadline of like you have to do 100 sets so you can't spend but so much time designing any of them, that kind of hit a point for me where I was like but, I, want to spend a lot of time. I want this to be so intricate and detailed, but I couldn't do it so well.
Speaker 3:yeah that's really hard because you're not creating a set, you're creating art. And as an artist, I feel like there's this constant like is it good enough? Like I'm not there yet, like you want to refine, refine, refine and make it really clean. But I think that's a huge beauty to what you did, was it was like the constant putting it out there and kind of getting over that voice in your head that saying like it's not done yet or it's not good enough, just being like this is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cool that you brought that up, because that was through the self-reflection. Looking back on it, that was the biggest hurdle I had was self-doubt.
Speaker 2:I think it's stupid.
Speaker 1:It's just dumb, like oh you're making, it doesn't look good.
Speaker 2:Like why am I doing this? Why am I?
Speaker 1:doing this Color is awful. Like nobody's going to like this. You don't like this and so, like I always had to like, battle that all.
Speaker 3:How did you deal with that?
Speaker 1:I just kept pushing through last year at least, and pushed through it.
Speaker 3:I think, just kept working. Kept working, focusing on the task at hand. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan.
Speaker 1:Stick to the plan, and so we always scheduled our photo shoots for 6 o'clock the night when we were going to have the shoot, and we usually start building that morning. So we knew that there was going to be a model coming in at 6.
Speaker 2:That was what like 12 hours what. I mean some days we didn't start until like noon.
Speaker 1:But like yeah, so we knew, like I think that kept you going through the self doubt was like knowing that somebody else is about to walk in that door and you have to be done, so you're not happy.
Speaker 3:And actually having a short timeline was probably like a gift you were giving yourself, because you couldn't overthink it. You just had to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you just had to do. There wasn't time to think that's true, and so I think that's how I got through my self doubt last year. This year I've been going through all sorts of like trying to make my brain a little more strong so I don't have to deal with self doubt as much for future projects. But that's how I got through it last year and that was like the heaviest part of last year for me and it was the hardest part for me. It was overcoming my self doubt.
Speaker 3:How are you working with it now?
Speaker 1:affirmations and I'm trying to like convince myself and retrain my brain that my ideas are cool and that they are cool and that I should be confident. And I am confident.
Speaker 2:So I just I'm really telling myself, I'm writing it and it's really helping me overcome that, and then last year was one giant art therapy session for me too, so that probably also helped me get stronger, yeah, but last year I think really taught us in terms of a way to overcome self-doubt is when you choose a goal, you see your goal, you see what you want and then you make your plan of how you want to go get it. If you focus all your energy on that, you can do it. Last year was a big goal setting and goal achieving lesson that just reaffirmed that I can do that in every aspect of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's like really creating a lot of agency. I feel like art does that in a lot of way, when you're like you're physically building something and like you're creating something out of nothing and that just is a mirror for your ability in life that you can do that in all of these areas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So you said it was like a giant art therapy project for you, like how was it kind of working through those like internal emotions that you were experiencing or what was yeah?
Speaker 1:I mean because you reflect on what you know and we were feeling kind of, I guess, trapped with our lives a bit. So a lot of our art that we made last year reflected being trapped and confined spaces and kind of. I think you can look at a lot of our pictures and see a lot of self-doubt. I mean, self-doubt was just so big for us last year, it was wild.
Speaker 3:Well, and it's just such a like. It's a true human emotion. Like it's like every time I was in one of your sets, like I was like oh, I know how to portray this emotion because I very deeply know this emotion yeah.
Speaker 3:And like you had a line in your bio that just like I mean, I think that this is like where so many people can just relate to your work on a really strong level. One. It's like these sets that are create bright, bold scenarios like that in the contrast. So it's like there's that hope with the sets. They're so cool and the characters are confined, lost, curious or bouncing back and forth between moments of happiness and despair, like that's so much it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that was us really. That was us last year. So like our feelings through the whole project are definitely reflected. And it's interesting too because like we plan out the shoot through a day. I think I focus a lot on the set and the design, jada focuses a lot on the color, so that is like mixed, and then before the shoot we discuss what we want the character to be doing, but then at the end of the day Jada is directing, so her true emotions are coming out of the character. So you kind of have like my emotions bleeding through the way the sets build and what we've done, and then Jada's feelings are coming through the model and it's really was there a lot of like communication between like those two things before?
Speaker 3:Is that something that unfolded in the creating of it?
Speaker 1:I think it was a mixture, like some sets, we had it so our shoots, we had it so planned out and we knew exactly what we wanted to make. Other times it was kind of like going in and painting a picture, like we were just nailing things together and piecing props together and coming up with like a storyline on the spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it was the. There was a mixture of both, like depending on what set it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there are some days we were just like kind of desperate and just like had to get our get something created, like get some sort of set built.
Speaker 2:So not much thought was put into like what this set actually means or like what this is, and then, when the model was there or right before they got there, we would just try to like rack our brains to try to channel out some, some poses and thoughts and situations that we could play through. But that, like trying to depict like real life emotions, as opposed to like trying to make things look so perfect, I think was a pretty powerful in the sense of we used real people for all of our shoots. Like nobody was a professional, like full time model, and so it kind of made anybody able to like hop into one of our worlds and just channel like an everyday, like realistic human feeling. So it didn't really matter who you were or what your background was like anyone, anyone could do one of those shoots.
Speaker 3:I think that was like such a thing that made it so relatable to and like people wanted, want to be a part of it. And when you're in that space, like you're picking up on that energy and that like it connects to something that you're feeling, because it's it is this raw emotion, and then you're like jumping into this other creative world with you, which is like, in a lot of ways it just kind of like built a deeper sense of connection when we were in this space of like you were so disconnected from everyone and everything. Like it was like here's a space where you're like connecting to this deeper level of human emotion through this project.
Speaker 2:That's really interesting to hear like feedback about what it's like to be inside of one of the sides of one of the sets that it was like a like you're separated from the world you're like somewhat isolated in this space. That was something I never like really thought about.
Speaker 3:Travel is one of the things that helps me grow the most and that's why this year I decided to put in some time to find the best travel rewards credit card that I could, and I ended up getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card and so far I love it. It's got a ton of flexibility, it gives you great rewards points and when you sign up you get some bonus points and I actually have a referral link in the show notes. If you are interested in getting a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve credit card, it will give you and I some extra little points so that we can continue to travel and grow together. So earlier we were talking about having those moments of like doubt and self-doubt and how you two helped each other kind of maintain motivation along the way. Was there, like anything else, that helped you stay the course?
Speaker 2:Last year, I think that having a third person coming in in order to create what we wanted to create was like the key to it. Having knowing that a model was going to be coming in at a certain time and we just had to have our shit together was like the key, and we would plan out these shoots like weeks in advance, so that we were like, okay, well, next week we have three shoots and we know that and there's no backing down from that. And last year it was more just about having faith that we will finish this project and having that kind of what's the word? We're like someone's holding you to it.
Speaker 2:Accountability yeah, having that accountability with it was like the key to that for me, but this year has been a completely different experience.
Speaker 1:So last year's purpose and the plan was to build a portfolio and that was as simple as it could be. This year is trying to shift a business and rebuild a new business with this portfolio and idea that we have no idea if it's really a good one. So we're like really heavily leaning into faith over fear.
Speaker 1:I guess right now and I think when I say faith I don't have like religion attached to it it's more faith in our desire and faith in our plan and knowing our self and knowing that our ideas are good and that they're going to work and that if we just keep pushing and dreaming that we can succeed, and so that's what's really keeping us going right now, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like just leaning into, like more self reflection, more journaling, more affirmations that David brought up earlier have been like key of just trying to reflect on our self image and build that up stronger so that we can be more confident as we push ourselves forward with this new work out into the world, and just like trying to keep our energies high and balanced and like grounded at the same time.
Speaker 1:Just trying to have a positive attitude about everything, even when it feels like everything is failing around you.
Speaker 2:Yes, and like remembering that, like this is a process and that it's not like the process is also supposed to be beautiful, like this process is something that we should be enjoying because it's part of the story and it's what makes all of this like as beautiful as it is. So we have to be grateful for the process and all the learning and uncertainties that come with it, because that's what makes the end result so much more beautiful.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, and there's like never really an end result.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I feel like we get so stuck on, like working towards that goal or that next thing that we like, miss out on everything in front of us.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad that you like said that and that's such a good reminder to hold of, like what you're doing right now, like that's the magic, like that's the heart, the art, and like by like this is where a lot of mindfulness like can come in.
Speaker 3:And and yoga there's this term like a prairie graha, which is like surrender or letting go.
Speaker 3:And Ralph Gates like does this demonstration where you like hold a piece of paper and when someone I'll do it right now it's like he will tell you in a workshop to hold a piece of paper and most people like crumple up the paper and their fist and they're like I'm holding it, like my hands in a fist, I'm holding the paper and then he says, now let go. And then you let go and you're still holding that paper, but without any extra effort. So, like your full energy, everything is about like you're putting your fullest, truest effort in the moment and trusting that by being like completely present, by being completely here for this moment, you're going to get to that next thing in an even fuller way. But if you're like halfway distracted all the time as you're working towards it, like you're kind of stealing from yourself of what that can even be, you're stealing from yourself along the way. And then the end result isn't even as pure or true, because it's not, as like, full and present in each moment unfolding leading up to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think at a certain point we all do just have to get out of our own way, because so often we are we're clinging too hard to things or like trying to force things into happening. That like, if you just soften a little bit and like really think about what you want and put that energy out into the world, things will gravitate towards you.
Speaker 3:It feels like you're kind of in that softening phase like last year was maybe more of that like here's the goal, here's the go, go, go and now it's about that, like letting go and like that you're still working. You're still doing the work but, there's maybe less of that like clinging.
Speaker 1:And I think it could be just the phase we're in right now because, like Jada was saying earlier, we both do get a bit of a high being in the go go go. But it's also really nice to take this period of time to slow down and reflect and think and I think I hope all these things we're learning this year will help, will be added into last year's workflow kind of, and that can make something a little more balanced and beautiful moving forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I'm really curious about how you've made this, like this self reflection and it's like a deep getting to know yourself, a part of your creative practice, like this tending to yourself, these like maybe you should could share about, like the rituals you're doing in the morning as you're working towards creating these things, like you're deeply getting to know yourself and tending to yourself and that is rippling into the work you're creating and the world and the life you're creating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so every morning we do this together. We will go downstairs, one of us will make the coffee and then we'll say a little something over a candle, like an affirmation or something we were worried about or fearful about or something we're proud about, and we put it onto the candle and we light it and then we both sit down and we listen to something peaceful and we open a journal and we just sit and write and reflect and we both do different things in our journal.
Speaker 2:I like to like write a little bit about what I'm thinking that morning and then 10 things I'm grateful for, and then dig into like my affirmations and self image and like writing down things like I am confident, I am decisive, I am a good communicator, and then like any large goals that I'm working towards, just to like put those thoughts in my mind and like trigger it for, like, this is where I want to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I kind of do some of those things. But I also doodle and I draw my ideas down and I write my ideas and then I oftentimes write down, like in a kind of a form of like a story where I see myself in the future, like my future studio and everything. I kind of read it as a story for myself and then on the same pad, I just kind of keep notes through a day on it. So that's how we've been like kind of reflecting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm a huge advocate of like that morning time and morning routine because it sets the tone for the way you go into the day and like the way you're speaking to yourself. I think is one of the most important conversations we have and we're having it all the time. So when you're holding space to like practice how you want to communicate with yourself, it's like this space to practice so that as you move through your day it's like okay, well, I probably didn't do it perfect that time, but like I can try again and at least there's this awareness of it, but it just like sets the tone for the conversations in your mind as you move through your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And if you don't have that space to practice like you have to, it's like we have to practice everything we're doing and it's so Easy to not even notice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And when we were just saying that, last year, when we were in the go-go-go phase, we, we still did our morning. Well, we weren't doing the journaling quite yet, but we were like doing our morning routine of like drinking coffee and looking through inspirations, because our mind was set on that goal. Yeah, so this year it kind of shifted. I think we're tending towards our brain a little more and your soul in our soul.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah well, I think, too, what we were like talking about before that your project really reminds me of is like that enjoyment of the process and the journey along the way, and like that there is no end result. Like you would create works of art and Then tear them apart the next day to start again. And it like to me and I don't know if this was an intentional thing, but like it really mirrors these endless beginnings and like it's literally what you did with your business, like you built this strong, beautiful, flourishing business and then you're like okay, now we're doing the next thing, and like, that's what like and it.
Speaker 3:I think that's so cool, though, because sometimes we like hold on to these things. We build so tightly, but by continuing to build it again and again and again, like you continue growing, you get to that like next layer, that next thing, or maybe not even that next thing, but just like this new part of yourself that's already there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think like feeling Like it's okay to change, yeah, it's like really important. I think sometimes people do try to like hold on so tight to how things are because there's so much like comfort in that. But at a certain point it might not be so satisfying anymore and just having that Freedom and realization to be like, well, I don't have to do it that way anymore, I can do it completely different, even if that's a really scary, maybe that would feel good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're allowed to change your mind and you're like allowed to. It's okay to admit, like, oh, maybe that wasn't the best thing at that time or it maybe it was the right thing at that time and it's not right right now and that's like a part of it too. Well, what would your advice be to someone like what's one thing that someone could do today to like Tap into and I know a lot of people tend to get hesitant to say, like they're not artists, I'm not creative enough, but I think that all of us has like this, this art inside of us is like creative voice, this thing like for me, like the wise one, like what wants to speak. What would be your way for someone to tap into that space with them themselves? Like what? What can we do to tap into our creative hearts?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think, I think journaling is like such a good way to bring out what is deep inside of you that you aren't acknowledging.
Speaker 2:I'm also, recently, a big fan of listening to frequency music and, to put on, I've really liked that, since, yeah, I like to put on like a creative frequency and just sit there in journal and like Think about, like what, just what sparks joy inside of you, like what actually gets you excited, and just like write out a few, a Few things. And if you look to through that list and like any one of them is like kind of like trying to speak at you more than the others, like Jump into it a little bit and just like Start to explore, look at work that's relevant to that, learn about it and then Start trying to find your own voice within whatever, whatever medium or outlet you fall upon.
Speaker 1:I think maybe sometimes people get stuck in the thought process a little too much and they'll get themselves trapped on like their visions being stuck in dream world. And I think that it's important, if you're, if you're trying to be creative, to Just start making something. And it's not going to be perfect, it's not going to be the best thing you've ever made, but if you start that process, then you're starting to make and your mind will start allowing you to be more creative with whatever you're trying to make. And so my advice would be just get get started and try and but like try.
Speaker 2:To be unique to you. Like maybe, maybe at the beginning, if you find somebody who you really appreciate, their style or their whatever, like it's okay to kind of emulate that to a certain extent when you're learning. But then like Make a different, change it up. Like look at inspiration from like other mediums. I I really don't like looking at work from other photographers. Very often I would much rather look at paintings or sculptures or textile art, because that Spurs so much more like unique and original inspiration in my mind than like seeing somebody else's photograph because it's just too close.
Speaker 3:It's too close, well, it's, you're opening up your mind, like you're not limiting yourself to one thing, and when you open up you like let all these other inspirations come in, and then it can speak to you in its own way, and it's amazing like the more you more inspiration you look at In all the different mediums and what not like, it will build a library of just like Textures and colors and visuals in your mind.
Speaker 1:So then it will just mix it all together when you're trying to visualize Whatever you're trying to create and if you literally kind of cut and paste from everything you see. So like the bigger the library and the bigger you build in your mind, the better I think work ends up being.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so true. There's so many things that, like we have built sets of or done shoots of, and then I hadn't thought it was really Influenced by anything that I'd seen. And then, like six months later, I'll watch a movie and be like, oh my god, that's where that doorway. That dining room table shot that's where that was in sp like and you don't even know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't even know to a certain extent you have to be like mindful of like what you're exposing your brain to, because it is picking it all of it up, so make sure you're looking at like good stuff yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, stuff that makes you happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, how can people follow you on this, like Continuing to unfold chapter that you're in? How can we stay in connection with you and support you?
Speaker 2:Well, we are pretty much on every social media channel, as at Jada and David, on Tic Tac, instagram, all the things, but we also On our website, jada and David calm. We started a blog when we are kind of diving more in depth to our thought processes behind shoots, different techniques, adventures that we're up to, so that is probably like it's kind of like our journal, I guess. So that's probably the most Intimate information out there to follow along on and.
Speaker 3:Because you are my blood, I'm going to. I have every intention of making you each come back separately for this, so I can go even deeper. Stay tuned for more of the Jada and David, because there's so much more that I can make them dig into. But really, though, you too give me some of the best advice in my life and are a lot of the voices in my head that guide me, so thanks for sharing that with so many other people.
Speaker 2:Wow thanks, Thank you.
Speaker 3:You're welcome. I went from really weird to really. If you haven't already, you should totally join the dream team. The dream team is an amazing group of listeners who support this podcast and make it possible Every month, and you can join for as little as three dollars a month. You'll support the podcast, you'll get a special handwritten postcard from yours truly and a shout out in an upcoming episode. And if you aren't able to financially support at this time, it would mean the world to me if you would consider following this podcast on your favorite streaming platform. Believing a review they make a world of difference and Sharing an episode you love with a friend, so that we can continue to learn and grow together.
