I promised I’d come back today and give you the recap of the Austin Fast Track Roadshow. If you are just tuning in (in which case I will ask you where have you been???) you can read all about my Fast Track epiphany that I posted up yesterday. It’ll catch you up to speed.

ok, so where was I yesterday????  read the book, rejoined the forums, actually started to participate in the forums. That was huge for me. If you’re a photographer you know there are like what 9,000 forums you can join to connect with other photographers in the industry. I love forums but let’s face it there’s a lot of drama that can get stirred up on them. I’m not a huge fan of drama to begin with. I live with an 8 year old girl and that’s about all the drama God equipped me to deal with. I’m a member of several different forums but until I read Dane’s book I pretty much tried to utilize them in a way that gained me as much knowledge as I thought I needed and I didn’t really participate much. There were a few I was active on but overall I had the mentality of “what can these people teach me”. That’s ok to a point. However, there comes a time when you have to realize you have something to offer and when you realize that, regardless of how big or how small you might think it is, you open yourself up to share and you start to approach the online community with a whole new perspective. It’s so apparent that this message really resonates at the FTP forums because it’s just a phenomenal group of people over there.

So, yea, I rejoined the forums and started connecting with some of the members and reviews started pouring in from the Roadshow and it as pretty amazing. It didn’t take me long to realize I had to make it happen. When Dane announced he was going to be in Austin, I screamed. For real. I promise. I was stoked!!!!!

The workshop was hosted by Studio 563. Amazing, amazing group there! Andy & Eric were the best hosts constantly making sure everyone had whatever it was we needed. It was awesome. And their space in dowtown Austin is killer. So cool.

The workshop itself was intense and fun and intense and practical and intense and comforting. Dane brought in some amazing guests for us. Top notch companies like Spilled Milk Designs. Nick is like a rockstar super designer stud man that can rock a ShowIt site like no one I’ve seen. Incredible. We also got completely set up and dialed in with ShootQ. Which could quite possibly be like THE most amazing tool ever. If you are a photographer and you are running your business without this tool I guarantee you are not even tapping into your full potential to run your business efficiently.   If there is anything you should take from this post (besides the fact that you must go to a Roadshow) it’s that you must right now purchase ShootQ for your business. Amazing. And ok, I’ll be totally honest and say it didn’t hurt Andrew & Rachel at all when I found out they are Mizzou alums. Woot! Go Tigers!

Very early on during the first day it was apparent that this was going to be an opportunity to walk away changed. If you were open to it. It was so so easy to feel at ease in that group. It was an intimate setting where you immediately knew that you were going to make connections that would impact you for a lifetime. Dane laid the ground work for that very early and reminded all of us that he was asking us to be “for each other”. It’s a resounding message that you will hear anywhere you find an FTP’er. It really is as simple as that. Once you know that you are surrounded by people that are “for you” it’s hard not to open yourself up to the possibilities of change, progress & growth. In all aspects of your life…not just your business.

There were many times you could easily have forgotten you were sitting at a photography workshop. It was that intimate and when Dane talks to you it’s like you are the only person in the room. It doesn’t matter that there are other people there listening in. He is such a genuine and caring person and you immediately sense that he’s not kidding when he says he is 100% committed to you and your business.  He just hones in on everything about you and really wants to know why you’re there and what you are looking to walk away with. His teaching technique is engaging and the content of the workshop is just straightforward and practical, good business sense that we all need to be practicing. He speaks incessantly about running your business as a business. Things we all think we are doing but that we realize we aren’t doing well. He talks to about being an invitation, about connecting and about building a business that never has to compete with any other photographer in town because your business is about YOU and honestly no one else in town can touch that!

About 1/2 way through the 2nd day I started to realize that there was no way I was walking away from this and not taking this opportunity and running with it. I could not just come home and wake up each day doing the same things I’d been doing.  It really was time for a change and Dane gave me and everyone else there the tools to implement that change and infuse our businesses and our lives with the FTP philosophy.

This is hands down the best investment I’ve made in my business thus far.  I mean, I thought it was killer that for the first time I walked away from a workshop feeling like I actually got 10x more than what I paid for and didn’t have that feeling of…”ok, that is all great but NOW WHAT?”  I actually KNOW what to do next or at least I know I’m on the right track.

So a giant thank you to Dane for just being Dane! To the Austin group who was just so incredible. I can’t wait to see everyone again and I’ll be honoring my commitment to check in on all of you this month to find out where you are on your commitments! And of course a big thanks to the Portland group who sent us all yummy desserts! I mean, really….does that stuff happen at other workshops??? Seriously!  You can check out a couple pictures on Dane’s blog.

I’m stoked at what the future holds. It’s going to be awesome to watch it unfold!