Episode 222: If You Can See The Stars At Night . . . with Master Photographer Seth Resnick

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com forward/webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind.

I'm with master photographer Seth Resnick. And if you're looking for adventure in your life and you have a Nikon or I don't know what cameras are hardy enough to go up there anymore, I know it used to be the Nikon of the Canon dslr. On these trips to Antarctica and Iceland and around the world, you're going to want to find Seth Resmick to take you because it would be one thing for the adventure, it'd be another thing for the life changing. Not only photography information, pictures you bring back, but I mean, in terms of a personal growth thing. Seth, you know, people are looking for life coaches and things like that. And I think people ought to get off their ass and do something and, you know, and stop talking to some dumbass who's, you know, got a certificate as a life coach, has never done anything themselves and get out there, you know, find something you want to do. And if it's photography, get your butt in a plane over to meet Seth somewhere and go spend time and have an adventure and learn something. That's where people learn crap. And so talk about doing that and these places and how it changed your life when you started these traveling workshops.

I have a company with my dear friend and business partner, John Paul Caponegro. It's called Digital Photo Destinations. Digitalphotodestinations.com DPD and we run workshops around the world. Photo workshops. And when I say workshop, I mean it because we do not run photo tours.

Right?

We are going to take you to some amazing location. Oh, this is the classic postcard. Take out your 28 millimeter lens and your tripod and set it up this way and this will look like the postcard.

And here's this. And use this setting.

We're going to take you to location. Before you get there, we're going to ask you why do you want to go and what does it mean to you and what is it that you want to convey? And most people go, I don't know. That's why I want to go. Well, then that gives you a lot to think about. And I can summarize it with a story, won't say the name, but a Photographer who done probably six workshops with us, very talented and beautiful light. And they were all of vacant Barnes. And you've sort of seen that genre of theme, right? And this person is very good at it and wanted a real critique from JP&I. And we both said to this person, okay, so we've seen some of your beautiful barns. Okay, pretty soon we're gonna start yawning. If you like a different color barn from a different state or a different country, what's the point? We know what the images are up. What are they about, right? And in the middle of a class, all of a sudden, this person bursts out in tears, runs out of the room. I looked at jp, JP looked, looked at me. I said, I know this person pretty well. And I went up, gave him a big hug, and I thought I heard the phone ring. My gut was a parent died or something like that, right? And then this person looks at me and with the tears pouring down the face, this big smile comes up. And so it's a woman. And she says, it just hit me what my images are of. And it just hit me, more importantly, what they're about. And she said, I was an orphan. All the empty barns came from. And I'm okay, so from here on out, I'm going to put little things or concepts into a window in the barn. And her work took off like that. And I mean, instantly she went from like an everyday artist into. Into an artist with a real genre and a real name. But suddenly it took that long of self reflection for her to understand not what her images were of, but what they're about. And everybody that comes on a workshop with us, we expect that they're gonna. They're gonna be able to really look at a location. And yes, they're beautiful locations. And whether it's New Zealand or Antarctica or the Arctic or Namibia. But what's important to me isn't necessarily important to you. So what is it important to you? And how do you want to convey that visually? And how do you want to take that theme and make it so that people recognize your work? And again, whether you're. Take a glassblower, take Chihuly, right? There are a million people that blow glass. Yet if you know his work, it is unmistakable. And he was one of the prolific. I mean, the guy must have 10 million pieces of glass, and every single one of them has his name on it without having to know it. You look at a Van Gogh, you know it's Van Gogh. You look at a Rembrandt from the lighting you know, it's a Rembrandt. You look at sculpture, and there's all kinds of things where the signature is clear without having to read it.

Right.

That's the goal. No matter what it is that you do, and in this case, photography, I want people to be able to see my work and recognize it as mine. Not just because visually it looks that way, because the soul of what it represents is apparent. And you feel that.

Yeah. And for those who didn't catch it, Chiluli. You spelled that. C H, I, L, U.

That's close.

Something like that. What is it?

Yes, it's like C H, I, U, L, L, I, Y or something.

There you go. Okay. Close enough. You guys can figure it out on your own. And so the. What happens on these projects are these trips. What happened to you personally? Let's just say what surprised you personally, because there's. It's not.

I can.

I.

Growing up in hardcore journalism, when traveling with the President, all this kind of stuff I used to say. And again, I think having a vision statement, no matter what, is important. But my vision statement used to start out with that. I enjoy breaking personal space. And the idea of breaking personal space. So the person very apparent. You.

You.

You come to a point where suddenly you're intruding on their space, and that's where you capture the energy. And I was in South America, and I'm photographing a rock, and I stop and I start laughing. I'm like, this guy isn't talking back, and there is no personal space. But I realized there wasn't energy. And I changed my words from breaking into personal space into entering the energy, my subject. And it was so enlightening to be able to come up with words to describe what it is you do and what you feel.

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business that's accrued over $5 billion.

In assets under management and.

And has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar. Now, I've compressed a decade of learning.

Into five short weeks.

Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others.

Move up, it was finding those words.

That allowed me to go there, and.

I've noticed that myself. When you're out there and you're taking a picture of a leaf A tree, you know, some little scene that doesn't seem to be that special, but you realize. But you're giving it attention that no one else in the world would have given it, you know, and highlighting that.

Out, you know, there's an excellent way to test it that everybody can do. Almost everybody. If you can see the stars at night, and that's why I said, right, yeah. Where you are in Aspen, you can get it. You get. Go outside, look up, and you may have seen the stars every night of your life, but you go out and you look up and you're mesmerized. And literally, you feel a sense of power. You feel enlightenment. You feel this happiness. Now try to photograph that and go ahead, point up to the sky, and it just looks like a bunch of little dots, and it's exactly we saw. But what you're missing is the energy, Right? Go watch a sunset or a sunrise, and it's magnificent. And you feel it. Take a picture of it. It's just another sunrise or another sunset. What's missing is that energy that we get to feel as a human. We actually get to feel that energy with a lot of subjects. For me, it was learning how to capture that. How do I take that amazing sense of this. This wonderful concept, and how do I translate that into something that I can physically capture and show to someone else?

Well, and it changes you. I mean, if that energy comes into you and it affects your viewpoint.

You.

Know, it's like a filter in your mind. You know, once you've seen that, it's going to impact how you interpret other things. And even if you're not in photography, folks, the point is, why I'm so big with these workshops and these experiences is it's like a project you got to learn by doing in life, and you got the more things you can expose yourself to that have some appeal, you know, you probably don't pick the worst places in the world to go to. These places probably have. They probably speak to you before you get there. I'm guessing, Seth, and that's what I'm saying to people, like whatever speaks to you, you know, like, if you want to do Habitat for Humanity or something, you want to do, you know, feed, you know, bunch of, you know, you have the idea, you want to get in a project of feeding people or, you know, you know, you have guys that go out there and fix bikes for homeless or something for kids. What's that?

You go on a million dates and have a million times a day finding that one person that brings you where you connect and you have total happiness. That's a different story. Yeah, all this is finding that story that relates to you, the story that speaks to you is a story that allows you to carry yourself and go further and excel.

What do you have to do to people are there when you get in the. I'm sure you're trying to push people out of their comfort zone. Not necessarily comfort zone, but their mental restrictions, you know, and it's like, what do you do when you. You get somebody? They're just, you know, they're all wrapped up like that.

We keep on drilling in. I know what the pictures of now. What's it about? Yeah, back to the drawing board. Tell me basically, what is this about?

Right? And people can do that in their own lives right now. It's like asking yourself, what are you spending time on? Who are you spending time with? And what's that all about? Are these really the people? Are these really the projects? Are these really the places that.

You.

Know, you want to be spending your life on right now? What. What is it about? And why are you doing that? And the same. This is not some esoteric concept that applies to photography or art alone.

Clearly, you're out skiing. There's one thing to go skiing in Massachusetts on a little. Right. Something else is going to ask me something else to go out of bounds on a morning with beautiful snow or yearning up to here, and it's awesome. And, you know, you tell somebody who's on the bunny slope, I had a great day. I'm sure you did, but I went someplace that was different and go someplace internally that's different, that really takes it someplace. Has to be the starting point for success all along.

Absolutely. And if I was on your. Let's just say you had someone and they're on the verge, you know, they got to get off the fence. How do you speak to that? You know, one thing is to show. Show them examples of what other people have done and, you know, show examples.

I'd say. I'd say show me a portfolio. But before you answer that, I don't want to see 10 good pictures because anyone can produce 10 good pictures. I want to see a theme, and you've carried through and made a statement, and it doesn't have to be finished. I want to know what's missing. I want to know what you have, and I want to know where you want it to go in the future. Now we have an idea and a concept of what to focus on. And that, again, can apply to literally anything you want to do in life.

And how, how are you looking at your life right now? What are you most excited about as your next projects once you get that, you know, you're, I, I think you're taking off on another one.

I couldn't go to Antarctica this year because of COVID Yeah. Building Antarctica in my backyard. I'm building an flat with a 12 person ice cave and glass that's cast as ice and the whole nine yards. And it will be ready for prime time at some point in the next few months.

I'm gonna have to come over and see it. I'll be back in a couple of months. And so you're building Antarctica in your backyards?

Absolutely.

Okay. So I guess the perfect gift for that would be a penguin. Yeah, maybe a family of penguins. Well, thanks so much, Seth. This has been fantastic. I appreciate you opening up and I just envy all of those that are able to get involved on some of these trips and hear this from get to know Seth and John Paul as friends as well as photography advisors and counselors and mentors. And you know, it will add adventure that you've beyond what you expect right now. You need to, if you have any hope, any thought of doing that, get over to DPD.com is that right? Digitalphotodestinations.com digitalphotodestinations.com and let yourself look at it. But the thing is, life is out there and you got to expose yourself to it. You don't know how great you can be and it may open up the door in another area because you meet a lot of interesting people on these trips too. So thanks so much for sharing and I just wish you the best and know that's going to happen. And don't be surprised if you get a phone call from me and I want to come over and check the progress on Antarctica. All right. Yeah, I like that too. I'll bring my skis. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Larry.

See you. Bye.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works you in the real world. I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to whiteellawinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible, I'm Larry Wydell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.