Sibling Red Shouldered Hawk is nesting in our Backyard in Roswell, Georgia. [NIKON Z 6, Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM Sports + Sigma 2.0x Teleconverter TC-2001, Mode = Manual, ISO 5600, 1/1000, ƒ/8, (35mm = 550)]

Humanity has always been connected to animals around them. Many of us have pets we feel connected to for love and support.

“Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom
    and spread its wings toward the south?

Job 39:26

Some Native American tribes’ traditions provide that each person is connected with nine different animals that will accompany him or her through life, acting as guides. Each animal is symbolic.

If you frequently see hawks in your life, it may be a call to see things from a higher perspective and focus on your observation skills. 

The Hawk is thought to represent a messenger, intuition, victory, healing, nobility, recollection, cleansing, visionary power, and guardianship.

Having a Red-Shouldered Hawk nest in our yard each year has been so much fun. Right now, during this Pandemic, it is a good distraction.

SEEING HAWKS OFTEN CAN MEAN …

• Hawks can easily reach incredible heights and touch the higher realms, heightening your spiritual awareness.
• Hawks soar high in the sky and can view life from this perspective. We need to look at the big picture and not get too wrapped up in the petty details. This might mean deepening our focus on the tasks at hand and not allowing ourselves to get distracted by the more minor details of life.
• Hawks represent leadership and taking the initiative. Hawks, take action. Maybe this is to remind us to take action.
• Hawks observe their area before taking action. You can study your situation thoroughly before making rash decisions, as every action has consequences.
• Hawks means that you are on the right path in life, and your spirit animal is there to ensure you keep on this path.

For Native Americans, hawks will show up when you need guidance from the universe and support from something beyond yourself. The hawk represents focus, strength, and poise and can show you your hidden abilities to lead yourself and others to a more positive outcome. Hawks can also help you to see the bigger picture and avoid getting caught up in the small details, so look to this powerful spirit animal the next time you need perspective on a particular situation.

Eloi DeLma pumps water while Mano Bilarga Tiendeno waits for water at the theology school in Koudougou, Burkina Faso. (Photo By: Stanley Leary)
[NIKON D2X, Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/400, ƒ/5, (35mm = 27)]

“Priming the Pump” is the operation of older pumps – a suction valve had to be primed with water so that the pump would function properly.

Priming the pump allows your customers to experience your product or service and start the buzz. You need to get people talking, hopefully in a positive way, about what you are offering.

Sales Funnel

This is the process through which a company finds, qualifies, and sells its products to buyers.

What many creatives struggle with the most is the business side of their work. While it can be very difficult and not very fun to do, it is the necessary part of getting those customers that will pay you to do what you love doing.

Don Miller of StoryBrand says that their experience is they have to work hard at building Familiarity and Trust before the prospect makes a purchase. They have found from just sending out free email content in various ways that it takes more than 80 of these before a customer makes a purchase.

I think this is why the funnel shape is so great for the visual person. It is large at one end and small at the other. You must do a lot of work to get that one client.

For someone like myself, it is getting examples of my work and how it helped other businesses in front of prospects.

One Campaign

Here is the video that helped this restaurant during the pandemic. I shared this with my prospective audience. But I needed another way to get this content in front of them.

I then did a blog post talking about what I did to give a peak into the process. [Click here to see that post]

Still, I needed to be sure I got in front of the client with more “Free Content” to give them a sample of what I do.

Then I did an “e-mail blast” to be sure they didn’t miss the blog post.

Remember what Don Miller said. He had to do more than 80 of these interactions before the prospect became a client.

I then thought can’t the prospect see how great these videos are for small businesses. I believe more and more that you must connect the dots for your prospects. I then decided to go back to the restaurant and find out how the video helped them.

I did another video capturing their comments and review. I was not just happy about their comments but blown away by how much they helped them.

I did this same process many times and plan to continue doing this to get my name out as well as what I can do for companies to improve their sales and for nonprofits to increase their giving.

I shared the original video of I Canita Cake and then followed up with the review video and posted it on my blog.

I am also posting these links on all the social media I can think of that would be helpful to those audiences.

If you are a communications colleague of mine I hope this inspires you to work on your sales funnel. If you are a prospect, please consider partnering with me so together we can help you work on your sales funnel by using storytelling as a way to engage your audience.

Paul Tiendeno at the theology school in Koudougou, Burkina Faso. They not only teach theology but farming to help the pastors feed their families while they minister as bi-vocational pastors. (Photo By: Stanley Leary)
[NIKON D2X, 18.0-50.0 mm f/2.8, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 100, 1/320, ƒ/5, (35mm = 27)]

I am thinking about Chauncey Gardiner, the main character in Jerzy Kosinski’s classic novel, “Being There.” He said, “As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden. … There is much to be done during the winter, I must start the seeds for the spring, I must work the soil.”

Right now I am making the most of my time by doing projects to show my skills in storytelling.

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

2 Corinthians 9:6

Every day I wake up and look for something I can do. One of the ways I have been keeping myself busy was doing videos to help businesses and organizations message out about what they are doing during this pandemic.

While the actual amount of time will depend on your business and circumstances, for a small to medium-sized business, a strong content marketing strategy generally takes between six and nine months to yield real results. I have also heard six to eighteen months as well as a realistic time to see a return on your investment.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

I am reminded through scripture that throughout history you can only do what you can control, your actions. You cannot be a puppet master and control others or God. You do what you can and must realize much is out of your hands.

I am doing videos to help my neighbors in Roswell, GA. These are my seeds.

What are your seeds? Are you working in your garden?

Here are a few videos I have done this past week.

Mendel Rashi, a Hungarian Jewish homeless gentleman who couldn’t quite remember his age, was headed to a Kroger store in Atlanta where he planned to sleep in a corner outside as protection from the cold weather. He likes to spend his days being free to roam with his carts of ‘silver and gold’ treasures. He has but four teeth and isn’t able to eat much except soft fruit, especially bananas. photo by © Robin Rayne/ZUMA PRESS

To minimize the risk of infection, photojournalist Robin Rayne is equipped with masks and gloves, in addition to disinfecting all the photographic equipment he carries on a daily basis. In search of stories, Robin has been on duty in visiting those on the fringes of society. Robin knows many journalists are covering the “Front Lines”, but he sees the need to show those who often fall through the cracks during crisis are not forgotten.

1 Corinthians 15:8-10 

8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Most of the stories I see from Robin make me say “there but for the grace of God go I.”

Every story must have a conflict and with Robin’s camera he puts that conflict front and center. The photos will be in your face and make you “Feel” and not just “See” the story.

While Robin has been looking for stories to do on those who often fall through the cracks, I have been looking for people and businesses to tell their story during this pandemic. I decided to tell Robin’s story. Here is a video I did on Robin.

Do you know of a nonprofit or business that is in a crisis due to this pandemic? Tell them about how I can help them get their story in front of their audience.

Take a look at the other videos I have done for businesses to help them tell what they are doing during this pandemic. Consider passing my information on to them.

Maybe you want to donate to me to do more stories like this one here.

Go here and there is more information for you.

Horse is a basketball shooting game where players take turns shooting at the hoop from different locations. If someone makes a shot but everyone else misses, those people get a letter toward the word ‘HORSE‘. The last person left standing wins! In photography we have shoot outs. Where we all are shooting the same subject at the same time.

There are events where people are not just interested in posting a picture for the fun of it, but need a hug. They need affirmation.

During the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference speaker Scott Kelby joked, “You go to Flickr for a hug.” The whole room started laughing and knew exactly what Scott was talking about.

You see all photographers love to have people respond to their photos.

So yesterday in Atlanta we had a joint effort from the Navy and the Air Force is part of multiple flyovers across the nation called America Strong — a “collaborative salute” to honor healthcare workers, first responders, and other essential workers as they combat COVID-19.

Before the event I was asked in an online chat with Zoom of other photographers where the best place to photograph them would be. Well, this is a clue that photographers all want a shot at getting an iconic image if possible and frankly to “Get A Hug”. To do this online you just look for those “LIKES”.

When it comes to likes on your photos my wife has me beat. She posted her photos on 11 Alive Weather group page. On this page as of writing this post she had 296 LIKES.

I gave her one of my cameras to shoot during the fly over. So Dorie shot the photos with the Nikon Z6 and the Nikon 28-300mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 lens. I set the camera up for her to shoot at the fastest shutter speed of 1/8000 and Auto ISO.

I did get likes on my Facebook and Instagram pages for the photos.

This was the one comment that made my day. It was my “Virtual Hug” .

I like it when someone notices something that I did that made my images “Different”. Notice I didn’t say “Better”.

Nikon Ambassador Dave Black changed my perspective on always trying to improve my photography. He opened my perspective by this one comment. Look for something “Different” not necessarily “Better”. Dave had discovered through his career that when something is “Different” the audience will stop and look.

So earlier this year I went to the Krog Street Tunnel in Atlanta with my daughter Chelle. I had just bought the Flashpoint XPlor 600 HSS TTL monolights. We had fun playing around and looking for something “Different”.

It is easier to stand out by not shooting what everyone else photographs.

What I had hoped to get with the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds was them passing the King and Queen, but the location I picked didn’t have the advantage point I thought it had. Rather than spending time driving to look for a better angle, I just stayed put.

By the way once you go pro everyone expects you to have awesome photos, so you get less likes, unless you really get that “Different” photo that Dave Black talked about.

An unemployment rate of 23% translates into a good chance you or many you know are without a job.

First I can help you with a headshot, so contact me if that is a need of yours. I can do so with ways to keep you safe.

All the reasons I like to see a person’s headshot is the same reason employers want to see it.

What I discovered

For the past few days, I have been going through my contacts and updating them. One thing I like to do is put a photo with a contact to help remind me of someone. I have for example a few people with the same name.

If I didn’t already have a photo I went through profile photos on social media and especially on LinkedIn. Now after doing this for a few days I found myself getting upset with the photos or lack of photos I was finding.

What is annoying

No Photo

No photo is super annoying. I cannot now see if I remember you from my past. Positively think of this. You had a good connection with someone and they cannot remember you because they have no photo to go by.

You need a photo if you are looking for a job. It helps separate you from the pack of all those people without a photo.

Bad Photo

There are so many ways you can screw this one up that I will just use some of my photos to give you some idea of what I and you have seen online as well.

Your face is too dark and not easily recognizable.

Where’s Waldo?

Which person are you in the photo? By the way that is me in the back. An employer will not know who you are in this scenario.

Microscope Stan

So many people don’t like the way they look that they have a photo, but they are so far away that you need a microscope to find them in the photo.

Photo you took, but not You

This is a problem with many creatives, they think that their work should be in their profile photo. No!!! There are other places to show your work when looking for a job than your profile photo.

Using an Old Photo of yourself

Don’t use old photos of yourself. Use a current photo.

Popular with photographers but not good for getting job

Don’t block your face with a camera or anything else for that matter. Let us see who you are.

Tips To Do!

This is the one time in your life you need a professional headshot. If you cannot get one done right away, then do everything you can to get someone to take one of you.

Be sure there is ample light on your face. We need to see your face.

Get close and fill the frame with your head or crop to fill the frame later. You should get close when taking the photo, so the photo doesn’t pixelate or look grainy because of having to crop.

Solid background is the best.

Outside works great, but be sure the background isn’t distracting. I think shallow depth-of-field works best.

Just a couple of reminders.

• The Psychology of How First Impressions Are Formed. So we’ve established that on average it takes about 7 seconds to form a first impression.
• People use photos to help them in putting a face to the name. You want to be rememberable.
• Eighty-seven percent of recruiters use LinkedIn as part of their recruiting process.
• Adding a professional photo to your LinkedIn profile is key to boosting your visibility on the site. In fact, LinkedIn says that you’ll get 21 times more profile views with a picture than without one.
• Choose something recent that shows what you look like now—not 10 years ago.

Try this tool to analyze your photo and give you tips to fix it.

Snappr Photo Analyzer (free if you vote on others’ profile pictures) uses image recognition and machine learning technologies to score your profile photo and provide recommendations for how to improve it. If your favorite picture gets a bad score, Snappr gives you the information you need to take a better shot.

Give me a call and let’s get you a great headshot so you can find the perfect job for you.

My post on Facebook

After I posted this on Facebook group I had an immediate Business Question and the response was, “This is useful and constructive”. So first here is what I posted with the question and followup below.

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“At least 50% increase in customers who had no idea who we were because of the video.”

I am following up on each video I have done for businesses during the past few weeks. These were done to help them stay in business and navigate the “New Normal” with their clients.

Listen to Canita in her own words:

Watch the video that increased her new customers by 50% here:

Facebook Photo Business Private Group

Photographer Patrick Fallon asked:

So this seems relevant for a lot of photogs who are trying to scrounge up work right now and know local restaurants that are struggling etc. How did you go about putting this together? Did they approach you? Did you pitch them? What sort of budget and terms on payment? I imagine a lot of businesses are cash strapped so how you navigated that would be good to know. Barter? Thanks

My Response

I know from my training as a social worker and then for the past 35+ years of covering disasters for all types of media outlets that acts of kindness are magnified in my opinion ten fold or more during a crisis.

This means that if you were new to the neighborhood and I brought some cookies by to welcome you that would be considered generous and even memorable. However, if I came by while you are cleaning up after a tornado and I offered you a hot meal – the emotional impact is far greater and memorable.

For the past 12 years I have been on retainer with Chick-fil-A as a communications consultant for their corporate communications team. I got to know Truett Cathy a little and one of the things I learned that made them so successful was the concept of giving with no strings attached.

I really felt bad for my friends that I did business with for many years. I didn’t really have the finances to give them money, but I could give my best and that was my skills as a storyteller.

After a few of these I learned that budgets were cut for the foreseeable future with most of my clients. This is when I decided not to change so much helping businesses, but to just let people know that if they needed help with their business to contact me.

This is when I realized that the initial video wasn’t enough. I needed these testimonials to help those in crisis know they could really use my help to market themselves during these turbulent times.

So as I was doing these I realized I was pivoting. I was still wanting to help my neighbor and if I put strings onto the gift to them, then it really wasn’t a gift. I needed to be transparent and real. This is who I am and not everyone else can do this.

I am playing chess and not checkers here. I am seeing the long game.

All the restaurants gave us food, which we accepted. We never asked for it.

I think pricing going forward will be more like a sliding scale right now for businesses. I may even setup a Gofundme for people to contribute to me doing this for other businesses.

I do think we may have to take less, because they truly are taking a huge risk spending any money when most everyone has made huge cuts already.

Here are all the videos I have done for my town, the testimonials and even one video I did to talk about doing this for businesses.

Stanley setting up and interviewing Chiropractor Dr. Charlie Weiss of Holcomb Bridge Chiropractic in Rowell, Georgia. photo by Dorie L. Griggs

Who better to talk about getting adjusted than a chiropractor? Dr. Charlie Weiss has been helping people who for the most part have had the world stress them out in some way come to him for an adjustment.

There are a few things Dr. Weiss wants you to know about his new procedures going forward. Listen to him in his own words.

Do you have customers who will need to interact with your business in a new way. Give me a call and let’s do a video for you to help get the word out and hopefully make people feel safe about coming to your business.

Many creatives are more interested in their own creative process than if what they produced actually engages the audience and produces an increase in sales.

WHY?

I cannot emphasize enough how no matter what you are doing for a business, the question has always got to be “Why are you doing such and such?”

No matter what I am producing for a business customer, I must know how this is going to help them increase their sales.

For more than 12 years I have been helping Chick-fil-A. What I have been doing for those twelve years? Founder of Chick-fil-A S. Truett Cathy said to all his employees, “If you are not selling chicken then you better be helping someone that is.”

How do you know if you are helping a business increase their sales? Ask the customer.

So, this week I went back and interviewed Mark Wegman, the co-owner of Adele’s on Canton in Roswell, GA. I wanted to know how well the video we did a couple weeks ago to sell more food. Listen to Mark here in this video.

Here are some photos Dorie Griggs, my wife, took of me setting up and interviewing Mark.

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Now if you missed the original video that I posted here is that video so you can see what we did to help Adele’s on Canton flourish during these difficult days of “Safe Distancing” we live in.

When you look for help to make your business thrive in today’s climate be sure and hire someone who can help you craft your message as well as get it out on social media for you. Call me.

For the foreseeable future many of us are going to be in virtual meetings on software like Zoom.

First get prepared before the meeting. Open Zoom (https://zoom.us/). If you are invited someone will send you a link. Just follow those instructions. Go to their website if you want to host meeting.

Once you have it on your computer open the Zoom App and you should see something like this.

Then go to the top left and under Zoom click on “preferences’

That will open this screen

We want to go to three of the icons on the left to be sure you are ready.

You can see now in the screen what everyone else will see. You can see my settings here. Those are the defaults. You can change them if you think you need to do so. The great thing is you can test all this out before anyone sees this during your meeting.

The next HUGE thing to check on the left is Audio.

You can be sure that the speaker and microphone settings are setup correctly.

I use wireless USB headphones [Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones WHCH700N] that have a microphone built into them. Great for many reasons, but I just select them from the pull down menu for speaker and microphone. Then I test my talking and adjust the microphone. I usually just play some music to test the speaker level.

I recommend sitting near a window with your face pointed to the window.

DON’T HAVE BACK TO WINDOW

I would even recommend putting some lights shining on your face as I have done here.

For $49.95 you can get this small LED light by Lume Cube to use.

“Virtual Background”

Now that you look good and sound good, you need to look into changing your background during the meeting.

Go back to the preferences and click on “Virtual Background”

You can pick anyone of those backgrounds that came with the software or you can create your own.

This is where I went and created my own background. You could just substitute your room for another one.

I wanted to try to promote my brand throughout so I created this background. I recommend using 2,880 x 1,800 for the dimensions.

My first attempt I had all the contact information at the bottom, but I quickly realized my body will block most of it. I wanted the background to work with me in front of it.

So this is what everyone was seeing while I am on zoom. The great thing on these calls is you may need to step away. Well your image you created becomes that “Billboard” during the meeting.

So this is how I looked this morning during the meeting to everyone else.

If you are on a long virtual meeting, maybe you have a few backgrounds ready to go to mix things up. I noticed when people change their backgrounds people are not just noticing, they comment.

I you need a Zoom Meeting Background created I can do that for you. You send me your logo and other graphics you have and for $20 I will create you a custom background to use.

I believe that when we are allowed to slowly start leaving our homes, business will no longer be the same. I put this video together to send out to my community to hopefully let people know how important it is to communicate to their customer base.

What are some ways you think someone with my skills can help businesses and organizations going forward? Send me an email and let me know your idea.

Here is the full interview of Bob White in his own words.

Photo above is from Honduras Outreach at Estabian Olancho in Honduras. [X-E2, XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS, Mode = Aperture Priority, ISO 6400, 1/60, ƒ/4, (35mm = 83)]

Today our world is suffering like no other time in my lifetime. For Christians we are celebrating today the day that Jesus Christ arose from the dead.

Last night Dorie and I joined our Jewish friends for a Zoom Virtual Seder meal. The significance of the meal is to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

This morning Dorie said that today still feels like Saturday for Christians celebrating Easter. We are still living in the Pandemic and the numbers are still climbing in cases, those going to hospitals and sadly the death toll as well.

I have been thinking a lot today of those I have met around the world and how they will be celebrating Easter isolated and no longer gathering in churches to celebrate.

Christians re-tell the story of Christ and the empty tomb.

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I am also reminded of the hospitals I have visited and the prayer that is happening today is them. Most all of them do not have ventilators. Just imagine that much of the world if they get COVID-19 and need to be hospitalized and need a ventilator the best they can do is have someone hand press on a bag.