Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Cut the Tie podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Thomas Helfrich, and I'm on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success. And today we're joined by Michael Parks. Michael, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2: 0:25

no-transcript. I caught it on a flyworm and the funny thing about it is I said okay, I got an appointment, this is my last cast and as soon as I did the last cast, bam. I got hit by like almost a five pounder.

Speaker 1: 0:41

What's a flyworm?

Speaker 2: 0:42

I'm not sure I know what that one is, so it's basically a worm that you throw in, and once you start reeling at assertive speed, the tail starts spinning. In the end, is it a real one? It's about two and a half inches. Three inches Is that a Senko?

Speaker 1: 0:57

Senko makes it. Yeah, seven to a Senko, correct. So what people don't realize? A little fishing advice early in the in the podcast here. This needs to make the cut, for you don't need a huge ass lure to catch a big fish, and actually they eat more little things and it's harder for them to distinguish. It's not real, correct, absolutely Correct. It's true, cause you'll catch a lot more fish that way too, instead of just trying to anyway. Um, I'll leave this one story, by the way. I used a small lure one time when I was a kid, like a tiny little Rapala, and I caught like a half a pound bass, like that one-year bass. Yes, I was about to pull it up. The mama came and ate it and I pulled up like a seven-pounder out of the little bass and I'm like, look, dad, I caught two. Wow, yeah, I mean, right before I did a key moment, I went hum-chum sharked it.

Speaker 2: 1:46

I wish we had cameras back then on our phones. Where we can you know? But that was before our time.

Speaker 1: 1:56

That would be. We needed a GoPro because I was about to go grab that bass and a giant ass bass came and ate it. It was fun. Anyway, mr Michael Parks, take a moment to introduce yourself and your business.

Speaker 2: 2:02

Yes, yes yes, Well, my name is Michael Parks. I am the owner and founder of Daystar Photography. I'm Atlanta-based, Tampa-based, Orlando-based and basically what I do is I have a subject matter expert in the areas of event photography. I travel around doing nothing but almost veteran events across the country. I do some weddings here and there, but mostly events veterans and branding and consulting when it comes to their businesses and their websites.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Wow, I guess we just had on from Big Guns Coffee T Shane, okay, brain, unbelievable story in life and what he's done. So, anyway, definitely check him out. I'll connect you guys. But anyway, holy cow, the Big Guns. So anyway, definitely check him out. I'll connect you guys. But anyway, holy cow, the big guns. He holds, I think, a world record for the most pushups in one hour and 12 or 12 hours, which is like 19,000 in one hour, or 3000 in one hour, 19,000 in 12. It's some incredible number. Well, I probably can do five in one hour, so most people don't get up out of bed that many times in a lifetime. Absolutely right, absolutely right. What makes your like? There's a lot of photography companies out there. What?

Speaker 2: 3:14

makes yours specifically unique? Well, I think what makes mine unique is that I try to center my photography around veterans, veteran entrepreneurs and their families. A lot of times when you go to these photography expos, you have hundreds of photographers, thousands of different vendors of the name brand of photography business there, but you never see any military personnel, any veteran personnel around. So what I did was I got tired of going to these shows and expos and not having anybody having any representation of veterans. So I said, OK, I'm going to start catering my business around veterans, starting to showcase the veterans and their families, their businesses, their companies, the uniform, the American flag, and just show America that hey, we have great veterans that's doing great things out here, their business, and this is a way to give back and show America what veterans can do.

Speaker 1: 4:05

I love that. That is unique too, because you have a perspective. The uniqueness is in the perspective, right, that current note is going to be important to them and how to and, I think, powerful as an iPhone or a Samsung or whatever else is you can't. A really good photographer knows how to get it right. It's not when it's a professional photo.

Speaker 2: 4:22

Correct, correct. And I love it when I'm traveling around to different places and some people say, hey, my cell phone take just as good as pictures as your $5,000 Nikon, and I'm like I don't think so. But you know what? I do have to give the camera companies or the phone companies a little credit. They have upgraded their phones. They take, personally, great pictures.

Speaker 2: 4:42

But I tell all my veterans that I'm working with when it comes to branding, you're going to need those pictures to pop. You're going to need when people go to your websites. They're going to be like, oh my God, and they're going to know that those aren't cell phone pictures. So always just invest in yourself and I work with all my veterans, all my veterans entrepreneurs. I work with them. I don't charge them tremendous prices that commercial companies charge them, you know. I always let them know. Hey, I'm a veteran too. I work on the budget also, and I know you may be working on the budget, so I want to work with you. So that's what actually helps my business move forward along further than other businesses.

Speaker 1: 5:16

You know we at least do Charmé on here who helps veterans. I think you know Lisa, and so I love her. Thing is, like I never thought about it is don't transition to become a civilian transition as a veteran. Correct, be a veteran. And I love that because, like it's like, why be something you're not? You are a veteran, so be it.

Speaker 2: 5:39

Stop fighting that I'm not saying you should be walking around busting in doors and doing some urban sweeps, but I'm saying yeah. And then actually, I've actually had so many conversations with a lot of veterans that on their websites it says nothing about their veteran, it doesn't highlight being a veteran. And I and I just talked to say, listen, you're a veteran, be proud of it. You know, hey, wear your t-shirt. You know, let people know that, hey, I serve my country. And you know, other people serve their countries in different ways, but this is the path that you chose. Let them know. You know, so I've, I've, I've got a lot of veterans. I would say over the last six, seven years, maybe over a hundred veterans. They've actually put that on their website now veteran owned business, veteran owned company and and their business have grown since then.

Speaker 1: 6:20

It would, because you'd be loyal to the experience. But I, I, there's an unwritten rule, guys. If it would, because you'd be loyal to the experience, but I, I, there's an unwritten rule, guys. If you see someone says a veteran shirt on it's, unsaid normally, but they, you probably have a shirt that says it should have fafo, and so it's fuck around and find out, right and so, and so any veteran, you should know there's a fafo right there on it. Go, don't mess with them, like they. Like they're gonna turn on like listen, I'm looking for a reason to get medieval on somebody right now and you, you, you mess around a little bit. You're that's my thoughts like, listen, they, they've been through shit I, I'm actually.

Speaker 2: 6:53

I was in the mall one day and I saw a. I saw a veteran and back then they used the acronym whack where where she was a veteran during World War II and she was a nurse and on her t-shirt it says I'm a WAC veteran from World War II what's your superpower? And I said I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it, my grandma was a candy striper.

Speaker 1: 7:20

I just want you to know that. And so and she was the toughest human I've ever met 100% I was like you could not mess around with her. I did that verse and your journey, so you've had a crazy good journey of life. It sounds like you're you know for the audience. I've met Michael and he's a good dude, so I want you to give some people a perspective of your journey and, along the way, what was the biggest tie you had to cut to find success.

Speaker 2: 7:45

Well, just a little bit about myself. Born and raised in Atlanta, my mom was an old school preacher and I was raised a certain type of way and once I graduated high school I joined the Air Force. So three days after high school I left for the Air Force and that threw me into a whole different arena of the way of thinking, the way I see things and how things are in the bigger world. You know exclusive to where I'm from and I had a great adventure in the Air Force. I was a cop, I was a canine handler, I worked with canines, I did a lot of traveling, a lot of TDYs down range with explosive bomb dogs, and then I transitioned from the military. So my first year out of the military I worked for the post office. So while I was working at the post office I knew from the first day when I took my tour in the plant that we worked in that this is not what I want to be doing for 20, 30 years. So I was still young, I was like 27, 28 years old and unfortunately, 9-11 had just happened. So I made an oath and said, hey, I need to get back out in the fight and I need to go back and start serving my country again. So immediately I applied to become a federal air marshal. So once I became a federal air marshal rather than 9-11, I did that for 22 years, so I would say about 10 years ago, my mother actually bought me a kit Nikon camera from from Sam's Cup so I fell in love with it. I was so, I loved it so much. So what I did was, everywhere I went I took that camera with me. While I was traveling overseas at the air marshals from country to country, I had my camera in my bag. But when I was going from city to city united states I had my camera in my bag and I'm just taking pictures everywhere I go. And a lot of my buddies used to tease me, say, man, you might as well just go to school and become a photographer. And I was like, oh, don't correct me, yeah, okay. So I had a conversation with my mom and she was like hey, use your GI Bill. And I was like, oh, I do have GI Bill money.

Speaker 2: 9:40

So during the daytime here I'm an air marshal, secret squirrel fighting for the government, traveling all over the world, and at night I was in night school and I went to the Art Institute of Atlanta for commercial photography. So I did that for like seven months and just sucked it all in and learned what I learned all the fundamentals of photography. And then I started moonlighting on the side and my first big moonlighting gig was with the Atlanta Public School System. I was one of their contract photographers. So during the daytime I would go in early. If my flight came back into Atlanta anytime between 2 or 3 pm I would leave and go straight to one of the schools, do whatever projects they want me to do and then at night go home and process the pictures. So I was basically moonlighting, going back and forth, just shooting photography, shooting photography.

Speaker 2: 10:28

And I think my biggest break was when the Syracuse University Daniello Institute for Military and Veteran Family hired me as their contract photographer. That elevated my business to another level, because now I'm traveling shooting conferences two-day conferences, three-day conferences, four-day conferences all across the US and I'm meeting hundreds and hundreds of veterans at each conference. So I'm hearing all these stories about their struggles and what they need to help grow and scale their businesses. I'm hearing about some of their failures where they had to switch and pivot to another company because this company didn't work, and I'm just learning from all that. I'm just learning that, hey, these are some things that I need to start implementing in my business so that way I won't go through these shortfalls. So while I'm meeting these veterans, I'm explaining to them, and not only am I learning, but I'm also teaching them what works for me, what has helped me.

Speaker 2: 11:19

So the biggest thing that I take away and I tell people all the time is that you've got to be patient. One of my mottos that I've learned is that delay is not denial. I've always said that delay is not denial, so I tell people think about it. In the military we was always taught that we have a mission, we know what our goal is, go out and conquer and we'll see you when you get back. If something happens in between that, you pivot as fast as you can, get back on track and go out and conquer, complete the mission. But in entrepreneurship it's the total opposite. Sometimes you got to be patient and ride those waves. So as soon as the little storm come, you can't pivot. You have to stay on track, because it's just like the market goes up and it comes down. But you got to be patient.

Speaker 2: 12:05

So once I started to adjust my mentality on being patient and not trying to pivot every time a storm comes, like, for example, we had COVID and guess what it did?

Speaker 2: 12:14

It shut down the world.

Speaker 2: 12:16

So I had to pivot on that immediately.

Speaker 2: 12:18

So the biggest thing that I had to pivot on is that when COVID shut everything down, there was over three million American families that had seniors that couldn't take senior pictures because the country was shut down. So what I did was I started putting out ads and start advertising in my neighborhood hey, take all your juniors, let's bring them in and let me come out and do this senior picture so you can have them for next year. Because in case something this happens, then guess what, you have this in your pictures. And it was. It was just a pivot moment at the time, but I stayed patient and I got to the point where I actually had to pivot away from that because I was getting too many clients and it was taken away from me and my personal job. But that's just one of the ways that I've learned. And then I took that information back to a lot of my other colleagues, veteran colleagues and say, hey, let's have a, two and three pivot points to your business where, in case something happened, learn how to pivot.

Speaker 1: 13:17

So, on the journey, what would you call the tie? Though you had to cut the most, Is it around patients?

Speaker 2: 13:24

I would say I had to cut local people that I was shooting out of my business or scale back Because I noticed within a month I would shoot 60 local personnel whether it's birthday parties or personal events at this amount of money money. And then when I noticed that once I go out and do a photography gig three days in Nashville, I would triple that what I made with just half of those 60 people. So what I had to cut out was shooting the lower price cost personnel and just making it to more quality at the price range rather than quantity.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Why not find a junior photographer to mentor and give them the work?

Speaker 2: 14:13

I didn't have time. The thing about it is timing because you figure, I'm still an air marshal, I'm still traveling across the country. I could be in Paris for three days and then come back and I listen to my voice, check my emails at my company and I got 60 requests to come out and shoot this or give them a quote for this, you know. So I'd already have time to train someone, because my philosophy was, if I had someone that can do what I can do, then I would have to take time to train a person, because I want my work and their work to look identical, so that way my customer can have the same quality.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Yeah Well, I mean that makes I forgot you were you're working at the time. So the tie being what's just hard, knowing what business to give up, a lot of people don't talk about that. That's a first. I think on here is where people said I had to give up a certain type of business so I could have otherwise. You're just out of time and you're. It's not enjoyable and you, you would burn out. That's perfect. So you had to learn how to manage burnout, correct? Do you remember the moment, though, when you're like I know more?

Speaker 2: 15:13

Yes. So the moment that hit me was I got a phone call from a Fortune 100 company and they wanted to hire me to come out and do 600 headshots. Do 600 headshots, and usually if I go out to a company and I do headshots of like 50 people in their company, it's X amount of dollars. But when I talked to this company and they actually told me, hey, this is what we can afford to pay you, I could not believe it because it was close to six figures. I could not believe it and I was like are you? I could not believe it and I was like are you guys serious? Is this a typo?

Speaker 1: 15:53

you know, once I read the email you should be like. I usually charge double. That that's all. I would have gone about like oh yeah, and I was in the after you came up 50. Could you meet me in the middle?

Speaker 2: 16:03

correct, correct. And that was the moment where I was like, so companies really paid this amount for less work. I couldn't believe it. So at that moment when I said, okay, scale back on the quantity, go to more of the quality, and I started adjusting my business on that scale.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:24

You know Well go ahead.

Speaker 1: 16:28

No, go ahead, Go ahead. Well, it's that moment right when you're like, I think, the lesson I want to tell a listener here. This is important. I don't usually inject lessons, but this is a big one. When people are not emotionally attached to the money, it's budget suit different pocket, which is what a small business owner or a person who's at home is like hey, I can buy food or go on a vacation or buy this car, or I could do this when that's removed and it's just like hey, we got to get this done. I've got a budget of this, this is what I can pay. That's where you want to sell, because people are like great, deliver it. I keep my job Correct, Correct.

Speaker 2: 17:05

Correct, I think, with me, because it was early in my photography career, I didn't know how to, I didn't know what the professional numbers were to compare it with. So I was doing, I was thinking more of a mentality of okay, this is what I've been doing local, I've been charging X amount of dollars per headshot. But I didn't realize that on a national level, when you're working with Fortune 100 companies, they're willing to pay triple that. So I never really had anything to compare with until I got my first client that was like hey, we'll give you $800 per headshot, where here I am charging $150 or $99 special per headshot and I'm like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 17:49

It's goodbye personal market. Yeah, so goodbye personal market.

Speaker 2: 17:52

Yeah, exactly, exactly so, so so. So with that, I was able to actually hire a videographer to come in Cause, cause my thing is, if you're going to pay me like that, I'm going to give you way more than you asked for. I'm going to give you things that are tangible, that you can keep forever as far as video behind the scenes and little things like that. So that's when I was able to hire different contractors to come in and help me out.

Speaker 1: 18:16

And it's also. Then you're positioning additional services by adding the value Like, oh, they do video work too Correct, and you're starting to sell in the moment of free, basically for them, like, oh, I got a value add. I'm like, yeah, cool. By the way, if you guys are doing corporate video shoots, whatever else, customer, I do all those Totally love that, and that's how I got in there. What's been the impact? I mean, you talked about it a little bit, but what's the impact to your life, your customers, since making that change?

Speaker 2: 18:43

So the biggest impact for me is that notoriety. So many people know who I am now in the veteran community. So many people have seen my work and know my work in the veteran community. I mean I can go places from the Military Influencer Conference, which is one of the largest military conferences in the country where people know me as Mike the camera guy or Mike the photographer. I can go to you know because of working so long with the IVMF. People know my work, they see my work and you know it's just amazing to go somewhere and people know you just from the work that you do across the country, especially in the veteran community. It brings me nothing but joy to see, to see that and have someone stop me in the airport or stop me somewhere in the plane and say, hey, you're my photographer in the IVMF and I'm like, hey, thank you. That's probably my biggest joy in photography right now.

Speaker 1: 19:36

I love that. That's pretty cool and the money, don't get me wrong. The money's great too. I'm going to throw that out. What's the lesson you'd give to the listener?

Speaker 2: 19:47

Well, I would have to say, if it's two different type listeners so the first listener would be the military veteran community is to understand that we was also trained to pivot fast and go get it done. But I would, I would tell you to, once you become an entrepreneur, is to think about it and have more patience, because your time will come, your business will flow, but you have to have patience. You don't always want to pivot. And to the non-veteran community is that support, support, support. Always surround yourself with good people that's going to support you. Always try to put yourself in a place where people that's going to support you and trust in the process. If that's your process and it's working, don't worry about the slow times, don't worry about the times where the market bad. Just hang in there and it's working. Don't worry about the slow times, don't worry about the times where the market bad. Just hang in there and it will get back up to where you want it to be.

Speaker 1: 20:38

I love it. You keep refining as you go. Yes, the rapid fire questions. Yes, who gives you inspiration?

Speaker 2: 20:50

Actually my mother. My mother gives me inspiration and I know it may sound like a cliche, but I want to say this almost every great decision that I've made within my business and my career, we've had a discussion about it and she helped me make those decisions and I would say I have been blessed by every decision that we made together. So I would say she's probably one of my biggest inspirations, uh, as far as influencing me and what I do.

Speaker 1: 21:17

And what's the best business advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2: 21:20

Pay yourself the first five years. I would never pay myself. I will always. If I went out to make X amount of dollars, I would go back and put that into equipment and buy more equipment back and put that into equipment and buy more equipment. I will always take the money and I would donate it to other veterans that was trying to build their brand, or they were single parents, or they just got in the military and they had the money. And so when I got to the point and start paying myself and put something to the side because I do the work and I should get paid for what I do, then that's probably one of the biggest advice that I took for myself is paying myself.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Yeah, and that's a hard one too, because I know in the first couple of years my wife worked and she's like, hey, while you're trash talking corporate down there, I'm going to pay in the bills. I'm like I know, great, but you do have to pay yourself. And I tell you that does cause stress because then you depend on it. And then now you're like I need to charge more, I need to change. That's when these pivots come, is like this model doesn't actually work or I need to. It does start testing your model. Even I'm one who pays myself and haven't gone to W2 route yet Cause I'm like it's too damn expensive, and so it's like you gotta be strategic at how you pay yourself and do things. And it does fine your business.

Speaker 2: 22:36

So I think that's a very, very good advice. What's your must read book? Honestly, for me, one of the most read books is I used to have it over here is the history of the US Air Force. So each branch of the service have their big, big book that they're reading, and it is the history of the Army, history of the Navy. I love the history of the US Air Force because I'm a former Air Force veteran, but it shows me the growth, the path of the growth, how America has changed off of the military, and it's just so intriguing to me. So that's probably a must-read book for anybody, even if you haven't joined the military or a part of the military. For anybody, even if you haven't joined the military or part of the military. Read and see how some of the most intriguing people in this world have changed the world through the military, and it's just phenomenal to me.

Speaker 1: 23:25

I love it so much I would never have thought to read that, so that's a good recommendation. Thank you. Yeah, you had to start over.

Speaker 2: 23:44

What point in your life would you go back to and what would you do differently? And I would probably document and take a camera with me to every destination and country I've been to, because the things I've seen, the places I've been, have been just phenomenal. And me not to document that back then? You know it's oh, I feel so bad now, but I think that's what I would go back to. I would go back 20, 23 years and say, okay, I'm in Paris, I'm in Rome, I'm in London, I'm in Sydney, australia, I'm in, you know, tokyo, japan, and I'm going to document this. I'm going to document this where I can never lose sight of it and keep it with me forever.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Yeah, I mean cause you have in your head but, as we all know, as we get older those are going to fade and you can look back and like, oh my God, that's right, that little shop or this your vlog would have been that would have been pretty epic.

Speaker 2: 24:40

Oh my God, it would have been nice I could. I could write my own photography book.

Speaker 1: 24:43

Hey, aren't you that Air Marshal vlogger You're like nope. You're like you'd have the private version that you would later put out public, because you're like you couldn't have put your image out there, which is funny, by the way. Thank you, michael, for joining so much today. I appreciate it. Thank you, before we get to the final question, okay, I'm going to give you the shameless plug first. I think I like this order better, better, so we should get ahold of you and how they do that.

Speaker 2: 25:12

So any person out here in America that wants to get ahold of me, go to wwwdaystarphotocom. Message me through there. My business phone number is 404-207-0810. And those are the two ways you can contact me. But you know, I want anybody who want to take some memories and keep them forever so it pans down from generation to generation. Hey, that's my job. I come there and I do it for you. You don't have to be a veteran. You know anybody who feels that they want to start cataloging things for their futures, for their children, for their grandchildren. Give me a call. I travel for a living and that's what I love doing.

Speaker 1: 25:55

Now, if I see you on a plane, can I be like it's an air marshal? Yeah, I'm retired now I'm retired. If I see you, though, I'm just like that's an air marshal. He knows, he knows things, you don't. He knows the secret, secret compartment in the bathroom to get below the plane. I was saying that, yeah, I don't know if there is or not. I was hoping you were going to say, yeah, there is. How'd you know about that? There should be. There's gotta be some secret like workarounds.

Speaker 2: 26:17

It's a system, it's. You know. Each plane is different. Let me say that each plane is different. Each style of plane is different.

Speaker 1: 26:23

The uh. If there was one question I should ask you today, but I didn't. What would that question have been and how would you answer it?

Speaker 2: 26:36

That question would be how long are you, do you feel you're going to continue to be a photographer? And just call the question fully retire, I would say until my finger can't squeeze the trigger anymore on the camera? Because I've learned from each stage in my my life and career. When I was in my 20s, I saw things out of different lens. When I was in my 20s, I saw things out of different lens when I was in my 30s, when I was in my 40s. So each decade I see things in a different lens. So I want to keep seeing things change. Now I'm in my early 50s. I want to see how things look in my early 60s. I want to see how things look in my early 70s, and I want to. I want to ride that journey and just see how it is Nice.

Speaker 1: 27:17

Not that I want this, but you imagine Neuralink, when you actually see it with your eyes, which has the highest resolution we can have. Yeah, and you go, and you go. You just think it and it takes an image. Yeah, now that's dangerous because that would could reveal some things about yourself and where you are in life and what you thought was interesting. But you know we'll leave that off. But I don't think, you know, I would think it's not even the click, it's more of the shaky.

Speaker 2: 27:39

You know, I saw a movie where someone did that. They put like this, digital contact in their eye and when they blink it takes the picture of what they see then Black Mirror yeah, there's an episode about that.

Speaker 1: 27:52

But you can review the day he's like, review with his girlfriend or something like that, or fiance what she did. You can go and do an episode. It looks horrible.

Speaker 2: 28:00

I think I saw it on Netflix. I'm about to check that out. It's one of the first episodes.

Speaker 1: 28:05

There was a few episodes earlier that kind of disturbed me away. I'm like oh, but it's good.

Speaker 2: 28:13

It's almost like in the 80s when we was coming up, when we saw Skynet, you know, with Arnold Schwarzenegger. That was the AI back in the 80s and we never even knew it and it's coming.

Speaker 1: 28:22

You just saw Elon Musk like out there talking about these robots serving drinks and you're like, um shit, all All right. Hey, michael, thank you so much for coming on. No problem, I appreciate you. And everybody listen. Get out there. Go cut a tie to something holding you back. Don't let anything stop you from success. Be the best version of yourself and go unleash the best version of yourself. Thanks for listening.