Joe Buissink
As a world renowned photographer, Joe Buissink has documented weddings for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and Kelsey Grammar. His exploits have been profiled by the likes of "Good Morning America" and People magazine, and myriad other media organizations.
During his noted career, Joe has grabbed a number of high profile professional distinctions, including the "International Leadership Award in Photography" issued by the United Nations, and Canon’s highly coveted “Explorer of Light” designation.
During "Scaling New Heights 2016," Joe Buissink presented a keynote presentation detailing the power of brand, the connection between brand and professional passion, and how accounting professionals can invigorate their relationships with their clients. This podcast episode is an extension of Joe’s powerful keynote presentation.
Link to the full library – http://scalingnewheights.libsyn.com/
Link to Joe Buissink episode – http://scalingnewheights.libsyn.com/episode-13-joe-buissink
Full Transcript of the Episode Follows:
Joe Woodard: Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Scaling New Heights Podcast. During this episode, we will talk with Joe Buissink. Joe Buissink photographs weddings all over the world and has photographed the weddings of notable celebrities, many of whom you've heard of like Jennifer Lopez, Kelsey Grammer, Hilary Swank. He is all about capturing the moments and the essence of the person in those moments.
He has been profiled by Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, and numerous other media outlets. In 2003, Joe was awarded the International Leadership award in photography by the International Photographic Council at the United Nations. Joe graced the stage of Scaling New Heights as one of a very few Canon Photographers of his stature with Canon, in the world. In that keynote presentation, he had some very powerful takeaways for business advisors.
He has been profiled by Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, and numerous other media outlets. In 2003, Joe was awarded the International Leadership award in photography by the International Photographic Council at the United Nations. Joe graced the stage of Scaling New Heights as one of a very few Canon Photographers of his stature with Canon, in the world. In that keynote presentation, he had some very powerful takeaways for business advisors.
We're going to be connecting those dots today with Joe. You can learn more about Joe Buissink at joebuissink.com. Joe, welcome to the podcast.
Joe Buissink: Thank you, I'm really happy to be here, Joe.
Joe Woodard: I'm glad to have you here, Joe. We've got a limited amount of time; I'm going to jump right into the questions. You have this amazing story of how you embrace your profession. Tell us all about it. How did you get started as a photographer?
Joe Buissink: Well, it goes back about 22 years ago. I was working at that time on a PhD in Psychology at UCLA. I was a student there, and I had three part-time jobs. Just happened to come home one day, and saw my son nursing on my wife, and instinctively grabbed this little camera that was on the little table in the hallway, and grabbed a photo of it.
The next day I went to one of my part time jobs, which was working at a lab, and I processed the film. I printed it and the image shook me right to the core. I started to shutter a little bit. I thought about it initially, and I said, "You know, I should feel that way; that's my son; that's my wife. Yes, that's the proper attitude to have."
However, there was something other than that, and it took me a few months to dig a little further and deeper.
I said, "You know, what it really was, and what really inspired me about that image, was also the fact that I had witnessed an intimate moment between two human beings and I had inserted myself with my camera, and became part of that moment. That was so compelling to me that I literally dropped out of the program, much to the chagrin of my friends and family that thought that I should have been a doctor.
However, I've always been a believer that you follow your passion, and this became quickly my passion. I needed to go after it. That's pretty much how I got started about 22 years ago.
Joe Woodard: That's such a courageous move that I think parallels a lot of folks that are listening to the podcast today. There's this saying among a lot of accounting professionals, that the accounting profession found them, they didn't find the profession. You talk to a lot of accountants about how they got their start, and very few of them have degrees in accounting. I certainly don't, I studied Classical Greek, which is a whole story for another day. The accounting profession found me, as well.
What I'm seeing in your story here, Joe, or a couple of things. I see courage, as well as passion. I know a lot of people that have the passion but just don't have the courage to make that kind of a life change. Whenever you left the world you were in, you said, "I'm just going to be a photographer." I mean, it's a very crowded profession, some could argue it's commoditized, right?
Joe Buissink: Yes.
Joe Woodard: You left some of the - if you had stayed on that path, it had guaranteed job security and very solid income. Intellectually, and professionally, you would have been highly reputed. Now, you've embraced a crowded industry, but you're still here. I mean, 22 years later, you're still passionate about your art. Why?
Joe Buissink: It's who I am. Following a passion means, this is something, whatever this endeavor is, and it definitely is bookkeeping, if that's what you're passionate about, accounting, all of those things; everything and everything, needlepoint, it doesn't matter. If you're that passionate that you eat, sleep, dream this venture that you're entertaining, then this is something about who you are.
I've always, again, been a believer in following who I am and what I want to do, and nothing could ever stop me. Yes, I did swim upstream for a bit, but the point is I never stopped. I continued to pursue it simply because I believed in myself because it was my passion, that I could do something with it. None of the naysayers could stop me, and as a matter of a fact, a bit of an Aries here, so whenever I have something in my face that tells me I can't do it, I set out to exactly do the opposite.
Swimming upstream is a part of not having, what we call at Woodard Institute, “past dependency”. American Express OPEN used to be a mail carrier. Disney's greatest aspiration as a human being was to create a black and white cartoon character that would rival the popularity of Felix the Cat. Aren't we glad these people didn't have past dependency? After looking at some of your photos, I'm glad you didn't as well because it is often later in life that we find, through the uphill climbs, and the upstream swims, what we're truly passionate about.
Joe Woodard: On the stage of Scaling New Heights, you made a very powerful statement about brand. It resonated deeply with the audience. As accountants, we struggle with brand; we don't even necessarily understand brand, and we definitely don't understand marketing. Marketing is at the headwaters of brand. You said, "You are the brand." What's the connection between Joe Buissink the human being, Joe Buissink's experiences in life, and your photography?
Joe Buissink: Exactly that. I mean I am the brand. Most people spend an inordinate amount of time, in my industry anyway, trying to figure out their brand, their style, all those things. What they neglect to look at, because they think it's some technical thing they’re doing that no one else is doing, and it really has nothing to do with that. The brand is who you are. I'll back it up a little bit because I think you need a little background history on as to why I do what I do.
I had a very, very, very difficult childhood. I was abused, I was beaten, I was locked in closets; there were just numerous amounts of things that ... Basically, the bottom line is I never had role models as a mother and a father or as a husband and a wife and what they should be like. In growing up, I knew none of those things.
All of a sudden I fall into this category of photography weddings, and what I see for the very first time, or at least the five-year-old in me, sees now, what a husband and a wife should look like. This amazing love and this connection between two human beings. Not only them, but then the families on both sides coming together, maybe for the first time at this wedding, to meet and greet one another.
I am thrilled to be part of that because I am witness, for the first time (because it's something that I wasn't accustomed to) of the husband and wife; what it looks like and scenario down the road of a mother and a father and what that might look like. It touches the little five-year-old in me, and that's how I identify with the images that I take. If you look at my imagery, more than likely now knowing my story, you'll recognize that it was photographed by potentially a little five-year-old boy that was hurt, that is striving to look for love and connections in human beings, in mothers and fathers, husbands and wives.
That has become my calling card when I pitch myself, and when I let people know that the most important thing about what you do, and I really don't care what it is you do, is who you are. That is what I sell. I sell who I am. I don't sell my work; I sell who I am.
That has become my calling card when I pitch myself, and when I let people know that the most important thing about what you do, and I really don't care what it is you do, is who you are. That is what I sell. I sell who I am. I don't sell my work; I sell who I am.
A lot of people, when they come to me, and they look at my work, they are often not 100% certain of exactly what it is they're doing in front of me; other than to ask the questions, "How much is your package? Can you do this that or the other? My mom wants this." At the end day, when they leave me, they realize what I've actually pitched them, and what they actually hire, is me. Not necessarily the work.
It's me that they want at their wedding. They want the wedding, their wedding, to be photographed by the eyes and heart of this person, Joe Buissink, that they just met. This person is different from everybody else.
Joe Woodard: There you go, there you go. I want to get to that little comment at the end, which I think is key, but I want to make sure I drive some of these points home to the folks that are listening. Brand is who you are and brand is the story of who you are. If you can encapsulate your identity, the difference you want to make in the world, the difference that you were passionate of creating in the world…. If you can fuse those two together into a compelling story….
We just found that compelling, Joe, now twice. Twice, I cried the first time, I got chills the second time. It's a run time of what, three and a half, four minutes, or so?
Joe Buissink: Yes.
Joe Woodard: It’s a very slow elevator, and you can communicate your entire brand in an extremely passionate way. I've been married fifteen years, but I wish you had done our wedding, not only because seeing the portfolio of what you've done in the past. That's more of the quality of your work product, which is distinctive, the quality of your clientele is distinctive, but it's for neither of those reasons.
It's because I know my photographer cares and sees, and has perspective into the love that I have for my wife, on a level that another photographer's not going to have.
Joe Buissink: That's correct. I'm not for everybody, but the interesting thing that I've discovered over the 22 years of doing this, is that when someone books me, and given how I've pitched not the work, but me, and based on the fact that's why they hired me, they hired me, not the work. I find that the clients and I were actually reading the same book, and we’re on the same page. When I do show up for the gig, I really don't have to think about what I need to do for them.
What I do now, every time I go to a wedding, is simply satisfy me. It's the only person I'm concerned about. I don't worry about what my client's thinking, what I might have to do for my client, I simply know just satisfy myself because we're on the same page. If I do that, then I'm doing what that client is expecting of me, because that's why they booked me.
Joe Woodard: You're passionate about documenting love; their passionate about their love being documented. That alignment means you follow your passion. I love it.
If I can translate that a little bit for some of the small business advisors who are listening in. You need to be passionate about transforming small business for the better; increasing the wealth of the small business, which could be financial and should be financial wealth, but also their peace of mind, their infrastructure, their culture, their technology, everything that makes that business run better.
If both you, and the client, have the same passion, transform my business with me, then you can follow your own passion; it'll be aligned with theirs. I would imagine, Joe, there's a bit of a filter on this thing, too. If I'm going to embrace a client who's not interested transforming their business, I need to run the other way. Do you ever feel that filter kicking in like maybe you don't need to take this gig?
Joe Buissink: Oh, absolutely because a lot of the times the clients do get here, having read my bio, and when they see all the celebrities on there. Here's what I end up doing: in essence, when I'm being interviewed, I'm also interviewing my client, unbeknownst to them. I might ask them specific questions like, "Do you have a shot list?" When I hear the answer, "Yes, there's three pages, about 150 set ups,” then I know it's a red flag for me, that that's not my client because I don't do those things.
I capture the essence of people in moments. I don't really follow a structured, long list that takes me two hours to photograph. Then I'm out of the loop in terms of the moments that are at that wedding for two hours, which I can't do.
That said, when in the interviewing process I found out that basically, they're hiring me because I shot Jennifer Lopez's wedding and they want to be able to boast about that a little bit, I gently let them know that I might not be the best person for them.
When I hear the three pages of shot list, 150-200 setups of different family members, and extended family, immediate family, the entire wedding party, I let them know, there are amazing people that do exactly what you're asking for. I'm hearing that this is really important to you, and you should follow your heart about that being important to you. I, on the other hand, am going to be very honest with you, this is not what I do. So I think that we're not a good match. You are going to be somewhat disappointed at the end of the day, when I have maybe missed a few of these setup shots that you have because it's just not what I do.
Joe Woodard: I want to get a little bit to your ground game, Joe. You talk about how you select your clients, and what's driving your passion, and you said that, "When I get there, I just go into a zone. I'm going document the love of this couple, that's what they want me to do." But you don't actually direct what's happening on the ground. That's kind of strange. If it's Joe Buissink's product, shouldn't you be the director? Why aren't you?
Joe Buissink: Actually, it took me a little while to figure this out. Of course, when I first started, I was the lead person. I am the brand, it's my studio that they hired; they hired me. I took charge of everything, I did all the formals, then I ended up hiring an assistant because it became a little hectic lugging my own gear and taking care of all the shots that were necessary that mom insisted on, that the bride expected of me, and I just didn't have it in me to drive myself crazy.
After the assistant, I hired a second shooter. Low and behold, I was still the lead photographer, and I was shooting everything that was expected of me, mostly because mom insisted on having these formal shots, and all the table shots, and all these wonderful things that weddings are comprised of. Which is more about who was present.
However, my second shooter would come up with images that was more about why, where, when images and moments. I said well wait a minute, but that's what I do. That's when I realized, this was about five years ago, I made the switch of becoming the second photographer so that I can do, and be free to do, capture these images that meant the world to me which was the essence of people in moments, and let a lead photographer take over.
I believe in do what you do best, and delegate the rest. My formals, I can do them, but I know that I can hire someone that's better at it than I am. So I'd rather just delegate this to someone else, and let me do what I do best. What I do best is be present in moments, be part of the moments, document all these moments; that's what I do best.
That's kind of how I started, and it has given me the freedom, and it has given also, the client the most amazing images because I'm not pulled to the side, left, right and center, to take care of the perfunctory kind of images that expected at weddings as well.
Joe Woodard: Do what you do best-
Joe Buissink: And delegate the rest.
Joe Woodard: And delegate the rest. I want everybody listening in, because we don't run photography studios, we run consulting practices, accounting firms, but the same principle applies. We talk, Joe, in our institute a bit about don't delegate tasks, delegate authority because if you delegate a task, then you're not following your passion.
Imagine if you had five photographers, and you delegated tasks, and you stood in the middle of the wedding without a camera in your hand; just saying, "Go over there and shoot that. Go over there and shoot this, go over there and shoot that." If you delegate authority, then that frees you up to truly do what you're passionate about, and what you can distinctively deliver.
I'm seeing that model played out here. Folks, this is a great example, accounting professionals, of how we need to delegate even some of the most critical management roles so that if you're truly passionate about transforming a small business, you have the time to sit down at a breakfast meeting with your client and work through whatever problems they're facing in their business.
You have time to be in the field working from cubicle to cubicle, desk to desk, solving the work flow problems that are crippling that business. You have the ability to focus on managing their company, not just putting in the technology at their company. That's something that, if your passion is transforming the business, somebody else can install the QuickBooks, convert the QuickBooks to QuickBooks Online, produce the tax return.
This will elevate you accounting professionals into the more important and distinctive role. I would challenge you to do what Joe has done, and tap into a passion that goes all the way back to who you are from childhood forward. Then, exercise that passion. If that passion happens to be the actual preparation of the tax return, be true to it.
But if your passion is, and I've talked to many accounting professionals Joe, and they all say the same thing. If your passion is I really want to make a difference in the small business owner's life. Then they get immersed in like what you were talking about, photographing the bouquet on the table, or documenting who came to the wedding. It's a trap.
Joe Buissink: Yes. It is.
Joe Woodard: Joe, I've got one more question for you. I think I know a little bit of the answer. There are Canon Explorers of Light, who document a wide range of our world. I think the most iconic ones that we remember seeing, growing up with as children, is when we would get that issue of National Geographic. We'd open it up, and there was some amazing animal shot. You've got cityscapes, you've got landscapes, you've got wild animals, seascapes. Why just weddings?
Joe Buissink: I agree with you, and I have to go back with that is what resonates with me. It's the love at weddings, again, that resonates with me, Joe Buissink, five years old; Joe Buissink at 40, 50, and 65 now. It still resonates with me the most. Having said that, it's not that I don't appreciate the other things you just mentioned; I do. But this is who I am. And so I have to honor that.
I know that in the very beginning when I started this, I got the message from everybody that I couldn't possibly do this. I couldn't figure out why. I have something that I'd like everybody to kind of sit with for a second. Because I was told that I'd never be able to make it, I was 44. They basically said, "You're going to be a flash in the pan. You're going to last all of three months, four months because there are way better people that do what you do, that have been doing it for a lot longer."
Here's my question to you. What would you attempt to do, if you knew you could not fail? I live by that. It is something that drives me every single day. What I'm saying, essentially, is if you don't try, if you don't put it out there, and you're feeling passionate about it, you don't know what you can make of it.
If what you put forth first is that you potentially will fail, well, guess what, I've failed plenty of times. I still kept pursing this passion, this thing for weddings, this thing that I felt is who I was that I identified with. I went after it, and I continue to go after it. People can say all they want to you about you'll never make it, or whatever it is, all the negativity.
The other day someone said to me, "You know what I like about your teachings, Joe? What you teach is like this thing that's always the cup is half full. So often I see people talking about the negativity of the industry and their business, and the cup is half empty. You talk about the cup is half full."
I said, "Actually, no, I don't. What I'm trying to tell you is, I'm always refilling the cup. The cup is neither half empty or half full to me. I'm always refilling the cup.” No one thinks about refilling it; why does it have to be one or the other? Just refill the darn thing.
You have to have faith in your passion, and belief in yourself that if this is truly who you are, go after it. I think that is why I do weddings. I really believe in it. It's who I am, and I will never stop.
Joe Woodard: You know why you have to refill the cup? It's because you constantly pour the cup out.
Joe Buissink: This is true.
Joe Woodard: We talk about that concept as well at Woodard Institute. You can't fill another person's cup; you can only pour yours out. So many times in life, it's beautiful Joe, we are just focused on trying to protect the precious water we have, and then we go out and whatever sort of motivates us in the business world to grab another drop of water and slip it in; grab another drop of water slip it; try to put enough drops in to stay ahead of evaporation, and maybe we'll have enough water one day to retire.
You seem to me to be the sort of guy that you have a reservoir from which you can get more water, so you have the courage to pour it out for your clients. That's powerful.
Joe Buissink: That's correct. I believe in that, and I think it crosses all boundaries of businesses, entrepreneurs, anybody that's doing their own thing that they're passionate about. It applies to all of us.
Joe Woodard: It does, it does. I think that's a lot of the answer, which is why I anticipated your answer on what drives you to weddings. It’s an extension of who you are, but it has a message in here that can tie back to your brand, too. Brand almost always comes with specificity; a deep specialization.
I would imagine that marketing isn't your problem. Your story is so compelling, your brand identity is so specific, that people don't approach you to say, "Can you photograph our zoo opening? Can you photograph my safari vacation?" They just know not to even go there. That's a big problem with accountants, because if somebody knocks on our door, and they have a check in our hand, as a profession we are really bad to take them, and not to self-select out.
Joe Buissink: I understand that; in the beginning I did the same. Yes, I agree with you.
Joe Woodard: I love it, I love it. Well, Joe, you've got a very powerful story to tell. We really appreciate you telling it from the stage of Scaling New Heights. Now again, on the Scaling New Heights Podcast.
The major takeaways, folks, are: you the brand; the brand should be connected to your passion; you should be passionate with specificity, and originality; and you should be laser focused on alignment with your clients. Once you have the alignment, then you can just passionately do what you do, and the client is going to be right along with you getting that benefit.
Joe, it has been great to have you on the podcast, thank you so much for being here.
Joe Buissink: Thank you for having me, Joe.
Joe Woodard: And thank you, for tuning in to today's podcast and our conversation with Joe Buissink. For more information about today's episode, to explore other episodes in this podcast series, or to learn more about our annual conference, visit Woodard.com. As always, we encourage you to stay tuned, stay connected, never stop learning, and scale new heights.