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Hey Everyone! Just a quick post!

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Rock on!
DJ

F-Stop Beyond!

This is awesome! A month or so ago Ron Dawson came down to Santa Barbara and did this wonderful interview with me and it was so refreshing because Ron is all about the bigger picture and understanding and helping people far beyond what our jobs or careers can do and so these interviews he's doing are all about people's personal lives and of course a little business is mixed in there but he really did an incredible job!

So you can watch it below but then definitely go to his website and see all that he's doing.

Here's more reviews from the Free to Succeed tour!
Click here to read what my "smooth" new friend Akil wrote! ;)
Click here and read what Erika wrote!
Click here to read what Nick Haskins has to say about Showit Sites!
Click here an read what my man Collins said!
Click here to read what Jamie wrote!
Click here to read what Amanda wrote!

Yea Austin!

Pics coming soon both here on the blog and on FreeToSucceedTour.com!

So we are now two down and tonight was GREAT! Some new friends came all the way from Mexico to join in the fun and others drove 5 hours from southern Texas!

I'm really loving the bus style of traveling! WAY better than flying! Seriously! The show ended and we hung around chatting for over an hour and then I walked out and was home. We're becoming a family which is so fun and everyone is having a blast. I hope it stays like this on day 40!

On our way outta town we stopped at this place called Whataburger which I thought was Wienerschnitzel but it had really good burgers. Since I'm on a low cholesterol diet I didn't want to eat too much of that food so I split one with Kenny and then I'm gonna eat some Cheerios because those are better for me. :)

This picture is of my room on the bus. I found out tonight that I can flip on the TV and cycle through a bunch of different cameras all over the bus and see what's going on right from my bed! So now I'm watching the road. It feels like I'm driving this big rig.


Ok! See ya in Dallas!

Tour Website!!!

Hey Everyone!

We just made a website for the Free to Succeed Tour and it's so cool - made completely with Showit Sites of course! So if you're wanting to track our progress and see pictures and videos from the trip checkout the map page! Yea!

It's two hours till the show here in Austin and I'm amped! My google alerts have been going crazy because everyone is posting about the amazing show in Houston last night show!

Click here to read what Lindsay from Studio 563 posted!
Click here to read what Brandi said!
Click here to read what Sassani said on his blog! *sorry for the typo*

Read more comments here!

Houston Kickoff!

Tonight was incredible! I am still in awe at how wonderfully well it went! It's 1am and we're cruising down the road towards Austin and I can't wait to get there. I really believe this is what I'm meant for and to have the chance to come and meet so many of you is the most exciting thing for me! I really feel like I'm living my dream.

We'll have more pics and videos to post up tomorrow but here are a few from my stellar photographer friend Kenny Kim! Be sure to checkout his blog and facebook for more pics!

I just saw the sweetest post pop up from Patricia at Plum Tree Studios about tonight so be sure to check that out too! It was a packed house and so much fun!

Here are some pics from Kenny's blog! He's freaking amazing and that's why we brougt him out to document the first part of our trip and if we had more bunks here in the bus we'd keep him on the whole time!

It's finally the beginning!

Tomorrow the Free to Succeed Tour kicks off here in Houston and tonight Lightroom v.2 is gonna be released and it's sick, sleek and super fast! I'll be showing how to dial it in on every stop! Each city is packing out fast with the bigger cities already exceeding their limits. We are trying to get bigger rooms b/c the big cities are already at 100+

I'm beyond excited about this but I have to give a shout out to my incredible asst. Crystal who at the 11th hour ruptured her Achilles!!! :( She's done such an incredible job planning this 21 city tour and dialing in all the arrangements and now she has to go into surgery this week and miss the beginning of it. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she'll be able to hop on for the second half and I think she will. She wanted to come even though she could barely walk but I didn't think that would be smart and it's a miracle that we were able to find somebody to be Crystal's substitute.

Two days ago when we found out she had to have surgery I immediately thought of my friend Shyla. She was the only person who fit the bill and so I emailed her and it is so crazy how her schedule fit EXACTLY in with our tour. Shyla is a stellar wedding photographer so she had jobs booked in California the first week in August and in Ohio the 23rd of August which ended up being the EXACT dates we're going through those places! Can you believe that! I seriously am the most blessed person ever to have this fall into place like it did.

So now I'm here and Jasmine* just arrived so we're gonna hang and then the rest of the clan arrives in a little bit!

See you soon!
DJ

Showit Sites

I can't even begin to tell you all how excited I am about Showit Sites.

Just the other day I was making a change to my website and dragging some new pictures on there and I was just blown away b/c this has never been possible before! To be able to drag and drop and make changes to a website and to make it totally unique is like a dream come true for me and I know for many others as well.

We just officially launched today and we already have 60 people signed up (not to mention our Lifers who we owe so much to!) and over 2000 people using the tool! It's insane!


I'm really stoked that we have so many web designers signed up and I love that we were able to launch a tool and create jobs for other people as well! I think people like Nick Haskins and JT Pals and many others are gonna make a huge splash designing Style Groups for people and helping photographers create a website that can be totally different!

...and if you want to check out what Showit Sites can do for you download a free copy for a month and you can instantly have a site up using our included Style Groups. Watch this video to see more about them.

Adobe Success Story

CLICK HERE to read the article!

A nice article just got posted about me and ShowitFast Inc. on the Adobe Showcase website. As you all know the great people over there have given us an ability to do what we love and are changing the world through their technology!

Looking for Freedom Ambassadors!

As we get ready to head out to our first tour stop in the great country of Texas :) we wanted to invite a few of you to be Freedom Ambassadors in your city. We are looking for a few people to help with logistics and questions on the day of the events so if you're interested hitup Crystal@davidjay.com.

We'll give you a tour of the bus and have limited edition "Freedom T's" for you as well. :)

Thanks Michigan!

As you all know I was in Michigan earlier this week meeting with the MTPPA group and they just put up a sweet post on their blog so be sure to check that out. It's so encouraging hearing things like this and I really loved this group!

I did a sampling of what I'll be talking about on the tour and I hope it can help these photographers make some good changes!

Here's a shot with my friend Jackie! I met her while we were both doing a regional show in Utah a couple years back and then she's the one who brought me out to Michigan. She's wonderful!

Prepare or be Punished

One of the things that's been really interesting to me lately is why it's so difficult for us humans to change our behavior until we are absolutely forced into it. In this time when we know things are gonna be tough why can't we prepare for it? I'm totally guilty of this in so many ways and it's baffling. Gary's been barking at me for a couple of years about the economy and everyone (myself included) was in denial and maybe I still am but I do know that I'm starting to change my behavior? Are you?

Why do you think it's so hard?

United Airlines is Terrible

*** Let me preface this post by saying that I had an incredible time with my new friends in Michigan and I hate that my trip was tainted by an unbelievable amount of troubles with the airlines...but such is life. Thanks to everyone who came and I tried to fit everyone into the shot below and that's why I took it sideways but if I had included everyone I would've had to modify the title ;P ***

Another terrible week as a Premier Executive passenger on United Airlines.

Conde Naste just rated United the worst airline and I have to agree. The other airlines are bad too so it's really a no-win situation.

Sunday:
3 delayed flights on Sunday causing me to lose my first class seat and sit in a middle seat in economy plus for 4 hours. Also forces an overnight stay in Chicago costing $300
Monday:
1 canceled flight on Monday morning
Tuesday:
1 canceled flight on Tuesday causing me to miss my connection and miss my meeting in Portland
1 flight delayed and downgraded which turned it into an oversold position by 70 passengers and bumps me from my first class seat past economy plus and into economy...I feel bad for myself but I feel super bad for the 70 people who are not gonna get on the flight they paid for! It's disgusting that this is tolerated!

...and get this - they offer nothing - absolutely nothing for their mistakes.

If this is how they treat their loyal customers I'd hate to be a "normal" passenger. I can't believe that it is legal for a company to screw its customers and offer them nothing in return. Imagine calling all your brides an hour before their wedding and saying I'm not gonna shoot your wedding and I'm not gonna refund you anything but I will offer you something different from what you booked for the same amount as you paid.

It's disgusting and I'm so glad we're taking a bus on the tour!

Airlines - you're getting what you deserve.

How many of you have had a nightmare story on United?

Cool people

Cool people, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

The best thing about today...

The best thing about today..., originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Is that it's over. :) it was a rough day in the increasingly
unfriendly skies but God did leave me with this gorgeous sunset to
remind me that the sun will come up tomorrow! :)

I snapped this on my iPhone from my hotel room in Chicago...and
tomorrow I'm completing my journey to Michigan to hang with the PPA
group there. Then i'm off to Portland for a quick meeting and then
back home!

Where do you spend your time

I started a poll on OSP for photographers b/c I'm curious how much time everybody is spending in certain areas of their business. It's anonymous so please answer it as accurately as possible.

Click here to check it out!

:)
DJ

I've been cranking (and sometimes cranky)

So life is motoring along right now! I know many of you are feeling the same way so we have to be really good about taking advantage of what Tony Robbins calls "NET" time. No Extra Time are the spaces in our life like when we're waiting in line at the super market or commuting or other times that often get wasted doing nothing but in busy seasons we must take advantage of them.

I've been bunkering down working on the presentation for the tour and some other logistical things and I'm just amazed at how many resources there are available that I never used. That's ok because of course we can't use everything but I'm excited to share lots of new ways to get results - fast.


On a completely different note I just took this picture because I looked out the window and noticed that even though I'm having a bright sunny day my friend Deyl (who lives on that hill) is in the clouds and it's probably all gloomy over there so I'm gonna call him and cheer him up! :)

Do you have any friends who are probably bumming about something right now! Call them and encourage them right now! Encouragement is one of the most powerful tools that every single one of us possess and we don't use it nearly enough! Go encourage someone and it'll make their week better AND yours!

Happy Birthday Deyl

Yesterday was my best friend Deyl's birthday but he was traveling back from spending two months doing a house-swap in Spain. Yea - isn't that awesome. He and his fabulous wife Paige traded their house for some spanish dude's house for two months!

Deyl is the guy who first turned me onto the idea of "passive income" and we used to listen to all of Robert Kiyosaki's cd's while printing pictures in the darkroom. It took about 8 years of Deyl's chirping before I began to understand how to escape the self imposed "rat race" and create freedom in my life and I'm forever grateful to him for that.

We got to skype while he was in spain and here he is chilling on the porch in Spain.


Deyl - you da man! Thanks for being such an inspiration!

A few pictures

I'm still in Marina Del Rey after the wedding. It's been an incredible weekend! I can't even begin to describe the gift that Jasmine Star and Crystal Goss gave me this weekend. They came out and helped me shoot one of my friends wedding and it was beyond wonderful having them there. I didn't have to worry about a thing and it allowed me to really enjoy being there!

I've been looking through their shots and am just blown away. These girls are phenomenal photographers and everyone just fell in love with them at the wedding!

I can't wait to see more of the pics they shot but here are a few that I took. Jas and Crystal wouldn't let me hang out with them so I went and found the guys and I like this shot.