“Fear Stimulates My Imagination”

You all watch Mad Men, right? Of course you do.

Then maybe you remember when Don Draper said this: Fear stimulates my imagination.

Another refreshing moment of clarity from a brilliant alcoholic.

Those words ring true for service-orientated entrepreneurs in many ways, and fear is the mother of all motivators in our line of work. Spawning imagination through fear is why getting up in the morning is exciting, and it is the red line that weaves in and out of artistic entrepreneurs.

When you curate through the fear and imaginative ideas connect and happen, that moment of satisfaction – albeit a quick one – is what this is all about.

This entire month of June has felt that way, and the reason why is very simple: Imagination went into overload, goals were met, and the fear of being complacent was smashed in the face with ideas that actually happened.

Let me explain.

Jakob and I knew that there would be a little Nordica baby coming into our world in May. Because Jakob and I run this business together, when Cole has a baby, Jakob is metaphorically having a baby because Nordica baby will touch his life as well. Forecasting this change in our lives, we knew that I would be staying close to home for the month of June, and a paternity leave of sorts would keep me close to the nest.

But this was also a tremendous opportunity for Jakob to spread his wings and fly far, far, far away from the nest. So we set in motion a mission: Let’s get Jakob travelling and put Nordica on the global map. Let’s see how crazy we can get with things and use our imaginations in a strategic way to book as many far flung weddings as possible.

Because if complacency isn’t a scary motivator, nothing is.

So we did it. As I’m typing this, Jakob is in Kenya photographing a wedding. Over the past two weeks he has been in Italy (twice) and southern Sweden for weddings, as well as Scotland for a Document You session, and this weekend he will be in France once he is finished in Africa. I’m so proud of him for what he is doing right now, but I’m as proud of how we made this wild month of travel happen in the first place. We had a goal – get Jakob travelling in June – and we pieced together the crazy logistics and it happened.

While he is doing his thing, I’m also feeling excited about where Nordica is heading with the “we do not have to do every wedding together” thing. This month I have done the local weddings here in Vancouver, while being close to Embla and Therese, and it has been awesome. While doing these local weddings, we have been booking weddings for 2013 where we will get to do the weddings alone, or with a second shooter.

Booking weddings alone has not been a fearful proposition because of the actual work – quite the contrary. But communicating the message to inquiring couples that this is the direction we will be going with Nordica has been a delicate tightrope walk, but it has gone well. This is how we will grow into better photographers, and couples are getting it.

I’m excited to see Jakob in a week when I pick him up from the airport, and hear the stories of his travels. Also, we have shot weddings with other photographers – Jonas Peterson, James Moes, Rhys Albrecht, Ed Peers – so sharing our experiences and talking about these mega-talented wedding photographers is something I’m looking forward to.

But the biggest thing that I’m looking forward to when Jakob gets back is brewing up our next concoction of goals. June was a fun month, and we made a lot happen, but it is now behind us.

The satisfaction is fleeting, and the fear is creeping in again. This is a good thing.

/ Cole