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How to create a perfect portrait - David Christopher Lee
97 Plays3 years ago
Today's episode is with David Christopher Lee. He is a famous celebrity photographer and he happens to be my cousin. We have a very creative family. I'd always admired him for his fearless mindset.
Our hot topic is how to create a perfect portrait. Check out his portraits. They are perfect. https://www.dclee.net/
He chats about how he found his niche and his story about photographing Lady Gaga. You will be inspired by this episode.
Bio
As a celebrity portrait photographer, creative director, and producer, David has worked with many celebrities & major brands such as Richard Branson, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Demi Moore, Quincy Jones, Usher, Snoop Dogg, Cadillac, Lexus, Qatar Airways, Aman Hotels, Longines Masters & Damiani Jewelry, just to name a few. He continues to shoot countless campaigns that are featured in New York City at Times Square.
David’s work has been published in major magazines such as GQ, Vogue, Instyle, People, Teen, Men’s Health, Departures & many more. He has a degree at UC Berkeley and sees beyond what is in the physical world, then translates reality into the digital era.
Connect with david
https://www.instagram.com/davidcleephotography
Connect with Carissa
Coaching IG: @Carissawoo
Photography IG: @carissawoophotography
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Transcript
Introduction to David Christopher Lee's Photography Journey
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, I have a very special guest, photographer David Christopher Lee. He has worked in over 40 countries and has developed an innovative international style of his own. You can see his outstanding portraits on DClee.net. As a celebrity portrait photographer, creative director and producer, David has worked with so many celebrities and major brands like
00:00:20
Speaker
Richard Branson, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Demi Moore, Usher, Snoop Dogg, Julianne Huff, just to name a few. And he continues to shoot countless campaigns that are featured in the New York City at Times Square. And he has been featured in like Vogue, InStyle, Everywhere, so many magazines. And during the pandemic, he really got into health and he is now dry fasting and biohacking.
Carissa's Photography Experience and Business Insight
00:00:44
Speaker
He's super famous and he's also my cousin.
00:00:51
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise. Some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:20
Speaker
time hacks because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo woo, and most importantly, self love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon. What up, cuz? How's it going? Good to see your face.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, you too. It's been a little while. Yeah, it's been a while. So I guess the first question is just, you've done everything. You're super famous. You're insta-famous. You've been an inspiration to me. And we'll talk a little bit more about that
David's Career Shift to Portrait Photography
00:02:02
Speaker
later. But what are you up to nowadays? Now, well, I just bought a place in downtown. Oh, you did? Congrats. Thanks. So I'll be setting up my portraits to be there. And I'm really focused on doing my portraits.
00:02:17
Speaker
So, you know, I've done so many different types of photography in the past, like fashion, food, interiors. But now I'm just really focused on portraits and, um, I've been shooting a lot of celebrities and just really being extremely technical and getting them to look their best. Yeah. I mean, your portraits are freaking amazing. So what kind of camera are you using? I have, um, I have a Hasselblad H6D, which is, um,
00:02:45
Speaker
100 megapixels, and then a Leica M10. And that one's like, I think it's like 18 megapixels or something like that. Wow. So that's like a $40,000, just the body? Yeah, for the Hasselblad. And I think the Leica body's like $8,000 or something like that. Whoa, that's so crazy. So you're just focusing on portraits. Congrats on your new place. I know you moved back home during the pandemic because nothing was happening. So have you been searching for a house for a while?
00:03:15
Speaker
Um, just for a little bit, you know, I've spent so much time downtown, so I thought it would be a good time to go back. Nice. Nice.
Networking and Early Career Strategies
00:03:24
Speaker
So how are you like getting all these celebrities now to shoot their photos? I know you've been doing it for so long, but what's like you're here in your market right now? Well, with the celebrities, it's just, so I've been shooting celebrities for the past 20 years. So now, now it's just like a lot of referrals or I'll meet them at a party or, you know,
00:03:45
Speaker
They'll be for other ones. So I guess it's just taking a little time, but now they just call me. Nice. So do you just have them come in and take their photo and then do you submit it to magazines and that's how you get paid? Yeah. Well, sometimes the celebrities will hire me directly or sometimes a magazine will hire me or a brand will hire me. It really just depends.
00:04:13
Speaker
That's awesome. So I just want to take it back a little bit. I mean, you're my cousin through my mom's side, and you're about how old are you, 39?
00:04:23
Speaker
Yeah, 39. So you're three years older than me. And just to give the listeners a little backstory, like this one fun story was, you would take us to like fun events when I was like 21. And one of them was like Paris Hilton's event. And my mom tells the story to everyone, but you were just like going up to everyone and like networking and be like, Hey, I'm David Lee. And
00:04:44
Speaker
I'll take your photos and you're just fearless. So we always talk about that story. And it's been an inspiration for me to just see you kind of like go out there and get what you want. But tell us like a little bit about your background,
Personal Background and Career Motivation
00:04:58
Speaker
like growing up and how you how you got to have like this fearless mindset. Well, I am
00:05:06
Speaker
You know, I grew up in Hasina Heights and during school I would just, I played piano and I played piano and I did really well in school. I actually played piano with the USC Orchestra concertos. Yeah, I remember you were so good. But then I just got, I got totally burnt out and I thought, you know, I thought it was just kind of boring. Same goes with school.
00:05:30
Speaker
When I was in high school, my dad gave me a Nikon Coldpix 950, which is a 2.1 megapixel camera. And then I just saw it as like, okay, this could be my tool to get into, give them two events, like award shows and celebrity filled events. So I called 17 Magazine and I asked if I could cover the Teen Choice Awards for my high school newspaper. Wow. And they told me the facts in my request and they ended up letting me in. So,
00:05:58
Speaker
It was 1999 and I was the first photographer with a digital camera on the red carpet. Everybody else was using film at that time. So I took a picture of the publicist and I showed her the picture on the camera. That was the first time she's ever seen a digital camera. So she asked me if I could send her those pictures that night of in sync with the publisher and Brittany with the publisher. And she said she'd give me $1,200 a picture. So I said, sure. And she gave me an all axis pass the entire show and then
00:06:27
Speaker
I just followed her around taking all these exclusive pictures. And I had the time of my life. I shot Brittany in sync, Backstreet Boys, Kristen Aguilera, all those people. And that's really how I started. And that year I became the official digital photographer of a lot of the other major award shows, like Billboard News Awards,
00:06:47
Speaker
people's choice awards and a lot of other ones. Yeah, I mean, I actually remember that when that happened because you were super stoked and you told your parents and they told all the aunties, so everyone was super hyped for you. So were you always like that as a kid? Like you just kind of went for what you want? Were you always into celebrities? No, I mean, as a kid, all I did was study and play piano.
00:07:14
Speaker
and sports, but I just, I was just so bored of being in the suburbs, like Austin Heights and the people that I grew up with. It just wasn't, it just wasn't very inspiring. So I just wanted to get out. And that's why I would go to LA all the time, because there were so many fun parties and lots of celebrities and just so many things happening.
00:07:39
Speaker
That's so cool. Okay. So this is kind of a fun question. You've done so much and you traveled the world, work with so many amazing brands and celebrities, but what is your biggest accomplishment in business? Hmm. I guess the biggest accomplishment is just, I have a very flexible schedule and I get to do whatever I want. So I have a lot of freedom. Yeah, you do. I don't really think about, I don't have to think about,
00:08:07
Speaker
I'm going to make money because it always just comes to do what I like. I love that. I have to ask this question because it's the title of my podcast, but what is your biggest sales technique? I know your work speaks for itself, but do you have something that you could get that heck yes from your dream clients? You need to show them quality and consistency.
00:08:36
Speaker
Before I used to show, I used to show everything because I was trying to have types of photography and I thought, you know, oh, my website needs to have all these different categories. But what happens is when you do that, then people just see you as a regular photographer and then they don't see you as like the specialist. So if you look at my site now, it's all portraits and they all, you know, a lot of them are celebrities, some aren't, but
00:09:04
Speaker
they're all like similar lighting and style and you want people to hire you for your own style.
Pandemic Lifestyle Changes and Health Focus
00:09:11
Speaker
Not just as like another photographer.
00:09:15
Speaker
Yeah, when you sent me that link to David see lee.net, I was like, wow, this is quality and consistent. So you really capture like the essence of their character through that one, like photo of them. And I think you posted on Facebook today or yesterday, but you're the pixels are so like sharp, like you could actually see you in his eyeball. Yeah. Okay, so
00:09:42
Speaker
Walk me through, you know, you're living the party life, you're going to all these events, you're so well connected, and then everything shuts down during pandemic. How did you, I know you shifted so much and you changed so much and evolve, but walk me through like a little bit about like what happened to your business and how you overcame like all the struggles of the pandemic.
00:10:06
Speaker
Well, my parents live in Huntington Beach. So at the time I was living in West Hollywood and they told me to just move home because there was nothing to do. So I got rid of my place and I moved home. And, um, and then I just, you know, I just focused on health and fitness and biohacking. So, um, I really got into meditation mindset, um, manifestation, and, um, I just focused on my health and they learned so much about so much about everything.
00:10:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. I listened to that podcast, um, with that famous doctor, um, isn't it named Boo? Uh, Key and Boo. Yeah. Yeah. Key and Boo. And you talked a lot about dry fasting. Um, this is totally not related to the podcast or wedding professionals, but tell us like a little bit of, I know it's really dear to your heart right now, but, uh, tell us a little bit about your, your famous biohacking, which is dry fasting.
00:11:02
Speaker
Um, so with dry fasting, I did a seven day dry fast, which is no food and no water, which is crazy. Yeah. And what happens with that is your body goes through a full reset. And so what happens when you drink water is it causes a lot of metabolic processes in your body to happen. So that prevents from a lot of the healing. So when you don't drink water in your body, the only thing your body can do is heal. And, um,
00:11:29
Speaker
I'll tell you that the 7A dry fast is really tough because your body's going through so many different things and you're dehydrated and you don't feel good and you might have a headache. But like once you're done, it's so worth it because you get this full stem cell generation around your entire body. Wow, that is so crazy. So how often do you do the dry fasting now?
00:11:54
Speaker
Well, I did the seven day one once, and then lately for the past six months, I've been doing a one day dry fast, around 40 hours a week. Huh. And it gives you more energy? Yeah. You'd be surprised. You don't get tired when you're doing a dry fast. Huh. Yeah. I mean, you're so busy too. You probably are just going through the day and just not thinking about food, right?
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I need to try it because I'm so addicted to like processed sugars and like sugary drinks and then it gives me like brain fog and I just I crash but I just I'm so like addicted to it. So I think I need you need to help me with this dry fasting thing. Yeah, the
00:12:42
Speaker
The one thing that I realize from doing this is that we're also attached to food. You really don't have to be. So once you get rid of all these addictions, then you're able to think clearly.
Lessons from Business Partnerships
00:12:56
Speaker
Yeah. So what have you struggled with the most in business and how have you overcome it? The worst has been just having bad business partners. People that take advantage.
00:13:12
Speaker
So now I'm getting a lot better. Like I'm not, I'm not as nice as I used to be. Yeah. And, um, you really have to think about what your goals are and if the other person's goals don't align with yours, then just tell them no. Cause it's just a waste of time for both of you. Yeah. Like creating boundaries. Yeah. So are you just going to go solo now and no more business partners? Yeah, for now.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, I'm the same way. I think me and you are like more like solo people. Yeah, we go at our own pace. I just want to ask like one more question. And it's gonna allude into our hot topic. But I know you've done like so many things like you used to do videos for high end restaurants. That's what took you like around the world and used to do like parties and you did PR.
00:14:01
Speaker
And you wrote for articles for food magazines and the food photography, but why now like celebrity portraits?
Portrait Photography Tips and Techniques
00:14:10
Speaker
Well, I've just I've just found a it's just been my passion and I've worked with so many celebrities before but I was kind of shooting all these different types of styles. So now I just want to do my style. I know if I do my style, then I'll develop my style and
00:14:30
Speaker
things will happen from that. But the only way you're going to move forward is if you really specialize in one thing. Yeah, I love that. So I'm not doing, you know, I'm not doing, I'm not doing events anymore. I'm not shooting fashion. I'm not shooting food or interiors, which, you know, I can do that. I'm really good at shooting all those things, but now I just want to focus on portraits.
00:14:53
Speaker
So I love that. I mean, I am in this like weird transition stage of my life, because I focused on the weddings for so long for like 12 years. And now I'm transitioning to coaching. But right now I'm doing both. So it's really hard, especially like, you know, being a mom of two. But I want to like, just kind of retire from the photography and just focus on the coaching thing. So you're my inspiration. Really well, because you have a lot of experience in the wedding industry.
00:15:22
Speaker
Yes, I do. I'm a true veteran. Okay, so tell us about your hot topic. My hot topic of the day is creating a beautiful portrait. So one, you have to make your subject comfortable.
00:15:38
Speaker
So you need to create this environment. So one, you can do that by music. You can have a nice place, high ceilings, just have a nice place to shoot in. Two, it's all about lighting.
00:15:54
Speaker
So what I do is I love shooting with natural light, but it really depends on where you're shooting and if you can do that. So if you're shooting with natural light, ideally you want high ceilings and big tall windows and then you'll get gorgeous natural light coming in. But if you don't have that, then you could do, you know, I've just been using continuous, continuous lights with soft boxes. Okay. So one on the right side and then
00:16:24
Speaker
one kind of in the back and then one on top just to like cut the person out from the background. And then face shape, I move the lights around so that I can really like show their jawline and make sure that they have that sparkle on their eyes.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah, okay, I'll stop you there for one second because I just want to ask some follow up questions. Okay, so for making the client feel comfortable, like do you ask them what type of music they like? Or do you bring them like fruits and water and coffee? Or do you have like chit chat with them and create good rapport? Like what's your technique?
00:17:03
Speaker
I don't ask them what kind of music they like because I just, you know, I just like I like deep house music or classical something that's relaxing. And yeah, it's always good to talk to you talk to the person that you're shooting so that they feel comfortable. Yeah, ask them about their day, you know what they're working on compliment them on you know what they're wearing.
00:17:26
Speaker
Um, just, or you can do a little bit of research about them before and figure out what their interests are. And then if you have that same common interest and talk about that. Yeah. I mean, I've seen you, you know, grow, um, from when you first started, but you would just be like very like comfortable with celebrities. And I think you had like Lincoln park at your house and you're just like hanging out with them and like showing them your dogs and just kind of like relax and just creating that good relationship with them. So,
00:17:55
Speaker
It was like, wow, like you have all these celebrities at your house is chilling. So it's so interesting. Yeah. Okay. So we'll skip over number two. I don't think I have any follow-up questions about the lighting, but I want to ask you this question before we jump into tip number three, but, um, like what led you to invest in this like $8,000, $5,000 camera? Like, did you have like a mentor? Did you see, do you just know that those cameras are the best or was it like your selling point?
00:18:24
Speaker
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00:18:52
Speaker
Increase revenue $600 to $800 per event by adding a photo booth to your services so you can make more and work less. If you don't provide a photo booth, someone else will. So stop leaving money on the table and get yourself a salsa booth today. No, I just I just wanted to take my my photography to the next level. So like when I was shooting with cannons and icons, you know, I just felt like I felt like everything started to look the same.
00:19:20
Speaker
So as an artist, you always need to, you need that creative inspiration. And that's, you know, that's why I upgraded just that I could see more things and do more things. Oh, I love that. Okay, so that's a great tip just to up level. I think I love my Fuji, but I don't think I'm ready to invest like $8,000 into a camera. But when I do, I'm gonna hit you up to see which one I should get.
00:19:47
Speaker
Okay, so take us away with tip number three for creating the perfect portrait. Tip number three, when you're posing people, you just have to look and see what makes their face look the best. So always make sure that when your camera is the same plane like this, some people you might want to start, you might want to go up a little bit and see how that looks. And then just look how it makes their jawline look, look how it makes their face shape. Or if you go lower,
00:20:18
Speaker
Sometimes people look better like that, but everybody's different. And then sometimes you tell them to turn their shoulders one way, turn their shoulders the other way. But you really just want to capture them in different movements. But the main thing is you focus on their jawline and their cheekbones and the eyes. So you always want to highlight in their eyes.
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I do the same thing with brides. Some people like because of their different like jaw lines and noses, they look better in different angles. And I'll shoot and I'll be like, Oh, like that doesn't look good. So I totally I tell my students like really try to look at like what their good angles are. And if they have a side or like, if they have like some sort of motion to make them look more like genuine or natural. So I love that tip. You can always ask them if they have a better side too. So
00:21:10
Speaker
I mean, sometimes girls will, girls will, most women will know most, but most celebrities will know. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So do you style them or do they bring their own wardrobe? Um, usually I'll style them. So I'll have a stylist that comes in with a bunch of clothes. Oh, nice. Okay. So that's a great tip. Um, and then I guess one last tip before I start asking you more like fun questions.
00:21:38
Speaker
One more tip, I mean learn, learn how to retouch and find your retouching style. Okay. For me, I like, I like more like realism. Like mine's like a polished realism. So, you know, some people like more like, more like, like really polished or some people like super raw, but it all depends on what you like and then how you want to do it. So you just have to figure that out through your retouching.
00:22:07
Speaker
Do you use, can you disclose like Photoshop or Portrait Pro or what editing tool you use or is it all just your own? Yeah, I use Photoshop and then I also have this giant Wacom board which has a monitor in it. So I can actually draw on the picture. Oh, what's it called? Wacom? W-A-C-O-M. Oh, I never heard of it. Yeah. So you draw like from their eyes and like make it just perfect?
00:22:37
Speaker
Yeah. And the screen sits on the it sits on your table. So you can like you just use a pen and you can draw on it. It's kind of like drawing on an iPad. Okay, that's so crazy. Okay, so these are great tips. And listeners, you have to check out his work and just see exactly what we're talking about. Because once you check it out, then you'll see like the quality, the consistency and like how he captures this pretty much like the essence of their being.
Notable Projects and Philanthropy Efforts
00:23:07
Speaker
Okay, so I'm gonna ask you like some fun questions about you. But let's see. What is your favorite like celebrity memory? I'm sure you have a ton, but just maybe one or two. Oh, um, shooting Lady Gaga was really surreal because she wasn't even famous. And
00:23:27
Speaker
We were at the area nightclub on La Cienega, and it was really just me and her. So I was just telling her what to do, where to go. And she's just by herself. And then probably about five or six months later, she became this superstar. And she was shooting with Margaritastino and the biggest photographer. So just seeing the progression of her career and knowing that I was part of the beginning of that was pretty amazing. How did you make that happen?
00:23:56
Speaker
I was in touch with the Universal Music Publicis. Oh, they just told me about this, you know, this new artist Lady Gaga. And I said, yeah, sure, I'll shoot her. And then Elijah told me about her. He was working with the Universal too. So he told me that she's going to be the next Madonna, you know, and she really was. So, you know, usually you hear that all the time, like, oh, yeah, she's going to be the next Madonna. But I mean, it's very rare that that would ever happen.
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah, she's definitely like a legend for sure. That's so crazy. Do you still like do you ever get nervous with celebrities or just you've been doing it for so long and you just doesn't even phase you anymore? No, they're just they're just regular people like us. They just have a lot more handlers around. Yeah, totally. Okay, next question. What is your favorite place you've ever traveled to? Oh, I mean,
00:24:52
Speaker
I love Paris. I was in Paris for four months, four months one time and then one month other time.
00:25:00
Speaker
It's just so magical and inspiring. Everything's beautiful. The food's amazing. You have this gorgeous scenery. And you just love to look outside. It's just amazing. Yeah. It's magical. Yeah. I know. I wish I shot you. You gave me the opportunity to shoot Coco Rocha's wedding with you. But I had just come back from my sister's bachelorette party in Mexico. And I was so tired.
00:25:23
Speaker
I know, but that would have been so epic, but I love all the photos. She's so beautiful. Next question is, I know you're giving back a lot, but tell us a little bit about your Asian hate campaign. Oh, so I co-founded a project called NFT for Good. Okay. It's basically we created about 88 NFTs of prominent Asian celebrities and influencers and
00:25:53
Speaker
um, influential people in the community. And, um, and, and then we auction them off for, um, for hate is a virus. Um, and Asian-American Pacific Islander, um, South Asian hate. Yeah. So we raised about, we raised about a hundred thousand dollars for that. Wow. And then I produced a music video. Um, I produced a music video for the hotel lobby, which is, um, one of my friends.
00:26:22
Speaker
And I got a bunch of celebrities to be in it, like Simu Liu from Shang-Chi, some of the people from Bling Empire, Lisa Ling and a bunch of other people. So, yeah. Yeah, I saw it was so good. And it's just, doesn't it feel like so good to raise out much money, which is crazy? Yeah, yeah, it feels amazing. What is an NFT? Again, I know you told me many times.
00:26:51
Speaker
And NFT is a non-fungible token, which means that there's only one of a kind.
Future Focus on Wedding Portrait Stations
00:26:56
Speaker
So with NFTs, digital artists are able to create things and there's only one of them instead of, you know, instead of, you know, like somebody posts a picture online and then there's like a million of them. This is the way for digital artists and photographers to monetize their craft.
00:27:17
Speaker
Oh, that's so interesting. I like it's blowing my mind. I want you to tell me I know you're just going like the portrait route and you got your brand new home in downtown LA. But like what does your company look like in like six months or one year? Like how will you evolve? So I'm just starting to shoot portraits at weddings. Cool. Yeah.
00:27:45
Speaker
So we'll see where that takes me. But I'm going to set up a portrait station at the weddings and then people can take pictures with me. And then we'll have the full retouching process and everything. So tell me tell me more, dude. That's awesome.
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah, so, um, you know, I'll use, I'll use my Hasselblad, um, all the same lighting that I shoot the celebrities with, but I'll be able to shoot, you know, a hundred people that night. So, um, I think it's the first time that people are doing this with this type of quality. Uh-huh. Usually like portrait studios or, you know, like a photo booth or like somebody might shoot with a bunch of cannons or nikons. Uh-huh.
00:28:25
Speaker
But this way, I'm giving the super high quality to a lot of people at once. Wow. So are you working with planners or are you just know people getting weddings? How are you getting that brand out? I just booked my first wedding. So I don't know how I'm going to
00:28:46
Speaker
I'm going to do it, but you know, you would know better than me. So I'll have to talk to you after this. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you're charging like a lot for that, but I would love to tag along with you and see how you work. Cool. Okay. Do you want to ask me a question? Um, so how's coaching going?
00:29:07
Speaker
Oh, good question. Right now I'm kind of like on that tip of the iceberg. I've struggled a lot because it was definitely like a big transition. I was a little naive. I thought it could post like on IGTV every day and then like people.
00:29:22
Speaker
wouldn't hire me, but it took a year. So I have my website coming out, and I'm going to do some ads. And I have my master class coming out. And I think through all of it, I've honed in on my niche. And that's getting leads and mastering the dreaded sales calm and also getting on the vendor list. So I could teach a lot of things because I've been doing it for so long. But I think it's good to have a niche, just like your portraits.
00:29:49
Speaker
And I could just focus on that. So as far as going, I have a couple of students that are doing really well. But yeah, it hasn't been easy for sure. So I've been learning a lot. And, you know, I get down on myself sometimes for not growing as fast as I wanted to. But
00:30:08
Speaker
I'm not giving up for sure because I think it's just my passion. And I think when I keep failing and I keep wanting to do it again, I think that means it's definitely my passion. You know what I mean?
Childhood Anecdote and Closing Remarks
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, that's so cool.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yes, it's just like you have to keep going and you want it so bad. And I see that with me and you. And I think our whole family is very creative. You're a famous photographer. I'm a wedding photographer. My sister's a writer. Tiff's a designer. Alan's a sculptor. Ashley's a volleyball entrepreneur. Crystal's an entrepreneur, volleyball teacher, and PE teacher. And who else am I missing?
00:30:54
Speaker
Well, the other ones are young. We're the older generation ones. Yeah. Okay. So any lasting advice for wedding professionals? And then I guess just like where to find you. And I guess I can't really work with you because they're not celebrities, but still work with me. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So yeah, tell us your lasting advice and then just how to work with you. Um,
00:31:23
Speaker
My last thing advice would be just to never give up and you're going to face a lot of rejection. But the only way you can get from point A to point B is if you keep on asking and you're going to get a lot of goes, but you know, occasionally you'll get a yes. And then you take those yeses and you build on that. Yeah, I love that. Can you tell just really quick, cause we're only at 30 minutes, but your, your penny story because it's like, I love your penny story when you're a little boy. Oh yeah. So when I was, when I was six years old,
00:31:53
Speaker
my family was collecting coins and the coin show was coming up and I knew that at the coin show there was always this table with a bunch of pennies on it that all the kids went through.
00:32:03
Speaker
But I was watching the news and there was this story about the rarest penny in the world, which is a 1914 D penny, which was made in Denver. And it was made of steel that year because of World War I, and all the copper was used for bullets. So I just, after I saw that story, I had it in my mind that I was gonna find that penny on that one table of thousands and thousands of pennies.
00:32:30
Speaker
So I went to the coin show with my parents and we went directly to that table and I just kept on searching for that penny. And hours and hours passed and my parents kept on telling me to go, but I just said, no, I'm going to find it. And I think after five or six hours, I found that penny. So that just taught me that if I put my mind to something, I can get it no matter what.
00:32:54
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, that yes mindset was always in your blood from like, a very young age. And I love that story, because it just reminds me of like, the Willy Wonka story, like finding that like golden, golden bar. You like you wanted it so bad, and you found it. That's awesome. Okay, so tell everyone like your Instagram and where to find you. And then yeah,
00:33:19
Speaker
You can find me on Instagram. It's at David, the letter C, L-E-E, photography. And my website is DClee.net. Yay. Thanks, cousin. I love this conversation. Thanks, Brisa.
00:33:38
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros.