In today’s episode of our New Normal Chronicles, we have our first guest, the amazing JR Arsenault. He has a varied background that we're going to talk about. We're also going to focus on what JR is doing now while adjusting his opportunities to the new normal setup worldwide.

JR’s Background

His parents moved from a garden spot, Southern Connecticut. It’s between New Haven and New London. They lived in a couple of towns there, Guilford and Clinton, and ended up in Guilford, a historic town. It's a wonderful place.

JR didn't have a musical appreciation until he hit the southern shoreline around people and wonderful music instructors. He has been married twice, and both of his wives had very strong musical backgrounds. JR said that if you don't have music in your life, you don't have much of a life. But he has been very fortunate to have a broad background in music. Even today, many of the local bands, they're good friends of his.

In the 80s, he was doing some promotional photography for bands. Back then, they had fan clubs, and they’d need Ektachrome slides to make an inner negative so that they could shoot slides, and then they make a larger, inner negative. Then, they can do everything with that. That was the way that you'd get quality on the road, and it was like a cheap trick.

Then, he went to Rochester, the cradle of photographic civilization and the center of most technology. Even when he was in school, they had a connection with Eastman Kodak. Of course, RIT is the finest School of Imaging Science in the universe. At the time, he got involved with some of the projects. They were doing Digital Photography back when he was a young lad.

According to JR, you have to hang out with great people and surround yourself with great people and great books. When you gain a lot of learning, you can apply it to your life and use it to face your future. Besides that, learn from your mistakes. So the more mistakes you make early, the better off you are later.

Moreover, when JR graduated from RIT, he was first in his class, but he couldn't get a job. So then, he started to try to sell pictures in a recession in Kodak town. However, the first year was not good, but it was when he learned a lot about how not to market and things that he shouldn't do and putting all his eggs in different baskets. After that, JR got smarter, but he might also consider himself desperate. It’s because he didn’t have any alternatives at the time.

Then, JR came up with the idea of preschool photography in his area. Fortunately, there’s a lot of money coming in, and he even went from zero to 18 states in less than 18 months and 30 states in less than 24 months. The growth was so amazing. But JR didn’t expect that much success. So, what he did was sabotaging and trying to reduce it down to a level he was comfortable with rather than adjusting for a maximum. It was an exciting thing when he finally realized he was self-sabotaging.

After a few years, JR decided to move to Charlotte to continue his photography career. He did it and took a hit, but he kept on missing his family and friends. But he created something new, and it was a profound thing. JR even said that, in order to get something new, you need to release your hands to have two hands to get.

He also added that because we've all been destined for greatness, there's a unique thing that the creator put us down here to do. You need to find out what it is, and you need to not worry about what other people think. In fact, it happened to JR before. Because he wanted to become a manager of a large photographic operation, he tried his best, and he became one. He ran a company that earned millions of dollars a year.

However, as years went by, JR found it no fun at all. It was paying him nicely, but he wasn’t enjoying it anymore. So he decided to quit and find something else that he truly deserved. Then, JR realized that he just turned 40 at the time, and he thought that he had to do something. Because of that, he decided to get into finance and mortgages. During the 90s, these were some of the industries that were successful in the market. So it was the world of JR for many years, but he came to the point when he decided again to go back to his first love, which is photography.

It's when you know what to do and when you've got the equipment and the ability, not so much camera ability, but the ability to go out there and hustle. However, this time, JR wanted to pick people he wanted to work with. He then had his customer list and sent them out with the emails and videos. He always then felt amazing when people opened and watched the videos he sent. For him, it’s priceless!

There’s More Important Than Your SKills

I just finished the last two and a half years. I was the volunteer president of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors in the Greater Washington DC area. But, then, throughout my 35-year financial services career, I have met a fantastic number of amazingly talented people in that field. But a lot of those people aren't making any money. So the reason they're not making any money is not that they're not talented. It's not because they're not ethical or not good.

They're not making money to make a living because they don't have anybody to talk to. So marketing is so key, and I really think that you really hit the nail on the head. It's great to have the skills. But more important than the skills you have to have somebody else putting people in front of you. Or, you have to do it yourself.

Now, I know when you are in 18 states, you are with the preschools. You had other people taking the pictures, and you had other people setting up those arrangements. I'm sure of that for that much volume. But the key thing is somebody has to do that. If nobody comes to the play, then you know it's practice.

The 3200 Email Responses

JR bought a list with 50,000 names from coast to coast of everybody that had a daycare license. He sent a three-piece mail. One was the envelope, a folded note, and a BRC, Business Reply Card. He thought he’d only get a couple of 100 or 200 responses because he never did that before. Well, the problem was he had almost 3200 responses.

So he eliminated a lot of states and got it down to about 1000. JR then connected everybody, but he got overwhelmed with the overload. So he went through his failure cycle, and he still earned money from it. He then learned from his lessons, so he was set for the next year, and he got the right people in place.

How Did JR Get Affected When Transitioning Into this COVID World?

Digital photography changed things because it's possible to make mediocre pictures, letting the camera do all the brain work for you. Because you haven't learned and don't know what you're doing, there's a little arrow in the word front underneath the camera to remind you, in case you get confused.

The thing about it is that we have a variety of things, like what JR has been doing in the recent past. But when things stop, and when JR stopped creating lovely stuff because everybody's got COVID. Photography was dead in the water. He even had clients that he built up catalog photography who paid very nice.

However, they didn't postpone it. They canceled it. And it's still canceled a year later. So what you do is you learn a new trick. The new trick is exactly what JR and I and several of our fantastic new friends are doing. We've learned how to do this, and with varying degrees.

Because right now, JR wants to do production with me, so he wants to create new amazing different things. To do that, you have to let go of what you had before and learn new techniques. So then, JR and I have learned that, and we're doing new things now using the ability to build on what we knew before. So he’s now doing photography, production like this, and publishing journals.

What is PPP?

The three P's are photography, production, and publishing. Being a producer of shows like this, you have to get your name out. Then, getting your name out regularly is how people call you if they don't know you. If they don't see your beautiful work, they don't know you’re there. On the other hand, publishing is going to be coloring books but focused coloring books for corporate and things along those lines that JR is developing. In using his photography skills and production to get to that end, everything feeds everything. It's kind of a symbiotic, operable nature, where the three pieces are working with each other.

Moreover, JR will be producing my New Normal Chronicles, and he will also be starting his Go Live Sherpa. It’s streaming video production. What he can do is have up to 10 people on one screen in one format. JR will interview these people, have lovely photos, and have people or the audience commenting. In fact, if you want to contact JR, you can get in touch with him via email: jrarsenault@gmail.com.

Takeaway

Everybody has to deal with changes. The difference now is that change comes so fast. It’s true that most of us have been hit by that dramatic change over the last 12 to 15 months. There's some value to that. We can add value, both from our own expertise but also from other people. That’s why what we're trying to do with the New Normal Chronicles is to bring successful people to the forefront so that those who can see what's working and how people have gone from where they were will find the current new path for success.

However, the pandemic may make you either find the cheese or you starve. It’s a situation that a lot of people find themselves in today. But we are thriving because we've moved on, and we're having fun right now in the COVID. Besides that, it's also wonderful because it's taking me to places that I've never thought I would be. JR said that he wasn't in front of a camera talking to people. He was behind the camera. He was selling employment benefits, but now, he’s helping people.

In addition, life happens, and then you have another opportunity to overcome something else. So you always need to be looking for what is really your destiny, and it may be in one place today. But, then, next year is doing something different, and the next will lead you to your ultimate destiny. So that's what we all have to do is find what our destiny is. But you can't do that while you’re sitting down on a couch. Your only way to do it is by being active and looking for it. It's the only way the message gets out. And I want to leave you with one last piece of advice: everybody has a destiny. Hence, you need to embrace your destiny.