The Independence Day Success

It was about 3:30am the morning of June 30, 2009. I was lying in bed, trying everything possible to fall asleep. It was imperative that I get a few good hours of sleep. After all Sarah and I were going to find out the sex of our first child. Obviously that can weigh on your mind quite a bit. I tried all the common fall asleep fast techniques (a warm shower, followed by warm milk, and even some counting sheep). Low and behold, sleep was a long way from happening. As you could probably imagine it was the night before a very exciting event. Were we going to have a boy that I could play catch with in the back yard, or a girl who would just melt my heart away? Everyone had an opinion; everyone had their reasons, as they always do. Even Sarah thought she had figured out the sex. Wouldn’t you know, most of those people were wrong. Most thought that we were having a boy, and as it turned out it was a girl…… Daddy’s Girl



However, sometime the night before we found out Abby was going to be Abby instead of Aiden. I lay restless tossing and turning in my bed, my mind racing a thousand miles a minute. I was thinking about the baby, about the future, and about the photography business. I was thinking about how I could connect my photos with the masses. How and where I could reach the most people for the least amount of $$ out of pocket? Then one of those silly cartoon light bulbs lit up above my head (heck, I couldn’t sleep so why not have a light bulb above my head). The 4th of July Parade was the following Saturday. There were at least 50,000 people going to be down town, with their full attention on the event. Shoot, why hadn’t I thought of this sooner. I could have made a float and been in the parade tossing candy and handing out business cards. Talk about maximizing the advertising possibilities… Well obviously it was 4 days away so there was no way I could put that kind of operation together. Then that cartoon light bulb got a little bit brighter. I have an oversized tricycle and wagon in the garage. What if I could get someone to ride that through town before the parade began??? That would get some attention. Then of course I could have someone walking with the tricycle rider passing out cards. Now that is advertising on a shoe string budget. Thoughts poured in… I could have shirts made, thousands of cards for passing out, bags of candy to toss to the kids, and some oversized prints printed up to attach to the wagon. How in the world could that happen in 4 days??? I didn’t even have anyone to ride the trike and pass out cards. I could possibly do one or the other, but Sarah couldn’t. Her feet swell up like overcooked hot dogs after a few minutes of standing (due to the pregnancy). Then it hit me, I knew the perfect people for this type of fun. They are the most free spirited, fun loving, adventuresome people I know. They were my brother-in-law Cary and his wife Erin. They were perfect, now I needed to talk them into it. Hmmmm how could I persuade them into this crazy idea of mine. Well it turns out all I had to do was start to mention it and they both lit up like kids at Christmas. They were twice as excited as I could imagine. Then the fun began. I now had 3 days to get enlarged prints, cards, and shirts made up. I placed rush orders with my print shops and had the cards and prints expedited for the event. That just left the shirts. Who in the world could make me custom shirts in multiple sizes with a 3 day turn around??? Then Sarah mentioned her Aunt Mary and Uncle Duke. They happen to run a part time screen printing business. So I called up Mary to see if it were possible. Mary and Duke Brooks of Faith Walkers Screen Printing (219) 879-1900 pulled through in a pinch. They made me 5 different size shirts that turned out perfect, and all with very little notice…


The 4th of July came and Cary and Erin took off down the parade route. They made it completely down one side of the parade route and 1/3 of the way back when the police asked them to exit the route. Overall the event was an absolute success. Not because the phone is ringing off the hook with leads from the parade but, because my friends and family pulled together to help promote my photography business. And they did it because they wanted too, not because they were forced or made to feel guilty. They did it to help me, and that is what family and friends are about. With friends and family like that, ultimately Life is a Success….