We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leo J. Solomon,MBA a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Leo, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from always being an underdog. I did not graduate from a highly ranked college or come from a financially well-off family. I come from humble beginnings, which reminds me that staying focused creates the ability to overcome any setback in life. From my spiritual upbringing, I know that God speaks about his children being victorious in the face of any obstacles and that we are born to be winners if we continue to follow his teachings.
I am blessed to have many inspirations, from my parents to friends. I have been inspired by stories like moving to Atlanta with 25 cents to your name and working your way up to working for the judicial court system in Georgia. I’m inspired by stories of close friends experiencing homelessness who eventually gain back everything and pursue a college education.
When I am around many amazing people who have overcome adversity despite their odds, I do not allow myself to give up on my dreams. I have too many examples of what persistence can provide in life.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions, we had for you?
Throughout my professional career, I have photographed many experiences. I have photographed collegiate athletes enjoying pre-game day festivities before their big-time Atlanta Bowl Game. I rode in army helicopters while photographing and filming other helicopters in the sky at a world-renowned aviation museum. Additionally, I have provided food photography and videography to locally owned restaurants, providing them with new marketing content.
As part of my photography business, CapturedByLeo, I have photographed weddings, live events, branding shoots, marriage proposals, graduation photos, and more.
I love every part of photography, but I am currently most excited about photographing weddings and marriage proposals. I am recently married, and every time I photograph these marital moments, I feel like a time capsule taking me back to my wedding. I feel fulfilled providing couples with amazing photos to freeze their special moments in time.
I have big goals to complete before the end of the year. I look forward to booking more weddings, working with nonprofits, and building upon this year in photography.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Lifelong Learner Mindset – this is huge. You must always practice the craft and hone the skills needed for your dream career. Read as often as you can on whatever you pursue. Be humble enough to continue to be a student at your craft regardless of how good you believe you are at something. Investing that time in yourself will pay off in the end. You have to continue to work at your craft and allow progression of skill to develop. YouTube and Google are free resources for educational purposes.
Relationship Builder – You must continue to develop the skill of communicating in various rooms. You may be the youngest or the oldest in the room. You must find ways to connect with people and build meaningful relationships. It is with these connections that you can offer your services and assist them in their business or personal goals. You must constantly have a shared goal of being successful in your endeavors and finding where you can provide value to them to create a successful partnership.
Finding Gratitude – The journey to fulfill any desired dream or goal will be difficult. We often don’t celebrate the small wins as much as we should or remember our starting point. There will be disappointments along this journey and small triumphs. You must do your best to stay levelheaded by appreciating your efforts and what you have accomplished so far. On many occasions, we don’t have anyone cheering us on 24/7 because the journey of turning your dream into a reality is often a solo mission. You are the only one that lives in your head. Therefore, I recommend finding Facebook groups and other communities filled with people who have similar dreams to be inspired by others, regardless of your level of current success. No matter what happens along your journey, you should make time to smile at everything positive that happens along the way, especially during the tough times.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go, we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I strongly believe in collaborations and partnerships. I would love to partner with venues ideal for weddings to do styled shoots and any additional vendors for decor for the styled shoots. I want to partner with nonprofits in Georgia to provide photography coverage for some of their community events when my photography bookings are a bit slower. I am huge on giving back to the nonprofit communities who may be unable to afford photography services. Outside of these two key areas, I am open to reviewing any future collaboration opportunities.
Contact Info:
- Website: CapturedByLeo
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capturedbyl.e.o/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086688470703&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/leo-j-solomon-mba-6ab1a5b5
Image Credits
I own all rights to the images.
