Finding Purpose with John Cruice

After nearly a year-long hiatus, Britt Carpenter returns with a powerful new season of Be A Voice. In this episode, Britt sits down with Philadelphia-native photographer John Cruice, who shares his journey of discovering his true passion and calling behind the lens. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about purpose, passion, and the power of following your dreams.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to be a voice. So I'm Brick Carpenter and
this is Usula Media. Thanks for joining me today. Today
is one of my first shows back in a while.
If I peel some layers back and I look at things,
this will be like a fifth season going into doing
the podcast here on Usula Media. I started being a
voice a few years ago and for people to be
a voice for what they believe and for what they

(00:43):
stand for. And ever since the pandemic, a lot of
things have changed. Gears have shifted, and that's sort of
what we want to talk about today and moving forward
is changing gears. You know, we all have to change
gears once in a while, and that's why I brought
my guests in today. And today I have John Cruse. Hey, John,
how are you. I'm doing well? How are you? I'm
doing all right, John, I'm doing all right. You know,

(01:05):
talk about shifting gears. I thought you were one of
the best people to bring in and talk about that
because you, more than anybody, know what it's like to
shift gears, especially over the last few years, and try
to make it work. Yeah. You know, well, first of all,
for those who don't know John is he is a
Philly native, well Delco native originally, but we won't we

(01:27):
won't hold that against him at this point. But he
is affiliinative. How long we've been in Philly now, been
living in the city this round? Twelve years? Twelve years? Yeah,
going or yeah going on twelve South Philly boy right now, Yeah,
South Philly Boy. And John. I met John eight years
ago through when I started Philly Unknown and John. I

(01:50):
met him because he was one of the leading photographers
here in the city. He was one of the photographers
that was out there doing his thing, doing his hustle,
making life work for him. But at the time, John,
you weren't just photography, wasn't your gig. No, tar Man
is a creative outlet.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
And so, like a brief backstory about how I got
into it.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Like, so, my original college major was architecture.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
After about two years, I didn't know whether, like I
wasn't ready to like make life decisions, like as you know,
as a nineteen twenty year old, I'm like, I don't
know what I want to do it.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
So I switch schools and switch majors.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I got a degree in business with a concentration of
marketing because I figured that's flexible and then I can
I can I can bounce around.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
And then figure out what I want to be when
I grew up kind of deal. And so I haven't
figured that out yet. Was that Did you figure that
out yet?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well? I mean to some extent, yeah, I mean, like
it's it's funny like when you there was a Steve
Jobs commenced speech at Stanford. I don't know if you've
ever seen it or reading, but he's talking about like, yep,
you have Stanford University being one of the more elite universities.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
These kids have life plans.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
And he gives a story about how he you know,
came upon Apple and how he had to look back
at his life experiences going backwards to figure out like
certain things like when he decided college wasn't for him,
he decided to audit classes because they no longer it
was no longer about getting a grade. It was about like,
let me go learn something I'm just interested in. I
don't care if it gets me a degree. And he

(03:18):
went into a calligraphy class and because he was fascinated
with fonds. We have fonts on computers today. He was
the first one to do it because he stumbled in
on a class back in college, like we wouldn't be
there if he didn't do that, and he said, there
was no way I walked into that class and I'm
going to put these in computers one day because that's
not why I did it. I chose it because it
was interesting. And then fast forward twenty years, I remembered

(03:41):
those things. I'm like, why can't we do those in
an electronic form? And then fonts were created.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
It's interesting, that's how we had some of those scroll
crappy funds out there. Yea from him going too plagraphy class, right.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
But like those fonts, like but if you ever I mean,
you know, you and I were both old enough to
remember like early computers and like like the block dos
like technog like that's what hex. It's just it was
just the block text. And then it wasn't until Mac
came out that they put in a variety of fonds
like just so that you can express yourself in different ways.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
And so.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
When it was funny, like during the pandemic when everything's
shut down, I had I'm like, all right, well I
got two weeks because that's remember we were all like
if everybody just stays inside for two weeks, we can
we can ride this thing out kind of deal. I
sat down, I said, Okay, I was a year into
my photography business as a business, and I'm like.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
What is my brand? Like, what is it?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
And let me go through the branding exercise because I
was you know, when you're hustling to build a business,
sometimes you're just checking all the boxes. You're just you're
making a website, you're making marketing materials, you're you're you're
doing the things, the steps, you're just trying to like
you get through the list in the day. And but
if to build a sustainable company, you need a through line,

(04:52):
something that like some pillar that you bounce everything off
of to say this is who I am as a brand,
because that's what gets represented out in the world. So
when I look back, you know, my first jobs out
of college was it Vanguard was a problem resolution that
I got into statistical analytics, and I was doing analytics.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
For a while.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I was doing yeah, from anything from process efficiency, and
then I got into advice and then started doing investor
behavior analytics and that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
So your first job out of college is Vanguard. Yeah?
Was that your only job working for Vanguard? Yeah? From
the time you graduated college until the time back in
twenty eighteen. When how long did you work for Vanguard?
Twenty years?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
So you took a twenty year career. Well, I took
a twenty year like company companies I had were making
careers with, right, I had multiple careers. R I switched
gears while they're most people.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Do when they're at a place for about twenty years, Yeah,
eighteen years. I spent with you know, career college educations
for many many years, and I worked my way through
the ranks, and that's what you usually do until you
get to that point where you just can't switch gears anymore. Right,
dead end, right, and you know I.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Was, I was doing analytics, and I'm like, I'm not
creatively fulfilled. I went back to school, did my architecture
degree at night. But like to become an architect, you
have to go through an internship and there's licensing exams.
And around the time where I would be eligible to
do an internship, the financial collapse happened. All of my
architect friends were out of work, and it was like
no firms were hiring interns at that point, So it

(06:28):
was like You're going to ride this out and a
friend of mine asked me to come over and do
web design. And I'm like, I don't know anything about
the web, and it's like it's architecture with a different
building material. Just do that year, And so I did,
and I ended up doing that for about ten years
doing UX designer, was a senior UX designer, and by
the time architecture firms were hiring again, I was the
senior designer.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
I was making three times.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
The amount that I was going to make as an
entry level in an architecture firm.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
And I didn't have to do all the grunt work.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
I had teams that did all of the nay degree
I was I could think big thing and draw on
whiteboards and do that kind of stuff. And then it
got to the point where it was, like I thought,
so I architecture was all consuming, like as a time commitment,
three nights a week in class, the rest of the
time I'm working on projects. So when I graduated, I
had all this new free time. And then I started

(07:17):
with the camera and I started walking around the city
and I started photographing architecture and like architecturally things and
and so.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
You weren't involved with photography that long, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Like that was around around twenty fourteen is when I
really got like I had a camera for architecture school,
but I didn't really know how to use it. So
around twenty fourteen I started to like, yep, just do
it as as a hobby where I would wander around
a city and just do it. And then I was
on a project and it was like we were nearing
the end of my need. So now my manager at

(07:50):
the time and I were talking about the next thing
for you know, the next exciting opportunity for me to
go to, and everyone that he lists it off, I'm
like they sound like Reachred's Like, none of them sound
like something new.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
And so I said, I.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Think I'm just done, and he said, what do you mean,
I'm I'm gonna do this photography thing.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
I'm just gonna quit.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
And so then I did, like I gave him, like,
you know, a couple months notice, because I was like,
I'm not like I don't have a new job offer.
It's just like I I'm going to work towards this.
We have a couple months on this project left. I'm
not going to leave you hanging. But I don't I'm
not going to move on to another project because they're
all I've already done those.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
It's interesting because you worked for Vanguard. Yeah. Vanguard is
a company that a lot of people dream getting into. Yeah,
and I would love to get into. They start their
careers there, they finished their careers there as well. Yeah,
twenty years is a long time. That's a little bit
of a vested interest in a company, and a company
I invested interest in yourself as well to be able
to say to himselves, you know what, I'm out of here,

(08:47):
I'm done.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
I was always like so pretty early on. It's for
somebody who lasted their twenty years. I was never a
cultural fit for that company, given the way I process things.
So I was al was kind of one foot out
the door. I mean, I spent seven years in architecture
school thing and I'm leaving as soon as I get
like a job building buildings, Like that's what I'm so
and everybody knew it. This was not like a secret

(09:10):
I was holding. I was like, you know, where do
you where do you see yourself in five years?

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Not here?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
And like I would have those conversations because you know,
I'm going to come in and do my job. You're
gonna pay me, and that's our agreement, but like, we're
not going to pretend that I'm going to be here
for the rest of my life. And so so it
was never really a fit for me creatively. It was
just something to do until I figured out what I.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Was going to do.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
And then to go to circle back to the Steve
Jobs line when I was sitting down and doing my
branding exercise, because when I got into portraits, it felt
like a design exercise again. I thought, Oh, in statistics,
I took raw sets of data and I made sense
of them and I made stories out of them, and
then other people could understand those stories.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
I was able to do that.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Then when I was in web design, I took retirement
planning and I simplified it into three steps. So the
average person who is just a four oh one k
and never really knows what to do with it, says,
do I have enough? And what do I need to
do right? And so I could take that the complexity
of that and simplify it. And now what I do
is I take the messiness of life and everybody's individual story,

(10:16):
try to put it down into one thousand words, and
then we're going to make an image out of it.
So the through line is I did it in three
very different ways. I simplify the chaos, and I've always
done that, It's just I did it in very different
media avenues. So that's kind of like when you think
about it like a branding through line, I'm like, that's it.
That's what I do. I just now do it this way.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
So what was your undergrand in? So what's that?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
So I have two undergrads, so I've I've won in
business and one in architecture.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
And where are they from? Ones from Penn State, once
from Drexel. Okay, See, the first one is Penn State.
First one's Penn State. The second one was Rexel main campus.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
No I went to I went to the uh it's
called the Brandywine Campus now, it was called Della County
at the time, and uh, I was just going there
just to kind of keep my head in the game
and just see what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
And then.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
I was actually gonna like go to main campus yea
the following year. But then they offered a business degree
and then I got a job at Vanguard. I'm like, oh, well,
then I don't need to I'm just gonna wrap this
up now and just move on. Because at one time
I was I was I was exploring maybe I'll study
economics because I love like, ye big big movements of
money stories and like y macro shit. Yeah, like I

(11:31):
I you know, like a like that kind of like
thought process and so it stand economics. Yeah, I mean
I love like getting into like those puzzles because it again,
it's another it's a puzzle to solve. It's like what
is going on here, what's the what's the motivation behind
large groups of people spending or or selling, and like, yeah,

(11:51):
what are they doing? And but it was like, oh,
I could get a job, like and just have a
real big boy job and wrap up this degree right here.
I'm gonna do that. So that's what I did. I
wrapped up the degree there and I worked as I
got a job.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
And when did you go back for your second underrad
two thousand and six in person?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, so that one that was on site at Drexel.
So I would wake up in the morning, drive the Vanguard,
drive Adrexel, go home, rinse and repeat.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
And that was kind of like were you living in
the city then, are you? No? I was living.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
I was living in Haddenfield, New Jersey. You're in Haddonfield
driving a Vanguard every day. Yeah, it's like what an
hour and twenty minutes. Yeah, at least well, if I
left it early enough in the morning, it was like
I could get there like.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
In an hour. Right, But you left after seven o'clock,
You're screwed. Yeah. Right. That was basically like that was
like the thing.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
So, you know, I started getting up at five, going
to gym, coming back on my coffee, getting a shower
by six thirty, out the door by seven.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
And then I'm on the road.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
I can get there by eight, eight ten, and then
and then leave, go to Direxel and then come home
and then and then do it all over again, like
at least two days a week.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
So you know, when we talk about you know, shifting
years and you know everything when I look at like,
you know, the five years I've been doing this, or
the five seasons, how we want to break it down.
You know, each year has been different, talking to different
people about different things, with different subjects, different topics, What's
going on out in the world. You know, you know,
our lives in the last you know five years have

(13:29):
been turned upside down. You know, in many ways, bringing
from government to pandemic to just life in general. What
I mean, I made that jump. I took a you know,
six figure salary and I said, screw you, I'm done.
I'm gonna go console for myself. Blah blah blah blah blah.
What made you do it? I know what made me
do it? What made you just throw away a twenty

(13:50):
year career or twenty year life building career where you
had divested interest, where there's probably you know, great options
at the very end there to just say screw it,
I'm done.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
It's emotionally draining to not be fulfilled every day and
going and doing something that was not like, yep, intellectually
interesting to me.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
It wasn't creatively interesting to me.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
It was like yeah, yeah, I was getting Yeah, my
last review was fantastic.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
And he's like he's like, I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
I'm like, I mailed it in this year, Like I
put in no effort, and that's what like, that's what happened,
because like I didn't need to try anymore.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
And I'm like, that's not how I want to be.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
I don't want to exist in that world where you know,
I go through the motions, Like soon as I start
going through the motions for something, I'm out And that's
just I get answered.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
I understand that totally. The motion sucks because then you're
then you're actually having to try, and then it becomes
a task, right.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
And and you know and yeah, yeah, and you're in
a similar situation with me. Like I remember my buddy
at the time who was married with three kids yep
in Vanguard. He was like, he was like, he goes,
you don't have any inherent problems because I'm a single
guy with no kids, because you're just like because you
don't have like like, yeah, if I lose my job,
like I gotta like stress to help, you know, because

(15:11):
I got like a lot of mouths to feed, because
you'll just you just have yours, so you can like
that's a you're in a position where you can take
that risk. And he goes, Plus you don't have like
the day to day like catastrophes that like kids can
can can contribute to, Like, so you've got to make
your own problems and then you.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Got to solve them. That makes sense. You know, It's
funny you say that because people say that, I'm thinking
to myself, you know, they're always like, you're the only
one to support. Yeah, but I gotta support myself. And
I'm very used to living a certain way, right, And
I'm used to having that because number one, I chose
not to have children, right. You know that's a very
selfish part of me, because it should also very selfless
because I don't want to have children, you know, put

(15:48):
them through that, but I chose not to have them.
But like, there's a way that I like to live,
and I need to make X amount of dollars able
to live that way. So when people always like, you
don't know what that's like, I got a family. That
was your choice. Man, there's your choice to go out
and get the family. Oh you had the white picket
house and the two point five kids and all that stuff,
you know, white pick at fence in around the house.
But like when people say that, I think they tend

(16:09):
to forget that, Like, no matter who you are, man,
kids you have on males, you feed, you're all in
the same boat.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, And I think that, like, and and you know,
it's kind of like when you when you hear people
like and especially now like you see it like more
people go to therapy, right, and and you see like, uh,
like people trying to trauma rank, Like we're not trying
to out compete each other, like like the one uppers. Right, Well,
it's like you know, you think you've got problems, like
you know, and it's like we all we all grew

(16:38):
up in the soup that we grew.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Up in and some of it was beneficial and some
of it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
But like it's not to say that one problem, one
person's problem is monumentally more difficult than another, because like
we all deal with it differently at different times.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
So you can't compare it. Yeah, I don't, Like you
can't compare it. You can't. We can't compare our even
though very similar paths, right, we can't compare like the
outcome of them and how we feel or we're you
want them. And we've talked many times about this, you know,
we talked many nights about it, and you know, there's
a lot of things that we also agree to disagree
upon too because of the fact that, like we also
had different beliefs and you know, but like following that

(17:13):
path and following you know, it's never easy to just
you know, walk away from consistency or stability knowing that
you're going to get a check every two weeks, the
first and last and whatever. Again, you know, differ, it's
very different not knowing if we're going to get a
check it all that month. So you walked away from it,
just like I walked away from the tail end of
an eighteen year career of everything. And I, you know,

(17:34):
didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew
up because I never really checked any boxes. I just
like sort of went through life, you know, you know,
and I winged it, and you know, it sort of worked.
And but you did it at a time where there
was such like uncertainty in the world that followed. You
did it in the beginning of nineteen yeah, and which
was great because you were like focus, you had a
good thing. You know, you're you're amazing photographer. I mean,

(17:57):
you're one of my go tos. I mean, if I
could take it hires a person, you'd be there for me.
But then, all of a sudden, like a year into
your gear shifting and you know, life changing, the world
threw you a boomerang, bro and you had to sort
of either duck or catch.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
It right, and and you know, for the first couple
of weeks I took took the opportunity to say, I
have a pause. There's a pause, there's a built in pause.
Nobody can go anywhere and nobody can do anything. Let
me like really go inside and figure out my branding.
And then that was when I came out like I
was after those first couple of weeks, I was very
confident as who I was as a brand, Like for photography, like, what.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Was that switch? What what was that switch in that year?
That's now I'm common now.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Like you know, like when you're when you're starting to
get noticed, like in any type of art form, let's say,
for me, photography, you know, you just start photographing whatever
clients come your way, right, But like to really like
do what you want to do, you have to decide.
You have to put out the vibe that this is
who I am and this is what I want to do.

(19:00):
And then those people start to come back. And I
was all over the place, right, I wasn't putting out
any consistent message about who I was as a photographer
other than I had a camera, right, let's go take
any pictures?

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Right, And so then it was like, okay, well, what
is it that I do.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
That's different, right, And I had done the Mental Health
Project and I did and it was a couple and
I started working for Philly Current and was like, oh, no,
I like there's a piece here that's like other people
don't do it like this, Like they don't get into
the details of the story. They don't interview like I do.
Like they don't ask questions of the subject for like

(19:36):
an hour before I even touch my camera, like and
so like, oh, that's that's different. That's a thing that's
different that I do.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
That I get into the nuances of the human and
then say let's make that Like so going back to that,
all that and the picture's worth a thousand words? Is
that what they're saying? And for you that that's very
common because that's what you believe in. That's my Yeah,
you tell life stories through your photography. You just don't
take the khaki pants and white shirt picture on the beach. No,

(20:06):
and those those kind of things will be kind of
bore me. There's anything wrong with that, But creatively they're not,
like you know, and I'll do some of those for like,
that's not creative though everybody does that.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Right, and it doesn't ye know, My whole thing is
and you know I don't do I don't do a
solely digital product.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Right, it's gonna be a piece of waller.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
My goal is like every person who gets something done
with me is gonna have something on their wall that
they get to tell those thousand words every time somebody
comes over, and it's like or they get to see
it themselves every time you walk past it, those thousand words.
And so let's fall in love with those a thousand
words because you're gonna live with it for the rest
of your life. Your kids are gonna inherit it, their
kids are gonna inherit it, and that story lives on.

(20:46):
It's like, how many times do you get to write
your legacy. Let's let's do that through photos, and let's
let's decorate your home with those, and then they get
divvied up, and then then your story keeps getting told.
There's an old I didn't I came across this later,
which I'd come across as much earlier. But there's an
old adage that everybody dies twice, once when you take
your last breath, and once when the last story about

(21:07):
you was ever told. So like when there's a piece
of art that just keeps.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Going on and on. That's my way to help people
be immortal. Well, it was Banksy that said, it's when
they stop talking about you you gotta worry. Yeah, when
they stopped talking about you mentioned your name, and that's
usually when it all ends. That's when that's that's when
you're that's when it's gone. Yeah. Right, So you know
when you tell stories, you talk about it and you

(21:31):
being a person who you're a very social being, John,
you know you're a social being by nature, you really are.
You're you're a sports guy, you know, Philly sports guy.
You know, anybody from Delco better be you a Philly
sports person. Not they shouldn't belong to Delko. They're really
the wrong you know county for that, you know, or
they are transplants. And I don't know many people that
are like I want to move to Delka and I'm
joking there are people nowadays. But you know, you're a

(21:55):
very social being. You you know people you know that
there was a project one of the first projects you
did when you major, you know, Shifted Gears was the
Mental Health Project. Because World Mental Health Day takes place.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
When uh the days in like October it's the door knock,
but the month, but the month is in May, so
weird day month is May.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Day is October. So you did yours though for May,
for the mental health month? Yes?

Speaker 2 (22:22):
And what was that?

Speaker 1 (22:22):
And what was the basis?

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Why?

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Why that? Why that project? Out of anything you could
have done. You could have done a calendar, you could
have done like you know, the hot influences, the affhillity,
you could have done, right, it was something where it
was it was you chose a town. It was stigma
subject man, Yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
It was a culmination of a couple of different conversations
of different people going through their own battles, right, and
you know, friends or like you know or like or
subjects like that. I hadn't been photographing and and these
conversations come up. I'm yeah, I don't know why, Like
I bring to I tend to bring that out in people.

(22:59):
And so I thought, like, you know what, here's the deal,
and especially like for men, it's it's a conversation we
don't have, right, it's not a thing that we do.
So I thought, here's a way to change this. And
originally I did think about a calendar like as a thing,
but then I thought, now, like, let me just do
it as an Instagram thing, And I thought, if I
can tell as many stories as I can, like, and

(23:22):
in that case, I made the goal of like the
thirty one days in May, I'm gonna tell thirty one stories.
At least one of those stories is going to resonate
with another person, right, And and and to say this
isn't like we're all very unique but not that unique. Right,
There's there's so many things that are like similar to say,
I battle. I struggle with that too. And and the

(23:44):
idea that mental health is stigmatized as because it's usually
just talked about as mental illness, right when mental health,
like mental health is a spectrum, right it is ye
managing stress to like serious illness, and it's everything in between.
And it's not to say there's like saying or crazy

(24:05):
like that doesn't know that dichotomy doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Right. So it was like, well, let me tell all
of it, all of it.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
And as many as I can to say human beings
are all struggling in some way, yep. And it doesn't
matter how like yeah serious it seems to you or not.
It's somebody who is telling their story. And so let
me do that, and so I did that. I was
able to get.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Thirty one people. It's mostly people I knew, were like,
there's a lot of people, though, thirty one people to
come out and to be able to be vulnerable and
share their most vulnerable aspects of their mental health. Right,
and what mental health means then, because thirty one people,
mental health means something different every person. Absolutely. Yeah, So
when we talk about mental health, it's something that's very vulnerable,

(24:50):
something that people don't talk about because it is stigma.
It is taboo, especially for guys. Guys are really supposed
to talk about their mental health. Yeah, thirty one people
to participate the first time around that were able to
come out share their stories with mental health band to them.
What came out of that?

Speaker 2 (25:06):
We, well, it was really cool because there was a
couple of things. One, I got a lot of feedback
on just the Instagram and Facebook posts. Right, people were
really into it because and and some of it was
like in the comments in public, and some of it
were messages that people sent me saying I'm not ready
to talk, but I struggle this too, and they just
wanted somebody else to hear them. Right, Everybody just wants

(25:27):
to be heard in some way. And then that first
year what I did was on the final day, I
had them all printed and I use my buddy's chiropractical office,
and I put on a show like an old city.
Well that's right, you did, I remember, And it was
it was cool because there was a lot of people
who knew each other that were in it together, like
they were in it, but they didn't know that, right.

(25:49):
It was like and I heard a couple of people
say that, like, oh my god, I've known this person
for years. I didn't know that, And it was like
a little doorway to like were they only knew them
from Instagram or because like there was we were still
in that time where like, yep, you knew people. I
mean there's still people I've never met in person, like
I'm be following for like you have ten years. But
even the funny thing is now I don't want to

(26:10):
immediately right, well, we're beyond that point, but like you know,
there was an element of like at least it prompted
the conversation.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
And so then I did it again.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
I was gonna get it started earlier so that you know,
I wasn't doing a springtime because of actual family bookings
and things like that, and then you know, the pandemic
started the twenty twenty and then and then you know,
so then I cut it off. I think I think
I did the last two outside with a mask on,
like because we weren't sure what was happening. And I'm like,
I'm just gonna pause this.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Did you get off? No? I only got like twenty
two okay, and then so good.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, and then the next year I got like ten
or whatever it was, and the next year it was
like yeah, and it ended up, you know, it started
to have diminishing returns because like I kind of like
the first year it was mostly people I knew personally,
or there was a handful of people that like were
like a one degree, like oh, you should do John's thing, right,

(27:08):
But like, as it got to be more like random
people who saw it, it became, you know, there was
more like.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Not showing up, not there wasn't a connection, not giving
me the caption, not, you know, just yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
So it was a lot of like it started to
become logistically a nightmare to try to get people to
actually do it.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
And I'm sure I could. You know, I've had plenty
of people like you should partner with, like, you know,
an organization and do this and do that. Like that
sounds like an awful lot of work. And you know,
I told sixty I think it was in total, sixty
sixty one stories over the course of the four years.
It's awesome. It's a lot of stories to be told.
And it's a lot of stories.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
And it's not to say that I couldn't go back
to it, but like, yeah, yeah, I also got to
run a business.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
None of that was for I wasn't getting paid for anything.
So you know, speaking of you know, running a business,
you know, you left that job, you left that career,
and you started a business just like screw it, I'm
going to start this business. I'm going to start you know,
I'm going to start John Cruise Photography. And what was
that catalyst other than the fact that you didn't want
to be at that desk anymore? Driving out the College

(28:14):
hill on a daily basis, it was the thing that
I was enjoying.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Like you know, one, it is social by nature, right,
and it's and I like variety, like I don't like
I don't like the rut. I don't you know, that's
not interesting to me. But like, yep, you have a
story that's interesting to me. Being able to turn that
into an image, that's it.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
You know. The constant is like the process is the process,
but like every.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Story is unique, the outcomes unique, like being able to
collaborate with people on like creating something that's fun. And
so I thought, okay, from that standpoint, like every client
I work with, it's a it's a new fun story.
And you know, even if it's like because here's the thing,
you you have people who definitely have passions and stories
and they want to tell them. And then you have
other people like we're just we're just regular people. But

(29:01):
it's like, no, one's just regular people.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Like I want to know, what do you talk about
around a dinner table, what do you joke about? What
makes you laugh or what are you afraid to talk
about around the dinner table?

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Well yeah, you know, it's like it's like, let's let's
have fun and and what is that? And so I
uh so I was like, all right, well I'm just
gonna go do that. And it wasn't that direct. It
was like I was getting you know, inquiries, you know,
via Instagram, and I was yeah, uh, you know, I
was getting in the Philly Current like just published.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah not.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
I wasn't working for them at the time, and I'm like,
all right, well, I'm just gonna good do this. I'm
good at this better than a lot of people. I'm
just gonna go do this. And I was like that
was there wasn't a whole lot of thought other than that, like,
I enjoy this, I'm good at it. People seem to
like my work, and and this was like the first
like big realization so quick, like backstory about Vanguard. I

(29:57):
never applied for any of those positions that I ever
worked at effort. What I was was good at my
job until somebody asked me to go do it somewhere else,
or to go do this, or to go do this.
I was always tapped and asked to go do something
because I was good at it. So for my entire
professional career, I never asked anybody for things.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
I just went and I did it. I was very
good at it, and then somebody asked me to go
do it somewhere else and it would give me a
raise for it. Right. That was like that was my
professional experience. So that was kind of in my brain.
So there was a part of you.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
It was like, well, I'm good at this. I'm just
going to put stuff out in the world and people
just come, Right, that's how this works. That's how my
life has gone so far. And like that's not how
business actually works in the real world.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Right. I had to become a little fish in a
big pond then, right.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
You know, because it's not like you know it is
you have to go ask for business, you have to
go do this, you have to go sell yourself. And
that was that was not something I ever had to do, right,
And so then I had to get serious about networking
and meeting people outside of the ecosystem that I was living, Right,
I was very much double. I was in one company

(31:03):
for twenty years, Like that was my bubble, and like
that's all the way out in Chester County. Like I
got to get like meet people around here and like
really start to broaden that and like who do I
need to connect with and Daisy chain O's conversations and
so that took you know, that was like the first
year try to figure that out. And then, to be honest,

(31:23):
the pandemic kind of sped up the process because all
of these networking events you had, you had all these
people were so desperate to connect with other human beings,
and they were doing it via zoom, which was not ideal.
But I met hundreds of people during that, you know,
during you know those times where everybody's just locked in
their house, and I had great conversations. And then subsequently

(31:45):
I've gone on to meet some of them in person,
like you know, and there's still occasionally a person or
two it's like, oh my god, I haven't talked to
you in three years, but like I only know you
from this box, but like, yeah, we had these conversations.
But yeah, but how did I feel a current happened?
Tell me about phil I mean we all know Philly Current.
I mean those who don't know Philly Karrent Philly Current.
It's a great print magazine here in Philly by in

(32:05):
front of ours. Eddie Keeless the publisher of the magazine,
and he's been doing.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
It for twelve years now. Yeah, it's about that, no,
twelve fourteen, I think almost twelve, yeah around then. And
you know it's a lifestyle magazine. It's you know, telling
the stories of people in Philly that des are to
be told. How'd you get hooked up with that? I
mean other than the fact that Eddie used to picture,
you know, repost pretty pictures of the skyline and stuff.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
That's that's how I initially met him. Okay, it was
not like I didn't know him and then we remember
we it was funny I was having a conversation with
him because if if you'll see that I photographed the
owner of barjo On David, which is the Many Tavern,
which is the Madnuon Tavern Ran. Yeah, Eddie and I

(32:50):
had two conversations at Mannyon Tavern, two separate occasions, and
they were both transformational, Like there were both pivot moments.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
One would have been the day that we had the
photo walk and the low freezing weather yep in December.
That was our first collaboration, yes, and the second one
would have probably have been at the event for Philly
Current for the clean issue. The only time is that
Eddie was really there.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah, those were the two yeah, right and shit, I
remember good steel track throw.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
So the first conversation I had with with and it
just kind of came up and that was the first
time I met Eddie we're talking about, and that was
the guy who really I lived on the Yeah, that
was The first time I met him in person was
at that event, and I was like, I live on
the east side of the city. I could go photograph
the sunrise, like nobody else is up that earlier, that
close to the river as often as I was right,
so like that was kind of what I was known

(33:38):
as and I had.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
I was like, He's like, oh man, He's like, you know,
it's great. You know, this is awesome, Like I love
your stuff.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
He goes, You're justly the first one I see when
I opened it up in the morning, because I was
always up early age and posted real quick and and
I said, yeah, I think I'm done with those, and
he's like, what do you mean. I'm like, I'm not
how many pictures of the Ben Franklin Bridge can I take?
Like I've I'm They're not interesting to me anymore. Like
I don't even like looking at them, like you I
see people still do it, and I'm like, I don't,

(34:05):
I don't care anymore, Like I've seen that bridge all
ther times or a million times, Like I'm just like
I'm past it. I said, I think I'm gonna, like,
you know, start to explore portraits and just because and
he looked at the sideways. Dude, just because you're sick
of it doesn't mean the rest of us are. And
I'm like, well, I don't care.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
This is my right. I don't care like it is
about him, so right right like and he was like
he was laughing. He's just like because yeah, but like
doesn't mean everybody else is sick of it. I'm like,
what that doesn't matter, Like what doing this isn't my job.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
And then when I got into portraits, he gave me
a PC pick for as a portrait photographer. Like I
was like, he was like, oh, this is the best
portrait of photographer in the city, and like put me in.
And then like a couple of months later was when
I made the decision like I'm going to just do this,
And so then I told him that was when that
was the week that I decided was for that Philly

(34:56):
Current event. And he's like, dude, that like I didn't
put you into magazine, you know, just because we're friends, right,
Like I think you're really good. Like like he goes,
are you really going to do that? I'm like, yeah,
he does, well, then you're gonna work for me too.
How many years has it been with him? I did
a twenty eighteen was my first eighteen Summer of twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Pretty awesome. How many covers have you had with then?
I don't know at this point a lot. It took
me a couple of years. It's good portfolio of Bill Man.
To have covers on a magazine and yeah, one of
the leading print magazines and one of the largest metro
media areas in the country. That's great. It's a thing.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
It's like about a year or so, and I mean
we have, like, y, We've had a pretty stable set
of photographers since I've joined. There's maybe been one like
switch out, like life happens and things like that, and
so like I'm.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Only three photographers there now it's three. Yeah, yeah, say
that's been a consistent three.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, And you know, and it takes a while to like,
you know, gain Eddie's trust on like those things, and
so and then once I got to that point, now
I'm just in a cover rotation. It's like all right,
Like I could just give that to him and he'll
he'll get the cover done. And so yeah, I've gotten
to do a lot more recently.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Like so you got smart, you learn how to manipulate
it so Eddie doesn't come back to you and say
that's not what I'm looking for John. You know, like
here you go, Eddie, you're just taking this. Well, it's
just like you know, it's because I get picture Eddie
doing that, like that's not what I really wanted John.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Right, Well, and those things happen, yeah, But usually it's
a conversation ahead of time, like it's going over him,
like what do you picture it? Because I know he's
you know, he's a creative guy, he's had he has
an image in his head. And then there's been times
where like, yeah, that's what you know, we'll try to
do that. And then there's other times where I talk
to the subject and I'm like this is going in
a different direction. I text him and the writer and

(36:46):
say that's not the story.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
This is the story. This is what we're doing, and
that's the end of.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Like and and they're fine with it, because like when
you when you put somebody, when we and I don't
know if you know the process. Sometimes it's I get
a spreadsheet and here's your assignments. Sometimes it's Eddie and
I like just on a random conversation, we come up
with an idea and then like we've rattled a couple
off and then he'll fill the rest out and it's
like we just kind of like, you know, sometimes I'm

(37:11):
involved in it, sometimes I'm not, But there it is.
Who are some people we want to feature. We don't
really go deep into like why yet, Let's just we
want to tell their story, and then sometimes we have
our own narratives because of social media. It's like, well,
this is who we think they are, and then when
I actually talked to them, it's like, that's not the
story at all, and this is this is going to
be a much better story. And everybody's on board with

(37:31):
it because now you've got a person on the ground
actually asking about the story.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Interesting that you did Barjohn. It sort of went full
circle because Bar John is the is the old man
young tavern, right, so you were able to go in
there and David was actually one of our customers there
when I used to be the manager of Bar John,
which you know, so to see you come full circle
and they know, like you know the connection that we
all have to that over the years is pretty cool. Yeah.

(37:56):
So that's a really cool thing. Is there ever a
time like in all this, I mean, like you're normally
a very shoot from the hip sort of dude. You know,
you shoot straight from the hip. There's no you know,
you know, you don't really pull any punches with stuff.
You're really you know where you stand all the time.
You know, you're a very positive dude for the most part.
I mean, as most people can be as positive as

(38:18):
they could. Is there anything that just, you know, at
any time where you're just like, f this, I can't
do this anymore. This is not working. I'm not getting jobs,
I'm not being able to pay my bills. I need
to do something. There are moments, you know, I go
through that, like because I I am.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I still have not reached critical mass of my ideal clients, right,
so I'm still doing you know, stuff that I'm not
interested in because like somebody's gonna give you a check and.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
I'm like, all right, I'll go do that. But like
at some point, like I want to not.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Do that anymore, and I only want to do like yeah,
and you know it sounds like almost immature, but I
only want to do the cool shit, like I don't want.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
To do like I don't to do any of this.
I just want to do this.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
And so I'm not there yet, and it's like I
got to get there soon or I'm just gonna be
annoyed that this is because if this is the job,
it's not creatively interesting anymore, right, you know, until I
get to hear and but I get enough of these
to say I love doing this, if that makes sense.
And you you put yourself out there, man, you you know,

(39:25):
just go out and put it on social media. You're
out there working chamber events, You're doing these weekend retreats
with photographers, You're doing all these things.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
How do you get involved with all that? That's a
lot of stuff. Man, You've got a lot of stuff
on your plate. You're juggling things.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, I mean I'm an extravert, bright natures, right, And
and that was something that like that, I mean you
talk about like a mental health struggle. The pandemic messed
me up, like because like I don't do well just
sitting it with myself, like ye, like that's not it's
not productive for me. I get no energy that I

(40:00):
have to be around people. So it was like, all right,
well I'll go to these zoom calls. I was just
daisy chain like these virtual networking events together collect a
bunch of names, reach out to them on LinkedIn, see
who I want to like build a relationship with, and
see who I don't. And I was doing that, but
then this summer, like I took that a step further.

(40:24):
I was like, I see these people in these happy
hours all the time, and I know them at this level,
but like that's not where you get business from. You
get business from like actually building deeper relationships with people.
I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna start reaching out
to these people. Say we've had like a bunch of conversations,
but like we haven't actually like sat down. And so
I started scheduling lunches and I start, you lunches or
coffee or whatever, like we're gonna we're gonna sit down

(40:46):
one on one for an hour and and and I'm
gonna learn more aboue right, and they're gonna learn about
me in the opposite way.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
And then I started to like, oh, I'll bring my
camera and I started to like create. Then it became
easy social media content, like oh I have this cool
network and I don't share it with anybody. Then yep,
here's a cool person I know. And people start to
really like that. They were like, oh, I want to
be in that.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Well, the only way to do that is that we
have to sit down and have a conversation. So when
you have a conversation with somebody that you may not
know at all, when you may not know them from
anything in my first time having a conversation, or you
may know them and you're having this conversation, are you
conjuring up in your head what type of images you

(41:30):
want from what they're talking about? Or do you put
that to rest and then something you start to think
about it later and put it together like on a
storyboard sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Sometimes it depends on like like for like an initial conversation. Yeah,
I do a lot of business networking events. It's a
lot of business people, so a lot of times they're
talking about their business because they want to they're trying
to get clients for their own business. So sometimes like
I'll immediately get into the creative space of like, oh,
I could see how you could like tell a brand
story around that thing. And then other times it's you know,

(42:02):
it's it's just business talk, right, It's not it's not
that's not where we are right now. It's like I
want to know if I want to like have an
additional conversation with them to learn more about the next thing, right, not.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Not the company that they work for.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
And so like that's where that's where those things come in,
and that's when you get into oh like I just yeah,
it's funny. I just I just met somebody who I
had a lunch Twitter and uh we met at a
networking event. We had a zoom we and we had
a brief zoom call afterwards. She's a financial planner. Well,
so we could nerd out on the stock market and

(42:37):
like just like talk about like yeah, economics, not that
you would you would be bored by the conversation.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
We got.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
We got into that and then it turns out she
was like a competitive ballet dancer. I'm like, oh, let
me show you, like some of the stuff I've done.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Show some of the photograph.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
That's just like I know some people you should be
talking to. I'm like, that's perfect, right those because you
did a lot of you did that one ballet answer
at the bridge.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yes, yeah, I've done. It's it's funny, like most of
my ballet portraits is the same answer.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
It's a friend of.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Mine who like if I have an idea, I'll just
text her and she's like, oh yeah, I'll do that,
Like she's always down to like collaborate on the Well,
wasn't that the typical of a photographer to have a
set of muses that they will bring to their photography session?

Speaker 1 (43:23):
So you with a ballet answer this the same one
over and over. You know a mutual friend of ours,
the blonde Carolyn Carolyn. Yeah, you use her over and
over for different things and they do they Is that
true that that's like a music They give you inspiration,
they because you're used to work on them as a
creative energy flowing when you're with them.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Sometimes it's sometimes like it's just a safe space for
me to experiment. Right, they don't care if I don't
know what I'm doing in that moment. Right, they're not paid,
Like this is just a I need to practice. Are
you available? You'll get some images out of it and
I'll see if I can pull this off. Cool, I'm
in like I'll do that. Yeah, you know, because like

(44:06):
if you're working with a client and they're paying you money,
like now you're gonna like dumb it down to I
need to get this image, Like I don't This isn't
a time for me to like, do you have like
an hour where I can just like we might burn
this entire disc like you know, does that?

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Does that? Can we run back and forth with lights
around you on the roof of aware has? Right?

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Like, it's just like I just want to like experiment
with this and and you know, the more I do
those things, it's like, Okay, now I know. Now I
know what to do in that situation. You know, it's
it's an education. You know, this is like education for me.
I gotta like I have an idea in my head.
I don't want to wait for somebody to pay me
to do it. Let me ask somebody I know who's
comfortable like in front of my camera, and we're gonna experiment,

(44:50):
and let's see if I can pull it off. And
if I can pull it off, now that I can
sell that, I could sell that to another person say
I know how to do this, and you should pay
me a lot of money for it.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Right, And that's kind of like the goal.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
So yeah, so that's kind of like how and and yeah,
and there's just a couple of people I know who
are yep, they're always you're always down. You know, they're like, cool,
I'll I'll do that, Like you're like, all right, So
like so when I come up with a concept, they like,
all right, well let's try that.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
If if anybody asks you, you know, what advice do
you have for somebody who wants to switch gears and
wants to take that that leap. I'm not gonna say
a leap of faith, but once take that leap out
of chance of risk, you know what would you tell them?

Speaker 2 (45:35):
You gotta you got to really enjoy. There's a lot
of Like it's with anything you do, there's going to
be at least twenty to thirty percent of a bunch
of shit you don't want to deal with. Right, you
have to love the other part of it for that
to work. And if you're doing it on your own,
there's no delegating that, Like, there's no like somebody else

(45:55):
will handle that, right, It's just it's it's you just
have to manage that. And so you have to love
the other part because if you don't, then what do
you you know? Yeah, and and I've said this, I'm like,
you know, if I want to be, if I want
to if I want to live it, like live a
life where I'm not creatively fulfilled at all. I could
go make a lot more money, set me hide a

(46:16):
desk in a spreadsheet, like I could, like.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Medical insurance and all that other stuff I do that.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
I could go be a cubicle drone and just go
do that. But yeah, that's a big chunk of my
day to painte it could could you do that again?
If that would you would you be able to do
that again? No?

Speaker 1 (46:37):
No, no, you're you're too much of that free spirit
at this point.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Yeah, I don't like it's I mean, I could perform
the tasks, but it would take me, like I don't
know about a day before I would like lose my mind.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Plus you have you have your dog now, Oh yeah,
you have Ruthie, so you can't leave her. She'll be pissed.
She should do well. She's very needy, Ruthie was. It
was a big shift for you too though in your world,
huge shift, huge shift like that you actually took his.
You know, you're a single dude, you're a bachelor, you

(47:12):
have your life, but during pandemic, you were one of
the people who made that conscious effort to make a
better you know life for a dog. The need and
you didn't just take a dog. You took probably one
of the biggest problem dogs that Wars Animal Refuge had
to offer.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
She uh, and she's still like you know, she's what
now five headed into six. Yeah, she's high energy. She
does not have like her you walk for how many
miles a day? About five?

Speaker 1 (47:43):
It's still high energy. Yeah, every day she choose your couch.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Shouldn't do that anymore, but like, but she'll you know,
but she gets like, yeah, just dogs that like love
their toys. She loves it for like she got the
attention span of a knack. She'll like love her toy
for like three seconds and then like not be interested.
Like she's really only interested in playing with people, right,
Like she's not it doesn't do self play with with

(48:10):
She'll chew on the bone like if I'm doing something
I'm not like paying attention, but then she'll stop. She'll
follow me around like it's just like she wants to
be interactive and she.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Does it feel have to take care of something else?
Has I feel to take care of something else? Every day?

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, there's days where I'm just like we do knock it,
like like probably she probably knows her name and knock
it off more than any other words, right, but like
you know, but it's also like I wouldn't know it's
been it's been four years now, like I don't know.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Actually it's good. I mean in in March, it'll be
five years. Right, that's awesome though, you know, so it'll
be She's a great dog. Yeah, so she Yeah, she
got me. Yeah, she's got her. She's got her weird
she's got her weirdness, and yeah, it is what it is.
But that's life with a dog. But like you know,
you got your weirdness.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
She will Like she was like the first dog I
took portraits of, and now you know, pet portraits is
the thing that I do.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Thank gosh, because you took end of life portraits for me,
sometimes three times for my Yeah three important. What was
your favorite uh uh photo shoot you've ever done? I
had to say names, but what was the gist of it?
I don't want anybody else get pissed off at you
because you don't like them as much I would.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
I would say it's probably if you go back the
first ballet portraits I've ever I ever did. We were
going to meet up at Racetree Pier five in the
morning for sunrise, and I was gonna do silhouettes. That
was the the reason why we were going there. I
get there a little bit early, there's a fog rolling in.

(49:47):
I can see that there's going to be no sun
that morning, right, it was like it was just a
cloud cover. And I text her and she said, well,
I'm already already got my makeup done, I got the backpack,
Like I'm in like, we'll figure let's figure something out.
So we just kind of like collaborate on the fly.
And and that was like the one where the fog
really rolled in. You could not see Camden. The bridge

(50:10):
is disappearing in the background, and she's doing these leaps
like just in it's hers and she stands out because
everything behind her is fog, right, and and the bridge
is disappearing. And it was like when I did those,
I thought this was before I was doing you know,
even contemplating doing this as a job. I'm like, oh,

(50:30):
I can do this, Like I can I can do
this whole time, like I this is I can do
this as a job.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Because it was those that.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Was the first time where I thought, Yep, it's not
what we were there for. But it ended up being
like some of my favorite images that I've ever taken.
Now six years later, you know, so.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
If I if you know, I want to switch gears
and I want to you know, take that leap. And
it's like a year into it and I'm still like,
now where I want to what would you tell me?

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Well, from that Sally point, I really want to sit
down and say where is it that you want to
be and what steps are you taking to get there?
Like there's an element of like you got here because
of the things you've done. Sometimes that's as far as
you're going to go with those steps. So now it's like,
are you going to do something different? And if you're
not willing to do something different, then you have you

(51:24):
might have to accept that this is the end of
your road for this path, or you have to do something.
So for me, I had to go and build a
new network. I had to start connecting with a lot
new people or many new people.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
New friends, got new friends. Yeah, I had to go
crazy buildings of my old friends, let alone get new ones. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
But I had to like go, you know, build a
new net, hire new network. I had to go start
asking people for introductions to this or that or the other.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Thing.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
I had to do those things to move forward, because
if I just sat back and just posted pretty photos
on Instagram, I'm not going to get enough business to yep.
Most people don't like they just want their free photos
on their swipes and then they move on like they
don't stop to actually ask that person, Hey, can I
hire you?

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Right? Yeah, I'll tell you what though. I've had some
really great photo shoots with you. One of some of
my favorite photos shoots. We've done a Santa series every
year except for five years that we did it five
we did five. Five years we did I dressed up
in Santa and we did different you know, iconic you
know landmarks in Phillya, the ones that nobody likes to
look at anymore, like the bridge and city Hall and

(52:38):
like that. But we did that. We've done other things
you've done for you know. So people out there are
interested to look at your work. Where are they going
to find John Cruise on social media?

Speaker 2 (52:49):
I'm everywhere so I do. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Instagram,
what would you facebook? I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on uh
TikTok for Instagram. You are John Underscore Cruise, which is
also on TikTok c r U I c C and
so that's John Underscore Cruise on Instagram and TikTok Facebook

(53:09):
it is John Cruise Photography.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Are you on that X? I have an account. I
haven't looked at it in years. Once the other one's
out there LinkedIn LinkedIn, So.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
I got figorous about LinkedIn this year. And I'll tell
you my my photos could see more on LinkedIn than
they do on Instagram. I bet is it under John
Cruise Photography and John Cruse. Josh, it's just my I
have a brand page that's John Cruise is you know.
That's great and if people want to reach out to you,
they should do so. People should really check it out.

(53:41):
You know, how do you think he was going to
do this year?

Speaker 1 (53:43):
John, I have no idea. Like they're they're one of
the most talented teams I've ever seen young team.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Like we'll see if there's a lot of like question
decision making happening where it's like we're points of viewing
left on the board and you're like you could have
like I don't understand going for twice yesterday and.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
That the whole thing for me is is like I'm
not really sure who to like like blame for certain things,
you know what I mean. But there's a lot of
like a lot of disconnect going on there and everything
Syriana I think is going to make the whole season.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
I think so, like so just based on like like
it looks, it looks chaotic from the outside, but every
every report I hear from from inside the locker room,
they're they're in a good place. And I think, you know,
it's also part of you have two new coordinators. You know,

(54:35):
they're trying to get their feet young team, and so
it's like you know, I mean, Jalen Hurts is on
his third offensive coordinator in three years. Like that's a
lot like I don't think people realize, like when you
turn over a playbook like that and put the play
calling in another person's hands, Like like you you look
at like Adie Reid and Patrick Mahomes, that's been consistent

(54:56):
for eight.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Years or whatever.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
There's an established relationship there, right, you figure out, like
I trust you to do this because we've been working
together for years on this. But every time there's a
new person in the locker room, especially in a position
of calling plays, it's like, Okay, well we got to
I have to figure out what you guys are capable
of doing. You have to trust me that I know
what you guys that I know how to do that.

(55:19):
And it takes time, It takes a lot of repetitions,
and it takes a lot of like so you know,
we shall see. Washington scares me. They looked really good
this year. Detroit looks amazing, like and you know, again,
they've created a culture. Dan Campbell's been there for a
few years. The quarterback's been there for a few years.
Like they have they have a built in culture. I

(55:39):
think the Eagles are still trying to figure out with
Like you had two veteran voices in Jason Kelcey and
Fletcher Cox retire like those are two like yep. As
far as like leadership in the room, you know, Brandon
Graham's still there, but like you don't have a lot
of those. You need younger guys to now step up
into these leadership roles. That's a new thing for a

(56:01):
lot of these guys.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
So that's yeah. And so you're footing and and stick it,
you know, I mean, you know, but like so far
it sounds you know, yeah, but again a scenario, it
sounds like it's good. We're gonna see how it goes.
They they they're they're causing a lot of stress and
anxiety week after a week with Eagles fans. You know,
but that's nothing, you know, you know, it's you're Gonnat

(56:23):
your money's worth this year, I believe out of your
season tickets. Yes, for sure, that'd be great, you know.
And you know, if you're looking for something different, if
you're looking for pictures that are not your ordinary Ola
mills with the backdrop and the fence and wearing the
same you know, khaki pants and white shirts, I think
there's anything wrong with that at the beach because that's
what people do. But I you're looking to step outside

(56:45):
that box and you're looking out, you know, to have
your story told. Reach out to John because he can
do that, and he has done that, and he's done
it for me. He's done it with my pets at
the end of life. He's done it for me with
personal things, and he's done with so many people. So John,
thank you so much for sharing your story. Thanks for
having me. Yeah, man, this is great. This is the
second time you've been around, so I yeah, well I'm

(57:06):
stoked about that and I thought nobody else you know
better to start with than yourself about switching gears, because
switching gears is such a tough thing to do.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
So, yeah, my whole thing is the one that is
inevitable is change. So you either have to like be
the owner of that or be affected by it. I
don't like being affected by things. So like it's yeah,
there's a control element to it.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
And it's funny you say, because my aunt was my
was my boss in Corporate America for many years. Even
though she told people, don't you don't me on your aunt,
it's so difficult. Your last name is the same. But
she always said to me, you no uprit changes change. Yeah,
you can't say change is good, change is bad. Changes change.
You just got to go with it, embrace it, make
sure you do the best you can to guide it.
And what are you going to do it?

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Because like there's no there's no stopping it. It's like saying,
like you can you can guide a river. M hm,
you can damn a river, but the water is going
to be there. It's gonna push up against something. It's
not gonna stop, right, And so like, are you gonna
harness it or are you gonna go with it and
see where it takes you. And sometimes you do both.
Sometimes it's like all right, I'm gonna I took the

(58:11):
river this far and now I'm gonna carve a new
a new channel and I'm gonna take this little diversion
and then come back. Or I'm gonna go out here.
I'm gonna yeah, there's you know, you could stretch the
metaphor all the way, but like, yep, it's gonna flow.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
That's just you know, it may not always be easy.
It may not be you know, all sunshine and roses
every day with it, but it'll be worth it. Welcome
to life. We get jacket chair, absolutely absolutely absolutely so.
But you know, and and maybe you know what we
could do is next year, bring it back and see
how you know your gears has shifted in a year
because you who knows what you know? Tomorrow brings us

(58:46):
so exactly. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Well, thanks
for conversation. You got it and everybody else that don't
be afraid to switch gears. Switching gears is inevitable. Like
I said, the only constant life has changed. We got
to embrace it and go with it and always remember
whatever as you stand for, be a voice. This is
brick Carpet on nocial media. John, thanks for being here.
The rest of you have a great rest of your day.

(59:06):
Be well always