Instagram? Pinterest? How This Non-Millennial Entrepreneur Forgot to Take Photos
This post is the fourth in a series about co-founding a company.
At first I thought it was a generational thing.
I take photos when it’s a Hallmark moment that needs to be memorialized. Christmas generally merits a photo, as do birthdays and overseas trips.
Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration on the trips. My husband and I went to Hong Kong in 2014, and we returned with one (yes, one) photo. We were just too busy drinking it all in. The food! The markets! The people! Who had time to take pictures? We took home memories instead.
Younger people seem to have a different perspective.
There’s one 30-year-old in my Instagram feed who seems to record every move. If she’s watching a movie, I’m seeing it too. Her haircut? Fully up to date. Walking down the street in New York? Right there with her.
So it was a surprise to discover young Kimberly, my co-founder, did not also grab her camera at every turn. She’s a deep thinker and very present. She lives life to the fullest.
As things started to unfold with our startup, we inhaled the experience. By ourselves.
We sent out our first customer shipment and delighted in the packaging. We didn’t think to photograph it.
We met with investors. We didn’t think to photograph those meetings. Or even to stand outside under signs of their vaunted venture capital firms and take selfies.
I could go on but you get the idea.
We both have this problem of getting distracted by living.
Yet, for people who are interested, we really, truly want to invite them to join our journey. Our early customers already feel like friends. This morning, one customer told us her mother had passed and we felt her sadness. We are honored to be part of their lives and want them to be part of ours.
We decided we had better introduce the camera into our lives. As in, the sort of camera we reach for often.
So, we started snapping and posting. Some initial bumbling ensued. These included an out-of-focus photo on my new Instagram feed that my daughter politely suggested should be deleted.
All of this has amused some people.
“What’s with the photos that actually have captions?” asked one of my friends.
“You seem to be using Instagram!” chuckled another. She is one of my tiny list of followers and noticed I was up to a whopping 15 posts.
Once I got started, I was on a roll. A 15-post roll!
The prospect of capturing our journey is starting to feel more natural.
Maybe it’s because we care so deeply about what we’re sharing. And because we’ve heard feedback from people who’ve read our articles that our ups and downs and struggles and wins are the stuff of life—and that they see themselves in some of what we do.
We care that our customers are a part of our experience and hope they will share theirs with us.
So, we’re going to do our darndest to reach for that camera and chronicle what happens.
If you’re like us and don’t naturally default to broadcasting your life, I so get you. I get you from the depths of my soul.
How do you feel about taking photos or videos with your phone and sharing life as it happens? Do you enjoy it or does it feel burdensome? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
For more on our journey with NakedPoppy, read the first, second and third posts in this series.
