On occasion I make good decisions and one of them was certainly deciding at the eleventh hour to attend the Free To Succeed Tour stop in Houston hosted by David Jay and Jasmine Star.

Truth be told, I had heard of these two on various places on the internet but didn't know much except they were obviously popular photographers. But after getting a feel for the things they planned on sharing I found the $99 price of admission to be fairly paltry.

I now know why they're so popular; in addition to be being successful photographers they are just cool, down-to-earth people, are very passionate about their field, and genuinely want to help others. No hubris, no airs--they just came to give very good ideas to apply towards your business, inspire us, and also get to know us.

And of course the networking with our own local Houston photographers was a great experience as well—in fact, this on its own probably made the evening worthwhile. I met with both new and familiar faces: Dianna, Akil, Christie, Lindsay, Michael, Danny, and Janet, among others.

Without a doubt the best $99 I've spent in some time and I came out feeling invigorated about my business and even more excited about things to come. I am away from home and forgot the memory card with some of my images on them (doh!) but the official photographer of the tour, Kenny Kim, sent me this image so I could at least post one:

I just realized...this may be the first time I'm posting an image of myself on my own blog How sad!