DATE: It’s Saturday morning on *almost* the third week of not sending this newsletter, which really was hurting my soul. I’ve been busy busy, so sending this fell further down the list of priorities, below wedding planning, signing a lease on a new apartment, 9-5 stuff and planning for my gallery show. But early AM Saturday, I rewrote and edited and sent this, for my soul.

​About: A mostly-weekly publication about living a great story: mostly personal stories, adventure recaps, links to coolness and analog photos, maybe or maybe not relevant to the story.

Quote for the Week: "Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos

Read time: 6 min

If you don’t want to subscribe, click here. No hard feelings. But if you dig, hit “reply” and hit me back.

Gallery Opening: Kilimanjaro, on film

When people think of me, they don’t think of me as a “photographer”. Probably because I haven’t/didn’t really think of myself as a photographer. How people see me, and how I see myself: Traveler. Entrepreneur. Community Builder. Writer, maybe. Videographer, sometimes. Photographer? Not so much. Yes, I take pictures, good ones, have for a long time, but that doesn’t necessarily make me a photographer.

Over everything, I am a collector of life experiences. Give me all the stories: the adventures to faraway places, the many failures and few successes, the new experiences that become old memories, crossing off a new “I’ve never tried that, sure why not”, mentally weighing the risk to reward and trusting myself to survive, pushing out farther and further. Because a successful life, to me, is a mental book, video, and album packed with great stories.

Photography just happens to be one of the many tools I use to capture these stories.

And usually, it’s a few bullet points down the list of preferred mediums. But after traveling the world with my $50 film camera that arrived literally one day before I got on the plane, making a few photo albums straight out of my childhood, buying new cameras, scrolling through all the Instagram reels and Youtubes for inspiration, and signing up for a dark room class, at some point this year, I decided:

“I want to be a photographer.”

Which really means: “I want you to think of me as a photographer”… and so begins the journey (or continues, depending on how you look at it).

How to Become Anything in 2026

1) Talk about it, a lot.

These days, branding is really 70% talk 30% action. (Not many people can do both well, so the internet is filled with fauxs, cuidado). If you want people to think of you in a certain way, give them lots of data points that support this perspective. Talk, write, share, link, publish.

For me, this means posting videos about . After being dormant on Instagram for so long, I’m ready to dive back in to posting, commenting, interacting, sharing. But with guard rails learned from my year away off my phone.

2) Host an event.

After talking about something digitally, host something physically. Give people a real-life experience that will reinforce the physical exemplification of your new identity. It’s one thing for someone to scroll your brand, it’s a fully other thing for people to touch it.

For me, it’s my first-ever photography exhibit with a gallery opening, a “coming out” party, a literal physical reveal of my new identity through an in-person activation where people put their bodies into a space crafted to reinforce my aspirational brand identity.

The photography exhibit will feature all analog photography from my three trips to Mt. Kilimanjaro. Mostly unseen images because I’ve been unwilling to reveal them on a phone: the tallest mountain in Africa doesn’t get its justice on tiny screen, so I’m printing them BIG.

3) Hone your craft.

If you want to become something, you have to put in the work. First you gotta suck, then learn and improve quickly, then plateau and get stuck and frustrated but keep going, gather teachers, practice, take classes, research, more practice and slowly elevate above the crowd of beginners who quit too soon to actually become who they want to become.

I’m evolving from point and shoot to SLR. Spending more time in the dark room. Developing my own film. Producing a photo book. Watching Youtubes. Learning from the greats. Taking classes. Shooting more. Opening myself for feedback. Gotta get better to become something new.

4) Get that cash money.

The ultimate way of becoming something, to yourself and to others, is getting paid to do it. It’s the final step, a crossing of a threshold from one identity to a new one where people now think of you more in a new way than the old.

My first step is selling my art at the Mt. Kilimanjaro Exhibit during the Austin Studio Tour.

The second is getting hired to shoot, more often.

These are the final steps to becoming a “photographer”… or really just the next steps in my already long photography journey that isn’t stopping anytime soon.

But first things first: come to the show

#10

Ten newsletters.

Feels good to be writing, telling stories, sharing photos, and investing in the process consistently. Writing helps me think my thoughts, so taking the time to habitually type keys and hit publish is partially a practice in self-understanding, partially follow-through, partially self-discipline. I just kind of like to do it publicly. Always have, since my first blog from fifteen years ago in 2010.

One of the coolest parts of this newsletter journey has been the feedback: people are reading it and they are liking it. I’ve received encouraging praise from a few directions (wider than just my mom and girlfriend), which have been some of the strongest compliments that completely fill my cup. This wasn’t something I expected when I started. Typing onto a blank page and sending words into the ether feels like a one-way conversation, so the feedback is encouraging. If you’re digging it, hit “reply”.

I set out to publish weekly. A lofty goal I haven’t achieved. It’s been two weeks since the last one. But it’s still my goal. Once a week.

It’s sent ✅ Hit reply 🙏 Practice creativity 🎨

See y’all next week,

-z