The picture above (an iPhone photo) is a picture of Lone Peak at Big Sky, Montana. At the very top of this peak it sits at a cool elevation of 11,166ft! You can see how it got its name the Lone Peak. I encourage you to continue to read this while I relate our lives and our businesses to a mountain peak! As small business owners, most of the time we are the one person behind the entire operation, and we can feel alone. We can feel isolated to fester with our own ideas that turn into frustrations. With a business of team members you have specific people there to bounce ideas off of, to work through areas that you want to improve and create new ventures or new layers within your business. I cannot think of one person that would not benefit from that if the right people were in the room with them. I want to create the right room to be in for you!

Now this mountain, Lone Peak, and I go way back! This mountain and the two weeks (in two years) that I spent on it, changed my life. It taught me and made me realize how I wanted to live the rest of my life. It came into my life the moment I truly needed it too and because of that, how I wanted to live the rest of my life was not sitting in the cabin, warming up by the fire because my nose got cold from the wind. No, I wanted to live my life with the wind whipping past my face, a touch of possible frost bite on my cheeks and having the ride of my life down the mountain. All the while knowing that when I got down there I would somehow get back up the mountain again, just to go down another slope to have another exhilarating experience. I continuously thought to myself, “this is what life is about,” those two weeks! With that, every repetitive motion to get up the mountain to see new places, experiences new trails, was all teaching me how to live my life and the kind of person that I truly wanted to be.

I convinced my Dad to ride up the tram to this very peak one day and while we stood on the peak looking out I could feel my brother there. This was probably because the facts that it was breathtaking, we were at one of his favorite places that I was seeing for the very first time, and anyone will tell you that this mountain is special. I saw the horizon past an infinite distance of rolling mountains and then I realized, we were in the clouds. We were truly in the clouds.

If you can see the first ski lift on the right side of the picture, there is a little hut there and that is actually where I started to traverse over and ski down. That is what those little dots, that are actually people, are doing in the picture, but the tram to the top that we took one day went to the very tip of the peak at the top of this mountain!

There is a quote that I love by John Muir that says, “When you see a man on top of the mountain, he did not fall there.” I believe this and I believe that it is in the climb to the top that makes up the work of our lives. I am not talking about success necessarily, I am talking about what we do along the way, who we affect, how we help and how we live! How we live out our lives and live well with the loved ones that we have around us. How we meet others and come into their lives and make a difference. I believe that by helping others only adds to our lives just as much, if not more, than it does their’s! What I want to do along the way with my trek up the mountain is affect and help others in any capacity, in any form that my life will encounter! I believe in fighting and working for the moments that create the wind that whips our hair into the air. I believe in the moments that create the frost on our nose that bares proof of our trek and I believe in the moments where we look up from the ground to see around us and the exhale of breath when we realize that we are in the clouds. I believe in these moments throughout our lives and experiencing them all more than once.

On Wednesday this week I put together my first community event that involved five creatives. We chatted about business and why I wanted to create this safe place for them. A place where we can share our successes and our areas that need improvement. I wanted a space that was made up heartfelt business owners that show up to make a living but also show up to make an impact and help others. Just like photography, we are there to photograph a moment and make it into a memory. We are there to showcase your lives and create them into tangible memories for your generations to come, so that they can bare witness to your life. I want all of those characteristics of photography to stitch through the other parts of my life as well. I want to help others in any form and in any capacity that I can. This is why I created our monthly get togethers, and I say “our”, because I want everyone to feel welcome to it! This may seem vague for now but I promise you if you sign up for one(or more) of the months you will leave feeling like people just get you! You will have a space that understands, laughs with you, listens and offers suggestions or brainstorms with you! Contact me to join me for the second one on Septemeber 7th at 6:30PM.

On a mountain named Lone Peak, I never felt alone and it taught me more about life than anything else had before. I want to tell you that I am here to help others not feel alone on their mountain. Lets move mountains together and lets celebrate the work that it takes for the trek to get you there. Lets move mountains.

Love,

Jess