Joth Riggs

THE BIG PICTURE | laws of nature
Joth Riggs
March 2010

It's a fact of life, that if you're not growing, you're dying. This proclamation applies not only to life, but also to business. With the recent announcement of the 2009 EventDV25, it's obvious that the wedding film industry is soaring to new heights. With the addition of several newcomers to the list, this industry is most definitely progressing in terms of creativity and respect within the wedding industry.

Knowing why these producers are at the forefront of our industry is not nearly as important as asking the question to begin with. If we don't ask ourselves what we need to be doing in order to push our business to the next level, it will never happen. At that point, it isn't just a matter of not growing, but our business actually begins to regress. It's similar to a person not using certain muscles that then begin to atrophy. We need to be actively pursuing growth in order to even keep the status quo.

A business cannot merely stay where they've always been - in their 'sweet spot', because the competition is moving forward and they become officially behind for not moving ahead. Staying put is a safe bet for your business to become irrelevant. One cannot simply rely on inertia for their growth - that's essentially like flatlining, and once you see a flat line, it doesn't mean you're moving, it means you're dead.

So what do most of these top producers have in common? They're never satisfied with where they are with their business. They are constantly moving forward, pushing ahead and stretching themselves further then they've ever been before. They are willing to take chances and make mistakes. They are always growing.

For those producers that have had some measure of success in their business, there is certainly the temptation to take that success for granted. Just because your business is doing well today, doesn't mean it will tomorrow. We have to be willing to re-invent ourselves, sometimes having to do it several times throughout the life of our business. This industry is in a constant state of flux and we need to learn to be flexible, embrace change and move with it.

A great example within the film industry is director James Cameron and his groundbreaking work on the movie Avatar. Never content with the status quo, Cameron's tireless research and efforts resulted in arguably one of the most dazzling pieces of cinema ever seen. While it didn't garner him much Oscar attention, theater goers worldwide have spoken loud and clear, to the tune of nearly $2.7 billion in box office gross. The results of which, effectively leaving his fellow filmmakers in his wake - both financially and technologically.

I've heard it said that "there are those that make it happen, those that watch it happen and those that say, 'hey, what happened?'."

Don't get left behind. Keep moving. Make it happen!