I sat down with Lesle Lane to talk about what happens after the spotlight fades and you decide not to disappear. Lesle opens up about reinvention, and a creative identity. Finding the long road of staying true to your voice in an industry that constantly asks not to. Become something else you never wanted to be. We get into the discipline it takes to keep creating when the rules change. How the courage required to start over more than once truly exists.

Our conversation moves through music, production, and entrepreneurship. Seeing how the quiet work is made behind Studio 13. Lesle talks honestly about learning through failure, and trusting instinct over trends. Building something meaningful without chasing validation. There’s a real sense of earned wisdom here, and not packaged advice. Lessons pulled from experience, rather than a degree.

This episode is for anyone rebuilding or recalibrating. Maybe, refusing to let their creative life end on someone else’s terms. Lesle’s story is a reminder that longevity comes from adaptability. Staying honest, and connected to why you started in the first place.

Where to Find Lesle Lane?

🌐 Website: https://www.studio13online.com/ 📚 Work: 🎧 Studio 13 Music and Creative Projects 📲 Social: @studio13indy

It's like you have to charge more, otherwise you don't make any money.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: And that, that is such a real thing. And the other, you know, the other caveat to that is that because people want to be photographers, they'll lower their rates in order to get the work. And so you've got an increase in living expenses and increase in equipment. Um, all of those things when you go to replace them or when you drop something, and then the photographers out there that are just trying to get their feet underneath them, they're charging so much less.

Dave: It's, um, it's strange because you're expected then to give quality. You know, the time and effort and energy that's being put in sometimes in careers that are 10, 15, even 20 years long and literally rival over people that are just trying to flood the market. And obviously they have every right to make money too.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: And I think that whenever you're in a creative field trying to monetize it when people don't have as much respect for it, so you have to find the clients that truly value what you do, rather than just going out and finding any kind of work. It's, it's truly soul sucking to go out there and work with people that don't value what you do.

It, it, it just sucks the creative life right out of you.

Dave: It's strange though, because look, there is a lot of negative. Context and a lot of stories that have come up, especially when you deal with corporate America, you know, there are a lot of American corporations that, to be very fair, they drain American citizens, treat them like robots and garbage. But you still do need corporations.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah. Did, did you hear about the Jaguar campaign where they didn't even have a car in it?

Dave: I'm in the auto industry. I'm like every BMW commercial has a BMW in the BMW commercial. That is the purpose of BMW. It's crazy,

And they have a whole song going on, and like this may cause diarrhea, constipation, blood clots, and going through the whole list. And you're just like, what? The complete disregard. And it's not about like, it's about common sense, right? Because when you're mixing art marketing, know, knowing the brand, where to position them, doesn't any of this take into account before you actually put this out to the public?

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: And my husband and I say all the time we did, we don't dance nearly enough because every ad that we see with people our age, they're dancing and we just don't dance around our kitchen.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Well, by the time it gets to me, I mean, I'm, I'm well down the pecking order. Um, the ad agency has already. You know, given all that information to the corporation, the corporation's bought into whatever, whatever their ad campaign is. Um, and so I normally don't have much of a choice but to follow suit and to do whatever they want me to do.

But if they were to happen to ask me before they go through all that, um, I, I've gotten to the point in my career where people actually trust me. You know, that's, that's. That's been a one, a wonderful part where they contact me and they're like, Hey, what do you think? What, you know? And I give them my honest feedback.

Um, the otherwise they say the same thing. They they do the same thing. And if, heaven forbid, you're advertising to seniors, I don't know many old people that go to the farmer's market as much as those ads take them to the farmer's market. I I, when are we gonna get something different? When, when are we gonna.

Try to, you know, shake it up a little bit. Um, but yeah, the, for me, pharmaceuticals are the one place where it's like everything's the same. Whoever, whoever you're advertising to, if, if all the medications are going to this one demographic, all the ads look identical.

Plug it in, plug it out. And she said, I thought I was gonna poke my eyeballs out. And she's like, then I got in with this amazing creative ad agency. It was the best year of my life until they went out of business. So it's like you've got the two extremes of marketing and advertising. It's either mundane or it is a earthquake waiting to go off.

You're either one way or the other and, and not finding that middle ground.

Dave: That middle ground is hard because you, there's no clear direction because when you're, you're dealing, like even in the music sector, right, it's become this common norm, which it's called stretch the lie. So you over filter, you oversaturate, you rent really expensive cars, you rent back out background actors.

You make everything over performance heavily. Cgi, I'D, all of this, like you go on YouTube right now, most of that stuff, that's pretty much what it is. But then there's also the opposite extreme, where you have the underground and you have the indie scene, which is very, very tiny, very, very small. They primarily rely on like either local, on local, like, you know this where the, the manager knows somebody that does photography, the photographer knows their producer, and the producer know everybody kind of knows everybody.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah. And, and music is one of those things that, um, I just feel like that so much is lacking in the mainstream music field. I mean, I, I and, and how do you get some of these independent artists so that we hear more of them? How, how do I, how do I get to that if I'm not gonna bury myself, you know, in the independent music scene?

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the reality is, is that we have to support ourselves and our family and, um, give our clients what they expect. And if you're in music, then your clients are the listeners, you know, and for me it's just been, it's been a rough road to, to. Push and pursue. And there's a lot of times that while you're pursuing it, your passion dies.

And then when they, when you get to this point where I'm at now and people will compensate. People want to compensate me. They see what I offer it. It makes me more creative. It makes me more passionate that you're seeing what I'm bringing to the table. Let me go above and beyond because you get it. And, and so I just, I feel for all of the people that, you know, are listening to this struggling, um, and losing their passion because of it.

So, um, you know, here's to remembering everyone that you're one disaster away from success. 'cause that's been my motto about, uh, my career is that, um, I, I had to take one step in front of the other, and sometimes I was down on my knees before I got where I am today. So if you have a passion for it and you're good at it, don't give up.

Dave: my name, quote unquote service technician,

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Service technician. How did you become so passionate about creative?

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Oh, I'm so glad to hear you've got some of my same learning disabilities. We have a, we have a great, most, most creative people, and I've also noticed most successful salespeople are A DHD. Um, and then, oh hey Kit. And then in my family we have this wonderful thing where we actually don't read from left to right.

We read from right to left. And so like our brain literally is wired wrong. Literally,

Dave: Well, I'll, you know what, if we're talking about this,

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: I.

Dave: Same.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: um, fi Yeah. And so in college I ended up taking computer science because it counted the same credits as Algebra two.

And then if I could take botany in the summer, I wouldn't have to take chemistry

Dave: God.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: and. Then fast forward until I went and got my master's and my brain had finally slowed down a little bit. I fricking graduated with an MBA at a 4.0. But I was so scared in my undergraduate years of math and science because I had been made to believe that I was dumb instead of being, no, you just don't think like everybody else and it's just harder.

You're just gonna have to try harder.

Dave: Oh my God. Oh, wait. For anybody that's listening, that is. Computer science. Holy shit. That's hard. Like,

Dave: but computer science,

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Computer science. Yep.

Dave: same thing. Like you, one of the reasons why I picked BMW is I am very good with electronics. You know, I like, um, I'm the type of guy, I don't know why, like my other classmates, like, I can look at a wiring diagram and I'm like, oh, that's this, this is that. Oh, I know what that is.

That goes there. Oh, that goes over there. I'm like, oh, okay. But you ask me questions about these things off of a piece of paper,

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: No way.

Dave: and I go into the actual system, I can do it like in 10, 15 minutes. Mm-hmm.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yep. Well, it's, it's just a different way of thinking. Your brain is literally wired differently. I had a girlfriend of mine, her daughter had to take the, uh, LSATs, the law school entry. She had to take 'em four, four times, four times. And she finally not only got a good score, she got into the, uh, law school of her dreams in dc.

Dave: God. No, it's true. You know what? A lot of the times there are these obstacles that come before us, right? And this is something that I wanted to touch on with you is, especially when it comes to when you're starting out, you start out even when you are successful, and then you venture out into different directions and you find yourself at a point how I'm going to navigate this? How am I gonna be able to handle this? You know, it, this is gonna be too stressful for me. Life is a fickle thing sometimes when you start moving around things gradually. It has a way of figuring it itself out. Do you want to explain it better? 'cause I don't know. That's the best way I can think of it in my head.

And, and it takes getting over that to look back and go, oh, oh, okay, so that took my path this way, or that taught me this lesson. Um, it, it just, it's, life is hard. Being an adult is hard.

Dave: tells you this, unfortunately.

Can I take a nap?

Dave: You know, it's, it's weird because I'm, I'm in my late twenties and I realize this. I have a classmate that's 21, and he's in a very serious relationship with somebody, and he is got his life very figured out. We've got this thing in our heads. It's like, oh, when we're in our thirties, we'll do this When we're in our forties, we'll do that.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Well, you know, objects that are at rest stay at rest. Once you get in that La-Z-Boy man, you're not gonna get out. I think. I think my couch has suction cups in it. 'cause I have to work really hard to get my butt off the couch.

Dave: I don't blame you is real comfortable. I mean, come on, you're spending

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: It's comfortable.

Dave: on these couches these days. Come on now. You got

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: I normally have a glass of wine right next to me. I mean, it's just so easy.

Dave: you get a little, you get a little music going on, you get a little bit of jazz, maybe a little bit of blues going on. Hey, I'm even going anywhere,

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: you're right. You know,

Dave: huh?

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: society, society. And I, I can't blame our parents because, you know, it's not just our parents, it's it's life. They, they had these, you know, milestones that you expect. You know, okay, I'm gonna go to college and then I'm gonna get married, and then I'm gonna have kids, and then I'm gonna do this.

And I love that. You know, uh, I hear my mom, boomer, I'll just say Boomer, um, and she bitches about my 20 somethings. And I'm like, why? Why would you, so my daughter is raising her kids with gentle parenting. You know, not the discipline, not the rigor. Where when I was a mom, I was like, do what I say because I said it.

I, you know, I'm thinking she might be right about this. And so when this younger generation comes up and they think differently and they do differently, and they don't feel the need, you know, my, my other daughter is in a throuple. She doesn't feel the need to just have one partner. Go for it. This is your life.

This is your way to do it. I think that people, especially my generation, not my mom's generation, we need to cheer you on and, and actually I feel that way about everybody. If you see somebody, your competitor, let's just say another photographer. 'cause I really don't think in a creative industry we are really competitors.

We all do it different.

Dave: offering

Dave: Yeah, and I mean, what you were talking about, even with Gentle Parent, I was telling this, so I have a friend of mine, and Jude, and they're a lesbian couple out in Brooklyn, and the two of them I. They have their, Shane has their sister that has two kids and they've been helping to raise them. And I was like talking to them like we're, they're having a very different approach with the two of them.

She's like, yeah, okay. two toys, which one do you want more? This one or this one? She like went for the one point and then he was like, you gotta put the other one back. Okay. 'cause we're only taking this one. And she completely calmed down. I was just like sitting there and I was just like, see, could have just lost his shit.

Like obviously like it was busy, it was Saturday, like there's tons of people everywhere. But he was like, okay, I'm getting into dad zone right now so I can calm down my kit so I can get the fuck outta the store. And it was beautiful.

What's happening? What are you thinking? What are you feeling? And we shut up and let them tell us, and we listened, and then we had a conversation. I, I just feel like that if that's what this next generation of parent is building, I, because my granddaughter, she, and, and I've got two, but he's the second one's too little to be anything yet.

But my 4-year-old granddaughter already understands consent that she says, no. And she expects you to respect her. No. Um, and and that's amazing to me at four years old, as she looks at you and says, don't take my picture, she expects you not to take her picture, which is, it's hard for a photographer, but it's true.

Um, but yeah, I, I just think that that's.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah, I just bought her a new, uh, autumn fairy dress that has wings and a crown and it's got silver shoes and all this stuff with it. And my mom says, I want a picture of of Charlotte in that dress. I said, I can't guarantee she's gonna let me take her picture, mom. And she said, you tell her no more dresses unless I get pictures.

I'm like, Nope,

Dave: to a

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: nope. No, no. So yeah, I mean, I just, again, your generation, I'm rooting for you kid.

I've noticed even being in the automotive sector and what we start to see is like the troubling upsetness of, you know, how things have changed so drastically because I went through that. I grew up with tape recorders, CD players, blockbuster. was open 24 hours a day. Like internet was unheard of.

Nobody had one. Cell phones were like, if we have a landline, how do you call somebody? somebody like in a couple of states over was like, you gotta get permission from your parents 'cause you had to pay. And then all completely changes in like 10 years. So you have this whole other generation that understands what I kind of went through.

We're 20 years now becomes a generational understanding. Is

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah.

Dave: That's crazy.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Well, and if you just think about it, so, um. I, I saw this hilarious little thing that talked about Gen Xers and how, uh, literally we walked out of the door when the sun rose in the morning and didn't come back to our house until the sunset. And my mom had a, um, bell, a big old bell in our backyard, and she would just pull that bell until all three of us kids came home.

And so it's like you just sit back and you go, yeah, we're a pretty cold generation. We survived a lot of shit.

Dave: Yeah, but you know what that, that also shows in like resilience of arts and creativity

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Mm-hmm.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: I do think that that is, um. That is definitely a plus to your generation, but I think it's also a plus to your mindset. And so my husband has the very same mindset. See, I love to dress up. I love to wear dresses and high heels and all the jewelry. And so we'll go out to lunch and I'll be wearing a full dress with heels, and he'll have on shorts and a tank top with a baseball hat, and he just looks at me.

Sometimes. I need to be around people that can talk to me intelligently about what matters and, and what are you, what are you, what are you doing right now? I, I love doing podcasts because of this, but I also volunteer my time at universities when teachers need people in marketing and advertising to come to class and, and talk.

And so I go, not just back to my alma mater, but any university that wants to capitalize on my knowledge at this age I give back because those young people, they energize me. My clients that are younger than me energize me and going and volunteering at universities, it just builds me up. And, and they, they, they inspire me.

They inspire me to do more, inspire me to engage.

You have to also have some type of artistry in your mind, just like an architect needs in order to do marketing. Right? just numbers with demographics and people and areas and mar like a market in Indianapolis, right? It could be completely different than Atlanta, Georgia, but it's the same thing.

No, it's not. It's two different markets.

And what they do is that they put all the components in to research your demographic. Research what you're supposed to, how you're gonna reach them. And then they start by a trial and they, that's why they call it valve and meter. They put out three to four trials at one time and which one gets the results you're looking for and which ones don't.

And then they pull back on the advertising that doesn't work and go full throttle on what does work. And it, they call it math before marketing because you have to do the, um, research and develop, you have to do who's who, send out surveys to your clients. You have to do all of that research before you can use your creativity to go into those valves and then pull 'em back or accelerate forward.

Should we offer this service and change what we offer? You know, and we sent a very short survey, do you need my website to provide, um, uh, like a Dropbox or a login logout where you can get your images straight from my website? Everybody said, no, we don't need you to do that. Great. I don't have to spend money on that.

Um, but they, they did tell me that they are only purchasing my type of photography off of website searches. They're not getting it from Instagram because we asked them specifically Instagram, TikTok, where, where are you getting your photographers from? And they all said, internet searches. And so if you don't know where your clients are getting your name from, how can you possibly advertise?

Come on.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah. And, and I, I worry for the people that are only influencers, um, because to, in my opinion, and this is not, I, I appreciate that you're making money at it. What's the next step? What are you gonna do when you're no longer able to monetize that? Because something you age out of it. You, you don't change what the time's fast enough because you don't see that you're losing followers because people don't stop unfollowing you.

Um, and I just, I, I just hope that people are thinking about that as they're, they're spending so much of their time influencing.

'cause people are like, well, but, but, but I, I, I, I need the, i, I need the ads. I need the stuff to come in. You know, to be able to Yeah. But you can get that in other ways and that actually

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Mm-hmm.

Dave: results instead of just staying a nine to five for 50 years.

But in photography, and unless you're in a huge market, New York, London, Milan, uh, la uh, we've got some going on in Dallas and Atlanta and Chicago. Those are probably just right under those. If you specialize in photography or in a specific type of videography, you have to price yourself at such a high price point that if you only get three to four jobs a year, it's enough for you to make a living.

Because people don't see him as a generalist, they only call him for specialized work. And so, you know, he and I were just talking about business and um, I've got a job where I'd like to bring him alongside me to, to shoot with me because it's more volume than I can handle by myself and I need his expertise.

And he just looked at me and he goes, you need to tell me, you're gonna pay me. You're gonna find the work, you're gonna deal with the client, and all I have to do is take pictures. I said, yes. He said, I am in because he doesn't know how to do the networking and the selling and all of those things that I do.

Dave: See what happens. Also, I've seen this too, even in filmmaking, where the way that a lot of indie filmmakers have been able to be very successful is. They don't own their own house, they build a production company with other people, so they all become part shareholder of this production house. way it's not where some person may have a better skill doing something else, and this other person has a better skill of doing that and they bring all of that together in order to make it successful. There are independent filmmakers that do it independently. It's not unheard of, but it is. It's a lot harder if you can't do the necessary and capability of doing all of those pieces yourself. Because let's be honest, it's a lot to work for one person.

She goes, if I can't use available light, I don't do it. And I said, that's so funny. 'cause she likes to shoot and capture people candidly. She likes to let them do their own thing and just capture it as it goes. I said, I stink at being an event photographer. I stink. I hate it. I don't like anything about it.

I said, so you can't do studio photography. I can't do candid photography. We can't all be good at everything. We can't.

Dave: No, and I, I, I think what it also veers down to is it's not a clear path to find your exact niche, what you're really good at. But if you don't take the necessary steps and try all those things to see what you're actually good at you, you never really could get there.

And so I actually shot on an eight by 10 camera many, many times. And so, you know, you and my mom, and, and this is the other thing, you know, with being a third generation photographer, my mom took Angela Adams last workshop in la. She was, oh no, it wasn't la it was Monterey. She was in his class. And I have a poster signed by Angela Adams because my mom was sitting in his very last class.

But I just, I got the best of my generation. I got the best of the education in old photography that just catapulted me into the digital world. Um, and, and now I still am able to go back to those roots of knowing how light works. I had to learn how light works, and it just, one of my friends says, I'm a, I'm a idiot savant because of how I can see light.

I can tell you what colors the lights are without a temperature meter, as she said, you're just, you're just an oddity. But, um, I, I feel very, very fortunate that I had all that.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yep.

Dave: the tripod and the tripod leg gets loose and you, you're trying to hold a shutter, especially at night and trying to get that night exposed that. That is something that's long been forgotten. I think every other photographer from now on should go through that suffering.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah.

Dave: out.

To make it look more vibrant because it would balance for the inside lights in the house or in the building that you're shooting. And then the sky would go purple. It was beautiful. And now you just look at it and you go, that looks, and it just, it just shows up like that on your, a digital camera now.

But in the old days, we had to figure it out. You know, you had to test your film and you had to, you know, uh, I used to shoot products for airplanes that were like this big. And you used to have to have two bellows on your four by five camera to reach it, and you'd have to have an extra stand in the middle.

So it was lens bellow, stand bellow film, and you would have to measure that and calculate the bellows factor for how much extra exposure you had to put on your film. It was math. I told you how I feel about math. It was math.

'cause instead of using those tons of lenses and all that, you can use a lens this big and it does the exact same shot automatically. You just put it on the tripod position, your lights, bam, done, finished. Do you use

Because that knowledge of what am I trying to accomplish, okay, I wanna make the background go really out of focus. Okay? So I'm gonna put on a long lens to complete that because I really want it to go soft. Or I've got somebody who is maybe a little bit heavier set and the longer lens I put on them, the slimmer they're gonna look.

You know, when I get somebody that's heavyset, if I shoot them from a higher angle, they will look slimmer. People don't know all that because they just take a picture and they're like, oh, I did it. I captured a picture instead of, but really, what am I trying to do? And that's what the Creative Mind does.

That's what it is for artists, for musicians. It's for everybody in the creative field. No matter what the technology is, it cannot take the place of your specific creativity.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: So this, this week we built a new arena in, um, I'm from Noblesville, which is a suburb. Of Indianapolis and our, I'm sure you've heard of the Indiana Pacer since we went to the finals this year, but they have a G League that's been playing out of Fort Wayne. And so we built a new arena here in Noblesville to bring them from Fort Wayne to get that G League closer to the Pacer's home home office in Indianapolis.

And so this arena is beautiful. And when I went to the grand opening for this arena, um, I ran into one of my clients and I'm like, did you build this? And they're like, yeah, we built it. I said, who's gonna shoot it for you? And he goes, well, do you wanna shoot it? I'm like, sure. And so we got a team together.

Why should they ruin their evening go home. And so I had to coordinate with the facility to make sure that all the lights inside and outside the building were on and that they stayed on from five o'clock till 10 o'clock. And, and people, they look at a beautiful picture and they're like, boy, they sure did get lucky to get that Uhhuh.

Sure. Got really lucky with that. Um, because sometimes I get to a shoot and the client's supposed to coordinate the lighting and it does, everything changes. It's like, what happened to the lights in the parking lot? Well, it's nighttime. They don't need the lights in the parking lot anymore. And so it really does take creativity, but it also takes collaboration and getting every different component to work together.

Dave: I love that though, especially with photography, where a lot of times it gets lost weird. What you're seeing is not only a vision of the origin, I would say, but you're also seeing the level of creativity because what we're viewing is it's a lens, a frozen piece of time you're able to see. Like again, oh my God, I, I'm like so obsessed.

There's like one with the interior design that I was just like, Glock at, it was like a brick building and there's like a bar in the background.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah.

Dave: I don't know why, like I could just picture myself just sitting there at the bar and being like, yo, can I get a double please? Of what? care. Just gimme a double. But,

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: That's hilarious.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Well, because once these buildings get open to the public, they immediately start losing and deteriorating value. The more people that go in there, the more they trash the place. And so we do try to get in there right away before the public gets a chance to leave their mark on it. And, and that makes it so, yes, we want pictures with people in it because that does, it shows you scale and it shows you.

So those are four. It's kind of like doing four unique shoots, but I have to do it all at the same time and make sure that my creativity doesn't miss what might be important to one client because I'm focusing on what's important for another client. And so I think that as our artists are thinking about that, you know, I want, I want my clients to.

Share the payment for my fees because I know that I'm expensive. And so the way to do that is to include more and more people on the job to split the investment. Well, that also means I have to meet everybody's goals. I have to think like the furniture person. I have to think like the interior designer.

Unfortunately, like we talked about this earlier with the politics and the social changes and the heresy and the. Oh my God. Misgendering people and the antisemitism. It's like, my God, my brain is just like, I can't, I can't process this garbage anymore.

I've got a book in my head, I really wanna write it. I'm scared to death. Um, but listening to how she has all those voices in her head that are getting in her way of telling the story, what is her public? How's she gonna sell this to her publisher? How's she gonna do this and that, instead of just getting the story out of her head, her and you did a wonderful job of connecting that in a similar way that when you had an independent musician that you were talking to and, and you do a great job at changing how you're viewing this podcast according to who you're talking to, I enjoyed it immensely.

And that, that author really inspired me.

I go, I really did a good job today.

Dave: Oh, you need that little bit of adrenaline, you know, that little bit of a bump just to get you through

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Yeah, we're, we're our own worst critics. I tell you.

Dave: Um, what was I gonna ask you? Oh, been talking about Studio 13. I know that you work on other stuff as well. We've spoken about this before. Generally speaking, um, where can you find, like, you know, your, your social media? I know where your website is. All that fun jazz.

Dave: Awesome. you, um, you said that you've done other projects and other things on your own time. Like you were mentioning, you'd volunteer to help out other students and things.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: I do. So I'm, um, you know, part of part of being in business, especially this business, is I'm out in the community all the time. Um, I have to meet with people face-to-face, networking and increasing my network of people. So I volunteer at the, um, the Butler University, that's my alma Mater Alumni Association Board of Directors.

And then, um, one of my clients is Ivy Tech University. And, um, I do, uh. Offer myself up to talk to their, uh, classes down there. And then the University of Indianapolis, uh, was where I was at this week speaking to their marketing and advertising, uh, students.

Dave: Let's just put it like that.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: I am,

Dave: busy. but I think that's really awesome. I mean, if anybody is thinking about Indianapolis for their career or just relocating, well, yeah, you got Leslie over here. I'm sure you know, you could reach out.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: I am actively, I am actively looking for my successor, so I'm actively looking to bring someone on to mentor them and, uh, spend the next 10 to 15 years phasing out. So that's my goal.

Why don't we have a million followers? Why am am I famous? Why am I not successful? Why does my family keep telling me I need to become a surgeon? I think you really help kind of explain all of that and kind of, this doesn't happen overnight. You know? I don't think anybody should walk outta here like, all right, I'm, this is my New Year's resolution.

Tomorrow. Not happening. No.

Lesle Lane, Studio 13: Probably not. Probably not.

Dave: Listen, thank you so much for coming on and spending your time. I really appreciate this and up your world of just photography and creativity. I love it.

Dave: you so much. Well, to anybody out there, if you want to check out more of the podcast, you can find us at Lost in the Groove Pod everywhere and anywhere you listen to podcasts and we've been Shadow Band for so long, we're on Rumble and we are on Substack. So with that, we will catch you on the next one. All right. Peace out. Okay.