Tweet It Into Existence

On June 24, 2016, I received this email:

Just a few days earlier, I had reached out to In the Lab. In short, I offered to help out because I really believed in what they were doing and wanted to help out however I could. As seen in the email screenshot above, they didn't need a photographer at the time. I knew it was a long shot to begin with, but shooters shoot.

Because of this situation, I really do believe in the idea of speaking things into existence. Here's the first example:

To be honest, even though my tweet said that I'd love to work with In the Lab and Devin Willams (@Ten000Hours), it really meant I'm going to find a way to get there. Growing up around basketball, In the Lab was part of the culture and everyone used to go crazy over the Ten000 Hours videos on Youtube. Why wouldn't I try to combine my passions for hoop and photography?

Fast forward from the tweet in January. In March, I reached out again. This time, I decided to try something a little different. I know one of the guys that Devin consistently trains. I reached out to him and asked him if he would let Devin know that I'd love to help out with photography. A couple hours later, I got a response saying to text Devin. So, I did.

In my text, I explained what I wanted to do. I explained that I really just wanted to learn and grow as a photographer and would be more than willing to help In The Lab grow. I said I would do it all for free because I wasn't really looking for money and I actually wasn't even looking for any recognition. I heard back from Devin a week after the initial text message in a simple message saying "Yo." 

It was funny to read that text message. I wasn't expecting any particular response, but it was funny that that was the response I got after explaining everything. Getting a response in general was enough. From there, we talked a little bit and I sent him my Instagram to see if it was something that he would be interested in. Eventually, he said I could come out to one of the workouts and go from there. 

On April 5, 2017, about 9-10 months after the initial email, I got to work with Devin for the first time. 

Here's another tweet:

I actually didn't realize how close the dates were for those two tweets. Also, I promise I don't just make goals on twitter lmao. 

Well, just a couple weeks ago, I got flown out for the first time for photography. Of course, the two tweets relate. The In The Lab team was flying me out. I offered to pay my way out and they said, "This one is on us, we want you to be apart of the team." This conversation happened in September and I flew out to LA for October 13-16.

Here's a quick video I put together for the trip:

It's really been a huge blessing to be part of the In the Lab team and to be able to combine my passions for basketball, photography, and business all at the same time. If there's anything you can take away from this, let it be this: Speak things into existence. Of course, simply saying something doesn't mean it's going to happen. However, if you put the work in, the universe has a funny way of making things come together.

- Jsquared 

@_J.Squared

@InTheLabLifestyle