When we left for California, we felt so long overdue for a vacation. We had been working hard — long, undefined hours (even though, at the start of the year, we had committed to more regular work hours); we felt fully engulfed by our work; we had so little time for the so many other things we wanted to do.

Then we went to United and met photographers who had been there and done all of that before us. We listened to their stories — of marriages that had ended up on the rocks, families that almost fell apart, and businesses that became burdens. What it all came down to, every single speaker said, was starting with the foundation of your values and building a business from there. Start with what you believe in, deeply, and design your business to enhance and enable those things instead of trampling them.

There was one quote that Karen & Isaac Stott shared the very first morning that changed my heart in an instant: “The scariest thing in our lives shouldn’t be failure,” the quote goes. “It should be succeeding at something that ultimately doesn’t matter.”

After United was all over — after hearing from some of the best-of-the-best in the industry, after meeting new friends from all corners of the country and even as far as Nigeria, after the shoots and the cocktail parties and the awesome concert put on by a “band” of photographers who had only met each other the day before they were to play — Danny and I came back to Florida both uplifted and disappointed. Disappointed only because we have to wait an entire year before the next United! Uplifted because we know our business won’t ever be the same. On Friday, the morning after we got back to Florida, we sat down in our living room with all our notes from the week. Danny held the iPad and browsed his notes and snapshots in Evernote. I flipped through the little Moleskine journal everyone had received at United, and I thought about how that small book had, overnight, become one of my most valuable possessions because of all the wisdom and memories it held. And then Danny and I debriefed. We discussed the week. What we had learned. What we wanted to change in our lives, first and foremost, and in our business.

Because, much as we love our job, running a business for the sake of running a business isn’t a very good idea. Much as we love the couples we photograph, we need an even bigger “why” when it comes to the career we’ve chosen. So we’re working on that one. But here’s what we learned last week — our biggest takeaway: Our business should exist to serve God and our family and others, not so we serve them less.

This picture of us was taken by the wonderful Trevor Dayley one morning at the Four Seasons. Every time I look at it, I’m going to see more than just a picture of Danny and me. I’m going to see that amazing week, surrounded by a community of a photographers who not only want to better their own businesses and their own lives, but are committed to bettering the photography industry and the lives of the people around them. I’m going to see the way everyone at United not only spoke passionately about service, but the ways, even in that short week, that they lived it out with their actions.

I’m going to see a reminder that our businesses and our lives are never just about ourselves.

We’re back to work as usual this week — with some changes already in place, and more to come. All of them good. I can’t wait to focus, fully, on the things that ultimately matter.

I want to extend my most heartfelt thanks to the entire Showit crew for not only putting on such a powerful, life-changing event, but for paying for the majority of it out of your own pocket. Also, a huge thanks to all the speakers who paid your own way to United and spoke without any compensation simply because you wanted to share and teach. You all truly modeled service for the rest of us and set a very high standard for what service should be! Thank you for one of the best weeks of our lives, and thank you for inspiring us to live differently.

~ Laura