Deborah, with her thirty years of being an entrepreneur and creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that
only someone who's taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know, the stories, the wise and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away. Now Here is your host, Deborah Drummond. Welcome bath amazing audience.
Seriously, if you accidentally went will accept it. I wonder what this is bout. You are in for a treat. If you're here, you're meant to be here, and you know people that are meant to listen to this interview. Once we go through this interview with delipping well, I am no, I don't know. I want to I'm so excited. I'm not excited. I'm honored. This is a woman of great respect in her craft and otherwise, and you need to pass this on now. You guys know
that I think you're the best audience. Even when people have podcasts, you know they're sitting as my guests, I still say you guys are the best audience. Then I always give you something else. Well, I'm telling you guys are rock stars today, you are frigging rock stars. And if you've just shown up again, what we do here is we talk about the mission, why people take it, why they stay, which is sometimes more important. Why these stay. Is there something in you that makes you want to
try something on the side full time, completely change your life. Is there's a mission inside that you're kind of like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, because sometimes we get forced into our mission and sometimes it's a choice. We have D Lipping Well with us today. And if you don't know D, then you don't know music. Because this moment is taking more pictures of the most iconic, iconic rock
and roll musicians. I've ever seen. I mean, I'm looking at the front of her magazine or her book here not magazine, and you've got Ted Nugent going to town, and you've got everyone in here, You've got Stevie nixt You've got oh my gosh, look at everybody in here. You've got to Sting, You've got I mean, I mean, you know what, I'm gonna let you tell people everyone that's in here. But it just goes on and on and on. I've been looking at these books because look at
there's one, and then there's two, and then there's three. I mean, it is incredible. So Missy lipping Well, thank you for joining us today on mission acceptance. Thank you for having me absolutely four decades, four decades almost fine, who's counting? Who's There's gonna be lots of There's gonna be lots of books here. Oh, there's gonna be so many books. Wow. And of course Bublet, Olivia Newton, John Wow, clay A camm Okay, Selean Dion. I'll look at that nineteen okay. So clearly
you've had a life of photography. Yes, I have started it out as just a hobby for my own personal use satisfaction memories and then just evolved and just had people behind me, you know, saying, go go for it, go for it, you have a no go for it, go for it, and trous and tribulations. I did enjoy it and it aroused something in me. It made me excited. I was working in the medical field,
and which you know it was. You know, I have an arthritic finger because of it, I think, right right, but it's it's it just took on a life of its own. Let's just say that, and you know what I think, Yeah, yeah, I like to encapsulate that a little bit because I just said, sometimes you're at the back of the wall. Sometimes you need to make a leap into another career because you know
your company has been taken over by another company or what have you. And then there's the passion hobby that grows and grows and grows as you grow and grow and grow, and it's almost like something that you have to do, you know, whether it's a hobby with it's And then there's many times where something that starts, people are like, could I could, like I really make a living out of doing this, and many situations it's other people going, oh my gosh, you paint amazing, or oh my gosh, no
one bakes bread like you, or oh my gosh, like look at the clothes that you make for yourself, you should be making those for other people. Right. What was the turning point for you? When did you go,
m I'm going to do this. I think after I think after my very first show, and it wasn't actually a show, it was just a I walked into a I walked into a record store and they had a Paint Fluid concert, which I had been at because I went with my brother and i'd have him to take my camera and I had bored a five hundred millimeter lens which I could not hold, so I getting my brother to hold the lens up. I'm trying to shoot this band. And I knew of the
band right because he had turned me onto them. But I took off my took off my five hundred millimeter, put on my regular went down shot the show, and then those pictures were awesome. I don't know, it was like it was my third eye. And I walked into this record store and they had a display of Floyd concert photos and I gaffawed. I went up. You know, if you're going to do a display. Make sure that you got good pictures. And of course the manager said, I suppose you
have better and I said, I suppose I do. He said, well, if you do, you know, bring them in. And I raced home and I'm fifteen minutes later. I was back and I had the package of like five by seven color pictures and he's leaving through them and he go, you took these? And I went yeah. He goes, what's your name? And I told me, goes, is that your like stage name or your photographer's name. No, that's my name. And he said,
do you mind if I put these on display? I said no. He said yeah, Well he got his girl to type out, you know, on the fax machine or something delipping well, and he the poor other photographer, I don't know who it was, but he took all his pictures down because they were awful. They were like black and white blobs, white blobs black, you know, you couldn't even see what the artist was. And that was my first. That was my first in lane that wow, maybe
I've maybe this is what I was meant to do. And then just and that had the people behind me saying, wow, like look at these, you know, uh you know, people were saying, oh, look, I'm getting goosebubs. You've captured such a great moment. And so I just continued on and I practiced and I practiced, and I sat up my own dark room and I had already, you know, taught myself, you know,
how to print my pictures. So I was into trees and flowers and you know stuff right when I when because I was always an avid concert war and after and I had an instematic. I didn't even have a thirty five millimeter I mean really, I mean it's like, well and I had I had, I just had no idea that I could I could do it. I it was it was wow, like I'm going I take the picture.
And it were like wow, how to go to clubs? And I, you know, and I would be at the back or at the back wall or whatever and just trying to remember, you know, moves or stuff like this, or how I was feeling, because that's basically how I shoot, as I shoot with when I feel the music in here, but don't feel the music in here, I'm sorry, it just doesn't come across. I have to feel it, and when I feel it, it transcends into my camera somehow, and then I'm in the dark room and I see it developing
and I go, wow, wow, I took that picture. Right, It was just it was love I had. I had developer fluid in my veins instead of blood, you know, and it was you know, I didn't care lack of sleep because I was working day jobs, my day job, and I was going out to clubs, and you know, it was like, well, can I get in for free? Yeah, you can get in for free. Yeah, I want to take some pictures. I'll
give them to you. Right. So all the club owners they were quite they were quite happy to see me because I come back and I give them pictures of the bands playing there, right, which they really appreciated it, even to this day. Right, we're talking about doing a book on club Soda. Right, of all the pictures that I took there, but my club Soda, lots of people are many are club Soda. Anyway, it's you know, like I said, it did take on a life of its
own, but I didn't. I wasn't sleep deprived. If I was in the dark room till three o'clock in the morning and having to get up at seven, I didn't feel sleep deprived. Because I was doing something that was exciting. It was like every time that picture, that image emerged, it was, you know, I'd get goosebumps, right, And then teaching me all myself, all the dark room work too. I actually was taught through
time life books. They had a whole series of books and I stumbled across these and they were just like pictures, how to do this, how to do that, And I just followed them to the tea and I kept all these notes and well that didn't work. So yeah, it was like every role of film I developed, I would put down you know, the temperature, the fluid and that, you know. I mean it was like how
many times I agitated it per minute? And you know it was it was scientific as well, right, So that's that's that's how that's how it started. And I just continued. And when I told, when I told, like I had to go. I had to create work for myself. And I knew it was out there, but I knew most of it was taken up by a man. So I approached the record companies and you know, and I begged board stole, you know, can you can I get into this show? Can I get into that show? Not shooting. I mean,
well I was shooting. I was shooting from the crowd, right, and you know, can I help you? Do you have any gold album presentations? And I went to every every record label in town right and said, you know, excuse me, this is me, right, this is my work, you know, and they said, oh yeah. So everybody was hiring me. And I had the job at the Georgia Strait, which was like five dollars a picture and you didn't get published every week, and
you know, some months you made like fifteen dollars. So it's like, you know, I had to teach myself how to do wedding photography and how to do modeling, photography and lighting and you know, the whole, you know, the whole, the whole ball blacks. I was like, anyway, I'm I talking. No, no, you're not talking too much.
But I think that first of all, I love Club Soda because I used to That was one of the clubs we had club courtesy with because I used to work in the clubs in beautiful Vancouver, and Club Soda, for those of you who don't know, it was just an incredible club in downtown Vancouver that did have a number of bands and it was just a great place to
go. And I think, no, I don't think. I mean, I The one thing I love about your experience ants, right, because it's you know, it's your story, is that there is very much an organic flow. It had its own push, but it was like it was pushing you. I mean it made you go search things that I think that you know, some people are really really fortunate that they have that drive inside. But the drive makes them not tired in the morning. The drive makes them
contact people they're afraid of. The drive makes them walk into a room when you know the odds are against them. And and I think that too many times people are in their head when it comes to entrepreneurship and they need to be in their body and they need to let the passion lead them, right. And when I hear you talk, I just hear you talk about how the passion led you and it led you here and it led you there and it kind of spoke to you. I mean it's such a I mean,
such a creative art. And then when you were at Georgia Strate, I remember you sharing that story about how good you're getting five bucks picture, you know, and you know, what does that look like, obviously that looks like a full time job somewhere else because you can't sustain on that and just trying to make your craft come alive enough to that's sustainable. When when did it flip? Like how long? I mean, like you said, almost
five decades. When did your business flip over to being able to sustain you? It was? It took about It took about five years. What excuse me? It took about five years of me working my day job, going out working for the record companies and working for promoters around town. And I worked hard. But I went to one promoter and I said, you know, I'm thinking about quitting my day job because I think I've got it so now that I have enough income coming in that I can that I can handle
it. And he laughed at me and he said, I guess you didn't know me very well, because he said, I, you're not going to make a living from shooting road bands. The musicians don't want them, and the promoters are to get them from the van managers, and you're not going to make a living from it. And I said, watch me, watch me. Don't say that I can't do something. What are you talking about? Right? Yeah, yeah, I can do this, and he just she went and you into this day he sees me and he shakes his head
and oh, I knew you could do it all along day. I was just bullierously, right, right, sure, sure, sure, Oh my gosh. Well, look, I know that you have a lot of stories inside and a lot of incredible moments. Is there is there anything that you know? I'm sure there's a flood of incredible moments, but can you share with us, uh, some moments that like made it all? Were you
know, has made it all worth it? Or was he was really fulfilling to you or I'm kind of a magical moment while you were doing your work. Well, when Tina Turner requested that I do her book to her press in Vancouver, that was pretty much jaw dropping, right, you know, asking for me personally, Well, she didn't actually ask for d lipping. Well, she asked for that photographer who did the album thing, who did all the interviews to the on thing, you know, the one with the
great legs. A nice job, Tina, nice job. And and of course the record rat went, oh that's d wow. So that so yeah, and then and then when we actually we did all the interviews and I did with her, and she was she she walked into the hotel room where we were doing them, and she said, oh, I'm so glad they found you. And I looked at her and I went, you're wearing pants. We're supposed to have our legs a picture of our lay. She said, oh, you have much better legs than me, Darling, which wasn't
true. Oh my gosh. I mean yeah, she but you know, she's actually one of the only artists that shushed me, right, you know, that's enough. It's you know on David Bowie his his he did that too to me. He shished me. But Tina went, that's enough. Because I was. I was so excited. This was when she released one of her albums and she was here and she wasn't doing a tour anywhere,
and she was doing all these interviews. And they rented this space in in False Creek before it was even you know, it was like an old warehouse and they get it all out and for the first interview, I think it was Terry David and Multigan was interviewing her, and I was just like click click click, click, click, click click right, and she she she put her hand on Terry's arm and much music, right, she said, And she looked at me with that's enough, say, I think you've got
it so so and I was like, oh, sheepish, I was sheepish. There you got it. Then she questioned you, yeah, yeah, wow. Do you have any other stories of people that you took that there was a special moment there for you or well, I worked I worked for many, many, many many years with Lnjoon baldry h. So you know, the whole the Rod Stewart and that whole thing pretty special to me. You know. It's this the stories are. You have to read the stories.
You have to read the stories because the stories are things that actually happened to me, and I'm telling it like it was and I can take you there. And one of the things that people say about, you know, the stories in the book is I was at that concert. I think I saw you shooting in the pit, or you know, Alice Cooper fell on me, d are you all right? You know it's famous, it's famous.
Is Alice Cooper falling off the stage in Vancouver is a famous story and a lot of people know that he fell on me, right, I was okay, yeah, but they made me sign a waiver saying that if you fell off the stage again and fell on me, that I wouldn't There's a prime example of when you're building a business, you don't know what you don't know until it happens. You're like, okay, we didn't know we would
have to do a stage falling contract NDA. You know. Well, Sting thought I was stalking him because I met him in the lobby with my book, my first book, and it was like, did he think that we were stupid in Vancouver, that we wouldn't know where he would be stayed? I mean, hello, But he came down really hard on the on the record rep. She's stalking me. This is the third time that I've seen her. Well, I was doing the I was doing shoot for the photography
for the record companies. Of course he saw me before, but that was stalking. I don't think so. And he was in my book, right, He did sign the book. He did sign the book, though, you know, and I think, you know, it's sort of an apology to me, even yeah, you know, I mean, there's there's so well the stories in the book just show that you can you can be successful, but you know, you have to be ready to accept the fact that you're going to have a couple of running shoes in your mouth at some moment
in time. Right, I would do something really stupid. And most of the stories are funny about the stupid things that I've done. Meeting these people. Well, I mean you must be talking about this book here first three songs, no, right, yeah, I mean that's the one that's got all these incredible stories. I was just looking at you know, and and Nancy, you know you did some you did some touring with heart I did. I did imagine writing in a jet down to Seattle about myself. Oh
my god, it was incredible. Right, And then we picked them up and see how the jet picked them up in Seattle, and Howard was deathly afraid of flying. We were only going to Portland, right, And you sat there the whole time, and and Nancy or Fabbi lists I don't.
That was probably the first time that I was made aware of some of the stupidity of some of the interviewers and the people who are writers, who all asked exactly the same question, right and did It was obvious that they had only read part way down on the bio and they didn't continue right, you know, and Ann and Nancy were just so gracious and so kind and so warm and tried to defer them to actual like song making, writing, lyrics
doing who does the music? Like you know, it was like, so do you think that Tom being married to two guys in the band is helpful to you or him or a hindrance? What what number one? What business is it of yours? And number two? What does that have to do with our songwriting skills or or the band skills as as musicians? You know? Yeah, yeah, anyway, I did it. Yeah, I did go on tours cc taal on taking Texas to the World tour. I wasn't allocated to where the cows were, but you know I was that was I
had to rest for three weeks. I was only on the road for seven days. At the longest seven days of my life. Uh. You know, you go to different you go to three different cities and you don't know the cities, and you have to find a place that's going to develop your film, like in an Hour on Earth, like we're like, you know, so I had you know, roadies like driving me around you know, Dallas. I was like, oh god, where are we right? And
CC talk, we're really really upset. When the first book came about Best Eating the House and they weren't in it. They were They said, d we took you on tour. You were our tour photographer for a week, right, Uh you know the management. I said, well, look, okay, that tour, that actual tour thing was you hired me, you paid me. The film was yours. I didn't even I didn't get it. You got it all. And the management said, well, we would have shown it to it. We would have given it to you if you'd
ask, right, So I said, okay, no problems. So I think I wrote that story. And there's two songs anyway. They mean, you know it's isn't it interesting? Right? You can't make everybody happy, and you know it's interesting. But yes, in this one, I'm looking at George Michael, you know. I mean, I think the whole thing about reading something like this, or I getting to know the artist more,
is that it gives you more depth to your experience with them. Know, like my son's nineteen and he came in the kitchen, I don't know, maybe six months and ago he goes, mom, I found this new band. I'm like, sweet you know, we're a bit of a music. I'm like, put it on, and he's playing it. I'm like, Ocean, that's the Thompson Twins. You know, that's the Thompson Twins.
Right. And we're coming back from my daughters. We're driving back from missions, so it's about an hour and he's like, mom, I just found this music for my playlist. And I'm like, okay, and I'm expecting, you know, because he's he's he loves all music. But I'm I'm not expecting this. And he goes listen to these guys. Then he puts it on. It's the Bags. I'm like, Ocean, Okay, you
know what. I think we need to tell you some things about these artists, right, But once you get to know the artists, like when you when I read the stories that you have in here, I feel more connected to the memories that that music gives me exactly exactly how I meant it to be. All along work, Yeah, yeah, I mean, this is this is this is historical, this is lineage. It's it's it's not it's not dated. It's not dated. It's not like, oh, you put
you published this book how many years ago. They're still the stories are still relevant today because now we're more interested in those artists and what they were like. Right. I mean, I'm working on now my slides to do another book. It'll probably take me five years. It'll keep me busy. Uh you know my ask Somebody asked me what the title was going to be, and I said, well, I don't have a title, but after looking at some of these photographs, it should be rock Stars before Wrinkles. Okay,
that's not the name of the book. It darn wells needs to be a T shirt in your merchandise line. I mean that's that this person is in marketing. And he said, boy, talk about grab attention, right, you know, he said a great marketing to oh yeah, rock Stars before Wrinkles. I said, well, I wanted it to be a little bit more, you know, oh not or something He was not one to know. Oh no, he said, no, go for it, go for it. So yeah, you know, I don't know if we I
don't know if we need to grow up. You don't. You got your scarf around your neck, so I just think that this is incredible. So tell us about your scarf, because I mean, this was this was a long time in the making because people I couldn't get across the people that I wanted on a soft, silky material, and I wanted to put six photos on one side and six different photos on the other side at the bottom.
They they they, these designers just couldn't get it through their head. And I met this wonderful woman and she said, I had made one up. I'd actually got the silk. I had printed up the pictures right, I glued them onto the silk. Okay, this is what I want. And she said, well, no problem. How come people haven't been able to I said, so we decided this material is made out of one cool back. Oh there you go, fantastical. Yeah, this made This material is
really light, lightweight. It's made out of one hundred percent recycled water bottles. And he has all my favorite artists on Stevie Nicks, you know, Mick Jagger, Staying Elton, Steven Tyler, Roth Stewart on one side, and on the other we have Pete Townsend, we got Tom Petty, Tina Turner, David Bowie, who am I missing? Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Eric. Yeah. Yeah, and not only for women, but for men. I mean I've got right now, uh An artist who is wearing my scarf
on stage. So it's like, oh, send me a photo. Yeah that's right now, you things, you know, I mean, I have I have a picture of Rod Stewart reading my book. Somebody sent me a picture of Rod Stewart reading my book and you you can't really see his face, but you know it's Rod Stewart, the hair, the port of it, right, but he's engrossed. And it's like, oh, so get an artist to wear something on stage and then I can take a picture of it and then I can flogged. But these are very exclusive. Yeah,
yeah, these are exclusive. We we made we made fifty. Wow, yeah, we made fifty and I signed them, right, and so we so we don't have very many left, but we yet we have enough. I think we have about twenty left, right because I haven't really been flogging them. Yeah, no, doing other things, doing other things, living
living life. So look as we kind of wrap up and as we come off our podcast going I want your life, you know the truth right, okay, like seriously the truth of our running your own business getting told no, what was what was the toughest part for you? And how did you overcome that? So there's a lot of people that are listening that I mean, and we do that right after you've been after you've kind of been in the sawmill for a while, I call it. People think you become not
untouchable, but things don't affect you that you don't have. You don't have things. I think it was the financial the as the financial aspect of it that was the most difficult part because at some you know, like I didn't There wasn't a Okay, here's your paycheck for this week. It was like everything that I made it had to come in and if I couldn't make the rent, it was like, okay, now what am I going to do?
Okay, Well, I have two cameras and I had a really good understanding with a pawnshop, and I would take one camera into the pawn shop and they would they would say how much do you want? I had to set up a you know, a rapport with of course you know I need I need one hundred dollars. So this was a four hundred dollar camera.
So I need one hundred dollars and I want to only want upon it for ten days and then they charge you like two bucks, right, And I would come back, I would because I would be waiting for a check from A and M Records or CBS Records or whatever, and as soon as that check came in, then I would go and I would get my camera out. Well, I did this a lot, right because nothing was nothing was for sure, but there was no way that I was going to not do
my not do what I was doing. Even enter my head, it was just like, Okay, we got this this purple patch and we'll just get over that and we'll just continue on. Yeah, And I think that's yeah. People, people should should not be afraid or be But you know, here's the interesting thing. Here you are right, here you are, and here you'll be. And I think that you know, entrepreneurship whatever that looks like for people, right. I Mean sometimes people think that being a musician
or being an a photographer or being in the arts is an entrepreneurship. But it's an entrepreneurship. I mean, you got to sell yourself and what you do, right, So it's the same thing that we do in the world of entrepreneurship. But and then a lot of times it is you hear like all the money and it's hard to explain to people that there will be thin times, but you will get through it because that's the time that you get
the most resourceful. Like you have resources, you just haven't had to put them to task because maybe you've got a paycheck, could be two weeks or whatever. But the funny thing is everybody still ends up standing at the end of the day, right, Everyone ends up standing at the end of the day. So I think that's when you dig deep. That's when you dig deep, all right. So here's something really interesting. So first of all, I know that in the show notes, people are going to be able
to go to your site. You've got all your books there, you've got your scarps there, You've got some incredible photography to look at. And we do want to make sure that people understand it's dlippingwell dot c a right because this woman lives in Oh gosh, am I so lucky Vancouver, Canada? Where do I live? So that's cool and gay for me? Good decision, good, you know, good call on my parents, I guess.
But one question I have for you is the same question that I ask every single person that comes on to the show, and it relates to my to music, not so much go an entrepreneurship. I don't even know how you're gonna answer this one, or maybe it's gonna come off super super fast. But my question to you is, if you're on your way to a desert island, that's it, you're checking out. It's there's an island, and there's you and one suitcase, and you have room in that suitcase for just
one album because we know it's going to be an album. What album are you taking with you that you couldn't imagine not listening to for the rest of your days. The band that started it all, You're gonna be surprised. Pink Floyd, nice like a googe bumps, Pink Floyd and any anyone of their albums. It doesn't make any difference, Yeah, whatever, whatever, it's Yeah, it's it's incredible music. It's incredible music. Well, look worse because my first album, actually it was Frank Sinatra I'll do It my
Way or I Did It my Way or whatever. Yeah, that was my first album. My second album was Bank Floyd. So well, you know, I gotta sayd knowing you a little bit now, I'm not that surprised that you are attracted to an album called I Do It My Way. I'm not I'm not thinking. I'm not thinking that's just too far off for you. I'm not thinking, you know, someone who walks into Georgia straight and you know Guildoff is sitting there, and you know you go and go,
hey, you need to buy my pictures kind of thing. No, I'm thinking that you think that you own that. I think that it's funny. I just went and bought a Sammy Davis junior album not too long ago. Oh my heavens. Oh excellent. Yeah, I'm pretty good. No, but and my son wanted to buy Eddie money. Remember Eddie money? Oh of course. Oh yeah, two tickets to Paradise. Two tickets to Paradise.
All right. We could go on all day, but we're gonna come back when you have your next book ready, and probably more before then, because we can't can't wait five years for it. So yeah, anything to say before we sign off and let these rock stars? No a that, Nope, nope, nope, nothing. Just go to my website. Check it out, you know, if you see, if you see anything you like, just you know, if you want to talk to me, you can go through my website. I can always be reached through Lippingwell at gmail
dot com. I'm on Facebook, so you can. You know, I do get a lot of Facebook friend requests. Some of them I sort of totally ignore because they're stationed in Iraq or they're you know, in Bulgium. But you know, there's lots of ways to get in touch with me. And I don't mind talking to people, and I don't mind giving advice. Don't quit your day job. Don't quit your day job. So you're making more than five dollars a photo of people? Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Wow. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us today. D And look you guys, you're incredible. I love you. You're the best audience ever. And now that we're talking about music a little bit, you guys know what I'm going to talk about next. I'm going to send you to dy did It Tour dot CAA. So that's the big walk that myself and my girlfriend Kareem are going to be trekking across Ireland to raise money for the music community. And look at you don't have to do the eight marathons.
We're just asking it. You go to the donate page and this is what I say. I say, clear your music karma. Unity of my very