WANTED

I have big plans. My goal is to create a photography company dedicated to compiling a lifetime of memories. The journey begins with youth sports, continues through senior photos and beyond, as they grow into their own families and careers.

But I need your help. 

I’ve been a photographer since 2015 and I’ve worked full-time for myself since the beginning. I’ve done a ton of client work both in the US and internationally, working with sports teams, high-school seniors, business leaders, and fashion models. My work has been published in several magazines, and has won awards.

In the last two years, new opportunities have presented themselves and my ‘home studio’ has now become two full-time brands. One brand is focusing on sports and high-volume photography events, and the other on exclusive Senior Portraiture and Commercial photography. 

Plus, I teach photography to other photographers and hobbyists.

Somehow, some way, I have managed to mostly do ALL the work to get this launched and keep it going on my own. 

But along the way, I’ve also done a lot of tasks that are not the highest quality and/or best use of my time.  And I’ve dropped a lot of balls trying to juggle this all by myself. 

That is changing. I’m identifying tasks that may be perfect for someone else to do right now. These are tasks that reduce the total value I create in my business when I handle them myself. I am the biggest bottleneck for my business – it’s holding me back, and I’m trying to change that. 

So I’ve been brainstorming. What can someone else do as well as or better than me, which would free me up to do the things I do best?

My list includes things like photo retouching for clients; compositing, design layouts and graphic work for marketing material, and preparation of content for use across multiple sites and platforms, as well as simple multimedia editing (mostly video but some audio). Some basic project management to balance the tasks is required. Plus there are some smaller tasks that together take up a lot of time, and take me away from my core value of connecting with clients and creating photos they love.

If you can help me get a bunch of that stuff off my plate, you’re probably awesome!

Even better would be if part of what you do is to make yourself replaceable — I want you to help me create basic systems for these tasks. This is realistic and useful for both of us. For me, because people move on, and I don’t want your systems to leave with you. And for you, because making yourself replaceable allows YOU to grow, either with my company or in your next adventure. I want you to be able to pursue whatever roles inspire you, without leaving a talent vacuum in the roles and jobs you grow out of. 

In a perfect world, we grow together. Short term, I have a lot of tasks that can be completed but I’m hesitant to try to hand off too much at once, and to overcommit to you.  But if our initial work together goes well, it will naturally create bigger opportunities for both of us moving forward. 

Now, I’m not going to promise the moon to pay you less today. That’s not what I’m doing. I’m willing to pay competitively for what I ask you to do. I’m just saying that I’m not going to ask you to go full speed right out of the gate. I prefer to start small, get some wins under our belts, and then do more. There is always plenty more to do. 

My intent is to develop a longer term working relationship with a capable, motivated, and talented photo and content editor  who I can grow with through time. This will be someone I can trust to take regular visual design and content creation tasks off my plate, so I can focus on the highest value tasks of creating photos.

In the short run, I have no interest in you managing client emails, scheduling appointments, posting content, or many of the other things people traditionally get an assistant for. I also have no short term interest in hiring someone who wants to be a copywriter, create ads, or be a social media manager.

I already have several other highly talented team members who cover my marketing strategy, business operations, sales, and social media posting. I also have a Virtual Administrative Assistant. So I’m not in need of any of those capabilities at this time.

I want to share with you my thoughts to give you a more complete context to see if you’re a fit. 

Purpose: What do I want to accomplish? To take regular editing, retouching, and visual product production off my plate, so I can focus on my highest-value tasks.

Importance: What’s the biggest difference this will make? I’ll have more time for the highest-value tasks in my business, generating more value for clients, and growing my business with less stress. 

Ideal Outcome: What does the completed project look like? I have a working relationship with a visual creative who can joyfully handle multiple creative projects for me. 

Success Criteria: What has to be true when this project is finished? [This is super important to me!]

• I’m able to ask for a task to be completed, and there is a clear and repeatable system to get it done by someone with basic to intermediate skills in photography and video production.
• I no longer retouch standard photoshoots, headshots, and sports images.
• The company has an organized catalog of visual images that the marketing team can access and post daily.
• Turn around times from completion of a session to gallery delivery is improved from 4 days to 2 days.
• Editing and retouching is consistent and happens at the level I’m doing now, without me doing it, and is completed efficiently.
• I have another visual creative who sees my image intent and compliments the creative process with color grading and artistic contribution. 
• I can focus on developing client relationships, securing new clients, and growing the business for 90% of my time.
• The person I’m working with is easy to communicate with, in writing as well as in speech.
• I can expand my value creation through new initiatives, and have trust that I have help to make it happen.

Worst Result: If I don’t take action. I get burnt out, unable to deliver high quality products to clients on time. Basically, everything grinds to a halt, because I’m the bottleneck.

Best result: If I do take action. I experience more flow, ease, success, and opportunity in my business while creating significantly more value and impact to my clients through my work.

I have a very specific and nontraditional hiring process.  I don’t want to just look at a bunch of resumes, or read one sentence blurbs on gig sites.  Cover letters are helpful, but not always necessary.  And neither of us want to waste time interviewing candidates who are not qualified. 

That is why I created an application questionnaire.  This will help me get to know you, specific to the capabilities and skills most useful in this role. 

Fair warning, there are a lot of questions and it will take some time.  But I think investing a little more effort up front will help both of us find if we are a good fit and will work well together.  This will, hopefully, save potential headaches down the road. 

Here’s every question I will ask you to answer in order to be considered for this role (including the simple ones):

1. 1. What’s your name?
   2. What’s your best email address?
   3. Do you have an online profile (e.g. LinkedIn, Upwork, etc.) or website I should go to so I can learn more about you?  Give all relevant URLs
   4. Ideally, how much work are you looking for?  How many hours per week?What is your target income from this, in US Dollars?  (Can list hourly, weekly, or monthly, as long as you’re clear.)
   5. Where are you located?
   6. Can you be generally available during the workday (8 AM to 5 PM) in the US Central time zone?
   7. Are you currently working with other clients?  Please briefly describe, including # of clients and competing workload/hours per week.
   8. Please describe your experience using different photo editing software platforms (especially CaptureOne, Lightroom, Photoshop).
   9. Please describe your video editing capabilities and experience, and which platforms you have utilized (such as Premier, Camtasia, FinalCut).
   10. Please describe your experience with basic graphics editing (such as Canva, Illustrator, InDesign).
   11. Please describe your experience in creating and defining systems and processes for repeatable tasks (e.g. checklists, etc.).
   12. If part of your job was to create systems that make you 100% replaceable, how would you feel about that and why?
   13. What are your favorite ways to learn, who do you like to learn from (e.g. specific authors), and what are you learning about right now that’s not directly required for your job?
   14. What are your favorite ways to communicate with clients? (You can describe tools, e.g. Slack vs. Zoom, and mediums, e.g. video chat vs. email).
   15. Do you have a daily devotional, meditation, or mindfulness practice? Please explain.
   16. Do you use a specific organizational or project management approach or system?  (e.g. GTD, ZTD, Agile, etc.)
   17. Do you have a favorite project management platform? (e.g. Asana, Trello, etc.)
   18. What’s one thing about work that’s frustrating right now, and what are you doing about it?
   19. What’s your favorite part about what you do?
   20. What part of this opportunity is most appealing to you?

When you apply, you’ll be given a link to a form you can fill out with your answers to these questions.  If you don’t fill out this form, you will not be considered for the job. 

Right now, the only official way to apply for this job is through Upwork, please click below to apply.