We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Guild. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Amy with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
I got my work ethic from my dad. He’s such a dilligent worker! He instilled this value in me early on and I got my first full time job at McDonalds at age 14. The only 8th grader I knew working full time all summer 🙂
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am the co-owner of several companies with my husband. Our first business was wedding photography, established in 2008.
We started that business when I was 20 and in college. The plan was to photograph weddings on the weekends and then be a teacher during the school year. In 2008 we did 10 weddings, 2009 25, and then it escalated from there (with our highest season being 2017 with 70 weddings!) I quickly learned that two careers wasn’t going to cut it, so I had to pick one. And I picked photography!
I feel like a fun and vibrant style has set us apart. We have seen a lot of wedding trends, editing trends and photography trends come and go. We edit in full color because we feel as though it’s timeless. Now that we have so many associate photographers, I do not personally photograph weddings anymore. We book the weddings, the photographers photograph under our brand, and then we take care of the back end in the office. Photographers love it because they don’t have to have all of the responsibilities of owning a business. They just get to show up at weddings and do what they love: photography!
Another thing that sets us apart is that we really value the final product: wedding albums and wall art. A lot of photographers are shoot and burn but for those couples that want a tangible piece of art, they come to us. We handmake all of our wall art here in house. Real linen canvas and hand painted acrylic brushstrokes.
In addition to running a photography business, we also own and operate Guild Canvas Company – A luxury line of museum quality, handmade canvases for photographers. We are a team of 12. My day to day is managing the team, overseeing operations, creating business systems, and being in charge of the overall infrastructure of the business. Having employees is not for the faint at heart! Leadership is a skill I am always learning more about and working on.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Having focus. I would recommend the book “Essentialism” to anyone and everyone. It helped me become more focused on what’s important and let go of the rest. https://gregmckeown.com/books/essentialism/
2. Being committed to being a lifelong learner. I never wanted to feel like I’ve “arrived” – we are constantly learning, growing, and taking extreme ownership over mistakes to learn from them.
3. Start with a mission statement, core values, and employee handbook. In the early years of hiring and finessing our systems, a couple employees took things personally and/or needed attitude adjusting during employee evaluations. Now days we have a very clear mission, vision and values so that we are all on the same page. We are all on the same team moving toward one common goal When we go to correct behavior it’s not me vs. you…. it’s “this is our company value and here’s what we need moving forward.” Having an employee handbook is like having a third party to bounce these things off of so it feels less of a personal attack.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
When I am overwhelmed, I write down a list of all of my thoughts. Then I categorize them into
Need done today
Need to do soon
Someday
Then I tackle the need done today and pick the hardest thing first. When you have done something hard it “gets it out of the way” and you have a great sense of accomplishment!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.tavisandamy.com/
- Instagram: @guildcanvas
- Facebook: facebook.com/guildcanvas
