3: Lens Leaders: Scaling Your Photography Team for Success with Cayla Cummings

Have you ever considered scaling your photography business by building an associate team? In today’s episode, Cayla Cummings of Carhart Photography joins us to share how she built a successful wedding photography business alongside her husband, how they made the decision to grow a team, and what it realistically looks like to manage that team.

The Accidental CEO Podcast is more than just a podcast; it’s a community of creative minds eager to transform their accidental titles into intentional successes. So, if you’re passionate about what you do but unsure how to fall in love with the business side of things, let Nata guide you. Subscribe to the Accidental CEO Podcast and join a vibrant community of creative entrepreneurs ready to make their mark on the business world. Together, let’s turn your passion project into your success story.

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Building a Successful Photography Business

Scaling a photography business can come with fears around quantity over quality, but Cayla has managed to keep the boutique service that couples want within her team’s growth. Cayla grew up with photography all around her—with both her father and grandfather dabbling in it. She decided to go to school for photography with the intent to be a photojournalist. She quickly realized she wanted to have a little more control over her schedule and travel so she build her own business.

After she kicked off her business with portrait sessions, she soon after asked her husband to second shoot with her and they started shooting weddings in 2016. He ultimately became co-owner and lead videographer for Carhart Photography—as they introduced videography based on his interest in video.

Fast forward to 2021, they put out applications for associate shooters to scale their business.

How to Know When It’s Time to Add a Team

Making the decision to add team members isn’t easy. Cayla started to notice just how many dates they were turning down in their business, which opened the door to the idea of bringing on more photographers.

Before she did, she spent a year and a half discussing with mentors and learning how to structure it so that it was a benefit for her brand and for the photographers. Prior to booking, it’s important that you determine want you want and how this side of your business should be managed. Ultimately, Cayla went with the decision to build a team before booking the events—this meant that a photographer was secured before the wedding was on her calendar.

Finding the Right Team Members

One of the biggest hurdles was letting go of control in her business—this meant she had to find the right team members. To find those photographers, here are the considerations Cayla made for each photographer:

• Photographers had to apply to be associates.
• Each applicant had to share a range of galleries that highlighted their talent in different situations.
• She met with them for in-person coffee to explore personalities.
• She required them to second shoot a wedding with her before they associate shot.
• They needed two years of wedding experience.
• They had to have their own equipment.
• She required a good attitude over everything.

Beyond her associates, Cayla’s team also includes a video editor, photo editor, and an assistant.

Should I Allow My Photographers to Build Their Own Business Too?

One of the most common questions that photographers ask when looking to scale their team is in regards to allowing the photographers to continue to run their own business. For Cayla, she absolutely allows it. Most of her associates and team members are people who don’t want to deal with the backend of business and are too busy to build a business of their own. They simply want to enjoy shooting weddings.

While she currently doesn’t have a noncompete with her contractors, if she were to explore the idea of a salaried position for her team, she would consider it.

Managing Associate Photographers

When you add associates to your team, there is a lot to consider—managing them is the biggest. Cayla has each of her associates sign a contract that allows her to book them one year out, with the expectation that they have to tell her when they are unavailable. Once a wedding is booked, the photographer is signed at the same time.

This requires the team members to share their calendar, be available for bookings, and connect with the couple before the wedding. Cayla still stays involved through the consultation, planning, and post-booking process, but she doesn’t participate in the actual shoots or weddings for her associates.

After the shoot or wedding, files are transferred to Cayla and the editor via Dropbox, WeTransfer, or in-person.

Boundaries with Associates Who Represent Your Brand

The final thing to consider with associates is the boundaries of what it means to represent your brand. Cayla has her team members sign a code of conduct and a contract. This outlines what is expected, what’s advised, and more. Examples include not promoting your business at shoots, not sharing images until the full gallery, and dress code.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Having a Team

With every opportunity in business, you’re faced with advantages and disadvantages. Cayla has found both in her decision to scale with a team, but ultimately the good outweigh the bad.

Advantages:

• Scaling
• Service
• Security

Disadvantages:

• Control
• CEO Role
• Communication

Important Moment in this Episode

1:42 – Success in Wedding Photography

4:16 – Working with Your Spouse

7:04 – Building an Associate Team

18:28 – Working with Associates

22:40 – Associate Team Workflows

37:20 – Successfully Managing a Team

Mentioned in this Episode

accidentalceo.co

Connect with Cayla

carhartphotography.com

instagram.com/carhartphotography

facebook.com/CarhartPhotography

Review the Transcript:

Nata Salvatori
Hey everybody. In today’s episode of The Accidental CEO podcast we’ll be talking to Cayla Cummins. She is the founder and CEO of Carhart photography, a Texas based photography and videography team that works with over 50 luxury clients per year. They’re known in the logo industry for their uncomplicated and seamless experience for their clients and vendors, masters in vendors relationships and client experience, and they’ve been able to build a multi-six-figure business that single handedly support their household doing something that they love. Kayla and I got into how to build a team, how to let go of control, how to choose the right person to be in your team, and a lot of the logistics of how to deal with the day-to-day of having a team that represents your brand. I hope you enjoy. Welcome to the accidental CEO podcast where we bridge the gap between creativity love in the CEO mindset you need. I’m your host Nata Salvatori, wedding photographer and business educator. Find Full show notes and resources at accidental CEO pod.com. Let’s get into today’s episode. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the accidental SEO podcast today. I have Kayla Cummins with me. She is a force to be reckoned with in Texas. She has a photo a video team. And he’s making some amazing content in all kinds of things when it comes to the wedding industry in Texas. So we wanted to chat with her a little bit more today about having a team. That’s going to be the goal of our conversation today. So welcome, Kayla. Tell us a little bit about you

Cayla Cummings
so much for having me. Yes. So I’m Cayla Cummings. I am the co owner, lead photographer and CEO of Carhartt photography in based in Texas. And so we our wedding, multi six figure wedding photo video company, we have oh my gosh, let’s see. So we shoot about 50 weddings a year. But I don’t do all of those myself, we have built out an associate team. And so from the front end and the back end, we are a team of nine. And we’ve been able to build an associate team in a way that has managed to stay boutique and not have that volume team field. And so that’s what makes us a little bit a little bit different. Perfect.

Nata Salvatori
I’m excited to dive into all of that. So tell us a little bit about just your story of how you ended up owning your own business being your own CEO. Did you have a prior life? That was somewhere else before you ended up doing this? Tell us your accidental CEO story?

Cayla Cummings
Yes, yeah. So I um, as far as photography, that’s what I went to school for. I always wanted to be a photographer. It goes back a couple of generations my which is where the name Carhartt comes from, actually. So my grandpa? Yeah, my grandpa was kind of a hobbyist photographer. My dad was a hobbyist photographer who wanted to be professional. And then. So I grew up with like a dark room in my childhood home. And he was always kind of like hand painting photographs working in printing, things like that. And so when I built my own business, I knew I wanted to attribute it to them. So I kept the name Carhart, which is my maiden name. And our sweet. Yes, thank you. Thank you. So I went to school for photography, I was planning on being a photo journalist, I knew that I loved shooting people specifically. And I liked the idea of traveling around and shooting them participating in cultural events, and then different parts of the country or the world. But as I got further into school and learned a little bit more about it, I knew that I wanted a little bit more control over the travel and I knew I wanted my own business. And so weddings were such a good mix of that. They’re still photojournalism mixing the photographing people celebrating a cultural event, but I was able to also kind of build out my own business, make sure I wasn’t just like freelancing and having to travel all the time. And yeah, before that, though, went while I was in school, I was actually a dog groomer for a few years, which is my other creative career. I really enjoyed that too.

Nata Salvatori
Very cool. So tell us a little bit more about so when How long did you do it? We just you and Su and your husband?

Cayla Cummings
Correct? Yes. David is my is the co owner and lead videographer.

Nata Salvatori
Was he with you from the get go? Yes.

Cayla Cummings
So he let’s see I started doing little sessions kind of on my own family and stuff like that. And then he joined started second shooting with me basically and so I kind of like tailors all this time. As far as you ask your husband to start shooting with you. It’s nice and convenient. I taught him at the beginning. I taught him everything he knew about shooting and about camera math and everything. And now since then he’s taken it and now he has to teach me stuff all the time, but

Nata Salvatori
Tell us a little bit more about working with your spouse. Yes. So people ask me all the time if I would ever work with my husband in the business, and I tell them so before I, before I was a photographer, I was a physical therapist for many years. And he’s a physical therapist as well. So I always tell people, I could work with him in a physical therapy clinic all day long. No problem being in the same place. But when it comes to the wedding day, I don’t think we would work really well together. I’m very fast paced. Gotta be quick on your feet, you got to think ahead. And he is the kind of person that is the processes information. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or he the things he’s like, he thinks about things, and he wants to be perfect. And I’m like, we don’t have time for that. We gotta go. So I always tell people, I would love to work in a physical therapy environment, and their wedding. Probably tell us about your experience, we’re going to,

Cayla Cummings
oh my gosh, that’s a good I love I love that the mix of like personalities. And just like different situations, we do pretty well. And we definitely like there are moments when like, our second shooters kind of joke, like mom and dad are like fighting or really like snickering in the corner. How do you want to set up the toasts? Well, I want them here. Well, like I need them over here, and just kind of like moments like that. Um, but it is nice. As far as knowing since he does, primarily the videography, and I’ll do primarily the photography, it is kind of knowing nice, knowing what the other person needs, being able to kind of look across the room is nice being like, I don’t want that camera on that tripod right there. That’s going to be in the first stand shot and having the ability to Yeah, to move that or vice versa. Like I need your second shooter to not be right there. At the end of the aisle, they’re going to be in the video, stuff like that. And so that’s been really nice. My parents as I was growing up, had their own business together. And so it’s something I always kind of really wanted, but I never knew, you know, it would happen. And so it was nice when when David ended up being really interested in in joining the business.

Nata Salvatori
I love it. That’s great. So how long did you guys do it? Just the two of you before you start thinking considering having a team?

Cayla Cummings
Yeah, we did. Let’s see, we shot our first wedding in 2016. We were photo only for a while we added the videography at the start of 2019 2021 is when that summer is when I put out applications for the first time for associate shooters.

Nata Salvatori
Yeah, so what? So the first thing is what made you add video as the first additional service? Because yeah, we do photo and video too. And I can tell you the reason we did it one of though, the reason you did

Cayla Cummings
it, yes. Yes, we at was actually just kind of an interest of David. So he came from a songwriting background, when we met, he was like the frontman of a band, he did all of the writing, like, and so he, once he got comfortable shooting, he liked the audio element of the videography. And so he really wanted to take the visual things that he had started to do and developed and then add the audio element. And so it was less of like a business strategy on that and more of just like something he ended up really enjoying and wanting to have it and love

Nata Salvatori
it. Yeah, we ended up editing video. One because I found that was everybody’s number one regret was not having a video, after the wedding, too. I, you’ve run into some people out there that don’t know how to work together. Unfortunately, you know, as a photo and video team, we have to be very aware of each other. Like you were just saying, like, you know, you can’t be on each other’s footage, and have to be able to work together, which for the most part, you are able to do it. But there’s, I’m sure everybody has a story like that where something has happened. And I just didn’t want to leave that chance, I wanted to make sure that I have my own team that knew exactly how I wanted things done and how we could work together properly without having to interfere in each other’s work at the end of the day. So and then obviously, to be very clear and honest about it. Also know that there’s more money coming in, if you’re offering more services. So, you know, from a business standpoint, just made it easy to have more control over around who is with me on the wedding day capturing things, and then obviously making more money at the end of the day by offering more services. So yes,

Cayla Cummings
yeah, exactly. I agree. And I feel like the the I feel like it’s becoming more and more as each year goes by people wanting all of both of them in house if they can get

Nata Salvatori
Yeah. So tell us when do you know it’s time to add a team who made you take that step and decided okay, I’m gonna start having more people working under my brand.

Cayla Cummings
Yes, that’s a good question. So we were at for us it was when we were turning down a lot of dates that we were already booked for. And so and this was of course, like summer of 2021 is when I decided to finally do it, we were kind of post somewhat posts COVID, especially in Texas, lots of weddings happening. And so we were turning down. So many dates we couldn’t possibly do any more physically, we’re already doing like the 50. Just us on our own. And so then we decided, okay, well, we need to, like bring on more people. It was a long process, because of like everyone else, who was who was curious about building associate team, the trust, and the control. And so I did spent probably a year to a year and a half, talking to like mentors trying to figure out how to structure it, because I was so nervous about it. So. So I finally put out those applications eventually.

Nata Salvatori
Yeah, so that’s a that’s a huge thing that I think people have to overcome, right when they’re adding a team. So what were your thought process? How did you overcome that fear of letting go of control? Right, and letting people cite, again, came from the healthcare industry where I was managing people, and I call it adult babysitting. Where? No, I’m very good at being responsible and accountable. And making sure I go above and beyond. But I also understand, you can expect that from everybody, right? You’re going to find good people that have that. But you also going to find a lot of people that don’t care as much, it’s not their business, you know, they’re just want to get that paycheck and move on to the next thing. So how did you overcome their fear of letting go of control?

Cayla Cummings
Oh, my gosh, that’s such a good question. I feel like it was like a step by step process. The first thing was, for me was finding how to structure it initially. So I was hearing different things, a lot of people wanted me to book the book, the business figured out later. So it’s just like book the date, you’ll find someone to shoot it, I could then my anxiety like I could not, I just couldn’t get over that wall. And so I finally talked to someone that had a different structure that I really liked, which was that they had their set team, and then they would be able to assign them basically, before they even had a consultation call, the person would know, they would know who would be shooting it, the client would know. And so I really liked that structure. So I was able to put out, I basically just put out an application on Instagram, and I ended up that first time getting 15 applicants and then kind of going through building out a good interview process. So initially, I have this list of things that they need to do to apply and their initial email. From there, I have them send me multiple galleries, including and I want to see the range. So one of them favorite gallery, one of them is like least favorite, like what you think is your worst gallery. And then another is like send me a gallery that the day was just awful, or the day was super challenging for whatever, rained all day or something like that. So to see your range from there, and then going from there, we’ll do like in person kind of like coffee, dates, and we’ll or interviews and we’ll ask people to shoot X second shoot X amount of weddings with us before their first associate date. And then you could do that with engagement sessions too. But if you feel like it’s needed, ask them to assist you on one or more engagement sessions, which kind of helps with building that trust and the comfort level, seeing how they talk to people and interact in person. Yeah,

Nata Salvatori
well, what were some of the prerequisites you had in there before people could even apply? Do you remember that? Yes. So

Cayla Cummings
let’s see. I know one of the things I asked for was two years of wedding experience, if possible. And so I know, one of the strategies could be to find like people just beginning or even college kids and kind of train them up. I haven’t done it that way before. I’m mostly I’m just like, oh man, when can I find the time to like teach some camera start and like, and so I look for people who already have a couple of years experience is the main thing and I think as far as time and as far as experience that was the main one. And wedding specifics.

Nata Salvatori
I know one of the things I asked was equipment, like do you have the equipment? Oh, to do it?

Cayla Cummings
Yes. No, that is I do have them list their equipment. You’re right on that because I want to make sure that you know they have the right lenses if we’re like, oh, we only have a 35 I’m like okay, well it’s our styles different and yeah, equipment and the other main one

Nata Salvatori
and then how do you know so you have all those information now? You they listed everything they gave you all their galleries you you did some face to face interview, how do you know how do you find the best people to join your team now that you have all this information?

Cayla Cummings
Yes, that’s a good question. I feel like what something one of my mentors told me once that’s always stuck with me is that basically like attitude over everything. And so yes, so finding like the people that have the best attitude that are open to really supporting your Business that aren’t very like, you know, you’re just, it’s fine. You can eventually your soon people are not going to be with you forever. But it’s it’s finding the people where you’re not just like a quick stepping stone there are really excited to shoot with you for a while we’ve had two of our associates are still the original associates from the very first application. They’ve been with us forever. And a lot of it is just a very like selfless, like, championing attitude coming from coming from them.

Nata Salvatori
How big is your team? Now?

Cayla Cummings
It is. So let’s see, we have one actually associate videographer The Videography pool is definitely smaller, we have a Let’s see, oh, let’s see, we had four associate photographers, we went down to three and then we actually just had someone leave. So we have two right now I put out a new application, I guess. And so we have, we’re gonna have another one or two coming up. And then until we back at three or four. And then on the back end, we have a video editor, photo editor and an assistant. Yes,

Nata Salvatori
yeah, we have. We have six photographers and four videographers in our team. So definitely,

Cayla Cummings
oh my gosh, I’m gonna need your tips on finding the videography talent, because

Nata Salvatori
it’s definitely harder. There’s less people just like you said, it’s a lot less people out there. But again, finding those my whole goal when I was building a team was to find people, like you said that have the right attitude, the right demeanor and personality because I can teach anybody anything about photography. Yeah, I can teach you off camera flash, I can teach you the logistics of the wedding day. But I cannot teach you how to be accountable, how to person, how to care for my clients and go above and beyond like, those are not things I can teach you. So you know, I rather hire somebody who I know will represent my brand well, and who will be you know, just going above and beyond and really caring about things than somebody that’s really a good photographer and have good skills so I would exchange that any day. Yes.

Cayla Cummings
Oh my gosh, I love that yes, that’s such a that’s such a good point being able to teach those like technical skills but that like inherent like responsibility being on time or early all that stuff just being part of Yeah, what

Nata Salvatori
do you what did you find is the best way to train a new member of your team?

Cayla Cummings
That is a good question. So I so kind of starting because who I’m starting with already usually have a couple of years of experience I don’t have to go too far into the technical side of things I kind of expect from the beginning that they already have that down and I think the usually I’ll have my associates are gonna get all the second shooting dates first before anybody else. So oftentimes, those are filled up with the team and so just kind of being able to shoot all the weddings, including the ones that I’m leading together. I feel like makes for just a really good kind of solid team same with our videography associate photography associate crossover they’re of course working together all the time too. And so that makes for like a nice synchronized team I am I feel like probably less good than you at teaching like the I’m like so nervous about like teaching is like the technical skills beyond like so I kind of like come in with like okay you already need to have under your belt comm right oh you Yeah, yeah. And then it’s just about them learning my preferences and like my style of communication style of posing do

Nata Salvatori
you find like you train them more like on just on the job then like on the go they’re coming with you they’re second shooting for you and then they’re learning that way? Yeah,

Cayla Cummings
yeah, it’s a lot of on the job on the job learning I’ve never noodled around with doing little like just kind of like one off sessions before like just for the team like just kind of like behind the scenes our own our own shooting to experiment and stuff but so far I’ve done a lot of like on the job training

Nata Salvatori
Yes, I’ve done some like small classes for the team or like not everybody that came in knew how to use off camera flash and things like that, which again is not a big deal but you know, I feel like it does elevate images a little bit so you know, just we had small classes where we just got together and we practice and you know, I want them to feel confident if I’m not there that they can do it on their own and then you feel like they still can have a good quality product to work on

Cayla Cummings
they love that do you I don’t know if I if I can also ask you a question but do you like with with your off camera flash and when you initially find people because I feel like it’s almost becoming more common that people are just doing on camera? Do you like to supply their flashes or do you ask them to get their their off cameras.

Nata Salvatori
Now that’s part of the equipment, the basic equipment and I feel like you need to have to shoot a wedding if it’s on your camera or off the camera. That’s a whole other story but you need to have flash I need to have good reliable flash. There’s a lot of venues that we should I wear you need. You cannot count on natural light. So you know We should, all over the place you need to have it you don’t even know even from getting ready situation where you’re going to be how dark it is. So that’s something that people need to understand how to use and have the equipment for sure.

Cayla Cummings
Yes, I agree.

Nata Salvatori
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Cayla Cummings
that’s a good question. They do have their own businesses still one of the things and when I kind of put out applications of who it might be a good fit for usually it’s people who they can have their own business, but they don’t have time for the back end stuff. So whether it’s they have kids, they are running their own and can’t take on like any more, they only want to take certain dates themselves or whatever it might be. They don’t want to do the consultations with clients have the whole do the editing all that stuff. They just want to go out and enjoy shooting on the weekends. And so all of our associates still have their own business. Actually, our videography associate doesn’t. He’s like starting to build his and so since everyone is a contractor, that works really well. I’ve also looked into potentially like salaried employment at some point, in which case, then there might be more of like a non compete, like situation.

Nata Salvatori
Yeah, so yeah, that’s definitely something to consider when you’re building a team. So understanding that if you want the experience, you most likely are going to be getting somebody that has a business already. And maybe they just don’t have the volume, right? And that you cannot prove to them. So how do you navigate? Conflict? When it comes to dates? Let’s say they somebody or how early do you assign a wedding to somebody? So let’s say you have a wedding in May, that you already signed assigned to a certain person. And then now they get a last minute booking on their own business for me, how do you navigate that as

Cayla Cummings
Oh, that is a good question. We have them sign a contract when they first sign on. And in that contract, it says that they’re at least open to taking dates, 12 months in advance. And then I asked everybody that before they send me their portfolios to like does this work for you like you need to be at well, to be open this far in advance. And then when a date, so kind of like our process as far as dates, when someone inquires, I’ll send the team, the the date and the venue, they can let me know whether they’re available or not, or whether they’d like to shoot it or not. Going from there, I’ll the client will know, in that initial email before they even schedule their consultation who their lead photographer will be. And then once they schedule a call, I’ll double check that person still available. And once they sign on, they are they save the date, I send them a deposit. And so they’re like they’re locked into the date I’ve never had only once have I actually ever had someone back out of the date. I’ve never had it otherwise, but someone got a kind of like a bachelors like celebrity celebrity style, like potential to shoot that and so I understood why she wanted to do so. Right. So that was my first time for some kind of working through that. But it was a smooth transition. She’d already done their engagement session. I let them know like, okay, we’re transitioning over to this lead photographer if you want another engagement session, like we’ll do that on the house if you just want to be able to spend time with her before the wedding to feel comfortable and everything like that. And so it went over really smoothly. They ended up not wanting another engage session, they were fine with it. They the wedding day, they were like really happy. And so it was just it was a little scary on my end. Like I was like, what if they’re gonna be so mad and like what but I ended up being fine.

Nata Salvatori
That’s good. Do you do you have your teammate meet with the client themselves or you are the one that’s to does the consultation how talk to me about the logistics of connecting them with the team.

Cayla Cummings
I do all of the consultations and then they can do an engagement session or a bridal session with their lead photographer and then we do a planning call a few weeks out from wedding day and usually that’s when videography will be on that call. It’s more important for videography, to be on that call Usually they haven’t really had much of a touch point before then. And then ideally, both team other team members will be on the call photo and video, but I don’t require it. And then the couple notes to the call planning call will be with us, the other team members will get the date and if they can join, they will. But it’s mostly for me just not trying to manage too many calendars.

Nata Salvatori
Yeah. Do you have an editor? Or are you still the one that edits everything?

Cayla Cummings
No, we do have an editor on both sides. So have an editor on the the photo side, I’ll usually do the sneak peeks. And so that’ll kind of be like the base and the anchor edits, and then I’ll send them over over to her. And then same thing with videography, we’ll send everything to our video editor. And then he gets it sends it back for approval. We look at color we actually did, we were always the color on video ourselves until very recently, he’s finally taken that over. We’re like, okay, he’s doing a great job. We’re like, oh, okay, you’re doing better than us, which is usually what happens when I hand something off. I’m like, Oh, yeah. Okay. You’re more talented than?

Nata Salvatori
Perfect. So how much work? Do you actually did delegate to the team? What are they responsible for? In, you know, from from the whole client experience process? How much do they do? And how much do you do? Yeah,

Cayla Cummings
on the front end, I’m doing the consultations from there. If the couple books, I will connect them immediately during free email. And so they’re expected to like, say, hi, like, you know, say, I’m really excited about your wedding, I can’t wait here, these things that I’m looking forward to just kind of make that connection. On the photo side, if they schedule the engagement or bridal session, they can go from there, I still like to kind of help with location planning. So we kind of collaborate on that. And then it’s up to the associate, they’ll schedule them, because they take care of their own schedule, they go out, they’ll shoot the session, and they’ll get me the images by the next day. So I go ahead and do a sneak peek for that too. And so going from there, that also goes to our editor. And so basically, on the front end, the responsibilities are primarily client communication via email, if it’s needed, being on any of the calls, like if they’re available, let them know when they’re happening. And then the just execution of the shooting and getting the all the images in like a super timely manner. And then on the back end, the it’s all of the all of the editing, and then I’m doing primarily all of the calls communication admin works like that. The

Nata Salvatori
so we’re gonna go very logistics now to help people understand how to do these things. So do how do they What program do you guys use for them to get the images to you? So I’d say you’re not, you’re not in the same location, they’re shooting by themselves, you have maybe two teammates taking care of a wedding. So you can go grab those cards right away? How do you get the images from them?

Cayla Cummings
Oh, that’s a good question. So there’s, so when it comes to engagement sessions or smaller sessions, we will have them just drop it via Dropbox or we transfer and that usually works perfectly fine. When it’s a wedding. Everyone is expected to be in Austin. Currently, we actually just had someone asked if they could apply from Houston. So I would think about this more than but in Austin are close enough to drive. So we will actually just drive the next day and get the get the SD cards, it is an option for people to mail them because they are backing up on their own cards. So that’s a possibility. I’ve never tried that. It seems like nerve racking. Sorry, go pick them up physically. But we actually just built out a NASS system. And so that is for anyone who doesn’t know what a NASS system is. It’s just like kind of like multiple, like, they’re like six hard drives. If one of them fails, everything’s backed up to the next. It’s a really robust backup system. And so one of the options potentially there is to set up a cloud system, have everyone create an account, and potentially be able to access the NASS we’re still like working on building that out. But then, if that could work, then they can just drop everything directly to the NASS system which would eliminate the driving in the pickup, which would be great. So working on that, but currently, we’ll just drive the next day and pick them up.

Nata Salvatori
Yeah, we are. So I’m in Jacksonville, Florida and anywhere here for me to go. It’s a good like 30 to 40 minutes. Yeah, your eyes, which, you know, it’s hard. I don’t so we don’t actually go get the cards. If if they’re close by they’ll drop them off on your way home, but other than that, we use my air bridge. I haven’t used my air bridge. Okay. Yeah. So my average is really I feel like there’s a good amount of space in there for you know, the average sessions and then even the pricing for large storage is really affordable on that. So we just use that to get home there. We’ll just upload it into my airbridge and and I’ll just grab it on this end. So it might be a good option if you start having teammates that are Yes.

Cayla Cummings
Oh, I love that. I’m going to check that out. Yeah,

Nata Salvatori
that’s definitely became a helpful program for us to use with the team. So I

Cayla Cummings
love that is that is it work for the is it big enough for the video footage to about for

Nata Salvatori
the video, usually they will just give me the link to the Dropbox where they stored it and then you know, the editor will start working on that and they can they can get rid of it eventually. But I think it does work for the video too. It might just take longer for it to upload the whole thing in there. Yeah. Okay,

Cayla Cummings
that makes sense. Yeah, definitely

Nata Salvatori
try it out. Yes. Oh. Do you build timelines for your weddings yourself?

Cayla Cummings
Yes, yeah. So I’ll um, we have like the, of course, like the questionnaire. And then I’ll take that, combined with the planners kind of master timeline and synthesize it into just the photo video timeline. We have a virtual assistant who is also local, and also second shooters with us, which is really nice that she knows how we operate. And so she’ll go ahead and kind of build out that timeline for me, and then I’ll look it over add all of my notes into it or final tweaks. And then usually, from there, it’s pretty good to go.

Nata Salvatori
Perfect. What are some of the things that your team is not allowed to do while they’re working on new your brand? So let’s talk a little bit about the boundaries of, again, having people that have their own businesses work under your brand? And how do you kind of set up the the boundaries for that? Yes.

Cayla Cummings
Oh, my gosh, yes. So there are so I do have an agreement that is basically like a code of conduct that everyone signs in addition to the contract. And that that lists out everything really simply all of these things that you’re expected to do or are not not advised to do. And so some of the some of the things are like, of course, like you’re not promoting your own business while you’re there. You’re not like handing out business cards, or you have sharing your QR code or whatever it might be. You’re there representing our business well, while you’re at our weddings and things app right afterwards, like you’re not sharing any of the images until our full gallery is delivered. Not if when you do share the images, not tagging anybody, you’re not tagging the couple or the vendors, anything like that. And then some common sense things like you know, you have to dress nicely. You can’t show up and set pans and say whatever it might be.

Nata Salvatori
And stuff like we shouldn’t have to say

Cayla Cummings
exactly, exactly. Everything’s laid out on their

Nata Salvatori
back to the adult babies. Yeah. Perfect, so they can still use the images. Just have to wait until you deliver the full gallery and no tagging of any clients and vendors Correct.

Cayla Cummings
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I do let them use the images just without that kind of bridge of the tags or sharing anything before the client might have seen it.

Nata Salvatori
So without naming names, has there ever been a bad situation with an associate like with a team member?

Cayla Cummings
Let’s see. I’m trying to think we’ve been really lucky I feel this way with wedding horror stories too. I feel like I don’t have I never have good answers. Like wedding horror stories. I feel like the worst like moment was when I had the one date kind of back out mostly because that was just stressful for me but as far as like, like client facing or anything that like clients are dealing with we’ve luckily just been like smooth sailing. I think

Nata Salvatori
that probably goes along with how you chose them and you know, focusing on their personality and their most people first versus them as photographers and videographers first that probably played into you’re not having to have

Cayla Cummings
any issues. So far so good.

Nata Salvatori
So one of the things I wanted to ask you as tell us from a transparency standpoint, like how much did your bottom line increase from like, you just being the two of you in the beginning to having a team how much of a change there was on your gross income when you added a team? Yes,

Cayla Cummings
that’s the first year they started shooting weddings which so I put the application in 2021 So it actually probably didn’t start shooting until 2022 They initially brought in 40,000 That first year and I actually need to go back and calculate what they have so far for 2024 But that was that was the first year and then it’s been like steadily just kind of increasing since then.

Nata Salvatori
Yeah, definitely an advantage of being able to do more obviously that comes with more responsibility. More and and a little bit of anxiety I mean other people out there with your name, but you know it can definitely come in handy when you can you can help more People you can be seen yes in serving more people. So it’s definitely a few. If you choose the right people, I feel like is a great way to help others in, you know, make make some extra income to yeah, yes. Do you do you have your team sign a contract just at the beginning of the year that is for the whole year? Or do you have them sign a contract? Every time they have an assignment,

Cayla Cummings
I just have the annual contract. So with the with the with the second shooters, I still usually do a date by date, contract, but with the associates, it’ll be signed at the beginning of the year, or whenever they’re starting, and then just kind of annually check in and resign because some stuff will have to be updated in there too. Like, like wages and stuff will increase and so, but usually, it’s just the overall annual contract. Perfect.

Nata Salvatori
The What did you feel like were the main advantages and disadvantages of having a team?

Cayla Cummings
Let’s see, okay, I actually made like, I ended up thinking, while I was thinking things through, I was like, Okay, this is kind of cute. For the positives, I ended up having three S’s and for the cons, I ended up having three C’s, which I’m not loving. But the positives, I felt like we’re scaling of course, being able to take more dates, scale, your revenue, and just kind of kind of going from there having having people that can take those dates that you’re already booked for or dates that you might otherwise just like one off. For example, July and August are super hot in Texas in the summer, we won’t shoot them but our associate team is still up for shooting them. And so they’ll shoot July in August while we’re like doing our kind of summer vacation thing. In the air conditioning. So but scaling, you can only do so many dates yourself. One of the things I think is strange about how the is being in the photo video side of weddings is that everyone else is expected to have a team DJs are expected to have a team planners are expected to have a team florist are expected to have a team but for some reason, photographers and videographers it’s like you’re expected to be like a solo show. I feel like it’s so so weird. And so I feel like having being normalizing Photo Video having more of a team and being able to scale in the way that other businesses scale can be can be definitely a positive. The other thing is like service and so like as my second S is the service and so like instead of instead of being just you and being in saying okay, I’ve shot X amount of venues in the city, or I have X amount of years of experience, you can look at it as more of a collective. So between all of us, we have 25 years of experience we’ve shot at every venue in the city we have we’ve shot at like all these different like unique locations, and you can communicate if you’re if there’s somewhere new, you’re like, I’m shooting an engagement session here. What’s the photo policy, a team member will know versus having to track it down. And the same thing works with the backup when couples ask like, well, what’s the backup if you get sick or can’t get to the day, it’s so nice to be able to be like well, we have an established team that would step in versus like, well, I’ll find somebody you know, like we’re I have a network, which is good too. But it’s nice to be like these are our team members that work with us all the time that would step in. So I like the elevation of service from that. And then the other one actually, that would fall under my third s which is the security which is being able to, to have that backup to have people that know how to how to run your systems to have your like business godparents who are like even on the back end, okay? Something you get sick or something happens and you need someone to access your hard drives or that knows how you edit or whatever it might be having other fans on the call? Yes. Like cons, I would say we talked about a bit which is like control just like dealing with your own anxiety and being able to kind of like, give up the control there is a lot like I feel like as artists feeling like, you know, artists are told you there’s only one you there’s only only your perspective, your voice is so unique, and that I feel like well that might be true, it doesn’t mean that that perspective is the best or that other people can’t mimic that style and perspective. And so kind of just broadening out of kind of that box. The other thing would be like the next con and the C’s would be that being the CEO and so like for me, I’m very like introverted. I’m not assertive at all. And there’s a lot of things in like, the leadership personality type that you’re like, Okay, well, I’m not that person’s like, how could I be a CEO? How could I lead a team or teach anyone anything? Or Or have you know, have I’ll just do it myself. You’re like, I’ll just be myself. I don’t want to worry about anybody else. But I think kind of trying to shift that mindset and just giving it a shot because I think there’s definitely space for us and a need for the more like softer introverted personality types in like leadership and CEO roles. And then the other thing is, the other con would be communication. And so being a little bit more available for that communication, if someone you know, needs something, or has a quick question or making sure you’re on top of those emails between client and Associates, checking in on that just having a little bit more responsibility in with that communication side of things.

Nata Salvatori
Tell me, I’m gonna hear a little bit more about what is the conversation sound like when you’re trying to sell the team when you’re not going to be the one there? So I’m gonna client we’re having a consultation. And I say, you know, I, how do I make sure that how do I know that, you know, it’s going to be okay, that I’m going to have the same quality of work or the same kind of pictures. If it’s not you like, I really wish that you were the one shooting my wedding. Yes,

Cayla Cummings
that is a good test. So we have, so that initial email is a little bit helpful in that, I’ll say, congratulations, we’re available for your wedding on X date, you’ll be working with our lead, or lead photographer, Tara, or something. So I tried to like set it up before they even booked the call. And if for some reason that freaks them out, they might not book the call. But like, essentially, normally, they’ll they’ll book it initially and like learn a little bit a little bit more. But when we’re on the call, we’re kind of the sales call, or the consultation call is essentially just like the same as when I do it, or myself, but I’ll make sure I’ll be like, and then you did you see the part that like Tara would be your main associate, like, I’ll let your main photographer or you’ll have your engagement session with them all that stuff, I’ll let them ask any questions on that. But the process is explaining that the process is exactly the same, the editing is exactly the same. We’re still your editors, they’ve been with us for X amount of years. And then a lot of times within associate the last for like a gallery. And so I’ll always send them like a full gallery from their associate. And I found I used to let them choose, I used to have bios and profiles for every associate, and everyone who was available, I would let them kind of decide. And then I found at least for us, people were having like decision fatigue, and they would just be kind of paralyzed by it and be like, I don’t know, what do you think has a personality that fits mine? And so instead, I started being like, here’s who your person will be. And that started going over faster, and people were signing on faster?

Nata Salvatori
Perfect. What are some of the things that you do to help your team feel appreciated? And kind of, you know, be will be willing to be with you and go above and beyond? What are some of the ways that you found that you can show them that appreciation? Was

Cayla Cummings
a good question. I am I feel like my biggest priority with the team is like protecting them. So like they’re like they come first for me. It’s not very it’s it’s it’s not like, oh, for example, I’m trying to think of a good example, because we don’t have it because we don’t have the horror stories. But like the, if a client said something over as being a difficult client or anything like that, it would be for me, the team would come first and I’m I have no problem. Like if a if a client is like, actually I want to do this like session in two days. And I have this idea and like I expect you to do that I’ll like message the team be like, do you want it I have no problem saying no, just like saying no to the client, like they come first. So just keeping that team mentality. And that like we’re kind of like protecting each other and making sure that like everyone is happy in that sense. When it comes to like more of like fun stuff like outings and things I’m actually bad at that I just did my feedback form. And like all of our team members were like, we’d like to like hang out more. But in my mind, I’m like when you have a corporate job and they invite you to like go golfing or whatever you hate it and you don’t want to go. So like I never want to like make the team members do anything. But it turns out they do want to hang out. So I need to plan more things like that. But if you have any ideas, I’ll take those.

Nata Salvatori
No, it’s always good. We I feel like we work alone a lot as creatives and photographers, so it’s they probably crave that connection. So yeah, I cannot tell you we do try to do a team dinner every year at the end of the year to kind of celebrate the year and you know, I invite significant others as well. So you can bring their person in, we can get to hang out a little bit. But there’s many, many things for sure that we can meet that we can both be doing more.

Cayla Cummings
I love that I love having a significant others too. So they don’t feel like I have to go to Yeah.

Nata Salvatori
So that was a great conversation. I really appreciate you sharing all your insight with us and talking to everybody a little bit more about how to grow a team some of the strategies, some of the reasoning behind it. Some of the pros and cons. So tell us where can everybody find you so they can follow you and see your beautiful work? Yes, yeah. So

Cayla Cummings
we are everywhere at heart photography. So it’s car Ha Artie photography on all the places YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok. And then if anyone ever is considering building an Associates team, and they’re like, oh, I want to see that code of conduct agreement, or I need to I want to take a look at what that contract looks like things like that you can feel free to message me or email me too, which is also Hello at car photography.com then I’m happy to like, share those resources.

Nata Salvatori
That’s very nice. Thank you. Thank you, everybody for listening to us today. I hope to see you soon. In our next episode, we’ll be sharing more amazing strategies with you guys to help you fall in love with a business out of your business by and that’s a wrap for today’s episode of The Accidental CEO podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us in the world where creativity and business strategy collide. I am not a Salvatore thrilled to have share this time with you. Remember, every episode is a step closer to mastering the art of being an accidental CEO. So don’t miss out. Hit subscribe, drop us a sweet review and spread the word to your creative tribe. Your next big breakthrough could be just one episode away. Join us next time for more insights laughs and actionable tips. Keep pushing boundaries dreaming big and embracing the beautiful chaos of intrapreneurship here’s to make magic happen in your business and beyond.