We recently connected with Alex Workman and have shared our conversation below.

Alex, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Every year we try to work on a personal project, beyond our client work. We want to make sure that we are giving back to our community and telling stories of people and things in our community and surround areas that are making a difference or that need help. On October 10th, Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle leaving a level of devastation and destruction never before seen by the state. Michael was the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in the Florida panhandle and was the third strongest storm in U.S. history. The storm had its most dramatic impact on the small coastal town of Mexico Beach, in Bay County, Florida. The storm leveled everything in its path, the homes and businesses that made up this vibrant community are gone, leaving many with nothing to return to.

My father-in-law is a small-business owner in Mexico Beach whose personal business was severely impacted. We saw his struggle and the struggle of many other community members trying to recover and knew we had to help, so we partnered a designer, Jesse Taylor, to start the Never Forgotten Coast campaign. We designed a logo for the project and started printing and selling merch, both online and through local pop-up shops to raise funds for the recovery efforts. We also partnered with award-winning Nashville photographer, Jeremy Cowart, and Chattanooga drone pilot, Jonathan Smith, to capture the stories of Mexico Beach and put faces to the city that has been a home and a destination for people all over the world.

The funds raised by the Never Forgotten Coast campaign were used by local non-profits in Mexico Beach to provide micro-grants for small businesses and individuals to help cover what insurance wouldn’t. The goal was to help the local economy get back up and running so that locals can get back to work and return to their normal lives. If we could provide opportunities to shop, eat and do business, then we could help speed up the rebuilding process and help the community recover. Even something seemingly small, like a micro-grant, can have a significant impact on the region’s economic recovery. Mexico Beach is filled with character and they have the grit and determination to rebuild better than before.

We only expected to make a few t-shirts and raise a little bit of money. We had no idea we’d sell thousands of shirts and give away over $50,000. Family is important to us and it was an honor to partner with our family to help make this project come to life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are The Workmans! More specifically, Alex and Chelsea Workman! We are a husband and wife creative team in Tallahassee, FL, and we have a heart for helping organizations tell their story. We got married in 2014 and moved to Tallahassee shortly after. Over the years, we’ve had various creative businesses, but we founded The Workmans in 2017. In addition to working with clients, we have also founded and collaborated on many community projects, such as Aerial Tallahassee, #RefugeesofTLH, Never Forgotten Coast, The Workmans Coffee Spots, #COVIDwear, #ENDITTLH and #100Coffees. Our family loves spending time together and exploring our community, especially through food and coffee.

Alex got into photography as a part time gig back in college to help pay his way through school. It wasn’t until 2016 that we got stuck in a place we didn’t love after losing a job, that we went into it full-time. We started capturing events for organizations and taking photos behind the scenes at video shoots, and during the pandemic, we set up a studio in our garage to start capturing portraits and expanding our services to more editorial and commercial work.

Every person and organization has a story and we want to help tell that story by creating beautiful imagery that people are proud to show off. We make it a goal to get to know each of our clients and make sure they feel as comfortable as possible in a mostly uncomfortable situation (very few people really love being photographed). We want every person to walk away feeling more confident than when they arrived and more relaxed knowing that we are just normal people with a goal of making you look as good as possible, while not taking ourselves too seriously and bringing people into our everyday lives.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

We are terrible at marketing ourselves. Most days, we forget we have social media, but we have had to be a little more intentional over the last few years because people simply didn’t know what all we did. Showing our work is often our last priority. However, one thing we have been very intentional about is marketing through relationships. We have a family rule that we have coffee with someone we have either never met or don’t know very well every week. We also have someone over for dinner every week. We believe that one of the best ways to get to know someone is over a cup of coffee or a home cooked meal. Our office is in our home, our studio is in our garage and we bought a commercial espresso machine so we could stop spending so much money at coffee shops. We are constantly inviting people into our space to just be real with them. We have three little kids and the chances that you might step on a lego or walk into a messy bathroom are pretty high. But people often feel more comfortable in a place that looks familiar. We photograph a lot of people who have kids or nieces/nephews and to walk in to three little kids running around makes people feel like they’re right at home. We may not be a Michelin starred restaurant, but Teriyaki glazed salmon with risotto and broccoli is a pretty good alternative to the same three restaurants people frequent near downtown Tallahassee. Marketing doesn’t always have to look the same for everyone and relationships will get you very far, so feed into those relationships and bring people along your journey.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Patrick Lencioni wrote a book called The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable… About Restoring Sanity To The Most Important Organization In Your Life. Our business is our family and our business cannot be successful if our family is out of order. The book talks about how people often create strategies and set goals for the businesses to thrive, but why can’t we operate our families in the same way? Whether you work with your family or not, being able to set up your family to succeed will ultimately help you become a better entrepreneur/business person.

Contact Info:

• Website: wearetheworkmans.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/wearetheworkmans
• Facebook: facebook.com/wearetheworkmans
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theworkmans/
• Twitter: twitter.com/alexworkman