Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chellise Michael. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chellise, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?
My husband, Michael, and I launched Chellise Michael Photography in 2010 in Brooklyn, NY. Within two years, we had a team of four photographers, and by 2014, we had a team of six. As a collective, we averaged 90-100 weddings per year and, at our peak, brought in 500K+ annually.
The smartest thing we did before building a photo team critical to our success was solidifying our foundation first with the admin role. Responding to inquiries, scheduling meetings, following up, sending contracts, invoicing, keeping track of expenses, designing albums, and managing bookings were overwhelming enough as it was for just the two of us, so bringing on a studio manager as our first team member was a no-brainer because bringing a team on meant that workload was going to increase. I hired my best friend, Amber. Early in our friendship, I was in awe of her color-coded closet, carefully organized jewelry, overall patience, and her particularness in things being in “their place.” (I was the opposite). Amber came on board in 2012, learning a few tasks at a time and taking on more duties when she was ready. We initially started by cc’ing her in our client emails so she could learn our voice. Once she was ready to take the reins, which didn’t take long, then we brought on the photographers. Having a studio manager lift admin from our shoulders allowed us more time to focus on the creative side of our business and gave us the space needed to nurture a growing photo team.
My pro tip on hiring a star studio manager that may seem “unconventional”? Hire a self-proclaimed OCD spreadsheet-loving person. To me, OCD is an attribute for this type of position. As someone who has been diagnosed with ADHD, I fail miserably where OCD shines. They love spreadsheets, are highly organized, do one thing at a time, and are tidy. Bonus points if they have Virgo in their chart.
Our recruiting process for photographers was good ol’ Craigslist and through the vast wedding photo community in NYC, full of eager, bright, young photographers who want to work for an established studio. The main attribute we looked for was someone who had already run their own wedding photo business but no longer wanted to handle all that goes along with it. This filter quickly weeded out any up-and-coming photographers hoping to shoot under our brand for portfolio building with the intent of going out on their own as soon as possible. While there is nothing wrong with aspiring photographers doing this, for us, it was not worth our time to invest in training someone in our brand, voice, and style to have them pick up and leave us a year later and start the process all over again. We wanted a loyal team that was happy to stick around and who wanted to grow with us.
We paid our photographers well, increased their rates annually, and featured them all as “Lead Photographers” vs. the commonly used “Associates” (ew! save that for the lawyers, okay?). As owners, Mike and I are empathetic listeners, honest coaches, and supportive cheerleaders. We treated everyone on our team like family, always honored their judgment, welcomed their ideas, and ruthlessly stood up for them. We cultivated longevity and loyalty and excelled at it for almost a decade.
Historically, our photographers stayed with us for an average of 3-5 years before moving on to other ventures. By 2022, our team was starting to naturally “swindle down.” At this point, Mike and I decided to pause on hiring and to let the team fade out on its own. While having a team was a tremendous success, we decided to scale back to pull the focus back onto ourselves as individual artists and to see what it would be like to have more time on our hands. We haven’t looked back since. By 2023, business was back to just the two of us and Amber, of course (we can’t live w/o her!) We now have a newfound spaciousness that allows for more self-exploration as artists, and because of this, we are experiencing an immense expansion in our work. With all that we’ve been through as a business, we’re feeling deeply grounded, and our connection to our work feels even closer and more meaningful to us than before.
Im so proud of how we did it and where we are now, and honestly, I would not change a damn thing. Having a team was incredibly challenging, rewarding, and a wild learning experience. It taught us patience, how to listen, how to nourish, and even how to gracefully set someone free with the wind beneath their sails. It was not always easy; many times, we were in tears, but each team member taught us something crucial to our growth as individuals, leaders, lovers, and business owners.
Chellise, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We’re packing 13 years of experience in digital and 35mm film photography with an unapologetic approach to documenting weddings. We can’t help but continually explore our processes with relentless curiosity. If we didn’t, we would have burnt out long ago, but every year, we fall more in love with our work.
While you can’t take a wedding out of a wedding, we are lucky enough to attract clients who want something a little different. We stand strong in our artistic intuition, shooting with full creative freedom and holding our ground with the type of photos we do not take (staged pajama photos, a veil over the groom’s head, hanging dress shots, etc.)
In 2010, we were part of the small echelon of weird Brooklyn photographers that paved the way for dismantling staged & traditional wedding photography, bringing new life to the way wedding stories were told, and to this day, we wear that badge proudly. Among the many accolades we have received, our favs are being named “Top Wedding Photographers Doing Things Differently” & “30 Rising Stars” by Rangefinder Magazine, “Best of the Best” by Junebug Weddings (a vote of the best vendors by vendors) and “Best of Weddings” by New York Magazine.
Any advice for managing a team?
*Pay them fairly *Honor their work by highlighting them on social media and your blog regularly
*Pitch their work to magazines (under your brand, with their name attached)
*Give honest feedback on where they need improvement with equal (if not more) praise for the great work they are doing.
*Listen and consider their ideas.
*Give raises when they show consistent growth.
*While they need to stay within some parameters to honor your brand, allow some flexibility by giving them the creative freedom to do their thing so they feel fulfilled with their work.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
The two pieces of best advice that I got along the way that I wish I had known earlier are:
1) “Hire slow, fire fast.”
Oof, this one is really important, especially in our industry as weddings get booked out so far in advance (6-18 mo), so once you bring on a photographer, they will be with you for a while. For this reason, I suggest limiting them to elopements and last-minute bookings first to see how they do out in the wild and on their own. If you find that they are not a good fit for your brand, you will need to graciously let them go ( and stop booking them, which they will notice!) while keeping that relationship on good terms until those contracts with the client are fulfilled. For this reason, we have a firm contract with our photographers to keep them committed to the client even if we are no longer booking them.
2) Fire yourself from every role in your job until you are left with only the roles you want.”
For us this was letting go of the admin roles, leaving us room to rest, which is absolutely vital for creative growth. Your clients are not hiring you for your admin roles, they are hiring you for your eye, so let it go!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chellisemichaelphotography.com/
- Instagram: @chellisemichaelphotography
- Linkedin: @ChelliseMichael
- Other: Google Biz: https://www.google.com/search?q=chellise+michael&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS1001US1001&oq=chellise+michael+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIOCAEQRRgnGDsYgAQYigUyBggCECMYJzINCAMQLhivARjHARiABDIGCAQQRRhBMgYIBRBFGEEyBggGEEUYQTIGCAcQRRg90gEIMjk0OWowajSoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8