I’ll admit, when I asked Kyle to come to an interview to work for me, I had absolutely no intentions of hiring him for the position. None at all, and I told him so at the interview.
I flat out said, “I don’t want to hire you for this job.” Okay, that may sound harsh but I followed up with, “However, I’d like to hire you for a job I know I need but don’t know what it is … exactly.”
Amazingly, Kyle accepted. Little did he know what he was getting himself into! Kyle is now my right hand man for Innovation, technology integration and a lot more for Jen Brazeal Photography. His official title is, Chief Information and Technology Specialist. (Fancy, right?!)
Such an important part of running a business is being innovative, bringing new and fresh ideas into to flow of things. A while back I read an amazing book that I’ll just have to do a review on very soon, called, The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. I had almost immediately finished this book when Kyle fell in my lap. His brilliant in all the ways I needed. On top of the critical skills he possessed he was a self starter, loved a challenge and could put up with me for long periods of time. All pluses in my book!
I have heard photographers often say, “I don’t have time to get on social media.”, or “There’s no way I could hire anybody, I’ll do it myself.” If you’ve ever found yourself thinking or saying something along those lines let me start by saying, you’re wrong. Yup, you are. Let me tell you why.
First of all, if you have enough time (just that tiny bit) to say those things, you have enough time to tell them to someone that can do something about it. We all have no problem complaining. I do it with reckless abandon but few of us actually take the next step in complaining (didn’t know it was 2 steps did ya?). Fixing the problem. I had to buckle down and realize that something could be done about my lack of innovation and technology integration. Sure, I wanted to sit and read about SEO and building websites every moment of my life (that’s sarcasm f.y.i.). But that just was not a practical use of my time yours either. Enter, the idea to hire someone that knew about that stuff already.
Our time is too valuable to sit around and wonder about these things we need but don’t understand. We ultimately get overwhelmed and give up prematurely. Am I hitting home with any one? Kyle already knew about all that stuff and so SO much more. He honestly took (and is still taking) my business to the next level as well as giving me the time I was missing to do more of the things Iwant to do.
He introduces me to things that make my life easier, yes, easier. I’ll ask him, “Hey how hard would it be to…_________” fill in the blank. His usual respond is, “not hard at all, in fact there is an app for that!”. And then I get to say, “Okay, let’s do it!”. And by let’s I mean you get to do it ;).
I’ll be talking much more on innovation and technology integration for your business in future posts. If you have specific questions or want to know more about the things I do leave a comment or shoot us an email! Now it’s time to meet Kyle!
Some of the things I do at Jen Brazeal Photography are…
I help the business and technology side so that the other workers can concentrate on delivering a great service. I work on Quickbooks, the website, email integration or where ever there is a need.
On my days off I…
…really like to cook, read (mainly theological books, right now in the middle of Systematic Theology) If I get an opportunity I like to do stuff outside, like to watch movies and play board games. I may soon be in a soccer league – not a good one but ya know, having fun!
I really wanted to work at Jen Brazeal Photography because…
It’s a fun environment and a fun business. It’s an opportunity to work with people and have fun.
Part of the Journey that got me to where I am today goes like this…
I think I’ll respond to the educational/technological side of this one. I always spent a lot of time when I was growing up solving problems on the computer, I liked finding out how to do and fix things. While in theBusiness College at Texas A&M I’ve spent a lot of time doing web design and IT work for a lot of different organizations. When I was graduating and needed something to do, my go to plan was to do what I’d practiced, loved and done as a hobby before. When this opportunity with Jen came up I though, “why not make my hobby into a job?” So I did. Ididn’t know how much of the business side I’d be actually be working on. ???? I really enjoy the Middle East and Lebanon and have helped do some entrepreneurial work over there, I hope to move there in a few years to help develop more on that.
My Family is…
One older brother – he lived around College Station a few years and it was always really helpful and fun living in the same town for a while. My parents – they’re amazingly supportive of everything I’ve done, I can’t imagine where I’d be without them!
The funniest thing from my childhood that I can remember is…
When I was in 4th grade. Do you remember those pants that button all the way up on the side? Well, I was running away from friends, just messing around while coming back from lunch one day. We just so happened to be in front of all the 6th graders. As I was running and my arms were swinging, my hand swung by my side, got caught, and I completely ripped off my own pants! That was definitely pretty humiliating!
When I grow up …
I wanna be living and working in the Middle East and serving God in whatever way I can.
My favorite snack …
Those Fruit snacks that Jen has in her pantry or beef jerky.
If I could go anywhere in the world…
Anywhere in the world, I would go to…Iran. They have very beautiful mountains and valleys, sea sides, everything else.
One reason I think Caddie really like me is…
She probably likes me because I move around as little as she does when I’m in the office; we both just sit there most of the day! ????
There you have it, a little bit about Kyle. I could go on and on about what an outstanding person he is and how his character is solid and dependable, how he is just plain brilliant and has a heart to serve but that might make things a little awkward at work!?
