Sometimes I think that finding the right people to work for you is harder than finding your spouse. In a lot of ways its similar as its all about the chemistry. They might be skilled, but not terribly fun to be around. Or maybe they are super creative but not very skilled. Or maybe they are both those things but not very hard-working. And lastly they might be all those things but they just don’t really care. A lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way is that nobody cares about your business as much as you do, which is I know should be obvious but at times is a hard pill to swallow. Orlando was the right fit in every way and we worked together for 3 years and loved every second of it (well, I loved every second of it anyway:)). A year ago it was time for him to move on (it was time for him to do his own projects – HIRE HIM, although he’s really busy so get on his waiting list) and now he’s the LA creative director of HomePolish and off doing fancy people houses whilst still having brunch with me. When he left I was dubious that I would ever find someone I loved as much.
But I did.
To find people who are creative, fun to be around, really skilled/talented AND they care is extremely rare. These two are those rare people:
We’ve been insanely busy. I’ve been certifiably crazy. We work in an office space out of my house which I know is not ideal for a really professional situation (I mean, to say that they’ve seen me pump would be me toning it down a bit). I have very little protocol, I don’t set up the best systems, I hate bossing people around, and yet I have extremely high expectations of people. For most people that is a recipe for disaster. But these people … they get it. They get me. And they are amazing.
Ginny has worked with me for over a year now and Brady is 2 months in and I’m just so happy to say that we’ve found our team … and that I would die without them. Lately we’ve also had help from Emily and Karley who have been indispensable on shoots and coordinating – taking some of the heavy lifting off of Ginny, Brady and I. Thank you Emily and Karley so much. Your positivity and assertiveness are invaluable, seriously.
These guys work so hard. They never take advantage of my (what seems to be but isn’t) leniency. They answer emails and texts at all hours. they come up with creative ideas to do simple posts. They go out of their way to make the business run more efficiently and they make me laugh whilst doing it.
Ginny and Brady just left my house (its midnight) after being here since 9am, on a sunday….two days in a row (well saturday night til 8pm). 9am – 12am is a very long shift, folks, but they were so happy, creative and hardworking the entire time. They were still coming up with good ideas, pulling triggers, hauling boxes, painting walls, coordinating last-minute framing (shout out to Tim at Curve Line Space for turning around 3 pieces in 2 hours) and most importantly pushing me to care more when I was tired and thought it was good enough. I like to think that their job is fun, but I’m sure every boss thinks that they provide a good working environment … regardless I’m sure that I’m not be a dream to work for and yet these two kill it on a daily basis. Sometimes, like our adorable hug above, it’s just the right fit.
We’ll be back tomorrow with some great content, but finishing the house this weekend for the Domino shoot was totally hectic and has put us behind schedule.
So this is my huge and public THANK YOU to Ginny, Brady, Emily and Karley for working your butts off lately. I keep saying that it won’t always be so busy, but with you guys around I think we can kinda handle anything. Thank you.