Michael and I aren’t just wedding photographers. We often ask ourselves “What would life look like if we JUST photographed 25 weddings a year?!”. It would be so easy!!! But instead, we’re teachers who host workshops, monthly in-person coaching sessions and we are constantly creating new educational resources for photographers to have access to in The Collection! On top of all of that, I’m a blogger and a speaker and an industry leader. It’s really like we have 5 micro jobs in one and it’s PURE CRAZINESS sometimes!

I realized back in June that I needed help in a lot of areas. However, I’m really stubborn and so I thought that if I could just get my butt in gear and crank my blog posts out a little earlier and be a little more strict with my time, I could do it by myself. Not the case at all. I was swamped. I was also trying to start a completely different business back in the spring. Some of you reading this know exactly what I’m talking about.

Well, I’m too busy to start a completely separate business and I have recently realized that I was trying to start that other business out of fear. I felt like I needed to start something new because so much of what we do in THIS industry is copied or re-created by someone else 4-6 months after we launch it and I just got tired of it. (which is super prideful and ridiculous on my part! Get a grip Katelyn!)  So, I wanted to start something that no one could copy! And I did! I even have a “Jen Olmstead site” for it that’s designed and ready to go…. but my timing isn’t God’s timing. At all. It’s taken me 8 months to realize this! My idea wasn’t a bad idea and I honestly hope that I can make it reality one day… but I’m not done with my work where I am and God has made that so obvious to me. If I had pursued this other idea, I wouldn’t have created the Consistency Course and HUNDREDS of photographers wouldn’t be learning from us.  The Consistency Course is by far one of the greatest accomplishments of our career and I almost missed out on it because I wanted to start something else that couldn’t be copied. Which is just plain stupid.

So! Let me get back to our BEST DECISION OF 2015!  In the midst of thinking that I was going to start this other business, I casually told my sister that she needed to be a part of it! I really didn’t have any direction or organized outline for how we were going to proceed with this process but I did know that if I was going to start another business, I needed HELP! So, I hired my sister!!!!

Fast forward almost 9 months later and the second business hasn’t started….. but yet we’ve hired my sister almost at a full time level!!! My business needed HELP! I needed HELP! And my sister wanted to work from HOME! And I wanted to hire someone that was passionate and proud of my business! And we needed someone we could trust! And someone who would be proactive and reliable!!! Emy is ALL OF THESE THINGS. I could cry just writing this. We hired Emy on an hourly rate last year and now she’s in more of a salary position starting the first of the year… and I’m just so thankful.  Who would have thought that this little business of mine would be able to employ my sister one day even though she lives 6 hours away!!!

So, for those of you who have been following me for years or months or just today…. I hope you’ll join me in officially welcoming our newest team member!!!! Emy is handling about 20-30 hours of behind the scenes work each week and this is another reason why I have been able to create the most in-depth course of my career!!! The more I let go of in my business, the more we grow. It’s that simple! I’m SO thankful for Emily and for this amazing season in our life where we get to work together as sister’s and now business partners! Some people may be leery of sibling business integration… and we definitely talked through the pros and cons… but for us, it’s such a perfect situation and we couldn’t be happier!!!! Emily is amazing and her presence in our business gives us so much more peace on a day-to-day basis!

So CHEERS to the BEST business decision of 2015!!!!!!!! And everyone, leave Emy some love and welcome her officially to the TEAM!!!!! :)

Ps. One of Emily’s best qualities is finding my typos… and she’s on vacation this week so she’ll see all of this when she returns from their cruise! She’s going to be THRILLED to see your comments… not so thrilled at my grammatical errors! :)