Today we’d like to introduce you to Zane Ewton.
Hi Zane, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Going back to college, I was a journalism student who stumbled into photography and fell in love with sharing stories in words and photos.
This was at a time newspapers were starting to shrink drastically and online publications were not paying enough to make the rent, student loan payments, or even grab a hamburger.
I fell into employee communications, which was more or less a newspaper within a company. It offered the chance to work as a writer and photographer and make enough to start a family.
On the job, I learned video and audio production, communications strategy, and much more.
Away from the day job, I picked up photography work doing family portraits, weddings, engagements… you name it. I’ve enjoyed many experiences creating photos and videos, hosting and producing podcasts, or simply with pen and paper in hand.
My family and I moved from Arizona to central Florida in the middle of the pandemic. It flipped everything upside down but it’s also created a fresh start to connect with new people in a new location.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I tend to take work too personally, which honestly isn’t too healthy. It’s never been smooth, but I would consider myself blessed that even in our leanest times as a family, we were able to get by. Sometimes a single photo shoot helped us get through.
Layoffs are always tough. Mental health challenges are tough. Marriage and parenting are tough.
But I’ve been lucky to develop a career doing what I enjoy doing that provides for my family. I might have found myself at a pawn shop once or twice to make rent in the early days, be we made it through. And we keep working.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Employee communications can be difficult to explain, or else it simply doesn’t sound that exciting and people tune out when I describe it. It is quite similar to a company having an in-house news source – we create content and develop strategic projects to keep employees informed and focused.
The employee communications field has evolved quite a bit in the last few years from something that’s nice to have (a bit touchy-feely) to something that is an essential element of getting business done.
Selfishly, I enjoy working with individuals to help them share their stories through the content we create. A big component of what we do is create community. I believe our stories are essential to building that community and I think I’m pretty good at doing that.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I had heard Conan O’Brien say, “Work hard, be kind and amazing things will happen” and I agree with that completely. I frequently share that with my kids about that’s the key to doing well in school, and they always roll their eyes at me.
At least until recently when my son started his first job and finally admitted I was right (or Conan was right) – if you simply be nice to people and work hard, good things will happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://zaneewtonphoto.wordpress.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zane.ewton/
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ZaneEwton
- Other: https://zaneewton.wordpress.com/
Image Credits
Zane Ewton
