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GeneratorA podcast about creativity Author: Matt Stagliano
Join host and Maine portrait photographer Matt Stagliano while he has long, casual conversations with his guests about creativity in photography, art, business, and relationships. Language: en Genres: Arts, Business, Entrepreneurship, Visual Arts Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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075 - No Admin, Just Shoot with Ashley Siegert
Episode 75
Thursday, 9 April, 2026
Most photographers will tell you the same thing if you ask them honestly. The shooting is the part they love. Everything else is overhead. Ashley Siegert heard that enough times that she built an entire company around it.Ashley is the founder of Vacanva, a platform that pairs photographers with nonprofits to run portrait-based fundraising campaigns. The model is built so that photographers show up, shoot, and get paid, while Vacanva handles everything else: client consultations, location scouting, permits, editing, gallery delivery, and mileage reimbursement. The nonprofits get an easy fundraising vehicle. The clients get portraits they actually wanted. And the photographers get paid work without the admin weight that burns most of them out.Ashley came up as a producer and stage manager for ESPN baseball, building a portrait business in parallel and running at a pace that would have broken most people. When COVID killed her original tourism concept days before launch in March 2020, she pivoted into nonprofit partnerships with the organizations already in her orbit. The first campaign sold 20 packages. The next sold 30. Vacanva now has 75 photographers and is in conversations with corporate partners that could accelerate the whole thing significantly.I met Ashley at WPPI a few weeks ago and walked away from that first conversation wondering how I had not heard about this sooner. This episode is the answer to that question.What You'll Learn:How a last-minute COVID pivot turned a silent auction donation into a repeatable nonprofit fundraising modelWhat photographers are actually paid and how session assignments workEverything Vacanva handles on the backend so photographers never have toWhat the staff portal provides before you walk into a sessionThe corporate partnership strategy Ashley is building toward and why it mattersWhat is coming this summer and why it is worth watchingResources Mentioned:Vacanva: https://vacanva.comConnect with Ashley Siegert: Vacanva: https://vacanva.comConnect with Matt: Website: https://generatorpodcast.comInstagram: @generatorpodcastWant to be a guest? https://generatorpodcast.com/apply/Here's what I use to make Generator a reality:SOFTWAREECamm - What I use to live stream, record my video, and conduct interviews (Only for Mac)https://www.ecamm.com/mac/ecammlive/?fp_ref=generatorCaptivate.fm - The software I use to publish every audio episode and distribute it everywherehttps://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yjuymdqo17Hats - Get 50% off your first year of the best CRM for entrepreneurshttps://referrals.17hats.com/card/stonetreeBorisFX Crumplepop- Clean up audio faster than ever beforehttps://borisfx.com/?a_aid=68bb347aa27d1Cloudways - Solid, affordable Hosting for my wordpress websiteshttps://vrlps.co/f83e6os/cpPixieset - Get $20 off my favorite way to show clients their gallerieshttps://pixieset.com/ref/djDARTY4paWisprFlow - My typing gets slow, so being able to dictate anything in any app makes Life a lot easier.https://wisprflow.ai/r?MATT1716Fourthwall - A great selection of drop-shipped branded productshttps://link.fourthwall.com/join/generatorHARDWAREMy Entire Studio Setup - This is an ongoing list of all the equipment I use in my home studiohttps://www.amazon.com/shop/stonetreecreative/list/UI27EORM80W1?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_91ERYXJ9ZAQ1E4C0Q1VTSmall print: Some of these are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I get a small commission at no cost to you. I only recommend stuff I actually use.
