Joel Rahmatulla

Born in USA, 1965

Graduated 2015, Grand Canyon University, Phoenix Arizona

Bachelor of Science, Applied Management, with Honors

Member of Alpha Chi National Honor Society

Greenbelt Certified in Lean Healthcare

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My dad used to say, “Whatever you do, do it right.” He also used to say, “If you ever get to the point where you are satisfied with what you are doing, then it’s time to move on.”  These statements had a profound impact on my life and in how I approach every project or assignment. Do it right and never settle just to get the job done.

 

I began my career as a still photographer in 1984 when my high school girlfriend broke off our relationship in college and I found myself replacing her with a camera, which is now affectionately known as my mistress. Sports photography became my specialty early on as I found myself photographing my younger brothers playing high school sports and then covering their sports teams. Soon I was covering other sporting events and eventually worked as a staff photographer for the Irvine World News. This was the age of MTV and the birth of music videos on television. I was quickly immersed in using my photos to tell stories through songs. I bought some slide projectors and an electronic dissolver and learned to choreograph my images to music for local businesses and high school sports teams, and would like to take credit for being one of the first professionals to do wedding slideshows, but never got rich doing it. After hiring a production company to transfer some of my shows to videotape, the owners liked my work and asked if I wanted to work for them and learn video production, marketing, media and event management. Thus began my diversification as a media and marketing professional, working on dozens of hi-end client projects across the nation.

 

Continuing the learning process over the next several years, I  learned web and graphic design, desktop publishing, show management, multimedia installation, media relations, and client management working with dozens of Fortune 500 companies. Many of the projects I worked on involved education, marketing, branding, advertising, fundraising, newsgathering, and commercial production. The various disciplines were both a blessing and curse personally; in that I can multifunction and wear many hats, but I was never able to specialize in any one discipline. Consequently, with investments locked into equipment for the various functions, I was never able to get those big specialty items I craved including long camera lenses, premium video cameras and advanced video editing systems. However, my journey gave me the opportunity to touch many lives, impact many disciplines and gave me one of my most important skills – the ability to see the big picture.

 

It’s through this lens that helps me understand my subjects, my audience, my team, my organization, and my role in transforming a vision into reality. The art of storytelling and seeing the big picture helps all aspects of managing people and projects to instill pride, empathy and purpose into the people I serve. This is the foundation from which authenticity, dignity, excellence, accountability, and transformation thrive as part of the environment I create in my work and personal life. The end result is a creation that is both intimate and meaningful in scope and engages the spirit of purpose.