Go Hire Me — 7 days to raise 7K to secure our family home

My name is Chris. I am an award-winning art director, designer, and educator with 30 years of ad and design industry experience. I hold a B.F.A. in Communication Arts & Design and an M.S. in Communications-Advertising (Art Direction) from VCU Brandcenter.

I am also an entrepreneur and co-founder of Stay Sublime luxury Airstream rental service, a startup business that garnered national press in its second year, achieved a 22% profit margin, and received 300+ 5-star reviews. Stay Sublime hosted countless family milestone events and top-tier commercial events, including household names and A-list celebrities.

Starting in July, I will add a new title to my resume: Warehouse Sorter, PM shift*

Curiously enough, I am excited to have this new job.

Unlike any job I have had before — it will be physically demanding and highly predictable — a stark break from the last few decades of my career.

Also, being self-employed kept me awake for more hours than I could count. At least now, I will get paid for sleepless nights!

So why the change?

In May of this year, due to the undercapitalization of Stay Sublime and three significant back-to-back setbacks spanning 2023 into early 2024 — we were forced to cease 90% of operations of our family business until further notice.

As of last week, my husband and I have finally secured new full-time jobs — BUT my job does not start until July — and his job does not start until August.

Neither of these jobs will start in time to stave off a timely housing crisis for our family.

Our housing crisis is the result of a non-renewal notice for our current rental home where we have lived for 2 years.

In 2022, we paid rent on time 100% of the time. In 2023, during the worst part of our crisis, we made multiple late rent payments. The non-renewal is based on the 2023 numbers and the related drop in our credit scores. Throughout the 2023 crisis, we were very transparent with the property manager. Repeatedly, he told us not to worry. He said he appreciated our openness. He said the company would “work with us.”

The company, however, did not work with us.

In 2024, despite paying rent on time and working diligently to stabilize our situation, the management company required us to reapply for our lease, ultimately rejecting our application based on impacts of the 2023 crisis.

The detrimental decision not to renew our lease has forced us to secure a new rental home when our family is in a huge transition and has a suboptimal financial status.

For what it is worth, I have always had a heart for homeless individuals and families. Now, through this perfect storm, I fully comprehend how educated, hardworking people of integrity can become homeless.

A little over a week ago, through a miracle, we found a new rental home with a private owner willing to work with us. Caveat 1: the new homeowner (understandably) will require 2X the standard security deposit. Caveat 2: The new lease would need to start July 1st, weeks before our current lease expires. Thus, adding to the extreme financial strain, we must pay double the rent for July. If not, we would be unable to secure a new place to live or be taken to court for nonpayment of rent for our current home.

Therefore — only 7 days from today, on July 1st — we must pay 3X our current monthly rental rate. We need 7K+ in the next 7 days to secure our new rental home.

As people of faith and common sense — we clearly need another miracle to meet this deadline.

All of that said, this GoFundMe is our Hail Mary.

YET rather than a standard Go-Fund-Me charity donation — we propose a mutually beneficial Go-Hire-Me arrangement for business owners or decision-makers for companies of all sizes.

Our Proposal: In exchange for a donation, you, your friends, and colleagues can hire us to create strategic graphic design, art direction, creative direction, copywriting, and/or photography for your design, advertising, social media, or marketing needs.

How it works: Follow 3 easy steps for project initiation (see below).

Note: the urgency of our housing situation necessitates project requests to be prioritized in two ways: a) based on the order the project request is received AND b) the project budget + timing.

1. Clients choose a suggested donation amount to indicate timing for project start and secure a place in line:

2. When submitting your donation to GoFundMe, include a private note with a brief project summary, requested timing, phone number, and email address. If you or someone you know does not need creative services but prefers to provide a loan, please indicate repayment terms in the private note. If you have a timely need for creative services but a small budget, please indicate in a private note and we will do our best to accommodate your request!

3. Based on your donation and place in line, we schedule a virtual meeting to learn about your business goals, objectives, mandatories, phases, etc. Afterward, we provide a competitive estimate based on industry-standard fees along with a detailed outline of the creative process (research, SWOT analysis, collaborative creative brief, etc.) Industry-standard pricing will establish the value of our services. However, each client is invited to Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC).†

† We trust prospective clients will honor the PWYC payment model with reasonable requests — and we respectfully reserve the right to refuse unreasonable requests (i.e., 5-page website design for $200). Upon request, however, we are glad to set up a reasonable payment plan to meet your budgetary needs. We hope that the PWYC model and payment plan offers will encourage friends to seek professional creative services despite the size of their budget. No project is too small or too large.

Some of the award-winning services we offer include:

Copywriting

Graphic & Web Design (Editorial, Brand Identity, etc...)

Art Direction

Creative Direction

Creative Brief Development

Creative Strategy Development

Conceptual Problem Solving

Social Media Communications

Photography

Illustration

Portfolio samples can be seen here: www.Leimberger.com

We are grateful for your time and consideration of our win-win proposal. We hope you will share this creative opportunity far and wide.

Respectfully yours,

Chris and Daniel Leimberger

*I am actively seeking full-time job opportunities in my degree field. However, due to the timely nature of our circumstances, the warehouse job will suffice until the right opportunity opens up. If you or someone you know is hiring, please holler! — Thank you, Chris