tldr; Go to your forum profile and enable the 'expert' badge to show on your profile pic before anything else. Have a workflow for handling store images in bulk.
Trying to make sense of this and I am part of the Partner Program and just begining to wade into the blogs and forums.
Your original post was phrased as if you hadn't joined the partner program yet.
Login and go to https://ecommerce.shopify.com/forums at the top is the partners section.
I am not getting a ton of guidance from my support manager
Your contact is there to assist with faq,technical issues,etc; don't rely on it for your understanding of how to do business via the platform. Go with your first instinct and seek tutelage with a partner.
Search like crazy through the forums and subscribe to the boards, relevant to you, this gets you email notifications.
I had someone else tell me I needed to set up a store in addition to my Expert Profile
Yes either for yourself as a portfolio demo or as a pro-bono service for a client so you understand the process. Since it's a .myshopify under your control having all the content blank|default is not in your favor when you link it professionaly. If you really want to impress sell service through the platform.
Because of this you should add content, play with theme settings and install image related apps as you will get a lot of questions about things like slideshows,image-size,etc. Have a shopify-workflow for bulk editing a stores images you will regret it if you don't.
I had originally put in a link to my Expert Profile
Go to your forum profile and enable the 'expert' badge to show on your profile pic.
If your trying to drum up work, in addition to co-ordinating with other partners, subscribe to https://ecommerce.shopify.com/c/ecommerce-gallery and network with any store-owners that need photo work. Bad product photography is a daily cliche there in need of better solutions/critiques and will acclerate your familiarization with the platform through involvement.
What I really need is Shopify 101 for rookies :-)
https://docs.shopify.com/partners, after that you'll find the need to be a self-directed learner quite a steep curve.