From Ash to Gold: Jeremiah Claughton.

Meet my cuzzo Jeremiah — Jeremiah is the DOPEST creative I know in Richmond, Virginia. He is the co-founder & co-owner of Enfocus Media & has interned with the Washington Football Team. I asked him a few questions about creativity & what his process looked like.

Tell us about yourself. I'm Jeremiah Claughton & a dope creative from Richmond, VA. I have 5 brothers & a sister and I'm a triplet. (I don't tell anyone though, lol.) I'm a co-owner of Enfocus Media with one of my brothers and my close friend.

What is creativity? I think creativity is freedom, I think when a person is free in their mind its unlimited potential and when that happens creativity can go crazy!

How did your creative journey begin? My creative journey begins when I was a kid. At first I was really interested in music. I tried to be a drummer & a rapper when I was a kid because I was so interested in music and the creative way Kanye West produced and rapped. I soon realized that I'm not Kayne West. When I was a junior in highschool, I joined a class called IB TV & Film Production — joining it thinking that it would be a easy class but I fell in love with everything about it. I learned everything from editing film to learning about dark rooms to making storyboards & after that the rest was history!

What does content creation mean to you? Content creation means exactly what it is. Creating content. Coming up with dope things for people. Plain & simple.

How did you begin to develop your brand? I started to develop my brand really about 3 years ago in 2018. I was frustrated because I felt I was stuck working at my 9-5 job. So I came up with an idea to create a video a week and post on Instagram & I called it 'Cinematic Sundays.' At the time I didn't personally have a camera so I used my iPhone. I looked up all this stuff & I got my iPhone rigged up to look like a DSLR camera. I did it for over 30 weeks straight; On my day off, I would go out & film around somewhere in Richmond. After my first video I got a message from someone working with the Washington Football Team seeing if I can be their Media Manager for the alumni players. Just making that leap to start putting something out every week and using the power of the Internet helped build my brand and got my work notice by people I never even thought would see it.

How did you know your creative eye was evolving? I knew my creative eye was evolving when I would look at my old work & think I was super trash! In my opinion you don't really know until you look at the stuff you did & say I have come a long way. You just focus on the grind & trying to get better everyday.

Where do you see your brand going? I see my brand spreading everywhere. Especially with this business I have with my partners. The way me & my friends move and think is just different. It's kind of hard to explain, I think it comes from seeing so many people before us become successful so it doesn't seem far-fetched. I can see myself doing work for the NFL because I already had experience working with a Football Team. I can see myself being a creative for a shoe company like Nike or Adidas because I know someone personally doing that in that field. I can see myself being a owner of a multi million dollar company, because I know someone personally that is. I think what you focus on expands so if you focus on building your brand & making it global you can make that happen.

What are your favorite platforms to use to showcase your work? My favorite platform to showcase my work is Instagram, even though Instagram kills the resolution of your videos and pictures. Most of the people my age & the audience I'm trying to reach is on Instagram.

If you could pick ANYONE (local, famous, alive/dead) to be on your creative team, who would be included? If I can choose anyone to be on my creative team I think it would be Diddy. Diddy is my spirit animal! His grind, vision and look for everything is something I am inspired by. He's the GOAT in my opinion.

Where can we book you & follow you? You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at @officialjmiah & definitely follow my business page at @enfocusmedia on Instagram & visit our website at enfocusmedia.com — we have some really dope stuff on there and promotions that we are going to be releasing soon!