We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elijah Frith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elijah , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

In the creative industry it is a common struggle that people do not ever want to pay you what you are worth. Many creatives struggle with receiving compensation that matches their skillset. I’ve lost a lot of connections by not succumbing to the monetary standard that people judge my work with. At the end of the day, if you are a creative it is most important to stand your ground and to refuse to settle for less.

Elijah , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Growing up I was always bullied about being overweight, I was always outcast that never blended in with the crowd during the summer of 2016 the bullying became unbearable and It led to me making a decision that changed my life forever. I cut all the fast food and empty calories out my diet and jogged 3.5 miles every day under South Florida’s scorching hot sun. I began shedding skin like a snake sheds skin in no time. I ended up losing 50 pounds in the course of 3 months. The first day of Junior year was arguably the most memorable day of my life. As I walked through the halls and said hi to people I haven’t seen in months, I was met with faces of confusion. Nobody recognized me. People really did not believe that I was Elijah because of how visible the weight loss was. I revived so many compliments and began embracing being an outcast. Losing all the weight drastically changed my mindset. My self esteem, confidence, and standards all changed in a blink of an eye. The bullying immediately stopped. Since then I’ve become a fitness enthusiast and helped some of the very people who uses to make me feel less than human with achieving there fitness goals.

My passion for fashion was always intense but since I was overweight I wasn’t able to express myself through my apparel the way I wanted to. When I shedded all my weight it allowed me to wear the slim fit clothes that I always loved to wear. It quickly became evident to me that I wanted to model. At the time I was a senior in Highschool and knew I was moving to California for school so I decided I’d start my career there. In the beginning of freshman year of college I vividly remember stopping anyone that I saw with a camera and asking if they’d be down to shoot me sometime. Ofc this lead to a few yes’s and a few no’s but I never ended up working with any of them anyway. I grew my network by attending group photoshoots and local model mixers in Oakland and San Francisco. It was a great experience meeting like-minded individuals. From there I became more aggressive and began dming people specifically that I wanted to work with for the sake of growing my portfolio. As I got better and marketed myself better more people wanted to work with me which led to me growing even more. Now I am at the point where I am ready to turn my hobby into my prophecy.

I want my future clients to know that when you book me to represent your product/service, you are booking someone who values your image just as much as their own. I carry out every booking with equivalent effort, tenacity, and passion

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Yes Modeling is my passion but I also plan on owning my own modeling agency where I plan on creating a space for likeminded, passionate models to elevate their career to new hieghts.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started modeling As soon as i graduated High school. I moved from South Florida to Oakland California. From there I grew my network by attending local creative mixers where i was able to create long term connections, local clothing store owners and build my social media

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.instagram.com/elijah_ig_/?hl=en
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elijah_ig_/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrTDmNvs3X02BVd5G5l0-hg

Image Credits
@studio1764andy