We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carlos “Litos” Lemus a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carlos “Litos”, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission and business name are influenced by the exact same thing, the birth of my son. My son was just under 2 months old when I found out my position/department had been terminated and I had to start looking for a job. With no idea how we’d make ends meet meanwhile I found something steady, I started dreaming about a life as an entrepreneur. I was scared. I had a family that was depending on the income. I knew I had to figure something out: I needed a name, a mission, and an overall game plan. So I began to ask myself why I was doing this and what motivated me. The answer was my son and my wife. After days of sitting on these questions, Eleven6, my son’s birth day, just made so much sense.

Just as my son was my wife and I’s first step into parenthood, my mission became to be there for everyone’s first step towards their big life goals. I decided to take all my past work experience and use that to help all my clients.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

It’s safe to say being in my industry has been a loooong time coming! I’ve always known that I want to be of service for other people. Some of it is tied to my faith, but it’s also a gift that I’ve been given to connect and understand people. I graduated from Cal with my BA in psychology with a goal to pursue my PsyD and go into counseling and therapy. During this time I came to realize that I’ve always had a passion for cameras and storytelling. I started unlocking memories as a child grabbing my mothers video camera and recording, creating a short film with my cousin, snapping photos with my uncles DSLR, and asking my mom for disposable cameras and developing the film rolls. So what did I do with this self-discovery? I got into marketing. I decided to focus on consumer behavior to not feel like I was throwing away my psychology-related dreams, and began learning how I can utilize creative assets in businesses. This felt like a dream!

While living in northern California, I started as a photographer for a wine distribution company, then became a marketing assistant for a medical group. Once I moved back to Los Angeles, I got a job as a social media manager at a kitchenware company. I had no clue what I was doing, but my boss took a chance on me. This role turned into a Digital Marketing Manager where I learned advertising, email marketing, and sales. Eventually I turned into the Operations Manager, where I managed a small team of employees, implemented internal communication processes, improved operational processes, oversaw wholesale accounts from big box retailers and smaller independent stores, and still helped with our overall marketing efforts. This was the place that developed my entrepreneurial spirit. I then went on to be the Creative Director of a church.

Starting my business in March 2023 was the culmination of everything I experienced and made it a goal to be there for everyone’s first step. To feed the storyteller in me, I started capturing weddings. There’s no better feeling than putting together moments of a couple’s most special day. I also needed to feed the analytical and strategic part of me so I decided to expand into the business space. My goal is to help small businesses, restaurants, churches, and realtors feel like they have a partner in me. I know running a business is hard and you have to wear many hats so I like being a thought partner with my clients. Overall my core services include – videography, photography, and graphic design. Other services that I offer are social media management, website management, advertising, and email marketing. The latter is primarily for the clients that would like to put more effort into their marketing, but might not have the means to have a full-time hire or hire a marketing agency.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I worked in non-creative roles for about a decade so I understand the administrative, logical, analytical mind. I think executives, leaders, and management who don’t understand creative roles try to hold creative work to the same standard as everything else, but it’s not the same. Here are few things I can share based on my experience in both creative and non-creative work:

1. Creative work is nothing like administrative work. I wish I could plug in a formula and get an output. Unfortunately, creative work is not like Excel.

2. Creative work doesn’t always have a schedule. Some of my best work happens deep in the hours of the night and other times it’ll happen at the start of my day. This doesn’t mean to not give myself timelines, but I do want to set healthy, realistic timelines. This leads me to my next thought.

3. Creative work cannot be rushed. If you want something delivered with a fast turnaround or you want more done in less amount of time, then you’ll have to compromise quality. At that point you should hold yourself accountable for setting rushed, unrealistic timelines.

4. Creative work needs time to process and direct. Sometimes it seems like we’re doing nothing, but our brains are firing on all cylinders. Those are the moments we need to redirect ourselves and get a birds-eye view of where we’re at. I’ve worked on a video project for hours, only to have to do things all over the next morning because it no longer made sense, it wasn’t the story I envisioned, or it wasn’t looking the way I wanted it to.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

1. Never lose sight of the fact that you’re working with people. 2. You should check any ego and/or pride at the door because the role of a leader is to serve your team. Your job is to empower them and equip them.
3. You’ll be more effective in getting your employees or team onboard with your vision and direction if you show them you care about them. Power-tripping won’t foster loyalty from your team.
4. If you’re not good with people, hire someone that is.
5. If you have a high turnover rate, the problem lies in your management.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eleven6creative.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/litomayne
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lemuscarlosm
• Other: Creative Work Instagram: www.instagram.com/eleven6creatives Wedding Work Instagram: www.instagram.com/eleven6weddings