Meet Shanesia Abrams of JustShay Media in Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shanesia Abrams.

Shanesia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
JustShay Media was a vision birthed after a dream in 2017 about photography. I had a dream that a photo that I took was on the cover of a magazine. I found it very strange because I had never picked up a camera before in my life. That Christmas, my grandmother gifted me a Canon Rebel t6. She told me it was an investment and she believed that God had blessed me with the gift of creativity. As an amateur photographer, I wanted to practice on anyone and everyone that would let me. I started initially offering graduation sessions for $25 to any graduate at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, who would let me take their photos. The early ones were bad, really bad. But skills grow better with time and dedication. Eventually, my graduation audience grew from UAB to schools all across the state of Alabama, and grad clients turned into models, influencers, and brands.

In 2018 along with photography, I began offering branding and marketing services to small businesses that needed assistance. My services included product images, website design, content creation, and social media management. Fast forward, I am now a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, I have relocated to Atlanta, Georgia where I have a full-time career as a marketing coordinator, and my brand JustShay Media is 2 years old and has now surpassed 100+ clients served.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In entrepreneurship, you’re definitely going to face some struggles. With creating a brand from the ground up, a lot of the decisions I made early on, I wish I could undo. When I first began photography, I allowed myself to get really overexerted with working. It was work, school, second job, then JustShay Media. I never devoted enough time to really fostering my relationship with the Lord the way that I wish I would have, so when I did finally crash, I felt like I had no cushion. My faith is very strong now, but it has not always been that way. So in seasons where my business slowed down or things weren’t going the way that I would have liked, my faith wavered, which made me want to give up on the thing that I had worked so hard for. If I could go back in time, I would have made God the center of not just my business but my entire life because he is the reason for my gift.

JustShay Media – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
JustShay Media is a multimedia company that specializes in photography, web site design, digital branding, and marketing. JustShay Media is most known for our high-quality photography work, most popular from our graduation portraits. As a company, I am most proud of the investments I have continued to make to better the quality of work I produce and also the time and effort that I spend to make sure my customers are satisfied.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career happened in December 2019. My most popular shoot to date entitled “Love Again” inspired by the motion picture Queen and Slim was noticed by movie director Lena Waithe. Lena shared the photo twice on her Instagram story and it brought a ton of traffic to my page. The engagement for that post was over 20k+.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.justshaymedia.com
• Email: info@justshaymedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justshaymedia/

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