Meet Lauren “Lo” Enriquez of Capeesh in IE – LA – OC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren “Lo” Enriquez.

Lauren “Lo”, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Becoming a photographer/videographer came completely out of the blue. When I left high school, I had the classic scramble of “okay where do I go from here now?!”. All I knew was I really loved people and listening to stories and I really loved music. I ended up signing up for Cosmetology school, thinking that I could carry out my love of people while being creative with hair. I thought I found my forever career. When I graduated from school and passed my state board test, I already had a job waiting for me in a high-end salon in Pasadena. As I started practicing hair in the real world and taking real clients, I slowly felt the feeling of “this isn’t for me” creep in every day. I was super scared, my parents had just put me through school and I thought a career change would make me look like a failure. I prayed a lot and sat and asked myself “What is going to make me happy? What is something I can do every day and not get sick of?”. I ended up talking to the owners of the salon and told them I didn’t think hair was for me but that I was super interested in helping with the business side of the salon – social media, taking pictures of the clients, helping with events, etc. They agreed and my job over time became social media manager, taking photos for the stylists of their clients and maintaining the salon’s high profile reputation. The whole time, just using my phone and a ring light.

Around this time, my best friend Jordan had come in the salon to get a cut and expressed to me that he was trying to become a model, but he needed to get a portfolio together so he can pitch himself to agencies. I told him I didn’t think my phone would be the best to shoot for a portfolio but that my mom had a little consumer camera at home that she occasionally used to take pictures of my little sister. When I say, my mom was protective of this camera… I would have to sneak it out of the house and dread the “WHERE’S MY CAMERA!” texts in the middle of the day. I’ll never forget the first shoot Jordan and I did – still some of my favorite shots I have. We both knew there was something about me and a camera that made sense.

As Jordan and I started building his portfolio, we fell in love with improving – him in modeling and me in photography. For a solid two years of both of our lives, we dedicated every spare minute between work and school to shooting. I would wake up at 6am to make my hour commute to the salon, work my 8 hour shift, drive an hour home to meet up with Jordan, and drive back to LA where we would stay until 3 – sometimes 4am just driving around looking for backgrounds that inspired us. No money involved. Just us wanting to get better. As Jordan ran out of clothes for us to shoot, I started to post on my Instagram advertising that if any small brands wanted to send us gear that we would shoot it for free. When we got our first box of merch, it clicked for both of us – that we could actually get paid for this and make a career from this. I ended up leaving the salon and started at a creative agency called Times10 as a social media coordinator. Here I met so many amazing people that sacrificed their lunch breaks to teach me how to use the “big camera” (Niko and Eman) or put me on game as to the different lanes you could pursue in a creative world (Kory, Tanisha, Sabriya). I had no idea leaving the salon that there were people making a living off of ideas alone.

While I was at Times10, Michael Watson was creative directing an artist signed to Def Jam. He had a music video coming up and he needed some extra hands, which I gladly volunteered for. At this shoot, I fell in love. I fell in love with music videos, the process of creating an idea from scratch to convey the message in the song. It lit a fire inside of me that never died. Leaving Times10, I picked up a job at The Mag Park – a shoe consignment store. I started as helping with content for social media – shooting product. My job quickly became more than content creation and I was hired as the CEO’s (Miki) assistant. I loveeeeed this job, I learned so much about how to run a business and how to manage a team at a young age, but I felt like I put my creative side on the back burner. I ended up being offered a position at a competing consignment store for my “dream position”, Marketing. I felt weary about the jump, I loved the Mag Park team. I left and ended up starting at the other store with the focus on getting back into a day to day position where I could be creative.

After eight months of working here, a full revamp of the social media and consistent growth, I was let go out of the blue. The owner couldn’t explain to the investors the value I brought and why social media was important to their bottom line. I was absolutely devastated and depressed, questioning if I was even good enough to take photos or do great marketing. I was still using the consumer camera, a $400 camera, and I knew that if I wanted to get anywhere in photography, I had to take a chance on myself and invest in it. I took the last of my money and bought my 5D Mark IV, texted everyone in my contact list, was extremely vulnerable, and told them that I’m taking this photography thing seriously and to let me know of any gig that pops up – but this time in the music industry. I knew that there were companies and people in this world that didn’t understand the value of the creative mind and GOOD storytelling content. I prayed and prayed for God to guide me while I made this huge jump. I knew this is what I wanted but I just didn’t know where to start. I promised myself that I would create a space where mine or my employees whole world wouldn’t be flipped upside down if an investor decided to cancel marketing efforts and to work with companies that value what I (we) bring. Thus – Capeesh was born – a creative agency specializing in content creation.

When I tell you that once you align yourself in your purpose and let God work, the blessings just fall in line. I got a call from my friend Lysh who connected me with my first and oldest client is Delicious Vinyl Island – an indie record label that distributes reggae music. Then another client – a new dispensary in Santa Ana called Tropicanna. I was ecstatic. I couldn’t believe it was falling in place. Three months after I was fired, my photo/name was in Billboard. I went on to shoot for Complexcon, Agenda, Footlocker (love you Kacie), Lululemon, Combs Enterprises, Ciroc (S/O Cierra), Ruff Ryders, Verzuz (DMX vs. Snoop Dogg), a bunch of listening parties and countless artists that I had only dreamed of shooting including my hero photographer, Lenny S. (everything and more on my website.) Fast forward to now, I feel so honored to have worked with the people/brands I’ve worked with so far, and so looking forward to building Capeesh’s team bigger and creating more amazing content.

Has it been a smooth road?
The biggest struggle since starting a business has been time management, making sure I’m making an effort to pour life into my family and friends as well as my business and art.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Capeesh – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Capeesh is a boutique creative agency that specializes content creation for brands, artists, and events within the sneaker and music industry. I’m most proud of Capeesh being featured in Billboard within the first year of business, as well as working with artists of all levels and genres and treating each project the same.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love the history and the different cultures of LA. How you can talk to 2 people in LA and they can have such contrasting stories but live so close to one another. I’ve always been so inspired by LA that I grew up around one of the staple cities in the world. Truly a city that has so much opportunity. The only thing I would change about LA is obviously the traffic!

Contact Info:

• Website: capeeshla.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @laurenenriquezz / @capeesh.la

Image Credit:
Capeesh LLC

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