After Years of Sweat and Tears UWG Alum Yonisha Elmadany Finds Success

Jannette Emmerick

UWG alumni graduate of 2016, Yonisha Elmadany is the CEO of a video production company called “Yoshfilmss.” With over 30,000 followers on instagram @yoshfilmss and a nationwide business, Elmadany helps film content for companies to improve their social media presence.

Elmadany has worked for several multimillion dollar companies, including marketing company Amway, specifically with Artistry, one of the top three makeup brands in the world. Elmadany has also worked with music festivals including Afropunk Festival, ONE Music Fest and Revolt World. She also worked with local companies and social media companies, including hair companies The Cut Life and True Glory.

Elmadany specializes in filming, editing and photography, but when it comes to her success, she boils it down to how she presents herself online.

“They say most people enjoy a story,” said Elmadany. “They said if you decided that you wanted to be the face of your brand, just create a story with your social media. Like, I’m not just an owner of a production company. Like I love fashion, I love music, I love going to festivals and concerts and all of those things. So I tend to create footage of my life doing those things.”

Companies notice Elmadany’s showcased talents on her social media alongside her views and follower count. Still, everyone starts somewhere, and for Elmadany, it began on MySpace in 7th grade.

“I was, like, photoshopping my photos and other people’s photos and I had gained 12,000 followers,” said Elmadany. “Just from creating photoshops and people’s web pages.”

Her mom then bought her a silver Kodak camera with a filming function.

“Me and my brother, we created a music video and I edited it in Windows Movie Maker,” said Elmadany. “I showed this to Mama and she was like, ‘yo, this is, this is wow.’ Like, I made myself, like, ‘pop,’ like appear on the sofa, like it was nobody there.”

Even though Elmadany’s mother acknowledged how talented Elmadany was with editing, she didn’t view video production as a career path, especially where they grew up in a small town of Barnesville.

“She was like, ‘you’re going to be a nurse,’” said Elmadany. “So she made me get into my nursing pathway in high school.  During that time, I was still doing video photography stuff and I went off to college and I didn’t tell her my major until the end of the first semester. When I declared my major as film and media arts, and I told her she was like, ‘What? Are you serious? Like you’re not gonna make any money in that.’”

Still, Elmadany had passion, even though her film dreams were placed on the backburner after graduation. She moved to Savannah with her husband, and ended up as a teacher for a few years, teaching math and special education. However, during her teaching career, she ended up bringing film programs into the school district.

She started her company while teaching and ended up moving back to Atlanta, where at some point, her second gig in filming was for singer and rapper Anderson .Paak.

“It wasn’t even the album released, cause the album hadn’t released yet, as far as his album Oxnard which won a Grammy that following year,” said Elmadany. “It was a very intimate setting. I was able to meet so many people in the industry, which a lot of those connections still send me clients to this day.”

Elmadany landed this gig through reaching out to her husband’s best friend from the military, believing he would have some kind of direction for her. He suggested connecting with Charles, his cousin’s husband, who worked in the industry.

“I still consider [Charles] like my mentor to this day, even though he’s like, ‘I’m not your mentor. You did this on your own, you know?’” said Elmadany.

It wasn’t long after that Elmadany found herself invited to high-end gigs and penthouse parties. Elmadany’s career has been nothing short of a journey seasoned with sweat, determination and no doubt some tears.

“It’s been ups and downs, you know, [there’s] times where you’re overwhelmed,” said Elmadany. “Because early on, I was still teaching and I was going to these Martell events and capturing at like 9-7 p.m., getting back home around like one or two, waking back up to go teach that next morning.”

Still, Elmadany’s hard work paid off to where she can now work full time with her company while also balancing her time with her family. And, eventually, Elmadany’s mother also came around.

“When I showed her my first, like, really big check, it was with True Glory,” said Elmadany. “She was like, ‘Whoa! You made this in like 5-6 hours?’ I was like, ‘yeah.’ She was like, ‘that’s crazy!’— ‘That’s insane!’— ‘Keep going, baby girl— keep going, you got this.’”

The advice Elmadany has to give for students is to work on their own projects while they can and to find mentorship. She also suggests networking “horizontally,” not just trying to network upward, but also connecting with your peers. Ultimately, and as cheesy as it sounds, friendships will take you far in any career.