Jeriah Miller and Jordon Lecount standing with some of their tech equipment. Photo by Moira Blazi, The Montanian.
By Moira Blazi
Jeriah Miller grew up in an industrious Amish family. “I always had a lemonade stand or something going, I was always trying to sell stuff. I was very inspired by my grandpa Ora Miller”. He told the Montanian with a smile.
Jeriah watched a lot of inspirational videos on you-tube and Ted talks, by speakers such as Jordan Peterson, Tai Lopez and Gary Vaynerchuck.
“I took their advice seriously and became very passionate about starting a business”. “I had a youtube channel when I was younger and in 2016 I began thinking about making videos for other people, not because I had an interest and aptitude for it, but because I was just super passionate about starting a business. I knew I needed to find a partner.”
One day while filming with his drone, Miller was fortunate enough to run into Jordan Lecount who was riding his mountain bike and who just happened to have serious talent for photography.
“we took a big leap of faith, Jordan quit his job”, and they started Big Sky Media.
Right away, Miller and Lecount, began by creating promotional videos for Millers family company, Meadowlark Log Homes. They generated over 20,000 subscribers and 4,000,000 views on YouTube, increased sales for the Log Home company, and helped Miller pay back his family for the start-up funds. They then built a portfolio by doing more videos for friends and acquaintances.
“The future of advertising is social media” Miller told the Montanian, “ some people are still shy about spending money to promote their business on Facebook, but the reality is more and more people are starting to treat social media like “real advertising” , he added. “we’ve had to do business outside of Libby, but we would like to have a bigger local customer base, we’re just not to that point yet.”
To be successful at this work, Miller and Lecount needed to produce stunning images and videos, and Lecount was just the guy for the job.
“I started messing around with a small Cannon back in 2015, I was always out taking lots of photos. I got a GoPro and made some videos of my friends riding downhill, then I took out a loan and bought my first DSLR.” Lecount told the Montanian, “I am inspired by local photographers Catharine Dodson, who is an amazing portrait photographer and by Bob Hosea,” he continued “and by Bryan Sanderson’s drone photography.”
Lecount says he has enough photos for a gallery, including beautiful photographs of the awesome Montana night sky. He has made some canvass prints of his photos and mastered the technique of creating amazing panoramic photos by merging over 20 photos together. He says he will have a gallery somewhere soon.
Right now, Lecount is just too busy producing high quality promotional video for a variety of clients. “We are working on video projects for Hecla.” Miller told the Montanian.
“We support mining and we understand that opening the mines would benefit our community of Libby”. Said Miller. “We need a ton of copper and natural resources to create the technology for renewable energy, and in the united states, mining doesn’t hurt the environment because there are so many checks in place on them now, natural resources are needed and it’s far better for the environment to mine the resources here instead of someplace like China where they don’t have any regulations that protect the environment”.
Lecount added. “We want to promote more local events, and we will be filming some of this summer’s events in Libby to show people what we can do, (including the Farmers Market and Riverfront Blues festival)”
Lecount told the Montanian, “We focus on short, dynamic videos that elicit emotional responses. Our goal is to businesses succeed, we can produce real results for almost any small business using video combined with social media marketing to drive more customers to your business over time, and potentially increase your sales”, Miller said. “we are practical and pragmatic, combining business with art.”
They also are very aware that they can be powerful inspiration to the young people of Libby. “I live in town and I have lots of friends our age who are really trying to get something going in their lives. What we are putting out, others are picking up on, our enthusiasm is definitely wearing off” added Lecount.
Big Sky Media can be reached by phone at 406 334 3013 , on-line at www.bigsky.media or email them at jordan@bigsky.media.