Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Carlos Dueweke-Perez.
Hi Juan Carlos, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Featherstone Moments has three beginnings.
The first goes back to my childhood. As a toddler, I used to play with an old film camera. I don’t remember much from those early years, but in 2010, I pursued photography seriously. Over the next five years, I immersed myself in both commercial and people-focused photography, slowly developing not just technical skill, but an understanding of how emotion and human connection shape an image.
The second beginning started when I was 11 years old. My family began making cheesecakes and flans at home, and my stepdad and I would go door to door selling them. Eventually, I became the face of the business. Looking back, those years taught me one of the most important lessons I still carry today: how to listen. Selling wasn’t about talking people into something. It was about understanding people, building trust, and learning how to connect.
The third beginning came in 2013 while I was working at Starbucks. At the time, I thought my future was becoming a barista and eventually opening my own coffee shop. But coffee shops are really crossroads for people and stories. Every day, I observed conversations, personalities, struggles, and dreams intersecting in real time. Instead of becoming a barista, I became someone deeply interested in listening and observing. Through those conversations, I began to notice patterns, possibilities, and connections.
While working there, I met Kimberly Faisan, who was then the Executive Director of ProsperUs Detroit. She invited me to participate in the entrepreneur training program, and by August 2015, I left Starbucks to pursue business full-time.
Much like the cheesecake business years earlier, I began knocking on doors, offering photography and social media services to local mom-and-pop businesses. Over time, the work gained momentum, our team grew, and Featherstone Moments evolved into a full-service marketing agency.
Over the next decade, the company adapted constantly. At its peak, our team grew to 11 employees. During that time, we contributed to campaigns and projects such as Southwest Detroit Restaurant Week, the launch of Baobab Fare, Voices from the Grassroots, and the People of ProsperUs storytelling series.
But growth also came with growing pains. The pandemic, rapid expansion, and the demands of agency life forced us to reflect deeply on what kind of work truly mattered. Over the last several years, we returned to our visual storytelling roots, now carrying with us a decade of experience in marketing, branding, and public relations.
Today, Featherstone Moments focuses on storytelling through both an artistic and a strategic lens. We tell stories in people’s own words. We embrace the behind-the-scenes moments that make brands human. Most importantly, we try to honor the authenticity of culture, identity, and community in every project we take on.
Alright, 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?
Not at all. One of the biggest challenges came during the pandemic. Demand for our services grew rapidly, and in response, we expanded into Featherstone Agency to reflect the broader range of work we were taking on.
In many ways, it was a blessing. During a difficult and uncertain time, we had work, momentum, and opportunity. But growth also came with heavier responsibilities. We were trying to build a team culture that reflected our values while also maintaining the quality and creativity we cared deeply about.
As the projects became larger and more demanding, the work also became faster and more reactive. Eventually, we found ourselves constantly producing, constantly responding, constantly moving. Somewhere along the way, the work began to lose the intentionality that made it meaningful in the first place.
That period affected me personally more than I expected. I started asking difficult questions:
Why are we doing this? What is the purpose behind the work? What is actually worth building?
It took nearly three years of reflection to fully process those questions. Then, at the beginning of 2026, our small team intentionally returned to the name Featherstone Moments. In many ways, that decision symbolized a return to clarity and focus.
Looking back, the biggest challenge wasn’t failure. It was losing focus by trying to become too many things at once. But that journey also taught us what kind of company we truly want to become.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Featherstone Moments?
Featherstone Moments is a boutique storytelling studio specializing in video and photography for retail businesses, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy.
What makes our approach unique is that we operate at the intersection of storytelling and marketing. We approach projects both as documentarians and as strategists. That means we care deeply about preserving the honesty and humanity of a story, while also understanding how stories need to function within modern marketing ecosystems.
We balance authenticity with intentional communication. That includes everything from narrative structure and visual identity to audience connection, platform strategy, and design efficiency.
At the heart of our work is trust. We spend time understanding the people, culture, and vision behind every brand so we can translate those elements into stories that feel genuine and emotionally resonant.
We’re also bilingual in English and Spanish, and much of our work has centered around underrepresented communities, immigrant-owned businesses, and culturally rooted organizations.
What we’re most proud of is the evolution of our storytelling voice. Over the years, our work has become more elegant, more intentional, and more grounded in authentic human experiences. Some of the recent projects closest to us include the People of ProsperUs series, which we’ve helped shape over the last three years, as well as supporting the storytelling efforts surrounding Little Liberia as it officially opened its doors to the public in 2026 (can you believe we’ve been working together since 2018?).
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
The name “Featherstone” comes from my time working at Starbucks.
Fueled by ambition and curiosity, I created a drink called “Featherstone.” It was a double-tall soy vanilla London Fog with a chamomile tea bag added in. It was inspired by the song by the Paper Kites.
What stayed with me even more than the drink itself were the friendships and conversations that grew around it. In a strange way, that little drink captured something that still exists in the company today: creating experiences that bring people together and leave a lasting feeling behind.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://featherstonemoments.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/featherstonemoments/
- Other: Contact: perla@featherstonemoments.com
