We recently connected with Ethan Leischow and have shared our conversation below.

Ethan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

As a kid, my fondest times are spent making people laugh while having fun with friends and loved ones. I have played sports my whole life from when I could walk, and always loved being a part of a team, winning of course haha. I believe I also deeply loved performing in front of people, entertaining them! I ended up performing in multiple plays with my friends and classmates and even did the talent show – danced and sang to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”! I still love that song and do the dance we performed whenever it comes on haha shoutout Luke McCann especially. Then, in highschool, I got to emcee our class’ Prom! It was so dang fun and an amazing experience that plays a huge part in my journey of creating and entertaining!

So, to fully answer the question, I think I was born to do this professionally. As I have grown into an adult now at 25 years old, there is nothing more I love to do than create a piece of content in ANY form (photo, video, poem, song, beat, etc.) and share it with the world and myself as I am bringing my vision to life! Creating is beautiful and everyone needs to find something to work on and create for themselves and family – or even the world! It brings us together. The world needs that especially today. Music is my favorite thing to create as well as my longer form videos I share on Youtube mainly.

I now get to act and help others’ bring their visions and writing ideas to life which is super fun and fulfilling as it takes a huge team to succeed in the movie business! I am so blessed and grateful others see something in me to also share belief in me to give opportunities for me to showcase and grow while meeting others that do it better and bigger than me! My whole life has just led to these present moments and I am very excited for what is to come! I want everyone around me to always chase their big dreams and never give up! Stay patient, humble, loving, passionate, and genuinely good!

One day, I hope to write my first full feature film!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a 25 year old dude that loves sports, music, family, and capturing all the beautiful, dope moments of life! I got into the entertainment/digital creator industry through watching movies as a kid and honestly apps like Vine and Youtube as I got into my teenage years. I ALWAYS wanted to do it and get involved creating videos going viral, but I never knew how to and was insecure to be honest with you. I did not think I was good-looking or funny enough to create content and was always doubting myself, also fearing what others would say and think of me at school and outside. I was very afraid to chase my dreams until I finally had enough of that small living, putting limits on my own self because of stupid opinions by people who do not pay my bills, nor do their heads hit my pillow at the end of each day wishing I could have the life of my dreams. No, no one will come save you, it is on you to work for what you desire in life, your reality. I started with watching podcasts and videos by people who have what I want in life and live the lifestyle I desire, I studied them- their past, goals, mindsets, obstacles, failures, relationships, everything. I stopped caring what others thought or said when they do not even live the life I desire. Their opinions became irrelevant to me, and I built confidence and faith through working through my own obstacles and failures; shoot, I still do daily! That is life, I have learned and accepted. Life taught me how to be strong, patient, humble, loving, and faithful in the work I do knowing the things I desire are done, time is catching up with me through my work.

I want people to know that is who I am. I work for what my soul desires and it is genuine! I want others to succeed, especially the ones that helped me, too! Every decision should be win-win. I know I must keep learning and growing or the soul and mind starts to die with age. I share this on my social media pages like Instagram and Youtube @imethanleischow , and I also do photography and videography of life on my Instagram page @posteredphotography. Thank you for the support and love!

I also do a bunch of acting and some modeling you can find on my pages there! I am super proud of being able to do what I love daily because that is what life is all about, and some do not find their “why” and passions… I must inspire everyone to find theirs and pursue it their whole life!

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Oh My Gosh, I am not sure if I have enough time to list all of the books, videos, podcasts, and more that has SIGNIFICANTLY impacted my philosophy and work ethic! Haha, well to start, “The Alchemist”, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, “Think and Grow Rich”, “The Power of Now”, ‘Becoming Supernatural”, “Atomic Habits”, “Start With Why”, “The Secret”, and just so many more!!! Ahh everyone must read these and I wish we had to in high school! I really want to make that a thing. Imagine if we taught personal development, emotional intelligence, and spirituality to high schoolers so they learn early! I believe that would easily lower violence, self harm, bad decisions, and an overall bad life by a lot! These things teach one more control, patience, and perspective in life – things I needed bad or I would not have achieved most that I have so far. You do not know what you do not know, so that is why you must keep reading books and learning as a human to keep growing and evolving with time!

The things I share and provide to others is simply from all the content I have consumed in the last 7 years of my life since I started this entrepreneurial journey as a Creative/Artist/Actor!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

It is so simple. Like the posts your friends share to show support as that is the main thing that drives it up in numbers, but also just shows you are supporting the artist- your friend! It also really helps these days to comment, share, and save the posts! Artists and creatives spend so much time on everything they create! From the vision, to the brainstorming of ideas of how to bring the vision to life, to actually working and putting your skills to work to create the vision, then have enough confidence to share it with the world, potentially millions of people, to see and judge!? It is awesome, and everyone is out there consuming content, so the best thing society can do is simply show love and support every one that is out their creating! Imagine if no one created! No one would have art to go be in awe of, no posts to scroll on social media, no movies and shows to watch,,, We are all human, so let’s be supportive of each other, and yes, provide constructive criticism, but no hateful comments please.

Do your best to take care of your self, then share that care and love with the people around you! Community is important and we need each other, so support small businesses, small creators, independent filmmakers, and hard working individuals to the best you can! Thank you, it is so important!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imethanleischow/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ethan.leischow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@imethanleischow
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/posteredphotography/

Image Credits

@christhaphtographeraz on Instagram (red carpet and industry event night images)
@xavierhallvisuals on Instagram (image of me taking the picture with my camera)