We recently connected with John Murrel III and have shared our conversation below.
Hi John, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
My career started off wild. I was very well known in social media creative spaces, but then ended up changing that path to start film production. The switch was hard because when it boils down to film production, there is always going to be a trust factor in the mix with your clients. I struggled for a full year trying to sell my services until I realized that I was selling the wrong thing. I didn’t start making really good money until I started marketing my personality rather than just my services. In other words, I would do a lot of work for free and then build my clients off of the free work that I did. Rather than to just be another cameraman for a person to hire. The best thing that I was told was “Be Personable”. Everyone wants to make money, but not every person knows how. Establishing that personal connection with your client will boost your career to high amounts!
John, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is John Lee Murrel III and I am a 20 year old Film and Media Production Business Owner. When it comes to film, I want to be able to display the talent here in St. Louis, Missouri that gets over looked by the masses. So many people have went their entire lives without taking that next step. Mostly because through certain seasons, it never seems remotely possible. I will change that.
I have a total of two years working freelance video, built the entirety of my business off of film production, but I am not just that camera guy. Not only would I be able to provide amazing content that speaks to a business’s demographic, but also get your content “seen” by that demographic. Being able to provide a plethora of value to not just businesses, but the teams that I work on is what keeps the people satisfied. I long to bring great value to all of my clients and I am dedicated to helping your business receive growth from all platforms.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
When I was 18 years old, I had my mind set on attending University for my Masters Program in Cyber Security. Unfortunately, in 2020 a lot of us didn’t get the college experience that we signed up for. However, everyone in my senor class prevailed except me. My adjustment to Remote Learning took a way longer process than most others and it showed through my attendance rate. When I wasn’t in class, I was making silly comedy sketches on TikTok and they were horrible. None of my TikTok post would ever see numbers higher than a couple hundred views until I made a post about LED lights in my bedroom. That video then changed my complete outlook on social media and how many people I could actually reach in the matter of minutes. This video ended up peaking at 1.5 million views and 250 thousand likes. For the rest of 2020 I had came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a Social Media Creator fulltime. Therefore, I dropped out college and pursued Social Media Affiliate Marketing.
I navigate life with my personal quote “life is so much easier when you are not judging yourself for being yourself”. That is my biggest advise I could give in regards to social media. It is so easy to lose yourself, or lose sight of what you were called to do. However, majority of the time, it is just us being humans and judging ourselves. Always strive to be yourself unapologetically then you’ll see that it is easy to just make videos.
Have you ever had to pivot?
While I was making TikToks, I started to realize something that a lot of people around me started to observe. I became almost like a zombie enslaved to the community I was posting for. I no longer felt that spark of creativity that I once had. Mostly, because everyone was pretty much covering the same content or making the same videos as others within the same community. Unfortunately, this cause me to have multiple mental breakdowns because I have always known about my personal creative potential. I just never knew how to get other people to know about it. This resulted in a 6 month break from my TikTok platform diminishing every last boost of momentum I’ve had. This made me desperate for a fresh start. So I decided to bring matters into my own hands by starting my film business. This gave me the creative outlet that I was looking for. Now I am writing films, music videos, commercials and adding other aspects of my creativity in the mix.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.studioinfinite.productions/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jxinfinite/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvWLCuEWP3JdNsXxm0LS09w
- Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnmurrel?lang=en