We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Johnny Steele . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Johnny below.

Johnny , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I can tell you the greatest risk I’ve taken was investing in me and taking the leap of faith in what I do today. Before I got into my craft, I was working as a Paraprofessional at a Behavioral school in the Chicago suburbs. I worked with kids that aged from Pre School to young adults as old as 22. I always had a urge to help kids who had a similar up bringing as myself. It was a great experience and taught me more about myself then I figured it would. I remember one day waking up for work realizing that this could be it forever. Don’t get me wrong I love helping the kids and liked the people I worked with for the most part. But I just couldn’t bare the idea of my creativeness dying with me. My step dad would always tell me growing up you can’t say you failed if you didn’t even try. So here we are today thriving.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

My names Johnny Steele I’m 28 was born and raised in the midwest and I’m a Videographer/Photographer. How I got started was really just how I grew up. My mom would always be watching movies, comedy’s, 80’s classics and horror films. I honestly can’t tell you a time growing up there wasn’t a movie on the tv. I always enjoyed the time we all spent as a family together watching a movie. The popcorn my dad would make us, the time everyone jumps in that scary part of the movie. Just the whole thing for me was something I liked. But as I grew older that passion was always there, would always think to myself “man I would make a badass movie”. Just cause of how often I was watching movies I felt I had a understanding of it. Kinda how people learn music by ear sorta thing. One day I’m at friend of mines house who happens to be a tattoo artist. he mentioned he needed a photographer to help with his Instagram account . So I went out got a camera and started creating content.
As far as my style goes I try not say I’m one thing. It really just depends on how I feel while I’m filming or what’s coming to mind at the time. I try my best to be elusive as possible when it comes to my work. But what I mainly enjoy filming is horror based content.
To me filming is a way of life. There’s no right or wrong way to do something. That’s what CrimsonTV is all about. Being different and being comfortable with who we are. But with all this comes a price, if you want to be successful in this business you have to have to be disciplined. If you’re not willing to sacrifice weekends with friends and time with family then you won’t go far. Especially for people who want to be self taught like myself. Everything for me was trial and error. It was frustrating at first but the way I saw it was if I’m not failing I’m not learning.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective for me was when I started being myself. I started creating more content for me instead of what I thought people wanted to see. Who we are and how we express ourselves is so subjective that it’s really a waste if you don’t create honestly and true to yourself.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This whole last 2years just shows how driven I am. In the start of it all I never had money, friends were always telling me to “quite and maybe I need something stable”.. it was tough and got to me at points and I did almost quite, many many times. Just a few months ago I went on a trip to film at a tattoo convention not knowing if I would make any money. I had 42$ in my bank account to get me through the weekend and I came out making a profit. Was able to pay my rent and finally enjoy the hard work I put in.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @FatherPlague
• Facebook: Johnny Steele
• Youtube: FatherPlague