We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steven Wong Jr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Steven below.
Hi Steven, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My core work ethic comes from my parents. They did not come from much, working for everything they had, solely focusing on raising me and my brother, to give us the opportunity they never had. They did a great job in showing me that you can achieve a great deal with a great work ethic. I try to work as hard as I can to show that their sacrifice was truly worth it. Next to that, is me being a fairly pessimistic person. The fear of failure pushes me to work harder than I normally would, it keeps me motivated at all times. Shoutout to my parents and my inability to be optimistic.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My primary focus is showcasing the work behind-the-scenes of artists throughout social media. I have a background in film marketing, spending 8 years at a feature film stop-motion studio. I always felt marketing of one’s personal work is always focused as a secondary task, I aim to create an easy outlet for artists, well-known or undiscovered, to showcase their craft properly. This, in turn, allows me to have the ability to create unique perspectives in telling the artists’ stories. It’s a great experience to travel a bit and have the creative freedom to tell their stories while not being under a corporate umbrella. Mostly, by sharing their work, I hope it inspires other artists in the community to create. Currently, I’m in works on collaborating with a few stop-motion films, showcasing the production through photos and short video featurettes.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Persistence, Mentorship and Discipline.
With Persistence, there’s lots of times you may want to quit, may it be a project or even a career. The idea that the journey is as important as the goal, always kept me going and tells me that it’s all part of the experience, especially the ups and downs. I never wanted to be the person that said, “I could have” rather than “I did”. With persistence, you’ll have growth and at the end of the day, you’ll get to where you want to go.
With Mentorship, I was fortunate enough to have a few mentors over my career, in turn, I mentor as well, primarily up and coming creatives. I believe it keeps you grounded, to give back to the new generation of artists. It also gives you a great insight into the creative minds of the future and might even positively affect your work as well.
Lastly, with Discipline, sometimes you might get creatively stuck. Fighting through the mental obstacles, in my opinion, will help you in the long run, and keep you accountable on all sorts of projects, easy and difficult. The more discipline you are, I believe, the more successful you can become.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I try to look at the big picture, in my opinion, when you focus too much of what is in front of you, you don’t see how it fits in the bigger puzzle, making you stress out about the little things. Sometimes that one obstacle in front of you, is just a small part of that big puzzle. This usually gives me the perspective that it’s not much of a big deal and you’ll get there if you’re persistent, step by step and piece by piece.
Contact Info:
- Website: stevenwongjr.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenwongjr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenwongjr
Image Credits
Photos shot by Steven Wong Jr of artists Dylan Boyd, Leah Yao, Mike Bennett, Song Kang and Yoo Lee.
