Rising Stars: Meet Dondre Campbell of East Valley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dondre Campbell.

Hi Dondre, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I got laid off in holiday 2023 and that sucked haha. I was in the mortgage industry before all this (yea, I know, pretty different from media) and I had to start from the bottom if I started at a new company.

So I just took a major jump into doing photos, which led into videos, doing photoshop projects, now I do media and I also work for 13th Floor Entertainment as their marketer. It snowballed from one thing into another, it worked out in the end haha.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
LMAO, no. The amount of times I looked at LinkedIn, googled “now hiring in blah blah”, it really does take a mental toll on you. Like one day you’ll feel on top of the world and next thing you’re just in Rock Bottom (shoutout Spongebob) down bad.

It’s all a mental game at the end of the day, ain’t really no one telling you “you can’t do it” except for you.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I do videos and photos, fields are normally sports and music.

For sports, I work with schools (shoutout Camelback High) and student athletes with content. Either making highlight reels (aka: “mixes”) or just giving them flicks for exposure. Most I’m proud of is doing media for NAU basketball (massive shoutout to Oakland and Madison). I was born in Winslow so Flagstaff is my 2nd home from The Valley.

Music, I just dipped into music videos. I was doing small recaps for bands, but I wanted to carry more than 30 seconds of content. Most proud moment is going on tour with Peelingflesh, Snuffed on Sight, Two Piece and Corpse Pile (Big shoutout to Dusty and Dillon, love those dudes.)

From what I seen, personally, is people can reach out to me outside of the whole media stuff. Band members and student athletes holler at me just to talk. It’s fun being a normal person outside my role.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I never had a mentor so I’mma suck at this haha! It’s mainly being 100% open to EVERYTHING tossed at you. I didn’t start off doing shows I wanted off rip, I was covering my homie’s country band in the beginning and the amount of things I experienced at the functions, crazy haha.

So ya, just keep an open mind about stuff, you ain’t gonna be doing the things you want day one, unfortunately.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giantseyemedia