Two People In A Room In Total Agreement Means One Person Is Unnecessary.

Of course, each person at Premier Studios is very necessary. That doesn’t mean we can sit around and argue all day. It does mean we have a diverse group of talented individuals doing groundbreaking work. And it’s surprisingly peaceful most days.

If you’ve got a minute, Matt Johnson would like to tell you a story. It’s about finding your passion — or in his case, your passion finding you.

While still in college, Johnson couldn’t decide what his major ought to be. He briefly considered pharmacy before settling on business, but he knew he hadn’t found his passion quite yet.

Then in 1995, he landed an internship at a company that was then called Premier Communications. One of his first tasks was to produce and direct a recurring youth program, which included gathering “on-the-street” interviews for a video series. “I loved that I was telling a story in a creative way,” Johnson said.

Soon after he was assigned to design graphics for live events, and “I was hooked. That was pretty much all it took for me,” Johnson said. “I thought it was so cool that I was still in college and doing this, when my friends didn’t even know it was a career possibility.”

Johnson quickly discovered his passion — and his career path. He graduated with his business degree from Mid-America Nazarene University in 1997 and accepted a job as a video editor at Premier Studios’ affiliate brand, Premier Post.

“I honestly couldn’t learn enough, because I wanted to try everything,” Johnson said. “I came into production when non-linear editing was just surfacing, and it allowed me to quickly learn a craft that I developed a huge hunger for. I was lucky to have found an environment where I was encouraged to be curious.”

As he added to his skills and experience, he advanced to a director/producer role, and in 2005 he was named Premier Post’s creative director. “With that first project I got as an intern, I knew that I wanted to build my career around telling a great story. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to do that for our clients.”

Along the way, Johnson has helped Premier Post earn more than 30 Telly awards, along with several other industry awards for client work.

Interestingly, of all the client projects Johnson has worked on, his favorite is an annual DVD/brochure package for Cobalt Boats, one of Premier Studios’ first Affinity Brands. The package, which showcases Cobalt’s new models each year, is a highly collectible marketing piece almost as soon as it’s released.

“With every Cobalt project, we’ve tried to set the bar in the marine industry, but honestly, to me it’s a creative way to tell the Cobalt story, which I love.”