ORANGE, Texas — A Spanish-Mexican man wears many hats in Southeast Texas and they have all allowed him to be an influence in his community.
While life for Johnny Asevedo is good now, he tells 12News, it wasn't always that way. He says hard work and faith has led him to the place he's in now.
"It's a story that seems improvable and impossible like there's no way you should be where you're at right now," he said.
Asevedo was born and rained in a small town near Corpus Christi. His family moved to Orange when he was in the fifth grade.
"I was bought up around severe alcoholism and poverty and whenever I grew up I found myself an alcoholic," he said.
Asevedo was able to turn his life around in 2011, when he found his faith.
He now wears multiple hats, including owning "Elevated Marketing."
"We go into these small businesses that don't have big marketing budgets. So, at a lower costs they bring me in and that's what I do," Asevedo said.
Asevedo also served on the Pinehurst City Council from 2021 to 2022.
While doing both jobs, he helped create opportunities to attract customers to small businesses in the area.
"A lot of them are mom and pop shops and so what I was able to do was establish a holiday market," Asevedo said.
The venture Asevedo is most proud of is being the lead pastor at Destiny Church in Orange.
"We feed monthly and we've done financial wisdom classes. We want to help culturize and help our city know about who they are, their worth and value and help them get back on track," he said.
Asevedo praises his father for pushing him to never give up.
"Not giving up was huge for us, one thing with my dad it was never giving up," he said.
Asevedo says he doesn't separate his family from his business or his ministry. Instead, he just uses his heart and his love of people to help whomever is in front of him.