We believe that success can mean different things to different people – not everyone wants the same thing, what drives happiness and fulfillment for one person doesn’t necessarily predict what will for another. That said – if we simply think of success as being effective at achieving one’s goal – whatever those goals might be – then we can set a sort of common

Sam DiNicola

I think success looks different to everyone. For me, working for myself is success. Being able to grow my business how I want so that it supports me and allows me to live the life that I want – that is success. It’s become popular in the last few years to become an entrepreneur. I truly believe anyone can start and grow a business. But I also think that the Internet and social media have made it look incredibly easy. Read more>>

Heather Dupree

My thoughts on being successful are pretty traditional. I think it’s all about how much work you put in. There’s always someone out there that wants it just as bad as you do. I’ve seen a lot of photographers jump into the business and think it’s going to be easy because they’re creative. But it’s not that easy. It requires a lot of dedication. I started as a wedding photographer, which I still love, Read more>>

Taliyah Fogle

What I think it takes to be successful is just simply showing up for yourself every day. Holding yourself accountable for the goals you said you’d achieve. It takes sacrifice, confidence, determination, and consistency. There will always be hard days, weeks, and even months but I believe success comes in waves. Learning to celebrate the small wins so you can cherish the bigger ones is always key. There is no designated point or max to success, but your comfort zone will always be tested because with success comes growth. If you are consistent and feel like you are doing your absolute best, then you are and will always be successful. Read more>>

Erin Goodrich

In the creative industry it has taken me patience and perseverance to grow a successful business- it certainly doesn’t and did not happen overnight and it is a very saturated market. I worked a full time job in the corporate world for over a decade while deciding what I wanted to do professionally. I knew from a young age I wanted to be in the art industry but had to figure out what that meant for me and how I could make it financially possible. Read more>>

Tai Barksdale

To be successful, I believe it takes a willingness to do the things you may not want to do in the moment. Recently I began thinking from the perspective of “who do I want to be and how can I start showing up as her”. I’m the type of person who makes a million to-do lists to organize my life, so I wrote down all the habits of what a more successful version of myself would be doing right now whether small or big. Read more>>

Edgar Cruz Velez

I believe communication and determination are essential to be successful. I strive to communicate and pay attention to those around me. When communication is present, trust and respect follow. I have the determination to walk with purpose and align myself to my vision with excellence. Read more>>

J.W. Cox

When it comes to being “successful” I think it comes down to three things. 1. Defining what success means to you. 2. Being willing to admit your faults. 3. surrounding yourself with people who are more talented than you. Success to me is making a career doing what I love, and that is making films. Even if it means shooting weddings, corporate videos or commercials, I’m thrilled to get paid to be creative. Read more>>

Kenzie Maroney

In the freelance creative world I feel like being successful is almost always different for each person. It very much depends on what your own goals are and how far you’re willing to go to achieve them. But, I’m a firm believer that if you put in the work, you’re passionate, you have a good work ethic and you love what you do then you’re on the right track to being successful. In the freelance world you never really know what you’re going to get; Read more>>

Rachel Abi

No matter what field you were in, I think the answer to this is the same: you need to fall in love with your clients. You need to committed to offering the very best products, service, education etc. And the only way to get ahead in every saturated market for excess is not to just work hard, but fall in love with who you’re working for. Know what they need, want, love… then we committed to creating the very best product, service etc. for that person. Read more>>

KELLY HAYES

Being stubbornly persistent to what you aspire to! In business and in life, challenges arise and the ability to push forward despite the struggle, giving myself the grace to rest and recharge but not giving up has been one of the greatest elements for success. Read more>>

Audjenea Carmicheal

Success is one of those things that’s in the eyes of the beholder. Like the saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. So when I think about what it takes to be successful there are commonalities I find in others as it relates to myself like creating a routine, reading, always being a student etc. The most important ways to success for me were Discipline, Dedication, and Passion. The Wax Beast is successful because my passion that I put behind every service offered. Read more>>

Keyia Scruggs

It takes a lot to become successful. More so personally. I feel as though your mental health matters, your support system, finances, and lastly, but the most significant is your spirit. It takes you knowing and believing you’re successful even when reality is showing otherwise. Of course, faith without work is dead. However, investing and obtaining your focus is really all you need. Nothing ever really happens over night, but hard work and dedication beats every odd, every single time! Read more>>

Dyrell Johnson

Success for so many people comes in such a variety of ways that it’s truly hard to define what it means. For me personally, I believe you have to not only work harder than everyone else in your field, you also have to set the pace, consistently reinvent the wheel and be the one everyone looks to for the next idea. Staying true and authentic to who you are, not trying to fit in and jump at every opportunity. You have to be very intentional about the type of success you want. It will come, just keep honing your craft and working smart. Read more>>

Eleni Demos

Often people think success has to do with image or wealth. But success can be measured in other ways, it is all about the small details. Having a specific goal for your client and being able to help guide your client to that goal is success. Creating positive growth to others, especially through their health/fitness journey is my mission. Simply said, it takes hard work and consistency to be successful. Persevering through failures, learning from mistakes and moving forward always clears the path towards to success. Read more>>

CHRIS CRAWFORD

First, I think the word “Successful” should be defined by each individual. For some, Owner of a large $50MM a year company with all of the perks is the definition of successful. For others, a smaller company that pays the bills, has little overhead, very little stress to run and manage, allows for vacations and family time is the only way they would have it. Read more>>

Damon Caldwell

I think it takes the right mindset for starters. Secondly, I believe a person has to be disciplined, diligent, consistent, goal driven, and willing to stay the course. Success is what ever a person puts their mind to and achieve that goal. Read more>>

Tasia Graham

In my opinion, to be successful you must be authentic. And this is something that I’m speaking on from experience. With social media, it’s so easy to get caught up in other peoples lives and wanting what they have, but what the people really want is YOU. They want to see YOU. And being you is what will get you to where you need to be, so to me the success is in being yourself. Read more>>

David King

I believe a major key to success is truly loving what you do. You have to live and breathe it. Have a true passion for it. When you do it takes the feel of a job away. You can’t just start or do something just because it can make you money. There has to be a real love to fuel the drive and path to success. Nothing is always easy. There will be challenges, hurdles, pitfalls. The love is what will keep you focused and get you thru to the success story! Read more>>

Brittany Sherell

For the longest time, I would be the biggest cheerleader for others connected to me, yet my own biggest critic. I’d see others living out the dreams they had, but there was something inside of me that seemed to second-guess every idea I housed in my mind. I essentially built up an internal storage room of unbirthed dreams and ideas and masked my procrastination with a pursuit of information. Right when it was time for me to act on the podcast, the book, the coaching program, the speaking engagements… Read more>>

Felicia TeKolste

This could be a laundry list of what it takes to be successful but I would say the two biggest ones would be, choose something you love to do. If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. The second would be to never give up on yourself and your dreams. If you never give up, you will be successful it’s just a matter of time. Read more>>

Julio Jimenez

To be successful now a days it requires momentum. The moment you take a too long of a break and you lose that momentum it almost feels like starting over. Read more>>

Jeremy Watson

I believe in creating a definition and vision that demonstrates what success looks like to you individually. So many take the need for comparison as a means to meet the mark of success or as a means to feel accomplished. However, for me, another man’s mark is reflective of his journey. Therefore, my mark of success and how that looks to me is defined by my journey and my ability to maintain peace and stability throughout it. Read more>>

Tatianna Wells

I think in order to be successful in this world, you have to give everything you’ve got to something you love. You can never give up no matter how hard the journey will become. And trust, it will get rough but you have to pick up and keep going. Nothing great it is built overnight. Greatness is created. Never doubt your success. Put your heart soul sweat & tears into what you are passionate about. It will all pay off in the long run. Im still learning that now till this day. But the good thing about chasin your dreams is that you don’t have to be asleep to experience them. Read more>>

Tereza Toledo

Success comes after a series of consistent small steps taken daily. There isn’t one specific recipe that we all much follow to succeed in life or business, It’s important to set goals, but the most important is to be open to adjust as you go. Looking back at my own success journeys, all of them involved commitment to taking action, being open minded to tweak and change the course as needed and accepting as many opportunities that were presented to me. Read more>>

Nachela Knox

To succeed, you have to have passion and a higher purpose unrelated to money or fame. If you are only doing something because you want to be rich or famous it can be easy to feel like it’s taking forever and you can forget to celebrate the small wins ultimately it can lead to quitting because “it’s too hard” or “it’s taking to long”. When you have a passion for something and you truly love it you won t quit, Read more>>

Anna Pettit

I feel that success can be measured in multiple ways, all of which can vary depending on the individual. That’s the beauty of success. For some success can be marked as completing a small task, to others it may be a linear progression. There have been so many goals that I have been fortunate to reach and all of them have changed my view on success. First it was have my very first photoshoot, then it was making my clients feel comfortable during sessions, building clientele, shooting my very first wedding, the list goes on and on. Read more>>

Yait Jara

Success is a controversial word; I can look at another person and think that they are successful, and most likely, that person will not see themselves the same way because they have higher standards or goals to reach. In my opinion, the first step to success is to believe you can do anything you want. Also, you need to find out your passion, and if you are good at it, because let’s be honest, we are not good at everything even if we love it. Read more>>

Martrae M. Godard

I believe that success is knowing why you were born. I believe we all were sent here with a purpose. When we find that purpose for our lives we expand. Understanding that method we should all focus on releasing our full God given potential and truly seek our “why” or our calling in life. The potential, gifts and abilities that God has blessed us with is the true meaning of being successful. Most people equate material items with success, however I believe that we all are born with gifts and the world is our canvas we must all create and give our gifts away to help continue expand our society. Read more>>

Allie Wyatt

Character. This is such a key factor when it comes to success and connection. Through my journey in this career, I have found myself surrounded by friendships and connections with people who trust me and I can trust as well. These clients have become valued friends and faithful clients that I find joy in capturing and catching up with each time we work together. Just recently, I had a session with a long term client who expressed mid session that she is go glad she found me and has gotten to know me as she doesn’t know that should would feel confident with just another photographer. Read more>>

Kevin Nelson

To be successful is to live life on purpose and doing the thing that God has created you to do. Your passion, I believe fuels your success and Success is not something you attain without putting in the effort, however. It is a mindset you must adopt to accomplish your goals and grow as a person, and it takes hard work. Developing a positive mindset is all about trusting yourself and your ability to succeed. It is important to replace any negative thoughts with positive ones to motivate yourself to keep trying no matter what challenges come your way. Read more>>