We asked some very talented folks to talk to us about success and what it takes to be successful. We’ve shared their responses below.

Kryztal Peña

Growing up in a first generation low income family it became ingrained that education is key to becoming successful and securing a good paying career. With that in mind I graduated high school went on to being the first in my family to graduate with my Bachelors degree. My intention since I was a child was to become a physician partly influenced by my family’s push to pursue higher education. However, my sisters and I have always loved creating handmade crafts. From a young age we would crochet scarves and hats for our family then later took wood carving, jewelry making and even sewing classes. We also have a very strong sister bond. Read more>>

MacKenzi Knight

Many people think that success is directly related to revenue, profits and popularity. Although, I do believe these factors play apart in success, success to me feels and looks differently. From the moment I started my business full time I knew I wanted to serve and reach people in a way that left an impression. I wanted my clients to not only get amazing photos but an experience that left them feeling happy, confident and secure. I always feel the most successful when I hear feedback from clients commenting on how great I made them feel and how supported they were through their time with me. Success is measured in the way people remember their time with you and how you touch their spirit and mind. Read more>>

Yoshua Ramirez

Success has many definitions and will vary by person. I will say that it takes three main ingredients for any type of success: A strong mindset, great discipline and an insurmountable amount of resilience… Why these three ingredients? Over the past 30 months or 2.5 years, I have gathered with me an outstanding amount of knowledge from what I consider successful individuals and experiences that have given me the opportunity to develop these three skills. These are skills that I believe anyone can develop at any point in their lives. Read more>>

Spencer Penfield

The arts is a tricky category when comes to the term “successful”. Some people in my field of wedding photography see it as traveling and photographing destination weddings in beautiful countries; some see it as working primarily in the luxury wedding market; some see it as making the most unique work that sets them apart from everyone else; some see it as having enough work to not have to work a “real job”. And just like the arts itself, it’s all subjective. Every photographer gets to set up what “success” looks like to them, and that is a very beautiful thing. Read more>>

Dane Casperson

So to preface this, I work in the wedding industry, and I think that the wedding industry is most definitely a unique industry. I am convinced that while there are definitely universal lessons to be learned, there is a lot of truly unique and niche aspects to the wedding industry that do not apply in the same way in corporate America. It’s one of the few spaces that large corporate entities have not taken most of the market share, leaving very little space to start something small. I think the reason that corporate America hasn’t taken over most of the wedding industry is because people want that soul, they want that passion, they want a team with them on their wedding day who is real. Read more>

Christie King

The journey of building a creative business demands a blend of talent, business skills and hardcore determination. Here are some things that I attribute to my success as a creative: 1. Cultivating a good mindset. Achieving success requires time, patience, and a strong sense of determination. It’s important to recognize that success rarely comes overnight, and setbacks and failures are part of the journey. A positive mindset allows you to overcome obstacles, learn from mistakes, and persevere in the face of challenges. Having a passion for what you do and a willingness to continuously learn and grow are essential. Read more>>

Rachel Tucker

I personally believe that true authenticity and passion are the keys to finding success within any industry. If you aren’t honest and authentic with yourself about your passions, then what’s the point? I grew up in a household that held passion and authenticity very highly. We chose to experiment with the possibility of failure. But that’s how you find what you are most passionate about and where you want to spend your time. There is so much opportunity in the world, especially with the ever growing age of technology. Use whatever opportunity life throws at you, be honest with yourself, and run with it until you reach your goals. You’ll find yourself living authentically and more successfully. Read more>>

Smock & Roll

We both have an entrepreneurial spirit and what it’s boiled down to is having a vision, doing what you enjoy, and consistency. So many times, when we’ve gone through lulls in business or worked on projects we weren’t super excited about, our consistency paid off, as well as having each other to make any labor worth it. When you’re working with a partner you not only trust, but enjoy, work can be like play. We sit down together every six months to vision board where we want to be and very specific goals. We credit a lot of our successes to having very specific goals and benchmarks to aspire to. Read more>>

Samuel Farley

As a kid I was witness to the opposite of success so I took notes on what not to do. From my experience in life and business you have to start with caring about whatever it is that you do. Whether that be taking photos, cooking food or analyzing stocks. Whatever it be, make sure you care about because I also believe it’s hard to put in the required 10,000+ hours to get great at something or great at a business without truly caring about it. Read more>>

Lindsay Kreighbaum

I think success means something different to everyone, and it doesn’t always mean financially. To me, success means that I am happy WHILE being able to support myself – not because I am able to support myself. To be successful means that I am feeling fulfilled in the things I am doing every day. It takes a lot of discipline to be successful. Successful people work hard and fail over and over again before they start to learn what they need to do to actually feel success. Discipline, hard work, and not letting failure deter you from your goals are crucial to becoming successful. Read more>>

Courtney Weimer

I think what someone needs in order to be successful in a creative field is to have a passion and drive. Especially if you want to become successful in the online space/social media, it’s SO important to actually like what you’re posting and talking about. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen people wanting to become service providers or content creators/influencers make videos about things they don’t even like. And let me tell ya, you can ALWAYS tell who’s being authentic and who’s doing it for a check. Read more>>

Samantha Sparr

I believe that what it takes to be successful is action. To be successful, it takes a vision. It takes having a vision of where you are and where you want to be and taking action to move forward. I am a very driven individual and when I have an idea of what I want to do, I almost immediately take action to make it happen. I am a firm believer that if you WANT something different, you have to DO something different. People tend to hold themselves back from taking action, waiting for the perfect time, waiting for the stars to align, letting fear of failure take over and then ultimately never taking action to where the want to be. Read more>>

Cinthia Almeida

Great question! First of all, we can ask to ourselves: what is success to me? Because what could be success to me could not be to you! When we have this clarity is easier to understand what we could do to be successful. For example, success to me is related to impact people in their lives, helping them to maximize their talents and highlight themselves to raise their personal brands to achieve their goals. If I can say a step by step to be more successful, I would say? Read more>>

Tawana Robinson

I believe consistency is the key to being successful. I remember when I began my cosmetology career I wanted a large clientele so bad & fast. It didn’t come as quickly as I desired but it did come. I kept perfecting my craft, I put in the long hours, I stayed consistent and one day I looked up and realized what I dreamt & prayed for was here. Read more>>

Donna Cecchini, PCC

Success is such an interesting word and concept, really. It is very personal; how I define success might be very different than how you might define success. However, no matter your definition, an essential ingredient to actually reaching your desired state is understanding your WHY. Let me tell you are story: When I was launching my real estate franchise back in 2009, my daughter was five and my son was seven. During that time, I was going through a divorce and placing all bets on the success of my franchise’s launch. All of my money was being poured into the company and at this time. This required me to sell while building the business. That day, I was focused on calling “for-sale-by-owners.” My least favorite activity! Yet, I was determined that I would succeed. Well, as you can imagine, I was thrown a curve-ball. I received a call that my children’s school was closed early for snow and I had to go get them early. Read more>>

Maria Munoz

For me, success is measured in my business growth. I have to constantly see the growth whether in my blog pageviews, ad revenue, or sessions in order to keep going. Instead of focusing on a specific number — I mean, yes I have goals I want to reach — I focus on a constant increase. This takes perseverance and consistency even during those times when you may think you’re not making any progress. Read more>>

Valeria Gonzalez

I strongly believe that success is not an endpoint but a continuous journey, just like Valeria, the young entrepreneur. For me, it’s having a clear vision and unwavering purpose aligned with passion. I’m a firm believer in the fact that you have to love what you do in order to truly excel at it. That’s why I’ve dedicated my life to growing not only my business, but everyone within it. Read more>>

Kayla Greaves

My views on success have changed a lot throughout the years. I used to think it was all about the professional accolades, a big, flashy job title, and an even bigger salary. But now, I look at success as having freedom and full autonomy over my life. The ability to pick and choose which projects are right for me, not having to answer to a boss, and spending my days how I choose is a level of success I once never even imagined for myself, but now that it’s my reality, my entire mindset has shifted. That said, now, don’t think it takes much to be successful. So long as you’re happy and fulfilled doing what you do, and you still get to experience life in ways that are meaningful to you—that’s success. Read more>>

Jenean Carlton

I believe it takes courage to start your own business and also lots of grit. There’s so much to consider when starting a business including: having a work space, determining the desired clientele for your business, marketing, creating a brand for yourself, managing start-up costs, licensing, legal decisions, launching a website and more. It’s an overwhelming task and when I was a new business owner I felt buried by the amount of work involved in getting started with my company. Thankfully, I had decades of management experience in the vision care industry and knew how to run a business, purchase items at the wholesale level, write copy and set up ways to meet industry peers as well as potential clients. Read more>>

Earnest Little

I believe that having initiative and being consistent makes for the foundation of success. Most people are fixated with starting out perfect that they never start, while others that start get discouraged and give up when they face problems. In the beginning of our journey my partner and I had “stable” good paying jobs and we made the decision to venture off on our own, not knowing if it would work out. Once we made the jump, there was a lot that we had to figure out on the spot, meanwhile having to deal with different types of people made it that much harder. Once we found our rhythm, we started to take on more ambitious projects which leads to more complex problems. One road bump that always stands out to me is when a client was upset and threatened to sue. Read more>>

Jule Baxter

First off, I think “success” is often difficult to define. Personally, I think that if you are happy and can support yourself, then you’re beyond successful already. As far as what it takes to become a practicing professional artist, I truly believe all you need is drive. If you want this, then you will naturally find any way to make it work! Read more>>

Amber Hill

I think success is quite subjective. A close friend of mine recently divorced her husband and said that her marriage was successful. Of course, when she said that, I pursed my lips and squinted in confusion but she went on to explain that she successfully got two children from the union. So although the marriage ultimately failed, she still regards it as a success. Read more>>

Kristina Rosa

Everyone has a different definition of success. For me, being successful is maintaining a healthy balance between having a thriving business and a happy family. I started this business in order to be more available to my family than I had been in my previous job. So product and financial growth are not my core motivators, as they would be with most small businesses. I constantly see opportunities to grow my business and there are many instances where I have to say no – saying no allows me to stay more streamlined and keep my priorities in check. Read more>>

Rusty Bradford

To be successful in photography but really any business we need help from at least one other like minded person. I often felt early in my career that I could do it all on my own. I really believe trying to achieve your business goals by yourself is a fools game. You need 1 person in this world who you can brainstorm and bounce ideas and concepts back and forth with. Developing a like minded strategy with this person and actively leaning on each others strengths and weaknesses can be the difference in succeeding of failing. Henry Ford who started Ford was a brilliant man and is often recognized as the inventor of the assembly line to build his vehicles. He could see the big picture but he needed his wife to help him reach such a high level of success. Read more>>