We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Muyaya a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Matthew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

It takes diligence, confidence, determination and a bunch of will power to successful. When I started this project, I had been a W2 hourly worker for over 15 years. I had to muster up enough strength to leave what I had been so comfortable doing for so long. I knew I didn’t want to work for someone else for the rest of my life so I had to make a change.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

My name is Matthew Muyaya. I was born and raised in Cincinnati Ohio. I was introduced to all types of fine arts as a child. Classical music, violin, martial arts, dance, and many more. Ive always had a creative bone but never acted on it as an adult. As a kid I was obsessed with instant monetary gratification from activities such as raking leaves, shoveling snow, cutting grass and other small gigs that would grant me income. So as I got older I saw less and less reason to continue arts if they couldn’t make me immediate income.

Fast forward about 20 years, 1 child and a bunch of life lessons learned. I decided it was time to take another approach to this game we call “life”. Being born in the 80’s, I was first generation of technological boom of the digital era. I was present for VHS, Blockbuster, and pagers. Now we have Blu Ray, Netflix and Iphones. I was present for MySpace and AOL Messenger. Now we have Instagram and Facetime. I embraced and welcomed all the changes. So seeing how much society has shifted, I decided to shift as well. I’ve always had a keen eye for photography and was the go-to person for all my friends impromptu pictures for Instagram. I never thought about stepping into it professionally, until now.

I saw how social media presence and image is almost a modern currency, so I knew I had to become a part of it. That’s why I decided to become a creative space for content creation. I quit my well paying job of 4 years in May of 2022 and signed the lease for my storefront studio in June. My very first client was Cincinnati’s own, world famous, DJ Fresh. He was hosting the Legendz of the Streetz Tour 2022. Staring world famous artists such as T.I. Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Ja Rule, Trina, 2Chainz, Rick Ross and others. Not even a full month after leaving my safe zone and stepping into a brand new career, I was booked for something that most photographers dream of but only a few achieve. Dont let anyone tell you your dreams cant come true.

We have a team of photographers and videographers who have mastered different forms of their field. Weddings, music videos, portraits, street photography and much more. We offer 360 Photo Booth rentals, studio rentals, coaching, courses and more. The studio also doubles as a selfie studio with multiple different back drops that change periodically. We also offer apparel, cellphone accessories and photography equipment. Our main goal is to help content creators curate the content they need and to help nurture future creatives along their journey of self discovery.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Networking. I believe networking is more important than direct sales or services. You cant know everything and you cant be into everything so networking and knowing others who can is extremely important for filling that gap. You may have a service that someone you need a service from may need, and now that could create a new partnership that will benefit both of you greatly. Whether you call it collab, affiliate, or team work, you have to keep an eye out for people to work with, you cant do it all alone.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I initially had to fund my business with money i had saved working my 9-5. I decided on this career shift and in about a years time I quit my job and went into this fulltime. I told myself I have no choice but to make this work. And if it fails, make it work anyways. There is no turning back.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pull_up_photography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PullUpPhotography/
• Twitter: @pullupphoto
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPSHhzifZB3k-EH2anktp2Q

Image Credits
@Riah Bella @Iamdjfresh @anayanikole