We’ve been fortunate to connect with so many brilliant artists, business owners and leaders over the years and so we reached out to some of these talented folks to discuss what it takes to be successful.

Haley Slade

Success is 80% mindset and 20% skill and talent. You have to BE and embody the success you are trying to achieve, believe you can do it, and start taking those steps. It’s important to ask “who do I want to be?” and then once you establish that answer, you start determining what steps you need to take. Read more>>

Cameron Johnson

To be successful, there are a few key qualities that have helped me throughout my life. These include dedication, hard work, focus, resilience, and self-awareness. Dedication is essential as it requires you to constantly stay motivated and driven towards achieving your goals. Hard work is also necessary, as it requires you to put in the effort and time to achieve success. Focus is a vital component, as it requires you to stay focused and on track with your goals and objectives. Read more>>

Dawson Putthoff

I’ll let you know when I get there. Success is a term that we like to throw around to highlight someones achievement but rarely do we define it for ourselves. For the business, success might be a certain profit margin or number of clients acquired, but for me, it is more than that. Success is living up to your fullest potential in every aspect of life. Whether that is being the best father, husband, friend, you can be. Read more>>

Zahara Mehta

It takes a huge time and effort commitment to be successful in owing a small business. Balancing life and work is extremely important so one doesn’t burn out professionally. Enrolling in continuing education to help refine your skills is also key. Practicing what you have learned in online or in person classes is detrimental to perfecting your craft, to be the best that you can be. Read more>>

Jordin Hageman

Success is such a fickle thing and it’s elasticity is something that I think is far too overlooked. One persons success is not another persons success. My success today is different than my success five years ago and probably different from what it will mean in another five years. The basic principle is: if you are happy, you are successful. I think that’s universal. Read more>>

Jessica Georges

Define success for YOURSELF first! Be honest with yourself on how to get there. Set clear goals and be compassionate yet diligent in reaching your goals. Try not to conform to what others may tell you what success looks or feels like. Grow how you want to grow and remember how much you want to grow is your choice. Read more>>

Katie Morgan Lester

It has taken perseverance & determination to make my dream of becoming a children’s book author & illustrator. Also, being willing to step out of my comfort zone & continue forward even when given refusals or no responses. The advice I give to the children I meet is to follow your goals & dreams no matter how young you are. Read more>>

Tyler Minor

Success is measured in various forms. As an artist it’s sometimes important to understand that successes aren’t always measured in a monetary sense. Success in art is more personal than quantifiable. Art is about storytelling, and when you can tell your story or help someone else tell their story through your art you have succeed. So, what does it take to actually be successful? Read more>> 

Love Clark

Success is different for everyone, and what it takes to be successful will vary from person to person. I believe that success is always putting your best self forward, striving to make an impact, while leaving a positive memory on each person you meet during this lifetime. When you move through life with love and compassion each success story creates its own fundamental to your own indinival journey to success. Read more>>

Farah naz Siddiqui

For me success is hard work, consistency , positive attitude and confidence in once talnet. Read more>>

Iesha Jah

I think it takes a very brutal amount of honesty because why do you want success and what does success look like for you. for me success is freedom. freedom of doing what i love and the financial freedom of doing what i want. Read more>>

Liya Ingraham

In my opinion, in order to be successful you have to know exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. When it comes to the word “success” or being “successful” it’s not as easy as it may appear to some on social media. Social media is the biggest lie in America. If you go to Instagram literally everyone is rich and successful. Read more>>

Andrea Johnson

What I think it takes to be a successful Realtor for me. Professional, patients, honestly and understanding are key. Always go into any relationship with a new client or when building a new business relationship, being yourself. Be open to learning and taking constructive criticism. Treat your clients as equals, no matter if you’re working with 5 or 10 clients at once. Read more>>

CJ and Shari Rodgers

It takes a strong belief in your cause and purpose, unwavering faith, humility, partnerships, and staunch commitment to service. Read more>>

Gia Westerfield

What it takes to be successful, you need motion, and by that I mean you have to continuously keep moving no matter what. Push your career daily by always doing something better than yesterday that could grow your business. Personally I stand for my clothing brand, so I work hard everyday to pursue my goals and ideas for my business. Read more>>

Lavada Wright

Well you always hear consistency and passion for what your doing so that goes without asking. However, it really takes a lot of reading and studying. All I do is research and study, then apply what I learned and try to figure out myself on how to do things. As an entrepreneur, I had to learn how to do many jobs to save money because growing a business is expensive. Read more>>

Robert D. Harris

Establishing relationships and cultivating those connections have often proven to be key, for the success of any business. Partnerships will always be the lifeline to get you through the more difficult times. Be fearless and relentless in the pursuit of achieving your goals. There is a high level of sacrifice that is required, and business will eat you alive if you aren’t prepared for the hardships to come. Read more>>

Tempest Brooks

Success for me is simply accomplishing my goals while simultaneously being happy. To be successful one needs to be goal oriented and focused. To be successful a person needs to be adaptable because things won’t always go according to plan; and you may have to adapt and change to get the goal accomplished. Read more>>

Jasmine Jackson

To be successful I think it takes growth, consistency, and dedication. You also have to learn how to pace yourself and understand that timing plays a major factor in the journey as well. Success is measured by how you decide to run your race. Steady or fast doesn’t matter as long as you move and make progress. Read more>>

Malak Kudaimi

I believe one of the biggest things necessary to be successful is thinking long-term instead of short-term. And I think that can be for any goal. Society really socializes us to want instant gratification, but most good things take time. For example, most folks want to invest in the stock market and become millionaires overnight, but investing is a slow burn. Read more>>

Christina Farmer

Consistency!!! You have to be consistent. This is one thing I have learned in the last 5 years of my life. If you want to be successful you must be consistent. Discipline!! On the days that you don’t feel like getting out of bed. Those days you do not want to face the world because you are tired or because you are not motivated, discipline must take over. Read more>>

Alex French

Dodged persistence is really key. Others would maybe call it grit. Entrepreneurship is so hard and you can’t do it unless you are in love with what you are doing. Although it is quite difficult, you will grow personally and become your best self in the process. By going all in, you realize it’s not as scary as you think, and you learn so much. Plus, you might make a difference in the world. Read more>>

A’Nya Engram

What I think it takes to be successful? Creating Goals, Managing Time and Productivity,Setting the Right Attitude, and Overcoming Failures in my opinion is what it takes to become successful in this industry. You should always start your success by having attainable goals to achieve! These goals are not necessarily easy to reach, but by having a goal to aim for, you will be better able to move forward and overcome obstacles! Read more>>

Lucresha Thomas

I would say in order to be successful, you would need to be consistent, proactive and have great customer service and communication skills. Ever since I have started working in the corporate world, my jobs have been dealing with the public which required me to utilize my customer service skills. I found out as long as you are proactive with providing information to the client, consistent with followups and have great and effective communication skills then you will always have client by your side and also referrals will be brought in from that client. Read more>>

Jeanae’

One thing that I’ve learned (unfortunately the hard way)is that you have to be willing to fail fast and pivot quickly to become successful.As business owners we focus so much on trying not to fail, but I wish someone would have told me that failure is inevitable and it’s necessary.I’ve learned that you’re not really successful until you fail or take a huge loss, because either you will choose to quit or you’ll pivot and take the loss as a lesson. Read more>>