We recently connected with Geise Pinto and have shared our conversation below.
Geise, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I’ve always considered myself “not good enough”, even when I’ve got a lot of compliments and positive feedback on whatever I was trying to do/ pursue. I have always been the kind of self-demanding person, working the hardest I can to achieve my goals, and putting my best efforts into everything I commit to doing, but always saying “But it’s not perfect”, or “it is lacking this or that”, or “ someone else is doing much better than I do”, etc.
In 2019 I was doing well in my home country and had a stable and well-paid job, but didn’t feel fulfilled or challenged anymore. I was completely in my comfort zone which now I call the “discomfort zone”, because it couldn’t be comfortable if you are always thinking about how to get out of that.
Then, I had an opportunity to move to Sacramento and start over my life/career, which was something I wish, but haven’t been brave enough to do so far.
Long story short, I moved to Sacramento in Apr/2019 and literally had to start my life from scratch. I didn’t know anyone here, my previous career in Law didn’t make any sense here and I wasn’t willing to keep it, I barely spoke English, and the only thing that I knew was that I wouldn’t become a shade of my hubby. However, I’ve never felt so scared in my whole life.
Here I was immigrating, which is far from being easy, even when you come in the best of conditions (it was my case, I came because my hubby had a job opportunity and we believed it made sense for us).
I confess that those 3 first years, hands-down, were when my Impostor Syndrome hit its highest level, Everyday thoughts used to be “I am not from here, I don’t speak good English, I don’t even know what I wanna pursue in this country so full opportunities, I don’t wanna be financially dependent of my hubby, I am not good at anything else, but Law (and I don’t wanna Law anymore)”.
Plus, the pandemic came out and made everybody shut down. And the constant thought of “Who am I? What do I like? I can not fail”
Well, I’ve been through a lot since then, but what made me start believing in myself again were 2 things:
(1) Rescue a passion (a hobby) and believe that it would be possible to pursue this new goal – make a living out of photography, go all in an entrepreneurship journey (a thing that I’ve never thought about).
(2) be surrounded by like-minded women who make me feel belong, welcome, and cheer on me, the same way I do for all of them. The power of community was huge and made me believe in myself (and in my talents) again.
I can say that Impostor Syndrome still is “my friend” and holds me back sometimes, however, I have been working on being brave enough to tell her that maybe she is wrong, and maybe I can prove to her that I am good enough.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My WHY: I am Geise, and I believe that every single woman in this world deserves to feel Independent, Gorgeous, Empowered, and Capable of doing whatever they want to do in their life
Who I am: I am a Personal Branding photographer based in Sacramento, on a mission to empower female entrepreneurs and small business owners to show up authentically as the face of their business through strategic and purposeful photos to stand out, attract their ideal clients, and grow their business.
What I do: I know how hard is to do marketing nowadays, and I know how embarrassing could be to take your own photos. Maybe entrepreneurs don’t even know what kind of photos they really need.
So, I want to relieve them of tasks that are not their zone of genius, such as their brand photos.
My offering: I customize a brand photoshoot to tell my client’s stories and bring their vision to life, which includes creating a mood board to show them the kind of photos they need, a strategic photoshoot plan, and all my creative direction throughout the session ( and I promise it will be fun – no awkwardness at all).
My aim is always to showcase who they are as an entrepreneur and also what makes them unique, delivering a gallery of images to strategically be used in all their marketing platforms.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Regarding qualities I consider the ability to be self-taught, which makes me learn all I know about photography. Also, resilience to try all different kinds of things and try again when they don’t go right, and last, being an extroverted person, I mean, to bring my Brazilian personality to the table when we are talking about making connections.
In terms of advice, despite I consider myself at the beginning of the entrepreneurship journey, I would say be surrounded by people who uplift you and share some struggles and experiences. This will make you not feel lonely, and you are always learning anything from them. In my journey so far, every time I thought I was about to give up, I had a conversation with a woman who made me believe that it was possible and I shook it off and I keep trying.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
I keep working on making genuine connections and increasing my visibility as a personal branding photographer in my area. I have been working in positioning as a brand photographer, focused on female entrepreneurs, and becoming known in this niche takes time and a lot of effort. This is a new niche and potential clients should be educated on what brand photography can add to their business.
I have been trying to show up authentically and talk about my work at every single network event I can go to, especially because 99% of my clients come from word of mouth. Also, I have just launched my new website focused only on this niche, and I have been working on SEO to improve Google results.
Still do a few Instagram, but it’s a place where I can’t see effective results so far.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.geisepintophotography.com
- Instagram: geisepintophotography
- Linkedin: Geise Pinto
- Other: Pinterest: Geise Pinto Photography
Image Credits
All images were taken by me.
