Meet Chris Pieta

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chris Pieta. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chris below.

Chris, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

I was a shy, unconfident kid growing up. I played A LOT of video games when I was in high school, and honestly that’s what planted the initial seed of becoming more confident… more on this later.

It wasn’t until college that I discovered the world of self-development. I could try new things, fail at them, try again, get slightly better, and repeat until I got good.

It started with fitness. If I went to the gym and enough sets, I would get stronger. It was kind of like video games, but instead of gaining experience points in a virtual world, I was improving myself. All I had to do was show up consistently. I knew that if I showed up 5 times a week for a year, I would be a completely different person.

So I did.

Then when I started my photography journey I applied the same principles. I come from a chemistry background so I didn’t think I had much creativity in me. But I had consistency. When I first picked up a camera I sucked. But I knew it was a trainable skill. So I went out every weekend to downtown Chicago and tried to improve. After a few years, I got pretty good.

Then when I started my business the same thing happened. I didn’t know anything about sales & marketing, but I knew I could learn. If someone else has done it, so could I.

My confidence comes from sticking to one thing and doing the reps consistently until I get good enough. Simple formula. The hard part is sticking to it for months without seeing results.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I spend about 10% of my working with photo & video clients. The other 90% is spent teaching other creatives how to build & scale their business.

After growing my own production company, I fell in love with the business & systems side of things. I love teaching this to other photographers and videographers. When I was building my business, I saw so many of my peers struggling. So I started sharing what worked for me. My marketing strategies, my systems, my business knowledge… and people started telling me that they were able to land clients with what I was teaching. I ended up starting an education company called Creative Biz Launch where I get to work with talented creatives all day to help them implement client acquisition systems and learn the business side of being a creative.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Consistency is everything. But you can be consistent and not see results. It’s important to try to improve every day and get a little bit better at whatever it is you’re doing.

Persistence is the next key ingredient. Sticking to something for months without seeing results is hard. But that’s the grind every successful entrepreneur I know has gone through. Persistency will allow you to endure.

Sales. In my world, creatives struggle because they can’t sell their services. Sales brings in revenue which is required to survive as a business owner. If you can sell, you can build whatever life you want.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

We are going through a trust recession. There are thousands of people out there trying to sell you things you don’t need.

I’ve faced a lot of criticism from peers for trying to start an education company. There’s a lot of sucky fluff out there on the internet, and my job is to convince creatives that I’m the real deal.

What I’ve started doing is offering way more free value than anyone else in my space. I’m doing this to build trust with my audience, and it’s been paying off. I’ve had folks tell me my free stuff is better than other products they’ve paid for and that tells me I’m doing something right.

But trust needs to be earned constantly. It’s definitely challenging, but seeing my clients win is the most rewarding thing in my business. Seeing creatives who were just like me building their dream businesses is why I do it.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Chris Pieta | Pieta Productions

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