We asked some of the city’s rising stars to reflect on what made a difference in their journey. We asked them to tell us about what they think the most important factor has been behind their success.

Anita Friedrich | Photographer and Artist

Feeling successful is such an incredible accomplishment that I would like to share my experience. There are few main factors that really helped me to overcome challenging times, kept me going and finally made me who I am, a successful artist. Consistency, persistence, and kindness…repeat!!! I truly think that if you believe in yourself, focus on your art while you show kindness and respect towards others, you will get there!!! It is that simply. Only time is matter. Some reach the final goal in a shorter time, while as myself wait and wait patiently and when the right time came I was ready to take actions. Read more>>

Zoe Luglan | Artist & Video Creator

Self care. Hands down! Outside of the box of face masks and bubble baths, self care looks like showing up for myself every day with kindness and compassion. Through becoming an entrepreneur and being 100% percent reliant on my work to provide for me, I realized I have to take care of myself. If I go down, there goes my life. Without having self care as a container for me to check in with myself, I would not be where I am today. Read more>>

Allie Cohn Whitney Sartain | co-founders of Wave Social: Social Media Marketing for Content Creators

In our industry, things change constantly, so being highly adaptable is crucial. Whether it be a social media algorithm, a new trend or feature, or simply what our clients need from us the most, our commitment to adapt as people and as an agency has been instrumental to our success. We started our agency with the mindset that the only guarantee in marketing and social media is that nothing ever stays the same, so a willingness to adapt is crucial. As a result of this thinking, we’ve never run into a problem we couldn’t solve or a challenge we couldn’t overcome. Being highly adaptive has also given us the freedom to be abundantly creative, innovative, and willing to take risks. Read more>>

Megan Thomas | Content Creator and Writer

As a freelance writer and blogger, authenticity has remained the most important quality behind anything I create or write on a regular basis. My running joke is: people can smell BS (fake) from a mile away. The more often you show up as yourself, the more your brand reflects and attracts exactly who you’re aiming to work with and for. Read more>>

Ashkan Kheirkhahvash | Managing Director at One Key Visa

My deep understanding of the pain and challenges that international students face, brings out the passion in me to strive to continuously do better; it drives me to keep pushing forward. It is this passion that compels me to explore and innovate; to listen and implement; to make a difference. Therefore, one of the main reasons behind the success of our brand is our desire and steadfast conviction to improve the processes for our clients–because our drive comes from a deep place; it comes from our heart. Read more>>

Jamie Rose Lee | Marketing Manager & Freelance Content Creator

I’m a huge advocate of work hard, play hard – I think that’s what makes me most successful in all aspects of my life: my corporate 9-5 job, my freelance social content creation, & my small bead biz that I started up with my sister during Covid. It may sound super cliché, but I can honestly say that I put in 100% effort and hard work into every single thing I do. With the world we’re living in now, I feel like everyone’s kind of looking for passive income (which, admittedly, Read more>>