Andrea Mostaffa

I moved to the United States when I was young by myself. One of my aunts was the one who helped me. I had not a lot of help from my family, not because they weren't supportive, but because they couldn't - my mom had very young kids. I was pushed to do something with my life. That was not an option to me. So I came here alone, and I did have people, really nice people, that helped me along the way. But most of the time, I had no choice. I couldn't look back, I had to just continue and push myself. My family was always supportive, but not in a way that everybody's - they weren't there to help financially, or being present, so I kind of had to, had no choice. That's the truth.

You have to believe it. You have to believe and talk about your dreams as if they already happened. Don't underestimate your power. A lot of times we question, like, oh, when if I get to there. It's like, no, when you get to that place, it's not an if, it's going to happen. So you have to put yourself like you've already achieved it. And it becomes so much easier, because you're already there. It's just a matter of when, not if. That's something that I have to continuously remember.

I will say, don't think about it twice. Just do it. You don't have to have the money, or everything is gonna come later. Just work on what you have, but do it now. Just don't wait. If you have one idea, pursue the idea, because otherwise, it's just gonna stay as an idea, it's not going to become the dream that you have, so just do it immediately. As soon as you have the idea, go for it.

Challenges with a lot of careers now is artificial intelligence, right? Because somehow everybody is thinking that AI is going to come in and solve all your problems, especially for small businesses. And at the end of the day, yes, it will help, it will help you get there, but eventually what matters is the personalized touch that every business has to have. It's not just - especially when it comes to marketing or a career path like mine, like photography. Yes, AI is gonna help, but it's not gonna solve everything. At the end of the day, AI is artificial. So a lot of people need to just realize that you're still gonna have to put in the work, and you're still gonna have to work on yourself, being a real person. You're still gonna have to present to your clients that real part of the side of the business. I feel like it will be a challenge for a little while, but at the end, we're still gonna value the integrity and the realness of everything, especially on my side of business when it's marketing, and photography, and videos. I feel like people are just gonna value a little bit more the real thing.

I feel like being just very transparent about things. And just being trusted and being an honest person. I feel like honesty, a lot of times people are trying to get to something, get to their interests, and they just don't care if they sabotage somebody or step over somebody. For me, it's all about friendship and honesty. Like, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it together, and we're gonna do it the right way. And just being honest about everything, being very, very transparent and clear.