— “It’s often much easier to change “who we think we are” than it is to change the situation itself.”
Valeria Teles interviews Peter Alessandria — the author of “Be Bigger Than You Think You Are! : Overcoming Our Self-Imposed Limits To Have The Life We Want”
Born and raised in the New York City area, Peter attended college and law school in Upstate New York. After law school, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an entertainment attorney. Today he is an author, speaker and teacher, as well as an award-winning, internationally published, fine art, portrait and commercial photographer.
Working as an attorney in the entertainment industry sparked Peter’s own creative interests and in early 2000, while still practicing law, he began experimenting with digital video production. He eventually took up filmmaking as a hobby, and wrote, produced and directed six short films. Everything was great until the end of 2008. That was the year the Global Financial Crisis hit, and within a matter of months Peter lost his law practice. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to revive it and soon came to a crossroads: what he was going to do with the rest of his life?
After much deliberation, Peter decided to follow his heart and pursue his passion for photography full-time. So in 2009, he moved back to the East Coast and launched his photography business.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well at first. For almost three years, Peter struggled to get his new business going. More than once wondered if he had made the wrong choice. At first, it seemed like the economy was the problem. Then he thought it might be his lack of formal education in art or photography. Next he wondered if it was the competition from all the other photographers out there. At one point, he was even convinced it was because he didn’t have the latest and greatest camera equipment.
But it turned that out none of that was the problem. What was holding Peter back were his own limiting thoughts and beliefs about himself. He had a very negative self-image when it came to being a creative person and it was his own fear and self-doubt that were stopping him from moving forward. Peter fought hard for many months to overcome these obstacles. Using various techniques he was eventually able to shift his self-image and break through into a more empowered way of living. This is what his latest book is all about.
The results speak for themselves: Peter went from someone who never won an award for anything in his entire life, to someone who has won more than 70 Awards for his photography. He went from a person who was terrified to show his work publicly, to someone who has had dozens of shows and exhibitions, and whose images have been published online and in newspapers and magazines around the world. And he went from someone who never dreamt it was possible to sell even one of photo, to a working artist who licenses images for commercial use and who has sold prints to Collectors as far away as Australia.
In addition to being a freelance photographer, Peter is also an Official Photographer for Fireworks by Grucci®, one of the oldest and most well-respected fireworks performance companies in the world. For the past four years, he has traveled the globe photographing their pyrotechnics performances, including two trips to Dubai, the Maldives and various locations around the North America. He is also listed as an Official Participant on two of the company’s Guinness World Records – how cool is that!
As an artist, Peter sells framed, signed Limited Edition fine art prints of all his photos and also has two photography books: “New York Cityscapes” (2018 Amherst Media) which is a collaboration with six other top NYC photographers, as well as his own NYC-photobook, “New York City Nights – Book 1”(2017). Both are available on his website and Amazon.
Perhaps most astonishing is that Peter achieved all this without any formal training in art or photography – he is completely self-taught! Yet, it wasn’t until he overcame his own limiting thoughts and beliefs about himself that he was able to accomplish all these things. As he now knows, all the talent in the world won’t help someone who doesn’t believe in themselves.
Today, Peter coaches, speaks and lectures on topics from “Be Bigger Than You Think You Are!®” He offers classes and weekly online workshops designed to help individuals and companies elevate their life and business to the next level. His passion for inspiring others has taken him as far as Colombia South America where he addressed more than 1,000 college students on the importance of pursuing our goals and dreams in life. He has given similar talks at Fordham University and to the Princeton Photography Club.
To learn more about Peter Alessandria and his work please visit:
— This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.
