Canadian entrepreneur Chrissie Gialisis chatted about her love for horseback riding (and how it became her saving grace during the pandemic), her small business (inspired by her horse), and being an entrepreneur in the digital age.
Margaret Mead once said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” This quote applies to Chrissie Gialisis.
She shared that she had developed severe anxiety and depression back in 2020 due to the pandemic. “I needed to focus on getting myself better as I found my inspiration to horseback ride as it was the perfect way to heal myself and to get back into the public slowly and by doing so I’m dedicated to opening a small business with creative and unique resin projects.”
“I’ve been encouraged by my family, my closest friends and most importantly my special friend Bali, the horse, who has helped me heal spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally and helped me get my butterfly wings. It only makes sense that I integrated both our names together,” she said.
What I’ve learned with horseback riding with Bali, I use for advice as well. “Ride towards your goals and dreams with patience, ride with confidence, ride with being true to yourself, ride with joy, ride with pride with every accomplishment, keep riding until you’ve crossed the finish line, and ride by not giving up,” she said.
“When you have ideas keep a little notebook with a pen that whatever comes to mind of ideas write it down it’s better to. When those ideas you’ve had written down on paper become a reality the feeling is amazing,” she acknowledged.
The digital age
Gialisis opened up about being an entrepreneur in the digital age. “It’s pretty amazing how you can share your story, your business, and how it may inspire others to reach out to you with social media such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and so much more.”
“Mind you, before all of the technology came it was fun to see people interacting with one another, seeing people buying a newspaper meeting up for a cup of coffee, exchanging words of what they’ve read whether it would be a newspaper, a magazine or a billboard having a good time. Now I’m not saying technology is bad but at some points, it needs to be put away because interacting with people in person is way better than that,” she elaborated.
On her use of technology in her daily routine, she said, “To be honest I don’t use technology that often, as I am always very busy on the farm putting my dedication towards future plans.”
Motivations
Regarding her daily motivations, she said, “What motivates me is that I’m back to the person that I’ve missed before the dark time in 2020, and today I’ve come back better and so many different great thoughts go in my head that motivate me.”
Future plans
On her future plans, she shared, “Dedicated not only for Butterfly.Bali.Creativity but to bring the name Butterfly.Bali to many levels and farming with heritage breed animals as I also work on a farm.”
“I would love to have a book published about Bali and my story with mental health, and there is so much more that I would love to accomplish,” she said.
Greek heritage
She opened up about her Greek heritage. “My father is from Karpathos and my mother is born in Quebec but both of her parents are Greek. My grandfather is from Crete and my grandmother is from Patra,” she shared.
“My sister and I were born in Montreal Quebec. The food, the music, the dancing, and the history are just incredible. I love being Greek and I am proud to be Greek and always will be. I have been in Greece once back in 2001 and I would love to go back and see my family,” she said.
Success
On her definition of success, she said, “For me, success is everything that I’ve accomplished whether it would be mini, small, medium, larger to beyond enormous everything you do is a success. And again I’ve learned that from my special friend Bali, the horse.”
To learn more about Butterfly.Bali.Creativity, check them out on Instagram.
