We had the good fortune of connecting with Joshua Gray and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joshua, what principle do you value most?
To know me is to know that creativity is something I value in every aspect of life. In academics, my profession, and personal life, creativity continues to be a driving value in everything I do. Aligning my creative being, creative thinking, and creative doing drives my existence. I find beauty in identifying as a creative inspired by an ultimate Creator, which impacts how I think and how I do things.

Academically, throughout my doctoral journey, creativity informs how I think about topics, what resources I use for research, or even the cognitive connections I strive to make for the impact I’d like to see in knowledge communities. I attribute my progress and achievement of doctoral candidacy to my creativity of doing things in ways that others—or even I—couldn’t even imagine.

As a creative professional, expanding and enriching my creativity sustains the work that I’ve done with creating greater branding for individuals. Further, creativity sustains my drive and excitement for developing and designing resources for others to expand their creativity. Hence, I’m excited to have “A Place to Put Positive Words: The Notebook to Live Grayter” out in the world for others to exercise their creativity.

Being creative in my personal life is always a fun reality and exercise that often leads to new discoveries or new processes. For instance, creativity fuels a lot of my cooking as a vegetarian—from different seasonings to different meat alternatives to different sauce alternatives. Creativity really has a way of cruising you through seas of nothing so you may discover something…or everything. It gives you the courage to be, think, and do greater. When you do this, I believe you live greater.

What should our readers know about your business?
As a creative consultant creating branding materials for a range of entities, a doctoral candidate researching learning strategies for adult learners, and my work as an author publishing affirmational messages for individuals, I am beyond proud of my passion and willingness to see others activate positivity in their lives. Last year in 2023, a leader in an organization bought several of my coloring books (“Patterns, Prints & Positive Words: The Coloring Book to Live Grayter”) as a resource for her team development sessions and seeing my work activate positivity in others heightened my passion of creating, designing, and developing resources for individuals and organizations to integrate into their wellness practices. That passion fueled my journey of figuring out a way to reimagine my coloring book in fuller way. In doing so, I created a “A Place to Put Positive Words: The Notebook to Live Grayter” that expands on my coloring book with over 150 lined pages, prompt pages, and coloring pages.

As a creative entrepreneur, doctoral candidate, author, and illustrator, I specialize in developing, designing, or implementing resources that integrate considerations around positivity, creativity, leadership, and technology to foster wellness in our own professional or personal journeys.

If the world needed to know one thing about my brand it’s that I believe the first step in learning how to live and lead more positive lives is to make a decision to change the thoughts we think, the words we speak, and the decisions we make—if the world knows this, they’ll continue to know what I do in business, research, and development spaces

Most recently, I achieved doctoral candidacy at Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education & Psychology in pursuit of my doctorate degree (Ed.D. in Learning Technologies). This achievement carves out a unique path as an author and creative. Beyond the experience giving me insights on the way people learn, use technology, and lead themselves or organizations, this experience allows me to authentically resonate with the stress, anxiety, or self-doubt that comes with high-level responsibilities. Such resonance fuels my desire as an author and speaker to encourage, enrich, and empower through positivity

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Next year, in 2025, I anticipate walking across the stage for the commencement ceremony for my doctorate at Pepperdine…so I want to use this question to test out the itinerary for my friends and family when they’re all in town. I would orient the trip around my LA roots and adventure. I’d have to include a trip to Malibu to ride by my undergrad campus, Pepperdine, and then grab Lily’s Malibu for the ride back to the city. I’d also have to include a stop by Culver City Stairs to get a nice workout in and overlook the city—that’ll check off the adventurous workout part of the trip. When we’re all fresh, I’ll look into a seasonal exhibit or take the time to discover something new, that’s what I appreciate about the city—the possibility to discover something new or discover a part of the city you’ve never encountered fully. For dinner, I’d have to include a trip to Cecconi’s for their Vegan Pizza and ride around the area. If I’m not too full and need to sleep, or if we need a lowkey, yet fun, end to a night…I’d head to The Dime. I’ve yet to catch DJ R-Tistic there, but hopefully we can make it on that trip. This all would make for quite the trek throughout the city, but several options for a great time.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate this shoutout to spaces that carry physical books, such as libraries and bookstores, and the workers who cultivate these spaces for exploration. These spaces have been instrumental in my growth as a scholar and an author. Journeying into these spaces inspired me to encourage, enrich, and empower others, while being encouraged, enriched, and empowered myself. Over the past year, as I travelled between Las Vegas and LA, I retreated to local libraries in the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District for changes of scenery when I needed to work in siloed spaces…and in doing so, I made immense progress in my pursuit towards doctoral candidacy and also came across community opportunities to share my work as an author.

Growing as an author and illustrator, I have to recognize physical bookstores or even stores with book aisles for allowing me to visualize how both “Patterns, Prints & Positive Words: The Coloring Book to Live Grayter” and “A Place to Put Positive Words: The Notebook to Live Grayter” may appear in stores or even push me to ensure these resources stand out. Without these two spaces—the library and bookstores—I’m unsure how far I would have gone with creating resources that encourage or even empower others.

Website: www.thejoshuagray.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thejoshuagray

Twitter: www.twitter.com/thejoshuagray

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejoshuagray

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