We were fortunate to catch up with some brilliant artists, creatives and entrepreneurs from throughout the Houston area and they share the wisdom with us below.

Sarah Wesley

I had always known I wanted a life of freedom and exploration though I hadn’t imagined I’d be able to merge these passions into a sustainable career. After having a transformative and deeply spiritual experience in the Nile in Aswan Egypt, I decided to stay and live in Egypt. Traversing paths unknown and meeting incredible souls all over the land, the idea to bring people together in community and shared space came about. The initial idea was simply to do one curated experience across three cities in Egypt and that blossomed into a full collective of international retreats, community offerings with healers from around the world and immersive experiences in ancient wisdom, education and wellness. It started with following my curiosities and led to places I couldn’t have dreamed. Read more>>

Mirella Zakar | Stylist and founder of THE DIVA BY MIRELLA

when you have a vision of success in your goals and you reach it Read more>>

Don Che | CEO Chapta1llc

Success, I often define as the catalyst that derives from my failures. For me, failures via perceptional, eternal, mental, is what fuels my ambitious drives to become successful. Regardless of the outcome, success comes in many forms, unwanted success, warranted success, merit success etc. It all depends upon the lens of the perceived situation in which the adequate success could be applied! Read more>>

Adam Zimmon | guitarist & music creator.

So far, I think being present as much as possible. It’s hard work and you have to learn every step, but I’m hoping that spending as much time as I can with them at a young age will give them a strong sense of self-worth that helps them with challenges later in life. Read more>>

Ciara Wardlow | Development Assistant

A DOMINANT CHARACTER by Samanth Subramanian. It’s a biography of the geneticist J. B. S. Haldane, who I consider to be one of the most interesting figures of the 21st century. I’ve really admired Haldane since I first encountered his articles in college–there’s really no one like him in modern popular culture, he was a researcher involved in certain key discoveries but more than that he was a science popularizer. Learning more about Haldane’s life only makes him all the more fascinating–he was a real radical thinker in so many ways. Read more>>

Austen Renzi | Photographer

My younger sister gifted me ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid last summer for my birthday. I haven’t finished a book that quickly and connected with reading something fictional in a while. The writing allowed me to create a cinematic world both in old Hollywood and New York City. I remember being so captivated when Evelyn’s character is first introduced, there was more than visuals I was picturing but an allure. I was in a relationship at the time and the way Evelyn’s character feels for the real love of her life, Celia, and her best friend is remarkable and moved me to tears throughout reading. I lent it to my partner at the time and he just recently returned it to me after taking a while to read it. He understood why it was so moving and resonated with me deeply. There’s a lot of tragedy in it but the way it builds and has twists and turns and the title of the book isn’t strikingly queer but it is a queer love story. It has elements of friendship and family throughout and the visual landscape the relationships the characters have elevate that. I felt like I was watching a movie or experiencing a vivid dream shifting through the pages. Writing about it now reminds me how I want to do a photography series inspired by the writing. Read more>>

Devon Rae | Tattoo Artist

That you have to go to college to have a successful career. That might sound obvious coming from a tattoo artist; I have a degree in Illustration and while I did gain skills and experience that I use in my tattoo practice, I definitely didn’t need to go to Art School and spend as much money as I did. I was paying for the name of the school on my degree; If I had to do it over again I would stick with community college classes and not worry about credits or a degree, and just take art classes, maybe a business class or two. Read more>>

Jordann Thomas | The pink barber-tologist

We as stylist pay weekly to work Read more>>

Emily Boe | Artist & Content Creator

I think one of the biggest struggles of being an artist, especially one who makes their a living sharing their work online, is maintaining solid mental health. Art is inherently vulnerable, and putting it on the internet for anyone to comment on, critique, discuss, etc. is incredibly scary. It becomes a sort of catch-22 because a lot of us need to share our work on social media in order to pay our bills, but there will always be a handful of folks with something negative to say, bringing us down and killing our motivation. I think that having a good support system outside of work, along with health self-esteem, is necessary. Read more>>

Deja Johnson | Author & CEO

One of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make was determining whether to continue pursuing a path that I was deeply passionate about, even when it seemed like I was losing faith and the avenue I was on wasn’t yielding the results I hoped for. This crossroads required me to evaluate if I should keep pushing forward despite the setbacks or pivot and explore a new direction. Balancing my aspirations with the practicalities and challenges of the situation made it an incredibly tough decision. Read more>>

Kyna Lee | Actor

Last year during the SAG-Aftra strikes,
I decided to sell my beauty business, my car, my furniture and move back to Sydney, Australia.
I obtained my US citizenship prior to leaving, and set out to make my new life back in Bondi Beach.
Once returning, I found it such a culture shock after living in LA and NYC for so long. Read more>>

Matthew Engst

The most important lesson my career has taught me is that business, just like life, has “seasons.” There are times when it feels like the winter will never end. But patience, self-belief, and persistence are key. Just as winter eventually gives way to spring and summer, tough times will pass, leading to periods of growth and success. Stay resilient and trust in the process. Read more>>

Emily (Em) Stacey | Hair, makeup and SFX artist

I love connecting, assisting and working with other makeup artists. It’s so important to see how others work. You can learn so much and I always see it as an opportunity to grow in areas I feel less confident with. Community is so important! I get a lot of my work through the referrals of other makeup artists, and it’s good to have people you can trust to recommend if you’re unable to do a job. Read more>>