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.

Audi Ryerson | Professional Pet Stylist and Grooming Mentor

I wanted to create a space that was tailored to each pets individuality and needs. A place that would transform pets lives while always catering to the artists. I wanted a salon that cared about quality over quantity. A place that was safe and clean with knowledgeable and friendly staff. A place that made you feel like family. Read more>>

Rebecca Riffel | Owner Main Stage Bar & Venue

Taking risks has been everything in my life. One of my favorite quotes to live by is, “Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where all the fruit is?” And I truly believe you’ll never get to the “fruit” in life if you don’t go out on the limbs. After I graduated college, I went to Thailand to get my TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) degree instead of pursing a “career” from my degree right away. It was a risk, to travel and see the world as a young solo twenty something female and not jump on the corporate ladder society tries to push you into after college. When I was 22 after receiving my TEFL certificate and spending 6 months in SE Asia, I moved by myself to the Dominican Republic to teach 8th grade through 12th grade at a small school in Punta Cana. I’d never been to the DR, only knew a little bit about the country and barely spoke a word of Spanish. It was a risk, but one that landed me more fruit. The experience of immersing myself in a new culture and adapting to it all taught me more than my four-year university degree could, and helped me gain the tools to navigate obstacles in any career in the future. When I was 29, I decided to come back to my small hometown in Arizona and open up a bar/music venue. It was a risk in everyway. A financial risk, but also a risk to try to open up something new and different in a small town. A risk to bring events such as drag shows and indie bands and artists together in a blue-collar rural town in America. But without taking that risk and leap, Main Stage would have never been born and would never be what it is today. Read more>>

Amanda Comage-Trower | Therapeutic Play Practitioner and K-12 school visionary

Being an entrepreneur is risky. We are taking risk that someone will believe in our vision and especially with my school campus, we have combined children’s mental health and education together while training inspiring teachers. Very risky unstable fields right now but they are what’s most important to healing our children and teachers in our failing education and mental health systems. So taking this risk is worth so much more than words can describe Read more>>

Chel Hicks | Photographer

I am inspired by creative people and the amazing art that they produce. I love to see tattoo artists like Josh Carpenter of Reaper Madness, photographers like Cody Hammer of Oklahoma and Cheyenne Weston of Arizona, artists like JB Snyder and Shani Rei, and bands like Realm and Miserable Ghost. They are all doing what they love and sharing it with others. That passion keeps me going and photographing. Read more>>

Jordan Fernandez | Owner & Founder of Dynamic SEO – Your #1 Tucson SEO Company

With so many responsibilities and tasks coming at me constantly as a business owner, staying on top of everything without getting overwhelmed can be a challenge. My solution has been that I always write down any tasks or issues that arise in a notebook and live by my notes. I work to check off things that have already been on the list and anything that comes down the pipeline I add to the list to address later. This has been key for moving everything forward and avoiding getting sidetracked or overwhelmed. In the evening, if things come up, rather than stress about them I put them down in my notebook to address tomorrow or later in the week, and then I try to let go of obsessing about it. It’s very tempting to try to hop on the computer late in the evening and troubleshoot issues immediately, however more often than not that leads to inefficiencies and further difficulties, so I’ve gotten a lot better about adding issues to my notebook and efficiently addressing them during the work day. Read more>>

Jeremy Fairchild | Upcycled Clothing Designer & Recovery Activist

Me! For most of my life I battled with anxiety and depression. I think most people can understand masking yourself to the public during work or putting on the office face from 9-5. Well when I was 22, in 2009, I was the driver in a motorcycle wreck that resulted in the death of my friend riding on the back. RIP Anna Neitzel. Read more>>

Angela Rosenkrans | Dance Program Director, Teacher, Lighting Designer, Choreographer

My ideas around work developed early and came from conversations that I had with my mother. When I started working she said “You should pursue whatever job you have as if you were the owner of the company and ask your self what would you wish for in an employee.” She also encouraged me to find the joy, importance and purpose in even the most mundane of tasks. In addition, she taught me the value of service to others. Read more>>

Mikey Ray | Hip Hop Artist & Entertainer

Loyalty. Loyalty is one of the principles I value most. I’ve had people all throughout my life, from friends to family to girlfriends to acquaintances all move different on me. A lot of the people I used to have in my life always faked support or wouldn’t show up when I needed them most like I would for them. That is why loyalty is most cherished in my eyes. Read more>>

Dawn Patton | CEO of Patton Accounting and Tax

We spend day in and day out reminding people that running the numbers in your business isn’t just something you do around Tax Day. It’s something that you should constantly be doing. Your numbers tell your story, help you set prices, let you know when it’s time to hire, dictate when to invest, and so much more. Knowing your financial situation helps you OWN your business not just be a business owner. Read more>>

Avery Hellman | Singer-Songwriter

I’m from Northern California, and I grew up in a mix of country and city. I spent a lot of my time riding horses when I was a kid. So when I was becoming an adult, I had a dream of becoming a rancher, an environmental rancher specifically. Fortunately I had all of this experience working with horses riding trails and training, and so being out on a cattle / sheep ranch was a natural transition. But once I began ranching I felt there was still something more that I wanted — to express myself through art. I figured, what’s a better job to do than farming and ranching for inspiration as an artist. So I decided I would be a sort of rancher-environmentalist-songwriter. It turns out that the songwriter part of that worked out better than the rest, so I’m sticking mostly to that these days. Read more>>