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.

Leah Aegerter

My mantra for the past year has been “In with uncertainty, out with expectation.” When I decided to pursue my artistic practice full time two years ago, I was constantly stressing over how to make ends meet. All of a sudden, there was this pressure to sell my work and thus make sure that everything I made was a success, but that is not the way that a practice develops. Failure and iteration are essential to artistic growth. As I’ve learned to let go my grasp on constant stability, I have to remind myself that the unknowns of life will provide in the ways I need them to. By embracing uncertainty and letting go of both internal and external expectations, I open myself up to fresh, intuitive ideas and unexpected opportunities. Read more>>

Hallie Dantzler

After I was laid off, I spent several months applying for jobs in my field without any luck. So I decided to be my own boss! I took a thing -coffee- and combined it with my idea of running my own business. I wanted to create a business with my name on it to represent the pride I would and do have in my products. Hal’s Coffee was then born and I got very busy creating my business and brand. Hal’s Coffee is all about being sustainable, creating quality product without ever sacrificing quality for quantity, and making the world a better place than the day we entered it. My passion has always been in service and ensuring that everyone I cross paths with is a better person for doing so. I took all of my passions, best qualities, and desire to no longer work for corporate America and created Hal’s Coffee. Read more>>

Cody Cochran

I was born and raised in Adams County, Colorado by a good family that had a secret, my father was an addict and alcoholic. Though a hard working man and good parent, I was introduced to the lack of resources in my community by watching my father repeatedly try and fail to find sobriety. It also introduced me to drugs and alcohol at a young age, teaching me that the solution to pain and discomfort could come from these substances. As my own disease progressed throughout my twenties, I was diagnosed with End Stage Liver Disease from alcoholism at 31 years of age, and decided that if my time was limited, I wanted to find my path in recovery and figure out how I could make a difference. Read more>> 

Bailey Richy | Wedding & Event Planner, Designer and Content Creator

Deciding to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was a decision that truly changed the trajectory of my life and my career. Everything has a domino effect, and I feel that everything that has happened in my adult life is an outcome of that monumental decision. I had always dreamed of “party planning” so to say, as a career, but committing to UNLV and choosing Hospitality with a minor in Wedding & Event Planning was what really set that dream into motion. UNLV also led me to my now husband, who is a Colorado native.  Read more>>

Avery Dinnel

God’s goodness inspires me to be the best version of myself in all that I say and do. I once heard a quote with the message stating: for some people your life will be the only representation of The Bible. Within my social media I have cultivated a community for girls to feel seen, heard, and loved. I think there is a lack of vulnerability on social media. Whether you are going through a breakup, hard health battles, or anything else few and far between, those lows are typically not seen online. I feel called to share my life as a walking testimony of His goodness! Because through the highest highs and lowest lows, He is still good. Read more>>

Jason Vaughn

I’m inspired by my family. My current project under the moniker Bear Goes North is a set of instrumental compositions focused around the birth of my first son. We have two now, so I’ve sat on these tunes for almost 7 years. Not unusual, I suppose, but it took time to get the right personnel for the record as well as hustling on gigs to get money to finance my studio. I wrote these songs on a sleepless night shortly after my son was born and the duo of my wife and I became a trio. They mostly came in one long stream of conscious writing and then certain sections were developed over time to become their own pieces. My first attempt at self-production was an EP during covid that I played all of the instruments on except drums. Read more>>

Odalis Canchola

In my honest, lighthearted opinion, a great shot is born from the eye of the photographer, it doesn’t always have to be the most expensive equipment. Be airy about this hobby or passion, plus, in reality, photography is just storytelling. To tell a story or portray an emotion through an image is much more fun than focusing on “professionalism” or high profile statuses anyway.   Which also leads me to say that artists/photographers shouldn’t categorize themselves as professional or not; instead, consider how authentically you’re capturing what your senses are feeling and in what ways you can self-improve your receptivity to beauty. There’s nothing more creative than learning from curiosity and building a relationship with your surroundings and cameras, which goes for any artistic medium, not just photography. Read more>>

Julia German

Leaving my position as a Partner at a law firm, to pursue art full time. In a rather winding path, I’ve spent my life trying to create enough financial stability to take time to focus on making art. I’ve kept art as a very small part of my life through my legal career, but I just could not move forward in my artistic work while prioritizing a full-time legal practice. Leaving a position that legitimates you in our commercial world to pursue a self-taught hobby that is notorious for being unlikely to bring financial success came with both a loss of real security, and a loss of status which is a more powerful loss than anyone really wants to acknowledge. Read more>>

Annemarie Meyers | Creative Director

The most important lesson my career has taught me is actually a balance of two key traits: confidence and humility. Learning to navigate the dynamic between the two has been both a challenge and a major source of growth. Learning to be confident in the face of imposter syndrome has been a long-time struggle for me. I started working as a designer and freelancer at just 16, which meant negotiating rates, presenting my work, and standing my ground with clients far older and more experienced than me. Each step forward required convincing myself that I was talented enough to take it. Read more>>

April Alsup

Surround yourself with good people who know their craft. If you want to create excellent music theatre works you’ll need to find people who have synergy with your group, are responsible and do their part at a high level. None of us can do this on our own and mounting a new music theatre piece takes all sorts of various talent. You’ll need to identify someone on the team, perhaps yourself, that everyone respects and can rally around. Also, you’ll want to have someone who can spot and take care of any toxicity that sometimes creeps into creative projects with varying levels of self interest and ego. Read more>>

AJ Lauer, EdD

I grew up in a small city in Wisconsin. In 7th grade, I found myself one of the new kids at the Catholic middle school. We were poor, so not even my uniform clothes were “right”, and most of my classmates had been in school together since Kindergarten. I was different in all the wrong ways. Then one day we had an assembly to watch a presentation called “Differences: Gotta Have ‘em!” The actors were a middle and high schoolers who were part of a Youth Team run by a local disability rights organization. It was a series of mini-scenes, music, and poetry about how we all benefit from being arou. Read more>>