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.

Mara Pitcher

My favorite quote is by Dolly Parton, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose”
I love this quote because it speaks to how I live my life. I’ve worked for many years to understand what value I can bring to others through my own pursuit of health and happiness. As I have identified my strengths and developed different skills, I’ve built a career and a lifestyle that gives me a great deal of joy and purpose. Read More>> 

Dakassha Holmon

The idea for my business came from my own personal journey. I knew what it felt like to be denied, to feel stuck financially, and to have limited guidance on how to truly build wealth and credit the right way. After experiencing those setbacks, I became committed to learning everything I could about personal credit, business credit, and funding—and most importantly, how to use that knowledge to create real freedom. Read More>> 

Izhak Revah Liran Friedman

“Hello DFW Shoutout & thank you for inviting us to share our story with your readers & supporting local businesses ! We truly appreciate the opportunity given us, and we’re honored to be featured alongside so many inspiring local voices ! — though now we’ll need to explain to our moms that yes, this does count as being ‘famous’ (laughing)”  Read More>> 

April Snyder

Being a business owner and a single parent for over half my life has often made me view myself as a “hologram.” As an entrepreneur, you are truly the only one you can consistently lean on. This analogy comes to mind because it often feels like an imaginary version of myself is standing behind me, ready to catch me if I fall. Read More>>

MacKenzie Hughes

After leaving a 20 year career in the photo retail world, I had to make a decision whether or not to continue with something I loved: making people excited about making images with their own camera…no matter what camera, age, skill, or any other walk of life.
The enjoyment of taking pictures for yourself is one thing…teaching, encouraging, inspiring and getting others excited to fall in love what they captured is the real thrill for me. Read More>> 

Samantha Bujarski

When I think about risk, to me it is an opportunity or a learning experience. Whether if that risk plays out in the way you had hoped or a completely different direction you didn’t expect. The role that risks have played for me has ultimately been the biggest role. While navigating through a divorce and owning my salon, I took the risk to embark on my first ever one month long cross country road trip by myself from Ohio to work on a movie for Lifetime in Los Angeles. I took a risk in moving to New York City and starting my life completely over.  Read More>> 

Kevin Craft

As a brand identity designer and business owner, several habits have been key in what I consider to success for my business.

I prioritize setting timers for myself, which helps maintain focus and productivity throughout the day. It also gives me a heads up if I should be moving on from a task. It’s definitely easy to get consumed in my work, especially since it is creative. Sometimes it’s good for me to just pick up a new task, so I get a mental break from the work I was focusing on. It helps with solving problems, and often times having that break leads to solutions for the previous work. Read More>> 

Colby Murphy

My kids, my wife, seeing where the company has started and how far it has come, the people I keep close to me, and my team that has stuck with me through thick and thin; their loyalty is something that I can’t explain. The sacrifices I chose to make not only affected me, they affected my family and my team, and they stuck by me and continue to do so. It makes me incredibly happy knowing they believe in me. Read More>> 

Jeana Marie Andreatta

Happiness for me has always been rooted in the simple things. The things that make me happy are the things that remind me of where I came from and the people I love most—my mom, my dad, and my grandparents. I’m very sentimental, and there are some vivid, lived memories that have stuck with me over the years. They represent who I am and what shaped me and the things that I create with my hands. Read More>> 

Megan Chiu-Dawson

My family immigrated from Taiwan to the United States in pursuit of the American dream. Growing up in an Asian household, I was instilled with the values of hard work, humility, and a constant drive to be the best version of myself. These lessons have stayed with me and continue to shape the way I approach both challenges and opportunities in life. These values mean the most to me because they reflect my core beliefs—and they have stayed true through some of the toughest times in my life. Read More>> 

Sonja Xie

Never stop doodling on the side of your homework, even if your math teacher tells you it’s a disgrace to his eyes. Never stop taking artsy pictures of the sky whenever there’s a slight trace of pink, even when your phone storage is pleading for mercy. And most importantly, never stop bombarding your friend’s birthday card with glittery stickers and hearts drawn in pink marker. No matter how old you grow. Read More>> 

India Quezergue

The end goal of my career is not to intentionally have my name in billboards or to necessarily be “one of the greats” or to be considered a household name from either one of my art mediums, but to be the book you pick up on the coffee table of your home when you finally put down your phone. My end goal is to attract and inspire those with or without artistic background, for people to view my work and to simply feel something. My end goal that I want for my career is to be happy with my work, from all of my art mediums, and to know that nothing I did or created was perfect. Read More>> 

Lesly Cerrillo

The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was make the final decision to leave my part-time job. I was terrified—scared of what would come next, scared that I had made the wrong choice, and scared that I might fail in my business. But deep down, I knew if I didn’t take the leap now, I might never do it. I kept making excuses, even though I knew I was capable of going full-time in my business. Taking that step was one of the scariest but most empowering moments of my life.  Read More>>