For the Love of Creatives

Curiosity brought us together years ago in a networking room; purpose brought us back to talk about how creatives actually get their work on the wall. Jennifer Luney, a private wealth advisor with deep roots in advertising and an even deeper commitment to artists, opens the backstage door to the North Texas art ecosystem and shares a practical playbook for visibility, momentum, and community impact.

We trace her journey fr...

What happens when you bring improv out of the theater and into the mess of everyday work and life? With Amanda Austin... comedian, educator, entrepreneur, and former owner of Dallas Comedy House... we explore how trust, presence, and play can transform collaboration, decision-making, and creative growth. From leading workshops inside companies to teaching at SMU and navigating a portfolio career, Amanda shows how choosing your ener...

What if the most honest version of you is the one you’ve been avoiding? We sit down with CarolLaine M. Garcia, PhD, coach, and self-proclaimed embodied liberation guide...whose life arcs from early loss and academic rigor to a radical creative rebirth that refuses to live in separate boxes. This conversation moves from hotel rooms and elite consulting perks to long pandemic walks where anger finally had space to breathe, and to a b...

What if the fastest way to heal burnout is to make something beautiful? We sit down with designer and psychiatric provider Sabrina Labvah to trace how a grueling pandemic workload pushed her back to a first love... fashion... and why creativity didn’t pull her away from care, it made her better at it. Sabrina shares a candid roadmap for becoming: reflect on your past, choose readiness over pressure, and use journaling to metabolize...

What if the most profound shift of your life arrived as a single instruction: turn around and face the amp? That’s the moment Sean Patrick Maher describes—when a wave of sound churned grief through his body and out into the open, setting him on a path from musician to creator to founder of SomAlive Technologies. We dive into how sound becomes touch, how intention becomes architecture, and how community brings the meaning that susta...

What happens when an ultra-competitive systems thinker walks away from a comfortable tech career and decides to build something real, messy, and human? Blake joins us to unpack how a failed $40k app, a seasonal toy, and one conversation with an 83-year-old shop owner sparked a thriving fabric business built on brand-name textiles, creative financing, and the infinite game of community.

We dig into the scrappy playbook: val...

What if your creative practice wasn’t a side note, but the reason you get out of bed? We sit down with Hara Allison—graphic designer, photographer, and founder of Dream Studio—whose mantra “make love and make art” is both a rallying cry and a roadmap. She talks candidly about living with incurable cancer, why she declined more chemo after it stole a year, and how choosing creativity brought her back to herself.

Hara opens ...

What if the most powerful upgrade to your creative life isn’t a new tool, but a new identity? We’re expanding our platform with a third pillar—becoming—and opening up a candid, behind-the-scenes conversation on choosing who you grow into and why that choice changes everything.

We unpack the myth of arrival and the trap of quick fixes, then move into the deeper work that actually sustains craft and community. From self love...

Ever feel like you're creatively stagnant, pulled in different directions, and overthinking every possible path forward? You're not alone. In this vulnerable coaching conversation, we sit down with Sabrina, a graphic designer searching for greater fulfillment while struggling with perfectionism and the pressure to have everything figured out.

The session reveals how many of us approach career decisions like marri...

What if everything you thought about creativity was wrong? Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, senior research scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and author of The Creativity Choice, challenges our assumptions about what it means to be creative.

Forget the notion that creativity belongs only to artists, designers, and “creative types.” The biggest misconception limiting our potential is believing creativity equals art. ...

From the Paris Opera Ballet School to circus stages and fine art photography, Laetitia Bouffard-Roupe’s path defies convention. Born in France but belonging “to the world,” she shows how saying yes to the unknown can transform your life.

At just nine, Laetitia left home to train at the Paris Opera, where strict discipline built resilience but left lasting wounds around body image. After experiencing the darker side of ballet, she to...

From the confines of his grandmother's office—the very space where his creativity was first nurtured—Douglas Lewis takes us on a transformative journey from bullied youth to fashion revolutionary. Douglas's story begins with childhood memories of assembling photo albums alongside his grandmother, absorbing fashion history that would later become his creative foundation.

When thrust from the strict uniformity of p...

Creativity rarely follows a straight line, and David Powell’s story proves it. From self-taught web designer to craft cocktail bartender to digital project manager overseeing 20+ bars, his journey is a testament to following curiosity even when it leads to surprising places.

David opens up about the fear of sharing work publicly, recalling how his first poetry reading left him physically ill with anxiety. “The hard part for me is ne...

Elisha Oliver's path from classroom teacher to Executive Director of Texas Folklife offers a masterclass in following creative curiosity. When standardized testing drained her passion for education after nearly twenty years, Elisha found herself at a crossroads that many creatives face: continue the safe, practical path or risk exploring long-buried interests?

What followed was a "happy accident" – discoveri...

Andrea Holmes didn’t always believe art could pay the bills. After stints in catering, restaurants, and even TV, she embraced her true calling as a muralist. Now known as “the Bird Lady,” she supports herself and her daughter through her art, traveling internationally to paint vibrant murals that spark joy in communities worldwide.

What sets Andrea apart is her openness about the business of art. She shares that corporations like St...

Boldness opens doors that talent alone cannot. This truth radiates through Imani Black's journey from a tiny North Carolina high school to becoming a multi-faceted creative force in Dallas.

With refreshing candor, Imani shares how she transformed from the teenager who boldly announced to her entire school that she was "moving to Dallas to be somebody" into exactly that person – an award-winning photographer,...

What happens when you grow up as "the outcast among outcasts"? Photographer Curtis Tran joins us to share how being one of only three Asian students in his East Texas high school shaped his approach to creativity, community, and belonging.

Curtis takes us on a journey through his unique upbringing as a Vietnamese American in Nacogdoches, Texas, where his father—who narrowly escaped execution after the Vietnam War...

What does it take to build a restaurant empire with heart? Mico Rodriguez reveals the answer through his extraordinary journey from washing dishes at age five to creating Dallas's beloved Mi Cocina restaurants.

Growing up in his parents' restaurant, young Mico absorbed invaluable lessons about consistency, customer connection, and the intimate relationship between nourishment and care. His mother's dictatori...

What happens when a high-powered tech executive trades boardroom meetings for a canvas and paintbrushes? Kevin Whitehurst's journey from 33 years in healthcare technology to becoming "The Art Health Nut" reveals powerful lessons for creatives forging their own path to fulfillment.

Kevin's story demolishes the myth that artistic success requires traditional routes. Instead of chasing gallery representation, he tra...