We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chris Zydel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chris below.

Alright, Chris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

When I first came up with the idea for my Creative Juices Arts expressive arts business it grew out of my own experience with intuitive painting and how much making art through letting go of control and without an agenda or a plan really helped me to feel more fully alive and connected to my real self.

I saw a lot of people who were teaching art classes that were focused on things like learning technique or creating a pretty picture. Which are all worthwhile endeavors. But I wanted something that was going to allow me to take people on a journey into listening to their souls and being supported in honoring their intuition through making art.

I knew many folks who were hungry for this deeper experience of themselves. I saw people flocking to things like meditation workshops or personal growth retreats and I knew how powerfully healing it was to be creative in your own unique way. So I thought it would be pretty amazing to combine art making with personal growth and meditation with creativity. To create classes, workshops or retreats where a person would be given total permission and unconditional support to not only make art from this place of true authenticity but to also provide safe containers of like minded souls where people could feel completely accepted to be their unapologetically creative selves in sacred community.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Chris Zydel, MA also known as The Wild Heart Queen, and I offer classes, workshops, retreats and training programs using the practices of intuitive painting and the expressive arts to help people reclaim themselves as artists and creative beings and to also use the creative process to become more spiritually and emotionally whole, heal from burnout and trauma and live more joyful and soul connected lives.

I got into my industry when I was at a crossroads in my life and was needing to reconnect with my own artists soul. I grew up in a family where both of my parents were creatively gifted but didn’t have the support or encouragement to develop those gifts in any meaningful way. So they couldn’t really support or encourage my artists heart.

When I discovered intuitive painting and the expressive arts those practices helped me to open up into parts of myself that had been hidden and dormant for so long and allowed me to come home to my full, authentic aliveness and to connect with a deep sense of purpose.

This work was so profoundly transformative for me that I became very passionate about spreading the word and designing opportunities through my Wild Heart Expressive Arts classes, workshops and retreats for other people to have this same experience of healing through creativity.

I think what sets me apart from others is my deep commitment to trusting the creative process, no matter where it leads me, and encouraging my many students and clients to develop that same sense of trust in their own creative unfolding.

I am really proud of the fact that I have touched so many peoples lives in a positive way over the 30 years that I have been doing this work. Through my intuitive painting and expressive arts circles I have created the world I wanted to live in which is a world that values authenticity, imagination, compassion, liberation, connection, fairness, the body, belonging, realness, emotion, intuition, creativity, community, self expression and play. And a deep allegiance to the sacredness of the wild, creative heart.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I think the most effective strategy that I have employed for growing my clientele is my trustworthiness and commitment to integrity. People know that they can trust me to be a safe haven of care and compassion for their tender hearts. They have faith, based on experience, that I will treat them with respect and that I will never exploit or manipulate them to fulfill my own needs either emotional or financial. They know that I will be true to my word and do what I say I will do. They get the benefit of my devotion to my craft which allows me to bring a high level of competence and mastery to my roles of teacher, facilitator and guide. They know that my confidence in myself and this work is based on real world experience honed over many decades and not just hype or clever marketing.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me is both word of mouth and how I show up online in terms of my website, my newsletter and through social media. I love to write and to share my thoughts about art, healing, intuition and the healing power of the creative process. And the people who will most benefit from my work feel both inspired and educated by how I talk about this process, leading them to want to come into my world in a bigger way.

My ever faithful and enthusiastic students and clients, both past and present, are always sending me new people because they have had such a positive experience of this approach to art and healing and have great faith in me as a facilitator and guide.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.creativejuicesarts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildheartqueen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.zydel/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-zydel-171849/
• Twitter: https://x.com/wildheartqueen

Image Credits

Chris Zydel
Tim Lajoie