In March of 2020 there was a moment of widespread panic – it wasn’t just about public health, it was also economic. Would our economy survive a prolonged pandemic? A few years in the answer is clear – it did survive and it was able to because of the spirit and the resolve of our people. Hard working mom and pops working overtime to implement new revenue streams for the businesses, artists and creators finding new ways to collaborate and share their art with their fans and folks from every neighborhood in the country finding ways to adapt and carry on. We wanted to honor those stories by creating a space to share those stories and you’ll find some of the below.
Kristina Bremer
When I think about the pandemic as a whole, my heart first and foremost, breaks for those who lost a loved one, suffered great financial loss, and have an experience during covid quite the opposite of mine. I was living in Key West at the time, and working as a host at Boondocks Grille and Draft House..the massive tiki-golf course in the keys, if you’ve ever been. I credit a lot of my success in the early stages to my former manager, Chad Helmke who believed in my future before I did, truthfully. Just shortly before the world began to shut down, I had more support and opportunities photography wise thrown into my direction that put me in the place I needed to be for March 2020. Read more>>
PJ Holt
The largest shift in my business occurred in March 2020 during Covid. The entire service industry in Colorado shut down for about 6 weeks. I was just starting to build my clientele back up again after a year sabbatical due to a death in my family. During the first part of the shut down, I really started to analyze my happiness. I was working in a salon that I really wasn’t happy at for at least 3 years. This salon had 6 other stylists, a receptionist, and a massage therapist and I knew that when we were able to come back to work I would be nervous working in a space with so many people and so would my clientele. Read more>>
Crystal Ervin
Covid has changed the way I communicate with my customers. As a professional introvert, We all know that communication is the key to all successful relationships. When Covid hit and the world shut down (an introverts dream) I had to step outside of my introvert bubble and communicate more with customers. Keeping them updated with shipment delays, price increase and why. When I feared losing customers, it worked the opposite. I was praised for communicating and keeping them in the loop. Read more>>
Stephannie Green
Recovering in a world of the aftermath of covid, we devised a business model that would strengthen the bonds of community, customers, and collaborators for the company to create a positive impact on society. In history, not long ago, There used to be a saying, “long distance is the next thing to being there.” It was a marketing slogan from the Bell phone systems before cell phones were a huge industry. A person could pick up the telephone, manually dial the phone number (if it was a family member you would intentionally memorize the phone numbers) and actually have a conversation about anything, anywhere in the world! It was as if the person on the phone, was close to you while physically being far away. Read more>>
Alfretz Costelo
During the covid lock down, I did some soul searching on what really made me happy – it was always acting. And so I spent my stimulus checks on Acting Classes on Zoom to help shake off the 15 year rust that settled on my craft. I took my experience in running hotels in New York and Los Angeles into developing my acting business and incorporated my sales background into taking meetings with agents and finally getting representation. With the self tape boom, I built my own home studio and found a community of actors that were just as motivated and passionate about helping each other prepare for auditions and finding different ways to practice our craft, from table reads to Audrey Moore’s Self Tape May Challenges on Instagram to creating original content for web series. Read more>>