Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeniece Harris . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jeniece , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is to accomplish: MORE ART.

This simply means, more art for the world, all ages, all mediums. I believe art adds deep value to cities, homes, corporations, families. Art is a way to express yourself AND find yourself. I have had hundreds of toddlers-adults in my studio and I have seem them come alive, break down, whatever is necessary for their journey. Art is vulnerable and important.

As a young kiddo, I would get in trouble because I would doodle on any and everything. (Piano’s, checkbooks, people, you name it.) It was essential to me to express myself. Without artistic expression, I had trouble knowing who I was. When I am creating, I am fully alive.

My goal is to provide opportunities for children and adults to express themselves, find themselves and experience beauty through creating something new.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Art has been a part of me since I can remember. I attended college courses for art and ended up having one teacher who broke my heart and my spirit for many years. At that time, I was creating for others instead of for myself.

As the years went by, I decided to listen to my heart and create what I wanted without worrying too much about what others thought. I heard about a studio in Newport Beach, contacted the owner and basically told her I wanted to teach at her studio. She said yes! (This is one of my greatest life lessons, sometimes you have to just go out and ask for what you want!)

I taught at her studio for 3 years and was later asked to take it over. I am now the proud owner of Art & Soul Collective and have started multiple business’ since, including another studio in Huntington Beach, Art House.

There is pretty much nothing I haven’t tried. I love to roll the dice and worse case senario, it flops, but to me, that’s still a win. I most likely learned something.

I have a staff of 6 art teachers now and it’s our goal to create an encouraging environment, teach fundamentals and empower people to live a creative life.

We teach all mediums in studio, we travel, teach in school campus’ and in nursing homes. We believe the more art, the better.

I have ADHD and it has been a massive struggle learning some of the (to me) boring business details and thankfully, I was able to hire someone who is a total pro. That is one of my biggest motto’s: you can’t do it all and you can’t do it alone.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

4 years ago, I was making $15/hour as a preschool teacher. I was teaching at the art studio on the side, and when I was asked to buy the studio from the owner, I was scared.

I can’t believe I was nervous to walk away from a $15/hour job, but fear is powerful! The job was steady and what I knew, I was comfortable, however, extremely overqualified.

I tried to run the studio and teach at the school, but eventually, I chose to quit teaching at the school mid-year. I knew I disappointed the school staff and many others, but I had to focus on what my passion was, blowing this art studio up! I had so many dreams and goals that I didn’t have time to achieve.

The day I quit, I felt a huge load off and was able to triple the art studios revenue in 4 months and the numbers go up each year. I just sent it, I am a huge activator and achiever, I set specific goals and wouldn’t stop until I achieved them. I created a team of all-stars, I even asked a girl to quit her job to help me. Now I am in a place where my team runs 50% of the business.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I am currently in it!

Opening my second studio has been an absolute nightmare. I am renting a building that is not to code, the city has required me to do one million things that I wasn’t expecting at all. I have spent way more than I ever planned and we are still not open. It’s a long story, but let’s just say, each day I give myself a pep talk to not give up: One day at a time. We will open eventually….

Contact Info:

• Website: http://artsoulcollective.com
• Instagram: @artandsoulartstudio
• Linkedin: Jeniece Harris