We recently connected with Joshua Levy and have shared our conversation below.
Joshua, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
While working from home one afternoon in September 2015 I experienced an epiphany, a true calling from the Universe. It was as if time stood still when my background and experiences of creative writing, acting, teaching special education, and project management came together in one defining moment. The calling was the vision for what eventually became Joshua’s Stage. I immediately shared the moment with my parents and my wife, all of whom offered their full support.Recognizing that there was a limited number of programs specifically for special needs individuals in the Austin, Texas area, I went to work on a business plan. During the process I determined that the endeavor would best be suited as a nonprofit organization. I spent numerous weeks composing the business plan while researching how to found a nonprofit organization. Myself, my wife, and our children were thinking of various names for the organization, and at last my wife announced that I should call it Joshua’s Stage.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
When I was seven years old I wrote a short story called “The Spaceship of The Rain,” and I remember reading it out loud to my parents. Their applause was the positive reinforcement that inspired me to explore my creative side. By nine years old I wrote and nervously directed my first play called “Jackie The Realtor,” in my bedroom, where my sister starred in the leading role as Jackie and the neighborhood kids were the other characters. What does a nine year old know about realtors you may ask? We had moved several times by the time I was nine, and realtor was a common name in our family. Later on I dabbled in acting in summer camps, middle school, and high school; I researched method acting and how to get in touch with casting agents. At the same time I was working as a special education teacher assistant for various special education classes in my middle school, my congregation, my high school, and at the Mary Cariola Center in Rochester, NY with significantly cognitively and physically disabled children. While I dreamed, and still do, of accepting the Academy Award for Best Actor, my mother strongly suggested that I pursue a career in teaching special education. Since my mother was always right, I went to the University of Nebraska where I learned both the religion of college football and the art of teaching special education. Throughout my public education career I taught elementary and high special education in Austin, Texas. I aspired to be a school administrator as I served as an assistant principal at an area charter school and later at an area elementary school. An unexpected opportunity came up where I joined the dark side of education as a project and program manager for an educational publishing company helping to manage state assessments; I developed business acumen and acquired an MBA along the way. Fast forward to March 2016 when Joshua’s Stage was founded.
In May 2016 Joshua’s Stage piloted our initial program for two 45-minutes sessions at an area private school for middle and high school students with special needs. The sessions were a success and a side note: Joshua’s Stage returned to that school seven years later to conduct a weekly eight-weeks program for middle and high school students, culminating in a showcase featuring their original play.
Joshua’s Stage is a quality enrichment program specifically designed for special needs children and adults featuring after-school programs, summer camps, workshops, online programs, and individual enrichment programs; including activities such as theater arts, improv, arts and crafts, music, dance, photography, create-a-story, and showcase.
Our amazing team travels to locations throughout the Austin area to conduct our Theater Arts & More! Programs, including schools, congregations, and even living rooms for birthday parties. A typical program is a nine-week program that meets for weekly 90-minutes sessions, culminating in a showcase for the last session. The showcase features the program participants performing in an original play derived from the Create-a-Story activity conducted previously in the program – we ask the participants who they want to be, what they want to have happen, where and when they would like to have the story take place, and the title. Everyone has the opportunity to wear a costume and three, two, one, action!
Joshua’s Stage uses The Creative Outlet Method, the 10-component framework I created to enhance each participant’s unique abilities while providing them with opportunities to demonstrate their creativity, increase their self-confidence, and build their social skills in a warm and welcoming environment. Rooted in social and emotional learning (SEL), The 10 Components of The Creative Outlet Method consist of the blueprint for implementing a quality and accessible program for neurodivergent youth and young adults.
Recognizing that The Creative Outlet Method is the key ingredient for Joshua’s Stage team members’ approach to effectively engaging with our special needs participants, I founded Joshua Levy Educational Consulting to train other organizations and parents on implementing the method. Additionally, I wrote my book, published in September 2022 by Jossey-Bass, The Creative Outlet Method: At-Home Activities for Children with Special Needs, for parents and educators to enrich the lives of children with special needs.
When I am conducting a Theater Arts & More! Program, or when I am watching one of our amazing team members lead the activities, I am brought back in time to nervously directing “Jackie The Realtor” in my bedroom. These nerves are actually my level of excitement for the lives Joshua’s Stage enriches, including the participants, team members, volunteers, parents, Board members, donors, and more.
I am proud to say that I often thank my parents for their round of applause when I read them a story about a spaceship in the rain. My beautiful wife, our two wonderful children, our two cute dogs, Joshua’s Stage, and my book are me answering the Universe’s call and living a life of fulfillment.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
While researching how to develop a business plan I recall coming across an article or two referring to choosing to work on your business or choosing to work in your business. For some reason I interpreted that as one way or the other and I was headstrong on only working on the business. This led me to hiring initial team members as the individuals who would bring their expertise as creative teaching artists and/or experienced special educators to Joshua’s Stage with little to no guidance from me. My work, I thought, would be primarily drafting policies with Board member input and building the infrastructure to grow the organization.
Within a few months of implementing this model I learned that I was uncomfortable with the approach. To absolutely no fault of the wonderful and amazing instructors originally in our program, I didn’t feel right about what was taking place. I reflected on my feelings and realized that I was scared to share what I truly envisioned for Joshua’s Stage in that I was worried it was too soft of an approach for engaging special needs individuals. Heck, here I was founding an organization and I was feeling like a mouse with my own creation. Not really a good mix when trying to get something off the ground, but at the same time I knew that getting it off the ground was an essential part of the journey.
Over time I gradually tried implementing how I envisioned engaging with the participants, and while my approach wasn’t a home run out of the gate, I felt better for at least getting it going. Team members here and there questioned my approach while others embraced it. As I ventured into working both in the business and on the business at the same time, I continued to grow more comfortable with my approach to working with special needs individuals. As my confidence grew, so too did the way I shared my vision with prospective and current team members and families of participants.
The questions from team members of what I was trying to accomplish were challenging and they were the right questions to ask of me at the right time in our organization’s growth and development. If I couldn’t remain confident and consistent in my answering how I envisioned things to go, then how would anyone be expected to perform successfully? I answered this question with practice, patience, confidence, listening to guidance from a plethora of friends, consultants, teachers, and the like. My answers to these challenging questions in combination with the many positive experiences in our programs led me to further feeling confident in my approach, in turn leading me to write a book about it.
Over the years I have thrown myself into being in the business and being on the business pretty much at the same time.
In late spring of 2022 myself along with other team members realized that Joshua’s Stage reached a crucial moment in our development where we knew it was time to grow. And that we did. We launched an Operations Director position along with a Program Support Coach position, and we are shifting my role as Executive Director to more of the fundraiser/networking face of the organization. This process of turning over the day-to-day operations has been intentionally slow and steady, and there are a few more things to do to get this next stage to where we want it.
One thing I didn’t mention earlier is that while researching founding a nonprofit organization I came across the concept of founders syndrome – where the founder pretty much never leaves and pretty much this can cause friction later on. I planted that seed even before we were founded on March 1, 2016 that I would always keep in mind a succession at some point.
Shifting to working on the business, or even in the business but in a different approach is the right path for our organization.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
My positive attitude and growth mindset helped build my reputation within our market. One of the components I focused on early in Joshua’s Stage founding was brand awareness, which to me included networking, attending business workshops, and getting invited to community events within our market. Each encounter with someone, or with a group, and especially at a community event meant for me bringing a massive amount of energy.
This of course was, and still is to this day if not more so, exhausting. The good kind of exhausting. It’s the exhaustion I encourage our team members to embrace at the end of a day; that feeling of yeah, wow, that was awesome, and wow I am fried/tired/wiped out/exhausted, etc. The level of joy I have for everything that is Joshua’s Stage is growing everyday.
It’s like driving a Ferrari! It’s an exciting, exhilarating, full-speed adrenaline rush, humbling, rewarding, huge fireball of fun. When people ask me how things are going, I almost always say something to the effect of, “I am living the dream. I am living my passion. Things are moving a million miles a minute!”
Over the years my enthusiasm and my positive attitude has become literally larger than life; when I talk to someone about the impact Joshua’s Stage is making on participants, team members, volunteers, and more, I find myself getting more and more excited about it as I am talking. My voice inflection is usually all over the place and my cheeks feel like they are getting a face lift because I am smiling so wide. It’s like the giggles, or a big spout of laughter, one person starts and then everyone else is in a giggle fest – other people feed off my positive energy and they associate it with Joshua’s Stage, and in turn my fireball of energy just gets bigger.
It’s like I am a beacon of light for the Universe when I share all the amazing things going on with Joshua’s Stage. And who wouldn’t want a piece of that positivity?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://joshuasstage.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuasstage
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshuasstage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joshua’s-stage
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2HTEWXC9Nw4jpskGfq6Ctg
Image Credits
April Paine Photography