To be honest, I’ve always had the idea of doing more with art and therapeutic activities and parties and teaching. I was just never able to find the time or the fierce motivation to get things jump-started. As everybody in the entire world is aware, when covid shut down virtually everything in March of 2020, I knew that my summer plans were in jeopardy of being canceled and thus losing an important part of my summer salary. As many of you know being a single mom is challenging and we are always trying to find creative ways to save money or take on multiple jobs in order to make things work. Don’t get me wrong I have a supportive ex-husband who has never once skipped out on a child support payment and helps whenever possible but it’s still challenging. So, when covid hit. It was kind of like a fire got lit under my butt

So in April of 2020 when covid was still rearing its ugly head I was officially informed that my summer programming was not going to happen. At that point I knew I had to pivot. That’s right in the immortal words of Ross Geller I needed to “Pivot”!

I called my best friend Amber, who is an amazing web designer, social media educator, and virtual executive assistant to multiple companies all at one time. She has always been my cheerleader and helped me in it’s infancy create a better social media presence for selling my art pieces and offering art parties. I told her that we needed to get something started. And of course she said to me “I’ve been telling you you have been needing to do this for years and I’m glad you finally caught up with me!!!” It’s like hearing “I Told You So” and being gently smacked in the face. Of course she’s right; she’s been right for years. she’s been telling me all along that I needed to integrate my art and therapy and all my other ideas and cool things that I do into an adorable little package and present it to the world.

It kind of made me laugh that something that I’ve known for so long and agreed with is finally being forced to come to fruition. There was no fear involved in this new realization, it was actually more excited nervous energy. I like new challenges. I like new chapters in books. I like taking apart a puzzle and putting it back together successfully. I knew this was going to work. I never doubted it. Tell that to my unconscious of course but I think I really knew this would work.

I immediately set to task and found all of my experts in the different fields that I needed. I called a friend who used to run a summer camp to help me with Camp applications, legal jargon and anything else I might need from a camp director standpoint. I called a friend who’s a nurse and asked her to help advise me on how to research and write my covid policy that I would have her at my summer camp. I called a friend who had an event venue that wouldn’t be open for quite some time and borrowed the necessary tables and chairs from her to make my program successful.

I came up with the schedule. I came up with themes for each week and my best friend Amber AKA social media Guru, started designing my website and putting together a general theme for all of my programs and activities. I started working on a location for where I could host my camps. Out of the blue my son mentioned that his father has some empty office space at the front of his complex and maybe I could use that space. I was excited about this venture and started working on that as an option. I went and checked out the space and felt that it would be doable for what I was looking for and the rent was definitely very generous. As the forms got together and the website. Completed and the marketing started to flow. Once I figured it out where I was going to be hosting my camps I really started to believe that this truly could happen.

I knew I needed to make some money to compensate for my loss of job over the summer but what was more important to me was the kids who had been locked up in their homes for the last several months. They needed an experience that allowed them to just be kids again. To think less about masks and illness and germs and hand sanitizer and more about fun and laughter and art and learning in a healthy and safe environment. It was really crucial to me to make sure that this experience was positive for all of my participants. I did a lot of research on the CDC website and consultations with people in the field. I conversedwith my art friends who helped me, with themes and activities and programming that supported the art experiences that I wanted the participants to have.

I also wanted to hire high school and college students who not only were great people and interested in art but I also wanted to find a way to help support those whose families were in significant financial or other crises due to covid. I also took on an intern who had some differences and knew that this would be a positive experience for them and would help them grow. I could have made more money than I had but I felt like paying it forward to students in need, paying it forward to parents who were struggling financially due to covid, paying it forward to the next generation of young adults who were themselves struggling or their family was struggling is much more important. As a Jewish woman there are so many values that we are taught about caring for others. I am a firm believer that we must take care of those around us, we must take care of the next generation and we must give back where we can.

Now, as we got closer to the launch of my camps there was a slight snag and I was no longer able to host my camps at the original location I found. I spent half a day wallowing and stressing and probably pulling a few hairs out of my head. But I woke up the next day and put on my “big girl panties’

Can you say PIVOT!?!??! Again! That’s right I took a second pivot and I went ahead and decided that I would host the camps from my very own living room. I’m blessed with a very large space at the front of my house that doubles as a dining room and living room all in one. I’m also doubly blessed that the space is tile floors so any kind of spills or accidents would be easier to clean up than if it was carpet. I took that pivot and ran with it. And my first year of Summer art camp was underway!

I think I was born with a paintbrush in my hand. LOL from a very young age I was always interested in art and coloring and drawing and painting. I was also into Music and Dance and Gymnastics and anything that fueled my ADD brain. So naturally as I matured I took art classes and engrossed myself in any kind of art activities I could find that enhanced my experiences. By the time I was fourteen I also knew that I was pretty much going to be a therapist. All my friends came to me with their problems or their worries and I always seem to have a knack for listening and helping resolve situations so after a small experience that I had in an outpatient treatment facility for depression it pretty much sealed the deal for me knowing that I was definitely going to become a therapist. It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized that I could be an art therapist. The school that I was currently at didn’t have a program for that so I just continued with my basic counseling degree and then sat for the LPC,Licensed Professional Counselor, exam in the state of Texas a couple years after graduation. After getting my LPC I did look into taking the additional courses and certification for an art therapy license as well. But then I got pregnant and became a parent and kind of put it on the back burner. I took multiple trainings in art therapy and art therapy techniques and I use art as a form of expression in my therapy activities I offer with my clients. And I’ve definitely noticed the significant correlation between using art in therapy and its success when working with a variety of clients and their needs.

So I guess you can just say that art is my passion and therapy is my passion and eventually the two are going to collide. For about 11 years I worked at a sleepover camp near Waco Texas as the art director. When working at a sleepaway Camp, it does require a certain level of “therapy” skills when helping with kids who are missing home or are at camp and have any issues they are dealing with. So naturally I was able to use my therapy skills as well as creating works of art with the campers.

As I moved into my clinical practice and started doing therapy on a daily basis it came very naturally for me to have art supplies on my desk or wherever I went and people were able to engage in any kind of art that they wanted to while we worked together. For me, I always noticed that having something to fidget with or work on or do allows the conversation to flow more smoothly. It’s less awkward to sit in someone’s office and just make eye contact and talk back and forth then to look down and be drawing together while having a conversation. It kind of seems like it’s an ice breaker or takes the edge off when you’re working with a client.

So if you ask my best friend web designer amazingness oh, she will tell you that for years she’s been telling me I need to create my own business that incorporates the two things together and not just an art as therapy way but in an engaging Dynamic and creative. That business came into fruition on a very slow train for the last decade or so. And then as covid kicked in and lots of realities have changed I knew it was time to turn my ideas and my very very side business into a larger and more prominent fixture in my career.

If you ask my dad he will tell you that I jumped into the deep end feet-first with all my clothes on and without any kind of a life preserver. But I think I’ve been doing that my whole life. Actually, I think I did that when I was about four years old at my cousin’s bar mitzvah. The pool, the dress, the shoes, it was all there.lol

I guess you can say that what I’m most proud of is the fact that I didn’t start off creating a business plan, I didn’t start off getting a small business loan, I didn’t start off doing everything they tell you to do. I just started off with what I knew I was good at and I searched out my friends who are masters in their training areas that I wasn’t. I collaborated with them and brought them onto my team and utilized their expertise to help me get things started.

Of course since then I have utilized some very amazing trainings through the University of Houston Small Business Development Center and watched some great online and recorded classes. I now have my own business checking and savings accounts, received an EIN number as well as other professional documentation I needed to make my business “official” Next step, a business plan!

As far as my brand goes. I understand the concept and I get where it’s important. But what I’ve also learned over the last three years is that you have to be flexible. For me, what I’m realizing is that my ideas, while they are interesting and dynamic, really have to come from the vibe of what’s around me. So, yes, I have a “brand” but I’m also aware that it can change in a heartbeat. Like a when a pandemic shuts down one side of our lives and we must be prepared for that.

I thoroughly believe that you must be willing and able to come to the table with the full knowledge that you must Pivot to continue to stay relevant and successful in this market.

So I definitely know how to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin. And I knew that there are trends and ads and things going on in that realm. I know how to get into Facebook Marketplace and sell some of my art. But I really didn’t know about SEO’s and other keywords that have anything to do with social media.

Luckily my best friend does. And when I realized I wanted to turn my very small side hustle into a more significant and substantial side business and possibly a full-time business I immediately called her. She designed the coolest website ever. She helped me with my branding and color schemes and collecting stock images for all the marketing that we were going to be creating together. She got me hooked into Constant Contact and the app “Later” as well as several other tools for making my social media and marketing campaigns easier to manage as a small business owner and newbie to the world of building your audience on social media.

She did individual hour-long training sessions with me on how to successfully promote an ad on Facebook and Instagram. She taught me some of the basics of designing a flier that is attractive AND the right size and pixelation for Instagram and Facebook. She also taught me how to check my analytics and see when the majority of the people around me are on their social media so that I can target my marketing campaigns to hit them right at the time that they’re most likely to see it. It’s a lot of information, it’s a lot to swallow. But I definitely have picked up some of the basic skills that I need in order to continue marketing myself through social media.

If you don’t have the best friend who is one of these social media gurus, then I highly recommend you get one! You’re welcome to borrow mine oh, actually you’re welcome to hire her. Because she doesn’t work for free technically. But I do also recommend taking as many classes as you can online looking for recorded webinars or live sessions that you can take. Be wary of those ads on Facebook and get suckered into paying a lot of money for a bunch of recorded content you could have found on your own and for free! Like I’ve mentioned before, the University of Houston Small Business Development Center has been a godsend for me and I can’t say enough positive things about the staff that works there and the trainings and webinars they provide to help small businesses become successful.

Recently it has become glaringly obvious that the Mental Health crisis for our young children and early adolescents is reaching soaring numbers. The amount of parents reaching out to me for referrals for psychological evaluations, suicidal ideation, and other mental health issues is staggering and very disconcerting. For the last two summers I have hosted some pretty amazing and fun art camps for all ages. But this summer as covid is “starting to wind down ” (not sure that is true, but is seems the masses have decided it’s over) I have found that people are sending their kids to sleepaway camp again or they are taking summer vacations that they haven’t been able to do in the last few summers therefore it appears that this may be why there are less kids registered in my art camps. In order to stay afloat I have spoken out loud to my business team that we need to pivot. And Pivot hard!
So I started thinking and looking around and checking out what people are posting on their socials and I have found that there is a higher need for social emotional learning experiences, executive functioning classes and therapeutic groups for elementary, middle school and high schoolers. After polling several of my clinical friends I’ve decided that this summer I need to offer those opportunities and experiences for the Houston community. And that flexibility or “pivoting” (thank you Ross Gellar) has given me a very unique position in the community right now to offer something that just isn’t readily available to the masses at this time.

This is literally happening as we speak. I have reached out to several companies to get my own general insurance. I have contacted multiple places to rent a room or a space of some kind to host some therapy groups over the summer. I have posted on my socials and gotten such an overwhelming response that I know that this is the right direction to go. This is the right PIVOT for our current climate.