Coming up with an idea for a business or creative project can feel exhilarating. Inspiration for a new idea can come from so many places and we’ve asked some great folks from the community to share their stories of how they came up with their ideas.
Working on something meaningful is a common desire – but how? We started asking folks to share the story of how they ended up working on a project they felt was meaningful because we wanted inspiration but also because we wondered if hearing from people from across a range of industries would help us identify patterns making it more likely for anyone to be able to find and work on projects that they would find meaningful.

Camila Rizzo

In 2018, at the beginning of my last quarter in the Directing Program Certificate at UCLA, I had a script that I wrote and developed for my thesis during Writing Classes in earlier quarters. However, I was not completely happy with it. So, I decided to ask my thesis instructor if I could write another script for the thesis. He said, ” It is a crazy idea since you have to write and develop a whole new script, pre-produce it, and shoot it within three months. But you should go with your gut and go for it.” One year before, I had an idea for a feature film that I wanted to combine a story of a boy with autism, which I acknowledged while I was a screenwriter in a morning show on TV in Brazil, and the story of the challenge my brother had to face at the end of his career. It could be a good opportunity to make a short film as a proof of concept for the feature film since a big production company in Brazil was already interested in making this feature film. Read more>>

Sarah Zetlmeisl

Telling our Canine Companions clients stories in a meaningful way to help spread our mission to the public. Read more>>

Devinne Schultz

I didn’t think I’d live past 25. After multiple suicide attempts between 15 and 20, I was convinced that depression would eventually win. It felt like I was floating in an endless sea, sometimes drowning, sometimes clinging to buoys of hope – friends, my therapist, and writing. Writing had always been my refuge and I had the faintest hope that one day, if I somehow got to dry land, I would write a book, one that laid bare my most painful experiences, exposing the depths of my trauma and the tumultuous journey of healing. But I needed to get myself to land first, so over 10 years I poured my pain into poetry about complex PTSD, depression, and the lingering effects of both sexual and religious trauma. Read more>>

Charly Santagado

When I entered Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University as a Piano Performance major in 2013, I was troubled by the realization that while the musicians occasionally engaged with the dancers and actors to fulfill this or that requirement, they rarely diverged from their insular circles. I soon discovered that this practice wasn’t some quirk of the music department; my minors in creative writing and dance further demonstrated the unsettling unspoken boundaries between artistic disciplines at Rutgers. Read more>>

Macy Hembd

The most meaningful projects for me are the ones that bring multiple of my passions together, while creating a positive impact on my immediate community. Most recently this would be, the art show and food drive I organized called “Food For Thought.” This event was a culmination of my last decade of experience traveling the United States, my educational background, and the parts of this human experience that I hold most dearly: art, music, food, community support, human connection and space to hold important conversations. The idea for Food For Thought came to me randomly, I was pondering how to make the sometimes exclusive world of the arts more accessible to everyone. Read more>>

Joey Navarro

Worked with Linda & Carmela Jazz group in the mid 80’s Signed to Island Records 1988. Relocated to Los Angeles, CA 2001 Worked with Greg Adams & East Bay Soul. Co-wrote an entire recording project for Ersi Arvizu, produced by Ry Cooder (Buena Vista Social Club). In 2005, Joined legendary group, “Tierra”. Performed alongside with Rudy & Steve Salas. 2010, Joined legendary group, “El Chicano”. 2012. Formed the Joey Navarro (Latin Funk) Band which features, Brandon Fields, Rene Camacho, Joey De Leon Jr, and Joey Heredia. 2017, becam an instructor for Los Angeles College of Music. Joey Navarro commemorated on the House floor, Phoenix,Az. March 10th, 2022 Read more>>

Jonathan Thomas Maiocco

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far is my newest album, Religious Trauma Syndrome and the Other Side. It’s an autobiographical exploration of my journey growing up religious, coming out as gay, facing rejection, and ultimately finding hope and healing. In late 2019, I came out publicly as gay and was rejected by religious family, friends, and community. I needed a life change, so I moved to LA and arrived on January 3rd, 2020, unaware of the impending pandemic. Before the lockdown, I stayed busy to avoid my feelings, but during quarantine, I was forced to confront myself. I began to untangle my past, the religious conditioning, the rejection, and the pain that came with it. Read more>>

Edward Chiu

Two of the most meaningful projects in my career have been the DJI Osmo Pocket and the Dewar’s Double Double campaigns. The DJI Osmo Pocket project felt like the culmination of my journey with Cinema 4D. I poured all my effort and expertise into it, making it a fitting summary of my early career before transitioning to the U.S. At the time, I knew I was on the verge of leaving Hong Kong to pursue new opportunities, and it was just before I turned 30—a significant milestone for me. Both the client and studio gave me an incredible amount of creative freedom, so I saw it as the perfect opportunity to showcase everything I had learned. Trends and my skill set were different then, but even now, I still look back at that 60-second animation with pride. I handled everything from design, styleframes, animatics, and animation to editing—all on my own. It was a challenging task then, and it remains one of my proudest accomplishments. Read more>>

Brandon Bloxdorf

It’s hard to choose a project between what I do at Apollo City Comics and Comix Wellspring. I do believe the most meaningful and intentional project I’ve helped create is the podcast/Youtube Show, Inspired Ink. The show is all about the struggles and rewards of making independent comics and uplifting creators. Not only does this give creators a boost and material to promote their work, but through their stories and experiences it has helped other creators get through stagnant creative times and doubtful moments. Through Inspired Ink we’ve developed the “Ink Series” which includes Spilled Ink, a live drawing show where people teach me to draw, and Ink’s Spotlights, the ins and outs of comic book making. Read more>>

Jacy Dawn Valeras

I have had a career full of meaningful and special moments but one of the most meaningful projects that I am so proud to be a part of is working with the award-winning, platinum selling children’s trio, Sharon, Lois & Bram. I grew up watching their television series, The Elephant Show and from the time I was very little, they inspired me to want to pursue a career in music. In 2015, while going through a bit of a difficult time in my career, I wrote a letter to Lois Lilienstein, one of the trio’s members, to thank for for inspiring me and to let her know just how much their music had influenced my life. Lois died a couple weeks after receiving my letter and that exchange between us, led the way to me getting to meet & eventually work with Sharon & Bram. In 2019, I was hired to be the social media manager for Sharon, Lois & Bram and have since gone on to produce two of their records. Now, as their creative director, having the chance to be a part of their incredible team, bringing their music to new generations of fans, it is the most rewarding and unexpected gifts of my life. Read more>>

Chris Cox

In March of 2021 I was given an opportunity by a publishing company to write my first book. I was living in Hampton Virginia at the time and I remember having visited Atlanta and having a conversation with one of my good friends, Pastor Trell Webb, at his home. We agreed in prayer that God would bless my newly formed business, Chris Cox Speakz LLC. next thing you know, I’m scrolling my emails the following week and I see this email from a publishing company saying that they want to speak to me about an opportunity to write a devotional for teenage boys. My first thought was this is probably fake or some type of trick to get my money, but after speaking to the representative I found out that it was in fact real. Read more>>

Underlined Passages

This predates my current band, Underlined Passages, by many years. As important as this band is to me, the most inspiring work I did was on behalf of others to elevate their music with my own label, The Beechfields Record Label. The year was 1999, and I was a college student when I saw a band from Virginia called The Exploder open for Rainer Maria at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The intensity of the moments during that show (The Exploder was the most intense and mesmerizing live band I have ever seen) and the musical community that came together for those dorm shows created a tapestry of experiences that I knew at the moment were special and nearly unreplicable. Read more>>

Will Raines

I am currently working on a “fan-made” documentary of the Texas Rangers 2023 World Series run that I am so thrilled to release out into public. I’ve always made shorter videos so trying to navigate how to create engaging content on a much larger scale is a little bit of a challenge for me. I do think that since there has yet to be a recap on the 2023 Rangers season I think that there is a high likelihood this is going to be something really special for the Rangers fanbase and hopefully be something really well received too. Read more>>

Frida Mancilla

A Corky show and how it changed me.vWhen I arrived in NYC on June 24, 2022, I struggled to believe in myself, especially as a singer. I came to the city to study musical theater, and it was no surprise that everyone around me was extraordinarily talented with impressive vocal skills. Whenever I sang, I felt like my voice got lost in the crowd. I was ashamed of my own sound—not because I thought it was ugly, but because it didn’t match the sound I aspired to, like that of my classmates. As time went on and semesters passed, I eventually graduated. By then, my confidence had improved a bit due to my performances in class and my success at the musical theater graduation showcase, where I interpreted the song “My Party Dress.” However, I still didn’t feel completely self-assured. Read more>>

Andy Brooks

The work I am currently working on because I am so amazed by the work and the meaning of the work I am creating. I have always wanted to find a creative process that I felt was current or was of the time period I am living in. I am a huge fan of art history because it is an evolution of ideas that reflect or communicate something about the time period the artists were living and if you hope to contribute to that evolution, your work should be unique to the time period you are living. It is ultimately up to time, critics and historians that decided what is important but I feel like I am in a conversation with the past and the present at the same time. Read more>>

Samer Saifan

My last film I just finished shooting “If Birds Believed in God” was definitely the biggest and most challenging project I have ever worked on both personally and logistically. It’s a political psychological drama short film about a young Palestinian photographer living in the diaspora in New York City. As a Palestinian, it is a very autobiographical film that helped me explore both my place in the world and the history of my family, culture, and heritage – especially with everything going on right now, I think it’s a very important unique film. And I definitely think it’s the best work I have ever done. Read more>>

Nic Persinger

My most recent body of work is a means of processing a destabilizing period of several years in my personal life. During quarantine in 2020, I found myself incredibly homesick, living in Baltimore and longing to be close to my family where I grew up in West Virginia. I spent a year trying to reestablish my place in a family, a town, and a community I’ve known all my life, and while things felt familiar they simultaneously felt totally foreign. Over that year, I tried to find comfort in the place I felt defined me, but couldn’t overcome feeling like I didn’t belong. Long-simmering family dysfunction boiled over, and I made the decision to leave home once more. I was lost in every sense of the word. This work is about coming to terms with change, my own identity, and trying to understand my place in the world. Creating this work and turning it into a physical exhibit has been equally rewarding and difficult, but I’m grateful to have a creative outlet to help me navigate my life despite the challenging emotions that arise. Making work in an isolated place during an isolating time in my life has been a humbling and cathartic experience. Read more>>

Anye Young

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was the first live theatre performance I ever produced and directed, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. This was a show that took about a year to fully realize as I was doing everything from scratch like building a team, a vision, a timeline, and even the fundraising was done independently. I was able to have this show put on for a full weekend of performances at a theatre on campus at the University of Southern California my graduating year. It felt very rewarding to go out with a bang like that and have it be so well-received and most of the shows were full-house which was incredible and some people even came to see it twice because it was just that good! I think that play has always been meaningful to me because it was really the only one I genuinely liked from the collection of works in my curriculum when I studied at an acting conservatory in London, the British American Drama Academy. Read more>>

Lu Bennett

My latest project is a single titled “United Front” featuring Freedom Hester. It is the epitome of how I believe the body of Christ should respond to the current political state in our nation. As believers, we should exercise our civic duty to vote. Furthermore, we should determine the candidates we vote for not merely by their policies, but more importantly by their character. If we gage by both measures, and pray for direction, then we will land on the candidate best suited to lead our nation. If our nation bands together as one community of human beings and the church bands together as one community of disciples, then we can make the most of any situation or predicament. We can empower one another to be the best version of themselves, and not behave or vote selfishly. My dad always told me growing up that the key to a long-lasting marriage is to out give each other. If the world and the church had this one small adjustment in mindset, particularly pertaining to how we treat each other and. care for each other, the world would be a much better place. Read more>>

Maddy Rose Weisman

I think the most meaningful project that I’ve worked on is the record Madska is working on now. Often, being creative can be a very solitary and lonely process and that kind of vacuum can quickly turn into tunnel vision. It’s hard to gain perspective, and often becomes a struggle of trying to self edit. This record we are working on now is a complete team effort. Writing with my partner Sean and our awesome synth player/organist Gabe has been incredibly rewarding. Some people can do everything themselves, and I admire that tremendously. Personally though, having other talented musicians and writers around me pushes me to think outside of the normal places I go when I write alone, and allows us all to lean on each other’s strengths. Read more>>

Shannon Stones

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on was a vision board party with my cousins a couple of years ago. For those unfamiliar, a vision board is a collage of images and quotes that represent your aspirations and dreams. At that time, I was grappling with personal challenges and struggling with self-doubt. Creating the vision board was a transformative experience for me; it allowed me to articulate my goals and visualize a brighter future. Fast forward to today, I’m proud to say that I’ve achieved several of the goals I set out on that board. What makes this project truly special is that I’ve since adapted the concept for my students, guiding them in creating their own vision boards to help them identify and work toward their dreams. Seeing their excitement and ambition has reinforced my belief in the power of visualization and goal-setting, making this experience particularly meaningful to me. Read more>>

Donna Lemongello

The COVID Memorial in Davis CA. Commemorates locally and globally how we all lost so much. It consists of 4 portals and a reflecting wall that combine murals, tile and mosaic. Each portal represents a different phase of COVID, from 1) the shock and isolation in the initial phase, to 2) how we pulled together in our communities and had so much support from essential workers, to 3) The grief and loss we experienced, and finally to 4) Recovery and hope. Read more>>

Irina Guseva

The most significant project in my life so far has been my photo studio. I can confidently call myself a professional photographer, as I’ve dedicated most of my working life to photography. Naturally, I always dreamed of having my own studio, a space where I could create unique setups, experiment, and feel like I truly had a place of my own. For a long time, though, it was just a dream. I worked full-time as an accountant while doing photography on the side, never seriously considering it. Read more>>

Knocka P.

My most meaningful project I have worked on has to be my latest single FATBOY (MILKYWAY). I am very proud of this track because its a track that is %100 original. around the time i made the beat i was dependent on finding instrumentals from youtube and leasing beats which conflicted with royalties and sync opportunities. So I made a decision to start making my own beats and cut the middle man completely. I made the beat for FATBOY late 2022. I am on a learning curve as of now i am learning both the business and technical sides of the game. Before I started my LLC luxury over limitations i would get too excited and drop music on platforms that wasn’t ready to be dropped. Read more>>

Stephen Verges

The most meaningful project I ever worked on, though recent, bears the culmination of an aspiration I have harbored since childhood—the desire to make a difference. As a young boy, then as a teenager, and now as an adult, I have long sought to contribute to the world in a manner that transcends the immediate and the personal. It was this year, teaching Spanish at Dundalk Middle School, a Title I institution by the waterfront near Baltimore, that I found the opportunity to realize this enduring dream. Our school, like many others of its kind, suffered from chronic underfunding. The material poverty of the institution mirrored the dire circumstances of many of my students. Yet, amid these constraints, there arose a singular chance to expand their horizons through a project that would cross geographical and cultural frontiers. Read more>>