We were fortunate to catch up with some brilliant artists, creatives and entrepreneurs from throughout the Houston area and they share the wisdom with us below.

Tommara Anderson | Licensed Esthetician, Permanent Makeup Artist, Beauty Influencer, Content Creator

Success to me is personal fulfillment. It’s not just about achieving a specific goal but about making meaningful progress toward the life you envision for yourself. I am success because I wake up late everyday and only have to answer to my clients but to my 74 year old grandma im not much of a success because i am not married with kids. For me, success means having the freedom to pursue my passions, build strong relationships with the beauty girlies, and contribute to my community while staying true to my values. I define success by the impact I have on others, the ability to grow through challenges, and the balance I maintain between my personal and professional life. Read more>>

Skyler Hollon | Autonomous Problem Solver | Construction Guru

Success is to be an addict to pain over comfort exceedingly, far more and above. When your daily life sucks and you’re dissatisfied, it’s likely because you refuse to do hard things. Success looks like saying no to comfort. Choose your pain or pain will choose you. In short, you have to choose to do the things you do not want to find success you did not foresee. Not just once– but to do it over time, continually… for a long time even if currently failing. This is the journey of the steps required to move the needle. If you don’t have a target, you’ll miss it every time, hence why successful people construct their own internal image of what success looks like for themselves, and then apply the behavior of the person they want to become because they believe in themselves to do it.  Read more>>

Derek Petrucci | Music Producer & Event Curator

I think the idea of giving up to me is very much a philosophical one. In current times, it seems almost insane to try and pursue dreams / careers outside of the normal lens of life, but this to me is where all of the fun is. Carving your own path in the world and doing things on your terms makes all of the stresses & obstacles of pursuing your passion worth it. To me, there is zero value or validity in the idea of giving up. You have to strive on and fight through the roadblocks to do what you believe in, or else you are tasked with regretting not giving it your all – and that is far worse. Read more>>

Carlie Merkle

The most important thing to me is for people who buy my jewelry to be happy with what they bought! I want them to love their pieces and know that it will be with them for years to come and along for all their adventures life takes them on. My customers know that I care about them and have high standards as far as my customer service goes… and I believe that’s part of the reason people keep returning. Read more>>

Ceci Taylor

Something that makes me happy is getting to perform my original music for audiences and seeing them sing the lyrics back to me. It is one of the most rewarding experiences! It’s also super nice when people come up to me with positive feedback after a show, or share my music on their social media with their friends. Of course, there are also many things in life that bring me joy outside of music. One of my passions is horseback riding, and although I do not get to do it as much as I did when I was younger, it’s still one of my favorite things, and always brings a smile to my face. Read more>>

Kenny Thompson | Lead singer of Noise Ctrl & Artist

The project originally started with myself (Kenny) and our former bassist. We just wanted to do something fun. It seemed like everyone around us was trying so hard to be “cool” and brand themselves as serious to the nth degree. We just started making music with the thought of “do we think this is cool?” and if the answer was yes, we ran with it. Read more>>

Micah Dixon | Mother, Radio Personality, Speaker of Life

My thought process behind starting my own business was the word Freedom. One day something hit me that I wanted to have my OWN, and I also wanted to be able to dictate my schedule as I see fit. My business started with my brand, Micah Dixon, from hosting gigs, to a fitness clothing brand, to now being involved in Public Relations, to Micahs Groupchat, and the Dope Dixon LLC. Read more>>

Alison Epp | Content Creator

Recently I went through a major change. A little background about me, I have a fashion design degree. I moved to NYC to pursue that in 2017. I worked in the industry for a few years and during covid made the change to social media management. I always had my own social media platforms and locked in my first full time role for a major brand in 2022. As of this past August, I am officially a full time content creator. This has been a dream of mine forever. I started watching YouTubers and beauty gurus in college and admired the lifestyle and always wanted to create a name for myself on social media. Read more>>