Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Kayla Huszar, founder of Kayla Huszar Expressive Art, located in Regina, SK, Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I'm Kayla Huszar, a social worker, an expressive art therapist, and a certified perinatal mental health professional. I support pregnant, postpartum, and parenting moms with expressive art therapy. I'm on a mission to create more opportunities for mothers to take care of themselves, be more mindfully creative, and sit in circles with other women. I want to disrupt the narrative that productivity = worthiness, stop the story that art is only for kids, and create a community that knows they are not alone in the struggle of parenting. I try to create offerings that allow and invite structured time to leave the chaos of life and just be in everything I do.

Tell us about yourself

I lived with a Perinatal Mood Disorder (PMAD) for two years. As a mother, I knew something wasn’t quite right, but I also couldn’t find the right kind of support I was craving: creativity and self-expression. Since I was a kid, I turned to creativity to cope and deal with the struggles of life. Two years into my motherhood, I was being certified in expressive art therapy. It was there that I was finally able to acknowledge how much I was struggling (because the art doesn’t lie). It was through the expressive arts that I found a way to communicate, share my story, and feel like a “good enough” mother. The arts healed and transformed my life.

This motivated me to start my business because I knew firsthand how amazing this experience could be for struggling mothers. The expressive arts treating my mental health allowed me to embrace who I was and how I wanted to show up as a mom. I knew in my soul that I could do this for others, and that is how I found my calling.

My clients and support group participants motivate me to continue to do what I do every day. They are consistently surprised by how art can heal and transform their pain and stress into peace and harmony.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I'd say my biggest accomplishment is figuring out the secret sauce to breaking down the barriers to both mental health and art. In our capitalist society, both of these things have complicated nuances and narratives.

I am proud to say that I've created a sustainable practice where people embrace art (even when it looks like a kindergartner's) and all of its amazingness.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment is also my biggest challenge. Because of the population, I work with, postpartum moms, I have a revolving door of clients with constant marketing, education, and gaining new followers, leads, and clients. Staying consistent and not diverging from the strategy in messaging even though I’ve said it 100 times is my biggest challenge. I can forget that people haven’t heard about expressive art and that I need to keep shouting it from the rooftops.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. You have to continue to do the inner work (self-care, boundaries, expectations, rest) in order to drive your dream forward.
  2. Get help in the areas you are not an expert in - bookkeeping, lawyers, business coaching, etc. You are not supposed to know how to do everything.
  3. Clients are drawn to you because of you, not how you do something. There could be 20 therapists doing exactly what you do, and clients will choose you because of who you are, how you stand out, and your uniqueness.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.kaylahuszar.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kayla.huszar.yqr/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kayla.huszar/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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