Meet Erica Soto

We recently connected with Erica Soto and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erica , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience is the most crucial skill to have when pursuing anything in life. It was not easily formed in my case. A lot of times when I was met with a setback or difficulty, my instincts wanted to run away from the problem or distract myself, or I would turn to food and eat my feelings. These were all solutions that left me worse than where I began. Repeating the same mistakes allowed me a pearl of wisdom. It taught me if I faced the issues head-on and talked myself out of the fear that comes from the unknown, I usually conquered and overcame any difficulties. Fear to me is just a false expression appearing real, but I know better. When I face a difficulty, I allow myself to feel all the emotions that come with a problem. Whether I cry, I scream, I worry, I panic, I move through the gambit of emotions in my mind’s eye, but then train myself to stop and look at logic and solutions. I usually turn to some other form of expression whether it’s journaling with pen and paper, or brainstorming a list of the next steps to help me overcome. It sometimes helps to talk your problems out with someone else to get perspective. You can hear how someone else would solve a problem and then it’s up to you to take that advice and apply it or have it give you clarity and do things your way. Ultimately, creating with art has helped me destress through the process of overcoming the day-to-day, and being a mom and entrepreneur leaves me with a lot of filled pages and phone calls. Still, we get the job done because life is an ever-evolving chance to learn, create, change, and grow. Without hardships, would we value our collective humanity? I choose to do the best with what I have, and that’s all I could hope for.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Erica Soto and I am an artist, therapeutic art life coach, and founder of Enjoy Erica Art Studio, a mobile art studio experience that travels to NY, NJ, and PA. We specialize in art workshops, murals, and creative art events for parties and corporate wellness. I am a self-taught mixed-media visual artist and have been creating works since 2004. Enjoy Erica Art Studio was jumpstarted by a Westchester County Program called Launch1000 where I received a grant to further my entrepreneurial efforts. We currently are working with developmentally disabled young adults doing one-on-one art classes, and virtual art for WJCS and Yonkers Public Library. We collaborate with other local small businesses and up-and-coming restaurants and breweries to host paint party events. We also provide paint events to apartment communities that are looking to add value to their residences, with the most recent being 42 Broad in Mount Vernon, NY. We also work with city employees in NYC providing Vision Board Events and Paint and Relax to promote wellness. As a woman of Puerto Rican descent, I’m passionate about sharing my voice in the community to help other entrepreneurs and encourage youth to find a creative outlet and reach for their goals. We have curated events in self-love for the youth as well. All in all, we are looking to work with businesses and individuals wanting to make something they’ll enjoy!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the three most important things you need to make an impact are being resourceful, being consistent, and having audacity. When you are resourceful, you are constantly looking for opportunities, tips, tricks, life hacks, and “knowing a guy”. That means leaving yourself a plethora of things stockpiled and easily accessbile in case of hardships. That means looking for free money, grants, free programs, free community events, free networking groups, meetup events, looking for affordable places to shop like thrift stores or online marketplaces, budgeting, learning as much as you can about the things you interact with every day. You should be versed in learning about money, taxes, how to keep a home, how to nourish yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually, learn about cars if you drive, learn about how your choices as a consumer affect the world around you, basically try to become an expert at living well.

Ultimately, nothing works if you are not consistent. If you don’t keep your word, or you don’t sustain good habits, or you don’t manage your life with consistency, you’re not living to your best potential. Being consistent can mean you establish goals for yourself, prioritize your goals, celebrate progress, limit any outside noise or distractions, make your goals time-bound, and give yourself grace when you don’t meet expectations. Ultimately, never give up!

Lastly, have audacity! Be willing to take bold risks. Remove the things that could be holding you back like negative self-talk or lack of confidence. Have the courage to move forward and permit yourself to dream up a big beautiful life full of happiness and abundance. When you dream big, be resourceful and consistent and you’ll be amazed at the blessings that show up in your life.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I’m always looking to partner or collaborate with like-minded people. Pursuing a good idea is always a good idea, whether it be through art events or entrepreneurship mentorship. I feel like there are so many creatives out there that if we band together we can help people feel seen, heard, and celebrated, and what better way to spend life than celebrating it? Living this entrepreneurial artist’s journey has me focusing on sharing my story so that I can help someone else, after all, it is because someone believed in me that I can live my life as an artist. I also find myself motivated because I am a mom to a 13-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl, I need to lead my life by example. When I think of my children and the youth, it is so important that we show them how to live well and how to create something from nothing so that in the future they are not just surviving but thriving. I’m the queen of plucking an idea out of the sky and making it concrete, so if you are looking to create and make something out of nothing and be a blessing to others, let’s chat! When it comes to my personal goals, my dream collaborator would be Brandon Boyd of Incubus. Hey, a girl can dream!

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Photo Credit : Erica Soto

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