Saz in action
“Walking us through the senses was powerful…”
“Walking us through the senses was powerful…and the vulnerability allowed me to be vulnerable.”
- Carien Quiroga
Roster Artist and Educator for Maryland State Department of Education and Maryland State Arts Council
“Being creative is sharing your story”
-Saz Ross
Signature Speaking Engagements
Get Lost: Ditch the Roadmap to Unlock Creativity
Get Lost: Ditch the Roadmap to Unlock Creativity is a keynote that reveals a compelling story and social emotional learning strategies connected to the feeling of being lost. Feeling lost can yield itself to one's most creative potential while allowing bravery to prevail in moments of vulnerability. In this speech, LOST is redefined in the format of an acronym:
L: Listen to Constructive Criticism
O: Own your Outlet
S: Story-tell
T: Take Creative Risks
All parts of "LOST" allows one to reconstruct ideas and feelings regarding loss, failure, and trauma by using creativity as a vehicle for community building, resilience, power, and purpose.
Get Creative
According to Business Insider, creativity is an increasingly essential part of organizational success. Encouraging creativity is a vital function of good leadership in any organization.
Unfortunately, many people believe that they are not creative. You may have heard someone say that they "can only draw stick figures." Creativity is heavily linked to specific art forms and should not be treated as such. Get Creative not only breaks this myth but unpacks the belief system that all people are unique and have the capacity to think differently.
Once a person knows that they are creative, they can effectively engage others with a higher sense of confidence and impact. In this keynote/ workshop I provide personal stories/experiences (peppered with humor) and connections to research proving anyone can be creative.
Workshop Twist:
All participants are given hands-on activities and artistic prompts that will allow them to collaborate, explore, and dive into personal stories that will unearth their creative edge.
This program is perfect for:
Businesses and Educational Institutions
Communities looking to increase and sustain engagement with their organization
Using creativity as a key tool for confidence and curiosity
The audience will leave with:
Specific tools and strategies for using creativity as a vehicle for elevated engagement, confidence, and leadership
A motivational, humorous, and inspiring story that will ignite the urge to step outside of the box and take creative risks
Creative Transformation Guide: A detailed breakdown of all the keynote/talking points for future reference in the format of a digital padlet
Motivational accessories-stickers, artworks, and pens
DeePENing Creativity
Is your think tank stagnant?
Is your team running low on creative solutions?
Are you ready to set yourself apart from the competition by unearthing the creative edge of your brand?
In this workshop, participants will experiment with several types of creatively stimulating activities in pen and ink. No pencils allowed-just pen and creative prompts that will allow you to embrace every mark. We cannot erase or undo our choices once we act on them but we can take what we have and build it into something better than expected. Too often, workers get trapped in a fixed mindset of keeping ideas in the safe zone because it is comfortable.
DeePENing Creativity will allow your team the opportunity to ignite confidence through art making that dares them to be BOLD. Now is the time to draw outside of the lines and distinguish your strengths and creative voice from the rest.
Outcomes
A collaborative pen and ink artwork made with all members of your team.
A creatively motivated and inspired work environment.
Community building/strengthening
Creative problem solving solutions
Growth mindset
AHEAD of the Game with All Star Creativity
Is your success formula stagnant? Are you tired of not seeing change or impact in your work environment? AHEAD of the Game with All Star Creativity will allow your team the opportunity to use creativity as a vehicle for staying ahead of your competition. Predictability can be a curse and the creative strategies in this workshop can provide you with the solutions to stand out against the rest.
Get ready for hands-on activities that will require your community to be able to look at creativity with a fresh and approachable lens. All tools learned in this workshop will be translated and customized to fit the specific needs or gaps in your work chain.
This program is perfect for:
Building a creative mindset for staying ahead of the competition
Cultivating a culture of play, experimentation, and creative risk taking
The audience will leave with:
Tools and strategies for implementing creative exploration in the work environment
How to intentionally disrupt the concept of being comfortable to invite innovative ideas
Techniques for how to stand out against competitors with creative storytelling to be a less predictable target.
SmART Business
SmART Business is a workshop/course that provides you with the tools to transform your creative outlet into a profitable and sustainable business.
Takeaways:
A personal story is the greatest source of creative fuel
Marrying the concept of creating and sharing allows you to thrive personally and professionally
Creativity is the most sustainable form of community engagement, motivation, and inspiration.
Activities:
Connecting with creative mentors who align with your art form
Selling art with online resources
Building the creative edge of your brand
Increasing engagement and visibility with creative PR and Advertising
Investing: Where to spend money to make money
Outreach: How to sustain communication and interest with your patrons.
Pathways to Passions
Pathways to Passions is an educational course/workshop for educators and students who are planning what steps to take when pursuing educational and professional goals in the arts.
Creatives should not feel confined by a prescribed path to success. College is not the right answer for everyone when it comes to building a thriving arts career.
This course/workshops provides participants with the following tools:
What research says
Assessment strategies to see if college is a good fit for future creative goals
How and where to learn about scholarships and grants
How to find and solidify art residencies
Setting short term and long term goals
NEXT STEPS
Fill out the Speaker form and schedule a time to connect
Tailor the keynote/workshop to make your vision come to life.
Ignite creativity, innovate, ispire, uplift, and engage your community with creativity.
“A Unique edge lives in the spirit of the uninhibited”
-Saz Ross
"I will definitely be incorporating the LOST method into my lesson plans this year. "
I work with a lot of students that are dealing with trauma. I want to give my students a safe avenue to explore those feelings.
Patrice Campbell
Tenured art educator in Maryland, US
The Official saz bio
Creativity is the single most important skill in the world.
🌿
Statistically, creativity polls as the highest and most desirable quality in a student or job candidate and is the number one factor for future success. According to the Gallup Survey on American Workplaces, only 35% of workers are given time to be creative at work a few times per year. People are struggling to invest time, money, or energy in creativity and artist/educator, Saz Ross, is currently breaking the habit.
🌿
Saz's expertise rests in providing creative breakthroughs with visual storytelling workshops and captivating keynotes on how everyone is creative. Most commonly, people are not inclined to view themselves as such, thus building barriers for innovative thinking. In response, Saz provides an impactful skillset for thinking differently by exposing techniques that allows one to feel confident and connected to a purpose that unearths an unstoppable creative edge.
🌿
Saz has been featured on TedEx, Voyage Magazine, Empowering Women in Industry, and on NBC News. After spending 10 plus years in the art classroom, Saz decided to venture out and build a thriving business in illustration and creativity coaching. Along the way, she realized that she could use her artistry to help educators, creatives, and businesses take creative risks and STAND OUT to acquire personal and professional growth.
🌿
Saz uses her whimsical yet powerful artworks as a way to connect people to the concept of getting lost in creativity to be found in the eyes of confidence. She underscores vulnerability as vitality and storytelling as a vehicle for optimum engagement and community building. She helps others surface the power of their creative mindset while providing a skillset to strengthen engagement, story-tell, and take bold risks to think and act outside of the lines!
🌿
Today, Saz travels the globe to show how growth is all about embracing the pen and throwing away the pencil-all mistakes should be embraced, not erased! Saz wants everyone to own their marks and story in order to be proud of who they are while seeing power in their purpose. This way, one can impact the world with unwavering confidence and boundless creativity.
“I tell stories the same way I build sandwiches-with passion.”
-Saz Ross
the presentation
Get Lost: Navigation to Creative Engagement
I unpack the reasons why speaking skills are essential in building self-esteem, confidence, and initiative for people in the workforce. In our fast paced world, it is imperative to find ways to allows others to STOP and LISTEN. Get Lost reveals my empowering journey as an artist, speaker, and educator. As a person who has taught in the richest and most impoverished areas of Maryland for the last ten years, I have taken speaking and educational risks that have allowed me to effectively reach audiences of a wide cultural and economic demographic-all while earning rewards for it along the way.
In my recipe for successful and diverse engagement, I have used the word LOST as an acronym for listen to criticism, own your outlet, story-tell, and take creative risks, while accepting a process that makes you embrace the unknown. Getting lost does not have to be as scary as it sounds; sometimes it is the answer to life’s most pressing questions and allows you to grow in ways you never expected. All of my action steps break down a methodology for discovering creative outlets that feeds the motivation to succeed in one’s professional life.
This presentation illuminates the impact of how you say words versus what you articulate to a crowd. People should feel pride in how they present themselves and engage with their work community and now is the time. Get Lost will paint the roadmap for how people can learn to sustain the attention of others while utilizing an array of speaking and body language techniques…with a bit of humor thrown in along the way.
“Let curiosity bE your gps”
-Saz Ross
BOOK SAZ FOR SPEAKING
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.