Hi everyone! I am Ayelet Shaviv Schwartz, designer, artists and mom entrepreneur. I thought it would be nice if I shared a bit about myself and how I came to establish Youtovia.
To start, a confession, I will be 42 this year! with more than 18 years of experience in the corporate business world, positions as Marketing Communications Specialist, Creative Media Manager, Project/Product Manager in several large international companies as Pfizer, NCR, Kenes Group and some interesting small startups too. Feel free to check out my Linkedin profile or my online Resume here.
As my professional life touched upon creative direction, managing productions and working with many designers and artists along the way, I too was creating myself, spending most of my personal time playing with many different materials and forms of art, painting, sculpting, sowing, designing, animating and even poetic writing. I studied Graphic Design and Multi-Media after working hours and later on studied Product Design all while still working a full time job. It was not easy but I loved it, to be able to enrich your life with knowledge and new skills is a privilege to the soul! I captured those younger years on my personal blog, ablogget.
Since 2012 I have been enjoying creating my own online businesses, some succeeded some didn't, I learned a lot from both ends, entered the Israeli startup scene with a peer-to-peer sharing economy platform for parents, sharing and renting baby equipment from each other, accepted to accelerators, and even won some contests, until my father past away.
This shattered me to pieces, becoming an orphan. My mom passed when I was 30, my father 10 years later, it was devastating. I left everything, stopped my life, fell deep into the stages of grief. Slowly finding some glimpses of light, I took a course in Positive Psychology and began lifting myself up from the gutter with motivating self talk and self love. The thoughts and words we use create our reality. I also had a spiritual coach at the time to help me accept my karma and work with it, not against it.
At the time I also took a Placemaking workshop in me city. Although the sessions were not exactly based on the PPS methodology per say, it did open my eyes to the endless unconscious messages we receive daily through media, advertisements and visuals in our public spaces. The Crossroads movie was one that shifted my awareness. As we are all interrelated and have an affect on each other, I saw in this field an opportunity to spread love, inspiration, good vibes, and all that I have come to learn about positive thinking and mindfulness, in our joint social spaces.
Combined with my talents in creative development, design, art, and productions, I began establishing Youtovia, a positive creative studio, empowering individuals and communities through design and art, experienced in the public space. It is a new creative approach that incorporates Placemaking principles, interactive design and curated art, fused with positive psychology and emotional well-being content, to make our lives just a bit more meaningful, connected, balanced and better. Fostering individual growth and social sustainability in the process.
You tov ia, is you and I, us, making it 'good' again...:)
Join me in the revolution!
