The Recession is Bullhonkey Lesleys Story - When I Grow Up

The Recession is Bullhonkey Lesleys Story - When I Grow Up This is part of  The Recession is Bullhonkey series, where I share stories of those who have gotten hired and/or started their own businesses (or sometimes both!) since 2008. This is former client upcoming  CreativeLive interviewee  Lesley DeSantis.  Below, she  talks about how shes made her multi-faceted career (shes an artist, model, polarity therapist, and masseuse-in-training!) recession-proof and how you can, too. Renaissance soul. Multipotentialite. Scanner. Jack of All Trades. Well-rounded. Multipassionate. Chances are, you’ve heard one or more of these terms and find they describe that wildly curious, informationally-insatiable, beautiful soul you have floating around in that body o’ yours as you fight the urge to try (and succeed at) every single thing that catches your fancy. I’m also willing to bet you’ve heard some, if not all of these: Indecisive. Flaky. Can’t settle down. Slacker. Unfocused. Noncommittal. Scatterbrained. All over the place. You may have encountered questions and comments like this: “What’s the new big thing this week?” “How long do you think you’ll stay at this job?” “Hey! Whatever happened to that book/movie/play/scarf/life-sized papier-mâché dinosaur you were working on?” “You’re quitting? In this economy? Man,I’d be grateful to even have a job if I were you.” “Don’t worry, you’ll find your ‘thing’ eventually. You just haven’t found it yet.” (*sniff sniff* is that the smoke coming out of your ears I’m smelling?) Beyond wondering what’s wrong with you from a career and general whoa-I’m-an-adult-now-and-somehow-everyone-else’s -life-looks-really-boring-yet-put-together-and-successful standpoint, you might have started wondering if there are deeper issues at play. Maybe you went so far as to seek out intensive psychological testing, actually hoping you might be able to pin this chronically dissatisfied feeling on something that could be fixed with pills or hypnosis (*ahem-hem* or maybe that was just me). Maybe you’re selfish. Maybe you have unreasonable expectations for what life is supposed to be like. Maybe if you just ate less sugar you’d simmer down. Maybe your parents were *too* supportive of your childhood dreams and you’re totally delusional like the tone-deaf kids whose parents cheer them on before they get humiliated on American Idol. Maybe you’re William Hung, metaphorically speaking. Maybe you literally belong in a mental ward. Maybe you’ve found yourself wishing that you could just have a ‘normal job’ and have that ‘be enough’ like ‘everybody else’. Hold it right there. What I’m about to say to you is very important so I want to make sure this sinks in as deeply into your heart as it can go: The concept of ‘normal’, ‘enough’, and ‘everybody’ is completely fictional. It isn’t real. We can generalize, sure, and we can tell ourselves all sorts of rational-sounding lies to break us down and prevent us from reaching as far as we know we can reach or settling into the comfort and joy of our wild and wonderful Selves. Our brains are smart like that. They’re trying to protect us because ‘stepping into our starring role’ (to use the term coined by the ever-amazing Tanya Geisler) is, frankly, terrifying. And in a recession? Psh, well you may as well just pull up the covers and go all Rip Van Winkle til it’s over. But I need to tell you that in a war-torn world full of fear and doubt, where individuality gets harder to come by and where artists and empaths are overlooked for numbers generated by sad, stressed humans slumped in front of lit up screens 40 stories in the sky, your sense of adventure, your loving curiosity for all of the things that excite you, your empathy, your creativity, and your willingness to even consider something beyond the ‘normal’, the ‘enough’, the ‘everybody’, is why you are deeply needed on this planet right now and probably why you’re reading this blog. If you truly wanted the normal good enough job ‘like everybody else’, you would not be rubbing elbows with Michelle Ward! And it’s also why the recession doesn’t apply to you. The recession reflects decisions made based on fear of the future, affecting people who aren’t in control of their own income. Now, as a scanner, Renaissance soul, whatever term suits your fancy, you have the amazing opportunity to be in control of your career and its security because your career has the ability to shift and change with your interests, and since you have so many interests, you’ll likely diversify your income automatically. Screen-printed tee shirt business didn’t work out? Good thing you’re still doing branding consulting with your clients while going to nursing school at night. Part time job at the bakery got cut? All the more time to take on more piano students and use that bakery knowledge to finally start that cupcake truck. See what I mean? By being multitalented and having many interests, you are naturally recession-proof. This doesn’t mean that the recession may not impact your life or the lives of your customers and their ability or receptivity to paying for things in some way, but it doesn’t need to stop you. Uh oh I can feel you rolling your eyes and I can see that b- of a “but” welling up in your mouth. Can I give you a little summary of my own journey to lift your spirits? If you’re feeling scared or frustrated, please know you’re not alone in those feelings, nor do they need to be constant or permanent. Would you like to know what I’m currently doing for a career? So would I (badum-ching!). It’s something like this: Guinea pig artist, fashion and commercial model, certified polarity therapist and massage therapist-in-training who writes the occasional musical and whose Instagram feed is full of videos of stuffed animals talking into her iPhone. Next year, I’m fairly confident it’ll be something different. And that’s okay. For comparison, would you like to know what I was doing for a career fresh out of college in 2006? Strategic Research Analyst at a Fortune 500 who wrote white papers about data center battery backup runtime and spent a lot of time crying in the bathroom, stress eating, and getting sick. Lesley v.2006 had enough money to buy clothes without looking at any price tags. She was also completely miserable and put in her 2 week notice in tears 3 months in to go “I don’t knowtry to be on Sesame Street or Broadway or something”. I’d love to say that I took one wrong job, learned from the experience and found my passion and just blasted into the stratosphere of success of all kinds, but it didn’t work that way. And it seldom works that way for anyone, regardless of how many website bios you read that say “one thing led to another, and now here I am”. Over the past 8 years, I’ve held lots of jobs, half-started businesses and dropped them like a bad habit after weeks of planning, sometimes involving and letting down other people. I have spent a lot of time wondering what the heck I’m doing and have faced states of nearly unbearable crisis of both body and mind. I’m telling you this because through all of this, two things have been true the recession’s been happening, and I haven’t noticed. Don’t we have way more important stuff to do on our personal journeys than cater to the recession? When I was writing music with my writing partner at 2AM, I wasn’t thinking about the recession. When I quit my 6th corporate job, I wasn’t thinking about the recession. When I got rejected by a modeling agency telling me I was too old, I wasn’t thinking about the recession. When I got up the courage to go to a better one a year later and got immediately signed, I also wasn’t thinking about the recession. When I eat my morning cereal, I don’t think about the recession. I think about my life as a human on this planet. It’s like a schoolyard bully. Don’t provoke it by taking a job you don’t like where it can get its grips on you. Don’t cower and be scared of it. Know how to beat it? Show up for work. Your life’s work. Even if you don’t have a clue what it is, or if it’s 1000 things. Just do any and all that interests you. Everything is connected. Everything is energy. Everything that you do with your heart behind it matters and makes an impact even if you don’t see immediate results. Realize that it doesn’t need to affect you and your wild, powerful mind. Bring your determination and your positive energy to the other people who are scared of it and help them stand up to it, too. Before you know it, you’ll be a part of a flourishing economy spearheaded by people just like you. This is heavy stuff, being responsible for basically saving the world. Whose subconscious wouldn’t wanna run from that by focusing on feeling isolated and different and running in circles to delay actually showing up for the job? (like, the universal job, not your shift at Starbucks). But just know that you’re in good company. You’re resourceful. You won’t settle for the ‘normal’, for the ‘enough’, for the ‘everybody else’. It’s often an enormous challenge, but it’s completely okay to want something and to go after it. Wear that Renaissance soul badge proudly and with confidence,  because it’s attached to a recession-proof vest. Now go show up for work! Lesley  DeSantis wears many hats in her career and doesnt think you can ever have too many. From writing musicals to walking the runway, to creating music videos starring a particularly snarky rodent, you never know where you might see  Lesleys face, read her words or hear her music. She sells prints of guinea pigs in powdered wigs at When Guinea Pigs Fly and you can catch up with her stuffed animal shenanigans (and many many photos of her cat, obviously) on instagram at @thatlesleygirl. Wanna hear more from Lesley? Then tune in to my CreativeLive class at the 12pm Pacific hour on Sept 13th,  where Ill be interviewing her during the Help! Im Multi-Passionate! segment.