One night last week, I got an itch to start writing down my story. The story of how my biz started, how it's grown, and how I've gotten to the place where I am now. I get a lot of questions from aspiring artists/entrepreneurs who wonder how I've made a successful career for myself, and part of me always wants to answer "who, me? But I'm not nearly as successful as I want to be! What could I possibly have to tell you that would be at all useful, when I still don't feel like I know what I'm doing half the time??" But another part of me is starting to realize that I actually have some valuable things to offer to people who aren't as far down this path as I am. We need to help each other out, right? If there's one thing that I want to make sure I do in this life, it's that I want to help people awaken to the idea that their wildest dreams are possible. Their dream careers are available to them. 

My good pal Michelle Ward, the When I Grow Up Coach, is celebrating her 2nd entrepreneuriversary today (woohoo!), and she asked some of her people (including moi!) to write blog posts about leaving your day job, getting out of corporate America, starting your own thing.... and she said she specifically wanted me to write something, because my perspective is important! (Thanks, Michelle!) Having never been part of corporate America, I have no idea what I'm missing. I can't say that I'm sad about that-- I love my self-made job! I have had a few part-time jobs over the years, though, so I can tell you about how it felt to leave those, I suppose.

And I can also show you some images of my work from the very beginning of my career! Exciting! (All the images in this blog post are my early work, dating back to 2003-2005. I painted places that I traveled a lot...)

But mostly I want to talk about intuition. Michelle talks about how important it is to have a plan and a safety net when you're leaving your day job and starting your own biz, and I will tell you right now: this is exactly the opposite of what I did. I've discovered that every big decision I make in my life is not planned out or analyzed or what-have-you-- I tend to jump, and then I figure things out as I go. Which is funny, because I'm also a big-time worrier. So I jump, I figure things out, and I worry. It's insane, really, now that I think about it. Ha!

Anyway, the first big leap I took in my art career was applying to a juried outdoor festival when I was 23 that my mom had randomly given me a flyer for. I was hardly making any art at the time, and I had about 5 mediocre paintings to my name. But I decided for some reason to apply to the show, even though I was sorely unprepared, and I ended up getting in. I have no idea how this happened. I worked in a restaurant at the time, and I didn't love it. In fact, it sucked. A lot. When I got into the show, I decided to quit my sucky  job and paint for 3 months to get ready. I had some money saved up (I've always been good at saving money-- I'm a worrier, so I like to hoard my money!), and it was enough to get me by until the show was over. I figured I could always get another job somewhere if I needed to.

The show ended up being a giant, stunning success-- I made $5,000 in a weekend, which was not even in my realm of thinking at that point. That was a giant sum of money to me, and it was the first time in my life that I realized PEOPLE MAKE A LIVING AS ARTISTS. Like, for real. I was surrounded by them, and I realized that I could do it, too! In fact, I had already started!

So that's how my career as a full-time artist began. I continued exhibiting at outdoor art fairs, using a little half-room in the back of my house as my studio. I picked up a little job here and there-- I did art installations once a quarter at the local museum of contemporary art, I was a part-time Gymboree teacher for a little while (Ha! Wow, that seems like a life-time ago...), but I was making my career as an artist happen the whole time. I eventually got a studio in town and sold paintings out of my studio as well.

When we moved to Georgia from Colorado in 2007 (which was another big leap that was not planned out at all! That's a story for another day...), I got a job as a part-time nanny, because I didn't know any of the local art shows, and I had no idea how I was going to make any money. I was just getting into the online world, so I spent the time that I wasn't nannying working on my art and building my online business. I got my art out there in every way that I possibly could-- etsy, flickr, my blog, other people's blogs, you name it. Erin at Design For Mankind wrote about my work one day, and everything changed. I started selling more. I was making money. I felt like I could make a go of this online thing! And so what did I do? I quit my job. Yep. Again. It was scary, but I figured that it was going to work out somehow, and I could always get another job if I had to. Thankfully, that was the last job that I ever had to get. I've been 100% working for myself since that fateful day.

It's scary to leave a job, I know that for sure. There were plenty of reasons to stay on as a nanny-- even though the paycheck was tiny, it was steady, and leaving it meant I was diving into the complete unknown. But I felt like the life was being sucked out of me when I had to go work for someone else, and working for myself was exhilarating and fun! It was especially scary because Ryan didn't have a job either-- he was in medical school-- so we were not living a very rich life, that's for sure! But we made it work. And I worked and worked and worked to make my business grow, and lo and behold: my business is getting better every year.

So that's it! I've trusted my gut the whole way, even when it was terrifying, and I've created a career that I love and that supports me, both financially and mentally/emotionally. My intuition is one of the most important tools in my business to this day, and I learn to listen to it more and more all the time. I trust that I'm being guided to the right place.

I'd love to know what gut-trusting decisions you've made in your life-- do you let your intuition guide you? Do you have a hard time hearing it? What is your gut telling you about your current job/life, if you get really quiet and listen?

ps-- Ryan and I found out where we're moving this past Friday... I'll be posting again this morning with photos from our beachy weekend and to tell you where I'll be living come June. It's exciting!! (You might already know from Facebook or twitter...)

Ryan and I are off to the beach tomorrow! We're driving down to Florida to get some sun and to celebrate.

Tomorrow is a VERY big day at Casa Swift-- it's Match Day! That means that tomorrow is the day that Ryan finds out where he matches for his residency. Which means tomorrow is the day we find out where Ryan's first job as a real doctor will be and where we will be moving in June. It's a big deal. We're kind-of freaking out over here.

The Match Day process is completely torturous-- we found out on Monday that Ryan did indeed match somewhere, which is awesome! Some people don't match, though, and then they have to do what's called The Scramble-- they have 3 days to figure out what the heck they're going to do, to find programs with open spots, and get themselves into a residency program in a (likely undesirable) location. Scrambling would suck. Scrambling is the reason that we found out on Monday that Ryan did match but didn't find out where. They have to wait to tell people where they matched until The Scramble is over -- then on Friday all the students can log in to the system at 1pm sharp to find out where they matched. Ryan told me he hasn't been so excited for a day to come since he was a little kid waiting for Christmas. (How cute is that?)

We are also counting down-- Ryan just announced to me that we only have 28 more hours to wait.

So we are headed down to the beach tomorrow to celebrate this HUGE MILESTONE in Ryan's life and career and in our relationship-- and we'll be celebrating finally knowing where the universe is sending us in June! I will definitely be posting the outcome on facebook and twitter, so keep your eyes peeled around 1pm EST if you follow me in those places. Otherwise, I'll let you know on Monday where the winds will be taking us come June-- I'm excited for this next phase. Georgia has been so good to us, and hopefully our new city will be even better.

See you on Monday (when I'm all tan and stuff!)

{creative commons image via Seriously Photographic (Jim) on flickr}

I just had to share this photo from my weekend with you.... this was pretty much my dream come true. I *love* snuggle time with the kitties, but it doesn't usually happen with both of them at the same time-- Anika and Juneau have never snuggled up this close with me together before. Anika was laying directly on top of Juneau! It was the coziest Saturday night ever. I made Ryan takes a photo because it was so freaking adorable. I look sort-of weird, but look at those sweet kitty faces!

If you've ever wondered what I do when I'm not working, this pretty much sums it up. This is one of my favorite things in the world to do.

We watched the movie 50/50 while this snuggle action was going on-- have you seen it? I really liked it! Though I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, and the guy in the movie got a rare form of cancer in his back... so now I have that worry to add to my list of things that could potentially one day be wrong with me. Oy. Do you have fears and worries like that? I've been like that since I was a kid.

Anyway, that's all for today! Are you ready to have an awesome week? I know I am! :)