“You have to be open and willing to evolve” – Dana Leavy.
Creative Businesses. Creative Careers.
Dana Leavy is the founder of Aspyre Solutions, and a self-proclaimed “Entrepreneurial Wingwoman”, helping aspiring entrepreneurs & creative freelancers start, build & grow sustainable small businesses, through career transition and business consulting. As a career advisor and small business entrepreneur, Dana has helped hundreds of professionals in advertising, marketing, design, multimedia and other industries in creating and executing effective career plans to find and DO the work they are passionate about. She has presented seminars on navigating careers, transition and work-life balance to several colleges and universities, and her advice has been featured on MSN Careers, Fox Business News, NewsDay, CareerBuilder.com, GlassDoor and About.com.
2. Do you think the education you’ve invested in helped you on the road to success? Highlight the type of education you received, from which school and what part did it play as an integral part of your success
I have a bachelors degree in Communication and Visual Arts, as well as a professional coaching certification from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. My career is based on two components – being an entrepreneur and an artist – and while my education helped me expand in both those areas and learn valuable skills, ultimately it was through pure doing that really pushed me to create the career and the company that I’ve built. While I’m not a traditional “coach”, I do utilize a lot of the skills I learned in my program, but most of all, the connections I built with my peers have been the most valuable asset, along with the confidence I built to create a business on my own. You have to have confidence that there is potential in your ideas, and the best way to reinforce that is to surround yourself with positive people who identify with and encourage what you do.
3. What was the “break point” or an AHA moment in your career that made you decide to start what you’re currently doing & how did you come up with that Idea? Try to be specific whether a particular person helped you to the next level, an idea or some event etc)
I moved back to New York City from Boston in 2009; I was managing a creative recruiting agency in Boston at the time, and wanted desperately to get out of recruiting and move to New York. So I took on a job that utilized my account management and client services skills with an IT research company. Shortly after, they began going through round of layoffs, cutting salaries, jobs, and for a good year or so I just sat there doing my job and watching the company crumble. It was depressing, seeing people hired, and fired all within months. Having run my own company, I had some ideas about what we could have been doing better, and areas where I disagreed with how the company was being run. It was probably after surviving the 2nd or 3rd round of layoffs that it hit me that I never, ever wanted to worry about my job security or work for someone else again. The moment I could afford to make an exit, I would.
4. As a young professional, what were some of the mistakes that you made and what did you learn?
Like most 20-somethings, I made a number of mistakes earlier on when it came to properly budgeting my money. I didn’t save well, I was oblivious to credit card debt, assuming I had the rest of my life to pay it off. And while I consider them mistakes in their own right, I more so consider them lessons that I had to go through. Because had I not struggled financially for awhile, I wouldn’t have learned to be better with my money by the time I hit 30, and now I’m in a much better situation where I’m clearing debt, instead of acquiring it. Even with owning a business!
5. What is one accomplishment that you are extremely proud of?
Once I make the decision to jump, I don’t look back, and I’ve always been proud of myself for that. I was at my last full time job for about 2 years, and hardly a year in, I knew I wanted to work for myself. There were probably a million reasons not to at the time – financially, peer pressure, family pressure, lack of knowledge about what I was doing – but I had already made up my mind. And I think that’s what differentiates entrepreneurs in general. Despite our reputation for working insane hours, having no personal life or work-life balance, and facing the constant threat of failure and financial ruin, when you truly believe in your ideas enough, you simply refuse to fail, and you’ll do whatever it takes to keep that vision alive. People argue that passion isn’t enough to propel and sustain your career, and it’s not, but it’s definitely a core ingredient in being a successful business owner.
6. What is your overall career goal? What do you want to accomplish that you haven’t already?
I’ve learned that my artistic side can’t exist separately from my work – there always has to be some element of creativity in what I do. So one of my goals is to grow my consulting business by continuing to help aspiring entrepreneurs and freelancers through the startup process and become sustainable, while also maintaining my freelance illustration business on the side. People tell me I’m a “Freelancer, for freelancers,” and they’re kind of right. I don’t think you have to hyper-focus on one thing anymore. In fact, I believe the smartest thing you can do these days is diversify your income streams. That’s the new look of career stability in my opinion, and what I’m trying to achieve by balancing being a business consultant, and being an artist.
7. Describe your typical day
I’m completely Type-A when it comes to organization and multi-tasking. There are very few components of my business that you won’t find mapped out in some Excel spreadsheet, calendar or Text document. I try to separate my daily tasks out in hourly chunks to keep them manageable and flexible. I start the day at about 9:30, take care of all my emails, follow ups and social media correspondences. I dedicate a solid hour to that, so I can focus. The next hour or two is typically dedicated to whatever task is time-sensitive for that day – things like writing my weekly blog posts, sending out my newsletter, or other marketing functions. I tend to have my best creative energy at the beginning and middle of the day, so that’s when I schedule all of my marketing outreach, and work on any outstanding client projects. I try to break for lunch and go take a walk outside for at least a half hour (though I’ve been terrible at that lately). End of the day I reserve for follow ups, scheduling any social media tasks for the following day, and any smaller, outstanding tasks that don’t require 90% of my brain. Having a calendar is key, but creating a workflow and scheduling system that works for you is critical.
8. What advice can you offer to your readers regarding career and small business?
You have to be open and willing to evolve, whether that’s in your business or your career. Your business will not be the same business 6 months or a year later that it was at the inception. Neither will your career. We put too much pressure on ourselves these days to have it all figured out, to create an infallible career and life plan for ourselves, with the hopes that if we do all the planning and strategizing upfront, all we’ll have to do is sit back and follow it to success. But there will always be roadblocks, challenges, and unforeseen opportunities that make us second guess, or change the plans we had in place. It’s critical that you see this as part of the process, and not as deviating from your plan. The best way to really put this into action is to take things one step at a time and see where it leads you. If something’s not working for you, whether it’s a new job or a marketing plan… you can always change it.
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9. What do you do for fun & where do you get your Inspiration from?
I get an energetic high just being around people. My inspiration largely comes from other artists, creative people, entrepreneurs, and generally just people I enjoy talking to and having a good conversation with. I make terrible jokes, and somehow people enjoy it enough to tolerate my presence. You’ll typically find me hanging out at the park or my favorite dive bar sketching things in my notebook, talking to other people about their business and creative ideas. I love hearing people’s stories, and everyone has one. They may think it’s dull, but I love hearing who they are, what they’ve done in their lives, what they’ve learned, and what they’re trying to make happen next. Because we all have that in common as human beings – we’re somebody, we’ve done something, and we’re trying to do something else. Sounds ridiculously simple, but it’s true. Brooklyn is so creative and full of amazing characters, so you’ll usually find me hiding out in my borough.
10. What is your favorite gadget(s), software(s), website(s) that makes your life easier and more productive?
I like Pandora.com for workday tunes, Freckle.com for simple, user-friendly project management software. I live by QuickBooks for organizing my financials, and PayPal for my invoices. Non work-related, I’m a big fan of Apartment Therapy (apartment therapy.com) – they have such amazing design ideas for home and life. I sell my artwork on Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/Aspyre) so naturally I’m on there a lot, but they also have a great blog with all kinds of small business advice for improving your shop, and marketing and design ideas. I try to minimize my Facebook usage during the workday, but naturally I cave in when I’m craving a little gossip.
11. Who would you like to see featured here and why? Include their names and ways to connect & we will definitely reach out to them.
Any blog can feature people who have made it big. I want to hear from the people who are starting businesses and still struggling – what keeps them going, what do they need from others like us in the community, and what is their ultimate vision for their business? That’s the good stuff!
12. Ways to Connect with you: Include links to your social media profiles, your company url, email etc.
Email: dana@aspyresolutions.com
Website: www.aspyresolutions.com
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/aspyresolutions
On Twitter: @aspyrebusiness
On LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danaleavy
From: http://www.moomkin.com/dana-leavy/
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