I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing the female, documentary, director Vicky Lesley this week over Skype. She talked candidly about her creative career, the ups and downs and ways that she has been able to access alternative finance for her projects. We giggled often through out the Skype call, and I felt like I had found an old friend, even though we had just met.
Life sometimes takes us on a journey that we didn’t expect it to. We can either take that less travelled road with good will and confidence, or we can moan about the injustice of it all, and stay at the cross roads. Sometimes we end up on another path that wasn’t as good as the first, and other times we find ourselves in paradise.
Vicky has had her fair share of career ups and downs, and has always managed to find a way through. It might not always be the quickest route (her documentary feature has been 10 years in the making!) but it can often turn out to be the most rewarding.
You can listen to the Skype interview here, as we talked about alternative finance, life as a female director and coming back to work after having children. I hope she inspires you as much as she did me.
You can see more of her work at her website: www.tennerfilms.com
What we have to try to remember when we are building our creative careers, is that there are no rules to how we navigate them. Some of us will find part-time work to support our creative work on the side, others will take night jobs pulling pints or waiting on tables. (I was a waitress when I was working to build my photojournalism career). The important thing is to value each of those moments, and give them as much of your enthusiasm as you can muster. You might hate waiting tables, but by shifting your focus to believing that waiting tables is helping you reach your creative career goals, suddenly the bigger tips come in, and your shift flies by.
Building a creative career is never going to be easy. If it was, everyone would be at it! We are blessed to have talent and passion to drive us forward. The key is to work out how to survive financially while we are building our careers.
What is the biggest financial block that you are facing at the moment? Share your story in the comments below. Let’s see if we can help you figure out a route to alternative finance.