What began as a promotion to highlight the successes of my VIP clients turned into a well-intended PR campaign celebrating my two decades and two businesses serving and transforming the lives of creatives.
This week starts the celebration of 27 years being a creative entrepreneur. I continue the tradition by launching my Sixth Annual Creative Leaders Series featuring five women entrepreneurs who have a zest for life and their artistry while being incredibly talented, resilient, faith-driven, and exemplary in serving their communities with their zone of genius and purpose.
These women come from varied backgrounds, passions, challenges, and of course, victories from their earnest efforts.
Over the next six weeks, you will have a front row seat to written stories through the lens of my admiration and well-deserved recognition. My team and I will be featuring one woman per week starting with my own story as a jumping off point where this all started.
As far back as I can remember, I loved writing poems and journaling. As that young girl, I didn’t know at the time writing was my art, but it sure felt natural. Writing gave me a safe place where I could imagine, create, and go into my sacred zone where no one could distract me. (I still do this!)
I was known as the girl with the smile and positive attitude. I guess I was born with a happy chip in me. Later in life this became my superpower.
I learned to be the peace-maker (middle child) in the family. I stayed away from the disagreements in my household by going to my friend’s home down the street or I’d indulge my imagination with my Barbie dolls and tea sets.
Being in the spotlight was not my thing but I sure loved encouraging others to be in their own spotlight. I was a dreamer then and still am. One of my favorite activities then and now is being in my imagination and dreaming “what if…”
I dreamt about my adult life as a well-established writer, speaker, innovator, and inspirationalist. Writing came easy for me. I’d write from the heart and felt so connected to my spirit.
I didn’t understand what all that meant; just that it felt right to express my thoughts and feelings through writing. Maybe it was also my safe haven to express myself since I wasn’t encouraged to express my feelings verbally. Growing up in the sixties and seventies, feelings were not recognized like they are now. Thank goodness we’ve evolved that consciousness!
I grew up in an artistic family and learned to love the arts, Disney, imagination, and culture. We were the family during Sunday night dinner watching “The Wonderful World of Color” starring Walt Disney. It was so magical. My father looked up to Walt. And, so did I. I loved the fantasy of all things Disney, especially Disneyland!
Fast forward, in my junior year of high school, a dear friend who was in Journalism class with me where we served on the yearbook staff, asked me what college I wanted to attend and which major did I want.
I looked at her dumbfounded and said I don’t know. I had not thought that far ahead but SAT tests were coming up soon and I knew I needed to figure something out. She immediately responded with, “You might look into Public Relations, Journalism. You’d be good at that and you are a good writer.” I had a blank stare. I said, “What is PR?” She responded with details of that career.
Well, that’s all I needed. I went to my school guidance counselor to explore it. After a few weeks of research and understanding the steps needed to being accepted into a college that had a PR, Journalism major, I began the journey.
I did all the right requirements for pre-college and in my senior year in high school, I was accepted to San Diego State University! Celebration! I had a goal for life outside of high school and it felt really, really exciting!
That angel of a friend back in my junior year who helped me recognize my talent of writing and that I could build a career around it, will forever be etched in my heart with tons of gratitude.
After four incredible college years having the time of my life in the resort town of San Diego shared with a great group of friends, I made my way to a local TV station to begin my first job outside of college. I was too afraid to be paid to write, so I took a job in the production department creating station logs every day. It was so boring!
Two years of that finally hit me and I went after my dream job – an entertainment publicist in Los Angeles. There’s a longer story to how all that happened. Let’s say I manifested an amazing entry level job in a mid-sized high profile Beverly Hills PR agency that had a celebrity roster you could only dream of.
I spent 22 glorious years in that industry and career having the best times of my life. My creativity was through the roof being surrounded by other creatives all playing the Hollywood game with stellar actors and actresses of the 80s and 90s.
My days were filled with red carpet events, photo shoots, writing hundreds of press releases, attending press junkets and on the set publicity meetings at Sony. MGM, CBS, MTV, Disney and so much more. I was in heaven until 2006 when I was intuitively guided to reinvent myself because everything was evolving to online and this thing called social media was on the horizon. That’s another compelling story for another day!
And that’s how you monetize your artistry by following your joy (my podcast). And so it goes, I celebrate 27 years as a creative entrepreneur of two businesses with loads of gratitude and an abundance of life lessons that keep on coming!
What’s your story? What is your artistry and how often are you nurturing it?
In conjunction with my 27 years as a creative entrepreneur and Creative Leaders Series, I created a NEW workbook, Transform Your Relationship with Money.
This is the FIRST time I have released my in-depth, discovery- based exercises and teachings in form of a starter workbook (Only $97!) for those who desire to dip their toes into the water before considering a deeper dive.
All of my Creative Leaders have been coached through this content. Now it’s your turn! Click here to invest in your financial well-being.
To your creative spirit and imagination!
Marla
