Sandeep Johal, a former nonprofit teacher turned artist shares her thoughts on breaking through cultural barriers, the impact of becoming a parent on your career, why connecting with people & community is critical, and how to become your own #1 fan. I also share some thoughts on the importance of believing in your own work.

Key Career Insights

1. Even when you know your career passions don’t align with the work you’re currently doing, cultural barriers can have a significant impact on your willingness to make a change.
2. Connecting with community that can support you in your career endeavors can make an enormous difference to the progress you can make.
3. Believing in yourself is one of the first steps toward convincing others to believe in you.
4. You have to be willing to invest in yourself to create the life you want.

Tweetables to Share

Resources Mentioned

• Sandeep referred to her former role at Immigrant Services Society of BC, based in Vancouver, which helps immigrants and refugees acclimate to life in Canada.
• Sandeep talked about how Thrive Art Studio, a community of female artists for female artists founded by Jamie Smith and run with Tara Galuska, and how the art consultant Pennylane Shen, helped her get her art career off the ground.
• Driving with Selvi is the documentary Sandeep mentioned about the first female taxi cab driver in South India.

Listener Challenge

During this episode’s Mental Fuel segment, I talked about the importance of becoming your own #1 fan, a concept Sandeep shared during our conversation.

My challenge to you was to pick one element of your work where you’re