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
- 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.
- Connecting with community that can support you in your career endeavors can make an enormous difference to the progress you can make.
- Believing in yourself is one of the first steps toward convincing others to believe in you.
- 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 constantly critiquing yourself, and spend the next week being a little LESS critical. What’s one aspect of your work where you’ve been your own worst critic, where it’s about time you gave yourself a bit more credit? Leave a comment below with the change you’ve decided to make!
About Sandeep Johal, artist
Sandeep Johal is an artist, educator, and workshop facilitator who recently made the jump from a stable full-time teaching career at a not-for-profit to a career in the arts. The birth of her son prompted her to re-revaluate her life and push through the fear to create the life she wanted. Her days are now spent taking care of her son and her nights spent making art.
She’s currently working on two gender justice series, very close to her heart:
- Rest In Power is inspired by the fictional goddess, Anamika Devi, from Shauna Singh Baldwin’s novel, The Selector of Souls. This body of work consists of ten drawings, each dedicated to a woman’s murder that has deeply impacted her, as well as four paintings in progress.
- HARD KAUR-not your starlet, not your victim aims to shatter stereotypes by highlighting women from India’s past and present who have achieved remarkable things despite having the odds stacked against them.
You can follow Sandeep on Instagram and Facebook.
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Thanks to General Assembly for Supporting this Podcast
Thanks to General Assembly for sponsoring this episode of Career Relaunch. General Assembly is a pioneer in education and career transformation, specializing in today’s most in-demand skills. Visit GA.co to lean how to boost your career. Use Promo code ‘RELAUNCH‘ for 20% off your 1st class or workshop.