RYAN GREENLEAF
A Creativelive Student Story
If you've ever worked in restaurants for a long time, like our student Ryan Greenleaf did for over 10 years, you know how hard it can be to just think about changing your career trajectory. The questions pile up as you start to unpack the details involved in making this kind of decision, one with the power to uproot your life.
These tense questions we ask ourselves can be debilitating; coupled with a few anxiety-provoking doubts like 'what if I don't like this?' or 'where am I even supposed to start?' easily transforms into a cycle of self doubt that convinces you to never try to ditch your day job.
Despite all these worrisome thoughts, the truth is that when you find the path that you love, seriously truly love, no roadblocks or speed bumps can slow you down. Thankfully, Ryan believed in this idea and gave himself the permission to pursue his creative dream by auditioning for the chance to be a part of CreativeLive's Restart with Jasmine Star.
Ryan with his fellow Restart students, in-studio with Jasmine Star, 2013
In her Restart class, Jasmine worked one-on-one with Ryan and two other students to deconstruct their business and then build those same components back up again. Of course, none of this was an easy task- learning how to rework your online presence or revamping your photography skills are big undertakings for any part-time photographer with . In the end, Ryan rose to meet this the challenge and walked away with the tools to run his own successful photography studio.
You just gotta keep going, and remember why you love what you do.”
- Ryan Greenleaf
With newfound confidence, Ryan was able to finally leave restaurants behind and set out to pursue a career that made a difference to him. "I was more clear with what I wanted to do with my business." Ryan says, "The transition from leaving the restaurant and not having an income I can go to was scary, it even scares me now- but you've got to keep going. Remember why you love what you do".
Pushing yourself to put in the work and committing to your side-hustle is equally terrifying and rewarding.
Ryan's drive to keep the positive momentum in his life going is a tribute to past, present, and future students of CreativeLive who've set out to pursue their dreams. "CreativeLive totally changed my business around and I’ve never looked back since."
Simply showing up and doing the work is half the battle; committing to the journey and pushing past the tough times is what turns everything into a life-affirming experience. Whether someone wants to make a living from their creative passion or simply create for fun, we take inspiration from stories like Ryan's - and it's our mission to champion their efforts and see them through to success.
See more of Ryan's work and how he continues to use the skills he learned with Jasmine at CreativeLive on his website, RyanGreenleaf.com.
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