Hey all, I’m kicking off a new segment of my channel here. Up till now, I’ve just been showing little skits and giving my best advice for people leaving the safety of traditional jobs, and giving one in the artistic field of writing and film-making a try. FYI, I’ll still keep putting out these sorts of videos, I have a lot to discuss on that end.

But as our friend LeVar Burton used to always say on the Reading Rainbow, “You don’t have to take my word for it.”

That’s right, I’m going to start bringing guests onto the show to share their experiences on their artistic journey as well. And who better to be our headliner, than my own wife, the one who gets to deal, first hand, with all the emotional trauma I’m inflicting because of my career change.

The Spouse’s Point Of View

Just by way of introduction, my wife, Colette Lindstrom, is a voice over artist and musician, though she spends most of her time (by choice) raising our kids and managing the house. (Check out her Voiceover work here, to see if you want to hire her for your next project: https://youtu.be/vVjdzOzcDHg )

When I proposed my goals of leaving the construction world and retooling my whole career to writing and film-making, she was very supportive. But underlying that support is fear.

It took years for me to become a proficient contractor. There’s skills you develop, there’s relationships you build, and there’s the ability to make money, once you have it all figured out. 

I’d been doing construction since before I could drive myself to a job site. Back in the day, my dad hired me onto a framing crew at the age of 13. That’s 30 years for me in the business, and now I’m telling her that I want a change.

If it took that long to get settled into that career, how long would it take in a field I knew practically nothing about? But I got lucky and married a woman who has faith in me, and doesn’t want to squash my dreams.

Part of having her willing to go along with me, is the fact that during our married life, I’ve built a relationship of trust with her. She knows the planning and study I put into everything I do, and she understands my ambitions will drive me unrelentingly towards the end goals. 

One of the reasons it took me ten years to get to this point, was because I was determined not to hurt her financially. I made the decision that I would keep our family firmly grounded before making such a risky change. She saw that preparation, and trusted me that it would work out.

This trust though, is fragile. If you’re married, you need to be mindful of how your actions will affect your loved ones.

Part of my plan, is to build a film studio. I’ve got lots of articles to share on that in the future. But in doing so, I wanted to acquire land, investments, and buildings to make it all come together. Sometimes, this meant taking out loans.

In the construction world, I’m used to taking out multi-million dollar loans. It’s a necessary part of my business as a contractor/developer. But my wife doesn’t generally know about all that. She doesn’t really want to know about it either.

But as soon as I asked her to sign a mortgage on our house so that we could purchase and start developing a parcel of land for my studio, she got nervous. I could almost see her face turn green. We had paid off our house some years back, and moved into a new house, mortgage free, and now I was asking her to leverage it all for the studio.

She signed. We went under contract for the land, and we will be picking it up in the new year.  But none of this would be possible if she didn’t trust me, because financing and real estate investing is not her forte.

So what am I saying? Well, every relationship is different. Me and my wife are blessed to get along very well. We know and embrace both our strengths and weaknesses, and we lean on each other. 

Nothing I’m doing in my new artistic career would be remotely possible without my wife, her support, and her encouragement. If you’re making the switch, or want to, like I’ve done, the first and most important thing you can do, is to make sure that your house is in order, and that your family still comes first.

If you’d like to learn more about Colette’s voice over, she doesn’t do audiobooks, but she does commercials, info blurbs, and singing. Check out the links below to learn more about her and if you want to hire her, you can message her via our contacts page here on LightMinded Arts.

Links:

Also, check out our interview together. Its available on our LightMinded Arts Podcast, or on our YouTube channel and: https://youtu.be/tSz8PNugwn0

Don’t forget to check out Colette’s voiceover reel. Find it here, and if you like it, reach out to us on our contact form and we’ll help get her voice in your next commercial or narration. (fyi, she doesn’t do audiobooks at this time): https://youtu.be/vVjdzOzcDHg