The conversation presented in this podcast episode with Vanessa LeVesque unveils the profound transformation of her artistic journey and the pivotal moments that shaped her into the artist she is today. Central to our discussion is the notion that the pursuit of art can be both an organic and liberating process, as Vanessa reflects on her initial hesitations about a career in the arts, stemming from societal expectations and a desire for stability. As she recounts her transition from traditional employment to the vibrant world of art, it becomes evident that her unique perspective and creative expression are deeply intertwined with her personal experiences and the challenges she has faced. Throughout the episode, we explore the significance of embracing one's individuality and the importance of finding a niche in the ever-evolving landscape of the art world. I invite you to delve into Vanessa's narrative, which serves as an inspiring testament to the power of creativity and self-discovery.
In this episode, listeners are treated to the insightful and inspiring story of Vanessa LeVesque, an artist whose evolution from a conventional upbringing in Connecticut to a vibrant artistic career is both compelling and relatable. Bill Risser engages Vanessa in a thoughtful dialogue about the complexities of her early life, exposing the pressures of societal expectations and the challenges she faced in carving out her identity as an artist. Vanessa's reflections on her childhood reveal a deep-seated passion for creativity, yet an initial belief that a career in art was unattainable.
As the conversation unfolds, Vanessa's journey takes several unexpected turns, including a series of uninspired jobs that left her yearning for something more fulfilling. The pivotal moment in her career trajectory is brought to light through her personal experiences, such as the debilitating car accident that forced her to reconsider her professional life and ultimately led her to the arts. This transformation is further highlighted by her creative breakthrough during the pandemic, where she produced a piece that cleverly satirized contemporary culture. The episode intricately weaves together themes of self-discovery, the significance of resilience, and the power of art to reflect societal narratives, leaving listeners with a profound appreciation for the journeys that shape us.
Takeaways:
- Vanessa LeVesque's journey to becoming an artist was deeply influenced by her upbringing in Connecticut, where she initially felt a disconnect between her artistic aspirations and the societal expectations surrounding career choices.
- The conversation highlights the misconception that individuals from Connecticut are uniformly affluent, as Vanessa shares her perspective on the economic diversity within the state.
- Vanessa's transition into the art world was catalyzed by both her dissatisfaction with corporate jobs and a significant life event that allowed her to explore creative avenues more freely.
- The podcast underscores the importance of pursuing one's niche in the art field, emphasizing that artists should focus on developing their unique voice rather than conforming to trends.
- Vanessa's artwork often serves as social commentary, reflecting her desire to challenge perceptions and provoke thought through creativity, rather than simply aiming to please others.
- The discussion concludes with valuable advice for aspiring artists, suggesting that business and marketing skills are increasingly essential in today's art landscape to complement creative talent.
Links referenced in this episode:
- luhvek.com
- @vanessaluhvek on Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Potentially, you could go toschool, get a degree in underwater
basket weaving, come out ofcollege, expect to easily make $60,000
a year and do just aboutanything. Just because you had that
piece of paper saying, look atme, I did a four year degree. And
coming out of college, itbecame very apparent to me that none
(00:22):
of that was real.
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders, up and comers, and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me in my 10th year
(00:43):
and over 400 episodes of thepodcast. And now I hope you enjoy
the next journey. Hi,everybody. Welcome to episode 410
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend. Today
we have something a littledifferent, a little unique, a little
artsy. Yeah. I'm going to betalking to Vanessa Levesque. Vanessa
(01:08):
is an artist here in St.Petersburg that Cindy and I discovered
at a little festival, artfestival in Gulfport, which is a
whole nother story. Well, ifyou've never been to Gulfport, let
me know and we'll take youdown there. It's. And it was a really
cool vibe that was coming fromher booth. She had these amazing
pieces of art. I don't want tokind of spill the beans on any of
(01:30):
that yet, but we've, we'vesince purchased a few pieces and
I wanted to have her on thepodcast to talk about what she does
because I love finding outthings about people, especially very
interesting people. So let'sget this thing started. Vanessa,
welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for havingme, Bill.
It's going to be a lot of funbecause, and I know that because
(01:53):
I've seen your art. It's veryfun. And we're going to talk about
that later. But the firstthing I want to cover is, as I always
do, just I want to talk alittle bit about your childhood.
I know that you're from NewEngland, right? You're up there in
the. I don't know if. Were youa Patriots fan when they were killing
it because you're from thatpart of the country.
(02:14):
I'm sad to admit that the. Iam not a football person. I was a
huge Red Sox fan. Huge Red Soxfan, but I never got into football.
All right, we'll talk aboutthat in a minute. Where'd you grow
up. What part of. What part ofNew England? That's a big area. There's
a few states up in there.
So I'm from Wallingford,Connecticut. Not too many people
(02:36):
know about it. However, youmight know about it now because a
lot of times when you get the.Those as seen on TV, buy this now.
They'll have a P.O. box inWallingford, Connecticut. And a lot
of that stuff gets shipped outof the industrial area where I learned
how to drive stick shift whenI 15 years old. So that's. That's
(02:59):
all you need to know about Wallingford.
Well, is there a hill at leastto make it difficult to start off
in, you know, first gear in ahill when you're learning how to
drive a stick? Or was it there?
Is one of the biggest hillsI've ever seen in my life. It's so
big. My husband was quite thedaredevil, and as a kid, he decided
to go down it on a skateboard.And he said the second his feet lifted
(03:23):
off the pavement and hestarted rolling down, he immediately
knew he had made the worstdecision of his life.
Did he bail early or did hestick with it?
There was no bailing. You justhad to stick with it and hope for
the best. Wow.
All right, well, obviously hedid. He's still here. He's still
with us. All right, so true orfalse? Connecticut. Connecticut,
(03:46):
people. What's it. What is aConnecticut? Connecticut.
Nutmeg.
What are you?
We're nutmeggers, I guess.
Okay, we'll go. We'll go.Okay. Nut, Nutmeg.
I don't know.
Connecticut. Is it true thatConnecticuts think they have the
best pizza on Earth?
I would say it's not true thatwe think. I would say it's just true
(04:07):
that we have the best pizza.
Yeah, I've got a couple ofbuddies who listen to this podcast
who are going to go, yeah, Ineed to talk to her. All right, good.
How about sandwiches? Is theresomething about sandwiches in Connecticut?
Like they were invented in Connecticut?
You know, I don't know toomuch about that, and maybe Connecticut
(04:30):
folks would get kind of upsetwith me, but I gotta say, I think.
I think Publix has gotConnecticut beat in the sandwich
department.
Yeah. A pub sub. Yeah.
You can't beat a pub sub.
I love it. You. Typicalchildhood for you. There's, you know,
nothing crazy, just kind ofbrothers, sisters, all that kind
(04:51):
of.
Stuff, you know, I used tothink that I had the most typical
childhood ever. Two parents,happily married, a sister, the big
beautiful house, on the hill.And the more that I have spread my
wings and met people, I'mbeginning to think that I had the
(05:13):
most untypical childhoodbecause none of my friends had childhoods
like me.
Yeah, yeah, you. Yeah, that's.That's a great way to look at it,
because. Typical. Thedefinition of typical. That works.
But no, you won. You won. Allright. That's good. I like that.
Give me. Give me your. Your.What's your favorite part of growing
(05:37):
up in Connecticut?
I think for me, my favoritepart was, and granted, I'm. I'm aging
myself here, but I grew up inthe last generation before the Internet
and before social media, andnone of that existed. I was. I'm
(06:00):
not now, but I was growing upthe biggest tomboy you'd ever meet.
I loved playing in swamps. Icaught frogs and snakes. I was in
streams. I was knee deep inmud. And I think that that was the
greatest thing that I lived inan area where we could get on our
bikes in the morning, go tothe neighbor's house, get some freeze
(06:24):
pops, ride around all day,come home when the street lights
came on, and that was wonderful.
Wow, that's great. Yeah. Yeah,that's definitely a win. Give me
your biggest. What you feel isthe biggest misconception about Connecticut.
You know, when I came downhere and people learned that we are
(06:47):
from Connecticut, I never. Inever really thought about what people
thought about people fromConnecticut before I left Connecticut,
oddly enough. But I think thebiggest misconception was that everyone
from Connecticut was rollingin mad amounts of cash. That seemed
to be the misconception. Andthat's not the truth about Connecticut
(07:12):
at all. Plenty of people are,but plenty of people are on the complete
opposite end of the spectrum.
Yeah, that makes sense. Ithink that you do kind of think that
you think that that's where.Oh, that's Westchester County. Then
you go a little farther north,you get to Connecticut. It's all
the same. Yeah. Okay, so whatwas 15 year old Vanessa planning
on doing or becoming? Whatwas. What were you doing? And you're
(07:35):
in high school. What was theroad? I.
Boy, that's tough. I knew acouple things. I knew that I really
didn't like school. I knewthat I never. At that point in time,
my father was going through areally rough point in his life with
(07:59):
his career, and he was veryfearful of losing his job and not
having a college degree. Hefelt very much stuck in his job because
he was very well paid. He wasa driver for ups. So he worked very
hard to make sure that mysister and I had lots of opportunities.
(08:24):
It was never a choice if I wasgoing to go to college. It was, I
will literally quit my job andwalk you in every single day into
your college classes, so youbetter go. So I. I tended to look
at things like I didn't knowwhat I wanted to do. I didn't think
(08:45):
that being an artist waspossible because that didn't exist
in my world. There were no artshows where I came from. No one was
making it as an artist. Inever saw that. But watching what
my father was going through,it just made me realize that I never
wanted to be in the positionwhere I hated going to work every
(09:05):
single day of my life.
So where did you end up goingto school?
I went to Roger Williamsuniversity in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Okay, and what was your focuson your area of study?
My area of study was art.
Was art a part of your firstjob out of school?
(09:27):
It was not, because I also,when I was going to college, the
thought and the way that itwas presented to me was that you
can go to college and youcould get a degree. And this was
literally said with underwaterbasket weaving. I've never met someone
(09:48):
with a degree in underwaterbasket weaving, but potentially you
could go to school, get adegree in underwater basket weaving,
come out of college, expect toeasily make $60,000 a year and do
just about anything. Justbecause you had that piece of paper
saying, look at me, I did afour year degree. And coming out
(10:08):
of college, it became veryapparent to me that none of that
was reality.
Right. So what did you end updoing? What was the first gig for
Vanessa?
It was, you'll laugh at thisone. I sold it. The most uncreative
job that an artist could everhave. I did customer service on the
(10:33):
phone for a company that soldvalve tags, pipe markers, road signs,
construction, safetyequipment. It was a horrible, horrible
job.
How long did that last?
Not long, I think. I think Imade it about 10 months. You know,
(10:58):
the thing that really got me,like, I couldn't deal with it was
I had this one customer, andit was odd because I worked in a
call center and there wasprobably another hundred people working
there. And for whateverreason, I would always get this call
when this man called in. Andthe first time we placed an order
(11:18):
for his tags. And this companywas unique in that the manufacturing
department, we would have towalk through where the products were
manufactured to get to ourdesks. So his order was done incorrectly.
And he called back a coupledays later and he was upset, and
he's like, hey, I need thisfor a project, and everything's wrong
(11:39):
because it's all OSHA and it'sgotta be done a very specific way.
So we went over everything. Ithought I put everything very clear
in the notes and sent it offto manufacturing. And lo and behold,
a couple weeks later, I getcall from this guy again saying,
hey, this is what's going on.It's incorrect. So, long story short,
after this guy had gotten hisorder wrong a couple times from not
(12:03):
just me, but other people, Ireached out to a supervisor and said,
hey, listen, I know exactlywhat this man wants. Can I just go
into the manufacturingwarehouse and just talk to the person
that's making these tags andwe can get on the same, you know,
the same. Same side here. Wecan just see what's going on and
where the miscommunication is.And they said, no, we can't allow
(12:25):
you to get up from your desk.And I said, that is the most ridiculous
thing. The amount of money andtime that we are wasting when I could
just literally go do. Go backthere and talk to Sherry and say,
hey, Sheri, this is what weneed, and they would not have it.
And I said, you know what? Ican't do this. This is not for me.
(12:46):
And that was it. I was done.
So what did that lead you tonext? Because I have a feeling this
is going to be a cool path tothe world of art.
That led me to next feelinglike a failure, and that I was slowly
starting to see thatcorporate, Corporate America and
(13:06):
I do not play nice in thesandbox together. So shortly after
that, I moved to Floridabecause I didn't want to get too
rooted into the cold weatherand tying my roots. I didn't want
to be that person, that. Andnothing wrong with this, but for
me, it wasn't an option. Ididn't want to be the person that
(13:28):
grew up somewhere and stayedthere for the rest of my life. I
wanted to get out. So I waslike, you know what? This job's not
working. Let's go down toFlorida and see what my options are
there. I love the sun, theswimming, all that stuff. So I came
down here, had no direction,didn't know where I wanted to go,
(13:48):
and I started waitressingbecause it was, you know, I was a
good waitress. It was a safebet, paid the bills. And over time,
I ended up getting, like,little creative jobs here, here and
there. In addition to thewaitressing, I eventually ended up
taking a. An artist inresidence program at a pottery studio.
(14:10):
Because when I Was in college.I had taken some pottery courses,
really liked it, reallyenjoyed that, but quickly realized
I have a lot of neurodivergentissues, and one of them being textures.
So it was really hard to be apotter when you can't touch the clay
because it bothers you so much.
(14:32):
Okay.
But it got me into the artcommunity down here and what ultimately
wound up getting me, becauseafter that, I ended up working for
a publishing company. My bossended up being a complete lunatic.
So that didn't work out, butthat's a whole nother story. And
(14:55):
just a couple other things. Anaccounting firm. I really enjoyed
bookkeeping, but again, it wasjust. I was absolutely miserable.
I never liked what I wasdoing. And finally, the. The thing
that really got me into thearts was I ended up getting into
a horrific car accident. Itwas really, really bad. And it was
(15:17):
so bad that I could no longerwork for the accounting firm because
to see, sit, and move my neck,it was just bad. So I ended up having
to quit that job. I was doingtons of physical therapy for, like,
a good 18 months. And it gotto the point that I needed to get
out of bed, I needed to work,but I needed something that was very
(15:37):
flexible. And one of myfriends that I had met at the clay
studio, whom I'm still veryclose with, she was working at one
of the paint and sip places,and she said, why don't you just
work there? They pay reallywell. It's part time. You basically
choose your own hours. And atthat point, I was not a painter.
(15:59):
I. I hated painting, to behonest. But I was good enough as
an artist that I was like, Ican teach the general public, and
got into that, and that's kindof how I got into the arts.
Wow. By the way, my wife callsit, I think it's more paint and guzzle
because it. There's no sippinggoing on there.
(16:21):
That's very true. And you cantell at the end of the class who's
been guzzling and who's beensipping when you look at the painting.
Oh, my God. There's a greatstory. I'll give you the real cliff
note version, but her and herfriend Natalie in Scottsdale at a
paint place. There were thethree margaritas at the. The Mexican
place next door before theygot in. Then there was the wine,
(16:43):
and it's starry, starry night.One of them had, like, a thousand
swirls. They just kept doing.They liked the swirls. They just
kept going. They wereeverywhere. Sorry. I want to, you
know, you and I have hadconversations, and I know that you're
ready to make the next move.Right. So you got here, and we're
(17:04):
going to talk a lot aboutthat. But while. And this. This is
the little real estate part ofthe real estate Sessions podcast
right here. Right. You'recurrently fixing up your home like
any good seller should do.Right. Getting all the things ready
for the maximum amount ofmoney you can get. And. But talk
about that part of whatyou're. You told me why you're doing
(17:25):
this. If you have a. You havekind of a schedule that you're on
and you're. This is time. Thisis your time.
Right. So there are so, so, somany reasons for. For the move. One
of them being a big one. Withall of the hurricanes and everything
that we had, it got way tooclose for comfort. We're in flood
zone A. Our house neverflooded, but the water came up into
(17:50):
my neighbor's garage so thathe had to gut his garage, and the
water went right. Itsurrounded our house, basically.
So we had, you know, it wasway too close for comfort. And it's
just seemed like each timeit's gotten a little bit closer,
(18:10):
a little more frequent. We gota quote for flood insurance for $14,000
a year, which is justastronomical. We bought our house
initially under what we couldafford because we just wanted to
make sure that it was alwaysaffordable. And since we've bought,
(18:32):
our mortgage has more thandoubled, and it's in insurance. So
we're essentially paying onour house what we would if we bought
a house four times as much asour house. Wow. And it's. It's just.
It feels like we're constantlyclawing no matter how far we get
(18:54):
ahead. Well, costs go up, andit's just enough is enough. So many
reasons, but that was a big one.
Yeah. And you're leaving thesunshine to go where?
Well, when I do stuff, I neverdo stuff in the middle. I have to
(19:15):
go big or go home kind ofdeal. And I decided if we're going
from the weather, because it'salso. I love being outside. And I've
gotten to the point, I don'tknow if we've, you know, just how
I am or whatever, but I can'ttolerate the heat anymore. It's just
gotten to me. So in my grandscheme of things, I thought, well,
(19:38):
let's go to the completeopposite end of the spectrum and
do it with the cold. We've gotthree kids. They've never seen the
seasons change. They've neverseen the snow. So my Husband and
I decided to make this move.And he said, I'm willing to go anywhere
in the country as long as wehave a house that we love and a good
(20:03):
area for the kids. And I. Itold him because both of us still
have our parents alive. Isaid, I don't want to leave the East
Coast. Let's stay on the EastCoast. So we kind of started looking,
and for whatever reason, weended up going with New York. And
(20:23):
we grabbed a suit snowfall mapand looked at the snowiest places
in New York, and now that'swhere we're looking to move.
So can I assume there's lakeeffect snow where you're going to
be living? Probably.
Oh, my goodness. That would besuch a good assumption.
On your part because I knowthat's where all the snow is. Oh,
(20:47):
my gosh. Okay, good. So good.Let's talk art. I can't wait. I.
My wife and I saw you for thefirst time in Gulfport. You were
at that. Cool. It was a coollittle show. It was really neat.
And we saw. Trying to think ofthe one that we got for our son.
Oh, yeah, I do. But I probablywon't mention it here, but I was
(21:12):
laughing. I was showing mywife Cindy, and we had a blast. And
so that was our first purchasefrom you. We shipped it to Kevin.
He loves it. I think you'vemet Kevin, because Kevin and Sarah
came by another show. Right.So. And I know you're going to be
at some. You're. You're goingto be here in St. Pete in the month
of February or. Yeah, it's inFebruary. Localtopia. That's it.
(21:32):
Yeah.
Yeah. That's a great show.It's massive. There's all kinds of.
I usually get a couple Tshirts from the same vendor every
year. I know he. He's probablyworking somewhere here in St. Pete,
but I don't know why I waittill Localtopia to do it. But let's
talk about your art. When youtalked about the pottery, it made
sense to me because there'sthree dimensions to what you do.
It's not just a canvas andsomething. It's really cool. The
(21:57):
layers and levels and I don'tknow what you call finding the right
size jar to catch urine andmaking it a pot. I'm just saying.
Right. Am I right there? Talkabout what. What was that driving
force for you? What made youthink about the. The way you create
(22:17):
your pieces? The, the. The.The use of resin, which is super
cool. And then, you know, youdo all kinds of different Things
the way that.
I create now, I never went outwith the intention that I'm going
to be an artist, and this iswhat I'm going to create. It was
a very organic journey. Partof it is in all of this, I am. I
(22:42):
like to refer to myself as arecovering people pleaser, because
I spent pretty much themajority of my entire adult life
with the mindset that I needto go and get a job and put in my
30 years and get that pensionand do everything the way that I
(23:04):
was raised to do everything.And that never worked out for me.
I always felt like a failure.I never felt any type of gratification.
And I'm not saying most peoplego off and skip to work every day,
but I also felt like Ishouldn't want to throw myself in
front of a bus every day on myway to work, and that's where I was
(23:28):
at. So even when it came timeto go into the art and pursue this.
This desire to create, when Ifirst started, I approached it with,
well, what would most peoplelike me to create? And so I started
painting landscapes becauseI'm like, everybody likes landscapes.
(23:51):
It just felt safe. But, boy, Inever sat down thinking, oh, I'm
excited to paint this. I stillstand by what I created. I think
I made some really beautifulpieces. I still have some of them
hanging up in my house, but itnever felt right. And I ended up
(24:12):
having this idea. Oddlyenough, when the pandemic was happening,
it seemed like America kind ofgot into the Netflix binging, and
the big thing was the. TheTiger King series. Ridiculous. Yes,
absolutely.
Right here in Tampa, Florida. Beautiful.
Yes. So I had watched thatseries, and just like everybody else,
(24:38):
what the hell is going on?What am I watching here? And everybody
was talking about it becausewe had nothing else to do. And one
day I was sitting, sittingthere, and I just had the thought
that wouldn't it be funny if Ipainted Joe Exotic and his husband
as the American Gothicpainting, But instead of American
(25:00):
Gothic, it's American Exotic.And I felt like it was a little bit
of a social commentary on thecraziness in America and what we
were doing. And I was like,yeah, this is weird, this is ridiculous,
but I'm going to paint this.And I don't know who the hell would
want this, because here's thisguy with his AR15 instead of pitchfork
(25:24):
and his glittered vest. And itwas the most ridiculous thing I've
ever painted. And it soldimmediately. Like, immediately. And
I just remember looking at itand just having this. It was Ridiculous.
But, like, the second sense ofpride for this was clever and it
was fun and I even looked andnobody else had ever done it. And
(25:48):
I was like, okay, I. This is.This is kind of fun. And then I started
allowing myself to do more ofthis weird stuff. And it just. People
responded to it. It resonatedwith people.
You have a. Yeah, it's a very.There's a no filter approach. I will
definitely call it that towhat you do, which I think is hilarious.
(26:12):
Obviously, it's not foreveryone. I don't know if I've asked
you this before. Have you everhad somebody come by at a show and
go, oh, I would. This isdisgusting. Or how can you do this?
You ever, like the pearls getin a bunch kind of a lady or.
Usually I would think, yes,yes. I actually, I used to. I had
one person come by and tell methat some of the stuff should be
(26:35):
covered, which to me isridiculous because a lot of what
I do, it's plays on words. Ihad a lot of criticism when I was
in art school that I was tooliteral. And I think a lot of that,
there's neurodivergence, that.That's just how my brain works. I
have two children on theautism spectrum. And you cannot use
(26:58):
figures of speech with thembecause it's just so they don't get
it. Everything is veryliteral. And so I really embrace
that. And a lot of what I tryand do, it's just how I see the world.
Social commentary. It's nottrying to be offensive for the sake
of being offensive. It's saltysweet, it's playful, it's sugary.
(27:22):
Let's look at things a littledifferent. So, yeah, I've gotten,
on occasion, people thatclutch the pearls. I actually made
a pair of socks, sunglasses,and I spray painted them black. So
if you got offended, you couldput these glasses on while you were
in my. While you were in myspot. But it was weird because I
(27:45):
think one time I had someonecome into my tent and this was during
a show and I had a painting ofa wet kitty cat. And you can use
your imagination with whatthat was titled.
Sure.
And he was looking at it and acouple other pieces, and he goes,
what's your most offensivepiece here? Like, you could tell
(28:07):
this guy was veryantagonistic. And I said, well, I
don't really find anythingoffensive. I said, you can see it.
And he's like, yeah, but Iwant to know what you find the most
offensive because I'minterested in it. And I just thought,
not Here trying to beoffensive. This is just. This is
just me. So his art was not.Or my art was not for him. And that's
(28:31):
okay. But yeah, it's. Asidefrom that, the only other thing I've
ever had, which I thought wasvery weird was an older man came
by me and did the sign of thecross as if I was the Antichrist.
Nice. That's. You got to catchthat on video next time. You got
(28:52):
to be ready. So we have acouple pieces now hanging here, which
is awesome, but my favorite.And as soon as I saw it, I knew I
had to have it because one ofthe things I. I guess I can almost
say preach or really talk toour sales teams about, because my
role in. In sales enablementis to make sure that they have the
right tools to be successful.I think, you know, that being curious
(29:17):
about other people and beinglistening, you know, with intent
and really understanding whatthey need is a way to maybe get them
to use our services as opposedto having a pitch and just burying
them and stuff. And so. So Italk about curiosity all the time.
In fact, it was just a coupleepisodes ago, I talked about curiosity
(29:37):
and building relationships,how you make it better. And so just
so people know what. How I'mgoing down this path is. Curious
George was in my childhood.That's really. Dating me might have
been. You know, it was in mychildhood. So you created a piece
called Furious George and theCowboys Hats there with a lot of
blood.
Right.
(29:57):
It was awesome. So right away,yeah, we. We put our. We got to do
what people get to do with youbecause. Because you have a couple
of emails that go out a week.You. You blog regularly on a website.
And those are great thingsbecause you, you keep us in the loop
on what's going on. You know,you'll have shots of something showing,
little hints. And so I wasable to acquire that one before it
(30:18):
even was finished. It wasgreat. So, yeah. Yeah. If people
want to see what you're doing,give. Let's. Let's make sure we're
saying where they should go,what are the places they should go
to see that stuff, and how dothey get onto your email list and
all that? It's probably allthe same place, right?
I would say the best place. Ineed to get better about regularly
(30:38):
posting on Instagram. I tendto, when I, when I get myself there,
I do a lot of, like, processvideos, things like that, explaining
things, and people tend toenjoy that. So if you're looking
to see video, time lapse videoof painting in the process. That's
a great spot to go. And myusername is Vanessa V A N E S S A
(31:01):
Leveque L U H V E K so it'sVanessa Levesque. That's me on Instagram.
But I'm much better about mynewsletter, that has become. It's
weird because when I starteddoing that, I hated doing it and
it felt like pulling teeth.And now I feel like I'm walking outside
(31:21):
with no clothes on when Idon't write my newsletter. Like,
it just doesn't. It feels likesomething I need to do. I want. I
shouldn't say need to. I wantto do it. I enjoy it. So my newsletter,
if you subscribe, subscribe tothat. That's on my website. It's
LeVeque L-U-H-V-E-K.com and assoon as you go on to my website,
(31:43):
you get a little prompt if youwant to subscribe to my email. So
that's how you would do that.
And you can also see a lot ofthe works you've worked on in the
past, some things that you'reworking on now. It's really cool.
I think it's. I think it'sjust awesome.
Thank you.
What advice would you give ayoung man or a young woman thinking
about doing what you're doing?How does one, you know, do you have
(32:07):
advice, having gone throughthese things?
That's weird that you askedthat, because as I was driving today,
I was literally just talkingto one of my good friends about that
and my advice and again, takeit with a grain of salt. I don't
have all the answers, but if Icould go back in time, knowing what
I know now as a workingartist, I don't think I would have
(32:30):
gone to art school. I thinkthat I would have been in a better
spot had I gone to school forbusiness and. Or marketing. So maybe
a major in business with aminor in marketing, or vice versa.
I. I truly believe that we'reat a time in this point in history
(32:56):
or current or whatever, thatart is so accessible to anyone and
even learning how to dodifferent things. You can just hop
onto YouTube and figure outwhatever the heck you want to figure
out with your art. I think thebiggest thing, though, is to find
(33:17):
your niche and really, reallyzero in on that. Don't try, try to
just make what's trendy, butreally focus on that niche and get
so concentrated that youbecome an expert in whatever the
heck that niche is, and peopleare going to seek that out. So my
(33:39):
Advice would be art school ornot. Take that with a grain of salt.
Yes, it's, it's great. Yes,you learn a lot. But there's plenty
of self taught artists thatare amazing and then maybe some business
and marketing, because I don'tfeel that you really get that in
art school.
(34:00):
I love the way you put that.The friend of mine from Connecticut,
Anthony, a guy I play golfwith every Sunday, one of his beliefs,
and he's a realtor, is thatall he really needs is a small, viable
audience. And that, that'swhat you need. If you're going to
do a niche, you don't need togo have millions of people, you need
(34:20):
hundreds who like what you do.I mean, right. And it ultimately.
Yeah. So it's pretty cool.Wow, that's great. And so this is
going to be the fun part,Vanessa, because no matter who the
guest is, no matter whatthey're. Because I have fun with
my podcast, I go often todifferent places, but this is the
same question I've asked everysingle guest for 10 years. You ready?
I'm ready.
(34:41):
All right. What one piece ofadvice would you give a new agent
just getting started in real estate?
Who? What one piece? Geez. Allright. Well, I guess like anything,
(35:02):
I, I would say to know whyyou're going into it and what your
goals are for going into itand not just making wads of cash,
but just remembering whyyou're starting. I think with anything
that you can get into, you cango in with. I'm going to help people
(35:22):
and I'm going to do this andI'm going to do that. And over time,
the shininess and the funnesscan kind of wear off and you kind
of find yourself going down a,a different path. So I would say,
like anything, really thinkabout where you're starting off,
why you want to do what you'redoing, and just remind yourself that,
(35:43):
that this is. This is why I'mdoing what I'm doing.
Awesome. Look, in 410episodes, that's the first time that
answer's been used. Socongratulations. Awesome.
I told you we think a littledifferently here.
All right. This has beengreat. I can't thank you enough.
I know we, I've asked youabout this and we've, we had to finally
(36:06):
get our schedules together andthis has been fantastic. I can't
wait for the response. Pleasego to go to leveque.com and I love
the. By the way, it's L, U H VE K lovek. It's phonetically how
you pronounce her name. Buthow is it really spelled? Vanessa?
It's really spelled L Ecapital V, as in Victor, E E S as
(36:27):
in Sam. Q U, E. Yes, Ifigured. No one can pronounce it.
No one can spell it. No onewill ever get to my damn website.
So here we go.
Yeah, lovec. So go check itout. Thanks again, Vanessa. This
has been great.
Thank you so much, Bill.Always great to talk to you. Thank
you.
Thank you for listening to thereal estate Sessions. Please head
(36:49):
over to ratethispodcast.comresessions to leave a review or a
rating and subscribe to thereal estate Sessions podcast at your
favorite podcast. Listening. Applause.
Potentially, you could go toschool, get a degree in underwater
basket weaving, come out ofcollege, expect to easily make $60,000
a year and do just aboutanything. Just because you had that
piece of paper saying, look atme, I did a four year degree. And
coming out of college, itbecame very apparent to me that none
(00:22):
of that was real.
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,
Bill Risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders, up and comers, and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me in my 10th year
(00:43):
and over 400 episodes of thepodcast. And now I hope you enjoy
the next journey. Hi,everybody. Welcome to episode 410
of the Real Estate Sessionspodcast. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. Thank youso much for telling a friend. Today
we have something a littledifferent, a little unique, a little
artsy. Yeah. I'm going to betalking to Vanessa Levesque. Vanessa
(01:08):
is an artist here in St.Petersburg that Cindy and I discovered
at a little festival, artfestival in Gulfport, which is a
whole nother story. Well, ifyou've never been to Gulfport, let
me know and we'll take youdown there. It's. And it was a really
cool vibe that was coming fromher booth. She had these amazing
pieces of art. I don't want tokind of spill the beans on any of
(01:30):
that yet, but we've, we'vesince purchased a few pieces and
I wanted to have her on thepodcast to talk about what she does
because I love finding outthings about people, especially very
interesting people. So let'sget this thing started. Vanessa,
welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for havingme, Bill.
It's going to be a lot of funbecause, and I know that because
(01:53):
I've seen your art. It's veryfun. And we're going to talk about
that later. But the firstthing I want to cover is, as I always
do, just I want to talk alittle bit about your childhood.
I know that you're from NewEngland, right? You're up there in
the. I don't know if. Were youa Patriots fan when they were killing
it because you're from thatpart of the country.
(02:14):
I'm sad to admit that the. Iam not a football person. I was a
huge Red Sox fan. Huge Red Soxfan, but I never got into football.
All right, we'll talk aboutthat in a minute. Where'd you grow
up. What part of. What part ofNew England? That's a big area. There's
a few states up in there.
So I'm from Wallingford,Connecticut. Not too many people
(02:36):
know about it. However, youmight know about it now because a
lot of times when you get the.Those as seen on TV, buy this now.
They'll have a P.O. box inWallingford, Connecticut. And a lot
of that stuff gets shipped outof the industrial area where I learned
how to drive stick shift whenI 15 years old. So that's. That's
(02:59):
all you need to know about Wallingford.
Well, is there a hill at leastto make it difficult to start off
in, you know, first gear in ahill when you're learning how to
drive a stick? Or was it there?
Is one of the biggest hillsI've ever seen in my life. It's so
big. My husband was quite thedaredevil, and as a kid, he decided
to go down it on a skateboard.And he said the second his feet lifted
(03:23):
off the pavement and hestarted rolling down, he immediately
knew he had made the worstdecision of his life.
Did he bail early or did hestick with it?
There was no bailing. You justhad to stick with it and hope for
the best. Wow.
All right, well, obviously hedid. He's still here. He's still
with us. All right, so true orfalse? Connecticut. Connecticut,
(03:46):
people. What's it. What is aConnecticut? Connecticut.
Nutmeg.
What are you?
We're nutmeggers, I guess.
Okay, we'll go. We'll go.Okay. Nut, Nutmeg.
I don't know.
Connecticut. Is it true thatConnecticuts think they have the
best pizza on Earth?
I would say it's not true thatwe think. I would say it's just true
(04:07):
that we have the best pizza.
Yeah, I've got a couple ofbuddies who listen to this podcast
who are going to go, yeah, Ineed to talk to her. All right, good.
How about sandwiches? Is theresomething about sandwiches in Connecticut?
Like they were invented in Connecticut?
You know, I don't know toomuch about that, and maybe Connecticut
(04:30):
folks would get kind of upsetwith me, but I gotta say, I think.
I think Publix has gotConnecticut beat in the sandwich
department.
Yeah. A pub sub. Yeah.
You can't beat a pub sub.
I love it. You. Typicalchildhood for you. There's, you know,
nothing crazy, just kind ofbrothers, sisters, all that kind
(04:51):
of.
Stuff, you know, I used tothink that I had the most typical
childhood ever. Two parents,happily married, a sister, the big
beautiful house, on the hill.And the more that I have spread my
wings and met people, I'mbeginning to think that I had the
(05:13):
most untypical childhoodbecause none of my friends had childhoods
like me.
Yeah, yeah, you. Yeah, that's.That's a great way to look at it,
because. Typical. Thedefinition of typical. That works.
But no, you won. You won. Allright. That's good. I like that.
Give me. Give me your. Your.What's your favorite part of growing
(05:37):
up in Connecticut?
I think for me, my favoritepart was, and granted, I'm. I'm aging
myself here, but I grew up inthe last generation before the Internet
and before social media, andnone of that existed. I was. I'm
(06:00):
not now, but I was growing upthe biggest tomboy you'd ever meet.
I loved playing in swamps. Icaught frogs and snakes. I was in
streams. I was knee deep inmud. And I think that that was the
greatest thing that I lived inan area where we could get on our
bikes in the morning, go tothe neighbor's house, get some freeze
(06:24):
pops, ride around all day,come home when the street lights
came on, and that was wonderful.
Wow, that's great. Yeah. Yeah,that's definitely a win. Give me
your biggest. What you feel isthe biggest misconception about Connecticut.
You know, when I came downhere and people learned that we are
(06:47):
from Connecticut, I never. Inever really thought about what people
thought about people fromConnecticut before I left Connecticut,
oddly enough. But I think thebiggest misconception was that everyone
from Connecticut was rollingin mad amounts of cash. That seemed
to be the misconception. Andthat's not the truth about Connecticut
(07:12):
at all. Plenty of people are,but plenty of people are on the complete
opposite end of the spectrum.
Yeah, that makes sense. Ithink that you do kind of think that
you think that that's where.Oh, that's Westchester County. Then
you go a little farther north,you get to Connecticut. It's all
the same. Yeah. Okay, so whatwas 15 year old Vanessa planning
on doing or becoming? Whatwas. What were you doing? And you're
(07:35):
in high school. What was theroad? I.
Boy, that's tough. I knew acouple things. I knew that I really
didn't like school. I knewthat I never. At that point in time,
my father was going through areally rough point in his life with
(07:59):
his career, and he was veryfearful of losing his job and not
having a college degree. Hefelt very much stuck in his job because
he was very well paid. He wasa driver for ups. So he worked very
hard to make sure that mysister and I had lots of opportunities.
(08:24):
It was never a choice if I wasgoing to go to college. It was, I
will literally quit my job andwalk you in every single day into
your college classes, so youbetter go. So I. I tended to look
at things like I didn't knowwhat I wanted to do. I didn't think
(08:45):
that being an artist waspossible because that didn't exist
in my world. There were no artshows where I came from. No one was
making it as an artist. Inever saw that. But watching what
my father was going through,it just made me realize that I never
wanted to be in the positionwhere I hated going to work every
(09:05):
single day of my life.
So where did you end up goingto school?
I went to Roger Williamsuniversity in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Okay, and what was your focuson your area of study?
My area of study was art.
Was art a part of your firstjob out of school?
(09:27):
It was not, because I also,when I was going to college, the
thought and the way that itwas presented to me was that you
can go to college and youcould get a degree. And this was
literally said with underwaterbasket weaving. I've never met someone
(09:48):
with a degree in underwaterbasket weaving, but potentially you
could go to school, get adegree in underwater basket weaving,
come out of college, expect toeasily make $60,000 a year and do
just about anything. Justbecause you had that piece of paper
saying, look at me, I did afour year degree. And coming out
(10:08):
of college, it became veryapparent to me that none of that
was reality.
Right. So what did you end updoing? What was the first gig for
Vanessa?
It was, you'll laugh at thisone. I sold it. The most uncreative
job that an artist could everhave. I did customer service on the
(10:33):
phone for a company that soldvalve tags, pipe markers, road signs,
construction, safetyequipment. It was a horrible, horrible
job.
How long did that last?
Not long, I think. I think Imade it about 10 months. You know,
(10:58):
the thing that really got me,like, I couldn't deal with it was
I had this one customer, andit was odd because I worked in a
call center and there wasprobably another hundred people working
there. And for whateverreason, I would always get this call
when this man called in. Andthe first time we placed an order
(11:18):
for his tags. And this companywas unique in that the manufacturing
department, we would have towalk through where the products were
manufactured to get to ourdesks. So his order was done incorrectly.
And he called back a coupledays later and he was upset, and
he's like, hey, I need thisfor a project, and everything's wrong
(11:39):
because it's all OSHA and it'sgotta be done a very specific way.
So we went over everything. Ithought I put everything very clear
in the notes and sent it offto manufacturing. And lo and behold,
a couple weeks later, I getcall from this guy again saying,
hey, this is what's going on.It's incorrect. So, long story short,
after this guy had gotten hisorder wrong a couple times from not
(12:03):
just me, but other people, Ireached out to a supervisor and said,
hey, listen, I know exactlywhat this man wants. Can I just go
into the manufacturingwarehouse and just talk to the person
that's making these tags andwe can get on the same, you know,
the same. Same side here. Wecan just see what's going on and
where the miscommunication is.And they said, no, we can't allow
(12:25):
you to get up from your desk.And I said, that is the most ridiculous
thing. The amount of money andtime that we are wasting when I could
just literally go do. Go backthere and talk to Sherry and say,
hey, Sheri, this is what weneed, and they would not have it.
And I said, you know what? Ican't do this. This is not for me.
(12:46):
And that was it. I was done.
So what did that lead you tonext? Because I have a feeling this
is going to be a cool path tothe world of art.
That led me to next feelinglike a failure, and that I was slowly
starting to see thatcorporate, Corporate America and
(13:06):
I do not play nice in thesandbox together. So shortly after
that, I moved to Floridabecause I didn't want to get too
rooted into the cold weatherand tying my roots. I didn't want
to be that person, that. Andnothing wrong with this, but for
me, it wasn't an option. Ididn't want to be the person that
(13:28):
grew up somewhere and stayedthere for the rest of my life. I
wanted to get out. So I waslike, you know what? This job's not
working. Let's go down toFlorida and see what my options are
there. I love the sun, theswimming, all that stuff. So I came
down here, had no direction,didn't know where I wanted to go,
(13:48):
and I started waitressingbecause it was, you know, I was a
good waitress. It was a safebet, paid the bills. And over time,
I ended up getting, like,little creative jobs here, here and
there. In addition to thewaitressing, I eventually ended up
taking a. An artist inresidence program at a pottery studio.
(14:10):
Because when I Was in college.I had taken some pottery courses,
really liked it, reallyenjoyed that, but quickly realized
I have a lot of neurodivergentissues, and one of them being textures.
So it was really hard to be apotter when you can't touch the clay
because it bothers you so much.
(14:32):
Okay.
But it got me into the artcommunity down here and what ultimately
wound up getting me, becauseafter that, I ended up working for
a publishing company. My bossended up being a complete lunatic.
So that didn't work out, butthat's a whole nother story. And
(14:55):
just a couple other things. Anaccounting firm. I really enjoyed
bookkeeping, but again, it wasjust. I was absolutely miserable.
I never liked what I wasdoing. And finally, the. The thing
that really got me into thearts was I ended up getting into
a horrific car accident. Itwas really, really bad. And it was
(15:17):
so bad that I could no longerwork for the accounting firm because
to see, sit, and move my neck,it was just bad. So I ended up having
to quit that job. I was doingtons of physical therapy for, like,
a good 18 months. And it gotto the point that I needed to get
out of bed, I needed to work,but I needed something that was very
(15:37):
flexible. And one of myfriends that I had met at the clay
studio, whom I'm still veryclose with, she was working at one
of the paint and sip places,and she said, why don't you just
work there? They pay reallywell. It's part time. You basically
choose your own hours. And atthat point, I was not a painter.
(15:59):
I. I hated painting, to behonest. But I was good enough as
an artist that I was like, Ican teach the general public, and
got into that, and that's kindof how I got into the arts.
Wow. By the way, my wife callsit, I think it's more paint and guzzle
because it. There's no sippinggoing on there.
(16:21):
That's very true. And you cantell at the end of the class who's
been guzzling and who's beensipping when you look at the painting.
Oh, my God. There's a greatstory. I'll give you the real cliff
note version, but her and herfriend Natalie in Scottsdale at a
paint place. There were thethree margaritas at the. The Mexican
place next door before theygot in. Then there was the wine,
(16:43):
and it's starry, starry night.One of them had, like, a thousand
swirls. They just kept doing.They liked the swirls. They just
kept going. They wereeverywhere. Sorry. I want to, you
know, you and I have hadconversations, and I know that you're
ready to make the next move.Right. So you got here, and we're
(17:04):
going to talk a lot aboutthat. But while. And this. This is
the little real estate part ofthe real estate Sessions podcast
right here. Right. You'recurrently fixing up your home like
any good seller should do.Right. Getting all the things ready
for the maximum amount ofmoney you can get. And. But talk
about that part of whatyou're. You told me why you're doing
(17:25):
this. If you have a. You havekind of a schedule that you're on
and you're. This is time. Thisis your time.
Right. So there are so, so, somany reasons for. For the move. One
of them being a big one. Withall of the hurricanes and everything
that we had, it got way tooclose for comfort. We're in flood
zone A. Our house neverflooded, but the water came up into
(17:50):
my neighbor's garage so thathe had to gut his garage, and the
water went right. Itsurrounded our house, basically.
So we had, you know, it wasway too close for comfort. And it's
just seemed like each timeit's gotten a little bit closer,
(18:10):
a little more frequent. We gota quote for flood insurance for $14,000
a year, which is justastronomical. We bought our house
initially under what we couldafford because we just wanted to
make sure that it was alwaysaffordable. And since we've bought,
(18:32):
our mortgage has more thandoubled, and it's in insurance. So
we're essentially paying onour house what we would if we bought
a house four times as much asour house. Wow. And it's. It's just.
It feels like we're constantlyclawing no matter how far we get
(18:54):
ahead. Well, costs go up, andit's just enough is enough. So many
reasons, but that was a big one.
Yeah. And you're leaving thesunshine to go where?
Well, when I do stuff, I neverdo stuff in the middle. I have to
(19:15):
go big or go home kind ofdeal. And I decided if we're going
from the weather, because it'salso. I love being outside. And I've
gotten to the point, I don'tknow if we've, you know, just how
I am or whatever, but I can'ttolerate the heat anymore. It's just
gotten to me. So in my grandscheme of things, I thought, well,
(19:38):
let's go to the completeopposite end of the spectrum and
do it with the cold. We've gotthree kids. They've never seen the
seasons change. They've neverseen the snow. So my Husband and
I decided to make this move.And he said, I'm willing to go anywhere
in the country as long as wehave a house that we love and a good
(20:03):
area for the kids. And I. Itold him because both of us still
have our parents alive. Isaid, I don't want to leave the East
Coast. Let's stay on the EastCoast. So we kind of started looking,
and for whatever reason, weended up going with New York. And
(20:23):
we grabbed a suit snowfall mapand looked at the snowiest places
in New York, and now that'swhere we're looking to move.
So can I assume there's lakeeffect snow where you're going to
be living? Probably.
Oh, my goodness. That would besuch a good assumption.
On your part because I knowthat's where all the snow is. Oh,
(20:47):
my gosh. Okay, good. So good.Let's talk art. I can't wait. I.
My wife and I saw you for thefirst time in Gulfport. You were
at that. Cool. It was a coollittle show. It was really neat.
And we saw. Trying to think ofthe one that we got for our son.
Oh, yeah, I do. But I probablywon't mention it here, but I was
(21:12):
laughing. I was showing mywife Cindy, and we had a blast. And
so that was our first purchasefrom you. We shipped it to Kevin.
He loves it. I think you'vemet Kevin, because Kevin and Sarah
came by another show. Right.So. And I know you're going to be
at some. You're. You're goingto be here in St. Pete in the month
of February or. Yeah, it's inFebruary. Localtopia. That's it.
(21:32):
Yeah.
Yeah. That's a great show.It's massive. There's all kinds of.
I usually get a couple Tshirts from the same vendor every
year. I know he. He's probablyworking somewhere here in St. Pete,
but I don't know why I waittill Localtopia to do it. But let's
talk about your art. When youtalked about the pottery, it made
sense to me because there'sthree dimensions to what you do.
It's not just a canvas andsomething. It's really cool. The
(21:57):
layers and levels and I don'tknow what you call finding the right
size jar to catch urine andmaking it a pot. I'm just saying.
Right. Am I right there? Talkabout what. What was that driving
force for you? What made youthink about the. The way you create
(22:17):
your pieces? The, the. The.The use of resin, which is super
cool. And then, you know, youdo all kinds of different Things
the way that.
I create now, I never went outwith the intention that I'm going
to be an artist, and this iswhat I'm going to create. It was
a very organic journey. Partof it is in all of this, I am. I
(22:42):
like to refer to myself as arecovering people pleaser, because
I spent pretty much themajority of my entire adult life
with the mindset that I needto go and get a job and put in my
30 years and get that pensionand do everything the way that I
(23:04):
was raised to do everything.And that never worked out for me.
I always felt like a failure.I never felt any type of gratification.
And I'm not saying most peoplego off and skip to work every day,
but I also felt like Ishouldn't want to throw myself in
front of a bus every day on myway to work, and that's where I was
(23:28):
at. So even when it came timeto go into the art and pursue this.
This desire to create, when Ifirst started, I approached it with,
well, what would most peoplelike me to create? And so I started
painting landscapes becauseI'm like, everybody likes landscapes.
(23:51):
It just felt safe. But, boy, Inever sat down thinking, oh, I'm
excited to paint this. I stillstand by what I created. I think
I made some really beautifulpieces. I still have some of them
hanging up in my house, but itnever felt right. And I ended up
(24:12):
having this idea. Oddlyenough, when the pandemic was happening,
it seemed like America kind ofgot into the Netflix binging, and
the big thing was the. TheTiger King series. Ridiculous. Yes,
absolutely.
Right here in Tampa, Florida. Beautiful.
Yes. So I had watched thatseries, and just like everybody else,
(24:38):
what the hell is going on?What am I watching here? And everybody
was talking about it becausewe had nothing else to do. And one
day I was sitting, sittingthere, and I just had the thought
that wouldn't it be funny if Ipainted Joe Exotic and his husband
as the American Gothicpainting, But instead of American
(25:00):
Gothic, it's American Exotic.And I felt like it was a little bit
of a social commentary on thecraziness in America and what we
were doing. And I was like,yeah, this is weird, this is ridiculous,
but I'm going to paint this.And I don't know who the hell would
want this, because here's thisguy with his AR15 instead of pitchfork
(25:24):
and his glittered vest. And itwas the most ridiculous thing I've
ever painted. And it soldimmediately. Like, immediately. And
I just remember looking at itand just having this. It was Ridiculous.
But, like, the second sense ofpride for this was clever and it
was fun and I even looked andnobody else had ever done it. And
(25:48):
I was like, okay, I. This is.This is kind of fun. And then I started
allowing myself to do more ofthis weird stuff. And it just. People
responded to it. It resonatedwith people.
You have a. Yeah, it's a very.There's a no filter approach. I will
definitely call it that towhat you do, which I think is hilarious.
(26:12):
Obviously, it's not foreveryone. I don't know if I've asked
you this before. Have you everhad somebody come by at a show and
go, oh, I would. This isdisgusting. Or how can you do this?
You ever, like the pearls getin a bunch kind of a lady or.
Usually I would think, yes,yes. I actually, I used to. I had
one person come by and tell methat some of the stuff should be
(26:35):
covered, which to me isridiculous because a lot of what
I do, it's plays on words. Ihad a lot of criticism when I was
in art school that I was tooliteral. And I think a lot of that,
there's neurodivergence, that.That's just how my brain works. I
have two children on theautism spectrum. And you cannot use
(26:58):
figures of speech with thembecause it's just so they don't get
it. Everything is veryliteral. And so I really embrace
that. And a lot of what I tryand do, it's just how I see the world.
Social commentary. It's nottrying to be offensive for the sake
of being offensive. It's saltysweet, it's playful, it's sugary.
(27:22):
Let's look at things a littledifferent. So, yeah, I've gotten,
on occasion, people thatclutch the pearls. I actually made
a pair of socks, sunglasses,and I spray painted them black. So
if you got offended, you couldput these glasses on while you were
in my. While you were in myspot. But it was weird because I
(27:45):
think one time I had someonecome into my tent and this was during
a show and I had a painting ofa wet kitty cat. And you can use
your imagination with whatthat was titled.
Sure.
And he was looking at it and acouple other pieces, and he goes,
what's your most offensivepiece here? Like, you could tell
(28:07):
this guy was veryantagonistic. And I said, well, I
don't really find anythingoffensive. I said, you can see it.
And he's like, yeah, but Iwant to know what you find the most
offensive because I'minterested in it. And I just thought,
not Here trying to beoffensive. This is just. This is
just me. So his art was not.Or my art was not for him. And that's
(28:31):
okay. But yeah, it's. Asidefrom that, the only other thing I've
ever had, which I thought wasvery weird was an older man came
by me and did the sign of thecross as if I was the Antichrist.
Nice. That's. You got to catchthat on video next time. You got
(28:52):
to be ready. So we have acouple pieces now hanging here, which
is awesome, but my favorite.And as soon as I saw it, I knew I
had to have it because one ofthe things I. I guess I can almost
say preach or really talk toour sales teams about, because my
role in. In sales enablementis to make sure that they have the
right tools to be successful.I think, you know, that being curious
(29:17):
about other people and beinglistening, you know, with intent
and really understanding whatthey need is a way to maybe get them
to use our services as opposedto having a pitch and just burying
them and stuff. And so. So Italk about curiosity all the time.
In fact, it was just a coupleepisodes ago, I talked about curiosity
(29:37):
and building relationships,how you make it better. And so just
so people know what. How I'mgoing down this path is. Curious
George was in my childhood.That's really. Dating me might have
been. You know, it was in mychildhood. So you created a piece
called Furious George and theCowboys Hats there with a lot of
blood.
Right.
(29:57):
It was awesome. So right away,yeah, we. We put our. We got to do
what people get to do with youbecause. Because you have a couple
of emails that go out a week.You. You blog regularly on a website.
And those are great thingsbecause you, you keep us in the loop
on what's going on. You know,you'll have shots of something showing,
little hints. And so I wasable to acquire that one before it
(30:18):
even was finished. It wasgreat. So, yeah. Yeah. If people
want to see what you're doing,give. Let's. Let's make sure we're
saying where they should go,what are the places they should go
to see that stuff, and how dothey get onto your email list and
all that? It's probably allthe same place, right?
I would say the best place. Ineed to get better about regularly
(30:38):
posting on Instagram. I tendto, when I, when I get myself there,
I do a lot of, like, processvideos, things like that, explaining
things, and people tend toenjoy that. So if you're looking
to see video, time lapse videoof painting in the process. That's
a great spot to go. And myusername is Vanessa V A N E S S A
(31:01):
Leveque L U H V E K so it'sVanessa Levesque. That's me on Instagram.
But I'm much better about mynewsletter, that has become. It's
weird because when I starteddoing that, I hated doing it and
it felt like pulling teeth.And now I feel like I'm walking outside
(31:21):
with no clothes on when Idon't write my newsletter. Like,
it just doesn't. It feels likesomething I need to do. I want. I
shouldn't say need to. I wantto do it. I enjoy it. So my newsletter,
if you subscribe, subscribe tothat. That's on my website. It's
LeVeque L-U-H-V-E-K.com and assoon as you go on to my website,
(31:43):
you get a little prompt if youwant to subscribe to my email. So
that's how you would do that.
And you can also see a lot ofthe works you've worked on in the
past, some things that you'reworking on now. It's really cool.
I think it's. I think it'sjust awesome.
Thank you.
What advice would you give ayoung man or a young woman thinking
about doing what you're doing?How does one, you know, do you have
(32:07):
advice, having gone throughthese things?
That's weird that you askedthat, because as I was driving today,
I was literally just talkingto one of my good friends about that
and my advice and again, takeit with a grain of salt. I don't
have all the answers, but if Icould go back in time, knowing what
I know now as a workingartist, I don't think I would have
(32:30):
gone to art school. I thinkthat I would have been in a better
spot had I gone to school forbusiness and. Or marketing. So maybe
a major in business with aminor in marketing, or vice versa.
I. I truly believe that we'reat a time in this point in history
(32:56):
or current or whatever, thatart is so accessible to anyone and
even learning how to dodifferent things. You can just hop
onto YouTube and figure outwhatever the heck you want to figure
out with your art. I think thebiggest thing, though, is to find
(33:17):
your niche and really, reallyzero in on that. Don't try, try to
just make what's trendy, butreally focus on that niche and get
so concentrated that youbecome an expert in whatever the
heck that niche is, and peopleare going to seek that out. So my
(33:39):
Advice would be art school ornot. Take that with a grain of salt.
Yes, it's, it's great. Yes,you learn a lot. But there's plenty
of self taught artists thatare amazing and then maybe some business
and marketing, because I don'tfeel that you really get that in
art school.
(34:00):
I love the way you put that.The friend of mine from Connecticut,
Anthony, a guy I play golfwith every Sunday, one of his beliefs,
and he's a realtor, is thatall he really needs is a small, viable
audience. And that, that'swhat you need. If you're going to
do a niche, you don't need togo have millions of people, you need
(34:20):
hundreds who like what you do.I mean, right. And it ultimately.
Yeah. So it's pretty cool.Wow, that's great. And so this is
going to be the fun part,Vanessa, because no matter who the
guest is, no matter whatthey're. Because I have fun with
my podcast, I go often todifferent places, but this is the
same question I've asked everysingle guest for 10 years. You ready?
I'm ready.
(34:41):
All right. What one piece ofadvice would you give a new agent
just getting started in real estate?
Who? What one piece? Geez. Allright. Well, I guess like anything,
(35:02):
I, I would say to know whyyou're going into it and what your
goals are for going into itand not just making wads of cash,
but just remembering whyyou're starting. I think with anything
that you can get into, you cango in with. I'm going to help people
(35:22):
and I'm going to do this andI'm going to do that. And over time,
the shininess and the funnesscan kind of wear off and you kind
of find yourself going down a,a different path. So I would say,
like anything, really thinkabout where you're starting off,
why you want to do what you'redoing, and just remind yourself that,
(35:43):
that this is. This is why I'mdoing what I'm doing.
Awesome. Look, in 410episodes, that's the first time that
answer's been used. Socongratulations. Awesome.
I told you we think a littledifferently here.
All right. This has beengreat. I can't thank you enough.
I know we, I've asked youabout this and we've, we had to finally
(36:06):
get our schedules together andthis has been fantastic. I can't
wait for the response. Pleasego to go to leveque.com and I love
the. By the way, it's L, U H VE K lovek. It's phonetically how
you pronounce her name. Buthow is it really spelled? Vanessa?
It's really spelled L Ecapital V, as in Victor, E E S as
(36:27):
in Sam. Q U, E. Yes, Ifigured. No one can pronounce it.
No one can spell it. No onewill ever get to my damn website.
So here we go.
Yeah, lovec. So go check itout. Thanks again, Vanessa. This
has been great.
Thank you so much, Bill.Always great to talk to you. Thank
you.
Thank you for listening to thereal estate Sessions. Please head
(36:49):
over to ratethispodcast.comresessions to leave a review or a
rating and subscribe to thereal estate Sessions podcast at your
favorite podcast. Listening. Applause.
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