How to Be Brave Enough to Chase Your Dream
This episode was 17 years in the making. Joining me on the podcast is a woman who had to punch fear in the throat and shut down a successful business in order to chase her true dream.
An award-winner in two different careers, Ana Lydia Monaco stopped by to walk us through her big, scary career pivot and let us know how the shift worked out! Her insights on being true to who you are and walking through life with grace are going to rock your socks. And most importantly, her story will inspire you to chase your dream.
Growing up, nobody in Ana Lydia’s immediate family was encouraging her to pursue her dreams. In fact, most of them didn’t understand her dreams. In their world she was supposed to go to college and become a doctor, lawyer, or accountant. That was what they knew, so that’s all they encouraged her to pursue.
There is nothing wrong with being a doctor, lawyer or accountant, as long as that’s what you want to do. Listen in to find out how she found the courage to buck that system.
In this episode we discussed:
- How Ana Lydia helped engineer my most embarrassing celebrity moment
- What made her decide to shutter her award-winning PR business
- What made her keep going when people told her to stop
- How you can find the courage to chase your dream
- When she knew she wanted to be a filmmaker
- How she handled the pressure of being a young, latina woman breaking barriers in entertainment
Who is Ana Lydia Monaco?
Ana Lydia is an award-winning filmmaker, exhibited photographer, ex-PR specialist, and furbaby mama who lives and works in Los Angeles.
Her raw dramatic stories straddle divergent cultures that challenge and satisfy audiences with political and social subtext. She is focused on writing, directing, and producing content that will make audiences laugh, cry, think, and see the world differently.
Too American to be Mexican and too Mexican to be American, Ana Lydia straddles being “White Latina” and “Brown Latina,” while being both Mexican and American, in her personal life and career.
A native Angeleno by way of the San Fernando Valley, she spent her childhood summers traveling in Mexico until her family decided to stay in Guadalajara—for five years. It was in the patio of her maternal great-grandmother’s home where she wrote and directed her first play when she was seven years old.
To make sense of her suburban life, her strict Mexican parents, and the heat of the San Fernando Valley, she used paint brushes to create surrealist realities that made more sense in her teenage mind. When the colors and textures didn’t quite match what was in her head, she began writing short stories, plays, and eventually graduated with a degree in marketing.
Married and a mom to furbaby, Princess Maya Candice Monaco, Ana Lydia is an Aquarius and INFJ. When she’s not immersed in the L.A. art community, she’s experimenting in the kitchen or sharing random musings with her 20,000 friends on Twitter.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Ana Lydia Monaco site
- Ana Lydia Productions on Instagram
- Ana Lydia Monaco on Twitter
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