Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Fazooli

Hi Julie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

I began my journey in the Arts & Entertainment world working in record stores in the mid-90’s as soon as I was old enough to join the workforce, which really fed my obsession with music, and fuelled my passion for DJing. This led me to focus my study on the audio-visual arts quite young, and after job-shadowing a television producer for a day, I was immediately hired as her assistant and spent a few years moving my way up the ladder and bouncing between broadcast channels before going to university and obtaining degrees in Literature & Creative Writing, as well as TV & Film Production. This opened up the realm of possibilities for me to work across multiple industries in various roles as I navigated working on both high-budget corporate, and lower-budget independent production teams in both film and television, working on large scale live events, as well as writing and producing creative content, and spending a lot of time honing my DJ skills in the evolving club and rave scene that was finding it’s peak around the same time. I was fully immersed in the world of entertainment by the early 2000’s in my early 20’s, and had determined that I had found my place.

After many years of tirelessly working long hours in often stressful situations, this freight train speed at which I was climbing the ladder was starting to become exhausting, and I realized I had lost my creativity along the way. Working for the corporate giants had effectively created an efficient and knowledgable leadership skill set within me, but I had worked so feverishly up until this point that I felt myself fall into burnout – and realized that, as someone full of stories, concepts and ideas that I wanted to share, I had suffocated that part of me by focusing on operating at a high level of excellence to bring other people’s visions to life, rather than focus on building towards lifting my own projects off the ground. Depression hit me, my marriage fell apart, and I went through the inevitable existential crisis that pushed me into regaining a sense of control of what I wanted my life to look like. I hated the life I had been living – going with the flow was not working in my favour, and the stiff and structured corporate work life was just not jiving with my internal need for freedom and expression. I was constantly finding myself frustrated and feeling trapped in a box I couldn’t find my way out of – and one day, I remembered something said to me as a child by a family elder: you gotta crawl through hell to get to heaven. I needed to push on, somehow. Maybe try a different approach.

I had the good fortune to take some time to go back to school and earned myself a diploma in Graphic Design, and once I had enough experience in the digital and print worlds, my creativity slowly started to return and blossom – with these new skills acquired, and with the connections and experiences I had in the past, I was able to take the plunge and go freelance. I started creating art therapeutically at first, then when I found my “voice”, it started really evolving into a decent body of work I could be proud of. I was creating more varied employment opportunities for myself, across all platforms and industries by taking jobs throughout the community that offered me different experiences – audio tech one day, photographer the next, illustrator the following day, instructor for a workshop or lecture here and there, event coordinator on weekends & DJing events… it took over a decade to get here, but now every day is completely different, full of fun and inspiring people, incredibly supportive clients and collaborators, and now, almost 30 years later, I get to create happiness each and every day within my community, with and for people I truly admire and love to be around… and the best part is, I don’t ever have to work a soul-crushing Monday if I don’t want to.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

My story thus far has been a mixed bag – it’s been an easy, seamless and smooth road to pave, with everything kind of landing into place for me, through valuable connections with people I come across who ease me into the places I need to be – but also one of the most terrifying extreme off-road driving experiences a human has had to endure, battling every obstacle placed in my path, and having to forge a resilience that has created the person I am today. I think the biggest hardships and challenges in my life have been the greatest catalysts for my evolution, and without seemingly insurmountable pain and loss, failure and disappointment, I would not have been able to find this way back to myself and my purpose. I would not have the opportunity to truly grow.

Aside from being a fiery woman of short stature in a tenaciously patriarchal world, having to fight my way tooth and nail to get past all the constructs meant to keep women docile, malleable and in their place, or having to contend with ludicrously toxic egos, or abusive working conditions that are rife within the Arts & Entertainment community, I think the biggest challenges I’ve had to face in my growth are the ones where I’ve had to face my own internal demons to get past the insecurities and behaviours that were holding me back from actually living authentically for myself. Having to shrink myself for so long and neglect my own needs, to let others feel comfortable and coddled rather than allow myself to just BE ME, unapologetically, only attracted the worst types of people into my life.

Once I stopped shying away from facing my own issues and insecurities, and actively working on not only facing, but understanding and healing my inner demons, my entire life started changing . Even the people around me started changing – and honestly, looking within the self, and working on being a better person, stepping out of the ego and refocusing my central motives in life, has been the biggest hurdle to overcome. I’m still working on it, and it’ll always be an active practice, it’s not a finite or linear process by any means, but I know now that if I don’t work on fixing the internal struggles, they’ll keep spilling out into the external world and repeat those cycles I’ve left behind. Knowing yourself, your limits, what you’re capable of, and how you relate to others, is instrumental in any creative’s life journey, and if you skip out on fighting that internal battle, if you keep glossing over your issues and think “this is just how I am” and stay comfortable, it’ll rage inside your heart and keep you from ascending. A familiar hell will always be more comfortable than an unfamiliar heaven – it’s so easy to get stuck on that endless loop. But when you do the work to jump out of your comfort zone and work on yourself, you’ll find a whole new world on the other side that you didn’t realize was waiting for you, and that’s the one where you’ll rise.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

It’s funny when people ask me this because I’m an incredibly neurodiverse person with so many skills in my toolbox at this point in life – when asked what I do for a living, I’ve had to just create a blanket term to encompass it all – Multi-Dimensional Creative seems to be the most befitting title. I am a freelance Graphic Designer, Photographer, Artist, DJ, Audio / Visual Technician, Production Coordinator, Creative & Copy Writer, Instructor, Producer, Director, the team leader for the Punk Rock Flea Market chapter in my community, producing and organizing events of all kinds… the hats change every day, and I specialize in all of these elements at various levels.

I think this all ties into what I can be most proud of – is an integral part of my creative community, and my ability to adapt to and shape-shift into any role for any intent to create across multiple industries makes me an incredibly versatile asset to any project. I definitely never have trouble finding work in any of the fields I work in, and getting to diversify my working environments makes me an incredibly adaptable person, and gives me the unique perspective to experience a myriad of human adventures across all walks of life. I absolutely love being inspired by so many different people and cultures – the culmination of creating events and projects that inspire genuine connection to expression for the public’s enjoyment and inspiring others, is really at the heart of my true passion in my work.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?

The best way to support me is to come to my events and connect in person, I always love meeting new people and encourage everyone to join in any of the fun I’m creating. I always love seeing your happy faces on the dancefloor, or laughing and having fun at one of the events I’ve put together. I am always approachable and open to any queries via my website at Fazooli.com, and visit my little web shop there if they’re looking to buy some of my designs and art products. I do work with an agent for some DJ bookings, but shooting me a message with an idea is always a great start to a conversation and see where we can take it from there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fazooli.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abominableink/
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/AbominableInkShop

Image Credits
Portrait: Ian Pettigrew, @ianpett

Others: Julie Fazooli, @abominableink