We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Coco Le Van a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Coco, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s one of the most important lessons you learned in school?

I grew up an only child with a single mom until I was 15. We moved constantly—and since I didn’t have siblings, books were my only friends. One of my proudest nerdy accomplishments is that I read all 56 Nancy Drew books by the time I was 11. I’ve always loved reading and learning… but reading so much made me a free thinker who doesn’t do well under authority.

I was always smart and got good grades, but my mom will tell anyone that my discipline left something to be desired. Constantly getting into trouble and frequent visits to the principle’s office earned me the ‘young rebel’ title early on. I hated being told what to do and how to act. I wasn’t blessed enough to have teachers that understood me or nurtured my hungry mind; instead, they reprimanded me and labeled me a problem child.

We were poor when I was younger, as my mom left the military and attended college. She got her electrical engineering degree when I was 7, and she started making more and more money from then on. She would always ask me what I wanted to do with my life, but I never had a concrete answer for her. I’d been an artist since I was old enough to hold a crayon—but she always said that no one could ever make a real living as an artist, so I believed her. And that left me wondering what I could do for a career that I’d actually enjoy.

I was told to follow the system—go to school, get good grades, go to college, get a good job with benefits—like she did. And even though that system worked for her, it felt like a cage to me. I did end up going to college, double majoring in Fine Arts and Electrical Engineering (go figure), but I dropped out because I didn’t want to keep wasting time and energy working towards a goal that I didn’t want to accomplish in the first place. I joined a network marketing company when I was 20 and although I’m not still with them, they introduced me to what would change my life forever—personal development.

I devoured book after book including Think and Grow Rich, The Secret, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and my favorite—The Alchemist. They taught me priceless lessons that they never taught in school, like meditation, money mindset, and leadership. Learning this knowledge is what gave me the belief that I could be an artist, or maybe even start a successful business. I did learn a lot in school, but the most important thing I learned was about myself. Everyone is unique, but I’ll always be a rebel at heart, and I’m meant to be free from the constrains society puts on us.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ve been an artist since before I could talk, and started selling little drawings by the time I was 11. Despite this, I’d heard of the starving artist’s lifestyle and didn’t want an artist’s career if it meant a whole life of struggle. Every time I would talk about believing I could do it and possibly thrive, my family and peers would immediately tell me that no one could ever have a career in art.

Luckily, I’ve always been a bit of a rebel. I went to college and studied a lot of things, but didn’t take it seriously and dropped out. I couldn’t sacrifice my passion and everything I believed in, just for money, or because that’s what people wanted me to do. Although I was always creating or taking small gigs and commissions, it took me about 11 years working in the service industry to finally decide to pursue my dreams. With zero prior knowledge or experience, I decided to start my first website—with the idea to book live painting gigs or mural clients and sell my paintings, along with prints and merchandise embellished with my art.

I had no idea what I was doing, and still had bills to pay, so it took me about 6 years to finally launch. By that time, my cause had grown from my own aspirations to so much more. DreamAwake is a website that sells my art and works to bring people together to inspire them to pursue what they love too. I have a blog and YouTube channel (podcast coming soon!) where I interview other dreamers about their passion, their path, and their struggles. I also talk about principles of success like motivation and manifestation. I preach that we all have different talents and passions, and that they exist to be the driving force in our lives. Sure it might be difficult, but so is everything else. I’m determined to prove that anyone can do anything, as long as they keep at it. …Just screw up until you get it right!

Speaking of screwing up, the first time I launched my site was a mess. It started okay, until I realized I had SO much more to learn about running a successful website. I ended up running out of money, had to continue bartending, and went back to the drawing board to learn how to fix my mistakes. I took a course in digital marketing, and got certified with Google Ads and Meta Blueprint.

I had a meeting with a downtown Austin music venue about a potential mural, and when the owner heard about my certifications, he asked me to run ads for his nightclub. I said yes to gain some good experience, and soon I began running the entire digital marketing strategy for all 4 of his downtown locations. In about a week, I built a new consulting website and got more clients.

Now, I’m 100% self-employed and the sole owner of one S-Corporation and two LLCs. In less than 9 months, my consulting business has gained 2 employees and replaced my bartending salary. I have a long wait list of people who want to buy my art, and I either have to turn people down or hire more help to take on all the people who want to be my client. I’m making more money than I’ve ever made before, and currently my team and I are working overtime to relaunch DreamAwake before the year is over.

I’m currently creating multiple templates, ebooks, courses, and more—to offer people the essential insight they need in order to create a successful online business, which will be up on my consulting site by next month. I’m hiring more help soon as well, to help me launch a third website.

It’s still surreal to me—what started as a theory that the universe will help those who let their soul guide them, turned out to be a successful experiment that proves energy flows where intention goes. I say ALL of that… just to say that if you walk the path that makes your heart happy, things will just work out—even if you don’t know what’s coming.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

My whole life, I’ve been an artist… and my whole life, I’ve been told that artists can never make money until they’re dead. And I always believed that until recently.

Thankfully, in 2022, that isn’t the case. It took 15 years selling my art as a hobby to finally realize that we live in a time where anyone can choose their career, no matter what it is. In the Information Age, anything is possible, and anyone has everything they need on the phone in their pocket.

Luckily, I’ve always loved to learn… and one day, I went searching for “ways to be a full-time artist”. I was surprised to find that there are SO many ways to make money as an artist, and not just a little bit of money either! And that’s all she wrote. Finding out what’s actually possible changed the course of my life.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Isn’t all of life just a series of pivots? There are SO MANY different times that come to mind for this question, but here’s one:

I started building my first website in 2016, and didn’t launch until 2022. I had absolutely zero experience doing e-commerce, and let’s just say I had a lot to learn. While the launch was relatively successful, based on contacts I had when I began, I had no idea how to market to the rest of the internet and get the word out. Sales fizzled out fast, and even though my following was slowly growing, it wasn’t near enough to live off of.

When COVID-19 hit, like many, I lost my job. A couple weeks later, someone rear-ended and totaled my car, and insurance didn’t cover a replacement vehicle. That left me without a car, unemployed, trying to pay for expensive rent living alone, which didn’t last long. I took everything I had in Austin and moved into my mom’s basement in Denver to finally finish the website I’d been working on for the last 5 years.

I paid for my business and launched with money I was earning from unemployment, after I lost my bartending job due to quarantine. When unemployment ran out, my website wasn’t making enough money to survive off of, so I moved back to Austin to continue bartending once everything reopened. At the time, I had to work overtime to fund a new apartment and pay to ship all my stuff back to Texas, so my business took the back burner.

Once I got back on my feet, it was back to the drawing board. I took a bunch of digital marketing courses and got some clients to learn how to do it well—all with the intention of using this knowledge for my own business. I started doing so well with my clients, that I created a consulting website which is now my biggest source of income.

I now have quit bartending, have 3 businesses and almost 3 websites, and none of that would have happened without me screwing up to begin with!

My favorite saying is, “Fail forward.”

Contact Info:

• Website: courtneylevan.com , cocodreamsawake.com
• Instagram: @morecolorcoco , @cocodreamsawake
• Facebook: Courtney Le Van
• Linkedin: Courtney ‘Coco’ Le Van
• Youtube: YouTube.com/c/dreamawake