We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Levi Hollandsworth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Levi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

My parents taught me to be fiercely independent growing up. I spent half my childhood traveling in a bus from Wyoming to Washington to Alaska and finally Jamaica. My mother home schooled my brothers and I because we where never somewhere long enough to get engrained into a school system. Her and my father taught us to be auto didactic, to give more than what is required, to walk with our heads up and not with our hands out. They instilled a sense off adventure that still drives me to this day and a love for my fellow humans that surpasses petty identity labels like sex, race and age. If it was not for the pandemic, they would still be in Cambodia working with rehabilitating children saved out of sex brothels like they have been for the last 18 years.

Levi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into art when I was young. I used to stare up at the shag carpet on the ceiling of the bus we lived in on many nights while driving down the road. I would make images out of all the lines in the shag and make stories out of the images that I could connect. I kept my love for art hidden for many years because I thought it was not practical and that people like me, realistically, did not had a chance at being an artist.
I got serious about art after living in Cambodia with a bunch of orphans saved out of sex slavery in 2013. I saw how young these poor kids where that where taken out the brothels and it absolutely shattered every pathetic excuse I had ever made about not being an artist. So what if I didn’t go to the right schools, come from the right families or have the most impressive resume, I had passion and it was officially ignited by those orphans.,
Since 2013 I have been working on my craft, exploring the world, performing live art challenges, making murals and building my brand Bohemiangenes. I quit my job of ten years this year to pursue art full time and am not looking back. I specialize in chalk, water, acrylic, oil, collage, ceramic, led and textile art. I have also helped create props and backgrounds for plays as well as a vehicle for burning man.
I am able to work with clients one on one and am not too big to listen to the sensitivities and particularities of my clients. I can travel anywhere in the world and since being a stuntman for Texas Motor Speedway for years, there is little you can throw at me that will intimidate me.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Managing a team is fairly easy depending on your team mates. You must foster a safe place where people feel respected and empowered. Where they feel confident in decision making and are free to share creative solutions. One main problem I see with managing teams is people’s egos getting in the way. When there is too much “me” in team, it becomes tame and tame teams never last. Your people need to feel important, energized and capable of blowing the competition away. As a leader, manager, owner etc. it’s your responsibility to foster this by putting your team in positions to naturally shine.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Recently I got a .25 cent raise at my job of nearly 10 years. I looked in the mirror at who I had become and was shattered at what I was settling for. I went to work feeling like a loser. My value based on the charity of a giant corporation that obviously did not care about the time and effort I was putting into my career. In my mind I know I am much more valuable and that by playing it safe and staying at my last position would only lead to regrets and wasted time making wealthy men that much more wealthy. So I quit! Yes, it was scary but it was also liberating. I am feeling like my most powerful self now and am producing better and better art. It really is amazing what you can do when you start valuing yourself by your standards and not by the crumbs left over from five bosses above you. If you are reading this. YOU ARE WORTH MORE!!!

Contact Info:

• Website: Bogemiangenes.com
• Facebook: Levi hollandsworth
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/user/levibecrazy

Image Credits
Jose Camacho with Barefoot photography