Meet Marleen Endicott

We recently connected with Marleen Endicott and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marleen, you’ve got such an interesting story, but before we jump into that, let’s first talk about a topic near and dear to us – generosity. We think success, happiness and wellbeing depends on authentic generosity and empathy and so we’d love to hear about how you become such a generous person – where do you think your generosity comes from?

When the world brings cruelty, we need kindness to overcome our pain. When our situation lacks resources, we need assistance to sustain ourselves. When life is abundant, we should share. Altruism is a gift, and it can offer fulfillment for both the giver and the recipient. My generosity comes from life experiences and deep empathy. It is my superpower, and sometimes my Achilles heel. It has developed through the grace of others and continues to deepen when I make heart connections my priority.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My life is full, diverse, complicated, and creative. I wear multiple hats but none of them fit quite right on my head. I suppose that can happen when a person does not experience a career calling. Regardless, I have found places to earn and contribute. I suppose it takes a variety of parts to make my headdress work.

I own three businesses. My left-brain strengths landed me in the IT (Information Technology) industry, but it was the economy that encouraged me to start my own business. The name of my consulting company is Execute. Do not bother looking me up. You will not find a website or any Google reviews. My company grows solely from referrals, and I prefer it that way. It is just me. Why IT? As an intuitive problem solver and people person, IT is a natural outlet for me to use my analytical talents to earn money while helping people. I celebrated my 19th year of operation this June. What do I enjoy most about this work? The helping people part. I come to where they are and help them get to where they need to be.

Business number two enriches my right-brain. I make art and I call this endeavor Misfits Work. I am still getting used to the idea of being creative. I lack confidence in claiming the title artist because I am new to sculpting. My work is silly, fun, not for everyone, but even the most conservative of tastes chortle and chuckle at my crazy creatures. Yes, you can find me on the internet (https://misfitswork.com/) though I find my digital presence and prowess to be lacking. You would think my computer training would give me an advantage with websites and social media, but it does not. Making art is a hoot but navigating how to make money making art is the hard part. How do I circumvent the non-art obstacles of being an artist? Business number three.

I love my IT business, but it lacks something. If I could paint a picture of my IT-self, the portrait would be a giant head leaning to the left. Finding art has given my life depth and puts my head on straight. I love it too, but it also lacks something. My misfitted creations only bring joy when they are shared with others. This need to share is what brought about my third business. I call it LAUGH. LAUGH stands for Lafayette Art UnderGround Hustle (https://laughevent.org/). LAUGH is an Old Town Art Crawl that showcases local talent and hidden studios. It works on a shoestring budget and endeavors to maintain a program with modest financial commitments from artists but in turn uses the craftiness of the members to help market and spread event propaganda. LAUGH was created to celebrate art as an idea, a work, a process, a person, a group, and an ineffable experience. What I enjoy most about this new adventure is sharing my art through community engagement. I get to exhibit my work with other artists and together we are breaking down barriers and overcoming obstacles. Our motto is that there is no room for hate in a LAUGH event because art takes all forms, all colors, all sizes, and has no gender.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Self-discipline is the quality that has best served me on this life’s journey. Whether for fear of failure or dogged determination; prioritizing tasks to achieve goals is important to me. I was an anxious kid. Unfortunately, there was little compassion, understanding, or instruction for navigating anxiety in my small orbit of existence. Work had to be done and there were no excuses. Gratefully I had self-discipline to push me forward. Do it uncomfortable, do it afraid, do it imperfectly but do it.

Do it and finish it! Self-efficacy is the second quality that has impacted my development. Where self-discipline encourages me to stay on task, self-efficacy is the voice inside that assures me that I can complete goals. It is a slight distinction but an important one for me because I struggle with confidence. I have learned to overcome confidence issues through self-efficacy. These lessons have not been easy, but I am more resilient to failure because of them. My advice? Learn from it, improve from it, forgive yourself for it and be proud of yourself because of it. Self-efficacy requires courage.

My college education helped me to identify my skillsets. It provided me with the opportunity to grow my depth and breadth of subject matters and it encouraged critical thinking. Where continued education helps me garner knowledge, intuition inspires me to use that knowledge creatively. It is a big circle of support. Self-discipline prioritizes and organizes the tasks I set. Self-efficacy is my confidence enforcement towards goal completion. Education extends my knowledge and embraces the strategy I use to solve problems, but intuition is the visionary that sets the big picture solution. How do I tune intuition? I listen, observe, empathize, research, and brainstorm.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

I find myself constantly navigating the headspace of imposter syndrome. I set my goals, grit my teeth, gut through anxiety to complete my tasks, and achieve visions with often better than expected success and yet I am left with vulnerability and insecurity. It takes the joy out of doing excellent work.

Image Credits

Russ Croop – Image 1 of me