I recently listened to an episode of the podcast, Death, Sex, and Money, and was inspired by their series on New Orleans, 10 years after Hurricane Katrina. All the episodes were informative and life-affirming, but the one I want to talk about today is the one about Demo Diva, Simone Bruni.

After Hurricane Katrina hit, Simone was unemployed, jobs were hard to come by, and she didn’t know what to do. In her own words, “It was…a situation of blaze your own trail, or leave. I wasn’t going to leave.” Listen to the whole episode to really get a sense of how gutsy and driven Simone is, but the upshot is that she saw an opportunity and she went for it! She sold herself as the Demolition Diva, painted her equipment hot pink, and to make a long story short, is now the owner of a million-dollar company. Was she in the construction business pre-Katrina? Nope! She simply looked around, recognized that there was a real need for demolition before re-building could begin, and decided to start her own company. In CONSTRUCTION! ?! And she made it her own, totally – I mean, have you ever seen a hot pink excavator? Simone calls her Smashing Star, because she looks smashing. ☺

It’s funny because sometimes I think so many of us wait, wondering what our passion is, what we should pour our energy into. And it’s important to recognize, to discover, uncover, honour our passions. But sometimes maybe it’s enough to decide to do something, and then do it. Pour our energy into developing our own thing, whatever that might be. It’s hard to feel passionate about doing what you are told, or doing something you really don’t care about/believe in/enjoy. But what if you poured your passion into your own business? What if you used your creativity to serve, not only yourself, but others? In one of the other episodes of the Death, Sex, Money Katrina series, a woman talks about how New Orleans really needed to see those hot pink dumpsters after Katrina, how they helped lift peoples’ spirits, served as a sign of hope, rebuilding, community, and joy. That’s a lot more than most dumpsters can say!

So, if you don’t know what your passion is, don’t know what to do with your life, what if you looked around and noticed what is needed instead? Where you can serve, and, in the process, maybe make a killer living! Simone looked around and saw a niche that she could take advantage of. Before Katrina she worked in the hospitality industry, now she runs a million-dollar business. When I listened to Simone talk, I heard passion, humour, and pride in her voice. She’s worked hard to create that business, and she’s proud of it, driven, alive. It’s inspiring. It makes me want to work hard to make something my own. And it may not be the perfect thing, it may be something I would never have imagined myself doing, but the doing will make it good. The doing itself will be good.

There is something more poetic about this story as well. The symbolism of demolishing what no longer serves us, clearing it away to make room for the new. Or clearing away the rubble to rediscover who we are, what really serves us now. It’s so easy to get caught in past stories about ourselves, who we are or were, stuck trying to make old identities work when, in reality, we have changed, moved on, are ready to create something new. Or perhaps we’ve covered up who we really are with identities that don’t serve us, that obscure our deepest, core selves. Simone has now expanded her business to include a mill to process reclaimed wood…the mill is called Reclaimed Diva. I mean, this woman is walking poetry.

Demolish the old, reclaim your inner diva, whoever she might be today. Go for it. I dare you.