Check Out Lil DeThomas’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lil Dethomas.  

Hi Lil, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
About six months ago, I decided that I needed to make some drastic changes to be happy. I had just graduated college from the University of Denver with a BA in English, and I realized that even though I thought I knew, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was still working in food service, and my degree was burning a hole in my filing cabinet, just sitting there– right next to the title to my car and my birth certificate. At first, I was panicking, which is never a good time to make big decisions, but I guess it was alright because I made it here. Anyway, I made a huge list of every goal I had. Looking back, it wasn’t the easiest way to do it, but it was what needed to happen. So, I broke the goals out into categories and wrote out every step of each one in a planner until I didn’t feel panicked anymore. I had a plan; I knew what I wanted. 

I started off with things like, washing my face every day or at least picking up my guitar from the corner of the room. It had been sitting there for almost a year, untouched. It made me really sad. So, the first round of goals was to get back into my creative passions: music, art, and writing. Then, I realized that what I really wanted was bigger than that. I knew I wanted to start a business, but I didn’t know for what or how. I just knew that I really loved playing music, making art, and creative writing, so I thought that would be the best bet. Starting an artistic business is way harder than starting a business for something that people value. It’s so hard to break through the static with any form of art. 

I ended up starting Plant blood, which is my own semi-business selling commissioned art, music, and copy/creative writing. I started by trying to build up my social media presence, which is much harder than it seems. I definitely learned more about myself through that process than I did about how social media actually works. It still confuses me. 

After about four months of following these goals I’d written out for myself, I realized that trying to turn my creativity into a business wasn’t something I was actually doing for myself, and though I was more productive, I was getting depressed again. It took all the joy out of it for me, I think partially because I was assigning my own creative worth to the amount of response, I got on social media, and that wasn’t healthy at all. 

About a month ago I kind of had an epiphany that what I actually wanted to do was to help other people achieve their goals. Most of my friends are neurodivergent and struggle with some kind of depression, anxiety, or ADHD and have no one to actually go through their goals with them on paper. A therapist can help you emotionally, and I guess sometimes motivationally, but it’s hard to find someone who will actually make you think about the literal steps it takes to accomplish a goal and everything that goes into it. 

Right now, I’m focusing on my creativity for me and doing work to get a goal-consulting business off the ground. And even if it does crash and burn, I’m having a great time doing it and I’m happy. But, there’s always more growth to be done! 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Where I’m at now is a product of six months of sitting with the idea of what I even wanted to do. I’m far from being up and running, but I know exactly what I want to do. The main struggle was logistics because no one tells you how to start a business. It’s something that has to matter enough to you to follow through on, which can be really difficult if you’re struggling with mental illness or if you’re neurotypical. I got really discouraged and almost quit about once a month, and it still happens to me, but I trust myself enough to know that it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when and with what resources. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My current work falls in three areas: writing, art, and music, and developing a small business. 

I’m currently working on a novel that takes place in the year 1973, it incorporates twelve different albums released that year in real life and is set in Portland, Oregon. I’ve always been a fan of magical realism, so that’s been a huge influence on this project. 

I’m also a poet, I’ve been writing poems sporadically where I can fit them in between chapters of the novel. These last six months were a huge turning point for me as a poet. I was stoked to have four of my poems published in Tenth Street Miscellany, 86 Logic, Great Weather for Media, and more recently New Writing Scotland. 

As for my music, I’ve been working on a new album and on getting together another band. I have my own solo project, Plant blood, which is just me but I love working with other artists and that’s really where my heart lies. I used to be in a band on Glass Records called Soulless Maneater, which was an all-female (though I identify differently now) doom metal band. 

I’m also an artist. I work primarily with printmaking, but also enjoy multi-media and digital art. I was super excited to be featured in the Light and Shadow exhibition at 40 West Art Gallery in the 40 West Arts District, which was my first time in a gallery! Especially in printmaking, I enjoy making art that engages with shadowwork and confronting aspects of myself that make me uncomfortable. I think the highest form of self-growth is taking something that you don’t want to even look at, and laying it all out on paper. 

Outside of my artistic/creative endeavors, I’m planning on launching a small business at the end of this year. I’m extremely interested in helping people get to know themselves better. My desire for this goal-consulting business is to help people develop their own routines, plans, and habits as a toolkit to make their dreams come true. It sounds really cheesy (and it is) but it’s also important to feel like you have someone who is going to sit in the mud with you and take a look at the day-to-day. At the end of the day, if something is important enough to you, you can make it happen with bite-size day-to-day goals. 

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
For people starting out with any project (whether it’s starting a new business or just creating art), is to be really delusional. It sounds ridiculous, but it helps you have confidence in yourself that you might not otherwise have. I don’t mean spending ridiculous amounts of money or not planning things out (that’s what I’m all about). I mean, it’s important to be delusionally confident in your own capability. This stemmed from a conversation with one of my old band members and longtime friend Baby Potter smith who is now extremely successful with their band, The Velveteers. They told me that the main thing that helped them to continue pursuing their dreams (drumming) was to be consistently delusional that they could do it. Now, they’ve toured with Greta Van Fleet and The Black Keys. 

Contact Info:

• Email: lilydethomas@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xplantbloodx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xPlantbloodx
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/xplantbloodx
• Other: https://www.redbubble.com/people/xplantbloodx/shop?asc=u 

Image Credits
Lil DeThomas