Meet Celeste Donohue of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Celeste Donohue.

Hi Celeste, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I came to LA in 1990 to be an entertainer/performer. Early on, I was hired as a dancer and worked at Universal Studios in the theme park. After a few years, I started getting into music. I was in several bands as a lead singer and recorded my own album of songs around 2002. All the while, I was working a wide variety of day jobs, most of which I hated. After being on the music scene for about 10 years, I transitioned into stand-up comedy and was still in and out of jobs, and getting fired on a regular basis. I had the unemployment number memorized. I also had a string of horrible bosses.

I finally got a job that stuck for a while; as a copywriter for radio promotion (I was still doing stand-up at night), and it was while I was working this job (and after a bad breakup) that I came across the book, The Secret. That book was the start of me doing a deep dive down the rabbit hole about manifestation, creating our own reality, the power of our thoughts etc. The more I learned about it, the better my life started to get. It didn’t happen right away but I started to notice little improvements here and there.

After doing comedy for about 10 years and a few different jobs later, I decided I wanted to write more so I got together with some other writers and wrote a few scripts (one which placed last year in the Cannes table read contest). Also by that point, I had learned a lot about the power of our minds, how all of that works, and as a result, my life had gotten much better financially and otherwise.

It was during Covid that I started to write my book about the 49 day jobs I endured over all of years of pursuing my dreams. At first, I thought it would be entertaining but as I continued to write, I thought of all the lessons I learned a long the way and wanted to share them as a way to possibly help others avoid some of the same mistakes.

The happy and current ending to this story is that I had my book published, I am about to do a signing at one of my all time favorite bookstores, Book Soup, and I’m being interviewed by Voyage LA, so I’m happy with how things are going in my life now after many years of struggle, and learning how to quit the struggle 🙂

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely a very rough road, as it is for many entertainers and creative people in LA.

For me, it was usually a financial struggle. I was always broke. I had one terrible job after the other and lots of bad bosses. I got fired a lot and a lot of the jobs were low paying.

As far as performing went, it was always looking to find places to get on stage and hoping to get good enough to attract someone who you think can help your career. Lots of rejection along the way.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve done a lot. I was a dancer for many years, a singer, a comedian, and actor, but I would say the thing I’ve always done and what I’ve done the most of, is writing. I wrote as a kid, and as an adult I have worked in different capacities as a writer; I’ve been a copywriter, I’ve written many articles, I wrote the lyrics to the songs on my record, I wrote all of my own stand-up material, multiple scripts, and finally a book!

I definitely think my book is my biggest accomplishment, and my record/songs after that. (I recently had some of my songs digitized and are now available on most of the platforms).

I also became a certified brain coach last year. I had spent so many years learning about how the subconscious mind works that I decided to take a course to learn more about the brain, and it was a great thing to learn. I wasn’t intending on becoming a brain coach but now I’m into it 🙂

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Perseverance.
I just wouldn’t quit and I never stopped doing what made me happy. It was never my day job but always my creative outlets that gave me fulfillment so I just kept doing them knowing that it would eventually pay off.

Pricing:

• $15.00 for my book
• contact me for coaching rates

Contact Info:

• Website: https://celestedonohue.com
• Instagram: @hollywoodfactotum
• Youtube: @hollywoodfactotum