THE DPA Story
"What do you want to do with your life?"
My previous business as a photographer running That Alternative Wedding Fairs at Fargo Creative Village 2014
I have struggled with this question all my life. You just can’t fit me into a pristine square box, I am definitely a round peg. I never fit in, and I never wanted to pigeonhole myself. For me, specialising meant compromising. After being told, "No, you can't do it that way" by my creative teachers year after year I eventually withdrew from the art education world. I changed myself into something more practical to fit into this world of superficial materialism.
Who am I?
I'm a creative, a photographer, a designer, and an artist. I’m an events designer and organiser, I'm a teacher, and I'm passionate about education. I'm intrigued by psychology and what makes people tick. I have a strong power of perception. These areas of life are where my strengths converge.
I have had a wealth of wonderful experiences, and I have had turbulent times of testing. These have made me who I am. Not a lot of people know my real journey, though.
Where did this business stuff start?
It was during the last recession around 2009 when I used photography as an escapism from the everyday world (originally working as a waitress) that I had to embrace to survive. One gentle push out of my comfort zone after another and the rest is history (but that is a bigger story for another day).
I see myself as an introverted extrovert, so putting myself out in the world as a photographer and then as a lecturer/teacher was a decision that empowered me greatly and I haven’t looked back since.
Since then, my life has grown and changed significantly. Doors opened to me that I would never have dreamed of opening, and opportunities came out of the blue. This continuation of pushing my comfort zone started the rollercoaster of owning my first business. I haven't looked back since, and I have seized every opportunity that comes my way (in some cases to my detriment).
My career then took me on an incredible journey centred about business and personal development empowerment. I was managing huge events, leading innovative teams, and serving demanding yet inspiring clients. The lessons I've learned along the way have been immense.
At the Midlands Business Awards in 2017, with Zsolt Ban for his Award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year, for Cryptoz his crypto currency business
Life’s main lessons
The main lessons have been about people. People’s expectations and their motivations and perspectives are key to harmony or suffering.
Like many people in this world I come across I used to put a lot of people before me. I used to do this in so many different ways that I wasn’t even aware of.
"Sometimes you don't realise you're actually drowning when you're trying to be everyone else's anchor." ~unknown
Then, the trajectory of my journey shifted and I hit a wall. My brain became overloaded.
Going through those difficult times with my mental health, allowed me to re-evaluate. I had to question everything. The real conflicts came from an incongruence, a divergence from my values and my core purpose. I had neglected my true self and had suffered a breakdown because of this.
I had also not managed to identify and uphold my essential boundaries, and they were constantly moved and trampled by people around me on a daily basis, which contributed to my lack of psychological safety and sense of anxiety. For my mental health, I needed to challenge the lack of boundaries I had, understand barriers to my authenticity, and return to my true self.
"Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity." ~Coco Chanel
I began acknowledging and reconciling my inner conflicts by refocusing on my core values and sense of purpose, whilst identifying the mistakes I had made in the past where I compromised to my detriment and started to enforce healthy boundaries with work colleagues, friends, and family.
These struggles have led me to choose a very different path in life.
Pivoting my life completely to support people with their own well-being coming back from there own overwhelm and burnt out situations with The DPA (Donna Preece Academy) 2022
Where Did this lead me?
When I was in the darkest times, my raw creativity and turning to Christianity got me through. I had to learn to let go and let God, and embrace my inane talents and abilities.
After 14 years of not picking up a paintbrush since I studied Fine Arts at University, it was painting that was the main thing that saw me through. Then I realised the true power within that creative process. I then was incredibly inspired to work out what that was and looked into extensive new research in the field of Neuroscience that backs up my personal revolutionary experience and new this was where I wanted to be.
After a long time of reflection, building one thing centred about personal development and business support, feeling that inner conflict again and rebuilding to mantain the congruity. I have finally realised that my purpose in life is to help people in the best way I can; which is with raw honesty and creativity.
I decided to permit myself to be creative with full autonomy and freedom while supporting people with similar struggles, by creating The DPA (Donna Preece Academy). I have chosen the most challenging yet also more fulfilling path out of my options. Not just because of current economic crises, but because it is quite a new concept for people to understand let alone embrace.
It is also for both of these reasons that it is so valuable for people right now, we need the connection to each other and understanding to help manage ourselves so that we can help everyone around us.
As an artist and as a teacher, I was always scared to embrace authentic vulnerability and honesty. I now understand that was my biggest stumbling point. This is a necessity not just for my own well-being, but for greater connection, to build real trust within a psychologically safe space and make real change for people, for lasting change.
Why an Academy?
“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.”
I've had some excellent and inadequate education, but none of my education was about managing life, career, or business. I had to find this and figure it out myself and live through my ups and downs. I found I could teach people to ‘feed themselves’ from what I have learned and how I teach. I have since been able to write my experiences into some excellent and practical creative well-being-guided processes to help as many people as possible in an effective, authentic, and fun way.
Even with the least 'creative people', creativity has real power. The power of growth and through the evidence of neuroscience and neuroplasticity, the power to heal the brain. Empowering people to take control of their own well-being to help them to live more fulfilling and content lives full of well-being, confidence, creativity, and autonomy.
With my creativity and teaching support, I'm here to challenge perceptions, build connections shift mindsets, and support people to grow.
By being self-aware of what we need and how we, too, can help, we get closer to living without compromising our values and maintaining the integrity of our mental and physical health and the health of society on the whole.
