Today’s spotlight shines on a very special person. She’s someone I connected with about a year ago, but it’s only in the past couple of months that we really clicked, and I’m so glad we did because she is magical. She is Cigdem Kobu and she’s just launched an extraordinary project called A Year with Myself.
You may remember her from the month of self-care; her contribution The First 66 Days of Taking Better Care of Yourself was not only a very popular piece but she generously shared a free workbook to help you on this path.
My first conversation with C.A. left me inspired, energized and buzzing with ideas. She calls herself a creative alchemist and project midwife, and that was certainly my experience of her. She’s also an idea generator!
But she’s so much more. She’s one of the most generous people I’ve met; sharing her gifts with others, showing up as a resource and bringing people together in ways that instantly work. Could be that alchemy she speaks of!
Can you tell? I’ve got a serious friend crush on this woman!
She is up to some extraordinary things and I’m delighted to have her here in the spotlight.
Enjoy!
1. Why are you here?
I’m here to serve my kind. That means serving courageous and wild women who want to grow, create and change their world. These are women who have entrepreneurial spirits. They are venturesome and fertile in heart and in mind.
I want to hold their hands and make it easy to rediscover their wholeness and their powers, to reconnect with themselves, and to translate their authentic gifts into fulfilling and change-making feats.
I want to wake them up and help them flourish.
{Note from me: You can see why I’m crushing over here, can’t you?}
2. What is your future self calling for?
My future self is calling for a deeper connection with my kind. That means interacting and growing together with creative women who are fired up to give birth to amazing things.
What I yearn for is some sort of alchemy that takes place on different levels.
I think I started having a taste of it recently with the launch of my latest project A Year With Myself. I strive to be as useful as I can.
{Note from me: Over 300 women signed up on launch day! I think she’s connected with ‘her kind’.}
3. How do you honour that calling?
I think I’ve begun to honor that calling by being courageous and by prioritizing the projects that would serve it well. I simplified my list of projects and got rid of everything that was not directly related to my calling. And then I took action and also risk right away. Will I succeed? I don’t know. I’m just doing what fires me up and what I’m good at.
What will happen if I fail? Then I’ll start again. For the ego it’s a big deal. But in truth, it’s not a biggie, really. In the past, I used to care a lot about what other people would think. But not anymore.
Life is too short for that.
4. What is both effortless and life-giving to you?
Coming up with creative ideas. Like Mr. Monk says, it’s a blessing… and a curse. It’s effortless but at times, it can become my biggest drawback. Sometimes you just have to focus on that single idea and not even turn to look at another brilliant idea passing by flirtatiously. Otherwise, you can’t go deep. That’s my biggest weakness and my biggest strength. It’s something I wrestle with all the time. But I’ve developed enough methods to deal with it.
Also, when something I create touches and transforms another person in a positive way, I feel I’m the happiest person on Earth. All the fatigue goes away, and I feel I’m doing something that really matters.
{Note from me: She’s quoting TV’s quirkiest detective??? Gotta love her, no?}
5. What do you do best?
My fortes are crafting vision, structure and systems. That is what I used to do as a job. I can envision the different stages of a project even when it’s just an idea seed. I can picture the different routes a project can take and the possibilities that surround it. All the fine details? They don’t matter at the beginning. The magic is taking the first step and blending improvisation and creating systems and structure as you go along. I find this so inspiring.
Being able to be like a river and jumping over or flowing around stones and rocks, changing course as necessary, fine-tuning and sharp-shooting. Another thing I’m good at is learning. Every single day I’m hungry to learn. It rejuvenates me, it gives my life and meaning. I think if I no longer had the opportunity to study and learn, I’d lose my joie de vivre.
6. What is extraordinary about your work?
My projects are vibrant because they reflect my boldness and passion. I’m very courageous and even audacious at times and I can get a project going in a very short while because if I’m really fired up, I won’t listen to my frightened inner voice who pleads me to stop and be rational. I don’t like being rational. I like speed, risk-taking, experimenting. And if I fail, who cares! I’ll try again.
I have to be like this because I have a perfectionist side that can easily make me to suffer analysis paralysis and information overload. But if you’re fired up, if you’re really in love with your project, you won’t procrastinate. The best medicine for procrastination is doing what fires you up. If you want it that badly, you’ll find a way to do it.
{Note from me: I think I’ll invite her back to share what she’s learned about managing her lizard brain so well!}
7. What is guaranteed to inspire you?
A vibrant conversation with a like-minded cohort, in a mind-nourishing environment with carefully selected friends, silent time spent with myself, going to a library or a bookstore and losing myself between the isles, an empty journal, a pen, some colorful yarn, fabric, a Bergman or a Woody Allen movie, and every single minute spent with my Mr. Kobu.
8. What will your epitaph say if you’ve lived life on your terms?
She was a fiery soul who was forever hungry to learn, do and be. She has changed the lives of many women and helped them do magnificent things and change their world. May she play in peace with enough juicy ideas and creative projects on the other side!
Connect with C.A.
On Twitter
On Facebook
Aha! I knew it! C.A. is doing amazing things all around the web! i knew I was not crazy on this one!
It’s wonderful to see you girls working together and doing something amazing as this interview! Wonderful way to learn more C.A. 🙂
It’s amazing what happens when the right people get together isn’t it? Our FB group is an example, but also the individual friendships popping up. I love it!
And I love this interview with C.A. Her answers are so heartfelt and moving. Truly delighted to have her here.
And psst…you’re on my list Alex, so get ready 🙂
Thank you Alejandro! I love collaborating with Sandi. Her wisdom and energy are extraordinary!
Thank you for hosting me on your blog dear Sandi! I enjoyed answering every single question. The interview was a marvelous opportunity to look into my heart and mind, and it provided an inner oasis during these crazy days I’m going through 🙂 Love you for what you’ve been doing here! And I feel honored to be in the spotlight.
You know what, when I first found you online about a year ago, I was fascinated with what you published and shared (I still am). And I remember having thought, “I wonder if I will ever be in the spotlight here.” Today while reading the published interview, I suddenly remembered that question. Then I smiled a very happy smile. I love your shine. 🙂
The power of intention my friend 🙂
I can hardly imagine what it took to create and produce what you’ve unleashed these past two weeks. That’s what I mean when I talk of extraordinary! xoS
What a delightful interview, C.A. & Sandi! C.A., I love your attitude – and reading more about you! Thanks, both of you, for sharing this!!
Karen, I have a hunch you’d love C.A.’s new adventure, A Year with Myself! Hope you check it out and thanks for being here 🙂
Thanks for reading Karen! Sandi asked the amazing questions, and I let the words flow 🙂
Woah, what a glorious interview ladies, both questions and answers. I totally adore the epitaph one! Isn’t this just the most beautifully poetic description … “be like a river and jumping over or flowing around stones and rocks, changing course as necessary, fine-tuning and sharp-shooting”.
I think that’s why this is one of my fave spotlights! There’s a poetic, spirit-ful way that C.A. answers the questions. Speaks to my heart, and it seems like yours too!
I agree with Jackie – great answers but also LOVE those questions!
I’m girl crushing on both of you…or all of you! 😉
I have so many extraordinary women friends it’s hard not to be crushing 😉
And I agree with you! 🙂 I feel the same.
Loved this interview, Sandi and C.A. I have a question for C.A. I too have the gift/curse of creative ideas coming to me easily. However, unlike you, C.A., I have not found a good way of dealing with all this inspiration all at once. I find myself pulled in a million directions at once, and I find it very difficult to say no to that idea that “passes by flirtatiously.” I would love to hear some of the methods you have come up with to deal with the challenges of creativity. Thank you so much. So great to “hear” you here at Deva Coaching.
Carol, one of the practical methods I use is keeping an Ideabook. I just took snapshots of my first Ideabook for 2012 and I’m sharing them here below. There’s no need to be fancy. I use simple children’s notebooks. Actually right now I’m using a manuscript tablet to store my ideas. 🙂
By collecting “flirtatious passing by ideas” in a single space (a fun notebook for little children!!) I acknowledge my ideas, honor them and also tell my subconscious, “Hey! you’re not losing or sacrificing those ideas. You’re collecting them in your secret treasury. You’re not tossing them away, you’re not wasting them. instead, you’re carefully saving them where they will patiently wait until their turn comes.” This thought consoles me, and I agree to collect my brilliant ideas in my treasure trove as if I’m carefully saving shiny beautiful pebbles or charming seashells I find as I’m walking on the shore.
What happens to my ideas in the Ideabook? I test or try some them and part ways with others. Besides, my Ideabooks are amazing sources of inspiration when I feel creatively stuck. I just go and pick one and sit down. As I turn the pages, there’s no way I can keep stuck. If my son happens to see me in such moments, he teases me, saying, “You’re in the other world again, aren’t you?” 🙂
There are also other methods I use. But I can write about them later. I’m trying to finish the last preparations before the Full Adventure Kit launch begins in a few days 🙂
let me know if you try the Ideabook trick and if it works for you!
So smart, I’m grinning from ear to ear! I’ve often gotten stuck by using beautiful, leather bound notebooks that I didn’t want to “mess up” with lousy ideas. Thank God I can laugh at myself 🙂
Heading out tomorrow to buy my new playful, light-hearted treasure trove!
Exactly! That kind of notebook causes a drawback itself! This one makes you a child again 🙂
Me too — Me too about the fancy notebooks and journals I get and then don’t want to mess up. And me too that I’m going to go get a fun “container” for all my messy, creative ideas. How lucky are we that we get to play like this?
Your Ideabook is so ridiculously simple that it’s genius. Thanks, C.A. Full Adventure Kit? Uh oh, this is going to be something I want, isn’t it? I only say uh oh because there are only 24 hours in the day, darn it.
Forgot to say how much I love your son’s comment about you being in the other world. Smart kid. Smart Mom.
She was a fiery soul who was forever hungry to learn, do and be
That is worth striving for.
Thank you for doing this intervew, Sandi and C.A.! I loved the questions (and the answers). It was great to read more about C.A. and the epitaph said so much.