We were lucky to catch up with Anastassia Selezneva recently and have shared our conversation below.
Anastassia, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
A few years after I began my business, I started to work with a friend on a mentorship basis to refine my business. There was a part of me that was craving someone to collaborate with and to co-create with. Not necessarily to partner as I used to hold an identity to my work and my business but rather to share ideas and to brainstorm.
When you are a solo entrepreneur and creator, one of the biggest things that you seek is collaboration. On one hand to take you out of your mental loop where you don’t see a solution and at the same time to introduce another perspective, a holistic perspective that you may not see when you are in the weeds of growing your business.
At the time I had moved to Mexico and had an incident happen when a gun was pulled on me and my friend on the street at the end of a fun evening with friends. Now after having spent quite a bit of time in Mexico, I knew that this was common among travellers. One of my favourite go to places, had a sign to be aware that this is a possibility, and to take certain precautions at night, when going home. When this happened my friend and I screamed and the man didn’t expect that. Nothing happened but the residue of that remained.
This incident allowed me to contemplate the feeling of safety, how to protect myself as a woman and as a traveller, and the concept of confidence, and how to be unwavering in every way. The inquiry that I presented to my mentor was “what is confidence”, and “how to be confident in any space, with any person, any time, anywhere”. His answer was “it’s hard”. If I am honest I didn’t like that answer. But yes, it was definitely hard because I was about to go on a journey of discovery in to Bali to understand this very concept.
Since the incident, I had began to observe a certain distrust when I was around men, like I put on a shield; a persona of “don’t mess with me”. In retrospect it felt harsh and uninviting. All the things I in true essence wasn’t. However, it brought me to understand the dynamics of the masculine and the feminine in my life and in my lineage. This allowed me to understand where I forgot or dis-empowered myself next to another and why did a pedestal exist in the first place.
Was it because of perceived success or affluence, was it the way that a person carried themselves I thought, was it this, was it that. All these inquiries were from outside, however the space that was desiring recognition was inside of me, my heart, my essence.
If we get a chance to get to know ourselves, and to understand ourselves deeply; to meet the beloved (you), that the dialect of confidence, or what it is, or how it can be created, won’t exist. When you have met yourself, that is the “I AM” space; the space of no conditions. Not a “I AM Anastassia, and I am a creator”, no, it is simply, I am.
In that, I am perfect and I am how I was created to be. When we cut out the conditions, rather when we disassociate ourselves from our conditioning, we can build a bridge to the deepest part of ourselves.
The deepest part of ourselves, the space that holds no identities, that holds no jackets as I like to coin the identities we put on, is just that – “IT IS”. That is the space that can be perceived as confidence, because that is the space of you in your truest, purest form. And when you navigate from this space of stillness, you are perceived as confident, because you are in your unwavering essence.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a jewelry designer, however as I move into the role more deeply I keep discovering that I am a storyteller and that the jewelry is actually a visual representation of every experience that I have received from life.
My name is Anastassia Selezneva, I am a Russian born, Canadian raised, digital nomad, jewelry designer and entrepreneur.
I am the founder of Anastassia Sel Jewelry, that specializes in talismanic fine jewelry, that is meant to hold hidden meaning specific to its wearer and serve as a reminder of our unique sense of self and the journey that has brought us to where we are today.
I grew up in Toronto which was the perfect place of stability and consistency. It encompassed the very foundation that my parents had desired for our family when they immigrated from Russia. However, the adventure, passion, creativity and excitement I was craving wasn’t as present for me there as I had envisioned for my life.
I always knew there was more.
I had a curiosity for movement and being in a new place. It was a longing for adventure; dancing with the unexplored, being inspired by my surroundings and creating from that state of inspiration. I also had a deep desire for community and to be surrounded and understood by people with similar desires and aspirations.
I had a creative background however, before pursuing my creative side, I began in the banking industry. As I approached my two year mark from graduating university, I found myself feeling a calling to go deeper, and equally I knew it was around purpose, and leading a purposeful life. I began to explore creative scenes in Toronto, and accidentally walked into a jewelry supply store. I bought the essentials, went home and YouTube how to make jewelry.
The first time I picked up jewelry making, I actually disliked the meticulous process of it. However, if it’s linked to your higher purpose, a part of you will pick up the thing that you said you didn’t like, and will begin to learn. I quickly got addicted to the process of jewelry creation and not too long after I began to sell the work in various art markets. I created late into most evenings and began to convert my kitchen counter into a studio. Shortly after I got accepted to sell at the Etsy Made in Canada market, at which I received an invite to create for a Toronto Fashion Week runway show, and then the same for New York and Milan Fashion Week runway shows.
Fast forward to 2020, my business began to take leaps and function with minimal effort on my end, I had left an 8 year relationship and the world was beginning to rapidly shut down. I began to feel a huge pull in my entire body to leave. I wasn’t sure where, but I knew it was time. I began to have very specific dreams, visions in my meditation and would wake up at 4 in the morning full of energy. It felt like life was calling and waiting for me to pick up and say “Yes”.
Saying “yes” has always been the hardest part in all of this. Saying “yes” to the thing that you don’t yet know. To the unknown. To trust that if you say “yes” and walk in, that something on the other side will catch you or lend a helping hand to lead you to the place that you were meant to be.
With this thought in mind and trust in the forefront of my mind, I booked a ticket to Oaxaca, Mexico, with an anticipated return ticket in 6 months. I packed my belongings, put everything into storage and parked my brand new car in my mom’s driveway. With no plan and a google translate app, I was off. The sabbatical turned into a way of life, and so I began the life of a digital nomad. I’ve been traveling for over two years and have lived, visited and have found inspiration in places like Mexico, Nicaragua, Bali, Australia, and Thailand, among others.
By following life’s calling, there is a sensitivity and a bridge that is established between you and the field of creation.
The process of creation and creativity becomes effortless and you begin to understand the flow of and the seasons of creation. Like a life cycle, there are moments when you receive the ideas, and you know it’s time to create, and equally there are moments of gentle (or hard, if you’re not listening) pauses and you know it’s time to rest. The rest is necessary before you lift off again.
The purpose in my creative process has always been around understanding myself and then sharing the lessons, and the stories associated with the introspection. We are always on the path of discovery, however we have different narratives to translate that experience.
Understanding our humanness, and that actually we are all connected by that, and that we are able to connect to all beings through that – through the heart, through our humanness is what I learned as a traveler. We have different experiences, but carry very similar learnings and lessons on our bodies and around our hearts.
It is through this concept that I connect to my clients – through the qualities that make us human. Through our feelings; through our ability to feel. The jewelry is a connection point and a touch stone to that.
Currently I am back in Toronto, creating a meeting space for my client’s as we move away from “having” to only view an item online and back into physical space. At the same time. I am planning a journey to Australia, to study the mining and the sourcing industry there, that I can create with. To incorporate the stories of the producers and the makers to the story of the pieces.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Trust. Even when you are rocked with fear and anxiety or the question of what am I doing, what’s the end result, what’s the plan, and any other riveting questions the mind can compose – trust. Always. Believe in yourself and your journey. Know that life has a plan even when you don’t have one. Be ok with a flexible plan. Be ok with being flexible. Laugh and call yourself a gypsy when you need to. Pretend to be serious and put on your managerial hat when you need to. Be ok with being a student of life. But most importantly – believe in yourself.
This is the core foundation that will make this the wildest ride or the most terrifying ride of your life.
2. Life Show Me & That’s Interesting – Life speaks to us always, to show us what we are being called to create, big or small, so “that’s interesting” disassociates us from having an emotional reaction, but redirects our attention to what you are being called to refine, enhance add, etc. Life show me, is the same, when we don’t know what our purpose is, or what the next thing is, this is a call to life to show you.
3. Trello & Google Calendar – When starting it helped to organize all the things I wanted to create, putting categories around those items (branding, marketing, finance, design) and dividing the list into big important things that have to be done first, low hanging fruits that can be done in between, and fun. The most important lesson was to remember why I am doing this. It was for fun. For creation. To maintain the balance of “need” and “desire” was super important so that a burn out doesn’t happen. And most likely it will, but you will learn from it.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I’d love to get closer to the supply chain; the miners, the stone cutters, the goldsmiths and have their stories be part of the talismanic jewelry journey. At the same time, I’ve always craved a team all at one table, brainstorming and creating together, each person contributing to one beautiful creation, with the information that they hold through their lives and their experiences. All together for one purpose to create and to have fun doing it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AnastassiaSel.com
- Instagram: @anastassiasel
- Facebook: @anastassiasel
- Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/anastassia-selezneva
