Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cindy Chapman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Cindy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?
I learned that to work with a high level of creativity in a fast-paced environment requires radical self-care.
I worked as Chief Marketing Officer for a New York Times bestselling author who is also a Navy SEAL for eight years in the health & wellness space. I was fortunate to work and learn from some of the world’s most elite and motivated individuals. I pushed myself to the limit and learned that level of intensity needs to be tempered with radical self-care. Listening to one’s body and nurturing one’s self is key. This has helped me to create the Spirit-Free Challenge which is all about taking out alcohol for 30 days and putting in cutting-edge self-care practices.
Cindy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
A born and raised San Diego girl, Cindy is an entrepreneur, writer, health and wellness lover that’s been on a path to personal growth for most of her life. It all started as a small child sitting by her mother’s side as she became a marriage family therapist. In 2020, Cindy decided she wanted to make sure she was working on self-care practices and good habits. Armed with a laptop, time, and inspiration, Cindy started a spreadsheet to track her daily activities, including exercise, diet, alcohol consumption, and mood. She began to see a pattern that on nights when she’d have wine in the evening, she’d often experience more anxiety and less happiness the following day.
So she started to shift her alcohol habits and take a break, radically increased her self-care practices, and the Spirit-Free Challenge revolution began! With a focus on solving how to take a break from alcohol, increase self-care and enjoy life, The Spirit-Free Challenge brand offers proven methods to boost clients’ happiness and health, get better sleep, shed unwanted pounds, have clearer skin, and more energy over 30 days in an online format.
Cindy started her career in journalism and then joined a San Diego-based marketing company serving multinational clients in the education field and quickly raised the ranks. In 2006, Cindy acquired the client list and started her agency. In 2011, Cindy took the opportunity to shift into the health and wellness space. She helped grow clients’ companies into internationally recognized multi-million dollar entities.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2020, I left my job as Chief Marketing Officer for the combined organizations of SEALFIT & Unbeatable Mind. I stayed home with my two children, Violet, 11 & Wilder, 14. I went from a fast-paced environment to being a stay and home mom during the COVID pandemic. I’ve worked almost all of my life (started babysitting at the age of 10:-), so this was a challenge for me. However, during this process, I learned that I love spending more time with my children and feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity. I also had time to start to listen to my inner self and think about what I wanted to do next. During this process, I spent five weeks on the North Shore of Oahu for the summer of 2021. It was here that I started to cook up the Spirit-Free Challenge.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
While on the North Shore of Oahu my sister and I talked about the Spirit-Free Challenge. My sister, Catherine Chapman, is a gifted yoga teacher & coach with an unequaled capacity to create a healing space while helping others dig deep inside their shadows to help illuminate it.
Catherine is steeped in the traditional studies of yoga, somatic healing through breath, and philosophy and is the co-author of Kokoro Yoga and Sacred Silence.
So, I met my sister when I was two;) But it was on the North Shore that we started to talk about creating this first challenge together. She was just there a week, and my family and I stayed on for another month. When I returned we set up weekly meetings to go over the 30-day challenge. She took notes that I wrote in Hawaii and created daily meditation/yoga lessons.
We then beta-tested the challenge with twenty of our closest friends. We got incredible feedback, which was encouraging.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.spiritfreechallenge.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spiritfreechallenge/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spiritfreechallenge
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-chapman-54993112/
Image Credits
For photo of non-alcoholic beverages on the shelf: THE BOISSON STORE IN NEW YORK CITY’S UPPER WEST SIDE, NYC / PHOTO BY WALTER WALL