We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cynthia Dieyi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cynthia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
What I’ve learned is that meaning doesn’t necessarily come from the projects themselves. It comes from the people you get to work alongside. I didn’t understand this back in 2020.
At the time, I had just moved from Los Angeles to Atlanta in search of more meaning in my work. My experience in Los Angeles hadn’t been the most pleasant. Not because I disliked what I did. I actually enjoyed the work itself but something felt missing. And that disconnect made even meaningful opportunities feel draining.
I thought moving to an entirely new city would solve the problem. Instead I found myself falling into the same patterns. Work I once loved began to feel exhausting, so I would move on to the next opportunity hoping things would be different there. But the same frustrations kept following me. It felt like nothing was working how I wanted it to.
Then I made one of the toughest decisions an ambitious person can make. I stopped. I stopped seeking new work for a significant period of time because I realised that if I couldn’t find the answer in a new environment, I needed to look inward instead. So I had to unravel myself.
The version of me that came out on the other side of that pause was one with a stronger understanding of self. I gained a deeper understanding of what matters to me and the kinds of environments in which I thrive. As I became more honest and unapologetic about that, the people around me started to change too.
Today, I work with people who genuinely align with my values. Many of my associates feel more like friends than coworkers. I truly love and appreciate them. And because of that, the projects I currently work on feel meanningful. Not simply because of the work itself, but because of who I get to do it with.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
After years of trying to identify my purpose, I finally realized I was put on this earth to tell stories.
As a kid, I would mold figurines out of plaster, assign them stories, and entertain my family with them. Through my tweens and teenage years, I discovered my singing voice and told stories as a singer/songwriter. In college, I picked up a film camera and discovered a whole new dimension to my storytelling abilities. Opportunities to tell stories not only behind but also in front of the camera organically grew from there.
Then, in college, I picked up a film camera and found yet another medium through which to tell stories. That discovery organically opened other doors. Opportunities began to emerge both behind the camera and in front of it, allowing me to explore storytelling from multiple perspectives.
Since then, I’ve filled several roles as a voice actor, TV host, and screen actor, with opportunities spanning Hollywood and beyond. While the roles varied, the common thread remained the same: helping stories come to life.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and it changed the film/tv production scene forever. It accelerated the rise of digital content as a primary storytelling platform. With less barriers to entry than traditional channels, what was once considered an alternative medium quickly became a central one, not only for emerging creators but also for many professionals from traditional film and television backgrounds.
What excites me most about digital content is the unique intersection of strategy and creativity. It challenges me to think not only about the story being told, but also about how it’s experienced, distributed, and connected across platforms. Whether I’m creating a short-form piece of content or contributing to a larger, long-form narrative, I see every platform as a canvas and every touchpoint as an opportunity to tell a story. Piece by piece, those moments come together to create something meaningful, memorable, and human.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
One of my friends once told me, “I never worry about you because you could be thrown into a hole and somehow create magic from it.” Looking back, those words perfectly captured a defining season of my life.
A few years ago, I experienced one of the greatest disappointments of my adult life. Without getting into the details, I found myself having to pack up a life I had spent five years building and return to my family home. It felt like a major setback, and for a while, I struggled to make sense of it.
Initially, I was devastated. As the reality of the situation settled in, I could feel myself slipping into a place I didn’t want to stay. I had a choice: allow the disappointment to consume me or channel that energy into something constructive. I chose the latter. Creativity became my way forward.
As I searched for outlets to redirect my energy, a conversation with my mom sparked an idea that quickly grew into something much larger. That conversation became the foundation for Okanga Live, an intimate performing arts experience that I helped create, produce, and curate.
The first event sold out. Then the next one did too. Momentum continued to build, and before long, what began as a local initiative had attracted international interest. By the end of our run, we had traveled across West, East, and Southern Africa, bringing the experience to audiences far beyond what I had originally imagined.
More than the success of the tour itself, Okanga Live taught me something important about myself. It showed me that creativity is not just something I enjoy. It’s how I navigate challenges, create opportunities, and make meaning out of difficult circumstances.
That experience affirmed that creativity is indeed my superpower.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
The resources I wish I’d interacted with earlier on my journey have little to do with creativity and everything to do with self-knowledge. And I’ve since learned that self-knowledge is a form of self-mastery.
I believe the book “The Power of Now” came to me at the perfect time. I was stressed out during the Covid-19 pandemic. The entertainment and creative industries were changing rapidly, and like many creatives, I was trying to figure out how to sustain both my career and my income in the middle of that shift. I was so on edge that the slightest inconvenience could cause me to burst into tears.
One resource that arrived at exactly the right moment was the book The Power of Now. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was constantly moving from one project to another, operating at a pace that felt productive on the surface but was quietly taking a toll on me. I was so overwhelmed that even minor inconveniences could feel emotionally exhausting.
A colleague mentioned the book during a conversation and I decided to give it a chance. I had no idea how much that simple recommendation would influence my life. Reading it introduced me to a different way of thinking about presence, awareness, and the relationship we have with our thoughts, fundamentally changing the way I approached both my work and my life.
That book was a catalyst for mindfullness that I continue to practice today. While I remain ambitious and deeply committed to my career, I’ve learned the value of slowing down, being present, and paying attention to what’s happening internally rather than constantly looking outward for answers.
Because creativity is such an intuitive and deeply personal endeavor, I now encourage fellow creatives to invest as much energy into understanding themselves as they do into developing their craft. The better we understand who we are, the more authentic our creative expression becomes.
For that reason, I remain drawn to resources that help cultivate self-awareness. They may not always seem directly related to creativity, but in my experience, they often have the greatest impact on it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cydieyi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cynthiadieyi
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thecreativebosslady
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cy-dieyi
Image Credits
Marlon R Photography