We recently connected with Inger D. Kenobi and have shared our conversation below.
Inger , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
About ten years ago I did the very thing that Elizabeth Gilbert warns us against in BIG MAGIC; don’t quit your day job for your art.
The year was 2013 and I was working at the Norwegian Embassy in London. I truly wanted to write and publish a book, but between working five days a week, commuting two hours a day, and not having any meaningful time to write, I didn’t exactly live the life of a true artist. So I decided to jump in on the deep end. I handed in my notice and gave myself a year to finish my book.
After resigning from our jobs, my husband and I packed up our London life and moved to the Cotswolds. What I lacked in experience and talent I made up for with weapon-grade willpower and enthusiasm. Three years later, I published my first book. Then I wrote a book that didn’t get published. And a couple of weeks ago I published my second book.
The risky part? Giving up a secure job with nothing to fall back on. Even though, if everything had all gone to hell in a handbasket, I’m obviously capable of getting another job.
Another risky part was spending all our savings on. . . . well, our dreams.
The biggest risk, perhaps, was believing in myself. I had zero outer evidence that this would work. That I could do it. That I could pull off being a writer. But I didn’t need evidence. I needed to take a leap of faith.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
While working on my first book, I came across life coaching and thought, ‘I could do that!’ So that’s what I do now. I’m an author and a coach. What I love about this combo is that it allows me to be my own boss, work from home, and combine writing with making a living. I’m also a multi-passionate person, so focusing on more than one thing feels like a dream come true.
As a coach, I have two offers. One for entrepreneurs and one for creatives. For the creative folks out there, I’ve joined forces with Sarah Bamford Seidelmann and created a year-long program called SHINE. This is a working creatives salon with the snappy tagline, ‘We can show you how to break out of your artistic shell in a way that will make your creativity (and productivity) burst with joy.’ We just know there are so many things that get in the way of writing, painting, and expressing all of our gifts and talents. Things like no consistent workflow. No system in place to capture and develop new ideas. A lot of doubt. Not enough trust. Perfectionism. The heavy notion that if you haven’t been channeling Georgia O’Keeffe since you were three years old, you’ve missed the boat. Feeling alone and scattered. Both Sarah and I have been there, and that’s why we know there is a better way.
Our mission with this program is simple: help creatives carve out more hours in the week for their art and grow as an artist while having a blast. We also know that we’re stronger together, it takes a village, and the word on the street is that the SHINE village is pretty magical.
We blend woo-woo with the ultra-practical and help people say goodbye to perfectionism and doubt so that they can start to take creative risks, ride big ideas, and become weirdly comfortable with projects that feel like a big pile of shit and mid-evolution. I think this feedback reflects the overall vibe: “What Inger and Sarah have created is so rare, beautiful, and magical. Yesterday our session made my soul soar. The ways this is expanding not only my writing and creativity, but every part of my life takes my breath away. I’m so grateful.”
As a writer I don’t really have a mission other than a) write the book that screams the loudest (thank you Margaret Atwood for that tip!), b) don’t sensor myself, c) don’t take it all so seriously. Relentless joy mixed with inner peace, regardless of the outcome, seems to be the ticket.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
As a new writer, I soaked up every morsel of information that agents, other writers, and basically other people who knew more than me would throw my way.
One agent told me, ‘Before you can even consider getting published, you must have at least ten thousand Twitter followers. Otherwise, how will anyone hear about your work?’ Off I went, staking potential followers like Gollum. It took some time, but eventually, I reached the magic number.
In the meantime, I hadn’t made much progress on my book. The whole thing was maddening. It made me think of great artists like Charles Dickens and David Sedaris. Can you imagine either of them saying: I’m working on this novel, but first I have to learn how to make a viral reel?
The whole thing was maddening. I deleted my Twitter account and sat down to write.
After that shockingly bad advice, I now run everything through the filter, ‘Does this help me write my book? Will this make me a better writer?’ If the answer is no, forget about it.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Very early in my writing career, I had this brilliant book idea and fired off an email to a publisher who had published similar books. To my great surprise, they loved my idea and asked for a synopsis. I Googled, ‘What’s a synopsis?’ and then wrote one. Then they wanted a chapter overview, then a sample chapter, and other pieces of writing. We went back and forth like this for a while, and finally, I got invited to visit their publishing house to meet my potential agent in person. It all went swimmingly, but then a celebrity woman came up with the same book idea. They gave the book contract to her and that was the end of that. No one else was interested. So close!
But then one of my friends said, ‘Why don’t you write about this shop-stop challenge you’re doing? That sounds like so much fun! I’d want to read that book.’ So that’s what I did. I wrote the book, I started a publishing company, and then I published my book. It’s called, ‘How do I look? The year I stopped shopping. ‘
A few months later Livia Firth (Collin Firth’s ex-wife) recommended my book on Instagram. That was a big moment for me.
All this to say, I’m so glad I didn’t give up. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ingerkenobi.com/
- Instagram: @ingerkenobi
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ingerkenobi
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inger-dybvig-kenobi-b4a463250/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/2BMirIz7QY67DKCPKs7Fuv
Image Credits
The one where I’m sitting at my desk, the dark one taken from afar, that’s taken by Jennifer Adams.