We were lucky to catch up with Sonja F. Blanco recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sonja F., thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Let me start by prefacing that I am risk averse and yet every major accomplishment I have had has involved a significant amount of risk.

Leaving Vermont at the age of seventeen to attend Arizona State University, whose population was bigger than my hometown, was a risk. Tears were shed and then I got involved and soared. As a freshman, I joined multiple organizations, including Residential Life. By my second year, I was a Resident Assistant and on the ASU homecoming court (which I laughingly applied for at the urging of a friend). By the time I graduated with a degree in Landscape Architecture, I had a job, a car, and money in the bank. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to get involved, meet people, make connections, take a risk and make a difference.

Life is full of risks. Take care to focus on the positive opportunities they can provide.

After college, starting my own landscape design company was a risk. I quickly learned what personalities and situations did and did not work for me.

Getting married and having kids was a risk. And despite the many sleepless nights, never ending laundry, and jammed-packed schedule, my heart is gloriously filled with love.

Working full-time and going to night school for my MBA was a risk. An exhausting risk that, as an entrepreneur and creative, I continually benefit from.

Stepping away from a successful career in development to focus on writing was a titanic risk. In so doing, I found my tribe; I reconnected with my true self, and I found my new purpose. Because one’s purpose can shift and change, it is the natural process of evolving. Now, instead of creating physical worlds that only a few may experience, I create fictional worlds that many can experience.

Speaking of writing, every time I share a story and hit the publish button, it is a breathtaking risk – to share a piece of myself, to be vulnerable, and to put myself in the public eye. And yet, the feedback I receive from readers who are positively touched by my words is priceless.

Sonja F., 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?

Hello there! I’m Sonja F. Blanco, a creative through and through with both left and right brain attributes, a wildly active imagination, a penchant for learning and mentoring, a love of coffee and popcorn (although not together), and a magical way with words.

Clarity, humor, empowerment, and authenticity are important to me.

What sets me apart is my unique balance of critical thinking and unbridled imagination, my New England heritage, my passion for cemeteries, my travels and experiences, my love of nature, my empathic capabilities, my ability to see core issues, and my drive to connect with and enlightenment myself and others. My creative energy is my magic sauce.

I write fantasy as if it were real because believing makes it so.

I am most proud of inspiring others, be that through mentoring, or by design, or by written word.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is this bursting at the seams fulfillment from bringing emotion to life. It’s euphoria. A unique euphoria that is dual sided with both the joy of self-expression and the joy of enlightening others. There is nothing like it. Pure magic.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Perhaps my biggest pivot was when I stepped away from an established career in development to pursue writing. It had taken me a year to slowly make this decision. A year of calculating the pros and cons. A year of the fictional world and characters in my head growing louder and louder. A year of reconnecting with myself and recognizing what mattered to me.

It was a slow yet significant pivot that has brought me immense fulfillment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sonjafblanco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonjafblanco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonjafblanco

Image Credits

Julie Hoskin, Ali Mills, Sonja F. Blanco