An Inspired Chat with Anastasiia Glekel of Los Angeles

We recently had the chance to connect with Anastasiia Glekel and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Anastasiia, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: When have you felt most loved—and did you believe you deserved it?
Before I answer, I want to begin from a slightly different place. This may sound unexpected, because when we hear this question we almost always imagine another person. As if love must come from outside, from someone else. But I believe true love begins within. Only when we learn to give it to ourselves can we truly find it in the world around us.

The last two years have been challenging and full of change. I faced challenges in many parts of life, and for a long time I believed the reasons were external. But in July, during one session, truth surfaced. In a single instant I saw what I had been hiding from myself, and everything shifted. The moment I changed inside, the outer world began to change too – my health, my work, my relationships.

Then came August, my birthday month, which turned into a flood of love unlike anything I had known before. I realized what it means to place yourself at the center of your own life. Not in selfishness, but in clarity. It is choosing to give yourself what you once searched for outside.

To reach this place I had to step into my shadows. For years I couldn’t grasp what people meant when they spoke about “the shadow.” Now I know: it is the doorway to self-love. To walk into your light, you must first pass through your darkness.

And here is what I learned:
True love begins within.
The shadow is the doorway to self-love.
We are the main character in our own story.
The greatest act of love is to never abandon yourself.
When you honor your truth, life transforms.

And if you ask me: did I believe I deserved this love?
Yes. Absolutely, yes. Because every single human being deserves love. It is not something we earn, it is something we already are. Love is the default setting of life. We are love itself.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Anastasiia Glekel — a Russian-American brand strategist and designer based in Los Angeles. I’m a mother, a seeker, and a source of energy that I pour into everything I create. Every year I choose a new city to live in, letting new places shape me, change me, and expand my vision. Movement is my rhythm, and transformation is my constant.

I lead my own branding studio, with projects spread across the world – from the US to Europe to Asia. We have created brands and identities in wellness, fashion, and tech, as well as food and non-profit sectors. What unites them all is the same intention: to help people bring ideas to life, to answer real human needs, and to make the world around us a little better through design.

For me, branding is not only about aesthetics or strategy. It is a way of seeing – of sensing what does not yet exist and giving it form. Each project is both a reflection of today and a manifestation of tomorrow. Grounded, global, and human at its core, my work is about shaping futures that people can step into with clarity and confidence

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
Two memories from when I was about 3 to 5 years old stay with me.

The first is from nature. I grew up surrounded by fields, a forest, a river, and a garden full of berry bushes, lilacs, jasmine, apple and plum trees. There were animals everywhere – cats with kittens, dog, even chickens. In the evenings, as the sun set and stars appeared, while crickets filled the air with sound, I often felt a deep sense of unity. In that stillness I understood power not as control, but as connection. I felt whole, as if the entire world and I were one.

The second memory came through creation. I drew my favorite toy cat, and for the first time my drawing looked exactly like it. In that small moment I felt the strength of bringing something from imagination into form. It was the discovery of creative power, the realization that through making, I could shape the world around me.

Looking back, both memories speak the same truth: I have always felt most powerful when I am connected – either with nature or with the act of creation.

Power is not about control, it is about connection.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering became a teacher that success could never be. Success can reward, uplift, and affirm, but suffering uncovers what we would never face on our own.

My life has had many challenges. Moving to a new country, becoming a citizen, completing a third higher degree, starting my own business, giving birth to my daughter. Each of these tested me and shaped me in different ways. But the greatest challenge came more recently, through my health. It was especially profound because I had always been a healthy person. I rarely saw doctors, I never imagined that something serious could happen to me. When it did, it felt like the ground shifted beneath my feet.

At first I resisted it. I tried to live as if nothing was wrong, convincing myself that denial would protect me. But the more I ignored it, the heavier it became. The turning point came when I stopped running away. When I began to look not only at the physical but also at the emotional and spiritual roots, everything started to shift.
What once felt like limitation became a source of strength. This path gave me an inner foundation I had never known before. I discovered resilience not as hardness but as softness. Strength not as independence but as presence. I became more open, more compassionate, more attuned to myself and to others.
And I began to see a larger pattern. True transformation rarely comes in times of comfort. It almost always follows struggle. Illness, loss, separation, change. Behind every bright beginning there is often a shadow that prepared the way.

When I understood this truth, that struggles are not problems but tasks and lessons, I began to meet them with inspiration, even anticipation. It may sound unusual, but now when life places a challenge before me, I step into it willingly. I know that once I resolve it, a new level opens, and life always brings a reward for the effort. The reward may appear in many ways: deeper relationships, better health, new opportunities, unexpected projects, even small coincidences that feel like gifts. If you look closely at your own life, you will see the same pattern. The moment you engage with a challenge, everything around you begins to shift. The world answers quickly and generously to every step of courage we take.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
For now, the value I protect most fiercely is honesty. First of all – honesty with myself.

I have learned how much power there is in being fully honest within, and how destructive self-deception can be. When we are not honest with ourselves, it quietly erodes everything: our health, our relationships, even our sense of purpose. Facing the truth is not easy. It requires looking at things we would rather avoid, naming what we do not accept, and admitting what we truly desire. But the moment we do, everything begins to shift.

When I choose honesty with myself, I naturally begin to express it to others. And in doing so, I give them permission to be honest too. Tension dissolves, space opens, and freedom appears. Because at its core, honesty is freedom, the freedom to be exactly who you are.

To me, values are anchors. They hold us steady in the middle of change. The clearer our values, the stronger our foundation. And this year I understood that honesty is one of my deepest anchors. For a long time I believed I was already honest with myself. But only when I chose radical honesty, naming even the truths I wanted to avoid, did I realize how liberating it really is.

Honesty is not just a value I hold. It is the path to freedom. It is the foundation that shapes everything else in life.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would not think first about what to stop. I would think about what to begin more fully. I would spend more time with the people I love. I would dance more, sing more, and laugh even louder.

Because in the end, nothing matters more than presence. Not achievements, not recognition, not the endless striving. Just time – shared, lived, felt. If I had only ten years left, I would choose to fill them with love, connection, and joy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.glekel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.glekel/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aglekel/

Image Credits
Ana Mahoney