Day 67: Cindy Gillen Klenk
“I think one of the things that really moves me to inspiration is seeing another human being pushing through fear and anger to success; and success could be whatever it is for them, but you just know instantly that they’ve reached it. That to me is just very cool.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Cindy, for joining the project today; and before we begin with the interview, can you please introduce yourself?
Cindy Klenk: Sure. My name is Cindy Gillen Klenk, and who I am is someone who is very committed to making a difference in the lives of others, and that looks like coming from being a mom to a teacher to a Chamber President to doing community development, now director of a nonprofit committed to young people.
Toni: Okay, thank you for that. When you think about the work that you’re doing and the word inspiration, or even just how you approach it in life itself, who do you think you inspire and how do you do that?
Cindy: Well, I believe my intention is to inspire everyone I come in contact with. And so one of the things that I try to do is just get related to people and really understand who they are — their hopes, their dreams, where they’re coming from — and just have a conversation around that. And it’s every person I come in contact with, not just people I’m trying to understand and get related to.
Toni: Can you give me an example of how that might happen? That’s such a huge undertaking to want to be inspirational to everybody that you meet. Can you give me an example of just happenstance to a purpose?
Cindy: Well, let’s see. I guess if I were to in a meeting — I belong to Rotary — and meeting a new Rotarian and just having a conversation with them. Why did they get involved in Rotary; what was their intention; what do they hope to get out of it? You know, what are their dreams, what have you done in life, that kind of thing, and then really just start creating with them, oh yeah, oh yeah, and they tend to get excited about their life and what they’ve done and who they are and where they’re going.
Toni: So it’s really listening and caring to anyone that’s in front of you, is what I’m hearing?
Cindy: Yes.
Toni: Fantastic! You said that you also are running a nonprofit; what is that?
Cindy: It’s ASPIRE, and ASPIRE is an acronym for Action Shaping Possibility, Integrity, Relationships and Excellence, and it came from a Primeco Education Project. But what we were trying to do was get this kind of education to the schools working with young people so that they can start to create a vision and a passion for their life to go forward.
Toni: And if you look at, my goodness, the way that you’ve put the nonprofit together, the way you … the word inspiration and wanting to be inspiring to everyone you meet; how do you think then, Cindy, that that helps people to explore their potential?
Cindy: Well, one of the things that we do is we look at their dreams and we start there, and just by talking to the students, teachers, parents, really just … people have dreams. And when they start to look to see, “Oh yeah, I did remember having that dream. And what got in the way of it?” And then when we start to look at their values and their principles, all of this has come from their whole great life.
And then, inside of all of the values and principles and just their beliefs, they start to see that their dreams can be reality and they actually start to like live into it. It’s kind of their vision, and they didn’t even know it was their vision.
Toni: Do you find that people come to their values and can speak to their values and principles in an easy manner?
Cindy: Yes and no; it all depends on the questions that are asked.
Toni: And do you think that by someone knowing or not knowing … but when they’re working with you they’re certainly going to get there, understanding what their values and principles are, how does that then … is that the self-realization that allows them to start working towards their potential?
Cindy: I believe so because, in my experience, when I actually realized that dreams can come true, I tried to see what do I need to do make that happen, and it was just constantly, if you will, allowing myself to get out of the way. So all of the stuff that I had been taught my whole life, just to realize, oh it’s not necessarily true, that it could be something else.
Even when my kids were growing up, we used to play what we called the opposite game. So when they’d say they couldn’t do something, we would say “Okay, well why can’t you do it? Okay, let’s play the opposite game. I can do it … now let’s try to do it.” And it was really flipping back that whole conversation.
Toni: Wow, that’s really cool. When you think about inspiration from your perspective, Cindy, what inspires you? What do you need to be inspired?
Cindy: Well, there’s lots of things that inspire me. I think I get inspired constantly. I think one of the things that really moves me to inspiration is seeing another human being pushing through fear and anger to success; and success could be whatever it is for them, but you just know instantly that they’ve reached it. That to me is just very cool. Another thing is just witnessing or seeing other human beings living life fully. That to me is the best expression of being inspired.
Then there’s classical music. I love classical music, but I love Dave Matthews – love Dave Matthews! And I’m telling you, when I’m at one of his concerts, oh my God, I am radiating about 20 feet above the whole group – I’m just like “Oohhhh!” He’s definitely inspiration for me.
Toni: I was going to say, that’s some serious inspiration going on there!
Cindy: It’s funny, because everyone was like “What is it? You know, he’s not that pretty of a singer.” And I’m like, “You guys don’t get it – he’s moved by himself.” That’s what I’m present to when I witness Dave Matthews. He’s just moved by himself, and he’s pure love.
Toni: Oh that’s great. We have to get Dave Matthews on the Get Inspired! Project being inspired by you!
Cindy: Yes, you do! Oh my gosh – and I was thinking too, you know, even as you say that, what else inspires me, just having a really good laugh with my best friend is inspiring, just any little thing.
Toni: And I really like the way that you said your idol is pure love. Now, how do you take these things that inspire you, Cindy, and translate them into exploring your own potential?
Cindy: One of the things that I do to keep myself constantly looking at myself is really, of course, reading. Reading is a big thing for me. I read a lot, many different kinds of books. The most fabulous book that I’ve read in my entire 51 years of life and still sticks out for me is called The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol. It was written back in the 30s, and that is my all-time favorite because he gets to the core of magic and that inspires me.
Toni: Can you give us an example of that for those of us who’ve not heard of the book or read it? What do you mean by getting to the core of magic?
Cindy: One of the things that he says is really successful people in history have succeeded through their thinking; no different than what Henry Ford says – if you believe it’s right, it is right. If you believe it’s wrong, it is wrong. That simplistic thinking that you can have anything in your life – oh my God – it makes me pop like toast to get out of bed in the morning! I’m like “What’s next? What is today going to bring? I can’t wait!” And some other things too, Toni, that I really am very, very serious about is really getting to the core of my beliefs and what stops me from living life fully.
As great as this whole interview sounds, there are moments that I get back to being stopped, and if it wasn’t for like breath class or yoga or Landmark Education or Primeco Education, or even recently Shakti Rising, which is a volunteer house, actually – how do I say it – they are very committed to young women having results. They’re coming out of a rough beginning so to speak. They’re anorexic or substance abusers, or they’ve been abused, and I’ve started to volunteer my time there and started to take the class there and it was really around being feminine; and it is a whole other realm for me.
Even though my mom put me through 13 years of ballet when I was young and I hated every second of it, I just now am appreciating the whole female piece. And really being at Shakti Rising and discovering that piece of me – I’m inspired – like “Oh my gosh, this is another part of me that I didn’t even know was there.”
Toni: Can you just, so that we can clarify because I have not heard of this organization before either, what are they called?
Cindy: It’s called Shakti Rising.
Toni: And how do you spell that?
Cindy: I believe if you went to ShaktiRising.org you could actually look it up and see everything.
Toni: Okay. Wow … and so this is a part … and so you’re exploring other people’s work, that’s part of your own potential-building. Is that what I’m hearing?
Cindy: Absolutely, absolutely. What else is being done out there? Because that actually starts to break apart a belief system that sometimes I don’t even know I have. That’s why it’s important for me. And too, Toni, some other things I do are physical things; and most recently, probably in the last 3 or 4 years, I started jumping from planes. I was like, “I want to know what it’s like to fly and not in a plane.”
So I started to jump out of planes, and I took two of my staff members who were at the Chamber at the time when I was at the Chamber, once of which has never been in a plane before, and she decided to jump and it was just … that to me was the most awesome day for all three of us. We shared some things that probably nobody else would share, but that was inspiring to each of us because it really was involving spirit. You know, it was nothing we could communicate; it was really something we experienced.
Toni: It’s really something how you put this into words, how you can go from like the great expression “pop up like toast” to say “Hey, what’s next for me today”, but also being very real enough and vulnerable enough to share in such a snapshot of an interview that you have your own beliefs that sometimes stop you from that mindset.
And I think sharing with the people who will read and listen to this interview ways that you can get past that when you have that day or that moment in time where your beliefs are getting in your way, and by sharing with us some things that you do to get around that, I think is incredibly powerful.
Cindy: Well, thank you.
Toni: Very powerful … now how does all of this that is revolving around you that inspires you, that laughter, Dave Matthews, pushing through fear and anger that you witness in others to The Magic of Believing … how does that all push forward in what you do every day when you inspire people and help them to explore their own potential? How do those two connect?
Cindy: Well, I think really it creates a space for me to listen from and listen to people. When I’m with them, sometimes – and this is kind of a distinction – but when people are talking, they’re talking to the conversation in their head. They’re not really talking to the other person. And one of the things that I have been able to do putting all of this together is really just quiet my conversation in my head and really listen to people. And when I’m able to listen to them, I can actually get related to them and really just share something that would make a difference for both of us.
Toni: That sounds like magic to me. It’s awesome! Well, Cindy, I have to thank you so much on behalf of the Get Inspired! Project for the wealth of information and just learning that you have given in this 15 minutes. We can’t thank you enough, and we will post a link to your nonprofit at the bottom of the post so that people can find out a little bit more about it as well. We thank you so very much for taking part in the Get Inspired! Project today, Cindy.
Cindy: Great. Thank you, Toni, for this opportunity.
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For more information about Cindy Klenk: www.goaspire.org
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