watch

Read more about our Truly Amazing Woman of the Month

read

Cynthia de Lorenzi, co-founder of the Empowered Together Network, and co-author, “Your What’s Next Journal”

A Note from Hope Katz Gibbs, co-author, Your 2021 What’s Next Journal — It is with great pride that Cynthia de Lorenzi and I launch our newest book, Your 2021 What’s Next Journal. 

A project born in the summer of 2020, Cynthia and I were talked about our lives and businesses a few months into the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She asked me a question that struck a nerve: “So what do you think — What’s Next?

I said, “Oh, I think that sounds like a book.” She agreed and what you are seeing today is months of conversations, interviews, and collaboration with our amazing book designer Cindy Seip.

As we roll out the Journal one month at a time, we invite you to explore with us to discover What’s Next?

A little background: I have been honored to write about Cynthia de Lorenzi since 2004, a few years before this truly amazing woman became one of the TEDx Women, as well as an international motivational speaker and expert interviewer and moderator. But it was clear when we first had lunch in Washington, DC, oh so long ago that she’d accomplish anything she set her mind to.

Today, she is not only a social media expert and consultant, producer, but Cynthia is also a futurist who likes to refer to herself as a serial entrepreneur and social commentator on the status of women in our world and their impact on our culture and economy today.

Cynthia is also a fantastic fine artist. While her gift and talent were channeled into so many projects over the last few decades, when she and her husband moved to Las Cruces, NM, in 2014, the artist inside was banging to come out. In the years since, Cynthia heard the call and has created hundreds of magnificent works that appear in galleries, healing focal points in hospitals, and the homes of dozens of fans.

She is currently selling some of her art as prints in the new Inkandescent Shop — live this month. Click here to view the Cynthia de Lorenzi Collection and buy your image for your home and for the ones you love!

More about this Truly Amazing Woman: The Washington Business Journal selected Cynthia as one of the top 25 “Women Who Mean Business” in 2006, SmartCEO magazine awarded her the BRAVA award in 2009 and was awarded SmartCEO’s Circle of Excellence by her peers as well as recognized by Enterprising Women in 2010.

Since moving to Las Cruces in 2016, she’s blazed a trail in the “Land of Enchantment.” The New Mexico Technology Council awarded her the Wonder Woman Women in Technology Award in 2017. She has also become a regular speaker at The Women’s Conference held at the Las Cruces Convention Center. She is also an artist and photographer whose work has been shown in several art galleries and the El Paso International Museum of Art.

As founder and chief executive officer of Success in the City, Cynthia leads an unconventional business networking organization for entrepreneurs and senior-level executive business leaders. Her organization has been featured in the Business Section of The Washington Post, NPR, DC Modern Luxury Magazine and Washington’s Finest.

Previously, Cynthia served as the CEO of PatriotNet, an Internet Service Provider corporation headquartered in Fairfax, VA. Her previous experience includes leadership of the North Texas Technology and as a Political Advocate for the Concord Coalition, a nationwide, non-partisan grassroots organization advocating generationally responsible fiscal policy.

What next for Cynthia in 2020 and beyond? Check out our cover story in the August 2020 issue of Inkandescehttps://the-inkandescent-shop.myshopify.com/collections/vecani/products/the-frida-kahlo-collection-by-vecanint Women magazine, where we announce our partnership with her organization, Success in the City, and also begin our What’s Next: Itty Bitty Mini-conference series featuring female industry leaders on their thoughts about what’s next for women, business, and life in a post-pandemic world.

For more information about Cynthia, visit www.SuccessInTheCity.org and CynthiaDeLorenzi.com.


What’s Next for Cynthia de Lorenzi’s brainchild: Success in the City

Hope: Tell us about your business/industry and its before the pandemic hit in March 2020. 

Cynthia: I had undertaken an exciting project to curate art for our largest local hospital here in Las Cruces, NM. We had just completed a year of strategy, outreach, and establishing the process for hanging and securely displaying work in a facility that is open 24 hours a day. We were so excited by the success of work acquired by visitors and staff at the hospital. But once the coronavirus pandemic struck, the hospital was closed to all visitors, and only medical staff and patients with COVID-19 were admitted, so we all await what’s next!

Hope: Where were you personally in your life when COVID-19 arrived in the US? What were your short and long-term goals at that time? 

Cynthia: While I am most readily recognized as a speaker, interviewer, and general all-around cheerleader who celebrates women and their tenacious drive to lead and grow extraordinary businesses. A move from Washington, DC to Las Cruces several years ago set me on a new trajectory, and that was returning to art and photography as a career. My long-term and short-term goals were to develop my vision and perspective on the art I like to create. When the pandemic happened, I held my breath and felt as if I was suspended in time. Life felt uncertain and disconnected. It took some time to find my mojo again.

Hope: What are your thoughts now about your industry, your business, your personal life, your heart?

Cynthia: My life is in a wonderful place at this time. Living in Las Cruces, NM, the high desert has created the perfect environment for feeling my life is expanding in creativity, joy, and contentment. Though art and photography is my primary focus, it has certainly changed and been constrained by the pandemic. Except for the fact I cannot see my children or grandchild, my personal life is wonderful.  Facetime and Zoom have helped our family stay connected.

I am delighted because my dear friend Hope moved to Las Cruces, and we are collaborating and helping women tell their stories of success and challenges. We are brainstorming new ideas almost every day, and it is so fun and energizing.

But my heart aches for all the loss our country is experiencing, especially knowing we did not need to be here! Lives have been lost; families are hungry and left unsure when they will even be able to rebuild their lives. We can confront this is all of us pull together and think as one nation caring for all.

Hope: Now the big question — What do you see coming next? 

Cynthia: 

  • For your industry: Digital, digital, digital. Museums have opened their doors to visitors digitally, and we will see even more of that. More artists and galleries will expand, reaching their audience through digital platforms.
  • For your company: For Success in the City, I see us reaching our audience through video and digital means. I am very excited about this opportunity to collaborate with Hope and Inkandescent Women magazine to share our stories.
  • For yourself: I am not sure I know all the answers just yet, but I know that whatever it is, it will be intriguing, fun, and exciting.
  • For the country: In the most challenging, difficult, and overwhelming moments in my life, I have found that I was always moved in a positive direction I could never have imagined during a crisis. I believe that we are moving to a decade where women in our nation will become the leaders that will lead us to heal and change.
  • For the world: During this period, we have witnessed our standing on the global stage diminish. As we have either ridiculed or severed ties with our allies, we have moved to align with more autocratic regimes. I believe we can repair those wounds, but it will most likely take a decade.
  • For women: We will see more women take the lead on the world stage! In business, in government, in policy, science, and every sector of our lives. We will see a global shift from the impact and influence of women in the world!

Final thoughts: We have all experienced personal earthquakes in our lives! We have all been called on to support our friends when they experience a personal crisis, and they, in return, have done the same for us. This is the first we have all experienced our earthquake at the same time. Take this time to reach out to your friends and let them know you are thinking of them. Reassure them that we will get through this. Stay strong and know there is a sisterhood right here, ready to support you, listen to you, comfort you, and share whatever wisdom we may have!

Questions, ideas? Send Cynthia an email.