An Inspired Chat with Lana Lebedeva

We recently had the chance to connect with Lana Lebedeva and have shared our conversation below.

Lana, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
Since we live inside our own heads, whatever we think about ourselves, our lives, people, and facts becomes our life. That is why I believe it is absolutely essential, not for anyone around us but for ourselves, to maintain the right mindset and attitude in our thoughts and to notice the first signs of an approaching storm such as insecurity, doubts, negative self talk, criticism, catastrophic thinking, and so on.

I have always been fascinated by this question: what actually differentiates people from one another, how thinking is formed, how the energy for action appears, and similar things. And the first thing that gave me real practical results was self awareness and this attentiveness to changes in my inner state, to every impulse and instinct, choosing not to act automatically but to understand what need stands behind each desire. The more you practice it, the less time and mental energy it requires each time, and the easier it becomes to get through any storm. You begin to understand that no matter how strong the source of your emotions is, whether it is lack of social connection, a glucose drop and a craving for a sugar spike, losing someone, or any other experience, you look at these things and perceive them simply as facts, not good or bad, and you register the emotional or hormonal shift inside you while knowing, even if it hurts in the moment, that it will pass.

So what I am most proud of building, even though no one sees it, is this inner foundation. It is the mindset, the self awareness, and the emotional stability that I have created within myself. It shapes everything I do, even if it is invisible to everyone else.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
We all carry many sub identities within us. Some of them shaped us for years, yet we no longer identify with them and sometimes even choose not to mention them. Other sub identities appear almost instantly. We take a few dance classes or try painting or start training at the gym and suddenly we feel pulled so strongly in that direction that we begin to call ourselves a dancer, an artist, an athlete. And this is beautiful. This is the charm of life. The only constant is change, and there is something wonderful in allowing ourselves to stay flexible and evolve with that change.

I spent more than twenty years with music, although with breaks of course, and I still can sit at the piano and play the Moonlight Sonata, a few waltzes, and some étude. Yet I do not identify myself as a musician. It is simply one of the layers that shaped me at some point in my life.

Right now, a large part of my mental energy is dedicated to my main work, which is energy efficiency, primarily in the United States market. So I am an engineer who understands energy systems and renewable technologies. I am also a researcher who constantly explores different programs and policies that shaped and support this field. And I am an outreach and sales person who speaks with the market, gathers feedback, and tries to understand what truly matters to clients in this space.

In addition to that, I deeply love photography. I enjoy creating work that touches people and evokes emotion, sometimes without them even fully understanding why. I am drawn to capturing something unusual, whether it is a rare fog, those unique twenty minutes of perfect morning light in the middle of nowhere, or a technically complex conceptual shoot inspired by a very specific idea.

Another important part of me is the part that likes to think and reflect. I am always trying to understand the nature of things, to make myself and this world a little better and a little kinder. It helps me grow and stay aligned with the person I want to become.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
I think what breaks or restores the bond between people is the same thing: a genuine willingness to get to know the other person truly, and the presence or absence of reciprocity. As you get to know someone, you begin to understand two important things. The first is whether you actually like this person’s integrity. The second is whether the interest is mutual. And it is wonderful when the answer is yes and yes.

It can work for some time when it is yes and no. But in my experience, it never has a future when the interest is one-way. I think this is exactly what creates the connection between people and what ends it.

And something that gave me a lot of freedom was understanding this moment: that people come and go, and that the most valuable bond is the one where you are not holding a person, and yet they choose you again and again over the years, or even decades.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
1. That pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

2. That just like muscles do not grow without micro tears, you often need to break the old in order to build the new. You cannot build a new home inside yourself while still living in the old one. You move out first, and only then you can tear down what was neglected.

3. That pain is also a reminder. With time and previous experience, you start recognizing it as a sign of inevitable growth, something that is already reshaping you.

And there is a quiet beauty in that.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
One cultural value I protect at all costs is staying connected to my own authenticity. With the rise of AI, social pressure, and endless expectations, the most important thing is to stay in touch with yourself, to listen to your inner signals and practice self-regulation. You have to “put the mask on yourself first” in order to be truly helpful to others.

And by default, kindness. Endless, forgiving, healing kindness, which is essentially love in its pure form.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What will you regret not doing? 
How often do we see someone go through a painful, challenging experience that brought them a lot of suffering and left a real mark on them, and then they are asked: “Would you change it if you could, so that it never happened?” And except for truly extreme cases, people usually say no. Because once you have actually overcome something like that, you feel a kind of strength that you simply cannot gain without going through the experience.

So I think I would regret it if I had avoided the pain, the discomfort, and the experiences that shaped me. Because those were the things that gave me more than anything else ever could.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lebedeva_production
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lana-lebedeva-390246185/