The biggest challenge of spending time in a new country is rebuilding the systems that make you feel like yourself again. We've now arrived in Hanoi! One of the first things we did was rearrange the furniture in our apartment so we could recreate the routines that matter to us. I've always been a person of routines. Meal times. Deep work. Sessions. Exercise. They all have a rhythm because these systems support the way I think, work and organise my family and profes

Every year around this time, something interesting happens. This is the fifth year my family and I have chosen to spend part of our summers living and working in different countries. It has become one of our favourite ways to learn, grow, and experience life from a different perspective. Our suitcases are almost packed. The plans are in place. And still, I wonder why I feel a level of anxiety alongside my excitement... Problem: Preparation Doesn't Eliminate Uncertainty

In a few weeks, I will be leaving Vienna and spending several weeks in Asia. When people hear that, they usually imagine the trip itself. The flights, the cities, the experiences. But what occupies my mind these days is something entirely different. Preparing future workshops and coaching sessions. Planning blog content. Working on business development. Creating space for new collaborations and projects. Then there is preparation at home. Creating routines that will support o

Over the past two years, I lost 12 kilos and rediscovered a fitter, more energetic version of myself. The most interesting part came afterwards. People seemed far more interested in the weight loss than I anticipated! At networking events, client conversations, and professional gatherings, people often wanted to know how I lost the weight before they asked about my professional practice. At first, I found it amusing. Then I became curious. Because the biggest return had less

Personal and professional life quality is often biological before it becomes psychological. The more I observe high-performing professionals, the more I believe this. We spend a lot of time searching for better strategies, greater clarity, and more motivation. Yet sometimes the real advantage is much simpler: The lifestyle architecture carrying our life and career. Problem: We tend to think success is primarily psychological We talk about mindset, confidence, resilience, and

For years, I wanted to change my career and could not act on it. Deep down, I knew I wanted to work with people. To help them grow, find clarity, and create a better future for themselves. But whenever that thought appeared, I pushed it aside because I couldn't find enough energy to take action. Looking back, I can see what’s missing; it was my ability to stay with it long enough, to make it real. Where I was and where I wanted to be had a dark, foggy and non-visible road in

I have to admit something honestly. As a business owner managing many things on my own, as a mother of two, and as a professional carrying both business and family responsibilities, I do not attend professional events as often as I would actually like to. But every single time I do, I leave with the same thought: I should do this more often! Last week at ViennaUP 2026, during co-moderating the stage at Tech Summit-Road to Global event, I found myself reflecting once again on

I’m a huge fan of "The Diary of a CEO" podcast by Steven Bartlett. And this episode with Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman was one of the most mind-expanding conversations I’ve listened to in a long time. One sentence especially stayed with me: “You are not one person in one brain.” I thought about periods in my own life where I deeply wanted transformation while simultaneously resisting it. Leaving architecture behind. Building a new professional identity. Moving co

Human potential and team performance have always fascinated me. And over the years, I’ve come to see something very clearly: Most teams need collaboration workshops as much as, if not more than, skill-based training. Because skills alone can’t create performance. The real challenge is this: How do you bring different strengths together in a way that actually works? And that rarely happens in the middle of daily operations. It requires a space outside of the usual pace. A

I genuinely enjoy being in front of people with what I create. Sometimes it is a safe space for someone to open up, reflect, and act differently for the better. Sometimes it is a virtual or physical room full of people eager to learn, practice, and grow. It is the energy I feel when I speak, when I write, when I engage, that makes me come alive. And seeing how quickly a conversation turns into real connection and trust, through my voice, my presence, my body language, mak

In my early years in architecture, everything was drawn by hand. Then came AutoCAD. Then 3D modelling. Then renderings and animations. The tools kept evolving. But the question never changed: How will people feel in this space? Today, with AI entering our work, I find myself returning to that same question. Because lately, many professionals I work with are asking: “What will happen to me when AI becomes more present in my work?” But underneath that question, I believe

As a coach, I always try to ask the right questions. And at the same time, I know that sometimes the question I ask can be… not the most helpful one. And that’s part of the work too. This particular coachee often expressed how important it was for her to feel understood, seen, and acknowledged. In this session, she was sharing how her nights had been lately. Waking up at 3am. Work-related thoughts not letting her rest. Falling back asleep, then waking up again. Her energy

A few days ago, a dear coachee of mine said something I didn’t expect. “Dilek, you're not just a career or leadership coach for me. You helped me design who I am personally and professionally, and I want to thank you for these soul talks!” I felt genuinely happy hearing that. Because it captured something I care deeply about, the idea that our work is not only about what we do, but also about who we become in the process. There is a version of you forming at work. Throug

For years, my relationship with food moved in cycles. Moments of discipline. Moments of letting go. At some point, I knew I needed to redesign the whole system in order for it to work for me. I removed gluten. Shifted to two meals a day. And I changed the order of how I eat inspired by what I learned from Jessie Inchauspé, the Glucose Goddess. Starting with vegetables, continuing with protein and vegetables again, then carbohydrates, and finally sugar. In six months: bett

Across industries and countries, I keep hearing a similar reflection from experienced professionals and leaders: “I thought I would feel more confident at this stage.” But what they describe next is something else. They pause more before answering. They think longer before deciding. Not because they are less capable. But because they are seeing more than they used to. More complexity. More perspectives. More consequences. And somewhere in that expan

During a recent coaching conversation, we touched on an idea that stayed with me long after our session ended. We were discussing why coaching conversations create surprising momentum through reflection and real action. At one point he paused and said something remarkable: “Maybe coaching works because I’m observing my thinking and my progress, and you are observing it with me.” That sentence reminded me of something fascinating from physics: the ‘ Observer Effect’ . Hu

Lately, many professional conversations start the same way: “Everything around me is changing.” Teams restructure. Leaders move on. Priorities shift faster than strategies can stabilize. Recently, a senior professional told me something that stayed with me: "I am not afraid of hard work. I am afraid of losing clarity about where this is going." Organizational change affects people, their clarity, motivation, and long-term engagement. Problem: When clarity solely depen

When I looked at my calendar last Friday, I realised how much work has changed. Coaching conversations connected me to the USA, Colombia, UK, the Netherlands, France, and Austria, all in one day. My mind and heart were genuinely expanded. New ways of working. New technologies. Thanks to being a team member of digital platforms, such as BetterUp and SparkUs, and tools like Calendly, scheduling happens seamlessly across time zones. As a solopreneur collaborating internatio

For almost two decades, I kept rewriting my professional story. Architect. Interior architect. Leader. Projects in Türkiye and the German market. International work. From the outside, coherent and impressive. And in many ways, it truly was. But success can blur self-awareness. The better I performed, the harder it felt to question the direction. Competence creates momentum. Momentum shapes identity... If I’m honest, something inside wasn’t fully right. Through expat tr

In almost every strategy conversation I have with corporate clients and career-growth coachees lately, one topic keeps coming up. They want a digital presence that truly reflects them. Their thinking. Their professional contribution. Their leadership style. Whether they are entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs inside large organizations, the expectation is similar: In today’s professional landscape, visibility shapes credibility. Last year, I asked myself the same question. D