The Creatives: Bilyana Slaveykova aka Bibons
'The Creatives' is a series of interviews that aim to showcase inspiring women in the creative area and the art and design scene. Together we talk not only about trends and fashion but our daily lives, motivation, challenges, and doing business.
A journalist, blogger, content creator and cocktail enthusiast, Bilyana is one of those easy going and friendly people that you can have long conversations with from the first time you meet. She manages to juggle numerous cool projects, create beautiful (and thoughtful!) content while enjoying travelling around the world and staying up to date with all the new trends.
Full of energy and ideas, meeting with her over cocktails always brings interesting stories and good vibes. Speaking of cocktails, she’s also created a cocktail class for newbies and cocktail enthusiasts called “Disaster to Master“.
You can find her on Instagram, her blog Girls We Are and her new podcast (in Bulgarian).
You’re introducing yourself as a woman who sometimes gets in her car through the trunk. I sense a really funny story here. How does this originate and why do you think it described you well?
I’m afraid that really did happen. A couple of winters ago all the locks of my car were frozen and of course, me being me, I didn’t own one of those magical sprays that are supposed to fix this - so after circling the car for half an hour, I realized that the only part of the car that could be opened was the trunk. Naturally - just as I was in the weirdest position possible - a big group of my friends came out of Bar Petak and spotted me. Honestly, it looked like I was trying to break into my own car! I still look back on that time and laugh - I guess you could say it’s a true metaphor for my life and all the ridiculous (and often very shameful) situations I always seem to find myself in.
Tell us about your new podcast! It has a dope cover with a superhero version of you and the first couple of episodes have been really interesting!
I’ve been dreaming about my own podcast for quite a while now but I wasn’t convinced I had what it took to deliver a good show. When it comes to anything I’m putting my name to I really want it to be the best quality possible - I wasn’t at all confident on the technical side of things and I definitely didn’t want it to sound like I was recording from my bathroom! Eventually I plucked up the courage to give it a go and it actually sounds pretty good! I got great initial feedback and I believe that I’ll learn and grow as a broadcaster as the series unfolds. I really think I’ll be able to up my game with every new episode, especially once I stop being so nervous when recording!
There’s an interview which is very close to my heart - after struggling with my own debilitating fear of flying, I’ll be talking to an aviation psychologist (yes, they really do exist and one of the top experts in the field is actually Bulgarian) about tackling flying anxiety and how irrational phobias come about in the first place. I really hope that the topic will strike a chord with my listeners and be as useful as it is entertaining.
What do you read and listen to at the moment?
At the moment I am listening to Gimlet Academy - a must-listen for anyone looking to create compelling stories in audio format. I'm also reading The lies that bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah which has really challenged my thinking on group identities - each chapter provides an impressive deconstruction of the social constructs that we think are immutable. It’s been such a fascinating read!
As a cocktail aficionado, can you describe yourself as a cocktail? How about 05 studio? On a more serious note - tell us how your cocktails affair started and how Disaster to Master was created?
Hmm, the first thing that comes to mind is a cold brew gin tonic (coffee is my quick fix and is a fantastic chaser). As for 05 studio, there has to be champagne involved - French 75 sounds great. For one of my birthdays, I had decided to make "cocktails" - I bought a book, booze and everything needed and for the entire evening made something that I called a "cocktail" but actually tasted more like a frat boy’s punch at prom. It was a total disaster! The very next morning - still nursing a very bad headache - I posted a status asking if any of my bartender friends would be willing to give me cocktail-making lessons. Others in my network asked to get involved and so I decided to make a big event of it. One event turned into another and the name and need for Disaster to Master became clear. Just a few years down the line and we’re now hosting monthly events for our community of cocktail enthusiasts.
How do you manage to be up to date with all the cool things happening in both Sofia and London without being totally overwhelmed with the social media information that is literally drowning us?
Are you kidding? A lot of the time I am completely overwhelmed. The interesting things in Sofia somehow seem to find me whereas in London I really have to put in some effort to keep my finger on the pulse of the city. London has this incredible pop-up culture, but if you don’t know where to look incredible events can pass you by. I’m really drawn to art exhibits and the cocktail scene in the city, but I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve clicked ‘Buy Tickets Now’ only to find out the event in question has been and gone! My go-to web pages to keep track of what people are doing around town are The Handbook and Culture Whisper. Before lockdown I really used to love to go to panel discussions - Riposte magazine hosted this incredible one for International Women’s Day called ‘Moving Beyond The Hustle’ that featured the life and art of 5 fierce female creatives. That really set the bar for the kind of events I hope to bring to Sofia for the Girls We Are community.
Every time we meet I can’t help but think how easy going you are. Do you consider yourself an extrovert and do you get out of your comfort zone often? Tell us your best tips for effortless and “awkward-less” social networking.
Oh, thank you! I'm glad that I come across like that! The funny thing is that I actually consider myself to be an introvert but whoever hears that starts laughing and swears it can’t be true. I love meeting with two or three people, small groups in general - this is when I feel comfortable and can engage with others with genuine enthusiasm and a lot of energy. But if you leave me in a room with 50 people I don’t know, things can get pretty uncomfortable and I wouldn’t know what to say or how to fit in. For me, a conversation is not awkward when every participant is genuinely interested in getting to know one another and is willing to listen to what others have to say. Without this harmony, the situation is always awkward for at least one of those involved.
Was there a specific moment when you decided that you’ll start actively creating content for your Instagram and you’d take it more seriously as a job?
There was no one single moment where everything clicked into place for me, but I do remember this one moment where it suddenly dawned on me that I might have it in me to make a profession out of creating digital content - something that had only been a hobby up until that point. It was back in 2015 and I got a call from Heineken’s PR agency in Bulgaria to tell me that they’d be sending me to the Las Vegas movie premiere of the James Bond movie Spectre. To be honest, it sounded like a phone prank at the time - some people wanted to send me to the States to take pictures? Seriously?! But I went on the trip with 80 other influencers (I’m not even sure the word had even been invented at that point) from different countries and it was such an incredible experience - each of us received missions like secret agents - we drank martinis, we rode desert buggies in the Mojave Desert and we even went rafting down the spring that was featured in the movie. I couldn’t have dreamt it better - that’s how incredible it was.
Most of your photos look laid-back and effortlessly chic, however, I can imagine there is a lot of planning for most of them. How long does it take to plan and execute content for Instagram (or your blog)? Do you think there is a certain pressure to post often?
There are only two types of pictures I take - the ones which somehow happened without any effort (I love shadows, regardless of how temporary they might be, and how you have to capture them as soon as you've seen them or else you lose them in an instant) and there are those other ones which I've pictured in my head to the very last detail and planned accordingly. The preparations take time but if you do it right the shot appears in no time at all - as if by magic. I've learned to avoid any other types of shoots - like shooting with "bad light" where you’re going to have to fight with it for hours just to get a passable result.
Writing for the blog is the most time-consuming part of my job because I never want to start a topic if I don’t think I can say something useful or new about it - that's why all of my texts are so long! With the podcast things are similar at the moment because I am still getting my head around so many unknowns, including this new software. At the moment it’s still taking me an entire day to edit each episode, but fingers crossed things will get easier and speedier with time!
Can you share the last cool projects that impressed you?
I recently discovered the Own Your Content collaboration between Creative Mornings and WordPress and I've been an avid reader ever since; everything they host is relevant for those creating content online. We've all been far too easy going about where we publish our content and often post without raking through a platform’s T&Cs like we know we probably should. As well as providing useful tips and tricks, the site includes some game-changing expert interviews, I really recommend it!