Episode 329: Creating the Culture You Crave | Jasmina Jaskovic | Founder and Owner of CASA CDM
What happens when you can’t find the culture and community you’re searching for? You create it yourself. That’s exactly what today’s guest, Jasmina Jaskovic, did. Influenced by her experiences across cultures and countries, she set out to build a space that reflects creativity, connection, and belonging—founding CASA CDM in the process. In this episode, Jasmina shares how to attract your people, design the life you want, and why women don’t have to choose just one path.
“I’ve always been passionate about creating a space where people could come together, feel inspired, and build community.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Discovering Local Creatives
00:18 Introduction to Yasmina Yakovich
01:27 Building Casa CDM
05:32 Finding Community in Orange County
11:59 Yasmina's Journey from Germany to the US
17:21 Embracing Art and Design
24:09 Redefining Power and Femininity
25:34 The Art of Graceful Power
26:22 Embracing Dual Identities
30:54 Women’s Resilience and Strength
31:58 Inspiration from Powerful Women
34:28 Coping Mechanisms and Therapy
40:40 Designing a Life True to Yourself
42:53 Final Thoughts and Farewell
After I met one person, one artist, or one creative, or one craftsman, they would open their Rolodex and I'm like, oh my God they actually reside here. So I have found so many people who are such creatives and I didn't have to travel for it.
That's CASA CDM Gallery owner, Yasmina Yakovich. I'm Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
There has been a long divide in anthropological studies between two key theories. Does our environment create us or do we create our environments? Most anthropologists believe it's somewhere in between and often due to our confidence and abilities to create what we want. Today's guest, Yasmina Yakovich, has been influenced by many different cultures, countries, cities, and when she landed in a place that finally felt like home.
She was determined to create the culture and community she craved from other locations in her own backyard. She is a creative and an artisan who uses her talents across design, interiors, and now as owner and founder of Casa CDM. In this episode, we discuss how to build what you crave, attracts your people, the importance of resilience and why women can be all the things at once. She's cool, she's inspiring. She's just so smart and lovely and I can't wait for you to meet her.
Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Thank you for having me.
I am very excited to talk to you today because you said some key things the first time we met, and of course I was told to go find you from two people that I thoroughly trust with cool, creative, up to something local women. And that was Victoria Kennedy of Kennedy Contemporary Gallery in Newport Beach. And then Taylor O'Sullivan, who's been on this podcast, who's an incredible photographer, filmmaker from Laguna. Both of them said, have you gone to Casa CDM yet? Have you met Yasmina? And I'm like, no. So I took my artist client, Andrew Paterson with me. We went just one day to go check it out. And I will never forget you saying, first responding so positively to meeting someone who basically was like coming to find you in the best way possible.
But then you said. I moved here and we needed more spaces like this, so I decided to just make it. Yeah. And I was like, this is a woman after my own heart.
Thank you. And Victoria and Taylor are quite incredible. It's funny Victoria actually at the very beginning when I started thinking about even opening Casa, CDM. I think I told you then how so many women, and not just women, but people in general to hold information. And she cheered me on the whole way and gave me little nuggets of wisdom and information. She didn't keep anything back, which. My hat's off to her. Not a lot of people do that.
Yeah. And I love that the art world is changing because as you mentioned, it's been such a gatekeeper, exclusive only if type of place, and being someone who loves to work with designers and creatives, to have it changing and to have. Our generation saying this is not acceptable. Like, why are we competing versus collaborating?
Why aren't we helping each other? This taking the power back in how art is bought and sold and created and shared, just it feels very punk rock. It feels very appropriate, and it just makes me happy that's how things are shifting.
Yeah. Same.
Before we go any further, let's tell everyone your name, where you are in the world and what you're up to.
Okay. My name is Yasmina Yakovich. I live in Corona Del Mar, California. And what am I up to? I'm up to raising children and being a business owner and having my hands full, but loving every moment of it. Yeah. How long have you been in cDM? So in CDM, so when I first moved to California I moved to San Diego and just a year after I moved here, so that was oh eight, no, pardon me, it was oh nine and I actually moved to CDM and then I was in my early twenties, so I wanted to bounce around a little bit. Met my husband and, 2011, we lived in Costa Mesa and then we decided to move back in 2018. Yeah.
I feel that there are a lot of different opinions, especially from the outside of what Orange County is and some of these stereotypes, like all stereotypes are accurate, but I think what Orange County does not get enough credit for are.
The number of creatives who live here and are thriving, and then the number of entrepreneurs and small business owners that are here, like people think about Orange County, think of the OC and Laguna Beach, the TV shows, and everyone's a billionaire. Absolutely. Yeah. We're not, that's inaccurate, but there's a lot of people who are working very hard to design their life and design their businesses.
How did you find those communities for yourself?
It was a hard one, so I too was one of those who definitely thought Orange County was the fluff, right? Yeah. And you do have to weed pick especially yeah, there is a lot of humans here that definitely fit that criteria, but. If you just travel to down to Laguna once again, that's the art community of all times. But then when I started thinking when we were building the house, I really wanted to hire local craftsmen because I did find a few and then I'm like. After I met one person, one artist, or one creative, or one craftsman, they would open their Rolodex and I'm like, oh my God they actually reside here. So I have found so many people who are such creatives, I didn't have to travel for it. So I have now I highlight artists who are local and they are from San Diego, Newport Beach, Corona, Delmar itself. Laguna. Yeah, we have quite, I'm still sometimes in awe of how many people are in the art world here.
Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you're creating a physical space that. It's hard to find here, like it's hard to find a place that feels like it could fit in Los Angeles or New York, or name your favorite European city and. I like Andrew and I left meeting you the first time and visiting for the first time and we went, oh my gosh. Thank God there's more people like us. Thank God this place exists. 'Cause the, it's hard to, there's a very specific type of art and type of interiors that gets replicated so often in Orange County. Totally. That finding something that's more global, that's more texturized, that's more. My personal preference for the way of living and arts is one that feels like it has a passport, and I feel like you walk into Casa CDM and you're like, oh, the stuff here has been places. It has stories.
It's funny you say that. When I first opened, which was a little bit over a year ago, a lot of people would come in and most everybody's feedback was always wonderful. It would be either. Oh my gosh. I feel like I just stepped into a place in the city, or in Europe, but then they would go, good luck, because unfortunately so many, and I don't think it's even here, it's everywhere, right?
It's this mass produced and. Objects or art or people even think that their house needs to look exactly like their neighbors. And that was never me. So I did take a chance with this. But I'm so grateful that I'm doing it because once again, like you and people who come in and. They always say, wow we really need this.
And I think the demographics of who's here is also changing.
It's definitely changing.
It's way more international than I think people know. There's, I went out to dinner in Irvine a couple weeks ago and being, again, being from the east coast, having lived in Europe, I sat down and I went, oh my gosh. There's less white people in this room than more like we have crossed a threshold. I am so proud of us. Oh, wow. Yeah. And like you heard different languages being spoken that beautiful. It was amazing. And I, irvine gets its own layer of complaints. It's like this one of the voted, one of the safest cities in the us.
It can feel very vanilla, it can feel very Truman showy, but what it is creating because it's so safe, is a place for so many people to find stability and security in that way. And so I'm slowly, over the years, I'm living here getting more and more proud that. The people and culture that I wanted is like coming versus me having to leave to go and get it.
It's, we are on the same page. It's so funny. I, especially before kids I had to get out of this bubble. 'cause it, it is quite a bubble. Yes. And it's changing though, but I would have to, if it's even just a getaway to LA for the day, just to fill my cup of culture, different foods. Whatever. Yeah. Different brick and mortars, but I would have to escape, like to New York or go to Europe just to get my fill. But I agree, things are changing. Even in our little small town of CDM people are changing. The demographic is changing. Younger folks coming in getting away from the city and trying to now. Change it a little bit, but still keeping the charm of cd. Yes, it is quite charming and it's walkable and people, it's changing.
Yeah. When I was doing, research for this call, I discovered that you were born in Germany.
I was.
And I lived in Germany for four years before moving here. Yeah. So I was very curious where you were and the story of you going from Germany here.
Yeah, so I'm, my parents are from the former Yugoslavia. So my mom is Serbian Orthodox. My dad is Bosnian Muslim, but they met in Germany. That's how they met. My mom went to school there. My dad just ended up there. And so they had. My two brothers and me in Germany and we lived in a small town called Ing Busta. And it's in between Hava and Hamburg and it's actually maybe a tiny bit bigger than CDM. It's still a walkable town. My childhood, I thank my parents all the time. It was. I was a kid. I got to be a kid. I got to explore. I got to get dirty, not come home. The perfect.
Perfect thing how we got here. So my mom's brother ended up in Houston, Texas back in the seventies, and it's her only brother, so she always wanted, it's the once a year only seeing each other. And we would come vacation and one year she was like, that's it. I wanna. I wanna move, and she had this dream of America, like growing up. They would every once in a while see a western or, she had just had, she just had this. Dream and these thoughts of what America was. And so we moved in 91 and it was quite the culture shock. We came from this green, beautiful town to Houston, Texas in the early nineties where the crime rate was at its highest, it was at its peak.
And so we moved there. We didn't last but a year and a half and like some of their, so we had, there was a big Serbian community in Houston and they all told my parents, Hey, there's this wonderful town called Hot Springs, Arkansas. You guys should go for like the weekend just to get away. And we did, we, I think it was the summer of 93 probably, or the spring of 93.
And went for the weekend. It was spring break and. As soon as we got there, they're like, huh, it's slower pace. It was completely lush and green. So they bought a place that weekend and so we moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and we. Then my, school, my friends started gonna college. They came out here to San Diego, hence I moved to San Diego and I moved.
I kept on coming for vacations and I like my mom in, oh, I think it was oh six. I was like, that's it. I'm doing it. I'm doing it this time. Every time I would come here. You say that you're gonna do something, but then you get back into the comfort of things and, but that last time, as soon as I got back into town, I changed my bank account to, a California bank account, got everything ready, packed up my car and came out and oh seven.
Labor Day of oh seven. Wow. Quite the shit show that weekend too.
I think it's so interesting 'cause this happens over and over again to the women I talked to on here about how there's that whisper, it's telling you to go, you can feel it, and we ignore it for so long. And then either we have that's it, we're doing it mode.
Yeah. Or yeah. The universe gives us a real hard push and we're like, okay, fine, we're doing it. Okay. But did the same thing happen when you were like, okay, I'm finally gonna open Casa, CDM?
Totally. I wanna go back to the cultural thing. I think a lot of it for me was being an immigrant in the South, they were still so close-minded to it. So I never felt like I belonged, even though, my friends are great and I still have them. But there was never a sense of this is where I belong. I never felt that it was quite the opposite, so as soon as I came on Labor Day weekend, it was like a weight was lifted. Granted, we still live in a, San Diego here.
It was quite pretty white dom, dominant. But there was still like a, there wasn't that, disconnect that there, it was welcoming. I always felt welcome. So that weekend I never looked back. I never had this oh, should I have done that? I've never, yeah. But yeah, to your question say exactly the same.
Where did your passion for art and design come from?
My mother. My mom graduated school to be an architect. Hence she did not, she didn't use that, she didn't apply her what's it called? Degree. Degree. Thank you. She didn't apply it. Granted she did. Use them to build their homes, personal homes.
But she went into the design instead. So she designed clothing and then later interior. So she would have her little, so shop and I would be in there at. My daughter's age, five, 4, 5, 6. And so using her little scraps of fabrics and I started toying with those, making little pillows for my babies or making them clothes, and then I would, later it was like eight, I would start rearranging my rooms and placing, and then I would conquer the rest of the house. And my mom she was like. This is actually great. So it was, yeah, always. And then my grandfather and grandma they were very hands-on always using their hands to create something.
So it's, yeah. So I think it's, I don't know if it's innate from my family or if it's just an Eastern European thing, 'cause all my girlfriends who are Serbian and Bosnian, it's like we had that same upbringing and everybody's grandma sos or makes these wonderful things for the house. So yeah.
It's, I think it's always so interesting, like how some families are very artisan oriented. Food, art, sewing, there's layers of, we do things with our hands, carpentry, whatever the thing is. And then there's other side that it always catches me off guard when that's missing. Like my dad's always been very handy. My mother's always known how to sew. I have two sewing machines that were my grandmothers and great-grandmothers in my house, like beautiful old singers. And it's really weird for me again, I'm not from California, but to be here and to be dating. And to interact with men who like, don't know how to hang a shelf.
Oh my God.
And I'm like, what?
Or like they don't know how to stop the toilet from running and I'm, it's quite prominent around here. Yes. And growing up. You better not call anybody to come and fix. Dad's got this, or my brother's already at 12 had it, yes. Yeah. Quite interesting. Yeah.
And same for I'm glad that there's so many women going after hobbies that are bringing that, making things with their hands back into spaces. But it does catch me off guard that we don't do it ourselves first. And obviously that's like a place of privilege to be able to afford to call someone as well. But it's been a big thing that I've had to reckon with is this, what is this feeling about masculinity versus femininity? 'Cause it feels weird for me to be the handier person in a relationship. I'm glad I know how to drive stick and how to fix these things, but. It's weird to me if my partner doesn't know how to do more well,
I definitely know how to do more than my husband.
Yeah. So how have you gotten through that? Accepted it? I guess it.
Took a long time. Like I remember when we were dating and first got married and it would be these simple things in the house and, I would always try to match 'em up with my brothers. I'm like, dude, my brothers do this all day long. If I was to call them right now, granted they didn't live with us, but or here.
They would almost make fun of him, if I was to tell them what's going on. But he was the first one to call someone for help for sure. Or luckily I would be able to do a few things, but Yeah. Yeah. It's, it is it took a while.
Yeah. And I do believe in like letting people be in, there's no genius and we should delegate things if we can, so we can put our energy where it's supposed to be.
So it's an interesting balance, but it still layers on peeling back of, but where did we lose? But where did we lose that? I don't know. 'cause like even, I don't think it's a generational thing. I think it's more of a geographical thing. I don't know. Because for instance,
I asked Joel, I'm like, your dad? He's pretty handy. He's yeah, but he didn't teach me, or I wasn't around. Or if I would try to do something he, he's oh, I'll just do, I'll just do it just. Scram, yeah. And in our household it was quite the different, Hey, I'm doing this, you better come over here and assist.
That was, yeah. That's how it was in my house. Yeah. Yeah. But i'm the oldest so my brother's the fourth in line, and there's a, we're 13 years apart, so between the oldest and the youngest is 13 years. Wow. Yeah. And so I would be the one like hanging onto the ledge of the window. Like getting, hanging up a nail or getting something out when my dad like spotted me.
Yeah. And I'm like, are you? He said, get it done before your mother sees this. I'm like, yeah, you think Or if the toilet was running, he would make, bring us over and show us what to do. Yeah. And yeah, I don't, like both of my grandfathers had workshops in the basement or in the garage and it was a whole thing.
Totally. I don't know. It's something that baffles me a little bit of, and there's a difference I think, of enjoying doing it versus knowing how, like I really respect the, I know how, but I just don't want to part. Yeah. But it is a really interesting thing. Most of the women I know in southern California, no more than interesting.
The men they're partnered to. There's a few exceptions, like my friend Tony. I just got tools outta his garage 'cause I was missing a few that he had extras of. I'm like, my dad will be so proud. And he is like my dad's proud that you're taking them.
Aw.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Coming back to you and you know your story, you know we, this is a Powerful Ladies podcast and it's, I wanna know how you define powerful and ladies, but also what has your journey been with stepping into your power as well?
So to me feminism is still very important. I I think that it gets a bad rap, but coming from a eastern European household, I still, in the older I become, I find that these traditional cultural things are important and, but yet I believe a woman can do both things, be powerful without losing the femininity of it.
So to me powerful is having a good head on your shoulders being of good character, having, dignity, having, respecting others, of course, getting, being open-minded to other people's ideas, opinions, and not judge anyone for it. Sometimes I think that being powerful can get a bad rap, especially in women. But I think we, I. Handle it with grace. And I think there is this art about doing that. Especially if you're in a dominant man world that I feel that you can be powerful with them knowing. We are, and most men know, most men know that you're, wow.
That is one smart she's on it. But keeping that femininity, I think is very important also. Yeah.
What's an example of when you realized how powerful you actually are?
At a young age? At a young age. I've always had my opinions and I, my thoughts, my my beliefs, but I researched them to make sure that they are ag align and agree, and that I'm actually on the correct course for myself.
And once I did that. All those things, beliefs thoughts, ideas, opinions. Once I believe that they're correct for me, I stood by 'em. I don't waver. And I never have, like even at a young age if I believe something was true or not true or incorrect. Wrong the way you're treating someone or.
Religion, politics, all that. If I stand by what I stand by it and you can't rock me. And that has that has started at such a young age. Yeah. Even with, I can completely be like, my dad is Muslim, right? My dad is Muslim, my mom is Serbian. So there was there's so many examples. People try to rock me like are you either Muslim?
Are you Serbian? Which one are you? I'm like, and at such a young age, I'm like, I can be both. I can have both beliefs. I can have both ideas in their culture. And why do you have to like. Point out or make me believe that I have to believe in one certain thing. I respected and loved both of my parents and I respect both of their religions.
So therefore, I stood by, I can believe both. I can love both. I don't have to choose. And that was at such a young age. And that's, and then God, I, yeah, there's so many other. Thoughts or things that I can say about how I thought I was powerful, my beliefs like once I put something in my head that I'm going to do, I did them.
So once that started happening like I would have an idea in my head or I'm going to complete X, Y, and z this project and. Once it's in my head, it's going to be done. And it's, those outcomes are wonderful and then I'm okay, this is working. And that catapults and that motivation and that rhythm starts going and yeah, I just believe in myself and that. I think that is powerful.
I think how you described, defending both of your religious and cultural identities is very similar to how redefining the powerful ladies and the powerful feminine part is I don't know why. I do know why, from anthropological perspective that we really like knowing what other things are around us so we can live in a gray.
But the idea that. Women can be powerful or feminine. They can be business owners or moms that they like the idea that it's a black and white thing. Yeah, I think women for so long have known is just nonsense because we're able to hold space for so many different things at once, and the depth that we see in our friends and our colleagues and the women that we admire.
When we're doing the marketing for these episodes, we'll pick five things about someone and we try to pick them in contrasting extremes. We can start to show how big these people are. Yeah. Or these women are. But we could easily pick a hundred. This isn't a podcast where we dive into parenting very often unless that's someone's expertise.
Yeah. But it's like that's a whole other pillar of it's of these women.
I was going to actually, another aha moment. I remember Jonah, my firstborn, Joel is not with me with our firstborn. I'll just be frank. He was just. In left field a little bit for a while. Yeah. I remember the very first time I had took Jonah to the market, take him to the market.
I overbuy so much, groceries and be it. I get home, I am load. Joel is not there. I have the baby carrier. I have my hands full with even my pinky and I'm like. Women are so remarkable. We're so not only physically strong, but we are so mentally strong. It's quite unbelievable. But anyway, I had that un, that moment where I'm like, we are amazing. Women are quite brilliant. In every aspect, but anyway.
Yeah. Who are women that are inspiring you today?
Victoria is one. All the women artists that I show, they not only are artists, once again, they have, some of them have an actual profession, and this is their side hustle until they're able to actually leave their careers. So you know, all them in all the women like Gina from gelato Del Mar, she, all these women who are pioneering the way especially in our small community. Yeah.
There's been a lot of. Women in particular who are stressed out and panicking about what's happening in our country and in the world right now. And we've had some conversations about it with within Powerful Ladies community. And I keep coming back to thinking about like the women before us have dealt with. So much more. And women of every generation has just had to keep going. And I've been, lately my turn off my Brain TV show has been finding your roots on PBS
And where, because I love the history, I love the stories of people's migration patterns and why, and the anthropology of it all. But we're, there's so many episodes where you're hearing what. Women went through of, oh, they're, all the men in their village were just killed. Totally. And they woke up the next day and kept feeding chickens and kept taking care of kids and, oh, maybe we should move to America now.
We don't know anyone there. We'll figure it out. There's this resiliency that I don't think we always acknowledge. And of course, history has removed a lot of what that resiliency for women has been, but the idea that we're able to hold space for what's happening at a local and global level and not be okay with what we don't like and do things to change it, but at the same time.
We're still doing all the other things that we know we have to do. Yeah. Like it's a woman's to-do list is always to do amazing to me.
Yes. I I know that all too well. Coming from, my parents were communist not communist, they came from a communist country. My grandparents World War II and all that, world War I and World War ii. Even my dad, he was fed by Roosevelt's dropping eggs over, Bosnia. And my father has taught me a lot about res being resilient and and it just comes almost too natural for me. Where, I don't cope like I should. Especially what's, I lost both of my parents. I've lost my brother. And what do you do? I have two kids. You wake up and you keep going, even though when it's literally you don't wanna get outta bed. But I've never, not once gotten out of bed. You just as Bosnians say what do you just like you live on? You have to keep going. I always say, I joke when my kids turn 18, I might just break down one day. I hope and I want to. But being resilient that's the only You have to be, you have to be,
I think the state of. Taking it, putting it aside, sticking it in your hip and like continuing to go is what so many women I know right now are currently processing with their therapist. And I know for me, I just started going to therapy August.
Good for you.
And I've had lots of coaches. I've done lots of I don't need more talking. Yeah. I needed to do this. You just wanna spill. Yeah. And I needed like the body connection again. Like I know that I've been shoving things in places and for those who are listening, like I'm truly pointing different parts of my body. Like I know that whatever I've dealt with, if I haven't liked it or it hasn't been something moving me forward, I've been like, okay. Got it. I'm gonna stick it over here. We'll deal with it later. 'cause we have to keep moving forward. Yeah. Like moving forward at all costs. Yeah.
And it's really interesting to unpack like what we've just put into our little backpack or wheel bow and have been bringing with us all this time.
And sometimes it shows up in front of us and we have to deal with it. And other times some of it just dissolves over time like. And people have often asked me like, oh, like what have been your biggest mistakes or your biggest failures? And I go, I don't even know if I can list them, because when bad things happen, we're like, okay, what do we need to learn from this?
How do we keep going forward? Okay, keep and go. Yeah. And it feels crazy. Like it's not that I don't have any, yeah. I just can't recall any in a short span of time. I have the process like processing isn't there? Yeah. Same. And I'll have friends remind me of things like, oh yeah, that did happen.
I'm terrible about it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like you build this trauma wall. One day you'll deal with it. When it's ready.
Yeah. And I think that all the modes that we choose for survival are all, some of them are, genetic and passed down, and some of them are culturally taught, and some of them we've discovered on our own and giving ourselves this grace that whatever our resiliency looks like. It's okay. It's okay. And if we don't like how it's operating in our lives and relationships, then we know we have resources now to deal with it.
Yeah, exactly. I'm for one going to actually do a TaeKwonDo class next week for the first time because I'm like, I don't wanna see a therapist because I have too much. Like I don't even want, like where do I start? So I'm like. Lemme just go kick something. So
I'm gonna see, I'll let you know how that works. I love that. But I think that's so important. And like the somatic part for me is the biggest thing. Yeah, there are, I'm obsessed with my therapist, so if anyone wants a recommendation, let me know.
But there are some days where it's just me checking in. And I'll start crying. I don't know where it's coming from. She's like, why? I am like, no idea. No idea. Okay. Just stay with it. Like the goal is to get it out. We don't need to remember why. Yeah.
That's me in the car sometimes. That's weird. Yeah. Yeah. But good. Like it feels great. Yes. I'm like, oh my God, I'm actually feeling something. And I'm like, don't stop crying. Yeah.
It's good. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. But it's, and it's funny how there are some women who will gimme a hard time for. Being non-emotional about things, good or bad things. Yeah.
They're like, you're not crying about this great news. And I'm like, no. Why would we cry about it? This is great news. We don't need to cry. When is your birthday? October 22nd. So I'm a almost a Scorpio. Yeah. I'm a Libra Sun Virgo Rising and a Leo Moon Leo. And if you. Look at my chart. My Andrew, actually, we were sh looking at each other's charts and he goes.
If I didn't know you and I just saw your chart, I'd think you were highly imbalanced. 'cause all of my planets and things are all in one space, and I'm like it just kinda looks like I'm holding up the rest of the, once again, you're a powerful woman. I can,
We can work with this. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. How about you? What are yours? I'm a Leo. I don't know other, my other, like but I'm pretty full blown Leo.
Yeah. It's really like I, when I'm working with clients now, we're looking at their astrology, their human design, their Myers-Briggs, their disc, like we have to look at all of it because other things resonate for different people for different reasons, and I'm personally just over.
Women in particular, but everybody like running their life and running their business in ways that were built for somebody else and not them. What do you do to keep designing your life and your businesses back in alignment with yourself?
It is very important for me. And of course it seems as though, and I'm getting that, Costa CDM is different already from what is on PCH Row and so forth. I always wanted to stay true to myself. My, my eye, my design, my thoughts, my beliefs, so one of the things that nothing is in the gallery that I wouldn't personally have either in my home or gifted to somebody. So I'm always staying true of the artists that come in their works and not even just their works, but actually them as humans too. If they're hard to work with, if they're primadonnas, if they are, if they're ego driven or money driven they're, we're not gonna align and your pieces won't be in there.
So it's very important for me to not only have beautiful pieces with stories that are vintage that called me in somehow to, to grab you and purchase you and put you in gallery. But to also for the art with the local artists. So their eye has to align with my eye. Yeah.
We have some rapid fire questions for you as you wrap up today.
The first is, where do you put yourself on the powerful lady scale? If zero is average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you rank yourself today and on an average day?
Seven or eight, but I'm modest. Okay.
Listen, this is the most interesting question for me because I really need to give the entire output of every episode to a psychologist so they can map it and do things with it. Because every answer is so personalized and geographically people different, answer differently. It's so fascinating. Amazing. 'cause there's so many layers to it. Amazing. What are habits or rituals that you need in your regular routine to keep you at your best?
I wake up super early. My, what's early 4 35? I have like this morning I woke up at four. But coffee, first thing with the no one up, then a workout. That's really important. S having connection throughout the day with either a friend, of course, my family, and then my camel meal tea every night as I sit with the kids before they go to bed. Yeah. Are you someone who works out at home or outside of the house? So we have a gym in the home, so I'll work out inside, but if my cardio is just outside, I just walk out the door. I don't go to no, no gyms. Me.
Have there been habits for your wellness that have been always a part of your life versus ones that you've worked hard to build into them?
I think my habits, they've been with me for so long. I created them when I was probably 22. So they've become. They're just second nature, eating healthy, not drinking on a daily basis, smoking. So there tho those are now instilled in me, so they're, yeah. I don't choose to, I don't crave junk food because it's just been it's just, yeah, I like eating clean. Fueling myself with water. Lots of coffee. That is a vice. Okay.
How do you evaluate who's allowed into your bubble and your inner circle?
Oh, I am a very private person and thanks to my mom, I have a pretty good judge of character, so I'm able to tell very quickly. If a person is of bad character or just doesn't have good energy I don't have a large group of friends. So I am very choosy in particular, and who comes into our, not just my life, but in my family's life.
This is a powerful, connected community that loves to pay it forward and make magic happen for other people. What is something on your to-do list, your wishlist to manifest list? What is something you wanna offer up to this group that we could help you make happen?
Ooh. So what I'm currently working on is a forum that will be held in September, and my son is autistic, so it's been in my head for about three years that I really want to create something for parents teachers, staff. To work on inclusion. And so I'm holding up a form with three speakers in September and I just want it to be something positive and some nuggets of information that people can take away and really not only use it for themselves so that perhaps teach their children or whoever's in their life.
I love that. Yeah. Okay, so for that forum and for Casa CDM and everything else, you're up to where can people find, follow, support and connect with you?
Okay, so you can follow me on Instagram Casa cdm. You can find me at 26 20 East Coast Highway in Corona del Mar. That's the only really platform I have. I'm working on trying to be in the now and get on TikTok and whatever people do and I don't know how to do it, so I'm gonna hire someone to do it, but yeah.
Yeah. Amazing. Thank you so much, for being yes. To me and to this podcast and the powerful ladies and sharing your story and your perspective today, it's been lovely to have this time with you today.
Thank you so much. Oh, Kara, thank you so much for having me. I feel honored. Thank you.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com where you can find all the links to connect with Yasmina Casa, CDM, and the form she's creating. Come hang out with the powerful ladies on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and you can find me and all my socials@karaduffy.com. This episode is produced by Amanda Kass, and our audio engineer is Jordan Duffy. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then. I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: casa_cdm
Website: www.casacdm.com
Email: j.jaskovic@casacdm.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
