Her Story
About Katya
I've been writing for 10 years, and my journey started in a deeply personal way. I had a grandfather who I adored, and he had been writing stories. He kind of all of a sudden, out of nowhere, passed away, and I was tasked to organize all his different entries and writings into a book. I realized this is pretty cool, I could do this, that would be sweet if I could do this for a living. Writing has always been my skill set - for example, on the SATs, I did pretty average for everything except for the writing essay where I got a perfect score. I ended up finding a ghostwriting position where I was actually writing people's life stories for them. I was inspired by the desire to help people and families preserve their history and the legacies of the older people who eventually pass on. Now I work as a publishing consultant and book coach. In one form of consulting, people have already written their book and they come to me wanting me to guide them through the whole publishing book production process. In another aspect, people want to write a book and do it themselves, and I'm basically consulting them on how to write the book, coming up with a writing plan and keeping them accountable. Looking ahead, I would like to be offering one-on-one, in-person services that leverage my experience as a teacher, teaching people how to write and journal, and then using that for wellness or healing sessions. I'm going more of a healing approach, almost like health coaching, which I'm in a program for right now.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Katya
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to curiosity and a sense of adventure, and kind of liking to do new things. I think fresh starts and new starts is something that's really taken me far, because I basically have a curiosity, and then I follow it, and then it leads to a new opportunity, and that's kind of been the flow. I've done very little marketing for my business. All of it is word of mouth, and it seems that is because there's a genuine curiosity and authenticity that people sense, and then they're telling others about it. So yeah, I think all of that has taken me a long way.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice for entrepreneurship is to actually pursue things you're genuinely interested in. If you follow the money, and then succeed at that, it will not really sustain you for a long time. I think people who are entrepreneurs, most of the time, especially women, are doing that because of some sort of passion, so you gotta stay true to that. And even if that changes, you gotta be able to switch gears and honor that passion and those interests, how they shift. I've gotten to the peak of some path that, once I got to the peak, I realized, oh, I don't even really want to be here. Just because you can succeed at it, it's almost not worth it, because then you spent that time on something and you realize, wait, I don't even want to keep doing this.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think freedom, independence, creativity, intimacy for sure - closeness and communication - and presence. Curiosity is another value I have. I think curiosity and a sense of adventure, and kind of liking to do new things, fresh starts and new starts, is something that's really important to me. There's a genuine curiosity and authenticity that guides everything I do.
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