Her Story
About YAY
I wanted to be a fashion designer since I was 4 years old, so the retail and fashion industry has really been my passion all my life. I've been in this field for over 25 years, starting as a head designer and working my way up into executive roles where I built and led merchandising teams. My specialty became building private label brands - I've built close to 19 private label brands, with 14 of them being multi-million dollar brands for large multi-billion dollar retailers. In 2011, I became a solo entrepreneur and founded what is now Yushkova Design Inc., doing business as Ye Designs. It started as a product brand, and after I sold my own brand with positive ROI, I had a really hard conversation with myself about what I wanted to do next. I realized what I really enjoy is contributing and helping others bring their creative visions to life as flourishing businesses. That's why I decided to build out our consultancy firm, helping other entrepreneurs build, grow, and optimize their own brands and businesses with end-to-end solutions. What makes me unique is that I combine the creative aspect with a really analytical, data-driven, operational mindset - I'm a Black Belt Lean Six Sigma certified professional. We do everything but marketing and sales, helping companies analyze their end-to-end business, identify profit leaks, and bring customized solutions. When I reached the heights I wanted to reach at an early age, I decided I wanted to contribute my next 25 years not just to building out other businesses, but to helping upbring the next generation into this industry with all the things I've learned. That's led me to work on a nonprofit for fashion and business education, as well as an ed tech startup, to really make a difference in shaping the industry.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with YAY
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the people that surround me. I would never be able to do this alone or reach to where I am today by myself. Obviously my husband, who's been very supportive throughout my whole career, my family, but as well as the mentors and the people and my consultants that work with me, who are really my dear friends who I've acquired over the years from the industry. I really say the contribution really is around the people that you surround yourself with.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I have received and that I live by to this day is to remember and be humble that you don't know it all, and that there is always room to grow and learn, even in the subjects that you think you know it all. I always say to myself and others, and lead by example, to be curious and ask multiple whys on any topic that you are really passionate about, especially within your industry. Don't just do something because somebody told you to do it that way, but actually question why it's done that way, so that you can find alternative routes and think outside of the box.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity and authenticity are probably the two main values most important to me. Especially in our line of business, I feel like there's not enough people who have loyalty and integrity to what they do. It feels like everyone's just out there to cheat somebody else out just so that they can make a big win or a quick win. For me and everyone actually who's working for me under my company, we are very humble, and we often would put our client benefit or even our competitor benefit before our own, if it outweighs the result and the value that it would bring to that other recipient. So for us, it's really not about the money, or the fame, or whatever it is. It's really more about helping and connecting and truly, authentically, driving value and solutions, even if we're not going to win from it. That's where I hope that more people will be like us, who are actually being authentic and doing work with integrity, rather than just trying to do it for the money or for the win.
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