Kozak Talks Podcast
Ми знайомимо вас з українцями, які побудували тут неймовірне життя - підприємцями, професіоналами, громадськими лідерами та відомими українцями.
Їхні подорожі та інсайдерські поради покажуть вам, як боротися з викликами, відкривати можливості та реалізовувати свій потенціал - і все це з повагою до свого українського коріння.
Kozak Talks Podcast
Українські жінки в лідерстві та бізнесі у Англія - історія Тетяни Дороніної
Приєднуйтесь до нас, і Тетяна Дороніна, українська підприємиця, яка процвітає у Великій Британії, розповість про свій шлях культурної адаптації та успіху.
Ми досліджуємо зміну ідентичності за кордоном, баланс між сім'єю та кар'єрою під час глобальної кризи та здійснення мрій.
Цей епізод пропонує практичні поради та натхнення для підприємців та культурних ентузіастів.
Звертайтеся до Тетяни Дороніної
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Bubwa
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I'm losing my motherland. When I first came here, I started talking to the officers and I realized that I didn't understand them. I promoted Ukraine all the time. Then I had my first son. My son became famous all over the world and he was compared to Boris Johnson. We began to brainstorm the idea of an organization. We are not a club for girls. Our reputation is very good. People know about us, they remember us, they recommend us. It would be great to start with education. If there is an opportunity to learn, then learn.
Speaker 2:Good afternoon, dear Ukrainian viewers. This is your host, sasha Kozak, on Kozak Talks, where we invite successful Ukrainians, ukrainians who are professionals in the country, community leaders in Britain, and also Ukrainians who have opened a business here and prospered in Great Britain. Today we have a guest, tatiana Doronina, who has been living in Great Britain for more than 9 years. She is a co-founder of a large organization that we know Ukrainian communities here in Britain Ukrainian business women association. It also has a serial entrepreneur here.
Speaker 2:It's easier to say that it has a lot of different businesses here. Luxury brand is also engaged. I think you will talk about this in the podcast. Thank you for coming to the podcast. Thank you for agreeing. Let's start this podcast. Thank you for coming to the podcast. Thank you for agreeing. Let's start our podcast. Our podcast will be divided into a couple of pieces. This is her life here in Britain. It was a wonderful company. She also helps him. Brandscan is also a little bit of a chef for this Business consultancy and, importantly, bubva, and we ask her questions what advice she had for Ukrainians in Britain and also her success in Britain. This is the most important thing we want to learn from her, because we can really learn a lot from her. Let's start with the first one. I will make an icebreaker for you. What Ukrainian dish.
Speaker 1:do you like to cook or order in a restaurant in Great Britain I cook, but not very often. I don't have time. But I love cheese, I love borsch. If I go to a restaurant of my dreams, I just love everything. I can't say that I don't love anything. Pasta with cherries yes. Borscht yes. Some potato salad yes. I love everything. Shuba, pfff. So there's no priority. I would eat everything, but I can't fit everything in me.
Speaker 2:Do you cook Ukrainian food at home?
Speaker 1:My mom helps me more because it takes time. I delegate it a little. She makes very cool cheeses. She makes very cool borscht. She makes a gorgeous fur coat, just incredible. She made a fridge for the whole 22nd year. She made a lot of fridges. We haven't eaten it for 23 years. We got tired. But we cook, of course, a lot of things.
Speaker 3:Hello everyone. Today we will talk about our company, sterling Law, which specializes in immigration and corporate law in Great Britain. In the field of immigration law, sterling Law, we help clients with receiving different types of visas, including working, student, family and business visa. The company also consults about obtaining a permanent residence and the citizenship of the UK. We can be proud of our numerous victories and recognition in the range as we enter the leading legal ratings, such as Legal 500, where we are designated for high quality service and professionalism. If you need professional legal assistance, contact us, because we want to achieve the best results for our clients.
Speaker 2:What is your favorite hiding place of pearls in Great Britain? What inspires you about DIM Ah Perlina in Great Britain?
Speaker 1:what inspires you About DIM, yes, about DIM.
Speaker 2:You know, let's go with you, let's go with you.
Speaker 1:yes, I was in the embassy yesterday and I felt like.
Speaker 2:Is this your first time?
Speaker 1:Yes, it's my first time in the embassy and I felt very good there. It was a very nice place, some nature. When I leave, Sometimes I somehow remember the house. I am such a person that my home is me and my home is my family. I am from Kyiv. I am very close to Kyiv. I am close to Kyiv as a person. Even if something reminds me of Kyiv, it's not the same.
Speaker 2:I just want to be there.
Speaker 1:But sometimes when I meet my friends from Kyiv people from Kyiv, even from Ukraine, but more from Kyiv of course I feel a little bit of nostalgia, but I want to come back there. I dreamed of living in house in the forest, on the bank of the river somewhere near Kyiv. It's my dream and I still dream about it, thank you. And the third question is what was surprising when me? Then I've already forgotten, many things are already normal for me, but I remember when I first entered the university, the first days I came there, I people. For them, networking has its own rules. You come and they close some rooms for you and you have to go and get acquainted. For me it was a very, very big stress Because I think I'm making myself known only to not approach people myself so that they approach me. That's how much stress I have to approach people, but here it's very professional, it's part of the culture.
Speaker 1:For me it was a shock.
Speaker 2:It's accepted to do networking. I go to different events. I see that many Ukrainians are afraid to talk to people, even with Ukrainians. I go to Ukrainian events and I thought I would go to British events with Ukrainians. I will start my podcast. I have a question for you. Tell me a little about yourself. In Ukraine, until the moment you came here to Britain, I have a life of different colors.
Speaker 1:I am a an opportunity. I know that not everyone is like that. Some people get married for 20 years and that's it. But I had such an opportunity. I made such choices.
Speaker 1:Kyiv my family, was normal, nothing special, which is very famous because there are many children from many families there and there are princes, princesses. And then I became president of this university. My mentality is not what it should have been with my birth, so I just take it as a given. I'm sure it's part of my mission, I don't know. I left Kyiv for the first time when I was 17.
Speaker 1:I lived in Moscow for 4 years. I don't really advertise it, but it gave me a lot at that time. It was very cool. Everything was super good. But from that time I moved to China. I lived in Asia for some time.
Speaker 1:As for what I did, I graduated from the University of Shevchenko in finance, but I never worked as a financier. But I have a very good understanding of the economy. But I have always been more creative and more business oriented. Again, this is about the will, about the fact that I wanted to be free. I almost never worked. I was the word work from the word rap and it triggered me a lot.
Speaker 1:I lived in China. I was doing professional modeling. I had contracts there. I went there a lot. There. I also started doing big business there. I was doing marble buying and selling big numbers that I used to operate with. But I was very small. I didn't have anyone in the background so I was a bit afraid of myself Because I understood that if I make a lot of money now I'm not sure I know how to operate it, but I will be a target for those who can do something bad for me Because I'm a nice girl. A lot of money. I was a bit afraid of myself but I learned. A good girl had a lot of money. I was a bit slow but I learned a lot. When I was doing this business I worked with Chinese people. I know what it is to work with Chinese people, did you?
Speaker 2:go to China yourself.
Speaker 1:It was a contract. It was an official contract. I went to the agency that met. I did protection and everything I did modeling there. But since there was a lot of networking, I had a lot of friends around the world I did other things in parallel.
Speaker 2:But you were young, weren't you afraid to go there yourself?
Speaker 1:I was not in the classic model age I was 24 years old. If I had gone earlier it would have been different, but if I had gone earlier I would have been more into the agency.
Speaker 2:What did your parents think about your choice to go to China? I remember the first day. It was so scary. We arrived in Hong Kong there were 4 girls.
Speaker 1:They were younger than me. There were no phones like now, like iPhone. You can use the Internet. There was none. You arrive in this huge airport of Hong Kong surreal and we somehow found a big ship there. I don't know how we got there. They don't understand English. But China, mainland no, even simple words, nothing. We got to the mainland and we met two Chinese. They are so small that they don't understand anything. I don't know how they were sent to meet international models. Nobody understood anything and they sat in the car and we drove. I sat and the rain was still pouring. We go somewhere. Where we go, everything is not Chinese. There is no connection. There were some mobile phones that did not work. We go, we go. I'm the oldest here. Maybe they're going to sell it to the authorities. I was like, what am I going to do? Who to kick? They were small. I thought I would kick the first one. And then we went in Guangzhou. I was like, yeah, we're going somewhere.
Speaker 2:To get a job, and they were like no way.
Speaker 1:It was so scary. The girls were sitting there and she was 16 years younger. But it's a really cool experience Modeling. If you do it with your brain, it's a really cool experience. It's a really cool experience. Modeling is a very cool experience to do with your brain. It's a very cool understanding of yourself, who you are, what you are even for boys, not only for girls To understand what you are as a person, what you have, what emotions you have, because you see yourself a lot from the other side of the world. You go to the casting every day. I'm not the tallest girl, I'm not the prettiest girl, the investments that the agency makes.
Speaker 2:We had to pay for it.
Speaker 1:That is to get a job to pay for the agency, and then the rest is yours, and this is our plane tickets, this is accommodation, this is pocket money. Everything is needed.
Speaker 2:What did it teach you? What skills can you say it teach you?
Speaker 1:A very cool element of how to sell yourself, because every day, 6-7 times, I had to sell myself to the client. And it's not just the appearance, no, it's charisma. I don't have the brightest model. I had to be so charismatic that they are A. I'm tired to talk about this. It's not only about the appearance, but also about the personality, who you are, because it's very much through photos. Even what you think. Now it's being read in your eyes, so the client looks at it. For me, it's not a problem to sell myself. I can sell myself to anyone, whenever, no problem, and at different levels.
Speaker 2:So these skills that you learned in China, the model do you still use them now?
Speaker 1:Yes, of course, Not only in China. I also worked in Turkey, India, Japan.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait, wait In China. You went to another country.
Speaker 1:These are contracts. It's 3-4 months of contract. I go to Syria.
Speaker 2:Syria right.
Speaker 1:Or country. These are contracts, short term and long term contracts. This is traveling. Many models can travel around the world for 5-6 years. So there is a maternity agency in Kyiv, for example, and they are dealing with you. They communicate with agencies around the world and they make a contract. For example, I know that the contract will end on July 1st. I can go back home or I can go to another country and take another contract.
Speaker 2:So you travel around the world and when you come to, when did you come to Britain? How did it happen?
Speaker 1:I came back to Ukraine a year later. I liked China very much and stayed there for a year. I lived there. I had friends there, I did business. He was also an ex-model, we were such a nice couple. And then I returned to Ukraine. I returned to Ukraine a little different. What has changed.
Speaker 2:Tell me, please, what has changed in you Because you were abroad, came to Ukraine. What did you see abroad? What did you see in Ukraine?
Speaker 1:You know what was the most painful thing for me? I changed of course. I already knew myself as a person, as a woman. I knew my appearance very well. I could, you know, carry this appearance very cool, sell myself, and I still believe and know how the outside looks like she sells. Come on, I was a personal stylist then. I know how to shape it to sell. The most painful thing for me was that I was used to making big money, but in Ukraine it's all devalued. I would say something like a model Maybe you don't know because you're not there. It's devaluation of this profession. I was shocked that many girls work for free just because I can call myself a model. But for me it's hard work. I could work 12-13 hours a day at night, every day in another city, every day I could sleep for 2-3 hours. It's a very hard job and there it's just a model.
Speaker 2:It's not appreciated.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe if I had returned to Ukraine now, I would have done everything differently. But then I even got a little lost, because what was liquidated some time ago in Ukraine was just but even when you came to Ukraine, you saw it.
Speaker 2:Didn't you want to go back? I came back, I came back.
Speaker 1:I broke down a few times.
Speaker 2:I came back.
Speaker 1:I took new contracts and went, but then I already had relations in Ukraine, so I went, came back. There was a period in my life when I was lost. I can say for sure.
Speaker 2:Even when you saw it. Why did you shyly return to Ukraine? Because you have a family and you are Ukrainian. What kept you back?
Speaker 1:I will explain. When I lived in China lot of money, I had a great environment, everything was great but I asked myself, do I want to live here forever? Well, you can live like this forever. It's a comfortable life. And I understood. No, I wanted something more. And I started to feel that I was losing my connection to my motherland. It's not a pleasant feeling. It's a physical feeling that I'm losing my roots. I'm starting to understand who I am Identity. I started to lose it and it was very scary Identity for some time. But then I went again and I started to lose it and I was very scared Because I understood that there is something very important for me, that this is my home and I take my home as a person and something in our relationship is not done. And I came back.
Speaker 1:It was very difficult for me. I was very, very, very lost, disguised. Yes, I was not always so cool and successful. Well, it looked like that because I looked cool. I knew how to do it in any state. I knew how to look very good, but I was very disappointed. I didn't know who I was, what I was, where I was going. I felt that I had a very big potential, but I didn't know how to apply it in Ukraine. I didn't know how. I saw my friends doing it like a fish in the water. They agreed on something, but I didn't know how. I'm very direct, it was hard. I had friends, I was walking, everything was cool, I was working somewhere, but it was all not the same. I felt that I could do more, but I didn't know what.
Speaker 2:What happened next? You came to Ukraine.
Speaker 1:I was in Ukraine. I was going there. From time to time, I was making contracts in different countries. I tried something, but it was like that. I was 28-29 years old and it's a year when you realize, oh my god, I'm almost 30. And I'm like what? I'm nothing.
Speaker 1:I think that my moment I had relationships, you know, passion and shit. I think that such a moment was important when I met my ex-boyfriend, but I think he was very influential in my life. He had a British passport, he studied here, he did an MBA in Oxford and then for me, england was something like oh wow, this is not for me, I will never be able to do it. And, of course, he was a very successful businessman. He did a lot of such businesses and I think that he had a great influence on me and after about a year and a half, he helped me come here. He financed my education, education, yes, education. I think he saw the potential and said you know, I'd rather invest in you because you can. And I did, and that's the process for me. I studied a lot During that time. I did doing many short courses Fashion, business, media.
Speaker 2:Where here In Ukraine?
Speaker 1:I was a TV host. I was doing many things, but for me it was not enough. But you didn't know what you wanted. I was a host. I did 4 projects on NOLO TV, but they were very comedy projects. I was a virgin and we did a lot of experiments. There was a project where they blow something up. We did something like that too. It was very fun, but for a 28-year-old girl, what's next? I studied a lot, but it was more of a next level to do a master's degree in England. I first entered Cambridge, cambridge College, let's go back.
Speaker 2:The first time you came to Britain, you got on a plane. What was your impression of Britain?
Speaker 1:I almost cried. Do you know when I cried? I don't remember what airport it was. It was a big photo of the Queen. It was a small photo.
Speaker 2:It was Gatwick Luton.
Speaker 1:City, I think it was Gatwick.
Speaker 2:Gatwick Heathrow it.
Speaker 1:Gatwick, gatwick. There's a big portrait on the wall made of small photos of people.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's Gatwick.
Speaker 1:Yes, and when I saw the Queen, I was like, oh my God, I'm here.
Speaker 2:Why did you say oh my God, you're here. I don't know how did you think about Britain back then?
Speaker 1:For me it was a level something unreachable. I didn't think I could study in England, that I was capable, but I did it. It wasn't as hard as I thought. You went to Cambridge. I was brainwashed and, just in case, the agency gave me another university Regions and when I saw it it was Central London Regions Park. I just didn't believe it was possible that it was so beautiful. I applied there and chose regions. It was a very last minute choice. It was very risky because I was already approved in Cambridge. I was not approved there. Cambridge forced me to make a decision because the study was starting. I refused them and didn't get an offer. I understood that I wouldn't get it there and I was wasting my time.
Speaker 2:But you wanted to go to the Regions.
Speaker 1:I understood that there was no other option. Who would refuse to go to Central London? It's very beautiful there. It's a very nice university. And then they took a month to answer the questions. You can imagine I thought that's it, and then they said to me you are accepted. I don't know, I was preparing for a month. I just did it. I didn't really believe that it was happening. I came here on 13th of January 2017. And on 17th of January I had 30 years of birthday 30 years you came here.
Speaker 1:Yes, 30 years. Yes, and I lived. I think, well, I'm like that, I break rules and everything. That is 30 years. I didn't try to push myself into these frames. Oh, you're 30 years old. I didn't think about it, I just lived as I lived and I got into the university. Well, after my master's degree, I became president and I worked as a president at the university for two more years.
Speaker 2:And how did you do it? Did you study full-time at the university?
Speaker 1:I graduated from the master's degree and then I went to the presidential elections. I went there and won and it was already a full-time job. I got a salary, I paid taxes and even lived on campus.
Speaker 2:And when you were studying, what did you see in general, In general, the British culture in general, for you.
Speaker 1:Well, I would say that I understood that my English level was not as good as I thought it was, because when I just arrived I started talking to the officers and I realized that I didn't understand them. I was like, oh my God, how am I going to learn if I don't understand small talk? It wasn't easy because sometimes I felt a little when I was talking to students. I was trying to speak Ukrainian, but it was very difficult for me. I was trying, but it was very difficult to choose the words. I also spoke English. Now it's much easier for me to speak English. It was a bit uncomfortable, but you know, I opened up for myself for the first year in London. It was so big, so cool. I just studied. I studied with such pleasure. I was enjoying it. I have luxury brand management. I did everything I love. It's very cool.
Speaker 2:What is luxury? Tell us, so that our the management to know what is a luxury brand.
Speaker 1:We all know luxury brands Rolex, versace, ferrari it's all luxury brands. It can be luxury services, everything that is related to luxury. Luxury is excellence. Luxury is like a product or service. Whatever it is, it's the highest level of a dream. I would say that is. These brands create a picture of a dream that you like and in to live in, and when you buy a product or a luxury service, you somehow feel yourself attached to this dream that the brand created. That was the point.
Speaker 1:I really love my work because I love my job. I love creating brands. If you work with a brand, even if you see a beaver, it's a bit luxury. It's not like we're used to seeing in Ukrainian organizations. I was called Tinkerbell. You know a little bit of gold dust, a little bit of that, a little bit of that. It's about beauty. It's about a very cool service. It's about quality.
Speaker 1:We studied a lot of brands. We put them together. We looked at how it works, why it works, why it doesn't work. I put it all together in a year and a half. I it works and why it doesn't work. I would give up on it for a year and a half. I am very grateful. It's very cool. I would give up again, because the world is changing and a lot of things are changing. It's very interesting. I would go again and take this course again, because I know that now the world is a little different. Now there is a lot of online. Then we were just talking about the fact that Luxe is going online and I was the character who said no, I will never buy anything very expensive online. No, now I buy.
Speaker 2:How has the time changed.
Speaker 1:Very quickly. This shift happened very quickly. Of course, it's thanks to COVID, because when COVID was, by the way, in China, the sale of luxury goods went up. That is, we think that we will get luxury goods when we sit at home. There was a boom, very, very good in China.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're studying, you're finishing Cambridge. What happens next?
Speaker 1:Regents University London.
Speaker 2:Ah, yes.
Speaker 1:Next as an old Ukrainian visa questions.
Speaker 2:And you are not with that guy anymore.
Speaker 1:We parted with him. This is my husband. He was 10 years older than me. We broke up when I became president.
Speaker 2:Not in Cambridge, but in Regency.
Speaker 1:Yes, we broke up and I started to go on a free-floating trip and it was a challenge that taught me a lot. It was a new country. All these visa issues, financial issues, it was all on me and it was cool. I grew up. I still grew up after that.
Speaker 2:You moved here with a visa. You had a visa right.
Speaker 1:I had a student visa and then, when I became president, I had a new student visa because the president visa although it's not so confusing because I paid taxes but I sat on the student visa because there is a notice that the president falls under this category. But when I came here to the UK, even abroad, they asked me how do you pay taxes if you are on a student visa? I showed them that I was watching. This is called sabbatical president. I worked a lot. I did a lot of events. As I said before, there were students of very high level, so if I was having a party, I would close the best clubs in London. We did it there. It was a very cool experience. I did a lot of events Business events. We invited people from the parliament. I did everything. It was such a cool creative job. I thought of something, I did everything. It was such a great creative work that I thought of something and I did it. I had a team. I had everything. I had a budget Very cool, like a mini model of the country.
Speaker 2:So almost the same as you did in China and it is already repeated in London, right, you could say that it is already repeating what you were doing in London, right?
Speaker 1:No, no, no. These are very different things. In China, I was doing business and I was doing modeling. Here I was already leading the organization. I was the voice of 3,500 people and I was the trustee of the university. It was a charity at that time. Now they are already under the organization that Owns Owns a large number of universities, like Marangoni. You know the Institute of.
Speaker 1:Marangoni. So they are under them now, and before that it was an independent charity. I was a trustee there, so I got a very, very great, good experience. Because it was a new level of English for me.
Speaker 2:I had to learn a lot the first year was not easy for me, but the second year I was already mature. Ukrainian people ask you to pitch. Pitching is also a good skill. How did you teach yourself to pitch?
Speaker 1:Practically when I opened my schedule for a day, I had one or two synapses every day. I had a speech there, a speech there I was. It had to happen because I was very open about it. When I was in the parliament not so long ago, I was like this is my city. I feel very bad when I was in Ukraine and didn't know where to go. I was not used as a personality at that time. What happened after Regency? I gathered a lot of things to find a way to make re-elections. It's like real elections, only very small ones. I won these re-elections. I put all my energy into it. I even got sick two weeks after that. I met my husband. At that time I knew that I was still here for a year. I was so busy with this fight that I had any other thoughts and then I thought who wrote to me? I met my husband two months before that. He wrote to me. I didn't reply because I was busy and we very fast, but I think I was just ready.
Speaker 1:I was just not ready for this. I think it was the reason of all my breaking up stories, because I wasn't ready. I was ready here and we were very fast. Maybe I felt something Because we went to Bali, then came back and then lockdown. But another important thing this year was that I had a professor who taught international relationships. He took students to New York for the United Nations module for 16 years. I think you know what it is.
Speaker 2:I know and heard, but I didn't know how to say it.
Speaker 1:He told me about it and I said let's open this opportunity for all students. He said it's not possible, but you should do it. I did it. I was interested in all students. There were a lot of applications. We recruited a group of 20 people from different countries and I was very eager to put Ukraine in the list of the countries we want to represent. I made sure that Ukraine was the first place.
Speaker 1:And we got it. So for 6 months we were studying Ukraine as a delegation and then we invited representatives of the embassies. Andriy Marchenko came. I know his reports. Now he is the head of the Ukrainian Welcome Center. He came. Our students received their funding. We did a lot of work and we got a visa to New York. I was already. I had two interviews in New York. Even the university allocated funding to make a film with us. I promoted Ukraine always. I was the only Ukrainian president in the UK. I was on many presidents' flyers. There was one Russian girl. I was the only Ukrainian and I was whole university. It was a victory for me. I was very proud of it.
Speaker 1:And for the second time in two weeks in the history of the United Nations, we had to go to New York, to the head office of the United Nations in New York. There were 3,000 people from all over the world who went there. We had to read all of this. That's a very big deal and in two weeks they just replaced it. The first time this event was replaced was when the war began and the second time when COVID happened, it was on April 3, 2020. And in two weeks we just let everyone go. That is we prepared for seven months, very, very, very familiar. For me it is heartbreaking because I think that I would have already become a part of this activity then. But we just sat down with my new husband, sat down at home, invited the French bulldog.
Speaker 1:Then I invited my first son and started my own agency, the Brandscan. I started testing it. I hired a lot of clients because I wanted to find my own identity. I understood that I needed to work. I have such a strategy that I don't care what business I work with. It's very cool. I was shocked. I even consulted some tourist topics with dogs. You know, like dogs, dogs and their businesses. I consulted them and they also worked. That is very cool.
Speaker 1:I did about 50 consultations when I was pregnant with David and I prepared my business like that, that is, he works for me, then he sleeps a little. I did it under myself. That is, I did it so that all my knowledge and I have a lot of different directions to apply my knowledge to one place. That's it. I did it and it went very well. It's always with me. When I have time I spend more energy there. But I think that later I will just hire, delegate, hire more teams. I just need to invest a little in the team and it will work.
Speaker 1:I developed this brand very well and people know about it. Then I had my first son. My son became famous all over the world because he was born with white, thick hair like a duvet. I posted some photos of the group and the journalist noticed him and said, oh my God, he was compared to Boris Johnson Starting from the first day. They even pushed me to call him Boris, but it was too much. The journalist noticed him and asked if I wanted to do an interview. She asked if I was against her doing a comparison. I said, okay, go for it. It became viral. We were taken by national newspapers. He was here all around and then he just went around the world.
Speaker 1:I haven't found any country where I wouldn't have found him In Senem right. He was in yellow and he, when they came back to us and interviewed us again and again, I said that we had nothing new.
Speaker 2:This picture was viral.
Speaker 1:Yes, but he was wearing a yellow bodik.
Speaker 2:Send me some photos so I can look at them.
Speaker 1:I will send you a lot of photos. You know we have a this Morning Show. I know they invited us. Then there is a show in Germany, switzerland Red. They talk about celebrities Brad Pitt, angelina Jolie, david Will Smith. It was so fast, so shocking that I was a little scared Because he was so small and it was my first child and I couldn't take him out on the street Because he was very bright with very bright, and everyone recognized it. Some people looked at it very pitifully. Maybe now I already know how it works, I would bring it to some interesting level, but then I was just very, very scared that it would be too much for the child. And yes, they came back to us. When Boris Johnson resigned, the Star Daily Star came back to us. They did a big interview, asked what we think about Boris Johnson, and then the war started. Yes, the war started.
Speaker 2:And I said in the interview that our attitude towards him, very, very.
Speaker 1:I believe that everything that was connected with David had a very positive impact on him, Because David was so sweet and even you know, when we were reposted with millions of comments, there were so many comments. It was crazy. I just didn't give him his Instagram. If he had Instagram, he would have 100-200 thousand followers. There were millions, 6 million, 7 million, 10 million. There were many comments, but I didn't see any bad comments. I can say that it was a great success for us. I really want to meet Boris Johnson. I want him to sign the newspaper autographs. I was invited to an event that took place many weeks ago.
Speaker 2:I didn't go there, I didn't know he was going to be there. Who organized?
Speaker 1:it. It wasn't an organization. They cooperated with us and we organized the next event.
Speaker 2:It was the individuals who organized it, I would have seen a lot of Ukrainians there.
Speaker 1:It was an individual event, not an organization. The organization was ours.
Speaker 2:I see how did you start working with your husband as the director of his company.
Speaker 1:I think we are a very cool couple and we complement each other a lot. He saw me from this perspective because I was already very smart. I had great connections, I was in a position. When I finally opened myself, I was confident. I was academically very well, very, very understated, and he's very cool in practice. That is, he's a genius. Very cool in construction. That is, he knows all the whole spectrum. Construction starts with demolition and finish, that is, and he's such a perfectionist he is very good at implementing himself. I was very opposed to it for the first two years. I didn't want to. I wanted to. It's mine, it's yours. It was very difficult. I helped a little but I didn't give myself up, although I like the idea of real estate. It's a great business.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe because I valued my independence a lot and it was very hard for me to cooperate, yes to cooperate and give up, to say, okay, this is my family, this is my safe place, I shouldn't hold on to my…. Yes, I decided to be in business. I have already studied it. I am a director now.
Speaker 2:What helped you to make this decision?
Speaker 1:You know, it's a great business. It brings a great income and a very strong potential for development. I think that my husband and I should have also been careful, and now it's very cool for us to work together and I like this business. I think that we have already planted a lot of seeds. I think that it will soon be a great success. He has 25 years of experience here and he's great in his own way, and I'm a visionary, a person who understands the strategy of the brand and business. We work very well together.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:I would say that in the last year or so I have been very actively interested in law. I mean, I didn't like documents. I had to read them. Then life forced me to and I realized that it was a great thing to do. I even thought about studying to become a lawyer, but I don't know. It's been 6 years, it's been a long time. But practically't want to hide anything. I like everything. I just need to delegate.
Speaker 2:You know, you said many times before this podcast, you said delegation. Why Is it difficult for you to?
Speaker 1:delegate yes, I used to. It's about trust. I think it's a question of trust. Nobody can do it better than me and you have to spend so much time explaining it to a person. I was very afraid. I thought it would take more time than if I do it myself, but I started practicing delegating and I can say that I was lucky how do you say it in Ukrainian? Lucky, yes, I met very cool people who did a great job. I fell in love with the idea of delegation and I'm just waiting for the time when I can accumulate investments and throw them there, there, there, there, and my management skills are much better now.
Speaker 1:I was in charge of a team of 16 people only executives and each person had their own team, a big team, yes, yes, and the first year I was one person. The second year I was a more tough person. This is part of me. For me, it's not a problem to work and be a leader, to lead people. So now it's a question, as I told you before the podcast, that I don't really want volunteers. I want people to get money and salary.
Speaker 2:And so, even now, I would beat the team, I would find people, but I don't want to found a partner, to found Bubu.
Speaker 1:Where is your mission now? Where is she now? Olga Namik she gathered us together and we five women started brainstorming the idea of the organization. I was one of the experts in brand marketing, visual things, so I pushed the organization to be less community-like or club-like, more influential like an NGO or something like this, and I made the brand with this goal, with this vision. I think we did a great job, because at first even some women, girls they say oh, you are so cold, it seems that you need to knock on your door. And I wanted it to be take responsibility. This was our mission, our idea. Of course, we were looking for ourselves At first. We were looking for ourselves a lot. There were some perturbations. At first one person came out, then another came out Because it was still not clear what and how, and this is the time.
Speaker 2:And what year did you decide.
Speaker 1:It was in December 2021, but when the war started, we realized that first organization that gathered all the leaders of Ukrainian organizations for brainstorming it was at the Loughborough University. It was all crying and trying to figure out what to do next. And then we decided to make a program for women that would support. When we found out that many Ukrainians were planning to come here because they had been opened up to the visa, we made a program that supported women. In fact, olga Yaryna and I stayed and ran this program. We did events. We did a lot meet and greet for all our Ukrainians. We were completely volunteering for a year and then I got pregnant again.
Speaker 1:I was pregnant until the 9th month when we held a big event with the Polish prince, who unfortunately died. I was two weeks before the. We completed the program. We did a lot. I sent you a presentation. There are big numbers and after that I realized that I gave it.
Speaker 1:Now it's me and Yaryna. I really liked this partner. She is incredible, she is very cool and it's very easy for us to go on together. I think that if it were Yaryna or just me, it wouldn't feel that I had this energy to give everything I had, and then we came back very quickly because the brand stayed there and the reputation was very good. People knew about us and remember us, recommend us. That's why they came to us when the Azov delegation came to help with the event, and so we got to the parliament and it somehow turned around. And turned around. Yesterday we were in the Ukrainian embassy and you know, I think it's time to fulfill point number 6 of our program, which is to help implement the acquired knowledge here in the UK, because I know that many of our businesswomen, businessmen, return to Ukraine and, as we know, in Ukraine business works very… they return back.
Speaker 1:Yes, they are coming back why? Because they understand that someone is coming back patriotic, wants to rebuild the country, Someone feels that they are in their own place. We have business, friends, everything. We believe that, the experience they have here. I think this is a very important mission that we should think about now to be ready when the time comes.
Speaker 2:Interesting what you say because a lot of Ukrainians ask me how to stay in this country.
Speaker 1:Yes, a lot. But a lot of people want to return Because, you know, if everyone stays in Ukraine, then maybe it will be, but a lot of Ukrainians have already returned. I know A lot of people just go, just go. Many can live in two countries. Our mission is to help those who go, Because I think that those who came and who want to stay, we no longer need them. I think that everything they should have taken from us they have already adopted it.
Speaker 2:That's why we closed the program, because we don't think it's relevant and those who haven't adapted well…. But it's the same, tatyana. I want to be with Ukrainians, I work with Ukrainians, I study with Ukrainians. I go to discos, read Ukrainian books, watch Ukrainian movies.
Speaker 1:It's a choice. It's not just about Ukrainians. It's a choice. There are many nations that someone chooses and someone is with his own people. I, for example, love to integrate wherever I am, and that's it. If they want it, that's ok, but it makes sense.
Speaker 2:What advice would you give to Ukrainians who want to build a successful business in Britain?
Speaker 1:It would be great to start with education. If you have the opportunity to learn, then learn. You just need to understand. If you go to study, you will understand what I mean. You don't even need to reveal something here. Networking, yes, but please, please, study local culture. I brought a lot from Ukraine and the fact that I am Ukrainian helped me a lot, but the first thing I had was respect for local culture and understanding how I can implement and adapt what I know and what I can do here. And this is what works, because local people feel it. When you come and think that I am the most intelligent of all, I may be more intelligent, but I respect you first.
Speaker 1:I will share my knowledge with you. This respect is very important. So learning is important. Integration is important. Think about this country, watch and observe. Your vision is possible, right? What are your long-term goals for your businesses that you are currently working on? I want to be a member of the parliament. We want to have our own voice in the parliament. We want to work closely with the embassy which we started to do and make such a great service. Make stars, star brands. Events attract interesting people, celebrities. I like it.
Speaker 2:How do you see yourself or the Ukrainian community that is developing in the UK? I?
Speaker 1:want to stay myself. It's important for me. I won't adapt for Ukraine, to promote Ukraine to the whole world. I always did it. Now I have more opportunities. I also want my sons to be proud of me. Titan, I have two questions for you makes sense. I think that the values, this respect, this kindness you know it's not judgment, it's giving people to be who they are. It was always important for me, but in Ukraine it's a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2:And the last question how can our listeners and our leaders find you, make a collaboration with you? Where can they find you, what social collaboration with you, where to find you, what social networks you have? What is on your site?
Speaker 1:Instagram works very well. This is Tatiana Doronina and Bubva Association.
Speaker 2:I have Instagram, so it's to me where to find information, please. Everything is in the description. Tatiana, thank you for being on the KZ Talks podcast, for telling your story, how she came to China and other countries, how she came to Britain, how she developed here, ukraine.
