Transcription
Hey guys, welcome to Silicon Valley Girl, episode 5. Today you're gonna see my ordinary day. And as you know, I'm an entrepreneur running a company—an international company—and I also run three channels on YouTube. So if you want to know how my average day looks like, please continue watching this video. [Music]
Rule number one: when I wake up in the morning, I don't take my phone. I don't check anything, because you know what? I have 168 messages on Telegram. I'm afraid to check my huge shoe for comments, so I just put it away and I start my morning by, you know, making sure I look good, and then I make porridge for breakfast.
Yesterday I went to see a new doctor—acupuncture—she's included in my insurance, and I'm like, okay, I'll just go and see her because I'm already paying for it, so why not? And she told me that I have to stop drinking milk and that I have to stop eating gluten because that causes inflammation in an adult body. And I'm like, I just bought my favorite milk, so let's see. I'm gonna visit her in three days because I want to finish this milk first. Let me know in comments below, guys, if you stopped drinking milk and what age were you when you stopped. I know I love it, and I know I get weird cravings when I stop drinking milk—like I started eating cheese like crazy—so it's gonna be a challenge for me. I have to stop, and I have to stop for at least six weeks to see what's going on with my body.
Okay, breakfast time. And this is when I checked my social media. First thing I do, I check my Instagram. I posted yesterday night, and overnight I got 15,800 likes. My goal is to reach 20,000 someday. I think I'm on track. This is pretty good—like 15,000 likes per night is good. Lingua Reena, we have 497,000 subscribers, so I think today or tomorrow we're gonna celebrate 500. And I always check comments. The next thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go into this Telegram; it already has 182 messages. I will just have to go through them. So while I eat my porridge, you're gonna do that.
When you are an entrepreneur, entrepreneur, your life is ups and downs. So I have this big team now, and we have a lot of clients, and this means like sometimes in the evening, like, "Oh my god, everything is so cool, we're growing well," and then in the morning I wake up and we have a lot of people in Europe, like Russia, Ukraine, and when I wake up, I get information from them, and they like, for all of the problems on me. I don't know, maybe some conflicts within the company, or something is not working on the website, preventing clients from bookings, or, you know, there are so many things that are going on in the company within just one day. So I don't really like mornings because all of the information just, you know, comes in, and I have to handle it. I think the most important thing for an entrepreneur is to be calm and to realize this is all a process—like when you work, it's okay; you have to have problems in order to grow; you have to deal with them in order to grow as an entrepreneur and as a personality.
For the next couple of hours, I was supposed to have a call with YouTube today, but they rescheduled, which is a good thing because I didn't realize this morning's gonna be so crazy. Because sometimes mornings are okay; this one is crazy. So I'm gonna just sit here with my tea and, you know, deal with whatever is going on. [Music] [Music]
Coffee break. We're going to the fifth floor. I have a very smart house, so we basically have everything: we have co-working spaces, we have a coffee machine—which is the most important thing—we have a gym, we have a swimming pool. I think the next vlog will be the review of the whole house, so if you're not yet subscribed to this channel, please subscribe to see it. And now, yeah, let's go grab some coffee.
I think one of the most important things when you're an entrepreneur is to actually switch off from running your company, and for me this is cooking. And this is why I love working from home. I can just, you know, switch off my computer and go to my kitchen and cook something. And when I cook, I would normally listen either to my favorite blogger, who's currently Gary Vaynerchuk—Vaynerchuk—I really admire how he runs the company. I think he has more than 800 employees. I'm in touch with his office, and then we're trying to schedule a meeting, and the guy who was working for him, yeah, he told me that it's like 800 employees, and then he also has employees who manage his personal brand. So either I listen to his vlogs or I listen to an audiobook—an Audible—like I'm currently listening to Dale Carnegie's "How to Influence People." So learning stuff while cooking. And I think switching between activities is the best rest. So some people tell me like, "Oh, Marina, you need to just, you know, sit at home and watch TV; you need to get some rest." For me, that's not rest; for me, that's wasting time. When I'm in the office, I cannot just cook in the office because we have like—we have an office in St. Petersburg; we have like a co-working space here in San Francisco—so I can't do that there, or I need another one.
First thing, I love switching between activities, and second thing, when I'm in the office, somehow people cannot solve problems without me. So I come to the office, and I start answering questions like, "How do I do that? How do I do this?" But when I'm at home, especially when I'm in a different time zone, they would somehow solve all of the problems themselves, which I love, love, love. I also think that it's very important for an entrepreneur to stay creative. When I get into a routine too deeply, like when I go into micromanagement and checking everything, I just lose this creative side. And my task in the company is to stay creative, to think of new products, I listen to customers and think how I can improve their lives, and if I just sit and micromanage all of the employees, this is impossible. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music]
I have to continue working while eating because messages keep coming in, and they're coming from people in Europe, and it's almost—well, the guy who's texting me, it's 1:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m. in his place, so I need to finish. I think what is school, and you're an entrepreneur, and you realized that business is actually what you are; you don't really feel stressed about everything that's going on during the day because this is your life; this is everything you do. 2012, when we were just studying—language trip—so we've been in Dimona; we've been in business together since 2011. And when we're starting Winger Trip, there was the same exact company, like the same concept, going on through the top accelerator in Russia, and when I found out, it was like, okay, we're done, because then the best accelerator—I would react to every problem like that—like this is the end of the world, "Oh my god, she's quitting; the company is gonna, you know, finish existing," and Dima's like, "Why do you take this so seriously? You're an entrepreneur; this is business." Just like there are no businesses without problems; you have to learn, you have to learn how to handle. And when we were not making money, he said to me—anyone—that was like before the New Year's Day, and oh, maybe it was actually the New Year's Day, and he sent me a Lufthansa P&L report, and Lufthansa was like making a hundred million in losses, and I'm like, okay, that makes me feel better; we have less losses. If you're a leader, you should take it—power from this situation and from completely competitors; I mean, it should give you an extra, yeah, for a competitor; this way I'm gonna, I'm gonna crush them. Yeah, this is how it works. Now, before that, because this is my first business, I've never done business before, never worked for any company, and like everything is for the first time.
Yesterday my doctor asked me like, "How do you describe your stress level from one to ten?" And like, I'm close to one; I'm not stressed at all; I'm fine; like I'm dealing—I know something can happen every day—like every day I wake up, and yes, maybe I have this fear of taking messages, but you know, I just go with the flow. Another thing that I wanted to add is maybe I have the opposite problem, and I've read this, and people have—from—I cannot rest; I hate weekends. Somebody tells me like, "Marina, you have to rest," and I try to stay away from my phone for a day; I cannot do that. I'm like, I want to create content; I want to take pictures; it's like what if we're going to a park; I cannot just lay down and, you know, enjoy the nature; I'm like, I'm gonna take—I want to create content for my Instagram. I don't feel that I need to lay down for like two days in a week and just do nothing. I think a couple of hours of Westworld in Silicon Valley is enough for me, and maybe some lurking on Instagram for like an hour. Well, my mom always told me like when I was a child, my parents made sure that I didn't have a free minute during the day, and they told me, "Maria, when you changed activities, you rest." So I started with school 9:00 a.m.; I went to school; I finished school at 2:00 p.m.; and because I didn't have time to do my homework in the evening, I had to do my homework during the breaks on the window at school. Then I came back home, had dinner, then I had my singing class, then I have a piano class, then it came back home to have some dinner, and then I went to a music hall, which is a theater where I danced. So everything was like back to back back.
It's 3:30 p.m., and it's the time of the day when I feel more relaxed because the European office is already asleep, so I'm more relaxed, and I try to work from my sofa or maybe from a bedroom. And right now I am uploading my new video to my Russian YouTube channel, and then I'm gonna write a post for my Instagram. After that, I'm gonna do some sport, and then I'm gonna film another video. So that's a sort of a crazy day, but what is really relaxing in this apartment is the view. In the morning, I try to look this way, and I see the financial center, and I imagine people running around offices, like everyone is working, but closer to the end of the day, I look that way, and that's the ocean; it changes its color every single hour. In the morning it's gray; right now it's like blue and green, and it's so relaxing. [Music]
Okay, it's almost 7:00 p.m. I've just finished reading a post for my Instagram, and the next thing to just go to Fluent Express and check it because every time, character is finding mistakes. Every time. I've been learning English since I was 4; I've lived in the States for 3 years, and I still make mistakes in my writing, but it's good to have somebody to check everything. And today's post is about how I'm surprised that many people have said that they're 25 and they can't figure out what they want to do in their lives; they basically don't realize that they have like 45 years to live, and it takes on average five years to become proficient in a specific field that you do. So if you started your YouTube blog and dedicate every day to becoming better at it, in five years you can be one of the top YouTubers if that's really yours. So the post is about that. I've also filmed a video for my Russian channel, went to a grocery store, and I was showing people how rich Americans eat. Right now I'm off to sports, and I'm starting to relax. Let's go to the gym because sport is an important part of our lives. So like dinner, we have some leftovers from lunch, and I'm gonna make some asparagus; it's asparagus season—supposed to be really good—some cherries, tea, and that's it. That's it. Almost. I'm super tired.
The last thing that I do is check my Insta post on Fluent Express, and today I've done so many mistakes; you can tell that I'm tired. And my basic mistake—I freaked out using "a" and "the"—because in Russian we don't have that, and I just keep omitting that stuff. I just created a story for my Instagram. I hope you guys subscribed, and you're gonna see the story. This is my tradition, and every evening before I post a post on Instagram, I go to Fluent Express, check the text that I've written, and if there is something very important for you to know, I would definitely share it on my Instagram in the story, so you would learn with me. So just posted a new photo on my Instagram—already 52 likes—let's refresh, let's see—hey, how's my 61? Okay, I've already posted my Russian video; let's see how it's doing—just came out—342 views. And the thing that I do always when I post a new video, I reply to the first comments, and I also like the first people who commented, so I'm gonna spend like 10 minutes replying to comments, and then, then I'm off to bed. And that's it.
Alright guys, I am answering some comments on my Instagram, and I'm ready to go to bed. It's 10:20; I'm ready to fall asleep. Actually, the last thing that I do before I fall asleep is a look at this beautiful, magnificent city. It's summer in San Francisco, which means that it's really foggy. Carl—different—that's his name, and he came back today, and it's really cold, but I can—I love this weather because it makes me work. So 10:20, falling asleep and waking up at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow and starting all over again. Please let me know if you enjoyed watching this video; what do you think about my day? Like, is it crazy or is it not really exciting? Waiting to see your comments below. If you're not yet subscribed to this channel, don't forget to subscribe and like this one, and I'll see you soon. Bye-bye. [Music]