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Index/Marketing/Email Einstein Ingenious eCommerce Email Marketing by Flowium
Email Einstein Ingenious eCommerce Email Marketing by Flowium artwork

Final Episode: Business Lessons on Pivoting, Pausing, and Growth

Email Einstein Ingenious eCommerce Email Marketing by Flowium · 2025-12-23 · 32 min

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Key moments - from our scoring

Substance score

21 / 100

Five dimensions, 20 points each

Insight Density4 / 20
Originality3 / 20
Guest Caliber5 / 20
Specificity & Evidence6 / 20
Conversational Craft3 / 20

In this final episode of Email Einstein, Andriy and Vira tackle the difficult decision of when to stop pursuing a project versus pushing through - a challenge every business owner faces when managing limited resources. Andriy opens with ImmigrantPorada, a five-year Ukrainian immigrant community project that, while financially unsuccessful, created a 70,000-member Facebook group and led him to meet Vira and eventually found Flowium. He explains that pausing wasn't giving up but strategically reallocating resources to support his team. Vira shares how her Viral English online course - born from a viral YouTube video teaching English through immersion rather than grammar - became her entry into marketing and led to learning email marketing, ultimately connecting her with Andriy. Both discuss their mobile home flipping venture (40 homes flipped) and emphasize the importance of the "Pole Pole" principle - slowly, one step at a time - learned from climbing Kilimanjaro. The episode frames pivoting as intelligent resource management rather than failure, particularly relevant for founders balancing multiple initiatives and team payroll.

Key takeaways

  • →Strategic pivoting isn't failure - it's reallocating limited resources (money, time, people) toward higher-ROI initiatives when running a sustainable business.
  • →Five years of consistent focus on email marketing with Flowium, despite starting from zero awareness, led to bidding on world-known brands and major enterprise deals.
  • →Side projects can seed future opportunities: ImmigrantPorada led to meeting your co-founder, Viral English taught marketing fundamentals, and mobile home flipping taught cash flow lessons.
  • →The 'Pole Pole' principle - focusing on one step at a time rather than the overwhelming final goal - removes paralysis and enables progress on ambitious projects.
  • →Knowing when to pause a project (like discontinuing a course when you've given everything you can teach) differs from abandoning it; the content and relationships created still deliver long-term value.

Topics in this episode

YouTube content strategyFacebook GroupsCash Flow ManagementEmail Einstein PodcastImmigrantPoradaFlowiumViral EnglishMobile home flippingEmail marketing servicesPole Pole principle

Questions this episode answers

When should you stop pursuing a business project or idea?

When continuing requires resources you need elsewhere to sustain your team and primary business, or when you've extracted all the value and knowledge you can from it. It's not about failure but strategic reallocation based on ROI and business priorities.

How did Flowium grow from zero to bidding on major global brands?

Through five years of consistent focus on email marketing services, grinding on one thing without distraction, and building expertise - despite starting with almost no awareness compared to Vira's viral English videos at the time.

What did Andriy learn from buying and flipping 40 mobile homes?

Hard lessons in cash flow management, particularly when selling on terms (payment plans) rather than upfront, which taught him the difference between profit on paper and actual available capital.

How did the ImmigrantPorada Facebook group help launch careers when it wasn't financially successful?

The 70,000-member group created network effects where members found jobs through posts, relocated to cities, started businesses together, and some got married - demonstrating social value beyond direct revenue.

What is the 'Pole Pole' principle and how does it apply to business?

A Swahili saying meaning 'slowly, slowly' learned at Kilimanjaro: focus only on your next single step rather than the overwhelming final goal, trust the process, and avoid analysis paralysis on ambitious projects.

What our scoring noted

Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.

Insight Density

4 / 20

The episode is almost entirely personal storytelling and farewell sentiments, with fewer than two actionable ideas in 32 minutes. The one semi-useful heuristic - testing marketing channels in 3-month chunks - is mentioned briefly and never elaborated. Everything else is anecdote or platitude.

let's say from marketing perspective we like testing things in three months chunks. Like if we church one channel for three months. If we still see it doesn't bring us enough either leads or deals, but it's still in our price range, will continue for next three months.
I take cash flow over profit, basically both. But cash flow is number one.

Originality

3 / 20

Every concept raised is a well-worn cliché: don't quit too soon (illustrated with the ubiquitous digging-for-diamonds cartoon), 'one step at a time' from a mountain climb, and 'trust the process.' There is no contrarian or first-principles thinking anywhere in the episode.

on social media there's popular not meme but cartoon where the guy is digging, digging like I don't know, tunnel. And one gave up and went back. Another is like inch from like, finding bunch of gold or diamonds.
pole, pole, which means like slowly, slowly. They say, do not think about your final goal. All you have to care about is just one step

Guest Caliber

5 / 20

There is no external guest - this is a two-host farewell episode. Both hosts have legitimate practitioner backgrounds (email marketing agency, real estate side ventures) but the conversation never draws on that expertise in any depth; they are sharing personal reminiscence rather than domain knowledge.

we flipped 40, 40 mobile homes. I can consider myself expert, probably forgot things already
I don't have a formula. It just feels right at the moment.

Specificity & Evidence

6 / 20

A handful of concrete numbers exist - mobile home purchase prices, renovation costs, selling terms, Facebook group size - but they are all personal anecdotes unconnected to replicable business lessons. No named companies, no outcome metrics for Flowium itself, and no data a B2B operator could use.

we were fixing for maybe $10,000 and we were selling those for around $15000-$20,000. Like with small down payment, $1,000-$2,000 down and for five years $300
It cost me around $500 a month to run it

Conversational Craft

3 / 20

There is no interviewer-guest dynamic; it is an unstructured mutual reminiscence with no probing questions, no follow-up, and no pushback. The prompts are maximally open-ended and the conversation frequently drifts into tangents (Spotify Wrapped, a childhood detective bureau) with no attempt to extract learnable lessons.

Tell me and I'll tell you later as well about the project. Maybe a few projects. We can start with one project or idea that did not work out or maybe it worked for some time but then you decided to consciously close it down. It can be anything.
Nice. Smart. Well, my business experience is not as big as yours

Conversation analysis

Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.

Most-used words

andriy31project22first18started18vira16didn14youtube14money14flowium14marketing13decided11email10podcast10projects10mobile10back9

Episode notes

12 - This is the final episode of the Email Einstein podcast. After five years of hosting the show, Vira and Andriy reflect on their journey. They talk about how to decide whether to keep pushing a project or bring it to a close. You will hear why ending a project is not failure. It is a strategic decision. Through personal stories, real business experiences, and lessons learned from projects that thrived (and others that didn’t), this episode explores how iteration, timing, and self-awareness shape long-term success. This may be the final episode, but the growth, learning, and connections continue. Claim your free email marketing audit!

Full transcript

32 min

Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.

1 - > Vira: Hello everyone and welcome back to 2 - > the last episode of Email Einstein Podcast. 3 - > Spoiler alert. I spoiled it from the very beginning. 4 - > And: You spoiled it in the first 15 seconds.

5 - > Vira: First 15 seconds. But I wanted just like to start 6 - > from this. But we still have prepared a lot of fun things for 7 - > you guys today. So Andriy, say hi.

8 - > Andriy: Hey. Hey everybody. 9 - > I did spoil it at the beginning even though I did kind of 10 - > didn't learn anything. Well, it's kind of like a bittersweet 11 - > moment for me.

I know probably for you as well because it's been five 12 - > years since we've been doing this podcast. 13 - > But we came to the realization that I 14 - > guess it's a good time to wrap it up together. Put a 15 - > nice bow on it. It's a Christmas time, end of the year, New year, New 16 - > you kind of thing.

But it's been an amazing experience and I'm like so, so, 17 - > so grateful to everyone who listened to this podcast, to everyone 18 - > who co hosted this podcast, to all of your amazing questions 19 - > and Andriy, what are we going to be talking today on our last 20 - > episode of the year and of the podcast as well. 21 - > Introduce the topic. 22 - > I don't even know how to call it. 23 - > Like they're like short and sweet.

But basically the idea 24 - > here is when should you stop on any project 25 - > or business or when should you continue? Because on 26 - > social media there's popular not meme but cartoon 27 - > where the guy is digging, digging like I don't 28 - > know, tunnel. And one gave up and went back. 29 - > Another is like inch from like, finding 30 - > bunch of gold or diamonds.

31 - > So the moral of the story, like do not give up 32 - > too soon. Basically. 33 - > Vir: Yeah, I think five years we are not giving up, you guys. You're still going 34 - > to see our beautiful faces on YouTube and stuff.

35 - > It's just. Yeah, we decided to play a little bit with 36 - > the format so we will still keep delivering all of 37 - > the value, email marketing value to you. But you'll probably 38 - > see us more on YouTube so definitely subscribe there 39 - > as a business owner. 40 - > Andriy: So I'll talk from my perspective as a business owner.

And 41 - > it's not only about podcasts, it's about anything you do in the business. 42 - > You're dedicating certain amount of resources. It's like 43 - > money, time, people, some. Some other resources 44 - > to certain things.

45 - > And especially in marketing department we are 46 - > like at this moment we have 17 or even more actually with 47 - > AI things now we have more than 17 48 - > leads. Lead channels where people are finding out about us, 49 - > requesting more information from us and we are closing them 50 - > like in deals, in projects. 51 - > So as a business owner, at the end of the day, it's not like what I like 52 - > or don't like, but what makes more sense from 53 - > business perspective because we have a quite a significant 54 - > team of people and I'm personally responsible for each of 55 - > them, like to provide enough work to make sure 56 - > that like payment is on time.

So it's not giving up, 57 - > but it's just strategically shifting resources. 58 - > Cool. So let's play a little game. 59 - > Andriy, you're a good storyteller.

So let's play a 60 - > little game. 61 - > Tell me and I'll tell you later as well about the project. 62 - > Maybe a few projects. We can start with one project or idea that 63 - > did not work out or maybe it worked for some time but then 64 - > you decided to consciously close it down.

It can be anything. 65 - > Andriy: Actually this is how we met. Actually this is how 66 - > I have a story about the project and from maybe 67 - > financially was not successful, but this is how I met you 68 - > through your husband actually how you met your husband and met you. So 69 - > ImmigrantPorada was Ukrainian project that I was running for four 70 - > or five years.

I had like recorded like YouTube, 71 - > podcasts, wrote around like 400 different articles 72 - > on different topics for Ukrainian immigrants here in 73 - > US how to like to adapt to this lifestyle. 74 - > It was fun project. 75 - > I dedicated a lot of my time there. 76 - > Some money of course like it was around.

It cost me around 77 - > $500 a month to run it. But I dedicated a lot of my time. 78 - > Oh actually and wrote a book in Ukrainian as well as part of this 79 - > project. It took me two years to write that book and it probably was the 80 - > hardest thing for me to put things like on 81 - > pause.

Actually it still exists. 82 - > I'm still a member of that group on Facebook. 83 - > Andriy: So we the most successful part of that was 84 - > a Facebook group which one were the full scale 85 - > war started Invasion of Russia to Ukraine 86 - > started group went from like 20,000 87 - > members to 50 and now it's over 60 or 88 - > 70,000 subs like people. 89 - > And there's quite a interesting story.

90 - > There are some people who moved to New York and they 91 - > posted in the group. There's no work that somebody said, oh, move to our 92 - > city like Rochester they moved to Rochester, met with other people. 93 - > There are some people who met through that group and get 94 - > got married. Some people like started businesses.

95 - > You created a machine, Andriy. 96 - > So if we're talking about business, if we talking about like kind 97 - > of financial gain, it was not successful and I had to support 98 - > my family. At that moment I quit my job and 99 - > this is basically how started Flowium started. So I, my, 100 - > I, I shifted my time resource from that 101 - > project to Flowium because I need to survive.

So it's as 102 - > simple as that. If I had money, maybe I will continue 103 - > that project. But at that moment I had to shift to Flowium. 104 - > But from social perspective there's a 105 - > bunch of cool stories.

106 - > No, that's interesting Andriy, how it actually brought you to if 107 - > you think about it that your first experience Immigrant 108 - > Porada was actually what started Flowium in a way or 109 - > you kind of had to start Flowium and now Dignitas is like kind of all 110 - > makes sense. Like when you put puzzle together it somehow all works. 111 - > But going back to new beginning yourself. Oh, I have 112 - > so many stories.

My first story of the project that I decided to close 113 - > in like a day was probably when I was 8 year old. Me and my best 114 - > friend, we used to live together in this like apartment complex. We had a bunch of kids 115 - > growing up together and at one point we decided to open 116 - > a bureau, like a detective bureau. You know 117 - > the one that kind of like finds out the criminal and everyone.

118 - > No, like for real. I was eight, I think she was seven. But we needed 119 - > to have some kind of like crime to solve and we lived in a very good area. Not much 120 - > crime was happening in our area but apparently one of our neighbors lost 121 - > their cat and we thought that this would be our kind of like a big 122 - > breakout, you know, that we will find that cat and become heroes.

123 - > Turned out the cat was just like sleeping at home. And 124 - > yeah, that thing didn't work out because the cat was 125 - > just like sleeping at home. We didn't find it, it found itself. 126 - > So we had to close that business in a day.

On the different 127 - > note though, how I found out about you Andriy, how I 128 - > like learned about what you're doing and first got 129 - > introduced to you. The reason I got introduced to you was 130 - > because I was doing my own project back in the day called Viral English. 131 - > One day I moved from Toronto to this little town 132 - > in west Canada. 133 - > Just don't tell me that you learn English from me.

134 - > Vira: No, Andriy, but I actually reached out to you because I needed some 135 - > help with email marketing and I don't remember how, 136 - > but from being your. From like a consultancy. You 137 - > preached this to me and then we started working together. I don't remember 138 - > how it all started, but basically you were.

I first came to you 139 - > with like email marketing questions and then a few months later I was like 140 - > working with you guys. So it can all change very fast. 141 - > Andriy: So long time ago. 142 - > Vir: It was before Flowium was a Flowium.

Actually it was when Flowium was 143 - > email marketing nyc. But yeah, that was like one of my. 144 - > Or even before that that was like one of my semi successful 145 - > projects actually. And I don't regret having it.

But long story short, 146 - > English is not my first language and I ever since I remember myself I was 147 - > trying to learn it but I was like the worst student. The grammar was 148 - > not easy for me. Like learning English was so, so difficult to me until 149 - > I learned about this method that I'm like still to this day is preaching 150 - > like learning English like, like kids do, you know, not by 151 - > reading the language but by listening, by memorizing things 152 - > and stuff like that.

And I'm like a big believer 153 - > in the fact that this method works. And one day I was 154 - > remember I was looking for a job in Kelowna, we just moved and I just sat 155 - > with camera on the lakeside and recorded this video that 156 - > surprisingly became so popular. It was back in the day when YouTube was still not 157 - > a huge thing but it started being like big. It was like 158 - > 2015 or 16 probably maybe earlier.

159 - > And that video became so, so popular to the point that people started 160 - > reaching out to me asking if I want to be their English teacher. 161 - > And mind I still don't know English grammar to this day. I probably 162 - > use most of the time correct grammar but I can't explain how it 163 - > works. But at some point I realized that there is a need 164 - > for a product like this and I recorded my very first online 165 - > English course using this method that worked for me and I 166 - > thought that it would work for other people and it was semi successful.

167 - > I did have my first online sales and to do that I had 168 - > to learn everything about like building a website and promoting your 169 - > course and building this like platform and taking the payments and 170 - > everything. And it was like what 2015, I was 171 - > like so new to that I had to purchase a course. And that's how I started learning 172 - > the basics of marketing. 173 - > And after that that's how I reach out to you for help with 174 - > email marketing.

And that's how my previous job found me 175 - > through that online course that I started. 176 - > So it all worked out. I decided not to continue with 177 - > that just because I think I gave everything That I had to 178 - > that project and I don't have anything else to teach people. This is like so 179 - > basic.

I still have a lot of content online. People are still using it 180 - > but I just don't didn't want to make it, you know like the. The 181 - > thing of my life, like the main project of my life. But it was so cool 182 - > that I get to learn a lot of things.

I get to make my first 183 - > online money. And this was like so exciting receiving that first 40 184 - > something dollars. It was like my first check ever. Best decision ever.

185 - > So I don't regret it. But was it a flop? I don't think 186 - > so. But at some point I realized that I do have to stop 187 - > spending money and efforts on that and focus my attention 188 - > on something else.

189 - > Andriy: So yeah, a funny thing I remember with that video at 190 - > that moment years ago was around like 50,000 views 191 - > and we were recording at Flowium. 192 - > It wasn't even Flowium back then but we were like just few views 193 - > per video and I'm like I have a personal YouTube channel. It's like 194 - > random stuff. And the most viewed video 195 - > at Flowium got maybe 25 to 30,000 views.

At my 196 - > personal channel where I'm repairing coffee 197 - > maker is like over 60,000 views. 198 - > I didn't know about the channel. 199 - > That's so funny. 200 - > It's like my husband who became TikTok popular 201 - > with video that was teaching people how to install that 202 - > holder for Dyson it's like literally the content that you can find 203 - > anywhere on the Internet.

But he recorded it and he got so 204 - > many subscribers and he spent maybe like two minutes putting it together. But 205 - > yeah, you never know what will work. But that video is still 206 - > online. It's like so cringe worthy to me like to watch 207 - > it and I have a lot of videos.

It's not like one video, it's just. 208 - > It's like so weird looking back at yourself like listening to that. That 209 - > like poor quality of video that like audio. But I think 210 - > it's still valuable.

So it got me to where I am 211 - > today. So I'm very happy about it. 212 - > An: Yeah. And even if you listen like you you still listening to 213 - > us right now and you are at your.

Is this business 214 - > journey or like career journey? Freelancing 215 - > journey. We are talking about like dedicating resources 216 - > shifting. But if you decided to do something, let's say even it was email 217 - > marketing.

If you want to either build email marketing for your brand 218 - > or provide email marketing services. If you're focusing 219 - > you grinding you will succeed 100%. This is how 220 - > Flowium started. Like nobody knew us but now 221 - > we are at the top agencies.

We're bidding on the 222 - > world known brands. Right now. We have one of the 223 - > biggest deal of our life. 224 - > I would not say the name, but.

225 - > I so badly want to say it. I'm like so proud that we're part of that project. 226 - > Like 10 year old doesn't mean literally celebrating right now. 227 - > Andriy: But people in Alaska and people 228 - > in Zanzibar.

229 - > Zanzibar. People like in India, like everybody knows 230 - > that brand, so. Which. It's a huge.

231 - > We didn't win yet, but I'm very, very confident that we 232 - > will win that project. But it shows you that like 233 - > grinding and like focusing on one thing 234 - > gave us a lot of. A lot of opportunities. 235 - > Yeah, yeah, that's true.

That's something that our trip to 236 - > Kilimanjaro also taught me. Like one step at a time. That was like such a 237 - > big lesson to me. And I started practicing it more and more because I 238 - > was like one of those people who were scared of like grand 239 - > and big projects to the point that I was like having an idea but 240 - > not starting them because I didn't have an idea of how to 241 - > get there, you know.

But when we were at Kilimanjaro, they have this 242 - > like famous saying meaning pole, pole, which means like 243 - > slowly, slowly. They say, do not think about your 244 - > final goal. All you have to care about is just one step, 245 - > one step at a time. So just think about your next step.

Do not 246 - > overthink it. Take one step, take another step and trust the 247 - > process. So that's pretty much something that I took from that 248 - > trip. Yeah.

249 - > What next question do you have? 250 - > For me, it's the same question just about the different projects. 251 - > Andriy. 252 - > Andriy: Actually, it was before Flowium, me and 253 - > my sister back in 2012, I believe, or 2013, we 254 - > learned about mobile homes, which was like very new 255 - > topic for us.

We didn't know what mobile home is. How does 256 - > it work? That moment my sister had like around 257 - > $10,000 saved up. And our goal was to buy one mobile home and 258 - > rent it out for I don't know how much, like$500 259 - > per month as rent.

This was our idea. 260 - > So we ended up buying our first, first mobile home for 261 - > $500. 262 - > At that moment, like, yeah, at that moment, like 263 - > iPhone was like costing around 264 - > Vira: $700-$800 cheaper than the phone. Wow, that's crazy.

265 - > Andriy: Yeah. 266 - > Vira: Yeah. 267 - > And we had this story where we bought one mobile home for a dollar. 268 - > Why for a dollar?

Just to make a transaction. 17 cats 269 - > live there. No people. So we like, 270 - > it was a lot of hard work.

So to to make long story 271 - > short, we flipped 40, 40 mobile homes. I can consider 272 - > myself expert, probably forgot things already, but I 273 - > can, I can consider myself expert in fixing mobile homes. 274 - > Not flipper, but fixing. I know everything about mobile homes right now.

275 - > Yeah. But even that I learned hard lesson of cash flow 276 - > because we were selling things on terms meaning like we were giving 277 - > people loan to buy those mobile homes. So we were fixing for maybe 278 - > $10,000 and we were selling those for 279 - > around $15000-$20,000. Like with small down payment, $1,000-$2,000 down 280 - > and for five years $300.

Like I'm 281 - > not sure what the mass will end up, but basically people paying $300 and 282 - > we're like on a paper we were like killing it. 283 - > But what you have on the paper and what you have in 284 - > bank account is like two different stories. And I'm like, theoretically we 285 - > have money, right? Yeah, like theoretically we 286 - > have a lot of money.

287 - > But we are. Sorry, we are profitable and 288 - > maintaining business. And then I realized that I will take 289 - > cash flow over profit, basically both. But 290 - > cash flow is number one.

291 - > V: That's true. That's actually. 292 - > And we closed. Actually close.

Four years, three years 293 - > of my weekends I gave up. 294 - > Not give up, invested. Because we were commuting from New York to 295 - > Pennsylvania where we were doing this. 296 - > So three years of my weekends, it I invested 297 - > in this business.

And then eventually we closed up that business 298 - > and start investing in mobile home parks like where we. Buying 299 - > land and renting the land. 300 - > Vira: Nice. Smart.

301 - > Smart. Well, my business experience is not as big 302 - > as yours, but one of the businesses that not 303 - > flipped but kind of changed the format was 304 - > the current business, the Fungus. 305 - > When we first started it, it actually, I don't remember if you started if you remember or 306 - > not, but the project I was working on originally was the Matcha for 307 - > boosting your cognitive. 308 - > Taste.

That sucks or something pretty much. 309 - > Vira: So we spent. 310 - > You told, you told me, you told me that. 311 - > I thought it was, I thought it was an amazing idea because 312 - > I like matcha.

Matcha is amazing. 313 - > Maybe not everyone do, but it's like so, so trendy these days and it was 314 - > just like getting popular. And I liked all of this like 315 - > mushrooms and adaptogens and I was like adding them to my coffee 316 - > sometimes and it was like still very new and still very like 317 - > biohacking kind of thing. And we had this genius idea to kind of 318 - > mix all of this beautiful adaptogens with 319 - > matcha and we spend a lot of money.

When I say we, it's like me and my 320 - > husband. Oh, how much money we spend on our Side projects over the 321 - > years. But we spend a lot of money with like professional 322 - > scientists who like put together who sends you the recipe and the 323 - > first recipe and the first sample we received. We got so, so excited about 324 - > it.

But it came a very weird color. Usually 325 - > matcha is this like bright green, but ours looked more like dirt. It was like 326 - > brownish disgusting. 327 - > It smelled weird too.

I mean we spend a lot of money, 328 - > but when we tried it, it was like the most disgusting drink ever. 329 - > Like I don't even know if there is a marketer in the world 330 - > who can literally market this kind of product. 331 - > It was amazing for your cognitive abilities. It was.

332 - > To this day I still think the formula is top of the 333 - > notch taste wise. 334 - > We had so many iterations. 335 - > We were flying to the guy who was producing it to Florida. We were 336 - > trying to fix the taste.

It was okay, but 337 - > it wasn't there. 338 - > So we decided to let go that project. That being said, a lot of 339 - > brands actually did launch a matcha that was not 340 - > as potent. So it wasn't as powerful but 341 - > it had some benefits and it had like that Matcha cognitive aspect.

342 - > Then I read this cool report about 343 - > two of the biggest trends of the year 2020, which was 344 - > gummies and another a trend with mushrooms. And we decided 345 - > to combine gummies and mushrooms together and created a 346 - > medicinal mushroom gummies which was a great product. 347 - > It tasted great. We had a packaging that I still to this day 348 - > think is like really, really beautiful.

349 - > Andriy: And I have the pack of your. 350 - > Vir: Gummies created, created by our friend, Ukrainian 351 - > artist actually Sashko Danylenko. So shout out to him. He's always 352 - > a part of pretty much all of our projects that me and my husband do.

And it was an 353 - > amazing project. But just at some point when we moved to London, my husband and I, 354 - > we realized that we literally don't have enough cash to be competing 355 - > in that business. Because supplement business is very cash intensive and it's not just about 356 - > placing an order and you always have to be in stock. Obviously it's a lot of money that 357 - > are just sitting there locked in stock.

But also competing with this 358 - > bigger brands, we just didn't have the cash flow 359 - > to be able to compete. So that business that originally started from 360 - > Matcha, that tastes socks, then turned into 361 - > gummies. And right now out of all of the businesses that 362 - > we've done, right now it's a business that sells children books, Believe it or not, we 363 - > decided to keep the brand because I still think the name fungus 364 - > is so cool. Fungus.

com we kept the character that our 365 - > friend developed for Us as a mascot of the brand, we kept the 366 - > idea, we kept the vibe and now we're selling children's 367 - > books under that, under this business. Who knows where it's 368 - > going to take us? But for now, that's how it transformed and I, and 369 - > I'm pretty happy with it. So yeah, that's another story of mine.

370 - > Andriy: You know, I had this not good idea to call it 371 - > flops, but it's not flops, it's just. How 372 - > should we call it? Like iteration, development, growth, 373 - > innovation. You know, like you start with something, one thing, 374 - > but you develop totally different thing.

375 - > Vira: Right. 376 - > It's just, it should just grow. 377 - > Probably in your 18s you would not be able to 378 - > do this. But as you grow, as your life experience, 379 - > you like business experience, professional experience, you're 380 - > developing and shaping things.

381 - > So you never know. 382 - > Probably you never know where it's gonna get us. So yeah, so these are my 383 - > stories. Obviously I have a lot of them.

I have a lot of passion projects that I 384 - > started at some point and never finished and some that I did 385 - > successfully finish. But yeah, I just like, like. 386 - > But let me ask you this question. 387 - > Vira: Got me too.

388 - > Andriy: Yeah, let me ask you this question because I used 389 - > to have the totally different question answer than right now. But I'm curious 390 - > from you, like when, how do you know when to stop, 391 - > where to continue, when to stop? How 392 - > long time do you give yourself and what is your 393 - > criteria for a project, let's say with those books children 394 - > looks like? 395 - > Vira: Well, for myself, I decided that I'm going to have a book series.

396 - > Like no matter what, even if it's like unprofitable. I want to 397 - > finish this project no matter what to be like to know that 398 - > I've done my all that I tried all in this book. So 399 - > right now I have three books. I want to have five to kind of complete the 400 - > book series.

But I don't know. Usually it happens 401 - > when I used up all of my money that I plan for the project. 402 - > And: So this is usually like all world money, but let's say no. 403 - > Vira: Often it is, but not always.

I don't know, it's just like some kind 404 - > of like an internal feeling when you have energy for that 405 - > or don't have energy or you see the future in the product or you see 406 - > that people are still interested. Like the last month was so busy, I 407 - > literally didn't even open my KDP account. But 408 - > I received so many personal messages. I see that the 409 - > books are selling especially around the Christmas tree, around the Christmas 410 - > time.

I have people reaching out to me saying that this Is like the 411 - > favorite character of my 4 year old. 412 - > That's what gets me going. 413 - > Honestly. So little things like this, I'm like pretty emotional when it 414 - > comes to this little businesses like this.

So 415 - > I don't have a formula. It just feels right at the moment. 416 - > So yeah. 417 - > What about you Andriy?

Do you have a formula for me? 418 - > Andriy: I mean my formula for me is this is very personal. So 419 - > if we're talking about business, I give myself personally 420 - > myself a year to. 421 - > To.

To test something. If we're talking about to start business from 422 - > scratch. I'm not talking one year business but some kind of side. 423 - > Let's say I.

424 - > I joined Klaviyo Meetup. So we were hosting Klaviyo Meetup here 425 - > in New York City. They will continue joining. But also 426 - > December is my last month when I'm co hosting this like I.

427 - > There's a bunch like the, the most important probably 428 - > that I don' kind of satisfaction. You know, like 429 - > sometimes when I go on the stage I'm like I'm scared but I'm 430 - > like that I'm like pumped here is like yeah, there's 431 - > like I'm. I don't get that as you said, like that 432 - > like gut feeling like I'm doing something that I'm. I don't enjoy 433 - > much.

So. 434 - > So typically I give myself one year. If we're going back 435 - > to business, let's say from marketing perspective we like testing 436 - > things in three months chunks. 437 - > Like if we church one channel for three months.

If 438 - > we still see it doesn't bring us enough either leads or 439 - > deals, but it's still in our price range, will 440 - > continue for next three months. 441 - > But at least three months I need to give to. To 442 - > see if it's working or not. So business three months personal 443 - > like one year.

So actually I'm starting a podcast. 444 - > I believe I told you it's also would be in Ukrainian. So 445 - > I. I'm giving myself year.

I already recorded the 446 - > recording the first episode. So I'm giving myself a year to see how do I 447 - > feel and if I feel great, doesn't matter how many views or that 448 - > actually views probably will fulfill my like 449 - > desire to do it more. 450 - > So I'll just, I'll just put it on replay. Don't worry, I'll just 451 - > put it on YouTube replay, you know.

452 - > Andriy: Thank you. 453 - > Vira: Thank you. It's probably YouTube like unique views. 454 - > When are you launching Andriy?

455 - > Actually I didn't have a date. 456 - > I'm planning this podcast almost for a year and a half. I 457 - > had some family loss so I just didn't have 458 - > resources Honestly, like to dedicate any actually 459 - > I didn't have exceed resources meaning energy to do it. 460 - > But right now I'm very energized and pumped like 461 - > waking up every morning that I need to put that 462 - > energy somewhere in some project.

463 - > Vira: That's amazing. 464 - > Would be one of those projects. 465 - > Vira: Oh, that's amazing. I'm so looking forward to it.

Andriy. Thank 466 - > you. I didn't realize you're at the final pretty much stages 467 - > of like almost launching. That's so exciting.

468 - > Andriy: No, no, we already. 469 - > Yeah. I'm actually before this podcast. I text as a 470 - > guy like one will finish because it will be not this 471 - > kind of style.

It would be in person and it would be from in different 472 - > scenes different like it would be always 473 - > on the move. So it should be fun. 474 - > Oh gosh. I'm like so looking forward to it.

Awesome. 475 - > Andriy: Thank you. 476 - > Well, I think anything else to add? That's a wrap up.

Andriy, to 477 - > be honest, I think we're wrapping this up. You know, like 478 - > you get the Spotify wrap up, you get the YouTube wrap up, you get 479 - > the podcast wrap up. By the way, Andriy, 480 - > we talked about it. You are not a Spotify person, are you?

No. 481 - > You're a Google Music or YouTube Music, right? 482 - > Andriy: YouTube. YouTube Music.

483 - > Your YouTube Music. But like what, what Spotify did amazing this year that 484 - > went like super, super viral. They did this like what is your Spotify age 485 - > thing? It's so fun.

It's like so clever that they did it. So 486 - > I'm 44, you guys. Not in real life in Spotify, apparently. 487 - > That's.

That's my age. 488 - > You're much, much, much younger. 489 - > Vira: Like so. So why.

490 - > Much wiser than my years. 491 - > Must be. Must be why Spotify decided. I'm 44.

492 - > But that's a wrap. 493 - > Andri: It's a wrap. But guys and girls, we are wrapping 494 - > up this podcast but we are still here in case you need to reach 495 - > out to us about anything about email marketing, SMS marketing. 496 - > We adding additional services to our Flowium thing 497 - > including WhatsApp, RCS, direct mail.

Any questions you 498 - > might have, like reach out to us. 499 - > Also we continue our YouTube videos. 500 - > There might be some other projects we'll be releasing. 501 - > So yeah, stay tuned, stay tuned and.

502 - > Vira: Thank you for the amazing four and a half years. I 503 - > think it was four and a half years. Thank you so much. You guys are the best.

We'll see you 504 - > on our YouTube channel. Happy Holidays to everyone. Bye bye. 505 - > Andriy: Bye.

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