An Agency Story
An Agency Story
An Agency Built by a Daughter's Love - aStash
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From Ukraine to Colorado: Building a Family-First Agency Against All Odds
When rejection closes doors, grit builds new ones. In this episode, Kateryna Quinn, founder of aStash Web Design & Marketing, shares her inspiring journey from aspiring tennis pro in Ukraine to running a thriving digital agency in the U.S. You'll hear how she built a company rooted in resilience, family values, and relentless positivity—all while navigating immigration challenges, early financial constraints, and growing pains.
Inside this episode:
- Why rejection can be the greatest gift and how to turn it into fuel
- How Kateryna grew her agency with a family first purpose
- The real challenges behind immigration and entrepreneurship and the creative solutions she used to push through
- Why agency growth depends on a positive mindset
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story. What if taking the stairs every single time was the key to building the life and business of your dreams? Welcome to An Agency Story podcast. I'm your host Russel. In this episode, you'll hear the remarkable journey of Kateryna Quinn, founder of aStash. From rising tennis star in Ukraine to fearless agency owner in Colorado. Kateryna's story is a masterclass in perseverance, risk-taking, and putting family at the heart of business. In this episode, you'll learn how she built a thriving agency from scratch after being rejected from countless marketing jobs, how she used her first client to launch a drop shipping success story and how she brought her parents to the US through the very business- she created with them now part of the company's team. All doing this while raising a family of her own and going through the gauntlet of a process of getting her US citizenship. Her story is packed with grit, optimism, and undeniable proof that you don't need perfect conditions to build something extraordinary. Enjoy the story.
Russel:Welcome to the show today everyone. I have Kateryna Quinn with aStash with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Kateryna.
Kateryna:Thank you so much Russel. It's a pleasure to be here for sure.
Russel:It is certainly the pleasure to have you as well. If you don't mind, start us off. What does aStash do, who do you do it for?
Kateryna:aStash is a digital marketing agency, so we are actually a full service agency. We do everything from branding, logo designs, print materials to website designs, custom development, searching optimization, paid ads, and pretty much everything. Marketing is, we probably can do. The only thing we probably don't do a lot, uh, actually at all is app development, so that's probably the only area you can't get us to do. Everything else we, we do. We usually work with small business owners, mostly maybe I think one to 10 employees. We do have, uh, larger companies as well. Even some with like 50, even 500 employees, but those are more rare. We typically try to focus on local businesses and small businesses.
Russel:Perfect. Wonderfully put. I know you have a fascinating journey into how you even got to where you're at today. We're gonna get to all that. Might as well start from the beginning. Tell us about young Kateryna. Young, young Kateryna, and what were her hopes, dreams, goals, aspirations, all of the above?
Kateryna:Let's talk about that. That was a long time ago, it seems like. I was growing up playing tennis and I think that was the big, big thing that I did that my parents just got me to do. It was pretty prestige, good sport, you know, to do in Ukraine. I was growing up in Ukraine, actually, that's something important to mention.
Russel:That is important.
Kateryna:Playing tennis, of course you have like big dreams and goals, you know, like go pro and play on high level competitively, make money with that sport. I was moving along pretty well, I think in that direction for a while. I was, uh, playing some high level, some money tournaments when I was teenager and at some point, uh, we pretty much, uh, run outta money. It was hard to get sponsored. I was playing high level, so I was playing actually with Alina, who is the number, like top five in the world for the last 10 years, you know?
Russel:Okay. I know nothing about tennis, but, um, I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna take that as they're really good and, and, uh, you're definitely playing at a high level.
Kateryna:Yes. She is amazing still. She's still on the tour. Playing tennis with her, obviously she was a little bit higher level, she would get a sponsor and it was harder like for, for many of us because only like one top one, maybe two, you know, would get sponsored and not even fully, because like you would get sponsor played, playing, um, to, uh, playing like practicing but not actually playing tournaments. Anyways, but like, just economical financial situations we have in the family was just no way out of it unfortunately, just traveling abroad, playing tennis. I got offered a full scholarship to come to US to play tennis. I was like, okay, let me jump, jump on that, you know, because it's a good chance to get out out of Ukraine and have some potential future, you know? We all heard about American Dream, so always thinking about it like that would be great to, to try that out.
Russel:It sounds like there was no hesitation in that thought process, like all excitement, pure adrenaline coming to the US to play tennis. Or was there, I mean, was there was like, oh man, I don't know if I wanna leave home or, um, or was it just all hopes and dreams?
Kateryna:All hopes and dreams. It's actually when, if you know me a little bit, that's kind of all I am. It's all about me, I never look back. I try to not to be too scared, you know, to jump in something unknown. I commonly try to just step and look forward in the future and have those high hopes and dreams. I was 17, of course that was like pretty scary. You know, I didn't know language that well. I obviously like passed the exams and got, I got accepted, but I didn't really speak fluently, I'd say so. It was a big, uh, big step. But it was great to take it because moving to US is completely different story. It's completely different life. Everything was different. I went to Louisiana to study, uh, well first I actually landed in South Carolina the first year. I keep forgetting about my first year in South Carolina. I just landed there airport and everybody was so friendly and so nice and you know, like stereotypical, like Ukrainian, like Russian, all Eastern European kind of coldblooded a little bit. I was like, oh my God, why is everybody saying hi? Why is everybody waiting, waving for me? I'm like so scared. it's a big change for sure, culturally.
Russel:That was what I was gonna ask, like what was your first impression when you got here? That's certainly one aspect of it, and it's probably especially, and I think they say that's more of a thing of the, of the South than maybe other parts of the country or New York. I'm sure you would've gotten a more normal greeting if you'd landed in New York, but, yeah, I mean, so, so you're, you're pursuing that tennis dream and obviously coming over to the US. How did the tennis career go and when did you decide to hang up the racket?
Kateryna:Honestly, kind of hanging up the racket was when I decided to come to US. Because, uh, coming to play, like my level was pretty high, so I was always, of course, trying to play in college competitively. Do good, good for my team, you know, do good for my school. But it was really never a big, uh, like dream there left for me to continue playing tennis. I knew I'm gonna come to US, I'm gonna find a new path. That's why I like, I was pretty open to, uh, studying different subjects in school and definitely try everything from like liberal arts to nutritionist, to like all kinds of psychology, everything. I was pretty interested in everything, but I think I ended up with marketing, which got me really into advertising classes and overall business kind of really pushed me into that field because I was so interested. I was just really, you know, In advertising we had some big, uh, pitch like projects to do one, we did one for like Super Bowl commercial for like Mercedes-Benz, and it was like, big, amazing thing that I was so excited doing. I always saw myself actually In college, I saw myself doing like TV ads. For some reason I thought that's what's gonna be really fun.
Russel:All right. We already knew tennis was not gonna be the future, and you're getting into marketing. Get us to the point of where you turn that into an actual business.
Kateryna:It took me a few years after college to actually get it as a business. I graduated, I was still kind of trying to figure out how to find a job in marketing, you know, because nobody wanted to hire me. It's funny, I'm, I'm, I consider myself relatively successful for where I was coming from, you know, and I, I feel like I achieved a lot, uh, for, yeah, for just overall, how I thought I could be more successful is highly unlikely for my age, for where I was coming from. Overall I just couldn't get a job on marketing. I was, uh, coaching tennis for a little bit. I always could get a job that, because I was obviously pretty high level so I can play with high, highly competitive, uh, kids, you know, who would actually go pro and uh, yeah, that was very in high demand. Did that for about a year, maybe year and a half, and I was really getting into the web design. I really liked it, so I was, I liked designing a lot and my parents were actually in the field a little bit in Ukraine, so they had their own website. They had their own like kind of thing going there. They had like classified advertisement website or whatever. I was like, let me get into, my mom really liked it. She's a backend developer, so she really liked like, coding. I was like, maybe I like it too. But my, my thing was the design. Actually as a front end developer, I was like, oh, that might work out. I was thinking potentially maybe I would do something like this in the future. I always had that, uh, heart of entrepreneur. My parents never been employed by anybody. They always were self-employed. They had their own business. Growing up, I, I saw that the flexibility, the kind of the money you can make, you know when things go well and, and all of the perks, like good things, you know. But like, I know my parents still put a lot of time and effort into me playing tennis. They were always present. They were always there. I felt like that's something I could explore potentially. But they knew I first need to like work somewhere in marketing to even know what it is.
Russel:Is that ultimately what you, just as you said, you kinda had some struggles in, in getting a job in marketing. Obviously you're doing the tennis coaching and then you said, screw trying to get a, a regular job. I'll just start my own agency.
Kateryna:Yeah, almost, almost. I actually was still coaching tennis and uh, I met the, the lady that owned like furniture and on interior design company, right locally. We were in Houston back there. She actually needed a marketing person, so she needed somebody to help social media and just stuff on the website that had really small website for local and interior design design in the suburbs. I was like, oh my God, yes, please, please, hire me. I wanna do it. It was gorgeous. The place was huge and it was all high-end interiors couches and chandeliers and it was so beautiful. I started with her and she was really easygoing. She's actually, I'm pretty self-driven. I actually don't need much direction, as you can imagine if I'm running my own company, I never needed much direction. I could totally find a job for me to do.
Russel:I'm gonna guess you're pretty independent and, and yeah, not a problem for you at all.
Kateryna:Exactly. So I, uh, yeah, She hired me. She didn't also, she never had a marketing person, so she also didn't know what I'm supposed to be doing. But I found myself a job. I actually created a drop shipping business for them, which was crazy interesting. They started selling on Amazon and we got to 300,000 in sales, annually for their furniture company. That was just, just Amazon sales that they never even thought they would need. I worked for her for about a couple years and, um, and just did all types of marketing there, like social media and websites and all in all. After that we were actually moving to Denver, uh, to Colorado with, with my husband. I was like, okay, I can't be here anymore, but I love working with you and that's actually, right before that, I think maybe for half a year before that, I kind of really tried to get into maybe potentially opening my own company right back in Houston still, because my parents really needed help. They really needed the money and it was actually my biggest why, like, just why I started this company to help my parents because economical situation was not great. They had some debt, and I was like, we can help, uh, my parents, since my mom actually helped me with some job, and got paid for my first employee. I saw how it's like working out. Oh my God, like they can get paid, they can get out of the debt, they can leave comfortably. I was like, let me try and do it. I was having the job, I was trying to practice on my own woke up at like, four, 4:00 AM every day try to practice developing websites. Then when we were moving to Colorado, I'm like, okay. I actually talked to my employee and they still are clients. It's crazy because we, it's been six years, they still are clients. We just had the agreement with her how I'm gonna like, pretty much just, uh, do a contract work and, uh, this and this and that, this annual like kind of pay and we kind of agree with all of that. She's like, yeah, that's perfect. That's fine. That's how it worked out.
Russel:Such a common theme I feel like in, in folks in similar situation that, uh, didn't, weren't born in the US and they came over and there's just a drive to, you know, not only to make this risk, this endeavor that you've done worth it, but also right, some paying some homage to those that created this opportunity for you I think that's such a cool part of your story and, and I mean, just to hear the drive behind that, I'm just fascinated, that's all I got to say.
Kateryna:Honestly, it's just like my personality too. Actually recently I started working with therapist, which been so helpful in terms of business because it's actually really pulling some stuff out of me that I didn't know exists, and it really helps me to get like a direction on where I wanna move forward with my business, with what's like important for me almost. We actually just was talking about these core values and what's driving me as a person. That's what I realized because I'm like such a family first, uh, person. For me, like the love and the family, it's so important. What differentiates us, our agency from a lot of other competitors is that approach, because we do have the family first approach and that's where I try to bring it everywhere I go with my employees, with my clients. I really wanna make sure we treat all the clients like the family. I wanna make sure they're taken care of. I wanna make sure we are extremely honest, always transparent with them and we are doing our best. We're really trying to do our best all the time. We don't slack around, we actually performing the best things we can do for them to get results. That's been I think extremely valuable for all of these clients that stay with us for six, last six years since we're open, or like last four to six years. I think they've been noticing it and appreciating it for sure.
Russel:I gotta ask the question. All you're saying, you're having a hard time getting a job outta college and is there any companies you want us to send this episode to once we launch it? Have been like, bet you wish you would've hired Kateryna. I'm happy to do that if you just want to, if you wanna put somebody on blast or something.
Kateryna:Probably wouldn't wanna, no, I don't think I would want to point anybody out. I had one company in California. I actually knew vice president of marketing in that very, very big company and I'm not gonna call them out, but, oh my God, when I couldn't get the internship. I was just trying to do anything, like just to get an internship. I couldn't get it. I was like, this is ridiculous.
Russel:That is their loss and everyone else that you got to work with in, in your agency and work for you gain otherwise. Well, if you, if you want to, I will, I will gladly do that because, uh, I would, I would've hired you as a tennis coach and I would've hired you as a marketer guaranteed.
Kateryna:It's all good. Thank you. I'm in a pretty good place. I can't complain. I think that was a reason for that, for sure.
Russel:For sure. Your drive has certainly been well placed. I gotta get to what I think is just a really cool part of your story, and I'm sure it's not chronological to your endeavor, but you're talking about your parents and hire them into the business. But it gets bigger than that, as I understand it. Tell us how that story, I don't wanna say ends, but um, has, um, yeah, progresses, we'll use that word.
Kateryna:Continuous.
Russel:Yes. Continues. There we go.
Kateryna:My parents are so important to me. They are, oh my God. They're like, of course, with my husband and my daughter. I think that would never mention, I do have a tiny little daughter, right now she is less than two, but, uh, my immediate family is just so such a big part in my life that when I moved here, I knew that I, at some point really wanna bring them here. I'm the only daughter and again, my core values, my like priorities, my core values so strong around my family. I was like, there's no way I'm gonna leave my parents in their old age by themselves. Although they're still very young. I'm lucky with that, but I was just like, there's no way they're gonna stay in Ukraine while I here live in the US. I knew that's gonna be for sure happening. I didn't know how and when, but I knew for sure I'm gonna find a way to bring them here and, thanks God. Everything worked out just that way. So I was able to bring my parents here just around, I think maybe two years ago. It is been life changing and our, our situation right now is not perfect. I think something important, something of value I wanna share with your audience right now that, uh, things are not like perfect a lot of times, but you have to like go work hard and go through some challenges to get what you want. It's not gonna be comfortable, it's not gonna be easy. I think that's something we need to prepare, that, that's what's gonna happen. The taking the hard way. Taking the stairs when you could just take an elevator sometimes it's a better solution for sure. We currently live and like all together with my parents in our town home. We are lucky enough that we are actually building a custom home for one of us of, and the other house's gonna be for another one. We have big plans for like future living situations, but right now, for last couple years, it's been pretty tight in our living situation. Again, it, it is fine because I'm so glad they're here and this is the best gift that I could have gotten to bring them here. Keep them close, make sure they, they're taken care of and they comfortable. I think everything I can attribute to this agency to be able to do this because through all these years I've been able to, I, I'm taking care of my parents and I continue to take care of them, so they actually able to move in the later in life still trying to learn English. Still going through a lot of challenges, but they're able to do it and afford it, you know, because of the agencies, which is great.
Russel:Wow. Alright, that is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing that. I'm just hooked to every detail of it and I'm sure there's even a lot more that you weren't able to get to. I wanna go back to something you said that I just, I just love how you, how you put this. A lot of folks that I work with, I, say something similar of like, look, if we want something bigger, better, more different than what we have today, we have to solve a hard thing to get there. There's just no way around it. You can pick the hard thing you wanna solve, but as you put it, you gotta take the stairs. What was your first stairs when it came to the agency itself that you had to take, if you will?
Kateryna:Oh, so many
Russel:stairs. A lot of stairs.
Kateryna:There was so many stairs. Probably just the first few years been constant stairs. It's been like just constant late nights working until two ams and no weekends and don't really have too much fun. With my parents, I was still like on my own here in US. They were really helping with like backend and obviously with development and SEO, but I still had to do so much on my own. All the sales, finding clients, uh, like just running the whole business, you know, all the financial and legal stuff. It was just a lot. And plus like you always have to deal with other things in life, right? It is like still trying to figure out how to help my parents even more. Still trying to find a common language. We're still trying to get married like I did and have a life here, you know? And immigration. Obviously immigration's been a big, big, big part of the stairs because it took me 10 years to get my citizenship, which is a, a long process. It's always you doing something, you are always applying or doing the documents, redoing documents, working with lawyers, you're constantly in that process. It's a little bit stressful sometimes, you know? I guess long nights is first couple years, and then after that the like, the bigger, the breakthrough that we had is when we, I started hiring more people, obviously. I think the team's been like, just so essential to growth. There is really no way you, you can do it alone ever. Although I was pretty comfortable to be like on my own for, for that 2020,'21, I was already set up at my process a little bit better and I was still making like more money when I was working on my own with my parents versus like just inviting the team in at more expenses, more pressure. And you are like, even more stress, you know, because you need to find those clients to be able to support the team, have enough job, have a cash flow, and it is constant. It's just constant craziness. But it's all good. It's working out and the yeah, with the team, you just growing and growing and growing.
Russel:I think that's, I mean, yeah, to your point, always stairs. I dunno, can you encapsulate just quickly, I mean right, how that process, just going through um, the immigration process. What are we talking, hundreds of hours? More? What does that take in the end, do you think?
Kateryna:Oh my God. It's more than hundred. I don't know how many hundred, but, uh, many hundreds.
Russel:Really? Okay.
Kateryna:It's gotta be like 500 plus I think for sure, at least. Plus, like I, I got lucky, so how I had no money for a long time, right? I came from like super poor, economical, like just country and uh, also just pretty poor family. We had money when my parents' business were running, uh, was running pretty well. They actually had a computer club, which is crazy. They opened one very early on. It was like 1994. It was, uh, yeah, I got my first computer when I was four years old, something to mention. But, uh, anyways, when they started closing the business, of course, because everybody had computers, that's when the situation really just stopped being really good. It was just with the, the everything, the, what is it? House, uh, crisis, 2008. I think there was a big, big, uh, crisis everywhere in US and in the whole world actually market, uh, housing market. That was impacting us a little bit. And overall, I just really never had a lot of money. Trying to figure out how to do stuff with no money, especially like immigration. I was like not comfortable doing it on my own. I feel like I could, but I was like, maybe if I find the lawyers it's gonna be better. But I didn't have money, so I was actually able to, with the agency, I actually got a deal with a lawyer that would help me for free while I just do free marketing for him. We did a lot of print ads. We did his website. We actually still working with him, not for free anymore, but he's been fully engaged in all our immigration processes, with mine last six years and uh, and my parents. He's just so helpful. It is been extremely important in my life, finding those kind of, uh, ways, finding the ways when you don't have resources, you don't have kind of money, you don't have, like, you don't know how to do something, you find a way out of it through the, like forest, you know, some wide new roads.
Russel:It's such a, right, especially when you don't have it, it's such a precious resource. It's always a precious resource, even it should be when we have a lot of it. Work smarter, not harder, even when you're in the process of taking the stairs. Thank you for sharing that journey. I'm sure it's a journey a lot of folks don't even really understand or know what it actually takes to become a citizen. Thank you for shedding light on that. Another question, I mean. Obviously driven, ambitious, so, so many great words there. Positivity is another one. You just seem like a never ending positive person. I'm curious, two parts. Do you view that as a strength, uh, in, what you're doing and I gotta, what, what gets you down? I mean, I'm just curious at this point.
Kateryna:Oh, yes, I am. Uh, I'm extremely positive person. Actually, I think my husband hates it because he is like, he calls himself realist, but I don't know. I am always seeing like the light at the end of the tunnel. It's very rare when I do get down, I get down from probably one thing is losing. It happens often. I lose to some extent. Some small ones, I don't care enough, but something that I really work hard for and I care about and it doesn't work out, that's like rejection almost, you know? Oh, it's like hits me. I'll actually share with you, I just had a big loss, like last week I think I had to travel for a big contract. It was like$200,000 contract. I was like, it's a big contract, it's gonna be great. And we were like neck and neck with that agency. But we did like make like one mistake and end up not chosen. That hit me pretty hard. I'm like, oh my God, I'm gonna kill up. Nothing works out. This is so sad. It's only last for a little bit though, but because I like, I get down and then maybe like just like struggle a bit with the confidence and positivity for like a week. But then I blame myself a lot in those situations, but then it comes back to seeing the positive, positive things and everything. I flip my mindset a little bit in terms of rejection is for the better. Because I didn't get that I can do this and this and this, and that's what I was planning to do anyways if I like, didn't know that this was a contract coming right? I usually try to, I, I believe that in my life everything that's been happening is being extremely for better. Extremely for better, seriously, like I actually didn't tell you I lost my first, uh, scholarship after first year in my school. So I went to South Carolina and then I transferred to Louisiana. I lost the scholarship, uh, after the first year. It was heartbreaking for me. I actually came home for the few, few, uh, weeks, couple weeks. I was gonna come back for summer and I was like literally standing in the train, like next to the train, crying for my mom. I didn't wanna come back. That was actually one moment when I didn't wanna come back. I was so scared because I felt like I was a failure. I felt like I lost my scholarship. I actually didn't entirely know that I lost it because I was so scared and I was so like not comfortable with the people. Actually, I never connected with my coach and my team and they never even told me anything. I kind of knew I'm probably gonna lose it and of course, I did. But that was huge push for me in terms of like changing my personality completely in, in terms of like start, stop being scared and shut down and actually pushing through and trying to figure out a way, because I did, I figured out a way how to find a new school for full scholarship in like two months, which was very difficult, you know, and going through the challenges like this in my life and my experience, what I see is that everything works out for the better because my school in Louisiana was the dream come true. It was absolutely the best place on the earth for me. The more like failures like this I have, the more I learn from it and the, the better outcome becomes, the better situation I get in the future, the better living situation, better for my family. I learned from it and I'm like, okay, I, I don't have anything to be negative about because I have a great life. I achieve a lot of things and I only see better and it coming better and better, you know, in the future if I continue doing what I'm doing.
Russel:Wonderful part of your story and, you know, it just goes to the notion. I think there's a reason behind, right? You'll hear people talk about doing a gratitude journal or just right, just taking the time to appreciate what we have, not lament at what we don't have or didn't do or didn't get. And yes, we, we're gonna have those pain points, but how important it is in this very hard thing we're doing of entrepreneurship and life um, to, to, yeah, just appreciate and, and look at the positive, look at the bright side, look at the future. Otherwise we're gonna get beat down real fast.
Kateryna:Yeah and something to mention actually here, I believe that, uh, I, I don't know. I know a lot of people may say that a lot of people don't believe in that, but I do believe a lot that whatever we think is does come true. I, I'm really a big, uh, like I do believe in that so much that I tend to just have like positive thinking always. If I start being negative a little bit in my head, I'm like, oh, no, that, that's it. That's enough. I have, yeah, again, having gratitude. Being very happy about everything around me. But I know that sometimes it feels like, I know I work very hard, but sometimes for me it feels like things just fall down from the sky to, to my lap. It's crazy because I actually think of this energy and this positivity, sometimes things just work out.
Russel:It's almost just the notion when something falls outta the sky, are you looking at the ground wishing what you had? Or are you looking at the sky, seeing what's ahead? I think for some folks things are falling outta the sky but they're looking in the ground and I get it right? Sometimes just we, we're in a bad spot and things get us down. But all, all I say that to just for folks is, is to find ways. You mentioned therapy and other things to get us in a positive mindset because our, we're so, our brain is so powerful. If we put it towards a task of something and what we focus on is what we'll get eventually. We just gotta stay positive. If we take away nothing from this episode today, that's what we're going with. I want to hear like the seven part series of your story, um, but we don't probably have enough time for that today, so I'll get to, I'd love just hearing you talk about the future, what you're trying to achieve. What is the big goal with all of this in the long run?
Kateryna:I've been a little bit more open-minded to try new things recently because I think the world changing quite a lot now. I feel like we're getting into something big and new pretty soon and actually gonna call it, I actually think AI is gonna be pretty, uh, life changing for a lot of us in next, maybe five, 10 years, almost like internet was at some point, you know? We're trying to just use that a lot more trying to see how we can automate some processes, how it can be helpful for the agency, how we can, uh, maybe create something new that doesn't exist. I'm an inventor, it's been my big dream. I was doing like my vision board in terms of like my 25 year goals. I do see myself and like my core value, invention, adventure, figuring out how I'm gonna create something that maybe is not there yet, that's gonna potentially impact a lot of people like, millions of people if we can. Again, there's positivity in high dreams, but I do see the company growing and maybe going into a little bit more of AI, maybe some SaaS, maybe something that's gonna just, uh, just gonna impact a lot more people that we are able to impact right now.
Russel:Amazing. I'm just sitting here just saying it's not if, it's just when. There isn't a right timetable for this, but I'll be sitting with my popcorn waiting for when all those things you shared happens. Thank you for sharing that. All right. Last question for you, Kateryna. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Kateryna:Oh yes. It's so hard. I dunno. I honestly dunno because I feel like a lot of me was born this way. I totally agree that they have to be made but I also see that you can, you need to have some kind of personality for this because a lot of times you might not just, uh, it's not, might not just be exactly for you. You better need to change the personality you have, if you want to do it, whether you need to. That's when you work hard and you, you are making yourself to be an, an entrepreneur. But for me, I know it's been like the way I was growing up, the way I, I had the something in me that just not that scared, you know, willing to take risks, willing to, to do this, you know, being open with people and uh, maybe communicating even, although I'm such an introvert, you will never guess this.
Russel:You are not an, oh no, everyone's sitting home right now saying you are a liar. We've believed everything you've said up to this point.
Kateryna:Oh my. I'm telling you, I almost was like half, for half a day nervous before this podcast. I'm not talking right now. I was like, oh my God. I'm sorry.
Russel:Oh, I'm sorry about that.
Kateryna:No, it's all fine. It's all fine. Honestly, like I open up and when I'm in the situation I'm really comfortable. But, uh, the talking and engaging and like, I actually tried to do some public speaking, but oh my God, it's so hard for me. That's something that I have to work through and learn and push, change my personality a little bit to go in that direction. But I know some people are born just to be entrepreneurs and they have even more qualities than I have to be successful at it. It's a tough one. Unfortunately, I will tell you that if you want something, you go for it and you're gonna be, you are gonna be able to do it if you just want it. It doesn't matter what you are born with. But, uh, if you're born with something that's gonna be helpful in being CEO, being entrepreneur, it's always gonna be helpful for you not to fight through, not to fight your personality and who you are born.
Russel:Great cap on it. Whether you're born or made, if you want it, you'll get it. I love that. I think that encapsulates your entire story. If people wanna know more about aStash, where can they go?
Kateryna:The website's pretty simple, although it's not for some people. astash.com is the A S T A S H.com. You can find me actually my name Kateryna Quinn. Also very not simple, but maybe the last name's gonna be simpler. Quinn, Q-U-I-N-N. You can just find me all over social media, Instagram, LinkedIn. I'm trying to do more of my personal brand, you know, so I'm trying to actually be more engaged and doing more interesting stuff on there. Just make sure you follow me and yeah, just reach out if you ever need any marketing or any AI related stuff because I'm very involved in that right now too.
Russel:Alright. Or a tennis tip?
Kateryna:Oh, tennis tip. Always ready for that. I actually didn't pick up the racket for like four years, which is crazy. I think that was too much for me.
Russel:Why does the ball always go over the fence when I hit it? No, I don't remember the last time I played, uh, tennis. Wonderful story, uh, Kateryna. I really appreciate you taking the time to, to go through all the struggles and where it, what it's taken you to get you and your family and love just how you speak to positivity and the values you shared. Again, just really appreciate you taking the time to share your story today.
Kateryna:Thank you so much, Russel. It's been a pleasure.
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.
Kateryna:We had a moment when, um, my staff member actually, he was, uh, working part-time and he was like helping with customer service and he, uh, the other part-time job for him was, uh, selling insurance. He was actually selling insurance and he called our client. It was all good, and he's like, talk to our client. It was all perfect. Then at some point, like few hours later that day, he called him again and he is talking to him like trying to sell insurance and the client's like, hey, what's up dude? You got a wrong number here. It was so hilarious. He was like, really apologized. I'm like, it's fine. Things happen. Don't worry about it. Client's super like nice and funny too. He is like all took it all well, but it was just the crazy funny situation. When you work with contractors, make sure, make sure you guys all on the same page and things like this. Maybe it is only happened once so it doesn't happen often, but it's, it's just a funny story for sure.
Russel:So was he intentionally calling this client to sell them insurance? Or he accidentally?
Kateryna:No, of course not.
Russel:Oh, okay. Okay. That's what I thought. I was just like, he's like, hey, I talked to this guy. I'll try to go sell him insurance now or something.
Kateryna:No. He just dialed the wrong number because it was like the same code, area code, so he, he somehow messed up, called the wrong, the same number. I'm like, this is just horrible. I was so nervous. I actually don't like, I'm not comfortable with these situations, so it was all good. All of our clients are so fun. Actually, we don't have much of this, kind of, these situations happen.
Russel:Good. Good deal.