This interview is with Marina Byezhanova, Co-Founder at Brand of a Leader.

Marina Byezhanova, Co-Founder, Brand of a Leader

Marina, as a successful entrepreneur and parent, can you share a bit about your background and how you’ve come to be an expert in personal branding, entrepreneurship, and parenting?

I’ve built a seven-figure business with clients in 12 countries and 17 employees across the globe. My agency specializes in Founder & Executive Branding with our own proprietary personal brand-building methodology. In addition to being a highly passionate entrepreneur, I am also a dedicated and connected mother to two kids: 15 and 9 years old.

In order to juggle both successfully, I have developed hacks and practices along the way. On a personal level, I can share that I was born in Ukraine, grew up there, and immigrated to Canada, which presented its own challenges of fitting in, lack of belonging, and building my own network from the ground up.

What inspired you to combine your entrepreneurial journey with parenting, and how has this shaped your personal brand?

I’d always wanted to be a parent, and it’s been important to me to be the kind of parent I would have wanted to have. However, I never wanted to sacrifice my huge career ambitions. Both are equally important to me and are a core part of my identity. I truly believe that as women, we do not need to choose either/or, but we can rather have it all, do it all, and be it all.

You’ve mentioned taking your 8-year-old to an entrepreneurial retreat in Brazil. How do you balance exposing your children to the business world while ensuring they have a normal childhood?

I never want to impose my own ambitions or passions onto my children, so I only expose them to things that align with their interests. My daughter has no interest in entrepreneurship, but she loves to travel. I’ve brought her on business trips with me but have not exposed her to my entrepreneurial meetings, aside from inviting her to attend two of my big keynote talks. My son is quite entrepreneurial, so I have not only brought him to the retreat, but I have hired a coach for him.

They meet bi-monthly to discuss his goals, his overall happiness with the different areas of his life, and his mindset. I do one-on-one trips with my children, and in May, I am bringing my now 9-year-old to a coaching retreat for kids where he will spend an entire day working on his goals, mindset, and learning a variety of skills, while I do the same but with adults. We will then meet and have a discussion around our experiences and takeaways of the day. The key to me is not to impose, but to offer to my kids opportunities that expand on their existing interests or tendencies.

Can you share a specific instance where your personal brand as an entrepreneur and parent opened up an unexpected opportunity for you or your family?

I brought my daughter to a big meeting I had in Dubai. Knowing that my daughter was there, a spouse of a fellow event attendee invited my daughter to join a small group of event attendees’ family members on a day trip to Abu Dhabi.

While I curated a large meeting, my daughter had an experience that left her in awe. I call such opportunities “stacking” – it’s when we combine multiple areas of life that are key to us and manage to balance them highly successfully.

As an entrepreneur and parent, how do you leverage your personal brand to create positive change, particularly in relation to your home country of Ukraine?

Every single time I take the stage to keynote an event, I speak about my background growing up in Ukraine and I talk about the war. In year 1 of the war, I was able to inspire numerous donations.

In year 2, I was able to inspire people to take in Ukrainians fleeing the war. Now in year 3, I have been able to inspire fellow entrepreneurs to hire talented employees in Ukraine. This is not quite connected to parenting, but my children are proud to be half-Ukrainian and talk about it extensively with their groups also.

You’ve talked about the importance of visual identity in personal branding. How do you adapt this concept for busy parents who are also trying to build their entrepreneurial presence?

The challenge for many parents who are also entrepreneurs, like me, is drawing the line around how much we share about our families. I talk about my children publicly, including on social media, but the line I drew is around showing their faces.

When I post photos of my kids or of me with them, they are turned with the backs of their heads to the camera. This is a personal line I draw, and I always explain to fellow entrepreneurs that building our personal brands does not mean baring it all and giving up our privacy – the boundaries we draw are entirely ours to define.

What’s one unconventional strategy you’ve used to stand out as an ‘invested mom’ in the entrepreneurial world, and how has it impacted your business and family life?

I bring my kids to events, and it’s not a common thing to do. The first time my daughter attended my keynote was when she was 9. It was incredibly impactful to both of us.

Can you share a challenging moment where you had to make a tough decision between your role as a parent and your role as an entrepreneur? How did your personal brand values guide you?

I have had so many of these moments and have been on the receiving end of judgment as a result. For example, when my first child was in elementary school and I would travel to my new office on the West Coast, it was not an easy decision, and I was questioned quite a bit by other mothers.

Today, I still travel a lot, but I often take my kids out of their schools to travel with me. Many people believe that it’s unacceptable and teaches them wrong lessons. I disagree. My values of stacking and living a life full of memorable experiences guide me.

Based on your experience, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to parents looking to start their entrepreneurial journey while maintaining a strong family focus?

Learn how to do stacking! It’s all possible and doable. Another example I can share is that I have built my gym schedule around my kids’ activities. I go to the gym after dropping my daughter off at dance practices and during my son’s tennis lessons.

This way, I don’t have to take away from my time with them—they are busy anyway—but I am not disregarding my self-care either.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for reading! I am very passionate about inspiring women to create families (no bigger privilege than being a mom) while fully self-actualizing professionally.