Marie Claire: Julia, you worked as a journalist for a long time, hosted a sports program on NTV PLUS, was it easy to change your profession and win?
Yulia Artemieva: I think that a profession is, first of all, acquired skills and experience. It is difficult to change a profession if it is highly specialized. For example, if you are a dentist. Although here, too, I suppose that a dentist can easily become a businessman by opening his own clinic. Journalism is movement and adventurism, business is essentially the same thing. In both areas, fast orientation in space, the ability to catch a trend, feel the atmosphere, the ability to connect with someone, find the right people, convince them that the game is worth the candle and make a deal are important. Naturally, there is also a place for painstaking work on the product.
Chinese wisdom warns: "God forbid you to live in an era of change", it turns out that business and journalism is life in constant stress?
A person who is late for a plane or train and feels happy should go into business. It is the ability to feel comfortable under stress. If a person wants a measured, guaranteed, planned life, then it is not a fact that he will be comfortable. Although, again, in all professions there are people of different temperaments and the world would be very boring if it were not so!
Stress is clear … you like the dynamic of life, but what made you take the first step?
It was a permanent desire from the age of five. As a child, I took apples from a neighboring summer cottage and handed them over to the next tent for sale. How I guessed before, I don't know. Apparently, then there was such an atmosphere, the 90s, everyone around was talking about money, they wanted to earn it in a variety of ways. My friend and I were inspired and decided to show our entrepreneurial essence. True, we, of course, did not think that these apples grow from everyone around, but they even bought them from us and we earned our first money! Serious business happened later. My husband Pavel Mokrushin and I have always talked about this, have done pilot projects in the field of fashion retail, gained experience. It didn't happen with a snap of your fingers.
Was there something that you did not suspect when starting your own business, pitfalls, copper pipes?
The time has passed when you could open any cafe and hit the jackpot. It took us a long time to build our competitive advantage, the whole process lasted a year and a half. We are not classic retailers who buy and resell, we are manufacturers. We need to make a value-added product. Anyone who understands what his unique selling proposition is, wins immediately and forever. It took us a while. We are convinced that an “all-for-all” business is not a business, it is public services. If you want to be competitive, you have to offer something unique. Those who think that opening a cafe is enough to make money usually close quickly. It's harder not to open, but to offer exactly the product that your target audience needs.
You work with your husband, you have children, is a family business real? How not to ruin a relationship by working together?
When we say a family business, we immediately imagine several generations of an Italian family: grandfathers, grandmothers, dads, mothers, aunts and children, everyone is busy with something. In Italy, 95% of commercial enterprises employ up to 5 people. As a result, it is the inner circle of the family. If the business grows, then there may be three or four generations. The problem is not in communicating with your peers, but in communicating with those who are older or younger than you. It is easier for us in this regard, because there are only two of us, there is no older generation that could impose a conservative point of view. Heated disputes about work until two in the morning are still present. And sometimes it makes your head spin. It turns out that the work does not end when you leave the cafe, she is with us at a family dinner, and in the children's room, and in bed. You get tired of this, but I understand that don't be long discussions,there would be no balanced decisions in business and in the family.
How not to destroy everything? Separate areas of responsibility and trust each other.
Is it possible to say that the male and female approach to business is different?
Certainly. Do not forget that men and women are creatures from different planets. But the good news is that they know about it. And if they managed to agree on creating a family, then you can definitely do business. Men easily transcend reality and are more free in strategy, this is what allows them to move forward quite aggressively. And women are still very specific in their approach to implementation, they carefully think over and organize the processes.
How to resolve a dispute when both think they are right?
There is no such thing as someone is right and someone is not, everyone is right in his own way. It's just that when it comes to strategic decisions, long, tedious conversations about the same thing begin. Each expressed his opinion, but is trying to persuade the other to his side. On the other hand, in this way the decision is made more carefully. The situation is being assessed from several sides. They say that one head is good and two is better.
Are there situations in which emotional stress reaches its climax?
I think that a woman has a difficult mission in the modern world. She can work like a man, but sooner or later she has children, plus she is also a wife. Paying attention to each front is difficult. Absolute multitasking can drive any woman crazy!
How to deal with this?
Be yourself, don't live by stereotypes! Not to enter any role, "image", otherwise it will be very difficult to switch. She is a tough leader at work, a seductive wife for her husband, and a tender and caring mother for children. Such a mixture of images and scripts is likely to cause complete discomfort.
By the way, obsessive roles at work, in my opinion, completely interfere with the result. I was amazed by the book "Business is Psychology". The author writes that women very often enter into a certain scenario (a “mother-leader” who regrets everyone, or vice versa a leader who tries to arouse the pity of others - after all, she is so poor and unhappy, everyone is obliged to help her) and precisely because of they make mistakes in business, dooming him to a crisis or to a complete failure. Often women approach business issues too emotionally, from the point of view of likes and dislikes, good or bad. Even if we do not talk about some scenarios, any person sees the situation in his own way, so large companies often resort to the board of directors. We can say that we also get a kind of "board of directors". But to make a decision, you must definitely find agreement. You need to fight your pride so as not to pull the blanket over yourself. It can be difficult, but this does not mean that this is not worth striving for.
Less competition is better?
No, if a person says he will not argue and takes a passive position, then he simply becomes a victim of the situation. It is important to be ambitious and find a balance between self-realization and letting someone else do it. This is the most difficult moment. They say that a pood of salt must be eaten in family life, in business it is the same.
Where do you get your strength and inspiration?
In the reaction of our guests and customers, in their positive feedback. You can also draw energy from negative reviews to improve the situation. The worst thing is when nothing happens and everything is smooth. But strength can also be found in sports. When you do it, you get more energy. And inspiration is travel, beautiful places, beautiful people, paintings, literature, interiors, exhibitions, that aesthetics that pleases. We often bring some ideas from our travels, which we then implement in Brusnik.
With the attitude towards yourself and your spouse, everything is now clear. How do you motivate external employees?
We try to select those who, by their psychological profile, fit into our team. If people are similar in their views, aspirations, values, it is easier for them to agree. Probably, every person can be made to work, but then his efficiency will not be the same as if he worked with desire and inspiration. If he feels that there are people with similar values nearby, then they are more interested and more reckless with each other.
Would you like your family business to last for generations?
We do not set ourselves such a task, but such stories cement the family. Italian families do not fall apart because the family budget is based on business. The grandson needs to ask his grandfather for a new iPhone so that he does not offend him and does not look like a beggar. And if you just demand, then the dialogue runs the risk of turning into a family drama. This is the whole secret.
Photo: archives of press services
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