How To Lead With Purpose When The World Shifts With Anastasia Vladychynska

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16d ago 43:59

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“When the war hit, I asked myself a question. Why am I doing this?”

In this episode, Nick speaks with Anastasia Vladychynska, a certified client experience consultant… or, “Service Pastor” as some call her. They discuss the impact of the war in Ukraine on business and personal life, the importance of reevaluating one’s purpose in business, and the crisis of human connection in the entrepreneurial world.

What to listen for:

Many entrepreneurs focus on ego rather than genuine impact
It’s essential to ask why we do what we do in business
Self-awareness is crucial in making business decisions
Building real relationships can provide support during tough times
Discipline is about making conscious choices in daily life
Understanding personal motivations is key to fulfillment
Pursuing dreams should not be postponed until later in life

“We do get to ask ourselves this question, how do I want to live the rest of my life?”

Pause and reflect—don’t wait for a crisis to reassess your path
You have permission to choose differently at any moment
Long-term alignment starts with honest questions
Living intentionally requires consistent self-check-ins
Designing your life starts with asking why, not how

“Ask yourself what can I do for myself right now, a little thing, a small thing that will make me feel better.”

Tiny actions can shift your entire mood or mindset
Self-care doesn’t have to be big to be powerful
Comfort can come from everyday things—use them
Emotional resilience is built through small daily choices
Little joys are survival tools, not indulgences

About Anastasia Vladychynska

Anastasia is a certified client strategy consultant specializing in helping coaches retain their clients. With over 10 years of experience in consulting World-Class brands, after going through a very shakeable personal life experience, she empowers numerous coaching businesses to enhance client satisfaction and loyalty. By focusing on personalized engagement strategies, she guides coaches in creating meaningful connections that lead to long-term success not just in business but in life.

Resources:

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Click To View The Episode Transcript

Nick (00:04.92)
Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show we have Anastasia Wladysińska. Anastasia, how are doing today?

Anastasia Vladychynska (00:16.686)
Tussowsnik!

Nick (00:17.89)
I’m good, I’m good. I know I just said today, but you had also just told me it’s like basically 10 30 where you’re at right now. You’re the other side of the world from where I am. And I appreciate you jumping on. Why don’t you get us started because I instantly want to get in different things that we were talking about, but tell us who you are, what you do for a living and what’s one thing most people don’t know about you that’s maybe a little odd or bizarre.

Anastasia Vladychynska (00:25.795)
yesterday.

Anastasia Vladychynska (00:42.298)
I’m Anastasia Vodichenska. I am a certified client experience consultant. And right now I share my time between London and Kiev, okay? Before I was just Kiev and we will talk about that as well. And so basically I help corporate businesses and entrepreneurs to improve two things, their client retention or employer retention. That’s on the surface. Going deeper, I help them to…

I call it to transform, yes, buzzword, I know, but it is the truthful one in this case, to transform into a truly service company. Okay. Not just talk about it. The bizarre thing would be, I think my entrepreneurship started when I was seven years old and there were those cartoons on a TV, the Christian cartoons, and I would watch the cartoons and then they would say, if you

send us a drawing, then we will send you the little books for kids, the Christian books for free. So I would send them the drawings, they would send me back the books and then I would sell them. So I don’t know if that’s an early start of my entrepreneurship. Kind of embarrassed now, but yeah, it is what it is.

Nick (01:43.747)
Mm.

Nick (01:53.858)
That is wonderful.

Nick (02:00.652)
Why? That’s awesome. They gave you something for free. Doesn’t Jesus want us all? Touche. Yeah. That’s a trade off. That’s a cool thing. Especially for you to be like, well, I could read through this and I could draw on it or I can sell it to my friends in the neighborhood. Why not?

Anastasia Vladychynska (02:05.688)
Well, no, for free I actually gave them the drawing. Gave them the drawing. you know, like, if I were to become a Michelangelo, then exactly.

Anastasia Vladychynska (02:23.898)
I know, yeah, here comes the business plan, yeah.

Nick (02:27.598)
So, I know based on what we’re talking about, even the information you sent over and all of that from the top level of you help different businesses and you help them be more service based. I want to be really crystal clear with this right now that this isn’t just a standard coach that’s doing standard coachy things, coaching other coaches about coaching coaches, coach, coach, coach.

It’s really about what we were talking about before hitting record of actually seeing people as people and being human from that perspective. But right now, while we’re talking about this, you were telling me that, I don’t know what 48 hours ago you were sleeping in a bed that was actually porcelain and most people bathe in because of a war going on around you. So when we talk about business, we can’t not talk about life.

Anastasia Vladychynska (03:15.694)
Yeah. Yeah,

Nick (03:24.814)
because it is all intertwined. But I think a lot of people spend too much time talking about just the business thing and the hustle and the grind and all of that instead of actually seeing what the fuck is going on on the planet right now. And are you doing the work that you’re here to do or are you just grinding along trying to sell shit to people because you just think you need to sell shit to people. So take it and run.

Anastasia Vladychynska (03:40.026)
you

Anastasia Vladychynska (03:47.61)
So good, so good, Nick. So yes, I am Ukrainian and before the war in Ukraine, had a seven figure business before it became mainstream and I never talked about it. I just had it because I tried to actually do what I preach in my business as well. But I was, I love what you just said, because I was so focused on, you

Nick (03:59.672)
Hmm.

Nick (04:06.414)
What an idea.

Anastasia Vladychynska (04:16.526)
being more. Do you know that book which is like, what’s the name of that book? One More Thing? Is that the name of One More Something? So basically the book tells you that you have to do more and all of it, how to be more effective, how to be more productive. I went to every possible training on that one. My team, I have a team of people because my agency is already, this year it was 10 years anniversary, so it’s good, right? And yeah.

Nick (04:18.499)
Hmm.

Nick (04:23.0)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (04:41.186)
Hmm. Well.

Anastasia Vladychynska (04:43.95)
We had a word of the year. The word was perseverance all the time. It was like every time management course, every book is like boom, boom. How many more things I can get into the day. You know, let’s do a book. I had one of the dreams was to be on a TV and yes, I got there. I got into Forbes, all of it, all of it. And then when the war hit, I asked myself a question. Why am I doing this?

Nick (05:13.314)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (05:14.01)
Like why? And my calendar was so full and of course everything stopped because back then 80 % of my business was in Ukraine. So imagine this. 80 % of the business stops and you ask yourself a question of, wait, wait, why was I doing what I was doing before? And if you ask this to a consultant or a coach or an entrepreneur, they would tell you because I want to change the world, because I want to impact the world, all of it. Now, are you guys ready for the real?

Nick (05:23.107)
Hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (05:43.872)
answer. At least it was the real answer for me. But then when I talk to my friends, successful entrepreneurs, they will say the same. They’ll say so much of it is just for our own ego.

Nick (05:54.104)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (05:56.442)
So all of this, I want to do a TEDx, I want to write a book, because I want to impact. Not always. I just put it this way, not always. So yeah, so what you said, Nick, it’s not just about everybody has to know what’s going on in Ukraine, in Gaza, da da. I mean, yes, it would be great because then it gives us, it’s hard to manipulate someone who knows shit, right? The more we know, the more we travel, the harder we are to manipulate. So I do agree on that one. At the same time,

Nick (06:17.58)
Mm-hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (06:25.626)
I don’t expect everybody to know what’s going on in Ukraine, or in Gaza, I don’t expect them. But what I would encourage is to ask yourself before you want to have your calendar totally booked, ask yourself why am I doing this? Why am I booking all this calendar? Do I really want to be working 24 to 7? Because now I have a list of my dreams and I’m not working 24 to 7.

taking off July, taking off January and several more months. Just because I’m like, I’m fine. I don’t, know what? I’m fine. I just want to live. I want to live. Yeah, I know. So I don’t know if I answered this, Nick, but yeah, for me it was, and now, you know, now we have, we turned down eight clients out of 10. Not because we are so cool and arrogant, but because before onboarding them, I’m asking myself, why do I not?

Nick (07:00.846)
Yeah, what an idea.

Nick (07:18.03)
Hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (07:21.368)
Why do want to work with them? And if a question is, money, then I think, again, if the question is B, ego, that’s such a wonderful, we just signed up and it’s true, we just signed up a major developer, huge corporation. And I had to ask myself, is it in the stage of Just For Your Portfolio, do you want the name? Do you want the name? And we already have the names, we have McDonald’s, we have Baza, we have them. Is it for the name?

Nick (07:27.267)
You

Nick (07:44.974)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (07:51.288)
And then I met with the owners, with the founders. I loved them. They were so cool. So now for me, it’s more of a, okay, can I really help those guys to change? Do I like them? Can I see that it’s going to bring the real result? If I see it, I say yes. If it’s not, I’d rather not earn today and I’ll be happy having my one on the porch.

Nick (08:15.694)
Yeah, that’s a tough situation for people though. I feel like this, this conversation could easily get to the higher levels of seasoned entrepreneurs. Where I also want to make sure that there are people that are thinking like I’m in a career right now and I want to do something different. I want to step out on my own. So all of this really encompasses every single bit of it. Because even specifically for the people that are seasoned or deeper into their business,

It’s somewhat difficult, more so, to be able to rewire yourself or unravel from all those things because you go, well, we have to pay for all the people, we have to pay for the overhead, we have to do this. My ego got me to this point and all of that. So even if we just push all that stuff to the side.

whether you’re brand new, you’re at a corporate job, you think you wanna do your own business, you’ve had your own business for 90 years, whatever it is. If we just separate from all of that, really what you’re saying here is actually looking at some situation for what it is. It’s an opportunity, let’s just say from somebody saying, we need help with business, your business offers these things, black and white in that sort of way. And understanding, do you feel like you are the fit with that person or that group to be able to work with? And does it fire you up to do it?

The thing you said about not taking the money today is a very, very, very difficult thing for most business owners to do. Even if they can say, yeah, I would do the same thing. Sure you would. For the most part, when they get in that situation, they go, all right, fine. And I’ve been there. Shit, I’ve been there recently.

Anastasia Vladychynska (09:42.189)
Mm-hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (09:46.65)
Thank

Nick (09:54.638)
uh, some, there’s a company hanging money over your shoulders and like, we can, we can give you all this. If you do this thing, you’re like, well, it’s not exactly what I said I would do for you, but you know, I’ll bend a little bit and us all listening to our intuition really gets back to us, trusting ourselves and understanding that we can make those movements, but we got to be self-aware with it. So I’m not trying to stack everything up, but it really all does stack because it is.

Anastasia Vladychynska (10:05.69)
Mmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (10:12.334)
Mm.

Nick (10:21.356)
If you’re self aware enough to go, well, I really want this cause I want your logo on my website. I want to show whatever big company and my ego is looking at that. But even at the same time, if you look at it and go, I really believe in what you’re doing. And these other little things like having your logo on my website, which is a big thing is not driving you. You’ve got to be aware enough to be able to look at that go, well, it’s not driving me. Cause this, this actual project, this thing that I can sink my teeth into is what drives me.

Anastasia Vladychynska (10:38.906)
Okay.

Anastasia Vladychynska (10:51.534)
Hmm.

Nick (10:51.59)
so there’s so many different nuances and pieces to it though, cause you know, when you go down the hustle path and the grind path, you do all these things, you have success, you of course have failures and whatever. But sometimes in that spot, that failure becomes like this massive fire. That’s like, you energy to everybody. And you go out even further with the ego instead of taking a, a sidestep and going, let me just be calm with this. What’s, what’s actually going on right here. And you brought up crisis before we started.

Anastasia Vladychynska (10:55.076)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (11:07.194)
you

Anastasia Vladychynska (11:12.42)
Hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (11:16.579)
Hmm.

Nick (11:19.104)
So let’s talk about how this ties into the crisis, because it’s not only just a business crisis, but it’s a human crisis of like, I think I need to do this because the systems of the world tell me I need to be successful and outward, or at least Facebook and TikTok and everything else does, but it’s still a crisis.

Anastasia Vladychynska (11:37.391)
Yeah.

Yeah, it’s

I think we have to be, I would like to be careful because I do understand that if you own a huge company, some of our clients have 60,000 employees. Of course you don’t have the luxury to say, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna work with this client or that client, right? That’s understandable. But as entrepreneurs and as consultants and coaches and even lawyers and even, and even

What doctors and dentists, I just have gave a speech for dentist conference and like dentists, they’re super busy. They don’t see life. They don’t have time to go on a vacation. And the message was the same. was asking them, have you asked yourself why you’re what you’re doing? And some of them said, it’s been ages when I asked myself that question. Right. So I do, I gotta be careful saying that it’s just entrepreneurs. think we have the luxury of.

Nick (12:14.35)
Hmm.

Nick (12:32.888)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (12:41.882)
asking ourselves that question, not always, you know, see all the huge companies that don’t have that luxury. So let’s use the luxury that we have. And I also think there’s a lot of noise, Nick. There’s so much noise out there. Doesn’t matter by the way, if you’re a starting entrepreneur or a seasoned entrepreneur, you go on the internet, there’s this coach who tells you you need another funnel. There’s this one who tells you you need to invest 5K into Facebook ads. There’s this one who’s asking you right from the screen.

Nick (12:42.318)
Hmm.

Nick (12:52.974)
the

Anastasia Vladychynska (13:11.992)
Are you converting? How many you convert? What’s your conversion rate? And then you’re like, okay, I got to run here and there and here’s this trend and that trend and all of it. So I think that right now what I see entrepreneurs are so, so focused on getting new and new leads. Okay. So the mind is

over there somewhere, let’s just look for more, let’s get more, duh duh duh. Because that’s what the internet teaches you right now. Now, while you’re looking for more and more clients, the existing ones are sitting and crying. They’re like, when was the last time she checked on us? Nick, I have friends who are leaving 100K masterminds, not because they didn’t get the education from it.

Nick (13:53.207)
you

Anastasia Vladychynska (14:06.724)
not because they didn’t get the value from it. They usually say the same. We feel like nobody cares about us in a 100k mastermind. We feel like we’re just a part of the group because these people only sell to us. They just sold mastermind. Now they’re selling their products, programs, events, all of it. So what happens? They drop out. And they drop out. You start looking for more leads. So consumerism is not just…

Nick (14:21.282)
Yeah.

Nick (14:31.288)
Huh.

Anastasia Vladychynska (14:35.244)
is not just the problem of our century, the consumer is even there in the way we work with clients. I hate the word leads. And somebody asked me, how can I get more leads? said, bisous en français. These are people, okay? How can you get more clients who are people? That question gives…

Nick (14:46.958)
Stop. Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (14:58.412)
a totally different perspective because then you start considering them as people and then people have thoughts and psychology and fears and all of it and then you can understand better. Whereas when you say leads and which words I’m gonna give you three words that really convert. really? Everybody knows those words already by now. When we hear those words we want to close out and to never ever talk to you again, right? Yes. So I say it’s a…

Nick (15:00.472)
Yeah.

Nick (15:15.82)
You

Nick (15:21.324)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ahem.

Anastasia Vladychynska (15:29.112)
My mentor John DeJuulius calls it a relationship crisis.

Nick (15:33.102)
Mm-hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (15:36.046)
Which I was also thinking some time ago, I thinking that all of this online work that we are doing and so many people are switching into online work, which makes sense. But even online workers, the people who work in companies, they’re trying to make it online as more as possible. But I do think that the mental health will decrease with more online. Just because it’s almost as if we are living in a fake world.

Because the real world is the bird, the tree. That’s the real world, right? But now we are spending 80, 90 percent, people are spending like 90 percent of the day in the fake world. It was fake avatars, right? So how about the mental health over there? The mental health is better when you see the bird, when you smell the fresh air. That’s when your mental and…

Nick (16:09.058)
Yeah.

Nick (16:17.198)
I Yeah

Anastasia Vladychynska (16:31.104)
You’re listening to someone who’s going through war, who’s like messed up mentally. I am! I cannot, I’m not even claiming I’m healthy. Right? I’m not even, I’m not even trying to say that.

Nick (16:43.276)
powerful that you can look at it like that, you know, and I’m from the war perspective, all of that. That’s, that’s what I mean. Like it’s powerful that you can have those conversations, but this is also real life shit. Like when things are going status quo, just the world is okay, which isn’t very often at all, but there are times where you can get into a rhythm. Think about the different times you’ve been in the rhythm with your, with your business. You have projects going on. You look up, it’s been three months and you’re like, things are good. This is happening. That’s happening.

This is also real life. This is like you lose somebody that’s close to you or you lose somebody that knows somebody that’s close to them. And then you always, we as humans go, well shit, I am mortal. And what do I do from here? But I think more of us should not only ask the question, and I’m sure everybody asks, what do I actually want in life? What’s the purpose of life? All those things. But then saying to themselves, really, what is it that I can offer to the world that I can do? That’s my unique version.

of what I offer that isn’t tied into those other things, but we have all these other things. I can’t not help but think that this would be one of like the most all time Doctor Who episodes of all the shit that’s going on right now, where everybody would be like, this is funny and look what the doctor did and whatever. And like, this is really what’s happening. We’re all basically getting sucked into computers like the different Doctor Who episodes. And it’s literally.

Anastasia Vladychynska (18:01.754)
Yeah.

Nick (18:07.896)
taking us and just molding us in those directions. But we got to step outside of that. So even for you to be able to say, stop saying leads, I’m right there with you. Something I’ve been saying for the past several months, really, it came out of me loudly in one meeting that I was like, these are actual human souls. I’ve had conversations with people about their podcasts. Like I only have X amount of people that listen. like, even if you have one human soul that listens, and even if that one is your mom or your spouse,

or your friend to start, like others. Yeah, some random. Well, random, that random Turkish guy. But any of those people that are actually human souls, that is one human soul. And the closer we can get with that person, the more that we can learn about what is actually inside of us.

Anastasia Vladychynska (18:38.042)
Yeah, or a Turkish guy, know girls girls. have Turkish guys from from Facebook That’s liking everything it’s a grandma your mom and a Turkish guy usually likes everything Yeah

Nick (19:04.974)
We’ve talked different levels of this stuff, like the seasoned entrepreneurs, people that are new, there are people that are in corporate and all of that. I think all of this encapsulates every single bit of it because yes, as a business, you need money to pay for things and stay in business. I’ve been in the spot where being an outside salesperson and leading teams at different agencies where there are times where I’m like, I really don’t like these people, but I do like their money.

And I’ll have a conversation with them, but then I’ll also pawn them off on to some account manager or whatever, because I don’t want to deal with them. And then other people I become friendly with. We’re all going to have that sort of stuff. But if we look at just from the idea of the consultants, the coaches, the solopreneurs, or even the small teams. We have a easier opportunity to be able to say, I don’t want to work with these people because it doesn’t align where it can be difficult for somebody in a bigger position, but

I would like to say that they actually have more responsibility to make those decisions as a larger company because they have to and they impact a lot more people. But you as a solo or small business, if something feels off, we got to look at that. So let’s actually get a little macro with this because you’ve been through shit. I’ve been through some shit where you go, well, this is a great idea. And then at the end of it, you’re like, my God, well, I don’t think I should do this anymore because this was terrible. And if I thought that was okay, then what is wrong with me or whatever?

and being able to understand from that. So are there any key situations that have happened that you look back to and you go, fuck, that was one of those pivotal moments that kind of everything changed from.

Anastasia Vladychynska (20:41.688)
Yeah. Is your question, Nick, the pivotal moment when I realized which clients to work with or not, or the pivotal moment that changed kind of everything, how I look at business and how I look at everything I teach? Okay. Okay. Yeah, because many times people do ask, do you feel, how do you figure if it’s the client that you want to work with and you can’t help? And again, this is not from an arrogance perspective.

Nick (20:55.884)
Whichever you feel is better.

Nick (21:09.506)
Yeah. Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (21:09.594)
from service perspective, but being honest with yourself, telling yourself, am I going to help here or my help is not needed? The company will just pay money, but I won’t be able to help. it was this question for us personally is, for example, and yes, we work with huge corporations, with entrepreneurs, but also with huge corporations.

To me, I always want to talk to the first person. So if it’s the CEO or the founder, I always want to talk to them because I, unfortunately in 10 years, we’ve working in so many different countries, know, Spain, Cyprus, UK, Ukraine, like Bulgaria, all different countries. But the pattern is the same. If you talk to a founder or you talk to the CEO and you get the feeling that they have arrogance, they don’t.

truly respect their people. They talk nicely. But if you’ve been working with people for long time, feel you have the BS meter in your brain. So you feel that energy is nice whereas sometimes I have to tell you, I had CEOs who I tried to have a very relaxing conversation with them. And, you know, in the beginning, everybody’s trying to hold face and be very, you know, they repeat the words from the PR team, all of it. By the end of the conversation, I literally…

Nick (22:10.2)
You get it.

Anastasia Vladychynska (22:34.252)
At CEO’s tell me, Stasia, know what, but you and I know that all employees steal and clients steal and will steal from us. And I’m like, well, thank you for that belief. And you know what? I just feel like I can’t help you over here because the belief that the founders have, you just can’t escape it. will always be as I, it’s cloned in the people in the company. for us, yeah. Yeah.

Nick (22:49.347)
Yeah.

Nick (22:58.623)
yeah, just falls down.

Anastasia Vladychynska (23:01.7)
Whatever the owner of the company or the entrepreneur, whatever they believe about their clients or about their employees, they feel that we won’t be able to have it. the, you know, in the business language, we would call it our values are not aligned, but you can’t tell that to a client. can’t be like, Nick, I feel like our values don’t align. That’s why we are not going to work together. Right? Like you can’t say it. So I would basically just say, Nick, you know, I love that you want to change that, but like from my experience, I just feel.

Nick (23:19.576)
the

Anastasia Vladychynska (23:29.688)
I’m not the right person to help you over here. It’s just not me. Somebody else, yes, but maybe not me. So yeah. But the pivotal moment for me in my business was definitely the crisis, which was the war. And I think that as you said, the war is just one of the crisis. Yes, it’s one of the worst, but it could be…

Nick (23:32.908)
Hmm. Sure.

Anastasia Vladychynska (23:52.955)
losing someone it could be relationship broken right so any time any crisis in our lives and I think what you said is very important because when we have those moments in life yes at that very moment we ask that question how are you going to impact what are we going to do with our lives but then if we are not hmm what’s the what’s the beautiful word I’m looking here if you’re not disciplined enough

to tell yourself, no, that’s my decision. That’s how I’m living now. I’m not going to go back to Green Day. I’m not going to go back. Everybody in it wants to write a book. Everybody wants just to, what is the next thing? Everybody wants to write a book. Everybody wants to do the TEDx, right? So like, then everybody’s busy doing those books and TEDx. And then my question is like, why do you want to write a book? Okay, because I want to impact the world. Well, but let me tell you this. There are so many books right now.

Nick (24:38.339)
Mm-hmm.

You

Anastasia Vladychynska (24:52.442)
There so many people who have already impacted the world and maybe you don’t need to write the book. Maybe you don’t have to be writing. Maybe… So what do I do? Well, I don’t know. Maybe you go on vacation to Italy, something that you have been dreaming of, and I don’t write the book. No, you don’t write the book. just have fun for yourself because you’ve been dreaming. The saddest part is the snack. You know, after the war has started, I was very… I didn’t know what to do and that’s another reason why I so much believe…

in real relationships building with your clients, with your employees, with your suppliers, it does not matter. With your agenitors, it does not matter because in the beginning of the war, saw that people, CEOs who had connections, who had relationships, they were helped. Their families were helped straight away. Now there were CEOs who had nobody to help them. CEOs of huge corporations, but they never ever had any relationships with other people. They just…

They just used the people for their own purpose and nobody would help them. And we are talking like real help, like getting somebody out of the house or getting somebody out of the, you know, or helping someone. I ended up helping 150 women who left Ukraine. And so they left Ukraine with their kids, but they had no place to stay. So I ended up because I had connections because I have those relationships. So that’s why, you know, in crisis A,

Nick (25:55.501)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (26:13.178)
always rely. If you have relationships built before, does not matter clients, suppliers, it does not matter just people. Okay. Then they will become like this. I call it a trampoline. I don’t like the networking word because it’s almost like we are building the net for work, right? But you still need that net that becomes a trampoline. And when you’re in a crisis, you will go super low than trampoline. Like I was depressed for nine months in bed.

Nick (26:31.566)
Hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (26:43.14)
So you would go super low. But if you have relationships with people, that will be like a trampoline hitting you back. Right? So they will help you. so for me, was I think that every type of the crisis, we do get to ask ourselves this question, how do I want to live the rest of my life? Or, okay, don’t think about the rest of your life. How do I want to live the next year or two years from now?

Nick (26:48.238)
you

Anastasia Vladychynska (27:09.06)
But then being disciplined enough to tell yourself, no, no, no, that’s what I’ve chosen. And that’s what I’m sticking to. Even if there’s this beautiful company, you know, that wants to send you $1 million, but you feel like, no, this is not a good, this is not a good work. You say, bye bye to that company and you go and have and sip your wine. That’s it for free.

Nick (27:27.608)
Yeah. Yeah. Learn from us. Don’t take that. Cause even if the money seems good, it’s like blood money at that point. And it’s every time I’ve had that happen so many different times, I’ve going to say 10, 15 times of the course of my career. I’m like, this is going to be great because it’s solely for the money or the ego or whatever. And it’s always a bitter taste at the end. Even if it’s not a total shit show, it’s still a bitter taste at the end.

Anastasia Vladychynska (27:36.076)
Man.

Nick (27:56.312)
but us being able to look at ourselves and saying, what is aligned with me, takes us actually going inside out to be able to do that. So some of the stuff that you’re saying right now is almost like taking what sounds right outside in the world and totally flipping it inside out. It’s like a shirt. have to, you flip it back inside out or outside in, whichever, when you put it in wash, take it out. That’s an easy thing to do. But if you think about that whole thing, you can still see typically through your shirt, you can see the emblem on it or whatever.

Anastasia Vladychynska (27:56.515)
Mm-hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (28:11.677)
Mmm.

Nick (28:25.428)
it’s just not as clear. So being able to flip that thing out and being able to say, what am I doing today? What does tomorrow look like is tomorrow’s problem, but what am I doing right now to change some of these things? I bring it to that macro level because there are certain times where I think the systems and the way that the world works right now, we can get really lost in, well, I want this to happen over even the next three months or the rest of the year or 10 years from now.

Anastasia Vladychynska (28:25.551)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (28:31.738)
Mm-hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (28:48.282)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (28:51.01)
I remember people saying to me before, like, what’s your five and 10 year plan? And I was like, fuck if I know, if I figure out what it’s five and 10 year plan, it’s not going to be anything that I want because it’s going to be like real low level shit that I’m like, this will be great. I want this car and I want this. it’s like, no, but you just start moving through those things. So what do you do for yourself on the daily to be able to work on that discipline? And what’s the thing you’re working on right now?

Anastasia Vladychynska (29:04.504)
Yeah! Yeah!

Mm-hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (29:18.31)
Yeah, discipline, that’s an interesting word. I don’t wake up at 5 a.m. I don’t do yoga at 6. I don’t take my protein shake or whatever shake. Yeah, I love good food. I eat pizza and pasta. I’m a sinner. And I love it. No, I don’t feel like I’m a sinner. I love it. Okay? I love it. I do exercise, yeah, I think what helps me a lot, especially like you’ve said, yeah.

Nick (29:27.159)
You

Anastasia Vladychynska (29:45.974)
spending a night in a bathtub, sleeping in a bathtub because it’s yeah, right now I’m in Kiev. it’s a sleeping in a bathtub is considered to be safer than sleeping in your bed because there’s windows and everything. Okay. So I had to sleep in a bathtub, but then for two hours and then I had to wake up and to do a motivational service based speech to 600 doctors. And a good question is how do you, where do you get the…

Where’d you get the energy to do it? Because there’s no energy from sleeping two hours. Like, no, zero. From, yeah, zero. Like you can’t even fake it. No amount of coffee will help it. Yeah. And yeah, I do drink coffee. Lots of coffee. I know. So for me, what drives me usually is reminding myself something what we call, we actually…

Nick (30:17.484)
Yeah, zero.

Nick (30:29.43)
I drink it excessively, so I understand.

Anastasia Vladychynska (30:41.25)
Every time we start working with any business, we tell them that you guys need to start with this first. My mentor John DeJulious calls it service vision and I love it how he puts it this way. So what’s the service vision of the company or service philosophy? Something that gets you out of your bed. Okay. And it’s shared in the company. It’s not your vision. It’s not your mission. It’s like the British word patrol.

the American word, guest, that gives you something. The gasoline that gives you, yeah, I’ve started saying, biscuits, which is dreadful. But, darling. So it gives you gasoline. And for me, it’s reminding myself my service vision. My service vision is to impact every person I come across with. So for me, if I’m doing this, I’m doing this 300 % for them, not for myself. Okay? If I have chose to do this, if I have chosen.

Nick (31:09.422)
It’s the gasoline, yeah.

Nick (31:16.622)
You

Anastasia Vladychynska (31:39.14)
So reminding this always gives me energy. It’s about them. What I want them to know about this. What I want them, it’s about their experience, not about mine. It doesn’t matter. But also, it helps to, especially in those days that are really hard, emotionally they’re super hard. What helps me, I’ve been helping with this, other people, and they say it’s worse for them as well, is little things. So ask yourself.

asking yourself what can I do for myself right now? A little thing, a small thing that will make me feel better. So for example, some people have usual mugs, coffee mugs, and like for a birthday party, coffee mugs, like expensive ones, expensive china. So that’s the day you take out your expensive china. Okay? Or if you have, well, women usually have a regular gel wash.

Nick (32:16.046)
Mm-hmm.

Anastasia Vladychynska (32:34.968)
and then an expensive one. So that’s the day for the expensive one. like you take during the day what you would usually do, but kind of make it a bit better. A better coffee mug, a better… like little, little nano things, but it makes you feel instantly better. So the power of little, little, little things. And then the big thing, the idea of why you’re doing, again, why are you doing what you’re doing? If you don’t know that…

In a time of a crisis, it will be not just hard. It will be like…

No, like there’s no way you can do it. And the same holds true for companies, by the way. Companies that we work with, especially those that are still in Ukraine, they would tell me service vision is the only thing that keeps them going. Because they remind themselves they’re doing it for other people who are not feeling good and da-da-da-da-da-da.

Nick (33:31.65)
Yeah, we all live in our own realities though. Like even you and I are in this conversation right now. You live in your reality, I live in mine. And the idea of doing anything or everything from that service vision is wonderful. And yes, we’ll get us out of bed, but it has to tie to us because it is our reality. Like if we get up and go, well, the mission of the company is to do this thing. Fuck it. Who cares? Yeah. A lot of companies, a lot of people try to push a lot of that.

Anastasia Vladychynska (33:34.948)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (33:49.869)
It does.

Anastasia Vladychynska (33:54.604)
No, no, no, never works. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Nick (34:01.218)
because it’s kind of standard practice. Like, well, when you walk in your house and it’s nighttime, you turn the light on so you can see. It’s kind of standard practice. So people are like, well, I think I need a mission statement. It’s standard practice. It’s this, it’s that. I love how you have the idea of the service, just the service mindset of that and having that solution of like, I’m going to be the one to be able to help with this if that aligns with you. I think we can call it whatever it is, but knowing what our principles are, knowing what our own.

Anastasia Vladychynska (34:19.29)
Yeah.

Nick (34:29.602)
I have my own mission statement, but I only call it a mission statement because it’s just easy to call that. I know it’s really just at the core of what I am. Exactly. The words are semantics at that point. So I want people to not get held up on that stuff. You call it service vision. If you call it a mission statement, you could call it purple popsicles. I don’t care. Whatever it is that ties to you, you then tie back to that thing.

Anastasia Vladychynska (34:35.35)
Exactly. It doesn’t matter how you call it. Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (34:50.242)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nick (34:56.034)
Like my mission is to live a principle centered life full of adventure and magical moments that inspire others to live a rich loving life. And I do things from that. Well, I also, set up a, audio track that’s about 10 minutes long that has my mission. It also has my affirmations and it has some different things in there that are specific to me that I’ve made for myself. I’ve been using for the past.

Anastasia Vladychynska (35:03.328)
That’s a long one. How did you remember it, Nick? That’s a long one. That’s a cool one by a long one. I would not remember.

Nick (35:24.962)
five, six years at this point. Every day, that’s part of my discipline. I don’t often bring that up and I’m not saying it as an ego thing at all, but I know that my being needs to hear it over and over and over again. I need to listen to it. I need to hear in my own words, me saying those things to me. I need to understand what it is exactly so that I know mission is to live a principle centered life. It starts with the principles.

Anastasia Vladychynska (35:27.45)
What?

Anastasia Vladychynska (35:43.456)
remind yourself right? Okay.

Nick (35:51.724)
Because if you have those starting points, then from there you’re able to move from there. You need to know what your principles are. That’s a part of the track too. It’s a major part of it. But knowing whatever your mission statement is, whatever your service statement, whatever the thing is, if we don’t know what that is, you’re right. When crisis hits, we don’t know what to do at that point. And I would like that to be a challenge to people to figure out. I don’t care if it’s a…

mission statement, it’s six paragraphs long, if it’s three fucking words, does not matter. What’s the thing that actually feels direct to your soul that’s important? What do you want to add to that?

Anastasia Vladychynska (36:31.31)
Yeah, I’d say that answer that question to yourself because I the COVID was actually an awakening moment. And, but then kind of everything as you said, slid down and again, we’re grinding and yourself why is it? I remembered now what I wanted to, to add Nick. One of the saddest moments for me was I’ve always had a dream of going to Florence.

and studying at Michelangelo Institute because I always wanted to study art, history of art and Italian. And I always told myself, I never have time for this, right? Right, exactly. So when the war hit, you know, the first year was awful. The second year became better and better. But I was like, okay, I’m doing it. I’m doing it. I’m going to Florence. So I blocked out the whole month. went to Florence. And who do you think was part of my group? Like there was me and then there were people part of my group. Like any guesses. Who was, who was making their dreams come true? Okay. Let me put it this way.

Like what kind of people? Who would you say was in the MA group?

Nick (37:36.588)
what kind of people wanted to make their dreams come true that went with you. I would say people, I can only give types of people, the risk takers, the people that actually see that there’s life to be lived and others that have died. Those that can see the veil, really, that can look deep into the void and go, I want more.

Anastasia Vladychynska (37:38.05)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (37:44.12)
Yeah? Uh-huh.

Anastasia Vladychynska (37:49.41)
Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, okay.

Okay. It’s sadder than this. was students because students are like, oh, I don’t know what to write. Florence, Students are still very… Students and retired people like in their seventies.

Nick (38:00.555)
Okay.

Nick (38:06.734)
Thank

Nick (38:12.238)
the people that weren’t working.

Anastasia Vladychynska (38:15.672)
And there’s seventies and I’m like, that’s not the time when I want to start making my dreams come true. That’s not it. It was scary. Like it was so sad. So I told myself, no, I’m going to work, but I’m also well, and I will answer this question to myself. Why am I doing what I’m doing? Like, why? What’s my. And then also you can renew your mission statement or whatever you call it statement. If you, if it was valid two years ago, maybe it’s not valid right now. Maybe it doesn’t resonate with you anymore. So go ahead and just, you know,

Nick (38:19.82)
Yeah.

Nick (38:32.099)
Yeah.

Nick (38:37.613)
Yep.

Anastasia Vladychynska (38:45.05)
But please, as Nick said, I’m just begging you, make that step back. Everybody’s telling you there’s new trend, there’s new things, blah, blah, blah. Even if you’re in your business, no, like Nick said, step back and ask yourself, is it my thing or not? Everybody’s telling you, you should do 304 funnels and invest 5,000 bucks into your Facebook ads. I have invested in the 10 year of my career, $400 into my marketing. And you have heard the companies we have worked with, like.

Nick (39:10.281)
man.

Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (39:14.978)
Even McDonald’s. So it’s not about that. It’s not about that.

Nick (39:19.958)
Man, there’s also, I think a lot of people really do need to understand that those people that are telling you, have to put all this money into Facebook ads and do all this stuff. I know of people, which I will not name any of those fucking people, that have like a burn rate of six figures plus every single month. And the game is no longer the same as it was before. So even in that sense, where they’re trying to find a system that works for them, and you’ve talked about the people that were paying a hundred grand to be in a…

an echelon of a group basically, but then being sold to. I know one person specifically that as soon as you brought it up, I was like, I know they sold somebody. And then the next day had another message that had a call to action with it to buy something totally different for like 50 grand where, because they wanted to pay for something of their own. That’s not healthy.

And a lot of the people that fall in line with that don’t know because they don’t, they’re trying to look for something that will help them. They’re looking for a savior instead of looking inside and going, what’s really going on? Well, fact is I’m at a job that I really don’t like, but I do like aspects of it. So cool. What do you like about those aspects? What are the things? What could you do? How can life look a little different and take a step out of that where

I don’t know, it sucks when I talk to people and they’re like, you know, I got kids and I got a family and I’ve got a house and I got this and I got that. It’s like, that’s cool. That still doesn’t answer the fucking question I asked.

Anastasia Vladychynska (40:46.968)
It does not. Maybe you don’t need such a big house, maybe you can do an extension. An extension is much lower in money than a huge mortgage. yeah, yeah. But I think everybody has their own answers to this. It’s just that please ask yourself that question because the worst time to ask it is when the crisis comes. That’s the worst time.

Nick (40:51.022)
Exactly. Yeah.

Nick (41:01.806)
Exactly.

Nick (41:10.538)
in crisis. Yeah. So along those lines, what’s your advice for somebody that’s on their path toward self-mastery?

Anastasia Vladychynska (41:18.146)
Okay. I’m going to repeat myself 350 times, but it’s going to be the same. Nick, like ask yourself, why am I doing what I do? Why do want to write a book? Why do I want to do this? Why do I want it? And please look at your calendar, look at your life and ask yourself, do I really want to live like this or can I do something? Even little things. Nobody’s telling you leave your job tomorrow. No.

Nick (41:44.43)
Exactly

Anastasia Vladychynska (41:44.878)
But can you do little like twists so that you feel like you are actually living and not just working? I felt like I was working all the time. Remember I started being a business woman when I was six. And I, by the way, I hate that role. I hate that role. Like I don’t want to be, I don’t want people to call me a business woman. No, no, I want to be a woman. I want to be a wife. And we don’t have time for that if we are only working.

Nick (41:59.278)
Yeah, I’m right there with you.

Nick (42:10.339)
Yeah.

Nick (42:15.416)
So even on that note, I don’t like how people say, well, what do you do? And I know that one of the first things I ask is what do you do for a living? As being on the podcast and I’ve had these conversations with myself and some other people where I’m like, I feel like that still makes sense for this because of context and also the place that we’re in in the world where people go, contextually, this is what this person does.

Anastasia Vladychynska (42:24.25)
Mm.

Nick (42:38.626)
But as somebody, if you listen to this often, you can tell that most of these conversations just stop with that there and then we go on with the rest of it. Just like what we’ve done with this. So I appreciate that you’re echoing yourself of this because you’ve been through this shit so many times. think we’re both, we’ve been at that level where it’s like, and we’ve also tried to even hustle and grind within that. We’re like, I can do this thing. I can do what I want. Instead of just allowing yourself to flow through life and.

Anastasia Vladychynska (42:46.808)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (43:08.0)
and trusting that things will work out because you are actually leaning deeper into what feels right. So Anastasia, it’s been awesome to have you on. I’m glad that we finally got this done. I think it’s been like over a year. So thank you for jumping on. I’m sorry that you’re still going through the craziness that you are. I hope that you stay safe and it’s been a pleasure having you on here. Before I let you go, where can people find you? Where can they connect with you?

Anastasia Vladychynska (43:14.477)
Yeah.

Anastasia Vladychynska (43:18.794)
And.

Anastasia Vladychynska (43:32.322)
Yeah, I’m on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn under the humble name of the World Service Coach. Because that’s what my people, yeah, my clients call me service, how do they call me? Anastasia Service Priest, that’s how they call me. Service Pastor, Service Pastor, that’s what it’s Service Pastor is cool, yeah.

Nick (43:50.314)
Hahaha

ServiceBest is pretty cool. I dig that. Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0vC73eVa38

174 episodes