About Me
“I don’t want to work there anymore…”
In 2018 I turned 40 and was nearly broke: expat myself, tax debts, broke up with my fiancé, lots of fear, and uncertainty. I had absolutely no idea why I could not pass through the interview rounds. …what to do to stay in The Netherlands where I lived for almost 19 years to that date building my career in tech? …what else could I do to find a job & pass through the interviews?… Savings were melting. I moved from the apartment to the room at a student house.
I dropped my “tech crown” and applied for a dish washing job at the local beach restaurant. In the mornings I was studying and preparing for Scrum exams. During the afternoons and till nights I was washing floors & emptying garbage bins, organizing plates & glasses journey, ensuring the prehistory industrial dishwashing machine operated flowlessly, mentoring young waiters on how we could work better as a team and how they could earn higher tips.
3 months after, I finally got on a job at a warehouse processes automation company. I felt very lucky. That was a great chance to recover from the debts…
Meanwhile, my nearly 20-year career in tech had lost its meaning. I was just trading time for money.
My work didn’t fulfill me anymore – just drained me. But this wasn’t new. I’d already questioned my path more than once:
- In 2007, after 7 years as a web developer.
- In 2014, just one year into freelancing as a business analyst.
I made good money, but it felt empty. I wasn’t growing. I was drifting.
Each time, I wondered: Is this really it? What else could I do that I would enjoy doing? But I got no clear answers. So I contunued passively looking for answers every time another identity crisis hit.
Then in 2019, everything collapsed.
One morning I woke up and literally couldn’t move my legs. I was so fed up with my employer, so burned out that I couldn’t even push myself to go to the office anymore Ironically, I was working alone in a company-rented office while the rest of the team was remote. It looked like a dream job. The isolation mirrored everything inside me – disconnection, fatigue, silence, and debilitating back pain.
By the time I had lost it all: my health, money, identity, relationship, sense of purpose. At 41, I felt like I was 141. I couldn’t hold even a water can.
But even then, something inside whispered:
“There’s more. And it begins with you.”
That whisper became a path. Not a glamorous one. A real one. A path of questioning my purpose, reclaiming, realigning.
Then COVID hit the planet. In March 2020, I left rainy Holland and moved back to my parents’ home in Moscow.
I gave myself permission to rest. To stop. To recover. To ask:
“What if I chose a path that felt like mine?”
At the time, I was already 4 months into a coaching training accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). I loved it and felt energized after many years.
Later, I volunteered as an HR Consultant & Tenant Experience Analyst at a local nonprofit. That, too, lit me up.
In 2021, I tried on different roles. Sales Rep at a startup – left after 4 months; I couldn’t sell something I didn’t care about. Then I launched a tiny online shoe business – loved it, but closed it when the war started in 2022.
Also in 2021 I joined a British GreenTech startup as COO/Delivery Manager. I loved that too.
Besides my coaching practice, I also run Ignite Ops – my agency where I help early stage startup founders & small business owners streamline processes and operations, reduce stress, reclaim time, get closer to product-market fit, achieve impact.
These years taught me that transformation isn’t always loud. Sometimes, it’s the quiet shift of finally choosing yourself.
That’s why I do this work: to help others listen to their inner call – not the noise of expectations – AND actually act on it.
I’ve burned down the life that no longer fit. I’ve rebuilt, step by step, into something true. Actually, still re-building.
I moved countries. Again.
I help people 30+ who are standing at that similar threshold – the career twist or identity shift, or both.
You won’t get formulas. I walk with you through the fire and uncertainties because I know what it means to burn it all down and still choose to begin again. But you may not need these extremes…
I’m not here to fix you. I’m here to walk with you as you find your way home – to Yourself.