It’s Monday again and it’s time to start the week with a good energy! 

Monday Productive is a weekly interview format, featuring peak-performers from my network, who share 5 ideas on how to boost your productivity and stay at the top of your game.

Today’s guest is Mariia Tintul. Mariia is an International Business Development expert. A strong believer in Sales and Marketing to only go together in B2B Biz Dev. Knows a thing or two about AR/VR used for businesses. And a mentor at Startup Wise Guys.

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1. Mariia, you have such a beautiful energy. You are always positive and spread good vibe. What’s your secret? Do you meditate or do you hang out with inspiring people? Or you were simply born like this? 

▶ Sometimes I even say to people it’s a bug I have in the system. Every day is a new set of opportunities. Our reactions to life, and good or bad things that happen, are our choices. Focusing on bad makes no sense to me. All I can do about it is learn my lessons and try to do better next time. I am not trying to say I figured it out, of course I have downfalls in my moods, especially when things go wrong for a while. But I learnt to treat it with humor and move on. Or I hope I did.

My main recharging technique is – people: interesting, challenging, and charismatic. People that question my beliefs and make me rethink what I thought I knew. It’s difficult to find those, but when you do it simply works. 

I also try to share my energy to bring the spirits of the people around – up. In terms of productivity, it’s crucial – what great can you create if you feel down? Finding a way to fuel yourself – that’s the real stuff. My dog helps me in that, for example. And music. And gaming. 

I don’t meditate, I never tried to be honest. But I reflect quite often. Every morning I give my brain 15-20 minutes to just wander around. Acknowledging what’s bothering you is the biggest part of solving problems

2. You do a lot of work with AR / VR, and you seem to be really passionate about it. What makes you so excited about XR? And how can one find their passion in the first place? 

▶ It is indeed an exciting industry to be in. Company-wise – it’s extremely rewarding to be narrowed down to very specific niche expertise. Me-as-a-professional-wise – I found a place to put in practice my gaming experience. Ok, maybe also the Biz Dev skills to the fullest: in such a young industry it’s vital to figure out (and sometimes create) the rules of the game. We’re innovating in almost every project we’re taking over – and it’s badass

I am relationship-driven. In anything I do. It’s about people and the partnerships you can build. Because of how unclear this technology still is I have the credit to drive the change. Many of my clients just invite me inside of their working groups and ask to help. This is where my personal motivation is – I don’t have a single look-alike day in my practice. The diversity of tasks and challenges keeps me sharp and interested.

As to passion to the industry itself – I find it at events and important news from the field. I love to see what others are up to and figure out if there is a place for cooperation. 

Co-opetition – that’s a word that recently surfaced in a conversation with friends. Let’s build markets, not fight over real small fragment of what XR audience could be in just 2 years! 

3. What are some of the main challenges of the ambitious woman of today? And if you had a massive billboard, that all of them can see, what 3 messages would you leave them with? 

▶ One of the obvious day-to-day challenges I face (and it’s so common that I have to be reminded it’s still out there) – I always have to prove I’m worth listening. As in – my credibility as a professional is under doubt. I’m 26, I have colored hair and I constantly try to make people around me feel comfortable and high-spirit. You don’t imagine how many times I had meetings started with – “Ok, but eventually we will need technical people, you know. There’s real stuff to be discussed” – even though I’m probably one of the few people in the team capable of such conversation.

In sales, you first sell yourself and only then the products or services behind you. I first have to claim it’s worth a try to give me credit, and then everything else. 

3 messages would be 

✅ don’t be shy to state your accomplishments, the faster you establish the grounds the faster you will get “to the real stuff” (whatever that means) 

✅ dig deep – if you want to be good at anything you can’t stay on the surface

✅ don’t ever forget who you are in this chase for appreciation – there are people to respect and percept you as a personality (I am not saying you should not improve, though)

4. Do you ever feel down, low or not-good-enough? What do you do to bounce back to a higher, more productive state? Do you think we should love ourselves more and give ourselves more credit and self-compassion?

▶ Constantly. And it is as human as it can be. The downtimes happen in 2 cases – either shit went down and couldn’t predict it or solve. Those are the times I feel I am not good enough. Even when I had nothing to do with the failure in the first place, I still feel responsible for the stuff I am doing. I love to repeat to myself – even the choice of not doing a thing IS a choice we make. But don’t go super crazy about it. Try to validate with people you trust.

Another case for me to go down is when I feel I’m stuck. It’s the times when I feel I reached the ceiling and need to move on. But those are especially painful as it means I need to push myself out of the comfort zone I just established. These moments need processing, but the choice is always obvious for me here. Buuut – everything you want is on the other side of fear, right? 

5. In the last 24 months – what habit or belief have you acquired, that helps you to be a more effective professional today?

▶ There are so many things I did. I actively use the power of antigoals. I simply know my flow and keep my schedule to it. I also don’t believe in work hours. I keep to the productive times I have here and now. 

I learned how to manage people over the last couple of years, and the most important thing there are the transparent expectation from both sides. Also, people need proper onboarding before you can demand anything from them. HR is the most important part of the business you should already be investing in. 

I suck at keeping the workspace neat and tidy. I have to make myself use the CRM, or task trackers. I operate on intuition and guts. When you know your strengths and weaknesses you should embrace that and balance within the team. I always need a more organized and operational person onboard, just to keep things where they should be.

One simple rule I follow is – what is the impact you can make here and now? How can you help others and maybe challenge them when it’s necessary? 

Also, Go Big or Go Home is all you need to know about the way I roll 🙂

[BONUS] Name one to three books that helped you to become a better leader? 

HBR – Emotional Intelligence edition

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

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Thank you for reading!

If you have any questions to Mariia, please leave your comment below!

To connect with Mariia: LinkedIn Facebook

Happy Monday!

Stoyan

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Stoyan Yankov is a serial entrepreneur, productivity & performance coach, professional speaker and startup mentor. Stoyan is also a co-founder & managing director at Samodiva Masterminds, a company with a focus on high-end mastermind experiences and corporate offsites. Prior to that, Stoyan worked in film & video production, digital marketing and advertising. 

Hundreds of startup teams around the world have applied successfully the #perform methodology, to boost their productivity and team cultures, which Stoyan co-developed with Cristobal Alonso (CEO, Startup Wise Guys). Today they are finishing their book: ‘#perform – The Unsexy Truth of (Startup) Success‘, including cases and examples from the founders of some of the most successful startup teams in Europe.

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P.S. Tag someone in the comments, to nominate them to be my next guest!