We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Irina Gedarevich. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Irina below.

Irina, appreciate you joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

Thanks for having me! Well, the best place to start answering this question would be before I was born.

My parents immigrated to the US from Ukraine before I was born, and did everything in their power to give myself and my 10 siblings the best life they could. Their goal was to ensure we had the proper upbringing (faith and morals), education, and extracurriculars to succeed; and in exchange, they replaced their dreams to support ours.

Nobody is perfect, and I am the result of imperfect parents who demonstrated problem solving skills, how to recover and learn from mistakes, and how to solve issues that might come along.

• We saw team work, as both my parents worked night-shifts to be able to parent us during the day.
• We saw dedication, as no matter how tough times got financially, they had faith that tomorrow would bring more opportunity.

• We saw mercy, as no matter how many mistakes we made as kids, they would discipline us with love, and forgive fervently.

I love my parents, and owe them my success. It was and is my goal to ensure I can support my family if they ever need me. They gave me the tools to be successful. It would be selfish to not repay them.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Sure thing! My name is Irina, and I was born and raised in Sacramento California, and had a pretty typical Russian/Christian upbringing. As a child, I quickly was nicknamed “curious cat”, among other nicknames. This stemmed from me always wanting to know everything, and if I found something to be even remotely interesting, I had a hard time letting it go until I knew everything there was to know about the topic… By the time I got to high school, my curiosity had gotten me into far too much trouble, so I started to relax a bit, and went into the opposite side of curiosity. I went to school, but didn’t find anything to be interesting anymore. I was somehow convinced at that time that I just didn’t have enough room in my brain for all the information being thrown at me, so I blocked it out. I would go to class, but instead of paying attention, I would daydream of my future and what I could do with my life. The opportunities seemed endless, but I knew I didn’t have enough knowledge yet to achieve what I wanted; but school just wasn’t doing it for me.

This all changed my sophomore year in college, when I took my first psychology/behavior neuroscience class. For the first time since I was a child, I found a topic that was interesting. I would literally sit at the edge of my seat and drink up the information, as if every word the teacher said was the answer to all of my questions. But in my last neuroscience class, right before I graduated college, I became disappointed. These classes did not answer any of the questions I had, it just led me on to believe I would get the answer in the next class – but in reality, it just created more questions. I was frustrated. I decided I was not going to pursue a doctorate any longer, because it would just leave me with more questions, and I just didn’t have any more room in my brain to keep learning.

Not until I realized how much of what I learned was applicable to marketing. This didn’t happen until I turned 22. After moving back to San Diego from my 6 months abroad in Australia, I got a job as a Marketing Manger for a dental school, and my job was to bring in leads, and sell those leads. For the first time in my life, I saw my work translate into something tangible. Dinero. I spent my time lost in my head trying to figure out strategies to bring in more money at work, that I temporarily forgot about the other things in life.

Same thing happened at my second job, as a Marketing Strategist for a marketing agency in San Diego. And same thing happened when I founded eSEOspace, in the fall of 2019. Essentially, from when I turned 22 until I turned 26, no matter how much I forced myself to become involved (just to look normal) with community, church, family, and sports – my mind was still racing, and constantly thinking up new marketing strategies for myself and for clients.

But anyways, I’m happy where I’m at today. No complaints. I miss only thinking about marketing. Having a functional personal life isn’t as easy as marketing. Life was more simple before I turned 26, but I guess we all have to grow up at some point.

(Interested  in learning more about where to find the answers to all your questions? Message me through my website, I’ll  send you a recommendation to one of the worlds best selling books that contains all the answers. www.eseospace.com)

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I don’t really manage my team. They manage their own time, their own work, and their own goals. It is my team that brings our client dreams to fruition.

Our turnover rate is very low, even considering that we have only been in business for 2+ years.

Our team is able to take off as much time as needed, they are given bonus opportunities to perform above and beyond, and they are encouraged to think outside the box. They have the opportunity to take their career in any direction they want to.

I have no desire or the time to micromanage, and wish that was that case with my previous employers. I would have thrived if given the same freedom we give here at eSEOspace.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I had no funding or support when I started my business. I could borrow the occasion $100 -$200 from my siblings, but otherwise, I was on my own; I had to use what came in wisely.

My first month in business we made $3,000. We paid our website hosting fees, we paid for basecamp, and a few other software systems we were using – and used our last $500 to pay our first employee- Thea, our wonderful graphic designer.

My brother and I did not start to bring home a salary until last year. It takes time to build a ship, but once it’s built, it can last 40 days out in the water and still survive, if you catch my drift …

About my business: 

Here at eSEOspace, we provide website design, development, SEO and marketing solutions to businesses across the globe. We started working with small business, and still do – but our focus has shifted to Fortune500, consulting-related companies, funded startups, and government-backed websites. Our path has been an exciting one full of growth and opportunity, and I attribute it all to my faith in God.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eseospace.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eseospacemarketing