We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anna Lein. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anna below.
Alright, Anna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
My mission is to help entrepreneurs build meaningful, scalable businesses that align with their energy, values, and life, not just with trends or pressure. I believe every founder has a unique edge, and my job is to help them find it, structure it, and confidently grow around it.
This mission didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of my own journey through entrepreneurship, starting from scratch multiple times, failing, winning, and rebuilding.
My first business was a planner brand I designed and sold in Russia called Your Plan A. I created it out of my own need for clarity and direction during a period when I had none. It wasn’t just about planning, it was about helping people organize their lives around what really matters. That business grew fast and was sold before I moved to the U.S.
When I arrived in America, I built Cosmic Eye, a creative studio that transformed people’s irises into art. We opened 3 physical studios in top U.S. cities, served over 80,000 clients globally, and went viral multiple times. The mission of Cosmic Eye was emotional and personal. We captured people’s inner uniqueness, turned it into art, and helped them see themselves in a new light. It wasn’t just about photography, it was identity, love, memory, and self-worth.
As we grew, I realized something powerful: people don’t just want products or services, they want connection, clarity, and direction. And that’s when I felt the shift.
After years of being behind the scenes, building brands, creating systems, leading teams, and scaling operations, I felt called to help others do the same. But not with cookie-cutter formulas. With a strategy that actually fits them.
That’s why I started my consulting practice. Because I’ve been in every seat, the dreamer, the doer, the overwhelmed founder, the system builder, the marketer, the creative, the leader. I know how lonely it can get, and how powerful it is to finally see a clear path forward.
My mission now is to guide founders back to their own power, to help them lead with clarity, confidence, and real tools. I’m here to build more than businesses. I’m here to build leaders who create impact on their terms.
Anna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m Anna Lein – an entrepreneur, business strategist, and digital marketing consultant based in New York City.
My journey into business started from necessity, creativity, and the desire to build something meaningful on my own terms. I’ve always been the kind of person who sees systems in chaos, patterns in people, and opportunities in ideas, and I’ve turned that into a career helping others do the same.
Before moving to the U.S., I started my first business in Russia – a planner brand called Your Plan A, which I designed and scaled into wholesale sales. It was my way of organizing not just my time, but my life, and it turned out thousands of other people needed the same thing. That was the first time I realized: if you create something that solves your own problem with heart and structure, you can build a business around it.
When I moved to the U.S. in 2020, I co-founded Cosmic Eye, a creative brand focused on personalized iris photography. We opened studios in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and later expanded globally with an online system that let people photograph their own eyes and receive custom art pieces. Over five years, we served over 80,000 clients worldwide, gained 118K followers on TikTok, and worked with public figures, including Paris Hilton. The company was featured in publications like Artists & Fleas, VoyageLA, and Shoutout LA.
The brand was artistic, emotional, and tech-savvy, and I wore many hats: strategy, brand vision, marketing, team management, product design, and operations. Through it, I learned how to build fast, adapt fast, and most importantly, lead with clarity and connection.
After selling my share in that business, I felt drawn to the part of entrepreneurship I loved most: helping others build what they see in their head but can’t quite figure out how to structure.
That’s when I launched Anna Lein Consulting – a private practice where I support early-stage and active founders in developing strategy, brand clarity, digital content systems, and sustainable scaling models. I work with solopreneurs, creatives, coaches, and service-based business owners who want to grow with structure and bold identity, without overwhelm.
I offer:
1:1 strategy consultations
Mentorship containers
Business intensives & masterminds
AI-powered content frameworks and marketing systems
What sets me apart is the mix of personal experience, strong execution, and emotional intelligence. I don’t just teach, I’ve done it. I’ve built businesses from scratch, gone viral, worked with celebrities, managed international teams, and adapted through every stage, from handmade products to fully automated systems.
I’m most proud of building companies that connected with people on a deep level, not just visually, but emotionally. And now, I help my clients do the same, in a way that’s clear, scalable, and grounded in who they are.
I’m also a mom and a wife, and that’s an essential part of my story. I know what it means to build something real while navigating limited time, shifting energy, and big dreams. That’s why everything I do is rooted in smart systems, human-first leadership, and sustainable results.
If you’re a founder with a vision and a sense that it could all work better, I’m here to help you bring it to life, with clarity and confidence.
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
I’ve sold two businesses, and both taught me how to build companies that have real, sellable value.
The first was Your Plan A, a lifestyle planner brand I created in Russia. I designed the products, built the brand from scratch, and scaled it to wholesale. I sold it before moving to the U.S., realizing early on that a niche product with clear messaging can become a valuable asset surprisingly fast.
The second was Cosmic Eye, a creative studio focused on personalized iris photography. We opened 3 studios in NYC, LA, and SF, launched an international online model, served 80,000+ clients, and went viral with 118K TikTok followers. We worked with celebrities like Paris Hilton, and were featured in publications.
What made Cosmic Eye valuable was its systemized model, emotional connection, and strong brand identity, not just its virality. I sold my share once I knew it could grow without me.
Lessons I’d share with founders:
– Build a brand, not just a personal presence
– Make the product and systems run without you
– Know your numbers, buyers need clarity and confidence
– An exit isn’t the end, it’s a launchpad to your next chapter
Today, I run Anna Lein Consulting, where I help founders build businesses they could one day step away from or sell.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
I had a major turning point in my business right after becoming a mother. It was one of those “everything at once” moments: sleep deprivation, hormonal rollercoaster, and the emotional weight of becoming a parent, while still being the CEO of a growing business with team salaries, customer orders, and daily decisions on my shoulders.
There was a month, just weeks after giving birth, when we had a cash flow delay in Cosmic Eye. A large brand event was postponed, inventory costs hit all at once, and payments from a few big online orders were stuck in processing. I remember looking at the payroll list, breastfeeding my newborn in one arm, and calculating numbers with the other.
It was terrifying. I didn’t want to let anyone down, not my team, not my clients, not my baby.
But that week taught me how resilient I truly am. I negotiated faster payment terms, cut back non-essentials, offered a last-minute limited edition drop that brought in cash flow in 24 hours, and we made it. No one missed payroll. No one even knew how close it got.
That moment changed me. I realized I never wanted to run a business that relied solely on hustle or last-minute wins. From there, I became obsessed with systems, buffers, automations, and smarter scaling. That’s also what I now teach my clients.
Motherhood didn’t make me weaker; it made me sharper. More focused. More strategic. I’m no longer building just for income, I’m building for stability, for impact, and for a life I can live and lead at the same time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://anna-lein.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nuta_che
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annlein97
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annalein
- Twitter: https://x.com/AnnLein97
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnnaLeinAnna
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annlein97
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@nuta_che
