We were lucky to catch up with Erika Gilmandinova recently and have shared our conversation below.
Erika, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
Taking a leap of faith. Because what if it works exactly as you planned?
As humans, we often fear the unknown, hesitant to take a step when faced with uncertainty. It’s natural.
The trick is to embrace the fear and do it afraid—in other words, take the leap anyway.
In my experience, the moment you step off the edge, the fear dissipates. You realize you’re capable of more than you imagined. You begin to thrive in what once felt uncertain. Suddenly, the unknown becomes known, the fear fades, and you find yourself actually doing it. ;)
The reward? The chance to create a life closer to the one you’ve envisioned.
Erika, 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 am the Founder of Kefir Lab and Welness Brand Partners.
Kefir Lab offers a natural and delicious medicinal-quality probiotic solution that restores the imbalanced gut, helping truly solve health issues, and allowing people to live life feeling free again.
I come from a family of biohackers and biomedical doctors. I grow up with gut health being the foundation of health and probiotics naturally found in food being the center of our diet.
When I was 15 years old I decided to excite myself and moved to another part of the world. That’s where I first missed having these probiotics and immediately felt different. I didn’t let that feeling last long and started to create my own probiotic products in my kitchen. That’s where it all started. After healing numerous friends, family members It was evident to me that that is the business I should be doing 😉
If you ask a general person If the journey was easy, they would probably tell you – Hell no! However I believe for me It was easy, because I felt great in my body, I nourished and took care of it well which saved me a lot of time and energy on brain fog and worrying. Hence, I truly enjoyed the journey of realizing my wildest dreams!
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Lean Startup
I hold both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and Disruptive Innovation, which should give you a glimpse of how deeply familiar I am with the process of creating startups. Over the years, I’ve learned that one of the greatest hacks for building a business in today’s world is the Lean Startup approach.
The concept is outlined in the book The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries. It’s a methodology that emphasizes building a business with minimal resources, learning quickly from real-world feedback, and iterating fast to meet market needs.
For entrepreneurs, the Lean Startup isn’t just a strategy; it’s a mindset. It teaches you to focus on validating your ideas early, embracing failure as part of growth, and continuously improving until you reach product-market fit. This approach is not only powerful in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing markets, but also incredible way to start a business with minimal resourses and create a product that people are actually excited about!
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
My favourite book is Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
It is about dreaming and creating. Trusting life and the process and just enjoying the journey!
My favorite book is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s a beautiful story about dreaming and creating. It highlights the importance of trusting life, embracing the process, and enjoying your own journey. When I read it, I feel inspired to stay true to myself and my dreams.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kefirlab.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erikaamericaaa/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikagilmandinova/
Image Credits
Annouk Photography, Startup CPG, Great Companies