We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kseniya Yorsh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kseniya, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think success is about flowing.

It’s not a steady linear movement and not even an upward path. It’s being a buoy – bouncing up and down as the waves come at you, sometimes getting submerged underwater but then always coming up to the surface and staying afloat.

A buoy is never static. It always moves, gets swayed side to side, but it is its overall ‘staying afloat’iness that matters.

Whatever it takes for you personally to be like a buoy (not letting yourself get overloaded and overwhelmed; pacing yourself; staying resilient; etc), that’s what I think it takes to be successful.

Kseniya, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am originally from Belarus and I moved to Los Angeles 10 years ago in pursuit of a career in film. At that time I didn’t necessarily think of it as building a career in this industry. I just wanted to try myself in it and be a bit closer to what had been a lifelong passion of mine.

This “following your dream” thing turned out well for me and 10 years later I am still here, enjoying what I do and building my professional life one project at a time.

I specialize in line producing, which means that I take projects after the script has already been developed and the funding is raised, and I then “make it happen.” My producing work is about taking a project through production and bringing it to completion – on schedule and on budget.

There are a myriad possible ways how a script can be executed on a certain budget and piecing this puzzle together brings me great enjoyment.

For me, producing is not just a job or a kaleidoscope of gigs I take on. It truly is my passion and I treat each project with great care. I love working with the creatives and I take great pride in the fact that my career has been built solely on referrals from those I worked with. There is no better professional reward than knowing that those who entrusted you with their projects are now recommending you to other creatives who want to make something happen.

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

Hire people who are good at what they do and whose personalities align – and then provide them with adequate resources to thrive. That’s pretty much it.

People get along well when they know what they are doing, when they trust that others around them know what to do, and when all these people have something similar – be it personalities, mindset, or approach to work. Then there is no issue in maintaining high morale. But when personalities don’t click, no amount of professionalism of those people will save the sinking ship. It really all comes down to people.

On your end, do everything in your power to prepare, over-prepare, and set things up properly. Your team will appreciate the thoughtfulness and it will save you stressful moments down the road when timeframes are tight and things need to happen fast.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Watching art being created.

Art is the least necessary and the most necessary thing we have as humanity. Experiencing art is a great gift on its own. But getting to witness – and be a part of – art being created is something unparalleled.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://imdb.com/name/nm6286592/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kseniya-yorsh/

Image Credits
Eduardo Passanesi