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

Tatiana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest things about progressing in your career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

I think the most unexpected problem that I faced wasn’t something technical, financial, or strategic.

It was trust.

When I finally found my niche in real estate, I joined an expensive mastermind of what I thought were like-minded people who wanted to build successful, honest businesses together. The last thing I expected was to be scammed for over six figures by someone who was a member of that group.

Up to that point, I had been dreaming about building my own business for almost 25 years while building a successful corporate career. I was a great example, at least from the outside, of someone who seemed to have achieved the American dream. I had a good salary, my life was stable, and now I had finally found what I had been looking for—my niche real estate investing.

I had joined this mastermind group, which came with a hefty price tag, and was where I met this con artist. She was initially someone who seemed very knowledgeable, had a few deals under her belt, and wanted to take me under her wing. She seemed trustworthy, presented herself as a friend, and on top of that, she was even a pastor who runs a church.

She told me she was looking for an equity partner, and I was eager to finally have my first real estate project. I had some savings that I already planned to use on my real estate adventures, so teaming up with an experienced investor sounded like the perfect fit.

This woman tells me that she’s speaking to several candidates looking for the right fit, and of course, I’m doing everything possible to convince her that I’m the one. And then I’m super excited when she picks me.

In retrospect, I think it was all game to her. A clever psychological tactic.

I did ask for referrals of her previous partners because I knew I had to do my due diligence, but I liked her. I trusted her. So even though I asked for references, I never actually received any of them, and I eventually just kind of just let it go.

So we started the project, and at first, it all looked good.

I invested the first $50,000, and then a couple of weeks into the project, we had a conversation where she mentions that she did some more research and determined that this property would be a perfect fit for short-term rental. And since I already had that on my vision map, a bit naive, and excited. I’m like, “yeah, yeah, of course that would be nice.” I do tell her that I don’t have enough money to fund everything for a short-term rental and that I expect her to also pitch in something, and my understanding was that she was in agreement.

We started the refinance process with a broker that she insisted we use. The day before closing, the broker reached out to let us know the lender wouldn’t be able to close because the title of the property was held by two corporations, rather than two individuals. I suggested that we just sell the property, but she didn’t want to do that—she only wanted to sell her position in the property to someone else. It was at this point the mortgage broker informed us that if we still wanted to refinance the property, we needed to change the structure of the LLC for the property because of how ownership was assigned. The current LLC listed both my corporation and her corporation as owners, but the lender needed us both to be named as individuals, so we had three options here.

The first was to change the structure of the existing LLC, which would take eleven weeks because it was a new partnership LLC created specifically for this property. That wasn’t an option due to the timeframe. The second option was to start a brand new partnership LLC structured in the way the lender needed, which would take about four weeks. Unfortunately, this still didn’t fit the timeline we wanted. This was when she proposed what seemed like the ideal solution. I would later learn that this was what enabled her to con me out of over $100,000. She proposed that we move the property into an existing partnership LLC that she already had and was seasoned, so it would only take a few days to change the structure, which could be done online. I consulted the title company—the same company she had used for many of her transactions and trusted implicitly. The title officer emphasized her twenty years of experience and assured me that adding me as a managing member of her LLC would protect my interests. She framed the move as a technical workaround, not a change in ownership substance. I insisted on the word managing. In my mind, that distinction mattered. At no point did I believe I was relinquishing ownership.

So we moved forward. I was initially added as a managing member of that LLC, and I was naive thinking that would be enough legal protection, but I was wrong and what happened later completely shocked me.

Then we started a second refinance process, which didn’t work out for a variety of reasons, and by the time we could potentially refinance again, the interest rates had climbed so high that I couldn’t agree to the terms because the numbers didn’t make sense.

I then suggested again that we sell the property, which she agreed to this time. This was the only option at this point.

After I didn’t go forward with unfavorable refinance terms and we agreed to sell the property, she listed it on the MLS, but never notified me of any offers, and eventually, simply stopped responding. She also began funneling all revenue the property generated as an Airbnb into a separate LLC that she owned, and she demanded that I pay her close to $20,000 in additional expenses for labor on renovations—a completely outrageous expense that was not based in reality. The revenue should have been split between both parties and the labor for renovations should have been her contribution to this joint property.

I was now working with an attorney because my mentor had been telling me, “This lady is scamming you.”

At this point, she started to respond again and kept us in the loop of the first contract, and in an email from 2/10/23, she wrote “I am providing all these “updates” as a courtesy as you are not involved in this transaction except for getting funds back ($105K est)…” Also that email indicated only the amount of money I invested, but none of the profit or interest from keeping my money tied up in this deal. I was completely blindsided.

I started looking into what happened, and in my research, I found that I had been silently, and without my approval, removed from that LLC, and apparently this was technically legal because of the operating agreement. So basically she stopped responding, removed me from the LLC, and when property was sold, she kept 100% of the funds invested and 100% of the profit—which I funded, for herself. At that point, if I had just got back my initial investment, I would have considered it a win and moved on.

So to end up getting scammed like this, especially after meeting her in this group where everyone had supposedly been vetted, was completely unexpected. I didn’t even believe it myself until the house we invested in together was sold and I didn’t see a dime from the proceeds.

Tatiana, 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?

My past didn’t follow a very linear path.

I was born in the Soviet Union to a family of professors and my grandfather was a two-time world champion in correspondence chess. This is where players send post cards to each other with their next move, and championships typically last for about 2 years. From the time I was about 3 years old I was sure I would grow up to become a professor and continue my family legacy. But after Perestroika, when the Soviet Union fell apart and everything changed, I realized I want to become an entrepreneur, and for a young lady in Russia, that simply wasn’t possible without already having money or being willing to sleep with some wealthy man, and didn’t want to do that. So I earned my masters degree in applied mathematics by the age of 20, and then I immigrated, first to Israel, and then five years later, to the United States. At the time I was working in software development while keeping my eyes and ears open what types of business I could build.

I spent the next seventeen years figuring out my path. I tried numerous side hustles looking for something I could grow into a successful business, but nothing really stuck. Then, after investing $17 in a training program, I discovered the world of real estate investing—I had finally found my niche. I then spent the next two years figuring out my business strategy to build the right business for me in real estate. I had invested tens of thousands of dollars on various coaches and mentorship groups, and the funny thing is that I think I learned more about what not to do and what I don’t want to do, rather than learning what to do. I quickly realized that in order to succeed, you need to follow the rule of three Cs, clarity, community, and coaching. You need to be very clear what you want to do, build the right community of like-minded people, not only in words, but also in actions, and you need to have the right mentor—that’s where Damon Remy came in for me.

And I built my business on honesty and trust, and I think it’s very different from many people in this industry. There are a lot of coaches who focus on teaching you how to create an offer that maximizes conversion, but doesn’t spend much time on creating results for your clients. I just didn’t want to do that because I couldn’t sleep well at night if I took advantage of people like that. I really wanted to focus on helping them as best as I could.

And recently I unexpectedly got probably the highest compliment I’ve ever received.

I was talking with a lady where I took on a listing as an agent, which frankly, I didn’t even want to take on because there is almost no money in that for me. It’s a lot of work, but I felt for her because she had been taken advantage of by a wholesaler. She was a grandmother who was taking care of her granddaughter with some challenges, so I really wanted to help her. At one point she told me, “My friends told me to pick someone from my community with my skin color, and I told them, ‘No, I will walk with Tatiana because yes, she does have an accent, but she’s real, she is honest, she’s very professional, she explains everything I ask her, and I can tell she’s not here to take advantage of me.’” She even signed some documents without being able to read it only because she trusted me.

I was completely blown away.

Over the last several years as my business has been growing, my experience has been that those honest, long-term relationships are the ones that create the most impact in the long term. Not everyone can see that, especially in the beginning when you’re in survival mode, but if you’re doing the right thing, it eventually pays off.

What I’m focusing on now is leveraging my 25 year background in software development to help other entrepreneurs create more impact in their businesses. I’ve been a developer myself, in addition to leading development and testing teams, and in my own business, I’ve been aggressively implementing software and AI to maximize efficiency. I’ve recently started using that knowledge to help entrepreneurs create the same type of operational advantages that were previously only available to Fortune 500 companies.

This is something I started to give entrepreneurs access to more tools and resources than I had when I started my own entrepreneurial journey.

I’m launching a series of applications that I created first to make my own business more efficient, which I’m now rolling out to other entrepreneurs. I know how difficult real estate investing can be, especially for newer entrepreneurs, and I know how much of a positive impact real estate investing has created for me, so I wanted to make that impact more accessible for them. And since I’m still an active investor, I will continue refining these applications and creating new ones, both for myself and for other entrepreneurs.

And like I said, along the way, I’m still a very active real estate investor. While investing, I also help busy professionals who want to diversify their portfolio and create another revenue stream that outperforms the stock market. So I’m opening opportunities for them to invest with me on my real estate deals. I have a few private money lenders who already work with me on a consistent basis. For example, one is a professor at a prominent university. He’s a genius in math and science, but he’s not interested in learning about investing. I also have several IT professionals, lawyers, and doctors who are great in their fields, but it’s the same story—they want to focus on what they do best and have their money work for them while they do that.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I was born in the Soviet Union, and at that time the propaganda was extreme. I remember when I was a young girl, reading books about the heroes of World War II, and I really wanted to be ready if another thing like that happened again. At the time I thought I was preparing myself to fight those fat, greedy American capitalists.

We even had a game where we would do something really painful and it was important not to cry because all those partisans in Russia endured so much torture, but didn’t betray our country. It was kind of ingrained very deeply in my subconscious and fighting became my nature. I also had some personal stories that played a role in that as well. For example, my father left us when I was just a few months old and things like that make an emotional impact on a young girl.

So from an early age, I knew if I didn’t stand up for myself, nobody else would.

My mom was a high level professor. She wasn’t doing hard physical work, but she was always working on her scientific studies and her lectures, and she served as an inspiration to me.

But the real test, I think, came around the time I was scammed, but not because of the scam. At the same time, I was also going through a difficult personal situation with my kids, both of whom needed some help mentally. It was devastating. I felt like a complete failure as a mother because I wanted my kids to have a happy family and I couldn’t provide that. I watched my youngest son suffering and I wasn’t able to help.

So I had to make the hardest decision of my life. I didn’t yet have a successful business at the time. All I had was a scammer who robbed me for six figures. But I made the decision to leave my corporate job because I needed to be there for my kids to try to help them, especially my youngest son.

I found myself in a situation where I didn’t have a stable income for the first time in over 20 years. I didn’t yet have a business that was creating consistent revenue. I would get occasional pay days, but they were very rare and very small. Plus, I have this six-figure debt and I realize my JV partner is no longer my friend, but someone who conned me. All while one of my children is facing a severe mental crisis,

Now I’m in a severe depression, and more often than not, I didn’t even want to leave the house, but two things helped me.

The first is that I knew my kids would be better off with me around, even though I felt like a total failure as a mother at that time. And the second is that I looked for opportunities to help others, which in turn, helped me.

Slowly, despite all the shit happening at that time, I managed to not only survive, but also come out stronger, help my family recover, and build a successful business in the process. Soon, I not only replaced my corporate income—I actually exceeded it.

When I talk about this now, it’s a lot easier, but at the time, when someone would ask, “How are you? How are kids?” tears would start to well up in my eyes. I still don’t have a solution when it comes to kids and family because there are so many variables, but for business, there are a lot of proven frameworks you can implement to make money. When it comes to parenting and personal trauma, I have no answers. I just kind of figured it out on the fly, on a case by case basis.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had two major pivots. The first pivot was when I realized I wasn’t in a position to realize my potential in Russia in 1999. At the time, I had a good-paying job at a large corporation. I was early in my career, but I had already proved myself as an expert. I automated some things that we were doing for years manually and saved the company lots of money. But I knew that despite my success, I still wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to make my own money and create opportunities, and not to be limited by someone else.

So I made a decision to immigrate. I was considering three choices—moving to Moscow, Israel, and the United States.

I had a very vague idea where Israel was, and I didn’t care, to be honest. I just wanted to move and start a new life by myself. And it didn’t work out like I envisioned. I thought I would have some difficulties finding a career, but not finding the right-minded people to surround myself with. Well, it turned out completely the opposite of what I expected. Within two months, I was working in a Kasparov Chess startup. I initially started in a low level support role because they said they didn’t have a position available as a developer. Despite that, I took the initiative and looked for every opportunity to find ways to improve the company by automating and optimizing internal processes—without the title or pay. Eventually, I received an offer from another company and submitted my resignation letter. The next day, they offered me a better role and more pay, after previously insisting it was impossible.

Just five months after immigrating, I had two companies—one, a smaller start up and the other, a large national corporation, fighting over me.

I made the tough decision to go with the larger company. It was about trust for me. In the start up, they offered me unbelievable good terms only after I gave my notice that I intended to leave. Prior to that they were not willing to move me from the support team to the development team even though I had already been doing development for them. At the same time the large corporation raised their initial offer because they saw my potential from the beginning after the interviews and special tests they had me perform.

And then the second pivot was after 23 years in a large corporation when I made a decision to leave it completely and finally pursue my business dreams. Again, I left it before I was probably ready, but I never looked back.

Mentally, the hardest thing was coming out of this comfort zone where you have a nice consistent paycheck, great health insurance, and basically you don’t need to worry. When I made this decision, they begged me to stay, but I had to do what was right for me and my family.

I quickly learned that you need the mindset that you don’t have several departments like a large corporation does. You have to become your own expert in everything or find independent experts to delegate some things once you are ready and can afford them. That’s very different. But for me, it’s just past a part of the business I decided to be in. So being an entrepreneur comes with a lot of challenges that I didn’t think about before, but since I was dedicated, and again, my mindset from my childhood in the Soviet Union is just like NASA—failure is not an option.

You do whatever it takes to succeed. Not everyone has that mindset.

I don’t see it in people who never knew what it is to have a limited choice. It’s different. They don’t appreciate those things we have here because for them, it was all handed to them from the beginning. I grew up in a completely different environment.

I still can’t believe that I’m an American capitalist, and a happy one at that. But if someone told 10 year old Tatiana that I would be living in a huge house where my living room alone is as big as my nice apartment as a professor, which I only had thanks to my grandparents, I appreciate that because I know the difference.

In retrospect, I think I had the best childhood because it actually prepared me for entrepreneurship.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tatianazagorovski.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatiana.zagorovski/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tatiana.zagorovski/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatiana-zagorovski-stl
• Twitter: https://x.com/TatianaSTL
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tatianazagorovski