This month’s Big Idea Blog post showcases an eco-friendly entrepeneur building a business with love. The inspiring, Russian born, Ksenia Koroleva, who moved to France, then Switzerland, and now currently resides in Israel, shares with us how she built her eco-friendly business with a lot of learning, and a lot of love.
Ksenia was a corporate sales exec, who after quickly establishing herself as a entrepreneurial badass, found passion and purpose in her business pursuits. A natural businesswoman, with an eye for trends and a heart of gold, Ksenia is a true inspiration and I’m honored to share her story.
The Beginning
Helloooo Ksenia!!!
Let’s dive right in – can you please share a bit about what you do and how it all began?
Ksenia: Hi! Sure:
Well, I never wanted to be an eco-friendly entrepeneur. To be honest, I didn’t even know what being an entrepeneur really meant until I opened my first business!
I think it was around 2017, when I started to think about it. It was very present in social media and online in general, that it was way better to be independent rather than being employed.
Now, I don’t really agree with this, but being a business owner seemed like an ultimate life achievement and symbolized huge success to me, so I wanted to try.
I started my first business in 2020, after coming to Israel. I did have sales experience in the corporate world (total of 12 years).
My first venture was vintage clothes and as it was during Covid, I sold my first stock via Instagram and in pop-up sales in various bars in Tel-Aviv.
Then, totally by chance, some friends of mine had rented a space, but because of Covid, they didn’t know what to do with it. So roughly 6 months after my first pop-up sale, I landed my first physical store.
The landlords were so happy with me as a tennant, they quickly offered me a second commercial space in front of my clothes store, which is how my eco-shop came about.
Hold on! So you decided to start a business and your friends “just happened” to have an empty commercial space…?
I dont believe in “chance”.
I believe that when we make decisions based on what we WANT and what feels right, then things start to “align”. And this I see all the time in purpose driven, mission driven initiatives!
You were MEANT to have this store!
You were MEANT to be an eco-friendly entrepeneur!
The Mission
Ksenia, what’s your why? Why an eco-shop?
My why is a belief that people don’t need chemical products, that our bodies are perfect as they are and they only sometimes need a little bit of help and love.
I believe that the world is more beautiful and healthy without garbage and the oceans are amazing without plastic bags in them. And I love nature and animals and want to help them survive.
Also, I believe that conscious capitalism can be a solution to many problems of modern society. And I believe in quality (cheap made products are always, well, cheaply made, bad quality, and break quickly).
My mission is to give kindness, love and assistance to people. To offer them a pleasant experience in a pleasant environment with healthy products.
You see!
You have a GOOD, benevolent, socially conscious drive behind your business and I believe that THAT is the exact kind of thing that makes the universe or whatever powers that be, work in our favor.
The Inspiration
As someone who’s interested in how we can inspire more socially conscious businesses and eco-friendly entrepeneurs, I’d like to know, what was YOUR inspiration?
I started to be eco-conscious because of the whole communication and public education system in France; French people are very careful with resources and nature, they/re very responsible. The government communicates all the time via social ads the importance of saving water and electricity, food waste, fast fashion etc.
Also, In Switzerland I learnt to pay attention to public well-being (Swiss people are extremely respectful of society).
So I felt at the same time a responsibility towards myself and the planet and at the same time towards the global community.
Wow. What a beautiful example of social conditioning working FOR us as opposed to against us! Bravo to the French and Swiss governments!
Yes! But, to be honest, my biggest inspiration are women… Like women in general. They are amazing.
Women can be moms AND business women.
They can overcome abuse and neglect and come out strong and beautiful.
I’m a big fan of women.
Yes, I agree, women are incredible and resilient af. I see it first hand every day with the work that I do and the incredible community of women I’m proud to be part of.
So on the topic of resiliency and awesomeness, what’s YOUR personal biggest transformation?
I learnt to love myself. Took me my whole life.
Good for you! Self-love is a tough nut to crack in our society. To be honest, it was the foundation of my healing journey and birthed my business too!
The Message
What’s your message for the person reading this now?
Love yourself, believe in yourself and don’t be afraid.
I love that you say this!
It’s legit the reason I created this blog: to show people it’s OK to believe in yourself.
So… on your journey to becoming an eco-friendly entrepeneur, what helped you believe in YOURSELF?
Knowledge and learning.
Remember that you can learn everything, especially now, in times of the global Internet.
Yasssss!
Thank you!
I’m a HUGE believer of self-learning and taking advantage of this mindblowing resource we have at our fingertips! Despite this, so few actually do this and too many abuse it and waste their time… (sigh).
By the way, did you always want to own your own shop?
Not at all! As a chid I wanted to be a rock singer (I don’t sing well) or a doctor (I was really bad in chemistry). However, I was always good in communication and languages.
Lol, i also wanted to be a singer… but then I realized that it was mainly about wanting to have a message, be seen, heard, recognized… You also wanted to be a doctor so I’d assume you always had a desire to make impact in some way. And it’s inspiring af to see that you’ve found a beautiful way to create such big impact. Furthermore, you not only advocate and promote healthier living, as an eco-friendly entrepeneur, you are also setting an example and impacting everyone who comes into contact with you and your business. No small feat!
We need more of you in the world!
The Big Picture
Now, I’m a big believe in having a vision, so I ask all my interviewees: What’s your vision for the world in 2050?
Gosh… 2050… I hope that people will live in self-sustainable urban homes providing most, if not all, of their needs in food, which will lighten the burden of food production on the Earth.
I also hope the circular products will completely take over single use ones.
And I hope that humans will repopulate the planet with forests and world animals.
Beautiful.
Last question Ksenia please: what MOTIVATES you?
My motivation comes from love.
Love for the products I sell, love that I receive from the relationships with the suppliers.
Love that I give to the customers and to the world.
When I feel unmotivated and weak I come to the shop, smell the soaps, lighten an essential oils lamp and enjoy life.
Ahhh I love you!
Beautiful!
Thank you Ksenia, it has been an absolute pleasure and I applaud you and hope this interview inspires others to follow your lead. Keep doing what you’re doing!
My pleasure and thank you!
The Eco-Friendly Entrepeneur Takeaways
As always, I have included a summary of a few of the key takeaways from the interview:
#1: What often seems like chance or coincidence may actually be the OPPORTUNITY you need!
#2: One proven way to start believeing in yourself is to LEARN, gain knowledge, take advantage of the resources already available to you!
#3: Lean into LOVE. Learn to love. Yourself and the rest will follow.
I hope this has inspired some ideas and highlighted the importance of self-love and of learning. Perhaps it has planted a seed and perhaps it’s exactly what you needed to hear to nudge you into inspired action! Who knows – perhaps you will be the next inspiring eco-friendly entrepeneur to find passion and purpose and love!
Please let us know in the comments below what your biggest takeaway was!
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Please note that I’ll either be interviewing inspiring, purpose-driven entrepreneurs or sharing my personal big idea journey only once a month. I hope to show you how real people CAN make real impact, and how believing in your big idea, can truly make a difference in someone’s life. You can find previous articles here.
You can connect with Ksenia, find her store details and see what she’s up to on facebook.
I wish you a wonderful month and would love to get to know you and hear what you’re up to! Feel free to find me on my socials (below).
If you’d like to learn more about me and my work then click here.
Hi, I’m Emily, founder of The Big Idea Consulting Company (and Blog). I believe we learn by example, so I’m searching for examples to learn from. I’m searching for people who can show us that if we believe in ourselves, our big ideas can genuinely make a difference. If you’re a girl boss, entrepeneur or changemaker, and want to be interviewed, or you want to nominate someone for interviewing, feel free to DM me!