Margarita Zgurovskaya, Founder, Shape Your Life Up
There’s no doubt that women have made remarkable progress in leading the business world. One such epitome of passionate leadership making strides in the business landscape is Margarita Zgurovskaya, founder of Shape Your Life Up. Margarita founded Shape Your Life Up with a mission to mentor solopreneurs on how to start their own online businesses based on their passions from scratch.
The Story of Margarita’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Born and raised in Russia in a beautiful region by the Caucasus Mountains, Margarita graduated from Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University and left her country to pursue her dreams. She shares, “Perhaps like you, I had a burning desire to be independent, autonomous, confident, and to live a life that’s not just ‘mediocre.’ So, when I graduated from university, I had to find something to do rather than just settle down, get married, have kids, and be a housewife or juggle between career and a family (not that there’s something wrong with that but it’s just not for me).”
Although Margarita was a high-achieving student in academics, she lacked self-confidence. She always knew that to pursue the life of her dreams, she had to overcome her fears and step out of her comfort zone to grow and find happiness. “So, I left my home country to kill the first fear: socializing, public speaking and being ‘seen.’ I then worked in hospitality and sales for 12 years, stretching my limits and building strong relationships with people from all walks of life, backgrounds, and ages,” says, Margarita.
Over the years, Margarita has garnered various experiences, including working in a managerial position in hotels where she was responsible for subordinates. Overworked and unsatisfied, she left the field and moved to the real estate industry. Initially content with the choice because of the financial compensation and enjoying being in charge of her own success or failure, however, working for an employer, clocking office hours, and dealing with difficult clients took their toll. More importantly, she struggled to find any meaning or purpose in her work.
While visiting her family in 2019, Margarita realized how unhappy she was trying to juggle the long hours she was putting in with pursuing hobbies and having a social life. She wasn’t sure what she wanted but she was sure of a few things she didn’t want: she didn’t want to return to the office or any office; she didn’t want to have to dread Mondays; and she didn’t want to sell her precious time for money ever again. She asserts, “I believe opportunities always show up for those who are resilient and determined. So, I kept looking for my way out. One day, while practising yoga at home, I saw an ad on YouTube where a guy on a boat in the middle of the turquoise water was talking about digital marketing and the laptop lifestyle.”
Different from the stereotypical marketing gurus, the YouTuber was unique in his focus on education and re-skilling. His course catered to realists who wanted to put in the work to start an online business and fulfill a dream. For Margarita, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. She clicked on the ad, enrolled in his course and today, Margarita is living the dream.
Evolving with Time
Margarita’s success was not achieved overnight, and she had her fair share of challenges. As her digital skills were limited to a laptop bought in 2009 and used mostly to watch movies, her biggest fear was having to learn about technology. But she didn’t let this fear deter her. Instead, she faced it by joining the global community of digital entrepreneurs from the YouTube ad to leverage the digital economy and master the skills she would need to launch her own online business.
Her learning curve was steep, there was so much to learn and so much that was new to her, but she found herself inspired by the community of other independent, creative people who shared her mindset. In fact, that community put her in touch with another digital entrepreneur that proved to be a life-changing experience. “While building my digital business, I also came across a financial and crypto education platform – Crypto Vagabonds. It sounds dramatic, but they basically saved my life,” Margarita laughs. During the summer of 2021, the coach she hired to help her move to the crypto space warned her about upcoming political complications in Russia. Although she was skeptical, he had been following the news very closely and had some convincing arguments. She decided to follow his advice and moved all her funds from fiat currency to crypto, a risky decision but one that ultimately proved to be the right move. When Russia declared war, the government imposed new laws, and due to the sanctions, access to international banking was closed for Russian citizens, and they couldn’t take any money out of the bank. If she hadn’t followed the crypto coach’s advice and invested in crypto, it would have been much more difficult for her to move out of Russia. Margarita shares, “I can continue to operate my business and live outside of Russia only because of the education I’ve received from Crypto Vagabonds.” This experience inspired her to help others, and she became a partner in Crypto Vagabonds.
Crypto Vagabonds’ mission is to empower individuals to preserve their wealth for generations to come. Their team guides clients to gain the confidence they need to navigate the financial world and the crypto space safely and securely. It also helps people transition from the traditional banking system to becoming their own bank through financial and crypto education. The influence Crypto Vagabonds had on her was profound and made her believe in greater possibilities for herself and others: “My vision became so clear to me, and I can describe it as a time when everyone is living in abundance, believing in the courageous hero within themselves and purposefully living their dreams.” As Margarita evolves her knowledge of the crypto space, she is preparing to offer crypto consultations to the company’s clients. Today, she concurrently runs Shape Your Life Up while working with the Crypto Vagabond team.
Shape Your Life Up
Margarita’s company Shape Your Life Up helps people transition from traditional jobs to starting their own online businesses from scratch. The company offers world-class cutting-edge digital marketing education, all the tools and resources in one place to prepare, launch and grow a business online in any economy. “Anyone can do this. No experience, existing product or technical skills are required,” Margarita affirms. “In fact, there’s a client I recently coached, a woman who lives in Bahrain who is 50 years old and has never done anything online before. After receiving coaching from me, she was able to set up her own website and started making her very first marketing videos. She couldn’t stop thanking me. She never thought she would be able to learn the skills to do something like this. She felt empowered. And that’s very gratifying to see. I’m so proud of her!”
Margarita explains, “Our education modules are designed to be hands-on and bite-sized with clear action steps so that learning becomes fun. You’ll also benefit from the support of our private community of members across the globe who are learning the ropes just like you. In that sense Solopreneur is a bit of a misnomer. In my experience, success has come from teamwork. Nobody has to do it alone.” At each step the company trains and guides clients to take their business venture to the next level by providing the momentum to begin earning online revenue as quickly as is realistically possible.
Inspiring Future Generations
According to Margarita, entrepreneurship is a willingness to take risks now for rewards in the future. When asked to define what entrepreneurship is in a few words, she replies, “Entrepreneurs are disrupttereans. Good entrepreneurs are always looking at what can be done better, what problems need to be solved. That is the essence of disruption.” As a visionary leader, she believes that an entrepreneur must have what she calls I CAN: integrity, confidence, abundance-mindset, and next-level-resilience to achieve entrepreneurial success.
Margarita aims to help thousands of people transition from what she believes to be a dying traditional economic model to a digital economy by gaining a rare skill set: being able to sell any product online with digital marketing skills. As she works towards the next steps in her career to become a crypto coach, Margarita affirms, “I’ll also guide clients to stop relying on the traditional banking system and get financially educated so that they can take control of their lives, because whether you realize it or not, financially educating yourself is no longer optional, it’s mandatory for your survival. And I am a perfect example of that.”
As for living the laptop lifestyle, Margarita has been living in Brazil since leaving Russia. “I’ve been to Rio de Janeiro and the Pantanal where I am currently staying in a bioreserve area full of birds and wildlife. I haven’t seen a jaguar yet, but it’s on my list,” she shares. Beyond being able to work and travel, Margarita appreciates other things about the laptop lifestyle, “I get to wake up every morning and have my coffee surrounded by lush greenery and the sound of birds. I get to make my own schedule. I can cook for myself and get my workouts in and still get a full day’s work in without stressing. I wouldn’t trade this for office work ever!” When she thinks back to the YouTube ad she clicked on back in 2020 with the man surrounded by turquoise water, she takes a look at the tropical surroundings she finds herself in today and smiles, “I made it.”
When asked what mentoring advice she has for up-and-coming entrepreneurs, Margarita offers these words of wisdom: “Never give up because you can only fail if you quit. Take small steps, commit to consistent action daily, and know why you’re on the entrepreneurial path – these will bring you the desired outcome. Also, enjoy the journey because if you don’t, you won’t be satisfied with the end result.”
