Diana Olynick, tell us about yourself and what you do
When I was in High School, I remember considering becoming a Journalist. Due to economic reasons, my parents just could afford for me to go to a public university so I ended up finishing a degree in engineering. After years of experience in the lean management field, I started to feel the desire to create something unique out of my expertise and personal skills. Inspired by women and their own challenges and having first experience as an immigrant, I decided to start the magazine to bring to life my own skills while helping to inspire and share knowledge from experts to women who need it.
The magazine currently is dedicated to women in business bringing resources in the wellness and entrepreneurial area. We host virtual events using immersive technologies like business expo shows, virtual galleries for artists and product based businesses and other networking events. The app facilitates our communications and we give the opportunity for women to showcase their business and create content if they want, free of any cost.
Why did you decide to create your own business?
I had a spark moment after my second child was born. How can I completely fulfill my role as a professional woman and a mother at the same time? I always knew there were dreams in me that needed to come out and I felt that was the time. I started to create my own opportunities and now it feels absolutely the best decision ever.
What keeps you motivated?
There are times where we naturally tend to look forward for results and in order to avoid stress and overwhelm, we need to get out of the movie that takes us in the future and places fear if we don’t reach those goals.. I keep myself motivated by opening up to whatever comes and in that way it feels always exciting and fresh! Of course my family is a great source of motivation and the women we get to connect with.
Who has been a role model to you and why?
My mother always has been my role model. She is the embodiment of patience, resilience and wisdom. She is a warrior, a survivor. She has endured a hard life of violence and abuse and despite of all that, she always kept herself motivated and dedicated to us, the kids.
How do you maintain a solid work life balance?
I think at this point my favourite topic is the life – work balance. As an engineer I learned Japanese systems of productivity to apply in manufacturing but I was able to translate these systems in life. For me, a minimalist lifestyle is a breathing space at home in our physical home and in our internal home: our life.
I use minimalist principles to keep myself grounded and stick to just the essentials, just the necessary. I think the magazine has a lot of that inspiration. It’s a minimalist work of art in business.
How do you apply those minimalist principles in a daily life your might ask? I can offer you some examples: I reduced the number of toys my kids were not using and instead they just get to keep the number of toys that fit in a container they have.
I’m vegetarian so the meals are just the necessary, made with love and simplicity. WE got rid of all the kitchen utensils, tools and tableware we were really not using.
I practice yoga so It helps me to keep good energy levels. I delegate the activities that I can teach to others so I get to focus only in the long term strategy while continuing to make meaningful connections. At home we paired down clothes that we don’t use, shifted to digital archives for pretty much everything at this point.
With the time available I get to successfully share more time with the kids and feel happy and fulfilled with my choices. Freedom is really happiness.
What traits do you possess that makes a successful leader?
When I get back to analyze my life and all the lessons learned, I get to see myself in everything that happened around that I thought it was a threat. I feel that a successful leader is the one who steps out of the role of an identification with the leadership position and instead embraces all with compassion and focus. When I host interviews for the podcast I ask the guests: What is success for you? I have asked that to myself and I came up with the solid truth that success is only this very moment that you are reading and that I am writing. It’s the only real (and still brief) time we can talk after all. I have cultivated since a couple of years ago a position of valuing more moments and people than physical possessions so in that practice I have discovered that I also unintentionally started to let go of a position or an idea of being the only one who can come up with the best idea or the best direction but rather to say to others: you have everything necessary for your own fulfillment and your happiness is here and now and in that, I discover the best leader, so every one is the best leader for me.
What has been the hardest obstacle you’ve overcome?
I have a couple interesting stories. When I was 18, my boyfriend at the university was suffering depression and he committed suicide. It was devastating and now many years later I can see how it was enlightening for me as to value others when they are alive. A couple of years later, my mother was diagnosed with disease and we had to see her almost dying coming back from the hard chemotherapies treatments and presence her battle and pain. She is my master.
After some years of practicing engineering in my home country, I moved to Canada to learn the language and deepen my studies. I fell in love and quickly after, in depression… what a contradiction! I had a kid and we separated when the kid was only 2 years old. It was very painful for me. I really thought I was not going to make it. The kid also became part of my motivation to keep myself alive so he could have a supportive and loving mother to provide for his psychological and physical needs. I basically didn’t give up.
What is one piece of advice that you have never forgotten?
When I was a recent graduate, I got a job in engineering. My boss told me one day after seeing me sad these words: “The worse that can happen to you is always the best that can happen to you”. I never forgot that phrase.
Outside of work, what defines you as a person?
I’m definitely a family oriented person. I love to have a quiet life, read, practice yoga, share my knowledge and experience if I can and help anybody without exception. I’ve been always very curious about art but it was until recently that I started exploring the application of digital art in virtual worlds. Also, paradoxically, that also took me to start learning Japanese calligraphy as a form of quieting the mind.
Where do you see you and your company in 5 years?
I work in keeping myself as grounded in the present as possible but I see the magazine continue to create amazing opportunities for others and the closer vision of the storytelling part in a form of documentaries in mixed reality technologies to provide a more immersive experience for the readers or viewers of the magazine.
How can you be reached?
I’m always available on social media, specially Instagram. So you can find me either there on in the chat section of the magazine app: M4 Women Magazine, available on IOS and Google Play.
https://bit.ly/M4Women The M4 Women Magazine app on IOS
http://bit.ly/M4WOMENMAG The M4 Women Magazine app on Google Play
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