Trust Your Gut

Inna Foltyn came to Poland 9 years ago from Vinnytsia, west-central Ukraine. She’s the finalist of “Poland’s Got Talent” and together with her husband runs two successful companies. Privately a mother of three. She shares a story about how listening to her intuition brought her what she cherishes the most – professionally and personally.

Why did you come to Poland?

My mom lives in Italy and I wanted to be able to visit her with my kids for vacation. At the time there were no biometric passports and agencies in Ukraine were providing visa application services to travel to the EU. Very often the effect of their work was insufficient, to say the least. Documents were rejected by the Polish Consulate because agencies weren’t completing all due processes to meet required criteria. Something was always wrong and on top of that, it was very expensive. I didn’t want any trouble and
I didn’t want to lose money. So, I signed up for a dating website to get to know people and, as it often happens in places like this, make some friends. I wanted to ask someone for an invitation to Poland, so I can do the papers myself and start from there. I wasn’t looking for love.
I was divorced with 2 children and had no romantic intentions whatsoever. But I met someone and instead of coming to Poland, we started long-distance dating. He would drive for 20 hours twice a month to see me. We were head over heels in love. After a year, I decided to move to Poland. It wasn’t all moonlight and roses – my (now) husband was working at the Polish Border Service, so we weren’t living together at the beginning. I had to maintain my independence so I bought an apartment for me and my children. Our relationship was investigated, but it all ended well. We got married and have been together ever since.

When you tell the story about moving your life here, it sounds almost easy…

It never seemed difficult and honestly this is just how I am. I don’t think or analyze much – when I want to do something,
I just do it. My husband, on the other hand, had questions. /laugh/ There’s a big difference in the way people think in Poland and in Ukraine, which is far from the real European mindset. Here everything is stable, rational and carefully considered. It was very natural for my husband to ask what I was going to do after moving here and what my life was going to look like, and it was very natural for me not to worry and just assume that I would do exactly what I was doing in Ukraine and everything was going to turn out great.

And did you?

Back in Ukraine I was working in kindergarten as a music teacher. I also used to do a lot of soap bubble shows – it has always been my great passion. My first job here was in a playroom. Initially
I was supposed to wash dishes and prepare kids birthday parties, but only after 3 days I also started to do animations for children. I learnt Polish really fast because I had a great background. When
I was little, my grandma was always taking me to the church and back then we didn’t have Ukrainian priests. The masses were only in Polish.

What’s the story behind you in “Poland’s Got Talent”?

Honestly, I felt like I was going nowhere at work. I wanted to do and learn more, get more serious responsibilities, and also have more opportunities to do what I really loved – the bubble shows. The others were getting ahead and I seemed to be stuck. So, I sent a promo reel from my performances back in Ukraine to “Poland’s Got Talent” and I was accepted immediately without initial casting. Eventually, I got to the final. And that was the beginning of my own company. I got so many proposals! My phone was ringing off the hook. And then it turned out that against all odds, probably because of the stress and mobilization during the show, I got pregnant.
I always say that our daughter Lila is actually our biggest win from “Poland’s Got Talent”. So, here
I was – with bubble shows booked for a year ahead and a baby on the way. Initially I couldn’t imagine how it could possibly work, but
I ended up performing in high heels till the end of the 8th month of pregnancy. When Lila was
1 week old, we drove 800 km for the next show. Before she was 1, she had already travelled with us over 30,000 km. Maybe that’s how she learnt to connect with people so well. She’s not scared of anything!

You and your husband also have a company making large scale decorations?

When Lila was about to turn 1,
I wanted to prepare something special for her birthday. I was looking for a company that would make large sweets decorations and I couldn’t find a single one. So, I talked my husband into doing them ourselves. /laugh/ My husband is a wonderful sculptor, he actually graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts. He is creating mostly acts, so when he heard about my idea, he was really skeptical. “What do you want to do it from?” – he asked. “Styrofoam, of course”. We made 2 macaroons, 1 Oreo cookie, 3 lollipops and a piece of cake. It was all fun and the final effect was pretty. But after the birthday party, I just sold it on some website with second-hand things and we didn’t think about it anymore. Until one day someone tagged me on
a post in a closed Facebook group where I found a photo from my daughter’s birthday (which I must have shared somewhere in social media) with a question – “Who does decorations like this?”. I answered – “We do it”. I remember my husband’s face turned pale – “We don’t do it”. And
I simply said – “We will”.

Did it snowball like the bubble shows?

We got so many inquiries! My husband had to copy/paste responses, because we couldn’t manage the number of messages and his Facebook account was blocked for 2 weeks due to the suspicion of spam. For a year we were making large scale sweets decorations in our garden until we got something bigger – a Christmas bower, which was the real beginning of Marin Art Decor as it is today. We didn’t know what we were doing, we just wanted to do it right. The decoration was huge and all hand-made (we didn’t have any machines). We rented a workshop, worked every day for
a month, from dawn to dusk. The effect was beautiful, very safe and good quality. Financially we ended up in the red though, -1,700 PLN, but eventually it did pay off. Today we realize projects and create all kinds of large scale decorations from styrofoam not only in Poland but in entire Europe.

The recipe for success is fearlessness?

In a way. The truth is that if we had ever consciously planned this business and had our goals laid out for each year, then it’s possible we would have been disappointed or even depressed very soon. I think what you need to succeed in the first place are skills combined with faith and drive to act. Having a plan seems secondary.
I have always followed my instincts and didn’t think much of the possible outcomes. This is how I am and how
I live my life. And so far, my intuition has brought me great experiences or ones that over time turn out to be valuable. And it’s as true when it comes to work, as it is in my personal life.