Maryna Shuliakouskaya’s story reads like a road map of courage: leaving Belarus with a $5,000 plan for a wedding, falling in love in a new relationship instead, and turning survival instincts into a multi-unit franchise business. In this episode we follow her improbable path—from packing blueberries and bookkeeping for her father, to managing Subway, to opening the first franchised Aroma Joe’s and building a people-first operation that trains employees for life, not just shifts.

Through candid scenes and hard-won lessons, Maryna reveals how small acts—smiling, giving permission, sharing financial truths in dollars not percentages—become the scaffolding of scale. She shows how systems, emotional intelligence, and the willingness to trust your gut beat blind reliance on authority, and why hiring for values is as important as hiring for skill.

By the end you’ll see why Maryna calls herself a builder of people as much as coffee shops: a mentor who transforms turnover into opportunity, a leader who treats investments as engines of growth, and a mother who teaches her daughters that boiling water makes eggs hard and potatoes soft—the environment may be the same, but the outcome is your choice.