Natasha Sky And Her Fascinating Story As a Multi-Million RE Developer and Social Network Queen

Pamela Bardhi
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of underdog, today I am so honored to have the beautiful, amazing Natasha Skye here with me today.

Natasha Sky
I’m doing great. Pamela, what a great introduction to hearing from anyone who’s incredibly successful in the same field of real estate. It is an honor.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh, thank you Natasha for being here today. I’m so excited. Because as we’ve said, so many times we share so many similarities in a way. It’s so scary. But like Natasha, you have so much talent. I just want to hear all about your story. I mean, you’re in real estate, you’re a real estate developer, you’ve developed over 60 properties. Yes, in Boston, which is absolutely amazing. You’ve been in this game for a long time. You have your own social network with over 13,000 correct. Yeah, you have big dreams of creating your own International Centre, which she will do everyone, by the way, there’s no doubt about that, then you’ve got so many other things that are sort of coming this year for you. What inspired your journey to where you are today. And you can start wherever you like.

Natasha Sky
I honestly contribute everything to my family, I was born in a great family, my parents’ joke that I’m a fruit of love. So I’m grateful to my parents, for everything. They’re really my great, amazing parents, friends, mentors. also, what I do find amazing is, what comes from your secure childhood is confidence. I think I’ve had this incredible revelation when I was six or seven when I was sick with pneumonia. And my father said, turn into a good thing, so start drawing or do whatever makes you happy. So I started drawing, and I found my talent that I have great imagination for perspective.

My father is an artist, of course, it helps. He’s also an engineer and has master’s degree as an engineer, my mom is a musician. So I’ve combined all of that in one and I really, truly love art. And that actually manifests in interior design. So my second degree is in interior design and architectural design from Boston architectural college. And from that point on, I think there are some people that are born with certain intrapreneurial skills, it’s not a choice. It’s almost like, what do you do when you’re born and you want to be like everybody else, but you know, you’re not.

The most incredible thing, what I find is to be honest with yourself, no matter what the world thinks about you. So I asked my dad after things, what I did with the drawings, and I found that everything is possible, you can find a silver lining in any situation. I got actually healthier, much faster because I was driven by the purpose. I think that defining moment when he said to turn it into something great. Defined everything, I couldn’t buy a bike when I was little, of course, I lived in the Soviet Union in Ukraine, and we all lived a very similar life.

So it was hard to step up and say I want to make money as a kid. But I think at age seven or eight, I asked my dad, since you’re an engineer, and you work for a company that produces wine and juice, how can I make money? And he said, Well, I’ll give you the truck, you collect apples and with the girls and you go in the trees and that’s your job. And then if you make money, we buy you the bike. So to tell the story shorter, that’s what happened. I actually was able to make money with my girlfriends, everybody was happy for my first entrepreneurial attempt. We all got the bikes and eventually, I got waylaid from this money.

My mom and my dad are incredible people honestly I owe to them everything. But then, of course, you know we have to value yourself and find out what happens when we get older and the choices that we make. So the age of 16 I was lucky to be accepted for my degree in journalism from Kiev University. So I was the youngest and I was the smallest one, so very often I had the nickname paperclip. Obviously, I didn’t stay for too long because I was the youngest and luckily the new one my new nickname chosen name is the sky. I can’t believe I said it.

So I was lucky after the Chernobyl and after the disaster and the Soviet Union was breaking out at the breaking point. I was truly lucky to be entered by the best university in Kiev, in the whole of Ukraine. The competition was super stiff, 50 60 people per place and it was an honor to be surrounded by amazing people. And it shaped my choice of freedom. Because when I was 19, or 20, I was offered a job to work in the Ukrainian Television and Radio Liberty. And I chose Radio Liberty because I could understand the American style of life and I was impressed. It was really great to understand that I’m a mutt, and I want more than just Ukraine. I was always dreaming to get better opportunities in life and I think close proximity defines success, wouldn’t you agree?

Pamela Bardhi
I would agree.

Natasha Sky
So if you’re surrounded by amazing people, you actually can create success much faster. Mm-hmm. However, it took me three attempts to make the united states. I get it first refusal because I was young. And in the American embassy, they just said right away, you’re younger than the Eastern European, and you can come in and married. And that’s it, you’re never going to come back. Probably were right. But eventually, I entered the United States, because I decided to study in St. Rose and private college. Study business and the language because my second language was Russian and Polish, and then a little bit of German, but none of it would lead to being successful in America.

So I immigrated with my family, but 25 years ago, and after going through a series of questions, would I be able to be a good journalist here? Probably not. Because it’s not my native language. And I am competitive, I want to be one of the best. And if I cannot deliver to people a great clarity in speech. Then maybe I should serve people in other dimensions, so I love people that just my nature, and honestly, there is no other bigger passion than real estate and social networks so probably, here I am, I arrived finally to both to serve people in this area. So after coming to the United States with my family after the Soviet Union collapsed. It was a clear choice for me that I would need to create a different career and I’m not afraid of challenge.

As you might know, none of the entrepreneurs are right now. So eventually, what happened in a good way, I had to choose a career, but I have to choose a career quickly. And sometimes when we make spontaneous decisions, they are intuitively correct for us. Even though at first, we don’t think it’s the best choice. So I was not really great with my resume, so I ended up to be working as a salesperson for ups. And it’s a brown world, I had no idea how few women they had in the snapper. However, in seven years I made it to an executive then to international account executive to the management and I realized that something else is there for me.

I always dreamed of having this passion for design for AR and I started bowing secretly to Boston architectural college at night. Wow, seven to 11. Meanwhile, when I was working in management in ups, so it was exhausting, quite frankly, there was no social life. In the weekend, I was doing architectural models, and in between, I was barely survived. So lots of lots and lots presses.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh, my goodness. Oh, yeah.

Natasha Sky
It was driven.

Pamela Bardhi
Yes, absolutely. And I mean, and you talked about little so to bring this back what you talked about growing up in the Soviet Union, and then also during the collapse of it, what was that, like?

Natasha Sky
People were escaping as fast as they could grind during the collapse of the Soviet Union. I think a shrink from 54 million people to 44 million in a few years. You can imagine the generation of young people and how many young people decided to leave. So everything was different. So I think in a way, if you live in a country full of challenges, and you become resilient, I hope that’s the right one. And I think for Eastern Europeans, it’s probably one of the strengths that we don’t give up easily, and we get up on our feet and we move again.

So I know that if you truly put me in another country, I will succeed. I just have this damn confidence that comes with thirst, I cannot explain anything but a just thirst for life and thirst for bringing value to others. If you’re just thinking about yourself, as you know, things don’t move. as well. And that brings me to the point where from ups how I became an entrepreneur, I went at night to architecture school. And then when I finished, I just immediately quit that day. I didn’t know anything about design, how am I going to charge clients, they don’t really teach you an architectural school, I undercharged my clients.

Pamela Bardhi
This was incredible.

Natasha Sky
And that was challenging and I said, Fine, I’ll give myself one year and UPS gave me by the way, one year, they said, if you will be back, we will be able to bring your management skill and at that time. I get private shares because the company also shifted from going by being private to going public. It was a really good move, and I got the shares and then I said. Thank you, I will never come back. Seriously. I decided like Greeks when they were going to conquer other islands, they would break the boats, they would burn them. And then people who decided to stay there, either they survived and conquered the island and will succeed or not, I think I did not think of the second choices I just said or Yes.

Pamela Bardhi
You didn’t really leave an option. You were like, I’m out of here. So you did seven to five ups executives. And then from there, seven to 11.

Pamela Bardhi
Nike specials for three years.

Pamela Bardhi
And then the day after you finished, you just quit.

Natasha Sky
They all wish me good luck. And they said Good luck. After such a great job in UPS. Now you’re going to be an interior designer. I’m like, yeah.

Pamela Bardhi
And then there was no plan B. At that point, you were just like, well, you were just like I’m gonna focus on

Natasha Sky
No, quite frankly, there was Plan B, I was there last year when architectural school got to be a little bit easier and less modeling can less architectural drawings. I had a chance to invest right away in real estate and do it over the weekend. Thanks to one of the clients from ups. He was a very successful immigrant and I was able to convert his contract from FedEx to ups. And he said, What are you doing here? It doesn’t look like you belong to this world, I said, Isn’t that visible? I said, Yes. So when you’re ready to invest or do something great as an entrepreneur, come and see me, I called him the next day. I’m like, oh, we’re still incredible friends. Yes and he said, Great, what would you like to do?

And I said I’d like to invest in real estate and do the final design by now. So in the way, I started right away parallel in investing in real estate, and my design projects, and somewhere along the line, it’s interesting, I don’t know. If you have this feeling when you start a new profession or new passion. When you learn, and when you educate other clients, you become a teacher, you actually shape your skills in a better way. Yeah. And you get to know yourself more, so through the many different interests in projects. I find out my passion is only for a design that is contemporary, and modern.

So I clearly understood that I cannot take the clients who want a different style of life, because I’m not going to be able to deliver to them what they’re looking for. So it is essential, I think, for any intrapreneur to be honest, first yourself first with yourself. And if you’re honest with yourself, things gonna be okay. I’ve never, ever, I think repeat that simple project of a different with the same design cutter. I’ve never been interested in projects that would be very just driven by funds. For me. It’s always any interior design project that shifted slowly, I moved to Investment and Development.

It’s always quite frankly about a unique project. What is it that I leave after myself as a legacy to somebody? Are people going to be happy living there? What’s the flow of the space that doesn’t have an incredible open space where which creates free thinkers? Does it have an interest in material or edgy materials? I implemented glass panels in the showers or recycling charge boards from the church in the shower. And writing each other messages and some ideas simply came from the practical field.

There are a lot of amazing things that happened after I became a designer. But I had a very good clarity that a lot of people still so many years ago wanted the mixed eclectic style. I’ve decided that I only specialize in modern and contemporary. And that’s my passion. I will do what is honest with my heart and I will attract those clients who like the same style. So here we go. That’s how I started development and actually became also a landlord, I decided that I need multiple sources of income.

If I want to create something beautiful and memorable and design, it does not always have the speed of the project compared to other developers, when they do cookie cutters, the same kitchen countertop, the same governance, the same bathrooms move on. Right knew them up for the challenge. And I knew that my projects will take longer, so I decided to create a plan B for income and learn about multifamily projects and be a landlord. So here we have lots of things in common. Right, cool. And investment. learning and understanding Massachusetts law and the code.

So suddenly, I became everything from the GC to the designer, to the investor. And that takes an interest in skill, multitasking, it’s not like we’re doctors, and we’re doing brain surgery, which is incredibly hard and be incredible people. I think I motivate people always to invest because it’s a skill that you can achieve. However, you got to have the guts, right? And you have to have patience, for appreciation of the real estate. It’s not overnight. But it’s like a good stock that you just wait and it goes up and the same with the real estate and you got to understand the location, location, location.

Pamela Bardhi
Right, right. And for you, so like you shifted into user design, and then you went into the development and construction space. And then you also immediately diversified because you understood the passive income is

Natasha Sky
I think it’s because I had great teachers like I have great admiration for Tony Robbins, for Robin Sharma, which I’ve attended both of their seminars on a personal level and get coaches from their team. I volunteered for Robin Sharma and Canada. One of my incredible mentors, I really enjoy Warren Buffett’s wisdom, don’t invest in all of the eggs in one basket.

I truly believe in Tony Robbins’ close proximity and also by the law of greatness. You are the beast that you create yourself, I think what’s incredible about this man is that he is a self-made man. And also came from a very different background than most successful people. I’ve never met any man who is so humble and so passionate on the stage and talks about his life that you know. There are no announces of lies and that’s for me, I think, the most incredible thing. Authenticity, self-awareness, kindness, and appreciation of other people for the skills that they have. And never, ever regretted coaching. I hire coaches all the time. If a person like Tony Robbins and Robin Sharma and Warren Buffett and Jim Rohn have coaches and Oprah, why is it that we think that we do not deserve constant learning from great minds?

Pamela Bardhi
They agree, I totally agree. Because it’s like those coaches, they make you see a different perspective, right. And then they also make you reflect on your purpose and your mission. Because it’s sometimes when you get caught in everyday routine, right? Like everything is happening all at once. You can’t separate yourself from that when you have a coach, you have somebody from the outside looking in, and you’re like, oh, whoa, right. I didn’t realize it could look like that.

Natasha Sky
And also, I think coaches kind of push you to the next level, which you don’t even know sometimes exists. Sometimes. You feel like you failed. And I think people who are entrepreneurs if they don’t, they’ve never failed, they never really tried hard enough. Right?

Lesson Learned In Her Journey

Pamela Bardhi
So in your career, Natasha in the development and construction, what are some I’m not gonna say failures, what are some lessons that you have learned in your journey? And especially in the beginning, because that’s when it always happens the first three to five years, which are always craziness.

Natasha Sky
Tough question and of course, we all know the wisdom, you don’t have to feel like a failure. Sometimes you do. And that’s the lesson to actually look at life from a different perspective. So number one lesson, I’ve learned that your best assets are the team that you work with. And at first, I’ve hired contractors that were given me great prices, however, they were late with projects and they could not succeed by finishing the project In the end. They would ask for more funds because they were trying to get the job and they didn’t calculate correctly.

So I learned that lesson that my team is my best asset, because then if the project is on time. It becomes successful. Right? If the project is not on time, it fails. So cost you much more money, frustration, and also you’re not with the four seasons in New England, you’re not coming up in the market at the right time. And that could fail the project.

Pamela Bardhi
Yeah, you can lose a lot of money.

Natasha Sky
And then exactly, you’re coming up in the winter, you just much harder to sell and people are not interested in your properties. People right now interested in probably holiday gifts, that was the greatest lesson that I’ve learned, number one. Number two, I have to admit to myself that besides architectural drawings and understanding the building and design skills, I really needed to get a coach and find somebody who’s really successful in what I do. Because then we can repeat somebody’s experience. Yep. We don’t have to always invent the bicycle. Right?

My advice to any entrepreneurs at the beginning of their career, get some great knowledge and the greatest coach. So when I got the coach, truly the first time, my first pivot in the career when I was, managing ups, international accounts, and it was life is dandiya. And at night, studying in architecture school, that’s the first time when my mentor gave me the book. And he said I’m gonna give you this book. But you got a promise to read and pass on this knowledge, so it was a book by Robin Sharma. The monk who sold His Ferrari, so I read the book, and I said, it’s too good to be true. So I googled, of course, Robin Sharma, and here I was, in an international symposium of people who are intrapreneurs, and who would like to develop their self-confidence and something about self-awakening.

I think exactly how we called the self-awakening weekend, it was four days. And they number one, I listened carefully, and I’m impressed. He’s probably the wisest man that I’ve met in my life. And he speaks with such elegance and quotes and wisdom that you cannot help but admire the person who’s so wise. So right away, I raised my hand, and I asked. How do I make a smooth transition from ups to because I know what I want, and I love forts, and I love people. But this is my passion, real estate. So he said, that’s great. You have your passion, everything. But in order to help you to jump, I really would love to ask you to jump and I’m like. You blind jump from where? I’m like from the airplane?

So I’m like, I’m scared of heights. He’s like, that’s exactly what you need. You just answer your own questions. And I said, he said, typically, on our subconscious mind, we already have an answer, so I said. Why is it the physical state of mind would translate to the mathematical mind, but it’s exactly what Socrates said, in a strong body, there’s a strong mind. That was one moment in my career that I really jumped off the airplane, jump off my ups boat, and opened the company, and came here design. So after doing design for years, and jumping into the real estate, because it was not jumping. It was actually a smooth transition, I just wanted more out of life than just designing properties.

I wanted to design my own properties, the way I envision modern, contemporary, full natural life, full of materials that are friendly and not super cold with the concrete. So I wanted the properties that would attract people who absolutely appreciate the concept that they’re under less is more. And that is one of my favorite architects as well. Then it happened, everything and I think who we are, and what we are at the moment, this is what we deserve.

And it’s not my original thought, forgive me. It’s Jim Rowan. Probably the original American philosopher in public speaking and he was the coach for Tony Robbins. So he’s one of my favorite philosophers. When I think of life, how do we define our thoughts, defined our mind? And how do we define our future? So if we’ll live in this country, the possibilities are frankly, endless? Yep. We can become who we want. We just find tonnes of excuses not to live up to our great potential and that brings me to the questions that you asked me in the past when we discussed what is it that you want to develop?

Pamela Bardhi
Right. Yeah. So like, basically, when you first started in, in the game of real estate and branching off from design and everything, the challenges, building a business is never easy. And especially getting into construction and it’s like, you made a smooth transition in from design, which I think is beautiful, but then actually developed. I think that probably because I know for me, let me tell you,

Natasha Sky
there was some challenge

Pamela Bardhi
Between contractors and just not knowing the process because it was one thing because, for me, my uncle was a general contractor. So he would give me tips still. And it was just like when I started my restaurants, like, it wasn’t until like, I would see my dad, you know, with his restaurant, everything like that. But until it was me doing it, it’s a totally different thing.

Natasha Sky
I think one of the incredible things is that when you are driven, you find the right resources, but you have to be coachable. If you’re not coachable, there’s no way to accept the lesson that light brings you. and light brings you the same lessons over and over if you’re not gonna fix it. So for me, I think it took seven or 10 attempts to find the right team.

Pamela Bardhi
Wow, seven or 10? Yeah,

Natasha Sky
I don’t even want to call with the right team that I can say that I’m gonna stick for years. And I trust them and they trust me and we have the right attitude toward specifically modern design towards detaches, towards redoing something. If it’s not right towards the quality and honesty that took me many years. It’s been over 17 years since I’ve been in design and real estate development. It is incredible to see how some projects, I just walk away because I know there is not as much profit for example. So what time comes great responsibilities and knowledge.

But if you’re talking about the toughest moment, I had thought for a moment, then just jump in from the airplane. Business challenge was 2007 and 2008. I’ve lost a lot of properties, that will be the honest answer. And then when you lose your babies because every project is like a baby. You feel like you lose your ground and suddenly, even my incredible parents like. Oh, you would be totally cool right now, with the manager for ups. Parents, I love you, you’ve given me everything. And my father was an engineer, he also built some properties when I was little so I think that really honestly came also from him.

Without even realizing, it’s like was imprinted in my brain that I love properties and being in construction sites. So the house that we lived in my dad built, and I loved it. I loved the concept that men should raise a family, plant the apple tree and build a house. All of this was done for me when I was little, my parents and I decided that the same values to my family. However, in 2007 2008, do you remember how hard it was to get any loan from the bank.

Pamela Bardhi
So I was in high school at that time, but I remember as my parents, you know. Just like business was really slow for their restaurant, it was like I could see sort of the magnitude of what was happening. Because like I saw a lot of people were losing jobs and stuff like that. So I was in high school and like Lala land, playing sports and stuff like that. But I saw what was happening sort of around me because I worked with my parents’ restaurant, and they would always fill me in on what’s happening in the world. And it’s talking to customers, right? But yeah, it was a rough time.

Natasha Sky
Not a pretty time to be a real estate developer. I honestly think the banks were looking for your blood type, or DNA, or anything to take in order to attach to the loan to the construction loan. So it’s practically was impossible to really get a loan and I had a very interesting, unique situation. I was building five commercial units in Boston, 10,000 square feet. And I had already with the Harvard medical facility, at least triple net for 25 plus years. And then 2007 happened and the bank president that morning called me and that was Mount Washington bank does not exist anymore. Now it was bought by Eastern which right? Oh, and he called me and he said Natasha, we don’t have more funds to produce for your project. We’re going underwater, I thought it was the end of the world.

You get sick, you know, this is a common disease that comes from this. It’s just stress. So after my bank went underwater, I’ve invested literally 900 into the project but it was already with the land over a million easily into the project. In two years of my hard work. I had to get all of the zonings passed and in front of the Franklin zoo, I plan to build a building like a bolt to build for firefighters for the commercial medical building facility. And then I knew that no bank will give me the loan because all banks stopped giving out commercial loans. In order to go, I put my sleeves up, I decided to take the private loan and the private loan, very often called the shark one and the shark tank is cold for a reason.

So luckily, I think for me, it was not a matter of giving out everything that I had to the private bank. What happened I actually was able to sell the building, even embarrassed to say to an intern, but that’s the truth, bunter entrepreneurs. Sometimes you put that much money and then you sell it for zero just to move on. So there were 100,000 only dollars left to finish the building, so the neighbor who owned the pizzeria actually bought the building. And he’s successful and the building is functioning well.

I’m happy for him a never have regrets except for questions. Why did I invest? So smartly? So you ask yourself the question. That was probably my choice to invest in not to have the cushion, so every time you learn a lesson, so that was my biggest lesson ever. Now I work I know I invest in the right locations, and I mostly invest in residential. And here we go. The second that taught me the lesson that I probably like residential investments. I like the design more. I like the stability. And I like the fact that people always need to live then people will multiply.

Pamela Bardhi
Let me tell you, how many people I know are pregnant right now. Well, like go It’s amazing, right? So when you said multiply, I was like, Oh,

Natasha Sky
What’s great about it right that we will need to continue developing properties. So then, after 2007 and 2008, I was able to save some of my investments. And I was grateful for the lesson. It was the biggest life lesson ever. So I’ve changed my investments. I’ve changed my strategy. I’ve changed the team that I was working with. I only am super consistent with my incredible mentor and friend Richard Branson, who is a real estate attorney and who went to Harvard to your alma mater. And he has been my incredible attorney, a real estate attorney for many years and he is related to the famous Richard Branson.

Pamela Bardhi
Richard. I was like Richard Branson.

Natasha Sky
My own Richard Branson. And I love him to death and I was always lucky to attract incredible people. Pamela seems like you we have that in common? Yes. I was always able to find my way out of tough situations by believing in the people who surround me. By believing that I will attract the right situation, the right people by believing in myself, right? And believing in my family that I have incredible support from by supporting them when they need me and it always gifts goes both ways. It’s like a boomerang. I think what you project to the world comes back to you.

So yes, I truly believe what I have in my life. I deserve it because of my skills. And what I don’t have, and I want to have, I’m not there because I did not deserve it. Right. So that’s the biggest lesson to understand that no need to play the victim. No need to blame others. Oh, they have better conditions in life. No. Let’s look at incredible people who are intrapreneurs and they came from a very similar background as you and I have. Let’s look at the intrapreneurs who are immigrants and in charge of Google or eBay. Right? Are incredible people who are just not even immigrants, but decided to be intrapreneurs and decided I’m gonna do it no matter what. Oh, that’s the advice that I would give. I think any young entrepreneur, learns from the past.

However, never lose your resilience and until you get really where you want to go. So, as you know, it shifts every time when we look at business, we need to gain new knowledge. How do we establish LLC? What’s the difference between a real estate trust and LLC? How do you do taxes? You need to delegate to the right people your skills. And this is the skill that I’m still learning, you’re much ahead of me, and hiring the right assistance. But this is a skill that I’ve learned that I cannot do everything myself, and neither do I want to do my taxes myself, or the finances or done cleaning. It’s really great skill to delegate. But I appreciate every single person, my cleaning lady became an incredible friend, my real estate adviser, my real estate agent.

I really appreciate people equally and very lucky to have this group of Europeans in Boston, who has been an amazing network for everybody. So that is the skill that I was, for the longest time. I was not even thinking of closely monetizing, so when 2007 and 2008 happened, that’s where I decided, delegate myself in my energy to something else, and not to put again, follow the ball basket. So I decided I’m gonna do something that does not require any investment right now. I’m gonna take a little break from the real estate, I’m going to come back to it strongly. But I just want a little bit of fun.

So there was an incredible Polish woman who just started the group with 10 people, and she wanted today to polish man, and she found him right away. Her mission was accomplished. And she decided to pass it in writing the group to me and at one point. I collaborated with many people, and I decided that the events that I do, I’d like to have continuous new aspects and different events. So I started from the small events with the immigrants playing soccer to go to the beach. We went to later than we went to try Ferrari or any events that would be advertisements for incredible car dealerships or La Perla.

Then we started doing a fashion show and eventually got to the levels where I was offered an opportunity to work with a Bulgarian president to do an event for him. And with the Estonian Ambassador with Ukrainian ambassador, it was a lot of fun.

Pamela Bardhi
Social network that Europeans have in Boston. And so that was basically your pivot in 2007 2008. When everything was kind of happening, you redirected your energy.

Natasha Sky
So here’s another great mix, what I find is creating new memories and creating new history. When something is at the position where you’re in a crossroads and you decide to take the less-traveled road or the typical road. The entrepreneur would never take the typical road you would take the less traveled. However, having a little bit of fun does not hurt and I had an incredible time with this group. I mean, from mentors, I found another mentor of mine that came from this group is an incredible person who I’m really grateful for. And he’s Armenian, who was in the jury duty of the Olympic Games for 27 years, he was also an Olympic athlete. His name is Paul and I’m quite grateful for his skills. And he is the visionary.

So when I say that this group brought to me an incredible amount of bright, ambitious people and fun. And artists and everybody from all walks of life who have one thing in common. They’re mostly experts and it turned out to be the first Europeans in Boston that I added one degree globally. Because the group became global and international, and people who are coming from Brazil. Or some people were coming from India, and they’re like, how come we’re not included. I decided to keep the original name but however, added something in that group was really my gateway to a new fun face in life.

And I realized that I also incredibly Miss people and I am ready to do this one even for free because it’s so much fun. So when you do something that you feel like money doesn’t matter, and then real estate, you can make much more but you still do in parallel. I realized that I do have passions for both That’s crazy, right? No, it’s beautiful.

Pamela Bardhi
It’s beautiful in your passions, and you’re just making them happen, you know what I mean? Like it? I don’t think it’s crazy. I think they actually go hand in hand with each other, and they actually complement each other. Right?

Natasha Sky
I realized that only later, I honestly at first, I was like, how do I combine my events and build in real estate. You can, of course, invite people to your buildings, which has never been a problem. I’ve rented a lot of spaces, thanks to this group, of course, and sold some properties. Thanks to our members, it had mutual benefits without me planning it ahead of it. Yes. However, lately, I came up that I need to combine it literally physically in one location. Yeah. So right before the call that I came up with this plan that I’m going to build an International Centre, one degree global, in the city of Boston, and then boom, another pivot COVID happen. Honestly, who is going to come to your building, even if you build right, I would start events right

Last winter, and now in the year is built. Here we are a year later, almost It started in March. And now we’re almost a year into COVID and who knows when it’s going to be done. So you learn how to be flexible, and businesses intrapreneur how to be self-reliable. But also trust the good team. That you have in place and you also you have to get the knowledge and now my new knowledge would be, really to establish this group on a different level and they definitely incorporate zoom, and podcast. Yeah, which you’re doing great.

And all of the media thinks social media is incredible and to see that now the whole world is in our little fullness. Just mind-blowing kind of impressive that we live through this time where we can take components so I see it all as an advantage. And there is a silver lining like I said, they’re off to the COVID

Pamela Bardhi
Which is crazy. I mean, listening to like your life story and seeing how everything is so interconnected. Even though at the time you might have thought it wasn’t right. So like your relationships at UPS led you to real estate, and then your passion for design started when you were younger. Since you were six years old, everything has a parallel, everything has a reason. When you established your social network, you didn’t think it was gonna be something so huge as how it’s grown to now 13,000 members.

And then eventually build the center but everything was interconnected. It’s like, every single time I feel like you’ve kept your energies kind of going and like just been super passionate and brought in the right people you’ve attracted the right people through your mindset. So that’s what I was also going to ask you as a question. Like what kept your mind is sort of going, like what was like your mantra or like the belief that kept you rolling throughout even the hardest times? where you couldn’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you were like, Okay, I know there’s something better like what was like your mindset?

Natasha Sky
Well, mine is said I think it’s a thirst for success, I think it’s like undeniable desire like I’m gonna get through this no matter what. Because I’ve decided. Once when you make a decision, we have the song can Ukrainian if you love, you truly love, if you kill, you truly kill. I mean, pour your heart 1,000% into something that you love, not 100, the truly 1,000% where you could feel I sleep well, I love what I do, I love people that can tell you honestly. Even my son said I should be more selective. My seven-year-old, which is incredible. But I don’t want to even be your son, you can say no, I have said that. I shouldn’t be very selective with my close, close friends.

But the social network that I have, I admire people how they want to be connected, for professional reasons, for personal reasons, for the sense of community. No man is an island. I don’t believe that we should function on our own stain at home. And that this is going to be forever, I don’t believe for a second, I know we’re strong as a society. We’re going to overcome pandemics we’re going to celebrate our connection. And then we’re going to have amazing bodies and connections and social networks. That would be a great time and amazing for me to create an International Centre in the city of Boston.

I honestly would love to ask any of your listeners and admirers that if there is a great idea that people can collaborate for International Centre, including embassies and entrepreneurs, I would be glad to collaborate. Right now I’m collaborating with two international organizations already that is coming up with a product soon. And anybody who would be interested in involving, or being a business partner, I’m very open. And I think essentially, what city of Boston is missing a place of a voice for international people, where everything is connected, where we don’t have to be necessarily a sanctuary city that protects immigrants.

We can actually have our own funds, our own place for the voice, our own celebrations of multiple cultures. Even a crazy idea, even a restaurant with multiple dishes from just different cuisines. So that is my next fashion in life and also share the knowledge for entrepreneurs. If somebody would like to have coaching, it’s certainly not as easy to explain just in one day.

Pamela Bardhi
Yes.

Natasha Sky
Think you would agree that everything takes time. To have a child, it takes time. To have a business takes time. If somebody will tell you that everything is easy in real estate, I would laugh. Because it’s not true. It’s the strangest subject and because they’re not as many women in construction. I’m lot I admire you tremendously. Well, I’m a little bit older than you and you’re much younger, and you started right away. And that the way you are driven with passion and joining mastermind groups, you’re crazy about coaching. Because we both have the passion, and also my admiration for you that you have a thirst to help others. And that’s how I would define my mission in life. Like if I can encourage people to improve their self net worth and their beliefs in themselves.

That confidence is the number one that should be taught in school. Absolutely and that ties in with like, emotional intelligence, right. And like, all these different things that you know, it blows my mind that we don’t learn these things in school. Like, it also blows my mind different things that like, I have to learn algebra, which has nothing to do with nothing. But I don’t know what an interest rate is, by the time I graduate high school. Meanwhile, I’m signing documents for like loans or whatever for college, you know, like that stuff like that, like blows my mind, too. So it’s not just, there’s a lot of things that are missing from school, but emotional intelligence is huge. It’s huge. Why is it that depression rates are going up? Because nobody knows how to deal with internal emotions.

Pamela Bardhi
And these are things that I’ve seen play out, like when people that are older, like, and you just like, what, so there’s so many things that you mentioned that I’ve like, see, I get very passionate when it comes? Because you know, it was not in school, but emotional intelligence, like you were saying is very key. It’s key.

Natasha Sky
And also the key I think is in if you want to change the world, you’ve got to change yourself. So we were talking with you earlier about the application calm map that I downloaded and the breathing, simple exercise of breathing. Getting oxygen to our body is something that I’ve discovered a long time ago. But it was not consistent, so I can tell from my humble part of the heart. I recommend to anyone simple exercise of breathing for 510 minutes in the morning, when you wake up, to work on your mind to work on yourself. Because everything we project our thoughts, our desires, and our world-first is formulated in our brain like a fresh canvas. If we believe in ourselves, we can create it. If we don’t, we probably will not be able to create it. So I think therefore I am right?

Pamela Bardhi
That’s correct. But if you can’t process emotion, right through emotional intelligence, in your own mind, how can you produce anything?  So it’s like, because if you’re not aware, how can you react to it? Right? Well, that’s kind of how it was trained. You weren’t trained to question or be aware of your consciousness. And there’s a whole nother thing to all of that. But like you said, How are you going to win if you’re not right within? How and how are you going to attract the people that you want to attract and be intentional about every aspect of your life?

Natasha Sky
So that brings me to my coach Bob Proctor? Yes, who wrote the secret, and I’m incredibly grateful that I sign up for the membership for the coaching with him. Because this is a very different way of thinking about life and how you think of multiple sources of income and parallel, you take care of your body, your mind. And this is the only body that we have, right? So we better treat it right and they remember an interesting quote that Robin Sharma said that some people spent their whole health in order to gain wealth. But then they spent all their wealth in order to gain their health.

I never forgotten because I definitely seen some incredibly successful people who are struggling with their health. And that’s why I think, for my whole life, I was a runner, I was doing a lot of triathlons and marathons, and I qualified for the Boston marathon and I run it. And now I’m coming back to myself. There was a tougher moment in my life when I paid attention, incredibly concentrated so well, and so much in the career and buildings and personal life. I truly forgot about myself, and that will never happen again. I’ve learned a greater lesson, the greatest lesson in business, and I’m sure there are a lot of lessons ahead. But one incredible, powerful thing that I would never give up is learning. If you’re constantly learning and you accept new technology, new knowledge that comes your way, new people.

And quite frankly, I also have a partnership that didn’t work, it hurts. It absolutely hurts when you have a partnership that you truly trust. And then it doesn’t work that you do feel that you made the wrong choice, and probably you did. So it’s time to learn from mistakes and move on. But nobody ever will stop my heart from trusting again. But now I feel like it’s an improved version of Natasha.

Pamela Bardhi
Right?

Natasha Sky
I learned mistakes that I can pass on to generations and through mistakes, you also can teach great lessons. It teaches you a great lesson to first of all to improve work on yourself, what is it in me that are attracted this partner? What is it that I need to do in order to make better choices? I’m also incredibly grateful for the partners that I have. I’ve served them well and they’ve served me well. And at one point or another, you just grow into different directions. And you’re being grateful and they become friends for a lifetime. There is a lot of things to be grateful for and for entrepreneurs, I highly recommend starting the morning routine with gratitude.

Pamela Bardhi
Absolutely. I was gonna say what’s your biggest piece of advice right now. But I think that’s a perfect,

Natasha Sky
the one that we’re talking about credited probably is no

Pamela Bardhi
Yeah,

Natasha Sky
I would say that there is not a day that goes by that I don’t start my day with the calm application, which is breathing, and then absolutely exercise. And then when I come back, I have my great cappuccino, which I love. And then not so calmly, I write my gratitude. Then things that I’m grateful for and three things I write what I wish for the world and for myself three things or three people. I should say that you are not on the best terms at the moment, I wish them well, I wish them luck, and I send them success. That’s the wisdom that I’ve learned from my coaches. There’s no way to project to the world, something that you are not willing to accept a simple marine back. So basically, in simple terms, what you resist will persist. Doesn’t make sense?

Pamela Bardhi
It does. And it’s also too because you want to exclude the good energy, you don’t want to be like, Oh, you know, hold anything in for those people, right? Because that object for us,

Natasha Sky
It hurts every person that we keep resentment against anybody. Yeah. So I think something if you imagine you really, and you work hard, not just law of attraction. That you just would like to attract things and then you pray every day. And that’s gonna happen, I think was true with honestly, good hard work. And I don’t know any entrepreneur who said that everything is easy, and I deserve this and they just came easily to me. But coming back to the law of attraction, I do believe that we attract what we think. Have you ever experienced this?

Pamela Bardhi
Many times, and it scares me every time it scares me in a good way. I’m like, I just thought about this, you know somebody pops up that you thought about. Like that day you’ll see them or the next day you’ll see them or you know, you’re envisioning something that you’re like, I want this to happen. I want them to see this go and take off and do this and then all of a sudden it does. And then it’s in bad ways to not just positive but like even when you think about something negative. Then it ends up happening because when you have a rough day, when you start from the minute you wake up and you’re stressed out that whole day if you’re not consciously aware is gonna be up crafted.

If you allow it to be, you know, if you just react then you don’t respond to it right away. Because there’s been days that that’s happened to me or you start you like oversleep or whatever and you get up and you’re just like frazzled and all this. And then you got to like, sit down be like, hold on, this day is gonna consume me if I allow it to but I can change the energy. While I’m aware of it. So I’m 100,000% with you, that the law of attraction, the energy, it’s like, absolutely amazing. Yes.

Natasha Sky
One, one of the fun quotes that I’ve heard from my coaches is the load is as heavy as we take. So you can walk with the visible rock on your head that is visible to others, right? Because of the energy and sometimes, there are days when you just said. I truly deserve this, I deserve to attract incredible people, and you make a choice, a conscious choice, what will happen to your life? And how would you like to see it? And you actually, I don’t know if you have your gold card. But I do have my gold card that I physically touch it and I look at it. It’s a great reminder, what is it that my goal is at the moment in life, and when you have a goal and you’re driven, then you’re unstoppable.

And there, of course, days when you just like, just don’t feel like working today, or I don’t feel like exercising today, because it’s raining outside. But you do it anyway and consistency is number one, the key I’ve never really realized that you can never gain a lot of weight overnight, or lose a lot of weight overnight. Everything takes time. Either you gain weight gradually, either you lose weight, the same in business principle. If we practice every day, our business and we learn something newer skill, then we actually are at the place where we set in our mind.

But how do you set the goal without knowing? And how do you take the road? Without knowing the final destination? If you Pamela will sit down right now in the car and you don’t know where you go? And where are you going to end up? Driving? Who knows in New York or Maine? So the whole point, you know, with intrapreneurs I think most entrepreneurs would agree that we need to have certain goals, have a vision board, which most people would say, well, it just occurred to me it’s not.

Pamela Bardhi
Mm-hmm.

Natasha Sky
I completely believe in setting the goals and understanding the end of the year where so how far you’ve come and adjust what’s not working? There are some goals that been that I overachieved and then there’s some golden that I was like, I thought was great at it, but I’m not. So maybe I should delegate somebody to do my receipts and the accounting system, maybe I’m not the greatest, then it’s okay to admit, right? You need to know where your strengths are and where your weaknesses are. Yeah, You’re great at delegating, right?

Pamela Bardhi
It still takes some time, it’s hard to release your babies. It always is, but then you got it, then you realize I cannot be as efficient as I want to me if I don’t do this. So I need to figure out how I’m going to do this. And it’s hard to like, get there delegate and then scale to put that trust in your brand. The brand that you have worked years and years to build. For you in the design and the construction development and then also with your network, right to be able to pass that along. And it’s just like that’s, you know, you have to in order to grow? So I think that’s the hard part. But it’s the reality of entrepreneurship is like the tough part of scaling, and delegating.

Natasha Sky
And what comes to my mind when you were saying that, you know, it’s never too late to become who you might have been. There’s a famous quote I like any point of life, you can change and take it to the next level. And challenge yourself. It’s tough, sometimes. It’s challenging. I definitely never built an International Centre. But I know that I’m combining here my passion for the network for piano and combining my design passion in real estate development and some of the buildings were easier to build than others. Yeah, all of that comes to a point pivot in my life to the next chapter in my life. So I would be so grateful if people can reach out for the social network or for International Centre one degree global and you can easily find me on LinkedIn or Facebook as Natasha Sky.

Pamela Bardhi
yeah, as simple as that, thank you so much for being here. You’re such an honor to have you. And I’m so excited for the future, for your future and I know we’re gonna go together to general but you know, everyone, Natasha Skye, she is out of this world.