“Even if we could turn back, we’d probably never end up where we started.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Success is often portrayed as an abstract destination. How to measure it? Or understand that you are on the right path? My analytical mind wants to measure everything, all the time, and my personal story is no exception. Math wasn’t my best friend… until it was. If you can put a number next to a thing it will get a whole new meaning. To make it simpler for myself (do I ever?!) I decided to start from the very basic concept.
The mathematical phenomena from 0 to 1 represents the journey from the beginning to the end.
I am not at the finish line thankfully, what fun would that be? The point where I am at the moment is 0.5. I can give myself at least a half way mark, patting myself on the back.
Since you are here, you are already engaged with what I do. Thank you by the way. I want to talk to you about my brand. Not in a marketing or business context, even though a little bit of that too. A brand goes beyond just the physical aspects of a product. It encompasses the values, vision, quality, and emotional connection that consumer, you, associate with the product or company or a person, me.
What’s important is that you recognize me, dear reader. While a logo, color pattern, and specific style can make the connection in your brain and lead you my way, what I want to know — if the label falls off, would you recognize my voice? I hope you do, but we need to spend more time together for that to happen.
Let me bring you to the starting point. We are at a zero mark.
The history of my brand begins with my name, or rather its meaning. Kseniya from Greek means foreigner, guest, wanderer. I was born in a small city where people are content with their lives, nothing beyond the ordinary, schedule and respect for each other is what we cherish. Point being - no wild dreams. I just couldn’t help it - in my thoughts I was always wandering.
As soon as I found strength in myself to get separated from my family I started my journey into the world beyond the borders that were built for me before I was even born. Thanks, USSR. Thus started my physical traveling, mentally I was already checked out.
My name not only serves as the starting point of my journey but also encompasses complexities. As soon as I introduce myself and my name leaves my lips, I see a confused facial expression and I have to give a tutorial on how to pronounce it correctly. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and first impression of me is “how the hell do you pronounce it?”, I learned to live with that. Plus, “complexity” as an association with who I am is quite accurate.
I traveled a fair amount of time, I moved to another country, right across the continent from everything that I knew and loved. I developed my curiosity in various geographical locations. I continue to proceed down this path. I believe that being behind the curtain of a comfort zone has moved me from 0 to 0.1.
My passion for languages first showed its face in school. Russian, English, German, Kazakh, I was soaking all of them in. The latest adventure of mine is French.
Knowledge of languages not only allows you to understand their syntax, but gives you a different perspective of studying the authenticity of another culture, broadens your horizons, pushes you out of the comfort zone, which entails continuous development. I do not claim that my perspective on the world is superior to others, but I can distinctly experience different situations from the French side, for instance, and then, for the sake of enjoyment, from an American side, and so forth. It was, and still is, the study of foreign languages that brings versatility into my life. It moves me forward in so many ways, it is my additional 0.1 increment.
You don’t need motivation if you have discipline. When I was 7 years old I picked up my first tennis racquet and I still am inseparable with it. Tennis taught me discipline. This is 0.3
After traversing through multiple universities, and simultaneously through various professions, I felt like my career paths were picked from “Wheel of Fortune” because that’s the extent of consideration I devoted to it. Some serious work needed to be done in this area. I embarked on a meticulous analysis, carefully measuring the complexities and potentials of different professions. Bottom line - I became a data engineer. The main values of my profession are precision and clarity. There is a measure of accuracy. There is no in between. At once, I started seeing the world in a form of schemas, tables and data visualizations, thus was born my critical mind. Cheers to the most difficult + 0.1 ever.
With that we just approached the 0.5 mark. My brand.
I am an introvert, I love to be buried in books and build relationships with literary characters. “My attitude towards the world and society can only be called inconsistent” as Thomas Mann puts it.
If there is one consistent signal from the outside world, it is the question addressed to me: “How do you take care of your skin?” I don’t mind sharing my findings and tips, but this question always catches me by surprise, and the amount of information I pour on the person seeking advice, seems endless. Leaving the poor soul even more confused than ever.
Being an engineer, I have a constant urge to narrow the flow of information, to eliminate noise, to organize, and to build. Same clarity and consistency I want to bring into the skincare world. I know that it takes time to collect data points, and build a successful model, patience is something that doesn’t come naturally to me. But it’s not about the destination (at least not all of the time) it is about the journey too.
Once upon a time, on a fall Saturday morning, I came to a point when it felt like my curiosity, versatility, discipline and critical mind would serve me well in starting a skincare brand, so I created a folder on my laptop, and called it “skinschema”.
Why schema? Being an engineer, I know that before you even start building, you need to understand what is in front of you, what is available, what’s missing. This is the starting point in all of my projects, it’s the first place that provides some clarity about the task. Or when I go down the rabbit hole, the schema is my reference when I want to take a step back and reevaluate my strategy. All of my tools in one place with a robust definition for each and every one of them. The goal is to bring the same clarity into a skincare space.
Maybe my profession taught me to appreciate the sense of understanding of each concept that comes into play. Envision that you are putting the puzzles together, but you don’t really see the images of each and every one of them, can you then imagine what the finished product would look like?
Colm Toibin once said: “understanding is perhaps the most important thing in life”. For me… understanding is being at the steering wheel.
When the world is chaotic as it is right, it’s nice to have a little sense of control. Control over what is important to us.
Well orchestrated skincare routine that is carefully planned brings me that feeling of control. It feels empowering and balanced.
And you know… even the illusion of control in your small bathroom is delicious. When uncertain about life - start with the skincare routine. This is your schema.