#5: Lyudmyla Stepchuk in Vinnytsia, Ukraine

0:00:10
Rob Bednark    Welcome to the Three Answers podcast, where we reveal the day-to-day goodness in people's lives. Each guest answers three questions, such as, "What is your favorite routine or habit?"

This is show number 5, recorded on November 18, 2025. In Portland, Oregon, I'm your host today, Rob Bednark.

Today, I'm excited to do a call with Lyudmyla, who is in the country of Ukraine, in the city of Vinnytsia. I met Lyudmyla a year ago. I really enjoyed my call with her back then, and I'm delighted that she accepted my invitation to be a guest on this show. I'm looking forward to learning more about her and discover some of the day-to-day goodness in her life, even while living in a country that is at war.

0:01:06
Rob Bednark    Hello, Lyudmyla. Thank you for joining me.

Lyudmyla Stepchuk    Hello, happy to see you. Thanks for the invitation.

Rob    How are you doing today?

Lyudmyla    We have a cold autumn day with a short day, cloudy day, and a little bit rainy, cold. But in my house it's warm.

Rob    Ah, beautiful. So would you give us an introduction? You're free to share whatever you like.

Lyudmyla    My name is Lyudmyla. I'm from Ukraine, and I'm developing myself in marketing, because I have talent in this area and such experience where I saw that my ideas bring a lot of value to potential clients. Currently, I'm looking for new opportunities in strategic marketing, like strategy development, client acquisitions, and such kind of things.

0:02:12
Rob    Excellent. And how are you and all your family and friends doing in the midst of a war?

Lyudmyla    Not very well. To be honest, the economic situation is very difficult. I lost my job several months ago. It's a little bit tough for me, but I use this time for studying. I bought two courses in marketing and finally finished them. Now I'm looking. But I'm happy that I am in a much better position than the people who live in cities in the war line because they have much more destruction, they live without electricity, without water, without heating in their houses. So I can say that I am lucky to live in central Ukraine.

0:03:12
Rob    So you live in central Ukraine, but the war is...?

Lyudmyla    In the eastern part of Ukraine. Previously, it was 1,000 kilometers from me, but now it is 800-900 kilometers from me.

Rob    In the United States, miles we use, so converting eight times 640, so about 480 miles, so like 500 to 600 miles. That's close.

00:03:44
Lyudmyla    That's close. Modern weapons are very long where you can attack, our cities and even cities farther from the war line than my cities, even to Poland and Moldova they can hit, reach. So we can be attacked in any moment.

Rob    Did you say you have been attacked in the past?

00:04:14
Lyudmyla    Yes, this summer, we have. Summer and autumn. They have destroyed several plants near my house and all firefighting were above my house. It was a sleepless night and scary, but thankfully me, my family, and my property, everything is okay, and safe.

Rob    My heart goes out to you. I can't imagine what that must be like.

Lyudmyla    Yes, to be honest, it's difficult, but we are used to living such a life. Everyone I think in the world is hoping that this war will end soon.

00:05:01
Rob    Yeah, indeed, very much hoping that. Well, good for you for your resiliency, and despite the economy and losing your job, you're continuing forward and learning new things. So good for you.

Lyudmyla    Thank you.

00:05:17
Rob    Okay, well, let's get into the questions--the three questions that you chose. I'm excited to learn more about you.

First question:What is your favorite routine or habit?

00:05:30
Lyudmyla    My favorite morning routine, I have a small walk around in the morning. It's about one to three kilometers; in any weather. It brings me energy for a whole day.

Also, I have a small meditation for about five minutes. It helps me to concentrate on the main things for me--how I can be helpful for the world, how I can spend this day better for me and for the whole world.

Also, breathing practice for a few minutes also gives me energy. And when I'm very exhausted, I wake up, get my son to school, and just sit and I don't want to do nothing, but I did my breathing and I got more energy. I went out into the world and I had finally a good day.

So these routines help me in any situation--despite all the difficulties in my life--to continue moving and to hope for the better.

00:06:54
Rob    Ah, beautiful. So running and meditation, those were two things you mentioned. Ah, good. So running--very active, getting outside, working your body. And the meditation--quiet, and for your mind, and calming down and being centered.

Lyudmyla    Yes, it is. We have cold weather. It very often rains. It's not very warm, but I go outside and walk or run, but go outside.

Rob    So no matter what the weather is, you get out there and go running.

Lyudmyla    If it is a very strong rainstorm, I don't go. But if rain is quiet, I'll go.

Rob    Nice. What does your meditation look like? You mentioned breathing.

Lyudmyla    Breathing and meditation, I just try to sit in silence, just don't think about nothing. Then think of my dreams, my goals, and the most important thing with what I will do today.

00:08:08
Rob    Ah, sounds like a good practice. How long have you been doing that? How did you come to start doing that?

Lyudmyla    I was not happy with the life I was living. And I try to improve myself to get a better life. So I am studying a lot. I always want [to take] different courses in personal development and in professional development. I have heard about this practice in several courses--because it's difficult to start when you hear it once, but when you hear it a second such time, you start to think, oh, maybe this sounds good, and I have to try. And I try to--I think it's several years already.

00:09:00
Rob    Wow, good for you. So already several years, and it was just through personal development courses that you've heard people talk about it and suggest it. So after a while, you decided to start doing it.

Lyudmyla    And [I'm reminded of one more habit]. I spend every day, 7 minutes to 1 hour learning English. I still continue to improve my English. Each day--it was a few days ago, 700 days.

Rob    700 days in a row of practicing English?

Lyudmyla    Yes.

00:09:39
Rob    Wow, that's impressive. Wow, that's an amazing streak. Good for you. And what do you do to improve your English? What kind of things do you do?

00:09:51
Lyudmyla    It's, as I mentioned, from 30 minutes to one hour. Usually, it's about 50 minutes to one hour in Duolingo practice. Also, I have meetings in Lunchclub, and sometimes I listen to podcasts.

00:10:09
Rob    Oh, excellent. Duolingo, Lunchclub, and podcasts. So you and I met on Launch Club back, I don't know, six months ago or so. Could you just briefly describe for listeners what Lunchclub is?

00:10:24
Lyudmyla    It's a business club where business owners or self-employed people meet each other, looking for opportunities, how they can be helpful for each other. And to be honest, Lunchclub helped me very much to improve myself and to become a person like I am, because I joined there in December 2022. We didn't have electricity at all in my house--no heating, nowhere to prepare meals--because in my house, everything runs on electricity.

And I also was without a job. It was a very tough time for me, but I started to meet people, mostly from the US. And each one tried to help with something, with some advice or just support me more. These meetings really helped me.

00:11:31
Rob    Oh, wow. Wonderful. So almost three years now. And no electricity, no heat for a period of time back then because of the war. So it must have been kind of a nice outlet, a nice way to maybe take your mind off the war, but also help you practice your English and meet new people and maybe make work connections.

Lyudmyla    Yes, my English has improved a lot.

00:11:58
Rob    Wow, good for you. That must feel great. Okay, let's move on to the next one. And I see I had chosen the wrong question. That was not one of them you mentioned, right? Sorry about that, but I love the answer.

Lyudmyla    I can answer more questions that you choose, so it will be better for you.

00:12:18
Rob    Okay, well, we'll get back on track to the ones that you chose. So what's something simple that brings you joy every day?

Lyudmyla    As I mentioned, it is a walk, and not only [in the] morning, but I like to walk also in the evening to spend time in nature, these things. I also love, as I just mentioned, to meet new people, to communicate--that really brings me joy. And I'm looking for a role as a project manager where I will communicate with clients.

00:13:01
Rob    Ah, awesome. So you said walking, both sometimes, both morning and evening, and spending time in nature. So nature, do you live in the city or outside in the country, a rural area?

Lyudmyla    I live in [the] city, but it's not downtown, it's [in the] surrounding area. I have some nature near my house where I go running and I have a big lake near my house. It's about one kilometer, 500 meters far from my house, but I can walk there and spend time. I also really like to spend time near the water, just take some coffee or pizza and the sit close to the water and look at it.

Rob    Oh wow, good for you. So you even take your coffee, you walk 500 meters, 1000 meters to the lake with your coffee and sit.

00:14:00
Lyudmyla    I can take [buy] coffee near the lake or [take it] from home.

Rob    Nice, I love coffee, love the sound of that, taking it out in--outside out in nature. Beautiful.

00:14:13
Okay, and so let's move on to a little different question:What is the most creative thing you do, or what do you do to be creative?

00:14:23
Lyudmyla    To be honest, I am a very creative person. In marketing, when I hear about some business, in my head arise thousands of ideas [of] how to promote this business. And I like to build strategies [of] how to make a difference from the others, [to make this business stand out from the others around] its value, about how to connect with potential clients, all these ideas, theories, and sometimes I can wake up in the middle of the night because of the thousands of ideas, because the whole day is very busy. I have a lot of routine, a lot of things, but I can wake up in the middle of the night. All these ideas are building in the system.

And I also love to paint some pictures, but not very often. But I hope when I find a good job [that] I can relax, because it's a tough time, but when I [can] relax, I hope I will continue to paint.

00:15:42
Rob    Ah, nice. And painting, what types of things do you like to paint? What kind of, I don't know, what do you call--painting styles or...?

Lyudmyla    I use watercolor, acrylic, and some oil. But oil is the most difficult, but the pictures become most colorful and alive.

I'm not a professional in painting, but I just like to paint. I paint some pictures and present [them] to my colleagues. One colleague left a picture [in her] the office for some time, and I asked her, why you don't [take this home]? And she told me, "When I'm sad, I'm nervous, and I just [look at] this painting. I can touch it, and I start to feel better.

I decided that I have to continue to paint. It can help people to feel better.

00:16:58
Rob    Wow. So you're saying one of your paintings is hanging in somebody's office. You asked them, "why do you keep it in your office? Why don't you take it home?" And she said that when she's feeling bad, nervous, that she uses the painting to kind of inspire her and make her feel better?

Lyudmyla    Yes. She said, "I [look at] it, I touch it, and I feel better."

Rob    Wow. Touch it, actually. That's fascinating. And how did you come to get your painting in her office? How did that come about?

Lyudmyla    I just presented her my painting, my picture. It was her birthday. I painted it for her and presented it.

00:17:52
Rob    Oh, a present for her birthday. Wonderful. Very nice. And what is this particular painting of?

Lyudmyla    It was about nature, grass in nature, in the night, some lights in the nature, some flowers in the grass, with a little of magic.

Rob    Magic? Ah, what inspired you to paint that one?

Lyudmyla    I just saw a picture and wanted to paint it. Somewhere in Pinterest.

00:18:29
Rob    Oh, from Pinterest. Nice. Inspired from a picture. Beautiful.

00:18:35
Okay. And the next question:What's something you've let go of that has made your life better?

Lyudmyla    I had a bad habit [of spending too much time] in social media. I understood that it's bad for me, and I better spend this time for other things. But when I am tired, when I'm sad, I just sit and scroll. But not for a long time.

Maybe a few weeks ago, I inspired my dreams, my new job, that I will find you finally. I put a limit.

When I hit the limit, I put down my phone and go to do some sports or some housework or just make pressing, do some other things, not scrolling on social media. I always had a limit on the social media, but I always took it, and then "Give me [another] 15 minutes! Give me 15 minutes!".

00:19:50
Rob    Wow. Wow. Good for you. I know that's a thing with a lot of people that they feel like they spend too much time on social media, don't feel good from it.

So it sounds like you're... you've said you always had some kind of time limit on it. So it sounds like you're a pretty disciplined person.

Lyudmyla    Not very well, but I try to be. I really want to change my life, to find a job that will bring me happiness where I can help people because I understand that my ideas bring results. I should find the company, the best company for me.

00:20:36
Rob    Ah, good for you. You're persevering. And so you said a couple months ago in September, you applied to 100 different jobs, did a lot of interviews. And yeah, I know what that's like. I've done the same thing myself. And that's good for you that you took a break, but now you've been posting to LinkedIn and you've been getting some interviews out of that, did you say?

00:21:00
Lyudmyla    Yes, I had two interviews of late. I did one test task for about 10 pages.

Rob    Wow. 10 pages.

Lyudmyla    Because when I started to write about marketing, it's difficult to stop for me. I had a lot of ideas in my mind.

0:21:24
Rob    I'm sure with putting more energy now into finding your dream job and limiting your social media more, reducing that gives you not only more time, but I think more energy too, more optimism. Probably keeps you happier.

Lyudmyla    Thank you. I hope.

00:21:45
Rob    Thank you, Lyudmyla. It was really wonderful talking with you. I loved all your answers, learning about you--about limiting your social media to put more time into your job search, finding your dream job, your creativity around marketing, figuring out solutions, and also around painting.

Your favorite routine or habit--you talked about running every day and doing Lunchclub to meet people. Also getting out in nature--not only running, but walking, sitting by the lake and having coffee. So all beautiful things. Thank you.

00:22:21
Lyudmyla    Thank you for inviting me. It was nice to communicate with you. And I was happy to see you again.

Rob    Happy to see you again as well. And I think your English is fantastic. Good for you.

Lyudmyla    Thank you, but I will continue to learn.

Rob    Always learning, always learning.

All right. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Lyudmyla. This was wonderful. I hope you find your dream job soon and certainly hope the war comes to an end soon and that you continue to stay safe and keep your hopes up around that.

Lyudmyla    Thank you.

Rob    All right. Thanks again, Lyudmyla. Wonderful seeing you and talking with you. Have a great day.

Lyudmyla    I was happy to see you. Thank you.

Rob    Happy to see you. Take care. Bye-bye.

Lyudmyla Stepchuk    Bye-bye. Have a great day.

0:23:19
Rob Bednark    This has been the Three Answers podcast. Thank you to today's guest, Lyudmyla, in Vinnytzia, Ukraine.

In Portland, Oregon, I'm Rob Bednark. Thank you for listening.

00:23:43
(End)