Aleksandra Degernes With MyProgress, LLC And Slavic Business Association

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s time for Charlotte Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Charlotte Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Aleksandra Degernes with my Progress LLC and the Slavic Business Association. Welcome.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:00:33] Hi, Lee. It’s good to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:37] Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Which one do you want to start out with? First, my progress or the Slavic Business Association. You’ve got a lot going on.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:00:46] I will start with my personal story since you guys like stories on the radio. So I think I’ll start with that.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:53] All right. So this is your back story about how you got to Charlotte and where you’re at right now.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:00:58] Yes. Yes. Even a little bit further back, I would say just a few years back.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:06] All right. Fire away.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:01:09] Well, I was born and raised in Russia, and about ten years ago I moved from Russia to the US with limited English proficiency, I imagine me, but with a few English words. You know, I lived in a few different states. I lived in Oregon, I lived in Florida most of my time. I spent living and working in California in the greater Los Angeles area. And as all immigrants, I’ve had a variety of different jobs before I found something I really like. So I did like temp jobs as a waitress. I was doing lots of hustling, and when I found the industry that I really enjoy working in, I was able to grow pretty fast. And essentially for about seven years out of ten I worked as an event production manager. That was fun. I mean, we’ll say Angelus there, parties everywhere and there are lots of opportunity in the events field, obviously. But when I moved from L.A. to Charlotte, that was three years ago. I could not work in events anymore. Because of what? Guess what?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:37] There was a pandemic and there’s not as many events probably.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:02:41] Yes, right on point. Yes. So essentially I was I lost the entire industry that I was working so hard for and did some house remodeling. I did a few puzzles. I think all of us did a few puzzles during those times. And I met many people from my community, Russian speaking, Slavic immigrants, Ukrainian immigrants from Moldova, essentially lots of people from that post-Soviet era. And I started noticing lots of similarities and noticing patterns in their questions. And those are questions that many, many immigrants ask and many immigrants trying to find answers to, or like, what are the cultural business aspects in the US? How do you do networking? How do you look for a job? What do employers in America want from their employees? And lots of things like that. And you know, I just had so much knowledge that I’ve gained. I did not even I didn’t even value the amount of knowledge I held at that time. But then I was like, You know what? I’m going to create a training program. And so that’s what I did. It took me a year. I included some research on integration and immigration and employment statistics and you know how to write, resume me how to what’s the strategy of looking for a job and all of those things essentially became a five day of five week career development program for all immigrants.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:04:30] And that’s how I started my Consulting LLC, my Progress LLC. And that basically was the new career, the new path that I approached, and that’s what I started doing. So I don’t just work one on one with people. I also help local organizations who have diverse teams. And we all know companies become more diverse. And in more diverse teams there is a higher chance of conflict within organizations, organization. So essentially development and training is the field. I’m working right now and I work with local nonprofits that do immigration work as well, because I can I can implement the training programs, not just for Slavic immigrants, Eastern European immigrants. That could be for anybody who come to this country and as many research shows that. Successful immigrants, they pay better taxes. And those are money that we use for essential services in the country. And just in general, the country would benefit from professionally successful people.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:56] So so at my progress, what started was kind of a slant towards folks with Slavic background has expanded to pretty much any immigrant write your your training can help any immigrant kind of integrate themselves better to the company and it can help the company integrate more immigrants into their business.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:06:21] Correct? Yes. And it’s yes, I do have an insight to the Slavic community. I am from that culture. So I do understand a few things that they’re dealing with. But the information that I provide, it’s it’s a general source that comes from any kind of career centers and, you know, like recruitment books or whatever. So, you know, because I’ve been doing lots of research and I am getting my master’s and you and see this coming full and. I’m going to apply for it. Let me just clarify it. But the school has been one of the greatest resources to me. But immigrants, it’s just so much information that comes their way, like they need to deal with legal things. They need to do their social securities and statuses. And they come they’re dealing with cultural barriers, the language barrier, psychological barrier, and that professional barrier, which is the fifth one. And I identify five, the ones that are just told you about. It’s it’s just way too much. And they’re very behind behind even very successful, high skilled people are still very, very behind because of those barriers. But they with a little bit of help that can do so much better. And that’s what my program is tailored to, to do. And essentially it does. Going back to your question, it does apply to any immigrant or any diverse team that works with foreigners or immigrants, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:18] So while your background was from a Slavic country, obviously it’s the challenges that any immigrants having are similar, like they have to deal, like you said with English, they have cultural challenges. They don’t understand all of the legalities. And and to have a trusted advisor there that can help them kind of go through that maze is super helpful. That helps the immigrant and it helps the company get a really good employee that’s going to be a hard worker that’s going to help them grow.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:08:48] Yeah, just a little just tiny, small adjustments in communication. Hey, here’s how you write an email, right? For example, to your boss, or here’s what it means, you know, just little cultural things because really, if we think about it, it’s just those cultural mismatches, misunderstandings we sometimes perceive as something rude, you know, and we don’t hire people because we’re like, Oh, I don’t know, we’ll be easy to work with that person, you know? So essentially that program should help to remove those miscommunications, misunderstandings. And another thing really is that it’s important to work with opinion leaders and the community leaders. For example, the program can go into any immigrant community. And I work with local leaders, if you know what I mean. Like, for example, there is a Ukrainian community, large Ukrainian community in Charlotte. And I just hosted my career development workshop for refugees and. I don’t reach out to every single Ukrainian person living in Charlotte. I reach out to to leaders who organize protests right now for I mean, for help over Ukraine. They have like the cultural festivals. Is that how you called the protests? But but, you know, the awareness, essentially. So working with community leaders is essential. So that’s what I’m trying to do as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:36] So now how did these Slavic Business Association come into play? Was that already an existing organization that you joined or did you help create that? Like how did that come into play in Charlotte?

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:10:50] That’s a good question. There is a nonprofit which is called Slavic Business Association. It’s it’s a very young one year old one and a half year old organization. And when I was doing my my seminars in town, I was meeting people, coaching them, helping them to find jobs and things like that. I was approached by one of the one of the people of this team, and they offered me to join the board. And they said their mission was to bring together leaders of the immigrant community and businesses. And so we can create programs for people who would need. Our knowledge and our experience and things like that. I was like, Oh my gosh, that’s a great idea. I want to be a part of this thing. And so since then, I was helping them with the community engagement, communications, public relations, strategic partnerships and program developments. And working together for about a year and a half, we have developed a concrete programs based on the needs of our community, which are known. Those are workshops, educational workshops and of course, networking events and educational workshops are happening when we reach out to local businesses and they’re ready to contribute to the immigrant community and they want to promote their business.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:12:48] So like smaller real estate companies or mortgage companies or consulting companies or any kind of company who wants to create a workshop for people based on their how do you say, their knowledge know like for example, we had a real estate professionals creating workshops on how to invest in land and what are the market trends right now. And, you know, just valuable insights from their industry. And that way we educate people on what’s going on and how to invest in land, for example. So and networking events are, of course, a big part of how you find a job in America and just how you move up in your career. It’s networking is amazing. I love this thing. I had no and I know people from my culture, they don’t have that concept because of the cultural barrier. There are some things that prevent us from a good networking, but, you know, it’s a big thing in the U.S. and that’s what we try to to organize as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:07] Well, it sounds like it’s really aligned with your skill set and your interests. And everything seems to be working together in order to really help you serve that community and help you help the immigrant community get a leg up and really, you know, start to see seeing some of the benefits of being part of the United States.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:14:30] Definitely. And we have served hundreds of people already in our community. We helped entrepreneurs to grow. We helped those who come fresh off the boat and go. We call them fresh off the boat to adapt. And and we help them to to believe in what’s in what they can achieve through our education. So their win win. I see everywhere from any side.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:05] Now, do you mind sharing a little bit maybe get give a little insight to folks out there that aren’t as having as many conversations with recent immigrants as you are. Can you share some of maybe some of their fears or some of their hopes? And maybe that will spur some thinking on our listeners part so that we can figure out more ways to help them acclimate and integrate themselves into our community.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:15:34] Yeah, the biggest thing we should all understand that successful immigrants are a benefit for everybody. And what do I define by success? That would be immigrants who have better English, who can get better positions. And essentially understanding that. That we all benefit from those successful immigrants that would benefit our company, our country as a whole. And. What else I would say is that in terms of business side is that if you are growing a business nowadays and you can tap into large communities of Slavic immigrants, could be Chinese, Iranian, any kind of immigrants, you expand your services to a broader audience and you enhance your world view and you understand different aspects of your services. So you just get richer and your business gets better when you kind of invest into helping immigrants, including them in your business or educating them. So it’s just losses everywhere, like I said.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:24] And this is I mean, number one, it’s good for people to do this. But number two, this is also could be good for their business as well, aren’t there? I mean, there’s hundreds of thousands of Slavic people in the community, right? Like this isn’t like 12 people. This is a lot of people here that you’re missing out of that could be potential customers. If you treat them right.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:17:49] You would be surprised. Yeah. According to the current population survey from 2015, they estimated about 40,000 Eastern European immigrants in North Carolina. And, you know, the other thing is really interesting you people should know about immigrants is that they start their businesses very often. So the myth that immigrants take jobs, they actually it’s actually not based on fact because statistically and I’m studying statistics, studying sociology and immigration in particular, it’s cool. The statistics show that lots of immigrants started their businesses because of all of those difficulties, like language barrier and things like that. It’s easier for them to just start a company that does, you know, construction services, cleaning services. You think about I mean, there are so many creative services, photography, they start their own, whatever. And it’s so easy to start a business in America comparing to some countries from out there. So the entrepreneurial kind of spirit is very high in immigrants. So they create jobs.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:16] Yeah. And, and that’s that’s the reality of the situation. When they’re frustrated, they can’t get a job, they don’t complain about it. They go and start their own job and then they figure out their own thing. Now, as part of the Slavic Business Association, you mentioned a lot of services you provide, but one of them is kind of a regular networking opportunity, right, where that people can get together. And I don’t I don’t know when the next one is, but maybe you can share the date and time and location of the next kind of networking event where people can get together and meet and and explore ways to work together.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:19:54] Definitely. So we are working on listing out our workshops schedule and for those we work with local businesses as well. So if you own a business, is it marketing, is it financial advising? It could be anything really any kind of service. And you want to expand your audience, you want to expand your clientele reach and you want to contribute to the large community of immigrants here and Ukrainians as well here. Now, we work with many of those people, go on Slavic VA that come and apply for hosting the workshop and we can also meet. I love meeting with people face to face. I host monthly networking events, very casual and in South Park, Foxcroft Wine and Co and it’s in South Park area. Like I said, just very casual on the 28th meeting. A few people I’ll be there at 5 p.m. but you need to RSVP to. In that event, you can find on our events tab on our Slavic Bazaar.com website, and there are also other things you can find there. More events and everything. Everything. But I will be on the 20th that foxcroft wine.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:40] Yeah. And, and that’s where you can meet other folks that maybe came from the same part of the world as you. And you can kind of catch up and plug yourself into a community that’s really looking to help and can really help you get to a new level.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:21:56] Yes, definitely. We welcome everybody. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re immigrant or not, whether you business owner or entrepreneur or you’re just moved to the US from somewhere, you know, we’re inclusive. We do we do have kind of the immigration aspect of here if you say, but yes, you definitely can come and meet. So it doesn’t matter where you’re from, who you are, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:22:28] So for that networking opportunity and educational opportunity at Slavic Bazaar.com, you can learn more there if somebody wants to learn about your business. My progress, what is the website for that? Because they’re they can get some consulting from you and whether they’re a business or an immigrant and you can help them individually.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:22:53] Yes, it’s my progress. Dot us and you will see the home page there where I outline a few important things that everybody should know about immigration and highly skilled immigrants who come to this country. And there’s also a button where you can contact me and contact me. And yeah, it’s a pretty easy website to navigate and it’s free to do well.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:27] Thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Aleksandra Degernes: [00:23:32] Thank you. Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:35] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Charlotte Business Radio.