Freelancer On The Frontline: With Orest Zub, e-resident in Ukraine

Speaker A: Welcome to The Futurist Freelance Podcast, brought to you by Zolo, the operating system for the solo economy.

Speaker A: Every week we're serving up an audio cocktail of expert tips, inspired insights and stories from the frontiers of freelancing to help you grow your borderless business to new heights and live life on your own terms.

Speaker A: So kick back, grab a snack, let's get started.

Speaker A: There are many amazing content creators in the Zolopreneur network, but not many of them find themselves documenting war crimes as part of their work.

Speaker A: Today, we share with you a powerful interview with Orris Sub from Leviv, who has pivoted his entire business and formerly nomadic lifestyle to bring you real local stories about the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Speaker A: Operating entirely independently, unconstrained by journalistic conventions and the pursuit of headlines and soundbites, orris'local knowledge provides a unique perspective on one of the key geopolitical events shaping our time and as well as the vital work he's doing right now.

Speaker A: I found Orris's constructive and optimistic take on the future for Ukraine incredibly refreshing too.

Speaker A: There was never a stronger endorsement of our key thesis that Freelancing is the future.

Speaker A: So enjoy the interview and if you're inspired to take action and follow and support Orris work, you'll find all the links you need in the show notes.

Speaker A: So welcome, Orris.

Speaker A: It's fantastic to have you here at the future is freelance Podcast.

Speaker A: You're coming to us from Leviv in Ukraine and we'll come to talk about that very shortly.

Speaker A: But first of all, I'd really like to take you back to the time before everything changed in February and discover a little bit more about what life was like for you as a freelancer back in the day.

Speaker A: Could you paint a picture for us so that we can start to understand how much has changed lately?

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker B: Thanks for having me.

Speaker B: So I'm originally from Ukraine and my native city islviv however, as the remote free online entrepreneur, that's probably a better word to describe my activity because I'm not limited to freelance only.

Speaker B: I also do hiring, I have some contractors and I am mostly relying in my business activities on recurring revenue models.

Speaker B: So that's probably like a few steps ahead of freelancing, even though in my professional career I used to be a freelancer for a couple of years as well.

Speaker B: And generally I am in this online marketing and all the related niches since 2011.

Speaker B: So pretty long time ago.

Speaker B: And my dream yes, and my dedication, why actually I came to this industry was the wish to travel the world, to see the world.

Speaker B: And one of the tools, as I found later, is simply online work.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker B: Once you work online, you are able to do this remotely from any part of the world.

Speaker B: And thanks to that, at the moment I have visited already, like, we precise 129 countries around the world.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker A: How many have you not visited?

Speaker A: There can't be many left for your list.

Speaker B: We can go deep.

Speaker B: It's rather a travel topic already and the geography.

Speaker B: But like big travelers, they keep the number of 123, which is the official number of the United Nations members.

Speaker B: Right, okay.

Speaker A: You would say that then prior to February this year, you probably lived a life of a fairly typical online entrepreneur, funding your travels with passive income whilst you got to choose where you lived and worked.

Speaker A: But I imagine that the whole idea of that freedom took on a very different perspective from February.

Speaker A: So please explain to us how your work has pivoted and what you're spending your time on now.

Speaker B: Yeah, so I had an amazing life, like six months traveling around, managing my team, remotely doing what I love and which is profitable.

Speaker B: So it's simply amazing stuff.

Speaker B: But when in February 24, Russia attacked Ukraine, we became a country in war, and I decided by myself that I'm going to participate in the resistance and do everything I can in order to contribute towards our future victory and towards defending the fundamental liberal Western values that are the essence of this war in general.

Speaker B: So it's not only about Ukraine.

Speaker B: This is one of those examples, like unique examples in the human history when you can clearly draw a line between dark and light, between good and bad.

Speaker B: And I sincerely believe that Ukraine is the front line of the good things in the world at the moment, and that's why we are enjoying such tremendous, unprecedented support from the entire of the civilized and free world.

Speaker B: So I thought, okay, what am I going to do?

Speaker B: And I must say that I kind of knew it's coming because just one week before the war started, I was traveling.

Speaker B: So I intentionally came to Ukraine before the attack happened, just four days to stay here and to participate because in 2014, when Ukraine was living through our previous revolution yes.

Speaker B: When we lost part of the eastern part, the Donbas and the Crimea was the next, I was a typical digital nomad spending my summer winter time in Mexico.

Speaker B: Sorry.

Speaker B: So I really feel bad being on a distance and feeling helpless and anxiously watching all the news.

Speaker B: So it was my clear intention to be in Ukraine and to participate in the local movements during the war.

Speaker B: So if you ask me now where I would like to be, I feel like it's the most right place at the moment.

Speaker B: Completely busy every day and staying side by side with other peers, with my colleagues and our entire nation.

Speaker B: So what I did yes, when it started, I must say I was kind of not prepared, but at least I knew exactly, what am I going to do if this happens?

Speaker B: Yes, and considering that our team was well organized before, like remotely, I mean, we were mostly focused on different consulting, online marketing topics, producing content.

Speaker B: However, like 95% of our clients and our market was the Ukrainian based so we decided to use our expertise simply on the global market.

Speaker B: I'm fluent in English as you can see, although I have an accent and I should improve in this case I.

Speaker A: Don'T know your English is excellent yeah, thank you.

Speaker B: It's still sufficient to spread the message through the entire world and since we have the proficiency, we have the tools we started to inform the global society about the events in Ukraine from the local perspective.

Speaker B: So I engaged also my entire international network of friends, colleagues, some of them like business partners and so on to do this first push about the event here and then it spread out.

Speaker B: So every day I spend approximately three to 4 hours on the interviews like this with different communities or like media channels or other organizations like from Taiwan, Japan, all the way to California which means not sleeping properly because of different time belts but that's like the least I can do.

Speaker B: Also we started a completely new YouTube channel in English language and I am personally visiting some hot spots that most people would never consider going there just to show the insight and to show the real truth what's happening?

Speaker B: So a couple of days ago I came back from the newly liberated territories in the north of Ukraine.

Speaker B: I'm talking about butcher, I'm talking about villages around.

Speaker B: I was present when dozen of dead bodies have been taken out from the ground.

Speaker B: I spoke to different local families who lost some of friends or relatives.

Speaker B: Like those are really terrifying stories, but it's important to tell it.

Speaker B: And in my approach, I'm not trying and our team is not trying to compete with the international media which simply work on the level of loud headlines and showing the same pictures, the same terrifying videos for thousands of times.

Speaker B: I would say I go a little bit deeper for those people who are hooked on the news topic and then they want to understand things more.

Speaker B: So even from the marketing perspective, I'm working on the middle level because first you try to catch the attention that's what the biggest news are making.

Speaker B: And then you build the relations.

Speaker B: So I am on the level of building relations and I understand that it's not going to take the same coverage as the loud headlines but that's not my war.

Speaker B: My job is to explain things, is to show the local perspective and to be this educator to show the real stuff from Ukraine and we are doing our best in this sense.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's a really amazing and valuable perspective because on our news screens in the rest of Europe and the world, we see coverage from the BBC, from ITN, from CNN, from the big global organizations who are doing a very specific job of bringing us, as you say, the headlines, trying to give us the big strategic picture of what's going on.

Speaker A: But I think the work you're doing on the ground of spending time with individuals, not for a three second sound bite, but really talking to them, drawing out stories from people who probably never would speak to the global media, but have such passionate, individual stories to share.

Speaker A: Do you feel that this is something that's shifted recently?

Speaker A: I wonder what your thoughts are about the role of individual citizen journalists and content creators like yourself in just telling the world what's going on.

Speaker A: Do you feel you can get places that the big news organizations can't?

Speaker A: Or what makes what you're doing so powerful and unique?

Speaker B: I would say because I've seen how the big news reporters are working.

Speaker B: Because I was living in the same hotel with BBC, CNN recently, and I've seen like I was, for example, I traveled to Cherenhill, which is the city all the way back in the north and we had to go there with the military convoy because it's still hard place to reach.

Speaker B: So they gathered all the journalists.

Speaker B: We sit in the car and then we just simply drive through the ruined bridges and so on.

Speaker B: I would say like this, the job of big news is to create the awareness of things and to push on the most sensitive parts of the soul and heart.

Speaker B: So for example, if like somebody in New York City is having a coffee and reading the news and he's seeing like this poor lady who is crying in front of her ruined house, he starts thinking like, oh, I should speak to my friends and maybe we should push our senator to do something.

Speaker B: So this is like the first step.

Speaker B: What they do on the massive scale in my case is like when I come, first of all, I represent the local people here, right?

Speaker B: So I have better understanding of the situation and they go way beyond a picture of a devastated village.

Speaker B: And what also I started to do is I speak to the local organizations and in my featuring materials, I do provide the picture.

Speaker B: I explain more where is it located, how it happened that the Russian troops went there.

Speaker B: And then I also create the exact call to action.

Speaker B: If you want to help those people, this is the organization.

Speaker B: Please contact them and provide support directly, right?

Speaker B: So international journalists, in order to create the most objective story and picture, they don't particularly point what people should do right now.

Speaker B: They just create the picture and the society is reconsidering it.

Speaker B: Since I'm local and since I'm not dependent on any news, I don't depend on any censorship.

Speaker B: I'm independent blogger.

Speaker B: Yes, I am free to do whatever I want.

Speaker B: And obviously I try to be as helpful as possible.

Speaker B: And if I am on the ground, if I see what's happening there and if I speak particular with some organizations there, like in Chernihib, and I see that they are repackaging stuff or what really they need, I tell I've been here.

Speaker B: I spoke to those people.

Speaker B: Here is the link, please help them.

Speaker B: That's the impact I'm trying to make at the moment.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker A: It's an incredible twist on content marketing to find yourself essentially documenting war crimes and talking to people at the very heart of what's going on.

Speaker A: And I agree.

Speaker A: Obviously the international news media can't give that call to action.

Speaker A: And actually, it's frustrating as a consumer of news in an independent country, often to get to the end of these pieces on the media and not know how to help, not know what to do next when you're so outraged and distressed.

Speaker A: So that's where you come in.

Speaker B: Another thing, what I would like to add is that if there are like, let's say not in house reporters, but the freelance reporters.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker B: So they come on the field, they take pictures, they speak to people, and then they have to create particular type of material that other media will buy from them.

Speaker B: So the media tell, okay, you got like only two minutes editing time, and you have to frame everything you can do in those two minutes.

Speaker B: So in those two minutes, they will show absolutely the worst.

Speaker B: And I understand because that's what clicks, that's what makes the views and that what makes the money to the media.

Speaker B: So since I'm not limited for these frameworks, I can go beyond this.

Speaker B: And when I was even was traveling with the journalists, I've seen like, look guys, the historical part of Chernibio, which is the ancient Ukrainian city, actually survived.

Speaker B: So there are churches that are like 900 years old.

Speaker B: They're still standing.

Speaker B: People go to pray there even though there is no food or their house will be ruined.

Speaker B: So they don't show that there is the hope for the life to be restored.

Speaker B: They show the devastated part of the town.

Speaker B: And naturally, I'm a very positive thinking person.

Speaker B: So even in this, for many people hopeless situation, I still see the churches functioning that the first shop have been opened in town.

Speaker B: Or I was in cave in the capital.

Speaker B: I went I found like a pub where I could have the IPA beer.

Speaker B: Those are very important news for me.

Speaker B: But nobody cares in the classic media world about this.

Speaker B: And I also try to present this.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker A: And it's not the story, is it?

Speaker A: It's not the big news headlines.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker B: It doesn't make a story.

Speaker A: But actually, as a consumer of that news media, it's awful to say that you just become inured to the bombed buildings and the endless night after night just seeing the devastation.

Speaker A: And when you bring that human perspective to it and show us the lone church still standing or the community coming together to do something, it actually renders the devastation coverage a lot more impactful.

Speaker A: So it's a shame that the big news media can't slow down and do the kind of coverage that you're doing, but maybe they couldn't anyway.

Speaker A: Maybe it needs somebody who speaks the local language natively, who can build those relationships with people who may feel they've been let down by other countries and don't want to talk to their media or feel that they've got a very specific message or angle to get across.

Speaker A: But what you're getting to is the really human stories and that's so powerful.

Speaker B: Yeah, I just try to be myself and I show and transfer what I think is important.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker B: I'm not trying to play the game of others.

Speaker B: There will be a lot who want to do this and that's absolutely fine.

Speaker B: There are different roles in this world.

Speaker B: I just do what I believe I'm good at and what makes sense to me.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's what's so powerful about this incredible democracy of content that we have now, isn't it?

Speaker A: That you are a part of.

Speaker A: I'd like to shift and talk a little bit about Estonia and your Eresidency there and how you feel that's helped you to carry on with the work that you're doing.

Speaker A: Has it made things easier financially or logistically or what's the impact of that?

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker B: So I'm the Erresident of Estonia since the last two years and my initial aim to subscribe yet to become the Eresident was to get access to the global payment system because Ukraine was still kind of apart from that.

Speaker B: So this particularly helped me to organize recurring revenue model in my business.

Speaker B: I did the combination of Solo, these international services, all the payments, it became like really well I couldn't reach that level of automation with Ukrainian services.

Speaker B: Yeah, right.

Speaker B: So that was working well.

Speaker B: And when the war happened, banking system in Ukraine started to struggle also I lost like 90% of my business in Ukraine.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker B: However, having the registered company in Estonia gave me access to be able to receive payments from other organizations abroad and I present my media activity now in many cases as the marketing service.

Speaker B: So if they like, they tell, okay Orris, I want to pay you somehow, how can I do this?

Speaker B: Yes, we organize the marketing services with them and that's one of the ways I can receive the money.

Speaker B: Secondly, what we are doing is that since I have this endorsement and I have a large audience, I cooperate with Eresidence directly.

Speaker B: So basically we had some contracts with them to promote Erresidency in Ukraine and when this war also happened, they didn't let us down.

Speaker B: They understand that Ukraine is very important market for them.

Speaker B: And I believe before the war Ukrainians were constituting the fourth largest nation within all the EResidents.

Speaker B: And I believe it's not the game of numbers, but if there would be the aim there requires probably like 1000 more irresidents and Ukraine will be the largest Irresident nation within the program right itself.

Speaker B: So I am promoting Irresidents here in Ukraine as I have personal experience with that followed the company they provided the option for Ukrainian companies with the free support, which is also the tremendous help.

Speaker B: And there is like a really powerful message behind this because since the local economy sinked in Ukraine, many people just lost the job or they lost the clients, they lost contracts and so on.

Speaker B: So having the company in Estonia gives Ukrainian consultants, like some media professionals, freelancers, advertisement specialists, access to the global market and that's the way how they can continue providing their services globally and also sustaining themselves, sustain their families and also be useful to Ukraine donating here or support other initiatives.

Speaker B: So I see the role of Irresidentcy for many Ukrainian freelancers and remote companies as the bridge to the rest of the rest of the corporate world and the much simplified process in order to make transactions, contracts, positioning and everything else because we cannot be let alone yes in this war.

Speaker B: And that's a really great tool to do it.

Speaker B: I tell this not in favor for Irresidentcy or our podcast.

Speaker B: I am a user of Irresidentcy, it helped me a lot and I'm transparently recommend this to everybody in Ukraine.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's really powerful testimony.

Speaker A: I'm wondering too about the role of the Eresidency status for displaced people.

Speaker A: Something about having that continuity, whether whether you have a business or not, simply knowing that you have that eresidency status that you could take with you if you have to leave Ukraine fast and you don't maybe even know where your final destination of settlement is going to be.

Speaker A: At least you have that transnational identity, documentation and existence of some kind and the possibility to take your business with you, to take your finances with you.

Speaker A: It's amazing.

Speaker B: First of all, it's important to understand that Eresidency has nothing to do with the immigration laws.

Speaker A: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Yes, let's clear that up.

Speaker B: Or like voting rights or other stuff.

Speaker B: So this is rather a corporate right, a corporate right to sign different contracts, conduct like open and closed companies virtually not with necessity to travel to this country.

Speaker B: So if the person is displaced with their residence from Ukraine to Poland or Turkey or any other country, they still can keep their company in Estonia and this doesn't make any obstacles for them, for the necessity to re register it, move it somehow and so on.

Speaker B: So that's something what is really important nowadays in the mobile world.

Speaker A: It's amazing.

Speaker A: And I'm sure that nobody in the residency department envisaged this particular use case when they set it up.

Speaker A: But there are millions of people displaced from Ukraine and spreading across Europe.

Speaker A: It's wonderful to think how many of those are taking Estonian businesses with them, Eresident businesses which can continue to support them and their families and send funds back into Ukraine as well.

Speaker B: I want to stress out at the moment, while we are talking, we reached the point when just think about this over 5 million Ukrainians left the country.

Speaker B: So we are talking about 5 million refugees within a little bit over a month.

Speaker B: Syria, which was the second largest humanitarian crisis, happened in the recent decade.

Speaker B: Like 7 million in ten years.

Speaker B: Here we are talking about 5 million in a little bit over a month.

Speaker A: Completely different scale.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's a huge scale, like five Estonias, sorry to do this comparison, but it's still a lot.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's very powerful.

Speaker A: I know that some of them have made it to Spain already.

Speaker A: There are new people settling in the community where I live, and often they're bringing digital skills with them, businesses.

Speaker A: And obviously the EU has made it possible for people to work and receive state support, I think it's for at least a year.

Speaker A: Eresidency department are still waiving the registration fees and solar waiving fees.

Speaker A: So it's a really powerful way to funnel that support, hopefully to the people who need it most.

Speaker A: And maybe some of those 5 million will come back.

Speaker A: I hope that they will.

Speaker A: Orris, what are your personal hopes and dreams and fears for the future?

Speaker A: You're closer to this than anyone I've spoken to.

Speaker A: What's going to happen in Ukraine, do you think?

Speaker A: And what's going to happen to all those people?

Speaker B: So at the moment we have war, right?

Speaker B: Which means like tanks, rockets, planes, hundreds of deaths every day.

Speaker B: So the number one is to finish the war.

Speaker B: Obviously there can be different conditions how it will be finished and there are different scenarios.

Speaker B: So the most favorable scenario for us is completely restoring the Ukrainian integrity with the borders before 2013.

Speaker B: That's what everybody is working on.

Speaker B: And it proved to be that Ukrainian army is having tremendous success.

Speaker B: The entire world didn't even expect us to resist so hard and to have such successes.

Speaker B: And as I told you, I just came a couple of days ago from the liberated areas in the north.

Speaker B: So we are talking about a huge area.

Speaker B: They simply pushed back the Russian army.

Speaker B: Now there are some fierce fighting in the south and east.

Speaker B: However, we are continuing to receive more and more heavy military equipment from the western countries.

Speaker B: And I believe it's possible to push back.

Speaker B: I'm not the military strategist, but now we don't need to prove our capabilities.

Speaker B: And eventually, when this world be finished, ukraine will appear to be one of the strongest military nations in the world because not a single NATO country has such valuable experience as Ukrainian army has.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker B: If you think about this, it was always like a theory, like, this is now the real practice.

Speaker B: We are happening.

Speaker B: Also today I read on the news that the first part of the application to join the European Union have been filled by the Ukrainian government.

Speaker B: Also it has been announced that Ukraine will be its welcome in the European Union.

Speaker B: The President of the European Commission visited Ukraine like a week ago.

Speaker B: And we start receiving more and more guests as the top leaders from other European countries.

Speaker B: So the outcome of the war, in my opinion, should be restoring the integrity of Ukraine, joining the European Union, union joining NATO, obviously.

Speaker B: And this will become eventually the integral part of the entire civilized world and the European Community.

Speaker B: And I think nobody is standing for the core values that European Union was built as Ukrainians at the moment.

Speaker B: So we really deserve this.

Speaker B: Which means that once we will be back all together in a single community, ukraine will probably enjoy a tremendous economic growth because a lot of funds will be sent to the restoration of our country.

Speaker B: It's a huge market, it's a huge country with a lot of population.

Speaker B: So it means like we will be simply merging with the rest of European society.

Speaker B: And from the historical point of view, if we are thinking in terms of centuries, not months, how we are thinking now, it's a positive process.

Speaker B: That's what I realize.

Speaker B: The only problem here is that the price is very high to get there but that's probably the price we have to pay.

Speaker A: Yeah, well yes, we can sincerely hope that that price doesn't get too far out of hand and that what we've seen demonstrated through your coverage and the other world media of the Ukrainian people's strength and resilience encountering.

Speaker A: This is clearly what's going to see you through.

Speaker A: What about yourself and your organization?

Speaker A: Or do you see yourself going back to the more traditional forms of online marketing or do you think you'll stay in this kind of documentary making and storytelling role as the exciting future of Ukraine unfolds?

Speaker B: Well yeah, also I have some plans what to do and I would say that the position I'm taking now is coinciding with my own professional growth and to do what personally I feel is important and also which is contributing to the much bigger general picture.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker B: So first of all, I'm not sure how will the internal market work because like 5 million Ukrainians left and probably this is like a push to all the entrepreneurs in Ukraine enter the global market which is also Estonia.

Speaker B: There is not really a big market in Estonia itself.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker B: Ukraine is still a much bigger country but now this is the chance for local entrepreneurs to become much more effective and to become much more open minded in terms of global market in general because before the war, Ukraine had like 44 million people which is a huge market on itself.

Speaker B: So there was not really a need to go there even though we know many successful global companies from Ukraine.

Speaker B: So I see that I will be transferring my expertise to the global market in terms of, like you asked me in the very beginning, the freedompreneur.

Speaker B: And that's like the topic and the question that was always somewhere deep in my heart.

Speaker B: I'm talking about entrepreneurship, like being able to create something with your skills, with your knowledge.

Speaker B: I'm talking about freedom, geographical freedom of expression, freedom of creativity.

Speaker B: And it was always somewhere there.

Speaker B: I always thought about the combination of wars, free entrepreneurship, freedompreneurship and so on.

Speaker B: And when this war happened and what we are fighting now for is freedom, right?

Speaker B: I see that I know how to put the dots together in order to make a project which will be entrepreneurial, which will be helping people to become more free in their life, business expression and other activities which will first of all make an impact in Ukraine but also that will be globally potential what I'm talking here is that after we are done with Ukraine after we do the restoration this will be scalable towards other developing nations helping them to become more free in terms of money and in terms of their personal values as well.

Speaker B: The way to do it as I see it is the platform where local people in those countries, in developing countries here we are talking about in Ukraine they get some skills to get a remote job like different types of remote jobs the entry level there will be get the English language until at least upper intermediate level so further learn English.

Speaker B: Then they get the necessary skill and then they get matched with the global employers.

Speaker B: And that part also I can cover because I have a large network of friends among online entrepreneurs and other digital nomads who?

Speaker B: Are willing to help.

Speaker B: So I'm pretty sure this will hopefully will be successful which will simply create value for both sides and the society in general and that project which is scalable beyond Ukraine.

Speaker B: So I kind of have this vision at the moment.

Speaker B: And on the second month of the war, once all the basic processes like life saving parts are covered yes.

Speaker B: We are putting our team together, developing this idea.

Speaker B: So I think you will hear more about this soon.

Speaker B: Let's see how it works.

Speaker A: That's fantastic.

Speaker B: And Irresidentcy here will also be beneficial because most of the documenting part will be going through my Estonian company.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker A: And that's what's going to give people access.

Speaker A: To that global market as they rebuild locally.

Speaker A: I think that's an incredibly powerful and really inspiring vision, particularly coming at the moment when clearly that you're still very much in the heart of the conflict.

Speaker A: It's wonderful to have.

Speaker A: That clear vision to look forward to for coming out of the other side of it.

Speaker A: I'm certainly feeling very inspired by this conversation.

Speaker A: Anyway.

Speaker A: And we're not CNN or the BBC, so we're going to have a call to action.

Speaker A: Orris, what's the best way for people to support you, to follow you and to keep up with your amazing work?

Speaker B: So first of all, you have to understand guys, that this is a war and especially at the war against Russia where the only language they understand is brutal power the military strength is the decisive level, right?

Speaker B: No.

Speaker B: Entrepreneurship, no social standards will work if Russia will win this war.

Speaker B: So the priority number one is army.

Speaker B: So we are going to provide links yes to this podcast and the link number one will be simply support our army which means donate financially to the army so the army can buy all the heavy equipment necessary to win the war on itself.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker B: Number two, I would encourage you to support directly me and my team because since I told you we lost like 90% of the business and my job as the leader of the team is first of all to keep the things up and running.

Speaker B: My members of my remote team, they live in different parts of the country.

Speaker B: One girl fled abroad and I still didn't cut their payments since the day one of the war.

Speaker B: So these funds are also very it's.

Speaker A: Amazing how many people?

Speaker B: Five people.

Speaker A: Five people?

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Okay, so you need to fundraise to just keep them absolutely paying their bills and buying food so we do that.

Speaker B: And since we don't make direct sales directly as we did before yes.

Speaker B: So this serve as the fund to sustain the company on itself and that we're using to create and promote the media materials that we are working to spread the word.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker B: And I see this media materials that we are doing as the multiplier to make the impact because we talk about other organizations in Ukraine and make the direct connections to them.

Speaker B: So if you work through the materials just if you feel that among those materials I'm producing there are some organizations that resonate to you that maybe are closer to what you feel, consider directly donating to them as well yes and.

Speaker A: Forming those connections and social media and just seeing what's going on in the ground in Ukraine.

Speaker A: We will include all the links to all of your social channels in the show notes for this episode.

Speaker A: Are there any for anybody who's just listening and doesn't have access to the show notes?

Speaker A: What should people search for you?

Speaker A: What's the main channels that you're active on?

Speaker B: That's pretty easy, simply search my name.

Speaker B: Orest zoop like Aurist, like forest without F, easy to remember and Zoop Z-U-B yes.

Speaker B: So I'm present in Instagram, Facebook and YouTube everywhere.

Speaker B: I do an English language so Instagram, private Facebook and newly formed YouTube channel is in English language also I have my former channels in Ukrainian but those like different messaging to our local audience in Ukraine so or a zoop google me very easy, you'll find it quickly brilliant.

Speaker A: There's only one or a soup and we'll put all those links into the notes so that you can click straight through and support this vital work in whatever way you feel the most appropriate.

Speaker A: Now in the meantime, then it only remains for me to thank you or as for taking the time to talk to the Futurist freelance today and sharing the information about the vital work that you're doing.

Speaker A: And on behalf of everyone connected with this show, we just want to wish that you stay safe and productive and active and I hope that at some point we'll be able to get you on later in the year to update us and hopefully the situation will be starting to resolve itself in some concrete direction.

Speaker A: I think what you're planning to do after the war is also very exciting and powerful and I really hope to be telling that story sometime in the future.

Speaker A: For now, though, just thank you very much.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker B: So thanks for having me and looking forward to how things developed and let's see, hopefully we'll meet again.

Speaker A: Sounds good.

Speaker A: You've been listening to The Futurist freelance podcast brought to you by Solar IO, who offer compliance, taxation, invoicing and admin solutions for fiercely independent solopreneurs across the globe.

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