Hear from the Big Idea Lab clients
I found working with Marina invaluable.
Marina has WITHOUT A DOUBT been an instrumental part in the growth of my business. She works on the blind spots that stand in the way of me reaching my full potential. No matter how complicated the issue, be it personal or professional, she provides insight that turns into measurable results. I would not be where I am without her and look forward to working with her for many years to come!
Gary Riger
Founder at Bklyn Co.
This was my 3rd or 4th group coaching round, and I love how there are always improvements. With the pandemic, the whole program was done over zoom, which worked very well! An extraordinary addition is the weekly max meditation, which came at perfect timing for me. I loved that we all shared a google sheet to list our three focus areas, tasks related, and our accomplishments and struggles.
Most of all, I have learned from Marina that it is essential to acknowledge, celebrate, and share your successes, no matter how small they are! I enjoyed the diverse group and the possibility of learning from each other and sharing our challenges. To know that you are not the only one that struggles with certain things/tasks is powerful. Looking forward to the next session!
Kathrin Schmidiger Torres
Founder & Owner at Piamundo, Jersey City, NJ, USA
Marina is that motivating voice you wish you've always had in your head telling you to get it done in a way that doesn't stress you out.
Marina is a fantastic coach and even better human being. She listens carefully to everything you say, and intuitively helps surface what’s most important to you and why. I found working with her invaluable. She helped me gain visibility and clarity, translate it into an actionable plan, and most importantly, helped motivate me to get it done. From years of working with her, I can tell you that she has your best interest at heart and will guide you from that perspective towards meaningful outcomes.
Prasanth Nair
Marina is that motivating voice you wish you’ve always had in your head telling you to get it done in a way that doesn’t stress you out. She’s not only a great listener, but intuitively guides you in the right direction with a personalized plan-that even anxious writer artist comedian people can execute. I’m so happy to call Marina my coach and my friend. I’ve accomplished so much in such a short time and have never felt more balanced. Best money I’ve spent on myself and my work.
Mindy Raf
This is what sets Marina apart from other coaches. She doesn't just help you take action. She helps you take inspired action that aligns with who you are.
I started working with Marina almost 3 years ago and to say she changed my life is putting it mildly. When I met her I was at a crossroad. I had quit my day job and didn’t know what I wanted to do next. I’ve been working in the whiskey industry for several years and to me it is an art form. But I was aching to have something of my own. Something built by me. Something that combined my passion for whiskey, for storytelling and art.
From this my company that I started three years ago was born and that combines all of these passions in a way I could not have imagined 3 years ago. Every year things evolve magically and naturally. It’s so interesting how things have a way of working out.
With Marina, we broke down my goals/dreams in a way that made them seem achievable. Step by step I get closer to my path of purpose. This is what sets Marina apart from other coaches. She doesn’t just help you take action. She helps you take inspired action that aligns with who you are. So set up a meeting with her. And you just might learn a thing or two about yourself. She just might change your life too.
Rachna Hukmani
I can’t possibly recommend her highly enough!
Marina Romashko has had an indelible impact on my life. I’ve worked with other coaches — including master-certified coaches as well as former senior executives at Fortune 500 companies — and despite all of that, Marina is the first coach who I’ve truly felt connected to.
She almost immediately makes you feel as though she’s on your team, as if your projects are her projects. She has perfect timing during meetings, and excellent intuition, making it so you always feel as though you are both in control and being guided. Combine all of this with a project management background and what you end up with are pure results.
In less than a year we’ve overcome limitations that I struggled with for a decade, and made incredible progress on all of my ventures. I can’t possibly recommend her highly enough!
Michael Trollan
Marina understands me at a deeper level than anyone I have ever worked with in the past — taking in to consideration my strengths, weaknesses and fears before recommending a course of action.
I first started working with Marina in July 2009. I still lived in New York full-time, I was ‘trying’ to be an actor and one of my deepest desires was to be able to spend 6 months of the year in India with my family – my dreams were big. Naturally I had no idea what I was doing, I had no plan — I was running from audition to audition, class to class, and agent to agent, and naturally I was frustrated with the results. I wanted to act and write screenplays and live in India, but it seemed like it wasn’t ever going to happen.
Then I met Marina. She helped me figure out exactly what I needed to do. First, she correctly diagnosed my fear of failure – I was so afraid of not ‘making it’ that I wasn’t really trying very hard. Marina forced me to start small. I had to come up with achievable goals and put a schedule together so I could achieve them. Then I had to simply sit down and do the work. We started with a blog once in three weeks, moved to a full-length one-woman show within a year, then a second show two years later, then I moved to India, wrote my first book, started a bi-monthly column with The Times of India and a weekly radio show in Mumbai.
Marina also pushed me to keep up with Shugs&Fats – a web series I co-created out of New York. I was flying to New York, shooting through the jet lag, and then flying back home. Not to brag too much (!), but the series won a Gotham Award and was screened at TriBeCa Film Festival. What!
So yea – whenever I am tired and want to give anything up – be it my blog, or a show or my web series – I call Marina who then forces me to re-look at my schedule. She never lets me be a baby. I always have to find the time to do the work, and she always holds me accountable.
What I am most grateful for is that Marina thinks about my career every day. She comes up with ideas for how I can move forward, what the next steps should be, who I should be trying to contact. She understands me at a deeper level than anyone I have ever worked with in the past — taking in to consideration my strengths, weaknesses and fears before recommending a course of action.
Everyone should be as lucky as I was — run, don’t walk, to Marina. Before she came along, I was ‘trying’ a lot of different things – now I am doing them. And before I do anything, I simply ask, ‘WTF would Marina do?’
Radhika Vaz
Within a very short amount of time, I was making progress in my business and also in creating new projects that I had assumed would take much longer to begin.
You might be like me… someone who is busy and gets things accomplished and so you don’t think you’d need someone like Marina helping you, no need for an idea coach. If you are, then you’re also like me in that you’re wrong. I kid you not, after one session with her, I realized how much I did need to work with her — I saw how many ideas and tasks I had been ’planning to do’ but in reality I was not getting to. Despite my best intentions, there was a world of productivity and accomplishment that I was not coming anywhere near enough.
Sitting across from Marina at our first meeting showed me also how much help I needed in thinking concretely about what steps are required to get to where I wanted to go, and how to think about everything in efficient and immediate ways. Within a very short amount of time, I was making progress in my business (my improv school) and also in creating new projects that I had assumed would take much longer to begin.
Why I always refer people to Marina is because she has a very unique blend of many talents you don’t find in someone with her job title. She is extremely focused and yet also flexible and very open. She is an extraordinary listener and can pick up on things that I haven’t realized I’ve said, which helps her figure out how best to keep us moving forward. She can also pick up on my own hesitations, fears or passions and excitements better than I can! And all of that data is extremely useful.
Lastly, she has a magical way of knowing what doable next steps are at the end of each session, and knowing what steps are too big to take as well, so she’s always helping you be successful in whatever you take on.
Holly Mandel
If you’re on the fence. Work with Marina. If you wanna get shit done. Work with Marina. If you have raging ADD. Work with Marina. It’s the best investment you’ll ever make in yourself, your talent, and your idea.
I’ve always been an idea-person, generating hundreds of ideas a week. Unfortunately, while my mind is buzzing 1000 miles a minute, my body doesn’t want to actually sit down and start executing my projects from start (and here’s the key word here) to finish.
I started writing my comedic novel, Unintentionally Celibate, in 2010. It was taking me forever to write and rewrite and edit. I kept getting stuck in the process. Until I hired Marina Romashko. Six months after I hired her, my book was for sale. She continually helps me organize and execute my ideas. My productivity since I started working with her has more than tripled.
People often ask me, “How can you afford a coach?” I often respond, “How can I afford not to?” Marina is an amazing coach, friend, and even occasionally my therapist. She has a brilliant way of adapting to the individual needs of her clients. She has been such a blessing in my life and has helped me accomplish some of my largest goals.
If you’re on the fence. Work with Marina. If you wanna get shit done. Work with Marina. If you have raging ADD. Work with Marina. It’s the best investment you’ll ever make in yourself, your talent, and your idea.
Becky Alexander
Before I do anything, I simply ask, ‘WTF would Marina do?’
When we set out to accomplish big, significant, and inspiring goals in our life, I have found it’s nearly impossible to make this journey on your own. Even though we may feel in our hearts and minds that it’s possible to accomplish something.
Often, in order to access new capacities in ourselves, we need not only a partner to reflect our ideas back to us, but an accountability structure that will hold the right amount of tension that pushes us ever so gently to unlock these deeper capacities.
Marina has been and continues to be that partner with me and my work. Thank you!
Dr. Jason Di Tullio
Most important of all, Marina helped me to overcome the fear of being a business owner and artist at the same time.
Working together with Marina helped to me believe that Project Management can be applied to creative people without restraining innovative flow.
When I started working with Marina back in August 2009 I had a couple of ideas. I came from an Advertising background, I taught and performed Improv, and photography and fashion were my passions. Based on my interests, skills and personality type Marina helped me develop a photography product — Mis’enscene — that combined all the things I love to do. As I continued with my journey, Marina helped me discover new opportunities, and today I have a production company and several other projects in the pipeline.
Working with Marina has helped me become goal and action oriented. Her ability to break down a big idea in to workable components helped me gradually build confidence in my own ideas and abilities. She is an extremely intuitive person, which is why she is able to gently move an idea forward without you even knowing it!
What sets her apart is that she is always there to recognize my accomplishments and help me to confront my weaknesses. Most important of all, Marina helped me to overcome the fear of being a business owner and artist at the same time.
Katarina Kojic
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