By: Unstoppable Branding Agency
Alena Uzhnyeva, founder of Alonafish OU and PT Like Production Center, recently achieved a significant personal milestone by ascending Mount Kilimanjaro. Her journey to the summit of Africa’s highest peak mirrors her path in life and business, where embracing opportunities beyond her comfort zone and trusting her inner wisdom have been key to her extraordinary success.
From Corporate Leader to Visionary Entrepreneur
Alena’s entrepreneurial journey began after a successful corporate career in Ukraine, where she helped to scale a small fish company. Despite achieving conventional success, she felt depleted, burnt out, and disconnected from her authentic self. Everything changed when she attended her first transformational retreat, where she discovered a new approach to leadership—one that prioritized the alignment of her heart, mind, and body. With renewed vitality and purpose, she boldly quit her corporate job and started her own company.
Alena founded Alonafish OU in Estonia, building it from the ground up on her own. She attributes her success to leading with authenticity, self-trust, and alignment. “We are human beings, not human doings,” she often says, emphasizing that material success is only one part of the equation. For Alena, true fulfillment comes from embracing intuition and surrendering to the unknown, trusting in the flow of opportunity without fear of failure. This approach has been the gateway to her extraordinary achievements, allowing her to create effortlessly from her authentic expression in both her personal and professional life.
The Kilimanjaro Challenge: A Metaphor for Business Success
Alena’s recent ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro beautifully mirrors the qualities that have nurtured her business success. Over seven days, she embarked on a transformative journey, covering 64 kilometers and ascending nearly 6,000 meters. Rather than a grueling test of endurance, Alena found the experience to be a profound opportunity for reflection and personal growth.
Receiving support and guidance from wise teachers before the hike, Alena learned to embrace a meditative approach to the climb. “I discovered the power of mindful breathing and effortless movement,” she shares. “Most of the time, it felt like a moving meditation, allowing me to tap into a wellspring of insights and inner wisdom.”
However, the night ascent to the summit proved to be a particularly powerful and life-shifting experience—a seven-hour night climb in freezing temperatures. “As we climbed through the darkness, all I could see were the shoes of the guide in front of me,” Alena recalls. “I focused on my intense presence and breathing as people around me collapsed. I kept repeating, ‘One more breath, one more step.’ In those moments, I connected deeply with my inner strength and the beauty of the present.”
This experience is more than a personal achievement; it’s a powerful metaphor for how Alena approaches business. Just as she placed one foot in front of the other on the mountain, she has taken bold steps in her entrepreneurial journey, venturing into the unknown with trust and resilience. This willingness to let go of fear, dive into the unknown, and trust that the results will happen has been instrumental in scaling her companies.
Photo Courtesy: Matthew Costello
The Power of Trusting Your Intuition in Business
Kilimanjaro reinforced Alena’s belief that true success, both personally and in business, comes from releasing the need for control, trusting in intuition, and leading with authenticity. This philosophy has empowered her teams to excel in an environment of mutual trust and respect. Furthermore, it has afforded Alena the freedom to travel the world with her family and pursue her passions while her businesses thrive. In the past two years, she’s visited 17 countries.
Alena’s commitment to authentic leadership and creating a life filled with freedom and passion is exactly what led her to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. She stopped waiting for the elusive “someday” to tackle her bucket-list dreams. Her message to other entrepreneurs is clear: if you had only one day left to live, what would you do today? This refusal to procrastinate on her dreams fuels her belief that she can truly have it all. She doesn’t need to sacrifice her personal life to grow her businesses, nor does she need to sacrifice business success to thrive personally. This mentality, determination, and resolve were key to her successful ascent of the mountain.
Passion and Adventure: The Heart of I Am Creation Retreats
Adventure is not just a value for Alena; it’s the driving force behind her success with Alonafish OU and the creation of her global retreats business, PT Like Production Center, based in Bali. Through her I Am Creation Retreats, Alena hosts transformational events designed to help business leaders unlock their potential, discover deeper purpose, and achieve lasting fulfillment.
These retreats provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to learn from world-class facilitators, embrace authentic leadership, and cultivate a powerful alignment of self-trust, mind-heart-body coherence, and intuitive action.
Leading with Authenticity and Courage
Alena Uzhnyeva’s ascent of Kilimanjaro captures the essence of her leadership style—authentic, courageous, and deeply connected to her true self. For Alena, leadership transcends the pursuit of goals; it’s about leading with integrity, empowering others, and remaining steadfast in one’s authentic expression. This approach has not only driven her business success but has also created a ripple effect of empowerment and transformation in those she guides and inspires.
As Alena continues to lead global retreats and share her story, her Kilimanjaro experience serves as a powerful reminder that the greatest opportunities arise when we step outside our comfort zones, trust in ourselves and our teams, and embrace the bold, courageous steps that lead to true fulfillment.
Published by: Khy Talara
