When Ulyana Wojan moved from Ukraine to the United States in 2014 with $1,000 in her pocket, she brought a master’s degree, experience in the travel industry, and the determination to rebuild her life.
Today the Illinois-based entrepreneur, mentor, speaker, and business coach leads an international travel business team of more than 1,500 people. She also works in immigration services in Illinois, co-founded a logistics company, and has built an Instagram audience of more than 105,000 followers, drawn largely from the Ukrainian community in the United States.
Behind those accomplishments is a mission shaped by her own experience. Ulyana wants to help ordinary people live extraordinary lives.
An entrepreneurial spirit, built early
Ulyana grew up in a working-class family in Ukraine. She watched her parents cross into Poland to sell goods so that she and her sister could have more opportunities.
By fifth grade she was selling candy at school. As a teenager she kept going, selling cosmetics.
She later earned a master’s degree in travel management and worked her way up to managing a European travel department. Professional progress came alongside unexpected financial responsibilities. While living in Ukraine, she found herself carrying a mortgage and a car loan she had never expected to pay alone.
She had to find a way forward. That experience hardened her determination to become financially independent.
Rebuilding her life in America
Moving to the United States meant starting again.
Despite her education and professional experience, Ulyana recalls being told that her English was not good enough and that her qualifications would not open the doors she expected. She says she lost her first job after applying for another position that paid 25 cents more per hour.
She kept looking for ways to put her experience and ambition to work. After becoming a mother, that search took on a personal purpose.
Following years of difficulty having a child, she promised herself she would be fully present for her daughter. That meant school events, milestones, and the ordinary days in between.
She began exploring different businesses, looking for a path that would let her contribute financially while keeping that promise.
A modest goal and an unexpected turning point
The opportunity that became Ulyana’s focus came from a stranger on Facebook.
Her first answer was a firm no. She was skeptical and worried it might be a scam. For a month she watched the person who had reached out before contacting them and asking to join.
In May 2020 she began building her travel business through InteleTravel and PlanNet Marketing. Her goal was small at the start. She wanted to earn an extra couple of hundred dollars online for her household while caring for her young daughter.
As she learned more, she began to see possibilities beyond that original goal. The turning point came when she started treating the work as a serious business rather than a hobby.
Ulyana reports that within two years of making that shift, she reached the $100,000 income milestone and earned Sapphire recognition as a six-figure income earner within the company. She built the travel business part time, alongside her work in immigration services and logistics.
Her earnings and financial milestones reflect her individual experience. Results vary, are not guaranteed, and should not be understood as typical outcomes or as a prediction of what others will achieve.
In October 2025 her team reached 1,500 people. Today she supports team members across multiple countries as they build their own businesses.
Growing into leadership and helping others grow
With roughly 16 years in the travel industry, Ulyana brings both professional knowledge and lived experience to her coaching.
Her focus is on building a real business. That means developing relationships, becoming a leader, working through fear, and helping others grow alongside you. She pushes people to build trust, stay consistent, and take responsibility for their own development.
Just as important to her is the community she wants people to find along the way. She describes it as a place where people feel valued regardless of their background, education, body size, or level of English.
The personal growth has been the part she did not anticipate. Ulyana has learned to speak publicly in English, lead an international team, and step into roles she once could not picture for herself.
She now speaks at company events, including alongside the founder and CEO. Those moments land differently for someone who was once told her English would cap her career.
She still gets nervous. Her English is still imperfect. She keeps sharing what she has learned anyway.
Helping her family begin again
In 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ulyana did everything she could to bring her sister and nephew to the United States.
Having rebuilt her own life in America, she found herself helping them start from zero. She still feels a deep responsibility toward them as they establish their lives here.
Her journey has included serious loss. Within the first two years of starting her travel business, she lost both of her parents. She describes her team during that period as a second family.
Those experiences shaped how she leads. Every person arrives carrying responsibilities, challenges, and hopes that are not visible from the outside. For Ulyana, supporting someone’s growth starts with recognizing the life behind their business goals.
Building the life she envisioned
In 2025 Ulyana paid off the mortgage on her Illinois home, a loan that otherwise had roughly 25 years left to run. She credits her travel business earnings with making that milestone possible.
Just as meaningful to her is the promise she kept to be a present parent. Her work has given her more flexibility to support her family and make deliberate choices about what comes next.
Ulyana says she feels grateful to America for the opportunities she has found. She is also grateful that she reconsidered a message from a stranger six years ago.
That still shapes her message to other people. Opportunities are easy to dismiss when they first appear and easy to appreciate later, once they have become part of someone else’s story. She encourages people to stay curious, ask questions, and take time to understand what something could mean for them.
Through Instagram she shares her experience with an audience that recognizes the realities of immigration, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and building a life in a new country.
A mission that is still unfolding
Ulyana sees what she has built as a foundation rather than a finish line. She wants to reach more people, develop more leaders, and leave lasting change behind her.
Her mission is to become part of other people’s stories. That might mean helping someone gain confidence, learn a skill, recognize a possibility, or find the support to take one meaningful step.
She is drawn in particular to people like herself. People carrying family responsibilities, starting with limited resources, wondering whether a different future is available to them.
Her own experience gives her reason to believe that limited English, little money, and no support network do not have to decide the direction of an entire life. She has faced those barriers and kept building.
She has changed the direction of her own story. Now she wants her work to leave a mark on other people’s. After six years of building, Ulyana feels she is only getting started.
Connect with Ulyana Wojan
Ulyana Wojan is an independent travel agent with InteleTravel and an independent representative with PlanNet Marketing. Find her on Instagram, on Facebook, and at travelwealthformula.com.
Disclaimer: Testimonials in this article reflect personal experiences and aren’t guaranteed. Results vary based on effort, experience, and commitment.
