Lidiya Kesarovska is a blogger, course creator, and the founder of Let’s Reach Success where she helps people build a value-driven digital product business so they can become financially free and serve their purpose.
She’s been named one of the top 10 course creators and experts to watch in 2021 by Yahoo! Finance, been featured on TIME magazine, Thrive Global, Disrupt Magazine, and more.
With the content on her blog and podcast and inside her business courses, she teaches how to ditch your limiting beliefs, start a business on your own terms, grow it strategically, and use that income to live your biggest, boldest life!
For more details, visit their website here.
Here we sit down with Lidiya, to know a bit more about her journey as a course creator, blog expert, and business mentor.
Q. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
Lidiya: My guiding principles have always been Freedom and Independence. I craved these in any shape or form, including location independence, creative freedom, time freedom, emotional freedom, financial independence, etc. It took many years to get there (the inner work happened first before my reality transformed) but it was absolutely worth is as now I have all these thanks to my online business.
Q. How did you get started?
Lidiya: I knew I wanted to do something I’m passionate about, online (even though I wasn’t tech-savvy), in English (even though it wasn’t my native language), and it had to provide value to others. Took me quite some time to figure that out. I knew I loved writing and had the desire to share my message, so I assumed writing itself was my passion. After reading Gary Vee’s book ‘Crush It’ 10 years ago, though, it hit me that personal development has always been my passion, and writing was just the best way to express myself. So there we go – what I needed to do was enter the self-help industry and write about anything related to mindset, success, discipline, etc. It first started with a hobby blog until I started gaining some attention, found immense joy in this activity, and learned more about the blogging world. Then I decided to earn an income online by writing the same kind of articles but for others, so I became a freelance writer. That was my first side hustle. Later on, I started treating the blog as a business and monetized it in different ways. That same blog I started back in 2013 – Let’s Reach Success https://letsreachsuccess.com/ – later led to $5K months as a full-time blogger, getting 1 million page views in 1 year, giving me all the meaning and discipline I was seeking in life, motivating me to learn the basics of business, and also allowing me to move to another country and live life on my terms. What’s even more important, growing the blogging business allowed me to replace freelancing as it wasn’t what I was meant for. I haven’t worked with clients in years and literally forgot what it’s like, so now I help people do the same – start a blog and turn it into a full-time business. The next stage of my journey, which is happening in the last 2 years, is being a course creator. My focus is now on my programs, serving my students, launching, selling, and providing deep transformations inside my courses.
Q. What was your biggest startup challenge? What steps did you take to overcome it? What did you learn?
Lidiya: Big challenges included the lack of any knowledge in my industry or the digital world, connections, prior experience, not having anyone in my life doing the same, figuring out how to do business between different countries and in different currencies, staying productive and motivated, managing my money, etc. But none of that compares to the first and most important challenge I ever faced – believing that something I’ve never done before was absolutely possible. I’d never made money online before, so pushing myself to keep going and pitch freelance clients until someone gave me a chance was a big deal. Then, it was a matter of replicating the process. Earning in one way online made me believe it’s possible to not just increase that income, but make money in other ways too. Later, I started dreaming bigger and my goal became to replace freelancing with full-time blogging. Slowly over time, I adjusted every aspect of my work, life and mindset so it can fit my idea of a good lifestyle. All this is a skill – the skill of re-framing your limiting beliefs and betting on yourself every single day, regardless of how many times you fail, what others say, where you come from, or your educational background. You can do, be and have anything. Once you develop that skill, the world is yours because you’ll only uplevel your life, year after year.
Q. What is the Most Memorable Thing You’ve Done Since you Started your Business?
Lidiya: That would probably be relocating to my dream destination (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and starting a new life there (still here and grateful every day, 5 years later!) And traveling to Thailand a few months after the move, which was my first taste of the digital nomad lifestyle. That was freedom in its purest form.
Q. What is one book you recommend, and why?
Lidiya: It Didn’t Start with You How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle. Because we all carry our traumas, whether we realize it or not, and they are the keys to our biggest breakthroughs in life. While it might be super uncomfortable to dig deeper, analyze everything about your childhood, face the darkest corners of your mind, and see the pain your loved ones have been carrying for generations – it’s your mission to evolve as a soul and healing is the way to go. On the other side of this lie abundance, expansion, love and your wildest dreams.
Q. What are your top 3 favourite online apps, tools, or resources and what do you love about them?
- ConvertKit is the email marketing provider I rely on. My email list is one of my biggest assets and the powerful features of that tool help me grow and manage it.
- Canva is something I use almost daily these days and it helped me take my branding to the next level. I design my social media graphics there, any promo material, course content, lead magnets, workbooks, and so much more.
- Teachable is the course platform that allows me to turn my knowledge into powerful self-paced courses, bundle my products, sell them, manage my students, handle payments, have affiliates, and more. I’m using it ALL the time.
Q. In terms of legacy, what is the mark you’d like to leave on the world?
Lidiya: One of the amazing things about being a writer and a blogger is that my content will live long after me. Most of it is on personal development as that’s what I was covering on Let’s Reach Success in the first years before I started teaching business. This together with my podcast and all the other free content I’ve released can be found by anyone at any moment and that’s pretty cool. Other than that, I like to lead by example. I keep overcoming challenges, creating a bigger vision, and sticking to it until it’s achieved. I also document my journey and people like seeing that something they want is within reach. That itself makes the world better as more people are willing to bet on themselves and live a bolder life.
Q. In one sentence, what’s the best advice you’d give to someone just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey?
Lidiya: Money is the by-product of the passion, time, thought and energy you put into a project you deeply care about. The growth of your business is also directly related to your personal and spiritual growth. My point here is – don’t go in it for the money and don’t be attached to the end result. That itself will limit you. Once you accept business as something you’re devoting your life to, regardless of which business idea works and how long you’ll wait till then, you’re opening yourself to limitless opportunities, including a 6- or 7-figure income down the road.
To keep up to date with Lidiya and her journey, connect with her on Instagram and Pinterest.