1. Please introduce your business and share your role. 

I’m Lidiya Kesarovska, the founder of Let’s Reach Success, where I help people build an abundant, value-driven business so they can live their best lives and become bold and unapologetic. 

I’m a blogger, author, course creator, and business mentor with more than 7 years of experience, and have 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. 

2. How did you prepare for, and go about your launch? 

There was no official launch of the blog (which was created 10 years ago) and that’s one of the things I love about the blogging business model the most. You can start it as a hobby, there’s no investment other than the monthly hosting fee, and from then on you can publish content, find your voice, grow your audience in different ways, test different monetization methods, and see what gives results, then do more of it.

It took some time till the blog took off. Meanwhile, I was earning through freelance writing. At some point, I added passive income streams thanks to the blog, then my main goal became being a full-time blogger. That was achieved some time after that and I’ve never looked back. You can see my detailed blog income reports here.

3. Since launching, what types of marketing campaigns and designs have worked best to attract and retain customers?

To attract visitors to the blog (the traffic reached 1 million pageviews per year at some point), I mostly relied on SEO. That means creating valuable content that was also optimized for keyword phrases. Over the years, my site gained authority and search engines began trusting it, which led to better rankings and more traffic. That then grew the blog income.

Blog readers can then become email subscribers and the email list is where I build relationships with them and provide even more value. Eventually, they can decide to invest in my programs, which is the best way to work together.

As for my course business, attracting paying customers is no easy job. Marketing and sales are something I’m still learning about. I’ve tested different launch processes and some have worked, others haven’t. 

There are a million factors when it comes to creating magnetic offers and nailing all the elements usually leads to many sales and happy customers that refer more people to your business. But to get there, it can take a lot of experimentation.

4. What have been the most influential brands for your business? Whose branding and marketing do you aspire to and why?

I’m inspired by people and the business they’ve created and the engaged audience they have. These are my mentors and I invest in their programs and learn from them. But there’s no one I want to be exactly like.

I believe we are all unique and that’s our biggest asset when it comes to branding. Infusing your unique energy into your content can attract the people who will find your work life-changing. 

Being your most authentic self is something you owe to your audience. Sharing your journey is part of leaving a legacy and doing work that matters. Copying someone else never works, and is not sustainable. It can’t make you satisfied with your business. But of course, we can always use other businesses and brands for inspiration.

5. What are your favorite marketing platforms/tools?

My blog is my favorite marketing platform, it’s the foundation of my business and any piece of content has the chance of bringing in many new visitors who can then become loyal readers.

There are many other ways in which I spread the word about my work and content and other platforms I’m using. That includes the podcast, my books, courses, publishing on Medium, participating in bundles with other course creators and thus getting access to their audiences, and being featured on other platforms.

As for social media, I don’t rely on it heavily as there’s not much control there. I used to be on Instagram but ditched it fully and felt better since then. Here’s what happened after I quit Instagram.

Pinterest is a big part of my content distribution strategy, though. It’s more of a search engine on its own rather than a social media channel and it’s great for bloggers. 

I have a masterclass called Pinterest Boost where I share what you need to know about Pinterest to make it work for your blog, design beautiful PIns, and create an easy manual pinning strategy to bring consistent traffic to your blog. 

6. Looking ahead, what are you most excited about?

I neglected my blogging business in the last 2 or so years to focus more on courses, and with that, I lost a lot of the traffic I’d

 built. I’m now working on bringing it back by doing a content audit – going back to old posts and updating and republishing them so they can rank better. It’s a long process but totally worth it.

I’m also seeing results both on Google and with Pinterest thanks to that. So I’m excited about seeing the numbers growing and with that, the income streams (mostly ad revenue and the income from blog sponsorships).

7. Who or what inspires and motivates you?

One of the main reasons why I started doing what I do is to have freedom. I often talk about the different types of freedom and I love them all, especially creative freedom. That’s the opportunity to wake up every day and work on whatever inspires you. 

Content creation is at the heart of my business and I’ll never get tired of talking about my topics, which include personal growth, mindset, business, lifestyle design, and anything in between. 

Most often, what I write about and teach is directly related to what I’m learning and improving in my own life. My courses are all about the business models I myself have not just tried but seen results with.

Earlier this year I got back into self-publishing and released some books (they were published years ago but I stopped selling them, and now released them again), as well as my first business book High-Value Offers, which is all about turning your course idea into the dream offer for your ideal student.

Now I’m doing the content audit for the blog and updating my main blogging course Blog to Biz System. I’m also covering new subjects every now and then, new topics I’m passionate about (but which are always related to personal growth and business in some way). 

Currently, that’s Stoicism, and here’s a piece I shared on Medium the other day that got some attention: When Life Gets Tough, Turn to Stoicism: How I Apply The Stoic Mindset.

So I’d say that’s how I keep the spark in my business and never get bored with it. I’ve chosen niches I’ll never get tired of, I create different types of content and have fun with it, and I love what I do.

8. What are some lessons you’ve learned along the way that you would share with entrepreneurs hoping to launch or who have just launched? 

Oh, the lessons never ever stop and I love that about business. It’s definitely not easy, and it can be overwhelming at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Business has taught me discipline (I never cared about a project that much so I showed dedication and devotion to it), I grow together with it, it brings me to my knees when necessary and keeps me humble, it teaches me virtues, it makes me patient and grateful, and I will always remain a student and lifelong learner in the online business world as there’s never a point where you know it all and have done it all.

As for my advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, here’s something:

Don’t wait till you find the perfect niche or product idea, till you feel ready, till you’ve taken yet another business course, or till you have your site designed professionally. Perfectionism doesn’t have a place here. Take messy, imperfect action and let it guide you to the right path. Start as soon as possible. That’s how you build real skills.

9. What do you believe are the qualities of a good entrepreneur? And what makes a team successful?

I don’t run a team and have remained a one-man business, but here are some qualities I think are important in entrepreneurship.

• For a start, there’s no place for perfectionism and ego. These not only slow you down, but let you miss out on opportunities, knowledge, experience, and ultimately profit.
• Don’t look for a shortcut. There are important lessons you gotta learn through doing the work and skipping that can cost you a lot.
• Entrepreneurs gotta love learning and staying up to date with changes in the industry.
• You gotta be able to listen to both logic and intuition and combine both when necessary.
• You gotta be forming relationships in the field and be kind to others.
• You gotta be in it for the long haul and not let short-term failure stop you. The only failure is giving up, anything else is a learning opportunity.
• You gotta dream big, but act small. The small daily action is what creates incremental change.
• You gotta be flexible with everything, including your vision. You grow as a person over the years, your desires change, the industry changes too. So you gotta adjust.

10. Let us know where we can go to learn more! 

• You can check out my blog Let’s Reach Success, and sign up for the free Abundant Biz Journal Challenge or the free Epic Online Course Checklist. 
• Find me on Instagram, check out my books, courses and the Free and Fearless podcast. 
• For aspiring and intermediate bloggers, I offer Blog Coaching, a blog audit, and my signature blogging program Blog to Biz System.
• For course creators, there’s Bold Business School, a program that teaches you how to create not just a course, but a dream offer and a digital product business set up for unlimited profit and freedom.