I’m thrilled to kick off my interview series on Pewdoc by featuring the incredible Lidiya Kesarovska, the mind behind Let’s Reach Success!
In this exclusive interview, we dive into Lidiya’s story, her creative process, and how she’s making a difference in the lives of aspiring creators.
Whether you’re into photography, entrepreneurship, or simply love hearing inspiring journeys, this interview is a must-read!
Let’s start the QNA with Lidiya…
Hello! Can You Introduce Yourself And Share What Business You’ve Started Or Are Currently Working On?
Hey Manthan and thanks for having me. I’m Lidiya Kesarovska, and I’m a blogger, author, podcast host, course creator, and business mentor with 10 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.
I’m the founder of Let’s Reach Success, where I help people build an abundant, value-driven business so they can live their best life and become bold and unapologetic.
I also run 2 other blogs, Bold Business School and Blogging Terms, as well as a blogging membership and community – Fearless Bloggers.
My main project has always been Let’s Reach Success, and I get 20K page views a month right now (it was 40K earlier this year, but what’s going on with Google has affected me, like many other bloggers).
My income comes from monetizing the site in different ways, as well as from my digital products.
This year, that’s $42K so far (these last months are low so I won’t reach some milestones I had in mind).
In general, the last 2 years have been worse than the years before in terms of blog traffic and income, but that’s the reality of being in business, and there’s a lot of financial uncertainty.
I still keep doing the work I love, and have faith in not just getting back to the previous numbers, but surpassing them, and providing more value than ever before with my work, as well as growing my revenue.
How Did You Get Started, And Can You Explain The Process Of Prototyping Your Product?
I started Let’s Reach Success back in 2013 as a hobby but with the desire to be self-employed one day.
I needed a creative outlet, and I wanted to write and share my work with the world.
Back then I didn’t know about the business side of blogging and had no idea how to monetize.
I didn’t even have a self-hosted WordPress blog. It took 2 years till I took it seriously and started treating it like a business.
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My first revenue came from freelance writing, though, and I was growing the blog on the side.
When I was earning from both of these income streams, I was able to leave my home country (Bulgaria) and relocate to the Netherlands (where I still live 8 years later).
After some time (and a lot of focused work), I stopped freelancing (as I didn’t enjoy it and preferred to create content only for my platforms) and became a full-time blogger.
Later I also added digital products to my business, such as eBooks, printables, courses, and now the membership.
Blogging is still my main thing, though, and the business model I love the most, and that’s why I’m so passionate about teaching it.
While I cover personal growth, mindset, online business in general, lifestyle design, and other topics on the blog, what I teach is building a blogging business.
I do that through my free content, but also my paid products, and especially the membership.
How Do You Monetize Your Business?
As mentioned, the first way in which I earned online was freelance writing. That was through platforms like Upwork, where I pitched potential clients.
I used the articles on my blog as my portfolio and in my proposal, offered to create similar content for them (always on topics I was passionate about and knew something about).
Then came blogging. Sponsorships have always been my biggest income stream (I share more about my journey with it here), and I remember the first time a brand contacted me via email out of nowhere to offer me a partnership.
They paid me $100 to post an article on my site and include a link to one of their client’s websites in it.
There’s a chance I’ve earned a few cents before that through affiliate marketing or ads, but I’m not sure what came first.
As I grew the blog traffic, I then monetized with ads. I tested different ad networks but I believe the more professional ones work better as opposed to Google AdSense.
I’m now with Mediavine, and for a newer site with less traffic (and which won’t be accepted to a better ad network), I’m with Ezoic.
Affiliate marketing used to be a regular income stream but I’m not really putting much effort into it so it hasn’t been happening for some time now.
Digital products are a big focus, and that has included launching multiple courses, workshops, bundles, etc. over the years, and now actively promoting my membership, Fearless Bloggers.
So these are the 4 ways I monetize sites: ads, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and digital products. It’s also what I teach in my programs.
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What Are The Top Three Challenges You’ve Faced While Building Your Business, And How Did You Overcome Them?
Most of them are mental and emotional, I’d say.
Because at the end of the day, you just have to get back up after losing hope, find motivation again when feeling discouraged, let go of how many times you’ve failed, and try something else.
Don’t compare yourself to others, keep your why in mind, and put in the work no matter what.
That’s especially hard when it’s been a year or two and you see no income.
Or when your blog traffic goes down, when you lose an income stream, when Google or a social media changes its algorithm when you have to figure email marketing out from scratch, when you trusted the wrong person online and now need to start over, or else.
There’s always more to learn about your business model and there’s also better ways to do what you do.
Optimization is a never-ending process. But it’s your personal motivation and ability to regulate your emotions that can keep you going in business even when there’s a pandemic, financial crisis, or personal issues.
Have Any Magical Or Memorable Moments Happened Because Of Your Business? If so, please share them.
The first one that comes to mind (and which is rather recent) is when I ordered a physical copy of one of my books and was holding it for the first time.
Not a big deal in terms of income or even growing my audience, but it matters to me. I love books!
Other magical moments are every time someone leaves a testimonial (I’ve shared some here), or sends an email saying that my work helped them in some way.
they love the membership, a podcast episode inspired them, or anything like that. That’s proof of the impact I create because we often forget that and get lost in the day-to-day business activities.
Over the years, there have been many magical moments too. Others include hitting a milestone (like when I hit 100K page views on the blog years ago and had a $7K month earlier this year) or getting featured on another platform, or a big publication links to me.
I also love the creative part of what I do. Losing myself to a new business idea makes me happy.
That could be starting a niche site and having a big vision for it, creating a new course, doing a bog monetization challenge inside the membership, re-designing the blog, or else.
If I’m a 20-year-old boy/girl passionate about what you’re doing, how can I start?
Pick your business model. If it’s a blogging business, pick your niche, create your blogging strategy, set up your blog, and start creating content (I have a free course on that.).
You can also check out my free 5-figure blog biz checklist.
Then, learn all you can about the blogging business model, start an email list, create helpful content and optimize it, learn how search engines rank articles, focus on building a community and growing your traffic, and monetize your website.
It takes time for search engines to start trusting your website and ranking it well, but in the meantime, you can bring traffic to your blog via Pinterest.
You can build your email list, and you can get active on another platform such as Instagram.
Which social media platform, in your opinion, is the best for gaining attention online?
For bloggers, I recommend Pinterest. Many bloggers (like me) don’t want to be on socials.
Sadly, with how things are with Google lately and how hard it is for small publishers to get ranked, presence on other platforms has become more important than ever.
That can be a podcast, a YouTube channel, an email list, a private community, or any social media channel.
But what I love about Pinterest is that it’s not a social media, but it’s a great traffic source even for new blogs.
You can get traction quickly by publishing optimized Pins for the right topics, and bringing people to your blog posts.
Many bloggers right now are relying solely on Pinterest traffic to earn revenue and grow their email list because they’ve been hit by Google updates and lost all or most of their blog traffic.
So it can save you in moments like that until you find a solution.
What’s your ultimate goal for your business?
To inspire and help others (= impact), To have all the types of freedom a business provides.
To keep growing personally and improve my money mindset.
Plus To reach some financial goals.
And to show others how to do the same.
How can readers find and connect with you?
Closing Note
Lidiya Kesarovska’s journey is a testament to the power of creativity, resilience, and a clear vision.
Her work with Let’s Reach Success continues to inspire creators, entrepreneurs, and dreamers worldwide.
Through her story, we are reminded that success doesn’t come overnight—it’s built step by step with passion and purpose.
As I embark on this interview series on Pewdoc, my goal is to bring you closer to creators like Lidiya who redefine what it means to pursue creative excellence.
If her journey has sparked a new idea or motivated you to take a step forward in your own creative path, then this series is already fulfilling its mission.
Stay tuned for more insightful conversations with amazing talents from the photography and creative world. Let’s continue to learn, grow, and create together!
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Thanks for having me, Manthan ☺️
Most welcome 🙂