How to make money from online education: the success story of Taisiya Kudashkina. Do you think ideas that don’t give the inspirer anything financially have a right to life?

60 thousand subscribers in the group
50 thousand e-mails in the mailing list
1.5 million rubles - turnover per month
Included in the TOP 100 women entrepreneurs in Europe according to Forbes.

Unlimited opportunities to travel, live anywhere in the world, spend time with children and family and at the same time manage what you love with mobile phone or laptop - an impossible dream or reality just steps away?

Today, the need for online educational services is growing like never before, which means that more and more people are concerned about developing their business. What stops many is that expertise in a particular area does not always coincide with related technical skills or availability starting capital. Fortunately, this is not at all necessary to start an online school or courses today. Business processes are easy to automate and...

The story of Taisiy Kudashkina, founder of the WebSarafan project, will help you gather your thoughts and take the first step. It's today she is the founder and CEO of WebSarafan- a popular platform for entrepreneurs with an audience of 60 thousand subscribers.

But it wasn't always like this.

Path to success

Taisiya is originally from Omsk, but began her career... right in Silicon Valley. However, Taisiya was unable to fit herself into the framework of a successful, highly paid corporate career as a data analyst. Too much energy, drive and desire to live by your own rules.

Thus was born the idea of ​​a promising startup - the review site tulp.ru, for the creation of which Taisiya, with her two-month-old daughter in her arms, managed to raise 50 million rubles. Moving to St. Petersburg, a team of the best developers, unique work in terms of SEO and content - it seemed that all the components of success were present, but the total result was not the same. The investor’s plans have changed, there are no sales, the need to pay salaries to a recruited team of 25 people and a complete lack of understanding of what to do next.

Out of my own “pain” and the desire to understand the jungle of marketing and PR, WebSarafan appeared. First as a blog, the first three articles in which Taisiya wrote herself. And then it dawned on her: why not ask the experts themselves how to build a business correctly, and record the conversation to share with others? This is how the format of podcasts with transcripts in the form of articles appeared.

The energy of live communication brought her real pleasure and drive. The podcasts and articles were emotional, unusual, and most importantly, useful. This is what attracted speakers and subscribers to the group. The popularity of the blog grew progressively, the number of subscribers increased. However, there was no way to monetize this project. On New Year's Eve 2015, even 700 rubles for a Christmas tree for children turned out to be an unaffordable expense.

When you have problems, you can give up and give up everything, or you can find a mentor

Taisiya found Peter Ponomarev, one of the best sales specialists in Russia, through an e-mail newsletter. He helped compose a chain of four letters and...the process began. It turns out that you can and should sell through the mailing list! In just one day, the first 80 thousand rubles appeared on Taisiya’s account. The newsletter became a selling tool, and thanks to this the project moved forward.

Taisiya tried to sell webinars with invited speakers, but it didn’t work out. She is a perfectionist and finds it difficult to accept the imperfections of others. Bad sound, unsightly background behind the speaker... she was not ready to answer for all this with her own reputation as a seller. They stopped selling webinars, but the idea of ​​summits appeared - offline events that are broadcast online to a Russian-speaking audience. High-quality installation of light and sound, rented premises, spectacular Taya as a presenter and still the most useful tricks and life hacks from the masters of their craft.

And remember that it is impossible to do effectively and for a long time what you don’t enjoy. In addition to financial motivation, you need an emotional level of charge and desire to do your business. That’s when that “wow” effect will happen, and your clients and subscribers will stay with you for many years.

Hello, Friends!

Today is a significant day for us! Firstly, we are publishing the twentieth interview, and secondly, we decided to change the name of the project and the “Expert Answers” ​​section to a new one – “Your Way”.

In our opinion, this name is more suitable and reveals more the meaning of the project, as well as our heroes! Indeed, each of our 20 guests is either already walking along His own Path, or is actively seeking it, understanding the deep importance of this. And all areas of life, one way or another, are subordinated to this goal.

Taisiya is a very striking example of a seeker and experimenter. A person who explores life and its limitless possibilities from all sides. Her answers charge you with positivity, energy, and the desire to change your life and develop!

Let's get acquainted with our guest's answers. I am sure that in the process of reading, like me, you will think more than once, smile, note useful thoughts and draw important conclusions for yourself!

Tell us a little about yourself. What are you doing? What achievements do you have? What projects are you involved in? What are your hobbies?

Hello! I, Taisiya!

I take care of myself, my projects and my children.

My interests: 5 years in corporate companies in America, tulp.ru is a startup with two million unique visitors per month and two million dollars in investments, websarafan.ru is a startup with a year and a half history and hundreds of thousands of subscribers and listeners.

I participate only in my own projects: two businesses and two children, four startups on hand, it’s not a bad task, I’ll tell you :)

My hobbies? Me myself and my children. That's all the hobbies. There is so much I don’t understand about myself, I don’t know, I can’t figure it out.

There are so many interesting things hidden in our unconscious. And children help me, highlight themselves, and theirs, and shortcomings, and treasures. Everything is real. They’ll pull everything out, and you’ll have to figure it out/pick around :)

1. THE WAY TO YOURSELF

What motivates and inspires you?

Three pillars: nature, children, new things. Curiosity is the main culprit of my adventures. Nature and children are always in motion, always changing, always flowing, always forward. They are always new.

And I myself am the same, always new and interesting - all the time I need something, I try something, I do something. I take on a lot and give up a lot. But I don’t regret it: if I quit, it means there’s no need, to hell with it. You have to open the world further and try everything you want before you die...

Don't laugh. We will all end up there. We will die, it’s not far off, and if we don’t do it now, we won’t have time later. We won’t have time to do anything, life will pass, fly by. The adrenaline will only remain from the new. From family and adventure. That's what motivates me. Near death motivates :)

What is your daily routine? What do you make sure you do every day?

I'm planning. I meditate. I am writing my morning pages. I communicate with children. I do sports. The list of required habits in my application, where I mark them, is more than 20. The most important habit is not to watch TV and not to hang out on social networks. Try it, a million hours and you will instantly free up the flow for creativity.

I'm unlucky, all my work is on social networks. Facebook is a working tool for me, I communicate there, find experts and clients. I solve any problems, even everyday ones, through him. And I hang out all the time, I can sit in it for 5-6 hours easily.

How am I saved? I force set the timer for 15-20 minutes. I log in using the timer and exit when it beeps, even if the task is not completed. I'm taking a break. I’m going to cook, do push-ups, and hug the kids. I think, I shake myself, I realize. Should I go further to the social network? Or are there other plans? So that it doesn't get sucked in, damn it.

Do you do any physical training? What does this give you?

I've been swimming all my life. I love this state. I clearly know that after 200 meters, my head begins to turn off and all that remains is the flapping of my arms. Raz, right. Rrraz, left. A meditative state, beautiful, and how he was reborn after a thousand strokes. Your head becomes empty, and you can fit in a lot of new things.

Now I adapt to the children - it doesn’t matter what I do, as long as I do something. Any sport is great as long as you do it regularly. For example, the kid is alpine skiing, I have an hour and a half training session. While they are skating, I can’t swim; there is no pool next to the slope. What can I do? I can run. Or ride parallel to their training, on the slope. Or just walk up/down the hill if it’s dirty and you don’t have money for the cable car. This is how I live, this is how I train.

What do you do to develop intelligence and memory?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, now I’m in a period where I “gobble up” information, quickly stuff it into myself. Without drinking, without prolonging the pleasure. The need for knowledge is so great that there is no time for contemplation or reflection.

Hungry just yet, what contemplation? I listen to it a lot: in queues, in the car, while jogging. Anyhow, I put myself through practice for business problems and solutions that are interesting to me at the moment. 3-5 books a month and 3-5 podcasts - and then I run to implement them.

Sometimes it catches you, then I read the same thing over and over again. Recently there was a book on setting up automatic sales chains, which I read 100,500 times while I was moving this stone in my business. Read! This is a great gift to humanity! Read!

2. PATH TO SUCCESS

What does real (true) success mean in your understanding?

Be in your place. In harmony with yourself. Family. The surrounding world. Everyone has this harmony and different concepts about it. Well, this is where true success lies: to find your own recipe for happiness, not someone else’s, but your own.

Even if your success is living in a tiny village on the banks of the Volga. If it makes you happy, don't look around. Look deep. Inside yourself. There's the answer.

What, in your opinion, are the main secrets of success and a successful personality?

So what? If you like to knit socks and you give it to the world, then this is your path. And if you enjoy it, truly, without embellishment, and not in public, then you are successful. To the core. And happier than many “successful” people in public, in fact. You shouldn't be afraid of yourself.

What do you use to improve your personal effectiveness and productivity?

I plan a lot. The goals are big and ambitious; if you don’t concentrate hard, nothing will happen. You can philander if your goals are close, if you have a backup, if you are now in the “rest” season of life.

It’s spring season for me now, spring is everywhere: children need to be raised (small), businesses need to be nurtured (just started). This requires extreme concentration on the main thing.

How do I achieve it? Every week weekly review. Every evening - a plan for the next day. During the day, I emerge from the routine, look at the planner, what’s on the list? What's most important today? What's great and what just can't help but do? Does it match the goals? Am I going where I want?

And a million questions. Which I answer every day. Even if it’s difficult and painful, you still have to answer. The main thing is to learn to be honest with yourself.

Is time management present in your life? What are you doing to get more done? Do you plan your days, weeks, months, years? How detailed? What planning tips can you give?

This year I was finally able to plan. It took me a long time to achieve this, for years. I started with GDT by David Allen, but the book is not easy, and implementing all this in itself is quite a task. And then you still have to adhere to this system, every day, for years. Only then does it work!

It took me... Two/three years to clear my head and make plans? Now, having already read 100,500 books on this topic, I mix techniques and constantly try new mechanics.

By the way, we in Russia also have our own very cool specialists in time management and productivity.

One of them is Maxim Dorofeev, I recorded a podcast with them - he really helped me finish my system, finish it, fine tuning in English is called. By the way, the podcast is free and can be downloaded. There are tons of information, checklists, a whole mini-training on productivity.

Maxim explains about the phenomenon of productive hours, which he calls thought fuel. There are only 2 of them per day. Everything else is worse, concentration is not the same, the brain cannot handle complex tasks. This means that these first two productive hours should be loaded with the most important tasks.

Have you noticed? In the morning, for example, if you go on social networks, you can’t do anything else. Right? But because you wasted your most important and wonderful mental fuel on nonsense. And now you need to do normal tasks - write, think, squash important things.

And you already have everything, there is no thought fuel. And you sit there, picking your nose, and in this state you can sit on a task that takes half an hour for 4 hours. Because they gave everything. To the wonderful facebook or vk. Don't get caught, don't waste your mental fuel!

What do you need to do to achieve your goals? Your "signature recipe".

Nothing supernatural. All recipes are known. Who would do it? Global goals are being written. Then goals for five years. Then for a year. Then for a month. And then for a day. And so every day. You dream, you plan, you fool around - that’s the whole secret. No magic pills. Great people are nourished by work!

How do you feel about money? What advice can you give on managing personal finances?

Control. Especially when there is money. I was in this trap when there is a lot of money - it seems, why control? There still are, and there will be more. And then, rrrrr. And there are no more of them... The feeding trough is over, and you are at the trough...

And then you start to think, turn your head on. Where are they? Where are they going? How to invest? What to do when they are not there? Basic hygiene that 90% of people don’t do: control your income/finances and expenses. Start with this, you will already be cooler than everyone else. Cooler than I was a year ago, for sure!

How often do you study? How? Tell us about your most recent experience and what you learned there?

How do I personally train? I feel like I don’t understand something, or I’m stuck, or stuck, and books don’t help - I organize summits (that’s what we call our online conferences) and study together with another 3000-4000 thousand people who are just as interested as me. This is how I train.

But not everyone, of course, solves their queries this way. Look for books, courses, podcasts. Here, on websarafan.ru, you can listen to American podcasts, oh, so many interesting things, different, not like ours.

I'm usually looking for an answer to my specific problem. For example, I need to increase sales in my business. I go to Google and start searching for “how to raise your sales.” Or I don’t want anything in life, I’m stuck, I don’t understand what I want and where to go.

I am looking for specific materials, courses, a book on the topic of “searching for oneself.”

3. SOCIETY

What personality traits do you like and what do you dislike in people?

I love open people. I hate and don’t understand how to work and live with insincerity. I can’t keep anything to myself, and I expect the same from others. I want partnerships, living, real ones.

I don’t need puppeteers, I don’t hire them for the company. I want to develop together, grow together. Do you have ambitions? Are you ready to voice them? So, you should join my company. And maybe as friends. But a filter is required.

What is family to you? What does she give you?

She gives me everything. My family is small and a little broken. But on the other hand, my children manage, like water, to fill all the space that exists in my heart. Oh these kids. I love you like an ordinary woman. Unquestioningly, with snot, with admiration.

Everything I do is for them. I drive, I educate, I show. I even want to do business for them. I will record audio courses and ask smart people. About life, about how to understand yourself. About how to be successful.

We don’t have such materials in the Russian-speaking space, but I want to let children listen, show examples, and tell stories. So, I'll do it myself. Because I have to raise them and make “people” out of them.

Love. Love unconditionally. Not to love yourself in them, not to realize your ambitions, but to love them themselves, for what they are in themselves. Even if you want more. Even if they don’t get a grade in chess and don’t play hockey very well.

I see my three parental tasks as follows: health, values ​​and finding oneself. My task is to make sure they are healthy. That’s why we now go not to developmental activities, but to sports. My task is to transfer my values ​​to them. Don't take someone else's. Look around. Read. Don't be afraid of new things.

What are your values? First, you define yours, write them down, and then it will be easier for the children to convey them, because you know exactly what yours are.

My job is to help you find your purpose. Stand nearby, do not breathe down the back at the moment when they are groped. Try giving different things. Show them the world. Tell me what happens. Stir up curiosity. Give books, give experience. To find yourself, find an occupation, find a passion. Inspiration. That's all. Three tasks, everything else is secondary.

Do you have a clear most important goal or mission in life?

There are two goals - to raise children, to make people out of them, one. And find yourself. Your purpose. God brings us all here for a reason, He gives us all a piece of ourselves.

Our task is to find the divine within ourselves, pull it out and give it around. What are you doing? Why do you live? How do you change the world? All these are not idle questions, but the most pressing ones. What is your purpose on Earth?

It is not necessary to launch rockets into space, no. You can tell stories, teach children. But with passion, giving all of yourself. This is your purpose. Look for him here. That's the mission. I'm looking.

I've only just started moving in that direction. This story doesn’t come easily to me; until I was 32, I wasn’t doing anything at all. Not divine, but economically profitable. And now I want to find mine, what I want, and not what my parents wanted.

5. YOUR OWN BUSINESS

What advice do you have for those who are just about to start entrepreneurship?

Find what makes you excited. The business you should do is not the one that is profitable, but the one you are interested in doing. Now is a phenomenal time - everything can be monetized.

No, really. The Earth is full of all sorts of freaks. Which cats are photographed. Or they make dresses from meat (which you-know-who-buys). Or they make crazy videos. Or they talk about Hollywood movie stars. We monetize any whim,

The Internet gives you this opportunity. Do you like swimming in ice holes? This means there will be another 100,500 people in this world who also like it. So, go, swim, and bring others along with you. Then everything will happen - fame, respect, money, everything will come. The first is passion, then everything else. And the business comes from there.

6. PHILOSOPHY

What do you think an ideal life should be like?

Everyone has a different one. The ideal is only yours. Only invented by you and implemented only by you. Mine is a house in the mountains, with a veranda, a garden, and the Internet. With the ocean and my children around...

Yours - in its own way. Give someone the city. Someone wants silence. Some people need 6 children. Someone is a loner. Don't care about other people's opinions and make your own happiness.

Your wishes to the readers of the “Your Own Guru” project.

Find yourself and do only what you like! There can be no other advice, since this is the most important thing - to realize what the Lord sent you to Earth for!

Thank you, Taisiya, for the useful and interesting answers! Health, energy and good luck to you in your hectic and interesting life!

You can view Taisiya’s contacts on the “Your Own Guru” website.

Editor and project leader:

Participation is free.

The story of Tulpa is the story of my personal growth. I made all the mistakes of a person who grows with borrowed money. But in the end, it was thanks to Tulpa that I became interested in marketing and wanted to figure it out. For the first six months of WebSarafan’s life, I simply blogged and asked experts I was interested in about marketing. All this time I invested my money, created an audience, and then started trying to monetize it somehow. I tried doing webinars. I tried to organize an offline event, which was attended by 15 people. I went to a conference in America and interviewed marketers there, but it didn’t go well either. The only thing that was moderately successful was webinars. A lot of people began to gather there. They brought the first income: I decided to sell webinar recordings, and the audience was ready to pay for them.

Why did you end up choosing such an unusual format as podcasts for your experts? Not the most popular format in Russia.

Believe it or not, I just love podcasts. I listen to them quite a lot myself, they help me find necessary information, and it’s logical that I chose this format. It's impossible to do something that doesn't excite you. At some point you will quit anyway.

Also, before podcasts, we tried a lot of things: I blogged, we did webinars, we did videos, we promoted it all. But in real life neither one nor the other took root. And I chose podcasts as a format that is understandable and convenient for me personally. I send the nanny and the children outside in the morning, I already have an appointment, I have questions ready. All I do is sit in front of the computer and write down what the person tells me. I just love it, and it’s convenient for me to do it while sitting in sweatpants in front of the computer.

And finally, what is especially nice: we have . The market is empty. There are 10 or 20 business podcasts, but given the potential size and market capacity, that doesn't count.

Listen, there are recognized stars in the field of marketing - Igor Mann, Alexander Levitas, Inna Alekseeva, Oleg Barmin... Why aren’t they on your podcasts or at events?

I interviewed Mann, but for the blog. But in general, I don’t really like talking to stars. I'm looking for new ones interesting people, which have not yet acquired layers of fame and conceit.

In addition, my audience is new and small companies. And I want people to associate themselves with the people I talk to. And so that it would be close to them. So that the guest’s experience can be transferred to your own experience, your business, and run inspired to do something further.

How do you choose podcast characters?

I take those people who are interesting to me personally. Speakers come to me, I like them, and I record podcasts. Dasha Manelova makes an Instagram account for us. Vitaly Pronin was our FB expert. I am curious, I am interested in communicating with them, and I want to tell others about them.

Who are you reading right now and who is useful in your daily work?

I haven't been reading much lately, I've been listening a lot more. I listen to Western podcasts. I select them to suit my specific tasks. Yesterday the team asked the question “how to keep participants on the platform.” I have this question itching, so I go to the Internet, look for someone who talks about this topic and find useful instructions about retention. That’s why I read almost nothing random or fictional. Just what I need to solve my problems.

How did Sarafan get its summits? As a separate product or to promote other products?

We started selling webinars, and it turned out that it worked. But here we came up against quality. The speaker has a bad light, he has a refrigerator in the background, or he himself is in a wrinkled shirt and sleepy. Should I sell this? Respond with your reputation?

And then I dragged the speakers “to me.” More precisely, I began to gather several speakers, rent a hall, equipment - and that’s how summits appeared. People are already trying to copy our format, but most of the conversion of such events into sales is only 3-4%, while ours is much higher. Simply because we have experience and huge amount chips that we came up with. The project plan for the summit has a minimum of 150 points - things that we will definitely do.

I want specifics. Tell me any five things that need to be done for a successful event?

Every time it's something new. For example, we used to be shy, but now we started asking the phone numbers of those who subscribe to the summit. A reminder about the event was sent by phone an hour before the start. This allowed us to increase attendance by 30%! And it did not cause any rejection, which we were so afraid of.

Or we created a sales system via e-mail. It seems like everyone has been able to do this for a long time and knows that sales are made through mailings, but it didn’t work for me. I went to study with Pyotr Ponomarev. And he told me how to make sales chains of letters. Together we figured out names, logic, transitions. And our sales have increased. Instantly.

Plus the hosting of the event itself. My questions, inclusion, energy - this is our feature that others do not have. We're not having a conference, we're having a radio show. We read comments from the chat, engage, and play with the audience. All this makes us unique, this is our differentiation, if in a smart way (I’ve learned it now, I know a lot of marketing words!)

You have a lot of work. How did you manage to assemble a team around these ideas?

While working on my first project, I learned how to hire people. At first I hired people and didn’t understand what I expected from them. After all, in the large companies where I worked before, they hire them for you, and you command what you have. Only at the end of my work in Tulpa did I realize that my work format was unusual and not suitable for Russia. Therefore, the team often included people who did not fit into the company. And there were problems that no one solved. In general, it was hard.

I'm not a micromanager. I'm not saying what to do. I hire a person to do what I can’t do. Let him be cooler than me. But don’t let him turn to look at me after every step. As a result, I developed my own management style: I realized that I set goals, we discuss together how we will go towards them, and once a week we meet and discuss how we are going and where we have come. The employee must think for himself. And now I select people for myself who are satisfied with this.

My current team came to the project not just looking for work, but to come to me personally.

I would say that they came to me first, and to the project second.

Personal branding helped me. I write quite a lot on the Internet, and from my posts it is clear what kind of leader I am and what my values ​​are. There are people who understand that they will not work with me. And there are those who, on the contrary, fall in love, and they only want to work with me. Therefore, if I need a person, now I just write about it on Facebook, and in 2 days I receive from 50 to 100 resumes.

Quite a lot... How to stand out from the crowd? How to impress you?

I take people of my blood. When I was looking for an editor, I received a lot of resumes. At some point I got tired of reading them and only read teasers. I read a letter from a girl from MIF, who somewhere saw Fyodor Konyukhov’s rowing boat (on which he circumnavigated the world alone), was impressed, wrote to him, and together they wrote a book and published his diary. I immediately realized that I needed such a person. And we’ve been working with her for a year and a half now. There are some stories that help you get to know people and understand that you belong together and work together.

Do you think ideas that don’t give the inspirer anything financially have a right to life?

In my family, I mean my parents’ family, it was once believed that only such ideas had the right to life. That you should work for joy, not for money, and so on. My dad is a climber, he has been going to the mountains for many years, all this hiking romance of the 80s, I think, is understandable. what are his ideals... I for a long time I thought the same. The main thing is to do what you like. And now I understand that money is the lifeblood of any project. Money gives you freedom, time and strength to experiment. Money gives life. They give you new contacts, new people, new stories. There will be no development for a project that has no money at all. Just as any organism will die without blood, the best idea will die and wither if you don’t come up with a decent monetization for it.

You implement the most daring ideas so brightly and in front of everyone, try different formats... Is there anything that scares you and makes you doubt yourself?

The scary thing is that summits are not a permanent income. That is, if we didn’t do the summit or did it unsuccessfully, then we simply won’t have anything to eat. It is necessary to create some kind of permanent platform that will cover basic costs. I want a constant, predictable income. We are working on it, and we have launched the first test group.

Own show in America. The goal you recently announced is very ambitious. Do you believe that “if I could do it here, I can do it there too?” Or are you taking a more careful approach somehow?

I just really want to do it. I believe that I can do this. Yes, our own show in America. Can. And I will do it. I don’t think “I could - I couldn’t”, I don’t compare. I once read from Jobs that you need to live every day as if this day were your last. And this is how I live. I choose what is important to me and do it. One American billionaire answered the question “What takes to make money?” said Courage. It takes courage to make money. I agree. It's so hard just doing something different from what you usually do.

I just allow myself to try. Well, it won't work. But I got so much out of my failed projects that I would never give them up! A mistake is still luck because it gives us experience and moves us to a new point. There we can try again.

You recently published almost nude photos of yourself on Facebook. Where is the acceptable limit of outrageousness for you?

Of course, there is a border, but it is inside me. I have become much bolder in terms of provocations and in terms of my openness to feedback than I was before Sarafan. But I'm still cautious. I wouldn't publish any nudity. But to excite and attract attention to myself, yes, I can tease.

Recently Olga Yurkovskaya was received very hostilely in the group. How did you feel, as the owner of the site, looking at what was happening?

Yes, there was a lot of negativity surrounding her post. I don't like negativity. And I don’t care who the author of the post is or why this negativity suddenly appeared on my blog. In general, I don’t like it when people talk nasty things about each other. I can be removed from the group for personal insults. I can delete offensive comments. But in this case, the advertiser (Olga) was happy with everything, and she believed that this was normal promotion - in this way she was filtering out her target audience. Therefore, the post remained.

You need to understand that from the moment the number of people in the group reached 10,000, the community gained influence. And of course, as in any society, in our group there is a struggle for attention, jealousy, and aggression. But I try to have as little negativity as possible and more constructiveness. But even my mentor confirmed to me that it is impossible to be completely without aggression in such a group.

Wow, you have a mentor! Who is this? How did you find him?

And this is such an American theme. Your income level is equal to the average level of the people you interact with. If you don’t like your income level, you need to change your environment. And of course, if you set yourself a difficult task, raise the bar high, then you need a mentor. I thought for a long time, who should I go to? And how is this even done? You need to come up and ask “will you be my mentor?” For what? I myself would not be ready to waste my time on someone, and I don’t understand why someone should waste theirs on me.

Therefore, I act like this: I have a specific problem and I have an understanding of who is well versed in this problem. I come to him and ask practical question: “Listen, I have a problem here - tell me how to do it.....”. And this is how communication begins.

At the same time, I try not to strain the person. I will arrive when it is convenient and where it is convenient, I will not bother you with conversations about the eternal or excessive attention. And I am very grateful to everyone who helps me in solving my problems.

Do you think Websarafan is possible without Kudashkina? Do you want to sell it someday?

Is business youth possible without its leaders? Obviously not. Same with WebSarafan. Although this is not a community named after Taya Kudashkina. I don’t consider or call it a personal project, and I think that at some point it will grow into independence.

For now it is impossible without me, but I believe that we will grow and develop, we will fine-tune operational processes, we will find responsible people for different directions and at this moment it will be possible to step aside. Then, of course, I'll sell it. I know for sure that I cannot work on one project for 15 years, like Zuckerberg. At some point I will definitely get bored. I love the beginning. When from scratch to a high goal.

Remember the movie "I Don't Know How She Does It"? This is a story about a woman who manages to combine important roles(wife, mother, professional), which surprises others. Everyone around doesn't understand how she manages to do it

In fact, there are a lot of such mothers! I’d love to introduce you to them and tell you more about their lives as high-achieving moms. I want to introduce you to the project. This interviews with mothers who were able to realize themselves not only in motherhood, but also in other areas of life with a small child in her arms. And I will ask questions to understand how they do it?

For the interview I chose the form audio recordings (or podcast), so that you can listen to it while you go to the store, walk with a stroller, ride the subway or by car, while you wash the dishes - in general, wherever is convenient for you.

The guest of today's interview is. If suddenly you are not familiar yet, then Taisiya is the founder of the largest educational platform for entrepreneurs in RuNet Websarafan, included in the list TOP 100 women entrepreneurs in Europe according to Forbes, produces excellent business podcasts Websarafan show(by the way, 6th place on iTunes in the “Business” category, ahead of Oleg Tinkov and Business Youth), and at the same time has two children.

By the way, it was thanks to Taisiya and her podcasts that I came up with the idea to start recording my own, and that’s how the project appeared "Now I know how she does it". And from the very first day I dreamed that someday I would be my guest. It's finished!

So, from this interview you will learn:

- how to get into Forbes list

- which the most important belief prevents a business from selling

- from what, according to Tony Robbins the success of an entrepreneur depends on 80%

- the most important principle in the productivity system

— how Taisiya works out setting goals

- How spend the morning productively

- which parents have the most important functions

- what helps combine motherhood and Websarafan

- what needs to be done by those who is just starting their project

How to use the podcast:

1) Listen to the podcast directly in the article by clicking on the play button. To download podcast, go to this page, under the audio track, click the “… More” -> Download button.

2) Do you want listen on iPhone? You can do this here. On this same page you can subscribe to our podcast - and you will receive notifications on your iPhone as soon as a new episode is added.

Text version available below.

All links that Taisiya mentions in the interview

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Text version:

Taisiya, hello!

Yes, hello!

Tell, Please, about myself in general outline.

My name is Taisiya. I - CEO and founder of a company calledWebsarafan.ru. In fact, this is a large, large platform where we unite entrepreneurs (small and medium-sized businesses) in their desire to achieve their goals and realize their business dreams. ABOUTwe teach and help promote business online.

Great! I heard that you are also on the Forbes list. Please tell me how to get there?

Work, work, work again. The usual advice to anyone who asks what to do? Din order to go somewhereget thereyou just need to work hard and that's it. The Forbes list includes only two girls from Russia - me and Elena Masolova. There were very specific conditions there. They gathered one hundred of the best women entrepreneurs in Europe. But since part of Russia is Europe, they also looked for girls throughout Russia. And there were two very important conditions that only she and I fell under. The first condition was that the project had to be socially significant. The second is for her to raise money, investments, in the region of a million dollars. But in Russia we have a lot of socially significant projects, indeed, that are carried out by women. But the women who raised money, and even millions of dollars and more, simply don’t exist. That is, it’s really me and Elena. Well, accordingly, I got there because of my past project called Tulp.ru. It didn't fire, so I closed it.

Super! Please tell us how the project startedWebsarafan. Just the very first, first steps.

Well, I had Tulp, this project that I started talking about. Tulp is a place review site. There you could write reviews about restaurants and hospitals. It was five years ago when I opened it. We have assembled one of the best technological teams in Russia in general. We had an awesome website! Zand two yearsand webrought it to positions in SEO 50-60 thousand uniques per day. This is a lot, considering that we practically did not buy any traffic.

We really had the best team, but but we haven’t learned how to sell. This project ended, and in fact it was my own fail. Mine and my team. We did a cool thing, like many others. A startup always starts with the idea of ​​let’s do something first and then figure out who will eat it. Well, we had such a story. Not only did we do it, we also found money for it. The investor believed in us, along with us. But they never learned how to sell and promote.

We made a cool technological project that has users. But at the same time, we don’t know what to sell, and he doesn’t make money. Now this is my principle, my phrase, elevated to a principle. TO When you don’t know what to do, this is what I always tell people in my club, the first thing you need to do is start asking. You just need to start, open your mouth and just start asking. In fact, that's what I started doing.

I started writing down interview people, experts in SMM, in marketing, in promotion, in positioning, in sales. And so that it wouldn’t go to waste, I recorded these interviews. I just asked people questions on Skype for twenty minutes. How is this? How is this? Why this? And I wrote them down, then transcribed them, and that’s how the blog appeared. I needed to put it somewhere. I think it’s a pity that the material is disappearing.

Websarafan started as a blog. By the way, I wrote the first two or three articles myself. But I realized that, damn, I’m actually not an editor. Yes, I can write, but I am not a person who will write good texts day after day. Therefore, the first person hired on the team was an editor. Well, that's how the project grew.

Then I realized, it’s so interesting in general, let’s not just transcribe these articles, but start making podcasts. From this, podcasts were born, these audio recordings. But if you turn it into full-fledged interviews, put them on iTunes, that’s how everything grows, it grows into meat.

Then that project completely fizzled out, I parted with my ex-husband. He left us without any support for almost a year. AND I just needed to feed myself, two children and my project Websarafan, in which there is an editor who needs to be paid a salary. And in short, you have to take it somewhere, the usual story about the carrot in the back.

This was at the end of 2015, in fact, almost two years ago. I had a project with almost a thousand shares, where I wrote about the fact that I don’t have money to buy a Christmas tree for my children. Well, this was such a very sad post. And again I opened my mouth, started asking people around, and we resolved this issue. We started to successfully monetize Websarafan.

Listen, what seemed the most difficult?

The most difficult? I am already generalizing this experience, because Websarafan works with thousands, thousands of small businesses in RuNet. The most difficult thing is that our cultural code is such that advanced people in Russia are afraid to sell. They are afraid, embarrassed, do not like. We believe that selling is bad. Our parents raised us this way, especially if they were intelligent parents (some engineers, physicists). Remember how in the 90s we called those who sold speculators. They were treated poorly. Those who have money are some kind of oligarchs, someone who has robbed the people. In general, this sits very firmly in us.

And until these small businesses start to look at this story differently, everyone has a hard time in the beginning. Because you are doing the best project on earth for yourself, you will realize your dreams, your destiny there. And at the same time you are afraid to say about it.

This is a very standard situation for mini-businesses in RuNet for 80-90%% of beginning entrepreneurs. “I’m making an awesome cake,” a person comes to our club and says: “I don’t know how to promote, I have no clients.” I log into a person’s social network or website, and it doesn’t even say anywhere that the person makes a cake. I say: “Masha, how will people know that you make cakes?” She answers: “Well, I’m not going to scrounge, that’s what we call it”.

You need to think about it from the point of view that you are making the world a better place. If they don't buy your most delicious cakes from you, they will buy them from someone who makes crap but still talks. Lpeople need good quality products, and so when you sell, you truly make the world a better place.. So, I studied this for a year or a year and a half, until it dawned on me with the help of mentors and my own podcasts, through which I am pumped. As soon as we begin to understand this, as a layer of entrepreneurs in RuNet, the situation will change dramatically. We are working on this.

That is, all the cockroaches are in the head? INFirst of all, our prejudices interfere with what to sell— this is bad. Did I hear you correctly?

Well, yes. I attended Tony Robinson's training. He said a very important phrase there, in my opinion, that entrepreneurial stories, entrepreneurial successeX 80% depends on what’s in our heads, because we run this business. We all think that they lack knowledge on Instagram, Facebook, and Email marketing. But in fact, until we deal with the cockroaches in our heads, because we run this business, no amount of Instagram, Facebook and Email marketing will help us. PUntil you sort out your settings in your head, everything else is completely useless.

Tell me, please, how do you set goals for yourself in business or in your personal life?

Listen, I’m generally straight there is a whole system about this. I've been very, very seriously interested in this story for two or three years now. I can’t say directly that I’m such a gig, there are people who are completely obsessed with this, like Nikita Maklakhov. He does it all in a scientific way. I really have tried a lot of different mechanics and in general I think that any productivity working only until then, when it works for you.

There are actually a lot of them and you can easily learn them. You need to choose what works specifically for you. Customize this system for yourself, and make sure that your time is spent on necessary and useful things. INOur time said thank you, and you were satisfied, first of all, with yourself internally.

Maybe you need to work hard twenty hours a day, then you will be internally satisfied with yourself. There are people like that, they need to work like that. Maybe, like me, I need to spend at least half a day with the children so that at the end of the day I feel happy and a person who lives the way he wants.

Tcan you tell us in general terms about yoursystemso that we understand whether it is suitable or not?

First of all, even without talking about mechanics or tactics, the most important story in all productivity planning is that you need to learn to identify the most important thing.

I wrote somewhere, I have a post called “The One Thing”. This the book that made the biggest impression on me last year. I read a lot of books. But this is one of the ones that I still use today and the principles that are described in this book. And there a multimillionaire man who has several businesses promotes the approach that you have There should always be one thing in your head, Towhich is important to you at this particular moment. And this one thing in work and in business you build based on your values ​​and where you need to go.

I tell this story at our club. We are building this chain in order to understand what to do now. So I woke up in the morning, I have a list of50 tasks- This is our standard story in general among entrepreneurs. I open the notebook, “Oh my God!” If you make ten of them, then it’s more or less “fine”. Eyou still feel constantly guilty,hthen you didn’t finish the other forty. But in reality this is not what should happen. You should open your notebook in the morning and understand This is the action that if I do today, I will move towards my big goal. That's all. It is one! Well, maybe three at most, realistically.

We do this at the club, we build a chain from your big goals and missions. For example, mission is a difficult issue to tell right now on the subpod. Everyone generally understands roughly what your purpose is, why you are on this earth, what you want in the future. Entrepreneurs have many businesses. In our lifetime, if we started doing business at the age of 20-30, we will have 3-5 of them. Some people have 10 businesses in their life. They are different, and their format is different, but they always have some kind of red line that is implemented and called a mission.

For me, for example, mission— will helpbentrepreneurs. And I don’t care if I do a blog, or if it’s a podcast, or if it’s a show, or if I teach something. It is important to inspire entrepreneurs to move! This is my main mission. Some people may need to put things in order in their lives. And then in one project he will have an accounting firm, because the accountant puts things in order (I’m telling you a live case), and in the second business there will be a company that calls cleaners and housekeepers to the house. This is also about putting things in order in life. You see, businesses are different, but there is always a purpose. And so you look at your purpose, and then further build missions along the chain.

But in five years, what example do I see in my business?, such a very blurry picture. Next, what do I want in five years? Well, let’s say, if we talk about me, I want a recognizable brand, I want millions of views on YouTube. I want tens, hundreds, thousands of entrepreneurs to go through my program and do their business with pleasure, with the understanding that it is not so difficult.

After that you go downstairs and set yourself goals for the year. And in a year, what do you want to do to achieve that goal? For example, you say, in a year I want to have a thousand clients a month. Then you you lowerXiaeven lower and build goal for the month to achieve that goal. For example, in a month I want to completely redesign my technology platform. Because it doesn’t lead me in any way to my goals: I can’t work normally, my entrepreneurs can’t get together normally now, as I want, but I need thousands of them a month. So I need to redo the platform. Then you build the same goal for the week and for the day.. Do you understand how this chain is built?

Yes!

And then the most important thing. When you wake up in the morning and look: I have ten, twenty, fifty goals. “To do” sheet for the day. Which one is the most important? As Tim Ferriss said, which if I do, it will shift all the others or the others will not be needed at all. This is usually a goal we don't want to do. It’s nasty, the most difficult, it takes you out of your comfort zone. But if you do this task for the day, then you will already be: “Wow! I'm such a cool dude! I actually completed the most important task for the day.” And everything else, the forest, is fair.

Well, this is how I build my productivity. In the morning I do what is called “power hour” - a magical morning. In Russian it is called “the hour of power.” When 1-1.5 hours I spend only on reflection, on working with myself, my brain and body. In the same hour and a half, I determine my most important task of the day, which is 100% related to this chain of mine.

When my kids wake up at seven in the morning, I have already completed my first task of the day. Because the children wake up at seven in the morning, they need to be taken to school, and I know that when I arrive at the team it will be nine o’clock in the morning. The whole team will wake up, there will be a million routine questions, and I won’t complete my main task of the day. That's why I do it in the morning, before the kids wake up.. And then from nine to one I work with the team, with routine tasks, and with anything else that arrives. Here I am giving an interview. After an hour I usually work as a driver for my own children.

Now you have already begun to answer a little the second question about the day. As I understand it, it turns out, are you in5:00-5:30 get up so you can have1-1.5 hoursbefore the children get up.

Here you go, in the summer you can generally get up even at4:30 . I have just moved to Sochi. It’s generally light here, it’s very easy to get up at 4:30, the birds are already singing. Now it’s 5:00-5:30, because it’s dark in the morning and it’s a little more difficult to get up. Well, somewhere from 5:00 to 6:00 I do priming, a magical morning. And then hour I devote to my main task of the day. If I have time left, I also get in touch with my assistant for 15-20 minutes. I am scattering these tasks. After I have planned and completed my main task of the day, I understand a bunch of little things that my assistant can do for me. Or I can delegate to the rest of my team. I call this “throwing the ball to my team.” Then I can merge with the children for 1-1.5 hours and take them to school. I also have a school that is passionate about Waldorf mechanics; parents are very involved there. Usually you won’t get out of there before 1.5 hours. I come from there and then further refine it. There are already people returning with questions or something else. This is how I work.

How many hours a day do you work on average?

Well, let's do the math. Haces, probablyOe, from six to eight. Still, even less, okay, five - seven. Because I still run every day. I still need to fit running or swimming into this story. In general, I rarely work more than eight hours.

Tell us a little about your children. As I understand, you already have a first-grader.

My place is absolutely gorgeous now. Last year, my son went to second grade, and this year Klasha went to first. That is, I have two junior schoolchildren in arms.

Oh, we've had a hard time. You know, I saw this hype and incredible suffering that is now happening to people associated with the standard education system. But I'm an optimist. Mit didn’t seem like I would definitely have something like this. How cool I am, I live in St. Petersburg (at that time I still lived in St. Petersburg), I have the best school nearby. I'll put my baby in there and everything will be fine. Moreover, I still have such a developed child. I was so naive.

We went to a regular school, through two months ago wild problems began with the fact that he stopped wanting to study. Well, how can I explain... if a child comes to first grade, and there the norm by the end of the first year is to read 20 words per minute. My son read 250 on the test on September 2. He was ready for this school, he went there with interest, he wanted to study there. In the second or third week he said: “I’m not interested in math, I’m not interested in reading. Studying is not interesting at all.”

After that I thought, well, what had to be done with my son in order to kill a person’s desire to read in two weeks. Before that, he generally read tons of books. Well, the problem began with the fact that he doesn’t want to study, go to school, I kick him out in the morning and explain. Then I started thinking, damn, who needs this? My beloved child, whom I adored and loved for all of 7-8 years (he went to school when I was eight), is being built there, he cries, he is forced to go to the fourth floor without a teacher and without his mother. The first class was on the fourth floor, and mom couldn't go there. And this is the attitude they just aren’t liked at this school and that’s all. I don’t understand why this was done, why you can’t love children. Also, by the way, the mothers in a regular school are all angry and no one smiles.

Well, it so happened that it accumulated closer to amber. Yes, and there was my personal story with the fact that I wanted to move. There was no water in the house we rented. In general, everything came together like that. II decided what difference does it make to me to movefrom St. Petersburgto the region or to Sochi. I still had to change schools.

We moved to Sochi. I was already ready for home education, because I was tired of this story. I think, Lord, I am a healthy person! I have a lot of connections, I can ask. There are a lot of people on Facebook who are already homeschooling, I ask how they do it, who they hire. I'll organize everything. And then it turned out that there is such a wonderful school in Sochi. We got there completely by accident. It is based on Waldorf mechanics, and the important thing is that children are loved here.

That is, I’m not interested in mechanics at all. I understand how it roughly works now, I figured it out. It is important that when my child came there there was an interview. To get into this school you need to pass an interview. He comes out of there, I tell him:

- Kuzya, how do you like it?

— I really liked this school- he says.

- Why?

— Because they sat me there for two hoursAndlistened.

Well, that is, there is a difference, you know? They sit and listen to the person. They ask him a question and listen to his answer. I gave both Kuzya and Klash there. Both of them go there, and so do I. In general, now I will be for alternative education, as it is called.

Awhat kind of mother are you anyway? Are there any concepts that you adhere to in education?

In my opinion, a person or mom, dad, Parents have two main functions to perform.. Everything else is not so critical. The first function is to inspire when a person cannot do something, when he fails, or when he has stopped. Maybe inspiring doesn’t necessarily mean forcing him to do it right now and saying: “Oh, go, go do it!” At some point, on the contrary, stop, give him a rest, and then discuss it with him again.

That is, the first main function is to inspire, and the second function is to support initiatives. Again, it's not that simple. This is especially difficult for idealistic Russian mothers. When a child asks to wash the dishes and you give it to him, then he should be left alone with this dish. I just saw how our mothers let their girls wash the dishes. She stands, and her mother corrects her. “I haven’t washed this plate, but water is flowing here.” And she walks around her and does all this. If you support her endeavors, then you need to believe in the person one hundred percent. So what if she breaks a plate or spills water?

This is my concept, I I support the child’s endeavors if he wants. Last Saturday we baked pancakes. My mother says to me: “Do you want to clean up all this after her later? And she makes pancakes for two hours, and half of these pancakes burned.” But this is not critical. INwhat matters is that she wanted to do it. I just know that in five years she definitely won’t want to. So as long as you want, please do it. I support a person in any of his endeavors. Here are two basic principles for me.

Now come onabout combination. How to be a mother and CEO of such a large-scale project?

Well, first of all, I said about regular planning. In order to have time to do something, you need to definitely plan. I had this story when people (small or medium-sized businesses) come to me for personal consulting and say: “I have so much stuff! I have such a head! I can't get anything done! How can I take this apart?” And the first thing we start doing is I say that vaWe need to learn to set aside an hour of time in the morning for ourselves and our planning. Everyone is like: “Oh, I don’t have time to do anything anyway, damn it, I still need to take an hour somewhere.” This is the most standard phrase that I often hear. But there is no other way. Until you start planning, all these tasks will continue to fly over your head.

And the second - this is the removal of everything unnecessary. Some may say that I got greedy, but I always knew and always did it, little by little delegating more and more. I have a housekeeper who comes twice a week, cleans, irons, puts away these endless toys. While she scrubs my house for 5-6 hours 2 times a week (170 sq.m., sorry, for 2500-3000 rubles), all I can think « what a blessing that I don't do this» .

Yes, I’d rather sit in front of the computer and earn these 3,000 rubles with my butt, and obviously in less time than 6 hours. This is what is called delegation. AND I delegate everything, what is possible. I don’t wash my things, I don’t scrub toilets, I don’t iron, I don’t have any household tasks at all. The only thing we have is a tradition: on Saturdays we make pancakes. Or if one of my relatives gathers, then I make breakfast. I'm tempted to make breakfast, and I do.

Respectively, I always hired nannies. Even when my children did not go to kindergarten (neither one nor the second), because it seemed to me that it was much more comfortable. I worked in exactly the same mode. In the morning I got up, worked, then at 7:00 the nanny came and from 7:00 to 11:00 played with them in the next room or went for a walk. Pin this caseIunderstood what was happening. Eit was the nanny I liked. So I combined one with the other.

Means, I always weigh my time. For example, I don't sell things on Avito. Because selling some old shoes for five hundred rubles on Avito is a lot of hemorrhoids, some conversations with unknown people. I'm just starting out weigh and think, I’d rather spend this time with the children. And in general, I weigh myself all the time. I'm not a perfectionist. Again, it's all about delegation.

For example, in the evening the dishes are not washed, but at the same time I know what my tasks are, we always make a success diary with the children, I don’t have time. Either a success diary or unwashed dishes - I always choose a success diary. I don't care what the dishes are in the sink, because what's important to me here is that the kids are more important than some stupid dishes.

DI delegate all sorts of payments for utilities, telephone, and order packages of home-cooked food. Last year I had a nanny, she brought the children at 12:45. This means that at 12:00 I got up from the computer, walked, and poured out everything that was there from the bag. I simply read the recipe and made it without going to stores or wasting time. I also order groceries online now.

I delegate everything that is possible. DI even delegate my clothes to the stylistat. Not because I’m so rich or because you go with a stylist once, spend 3-4 hours on it, she buys your entire wardrobe for the whole summer, and you don’t worry about it anymore. I remove this problem from myself once and for all, for the whole season. She also does the same thing with sorting out the wardrobe, she and I remove old things that are not needed, I also delegate. So, that’s how I do everything.

That is, planning and delegation - this is what helps me in life.

Listen, I understand you, especially about the housekeeper.IAt this moment I also think how good it is that I’m not doing this.

In general, sometimes I read, people are just afraid to call housekeepers, like someone else’s aunt. This is what I think: “Yes, at least ten strangers, as long as it’s not me at all.”

Well, great. You also know about planning. I am the onea person who loveslists, likes to plan everything. Co.Moms often contact me, who say:"TOhow can I plan if I have small child ?» . I usually tell them about flexible planning, when you are not tied to a specific time, but to which ones — then temporary intervals . After a walk, during an afternoon nap, Anot at 12: 00 . Pbecause the child may be half an hour later, two hours earlier, not sleep at all, and so on. So here I understand you perfectly.

Yes, you are very, very correct. When mothers with small children come, I have the same reaction. Firstly, I always say that if the child is under one year old , if the child is very small, then I generally think that there is no need to work, really. You are stressed after childbirth, the baby is not sleeping. I mean, he sleeps very raggedly, you need to feed.

Running your own business or something of your own with a child under one year old is only, it seems to me, if there is some kind of need. EIf there is an opportunity to babysit this year, sleep when he sleeps, get up when he gets up. Anyway, you don’t have to do any business for up to a year. I did it at one time and now I really regret it. Because it's stress that no one needs. This year we need to recover, and somehow it will be much easier in the future.

Well, the second thing is that you said that with small children everything is the same, only there is no strict schedule. You don’t really tie these tasks to time. You just choose the main task for yourself that day and try to cram it in very calmly at the moment when it works out. That's all!

Yes, I agree with you.UI have two more traditional questions. The first question is about books. I ask you to recommend what— something useful and what— something for the soul if you read fiction.

Well, I will recommend a book called “The One Thing” by Harry Keller. It seems to me that it was translated into Russian. I read it in English. It's called “The One Thing,” which allows you to concentrate on some other important thing.

Thank you! INThe second traditional question. What advice can you give to those who are just thinking about their project, their business, their business?Ouraudience— The mothers who listen to us are mostly of small children and mothers of slightly older children.

You know, this is what I've been telling everyone for a long time. First of all, I would called them to my bAndlost— club, because it's really easier there do. Not because it's my product. And because we have more than four hundred people in the club and the number is growing, we do what is important.

When you start building a business, you feel like you don't have enough knowledge. This is called “tyranny How?” (that's what I call it). We'll figure something out. UThe question immediately in our minds is: “How will I do this?” And immediately fold your hands. “That’s it, I don’t know how to do this? It’s unclear how to achieve this goal.” But in fact, in fact, “How?” is the last question you need an answer to. Because the answer to the question “How?” he's everywhere. There are a million YouTube videos, there is free material, there is paid material. The answer to the question “How?” - this, believe me, is the easiest answer you will have to look for the answer to.

The hardest thing, and the thing you really need to think about, is... where to get the right environment. Because until you start communicating with people who are doing the same thing, who have similar goals, who have already walked this path in some way, you will simply do everything the same. Only ten times longer, seriously. Plus, the environment itself is needed to support you. Support by the shoulder, say: “Masha, don’t cry, it happened to me too.” And this is the most important thing, this is what you need to look for first.

You can search in different ways. You can, like me, for example, when you interview experts and communicate with them, asking them your questions. You can use social networks, just communicate in a basic way on social networks, write about what is happening to you, what difficulties or problems you have, ask questions to the audience. People really love to help. You can come to groups, free, like our Websarafan. Large group, there are sixty thousand people there. A million people will help you if you ask a question. Or come to what— then paid community, where they are a little more closed and there is a little safer communication. Or look for a mentor, if your financial capabilities allow, or you can agree on barter. This is a person or coach who personally supports you every week or every two weeks.

That is, my advice is stop focusing on “How?”, because “How?” - this is the simplest question, but look for the right environment that will allow you to move forward, don't give up and ask yourself the right questions, look for the correct answers to them.

Thank you very much for the interview.

We learned not only about what allows Taisiya to be successful in her business and, for a moment, get on the Forbes list, but also about how to deal with “armchair critics,” as well as how to motivate yourself to get up early every day. morning and what personal goals she sets for herself.

Hello, Blogger: We all want our favorite business to bring in money. Then a hobby turns into a profession, and mental balance returns to normal. But what if you’ve been working on a project for a year or two, but it doesn’t bring in any profit? Should we give up? What helps you not give up on your business goals?

Taisiya Kudashkina: — We are opening an entrepreneurial laboratory, and I ask myself all these questions. If we talk about business in a broad sense, and this includes bloggers, expert businesses, and agencies, it is important to understand that there are two phases.

The first is that you learn to do at least something that will feed you. Consulting, coaching, design work and so on. I call this “man hours” - time that you exchange for money. While there is no business model, create an email list and learn to write quality content. This will help you develop your own project.

Second, as soon as you have minimal money, start developing a business model and think about how to scale your skills. For example, you can sell recordings of your courses - you make the recordings once, and they will be sold for years.

Another option is to create a service. A great example is AskUsers. At first, volunteers were recruited to research the usability of the site; now the customer selects the required number of people and the required feedback. AskUsers packaged a single piece of expertise into the system.

You will never be able to do all this at once: you do not know your audience and their “pains”. While you are in the first phase communicating with people, consulting, setting up some things, you are laying out a golden path to successful scaling.

Maybe then you need a mentor who has had similar experience? To scale up as quickly as possible? Or, in principle, if you move towards your goal step by step, you will get there, just not so quickly?

T.K.: — Consultations are definitely needed, you won’t be able to grow alone, the only question is what kind they will be. These could also be courses, of which there are a million on the Internet on any issue. But here you need to understand that you need to act as follows: “I read it, I went and did it.”

If you know a person who was successful in the business that you are currently doing or planning to do, you go, follow him on all social networks, read his posts. And you apply the acquired knowledge. This is also a kind of consultation, only this quiet, “handkerchief” kind, as I call it.

You can try personal communication. But the trick is that no more than 5% actually do what they were advised to do. Start implementing the tips and it will start working.

There is another format that I personally use: listen to a lot of podcasts. At least 3-4 per week. If I really feel like I’m stuck, the problem is here, I go and listen to a podcast on this very topic. And then I try to implement the acquired knowledge into business.

Do you have a mentor yourself? Or do you no longer need it?

T.K.: — There is no such thing as “already.” Even when American billionaires are asked about the main success factor, they name either coaching or a mastermind group. The more I grow, the more I realize that I need people like this.

I don’t have a permanent coach; this story happens spontaneously. I can deal with this or that problem for 3-4 months - I work step by step. When I'm trying to figure out how to solve this problem, I look around, see a person who was able to solve it, and I go to him.

This is what happened to me with Pyotr Ponomarev. I had a problem with email marketing; I didn’t know how to set up email chains to make it all work. I turned to him, and for about six months we worked on this. Then this problem disappeared. And now, for example, I am working on issues related to “affiliate programs”.

“Couch analysts and negativity on social networks are normal”

In one of your interviews, you said that personal branding helped you a lot. There is a lot of advice online, but they are all quite general. I would like some specifics. How did you come to the point that even the name itself became a brand? How to be considered an expert in your field?

T.K.: — You need to do the basic things. Carry out the work that infuriates us all: understand your core values, think about how you can invest them in your business. Then finding the client’s avatar is not just “this is a woman, she’s between 20 and 30 years old.” You need to feel the language of the clients you communicate with. Your target audience should be defined very clearly.

After this, there are no pills for building a personal brand. Every day you show off: you post expert content on a topic, no matter what social network. For me this is marketing, business.

You can create a community to help yourself. I have a group on Facebook in which I am interested in communicating. In parallel to your personal page, you can start working on the group and cross-posting.

The simplest and most effective solution is to promote your personal page. Moreover, the Facebook algorithm is such that he loves it. If you have some activity, you will write useful posts, he will show it in his feeds, and you will gather a community around you.

The main thing is to do it every day. If you do this for a year and a half, you will definitely have a personal brand, I promise.

How to track your online reputation? Do you encounter negative comments?

T.K.: — When I did the first project - Tulp.ru (a resource for reviews and recommendations in Russia - editor's note), I knew practically nothing about how websites are made. But at the same time, this was my first business, and I invested so much energy and so many resources into it.

When we released the first version, I was happy with the fame because I received money for this resource, and everyone was waiting for us to release candy. And in the first release we released what is called a “pig into people” - there is even such a well-known American term when they make the first version of a technology startup. But then I was not ready for the reaction we would receive. I didn’t understand that people could have so much negativity.

There were a million “armchair analysts” who said: “They gave you so much money, but you did such nonsense. Whoever gave me this money, I would have done it a hundred times better.” After these comments I don't care anymore.

Negativity is normal. If you meet 100 people on the street, ten will not like you. And for you there will be at least five people with whom you do not want to communicate, they will not be pleasant to you. I have 10,000 followers on Facebook. Even if only 1% of them are hard haters, that’s already 100 people who will say nasty things. This is a law of mathematics.

At first I tried to speak politely, but then I realized: this is my personal page, they came to visit me in my personal space. If you don't like it, get out! I just block them.

“Essentially, Websarafan is a big experiment”

Why did Websarafan move from text content to podcasts? Were the articles not that effective?

T.K.: — We are all searching for ourselves. The history of Websarafan.ru is my story of finding myself. When I started it, I was in complete disarray in my head: a lot of money had been invested in Tulp.ru, there was an investor with a share. But, firstly, problems began with the investor himself, who fell off at some point. Secondly, at some point I realized that I didn’t really want to do this. There is a very technological platform, half a million pages, all “seeded”. It’s not very fun for me to understand all these technologies.

Websarafan is a big experiment. I just started writing - the first five articles were written entirely by me. Then I realized that I’m not interested in this, I’m good at writing short texts, for example, on my Facebook, but I’m not good at long ones. I hired an editor.

Then I realized that I was attracted to people, that I liked communicating with people. I started interviewing experts, which we recorded, and then transcribed, processed and posted on the blog in the form of text articles.

I understood that the site was not promoted, no one would want to write - how could I come to a high-level specialist, for example, Dima Rumyantsev (online advertising guru - editor's note), and ask to write an article. And when you come with news and ask for comment over the phone, rarely does anyone refuse. Speakers get a wow effect - they are pleased to get an excellent result.

But then I realized that there was a lot of audio material left. From that moment on, the idea of ​​creating podcasts came to me. Since a podcast is not an article and takes 30 hours or more of production, we began to build a content strategy around it.

We record a podcast, make a blog article from a piece, send it to an email newsletter, then I take this piece and publish it on my social network, then we post it in a group, sometimes I record a live video and we publish this video on YouTube . How can you apply this to your blog? You take the format you like and replicate it.

Sometimes it happens like this: it seems that it will definitely not work, but it works perfectly. The same Dima Rumyantsev, whom I always cite as an example, has a group on VK “Internet Marketing from A to Z”. Everyone says that no one reads longreads on social networks, but he writes longreads there - 2-3 pages long. This is how it works for him. He loves it! He does this for a year or two. Therefore, I am sure that in any format there will be those who will understand this if you do this regularly and for a long time.

How did you manage to achieve such attendance? What organic and inorganic promotion methods do you use?

T.K.: — Organic methods include SEO. But we never bothered too much with this, we installed a plugin on Wordpress, be sure to write a title with a keyword, insert one or two keywords into the text and add meta tags. All. Nothing artificial. And little by little, when you constantly work on it for a year or two, you get a cumulative effect.

Another organic method we use is crops. Again, as I said, if you have a personal brand that you develop on social networks, then you write a blog article and sow it on your social networks. You don’t even have to do something of your own! You can establish yourself as a specialist in an already promoted group, as is happening now on Websarafan, and post this content there. That is, if you have the right values, if you don’t just post a link or an advertisement, but treat honestly those who created this group, then they will let you in.

In my group there are about a dozen specialists of various types, whom I easily let into the community with my articles. Why is this happening? Because these people, excuse me, work in my group. Because I know that as soon as someone has a question, each of the experts in their field immediately answers it. This makes it even faster.

If you don’t have enough name and connections, then you can publish with more popular bloggers - go straight ahead and offer to post yourself for money. But their target audience should match yours, and likes should not be faked.

In one of your posts, you said that one of Websarafan’s mistakes is provocative headlines (example: “How to find a client’s G-spot?”). How to find the edge? How to come up with a cool title? But don't cross the line. In your opinion, how should you write to be read?

T.K.: — Just try! It all depends on your audience and your own boundaries. We went too far with the G-spot, there is an obvious strong sexual connotation, but the article itself is very cool. Essentially, it was about how to correctly look for the client’s “pains” and make sure that the business develops based on the needs of clients.

But, by the way, when we sent this article with this title, MailChimp blocked us. And that account was never unblocked for us. Because part of our audience decided that it was spam.

There are some articles that we deliberately made with “yellow” headings; they have tens of thousands of views. And I don’t care, even if there is such a headline, the main thing is that the content inside must be of the highest quality.

“I don’t give interview questions to experts in advance: I want expression”

How do you prepare for an interview? Are there any secret techniques you use?

T.K.: — I have always been sociable, I have never had a problem meeting a stranger and starting to talk. But of course, I “pumped up” these skills on Websarafan. And podcasts have made a very big contribution to this story.

They have a huge role to play - networking. I, on at the moment, recorded my fiftieth podcast, which means that I met fifty cool people and spent at least 1.5-2 hours with them during interviews.

And I quickly acquire connections due to this. If I didn't have podcasts, I wouldn't have a reason to communicate.

Some we become friends with, some we don’t communicate with later, but nevertheless, the podcast provides incredible networking. During the interview, you get to know each other and become closer. We talk about interesting topics, sometimes deep ones.

Some bloggers, especially text bloggers, are terrible introverts. Should you artificially communicate or should you follow what's inside you?

T.K.: — You need to ask yourself the question: “What do you want for yourself, Masha?” If you absolutely don’t want to communicate with people and you don’t mind, then don’t take on this format.

There are also popular blogs based only on personal experience. The same Maxim Ilyakhov does not interview anyone, he writes articles for the blog himself, and, by the way, he is a rather private person. He was at our summit and I talked to him. I wouldn’t say that he is like me: he spreads himself in all directions and communicates with everyone. No, a completely different person. At the same time, he has a huge personal brand.

You can also do podcasts, like Radislav Gandapas, for example, he just turns on the recording device and says what’s in his head for half an hour.

How long does it take you to prepare for a podcast?

T.K.: — Elnara Petrova, who makes “SMM without cats,” and I recently compared how each of us makes podcasts. And she and I have very different approaches.

I never prepare questions for interviews, I have my own standard list from which I can build, but my experts don’t see it. I don't give questions in advance.

And Elnara, for example, gave me a list of questions before the interview. I've been preparing for this podcast. They asked me clearly and that’s all.

This is completely the opposite of the traditional way of preparing for an interview! How are you doing?

T.K.: — I don’t want to give questions, because I want expression, I want emotions, so my task on the podcast is to dig to some depth, to bring out what is interesting about a person. I want a deep dialogue, I go to it, I try to come up with questions that have not existed before.

The editor is currently in charge of the preparation. But it’s not long, I think about half an hour.

We agree with the speaker on the general direction of the topic. For example, with Maya Bogdanova (copywriter, content technologist - editor's note) we agreed that we would talk about story-telling - this was such a general outline. And in the end we started talking about content marketing, about promotion through a personal brand.

Was it ever that experts refused to answer any questions?

T.K.: — Out of 50 podcasts, I was asked for questions once. I said that we don’t give them, then this person refused to speak with me, so we still gave the questions. But then it so happened that I gave the questions, but did not follow them.

“I want a million rubles in turnover per month from Websarafan and live in California”

After the interview on Snob, many were amazed: getting up at 5 am is simply unrealistic. How did you train yourself to such timing?

T.K.: — There would be no happiness, but misfortune would help. I have no other option, since I have neither a husband nor grandparents, and the children are completely on me.

They get up at eight in the morning, and the nanny comes at 9. If I don’t get up earlier, then I most likely won’t do tasks that require concentration. The main tenet is to do your main things before the children wake up. I want to communicate with them when they wake up, I want to have breakfast with them.

I have a nanny from 9am to 1pm and my team wakes up so I can get on with the routine. Facebook is starting to wake up. I cannot complete my tasks that require extreme concentration without being constantly distracted.

In order to start waking up earlier, there are all sorts of techniques. For example, Power Up and other gadgets that determine the cycle of your sleep. For example, I wake up worse at 7 than at 5:30. Probably by 7 am my sleep phase goes into a state of deep sleep, and it is much harder to wake up from deep sleep than from fast sleep. I observed myself and realized that my ideal time is 5:00 or 5:30; if I get up at least half an hour later, it will be harder for me.

Then all sorts of games with oneself begin. For example, put the alarm clock at the other end of the room. Because by the time you get there, your brain will turn on, the logical rational principle will remember that you wanted to get up and you will get down to business.

What applications on your phone do you use most often?

T.K.: — Wunderlist, a productivity app, but I don’t use it completely, I have my own clearly structured system, it doesn’t fit into any electronic planner. But not because they are bad, but because I like to write. And I returned to the notebook.

In my productivity system, there is something called context, something that David Allen (personal productivity expert - editor's note) talked about: you combine tasks of a certain type into one group so that you can do them together.

For example, if you have a task for the day to make a call, then instead of making one call at 10 am, another at 3 pm, and a third at 5 pm, you group these tasks into one list, calling this context the word “Phone” , and when a certain time comes, you call all the numbers in a row. Without being distracted or switching from format to format.

These are the lists I keep on Wunderlist. There is also this: “Buy in the store.” When I remember that I need to buy butter, I free my brain and immediately add “butter” to that list and forget about it. And then, when I came to the store, I had a shopping list ready.

There is another secret to my productivity: I sleep at least half an hour during the day. Because if you get up at 5 am and go to bed at 10 pm, the day becomes really hard. When I see that I'm not doing well, I just go to sleep. There is an application called White noise with different sounds (ocean noise, nature noise). And I already have a reflex to it: I simply fall asleep in two minutes.

In an interview with business coach Elena Klishina, you mentioned the 100 goals technique. As practice shows, not everyone is enough to create such a global list of “wants and dreams.” Were you able to find so many targets at once? And, if it’s not a secret, what is Taisiya Kudashkina at number 100 on this list?

T.K.: — I don’t have a hundred goals, I don’t worry about it, I have 33, in my opinion. By the way, I also have this list on Wunderlist, because if something comes to my mind, I immediately add it.

The main task is that I want the sundress to have a million rubles in turnover in October and I want to move to California with my children.