Breaking Free from Stress and Embracing a Coaching Career with Olga Kirillova

Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective. Planning for Your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves, get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Hey, everybody, it's Jeff here, once again with the Freedom Nation podcast. And I am so excited today to have a guest on that we we got our things messed up a couple of weeks ago, and I just so wanted to get her on because I read her LinkedIn profile and just fell in love with her because she was like, the most honest person that I've ever from a from a LinkedIn. Usually LinkedIn is like, oh, yeah, we're great. We're wonderful. You know, we started off making six figures in two months and all that and she was just blatantly straight up honest. Just just told it like it was. So I'm just excited to tell her story here today, Olga. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, Jeff. I'm so excited to be

so glad to have you on. Let's kick it off. Why don't you tell us your story? How did you get to where you're at today?

So yeah, basically, like, has had quite quite good drop in Adidas and like, all the likes, like Wayfair you know, like, all these big companies big names, like, quite quite good. You know, they can manage teams, and they can be budgets, you know, they can seem very successful on the outside, especially that they come with a very poor background and Russia. And, like, seems good, but at some point that like, really started to give me anxiety and they can my anxiety attacks got pretty bad. So like, every morning, I would feel like you know, my, my heart is pounding I can't breathe. Like I lose the like, the touch of my lips, like they go completely numb. It also something that was like clearly off, you know,

this is not normal. Yeah, you feel numb, like you don't have your fingers is not a normal way to go to work.

And like my partner, like was burned out. But like, we still like kept going on because like, that's like, like, you're not in Egypt, right? Like you don't drop out of job that gives you like a stable income. So we wouldn't want to get pregnant with the second child for two years. We couldn't because we were so stressed out. And it basically like all ended up with me and like coming from some business trip and picking up my daughter from the daycare and she'll just like punch me in the face and scream homeless Shit, I don't want to go home. And that was kind of forget Right? Like the sign that

kinda like the hands thing when your daughter doesn't want to go home with you. This is not good.

No. So and that was kind of like the last drop and like, Yeah, I kind of like quit cold turkey. I was like, okay, like, I can't do this stuff anymore. And I tried to get into other jobs and it's basically self sabotage myself in the interviews. Like I just I kind of understood again like I don't want this shit. But like I don't know what am

I just trading one mat? Yeah, one prison for another president at this point?

Absolutely. Yeah. So that kind of like kicked kicked off the search of like, if not this then what else made me hire my first coach figure out that I can become a good coach. I took my my only savings of like 10k was something that I hadn't like just invested in the coach and study and here I am.

So you, you basically went from okay, you were in corporate world doing planning and things like that. So then you decided to be a coach. So let's talk a little bit about your your coaching What's What all do you do in your in your coaching business?

Basically, we're helping people like us back in the day they to go out of corporate and start their own business, but we call it purpose driven business. So because, like you said, like, we don't want people to change one prison for the other. Right? It's kind of like, it's exchanged. Like, you don't want to exchange your time for something that you don't love. So for us, it's like, we want people to start a business which doesn't even feel like work. That is like so passionate, and they're so in love was that that they will do it anyways every day, but now they just get paid for it.

Even better, yeah, even better. So let's talk a little bit about how was that for y'all? So I mean, you you quit cold turkey. Your husband still continued to work for a

little bit, right? Yeah, so like he worked a little bit like full time then he switched part time so he would work like three days a week like you had to change drop, like project based drop and something but it still worked. And then like we did it for like all for one and a half years like that, this kind of like hybrid model until we felt like okay, like the business is stable to sustain us. And then he like went out of corporate as well.

Yeah, exactly. But you know, I think the the biggest thing, and I thought that the thing that attracted me most of what you'd put out on the internet, I mean, you're once again, wait, and it was just so funny. It's like, Hey, this is what we were making, you know, we made a lot more in our corporate jobs. But we were making this and we were able to sustain ourselves, you know, what was that? What was that? Like? Because I know, a lot of our audience is the old US that are out there that are, you know, they're working in corporate and they kind of want to get out there and start their own business. You know, what was that like? Getting started? For you?

Rough? Yeah. Like, not in a way that was difficult. Actually, it is not difficult, but I think it's like, it's just the mindset thing. Yeah. Cuz what people are scared the most is like, like, what people will think of me now that's like, you know, like, the new men's the, is the job, the director of like, whatever. And now I'm, like, I don't know, do keep doing cooking for a living, like, how will people like think about me, like, so people don't want to like, you know, go out and promote themselves and say that, like, they have this new business, and they need to start something, right. So it was the same for me. Like, I was struggling, like, I also understood, like that people were attracted, like, a lot of times to what I was saying, and they would call on the sales call, and I was sure that Sally, like, anyone's anyone like, so I would get nose from people, right? Sure. So, but I think that that taught me so so much and gave me like such a kick in the butt to really like, get into the nitty gritty and like really analyzing, like, where did I make the person unsafe? Why would they not trust me to work with me, you know, and going through all these things. And also, like, understanding, and that's what we seen, like was majority of our clients as well. That's like people like your first clients, like, customers, wherever they will come from your network, they will come from your circle. And people somehow, like think that they magically will put like the website out there. And strangers come in. Yeah. That's it doesn't happen this way. Right. And there is nothing wrong with that. Because these people, they trust you because they know you, right? They have like some some basis of knowing you, and they come to work with you. And then they recommend you to someone else, right. So like our business, like in the first like, couple of years is just like built off referrals. They literally like we didn't like, we like actually, we did all the mistakes, right? Like, we build a website, like we invested like 1000s of euros and build on the website that we didn't touch them, like until now. And now like I opened this like, Oh, like that looks completely not like we're doing anything right now. Yeah, it looks shit.

You don't even really know. Yeah, you don't even know who you are. At that point.

Yeah, that's the thing, because like, you just need to start out. And as you go, kind of like this past reveals the next steps and the more opportunities that that you have, right? And you can, like, you know, like, change the direction, but until you start, like, it's just stereotypical assumptions, you don't have any data to analyze, you know?

No, you don't necessarily know. I mean, you, you, you know who your market is, and what service you want to provide. But you don't know what that is all going to be, you know, and it's funny, because literally, every business I've ever started, I've built the website, you know, I mean, there's so many great website builders, you go out there, you crank something out, it shouldn't take you more than an afternoon to create something that's a one page website that at least gets your presence out there. But you're gonna be adapting it.

Yes. Like, that's the thing, like your business will change and grow together with you. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, so I think that's like, kind of like how it started. First clients came from from the network, then referred somewhere else, and then slowly, you know,

you just keep building from there. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I think the biggest thing I know, when I was sitting in corporate, and I'm sure you same way, you get to the point where you're like, Okay, I really want to go out there and do this. But I got this guaranteed paycheck that's coming in. And it's so great. And you know, it's coming in every week or every two weeks. How, you know, as you transition as you went from that world into creating your own paycheck? How hard was that to create that paycheck? You know, was it like insurmountable? Or was did you kind of surprise yourself that it was a little bit easier, and you thought

it was a little bit easier than they thought? Because like, actually, like, because for majority of people, I would say that to sustain more or less like normal living like, hungry kids enough, like, you know, like, yes, of course, like you might want more but in terms of like paying your bills that can be like, okay, and the thing is like if you really start breaking down the numbers, like if you really like simplify to the bone, so you basically have the price point and the number of people you don't like like that. That's it? Yes, you You just have 20 clients for 5000 per year. That's it. That's done like 20 people like, are you able to find 20? People within your networks? Yeah. And if you work like in big companies, right, if you work in big corporations, you have massive networks, those people have their own networks, how impossible it is to find 20 people. But this is it. You know, like, if you just think like, this is way more simple than our brain makes it for us. Yes.

Well, I mean, we think, Oh, my God, I've got to make $100,000. But when you break it down to that simple thing, okay, my product or service is $5,000. I need 20 clients to get to 100k? Well, I mean, you have, let's, let's give it 250 days a year of working time, if you didn't work weekends, can you not find 20 People in 250 days?

That's the thing. It's not that

hard. Yeah. I mean, it's so that, I think, you know, you and I both kind of had the same path. From the standpoint of I sorta kind of knew what my business was going to be when I quit my job. But I kind of did the same thing. I didn't start a new business and then cut off, I cut off cold turkey, but I at least kind of had a plan of what I was going to do. But, but yeah, I mean, it's not the best way to do it. But I wouldn't, you know, I'd recommend if you, if you've got the ability to start something a little slower on the side, it's a great way to kind of get yourself approved. And just think of some ways that you could, yeah, some small things that you can reward yourself with, as you create that income.

At that point percent, I would think like, if you start something on the side, like, your first 20k, you didn't know nothing, like, literally, you just need to know that, like, I have some sort of offer some sort of like, service or product that I have. And you just go and offer it to be like, like, literally, like, just get on your whatsapp, you know, like, or whatever, like, I don't know, like messenger you're using and just like, get to your network and say, like, I'm offering this Do you know, someone would benefit from this, right? And like, to your first 20k, you need no nothing but this, but then when you made this first 20k Now you can start investing, maybe like, yes, you want to put the websites, like out like as a one pager, maybe you want to, like invest in like some equipment, like I don't know, like, if you are like, based online, I don't know, maybe like you want to buy a green light or like a microphone or something. Right. And then like, step by step, you know, like ramp it up. And like, basically, that you didn't need much more on you know,

now, I mean, that's the thing. And there's so many ways today, to build a business that doesn't cost, you know, hundreds of 1000s of dollars. I mean, there's all kinds of service businesses and use your skills. I mean, if you've got some kind of skill, and you enjoy doing it, it's just you're working for somebody else, then start using that skill outside your job as long as it's legal. And you can do that.

Absolutely. And you know, like, we started working now with like, tech entrepreneurs as well, a lot, because we're based close to Lisbon. And basically like, like, what you really see like what people do, you know, like when they build in a tech startup, you really need this, like very rough test product first with no nothing, right? But you need this very quick feedback loops. So that you literally like you put out like you said, like one one page, like LinkedIn page, and you just see like people clicking on it, like, you know, like, there might be even nothing on the back end, you can just say, oh, like when this like product is up, we'll let you know. Or whatever. But you just see, like, if there is a demand, and you do this quick feedback loops, and just like understand, like, do people want what I'm offering? Yes or No, before, you know, like for

you for investing 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of euros or dollars, and you end up, you end up with something that nobody really wants?

Absolutely. So this like, I would really recommend people like not to be so scared. And I think like, Yeah, from this, like corporate background, because we see this multibillion companies, right, and they have like all ducks in the row, right? They have beautiful websites, they have marketing teams, they have sales teams, they have, like wholesale distribution, whatever that is. And somehow we think that for us to start a business, it's this, we need, like a big business plan, you know, like, we need, like professional presence of sorts, right? And we're losing so much time on this, right? Or, like, we need additional skills and education and whatnot. Instead of like just like really like going out and trying and learning by experience and getting all this data in. And we'll be like progressing so much faster than if you're like spending years like trying to get additional education. Like sometimes I hear from people like oh, no, but before like I offer something to someone like I first need to get my MBA. Yeah, like, why

are they bat to do the work for a big company? Yeah, MBA is completely useless as a small entrepreneur. It's absolutely useless because it teaches you nothing of what you really need for me and I love the programs that are MBA in entrepreneurship. Okay, it's just the MBA you said it's entrepreneurship It's just an MBA, teaching me to work for big company. So it's amazing what I agree. So let's talk a little bit about your offerings for for companies, because you really have two distinct groups that you work with, right?

Yeah. So like, what basically we started off? How can people like us back in the day, right? Yeah, we'll slowly go out of corporate and like, create the business. But it's like, we would really not want people to like quit one job and recreate the same kind of like, shoot outside of corporate job, but

it's even worse. Yeah. I'm here as I did your worst boss, was me. So

I like kind of like, always told myself, but at least you know, like, I'm stressing out myself. Not not some stupid.

I'll give you that one. But yeah, it's still, it's still not good. But

what do you though, like? So like, we help people to find the business that like we call it purpose driven. So like something that really comes like kind of like inside our thread, that people would feel very passionate that it wouldn't even feel like work? Yeah, but at the same time that it is profitable, right, because we still need to pay the bills. So it's not the hog? Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's basically like, what we do like we kind of like, we have like two tiered approach, because like, in the first step, like we kind of like helping people to find their business idea and build like, what we call like a rough MVP. So like, minimum viable product, or let's call it test products, right to just test on the market. And we have it like kind of like an on demand course, because we know that people in corporate sometimes, like need a bit more time and to do this at their own pace, you know, but once they're ready, and the test product is ready, like we kind of like take people and we put them in a what we call a boot camp. So like we really push people for three weeks, like stop, sell the shit out, really go out. And like learn the skill of sales. Like it's kind of like to one establish yourself as an expert in the space where you're offering something now, right then like and to learn not to be scared to sell and kind of like test, right? You just like go through this, like test rounds. And then you take it back and you like, you know, analyze and reiterate, that's given this initial like, kind of like kickstart push for people to go out there and actually start like, getting the feel of getting first money in you know, like, yeah, you know, it's the basis for getting this first 20k in after which one, like you can start already, like invest in building like something more like system wise approach to what you're doing?

Absolutely. So then, then you also work with existing smaller startup companies? How do you work with them that the some of the tech startups that you're working with?

So like, yeah, like, because we moved to Lisbon. And we kind of like saw that, like, there is a like, there are a lot of tech tech entrepreneurs here, right? So amazing people, like, people are extremely stressed out, right, that that's what we see from people like they're stressed out and burned out, because there's so much pressure, right, because they have the investors, investors are putting pressure, and they're like going very fast paced. So like, we notice that these people need kind of like to keep this high productivity, but without stressing themselves out. So like, we're helping them with that. But we also, like, try our best to work like this really purpose driven entrepreneurs, because there are a lot of people who are doing, like, Absolutely, like mind blowing stuff, like in tech, but in the intersection of like, health, consciousness and tech, creativity and tech, there's like a lot of like, really amazing projects that also come like, inside out, because people struggled with something before, you know, like, was the house for example, like in health insurances not paying for something or whatever. And now they're building the whole product around it. So it's also really, really interesting. And this somehow led us to noticing also, like, it's kind of like two very different groups, right? And they're, like, so separate from each other. It's like, two different worlds somehow, even though like humans behind each of them, right, but it's like lifestyle entrepreneurs that kind of like, hatin on this, the whole tech people, you know, like very business driven scaling businesses and stuff. Yes, exactly. Those like, you know, money making machines. You know, because, because, like money is all we talk about, and we're stressed out, because we don't have it and we don't have the stable money coming in, but we're gonna hate on everybody who's doing this, but then you have the tech entrepreneurs who like looking down kind of, like on the lifestyle people saying, like, oh, like these people with no ambition, but actually, like, they can, like saw, like, have like, so much synergy of learning from each other. Because they, you know, they could benefit from each other. So your tech intrapreneurs could benefit from this, like, mindset, you know, and like, a lot of consciousness people like, at least around us in this community. Right. And those guys could benefit from like, really business skills from the technopreneurs. So it's like, so we're trying to now build this community level. Bring both

Well, I mean, I I mean, honestly, I was not Have you been aware of all this that was going on in in Lisbon? You know, and in Portugal? You know, I, from what you're telling me, I mean, it's like a major tech hub.

Yes, it's become, it's becoming one now. Because like, it's, it used to be cheaper than, like a lot of other European cities.

I know you rich people move in and ruin it for everybody else. Yes. That is so awesome. It's just cool to hear. You know, and, you know, once again, you guys are building a business steady and slow. You know, you're not making millions of dollars a year, but you're making a good living to be able to feed your family and take care of yourselves and get to, you know, the beauty of it is you've also built a business that can really be anywhere, right?

Absolutely. Because like, and like you can you can recreate it, right, that can be like online and can be offline, like ends. Like, that's where like, we also, like, you mentioned some points, right? Like, just like trying to get like different revenue streams as well. So like, we're not so dependent on that. Like, it's kind of like we started working one on one with people, we noticed certain tendencies or certain requests, right, that you can like, bundle up and create a group program out of it, you know, and then you can turn it in the on demand course, which becomes your passive income, right? Step by step. Yeah. You know,

well, and I mean, for business owners that are out there that are listening to this. I mean, I take that to heart, which he's saying, I mean, you should be looking at, okay, here's my business, and then what other, you know, mind map it out and say, Well, what other things? Could I do? You know, is there something in my business that is kind of a low end thing that I don't really like doing, and I can't really charge enough to do it? Well, then maybe you could create an online course to do that. And that kind of takes that low end client out. And really, you know, it allows you also to build a relationship with somebody that maybe they want that little lower end product to kind of start with and build a relationship with you to where they might step up into personalized one on one.

Absolutely. It's like you're preparing your next like, your next clients, right? It's anyways, like their their choice, like whether they decide to work with you or not, right, but you're like bringing them into your universe, and they get to know you. That's absolutely

fantastic. All right. Well, let's, let's make a transition into the Fast Five questions. You're ready? Yes. All right. So number one, you wake up in the morning, business is gone. You still have your contacts, you have $500 in the bank, or 500 euros in the bank, you have a laptop computer a place to live food and drink, what are you gonna do first?

Basically, what I did before, I just like I have all my context, right? So it's just gonna reach to everybody and say, like, hey, because like, my brain hasn't gotten anywhere. Like, I still have the same skills, like I still can help people. So just yet on my messengers, like, I don't know, like, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever, Facebook, you know, I have to go and just like, tell as many people as possible that like, who I am and what I do and how I can support them. Right? Like, go in, like, meet people outside, you know, like, Go to meetups, go to networking events. And just like start building yourself up from scratch again,

love it. Absolutely. Love it. What is the biggest business mistake you've ever made? Pick one. Yeah, like,

too many. I think like not creating strategic partnerships early on, okay, because when you're just like starting out, you're not a no name, right? So like, it's good that you have your network, but at some points, like you need to get leads coming in, right, like you need to have more people like getting to know you. And a lot of times like why would people choose you and like as like, you know that you felt me a little bit like even from my LinkedIn profile, like very blunt, honest, it's not like because I'm collaborating now with someone and because like, I'm an official like partner of like X Y, Zed, I instantly became better, you know, like I'm the same so like the quality of my services are the same. But for people to understand and trust you they need a trusted partner. So when they see somebody bigger and with bigger name behind you, like standing together and kind of like giving you this authority, I would really recommend people to do it as early as possible to get on the strategic partnerships to get like an authority for yourself so people can see that they can trust you even those who don't know who don't come from your network or your networks.

Love it. Love it. What's a good book that you would recommend for our audience?

A lot of them but I think if people are just starting out get on Get yourself a mind for sales by Mark Hunter. Nice. I really love this book as like is really kind of like alliance with me on the way he looks at say Sales and the mindset he gives you for sales and like this, like selling from service. Absolutely love it.

Awesome. Awesome. That's a great one. It's a new one too. So we'll put that one under what is a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend a zoom? laughing because we were trying to record on a different platform and it wasn't working. So we defaulted back to zoom for this. It is a great tool, you can work anywhere in the world today.

Absolutely. I mean, like, if another one. I don't know, like, if people want to build courses, they might like Kajabi. So we use Jabeen like to build our courses and put our products on that. So

awesome. Awesome. All right. Last question. What is your definition of freedom?

For me, the Freedom is the freedom of choice. I think that's that's what it is. Because I think like you can never, like, couldn't like you can control your outside circumstances to a certain extent, but not completely, right. Like you can't, like you can't predict that somebody in your family like, passes away, for example, like I had, like, on my first pregnancy on the day I found out I'm pregnant, my mom passed away. Oh, no, you know, so like, yeah. But like, those things you can't control, like, something will always happen, you know, like, your worst will happen, like, something will happen with the market, you know, it will go down in the economic crisis and stuff. But you have the freedom of choosing. How do you respond to this? Yeah, like, No, I think like, we saw a lot of this in the pandemic as well as businesses. But like, for example, like some restaurants, like they went completely out of business, because they resist them. Oh, yeah. Like, people are not coming in, you know, and they gave up right? Over the, they will also those who, like, figure out a new way of running a business, you know, like, oh, you can do like a takeaway, you know, like to do food delivery, whatever that is, right. So is this freedom of responding to outside circumstances? In a way that serves you? Yeah, you know, because like, and is the same, like you can get pissed off about stuff. But in the end, you're just flooding your system was the stress hormones and you're the one who is suffering killing like your body. Like not Not, not those bastards, you know, that you're upset about? You know, like your

Boss anymore, that you can blame So, exactly.

Right. But like, you can handle this reactions, but in the end, like, is it really serving you? Right, but you have the freedom to make a different choice. And I would say like, it's also like, making the best out of what's out of what you have. Yeah.

I love that great answer. Absolutely. Great. So Olga, if somebody wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way?

Oh, my God, probably the easiest is the horrible website that's

still contact you from there, right?

Yes, they can still because there is a whatsapp button. Like, there you go. They can go on the messenger. So it is meta, but like, not like meta verse But methods WT like Buddhist, meta, Meta coaching.com. That's the easiest one. We also have LinkedIn profile, like the same like meta coach, and you also have Instagram account. So that

whatever, yeah, whatever social platform or the the wonderful website that you built. Yeah, anyplace, we'll put all those down in the show notes page. So if you want to connect with her, and I would encourage you to because she is absolutely straightforward. She may be very blunt, but she is very straightforward with you about this, and honestly, where her heart is, is helping you to grow, you know, to get out of whatever world you're in, and help you to grow your business. So I would encourage you to reach out, Olga, thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Folks. As always, we you know, we record these shows twice a week, and we share these with you. In future here we're going to be making a few changes to the show where we bring on some experts, we bring on some folks that that you know, like Olga that have created a world for themselves and good old Jeff is going to be back kind of giving you some of that, the basics of Freedom Day and some of my new projects we're working on. As I've told you, the last couple shows the Freedom Day book is about five weeks out at this point for those of you for those of you that want to understand the Freedom Day process that we've been talking about it will be available. So we'll see you back here soon and we will be looking for other people like Olga.