An Interview with Maria Romanenko, Life Coaching Columnist

Maria Romanenko is a life coaching columnist who covers the subjects of confidence, self-growth, and well-being. She is a certified life coach, modern applied psychologist and has studied the science of well-being. She works remotely from her flat in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Tell me about yourself and what motivated you to start blogging or your business?

I’ve been in journalism for five years and have always enjoyed writing. My favorite way of writing is writing about myself, as I like revealing my own vulnerabilities to which other people can relate.

A couple of years ago, in a bid to figure out my own concerns and peculiarities, I started reading around 30 psychology-related books a year and took online courses in life coaching, modern applied psychology and the science of well-being. That led to me feeling like more people should know the things I’ve learnt about human psychology, cognitive behaviors and physical behaviors. So, I started my blog to communicate these things in a very digestible and relatable way.

1. What do you find most challenging about blogging or running your business?

I’m in the starting stages of running my life coaching blog while maintaining my full-time job in journalism. The challenging part is making my blog have a well-running structure where I have to follow a clear-cut strategy for it.

2. Describe your experiences with some of the people you’ve met while blogging or doing business?

I’ve met some incredible people. I believe that the start to almost anything in life is through networking. This is the knowledge that took me months to build, and I can now definitely say that without knowing the right people who can make the journey easier for you, almost nothing will work.

3. What networking do you do that helps your blogging or business?

I haven’t done a lot of life coaching-specific networking. But I used to attend monthly calls also attended by people from all over the U.S., through which I had met many highly motivated individuals (including a few coaches). I’ve stopped attending those because of the time difference, but I have made many personal connections and probably some for life.

4. How do you come up with material/content for your business or blog and keep ideas fresh?

I have defined three main areas for my Instagram blog: self-growth, confidence, and well-being. This means that 90% of my posts should be on those subjects. Defining what specific things to write about is fairly easy as I write for an audience similar to myself. So, anything that I used to worry about in the past or still worry about now will be good subjects for me. I write for the people who cannot afford to spend many hours reading all the psychology books and studying courses, and want to find the way to total alignment with themselves and their goals faster.

5. What’s your strategy with your blog or business in general?

I try to keep at least around 75% of my Instagram posts informative and useful (instead of just describing what I’ve been up to). I post twice a week: on Wednesdays and Sundays. My Instagram blog is very much under my personal brand, so I prefer to use my name and photographs so that the audience knows who is talking to them.

6. What’s the best thing a blogger can give to his readers or a business can give its customers?

A safe space to be themselves.

7. What are some tips for people interested in making money from blogging? What are some realistic expectations in regards to what can be made?

The start is always about showing up, growing your audience and giving away information for free for some time before you start charging for anything. Start an emailing list or find a way to get people’s emails (though a newsletter is definitely the best and most ethical way to collect and store peoples' emails).

When you have 1,000 true fans (i.e. people who have willingly subscribed to your newsletter, are reading most of them, and interacting with you), you can try selling a product to them, which should cost under $10. The magic works when those 1,000 of your true fans (or, let’s say, 700 of them because some might have a reason not to buy this particular product) buy the $7 product, and you get around $5,000 — a great start. Then you find ways of growing your list and offering more products (as well as upsells).