Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Caroline Tochtcheva. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Caroline, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I believe everyone, at least once in their life, can say, “I’ve taken a big risk.” However, they will only say it out loud when they feel safe and successful in what the risk entailed. Why? Because we only perceive something as a risk when it scares us. Looking back, I can proudly say that I’ve taken many risks. Some were failures, some were successes, but each one was a battle with myself, my doubts, and my insecurities.
You can take risks in your relationships, in your job, or even in jumping off a cliff with friends. They may seem very different, but they are not because you are challenging your beliefs about who you are.
Recently, I took a risk by starting a pregnancy video podcast on YouTube called “Pregnancy As a Critical Thinker.” So far, we’ve shot four episodes, and it has been an amazing and rewarding experience, especially hearing from future moms who enjoy watching it! Why was it a risk? Because I didn’t think anyone would want to watch it. It’s very time-consuming and expensive to shoot and edit, and I feel extremely self-conscious about how I look on camera. All the toxic thoughts started crawling into my head once I had the desire to start this video podcast. Thankfully, it’s not the first risk I’ve taken, so I quickly brushed these thoughts away and got to work. It didn’t used to be so easy for me. To be honest, most of my life, I let doubt ruin things for me. What changed? Maybe I got older. Maybe I found my husband, who is the most supportive person. Maybe I feel more confident in myself after reflecting on the things I’ve done instead of focusing on the things I didn’t do.
I might not look the way I want or make as much money as I want, but I love helping women through their pregnancy and postpartum journey. I love creating and educating. I love the wife and friend I am. All the risks were worth it, so why not keep taking them?
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Lansomatic is a mix of my values, my education, my expertise, my worldview and my creativity. It started as massage therapy practice with focus on prenatal and postnatal care. I’ve been doing it for 10 years. It’s the most rewarding part of my life – helping women through this challenging, vulnerable, yet most beautiful journey of becoming a mother.
This year, Lansomatic became not only Austin, TX based practice, but reached future moms all over the world via our social media presence. We post helpful self massage and partner massage tutorials to help you elevate body aches of pregnancy. We create ebooks explaining posture changes during pregnancy and postpartum. And our most recent adventures include a video podcast on YouTube “Pregnancy as Critical Thinker” and soon to be released course for expecting parents.
My goal for Lansomatic is to become a helpful go to resource for moms who want to stay in tune with their bodies and have a wonderful pregnancy experience.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’ve had too many! One, however, relates to my profession the most. I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but universe had other plans.
I started medical school in Moscow. At 19 I immigrated to USA without any English, so it took a good year to get to the point of being able to pass SAT and TOEFL. I applied and got accepted, but had to do undergrad because in USA medical education system is different. I had to pay my bills and working at the bakery wasn’t gonna align with my classes. I got licensed and started working as a massage therapist to support myself through college.
From day one I fell in love with the job. I get to help people feel better in just an hour! My hours are flexible, I’m my own boss, I can learn and add to my practice all the time, I can build a community and support women. It was all I wanted – freedom!
People still tell me “oh..so you are just a masseuse?”, but as Lansomatic grows, I’m proud to say “Yes, I’m”.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?
Recently, I was on my Facebook Ad manager page and for the first time in two years I looked at the amount of money we spent on ads to help grow our page. It said 1500$. I was shocked. I didn’t realized we spent this much (2 years ago it was a lot of money for me!).
Then I realized something – money doesn’t matter. We all want and need them, obviously. However, my biggest motivator in starting my own business was always my passion. It might be bad, but I often don’t look at how many hours it will take or how much money. If I’m passionate about the idea, I’ll do it anyway!
Another example for you – Lansomatic Ebook. I wrote two ebooks to this day. One is 20 pages and our prenatal ebook is 50 pages. They have infographics, massage techniques, articles, games and etc Second book took me 3 months on and off to make, but defiantly at least 60 hours. You know what? It’s an absolutely free resource we have for download on our socials. Why? Because I did it knowing someone will greatly appreciate it when they are pregnant! It has been downloaded more than 300 times and I’ve got DMs thanking me for this ebook. This makes it worth it.
So when you ask how I planned and got together a capital to start a practice – I didn’t. I paid with my time and effort, built loyalty and now it pays me back.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lansomatic.com
- Instagram: Lansomatic
- Facebook: Lansomatic
- Youtube: Lansomatic | Pregnancy as Critical Thinker
- Other: Apple Podcasts : Pregnancy as Critical Thinker
