We were lucky to catch up with Olga Belikova recently and have shared our conversation below.
Olga, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
In essence, my mission is to provide spiritual guidance and support, fostering hope for those who feel like they have no control over their “reality” and who are really struggling as a result of their limiting beliefs instead of realizing how powerful their mind is and how much their life could change once they start owning this power.
The reason this mission is so meaningful to me is because, for much too long, I WAS that person. I know what it’s like to feel hopeless and depressed. I know what it’s like to wonder what the point of life is and to feel like nothing makes sense. I know what it’s like to feel a sense of emptiness and disappointment in the way your life has been.
On my journey, I’ve done a lot of soul-searching, but it wasn’t until I started to explore and dive deeper into the topic of manifesting (with the Law of Attraction and later with the Law of Assumption) and then applying it my own life, that I started to experience many incredible changes. It made me realize how incredibly powerful we are as creators of our own reality and how much our mindset matters!
In the beginning, this path may take a lot of persistence, discipline, and, most of all, faith. But ultimately, it’s 100% worth it! And I would love to support and encourage others who resonate with these concepts but are not yet sure if manifesting will work for them. Because I know it will, and they have yet to experience all the awesomeness our world has to offer!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Olga (I am originally from Moscow, Russia, but my family and I moved to the States when I was a teenager). For as long as I can remember, I was fascinated with psychology (I have a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology & a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology) and all things metaphysical. I was always curious about the nature of reality and spent many years exploring all the information I could to help me better understand why we are here and what my “purpose” is in the world.
When I was in my twenties, I had a soul-shattering breakup with someone whom I loved with all of my heart, and shortly thereafter, I was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disorder that had completely overtaken my world. It negatively affected every aspect of my life, leading me on a long and arduous path of trying to figure out how to heal myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
On this journey, I came across many different modalities and learned a variety of helpful psycho-spiritual tools, all of which played a significant role in my healing as well as self-realization. As a result, I discovered that one of the most vital things we can do to fulfill our purpose and live life to the fullest is to become aligned with what our higher-self (or our soul) came here to experience, which is partially the reason why my brand name is Ask Your Soul. Another reason is that I started this business when I was studying to become a Past Life Regressionist, and it occurred to me that all we are doing during regressions is asking our soul for answers, which it always has for us.
Over the years, I also learned a lot about the power of our thoughts and conscious reality creation (not only from books and videos, but also from hundreds of Near Death Experience stories I love listening to), but it wasn’t until a few years ago that I started to dedicate more of my time and energy to diving deeper into this topic (especially Neville Goddard’s teachings on the Law of Assumption) and applying it in my own life. Learning the process of manifesting has been tremendously helpful in transforming many aspects of my life as well as my old, inefficient way of thinking. It has shown me that there is much more to reality than meets the eye, and it has given me hope that virtually anything is possible! I felt like this knowledge could benefit numerous people and had to be shared, which is why I decided to focus most of my products and content (on Youtube, Instagram, my blog, and other social media platforms) around the topic of manifesting and other spiritual concepts that can help us gain a deeper understanding of the principles of “reality,” while living a happier, more purposeful life.
Currently, in my shop, I provide mostly digital (and some physical) products, most of which are related to spirituality and manifesting. For example, I offer a printable Law of Assumption workbook that is a great introduction to the world of Manifesting, a variety of insightful Neville Goddard quote cards, printable affirmation cards on different topics, and other printables related to manifesting. I also offer unique printable tarot and oracle cards, posters, journals, and calendars. Over the past year, I have been focusing on creating more editable templates for creators and coaches who have a psychology or spirituality-oriented business and would like to create digital offerings for their clients/customers. These templates include editable affirmation, oracle, and chakra cards, workbooks, ebooks, journals, and other useful templates they can use in their business that will save them hours of time when creating their own unique product.
When I have enough time (which is quite limited right now that I have two little kiddos), I also offer “Soul Message” Oracle Card Readings, Manifestation Coaching, and Energy Healing Sessions (I have taken many different energy healing courses over the years, and I am certified in Usui Reiki and Emotion Code). So far, it’s been such a joy to connect with people from all over the world and to be able to help them in my own way. I really love my clients and customers, and I am so grateful for everything they’ve taught me on this journey.
Meanwhile, I am always working on my shop and expanding my offerings, and I plan to start offering affirmation audios (and possibly creating custom ones) in the near future. Having personally experienced how incredibly powerful and effective affirmation audios can be, I think these will be a great option for a lot of people who have been struggling with their manifestation practice.
Recording affirmations feels like a natural progression because another huge aspect of my life I haven’t yet mentioned is that I’ve been a singer/songwriter since childhood, so I am no stranger to vocal recording. I think of music as the language of my soul, and I can’t imagine my life without it. In fact, music also played an integral role in my own healing because when I was going through some of the hardest times in my life, I channeled that energy into creating a music album, which, through a series of synchronicities, led me to meet my husband.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
For most of my life, I had regular jobs that did not feel aligned with who I am at my core, and I always had a nagging feeling that I HAD TO start my own business. Since I knew absolutely nothing about starting a business and I hadn’t heard any positive stories relating to starting a business (my parents had a business of their own for a couple of years in Russia, which resulted in nothing but disappointment), that idea seemed kind of delusional and completely out of reach. But eventually, it got to a point where I could no longer ignore my desire (I would even call it a “need”) to start creating something of my own and to find a way to be of service to others.
Even though I had taken numerous courses, read many books, watched an infinite amount of videos on all kinds of spiritual topics, and practiced many spiritual concepts in my own life, I had no idea how to make my ideas practical and which service or product to create. Another big issue was that I did not have any money to invest into growing a business, so I had to figure out a way of doing this without any startup capital. At first, I experimented with offering past life regressions (after becoming a certified regressionist) and oracle card readings, which I started recording on my YouTube channel in the hope of finding future clients through those videos. However, because I was a new mom, struggling with postpartum depression and not having enough time or energy to stay consistent with my channel, this idea did not work out.
Still, I kept learning and exploring many different avenues and paying attention to my intuitive nudges and synchronicities, and eventually, I realized I could try creating my own products on Etsy. I actually started off with custom-made bracelets and necklaces, which also, unfortunately, did not end up working out, mostly because, as I later found out, Etsy’s jewelry competition is extremely fierce. And so the search continued. Eventually, I came across print-on-demand (POD) products and, ultimately, printable/editable products, which is when a lightbulb went off in my head, and I started learning as much as I could about the process of creating those for my shop.
After months of learning and trying things out, I finally found a way to combine my knowledge and experience in the world of spirituality and manifesting with creating digital and physical POD products in those niches. As a result of this years-long journey, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined about what it’s like to start, grow, and market an online business; what it’s like to build solid customer relationships; and, most of all, about what it means to persevere when you are fully ready to give up.
There is a beautiful quote by Ruth Soukup that represents exactly how I feel about my business endeavor: “Let your fear of regret be stronger than your fear of failure.” At the end of the day, I realized that I would much rather try and “fail” (I think of it as a learning experience vs. failure though) than not try at all or give up too soon and always wonder, “What if?..” I figured that the time will pass anyway, and I have a pretty good idea of where I’ll be if I choose not to proceed with my ideas… But where will I be if I at least try to create something that I find meaningful? How far can I take these ideas? How many people can I support and positively impact on their journey? These questions kept me going through all the obstacles and uncertainty over the years, and I’m really glad they did.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
When I started building my online business, like many newbies, I naively believed that all I really needed was a website and good products/services. Well… I quickly learned that was NOT the case whatsoever (unless you already have a very strong social media presence, that is). So my next step was to focus on my YouTube channel, but again, because I could not dedicate a lot of time to it, this option took a backseat as well. Consequently, my first customers were my Etsy customers. Since Etsy has a huge customer base, with literally hundreds of millions of people visiting daily, there is a much stronger chance to find customers. Now, I am NOT saying Etsy is all you need or that it’s the perfect option for most business owners. It has many limitations as well, and I think a lot of sellers and creators would agree with me that Etsy comes with its own set of challenges that turn many sellers off from it. Also, the competition on Etsy is fierce, to say the least. Plus, depending on your products/services and business goals, this marketplace may not be an option at all.
I also realized that even with hundreds of products in my shop, Etsy was still not enough in terms of getting people to see my products. So, as much as I always resisted this idea, I had to start putting more effort into my social media platforms (currently, I am actively posting to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, my website blog that I am developing, and YouTube whenever I can). Again, in the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing, but eventually, I found that the best way for me to use social media without feeling like I’m constantly trying to sell something (because honestly, that’s not something I feel comfortable doing, and of course, no one wants to be constantly sold to!) is by sharing inspirational and manifesting-related quotes, positive affirmations, informational blog posts, and other useful content related to my niche. I do strive to provide a meaningful and helpful service to anyone who comes across my content. So, even if my social media followers never buy anything from my store, I am really grateful for the opportunity to connect with so many awesome, like-minded people who share the same interests as I do, and I hope they will benefit from my posts and videos.
To sum up, I think that when it comes to growing and marketing a business, it’s really important to “occupy as much online real estate as possible” (as a POD/e-commerce expert, Ryan Hogue would put it) while also caring about and providing a lot of value to your customers, being patient, and not letting any setbacks hold you back from achieving your goals! To quote Marie Forleo, “You wouldn’t have the dream in your heart if you didn’t already have what it takes to make it happen.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://askyoursoul.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ask.your.soul_org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AskYourSoul.org/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/askyoursoul
- Other: My Etsy shop: https://askyoursoul.etsy.com All the rest of my socials: https://linktr.ee/askyoursoul
Image Credits
Olga Belikova