The innovative entrepreneur is known on Instagram as coach Lika Makogon. She teaches others how to find ways to sell effectively and how to approach customers.
Lika has been running an online business for 6 years. In 2021, Lika made her first million in 9 months by selling time management information products, selling during the war, and producing experts.
Now she earns UAH 3.5 million a year, but her ambitious goal is to make 100 millionaires in her new project.
There are plenty of people willing to learn online sales. The entrepreneur claims that even in the days of fierce shelling and continuous blackouts, she continued to work on new training programmes and teach those willing to sell even during the war.
Komersant ukrainskyi talked to Lika Makohon about coaching for entrepreneurs, production, and her path to millions.
– Entrepreneurial coach – that’s what you call yourself onInstagram. How many clients do you have now? What kind of requests do they come to you for training?
– Financial literacy is a black hole in our society. Many private schools are now teaching children this science. But what about those in their 30s? This is exactly my target audience that I want to help. I am sure that everyone can earn good money. Ukraine needs a middle class – it creates a good economy, buys more goods and services, and travels. The middle class is not about the amount of money, but about the way of thinking. That is why I have radically changed my positioning and set new goals. And this means working all over again – new programmes, testing them, then refining them, studying the target audience.
– Are these new programmes for entrepreneurs?
– Yes, the first one is about time management. The second programme, coaching, is about goal setting.
– What kind of businesses are these owners of – small, medium-sized? What niches?
– Mostly small ones. There are a lot of IDPs who have lost everything and need to create something new and profitable quickly. These are studios, showrooms, architectural bureaus, stylists, teachers, lawyers, lawyers, translators, confectioners. Tarotists, astrologers, esotericists are now a trend because people are looking for support. A lot of it is online, because it’s a business in your pocket, and you never know where you’ll have to run tomorrow.
– Where did the idea of millionaires come from?
– I come from a family of a librarian and a miner. I hate poverty, so all my life I’ve been trying to get out of it. And no matter what, I rowed. At the age of 20, I left my native Alchevsk and came to Kyiv in 2008. At the same time, she left her 3rd year of studying economic cybernetics and her job in a supermarket. The motivation for her immediate move was her love for a supermarket security guard who was going to conquer the capital with his band. However, the day before we had a fight and our relationship ended. I lived in a dormitory with a girl I met on the train. Later I became a sales manager and saw that I could work hard and earn as much. I’ve been selling ever since.
– But you also had a job in a printing house, and somewhere in between, you started Instagram..
– Yes, it was quite good. I earned 50,000 hryvnias. But that was the ceiling. I wanted more money and freedom, because I had none at all. I remember taking my mother to Paris for her birthday. Instead of taking pictures, walking, enjoying herself, I was on the phone, making decisions, coordinating as a sales and marketing director. One day at breakfast, I found myself thinking that I could live here for a month. But my job would not allow it. When I returned to Ukraine, I quit my job. At that time, I tried to run Instagram a little bit, and looked at it. It was in 2018-19, when I was blogging about time management and goal achievement. That’s where I started, tasting the niche, running marathons. But my income came from hiring.
– So it was the desire for freedom that pushed you to quit?
– Yes, this is my greatest value. I gained it and set myself the goal of returning to an income of $2,000 as soon as possible. It took me six months to do this. But then David came along, and everything instantly fell into place, on the one hand, and on the other, I was drawn into the sales niche. There was an urgent demand to teach. That’s what I’ve been doing for 3 years. And the idea of earning a million in a year was always on my mind. So I set this goal for 2021.
– And, as I understand it, you achieved it?
– Of course. At the same time, I started working with my first coach and transformed my thinking. I really wanted to show the world that a girl from a simple family, an IDP, can become successful and earn millions. And in 9 months I made that amount! I did it by producing and creating several information products. My quality of life began to change significantly. I caught myself wishing that thousands of people would follow my path and reach their dreams. It’s not that difficult. It’s not about building a factory, creating products, organising supplies, assembling a team, workers.
– Your goal was 100 millionaires, but in the process of producing and learning, you realised that people are not ready to fall and get up on their way to a million. Is that right?
– That’s exactly right. A lot of people came to my call, and I gave them the tools – write posts, talk about yourself, make stories. But then it started: “what will people think of me”, “I’m shy”… At the same time, I worked with a coach and witnessed the miracles that happened to me. That’s how my rapid growth began.
– In income, too?
– Yes, of course. For 2022 – 2.6 million. In 2023 – 3.5 million. Every year I grow, without jerks, without rollbacks or losses. And it’s all thanks to my mindset. There are only one promotion tool for everyone, and there are few of them. Just do it! But mental blocks and fears don’t let you. That’s why I went to study at the Coaching Academy.
– Unpack your secret to financial growth during the war? What kind of person do you need to be to go to your goal despite the missiles overhead?
– Have a character that will help you resist in moments of destruction on all fronts. The focus of attention is fundamentally important. And it should be on the ultimate goal, not the current moment when everything is falling apart. This is not about indifference to yourself and the outside world. It’s about who I will be tomorrow and what I want to be an example of under the given circumstances. I constantly asked myself these questions. After all, all we can control is the current moment, not the past or the future.
– What helped you create information products that lead to millions? Because there are a lot of them on the market, but no Instagram millionaires?
– I can see the problems of others and create a product that will solve them. That’s how I created the course “Sales in Wartime”. The first webinar during the war, in March 2022, I sold for 100 UAH. It was purchased by 91 people. While I was sharing my knowledge, I could hear the loud sounds of air defence outside the window. I kept going like that. “Sales during the war” cost UAH 2,000 for the first stream, UAH 4,000 for the second, and then UAH 6,000. I never offer services or products off the top of my head, but form them based on a real customer request. And this is my secret to a successful business.
– The story of the first millionaire. How long did it take her to become a millionaire, and does she still hold this status?
– Yes, she does. She has been a millionaire for two years now. Iryna Anurina came to me when she was selling English lessons and some short courses on Instagram. Her request was to earn more money. I made Irina do interviews with the audience. She refused for a long time, but after conducting 20 of them, she realised that her target audience were not students, but teachers who wanted to make money on Instagram. And working with students did not lead her to her financial goal. She changed her niche, started selling consultations, making products, mentoring, and helping teachers find their clients. In a year, she made a million! The process was not easy – with burnout, fatigue..
– Did you have any problems with pricing and applying for your prices?
– Yes, I did! 6 years ago, participation in my first goal achievement marathon cost 25 hryvnias for 10 days. I thought no one would buy who I was for more than that! I needed money for food. I had no savings at all. On the recommendation of a well-known blogger, I sold 4 consultations for 4 thousand hryvnias. I had no idea how to find new clients. It was very difficult. Only my boyfriend earned money, and for 3 months I was asking for money for a manicure, and for me it was unacceptable at all! On that New Year’s Eve, there was only tea and biscuits on the table.
– What motivated you, gave you the strength to get out of these total disadvantages? I don’t understand! This is a state when there is nothing to do mentally.
– There are two types of suffering. The first is to suffer from how bad everything is. The second is to do things in spite of mistakes, bumps, losses. But the second option is possible to row out of, there is hope there. I was ready to row. I just kept taking one step every day. I told myself: if you back down now, it will be like that for the rest of your life! And I would go out in stories from my murdered apartment, wearing a shabby T-shirt. I think blind people bought from me! Any mud in life is given to overcome it and realise something. Not to bury your nose in it and cry. I’m not sticking my nose in it. Everyone has mud.
– You are the person who refused to provide personal mentoring and returned the money to the clients. Someone paid 75 thousand, someone 80 thousand. There were 5 or 6 people like that. The reason was total burnout and clinical depression. How did you feel then? Could these actions have destroyed your reputation or business in general?
– When I was diagnosed, I felt like an impostor. I had been telling and showing how to live, work, create, and earn millions, and this is where it led me. “Everything you taught was bullshit,” I told myself. “No one will follow you now, because your point B is depression. And you want to lead people on your own path.” I was working with a coach at the time, the dearest person in my life, and she was the one who diagnosed me. So I had a person who shared my condition with me even before the official diagnosis. If I had been alone, I would not have coped. Now I am working with a psychotherapist. It was she who helped me see it all differently. My lifestyle with heavy workloads, months without days off, and in a time of war is not an option in the long term. That’s why I fell apart. I had no recovery periods. I caught depression in blackouts. Everything was working for me, everything was perfectly set up, and my clients were without electricity. Since October, there has been massive shelling, but I had two record launches. And in January, when everything was more or less back to normal, I didn’t give myself a rest because I was afraid of repetition, and I ran even faster. So now I have iron weekends, I work from 12:00, because I am a hen that lays golden eggs.
– In your opinion, what is the biggest cornerstone for running a successful business?
– Fear of judgement, failure, mistakes, competition, loss of investment, uselessness, inferiority, not being valued as an expert. Fear of women: “if I start earning more than my husband, I will destroy the family”, “I am a bad mother if I create a successful business”. There are a lot of colleagues who teach you how to sell, but not many who work with the above.
– What is your most successful coaching case?
– The owner of an architectural bureau. Our first session turned her vision of her situation around so much that she immediately made several calls, found funding, and started implementing her dream project, Schools Restoration. Before the session, she was convinced that no one needed it. “I can influence the world through others, through their expertise. And this inspires me a lot. I am currently working with a woman who, thanks to our work, was able to tune in her inner Zen and not react to a million situations and provocations, but calmly withstand them and resolve them. Another example: an English teacher was afraid to look for the reason for her financial ceiling, but she wanted to break it. And in the course of coaching, we managed to find out where, what and why. All other clients are “sown” and germinate at their own pace.
– You moved into the role of a coach for entrepreneurs from a very successful role as a producer, mentor, and author of training courses on Instagram. Why did you give it all up?
– I produced for a year. I quit because I was tired of being treated like a mercenary. A producer is a partner. They are not a miracle pill. A producer is able to enhance the client’s value and expertise, not create and maintain it. He will not sell a “nothing”! And there are a lot of them on the market. But there are only a few good specialists with whom I would be interested in working. Others were waiting for me to do everything for them, but being a kind of launcher is not for me.
– And then you went into the sales niche, right?
– I want to lead to success from a completely different angle.
I am a typical extrovert. And such people love recognition. This is my resource, my fuel for further movement. When I receive incredibly warm feedback, I am ready to work around the clock. I feel useful. It’s interesting that 4 years ago, I also did coaching programmes on achieving goals, but they didn’t sell very well because the positioning was different.
– Your mission was to create millionaires. And you even “forged” one. Is this ambition in the past?
– No, it’s not. But my tool for creating millionaires has changed. Now I will lead them to a million not through sales, but through the transformation of thinking.