From rock musician to life coach: how Belarus achieved heights in the USA and why he returned to his homeland

12 years ago, Vlad Kukharchuk left the Belarusian town of Birch in the United States and became known as the musician of the rock band Kiwi Time. She was named among the top 100 of the best bands in the world.but the guy realized that he wanted another. In the 2016 year, he went into teaching yoga, and then in life coaching. Now Vlad earns by coaching in Los Angeles and dreams of “opening his eyes” to Belarusians - for this he temporarily returned home. Vlad shared the story of his “second life” with tut.by.

Фото: Depositphotos

- Since childhood, I wanted to become a rock star. But when I came to this, I felt: this is not what I need. His own rock band, all the conditions for a beautiful life, but in me there was no peace with myself. I thought for a long time whether I could let go of what I did to start all over again. But I already made such decisions several times, and life was revealed - I decided on a change. I'll tell you everything in order.

How i got into yoga

I started doing yoga 8,5 years ago. When the Kiwi Time band was created, I realized that my lifestyle was completely neglected: I ate randomly, while playing the drums I felt constant pain in my back and neck. I heard that yoga helps to replenish energy, and I decided to try. And I was amazed how difficult it was! I was completely out of shape and decided to change. I completely changed my diet, losing about 15 kg, became more resilient and flexible.

Then he began to teach yoga in the 2014 year. The arrangement with the label was such that I still put the music in the first place anyway. Even when I went through the practice of fasting 21 day, I played at concerts and went to shoot videos. In Los Angeles, where I moved from San Francisco to 2015 to work on a new album, there were no acquaintances, and I wanted to continue teaching. I wrote about 50 studios, then phoned them, and 10 answered me with consent. This does not mean that it is easy to find work in Los Angeles or that I was an excellent teacher at that time - it just means that I don’t give up when something goes wrong.

I agreed to work wherever I was received. All the studios were in different areas, and sometimes 4 hours per day were spent only on the road. I was ready to wake up in 4: 30 and go to disadvantaged areas, where it’s even scary to get out of the car. A year after the move, I realized that the “yoga” lifestyle of happiness brings me more. And he decided to leave the group.

When I started teaching, I set myself the task of quickly developing teacher skills and began to teach 20 classes a week. I burned out for a year. It became clear that this would not work. I did not see the prospects of good earnings and received $ 35 − 40 per hour, but this is not enough.

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The next step was conducting private classes. I went through several business trainings and began to ask students: “By the way, I can still give private lessons.” Several people took and signed up. I thought: “Wow, wow, it works!” Private lessons cost $ 50 − 200 already, office classes were added to them - for example, for Disney, Kargo, Autodesk.

My clients were mainly male entrepreneurs who built a career, but were embarrassed to go to a group lesson and show that they did not know how. Well so, why then they do not do it on their own? These questions led me to study the work of the brain, and so I came to the world of coaching.

The way in coaching

To begin to understand coaching, from 2016 of the year I began to attend trainings one after another. I think that in total I have invested more than $ 30 thousand in my training, but have not received a single certificate in coaching - I do not believe in them. I studied working with consciousness and subconsciousness, took business trainings in order to be able to sell my services, received public speaking skills.

Among my teachers were not only famous specialists, because the ability to communicate personally was important to me. He studied with Tony Robbins. At one of his trainings, we walked barefoot over the coals, and I did not feel the heat! 15 000 man, downtown Los Angeles, one in the morning, the drums are rattling and everyone is shouting "cold moss, cold moss, cold moss." We also just screamed, in a crowd. Never experienced such emotions!

Of course, I know how Tony is treated in the Russian-speaking community. But I think that he is simply not understood by the Russians. The Americans see the opportunity in the new information, and the people of the post-Soviet space are a catch. There is such a thing as a scale of emotional tones, and, unfortunately, our nation radiates negative ones. Business Youth is great at using this information, and Tony Robbins works with a different energy. But believe me, among the Russians there are many people who follow him around the world. By the way, for many years he did not want to go to Russia, but at the same time he said that his key transformations had taken place there.

So, starting with individual coach sessions, I began to look for clients. Found the first through a very funny case. I went into the store, and there was a friend with whom we started loaders in America 10 years ago. I tell him what is happening in life, and he told me: “Can I, will I be your client?” I agreed, saying the amount of $ 1000 per month when working for at least six months. On the one hand, it was pure luck, but on the other, how much work was done to make me lucky! By the way, we have been working for a year and a half.

I gradually matured to my own online program, which I called “Dream Life”. Its cost is from $ 250 to $ 4000, depending on the set of services (for example, whether there are personal meetings with me, etc.). It lasts 6 weeks and runs on the GetCourse platform. Three times a week, participants receive a new lesson (texts and videos), I check them, go on the air, where I answer questions, have a general chat and retreat meetings.

One exercise is “my perfect day.” I tested it on 200 people, and all have about the same thing: “In the morning I have a lot of energy, I take care of myself, eat tasty and healthy, slowly gather and go to work, I have meetings with cool positive people, I’m in flow, fulfill my purpose. I spend the evening with my family and friends, I go to bed with a feeling of relaxation and fullness. ” And what does their real day usually look like? He torn his eyes, ran to the office, made coffee and stuck in social networks. But if I first stick in the phone in the morning, then I’m not living my life. No wonder so many people don't know what they want.

I teach that it all starts with a lifestyle. It’s like in an airplane, where in case of depressurization they say “put on an oxygen mask” first of all, otherwise you will not be able to help others. Daytime is for your purpose. We analyze the zone of genius (this is a unique combination of talents that a person can develop), exit the comfort zone, work out fears. And evening is a relationship. I share techniques and practices that have helped me build a harmonious alliance.

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I suggest starting work on yourself before breakfast, getting up at least 10 minutes earlier, developing small habits. The main thing is to simplify everything to the maximum and not “merge” - just one minute of yoga per day or another activity is enough to make a habit.

I ran the program three times: the first - in English and twice in Russian, for immigrants. The groups were small, up to 10 people. All I did to find them was ringing up all friends and acquaintances (or writing to them) and inviting them. This is exactly what no one wants to do - sell to your friends. All are abstracted by running ads. But if you believe in your product, then do not hesitate to offer it!

There is a result: one girl got the courage and was cast on the reality show “Plan B”, the other discovered the talent for drawing and started selling greeting cards. In early November, she had her first exhibition. A programmer guy, in his heart he is a DJ, on Halloween he organized a party on 500 people, although before that he was afraid to call 30.

Now I have 5 clients with annual support ($ 15 000 per year) + an online program, there are one-time clients. I call my target audience “guy-programmer”, “girl-office”, “goddess + 40”, “successful, but unhappy businessman”. Most of my clients are Russian-speaking immigrants. I know many people who, like me, 10 years ago moved to America. And now we are 30 years old, guys are sitting in the office and drinking antidepressants. The first thing they usually ask me is: "Vlad, why are you all right?"

About the features of promotion in the USA

Customers with a high check thanks to a cool Instagram post are just an illusion. I "leaked" $ 500 and realized that this did not work. The main idea of ​​coaching in America is to sell services through free or cheap events. Let them be 30 − 50 people, but it works, people make decisions at the click of a finger. Many American coaches really do not even have social networks, but after the speeches a line is formed. In the sales funnel itself there are fewer steps. I have not heard such a thing as dialing after a webinar from anyone. For presence on the Internet, a simple landing is enough for them. You look and think: even a fifth grader will do better. And I'm here, damn it, I bother, what filter do I choose for Instagram photos ?! At first I shied away from these landing pages, and then I saw that they were selling, which means that the font color does not make sense.

This does not mean that I abandoned Instagram - it is needed to advance to a Belarusian audience. To do this, I radically changed my image online. Previously, my photos were only about yoga, and they told me: “You look like a cult leader!” :) I had to put on a jacket and look more businesslike.

About returning to Belarus

You know, it was Tony Robbins who had the greatest influence on me. Thanks to him, I finally decided to switch to the Russian-speaking space and return to Belarus for a while. At one of his trainings, he emphasized that changes do not occur at the time of action, but at the time of a clear decision. And it happened to me! A year ago, I was meditating on the topic “What would I do if I had a year of life left?” And I got the Vision - “Go to Belarus and start telling about your ideas”. But how?! I run the program in English, all of my clients are Americans, I don’t work with Russians at all, I can’t teach in Russian.

Next comes a series of events. In December of the 2018, I arrive in Belarus, my acquaintances offer to conduct a yoga master class, the 65 people are going to, and I say: “Wow, everything happened by itself!” I understand that the decision has been made, but consciousness says: “You I invested so much time in the American program! ”I was scared, I understood that the Russians write so much any criticism about coaches, and it will certainly concern me. But I was ready to let this pass me by.

More and more Russian guys began to appear in my life. In the summer of 2019, I was in Belarus again, and when I returned, I felt that I needed to fly back. In November, he held an 3 workshop in Minsk, spoke to business angels three times and held a two-day retreat. I held an event even in my native Birch. By the way, it was there that I heard from the "boys" that I was an info gypsy :)

I understand that the prices here are completely different, and the minimum check I want for my program is the average salary for Bereza. But my goal is not to sell my services, but to open the eyes and hearts of people. I think I’ll succeed.

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