"Have clarity for how you want your life to look like" with Cristina Dovan

Photo Credit Veronica Dragan

Meet Cristina: multifaceted individual with roles ranging from devoted mother to adept entrepreneur, and from mindset coach to transformational expert. A decade ago, her journey led her to the UK for studies, culminating in a First Class degree in International Relations from Coventry University.

Her quest for purpose encountered twists and turns until the moment she discovered entrepreneurship. Embracing this path, Cristina has faced many challenges but handled them with relentless dedication and unwavering ambition. She defines herself as fiercely determined, unyielding in the pursuit of her goals, constantly exploring novel concepts, and an avid reader.

Your background:                                                                                  

After graduating from University, I got a job at the local college placing students for work experience and it was then that I began my personal development journey, as I felt there was more to life than paying bills. Because of that decision, my life has changed forever. In 2020, I started my first online business and resigned my job a year later, it was scary but I never looked back.

The next step in my entrepreneurial journey was to open Redbubble, Etsy and Shopify stores and to become a Mindvalley Certified Life Coach.  I have big dreams, I love to read and I believe personal development is the key to a happier life, changing my mind-set is still the biggest achievement of my life. I worked in sales for almost five years and developed skills that proved to be very useful later in life. It brings me joy to help others and coaching was more of a calling than a decision in the spur of the moment.

What inspired you to start your business? 

I was unhappy at my job, nothing was changing, and I had six managers in three years. It made me change my perception about being an employee. I always felt I can do more but I never thought to start my own business.

Before graduating from University, I had a conversation with my mum and told her I would never start a business because it is such a big responsibility, but interestingly enough life pushed me to start one and I had to grow into the person that I needed to be to begin.

Where is your business based? 

I live in the UK; my businesses are set-up in England.  

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took? 

In 2020 I knew I was ready to start a business but I didn't know where to start, I didn't have a lot of money to invest, I tried affiliated marketing with no results, I wanted to try Amazon FBA but didn't have a lot of money to invest.

Luckily two people I was friends with on Facebook posted about a course they developed to help people learn how to create and publish books on Amazon KDP, Barnes and Noble and Ingram; I bought the course for £970, almost as much as my salary, but I wanted to start somewhere.

I was terrified, I was thinking I had paid so much money and I was afraid it might not work; I used to make this amount of money in a year at my call centre job in Romania a few years before starting my first business. It turned out to be the best decision of my life because I built everything on that decision.

I started to follow the steps in the course and the rest is history.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business? 

I publish books for those who communicate using sign language and the Braille alphabet so I joined groups dedicated to people that learn to use sign language so I can learn more about my ideal customer and that was very helpful. Due to the nature of the business however, the most effective way to raise awareness was by running ads, I also took part in online book fairs. Once the books took off the algorithm started to show my books to more and more people.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them? 

In the beginning, I had many challenges because I did not know this type of business, I thought I was not creative enough to make it work; I am not a techie person. I had to learn so many things from scratch, I am stubborn, ambitious, and highly competitive so giving up was not an option.  

My biggest challenge by far was dealing with competition, on platforms as Amazon is very easy to leave bad reviews for competition and bury their work in no time, I had to deal with situations like this, but this proved very beneficial it helped my books and my sales took off.

How do you stay focused?

There are many distractions for a mother; there is a lot of work I do outside my business so it is very important to keep my focus.

What helps me is my purpose, I want to bring value and make a difference in everything I do and this means that I always have to work on growing into the person that can achieve it all.

I have had so many setbacks, and so many hardships, my motivation would not be enough to keep me going, however, I have developed my discipline to a level that no matter what happens I am moving forward. I show up no matter how I feel. Also working in sales, I have learned how to deal with a no; it does not bring me down, when I want something, I am relentless.

 Having big dreams I understand that it is up to me to go out there and make it happen, I am the creator of my life. Therefore, when I work nothing else gets in the way. Being an entrepreneur can be very isolating, I have to sacrifice an immediate reward to gain a bigger reward in the future that requires a lot of determination, focus and hard work.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?  

When I started my business I researched various niches, once I decided which niche to pursue I started to offer customers something that was not on the market. I created books for carers that care for vision-impaired people and that proved to be a very good idea.

 I decided to go into a niche where there was demand but not a lot of supply and I think that made a huge difference. I do not like to copy others; I focus on my ideas, and my work.

I am a big fan of ‘cross pollination’, I love to read and I do a lot of research so I bring ideas from many industries together, I think not limiting myself to an area has made a huge difference in all my businesses. I use my experience in multiple areas to create something different from my competition. 

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business? 

Every time I started, be it the Amazon KDP business, my Shopify store or my coaching business I had the feeling I am too late and everything felt suffocated with so much supply. There is a lot of thought that goes in to marketing in general but if the product is bad there is not much to do, differentiating from the start and having a good product is the best marketing strategy.

I paid for ads for both KDP and my Shopify shop; I also tried many niches until I found the one for me. I did not use a website or social media for my publishing business. The external traffic from participating in book fairs in my category helped a lot, I was lucky to find the online book fairs, I paid to take part, and there was a onetime payment but have lifetime access.

Due to the nature of my businesses it paid off to go the extra mile and try new ways of marketing my products, I had to look for something that not a lot of people do. For low content books, it has been hard, but the online book fairs where I would get exposure has been a tremendous help.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?  

There is I a lot that goes in to being a successful entrepreneur so having a growth mindset helps you understand that whatever skills you lack you can develop.  I am not even half way to where I want to be but I am constantly learning and experimenting with new ideas; that is key. Have clarity for how you want your life to look like, and take it from there, research and follow people that are where you want to be; otherwise, all roads lead to nowhere.

It is scary and I understand when I hear people are reluctant to start, but let me tell you this, it was the most enriching experience of my life. I have learned so much, I have developed skills I had no idea I could. I do not stop at failure and setbacks, there is always a way, so be flexible. The best advice I have for aspiring entrepreneurs is to start and never stop, there is always a way to make it happen. I started so small I sometimes feel embarrassed to tell others, but I am so proud I did. 

My life is so different from how I thought it would be five years ago. I think the most important thing is to develop the mindset of an entrepreneur, this is the biggest achievement of my life, it helped me in times of stress, of feeling like a failure, like wanting to quit. Grow into the person that will achieve those goals, those dreams, learn, learn, and learn some more. Remember the airplane consumes the most fuel at take-off; beginnings are hard. I intentionally do things that are hard because I am addicted to growth and doing easy things that I am familiar with it is not tempting to me.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

In the past five years, I have read hundreds of books on a variety of topics and I have watched hundreds of hours of content, I bought many courses to learn new skills. My favourite app is by far the Kindle app, having access to my library everywhere I go makes me very happy. 

My favourite blog has to be Dr Joe Dispenza's blog, understanding the way our mind works has been life changing.

This is a tough one; I love autobiographies, last year I have read Finding Me by Viola Davis, reading that book was a touching experience, thought me about resilience, hope, hard work and the power of dreams. It is such a great book and an amazing life story I highly recommend it. For aspiring entrepreneurs that are afraid they don’t have what it takes to make it in business I recommend autobiographies because they can learn that all the greats were once beginners and had to face adversity, growth comes with disruption and that is the only way to reach your full potential, there is no shortcut to greatness.  

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why? 

I am part of a community of millionaires, entrepreneurs, and likeminded people, where the mentor, David constantly creates new courses on different topics, business related. I’ve discovered  David five years ago, the first course I ever bought was the 5-week prosperity challenge created by David and his friend and mentee, Alex and I followed their journey  and have been around them, virtually ever since. This is my most precious resource, having access to amazing people and priceless information, this community contains digital nomads, people who have sold their businesses for millions of dollars, and have shared wisdom in the community, advice and resources, I honestly owe my progress to this amazing group.

Who is your business role model? Why? 

To me being successful is not about how many achievements one has is about how much she/he has overcome in order to become successful, it is easy to succeed when everything is in your favour, it is another ball game to succeed when everything is against you.  So many entrepreneurs inspire me; it is difficult to choose just one, I am so grateful to all the trailblazers who have made my journey possible; being a woman, mother  and an entrepreneur it is not easy. I would say my business role model is Anastasia Soare, the founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills, she started so small and her brilliant ideas have created an empire. I love her work ethic and her creativity, her leadership skills, she has built all this as an immigrant without knowing a word of the English language when she moved to the US, it is impressive, and she is from Romania, it makes me very proud that I too am ‘made’ in Romania.

How do you balance work and life?  

 When I started my business, I also had my job so I was working 14-15 hours a day at my job, and in my business, also a, mother so it was overwhelming to say the least. After I have quit my job, it become much easier. I now put all my attention on my business and my personal life. Things have fallen into place and allowed me to find balance between work and my personal life, my print on demand businesses require less attention now than in the beginning so I can dedicate more time to my coaching business. Less is more. 

What’s your favorite way to decompress? 

I would say going to the gym and reading, it always works for me. I never thought I would say this but going to the gym has been a game changer, I have so much energy, clears my mind and helps with my focus. I always loved books and I use them to learn or to escape if I am going through a rough patch; a good book always does it for me.

What do you have planned for the next six months? 

In the next six months, I am going to focus on growing my coaching business and growing my social media presence, therefore I am learning new skills. I want to help as many people as possible reach their full potential.

I am going to use my own experience to help others that want to start a new business, a new life; gain more clarity or just want something more from life; we can achieve anything if we are willing to put in the work.

How can our readers connect with you?

I am on Instagram  coachcristina_

and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-dovan-76882895/