Katia Baranova. Life behind the scenes 

This New Year became an incredible experience for me. In 10 days I lived 10 years of awareness ahead, went through the entire emotional spectrum: from crying on the floor to gratitude for the experience.

The first loneliness in life

I've always been afraid of being alone.

This fear, which is very painful and almost unbearable, comes from childhood. When I was 8 years old, my dad died. Then my younger brother had leukemia. Our family was living in the small Russian town Astrakhan at that time, so my mother and brother immediately went to Moscow for medical treatment. They left me to live with my grandparents who looked after me as best as they could, but they couldn't give me enough attention. So at the age of nine, I started to live alone.

Over time, it began to seem to me that I had learned how to cope with loneliness. I got a good education, built a career, traveled around the world, became a successful real estate agent, opened my own company as a business coach, and now I have founded an international project to promote the top officials — SVETI. I've also been in a relationship since I was seventeen. Later I got married and had a son. It would seem that now I definitely can not be afraid of losing my status.

But this is exactly the kind of trauma that I fall into over and over again. Every moment of loneliness takes me back to my childhood. It is very painful to experience. It's like I'm the nine-year-old Katia again, who was left in Astrakhan and who says, "Just don't leave me."

This year I wanted to dive into this pain for the first time. I wanted to go through it with my eyes open. Probably all the events of 2024 year preceded exactly what happened. I went through a divorce, and was left without money… And for the first time in my life I've decided to be alone.

I celebrated this New Year on Vladivostok time. I decided that this would be enough for me and at 10PM I went to bed. Of course, I couldn't fall asleep, so I spent the chimes with my eyes open. I lay, listened to the fireworks outside and thought about life. And there were a lot of realizations.

First of all, it turned out that being alone is not so scary. It's a bearable experience and I'm able to survive it. Secondly, I saw my loneliness even more clearly and acutely. Despite the success of my SVETI project, which is directly related to people and their promotion, despite a large team of specialists and a wide range of acquaintances, almost no one congratulated me on the holiday. It was amazing and very painful.

It turns out that people need me when I'm at the top. The motto of my project is conveyed in its name — SVETI means “to share light”. When I am full of energy I am constantly surrounded by people. For example, I inspired 3 men to emigrate successfully. I do everything to keep the spotlight on the guests of my interviews, on those heroes who become popular thanks to the project. But when I needed the same light from the others I found myself alone. Of course, this realization caused a lot of feelings.

The pause and time alone helped to see life in a different way. I reviewed my close social circle, realizing that not so many people are really worried about my condition. And most importantly, I saw a place where I lied to myself. During all my life I thought that I had achieved everything on my own, proving to everyone around me (and to myself, first of all) that I could handle any difficulties alone. But the truth is I've never been alone in my life. At every step, God sent me the right people: relationships to build on, teachers, partners, friends, clients — so many life-changing meetings! And despite all the twists and turns of life, I still receive support.

It turns out that everything is not so bad for me. Life has "scratched" me but I can move forward.

"God holds my horses at the turns"

I have a very fast pace of life. If nothing happens to me for two days, it feels like stagnation. Right now I'm getting a completely new experience — how to slow down. Probably this need to take a break is a kind of warning. It's like God is stopping my ever-rushing horses and giving me the opportunity to get used to the changes, to double-check my desires.

Because I can dream big. I used to move quickly and without hesitation, to seize any opportunity, to inspire everyone who is nearby. I do the same for myself but I can't always cope with the consequences of my desires.

One of my clients taught me a rule: “If you want to test your idea for viability, tell the world about it. This is how you can test yourself for strength and honesty. This is how you can start to believe in your dream. After this the world has no choice but to help you get to your purpose.”

Now my desires have become even more ambitious and audacious. I want to move to the USA and open my own SVETI office there, I want to make a film about my project (and I'm preparing a screenplay for Netflix). I plan to become the first lady... at least, the wife of a senator :) I want to do charity and be able to provide more meaningful support to people. After all, the further you go, the more obvious it becomes: you can't take anything with you after life. It is important to share your light.

At this level of thinking, it's really important to test your desires with time. And take a deep breath before jumping :)

The connection between the mental and the material

I like to give people measurable benefits. I am thrilled by the inscriptions all over Israel: "this bench was built with donations from family X" or "this park was funded by families N and K". I really want to create something like this, to give such benefits that will be felt physically. And the further I go, the more I plan to invest in the transformation of the places I live.

That's why I'm so proud of the SVETI project. I have managed to create a set of tools that not only changes people's thinking and takes them to a new level of publicity, but also gives measurable tangible results. My clients can compare “before/after” and see the obvious difference in the quality of products, in their photoshoots, in the design of the blog and the number of views.

This is very important for women like myself. We do a lot but do not have time to look back and notice our growth, we are accustomed to devalue our results. It's very important for us to say to ourselves, "darling, you're doing enough. Look at how much you've already done!"

I help women who are certainly strong, bright, confident and accustomed to difficulties, to see themselves from the outside. Digitize your experience, achievements and results and look at your success with new eyes.

This is what many of us need. This is what helps me to heal my personal injuries.

"It takes strength to accept your fame"

The SVETI project was born out of my own need. Despite many years of public speaking experience, thousands of subscribers on different platforms and my own business, it still can be difficult for me to express myself.

I react painfully to hateful comments, it's very difficult for me to tell something personal on a blog. That's why I am an example of the person for whom my project exists. Yes, I simultaneously dream and fear to declare myself to the whole world!

Like no one else, I do understand my clients who come for their first interview or photoshoot. And even those experts who have been on TV for many years are still clamped down in the first second of shooting. Many people are really not ready for fame, not ready for the millions of followers and attention of SO many people.

I remember how it felt when my video first hit a million views. I received such a wave of negative comments that it almost blew me away. To cope with this, I allowed myself to go through any emotions: I swore at the haters, ignored them and blocked them, joked, forgave and swore again… It took 2 weeks until I came to a full acceptance of the situation. I didn't care anymore.

Everyone who gets famous deserves respect, if only because they are able to withstand so much attention from the outside, so much negativity. And that is why promotion is not only about taking a person to a new level of publicity but also about making this path as comfortable as possible.

Going back to my story, I believe that all the events that life throws at me serve as a training for something truly challenging and exciting. Right now I'm pumping out the muscles that I'll need at a new stage of my life.

Life as a field of miracles

I have worked with dozens of experts, each of whom spoke about their deep and fundamental concepts. Each acquaintance brought me a huge amount of information and complemented the established picture of the world.

I like to think that it's like a game with randomly opening windows, and each window keeps a part of the overall picture: some kind of clue for the next step, an important thought, a valuable idea. The more I learn, the more I see ahead, the better I grasp the patterns in life.

Yes, there are difficulties and moments when everything goes wrong. But I am increasingly convinced that there is a reason behind each of these "wrong" things. What if I needed a failed job offer in Los Angeles to find a more suitable city for me in the United States? What if I didn't invest in the project I wanted to save my savings? And once you understand the meaning of one situation, the next one immediately arises…

Following such lessons is my voluntary choice. I am open to everything new, to a wide variety of sources of knowledge, including esotericism and many unproven scientific data. I have never thought after talking to an astrologer (tarologist, numerologist, etc.) that this is complete nonsense. Anyway, every concept, every teaching contains its own grain of truth, some missing piece of the puzzle in order to see the world even more fully.

Therefore, now I am painstakingly accumulating experience and knowledge in order to consciously change my professional vector and finally move from the sales field to the public field. I prepare myself to shine with full force. I believe that I am my best business project. Even when it's infinitely difficult. Even when I'm at zero and need support.

That's probably the whole point of stopping shining sometimes to find out who's going to stay with you.

Katia Baranova
Editor: Mayya Yakovleva