We had the good fortune of connecting with Ellie Diop and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ellie, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I decided to start my own business because I saw that I had no other choice. I had wanted to start my consulting business for so long (and had failed at two other businesses) but was fearful that this would be yet another failure. However, as I looked at the condition of my life at the time; divorced, living back home with my mom, unemployed & homeschooling through a pandemic – I realized that I had to make a choice. To either remain in the situation I was in or to look fear in its face & make a bold decision to change that situation.

Often times, we are so afraid of what will happen when we start the business that we never actually take the leap. What we should truly be afraid of is what will happen with our lives if we DON’T start the business. For me, that alternative looked much scarier.

I took certain steps to combat my fear of failure in starting my business and they helped me to be more confident & gain my first few sales. These steps included, listing out my skills and what I knew I could confidently help someone with. Secondly, I observed the market and researched other businesses coaches & consultants to see what their offers included & more importantly, what their offers lacked. Lastly, I started developing several pieces of content to educate my audience on my areas of expertise & paid close attention the feedback & questions I got in return.

This helped me to become very clear on what my audience needed & how to design my offer in such a way that it would fulfill those needs.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am a business coach & consultant and I have my own consulting agency called Ellievated Agency. We specialize in helping women gain access to the resources and strategy they need to start & scale their business despite any life obstacles they face. I believe so heavily in the power of the resilience and I know that it has gotten me through my darkest days in addition to my faith.

When I first decided to start my business is also when the $1200 stimulus checks were sent out across the nation. When I received mine, I decided to use it towards starting my business. I used the money to develop my website, get a phone, buy some domain names, file for my LLC & I set aside a few hundred dollars for marketing and ads. 10 months later I turned that $1200 to $1.1 million in sales.

Was it easy? Absolutely not! The entire first 3 months of business I made only $72.20 in sales. I offered a lot of free coaching & free advice because I wanted to build a deep trust with my audience. The first digital product I launched was $20 and my coaching calls at that time were $47 for one hour. This is why I encourage all of my students to remain consistent despite the size of their audience! Whether or not you have 53 followers or 53,000 – you only need 1 person to buy in order to start building.

A big element we focus on is business strategy + mindset development. I encourage my clients & students to remain motivated & disciplined to go after their goals by cultivating a deep “why”. When they know their why, they are able to remain focused on the goals.

What I’m most proud of in business is the fact that I’ve been able to help 35,000 students scale their business by leveraging digital marketing strategies as well as learn how to obtain business funding through business credit & grants. Within that group, we’ve helped thousands of students gain over $800,000 in business funding. My goal is to reach 100k students through our agency and my digital products & help them secure $1,000,000 in funding.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
OMG I love this! I really don’t go out too much because I have kids lol, but here’s what we would do.

I would definitely start my taking them to the Inn N Out right there on Century (if they haven’t been to one yet).
Next, we’d head to Santa Monica & Venice to sight see and hang out with the cool people on the Venice Boardwalk.

Next place I would take them to eat is Hilltop Cafe for breakfast! So bomb. We’d hit Simply wholesome for lunch, grab some smoothies and then take a hike at Kenneth Hahn.

If it’s a Tuesday night we would go to Da Poetry Lounge and hear some spoken word.

Next spot to go to is definitely the Culver City Stairs & then grab lunch in Natalee Thai or a cute spot in Culver City.

For some evening fun I would take them to Rush Street in Culver City and maybe the Bungalow in Santa Monica!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to dedicate my shout out to my mom & dad! Raquelle & Latif – they have been enormously supportive in helping me overcome what was certainly the hardest year of my life after my divorce. My mom is an amazing grandmother and helped take care of my kids while I worked tirelessly to build this business. My dad has been a constant source of encouragement reminding me of who I am & to never lose sight of that. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

Website: www.ellietalksmoney.com

Instagram: instagram.com/ellietalksmoney

Linkedin: Eliza Diop

Twitter: twitter.com/ellietalksmoney

Youtube: YouTube.com/ellietalksmoney

Image Credits
Abiel Keli – @facesofhollywood

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