Hey friends welcome back to another bonus episode our final one of the year here on cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we asked successful founders the business questions you can't google. This is our final Wednesday bonus episode of our one year experiment. If you don't know what I'm talking about at the beginning of 2023, my team and I decided to conduct this one year experiment where we upped our frequency of publishing on the show from one time a week, on Mondays to two times a week all year and we have stuck to it every single Wednesday, we have shown up here with a bonus episode for you.
And as we wrap up this year together, I thought it would be the perfect time for me to share my cubicle to CEO story. Because this is something that I haven't really shared in one place, or formally on this podcast since I first published this show back in 2018, our very first episode on the podcast if you go all the way back, or I'll link it below for you in the show notes, it's actually a little embarrassing, I haven't listened to it in so many years until this episode, I wanted to re listen to prepare and remember what I had even shared. But it's like a seven minute version of my story up until you know that point in my entrepreneurship journey. And like I said, our show launched in 2019. And that was my second year in business. So obviously, a lot has changed since then. And over the years. I've shared my journey, different tidbits here and there mostly on other people's podcasts, you know, a lot of people will tend to start a show, similar to how we do with like, tell us about how you got here, right?
We ask a version of that question on our show to all of our guests, we ask, what's your cubicle to CEO story? What was that final catalysts that launched you into entrepreneurship or helped you make that transition from employee to entrepreneur? And we usually like to keep that piece of our guests interviews to, you know, just the first two to three minutes because our show, like I said a moment before is all about answering the questions you can't google. So most of our guests who have a lot of interviews under their belt or media written about them, if you want to know their full backstory, founder story, we encourage you to google them, we encourage you to read or watch or listen elsewhere. But we really want to get into the nitty gritty things. The case studies the behind the business insights that you can't find anywhere else. So that's always the start of our show.
But then I was thinking, I haven't really done that for you all like I haven't really answered that question again in many years. And my producer Sabrina, she does a really great job of keeping her ear to the ground. Inside our DMs. She manages and runs the @cubicletoCEO account on Instagram. And so recently, actually, she had someone asked what's Ellen's cubicle to CEO story, like is there an episode on the podcast where I can listen and kind of get an overview of the context of her business journey? And you know, outside of that one episode we had launched the show with back in 2018. Like I said, it's kind of been scattered everywhere. My answers have been all over the place over the years. So Sabrina suggested that I record this episode so that people have one concrete, short episode, they can kind of listen to get the full recap of my founders journey. So far my founder story over the last six years, I'm sure you know, in another five or so years, I'll probably have to record another one of these to catch you all up. But here's my founder story.
So basically, in the original episode version of this episode number one on the show, I started way back, like in childhood, some of the, I guess, motivations or passions that I had that ultimately, I think influenced my career, even though it was unbeknownst to me at the time, my love for writing and journalism and all of these things. I'm not going to go so far back this time, I'm actually going to start in college because there's a really relevant piece of my life that unless you've listened to a ton of my interviews on other people's podcasts, you probably may not even know this part of my story. And basically, when I first went into college, I went to USC, my freshman year of school and I haven't even I don't think I've told this whole story before but USC was always my dream school. That's the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. And I wanted to go there and study broadcast journalism.
My dream was to work in entertainment news on a TV show or working as a red carpet correspondent at those big events like the Oscars, right and getting to interview celebrities and, and share their stories. And so much of what I do now is is almost like a different manifestation I guess. If that same passion of storytelling of Media Writing, all of these things hosting and someday I do still hope to host my own television show. That's actually my ultimate dream, I think in media but but I digress. That's what I went to school for originally, I actually only was there for one semester of my freshman year because I was a spring admin, which just means that I didn't attend school fall that year. I started in January. So I kind of had an unconventional start to my schooling my university time. And that actually was because and this is the part that I don't think I've talked about that much before.
I actually didn't get into USC, when I first applied. I was, you know, rejected from my dream school, that was such a crushing moment for me. I remember I found out when I was on vacation, over spring break with my best friend, Claire, and we were in beautiful, sunny, Naples, Florida, enjoying ourselves, and then I get this bad news. And it's all I can think about, right? Because it's all I have been thinking about. In high school preparing for this moment, I had gotten into some really other amazing universities, UCLA right across town, you know, gotten acceptance letter from them. And it was a really competitive year. So I like looking back, logically, I can have a lot of empathy for my younger self. But in that moment, I just felt like, oh my gosh, like my dream, my future is on the line. And I've ruined it. Like, I didn't get the thing that I wanted.
So the interesting thing is, and I don't even know if they still do this, I'm sure they do. But I remember. I think it was actually on Twitter, the Director of Admissions had this, like, I think I tweeted him and was like, what are the options? Like if someone doesn't get in, you know, what are the options we're trying again, and he had actually written something about an appeal process where if you felt that you had been mistakenly, I guess, mistakenly may not be the right word. But like, if you feel like based on the merits of your grades, your extracurriculars, you know all the things of your application that you were qualified for a spot at their university, you can make an appeal. So I decided to go through that process, I had to write a letter, I had to get additional letters of recommendation from other people, I had to assemble like any new information that had passed since I originally submitted my college application. And I submitted all this material and then cross my fingers prayed, waited. And in May of that year, about a month before I graduated high school, I got the great news that I had been accepted. My appeal was accepted, my rejection was overturned. And I was accepted as a spring admitted to USC.
So I had this interesting kind of it wasn't a gap year, but it kind of felt like it in some ways, because I graduated in June. And then I didn't start my college until January. So I had this big, long period of time, like nine months where all I did was work. I mean, I remember, starting that summer, I got like, my first official W-2 job in high school, I had done things here and there to earn money babysitting, I taught piano lessons, actually, for a while had like five different students. And at the time, I didn't even realize that was technically my first entrepreneurial endeavor. But I guess I didn't think of it that way. But looking back, it totally was I mean, I, I had my students, right, I had to acquire those clients, so to speak, I had to come up with my hourly rates and manage the schedule and manage client communications and purchase supplies, like the music books, and I don't know, it was it was a very cool experience getting to do that. For those of you who don't know, I'm a classically trained pianist. And so I had played since I was five and played competitively. And so there were just a few kids in the community that wanted to learn the instrument. And I felt like I had the skills and the music theory had passed, you know, all these different tests and certifications that would allow me to help someone learn learn the instrument, at the very least, kind of get going.
Anyways, that's that's a story for a whole other day. But I had this this big stretch of time, like I said, and I got my first official job because I was actually getting a real paycheck from a real company. And it was at the movie theaters. Ironically, one of my employees now is someone I met through working at the movie theater. So shout out to Andi, we've known each other for more than a decade now. So that's pretty cool. But you know, you just never know where life leads you and and the people that you meet what those relationships can mean for you down the line. So anyways, I had that job. And then I ended up picking up two more part time jobs. So I was also a waitress, I was a server at two different positions. I worked at a Chinese restaurant and then I also had morning server position at a retirement home and that was, to be honest, like my least favorite part time job I think I've ever had in my entire life.
But anyways, it was it was like mornings I would go there and then I'd work like the open shift at the theater. So it was like in the mornings I'd be there from like, 7 or 7:30 am to like 9:30am that I would go home for a little bit eat, then head to the movie theater, usually most days from like 11 to five was the open shift. And then I would go home for a quick second or even change in the car because sometimes I didn't have time. And then I would go straight over to the Chinese restaurant and work the dinner shift from like 5:30 to 9:30. So my days were extremely full. And that's like all I did for nine months because all my friends had left for college. So I didn't really have anyone to hang out with in my hometown, I was just absorbing myself and work and trying to save as much money as I could for my college tuition. Because USC is a private university. So although I had some needs based scholarships, it certainly wasn't enough to cover my tuition. So I had to take out some loans.
So I think during that time window actually saved up like, if I remember correctly, somewhere around $12,000, because I was just working around the clock. Now granted, all of these were minimum wage jobs, I got some tips, you know, at my dinner shifts as a server, but it was pretty minimal. And that was kind of more of my spending my fun money, if you will, but all of the rest of my wages just went to a savings account that I then emptied, to pay in like one lump sum to the university. So I really never got to touch or see that money. And looking back, I always kind of wonder what my life would have been like, had I not done that, like had I just started out at my state university, because that's kind of where the story goes is I eventually, as you could probably elude from me saying that I was only there for one semester, I did end up transferring back home to my home state of Oregon for the rest of my college years. So I went to Oregon State University. That's where I graduated from in 2016.
And I did that because when I was in that summer between freshman and sophomore year of college, I got my financial aid letter from USC and it was I mean, it was not as much as I had expected it to be based on our needs. And when I did the math, I think I projected it out that if my financial aid was going to stay more or less the same over the remaining three years of my college, then I was going to graduate with I believe it was like close to $200,000 in debt, maybe even more than that might have been actually closer to like a quarter of a million or something. I mean, it was something it just overwhelming, like completely overwhelming. And I am so thankful for that younger version of myself that had the wisdom and the discernment to realize that even though this was my dream school, and I viewed it as like my one shot to the thing that I wanted the most the career that I had pictured for myself, that leaving school with that much debt was going to really really limit my options in my postgrad adult life. And I somehow it must have been a God thing. Like I just knew that that couldn't be what I was meant for it if I wanted to have the life that I wanted.
So I made the very difficult decision to leave my dream university transferred home to a state school. And long story short there, they didn't have a journalism program, a broadcast journalism program when I was going to school there and at the time, I had recently found a love for fitness for weightlifting, my friend Emily had introduced me to this whole world of like, working out I was never in high school. I mean even though I was active on like dance team and tennis team, I never ever was that person who like would go lift or workout at a gym ever. Like I've never had a gym membership. I didn't know the first thing about weightlifting. And so discovering this entirely different world, the fitness world especially this was like right when like the fitness space on Instagram was really blowing up. So like the years of like 2013 to 2015 2016, right? Super, super active in this world. And I was super super active in this world. And I just loved everything. I wanted to absorb as much knowledge as I could in this space.
And so I kind of on a whim decided to change my degree to at the time was called Exercise Sports Science, I believe now the official name at the university is kinesiology but it was a bachelor of science and I was previously a BA, a Bachelor of Arts right because I was in the journalism program. And now all of a sudden, I was making a hard pivot into sciences, which is never it has never been something I consider a strength of mine. It's not something I'm particularly interested in. I was just really, really interested in one particular sector which is anatomy and physiology and like the psychology of how the brain works and how are different body parts like function together for performance and function. And like that part is still really interesting to me but everything else I had to do for that degree. Like being in chemistry classes, taking different sports physics classes, oh my gosh, there were so many things where I was, I just remember sitting there being like, this could not be further from what excites me. But you know, there were there were elements of that degree that excited me. So at the time, at least.
So anyways, circling back to what I was saying earlier about wondering how my life might have turned out different had I not taken that entire lump sum that like $12,000, I had saved up in that gap semester before heading to USC and utilizing that money all towards tuition, I kind of wonder sometimes had I skipped over that entirely, and had just gone all four years to my state school, how that would have impacted my, I guess, my financial journey, because first of all, state school would have been way, way less from the get go whether or not I chose to save that 12 grand or still spend it towards school, I would have had less loans overall to pay back.
And also, I don't know, like thinking back, knowing what I know now, entrepreneurship was so far off my radar. I think I've said this many times before, just kind of offhand in interviews and in different solo episodes. But entrepreneurship and business was truly something that I never, ever even thought of growing up. Like it was something that was so far removed from my interest as a writer, as someone who always thought I was going to be a journalist, that it didn't even cross my radar. We had business classes at my high school that, you know, some of my friends would take an AI, quite frankly, and kind of like sheepishly admit that I don't even think I really understood what that meant. Like when people would be like, Oh, I'm taking a business class. Or we're learning some things about like accounting or, you know, whatnot, I just, I think my brain was just, it didn't click for me, like, I didn't understand the concept of like, what it means to take a business class. I'm like, What does that even mean? Like, what would you learn in a business class, which is hilarious, given what I do now, but that's kind of just illustrating for you how removed I was from ever thinking I was going to own a business or be an entrepreneur, like that wasn't even in my vocabulary.
Anyways, so it's just interesting to think about how I made different choices right from the get go, how that would have influenced where I ended up in life, right? Could I have used that money to start a business earlier would have been exposed to business earlier if I chosen a different path? These are some of the existential questions. I'm sure we all ask ourselves sometimes. I have zero regrets about the way that things turned out. I think I never would have been personally satisfied or fulfilled had I not given myself a shot at proving that A, I could get into and B, succeed at my dream school because I've always been very type A when it comes to academics, unsurprisingly, right. I'm sure any of you who know me in real life, or have been part of my world for a while, that's unsurprising. But it's funny actually, like in college, my GPA was actually better than my high school GPA, like all A's, throughout all of college and in both degrees. And I was just very determined to show that I could like succeed in two vastly different areas of study, I guess. And it was a challenge for me like as someone who has always been more words driven, creativity driven, being in a science based degree was difficult for me at times to, to think that way, because my brain doesn't naturally gravitate towards that.
But I'm very thankful that I got to have both experiences. I'm very thankful that I got to attend two very different universities for very different reasons in very different places, to experience all of that, because I truly believe it's like that butterfly effect, like one minor thing that you would have changed in your path could have led you down a completely different road, it could have impacted so much more than just my professional career. It might have impacted eventually meeting my husband at work years and years ago, like all these more lasting impacts that you know, could have been influenced by any one small decision change in my life. So I never regret anything that I've done. It's just interesting sometimes to think about those things.
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All right, so I've kind of given you a really long backstory on the college piece. The reason this is important. And the reason I wanted to set up this whole challenge around the financial piece of going through school is because this is actually kind of what led me into entrepreneurship. And here's what I mean by that. So my junior year, I believe it was of college, I had found an online coaching company and bought this personal training program from them. And I ended up becoming friends with the CO owners of this business. And then I went to go visit my best friend for I don't remember if it was spring break or what but I went to go visit her in Denver or in Fort Collins, but the company that I had connected with the CO owners of right this online fitness startup, they lived in Denver. And so I actually asked them, and I was really unsure how they would respond. But I was like, I just gotta go for it, I have to shoot my shot. And that was before that phrase ever came into my vocabulary either. But I was like, I just knew I had to take my shot.
So I asked them if they'd be willing to come meet up for a lunch in person. And at that lunch, I somehow found the balls to ask or to pitch myself for an internship, I was like, I really want to work with you guys. I think I can add value to your YouTube channel, your blog, I'm a good writer, like I would love to work for free just to see if it's a good fit for you all. And I ended up walking away with an internship with them. And they didn't even have an internship program at the time. So it was really, really cool that they took a chance on me this totally random college stranger who has to meet up for lunch in a different state, you know, that I didn't even live in but was just visiting. And that internship being part of a startup getting to see the ropes of like building a small business from the ground up, they were a coaching company with a fitness apparel line. So I got to work with both physical products and like really helping to manage the ambassador program and a lot of the marketing elements for selling their clothing and accessories on on that side. But I also got to really see the selling services side through the coaching side of their business. So it was a really amazing, unique experience almost like a crash course and entrepreneurship without me having to own or start my own company myself at the time.
And so that was just a transformative experience getting to intern for them. And it was right around that time. It was like end of summer, I think my junior year. So summer after my junior I should say was right around that August window entering into my senior year of college, where I also got really invested in my personal finance journey and, and devouring all of these books on personal finance. And I made this audacious goal that I wanted to graduate college debt free. So up until that point I hadn't really been thinking that much about like once I had made that decision not to you know, saddle myself with like $200,000 of debt from USC and I had transferred back home. I knew that I still was taking out loans but it was significantly significantly less obviously than what it would have been had I stayed at the other school so I hadn't really been super diligent about keeping track of how much in loans I owed. I was still working at least one sometimes two part time jobs all through college.
So basically whatever part time jobs I was working that money went to paying my rent paying my bills just living as a college student. So I was very self sustaining on my own throughout college and was able to fund my living, at least through my part time wages, but the tuition and things that my needs based financial aid didn't cover, that was the portion that I had to take out in loans. And I wasn't keeping a close eye on that until that pivotal moment, like right before my senior year where I got really serious and focused and wanted to know exactly how much I was going to graduate in debt with and really try to pay it all off. So I don't remember the exact amount to the dollar, but it was more than 19,000, but less than 20,000. So it was 19,000 and some odd dollars that I had calculated was what I was going to owe upon graduation, if I did nothing different. If I just kept working my part time job, and or jobs, I can't really remember at that point, if I had one or two. And I could, you know, continue to sustain just my normal bills through that.
Which is so funny, by the way, like, this is kind of like a small tangent, but I just have to say sometimes it's funny looking back on that period of my life, I don't know if any of you can relate if you also went to college, but that window of my life like 18 to 22 for whatever reason, even though I was making the least amount of money I've ever made in my life, being on my own and being responsible for you know, rent and bills and food and fun and you know, whatnot, I never really felt that much lack, you know, it's funny how your mind. And your mindset really changes as you grow and evolve. Like I could never imagine now having to live on our part time servers, wages, it would be I mean, impossible. Like I even if we made drastic lifestyle changes, I'm not really sure how that would be feasible. But then, you know, I mean, I always had roommates. And it wasn't like we lived extravagant lives, obviously, as college students. But even so like, I just felt like, it always felt like there was going to be enough. And I find that interesting sometimes to reflect on how our vision and our, I guess perception of enough how it changes so much as our viewpoint of what's possible, expands for ourselves as well.
That's a conversation for a whole other day, but I'm just curious if any of you have ever kind of looked back on your life and been like, Hmm, like, how was it that I felt like I had enough then and then sometimes now I don't feel that I have enough or that I feel that pressure or that stress or whatever it may be that we go through, especially as entrepreneurs who are very growth minded, or, or very success driven, you know, sometimes it can really feel like we're falling behind. And it's funny for me to look back on that period of my life and go, Wow, like, that's really impressive that my mindset was just so solid, then to feel like I had enough and I knew I was going to be okay, you know. So anyways, like I said, a tangent a conversation for another day, but worth bringing up, send me a DM shoot me a DM @MissEllenYin, if you've ever felt that way, because I just find it intriguing.
But anyways, so I had come to this realization of how much I was going to owe in debt. And that's when things like really, I think set the trajectory for the rest of my life. And ultimately, through many a series of steps landed me in where I am today. And that was me realizing, okay, if I want to pay off almost $20,000 in student debt before I graduate. So this was again, late August entering into my senior year, I was going to graduate, my graduation was set for like, end of May, early June. That's not a lot of time, right? That's like 10 months. And I knew that I had enough from working as a server to be able to pay my everyday bills, but that wasn't going to allow me to make very much dent, or progress on paying off my loan. So I needed another source of income. At that point, I had successfully completed my first unpaid internship with a startup that I had pitched. And then I got them to renew my internship for another three months. And at the end of those three months is when I was able to secure a paid part time role with them all the way through graduation. And then that ended in a full time job offer at the or upon graduation, I should say.
And that was all like, it's so interesting. Maybe someday I can even go back and find those emails and like share them with you but being able to, I guess have the audacity or audacity might not be the right word. That kind of sounds like feel like Audacity kind of takes on a negative connotation these days. Having the courage the bravery I guess to pitch myself over and over again say you Give me a shot at an unpaid internship, give me another shot to renew this internship. And if I impress you, if I'm able to make a tangible difference in this business and really provide value to your team and to your bottom line, I would like to see this turn into a paid position if I can show that. And I was able to do it. And so that part time position, I remember I would get paid once a month, and all of that money, that entire paycheck, like the moment it would land in my bank account, I would just forward it over to the student loan services, like I didn't touch $1 from those earnings, I continue to live off of the money that I made as a part time server, I was still going to school full time. And then, you know, when I wasn't working at the restaurant, and it wasn't actively in class, I would just be like juggling between homework, studying and working remotely for this part time position that I had. And that's kind of how my senior year went, I just, you know, continued making payments. I also, this was something that I wish I had done earlier, but didn't again, really think about it until I was put in a position where I needed to, is I started really aggressively applying for scholarships again.
And this is something I think, again, a lot of people don't think about you think about applying for scholarships before you go to school. But once you enter school, most people just kind of stop, you know, they kind of assume that that option is no longer available, when in reality, there are so many scholarships available every year scholarships, grants programs that are directed toward current and existing students. So not incoming freshmen, but like you're already in school, and they have scholarships that are let's say, just for juniors or just for seniors, or just for certain majors or just for people with certain backgrounds and life experiences. And there's so many out there that go unknown. And I think about that concept. Often. Even now as an entrepreneur, there are so many business grants out there so many amazing opportunities for funding that don't get enough attention, because we just think we either don't think about them at all, or we exclude ourselves from even applying because we think we're not qualified for them. Even though so few people actually for some apply that you probably have a really good shot at getting those opportunities. So I also invested a lot of time in applying for scholarships.
And I don't remember off my top of my head, but there's actually an article, this is a whole other thing. But I actually got featured in an article on the Penny Hoarder, because spoiler alert, I was able to achieve this audacious goal of paying off over $19,000 in student loans. By the time I graduated, that was actually I finished, wrote that very last check saw that balance go to zero, even I think it was a few months before I graduated, I got there early. But in that article, I had to go back and like reference it and I'll link it below if you're interested. This was written back in was either like 2016 or 2017. So granted, some of the links, I think even my Instagram link might now be like broken because at the time, my handle was Ellen Yin fit, which is so funny. I've had many lives, many, many lives on Instagram. But in that article, they quoted me as having said that I had earned or what is the word one, I know, I don't really know what the right word for like receiving, been chosen, I guess as a scholarship recipient for about $10,000 in scholarships. So I guess about half of that payment of the remaining loan amount came from scholarships. And then the other half was paid off with this part time remote position that had gotten for myself at this startup at this fitness startup.
And like I said that then turned into my full time job after college. And that role, again, just being in a startup environment, and really getting to work closely with the founders and getting to experiment. And really help shape and CO create my role and try my hand at a lot of different things and test different skills and have the environment to really take initiative and make mistakes make big risks, right. I think that all really shaped my own ability to succeed and entrepreneurship. Like I really, really credit a lot of my early success as an entrepreneur to that background, having already worked in a startup. And so I worked at that job for about a year a little less than a year after I had graduated college and then I actually was laid off unfortunately from that role. Right around the holidays. The company decided to go through an entire restructure, they basically laid off all of their staff. So it was just back to the two co founders again. And that was really rough. I remember when that happened, because I loved this company, so much like I loved it like it was my own. And I really saw myself there for a long time. Still, at this point in my life, I did not have entrepreneurship on my radar, I was perfectly happy being what I would now refer to as an intrapreneur, someone who has an entrepreneurial spirit and is able to really take proactive measures to lead initiatives and to be creative within a job, but not having to run my own business or, you know, start everything from the ground up, assume all the risk, so to say, or so to speak.
So anyways, that was kind of where I found myself entering into 2017. And then I was applying for jobs landed my first corporate like true corporate job that, you know, it wasn't really a nine to five, it was actually a 7am to 4pm, which was, I mean, for someone who's not an early bird, I don't know why I thought that was a good idea. But seven to four, because I would take an hour lunch and go to the gym, I remember, it could have been 7 to 3:30. But I asked for an hour lunch so that I could go to the gym. And I was working at a health care company, working in their marketing department marketing insurance plans, which if you know anything about me, man, was that soul crushing like I talked about, like one of the least creative industries and most restrictive in terms of what you can even say that's legal right to communicate with members. And I totally understand like, from a protection side why that is. But as someone who really likes to think outside of the box and get creative, it was so just it felt so stifling to work in a role like that, that was so rigid.
And so like the industry as a whole, the insurance industry is such a dinosaur, especially when it comes to health care. And so there's so many layers of red tape and bureaucracy and oh, this the way it's always been done, like that type of mentality, which I found really difficult to transition into after being part of such a flexible and fast moving startup, it was just night and day, right. And so I only lasted in that job for 10 months before I just knew I had to get out of there. That was not, no matter how long I stayed, it wasn't going to change how I felt about the role. And I knew that the longer I stayed, the more complacent I would become. And so I knew I had to get myself out of that role.
And that is probably where the story picks up that most of you actually hear. Like when most people asked me to tell my story, this. I think at this point, it's like almost 40 minutes of me talking, I thought I would keep the short, clearly I did not but I hope it's been, you know, insightful to really hear the full story. This is usually the point that I pick up at when I am on someone else's podcast. You know, I kind of fast forward to this point and go oh, you know, I was in this corporate job that I didn't like for 10 months I left at the end of 2017. I wasn't planning again still wasn't planning at that time when I quit. Even though I had no backup plan, I was not leaving to start a business that's like a very clear point. And something that I think a lot of people miss, understand or miss assume that I left my corporate job to become an entrepreneur. And that just simply wasn't the case. I really just felt like that wasn't the right fit role for me. And I wanted to find a better fit at a different company.
But through that job search process, this is the part of my story that most of you who have been with me for a while know, I ended up reconnecting with a colleague at the job I had just left and him and his wife owned these two local coffee stands as a family business. And they wanted to launch their Instagram presence. They wanted to be more active with social media marketing. And so I took on that project as a $300 project. That was the very first client I ever had. They paid me $300 My first month. I think I up sold them to $500 the second month and they were with me for a few months. And that's really what kick started my my entrance into entrepreneurship, my leap into entrepreneurship, because that one client gave me the encouragement and the inspiration that I had a set of skills that I could monetize outside of a traditional job structure. And I just really believed that if I gave myself a chance, and I ran with this path instead of continuing to send out resumes and go on interviews and apply for jobs that I wanted to see where this other path could take me and that curiosity is what led me over many different evolutions and turns and pivots of which I won't cover in today's episode for the sake of time has led me to today sitting here recording this for you all.
So that is my cubicle to CEO story, the catalysts that helped me make the leap from employee to entrepreneur. I hope this was interesting for you, maybe you learn something new, maybe you thought about something a little bit different. I really, really love hearing what you get from each episode. Especially when it comes to something more personal like the story I told you today. I just love hearing what resonates what pieces that you know you can relate to in your story. I love hearing about your stories. I love knowing your Cubicle to CEO stories, your journey. So if this lit something up in you, I would love if you took a moment today to maybe screenshot this episode, share on your stories, tag us at Cubicle to CEO @MissEllenYin with a little note of something that you took away from this conversation, conversation, I say conversation, it's kind of one sided, because I can't hear you right now. But it will become a conversation if you if you share it to your stories. Or if you just want to privately DM me, and share a thought I so so appreciate that as well.
All right, that is all I'm gonna wrap up here. And thank you again for listening. For those of you who have been with us from the beginning of the year, when we started this experiment of two episodes a week and you've been listening Mondays and Wednesdays all year long. I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting our show in such a significant way for spending up to two hours a week of your time with me in your ear that I don't take that lightly. And I can never truly express how meaningful that is to me, especially, especially when I get to meet you in real life or especially when you reach out and share how something has made you think differently.
And for those of you who missed our previous announcements about it, as you know, this is the final public bonus episode that we are creating for this show for Cubicle to CEO on a regular cadence, all of our future bonus episodes, particularly any that have more of a behind the business insight. So for example, one of the first bonus episodes we're launching in the new year is going to be a launch debrief of our 12 Days of Christmas campaign. We're going to talk through all of the offers which ones flew off the shelves, which ones flopped, what I would do differently, how we marketed it, what the total revenue was the day by day breakdowns of how many new customers we got, like all all the juicy insights, right, all of that is going to be in a launch debrief bonus episode that we are publishing to our private podcast feed for our C suite members.
And I'm not saying that we'll never ever have another bonus episode again on this public show. But any behind the business any like true like founders diary slash behind the business type episodes with me are going to be exclusive to our C suite members. So you got to join the C suite if you want access to those. But sometimes we'll still bring on a guest for a fun bonus episode. Or maybe if there is an exciting announcement or something going on, I might share here with a bonus episode. So not to say there will never ever be another bonus episode. But like I said, it will not be published on a weekly basis. Like we have all of 2023. And certainly any more in depth kind of investigative bonus episodes are all going to be on the private podcast, which if you are a C suite member, your listening experience doesn't really change, which is wonderful, you get to access the private podcast on your favorite podcast player still. So if you're listening on Apple, or if you're listening on Spotify, our private podcast will show up just as a separate show that only you get the link to access if you're part of the C suite.
And when this airs at the end of this year, we won't have the public enrollment open yet for the C suite we ended our Early Access enrollment with the end of our 12 Days of Christmas campaign. So if you're listening to this, like as it airs, there won't be a link in the show notes yet for you to join the C suite if you're not in it yet. But if you're listening, if you're finding this episode, anytime, I would say after January 2024. At that point, we will likely have launched the public version of the C suite or opened it to the public I should say it's not a different version. It's the same version but like open to officially to the public. Then there will be a link in the show notes where you can actually join us directly inside the C suite. But if you don't see a link to join the C suite in the show notes, and you definitely want to be the first to know when it becomes available so that you can continue to receive access to those types of bonus episodes. Then go ahead and send me a DM @MissEllenYin on Instagram or @CubicletoCEO. Either way, whether my team sees it or I see it on my personal will add you to a private list that will personally reach out to I will personally DM you and tell you and give you the link when it's available. So if you want to take advantage of that, please send us an Instagram DM we always love to hear from you. All right, happy, happy new year, and I will chat with you again in 2024.
