You're listening to cubicle to CEO, Episode 200. Wow, friends, we did it. Cheers to 200 episodes together, I can't believe we showed up together in this space for 200 weeks that's almost four years together. And whether you've been with us since episode one, or you're just tuning in today for the first time, welcome, I am so grateful to have you here. And I cannot express enough my gratitude for all that you have brought to the show. Thank you for every time you've chosen to hit play on an episode. Thank you for every time you've shared an episode with a friend, thank you for leaving us these amazing reviews and ratings. I read every single one of them, and I treasure all of them. And also a huge thank you if you have ever sent us a message when something resonated with you, or when you have applied something to your business that has impacted you in a positive way. All of that makes this worth it.
And I could not do this show without the many other talented individuals who have contributed to its success, both past and present. So a shout out to Paige, to Kate, and to Danielle on our content team. And an especially big thank you to Sabrina Nasser, our Podcast Producer of the last three years. She is really the leading lady behind the scenes making all of this magic happen for you every single week. So please join me in giving Sabrina a sincere thank you for all of her efforts.
Also, in thinking about how I wanted to celebrate this milestone with you all, I felt it was only fitting to feature your voices, our amazing listeners as the guest stars of today's episode, so we're doing a listener Q&A. It's been a long time since we've done one of these. And I wanted to make sure that every single person who submitted a question had a chance to be featured in this episode and to have their question answered. So to do that, we decided to split this Q&A into two parts. So part one is airing today I'll be answering the first 10 questions in this episode. And then part two is going to drop on Wednesday, where I'll answer the remaining questions. I just want to commend you all by the way for submitting such high quality questions. It was so much fun going through and answering these for you all. So without further ado, let's roll into question number one.
Welcome to cubicle to CEO the podcast. I'm your host Ellen Yin. I quit my job without a backup plan and bootstrapped my first $300 freelance project into $2 million in revenue by age 28. On the show, you'll hear weekly case study interviews with leading entrepreneurs and CEOs who share one specific strategy that successfully grew their business revenue. Skip the expensive and time consuming learning curve of testing everything yourself by borrowing what actually works from the best and brightest mentors. You'll also get a front row seat to my founders journey through transparent income reports and behind the business solo episodes, subscribe now so we can grow together every Monday.
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Hey, my name is Isabelle Sarley. And I'm an email copywriter and strategist. My question is, if you are just starting your visibility journey today, what would your top three goals be? And how would you get started?
Hey Isabelle, great question. If I were starting my visibility journey over today, assuming I have no social media following no email list, I think my go to approach would be to utilize this concept of borrowed traffic, which if you've been in my community for any amount of time, you've heard me talk about before. And it's this concept of leveraging other people's existing audiences who have already conveniently gathered your ideal customers or your clients together in one place. So instead of relying only on selling to your own existing audience, which in this scenario, we're assuming is zero, you're instead of getting in front of other people's audiences of the right people who have the problem that your service or product is designed to solve. So three easy ways I would do this is one I would participate in a bundle or a summit. I'm talking about virtual summits here. bundles, if you're not familiar are typically collaborations were anywhere from 10 to sometimes upwards of 30 experts are coming together and each contributing a digital product that they normally sell individually on their own sites. But for a small window of time, whether it's a few days or a week, they're bundling together all of their products, and offering it at a low price, typically 90% Plus discount to their collective audiences. So when a bundle, you're really benefiting from the cross promotion that you and all of your contributors are doing to bring in buyers for this bundle product.
And what this does is it accelerates you building a list of buyers, people who have already, you know, made some sort of transaction so that trust is already starting at a higher level. And I realized that maybe a little bit harder sometimes to get into a bundle if you don't have an existing audience. But sometimes if your product is good enough and offers enough value, to you know, the target audience that this bundle is being promoted to a bundle host may still consider adding you as a contributor. So it never hurts to seek out that opportunity. And just make sure that you are really bringing a ton of value to the table there.
Same idea with a summit with a virtual Summit. There's typically anywhere from 10 to 30 plus speakers, I really find that the sweet spot for virtual summits is with 20 or less speakers, because you don't want to be you know, so lost in a crowd of, you know, 50 to 100 speakers that you don't even get the eyeballs that you're actually looking for. So typically would choose a summit between 10 to 20 speakers, and this is another great opportunity because of the cross pollination of audio is where each speaker is bringing their own audience to the table in promoting this virtual event that you're getting to speak in front of other people's audiences, right. And again, if you don't have an existing audience, it may be a little bit more difficult on the front end of applying for these summits. But there's other ways to build relationships with the summit host or provide value that may, you know, if you're if your promotion capacity looks smaller than the other speakers, there are still ways to provide value that you can get creative on right thinking about what else can you do to make the experience for the summit attendees really valuable? And how can you show up in that way, if your promotion capacity is a little bit smaller to begin with?
Number two is I would really focus on landing my first five podcast guest interviews. So we have a template, the perfect podcast pitch template, which many of you have used. It's our plug and play line by line word for word exactly what we would say, and who to pitch and how to pitch to get yourself on other people's podcasts. So that again, you're getting to spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour in someone's ear, sharing your expertise. And so that's another one of my favorite ways to leverage this concept of borrowed traffic. So if you're curious about getting started in that area, and becoming a guest on other people's shows, I'll make sure to link that perfect podcast pitch template in our show notes. So you can utilize that as a resource to help you get your first pitch out in the next five to 30 minutes. I mean, it really is that simple when you use our template.
And then number three, kind of along the same lines of You know, the benefits of speaking in a virtual summit when you're just starting out, offering to speak in other people's Facebook groups, masterminds or coaching programs, can also be a really great way to get in front of new audiences, when you may not have again, the existing audience of your own that you can leverage and promotional efforts. So let's say you try that route of bundles or virtual summits, but you're not getting those opportunities yet, because you don't have an established audience that you can bring to the table as a contributor or as a fellow speaker. If that's the case, no worries, you can instead default to option two or three that I just shared, landing on other people's podcasts or just offering to speak in people's own groups, as you know, an individual contributor. And typically here, you'll want to work with whoever owns that group, right? Whoever is the gatekeeper to the Facebook group, or the mastermind group or the coaching program and really understand like, what are the missing gaps in what their people want to know. But maybe the host doesn't have the expertise to provide themselves how can you fill in that gap and be complementary to what the host is already providing, and showing up in a way of giving free value and, and just getting that practice of speaking in front of other people. And even if that audience is small, let's say someone has a mastermind of 10 people, or five people don't discount those opportunities when you're starting out. Or even if you're far along in your journey, it's always going to be more impactful for you to get in front of five of the right people who you can actually help then 500 People who don't have a need for the service or product that you're wanting to get out there. So don't discount those opportunities. And I hope you get to try one of these three ways to fast track your own visibility.
Hi, my name is Mangla from Expat Business In A Bag. And my question is, how do you get people to reveal so much about their businesses and the numbers that they share with you? I mean, the recent episode with Amy Porterfield, she shared information with you that she had said she hadn't even shared with her own audience. How do you have such amazing relationships with everybody? That you interview? Thanks.
Hi Mangla, I am totally with you. I was pleasantly surprised, and so grateful to Amy and all of our guests who have shown up on our show and shared so transparently numbers and data and information that they may have not even shared on their own platforms before. And I think their willingness to disclose that kind of information has to do with a couple of factors. Number one, we have a very clear show structure. And so having that clarity and setting those expectations upfront with our guests from the initial intake process, so anybody who's interested in being on our show typically fills out this guest inquiry form. And on that form, we're already planting those seeds by asking them to submit a compelling case study. And we make it very clear that our business show is different from most others in this category, because we're not just focused on having someone share their founder story or having them you know, regurgitate their same five expert talking points that they've already shared on other people's podcasts. We're really here to bring you the questions answers to the questions that you can't google, right. That's our show's tagline. And so, in keeping with that, we are making sure that we're telling our guests, hey, if you want a chance to be on our show, it's not as much about, you know, what's your notoriety, or you know, what your audience sizes are any of those things, although those things can be helpful, what we're really here and what we're really focused on is bringing the best quality content to our listeners.
And in order to do that, you have to be able to pitch us a compelling case study, and provide the supporting numbers around it, to help us understand why your specific strategy is something that we haven't already covered on the show and why our listeners would be interested in hearing it. Right. So I think setting that clear expectation from the get go is really, really important. And we've produced consistent, excellent content that attracts those high quality caliber of guests and high quality caliber of listeners like yourself in so I think, in doing something over and over and over again, and letting you know, actions lead the way you build this reputation that makes other people want to live up to that reputation, right. So for example, like when Amy came on our show, she was like, Oh my gosh, like I've heard from other mutual friends who have been on the show, what a great experience it was. So being able to build that credibility, where people want to live up to the high expectations that others have set ahead of them, I think is also key to encouraging these types of vulnerable conversations.
But I think most importantly, and why our guests have been so willing to share so transparently their own numbers is because we have led by example, for the last four plus years, right in sharing our own business finances. So we have shown up every single quarter, every 90 days to share exactly what our business spends makes, and profits. And by doing that, by having that consistent practice as well. We're not asking our guests to do anything that we haven't already done ourselves. And so I think that reciprocal nature and finding like minded guests who share our core value of transparency and wanting to further that mission, and normalize conversations around money, especially for other women in business has really been again instrumental in bringing on the right people who are unafraid to go deep. And I am just so so grateful for our guests who do that, because it's not an easy thing. But I think the recognition from listeners like you Mangla, make their efforts and their bravery, worth it to them. So thank you for recognizing that.
Hey, Hi, Ellen. This is Juliana from, at naturally that joy is, and I'm an avid listener of your podcast. My question is when we have new leads coming in from various different sources, opt ins and so on, aside from tagging them so that we can customize potentially like newsletter communications, is their sort of best approach in terms of creating a lead management system that really nurtures the different types of leads, because they're coming from different steps in their client journey.
Thank you so much. Hi, Juliana. Oh, I love how you're thinking so many steps ahead. This is such a such a smart question. I'm going to be honest and say that I am not a CRM expert. So this isn't necessarily my area of expertise. But what I do want to share here is I think one of the best ways that you can go a step deeper in segmenting your audience is actually a strategy that we recently started implementing thanks to our friend Linda Sidhu, who's the queen of personality quiz funnels. We created our own personality quiz with her help, what's your SEO style? And what's unique about the way that Linda structures personality quizzes is that the results of that quiz help segment your audience by their buyer personality types, so you're able to segment them by their buyer behaviors, meaning that when you go to create content or to create promotional content, you're able to better tailor the selling experience to your different buyer types. And if you're curious to learn more about what this process looks like, we really go in depth into this and Linda's episode on our podcast. So we'll make sure to link that in the show notes below if you haven't already heard it.
But I think personality quizzes are an amazing way to just dig a little bit deeper, and more finally, segment your audience. I think also surveys are very underrated to understand your audience more deeply. And again, just continue to build a more holistic profile of each person in your audience in your chosen CRM system. So really thinking about what questions can I ask them that would normally not be revealed to me based on the products they choose to purchase? Or what options are choosing to engage with? What else about this person can I learn, and sometimes it's things that are more personal to who they are outside of business, right? If you work in b2b, or in your case, you know, you you focus a lot of your offers, I know from our past conversations on improving people's health. And so thinking about what other factors relate to their health decisions and journey? And how can you ask those questions, so that you can again better understand where they're coming from. And you know what things they've already maybe tried in the past, that didn't work well for them. So you can make sure that you're really positioning yourself in a different light.
And then lastly, one thing to consider too, in organizing your CRM system is looking at the actual customer data around what offers each person already owns, and who your top customers are. So if you're hosting in Kajabi, which I believe you are, just like we do, you can actually filter by who owns what offers, right. So seeing who in your audience owns the most number of offers, who is a repeat buyer, who are the people who are spending the most amount of money with you. This is actually a data point that you can pull from stripe, you're able to see the lifetime value of each customer and see who's been spending the most with you, you really want to reward these loyal customers and really think about bringing them into the conversation more around the offers that you're creating and making sure that they get first access and the best deals, these are your best customers, and you really want to treat them as the VIPs that they are. So I think that's another important data point to consider adding to your CRM system. That all said, like I mentioned at the beginning, I am not a CRM expert in the sense of the physical organization of your CRM. But I hope these additional data points kind of help you think about how you can build a more complete profile around each customer.
Hi, I'm Rosalie of Portecua Consulting and my question takes us back to your childhood. Were you a risk averse or risk forward child when you were growing up? And how has that evolved? Or changed as you become an entrepreneur?
Hey, Rosalie, I love this question about my childhood. I had to actually really think about it for a second because the answer isn't so black and white, socially, I would consider myself having been a more risk averse child, mostly because I you know, as a first generation American, as someone who immigrated to this country at a young age, and grew up with immigrant parents, I, you know, kind of lived between two cultures in two worlds my entire life. And, you know, especially as a young kid, your biggest fear is wanting to fit in and to belong. And so I think in wanting to learn this new culture, of living in America, and you know, the town that I grew up in, although we had a very strong Chinese community, at the same time, when I was in school, most of my peers were white, you know, and we're many generations deep in living in America. And so trying to assimilate to my peers and, and remove the parts of me that might, you know, put me in a position to be ostracized or to be othered, or to be bullied or whatever it was, you know, I wanted to just make myself blend in as much as possible and not stand out from the crowd in that way. And so I think socially, in my younger years, I definitely was more risk averse in that aspect.
But personally, like who I was on the inside, and especially in the privacy of my own home, or in an environment that I felt really, you know, just free to be who I was, I definitely am a more risk forward person. So I think my strengths, curiosity and optimism have always been two of my biggest superpowers. I'm someone who is endlessly curious, I always want to learn and when I find something that piques my interest, I really had that mentality where, where there's a will, there's a way I'm that type of person, right? So, I mean, this showed up in my life very early on, I would say, the earliest memories I have around this idea of being more risk Ford is as early as fourth and fifth grade, discovering that I had a talent for writing, and entering writing contests and seeking out these sorts of opportunities. I've always been that person that is like, I don't need to wait for an opportunity to come my way I can go out and create it or find a way or find the right person to connect me to whatever I need, right. And so you know, that evolved over the years from primarily writing contests to maybe entering music contests later.
There are lots of experiences in my preteen teenage childhood, where I got some really cool opportunities on the music side of things because I was going out and you know, seeking out these things and putting myself out there in entering these different types of music competitions like I'm thinking about, you know, one, there was this one like jingle called contest one year that I won, where I got to go out to LA and attend this award ceremony for a bunch of people in the entertainment industry, which was so cool to me as a I must have been a sophomore or a junior in high school, or I remember also in high school, there was a time where I got to be an opening act for this like tour around all these different malls in America that was headlined by Demi Lovato. She didn't play at the stop that I played at, but I remember just, you know, like, what is life, I'm just here playing on my keyboard and singing in front of this crowd. And, you know, I didn't necessarily have an aspiration to like, be a professional musician, by any means. But just anytime something's interesting to me, I'm like, yeah, why not? Me? Why not do it? Why not try for it? Right. So there were lots of examples like that.
I can also think of a time in middle school. This was right around when High School Musical came out. So I was obsessed with the original in in sixth grade, right? I watched it over and over and over again, with my sisters, we memorize all the songs, all the choreography. And I remember being so excited when I heard that the movie was being turned into an onstage theater production and for kids. And so I, you know, immediately, of course, stick to the internet to search, if there was going to be a local production in my town, there was not. But on Google, I found that there was going to be a production of the show in Pennsylvania, which is clear on the other side of the country. You know, I'm on the West Coast that's over on the east coast here in the US. And I'm here like a 1213 year old kid. And I don't even remember if I told my parents that I did this right away, but I like recorded an audition tape, I mailed it out to the casting director for this local theatre production over in Pennsylvania, they somehow accepted me and paired me with like a host family for the summer, who was willing to let me stay with them if I wanted to come out for the three week period that this show was being rehearsed and run. And somehow I don't even remember how I convinced my parents to let me do this. My mom actually traveled with me to Pennsylvania. And we stayed there for a couple of weeks. And I was part of this local production of High School Musical on stage.
And it's funny looking back at these things, because they're not in any way related to you know what I do today. But I definitely do think my willingness to try things, and just be like, just let myself experience things, even if I didn't really understand like, what the end purpose was, really has shaped who I am as an entrepreneur, and most importantly, I think, has allowed me to move faster in my business in terms of my speed of taking action on new ideas. And because of that, because of my willingness to take action, and not be so caught up in the dilemma of Oh, what if you know, this doesn't work out the way I want? Or what if it's a failure? Or what if you know, all these what ifs that can really hold us prisoner? I find that I'm not so tripped up by those because of my experiences as a child in that regard. So anyways, that's probably a much longer answer than you were even looking for. But that's what came to mind when you ask this.
Hi, my name is Victoria Davis. I don't currently have a business. And that goes in with my question. As someone who has had several businesses and business ventures that have not worked out, how do you start from scratch, including branding, business name, social media, all of the above?
Hey, Victoria, I am so glad you asked this, you know, this is a problem that I think a lot of be getting entrepreneurs often struggle with is feeling like there's so many, there's so many options out there, right? And there's so many shoulds or to do's that feel like I need to get my business name set up and have this polished branding and create all this content on social media before I can, you know, do anything before I can actually acquire my first customer or sell something. And if I'm being completely honest with you, I think that all of these things, you know, branding, your business name, social media, they're all really important. But they're all long term success strategies. And so when you're just right at the beginning, I think putting all of your focus and energy into those types of things can actually be a huge distraction. And what I think is really going to actually get your momentum off the ground and, and get you doing things is to actually get really clear on one simple question, which is this. What problem or desire do you solve? And for who? I'm going to repeat that again? What problem or desire do you solve or fulfill and for who? That should be?
The biggest question you're asking yourself and focusing your attention on getting clarity on first, because once you have clarity on that piece, that container through which you deliver it that solution, right, it's going to refine itself naturally over time as you experiment with different containers and you iterate on what works and what doesn't. So whether, you know, let's say that the problem that you're solving for someone is, let's say they're I'm just making this up the ability to create more organized spaces in their life, right? Maybe they feel surrounded by chaos in their home. And you really feel like you have a knack for being able to help people create organization and structure in their life. And let's say specifically, you love working with young professionals who are kind of just in that place in life, where they're really figuring out how to live on their own, maybe they just graduated college, and they're going from living with many roommates, to maybe living with people they aren't as close to friends with, or maybe living alone or whatever that may look like. So maybe that's like the specific person you help and what you help them with, right. And the container through which you help them this is where you get to explore and have fun, maybe the best way you help them is through hands on done for you one on one organization in person, maybe the best way you're able to help them is through coaching, consulting, virtually, maybe the best way you're helping them is to create some sort of digital resource, like a, you know, self paced course, or some sort of organization template or checklist or whatever that they're able to implement on their own. And it's more one to many, rather than one to one.
The truth is, you're not going to really know what that container is until you first understand the problem you're solving and who you're solving for. So rather than, you know, try to figure out, am I going to be a coach? Or am I going to create a course? Or am I going to provide a service? Or am I going to set up a retail storefront rather than thinking about the container? First, I want you to think about the problem, the WHO, and the what first and the why, right, because once you get those pieces in place, the rest is just exploration and iteration. That all being said, I will say if you're starting over from scratch, and you've had many hurdles before, in starting a business that didn't pan out, I would highly recommend if your risk tolerance is is lower right now that you actually create a personal brand offering the service because that, in my opinion, is the lowest risk startup, it has the least amount of overhead, and the least amount of financial and time risk, right. Because really, it's I mean, when you're a personal brand, you're selling you you're selling your experience, your perspective, your credibility, the relationships that you have built over your lifetime, even if not as a business owner, just who you are Victoria as a person, right, and building around your name and your personal brand. And then offering a service a done for you service or done with you service, I think is going to be the fastest way for you to really test and get that more immediate, intimate feedback on what's working what isn't what you like and what you don't like.
And it's going to also fast track your ability to get your first dollar, right. And that way, you can also kind of delay a little bit some of that other more long term success stuff like your branding and your business name. You don't have to think of that from day one. If you're building around your personal brand, because your name is your name. And then again, as you start to get more experiences, more clarity, more resources available to you, you can then decide, okay, how do I really want to amplify and continue to expand as a business? Do I want to continue as a personal brand? Do I want to create a different brand name? How do I want that represented visually, all of these things actually require a ton of clarity for you to do them, right. And any great brand designer will tell you that as well. They really can't help you bring your vision to life, if you don't first have that clarity as a business owner around what you actually do and who you're helping. So I hope that this is helpful to you.
Hi, my name is Kristina and I am from Gem Creative Co. And my question is what is your best piece of advice for juggling the transition between solely a service provider into offering online education. I have been in this limbo period for a little while now. enjoying the process of serving clients one on one with branding services. But knowing that I want to provide brand building education to a wider community. So Ellen, I would love to hear from your experience. I know that this was something that you did earlier on in your business journey. But all that to say you know that I'm the biggest fan of cubicle to CEO and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you.
Hi, Kristina. Well, you know that we are your biggest fans too here at Cubicle to CEO. Those of you who don't know know, Kristina is actually the designer behind our brand refresh last summer. So when we recreated our cubicle, the CEO logo and all of its surrounding branding, Kristina is the mastermind behind that. So thank you, Kristina, I, oh, this is a great question. And there's many routes that you can go when you're trying to make this transition, right. So I'm not saying My way is the only way or the right way. But this is what worked for me. And I just kind of want to impart some of the things that went through my mind as I was making this transition. I think, first and foremost, and you already know this, Kristina, from having been in our pay to create challenge. But I really believe that if you're going to create any sort of digital product, especially your first one, the best way to do that is to pre sell your product. So actually get it sold to a few paying students or a few paying customers, before you ever create it. This reduces your time and your energy and your money risk to almost zero. Because if you don't get the buy in from your audience, or from the marketplace, then you're not out anything, right, you didn't already pour a bunch of your time into creating something that people didn't want.
And so I think pre selling is number one, like, let's just get your first digital idea out there, get it validated in the marketplace, by ensuring that there are actually people who want to buy into it. And then through the process of creating your first product, you're going to learn so much about yourself and what you actually enjoy about being an educator. And some of those things may surprise you. Because through the process, you may realize, you actually don't like it as much as you may think. Or you may be attracted to parts of it that you weren't aware of before. And there are other parts that you know, you want to stay away from. But you won't know that until you actually have the experience of teaching students or being in that process. So I think the best first thing you could do is to pre sell your product and just give yourself the space and the opportunity to experience what it's actually like being in the online education space that you can learn more about how you want to proceed from there.
But the second thing, I think, to highly consider, and this is where risk really comes in as an entrepreneur and your willingness to lean into that. You know that saying that you can do everything, but you can't do it all at once, right. And I really believe this to be true when you're trying to make a transition from one business model to another. If you hold on to all of your existing clients, and you're operating at the same capacity in trying to serve clients one on one, as you always have, while still trying to add in a new element to your business like online education, that's a surefire way to burn out and to do neither very well, right, because if you have a finite amount of resources, and you're trying to add in a new layer to your business, you're going to have to figure out a way to reallocate those resources. And sometimes that can look like reducing the capacity that you are currently giving to your clients. And that has to be an intentional choice. And that can feel really scary, because obviously, if you reduce how much of your time you're dedicating to client services, and you're not taking on as many clients, your income is probably going to drop for a period of time to allow yourself the space to actually explore this new venture of online education. And that is scary, I'm not going to lie.
And that's a decision that I had to make. And I didn't make it lightly. But it was something that I realized about myself that for as long as I had my boutique agency and I was serving all of these clients at the level that I wanted to that they deserved for what they were investing in me, I would never truly have the ample space and time to scale the education side of my business, I would have to physically create room in my calendar to do that, right. And in order to do that, I had to let go of many of my clients to create that room for me to really explore what it would look like to build the education side of my business. And so it was taking a few steps back in order to spring forward at a later time, right. But that delayed gratification that that gap can often feel so terrifying to people that they never give themselves the space to explore. So they keep going at the exact same speed that they already are in their current business while also trying to add on a secondary layer. And that's when again, like I said, Neither side really gets the attention they deserve. So I think ultimately, the ball is in your court in deciding what season of your life what upcoming moment in time. Would you feel comfortable taking that risk in, perhaps reducing your client load to allow time and space is for you to explore online education, get your first product out there, pre sell it and actually be in the process of being an educator so that you can fine tune how you would like to proceed with that.
Hi, my name is Carol Umanzor. And my business is born to be seen, which is all about building a practice of emotional wellness. My IG handle is @btobseen. So btobseen. And my question is about transitioning from an education space into small business or into business. I love to learn how can I translate my skills to this world? How can I apply what I know, in education into business and just understand what business model fits best? Thank you.
Hi, Carol. I'm so glad that your question followed up, Victoria and Kristina's question, because I think my answer is actually a little bit of a combination of what I've shared with the two of them. So just in case, you haven't listened to my answers to Kristina and Victoria's questions, they're the two questions right before you. So just rewind a couple of minutes and listen to those first. But I would say that when you are thinking about translating your skills, as an educator into the online business world, there's actually so many transferable skills. So that's that's the good news, right is that you've already really fine tune the skills around how to synthesize what you know, in your head, and be able to share it in a way that helps someone with, you know, a lower level of experience than you adequately understand and apply your teachings into their actual life. And then also, you know, as an educator, you have great communication skills, I would assume, you know how to collect and apply feedback, which is really great, you know, how to lesson plan, you know, how to create diverse learning experiences, because I'm assuming if you come from a traditional education background, that you've had to work with students who may learn in all sorts of different ways.
So you actually have a huge leg up, I think, in terms of being able to create a really rich learning experience for your students. As far as how to how to really make sure that you pick the business model that fits best for you. I think that kind of goes back to what I also shared with Victoria, which is that the more important thing is to really understand what problem you're solving for, you know, your customers in your small business and who that customer is. And instead of starting with the container first or the business model, first, understanding that piece first, the who and the what, and then building backwards, reverse engineering from there and saying, okay, which business model would best allow me to deliver that result to that end, customer or client? And I will say that when you're first starting out in small business, and again, this kind of goes back to something I shared with Victoria as well. I do think that working in a one on one capacity, even though it's not as scalable, I do think that one on one services is one of the best learning environments for really deeply understanding the end person that you're serving, right? You really get to be so hands on and see so many aspects and get to ask so many questions in a way that creating a business model that's, you know, if you're starting out in the one to many world, you don't get that level of feedback, or experience as fast, I think.
And so I do think there is a lot of merit to considering that one on one business model first, and then perhaps graduating from that if you decide that's not scalable or sustainable for you, long term. So I hope that answers your question. I really just want to say I think educators are the unsung heroes of our society. So thank you for your contributions already in that field. And I know you're going to do so well as an entrepreneur or as a small business owner, because you already know how to think creatively in terms of problem solving, how to think outside the box, and how to really create a world right for your students and for your future customers. That's going to support their growth. So I have no doubt that you will be highly successful in that.
Hi, my name is Julia of Julia Kenyon design. In my question is Do you ever get feelings of impostor syndrome or inadequacy that pop up? Maybe surrounding your pricing or your offers, and what do you do to overcome those?
Hey, Julia, I'm so glad you asked this question because the straightforward answer is yes, I definitely get feelings of Have imposter syndrome or inadequacy from time to time, I think it would be dishonest for any of us as entrepreneurs to say that we never feel that I think it's part of the human experience to feel fear, especially when we've come across new challenges that we haven't had to deal with before. But I hope that what I'm about to say next will encourage you because this is something that has really stuck with me is understanding that everything new is always going to feel difficult. But it's not because we are not capable of doing the thing. It is just because it is new. And I think the moment that you truly understand that your challenges that you face or or the things that may feel like they're harder than they should be, don't reflect on your ability or your potential or your worth, as a person or as an entrepreneur, I think when you really understand Oh, it's just because it's new to me, it's a new skill that I have to develop. And why would I expect that I would be excellent at this from day one, right? I think that applies in so many situations.
And especially I know you mentioned pricing your offers. And that is definitely a place where people can feel really insecure. Some times when they're kind of expanding beyond the the safe level of pricing that they have been able to successfully sell at. And they're thinking about, you know, increasing their pricing. Again, that's just something that's new to you. And so it's going to feel scary. And that can bring up feelings of inadequacy. But I want you to just always remind yourself in those situations, I'm feeling this not because the value of my work does not deserve that level of compensation, but simply because no one has ever paid that to me before. And so because I'm unfamiliar with it, it feels scary, right. And there's a difference between that. So I think really just reminding yourself of that is going to be so powerful. So that's one thing that's really helped me overcome that piece. But I think the bigger thing to address here and this is something I feel really strongly about is that impostor syndrome is not something that we should strive to overcome in general, right.
I think this is like something that may be an unpopular opinion. But I really stand by this. I think we waste too much of our lives trying to overcome this concept of imposter syndrome. When really I like to flip that perspective on its head. And I like to view impostor syndrome as an advantage. I actually recorded an entire podcast episode about this. So I'll link that below in case you're interested or anyone else listening is interested in hearing why I believe impostor syndrome is an advantage. But I think that if you can let go of this need to overcome it, and instead learn to live alongside it. And understand how it actually plays into your strengths as an entrepreneur, which again, I discuss in more detail in the episode about impostor syndrome that I've recorded on this podcast before. So for the sake of time, I won't regurgitate exactly what I said they're here. But again, it's linked in the show notes. I think, though, if you can, like I said, let go of that need to overcome this thing, it's actually going to serve you a lot more in the long run.
And I think with pricing too, especially when when you're challenging yourself, by increasing your pricing beyond a level that you may feel traditionally comfortable with, it's important to remember that sometimes our brain can really freak out when there's a large jump, but it's much easier to incrementally do anything, right? This sounds like such a morbid example. But I'm just going to use it because I think it'll make sense to you, you know, that like science experiment, we're all taught about as, as children where if you put like a frog in boiling water, it's going to immediately jump out. But if you put them in, you know, lukewarm water and just slowly simmer and turn up the heat, the change in temperature is so gradual that they don't notice, right until it's too late. Again, morbid example. I know. But I think the concept translates here because if you're trying to make these huge leaps in pricing changes, and that feels prohibitive to you actually doing it because you're so scared about what that reaction might be, I would encourage you maybe to try a different approach with more incremental changes.
And literally, with every new proposal, you send out, increasing the price by like three to 5% something so minor that, you know, if you're charging someone $1,000 And then client number two, you're charging them $1,040 That change is so minut that you are not going to really second guess yourself there, right? It's like yeah, if your brain can realistically understand if someone's willing to pay me 1000 they're likely going to pay me 1040 It's really no big deal. But then that increase that incremental increase is going to compound. So it's like okay, well, if client number two pays me 1040 Could I charge client number 311 100 And then client number four, can I charge 1250 And then quiet number five, could I charge 1400 1500 Right. And you see how It just starts to climb in a more exponential way, without you really noticing without you feeling like, oh, I have to make this jump from $1,000 to 1500 or $1,000 to $2,000 overnight.
Now, of course, the caveat here being that the value of your service has to actually match that incremental increase, right? So by no means am I advising you, or anybody listening to this podcast to up the price on every single customer just for the sake of it, because eventually you will hit a litmus, where the value of the work that you're doing, or the solution you're providing, may not actually match up to what you're charging. And that's one of those things that you do have to stay aware of, and really understanding, okay, you know, this is the level I want to be at, is my work reflective of that same value exchange. And if it is, and I'm just under charging, how can I get there as fast as possible in these smaller increments? So that's something that I would consider, but I mean, I know you in person, you're a brilliant individual. And I have no doubt that if you let go of the fear of hearing a no and you really lean into Okay, what if I just put this out there and and see what happens. You may be surprised by the magic coming your way.
Hi, I'm Janna, with Phoenix Ventures, Phoenix Pet Care, Phoenix Functional Fitness, Phoenix Polyphonic, Sisu Warrior Princess and Jaqual The Hybrid. And I'm anti social. So if anyone happens to initiate a conversation with me, I can have a conversation on just about any subject. I was wondering if you have any tips on initiating conversations for anti socialites like myself. Thank you.
Hi, Janna, thank you for being so vulnerable and asking this question. I know it's not easy sometimes to admit the anxiety, we may fear at social outings especially. So I just want you to know you're not alone. I know, there's many, many people who feel the same as you. To be honest, I'm not you know, I'm not a an expert necessarily in this area. So what I'm sharing is really based more on my personal experience, but I hope you still find some encouragement or wisdom in that. And I think often the pressure we can feel in initiating conversations is this idea that we have to bring something of interest to the table, right, we don't want to face that rejection from someone, or the fear of boring someone, if we are, you know, starting the conversation, and we don't really know where it's going to lead. And so that may not be what's front and center for you in terms of why you are more hesitant to initiate conversations. But I know that's something that I have felt before and then I'm sure many others have.
So from that perspective, I would say sometimes the best thing to do is to take the pressure off of yourself to essentially perform in a way and instead, place the focus on the other person and being as supportive of a listener as you can. And the best way to be a supportive listener is to ask really great questions, right. And I think when you remove that need for okay, what conversation can I bring to the table? And what can I say? That would be interesting, instead saying, How can I show up as the most interested person? So instead of showing up as the most interesting person, how can I show up as the most interested person? How can I really tune in to what people may already be talking about? And pipe in with additional elaborating questions? Or how can I come up with a few questions that I can bring into any social setting with me and just use those as your conversation starters? Right? Things like an again, more open ended question things like, Hey, what are you working on in this it? Like, let's assume it's a business networking situation? What are you working on in the season right now that you're really excited about? I'd love to hear about it. Something as simple as that opener can really start a great conversation and like you said, yourself, once someone begins talking, you can have a conversation on just about any subject.
That is a huge skill by the way, Janna, I don't know if you realize that. But not everyone has that gift where they can talk about any topic. I mean, I know there are certainly topics where so when we're to bring it up, I'd be like, I have nothing of value to offer here. It's you know, kind of just like a blank mind. But for you to be able to jump into any conversation on any topic and actually have something to share is such a beautiful gift. So it's really just about getting the ball going with someone else having that initial, you know, thought to share and I think really coming up with a few questions, more open ended questions like the one I just share, like what are you really excited about? Or, hey, what's something great that happened to you recently that I can celebrate with you like positive questions that, you know, show your interest and meet people want to share with you, I think is just going to be such a great way for you to then be able to jump in and continue that conversation with them.
Hi, this is Alicia Martinez, owner of divergent financial advisory services. And my question for you, Ellen, I'm hoping is a fun one. I don't know about you, but as a business owner, especially a female business owner, I often am gifted with unsolicited business insight that just has to make me tilt my head or laugh a little bit. So what I'm wondering is, what is the absolute worst piece of business advice you have ever been given? And how did you respond when you were given that advice?
Hey, Alicia, okay, I'm going to be really, really honest with you. This is probably not the answer you were hoping for. But I wanted to be, you know, frank, I feel that I like couldn't think of a specific bad piece of business advice. Because if I'm being really honest, I feel like when I get a piece of advice that I don't resonate with, or that I feel doesn't apply to me, I just kind of forget it. Like, I kind of have goldfish memory, where I'm like, oh, like, it doesn't matter. So I just kind of let it roll off my shoulder. So to be honest, I really tried like, I was racking my brain thinking, Okay, is there a specific instance that I can think of? When someone says something that really, you know, just didn't sit well with me? And I just couldn't, at least in this moment, maybe at a later point, if I do, you know, I can, I can revise the statement.
But I think also a part of that, though, is that I've gotten really good at two things. One of them is really trusting my intuition on something which I'll expand on that in just a moment, but also being able to really discern what is for me and what is not by having a deeper understanding of the context through which someone delivers advice, because that's the other nuanced thing about bad advice, right, quote, unquote, bad advice is sometimes something that someone shares could actually be really great advice for someone else, but could be detrimental advice to you, if you chose to apply it. So I don't always think that advice is so black and white, like always good or always bad. Now, of course, there are some things that I think universally is just bad advice. But I think in most situations, especially when it comes to business, it's a little bit more complex than that, right? And I think that's where context really becomes key to deciding, again, what is for me, like, what can I take with me? And what is mine to let go? And I don't need to hold on to that. Right.
So let me go back real quick to the intuition piece of this. This really comes from having a deep knowing of what I feel is right for me, and what I feel very excited about moving forward with. And there have been times where I've wanted to do something where I know on paper, my decision doesn't make sense, or someone might, you know, be hesitant to support that decision. Because, and usually from a very well meaning place, they're looking at it logically and saying, I don't think this is the next best step for you. Because of all these potential risks or things that you're not considering. We can even go back to when I decided to quit my job, right without a backup plan when I was 23. And even I've had time I hadn't intended to start a business. So it wasn't even like I was leaving my job to start a business. It was I mean, as simple as I'm just leaving my job period, there isn't really no add on to that. And so there were many well intentioned people who told me you know, that's not a good idea, a gap in your resume is going to be make it more difficult for you to find a job later, it's better for you to wait until you have a job lined up before you leave or make sure you stay at least a year. So it doesn't look like your job hopping. Like there were all these sorts of, you know, pieces of advice that, again, I think came from a well meaning place.
But for me, I just had a such a strong intuition that it was time to leave, and I needed to do it now. And that intuition has showed up many times before, over the last five plus years of being an entrepreneur. And I think every time that I have trusted myself, it has worked out the way that I think it was meant to. And I think part of that is giving myself the permission to pursue something even if it may not make sense to other people, and at least give myself the opportunity to prove myself wrong, right? I think so many people operate in the opposite way where they're the first to actually reject themselves. So the first person to be like, Oh, well, this could go wrong. So I'm just going to reject myself from this opportunity. Whereas I kind of operate in the opposite lens where I'm like, Look, I could be totally wrong about this and all of you could be right. But my intuition says I should do this. And I'm going to at least give myself the opportunity to prove myself wrong. Like if it does end up in you know, a fiery dumpster fire. Well, at least I gave myself the opportunity to get to that conclusion, right. At least I didn't preclude myself or exclude myself from even having the opportunity to find this out. And so that has been really helpful for me.
The other thing in you know, how I react to advice, whether I agree with it or not, is looking at the context of it. So I'm often asking myself internal questions or, you know, trying to understand like, where's this person coming from? First of all, like, is this coming from a place of care and compassion? Or is it coming from a place of fear or judgment? Because immediately if, if it's from a place of fear, or judgment, I can pretty much kind of stop listening there, right? Because it's, it's not coming from a place that I should give it any consideration to begin with. But let's say it is coming from a well intentioned place, I might ask myself questions like, Is the person giving this advice, someone whose values align with mine is this person, someone who has accomplished the goal that I want to accomplish, because if it's someone who has never actually, you know, to quote Brene Brown, been in the arena with you, and they're just throwing shots at you from the cheap seats, because they've never actually walked the path that you're about to walk, but they want to add their two cents to it, I am less inclined to take their feedback seriously, because they haven't done the thing that I want to do. But if this is someone who has done the thing that I want to do, and they've done it in a way that feels in integrity with how I would want to accomplish something, I'm going to pay a lot more close attention to what that person has to share, right? Because there's so much wisdom in hindsight and not going to discount that.
So those are just a couple of things that I might, you know, consider internally when I'm looking at the context of who is saying the advice and what they're sharing, right? Is this a person that I trust? Are they coming from a place of care and compassion? Have they achieved the thing that I want to achieve? Have they done it in a way that aligns with my values? Do they even have the same business model as me, right? Because, again, what's what's good advice for one person in a specific industry or specific business model may be a horrible piece of advice for someone else. And that's why context matters. And so these are just a couple considerations that I would impart to you in thinking about next time, maybe you get a piece of advice that makes you just kind of, you know, shake your head, roll your eyes. I totally get it unsolicited business advice is, is not a fun thing to deal with. But I think sometimes there can be learnings in it. And so, even though this wasn't an exact response, in terms of like one specific instance, I hope it was still helpful to you and discerning next time you receive any advice.
Alright, friends, that wraps part one of our 200th Episode celebration, make sure you tune back in on Wednesday for part two, where I'll be answering the remaining nine questions for this episode. Now, some of these questions are super juicy. So you want to make sure you come back. They include questions like what my favorite business venture has been so far, and what I've learned from that. Questions like What are my thoughts on to people who can take the exact same actions that produce wildly different results, or when to know it's time to leave your full time job and go full time into entrepreneurship or how to make that scary decision to make a big financial investment that's going to cut back on your profits for a period of time before you see those long term gains. All of these questions and more will be answered in part two. So make sure you click that plus button on Apple podcasts or the Follow button on Spotify so that you are subscribed to our show and will be notified when this new episode drops on Wednesday. Be back soon in part two.
Hey, Ellen here thank you again for tuning in to cubicle to CEO. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow our show on Instagram at cubicle to CEO for more bonus content and hop on the last Tuesday of each month to watch our live after show with recent guests. If you want to support our podcast, text this episode link to a friend leave a positive review on Apple podcasts or rate our show wherever you're listening right now. Please make sure you also hit the Follow button on Apple it looks like a plus sign. Or click Subscribe on your favorite podcast player so you don't miss out on our new episodes every Monday and friends until next time, keep dreaming big!
