Light that sparkfire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network with great shows like goal Digger today We'll be breaking down how to create a million dollar course with no experience and turn your content to cash to drop these value bombs I brought Ellie Jope into eo fire studios Ellie is a founder of Ellie talks money in elevated Academy She's a business strategist author and transformational speaker who built a multi million dollar business in one short year and today Fine nation. We're gonna talk about how Ellie started her business with a stimulus check We'll talk about leveraging social media We'll talk about funding which is so tough and how you can access the funding you need for your nation and so much more when we get back from Thinking our sponsors speak easy will allow you to create content for your audience live earn recurring revenue from monthly subscribers stream private shows for select attendees and more I am loving creating daily content on speak easy And I think you will to visit get speak easy calm to download the app and start rolling being boss hosted by Emily Thompson is brought to you By the HubSpot podcast network and is an exploration of what it means and what it takes to be boss as a creative business owner One reason episode on the five tips for better work life balance is a must listen listen to being boss wherever you get your podcast Ellie say what's up to fire nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with hello What is up fire nation? My name is Ellie or Ellie talks money is you might be able to find me online I'm super excited to be here I would definitely say that one of the key things to being successful that a lot of people think is Not true is really that you don't need to have a large amount of money You don't need to have a lot of access. You don't need to have a lot of privilege in order to become successful You know you don't need to have all of those things to make it happen.
You really can Look at what you have available to you and make it work with that especially nowadays with the internet and social media I don't believe that that barrier to entry is present anymore Whereas you may have only been able to reach a certain level of success if you have connections or money or large investments Now you can just decide to be successful and put in the work and it can happen fire nation as mentioned in the intro We're talking about how to create a million-dollar course with no experience in term your content to cash and I love your story I mean you started your business with a stimulus check which I know we can all relate to having been through what we've been through the past few years tell us more it really started just like that and I'm always so grateful and humble to be able to say that because $1,200 isn't a lot of money at all, you know, and I'm also a mother I have four children at the time I was living at my mom's house so all things considered I probably could have used that $1,200 in several other ways Especially because I was unemployed at the time but I recognize that okay if I'm applying to all of these jobs with my set of skills And I'm not getting hired. I need to look at how can I take the same set of skills that a potential job is going to pay me for and deliver those Directly to the marketplace and that's always what I'm sharing with my community and my students is that you have skills You have potential you have knowledge you have experiences that you yourself have lived and typically our thought is well Let me package this up and present myself in a resume to a job However, you're also able to package up those same knowledge skills experiences Transformations and develop an online course an ebook a digital product that is going to help someone else who needs those skills informations and transformations Directly and be paid for it directly versus going through the channel of you know employment I mean that's what I did I looked at okay, you have sales experience, you know about business you understand funding you've worked in marketing How can you take all of what you've already experienced and done well and package that up in something that is deliverable Directly to small businesses or upcoming small businesses who are going to need that information And so my very first digital product was a business credit class teaching new entrepreneurs how to get funding and it was $15 You know so I always say if you can think of something that a person would pay you ten dollars for ten or twenty dollars for You can scale that up to a million dollars because it's at that point now It's just a matter of more people buying and then eventually raising your price Fire Nation it's just a matter of more people buying and then yes as you increase the value you also need to be increasing the price And I just I love that whole process that you're sharing and I actually have even a slightly more aggressive taken some ways from my audience I like to see my nation you are obligated You literally have an obligation to share your voice your message your mission with the world Even if it's messy because your mess can be your message that can be a powerful way for you to go forward So if you have any area of expertise any knowledge any skills you've acquired over the years turn around and teach fellow man and woman Kind those amazing skills and expertise that you have and the way that Ellie has and you can continue to scale and speaking of scale Ellie You had to get creative when it came to social media So talk to us about leveraging social media and your content to scale your business Social media has been a true game changer for me and my business and my life and as I mentioned earlier I really feel like social media is now this equalizer in some ways where you can have direct access to an audience of Thousands hundreds of thousands and even millions of people through content creation So one of the key ways that I've leveraged social media in my business is as a means to communicate and educate my audience on my particular subject So I knew that there were a lot of business owners and particularly women-owned businesses and black-owned businesses that needed access to information on how to scale and how to Access funding so I decided okay. I'm gonna make sure that I create three or four pieces of content every single day Go live on Instagram and different platforms two times a day every single day to make sure that people can hear my message and With the way that social media is constructed the more content you put out and the more value you put out in your content You will grow it. It really is a if you do this then this will happen It's very true and that is the beauty of social media is that by deciding to remain consistent in your content creation and as well Continue to deliver value.
I always encourage my audience and one of my principles is to give more than I ask for So I ensure that I'm giving tons of free value on my page Sometimes it might even be too much free value But I always know that because people feel like they're gaining from just what they're learning on my page and through my social media That encourages them to buy because if they can achieve even a small transformation in free value Then they are enticed to say well, what's gonna happen if I pay her right? What's going to happen if I actually do spend the hundred dollars or three hundred dollars on this class? I'll achieve even more of a transformation So that's the real secret to growing quickly is to show up consistently and to give more than anybody else And I love that methodology for your nation I mean I use that to scale podcasters paradise into now over seven million dollars in sales How did I do it just by number one showing up consistently just like Ellie's been sharing Number two I created a really free simple course called free podcast course like literally it was free It was a couple modules I'm headed to it So it's a little more robust now But I started simple a couple modules just teaching people for free how to podcast and it was super quality at the time It only got better and then the end of that little free module training It was hey for those people who are really excited about this and like how I teach podcasters paradise is available for you Here's a link to learn more and that was step by step by step and it's small steps And now I've been here for 10 years doing that same thing Ellie's been doing her thing since that $1200 stimulus check I think about the nation is possible and we're gonna be talking about some really valuable strategies when we get back from thinking our Sponsors did you know there are currently over 2.4 million podcasts including the one you're listening to right now And that takes a team of people to bring these podcasts together like JM who writes every one of our show notes or to poo Who helps me upload every single interview or just our customer support go to needless to say hiring the right people for these roles is important And whether you're hiring for a podcast or for growing your business There's only one place that makes it easy zip recruiter and right now you can try it for free at Recruiter.com Fire here's how it works zip recruiter uses as powerful technology to find a match the right candidates up with your job then you can easily review In invite your top choices to apply it's no wonder four out of five employers who post on zip recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day So if you're a fan of this podcast and want to try zip recruiter for free today Remember our special URL zip recruiter comms fire once again, that's zip recruiter comm slash F. I.
R. E Zip recruiter the smartest way to hire if you're a creator looking for new ways to connect and interact with your audience live Then I'm excited to tell you about speak easy a new app made by creators for creators that is uniquely built to help you monetize Your audience all you have to do is download the speak easy app go live And you'll be connecting with an interactive audience who can comment give a live reactions join you as a guest share with their friends and followers and more You can you speak easy in so many ways live podcasting show recordings to upload pictures and videos you want to share with your audience or to host premium content People can subscribe to speak easy doesn't sense of content based on political religious or personal views as long as you're not instigating violence You can speak your minds. I'm going live on speak easy daily fire nation and I know you're gonna love this platform So what are you waiting for come join me for my next live show visit get speak easy calm to down the app follow me at Johnny Dumas and I look forward to chatting with you live. That's get speak easy calm When I look back at the last 10 years in business There are a lot of lessons to stand out to me one of the biggies wishing I knew more about the importance of flexible software solutions That would grow with me instead of making me feel stuck because here's the truth many companies use disconnected point solutions as they're starting out And then add to them as they scale that was us But cobbled disconnected tools and systems often age themselves out as your company grows and speaking for personal experience They're complicated to manage and use as time goes on Conversely diving into something that has all the things before you need it is also dangerous territory building a business is challenging enough Your tech stack shouldn't make it harder great news for you.
HubSpot is easily customizable You can customize your hubs apps integrations and data allowing you to adapt your CRM platform easily with the needs of your business Learn how HubSpot can help your business grow better at HubSpot.com Ellie you believe there's one single strategy that anybody can implement and you mean anyone to start a business today Talk us through that strategy. Absolutely. I believe that the one single strategy Anyone can use to start a business is what I call brain dumping or making your list So what a lot of the time when people think about starting a business? They often look outside of themselves They look at okay.
What other skills can I go and acquire? What money can I go and get in order to build or create something when in reality much of the time the business that you need to start And the business that's going to be the most viable for you is already within you It's already built up of the things that you have and the things you know how to do So I always say sit down and make a list make a list of okay What have I accomplished in my job all the different accomplishments? You've had what experiences have I had in my life and this can be you've lost 10 pounds you've successfully been vegan for three years You've saved $25,000 you've paid off X amount of debt. What are those experiences?
And then the other column what are people always asking you for advice on? That's usually a great window to look at what do people already trust you with and see you as you know a somewhat expert in That can be what you need to go out and provide to people as a paid product or service because if someone's asking you for free advice on it All the time there's someone else out there who will pay you at least right $10 for it So those three columns and then from there you want to look at and ask yourself this question out of all of these Which is the path of least resistance and this is a question I asked myself This is a question I helped my students process through and what I mean by that is which of these can get me to profit the fastest a Lot of the time I think business owners want to start with something that seems so big and amazing and that they're passionate about and passion has its Place but at the beginning you may need to look at what is going to get me to my goal in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of Outside energy and resources and then I can leverage that to go into what I truly truly love and so figuring out Which is the path of least resistant which can get you to profit sooner which can also? Allow you to leverage what you already have That's the business you want to focus on and then from there It's a matter of how do you want to deliver it? Are you going to do a service and actually work with people do things for people or you going to take it and package it up into You something digital that you just need to create one time, but that would be the process the step-by-step Fire Nation, I love step-by-steps and Ellie what was the approximate date that you got that $1,200 stimulus check?
I received mine later than most people I want to say it was around May 29th if I remember correctly It was just just after my dad's birthday of 2020 so Fire Nation what I want to get across here is like listen This isn't something's been building their business for decades and decades We're talking a year two years and she's been building every single day for sure working hard But hey, where do you want to be in two years Fire Nation? Where do you want to be and this is the step-by-step process that Ellie's sharing right now that is so valuable and Talking about that stimulus check I mean $1,200 bucks. It's not nothing, but it's not you know some seven-figure venture capital funding either Funding Ellie is so tough. How can Fire Nation access the funding that they need?
What specific advice do you have in this area? Absolutely and I love this question because it is important, you know in order To you don't always need a lot of funds to start But it is going to be important to have access to funds to scale and so one of the things that Fire Nation can do absolutely is making sure that number One you have your business entity structured correctly and that seems like an obvious, you know point But I've worked with a lot of entrepreneurs who don't have LLCs don't have business bank accounts Don't have payment processors So you absolutely want to make sure that you have those basic boxes checked off so that you are actually operating as a business That's using business funds separate to personal funds the next thing that you definitely want to do is have business credit So you should ensure the same way that we work on our personal credit We can also have excellent business credit so that's using our EIA and that's making sure that we have a DUNS number That's also ensuring that you all are using trade lines which you can access through net 30 accounts certain vendors and as well Business credits cards business lines of credit even if you don't have the best personal credit You are still able to build and leverage business credit outside of your personal score And I would say in addition to that Finance should ensure that they have a grant proposal written out and what I mean is having a templated mission statement You should be able to always produce. What is the mission statement of your business? What is the overall goal of your business and what are the methods your business is going to use to achieve that goal?
Because when you are applying to grants and as well even looking for funding through lenders or investors You want to be able to summarize for them in you know a three at minimum three to five page document What your business does how your business is going to do it and how your business would leverage that money to increase profit and make more returns? So those are gonna be the key steps that everyone in Fire Nations to take to ensure that they can get funding ASAP Fire Nation listen there is no way shape or form or you should be saying to yourself Hey, I need to bootstrap this on my own go into debt do the thing from day one I mean those are definitely realms to go but the reality is there are options out there And Ellie just laid out a number of great options that you can go to attain the funding that you need to build your dream to get your Voice your message your mission your products your services out to the world Ellie let's end with a bang. What is the one key takeaway from everything that you shared here today that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets? Wow, I would definitely say the one key takeaway that I want everyone to really pull from this is and this is not to sound cliche But really just how possible and available and accessible the success you want to have in your businesses You know I started this truly with $1,200 at my mom's house unemployed with four children after divorce And I want you to know whatever your current life circumstances as challenging as it may be it's not the end of the sentence It's not a period It's just a comma and you can certainly look into yourself leverage some of these things I've shared with you as well as all the resources I'm sure are in Fire Nation to really develop a business that you can scale directly through social media don't overlook your own life experiences because as you mentioned there is a message in the mess and The sooner you're going to be able to sooner you start to realize that and the sooner you really lean into that the sooner you get to profit And you will go from you know making $2,000 a month to $2,000 a day to a hundred thousand dollars a month to a hundred thousand dollars a day It's all extremely possible and again if one person will pay you ten dollars You just need to then have ten people pay you ten dollars then a hundred people pay you ten dollars then a thousand people pay you ten dollars And before you know what you have a seven-figure business I love the step-by-step process and it always starts with one Fire Nation believe in the one and that will turn into two four eight Sixteen and so on and so forth Ellie what's the best way Fire Nation can connect with you any call to action you have and then we'll say goodbye Absolutely best way for you all to connect with me is at Ellie talks money And that's ELLIE talks money and you can find me on every single social platform Instagram to talk YouTube and as well I definitely want you all to enroll in my Academy.
It's called Elevated Academy It's my online business school where I educate entrepreneurs on leveraging funding getting grants as well as creating multiple income streams So that you are able to truly build wealth and so you can go to elevatedacademy.com Sign up for my email list and we will find the best product for you Fire Nation you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with You've been hanging out with ED and JLD today So keep up that heat head over to eo fire calm type L E L L I E in the search bar Personal speed to pop up with everything that we talked about here today. Ellie talks money calm check out elevated Academy That's E L L I E V A T E D. So Ellie Vated Academy and Ellie thank you for sharing your truth your knowledge your value with Fire Nation today for that we salute you And we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much Hey Fire Nation a huge thank you to Ellie for dropping value bombs and sponsoring today's episode Fire Nation success along from yours accomplish big goals That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in a hundred days And we're talking step-by-step visit the freedom journal calm and I'll catch you there or on the flip side Speak easy will allow you to create content for your audience live earn recurring revenue from monthly subscribers stream private shows for select attendees and more I am loving creating daily content on speak easy And I think you will to visit get speak easy calm to download the app and start rolling being boss hosted by Emily Thompson is brought to you By the HubSpot podcast network and is an exploration of what it means and what it takes to be boss as a creative business owner One recent episode on the five tips for better work life balance is a must listen listen to being boss wherever you get your podcast