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Building a $1.5M Client Pipeline in 4 Months: Lessons from Ellie Holbert · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for fractional
• 0:03
  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
• 0:06
  I'm your host, founder and CEO of mylance.
• 0:09
  Today I'm joined by Ellie Holbert.
• 0:11
  Ellie, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast.
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  Ellie is the founder and principal consultant of Impact
• 0:18
  Advisory Services. She does organizational
• 0:21
  effectiveness, independent consulting, partnering with
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  people and culture leaders in as part of mid sized innovation and
• 0:28
  knowledge work companies. Ellie, welcome to the show.
• 0:31
  Thank you so much, Bradley. It's great to be here.
• 0:34
  So elaborate a little bit more on what does that all mean?
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  What do you really do? What does that look like?
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  Yes, I would love to. So I'm Ellie Hulbert.
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  As Bradley said, I'm an independent consultant and coach
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  as well who works with typically human resources leaders across
• 0:49
  industries to improve organizational health leadership
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  as well as team effectiveness. So typically I will partner with
• 0:56
  an organization to diagnose root cause buses of misalignment in
• 1:01
  their business and then come up with targeted intervention
• 1:04
  strategies to improve performance and retention of top
• 1:07
  performers. I love to mention that I'm also
• 1:10
  a proud mom to a busy toddler who is the light of my life, and
• 1:14
  I am a novice gardener and a lifelong learner and an avid
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  reader. Amazing.
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  How long have you been an independent consultant?
• 1:21
  Sure. I've been an independent
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  consultant since February of this year, so I'm about four
• 1:26
  months in, almost 5 actually, and it's been a roller coaster
• 1:30
  so far, but a really wonderful experience.
• 1:33
  I guess let's talk about the transition.
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  So what were you doing before? How did you know it was time to
• 1:37
  go out and do your own thing? Yes, absolutely.
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  Before I launched my business, I was doing organizational
• 1:43
  effectiveness work as a management consultant for about
• 1:47
  the last decade. So I was very much in this
• 1:49
  space. But I was working previously for
• 1:51
  about 6 years with a technology and consulting company that I
• 1:55
  really loved. Right before I launched my my
• 1:59
  business, I was adjusting to new motherhood.
• 2:02
  I had my daughter a year ago in February.
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  And while I was on maternity leave, I began dreaming up this
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  business, thinking about how can I do the most high impact work,
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  still be a provider for my family and maintain my financial
• 2:17
  independence. And a friend of mine actually
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  told me about independent consulting.
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  I had thought that I wanted to be an entrepreneur eventually,
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  but I was not aware of independent consulting really,
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  or fractional work either. And so I spent maternity leave
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  dreaming up my business, thinking through my strategy, my
• 2:33
  next steps. And then I took the plunge just
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  before my daughter's first birthday.
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  So you just kind of were like, I'm going to do this, I'm going
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  to quit my job and just go for it.
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  Somewhat. So.
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  My plan originally was to land a secure multi month public sector
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  contract that would allow me to do 2 things.
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  It would allow me as a business owner to build up cash reserves,
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  but also have some time to build out the more strategic advisory
• 2:59
  work and leadership coaching that I love to do.
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  And so that was the plan. It was a good plan at the time,
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  but best laid plans, right? So I took the leap.
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  I left my corporate job that I should mention I actually liked.
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  And less than two weeks later, I actually had that contract
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  unexpectedly cancelled due to some changes in public sector
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  work that were occurring at that time.
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  So that was a very surprising challenging time.
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  My husband, he also was potentially going to be impacted
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  by some of those changes as well.
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  So you can imagine it was stressful for us as a family
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  potentially going from to good incomes to potentially none at
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  all. So I hit the pavement.
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  I was able to land a couple of opportunities after about 3
• 3:47
  weeks. Thank goodness my husband's job
• 3:49
  seems to be OK. So we are really happy that I
• 3:52
  took the leap and took that leap of faith.
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  But certainly as a business owner, expect the unexpected.
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  Nothing ever goes as planned. Yeah, wow.
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  So when you say hit the pavement, right, three weeks,
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  you found two opportunities. What does that look like?
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  Yes. The first thing that I did when
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  I launched my business was I reached out to my network.
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  So I made a list of over 200 people that I wanted to reach
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  out to one-on-one. I actually still have not made
• 4:17
  my way through that list, but I reached out to everybody that I
• 4:19
  thought, you know, might be in my corner or we had worked
• 4:22
  together. They were able to see the
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  quality of my work and vouch for me.
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  And I reached out to everybody one-on-one.
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  We had phone calls to catch up. I asked them about their pain
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  points and their business shared the work that I was hoping to do
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  and explore it, if they knew of any opportunities.
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  And the the primary contract that was really a saving grace
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  was actually with two former colleagues of mine that now have
• 4:44
  their own consulting company. They were able to bring me on
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  board to a multi month project and it's been a great fit.
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  So I'm very grateful that that's worked out.
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  But in addition to that outreach, I've done LinkedIn
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  strategies. I've also refined who my ideal
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  client profile is. And so business development for
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  me has looked different every month, but that's what initially
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  my efforts were focused on. Amazing.
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  You know, the at the beginning, nobody knows their niche, nobody
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  knows who's there, who they're joked by, and nobody knows even
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  what services you offer. Let's talk about the services
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  piece. How did you really figure out a
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  scope that you could deliver on that made sense?
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  Like what did what did that look like?
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  I love this question because what I imagine delivering and
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  what I am delivering and plan to deliver, it looks very different
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  and this is something that I think we really need to keep
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  talking about as independent consultants.
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  So initially, before I left my company, I pictured having a
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  suite of service offerings all related to team effectiveness
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  and leadership coaching that kind of built on one another.
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  I pictured very complex team accelerator programs and series
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  of rigorous assessment that I hope to do because I was looking
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  at this from the perspective of what's the work that I love to
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  do most. But I will say with enough
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  business development efforts, I was able to realize it's not
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  about the work that I want to do most.
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  It's about what is the need in the market, what are the
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  challenges that clients are actually experiencing.
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  And so I've shifted from that suite of service offerings to
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  really focusing on a couple of offerings. 1 is advisory
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  retainers. The second is leadership
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  coaching. I still offer assessments,
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  training needs assessments, development programs, but in
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  terms of what my focus is, that's actually where I'm
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  leaning. But I would say the the real
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  lesson learned for me was meet each potential client, ask about
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  their pain points and focus on those pain points versus selling
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  a predetermined suite of offerings.
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  And it just goes to, there's so many people I talked to that
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  they want to figure out what their offer is, right?
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  And as you just said, you can spend all the time in the world
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  figuring it out behind closed doors.
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  But if you don't get out there and talk to customers and see
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  what their pain points are, you're basically wasting your
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  time. I mean, do you agree?
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  What do you think? I completely agree.
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  And I wasted a lot of time getting my business ready when I
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  was in my corporate job. You know, I was working full
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  time. I was adjusting to being a new
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  mom. I had a baby that was under a
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  year old and I was still working on building up my business.
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  So I would wake up very early or work on the weekends while she
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  napped and tried to build out decks and frameworks and
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  physical materials that I thought were the core of my
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  business. I now understand the core of my
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  business is clients and opportunities and it all has to
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  frame around those. It's not about what I anticipate
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  bringing, it's about what clients need, right?
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  And then I don't know if you thought about this.
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  I know you're pretty early in your journey, but there's the
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  concept of a productized service, yeah, right.
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  Where it's pretty standard across all clients and you say
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  no to a lot of things. And then there's what we're
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  talking about here of what are the, what does the client need
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  and deliver on that. I mean, how do you think about
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  making a more scalable offer versus delivering for the
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  client? I love that question.
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  I would say I have an aspiration to build up to a productized
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  business, but I do not want to create these products in a
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  vacuum based on my singular lens and vantage point.
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  I hope to create productized services that are based on real
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  life examples and principles I'm seeing that are working in real
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  life. And So what I mean by that is I
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  plan as I deliver for my clients to keep in mind repeatable
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  processes, frameworks and shape these overtime informed by real
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  world experiences with the goal of building up to productize
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  offerings maybe within the first couple years, but I don't, I
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  honestly just don't feel ready for that yet.
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  I really want to focus on my clients and their needs.
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  So the number one question is always business development,
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  right? It's building a pipeline,
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  keeping things sustainable. I know you've had a lot of
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  success in this area you were sharing with me previously.
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  So tell us, first of all, tell us the success.
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  Like what? What does your pipeline look
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  like? What are the opportunities look
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  like? Like, give us the spiel right
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  now. I would love to share more and
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  I'll try to be as specific as I can because I know I I've really
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  appreciated that. And in episodes I've listened
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  to. In terms of the question around
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  what my pipeline looks like, I'm very grateful to say it's
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  actually looking very strong just about four or five months
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  in. So in terms of initially what my
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  goal was, my goal was to earn about 1.8 times my corporate
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  salary. And now just a few months in, my
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  pipeline is actually at 4.4 times my corporate salary.
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  And I should mention half of those opportunities do not have
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  a monetary value assigned to them.
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  So you could make the case that this pipeline is actually
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  approaching 9 times my corporate salary, which significantly
• 9:51
  exceeded my expectations. I could not complete this work
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  all by myself. If I wanted, I would have to
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  hire more people, but it's looking very healthy.
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  In terms of how this breaks down, I've had 11 deals
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  officially close. I have two opportunities that
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  are at the contract finalization stage.
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  I'm preparing one proposal right now.
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  I have 9 opportunities where we are actively in discussions, 15
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  qualified leads and 30 additional leads that have been
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  identified. So in total, that actually comes
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  out to 67 opportunities in my pipeline, half of which, again,
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  have no dollar figure assigned. So if I had to offer a value for
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  that pipeline, I would say as high as six figures, but likely
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  well into the seven figures if all opportunities had a value
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  assigned to it. Yeah, wow.
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  So it's like 4 or five months in, you have over $1,000,000
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  worth of deals in your pipeline is absolutely incredible.
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  So Congrats, most people struggle so much with this.
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  Thank you so much. Well, I have to say, Bradley, I
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  followed your method to AT and it has been instrumental in
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  building that pipeline. And that pipeline I should
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  mention, it's not like I have these superhuman levels of
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  confidence when I'm getting on calls with potential clients.
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  I'm a very normal person. I question myself.
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  I have fears, I have anxieties, all of that, but I have really
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  taken away a lot of insight from you around still making that
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  persistent imperfect action. And that, that is everything.
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  So I don't wait until I'm fully ready to do something.
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  I give myself until I'm 75% there and then I have to take
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  action. That's the rule for myself.
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  And so that pipeline, you know, there hasn't been a single phone
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  call where I handled it perfectly.
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  There hasn't been a single, you know, proposal that's been
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  perfect and needed no revisions. None of that has happened
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  through perfection. It's just taking those
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  consistent, imperfect actions that build up over time.
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  I love that. I think every single business
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  owner, much less independent consultant would benefit from
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  just ship it just 75% of the way there as a rule and just ship
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  it. So exactly you mentioned that
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  you've been following our methods that we talked about
• 12:01
  here on the podcast and what we offer at my Lance share with the
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  audience specifically, right? Like, yeah, I don't need you to
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  reiterate what's on our website, but like what specifically did
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  you do, have you been doing that's really generated this
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  super successful pipeline? Sure.
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  So I would say that my business development efforts fall into 3
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  buckets, one being the direct outreach to my network that I've
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  been doing those one-on-one calls.
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  Another bucket would be LinkedIn outreach and then a third bucket
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  would be finding places where my ideal client is gathering
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  together. So in terms of the LinkedIn
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  outreach, I follow your method. I've listened to almost all of
• 12:38
  your episodes and follow your advice to AT.
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  So what does that look like? I post that leadership to
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  LinkedIn and this can be articles or post, but I really
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  forced myself to post several times a week.
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  I aim for every day. If I only land half the time,
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  that's still 3 to 4 posts a week and that's great for the
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  algorithm. I also tagged thought leaders in
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  my posts and one particular post went, I would say lightly viral.
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  When the the giant of my industry of psychological
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  safety, Doctor Amy Edmondson from Harvard, she engaged with
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  that post and that blew up and reached a large number of people
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  I've never reached before. I also add my ideal client
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  profile on LinkedIn almost every single day.
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  So I send about 200 to 300 invitations a week.
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  When people accept, I send them a message expressing my
• 13:29
  appreciation. I also engage with their content
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  organically for a few weeks, commenting, adding thoughtful
• 13:36
  notes, and then after a while when that might be reciprocated
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  or there's some consistency in them liking my comments, I will
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  reach out again and ask for a 15 minute phone call.
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  I've tried 2 messages for this, one being just to get to know
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  each other and the other one being to ask them some questions
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  for thought leadership that I'm writing that has had quite a bit
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  of success. There was I think a four week
• 14:01
  period alone where I was able to speak with ACEO of a life
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  sciences company, a vice president of a life sciences
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  company, and a vice president of a financial services firm.
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  And a couple of those were actually very recognizable
• 14:14
  brands. So that was very effective.
• 14:17
  And then to go a little deeper into the third bucket of
• 14:20
  business development, I really recommend reaching out to
• 14:24
  professional associations where your ideal client is gathering.
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  So for me personally, my ideal client, those include leaders in
• 14:32
  HR and the people in culture space.
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  And so I'm a member of an organization called Troop HR.
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  It's an incredible community of HR leaders and I engage with
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  that community every single day. They have a platform online and
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  I engage with that platform by posting on different forums
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  Ioffer insight and advice. I've done a webinar for them.
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  I meet one-on-one with people that join and are brand new and
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  I would say this is an incredibly reliable source of
• 15:01
  one-on-one phone calls with my ICP.
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  I think I have probably 4 calls a week just from this Troop HR
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  community, so those 3 approaches have been incredibly effective
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  and I've been tracking my average to my ICP over time.
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  I would love to share the progress, if that.
• 15:17
  Is perfect. Thank you.
• 15:20
  So I've been tracking the percentage of calls that are
• 15:23
  with my ICP and when I started in February, about 8% of my
• 15:28
  calls were with that ideal client profile, the leaders in
• 15:31
  HR March, it was actually 0%. So I somehow stepped backwards,
• 15:36
  but now four months later, over 75% of my phone calls are with
• 15:41
  my ideal client profile and I really believe that's because
• 15:45
  I'm following your guidance very closely.
• 15:47
  So I believe contact with the market is the only thing that
• 15:51
  counts. one-on-one calls with your ideal clients is
• 15:55
  everything. Everything else must be limited.
• 15:58
  That's really helped me build that pipeline.
• 16:01
  Wow, it's so incredible. And I love, I mean, you're
• 16:04
  obviously tracking the data, you know, where every state, how
• 16:08
  many are in each stage. So you're tracking using a CRM,
• 16:11
  right? I mean, there's such value in
• 16:13
  measuring your efforts and it takes some extra time, but it's
• 16:17
  where it. Was, you know, it's so funny, it
• 16:19
  doesn't take as much time as you might think.
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  I wanted to do this level of tracking, but was a little
• 16:24
  swamped with client delivery. And then one afternoon,
• 16:26
  afternoon, I really forced myself to add this structure.
• 16:30
  I think it took me maybe 10 or 15 minutes to track that data.
• 16:33
  And that looked like scanning my calendar and just counting the
• 16:36
  number of calls I had and the number of calls that were with
• 16:39
  leaders that I needed to reach in the people in culture space.
• 16:42
  So I really recommend for folks to start tracking those numbers.
• 16:47
  Even if you set aside 20 minutes at the end of every month,
• 16:49
  that's all it really takes. And if you were to ask me
• 16:53
  subjectively, how are my business development efforts
• 16:56
  going, I think that as business owners, we struggle with
• 17:01
  confidence, with questioning ourselves.
• 17:02
  We're signing up for this. And if you were to ask me that,
• 17:06
  I might say, you know, I'm, I'm concerned that this won't work
• 17:09
  or I'm not really sure. I'm doing my best.
• 17:11
  But when I see the numbers and see that I have gone from 8% one
• 17:16
  month, 0% to 76%, it forces me to realize, OK, things are going
• 17:21
  very well. This will work out just fine.
• 17:24
  So I really recommend tracking the numbers.
• 17:27
  Yeah, any kind of a way. And I've done many strategies of
• 17:30
  this to go myself tangibly either how well it's going,
• 17:35
  things I've accomplished, right. It's like as you said, as a
• 17:38
  business owner, we get lots of feedback out there that isn't so
• 17:42
  doesn't feel so good, right? Lots of nose rejections advice,
• 17:45
  all that kind of stuff. And so having those internal
• 17:48
  ways to remind ourselves like, hey, I'm doing a pretty good job
• 17:51
  here, right? Like I'm, you know, I'm doing
• 17:53
  just fine. It's.
• 17:54
  So important, especially when we think around, when we think
• 17:57
  about hope and the hope for our businesses to succeed.
• 18:02
  It really helps me to realize, you know, I speak to 30 to 40
• 18:06
  people a month for my business. Of those 30 to 40, what percent
• 18:11
  will lead to closed opportunities?
• 18:13
  I'm still not sure yet. I'm still tracking those
• 18:15
  numbers. But when I look at the volume, I
• 18:18
  know that over time I will close more opportunities.
• 18:21
  So on those tough days where you're thinking I just don't
• 18:24
  know when the next opportunity will close, I just don't know
• 18:27
  when the next check will come. Look at the volume of your calls
• 18:31
  and if it's that higher volume, it's inevitable you will land
• 18:34
  more opportunities. Yeah, amazing.
• 18:38
  The context that you're adding as far as you said new
• 18:41
  connections every single week, every month.
• 18:44
  Where are you getting that list from?
• 18:46
  Of contacts to add? That's a great question.
• 18:49
  So I am currently using LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
• 18:53
  I'm newer to the tool, so I'm not sure that I'm leveraging it
• 18:56
  to the extent that I could, but what I begin with is the
• 18:59
  recommended connections or the recommended leads.
• 19:03
  I always go to that list. I've been able to refine the
• 19:06
  algorithm over time to remember that I'm interested in C-Suite
• 19:10
  and vice presidents in the people and culture functions at
• 19:14
  larger mid size companies in innovation cultures and
• 19:19
  knowledge work. So that could be life sciences,
• 19:22
  it could be consulting, professional services,
• 19:24
  technology, and overtime the algorithm seems to learn that
• 19:28
  that's who I'm wanting to reach out to.
• 19:30
  And those are the recommended leads that it offers.
• 19:33
  Yeah, amazing. So and then as far as the
• 19:35
  content, you said you aim to post every day, sometimes get 3
• 19:38
  to 4 times a week. I know we have our own
• 19:41
  philosophy on this, but how are you coming up with what you want
• 19:45
  to post about that builds that thought leadership and gets you,
• 19:49
  you know, that awareness and trust with those new contacts?
• 19:52
  I love that question. If I were to sit down and try to
• 19:56
  come up with thought leadership every morning, it would be so
• 19:59
  challenging. I have tried that several times.
• 20:02
  What I've realized. Works really well for me is I
• 20:05
  wait for moments of inspiration or moments when I've had a
• 20:09
  really exciting conversation with somebody or I feel a lot of
• 20:13
  energy around a topic. And I will open an AI app, I
• 20:17
  like Otter AI, and I will just do a brain dump on my own and
• 20:22
  just verbally get out all of the thoughts that are swirling in my
• 20:25
  head, all of the ideas, all of my beliefs and assertions and
• 20:29
  recommendations based on that conversation.
• 20:32
  And then I feed that transcript into ChatGPT.
• 20:35
  I've trained a model to review my transcripts and basically
• 20:39
  make incoherence coherent to look for the themes within that
• 20:44
  and then I will create a prompt around generating thought
• 20:49
  leadership. Typically once I see the themes,
• 20:51
  then I'm able to say, OK, I want, I want to make a post that
• 20:54
  makes this statement. And so I will review a few
• 20:57
  options with that in mind and then I'll take the best option.
• 21:01
  I'll edit it heavily. I want it to sound like me and
• 21:04
  feel like me. And then I do one more round of
• 21:06
  refinement before I post it. So that's the process that I
• 21:09
  follow. Typically with one really good
• 21:12
  brain dump, I can get a week of content from that and I like to
• 21:15
  do different content pillars. So I will focus for a time on
• 21:19
  leadership coaching. I will focus for a time on team
• 21:22
  effectiveness and selling the CEO on investing in team
• 21:27
  effectiveness strategies because that's often a pain point for
• 21:30
  leaders in HR. And I find that sticking to
• 21:33
  those content buckets can be very helpful to organize my
• 21:36
  thoughts, but still cover all of the areas of interest that my
• 21:39
  clients have. Yeah, amazing.
• 21:42
  As far as tools that you've used, are you using a CRM?
• 21:47
  You mentioned ChatGPT and Otter. Any other tools you're using?
• 21:51
  Yes, tooling is something I'm thinking a lot about because my
• 21:55
  goodness, the subscriptions really add up over time.
• 21:57
  But right now I'm using Chachi PT.
• 22:00
  I'm doing I think the $20.00 a month level, not the 200,
• 22:03
  although I heard the 201 is exceptional so maybe that's a
• 22:07
  potential investment. And within chachi PT, I am
• 22:11
  working on training agentic advisors specifically to do a
• 22:15
  few different things. I'm working on a business coach
• 22:18
  advisor where this Chachi PT would basically offer solutions
• 22:23
  and insights and coaching to me around the business in terms of
• 22:27
  mindset work and taking bold, consistent action.
• 22:31
  I'm working on a CEO GPT, which is all about helping me to think
• 22:35
  strategically and be that thought partner because when
• 22:38
  you're on your own, it can get a little lonely.
• 22:40
  I'm also working on a GPT that is specific to the delivery of
• 22:45
  my work. So I have my own framework.
• 22:47
  I have my own assessment tool, I've pulled in academic research
• 22:51
  industry best practices into a bulk of knowledge work related
• 22:56
  to the work that I do. And so I'm training a GPT on my
• 22:59
  work. And then finally, I'm also using
• 23:02
  a GPT as a VA admin assistant, still working on that one.
• 23:07
  So I have 4 different GPTS supporting me in my business.
• 23:10
  That's the tool that I'm using for for that is ChatGPT.
• 23:14
  I also in terms of the CRM, I am using one page CRM.
• 23:18
  I think it's maybe 3035 a month if I'm not mistaken.
• 23:22
  It's been very helpful. It's been created specifically
• 23:25
  for solopreneurs in mind, so it's very intuitive.
• 23:29
  I really like the tool. That's also where I track my
• 23:31
  pipeline and I have a pipeline for client opportunities.
• 23:35
  I have a pipeline for potential partnerships and collaborations.
• 23:39
  I also have a pipeline for speaking opportunities.
• 23:42
  And then finally, other tools that I'm using Riverside for
• 23:45
  podcasts. I am using Otter AI for
• 23:49
  transcription and then I'm also using Score app to build out
• 23:53
  assessments so that my ideal clients can take assessments to
• 23:58
  assess the health and effectiveness of their teams,
• 24:01
  their employee engagement efforts and then receive a
• 24:03
  diagnostic and I in return receive their e-mail address.
• 24:06
  Cool, and you're going to be using Mylands shortly for
• 24:11
  content. Yes, I cannot wait.
• 24:13
  I am so excited to be one of your first users.
• 24:16
  That tool will be amazing because like I said, with
• 24:18
  thought leadership, if you're going to sit down and start
• 24:21
  writing, it's extremely challenging and the tool that
• 24:24
  you're developing, and I can't wait to see the way that it
• 24:26
  provides value in this area, especially around those
• 24:28
  different content pillars. Yeah, amazing.
• 24:32
  I want to dive a little bit into the emotional side of things.
• 24:34
  So you talked about, you mentioned it twice around, you
• 24:39
  have the normal fears and anxieties that everyone else
• 24:41
  does and that manifests in many different ways.
• 24:44
  And one of the biggest ways is the non needle moving
• 24:47
  activities, right? As you said, the only thing that
• 24:49
  really matters is talking to clients, one-on-one
• 24:52
  conversations, but people spend all those time with logos and
• 24:55
  websites and business plans and everything behind the scenes
• 24:59
  when none of that moves the needle.
• 25:01
  And of course the shows up in other ways too.
• 25:03
  But how have you navigated the normal fear and insecurity and
• 25:08
  anxiety that comes with going out on your own for the first
• 25:11
  time and doing it anyway? Because you're doing it bigger
• 25:14
  and faster than most people, than 99% of people, I'd say.
• 25:18
  So how are you? How are you doing?
• 25:19
  Wow. Thank you.
• 25:21
  That's a great question. One thing that you said that
• 25:24
  stuck out to me was how easy it is to become distracted with
• 25:29
  working internally almost invisibly in the quest to start
• 25:34
  a business. And I think that is something
• 25:36
  that independent consultants really need to keep an eye on
• 25:40
  because, you know, reaching out to potential collaboration
• 25:43
  partners, working on documents privately, those things feel
• 25:48
  very productive. But it's a bit of an illusion
• 25:51
  because like we said, to fill the pipeline, you need potential
• 25:55
  clients, potential opportunities, even the
• 25:58
  collaboration partners, although it can feel really productive to
• 26:01
  get on a call and and learn what someone does and share what you
• 26:04
  do, those don't lead to opportunities very often, at
• 26:08
  least in my experience. And it can be a bit of an
• 26:11
  illusion that you're making progress getting your name out
• 26:13
  there, but it's not client facing.
• 26:15
  So I really like that you mentioned those examples because
• 26:19
  that is a common pitfall. But I'd like to answer more
• 26:22
  thoughtfully your question around emotional regulation and
• 26:26
  resilience. I do think that that's been a
• 26:29
  major differentiator in the progress that I've been able to
• 26:32
  make in just a few months because I'm willing to
• 26:34
  experience and manage the discomfort that comes with being
• 26:38
  a business owner. What, whether that's rejection,
• 26:41
  disappointment, anxiety around outreach.
• 26:44
  And a lot of this is because I practice mindfulness strategies.
• 26:49
  And one of them that works really well for me is allowing
• 26:53
  myself to experience the physical sensations of emotions
• 26:57
  without suppressing them or brushing them under the rug.
• 27:00
  And I have a belief that these emotions are like visitors or
• 27:04
  old friends. They're welcome to come at any
• 27:05
  time, but they won't stay forever.
• 27:08
  And so I will take a moment to bring my awareness to the parts
• 27:12
  of my body that are uncomfortable.
• 27:13
  For example, with anxiety, I have a tightness in my chest, a
• 27:16
  tightness in my throat. I'll take a moment and just
• 27:19
  place my hand on my chest, my hand on my throat, and I breathe
• 27:22
  deeply and I remind myself I can survive these sensations.
• 27:27
  These emotions are just sensations.
• 27:29
  I Will Survive this. And because I don't let things
• 27:33
  bottle up and I don't brush them under the rug, they just wash
• 27:37
  right over me. It's like a storm, you know,
• 27:39
  moving through your neighborhood.
• 27:40
  The sky looks dark and stormy, but then it moves on through and
• 27:44
  it's sunny again. That's how it feels for me.
• 27:47
  And I remind myself, you know, these emotions, it's not an
• 27:50
  actual sign that I'm not ready to take action.
• 27:53
  They're just signals that I need to take care of my nervous
• 27:56
  system. These brains are not designed to
• 27:59
  help us be entrepreneurs. They're designed to keep us
• 28:01
  alive. And they work so hard to keep us
• 28:03
  alive. So I will say to my brain, thank
• 28:06
  you, you are working so hard to keep me alive.
• 28:08
  And I love you for that. But we're going to be fine.
• 28:11
  We need to go run a business now.
• 28:13
  Yeah. Wow.
• 28:14
  Where did you learn that? In a few places, but mostly from
• 28:18
  my dad. My dad is really into
• 28:20
  mindfulness and meditation. He grew up in an environment
• 28:23
  where emotions, where he wasn't really allowed to have emotions
• 28:25
  it, it was not safe. And he has worked so hard
• 28:30
  through his life to change so much in just one generation.
• 28:34
  And a big part of that is around creating safety in our home,
• 28:38
  creating safety within his emotions, within himself.
• 28:41
  And I've learned a lot through him.
• 28:43
  We also, as a family, went to meditation seminar when I was
• 28:47
  about, I think, 12 or 13. And that was an awakening for
• 28:53
  me. We were introduced to the
• 28:54
  concept of metacognition, which is thinking about what you're
• 28:58
  thinking about. And I remember kind of walking
• 29:01
  through my adolescence with this awareness of, oh, wow, I can
• 29:05
  think about what I think about. And these thoughts are not
• 29:08
  actually me. I'm separate from them and I can
• 29:11
  sort through them and consider them, but I have this internal
• 29:16
  locus of control that can choose what I do regardless of what is
• 29:20
  coming up in terms of thoughts and emotions.
• 29:22
  So long way of answering that. I would say some early formative
• 29:26
  experiences, my own spiritual beliefs, and just really
• 29:30
  practicing every day or as best as I can, mindfulness and
• 29:34
  meditation. Wow.
• 29:36
  It's beautiful and you know, it's also interesting.
• 29:38
  A lot of a lot of our work sometimes is to work through
• 29:41
  what our parents conditioned us to believe or think or just how
• 29:46
  we are our conditioning. And so it's really beautiful to
• 29:49
  hear someone share like such a such a powerful experience that
• 29:54
  they learned from their father. Thank you, thank you so much.
• 29:57
  I, I got so lucky with my parents.
• 29:59
  I have to say. I got so lucky with them.
• 30:00
  And I'm trying to, you know, continue to weave that thread
• 30:04
  with my daughter. She's 16 months old now, but in
• 30:08
  the morning, so she's very young, but we like to do a
• 30:10
  little bit of yoga together. She can do downward dog.
• 30:12
  And in the morning I ask her if she wants to meditate with me
• 30:15
  and she'll breathe really deeply.
• 30:17
  And so of course, it's a little early, but I so, so wish for her
• 30:21
  to also just learn to be at peace with herself, be at peace
• 30:25
  with her emotions. You know, a large part of this
• 30:28
  too is that if we are not regulating our emotions, they
• 30:32
  will demand our attention anyways and they will find a way
• 30:36
  to do that. And so although I think
• 30:38
  sometimes there's a misconception that the these
• 30:42
  concepts are kind of fluffy or touchy feely, which there's
• 30:45
  nothing wrong with that. I actually see this as a
• 30:48
  distinct competitive advantage because the time that I could be
• 30:52
  spending fighting with myself, being dysregulated in my nervous
• 30:57
  system, being distracted because I have emotions that are not
• 31:00
  being dealt with, all of that time and energy is freed up for
• 31:04
  other things. So it alleviates a lot of
• 31:06
  cognitive float if I just take a moment, go through my
• 31:10
  mindfulness strategies, regulate myself.
• 31:12
  So I would encourage you, if you're listening to this and
• 31:15
  you're thinking that's a little squishy, I don't know if that's
• 31:17
  really my thing. This might actually be the
• 31:19
  competitive advantage you've been looking for.
• 31:22
  And I'm going to take you a step further, Ellie, because it's,
• 31:26
  yes, you're not spending time, you know, fighting your emotions
• 31:29
  and all that kind of stuff. But I'm a, I'm a believer that
• 31:31
  our subconscious, if we're pushing down the emotion, if
• 31:35
  we're not processing in the in a really healthy way like you're
• 31:37
  describing, it's going to hold us back in so many ways that we
• 31:42
  don't even realize from right not doing the thing that our
• 31:47
  business truly needs from us. Yes.
• 31:49
  And so it's not only a competitive advantage, I think
• 31:52
  in the way that you're describing, I think it's a
• 31:55
  requirement to be a successful business owner and actually feel
• 32:00
  good and aligned and powerful and grounded as we build our
• 32:05
  business to be practicing in whatever way.
• 32:08
  I love what you describe, but whatever method works for you as
• 32:11
  an individual so that you are processing and making space for
• 32:16
  everything that does come up. Because I think just like
• 32:18
  romantic relationships, running a business is one of the best
• 32:21
  way to see like what all your triggers are and all your stuff
• 32:24
  is, right? It brings up so much.
• 32:27
  And if we don't process and handle it well, yeah, it's going
• 32:29
  to, it's going to come out, and not in a pretty way.
• 32:32
  Wow. You know, it's so fascinating
• 32:34
  what you're describing. I haven't even really thought
• 32:37
  about it in those terms. And I, I, yes, I completely
• 32:41
  agree. I've even had, you know,
• 32:42
  memories from childhood come up around, you know, social
• 32:46
  awkwardness, trying to fit in, finding my way among my
• 32:50
  classmates. I've had really specific
• 32:52
  memories come up as I built my business.
• 32:55
  And some of that, the echo of my childhood has gotten louder
• 33:00
  suddenly. And I think it's because of what
• 33:02
  you're describing around how deep this work is.
• 33:06
  And I mean, truly, if you were to tell me that emotional
• 33:09
  regulation and mindfulness was the main thing I would lean on
• 33:13
  as a business owner versus technical knowledge, I would
• 33:15
  have never believed you. I don't know, maybe because I'm
• 33:18
  interested in this, but I really didn't think that was what was
• 33:21
  going to happen for me. But truly, like you said, our
• 33:24
  subconscious, I mean, if we do not believe that we will achieve
• 33:29
  a certain outcome or we're not capable of it or we don't
• 33:31
  deserve that outcome, that comes through and all of our work.
• 33:36
  I've seen emails on days where I remembered, you know, it was a
• 33:39
  really tough day. I found out about an opportunity
• 33:42
  loss or personally, a tough day. I've remembered those days and
• 33:47
  I've seen messages that I've sent and I can see a distinct
• 33:50
  difference in terms of the confidence, the warmth, the
• 33:53
  boldness with which I recommend the next step versus days where
• 33:57
  I feel very aligned and feel very much like myself.
• 34:00
  So you're right, it comes through in everything that we
• 34:02
  do. I know for me, and there's a lot
• 34:05
  of successful people that are, they're very analytical and we
• 34:10
  think a lot, right? We're kind of like analyzers in
• 34:13
  a lot of senses of the word. And So what I've learned is that
• 34:17
  the overthinking that I developed and I'm going to say
• 34:20
  over, I'm going to own the overthinking is a response to
• 34:24
  not wanting to feel the feelings, right?
• 34:27
  Feel the feelings if not enough or anxiety or grief or sadness
• 34:31
  or frustration, whatever it is. And so I intellectualize the
• 34:34
  feelings versus letting myself feel.
• 34:36
  And it's actually been a practice for myself, whether
• 34:39
  it's in business or whether it's in anywhere else in my life of
• 34:42
  when that feeling comes, don't try and figure out where it's
• 34:45
  coming from or what caused it or what does it mean.
• 34:48
  It's like just as you said, take a second.
• 34:51
  I do the same thing. I put a hand over my chest or
• 34:53
  whatever. I'm feeling it and I just think,
• 34:55
  OK, you have permission to feel. Wow, I love that.
• 34:59
  It's, you know, it's so funny, I see parallels to and what you're
• 35:02
  describing with launching my business, but also becoming a
• 35:06
  mom. And becoming a mom was what it
• 35:08
  took for me to launch my business.
• 35:10
  And I think a huge part of that was motherhood forced me to
• 35:15
  learn how to surrender. Before motherhood, before
• 35:18
  pregnancy, even I did not know how to surrender.
• 35:21
  I would my way through challenges.
• 35:23
  I thought if I just put in the right input, I will get the
• 35:26
  right output. I could.
• 35:28
  Even if I wasn't the smartest in the room, I felt like I could
• 35:30
  work harder than anybody in the room and that's how I would get
• 35:33
  the results. And with pregnancy and
• 35:36
  motherhood, the paradigm shifted so completely where I could not
• 35:42
  control outcomes. I could not control what this
• 35:45
  infant would do if this infant would sleep by doing the right
• 35:48
  inputs. And I finally learned to just
• 35:52
  surrender and to be completely unattached to particular
• 35:56
  outcomes and just enjoy the moment for what it was and find
• 36:00
  the gift that I could find in that day, regardless of the
• 36:03
  circumstances that were happening around me.
• 36:06
  And I, I don't want to make motherhood sound too
• 36:09
  challenging. It's the most beautiful thing
• 36:11
  I've ever experienced in my life.
• 36:12
  But you know, it's not easy. And on those hard days, I am
• 36:16
  just so grateful for the gift of surrender.
• 36:19
  And I've really brought that into my journey as a business
• 36:23
  owner. You might not think surrendering
• 36:25
  is is the way to grow your business, but I think what I'm
• 36:28
  describing is that non attachment to the outcome.
• 36:31
  I will do something brave and bold and reach out to a leader
• 36:35
  or really put myself out there. And I know that no matter the
• 36:39
  outcome, I'm going to be fine. And I just surrender to the
• 36:43
  possibility of whatever may happen.
• 36:46
  And I'm so grateful for the peace and bravery that Mother
• 36:51
  has given me, because that gift of surrender, I don't think I
• 36:54
  would have discovered it any other way.
• 36:56
  And I could not run my business without it.
• 36:59
  The letting go of the outcome or being unattached is the perfect
• 37:02
  word. It ends up being a paradox in my
• 37:05
  experience to I'm going to give it my all right.
• 37:09
  It doesn't mean I'm not going to try hard or care or people are
• 37:13
  like, how do I, you know, how do I care if I'm unattached, right?
• 37:16
  Or what does that mean? And, and it to me, it is a
• 37:18
  paradox. Like I'm going to give it
• 37:20
  everything I got to build a successful business, find new
• 37:23
  clients, do proper marketing. I'm going to work.
• 37:25
  I'm still going to work hard and I'm going to care and I'm going
• 37:29
  to be unattached. I'm going to surrender.
• 37:30
  I'm going to let it play out how it's meant to play out, knowing
• 37:34
  I gave it my all. And if it doesn't play out how I
• 37:38
  want it to, great. Then it's feedback for me.
• 37:40
  I iterate, I learn, I grow, I figure it out for next time,
• 37:44
  right? It's all a journey, which is a
• 37:47
  bit of a cliche, but the the I don't know.
• 37:49
  I'm curious if you thought about that paradox of giving it my all
• 37:52
  and being unattached. Yes.
• 37:54
  And so when you, when you were saying that, an image came to my
• 37:58
  mind. I, I remember when I was a
• 38:00
  child, I loved playing with water to live down the lake.
• 38:02
  And I would often scoop up water in my hands.
• 38:05
  And I was amazed at how if I tried to hold the water really
• 38:08
  tight, it would just run through my fingers.
• 38:11
  But if I just scooped the water and gently held it, it would
• 38:14
  stay in my palm. And that image always kind of
• 38:17
  stuck with me. And I think it's it's a way to
• 38:20
  visualize what you're describing right now, which is when you
• 38:23
  cling to the outcome, when you try to force it, you don't
• 38:27
  necessarily get the result that you're looking for, But when you
• 38:30
  just gently hold possibility for the outcome, ironically, you
• 38:35
  might get it. That's been my experience at
• 38:37
  least. And so how do you do that in
• 38:40
  practice? Because it's like, we really
• 38:42
  want these things. I really want that client.
• 38:44
  I really want the money coming in.
• 38:46
  Maybe I need the money coming in to put food on the table,
• 38:48
  support my family. You mentioned supporting your
• 38:50
  family. Like there's things that we
• 38:52
  really want. So how do we hold the
• 38:55
  possibility loosely like that cup of water versus squeezing
• 38:59
  it, which is of course the thing that makes us lose it.
• 39:02
  I would say get aligned with your core objectives.
• 39:08
  So instead of hustling and overworking and trying to burn
• 39:12
  the candle at both ends, really think about who is it I'm trying
• 39:15
  to reach, what value am I trying to offer them?
• 39:19
  And align all of your efforts to that.
• 39:21
  If anything is outside of that scope, it should fall off the
• 39:24
  list and that frees up your capacity to focus on the most
• 39:28
  high impact, high value activities.
• 39:32
  And then within that, one thing that I really love to do is to
• 39:35
  remind myself of the value of my work.
• 39:38
  So I will write out quantitative improvements that I bring to
• 39:41
  clients. I had one particular engagement
• 39:44
  where we delivered $4.5 million of added value across 18 months,
• 39:50
  no additional investments. And the reason I bring that up
• 39:53
  is that when I get on calls, instead of really working myself
• 39:57
  up with angst and insecurity, I remind myself I could bring this
• 40:02
  person $3,000,000 a year in value.
• 40:04
  I have something valuable to offer them.
• 40:06
  And with that, I can feel myself physically unclenched and find a
• 40:10
  greater degree of ease. So I remind myself of the value
• 40:13
  of this work and then this. The third component I would say
• 40:17
  is making sure that you were aligning.
• 40:20
  Your outreach in your calendar to support the growth of your
• 40:22
  business. So identifying what is the
• 40:25
  number of calls that you feel you need to have on your
• 40:27
  calendar. For me, every week I try to get
• 40:29
  6 to 8 booked, about 25% to 50 get cancelled.
• 40:34
  So I end up with the right number that I can handle for my
• 40:36
  capacity. So there are specific practices
• 40:39
  I follow to grow my business. And I know that if I see the
• 40:43
  calendar, I see I have the calls booked, I know my value.
• 40:47
  I know I'm reaching the right people with the right message.
• 40:50
  That is where I can kind of loosen my grip a bit and just
• 40:53
  trust that opportunity will come and kind of hold the water in my
• 40:56
  palm. I can sit back, just be myself,
• 41:00
  follow through on my commitments for the week because I know I've
• 41:03
  created the architecture for this business to thrive.
• 41:07
  I can't squeeze it all out in one day.
• 41:09
  Yeah, what I'm hearing is really focusing on the process, right?
• 41:14
  It's like I'm going to do the activities, I'm going to post on
• 41:16
  LinkedIn, I'm going to do my outreach, I'm going to follow
• 41:18
  up. I'm going to comment on their
• 41:19
  stuff. I'm going to engage with them.
• 41:21
  I'm going to offer them, right. Well, you talked about a 15
• 41:24
  minute, you know, adding to a thought leadership post, right?
• 41:27
  I'm going to do the things I know overtime in aggregate are
• 41:31
  successful, not necessarily this one or this one or this one, but
• 41:35
  like in aggregate. And then trust.
• 41:39
  I'm really going to like that's the surrender piece is like I'm
• 41:41
  going to trust that my activities, right?
• 41:45
  And kind of the universe is rigged in my favor kind of
• 41:48
  experience, right? Like this is going to work out
• 41:50
  not in every micro moment, but in the macro experience.
• 41:54
  Yes, exactly. And it it will work out.
• 41:56
  It might not look like what you thought it would look like, but
• 41:59
  that doesn't mean it won't happen, Right.
• 42:02
  You have to leave a little bit of that room for magic, in my
• 42:04
  opinion. But I I do trust that it will
• 42:07
  work out. I do trust that over time, if I
• 42:09
  make these commitments, I make these, you know, decisions to
• 42:12
  structure my day in this way, to take bold action, to imperfectly
• 42:17
  commit, I believe it will work out.
• 42:19
  And so I am able to surrender with that trust.
• 42:23
  Yeah, yeah. Amazing.
• 42:26
  You're perfect business in six months.
• 42:29
  So like end of the year we're exactly at six months right into
• 42:31
  the year by December 31st, 2025. What is your perfect business
• 42:37
  look like? So funny you say that.
• 42:39
  I wrote it out yesterday. So my perfect visit.
• 42:42
  I like to do reflection quarterly and monthly.
• 42:44
  I like to do a look back and then planning.
• 42:48
  So last week, excuse me, yesterday was my quarterly
• 42:51
  review of my monthly review. So that's why I wrote this out.
• 42:54
  So by the end of the year, I hope to find 2 clients that are
• 42:59
  ready to commit to a retainer, strategic advisory retainer for
• 43:02
  an ongoing period. I also hope to find four
• 43:07
  additional coaching clients as well.
• 43:09
  I'm really excited to be doing a collaboration with an incredible
• 43:13
  coach who has a PhD in leadership transformation.
• 43:17
  She's, she's running a coaching program that's about seven
• 43:20
  months long. And so I'll be joining her on
• 43:22
  that as an additional coach. So that will be a lot of my
• 43:27
  bandwidth and a really interesting opportunity for the
• 43:29
  rest of the year. And so in addition to that and
• 43:32
  my existing client work, that's what I'm hoping to build is four
• 43:35
  additional coaching clients and two advisory retainers.
• 43:38
  But in terms of, you know, looking at it from the bigger
• 43:41
  picture, I would say just to feel the sense of meaning is
• 43:45
  wonderful. And I hope to just continue
• 43:47
  feeling that when I became a mom and made a commitment that any
• 43:52
  time away from my daughter needed to be fulfilling,
• 43:56
  financially fulfilling, emotionally fulfilling, if I was
• 43:58
  going to be away from her. It had to really add to the life
• 44:01
  of my family, not take away from it.
• 44:04
  And I am so grateful that that's already become a reality.
• 44:08
  And I hope to just continue feeling really fulfilled and
• 44:11
  engaged and continue earning to provide for my family.
• 44:15
  Before we wrap up, I did not ask how long, how much time per week
• 44:20
  do you spend on these business development activities?
• 44:23
  That's a great question. I would say that it ranges.
• 44:27
  I think I spend between 8 to 15 hours a week on business
• 44:30
  development. So it is a lot.
• 44:32
  I would say this is probably not sustainable long term if you
• 44:36
  have a very high volume of client work.
• 44:38
  But for me personally, I believe that this is a necessary
• 44:42
  commitment to build a very robust pipeline, which is my
• 44:45
  goal. So in the future, I do think I
• 44:48
  could probably and around the 8 hour mark and be OK with that or
• 44:53
  at some point I do hope to make investments to free up capacity
• 44:57
  and that could be a virtual assistant.
• 44:59
  I really hope to work with my Lance in terms of thought
• 45:01
  leadership and LinkedIn growth. So I do believe making those
• 45:05
  initial investments would be very important to free up
• 45:07
  capacity for the work that only I can do in my business.
• 45:11
  But right now it's it's a lot, but it's doable.
• 45:14
  Awesome. Did you get our last episode on
• 45:17
  on virtual assistants? I don't know.
• 45:18
  Yes. I did.
• 45:19
  It was so good. Thank you so much for that.
• 45:21
  Yeah. And we and we have a great
• 45:23
  company that we've used to to find them.
• 45:25
  And yeah, I've been working over years to find that really
• 45:30
  effective balance of how to work with them.
• 45:32
  And I've it's gotten to a good place now.
• 45:34
  So amazing. If our audience wants to find
• 45:38
  you, where can they find you? What's the easiest way?
• 45:41
  Yes, you can find me on LinkedIn.
• 45:43
  I'm Ellie Holbert. I would love to hear from you.
• 45:46
  I'm just amazed by the community that's, you know, formed around
• 45:49
  independent consulting. So please do reach out and say
• 45:52
  hello. That would make my day.
• 45:54
  You can find me there. Awesome, and we'll link your
• 45:56
  LinkedIn as well so people can easily find you.
• 45:58
  Ellie, thank you so much. I really, really enjoy it.
• 46:00
  I could talk to you forever. I could talk to you forever,
• 46:03
  yeah. Thanks for being here and
• 46:04
  sharing just everything with the audience today.
• 46:06
  Yeah. Thank you so much, Bradley.
• 46:08
  Thank you so much for all you do.
• 46:09
  It's you're, you're changing more than you could now.
• 46:12
  So please keep at it. Thank you.
• 46:14
  Thanks Ellie.