Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / SUMMER ‘23 - 6 quick questions with Ellen Yin, Founder of Cubicle to CEO (Part 2)

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SUMMER ‘23 - 6 quick questions with Ellen Yin, Founder of Cubicle to CEO (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey, it's Dune here. I'm recording this quick message to let you know that over the next few weeks, we'll be playing some of our favorite episodes from the past year while I spend some time with my best friends and family back in my other home, London. If you missed these episodes the first time around, they are so good and packed with so much value. I know you're going to love them just as much as I did recording them. See you soon. Bye. Welcome back. Here are the six
• 0:39
  So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you getting up every single day and doing this? Because I really believe that, again, you cannot pursue your full possibility and expand your mind if you're not exposed to different possibilities. And the only way to do that, I think, is to get the stories of more women who are building businesses and...
• 1:03
  and creating and carving out these unique paths to get their stories out in front of people who haven't been exposed to that previously in their own life so that women of all backgrounds, all socioeconomic statuses, all geographic regions have access to the resources and the mentorship that they need to change the world, honestly, with what they're building. Absolutely. I love that. Question number two is, what's been your favorite marketing moment so far?
• 1:34
  Ooh, marketing moment. Um, that's so hard. I mean, okay, this, this is popping in my mind. I don't know if this is my favorite, but it's the most recent. We went through a recent rebranding this summer and that was huge for us because it's the first time in my life. I mean, cubicle, the CEO, this idea or this brand came to life in early 2019, but middle of the summer, 2022, like three years into the journey is the first time I truly felt
• 2:04
  what we felt was the mission and the impact and the work that we're doing. And it felt like our brand had kind of grown up a little bit and matured a little bit and was like coming into its own. And so that marketing moment and seeing people actually interact with our brand and feel some sort of affinity and loyalty to it. A quick story that I'll just share here. I had a live event in August, our first larger scale cubicle to CEO live event. And there was this girl who
• 2:31
  attending who during the audience Q&A, we had our mic flag wrapped around the microphone handle. And so I passed it off to her to ask the question. And she legit, dude, she legit stops. Before she asked the question, she's like, oh my gosh. She's like, I'm so honored to be holding
• 2:49
  something with cubicle to CEO's logo on it right now. Can someone take a picture for, of me holding this microphone? This is like such a pinch me moment. And I, I mean, she was like fangirling over holding something with our logo on it. And I felt like I was like dying of excitement. I was like, Oh my God, like the fact that you have your own experience with our brand and you perceive it in such a way that that was definitely a marketing moment that I'll remember forever.
• 3:14
  Wow. That is so cool. And I think it's those moments that are like so powerful. They're like, yes, I'm here. I'm doing it. Let's go. This is cool. Yes. A hundred percent. Yes. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource at the moment? If you have to think about a newsletter or a book or a podcast.
• 3:35
  I have been binging everything that Alex Lieberman puts out. He's founder of Morning Brew, a media company that I really look up to. And he actually recently rebranded his own podcast, Founders Journal, into the crazy ones, Sophia Amoruso. And I'm blanking on the name of his third co-host right now. But even if you go back and binge the old episodes, I feel like there's so much valuable content there.
• 4:00
  Love that. Love that. Yeah. I did see this new rebrand. I haven't listened to the new episodes. I need to get into that. Yes. Highly recommend. I love his TikTok 60 second startup. I think it's so fun. Yes. Yes. I think that's such a well done segment. Absolutely. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yeah.
• 4:26
  I'm going to be really honest and tell you that I'm not one of those CEOs that has this really fancy, well thought out morning routine or quite honestly, evening routine. I think every day looks so different for me and being accepting of that. I think, you know, sometimes in our culture, we kind of feel like a failure if we don't have this meticulous schedule that we always follow and everyone else is like, what's your morning routine? I don't really have, you know, this, this, you know, put in place routine.
• 4:52
  I think, though, for me, what feels good and helps me win the day is any moment of connection, whether it's like what we're doing right now, Dune, and feeling like meeting a friend for the first, a new friend for the first time, or going out to coffee or going out to some networking event or receiving an email or a DM or a voice note from someone saying, hey, this really impacted my life this week. Those small micro moments of connection is what helps me feel like that day had purpose and it was worthwhile.
• 5:20
  A hundred percent. I love that. I'm also like not a strict routine follower. And so getting kind of just the small micro things that bring me joy, like making myself a juice or, you know, having a hot lemon and water and like kind of doing just small micro moments here or there, uh, how I win the day. I'm also someone who doesn't have the set routine. I wish I did, but it's just, it doesn't come naturally to me.
• 5:46
  Totally. But I agree with you. I'm like a tea at night. I actually do love having like a cup of hot tea at night. And then I do like an iced tea, you know, during the day, but, or, or, you know, coffee are, um, my green drink that I drink from athletic greens, like all those little things help, help just kick off the day. Right. Yeah. A hundred percent. Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? Hmm. That's a great question.
• 6:18
  I mean, I think
• 6:20
  I don't know if this was my worst money mistake, but one that I learned a lot from was sometimes it can get really easy when you see the top line revenue growing to get excited, to get ahead of yourself and to pour a bunch of money into something just because you want to – in a way, it's like feeding your ego, right? You're like, oh, I know if I pour more money, let's say, into the ads machine, I know this much is going to come out.
• 6:48
  And I think I got to this point in early 2021, we had this one tiny offer funnel that was just taking off. I mean, over 9,000 students have come through into our ecosystem from that one product alone. And that, I mean, our spending for the ads just got a little bit out of hand and I wasn't
• 7:08
  closely paying attention to the data the way that I should have been. And when I reflected on my monthly report, my profit and loss statement for that month, I remember being shocked at, even though it was our highest revenue month to date at that point, it was one of our lowest profitability months. And I was like, I can never let...
• 7:28
  this vanity metric or this perception of success lead me astray again into, you know, not paying attention to the numbers that matter and being way more intentional with how I scale. That's a good one. That's interesting. Yeah. And question number six, last question. What is just a crazy story you can share from this journey in building a business? It can be good or bad.
• 7:56
  Oh my gosh. I'm the worst at on the spot. Like, tell me about a moment. Like in job interviews, it was always situational questions where I'd be like, my mind is blank. Honestly, there have been so many pinch me moments throughout, you know, the last five years of building this business that I honestly can't believe. Everything from little moments where, you know, we got...
• 8:15
  get like a DM voice note from someone who lives in Africa saying, hey, I started this business and it's changed my family's trajectory because of listening to your podcast. Things that you're like, I can't even fathom touching someone on the other side of the world in that way that I may never meet in real life. Like little moments like that all the way up to
• 8:34
  you know, bigger pinch me moments. I remember when we got the email invitation to come on the Today Show with Hoda and Jenna, I was like, oh my God, like I can't believe that we're going to be on national TV. This is so crazy. Just things that you don't ever...
• 8:48
  anticipate or imagine yourself doing. There's so many moments like that all throughout the spectrum and in between. And I think every day is kind of a surprise to me. And that's what I love about entrepreneurship is that it's not predictable. No two days are exactly the same. And you are really creating your destiny and just along for the ride. And I think if you
• 9:08
  keep the joy and the fun in it and you kind of almost treat business like a game, then it never gets boring and you never take yourself too seriously, right? And you really get to enjoy the process more. 100%. Ellen, this was so much fun. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I am absolutely your hype girl. I'm cheering for this next journey that you're going on in building your media company. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
• 9:39
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 10:03
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 10:26
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 10:41
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 11:06
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 11:28
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.