Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / The Trust Fall: Ellie Holbert Let Go of Her Biggest Client—and Earned 3× Her Corporate Salary

Transcript

The Trust Fall: Ellie Holbert Let Go of Her Biggest Client—and Earned 3× Her Corporate Salary · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
• 0:04
  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
• 0:06
  I'm your host, the founder and CEO of my lands.
• 0:10
  Today I'm joined again by Ellie Holbert.
• 0:12
  Ellie, I'm so excited to have you on.
• 0:15
  Ellie is the founder and CEO of Impact Advisory Services.
• 0:19
  She supports HR leaders to assess the health and
• 0:22
  effectiveness of their teams and create high performing work
• 0:25
  cultures. Ellie, welcome back to The Pot.
• 0:28
  Thank you so much, Bradley. It's so great to be on with you
• 0:30
  again. Yeah, you're actually one of our
• 0:32
  first, I think your second guest to be on twice.
• 0:34
  So I'm so excited to have you back.
• 0:37
  And for those, you know, listening now, she sent me a
• 0:41
  bunch of updates since the last time we talked and I can't wait
• 0:45
  to dive in. So thank you for doing that,
• 0:47
  Ellie. Thank you, happy to be back.
• 0:49
  So give us just a quick. You know, most people listen to
• 0:52
  your your episode one. It was a very highly listened to
• 0:56
  episode, but maybe you can just give us a quick recap of this
• 1:00
  short summary of the journey from corporate to launching your
• 1:04
  your full time thing and the success you've been having in a
• 1:07
  very short period of time. Sure.
• 1:09
  Thank you. Well, if I were to give the
• 1:11
  short version of that story, when I became a mom, I really
• 1:15
  wanted to have more time with my daughter than my corporate role
• 1:18
  would have allowed. And I also felt like motherhood
• 1:21
  showed me what I was capable of in a way that I didn't
• 1:23
  understand before. So I left my corporate job,
• 1:26
  which I really liked, and went out on my own, landed a really
• 1:30
  solid, lucrative contract to do that.
• 1:33
  About one week later, that contract was unexpectedly
• 1:36
  cancelled and I had $0.00 in the pipeline, which was not exactly
• 1:41
  the start that you want when you launch a business.
• 1:43
  But I hit the pavement and three weeks later, a great opportunity
• 1:47
  came through. 16 weeks later, which was about when we did our
• 1:51
  initial recording together, I had more than replaced my
• 1:56
  corporate salary and my pipeline was worth about $1.5 million.
• 2:01
  And now we're coming up on I believe I've been in business
• 2:04
  for 10 months now and it's been great.
• 2:08
  I've more than exceeded my corporate salary across that
• 2:11
  first year. I'll I'm projecting to take in
• 2:13
  30 to 50% more than my corporate income, which is fantastic.
• 2:18
  I now take every Friday off to be with my daughter and go to
• 2:21
  gymnastics and the bakery. And for my current client work,
• 2:26
  I actually have 6 active clients, five of which were
• 2:30
  inbound. And I would say 100% of my
• 2:33
  client work is completely aligned to the work that I love
• 2:37
  more than anything. And I actually feel like I'm
• 2:40
  making a difference now with what I'm doing and connecting
• 2:44
  with so many incredible independent consultants along
• 2:46
  the way. I mean, 10 months is in the
• 2:49
  grand scheme of things nothing, right?
• 2:51
  I mean, for you to create this business that you have now and
• 2:55
  replace your corporate salary and then some and have all these
• 2:57
  inbound clients and this massive pipeline, I mean it's truly
• 3:01
  incredible. Thank you.
• 3:03
  Thank you so much. Well, I hope it shows others
• 3:06
  this is a very real outcome that is possible.
• 3:09
  I'm not some Unicorn. I'm just a typical consultant
• 3:12
  that left and tried something new and it's by no means been an
• 3:15
  easier to start a business. There's been a lot of ups and
• 3:18
  downs. But I hope this can be a proof
• 3:19
  point that this really is possible if you take the leap
• 3:22
  and if you take that consistent imperfect action that we talked
• 3:26
  a lot about in our first conversation.
• 3:28
  Yeah. Well, throughout this
• 3:29
  conversation, you know, everyone will see that you're not normal
• 3:32
  in any way. But I appreciate you making it,
• 3:35
  you know, commonplace that anyone can do this.
• 3:39
  It's not easy, but it is doable. And my favorite thing in your
• 3:43
  share is this is what I love so much about consulting and being
• 3:47
  on your own is when you talk about spending time with your
• 3:50
  daughter and spending time with your family and being a mom.
• 3:53
  And it's just whether that thing is family or whether it's
• 3:56
  hobbies or whether it's travel, it doesn't really matter to me.
• 3:58
  The the point is you get to really spend time, yes, doing
• 4:02
  fulfilling work, making a difference, as you said.
• 4:05
  And then when you're not working, you can be spending
• 4:08
  time with the people you love the most or doing the things you
• 4:10
  love the most. And that's it's just, it's such
• 4:12
  a beautiful thing that this way of working affords.
• 4:16
  Yes, absolutely. I couldn't agree more.
• 4:19
  And I was even, you know, I would say looking back at this
• 4:21
  past year, I wish I would have been a bit more intentional
• 4:24
  about really carving out the time to fully enjoy life a bit
• 4:28
  more. But I did an exercise over the
• 4:30
  weekend with my husband where we looked at the calendar for 2026.
• 4:34
  We printed out every single month we looked at it, we made
• 4:37
  sure we had the right amount of time in there to enjoy our
• 4:40
  family together. We picked one day every month to
• 4:44
  go on a date all day in our in our hometown together.
• 4:48
  And then I picked a day every single month where I could pour
• 4:51
  it into my cup and take care of myself so I can be a better mom
• 4:53
  and business owner. So being out on your own, you
• 4:56
  know, my corporate job, I definitely would not have had
• 4:58
  that much time off to do that. But now I do feel like I have
• 5:02
  the flexibility. I've been grinding a little too
• 5:04
  hard, but now it's time to be intentional about enjoying life
• 5:09
  more as a business owner and really taking advantage of the
• 5:12
  flexibility that we're afforded to do that.
• 5:15
  It's beautiful because we go out on our owns to get the
• 5:19
  flexibility and the freedom and to be able to do the things we
• 5:22
  want to do. And sometimes are we don't
• 5:24
  actually create that, but our businesses are all consuming or
• 5:27
  we allow them to be right. Like it's a choice.
• 5:30
  And then all of a sudden we chose this flexible path and
• 5:33
  it's not flexible. Right.
• 5:35
  Exactly what was the trigger point for that?
• 5:37
  For me, I took, so in my work with HR leaders, I my work
• 5:41
  touches on engagement surveys a lot, employee engagement
• 5:43
  surveys. I took my own engagement survey
• 5:45
  at the end of the summer and I failed.
• 5:48
  My scores were terrible. And if that were a client, I
• 5:51
  would have said that you have a critically low employee
• 5:54
  engagement score. You really need to pay attention
• 5:56
  to this matter. So I thought about it and I
• 5:58
  thought, OK, as an employer of myself, how am I treating
• 6:02
  myself? What would I advise a client?
• 6:04
  How would I tell them that they need to treat their people?
• 6:07
  And so I started to make some real changes.
• 6:09
  And what's so funny is that my business grew as I took better
• 6:13
  care of myself. I think we often think that
• 6:16
  there's a trade off of time spent pouring into ourselves,
• 6:20
  caring for ourselves and those around us that that will somehow
• 6:24
  take away from the business. But actually the more balanced
• 6:28
  and the more I manage my own health, my mental health, the
• 6:31
  better performing my business was, especially financially.
• 6:36
  So there really is no trade off. Yeah, beautiful.
• 6:38
  Win. Win.
• 6:38
  More time with your family. You feel better, right?
• 6:42
  Your relationships are nourished and your business performs at a
• 6:45
  higher level. Exactly, yes.
• 6:48
  And I hope that's encouraging for the business owners that
• 6:50
  have something in their life that demands a lot from them.
• 6:54
  You know, I, I talked to moms a lot about being out on our own
• 6:57
  as business owners. I really want moms to know you
• 6:59
  can do this. You can do it.
• 7:00
  In the early years, I was still even nursing my daughter when I
• 7:03
  launched my business. So even in the thick of it, you
• 7:05
  can do this. But whether you're a caregiver,
• 7:09
  you know you have family or community responsibilities that
• 7:12
  take a lot of you. Whatever it is, you can still do
• 7:16
  this even if you have loved ones that require a lot from you.
• 7:21
  One thing it's always going to be a question, right, of these
• 7:25
  opportunities that are inbound, you said you know most of them
• 7:28
  are coming inbound these days and you had this millions of
• 7:31
  dollars worth of pipeline now, right?
• 7:33
  I know that doesn't happen by accident and it doesn't just all
• 7:35
  fall on your lap. So give us the, I know you
• 7:38
  shared a bunch last time. I'd love to hear how it's
• 7:41
  evolved and just summarize what you do for business development
• 7:44
  to drive these inbound opportunities.
• 7:46
  Yes, absolutely. So for business development, my
• 7:49
  priority still remains to get one-on-one phone calls on the
• 7:53
  calendar ideally with my ICP. That's still the priority.
• 7:57
  I'm still following that three pillar approach of direct
• 8:01
  contact with my network that I already know, whether that be
• 8:04
  old college friends, old colleagues, former clients.
• 8:07
  I also do LinkedIn thought leadership.
• 8:09
  Still, I try to be very consistent.
• 8:12
  I really think the more consistent the better, which you
• 8:14
  know, the algorithm has absolutely punished me for
• 8:17
  missing one week. I've only missed a week twice
• 8:21
  and my engagement absolutely tanked after that.
• 8:23
  So please do not miss even a single week.
• 8:26
  But I do LinkedIn thought leadership and then I also do
• 8:28
  speaking engagements a lot more now.
• 8:30
  So I do webinars with my ideal client.
• 8:33
  I've gone on some podcasts. That's been a very beneficial
• 8:37
  way to get my name out there, my story, but really build trust
• 8:42
  with the audience. I think there's such intimacy
• 8:45
  and familiarity that can come from hearing someone's voice as
• 8:49
  you get ready for your day, as you're commuting in the car.
• 8:52
  So I found speaking to be really beneficial for growing trust
• 8:57
  with my audience and with my ideal clients.
• 8:59
  The LinkedIn thought leadership has been very interesting
• 9:02
  because I've been on calls with clients and potential clients
• 9:07
  where they said, well, I heard about you and then I went to
• 9:09
  your LinkedIn and I saw a couple videos you posted.
• 9:12
  And so, you know, did me posting that video lead a client to say,
• 9:16
  oh, look at this video I stumbled on.
• 9:18
  I'm going to reach out to her and hire her.
• 9:20
  I don't know that it was that necessarily, but my goodness,
• 9:24
  it's been a great credibility builder and a great way to build
• 9:27
  connection without it requiring my time when a potential client
• 9:32
  that hears of me in another capacity can go to my LinkedIn
• 9:35
  profile and feel that they're getting to know me.
• 9:38
  So all of that to say, I'm still following those fundamentals,
• 9:42
  but I've learned through testing that I really need to lean into
• 9:46
  speaking opportunities, specifically podcasts, webinars,
• 9:51
  and posting video clips to LinkedIn as a way to quickly
• 9:56
  build meaningful connections and trust with a larger audience
• 10:00
  than I can in a one-on-one call. Those are very beneficial, but
• 10:04
  they take a lot of calendar time.
• 10:06
  I highly recommend speaking and then that leading to a
• 10:08
  one-on-one call. And the LinkedIn, let's say
• 10:12
  content, whether it's written or video, if you really think about
• 10:15
  it at a basic level, it's really simple, right?
• 10:17
  It's like if there's two Ellie's in the world and Ellie number
• 10:20
  one has a LinkedIn profile with very little or no content or one
• 10:24
  post every three months versus the LE #2 that has content
• 10:29
  weekly. Sure, you can miss a week or
• 10:31
  two, Not the end of the world, right?
• 10:32
  But you've been showing up for the better part of a year on
• 10:35
  LinkedIn. One has a full portfolio of what
• 10:39
  you know and what kind of work you've done and what you've
• 10:41
  learned and all that kind of stuff.
• 10:43
  And one is Bear. It ends up being a really simple
• 10:47
  equation of, yeah, I want to work with Ellie that has the
• 10:50
  content, the portfolio built out, because I can see her
• 10:54
  stuff. I can see her portfolio.
• 10:56
  It's almost like a restaurant with like thousands of reviews
• 10:59
  on Yelp and a restaurant that has nothing.
• 11:00
  I'm going to go to the one that has all these reviews.
• 11:03
  I get to know the restaurant a little bit, right?
• 11:05
  There's a better likelihood that I'm going to have a good
• 11:07
  experience there. Definitely.
• 11:09
  I couldn't agree more. And it's it's funny, it also
• 11:12
  carries through to the delivery of my client work as well.
• 11:16
  So I work with HR leaders often that involves assessing A-Team
• 11:20
  through one-on-one interviews where I asked them some personal
• 11:23
  questions about trust and collaboration and communication
• 11:27
  and leadership within their company.
• 11:29
  So I asked them some sensitive questions.
• 11:31
  And I have to build up trust very quickly in those interviews
• 11:35
  to get the real data that I need to support an organization and
• 11:38
  improving. And I've had clients that I
• 11:41
  interviewed go to my LinkedIn first, see my videos, and then
• 11:45
  they say, well, I feel really comfortable telling you this
• 11:47
  because I heard you say XY. So my clients are getting a
• 11:51
  better service because I'm getting better data because of
• 11:55
  this trust. Yeah, that's so good.
• 11:57
  And the process that I know you followed that we talked a lot
• 12:01
  more about on podcast #1 so we won't go back into the whole
• 12:03
  thing. It's relatively simple, right?
• 12:05
  You're connecting with your network, you're adding new
• 12:07
  connections, you're publishing content, the contents, helping
• 12:11
  you get speaking engagements right?
• 12:12
  You're putting yourself out there and then you follow up.
• 12:16
  I know you do. It's a huge part of it and you
• 12:18
  get sales calls and that's pipeline, right?
• 12:21
  It's, it's not rocket science. It's consistency over time and
• 12:24
  putting yourself out there. Totally, absolutely.
• 12:26
  I just glanced at my calendar just to see the, the evidence
• 12:29
  and I have 3 sales calls this week with my ICP.
• 12:32
  Never met either of these or any of these individuals.
• 12:35
  And yeah, Tuesday and Wednesday, by the end of the day, I'll have
• 12:38
  three calls with, you know, qualified buyers from all of
• 12:41
  this that we've talked about. And let's be clear, right?
• 12:43
  It's not like your plate is empty.
• 12:46
  From a client perspective, you're full right.
• 12:49
  Fully booked, yes. Fully booked.
• 12:50
  So tell us you're fully booked and you have three sales calls
• 12:53
  this week. A lot of people are like, Oh my
• 12:55
  God, I can't be having sales calls when I'm fully booked
• 12:57
  because I literally don't have space for them.
• 12:59
  And you're doing the opposite, which is certainly the best
• 13:02
  practice. Like you've never stopped doing
• 13:04
  business development, so how are you going to conduct these calls
• 13:08
  knowing your plate is full right now?
• 13:10
  Yes. So I think one thing that is
• 13:12
  really important is we are responsible for defining that
• 13:16
  plate being full, how big that plate is before you fill it up.
• 13:20
  My plate, it's not 40 hours, that's not possible for me to
• 13:23
  deliver 40 hours of client work and business development and be
• 13:27
  with my daughter for a full work.
• 13:28
  That's not my plate. I have probably been expecting
• 13:33
  about 32 hours of client work and I would say that's actually
• 13:38
  way too much for 2026. I'm planning for 18 hours of
• 13:43
  client work every week because I've realized, you know, the
• 13:46
  sales calls, there's prep, there's post.
• 13:49
  I have definitely made the mistake of cramming the top of
• 13:52
  the funnel and not maturing the leads through the funnel.
• 13:55
  That's a huge lesson for me this year.
• 13:58
  So when I, I did an exercise, of course with the help of ChatGPT
• 14:02
  to look at, OK, realistically, what is the capacity that I have
• 14:05
  to sell? I learned it's 18 hours.
• 14:07
  So all of that to say, we are responsible for defining what
• 14:13
  that plate is that we have to fill.
• 14:16
  And in my experience, I try to keep about 20% of my capacity
• 14:21
  free to put out fires. That could be my personal life.
• 14:24
  It could be clients wanting more than what I projected for the
• 14:29
  week. It could be more sales calls or
• 14:31
  an opportunity that comes out of the blue needing to do research.
• 14:34
  But I try to leave 20% of white space in my life to deal with
• 14:38
  whatever comes up. And then when I'm fully booked
• 14:41
  with client work, I still expect myself to book 4 to 6 calls
• 14:46
  every single week. It might not necessarily be an
• 14:49
  ICP, but it's contact with the market if you will.
• 14:52
  So I expect myself to have 4:00 to 6:00 contacts with the
• 14:57
  market, whether that be one-on-one sales call, a
• 14:59
  webinar, catching up with a friend from college to put my
• 15:02
  name out there. In my experience, I think I
• 15:04
  shared before 25 to 50% of those will get cancelled.
• 15:08
  So I end up with two to three. And I find that to be
• 15:11
  manageable. But I mean, I have to say, even
• 15:14
  if we're fully booked, it's just not, that is not a valid excuse
• 15:18
  not to do business development. Business development is equally
• 15:22
  as important as client delivery because without business
• 15:25
  development, you will not have client delivery.
• 15:27
  And it is so difficult to start that engine up from scratch if
• 15:33
  you let your leads go cold. And I've learned that because
• 15:36
  I've done that. So now lesson learn.
• 15:40
  I will always have 4:00 to 6:00 sales calls booked regardless of
• 15:44
  how busy I am. I will try to only sell 18 hours
• 15:48
  a week of client work so that I'm leaving 20% of my time for
• 15:53
  the fires that need to be put out.
• 15:54
  Yeah. There's so many golden Nuggets
• 15:57
  in there. I hope everyone really is
• 15:59
  listening because it's so good and I can't, I couldn't say it
• 16:02
  better myself. So thank you for sharing all
• 16:05
  that. And I really want to acknowledge
• 16:06
  you, Ellie, because it can be so easy to get sucked into the
• 16:10
  business where you're focused on client work because it's also
• 16:13
  what you love doing, right? That's why you started this
• 16:16
  business. You're like, I want to serve HR
• 16:18
  leaders. I want to help businesses
• 16:19
  improve their cultures and productivity and all those kinds
• 16:22
  of things. And you do such a good job of
• 16:24
  stepping out of the business and looking at what's working and
• 16:28
  what's not working from a big picture perspective, right?
• 16:31
  Am I billing too many hours? Am I what?
• 16:33
  How was business development going?
• 16:35
  What's working, what's not working?
• 16:36
  Taking your own culture survey. I mean, I love that, right?
• 16:40
  Like there's so many people that don't practice what they preach.
• 16:44
  Frankly. I mean, even the best marketing
• 16:46
  leaders in the world, they come to me for marketing support
• 16:49
  because it's so challenging to do your own marketing or figure
• 16:54
  out how you're going to position yourself.
• 16:56
  And we all need help, and that's not a bad thing at all.
• 16:59
  But you're able to take what you do for other companies and look
• 17:02
  at yourself as a business and take your own culture survey.
• 17:04
  I mean, it's amazing. Thank you.
• 17:07
  Thank you. Well, I think part of what's
• 17:10
  really helpful is to understand where your motivations are
• 17:15
  coming from, especially for entrepreneurs, this desire to
• 17:20
  hustle and overwork. I remember the first six months
• 17:23
  of my business, I didn't take a full weekend off.
• 17:26
  That was a huge mistake. It did not actually lead to
• 17:28
  close business, but I was operating under this illusion
• 17:32
  that every minute of my day had to go towards either caring for
• 17:37
  my daughter or the growth of my business.
• 17:39
  And that if that wasn't the case, then I was putting my
• 17:42
  family at risk during a challenging time in our economy.
• 17:45
  So I did a lot of reflection and introspection about where was
• 17:49
  that fear coming from or that desire to overwork coming from.
• 17:53
  And I'm so lucky to come from a family with two parents that
• 17:57
  have made incredible strides in their lives economically.
• 18:02
  Both my parents grew up under really challenging economic
• 18:05
  circumstances and did something incredible with their lives.
• 18:09
  My mom became a pH. D in psychology and I think the
• 18:12
  70s that's not very common for women back then.
• 18:15
  My dad grew up incredibly impoverished, did not have heat
• 18:19
  in his home in Michigan, and became an orthodontist.
• 18:23
  And from my parents, I felt like I learned so much from them
• 18:27
  about sacrifice and work ethic and being persistent, working
• 18:33
  hard to provide for your family. And I realized that a lot of my
• 18:36
  overworking tendencies were coming from this feeling of
• 18:41
  guilt or just pressure of look what my family did in one
• 18:45
  generation, but that means we're just one generation from that.
• 18:49
  And so not to go too, too deep, but I, I realize where that
• 18:54
  desire was coming from and that it was this, it was not serving
• 18:58
  myself, it was not serving my family, it wasn't serving my
• 19:00
  business. It was really this interfere,
• 19:02
  but also this intense gratitude and appreciation for what my
• 19:07
  family did. And I had a conversation with my
• 19:10
  dad about this and he said, you know, I, I made those sacrifices
• 19:13
  for a reason. I left the farm for a reason.
• 19:16
  It was so that you didn't have to do all of that too.
• 19:19
  And so I've learned that caring for myself, not working myself
• 19:24
  into the ground, this is actually a way for me to express
• 19:27
  my appreciation and my gratitude for my parents because they gave
• 19:30
  so much so that I could do this. And if I don't do this, then
• 19:35
  what did they do that? For wow, thank you for sharing
• 19:38
  that. It's beautiful.
• 19:40
  Thank you. Thank you for letting me.
• 19:41
  Yeah, of course, one of the things you shared before this
• 19:46
  was you said this, the very source of your greatest
• 19:48
  struggles may also be your greatest gift to the world.
• 19:52
  I'd love for you. Maybe it's a nice segue from
• 19:54
  what you just shared of what do you mean by that and how has
• 19:58
  that played out for you and your business?
• 20:00
  In my work with HR leaders, a lot of my work focuses on
• 20:06
  organizational health, performance, and profitability.
• 20:09
  But really the heart of my business is creating
• 20:13
  organizational cultures that are safe and where people feel like
• 20:17
  they belong. And I came into this work really
• 20:21
  because if I were to look back growing up, I did not feel that
• 20:25
  I belonged. I'm neurodivergent, and I did
• 20:29
  not know this until I was 31. So most of my life I felt like I
• 20:34
  was trying to operate with an incomplete playbook that others
• 20:39
  somehow had access to and I didn't.
• 20:41
  So I knew that something was different about me.
• 20:43
  I knew something was not off necessarily, but I I was
• 20:46
  struggling a lot socially. I was struggling in many ways
• 20:49
  and I would characterize my early experiences as non
• 20:54
  belonging. Constant struggle, confusion,
• 20:58
  questioning myself, feeling frustrated that there was
• 21:01
  something wrong with me because certain things, especially
• 21:05
  social interactions, it just didn't come naturally to me the
• 21:08
  way it did for others. But I had such a need to belong,
• 21:12
  like it was oxygen. So I realized, you know, this
• 21:16
  isn't coming naturally to me the way it does for others.
• 21:18
  But I, I can learn things. I can learn if I can learn
• 21:21
  physics, I can learn how to have a casual conversation with a
• 21:24
  peer. So I approached this from almost
• 21:27
  an anthropological perspective, learning how to build trusting
• 21:30
  relationships, how to connect with people, how to talk to
• 21:34
  strangers, all kinds of social interactions.
• 21:37
  I studied it intellectually and my academic background is in
• 21:41
  psychology and sociology, so I always really wanted to learn
• 21:45
  about human systems and how people operate.
• 21:48
  And eventually with a lot of education and self coaching and
• 21:54
  training from different opportunities.
• 21:57
  I, I was a counselor during my graduate program, received a lot
• 22:00
  of training on active listening and social communication.
• 22:03
  So all of this to say, these were skills that eventually I
• 22:06
  was able to develop in other ways.
• 22:08
  And in my corporate jobs, I actually ended up being really
• 22:12
  good at these things. I was often given the trickiest
• 22:16
  clients, the prickly pears if you will, that needed, you know,
• 22:20
  someone with a little bit extra attention to their emotional
• 22:24
  needs. And I was often put on teams
• 22:27
  that were not necessarily performing at their best and
• 22:31
  needed to turn around quickly. And I was able to create really
• 22:35
  strong trust based relationships.
• 22:37
  And what was really challenging for me growing up, it ended up
• 22:42
  being something that became a real asset because I was able to
• 22:47
  step into an organization or a situation and see it with a
• 22:50
  fresh perspective And things that I think some people may
• 22:53
  have taken for granted. I was able to say, well, have we
• 22:56
  defined what people should be doing?
• 22:59
  Does everyone know what everyone is here to do?
• 23:02
  Do we know that? So I would ask some of these
• 23:04
  really basic questions. Lo and behold, a lot of the
• 23:07
  basics were not covered. So from that, I was able to
• 23:09
  create a playbook for creating high performing teams, for
• 23:13
  creating effective leadership and applying that to a remote
• 23:16
  setting. And now my clients, they're able
• 23:19
  to move from dysfunctional chaotic environments to high
• 23:23
  performing teams and leaders that have been really struggling
• 23:27
  with gaining a sense of followership or respect and
• 23:31
  influence virtually. They're able to build those
• 23:33
  things with this playbook. So looking back, yes, I, I would
• 23:37
  say that my unique wiring, I don't want to paint too rosy of
• 23:41
  a picture here. It was really challenging.
• 23:44
  It's still a part of my life. I still struggle with this.
• 23:48
  It's still a source of pain, yes.
• 23:50
  But it is also true that This is why I can do what I do and why
• 23:56
  I'm so passionate about it because I know that pain of non
• 23:59
  belonging. I know the playbook for how to
• 24:02
  create that for teens and I'm able to ask the silly basic
• 24:07
  questions that a team needs to get there.
• 24:09
  So I feel intensely grateful to have this unique wiring and to
• 24:16
  have a why behind my work that will cause me to, you know, work
• 24:20
  on a Saturday morning when I need to and feel no resentment
• 24:23
  or will cause me to really go the extra mile with my clients.
• 24:26
  Because this is my core, why I want to live in a world where
• 24:28
  people belong or they feel like they fit in.
• 24:31
  And that matters not only in our personal lives, but at work too.
• 24:35
  Some people when they when they have these challenges, right,
• 24:38
  you didn't ask for this challenge, but you were given
• 24:40
  this challenge and you kind of have two options, right?
• 24:44
  You're like up this socks and what am I going to do with this?
• 24:46
  And I don't know. And you kind of use it as your
• 24:48
  excuse or you say, all right, this is my challenge and I get
• 24:53
  to work through it. I get to learn what I need to
• 24:54
  learn and overcome it and growing these skills in the way
• 24:58
  that most people haven't had to. So they just don't, right?
• 25:02
  Almost to some degree in life, if you don't have to, you don't,
• 25:06
  right? And so you basically had to.
• 25:08
  And you developed this unique skill that played out in your
• 25:11
  corporate life and certainly has allowed you to serve clients in
• 25:14
  a beautiful way on your own. And I'll reflect back to you,
• 25:18
  Ellie, you're not just doing it for your clients or with your
• 25:22
  clients. You're doing it with yourself,
• 25:25
  right? You, you have this internal or
• 25:27
  just reflect back to you the internal compassion and skill
• 25:32
  set to lovingly support yourself when things aren't working or
• 25:37
  you're overworked or whatever it is.
• 25:40
  It's just so cool to see you apply your skill set to not just
• 25:44
  your clients and have a very successful financially and all
• 25:46
  those kinds of things business, but to improve your own quality
• 25:49
  of life. Thank you, thank you so much.
• 25:52
  I really appreciate you saying that and I think it's you know,
• 25:54
  I'm very tapped into my nervous system because of this wiring
• 25:57
  and so it that does a lot of the heavy lifting for me.
• 26:00
  It will tell me that I'm over stimulated.
• 26:02
  I need to take care of myself. So it's, there's so many
• 26:05
  wonderful parts of this unique wiring that I'm really grateful
• 26:08
  for. And, you know, it's so
• 26:09
  fascinating when I finally did learn that I was neurodivergent,
• 26:12
  I had language to explain how I always felt.
• 26:16
  I felt the most profound exhale of my life.
• 26:20
  I felt like a weight fell off my shoulders of that's why there's
• 26:24
  nothing wrong with me. There's nothing wrong with me.
• 26:27
  I'm different. I'm not defective.
• 26:30
  And so, you know, it's, it's led me to really have, I think a
• 26:35
  sense of resilience with not being good at things when I
• 26:39
  first try them or things not coming naturally to me the first
• 26:42
  time. Because I, I now understand this
• 26:44
  about myself. I completely accept this about
• 26:46
  myself. I know there's nothing wrong.
• 26:48
  So when I try things for the first time and I struggle, I
• 26:51
  don't see anything wrong with that because I've been
• 26:54
  struggling at everything. I've tried the first time for
• 26:56
  most of my life, with very few exceptions.
• 27:00
  And I can struggle through things and learn how to do that.
• 27:03
  And I'm not saying, you know, to go at bat and fail 510 times.
• 27:08
  I'm saying 304050. I can do that.
• 27:12
  I can stick with it and know if I'm struggling, if I'm not good
• 27:15
  at it, well, I have realistic expectations of myself that I
• 27:19
  probably won't be good at something for 30-40 fifty times.
• 27:23
  But that discipline, that consistent imperfect action,
• 27:27
  that is what leads to effectiveness.
• 27:30
  So you know, if someone's listening, maybe you're not
• 27:33
  necessarily neurodivergent or have different wiring, but I
• 27:36
  hope this shows you that if you're trying something new and
• 27:40
  you're not good at it, that does not mean that you won't
• 27:42
  eventually be good at it. You just might need those 30 to
• 27:46
  40 iterations of struggling, but stick with it.
• 27:49
  Get to that other side. And most people are not good at
• 27:54
  things the first time. Like, we're all bad at the
• 27:57
  beginning. It would be bizarre if you were
• 28:00
  randomly amazing at like sales, right?
• 28:03
  Right. And you might have some natural
• 28:04
  gifts that make you, you know, more prone to be successful.
• 28:07
  But yeah, you're going to have a lot of no's and rejections and
• 28:11
  objections and all these things that just can easily knock us
• 28:14
  down as entrepreneurs when we're not used to it.
• 28:17
  We haven't built the muscle of resilience or the muscle of, you
• 28:21
  know, it's not even a rejection, right?
• 28:23
  It's a redirection. It's feedback.
• 28:25
  And if you can look at the feedback as information, as a
• 28:29
  Rep, as it's like, OK, this is part of my process of becoming a
• 28:33
  successful business owner, then that can be in a really
• 28:36
  empowering interpretation to keep going.
• 28:38
  So I'm really happy you shared that.
• 28:40
  And I know that you have, you talked a lot about your nervous
• 28:44
  system and being able to grow the business at a pace that your
• 28:49
  nervous system can tolerate. And if your nervous system can't
• 28:52
  tolerate more than your business has no room to grow.
• 28:56
  And I'd love if you could just expand on that.
• 28:58
  Like, what does that really mean to you?
• 29:00
  And especially maybe for people that are less in tune with what
• 29:03
  does your nervous system really mean and how does that play a
• 29:05
  role in business? I could see someone like totally
• 29:07
  rolling their eyes right now. So maybe you can like, dumb it
• 29:10
  down for us in layman's terms, like what are you really talking
• 29:13
  about there and help someone out.
• 29:14
  Yes, absolutely. And if someone is feeling
• 29:17
  resistance to this, that's a fantastic sign that you really
• 29:20
  should listen to this. And if you think that it's, you
• 29:24
  know, squishy and not necessarily effective, I'll
• 29:26
  share a little bit about my pipeline after this and then.
• 29:28
  I'll practice like the groups of the printing, right?
• 29:32
  Like, yeah, I love it. I promise you, this is very
• 29:35
  profitable. So a little bit about the
• 29:37
  nervous system. There are different parts of our
• 29:39
  brains. They're responsible for
• 29:40
  different things. It's so important that they're
• 29:42
  all supported to do the job that they have to do.
• 29:44
  So we have an amygdala, it's known as the lizard part of the
• 29:48
  brain. This is responsible for fight or
• 29:50
  flight or freeze or fawn. Those are 4 responses, just the
• 29:54
  two. We also have our prefrontal
• 29:56
  cortex which is responsible for your higher level thinking
• 30:00
  strategy. Also emotional regulation and
• 30:02
  kind of your personality. When you are in a state of
• 30:07
  distress, your prefrontal cortex will go offline and the wiring
• 30:13
  of the brain goes, it just goes right to the amygdala, the fight
• 30:16
  or flight. So you completely skip your
• 30:19
  strategy, your higher level thinking, and you operate from a
• 30:22
  place of fear and self protection.
• 30:26
  And we know as entrepreneurs that fear and self protection
• 30:29
  and risk taking, there's a complicated relationship there.
• 30:32
  We have to get to a place of bold but informed risk taking
• 30:37
  for our businesses to grow. So that tells us that we need to
• 30:41
  do everything we can to help our amygdala calm down, cool down
• 30:46
  and support our prefrontal cortex coming online.
• 30:49
  And so how we can do that is to send signals to our body, to our
• 30:53
  nervous system that we are safe. There are so many things you can
• 30:57
  do to do this. It's very personal.
• 31:00
  Some people rely on prayer, meditation, mantras.
• 31:04
  Some rely on visualizations. I really rely on sensory input
• 31:10
  that calms down my body. So essential oils, certain
• 31:14
  textures are really soothing, and I will just find my fuzzy
• 31:17
  blanket and basically wear it. That's strategic business
• 31:21
  advice. There we go.
• 31:23
  You need to figure out what works for you.
• 31:24
  But I will do what I can to send my body signals that it's safe,
• 31:29
  everything's OK. We are not running from a lion.
• 31:31
  It's just an e-mail from a client.
• 31:34
  And I try to cool down my body and help my amygdala calm down.
• 31:38
  I help my prefrontal cortex come online.
• 31:41
  And so that's kind of the, the neuroscience behind why it's so
• 31:44
  important to care for our nervous systems.
• 31:46
  And I would say for me personally, it's very
• 31:48
  interesting because although I feel really solid and emotional
• 31:53
  regulation, social emotional context now, I actually do not
• 31:59
  experience my emotions as how I hear other people describe
• 32:05
  emotions. I experienced them as physical
• 32:08
  sensations in my body. I would seem perfectly cheerful
• 32:12
  and sunny and like everything is OK, but have intense jaw pain,
• 32:16
  maybe my neck hurts, maybe I'm a stomach ache.
• 32:19
  So I need to be very mindful of what my body is trying to tell
• 32:24
  me because emotionally things don't, they just don't register
• 32:27
  for me the same as they might for other people.
• 32:29
  And so that's where I really try to listen to what is my body
• 32:32
  telling me to listen to it. I have to slow down and pause.
• 32:36
  And then I try to just offer comfort when my body is asking
• 32:39
  that from me. And I know I really want to get
• 32:43
  to this before we run out of time.
• 32:45
  Is the trust fall that you recently took in your business?
• 32:49
  Tell us what a trust fall is in your terminology and what that
• 32:53
  means for your business. Yes.
• 32:55
  So as you said, I recently took a trust fall to give a little
• 32:59
  bit of background. I had one main client that took
• 33:03
  up most of my available time. I had other clients as well.
• 33:06
  But really one key project that took most of my brain capacity
• 33:11
  and I was growing my pipeline and, and finding a lot of leads
• 33:15
  and a lot of opportunities, but I felt like I didn't have the
• 33:19
  capacity and the space in my mind to really nurture those
• 33:23
  relationships through. And looking ahead at the
• 33:27
  calendar, I also felt like, you know, I, if I maintain this
• 33:30
  client, it will take overworking to then sell more strategic work
• 33:35
  so that I can step away from this client.
• 33:38
  And I realized that the the formula required for me to move
• 33:41
  on from that situation, it just required a level of overwork and
• 33:46
  exerting myself that I didn't think was healthy.
• 33:48
  And once again, my employee engagement survey results told
• 33:50
  me I needed to stop doing that so that I didn't fire myself.
• 33:54
  And So what I did was I ended up leaving that client without
• 33:59
  revenue coming my way with nothing signed.
• 34:02
  At least I had plenty of opportunities and things I was
• 34:04
  keeping track of, but I did not know when the next check would
• 34:07
  come. And I decided to step away from
• 34:10
  that client who I love very much.
• 34:12
  And I was amazed at how 3 weeks later I had five inbound
• 34:21
  opportunities that led to closed opportunities and covered my
• 34:26
  business expenses, my personal expenses and then another three
• 34:30
  weeks later. So six weeks later, I had closed
• 34:33
  even more work. I was making well over my
• 34:37
  corporate salary, fully booked for months with the exact type
• 34:42
  of work that I wanted to do. And I kid you not that six weeks
• 34:46
  of progress when we look at not only financially, but the heart
• 34:51
  and soul of why I do what I do, the the value of the work, I
• 34:55
  made more gains in that six weeks both for meaning and
• 34:59
  profit than I did in the six months before that.
• 35:02
  So creating the capacity 1st and then selling the right
• 35:07
  opportunities, that is what I've taken away from that experience.
• 35:12
  And now, you know, I think we're about six weeks or eight weeks
• 35:15
  after that, maybe for December. Hope you don't mind my sharing.
• 35:20
  I will actually be earning 3 times my corporate salary in the
• 35:24
  month of December. Again, taking every Friday off
• 35:27
  to be with my daughter and doing client work that I love so much.
• 35:30
  I would probably do it for free. Don't tell them that, but I
• 35:32
  would. And that was from the trust
• 35:35
  fall. That was from the trust fall.
• 35:37
  Wow, I mean such a testament to the willingness to risk and
• 35:43
  trust that it will work out one way or another.
• 35:46
  Maybe it works out as quickly as it did for you.
• 35:49
  Maybe it's something else down the line.
• 35:51
  Maybe it's a lesson. I mean, you never know.
• 35:54
  But if something's not working for you in the way that you
• 35:57
  really want it to be, like, some part of it gets to let go.
• 36:01
  Yes. And you did that.
• 36:03
  And I love how quickly it paid off for you.
• 36:04
  It's It's nice when it works out like that.
• 36:07
  Right. Yes, results may vary.
• 36:09
  Results may vary. Right, right.
• 36:11
  So let's set expectations and the universe is going to give
• 36:14
  you, you know, our conversations end up being a little bit more
• 36:17
  spiritual than some of my others.
• 36:18
  I'm totally aligned with that because I think you live a
• 36:21
  better life if you basically believe the universe is rigged
• 36:24
  in your favor, that you will set yourself up for success.
• 36:26
  You will create the room, the space for opportunities.
• 36:29
  You'll put in the hard work, you'll iterate, you'll learn,
• 36:32
  and then good things will come your way.
• 36:33
  If it's a challenging thing that comes your way, then you learn a
• 36:36
  lesson from it and that sets you up for the next good thing to
• 36:39
  come your way, right? There's just always.
• 36:41
  You can always basically spin it in a positive light no matter
• 36:45
  what happens. Absolutely.
• 36:47
  And if you are working at a level where if you won the dream
• 36:52
  project, do you have the time to deliver on it, that's huge.
• 36:57
  So often when people are making that transition from whether
• 37:00
  it's hourly to project based or, you know, implementation to
• 37:04
  strategy work, I talked to a lot of independent consultants.
• 37:07
  Now far too often I see people trying to sell work that if they
• 37:11
  want it, they could not start it next week.
• 37:14
  And that's key because then you know, OK, I can't win that work.
• 37:19
  And then your habits, your beliefs, your actions, your
• 37:22
  subconscious, it's aligned to that reality of I can't do that
• 37:27
  work. So I'm convinced that whether
• 37:30
  it's your subconscious, the universe, I'm right there with
• 37:32
  you, whatever it is that is orchestrating this whole thing,
• 37:36
  what you believe is really possible for you.
• 37:39
  I think that's the upper limit, you know, and if can you boost
• 37:43
  that higher maybe because until you believe that that is
• 37:48
  possible for you, the actions that are necessary to make that
• 37:52
  a reality, I don't think you will take them.
• 37:55
  But if you create the capacity first, you know that there's
• 37:58
  opportunity out there. You're taking consistent aligned
• 38:01
  action to reach those people. It is a matter of time.
• 38:06
  It will come through. To a testament to what you've
• 38:09
  done, it comes through when you're in alignment with the
• 38:13
  work that lights you up and is really aligned with your
• 38:15
  purpose. Here you shared this quote of I
• 38:18
  made more progress in six weeks of surrender and alignment than
• 38:21
  in the six months prior. Yes, it's true.
• 38:26
  And I think, you know, to have the stomach to take that risk,
• 38:29
  it's all about your why. Why did I take that risk?
• 38:33
  I took that risk because I believe that there are people
• 38:36
  that I need to reach that are in organizations where they're not
• 38:40
  set up for success, they're not being treated well, they're not
• 38:43
  safe, and that they have dreams and visions and value to offer
• 38:48
  this world that they cannot offer because of those
• 38:51
  conditions. And I want to reach them.
• 38:53
  I want to change those conditions and help people come
• 38:57
  alive again exactly where they are.
• 38:59
  That's my why. And I will happily take a risk
• 39:02
  to make that happen. So I would really think about
• 39:05
  what's your why? What's your mission that is that
• 39:09
  compels you so strongly you'll take a risk like that?
• 39:12
  And I really believe that every single one of us, we have value
• 39:16
  and gifts and talents to offer this world that are uniquely
• 39:20
  ours. And if you can really get in
• 39:22
  touch with that, I think it can be so beautiful and so powerful
• 39:25
  for your business. Yeah, wow.
• 39:28
  Thank you so much for sharing all this.
• 39:30
  This is just Yeah. And the last quote I want to
• 39:33
  share that you that you sent over was the universe cannot
• 39:36
  hand you the next chapter while your hands are gripping the
• 39:38
  last. Yeah, create the capacity first.
• 39:42
  Yeah, create the capacity. Yeah, which is scary.
• 39:45
  It's like, where's the next big paycheck going to come from?
• 39:48
  And the answer is, I don't know. And I'm going to trust it and
• 39:51
  I'm going to keep doing the business development.
• 39:53
  It's not like you just sit back and wait.
• 39:55
  You do the things, but you trust that your process is gonna work
• 40:00
  and it's gonna come through. Absolutely.
• 40:03
  And I will say on the other end of that trust fall with that
• 40:07
  consistent action that we talked about, I promised pipeline
• 40:10
  details when I made that joke. It pays off.
• 40:13
  It pays off and there's opportunity out there in the
• 40:16
  market right now. Yes, they're scary
• 40:18
  macroeconomics and headlines. Of course, all that is true.
• 40:22
  I do not want to diminish the very real suffering people are
• 40:24
  experiencing. And it is also true that there
• 40:28
  is still plenty of opportunity for an independent consultant.
• 40:31
  We just need a handful of clients and they are out there.
• 40:34
  So my pipeline right now, I have 96 opportunities in the pipeline
• 40:38
  total and my pipeline value is 11X my corporate salary, and
• 40:44
  that is from less than 10 months in business.
• 40:48
  Again, I'm doing this for the first time.
• 40:49
  I'm figuring it out as I go, making plenty of mistakes along
• 40:52
  the way, some small, some big, and that opportunity is out
• 40:56
  there. I'm so glad you shared that
• 40:58
  because I do hear a lot like, oh, it's such a tough macro
• 41:01
  environment and there's just no business to be 1 and everyone
• 41:05
  struggling. And I frankly tell them, agreed,
• 41:08
  it's a tough macro environment. Not everybody is struggling.
• 41:12
  There are hundreds of millions of businesses out there.
• 41:15
  Plenty of those are doing just fine.
• 41:18
  Plenty are struggling. Plenty are doing just fine.
• 41:20
  And when you put in the work, you differentiate yourself,
• 41:23
  you're consistent, you learn all the things.
• 41:26
  There's plenty of business to go around.
• 41:29
  So it's not a valid excuse in my opinion.
• 41:32
  It's truly not. You get to work with the
• 41:34
  environment that we have. Maybe be patient, but you get to
• 41:38
  find a way because there is a way.
• 41:40
  There is a way and if we wait for the conditions to align for
• 41:45
  us to launch our businesses or grow our businesses, it will
• 41:47
  never happen. It will never fully align for
• 41:52
  this to happen. I mean, some would say I left my
• 41:55
  corporate job to start my business before my daughter's
• 41:57
  first birthday. Was that great timing?
• 41:59
  No, not necessarily. It's an incredibly demanding
• 42:01
  chapter, but I did it and it worked, you know, and I and I
• 42:05
  knew at the time there's never going to be a perfect time.
• 42:08
  So yes, this will be hard. But look, staying in corporate,
• 42:12
  there's plenty of risk there too.
• 42:13
  We know that from this past years.
• 42:15
  I don't believe that being out on our own is actually any
• 42:18
  riskier than it is to work for a company.
• 42:21
  Because if one client leaves me that that would be unfortunate,
• 42:23
  but it's about 10 to 15% of my income if my employer were to
• 42:27
  leave me. That's everything I have.
• 42:29
  Such a good point. I'm so glad you made it.
• 42:31
  We get to wrap up here, Ellie. How can people find you if they
• 42:34
  want to? I know you do some work with
• 42:36
  independent consultants now, or if a client's interested in
• 42:38
  chatting with you, what's the best way to find you?
• 42:41
  Yes, come find me on LinkedIn. As you mentioned, I'm now
• 42:43
  coaching independent consultants as well, specifically on the
• 42:47
  launch of your business and scaling your growth.
• 42:50
  Hello, pipeline and revenue. That's my passion.
• 42:52
  That's what I love to nerd out on.
• 42:54
  So my client on average is seeing revenue increases by two
• 42:58
  to three X1. Recent client was actually able
• 43:00
  to 10X for revenue. So that's my sweet spot.
• 43:02
  If you're looking for coaching support, please come find me.
• 43:05
  I have two spots that open at the end of February and
• 43:08
  otherwise just come say hi, find me on LinkedIn and Ellie
• 43:11
  Holberg. I would love to connect.
• 43:13
  Amazing, Ellie, thank you so much for coming back, putting
• 43:16
  all the thoughtfulness into this to make it such a great episode
• 43:18
  and I could chat with you forever.
• 43:20
  It's such a joy. So thank you so much, Ellie.
• 43:23
  Well, Bradley, thank you so much and I just really appreciate you
• 43:27
  carving up the space for a conversation like this.
• 43:29
  I know in the the entrepreneurial world, when we
• 43:32
  look at business strategy and it's not necessarily the case
• 43:35
  that every person is comfortable having a conversation that touch
• 43:39
  on such deep personal, even spiritual topics.
• 43:42
  But I think we both know that this is often the heart of what
• 43:45
  will make or break our growth. So I just so appreciate your
• 43:49
  leadership in that and giving me a chance to share some of these
• 43:52
  messages. Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:54
  Thanks for calling that forward.