Small Business Success… the Ellevated Outcomes Story
Welcome back to mine (Madyson) and Julie’s Q&A on the Ellevated Outcomes Story. Since our birth in 2017, EO has grown into this successful, sophisticated yet approachable, small business advisory firm, leaving steady footprints in the world of small business success (while still being a small business ourselves!). Our work has meaning and the outcomes are real.
This is week 2 of 3, and today we’re talking about where we are now, what’s changed or been challenging, and how Ellevated Outcomes stands out today in the small business world.
M: From day one of Ellevated Outcomes to now, what has been different (better or harder) than you expected?
J: What’s been better? Our clients. You think I’d be numb to it at this point, thankfully I’m not. I just continue to be dumfounded by the incredible, brilliant people who are choosing to work with us. I wanted it to be true, but I didn’t know it was possible to run a business and really like everyone around.
What’s been harder? Just in the way that we talk about ideal clients and figuring out who that is – it took a while to land on the specific characteristics of who our ideal employees are. And not the technical characteristics, but all the other stuff. Just as you have to do with your clients, it’s figuring out people’s motivations, making sure you guys (the team) are choosing each other well, etc. Landing on ideal employees has definitely been harder than I expected.
What’s been different? On a broader scope, it’s just the level and depth of how personally and emotionally responsible I feel for everything we touch. Be it internal or external. I’ve gone through periods, I’m talking of a year or longer, where I wake up at 2am every night and I can’t go back to sleep and my heart is racing.
And to the responsibility point – I like growth. I’m always thinking about what’s next, much to my husband’s (and everyone around me) chagrin. I’ve been surprised by how I’ve tired myself out with that. And sometimes I think – Gosh, it’s kind of dangerous that I’m in charge of these things because my hunger for growth is insatiable. Sometimes I think – it would be so much easier to work for someone else because they could never expect as much from me as I expect from me. So that’s been a really interesting, personal piece I never could have anticipated.
M: Are there other challenges you’ve had to overcome?
J: A couple things that are just the reality of the type of business we have, are also things we help clients with, so it’s good and bad that we and I experience it ourselves. So it’s the fact that I work with 80% of the clients we have, and the business is still totally dependent on me. My face is still the business, so trying to get those things outside of me and on other people.
Other challenging things have been: client transfers and making sure we don’t skip a beat when we’ve released other employees. So the logistical and emotional work that goes along with that.
And then Covid too – of course our business isn’t immune to having to deal with Covid. I’m extremely proud of the way we’ve showed up, the playbook we’ve written for that, and how we’ve supported our clients. They’ve come out of Covid so much better. But those were all things I wasn’t expecting, and I don’t think anyone was expecting (except for bill gates apparently, ha).
M: Today, how does EO stand out from other small business advisors/consultants? What would others say EO does really well? small business success
J: Others (and ourselves) say about EO – our approach and our people have a really unique blend of the intellectual side, and the emotional and personal side. There are a lot of competitors and colleagues who do one or the other really well. I have not come across a colleague who I feel blends them together the way that we do, and I’m extremely proud of that.
I think another thing we do well, that is an extreme competitive advantage, is that most businesses (as totally makes sense) focus on 1 specific element in the business. “I’m a marketing expert” or “I’m a finance expert” – which is great, riches are in the niches. But given that we say “we do strategy,” part of what we bring is the ability to scan someone’s business and say – “For your business, for where you want it to go and where you’ve been, here are the pieces we need to zero in on, and forget about the rest for right now.” So helping someone really quickly sort through all the clutter and say 1,2,3 here’s what we need to do… that’s an extremely rare skillset to have and I think that makes us stand out.
And I’m just really freaking proud of our Client Delight. I tried to design a client experience that would really excite me personally, (and as previously noted I have high expectations, ha) so I’m pretty proud of what we’ve delivered in that world! small business success
M: What led to launching the Small Business MBA in addition to the Advisory Practice? Was this always a goal of yours? small business success
J: It was definitely not a goal, this is an example of one of those elements inside the business that has changed. As a matter of fact, I’ll out myself and say – I hated online programs. I thought they were all icky and gross and lacking integrity, and I swore we would never do that.
What changed for me was I bought someone else’s course, and I still love it, use it, and to this day I am very engaged in that program and teacher and community.
Enrolling in that course, which was Money Mindset Bootcamp, became a role model for me of – “Oh my gosh! You can totally do this being true to yourself, giving out super valuable content, and doing it with integrity. This is what it looks like done really well. We could do this and it could be really helpful to more people.”
M: How would you define the clients Ellevated Outcomes works best with? From an Advisory Practice and Small Business MBA Standpoint?
J: Our advisory practice clients are creative small business owners who are really intent and focused on “I have a really good business and I want to grow this business. I want it to be bigger than me, and I want to make opportunities for other people.”
Our Small Business MBA students are more looking for lifestyle businesses, which is equally as great! Their motivation is more about “I want to have a great business, but the purpose isn’t just to grow a business. The purpose is to give me the life that I want. So I’m looking for my business to create resource for family time, for creative pursuits, heck maybe for some other side businesses too. That’s really their end game.
So it’s an overlap in surface level characteristics – but if you get to the heart of it, motivations are different. What they want from their businesses are different.
M: What have been the outcomes of working with those clients? small business success
J: Our outcomes are very real. Our average ROI is 300%. There’s pages and pages of outcomes for each business, but in short, we make people more money. We help them build structures that are scalable. We help them create businesses where they’re giving opportunities to other people.
From the Small Business MBA side, we help fulfill the other motivations I just described. We help people get some structure, specifically on how to price. We help them get clarity on what they’re saying yes to, and only saying yes to things worth their time and the money they want to come in, in a way that frees them up to do the other things.
One of our students just told us on the phone, “Hey that outcome I got that I wasn’t expecting, it helped me realize: there’s only a slim number of opportunities in my so-called main business that I feel like are worth my time and headspace anymore. So, I’m only going to say yes to a couple of things. My mojo is really in this other business, and that’s where I’m focusing all my time and energy right now.” And to me that’s an incredible outcome. small business success
M: Is there anything you’re possibly lying awake at night trying to figure out right now?
J: Possibly. 😉 Yeah, I mean, philosophically (there are practical things surely), the key things I’m trying to figure out right now are: How do I not have my thumb on everything? What’s the right balance of control and release? Or like, what is the optimal tipping point? small business success
M: Stay tuned, as next week we’ll be sharing where we’re going – what the future looks like for Ellevated Outcomes.
2/3 photos by Guillaume Lechat
