200th Episode Celebration, Part One – Ellen Yin Provides FREE Coaching for Women Entrepreneurs, Answering Questions from Our Very Own Listeners
For our 200th episode celebration, our founder Ellen Yin provides free coaching for women entrepreneurs!
Ellen answers 10 questions from our very own listeners, ranging from how to build your audience to the WORST business advice she’s ever received!
In the case study below, we’ll share Ellen’s answers to three juicy questions from this episode! Click the link below and check out the podcast episode for more free coaching advice! (Then listen to Part 2 for ANOTHER 10 questions!)
Q: “If you were just starting your visibility journey today, what would your top three goals be, and how would you get started?” – Isabelle Sarley, Email copywriter and strategist, @sarleycopy
A: “My go-to approach would be to utilize this concept of borrowed traffic.”
Instead of relying only on selling to your own existing audience, this strategy leverages the existing audiences of people who are already speaking to your ideal clients.
With this free coaching tip from Ellen, she adds three simple suggestions to help you leverage borrowed traffic…
1. “I would participate in a bundle or a summit.”
For those who aren’t familiar, a bundle is a collaboration of 10 to 30+ experts, where each contributes a digital product (one they’d typically sell individually on their own site) for a few days or a week for a low price, typically 90% plus a discount, to their collective audiences.
In other words…
“They’re bundling together all of their products,” Ellen explains.
“In a bundle, you’re really benefiting from the cross-promotion,” says Ellen. “It accelerates you building a list of buyers, people who have already made some sort of transaction, so that trust is already starting at a higher level.”
With a virtual summit, the same concept applies, since you’re able to speak in front of existing audiences.
2. “I would really focus on landing my first five podcast guest interviews.”
If this free coaching tip piques your interest, check out our Perfect Podcast Pitch Template!
“It’s our plug-and-play, line-by-line, word-for-word template,” says Ellen, “what to say, who to pitch, and how to pitch to get yourself on other people’s podcasts.”
Again, this is a great way to get yourself in front of other people’s audiences—and for a good chunk of time too!
3. “Offering to speak in other people’s Facebook groups, masterminds, or coaching programs.”
When you’re working with a small (or nonexistent) audience, it can be challenging to find a bundle offer or podcast that would welcome your product or expertise (but not impossible, says Ellen). If that’s true for you, try this third tip!
“Offering to speak in other people’s Facebook groups, masterminds, or coaching programs can be a really great way to get in front of new audiences,” says Ellen.
Think about how you can show up and offer free value (and get practice speaking in front of other people).
“Work with whoever owns that group and really understand the missing gaps their people want to know,” says Ellen. “How can you fill in that gap and be complementary to what the host is already providing?”
Q: “As someone who has had several businesses and business ventures that have not worked out, how do you start from scratch, including branding, business name, social media, all of the above?” – Victoria Davis, @daviscreativeco
A: “What is really going to get your momentum off the ground is to get really clear on one simple question: What problem or desire do you solve, and for who?”
There are so many options already out there. There are so many “shoulds” and so many “to-do’s.” It’s easy to feel like we need this polished branding and archive of content on social media before we can acquire that very first customer or make that very first sale.
But Ellen suggests starting elsewhere…
“I think branding, your business name, and social media are really important… but they’re long-term success strategies,” she shares.
“When you’re right at the beginning, putting all of your focus and energy into those types of things can actually be a HUGE distraction.”
Instead, Ellen encourages budding business owners to focus on a question: What problem or desire do you solve, and for who?
Your first goal shouldn’t be a pretty logo or a specific number of Instagram reels. It should be clarity around what your business does and for whom.
Free Coaching Tip #2: Don’t think about the “container.” Think about the problem and your solution.
“Once you have clarity, the container through which you deliver that solution is going to refine itself naturally as you experiment and iterate on what works and what doesn’t.”
Q: “Do you ever get feelings of impostor syndrome or inadequacy, maybe surrounding your pricing or your offers, and what do you do to overcome those?” – Julia Kenyon, Graphic designer, @juliakenyon
A: “The straightforward answer is, ‘Yes.’”
“I definitely get feelings of imposter syndrome or inadequacy from time to time,” Ellen says.
In fact, says Ellen, WE ALL DO.
“I think it’s part of the human experience to feel fear, especially when we come across new challenges.”
However, Ellen has learned something about those feelings of fear and doubt that creep up…
“Everything new is always going to feel difficult, but it’s not because we are not capable of doing the thing,” she shares. “It is just because it is new.”
LISTEN TO THAT MESSAGE, LADIES.
Feelings of inadequacy, fear, uncertainty, and so on DO NOT reflect your ability, your potential, or your worth as an entrepreneur.
PREACH, Ellen!!!
Julia mentioned pricing in her question, and that too is a struggle MANY entrepreneurs face…
“Again, that’s just something new, so it’s going to feel scary!” Ellen says. “Always remind yourself: I’m feeling this not because the value of my work does not deserve that level of compensation, but simply because no one has ever paid that to me before.”
All this said, Ellen has a stronger point to make about Julia’s question, one that some of you readers might even disagree with…
“This may be an unpopular opinion,” she says, “but I think we waste too much of our lives trying to overcome this concept of imposter syndrome…
“I like to view impostor syndrome as an advantage.”
Ellen feels SO strongly about this specific free coaching tip that she actually recorded an entire podcast episode on it. (Click here to listen!)
“If you let go of the fear of hearing ‘NO’ and really lean into ‘what if I just put this out there and see what happens,’ you may be surprised by the magic coming your way.”
Like what you hear? We’ve barely scratched the surface…
What we DIDN’T cover in this blog post includes…
- How to juggle the transition between providing a service and offering online education
- Tips on initiating conversations for anti-socialites
- The WORST piece of free coaching advice Ellen has ever received for her business
Ellen has been interviewing rockstar female entrepreneurs for FOUR YEARS and has learned a lot along the way. For more tips from Ellen and her network, scroll to the top or bottom of this post and listen to the full episode today!
Thank you to our sponsors:
- Successful Ads Club brings their A-Team to power your business’s growth! Try your first month today for just $37 at www.ellenyin.com/sac
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