We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chloe Elise a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Chloe thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Is there a lesson you learned in school that’s stuck with you and has meaningfully impacted your journey?
I remember moving into my college dorm my freshman year of school and my mom dragging me to the financial aid office. Having a conversation about money for college was the last thing I wanted to do. It sounded embarrassing and boring, so I convinced my mom to go in without me. They needed me to sign off on everything, so I ran into the office, didn’t even look at all the paperwork or how much money I was taking out for loans, and signed my name on the dotted line. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Fast forward a couple of years, I was trying to get my finances in order, and I decided to finally figure out how much debt I actually had. I had just taken out a car loan for $10,000 and I thought, there is NO WAY my school debt will be close to that. But oh, how wrong I was. I had to call my mom to get my login information to check my loan status. I was working in the mail room on campus and decided to log in and see the damage. I was in shock. I had just over $26,000 in loans. Bringing my total debt to over $36,000. I opened my phone notepad and typed in $36,000 divided by $7.25 (how much I was making per hour at the mailroom). It was 4,965 hours that I had to work at minimum wage to pay that off if every cent went toward debt. Upon this discovery I ran to the bathroom and cue the waterworks. I was hit with a wave of dread, shame, and sadness. I had to be fine. I believed at that time, money wasn’t something you talked about, remember? So, all of that shame, and fear, hopelessness, sadness, and embarrassment that I felt looking at those numbers sat in silence. The shame, the fear, and the hopelessness: they sat alone. And they convinced me that I was the exception. I was the one that getting ahead with money would never work for. I was the broke girl. That was my identity. It was what I believed. It was who I was.
That $36,000 of debt to me (again, making minimum wage) felt like an impossible feat. I felt stupid for even thinking I could try to pay it off. That number could have been $10,000 or $80,000 and it still would have destroyed me. It
wasn’t the number; it was what the number represented: Getting ahead with money wasn’t for me. I was the broke girl. That is when a switch flipped in me. I started to learn more and more about money. I rented books, took online courses, and started learning all I could about the financial industry in order to take control of my money and pay off my debt. However, I noticed that most of the information and materials on money were not made for women in their 20s and 30s. They were talking about things that weren’t even close to relevant to where I was at, like life insurance, mortgages, and long term care insurance. Additionally, they didn’t get into the deeper part of money. What about all the shame, stress, and guilt around money? It felt like everything I was learning was just reinforcing those negative feelings around money. You should be ashamed of debt, you should feel guilt for spending. Well that was a no from me. I wanted to not only improve my finances but also improve my relationship with money and then help other women do the same. This is where the idea of Deeper Than Money was born. I wanted to create a community where people in their 20s and 30s could not only pay off their debt, learn to invest, and save money, but also work towards healing their relationship around finances, enjoy spending money and see it as a tool for reaching their goals, not something that controls them. All because a life lesson of signing up for loans without any idea of how much it would cost me or how they worked, not only allowed me to eventually pay off my debt and allow me to grow my wealth, but now I get to help others do the same.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Chloe Elise and I am the founder and CEO of Deeper Than Money, a global financial literacy company aimed at helping people in their 20s and 30s take control of their finances and heal their relationship with money. It is our mission to make money fun as hell and to teach others how to use it as a resource to help them achieve their amazing dreams in a way that makes the most sense to them. We want to make personal finance personal. We don’t believe in a one size fits all approach, we work with clients from all over the world to help them to come up with the best solutions and strategies to reach their goals.
I started Deeper Than Money (DTM) after healing my own relationship with money and paying off over $36,000 in debt while also still living my life and doing the things I love. Soon I started gaining clientele and worked on Deeper Than Money as my side hustle alongside my full time corporate job. I was able to continue to grow DTM and take this business full time three years ago. Since then, we have helped thousands of people with their finances. From personalized coaching, masterclasses, online courses, freebies and more we dive into not only the logistical parts of money, but also the emotional elements and help our clients reframe their relationship with their finances, creating lasting results. I am most proud of creating a space where money is discussed openly and where I clients feel empowered and educated on all things money from debt, investing, making big purchases, and more. We have created a space where guilt and shame around money isn’t welcome and that your past with finances doesn’t define you. Deeper Than Money is changing how money is viewed and talked about and I could not be more proud of not only the major money moves that my clients continue to make, but also the amazing shifts and growth that they have shown with their relationship to money and themselves.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Word of mouth and social media have honestly been the best source for new clients. Our audience is primarily on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. We have found it extremely beneficial to share content, create freebies, and engage with our audience on these platforms. We look to see where our audience spends their time and the sources they use to gain information which have and continue to be social platforms. In order to continue to see our audience scale and grow, we do our best to stay up on the latest trends and algorithm changes while also providing authentic and relevant content that our audience enjoys engaging with. We stay on top of relevant topics and provide information on financial decisions and changes such as student loan forgiveness, the volatility of the market, as well as incorporate content centered around letting go of guilt and shame around finances and spending your money the way you want to. We also make sure to continue to develop free products that are a nice way of introducing Deeper Than Money to prospective clients in a way that is easy and low effort on their part. We are often promoting these freebies via social media. This has helped us convert our audience on social media from viewers of our content, to participants in our products. Showing up consistently and authentically has been the best method for us in order to continue to support our current clientele and garner new clients.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Initially, I think that my own story of overcoming debt in such a short amount of time and my personal story of growing my wealth and starting my own business showed the effectiveness of the methods that I used and that Deeper Than Money teaches. As we have continued to grow, the results of our clientele have also shown the impact that our programs and services can have on the lives of others, no matter their financial background or circumstances. We’ve worked hard to create a space that not only is welcoming and inclusive but geared towards people in their early adulthood—a group that we feel has been overlooked when it comes to financial literacy but also a group that is in such an important time in their lives to start making impactful financial decisions for their current situation and their future.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.deeperthanmoney.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deeper.than.money/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Deeper.Than.Money
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deeper-than-money/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChloeEliseDTM?s=20&t=nan1ffnoTXEzh7FXJ0fkqg
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyLUTxiBY-8sI_4-jL44lQg
Image Credits
Jo&Co Photography