We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ebbi Nicole a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ebbi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.
The time was February 2021. We were just one month shy of the one year anniversary of Corona Virus in the States and it was also the one year anniversary of being laid off from my job. People were still very nervous to be around one another but the mask mandate was beginning to lift in different states. It was a weird time for everyone, but especially for those who decided to start a new business INSTEAD of look for another job, myself included. I had been in business for about a year and my savings was dwindling down at what seemed like an accelerated rate.
I was talking to a friend about a conference for Black women business owners in Atlanta, GA but I knew that I did not have the funds for a ticket AND airfare/ lodging. About a week later, that same friend surprised me with a ticket to the conference and I knew it was fate so I scraped up money for a flight and split a room with her. Right before I left my house to get in an Uber to the airport, all the lights in my apartment were turned off. I had paid for the flight instead of my electric bill. As ashamed as I was about the situation, my gut kept telling me that I NEEDED to be there.
The conference was an inspiring and empowering experience. It also set the stage for a memorable, life changing moment. During one of the development exercises, the host asked us to turn to the woman behind us and take turns pitching our business to one another. The goal was to critique each other’s pitches. I recited my 30 second pitch to the woman and I was NOT expecting her response. Instead of critiquing me, she confidently said, “I have been looking for a…YOU. SIGN ME UP!” Confused, I was responded, “GREAT! Now what did you think of the pitch?” She smiled and said, “I think it was so good that I want to be a client. What’s your process? How do I pay?” At that point I was flipping out on the inside because, 1. She had no clue what my rate was for the service and 2. I was really looking forward to feedback. I wasn’t prepared to sell. I was prepared to be a sponge and learn.
Determined not screw up the opportunity to secure the woman as a client, we conducted her capability session, set up her invoice and locked in a date for her session all before the conference ended the next day. She ended up being my first 4 figure client as well as my first paying repeat client. I earned enough money that weekend to pay my electric bill AND my rent. As a result from our Video Intensive session in the weeks following the conference, she more than 90x her investment with me. It turns out, I wasn’t the only one who needed to be in the room that weekend.
That experience taught me three important lessons that have proven to be valuable to this day.
1. Never be afraid to pitch your product or service because you never know who is listening to you.
2. Stay out of people’s pockets! Before this woman, I had never said my rate out loud to perspective client. Truth is, I wouldn’t have been able to afford my own services in that moment so I was convinced that she couldn’t afford me either. I was wrong. Moral of that story, SAY THE NUMBER and leave it there.
3. Never underestimate your journey. I almost talked myself out of my first high ticket client because “I wasn’t prepared” to sell the service. Thankfully, I realized just in time that I had been doing the work and preparing for THAT moment for almost a year. Thanks to that perspective shift, I pivoted from shaky to sure really quickly.
Give yourself credit for pushing, pivoting and betting on yourself. You deserve it!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hey FRAM (friends and family),
My name is Ebbi Nicole and I am a Video & Storytelling Strategist. I specialize in training marketing teams and professionals how to leverage social storytelling to increase brand engagement and conversion online using video marketing.
I can honestly say that the video and storytelling industries found me, not the the other way around. I have always been a naturally inquisitive person. Since I was a kid, I can remember always asking WHY and HOW. As annoying as I am sure that was for my family…and the kids at school, my curiosity evolved and I took an interest in the story behind the answers.
I went to college to become a journalist and there I feel in love with storytelling and empowering others to tell their stories in brave and creative ways. It started with events then it evolved to include video interviews. I noticed the true impact that community and human connection can have on a person’s life. When the Pandemic happened, I saw businesses lose touch with their brick and mortar communities and many of them shut down because they did not have a digital pivot plan. I combined my observations from college and my experiences as a business owner to create my signature Video VIP Day service that works with companies to build out their customized video marketing plan. During the VIP Day, we identify the brand voice/stories/goals and explore creative and fun ways to create easily digestible videos to attract more of their audiences.
I generally work with the marketing teams because they are the executers. Our time together is specific to creating a repeatable strategy to generate content ideas, a system to turn those ideas into short form video content and teaching the team how to edit videos on the go to maximize time and minimize tech confusion.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn that I needed to pay professionals to teach me what already came natural to me.
When I first started E.T. Digital Consulting, I was naïve to building websites, sales funnels, selecting payment platforms, book keeping etc. There were so many moving pieces but instead of me investing in resources to understand the things that were new for me, I became obsessed with “creating services the way the other coaches did” because I saw them making money.
As a result, I wasted a lot of money and time at the beginning of my business journey. Last March, I said to hell with all the “OTHER WAYS” and decided to take a break from social media. I needed to clear my head and realign with my purpose.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I am always very ME! There are thousands of video coaches. There are probably 100.000 people who identify as storytellers but I am confident that my reputation was built on my authenticity, honesty and my approach to video. I don’t limit myself to the technical component of content creation. Anyone can instruct you to download an app and show you where to click but drawing out stories and the confidence to tell those stories on video is a different skillset.
When I work with small businesses their marketing team is generally 1-2 people. Of those two people, one of them has usually been there since the company’s inception, however when I ask them to name a time when they were proud of something they accomplished, they clam up on me and can’t recall a time. That’s because we often move so quickly that we rarely pause to acknowledge the glory and growth in our stories. All of those individual personal experiences weave the tapestry for the brand. I don’t see alot of Video Strategists taking that approach to help clients humanize their brand. I think that’s a game changer for the people that I train.
Contact Info:
- Website: ebbitalksdigital.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ebbitalksdigital/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ebbitalksdigital/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebbinicole/
Image Credits
OVRDU Visuals (photos in the purple) Aziza Binti Photography (photo in lime green)