Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elaine Williams. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Elaine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

One of my mantras is that I use my story for good and that I show others how to do the same. I pray that God comes through me and says what needs to be said. Growing up in a highly dysfunctional family with trauma and addictions; and then getting sober and doing more healing work on myself; I hope that my life has shown that healing from anything is possible and that you don’t have to let your past lessons define you.
My mission is to help heal the world, one story, one video, one joke at a time. I help the helpers get their work out.
I hope that my life has inspired many others to do their healing work so that they, in turn, can help many others heal.
Let it be said that I brought love and laughter everywhere I went and that I greatly expanded my capacity to love and to be loved.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started performing professionally at an early age and fell in love with the theatre and entertaining others. Entertaining others and being on stage was a safe and happy place for me. After a degree in drama from UT in Austin, performing and traveling, I moved to NYC, got sober at the same time and studied with a master acting teacher at the world renown Neighborhood Playhouse. Casting directors and agents kept telling me I was funny, so I fell into stand up comedy and also became a life coach and started speaking all over the US at colleges and military basses.
I use humor with everything I do and I show my clients how to engage and connect with their audiences quickly and authentically.
When a client first starts speaking live or on podcasts or starts making videos, they feel very self conscious and tend to be highly self critical. I teach what I learned with my theatrical training which is how to take the attention off of yourself, come from your intention and focus on the audience. This frees people up, they have more fun and genuine connection and from there, you can take the audience anywhere you want to go with them. Anyone can learn to be a better speaker and communicator if they’re willing to be uncomfortable, stretch and practice!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

It’s one day at a time and progress not perfection. Instead of thinking that you’re speaking to the whole world wide web, which is daunting, pick your favorite client or prospect, lean into the camera like you’re having coffee with a friend. Pick one problem that you solve, talk to one person and share one solution.
Make a list of things that you say to your clients and colleagues often and that can be a starting point for your content.
You’re swimming in your own genius, you just have to train yourself to capture it and organize it.
Share stories, Educate your people about who you are, who you help and what makes you uniquely qualified to do it.
Give value. Every thing you post should be entertaining, educational, inspiring or a combination of all three.
Don’t over think.
Batch your videos, which means you can make several videos in one stretch of time. Just change your top to show your audience that it’s a different topic.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I wanted to have my own comedy club and make it just for women because I was tired of the boys club in NYC, so I got into flipping houses in 2007. In 2008, I had 4 houses and I was rehabbing 3 of them, hoping to flip 2 and keep the other two for rental income. I was over extended with my heloc and life savings into the rehabbing. When the world economy tanked, I was devastated and tried to. hold onto everything while working 60 hour weeks.
Eventually I let 3 of the other houses go, at great losses and finally declared bankruptcy, which was a great relief.
It was really hard emotionally to admit failure, but I kept going, crying in yoga class and then getting back up to go to work.
Writing comedy and performing was a great release too.
The biggest challenge for me was letting go and not internalizing all of it. Learning that my plan had failed but that I was not a failure. And I got a lot of good comedy material from it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.CaptivatetheCrowd.com
• Instagram: @elainewilliamsfun
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElaineWilliamsCaptivate/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/captivatethecrowd/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdaDOA8vF64MYJovKthm0sw
• Other: https://captivatethemic.buzzsprout.com/

Image Credits

Sherry Sutton, CJ Rosenbower