We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ellie Diaz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ellie, appreciate you joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today
When I started my business, I took a lot of advice and direction from outside sources and industry “gurus”. This lead me down a path that was, at it’s core, inauthentic. I was so focused on doing everything the “right way” or the “best way”, that I completely lost sight of why I even wanted to start my business in the first place. I spent nearly 6 months in my first iteration of my business without getting a single client, despite doing loads of cold outreach (something I truly disliked).
Running my business felt like a chore, and I wasn’t happy. I finally decided to essentially throw away everything I had created and go back to the drawing board. Thus, Digitally Ellie was born. I chose to use my name as part of the business name, because I wanted to remind myself of my core values, and that I didn’t need to be like everyone else, I just needed to be me.
As soon as I restarted my business from the ground up with authenticity at the core of my vision, everything changed. I stopped the cold outreach that was getting me nowhere and I started networking with other entrepreneurs in my area. I showed up as myself, perfectly imperfect but fueled by my passion for helping people. Having suffered for years with social anxiety, it was truly a challenge to put myself out there, but man am I glad I did! Within a few months, I had already signed multiple clients, but more importantly, I had made incredible connections with real human beings who appreciated and valued me for who I am as a person.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Ellie and I live in Oklahoma with my husband, our 4 year old daughter, and two dogs. We also have another little one on the way, due in December 2023.
Back in 2017 I started working for my family’s language arts curriculum company in their customer service department. After working in that position for a while, I was offered a position in the marketing department as a kind of assistant. The people in leadership knew I had knowledge about social media and were looking for someone to take over the management of the company’s social media accounts. After working as an assistant for a while, I was promoted to Social Media Coordinator and Affiliate Program Manager.
While I learned a lot during my time at that company, I felt my growth was stifled because I was unable to exercise creative freedom. Many of my ideas, especially surrounding video content for the social channels were either shot down or not prioritized. As a result, the company’s accounts weren’t growing. I knew what needed to be done to grow their platforms and I wanted to do it, but I wasn’t able to. After years of frustration in this position, I finally decided to take the leap and quit my job. It took a lot of trial and error to get my business off the ground, but once I did it took off!
My business, Digitally Ellie, offers a wide array of digital marketing services but specializes in social media marketing. I am super passionate about helping businesses and entrepreneurs show up on social media and connect with their audience authentically.
The thing about social media that I love is that it is the ultimate tool for connection with others, which is vital for the success of any business. Too often, business owners get so caught up in their products or services that they forget how important it is to stop selling and just truly connect. As the motto of my favorite networking group says, “People buy from people they know, like, and trust.” People don’t just want to know about what you sell, they want to know about who you ARE. How incredible is it that in a matter of moments we can connect with like-minded people across the world with just the phone you hold in your hand? It blows my mind and excites me every time I think about it and I LOVE helping people harness that power in a way that represents them and their business authentically.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
For me, I have found the most success through networking. When I first started my business, I was following the methods from well known “guru” in my industry, which was mostly just a lot of cold outreach (cold calls, cold emails, cold DMs, etc). Not only did I hate doing outreach like this, it also felt extremely inauthentic to me, and thus I was completely unmotivated to do it. My energy wasn’t in the right place and it showed through the lack of results I was seeing. After months of outreach without landing a single client, I attended my first local networking group, and everything changed. Not only was it extremely inspiring to be surrounded by other entrepreneurs, It gave me a chance to get to know people and for those people to get to know me. Real, genuine human connection. After being part of the group for a few months, people who were looking for the services I offer started reaching out, and people who had gotten to know me started recommending me to people, and well, the rest is history!
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Oh goodness, there are SO many amazing books I could recommend, but I’d have to say my top two would be, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza, and Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. These books aren’t specific to owning a business per se, but as an entrepreneur, you ARE your business, and these books have impacted me deeply on an individual level, which in turn has impacted my business.
Contact Info:
- Website: digitallyellie.com