Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elliott Hinkle. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Elliott thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Unicorn Solutions came about from my own personal identity in combination with a desire to do work on my own terms and in my own ways. I’m a transgender person who is also nonbinary, and for me that means I don’t identify as a man or a woman, somewhere in between or beyond. And early on I joked that I identified as a unicorn. This stuck quickly and I documented my transition on social media as Elliott The Unicorn. At some point, while doing federal consulting in Child Welfare, I hit a wall where I was feeling the tension of federal government consulting work and the constraints that can sometimes be under. I wanted a way to do the work outside of that but also a way to have meaningful impact on the experiences of youth and young adults who grow up in foster care, like myself. I didn’t just want to talk about the work or create things that didn’t feel useful or helpful – I wanted to help create solutions. Having already sharpened a personal brand around “Unicorn,” it just made sense that my own consulting business would include the work Unicorn and solutions made all the more sense for being focused on helping, getting the work done, and ideally solving problems. There was a whimsical but professional balance in the name and even the geometric logo. This brand took off quickly, a helpful validation that the brand, name, and the vision was right. Folks started short hand calling it Unicorn, and were eager to work with Unicorn Solutions. Some would say “I don’t know what you do but you have my attention.” In all honesty, I didn’t know if it would work. I was living under the idea that to be a successful consultant in my respective areas of expertise I would need to wait many, many years, hold multiple degrees, and would need to either work for a big firm or create my own firm and scale it up. The reality is that I don’t want a giant scaled up firm, and I don’t really desire to be part of a other firms – I do love collaborating, having freedom to do decide where I put my energy, and holding my work with integrity. By being a relational person, and bringing that to my work, my business has thrived via prior clients and those who are new who likely found me via other clients or social media posts about the work I’ve done. Not a complicated, long, marketing plan – simply sharing updates and celebrating work, and continuing on to the next. I’m 3.5 years in and can’t imagine turning back or having never made this leap. So, so, worth it.
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.
Elliott Orrin Hinkle (they/them) is a skilled consultant, facilitator, trainer, speaker, advisor, and national expert focused on elevating lived experience and expertise in systems that serve children, youth, and families. As Principal and Founder of Unicorn Solutions LLC, they are an advocate and professional that brings 13+ years’ experience on topics such as child welfare, youth mental health, and the LGBTQIA2S+ community through training, advising, and facilitating culture change efforts. They are a graduate of Portland State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Queer studies. While completing their degree they worked at the Portland State University, School of Social Work, Regional Research Institute (RRI) as a coach on the My Life and Better Futures Projects. At PSU they also held the role of the Youth/Young Adult Coordinator on the Oregon Healthy Transitions grant funded via the Oregon Health Authority and SAMHSA. Since August of 2019 they have been certified as a Traditional Health Worker, Youth Peer Support Specialist in the state of Oregon through the Oregon Health Authority. They have served as Vice Chair and Commissioner to the Oregon Governor’s Child Foster Care Advisory Commission. They are currently in their third year serving as a Lived Experience Expert Partner for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – Equity Technical Assistance Center (ETAC).
Elliott has lived experience in the Wyoming Foster Care System as a young person but spent the past 10 years making a home in Oregon after undergrad. In summer of 2024 they moved back to their hometown in Wyoming to continue supporting the local LGBTQ+ community and improve experiences of youth and families. They have assisted and participated in child welfare and youth mental health research, they actively work to reduce barriers to access to care for LGBTQIA2S+ youth and families and are trained in evidence-based peer coaching. Additionally, their skills include consultation and reviewing state’s Independent Living programs and National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) survey work as well as providing support in program and policy development. Since 2014, Elliott has been a trainer and advisor of the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s Youth Thrive initiative and is a certified trainer for Youth Thrive for Youth. Elliott was also a member of the LGBTQ Xchange for Change team and served as the Executive Editor and Co-host of the Xchanges podcast. In 2022 Elliott was recognized as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Healthy Equity winner via Youth Move National.
As a volunteer, Elliott serves as Vice Chair of the Casper Pride Board of Directors and as a member of the HOPE National Advisory Board and Family and Community Experts Council for HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences). On the Oregon Pride in Business Board they serve as ORPIB NGLCC and Supplier Diversity Chair. They also serve on NGLCC’s TGX Initiative committee. They joined the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s Board in March of 2024. Previously they served as Board Secretary of Portland’s Bridging Voices LGBTQ+ youth chorus.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
My clients! Working with clients where there is values and integrity alignment, who desire to create meaningful change, and who seek to support my work just as much as I support them. What I mean by this is doing great work and leaving clients happy with what you did for or with them, has only turned in to more clients and opportunities for me. I’m not perfect and not everything turns out exactly how you might want it, but time and time again, having relationship with my clients and supporting the work they need done with care and intention has brought me continued success and connection to others who seek out my work. I don’t market much beyond posting updates on social media (instagram and LinkedIn mostly) and that and happy clients has been more than enough to keep me busy and with a flow of clients I’m so proud to support and work with.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I believed for some time that I couldn’t successfully go out on my own, to work for myself, and run a business. I had to unlearn a myth I picked up at larger firms. I thought I wouldn’t be able to manage a business on my own, that I didn’t have a enough skills to offer helpful quality results to clients, and that I wouldn’t be able to keep the momentum going. That has been proven to be a myth so many times. Understandably, folks don’t always want you to leave your role or go out on your own and find what you are capable. It may not be malicious but it isn’t of course with your best interest in mind. Letting go of the idea that I couldn’t do this, was incredibly important for me leveling up and finding out what I really can do and also my more real limitations which I’m so much happier now to know that and know what to say no to. Sometimes, the things standing in our way aren’t actions or words, but the beliefs we may falsely hold in our minds.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.unicornsolutions.org
- Instagram: @unicornsolutionsllc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliott-hinkle
Image Credits
(headshot) Paige Anderson