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

Ellyse, 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?

What I hope to leave behind is a beautiful person inside and out. I would like people to remember my kindness. How giving and selfless I was. I hope I leave people feeling inspired, empowered, and courageous. I hope my presence felt like the sun was shining on them. I want people to never stop creating “Happy” for themselves.

I want people to catch my infectious positive vibes and pay it forward. I want people to dance, to be silly, to enjoy life and to give back to the community and volunteer a ton. I want people to be themselves unapologetically, without restraint, and never stop working towards their goals.

I want you to ask yourself: “What really makes me happy?”

Ellyse, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a mom, Life Coach, Motivational Speaker, Account Executive, and a Relationship Manager. I work with enduring women, who are learning to put themselves first. As a Life Coach I help you with current challenges and behaviors as it relates to your career and your personal life. I will help you change those behaviors and help you get unstuck to achieve your goals.

I help women build confidence, gain courage, set boundaries and create “Happy” for themselves. I work with women who look like me and who share similar stories. Women who may have grown up in underserved, impoverished neighborhoods. Women who want and deserve more, but don’t know where to begin. Women who may have grown up in lack. I empower women. I inspire women. I uplift women.

My number one goal growing up was to survive, it was fight or flight. I needed to be successful, to have a different outcome than my adult family members. I wanted to learn to love myself and put myself first. Though I’ve experienced many challenges in my life, I was able to overcome them by creating a plan and working to see it through. I was able to create the life I’ve always wanted and was able to give my children the life I never had. I believed in myself. My upbringing and love for helping others is why I became a Life Coach.

I currently offer one on one Life Coaching sessions and I also do live presentations. I can be booked as a Keynote Speaker, Social Media Feature, Podcast Feature, Talk Show Feature, Panelist, Conference speaker, and to work with your team at your company or to help your community members at your non-profit. Some of the topics I cover are creating boundaries, prioritizing mental health, being your authentic self, women empowerment, getting and staying organized.

My proudest moment as a Life Coach is when my clients tell me I’ve changed their life for the better and that I’ve helped them reach their goals.

Have you ever had to pivot?

To be honest, when I first started Life Coaching, I didn’t know where to begin. I didn’t know how to market myself, how to get clients or who my target audience was. I knew I was passionate about helping women. I knew I had information, experience, and advice that I needed to share to benefit other women and I just had to get it out. I didn’t have a lot of money, in fact I was going through a divorce and had to start from scratch. I had to learn the business. I started with the basics first. My business name and went from there. I wore all the hats in my business and still do. At times I was frustrated from spending so much money, making so many errors, putting out so much energy, time, and material, but getting very little in return. I took a lot of breaks to regroup. I changed my plan and direction many times. I changed my logo twice, my website twice, business cards twice. I had to close my business bank account because I had no money coming in and more money going out. I went to lots of networking and continuing education events. I bought lots of books, I paid for consultations with other entrepreneurs to learn more about the business. At first, I would just post motivation post and quotes on Instagram and Facebook. Then I moved to doing live videos and invited guest speakers. I eventually built my own website, registered my business with the state, created a new logo, applied for a trademark for my business name and paid for an appointment managing application. Over time people started to notice my work and felt what I was sharing was valuable and hired me to do speaking engagements. In just two years I have spoken at three conferences, was a guest on a radio show, was invited to do two podcast interviews, a couple Instagram live interviews, and now a magazine interview and I did them all for free. The first few years of any business is hard. However, I have learned that providing my services for free and sharing my story helps me gain even more experience, help those who need it, and it also allows me to gain exposure for my business. I am proud to say that I have had several paying one on one clients and that was not easy to achieve. Many people didn’t understand what a Life Coach was.

There were times I thought of giving up and stopping altogether. It’s a lot to manage, and it gets overwhelming as I’m still working a fulltime job and have twin daughters that are graduating high school and preparing for college. Financially it has been hard, but I never allowed myself to give up. I just took breaks. If I stopped, how would I achieve my goal? How will I get the word out to women who need to hear it? How would I ever become successful? Good things take time. Businesses take time. Success takes time. I must gain the trust of my community by being consistent and I owe it to myself to see this through. I Love what I do.

Being an entrepreneur is hard. Working for someone else is hard. Being successful is hard. Being unsuccessful is hard. Being rich is hard. Being poor is hard. Failure is hard. You must choose your hard.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Being authentic, being consistent. Sharing valuable quality information. I have found that people want to work with those they can relate to. You have to offer them something of value something that they feel they can’t get anywhere else. I like to engage with the community, ask questions, share my hobbies, activities, and testimonies. I get offline and go out to events. And remember don’t forget to tell people what you do! Be sure to network and support others and don’t be afraid to try something different.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.weneedtotalkcoach.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weneedtotalkcoach/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellyse-grant-708b48237/

Image Credits
BeauMonde Originals