We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elyse Preston a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Elyse , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
Community plays a key role in promoting success. It offers a solid support system that creates space to share ideas, get feedback, and learn from others. This exchange of knowledge deepens understanding, and improves skills which are crucial for growth.
Throughout the course of growing my business, I’ve had the gift of being a member of a number of supportive communities from my yoga teacher training cohort, to grad school cohort, to creative coaching community. And experiencing transformation within these communities has inspired me to want to create community with others.
Being part of a community provides sense of belonging. This feeling encourages persistence even when faced with challenges. Sharing successes and failures with like-minded people can help maintain momentum during difficulties.
Communities encourage collaboration. They provide a platform for working together, which can amplify the effect of individual efforts. This can lead to innovative solutions.
In addition, communities open networking opportunities. They allow for new collaborations and partnerships. Networking can lead to opportunities that might not have been accessible otherwise.
Many of my most aligned clients and collaborations have come from referrals and recommendations from members of my community.
Elyse , 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?
Elyse is a coach and mentor whose work focuses on centering connection as an essential ingredient for healing and social transformation. In our current culture, we are experiencing a crisis of disconnection, in which loneliness, burnout, anxiety and depression are on the rise.
Her mission is to support leaders, changemakers and visionary entrepreneurs to experience deep healing and support, so that they can learn to love and transform themselves — and be active participants in loving and transforming the world.
The only way that we can begin to heal society is if we do the important work of healing ourselves. Elyse started her career as a youth development professional and experienced burnout and chronic stress in the direct service field. As a result, she set out on a journey to learn how to better care for myself and her community.
She believes that when we intentionally invest in creating healthy relationships with ourselves and others, we are shifting the energetic conditions in our communities and the wider world. She uses the modalities of yoga, mindfulness, human design and conscious business to support clients in seeking their purpose, creating community and living more connected lives. She’s so grateful for the opportunity to share the practices that she loves and is inspired by any occasion to deeply connect with others.
Her Journey
Elyse has over 8 years of experience working in social impact organizations throughout the Greater Baltimore and Washington, DC Region.
Elyse received her Jivan Yoga Teacher Certification through Baltimore Yoga Village. Her first introduction to yoga was in elementary school and she’s been expanding my personal practice ever since.
She’s a graduate of Johns Hopkins University’s Bunting Neighborhood Leadership Program. A fellowship which provides emerging leaders with the training, mentorship and tools to promote community health and wellbeing.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degrees in Communications and Social Advocacy from American University and a Masters in Professional Studies in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership from University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
In the process of building my social media presence and expanding my email list, I adopted a range of strategies. One of the most successful approaches was hosting online summits. This was an innovative platform where I could engage with my audience in a dynamic, interactive manner. In the years 2020 and 2021, I had the pleasure of collaborating with a diverse group of 21 other professionals, healers and creatives. This collaboration resulted in an interview series, a unique and enriching experience for all involved.
By hosting these online summits, The Be More Connected Summit and The Soulful Abundance Festival – I was able to cross-promote my work with that of other creators. This mutual promotion was a win-win situation, as it allowed each one of us to reach a wider audience than we could have independently. The impact of this strategy was significant; I saw my email list grow exponentially. I started with a humble list of 50 subscribers, but by the end of this initiative, I had managed to surpass 2,000 subscribers. This growth was a testament to the power of collaboration and the effectiveness of creative, well-executed marketing strategies. I also surveyed the people who participated in these summits and their responses helped me to clarify what topics the focus on for my social media content and future offerings.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
In the early stages of my entrepreneurial journey, I adopted a principle that shaped my business dealings – generosity. I believed in being generous with my audience and customers, creating a relationship built on trust and mutual respect. However, this trait of generosity was taken a bit too far, leading to a pattern of people-pleasing, overfunctioning, and undercharging for my services. This was a lesson learned the hard way, but it was a valuable one.
In retrospect, I now understand that while generosity is important, it should not be at the expense of my own well-being and the worth of my services. Addressing this issue meant that I had to unlearn people-pleasing and codependency, a challenging journey that called for a significant amount of self-awareness.
This journey also taught me the importance of setting boundaries and prioritizing self-care. These were not easy tasks, but they were necessary steps towards a healthier and more balanced entrepreneurial lifestyle.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elysepreston.com
- Instagram: @iamelysepreston
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elyse.preston/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elyse-preston-87252a68/
- Youtube: @elysepreston