Woa mama this is SUCH a great interview where my special guest Elaina Giolando shares how making millions can unfold naturally when you put the right things in place and avoid the common pitfalls so many fall into.
In this week's episode she shares:
💸Its so important to get good at converting new clients from the people who are ALREADY in front of you BEFORE going wide and spreading yourself too thin over multiple platforms.
👭How she scaled her team down from many people to just 2 key team members and significantly increased her profit margins.
🤓 How energetic abdicating is one of the biggest money leaks and how to take full responsibility for every part of your business.
📈 What has changed in the coaching industry in the past few years, how she has adapted her business model and what she wished she had focused more on when was as starting out.
👛 Her feminine-friendly approach to funnels that’s not complicated – and how to avoid the top mistakes people make that waste time and money when it comes to building consistent-cash-generating funnels.
🤑 She shares her theory of “First-time millionaire syndrome”… the mistakes she’s made, and what she has changed to cultivate more grounded and intentional money stewardship since becoming a millionaire.
Get ready to get schooled on some life-changing business advice to help you grow your cash-flow as a heart-cantered creative entrepreneur. Comment PODCAST and I'll send you the link 🔥
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When you book my Cosmic Sales Intensive, You’ll walk away with a full, clear, compelling, sales page for your high ticket offer that will attract ready to buy clients and that you can continue to make sales with for years to come.
Clients who have been through this offer have sold out a high ticket relationship coaching mastermind & had 20 applications within 48 hours of publishing.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
What's up, this is Sarah Mack, and welcome to
Creative Magic Club.
Together, we'll discoverinspirational stories of
creative entrepreneurs livingout their dreams, doing the work
they are most passionate about,and building wealth in magical
and fun ways, while building asix-figure income.
As a writer and coach, helpingother women to launch their
dream businesses, I've connectedwith so many incredible people
(00:34):
and seen it proven again andagain that you can thrive
financially doing whatever it isyou are passionate about.
I am here to sharelife-changing strategies for
mindset, making money andreaching more people with your
work in a business and lifefilled with creativity, freedom
and fun.
Hi, everyone, welcome.
(00:59):
I'm so excited to introduce myspecial guest today.
We have with us Elena Giolando,who is a business strategist for
entrepreneurs in the coachingand online personal branding
space.
She started her own company atXero and became a self-made
multimillionaire in just threeyears.
She's also the author ofBecoming Self-Made and the host
of the Intimately with Elena Rayand Kingdom Builders podcasts.
(01:21):
Elena specializes in milliondollar messaging, offer
development, high ticket sales,scaling strategy and mindset and
management skills foraccelerated business growth.
She teaches solid, proven sevenfigure strategies with no fluff
and has helped hundreds ofcoaches to grow six, seven and
eight figures over the last sixyears.
Hi Elena, thank you so much forjoining us.
(01:43):
Hey Sarah, thanks so much forjoining us.
Hey Sarah, thanks so much forhaving me.
So I'm really excited to talkto Elena.
I have been following her for awhile now and I read your book
and it was kind of a funnymoment for me because there were
so many really random thingsthat we had in common.
Like I feel like you wentthrough a bit of an eat, pray
(02:04):
love kind of thing with, likeBali and I don't.
Were you in Bali?
Well, yeah, you Bali and youwere.
You were in Rishikesh and I waslike, wait, this is so weird.
This is exactly how I startedmy coaching business.
I ended up in Bali for a jobwith a friend.
Then I like randomly ended upin Rishikesh and I was like when
I remember, when I was in Bali,I discovered Pray Love and I
(02:25):
watched the movie and I'm likewhat is this weird phenomenon
that people just get like suckedinto Asia to kind of like be
reborn and find their purpose?
But I loved reading your bookso much and so I'm super excited
to talk to you.
So why don't you tell us, foreveryone who doesn't know you?
How did you get to doing thiswork as a coach?
What's what's the what's thestory?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, so I have a corporate background, and I say
that because I think there arecertain people that come into
entrepreneurship from acorporate space and there's
certain people that come intoentrepreneurship and have, like,
never had a job ever and, ifyou know, they're kind of
different transitions.
But basically I was doinginternational traveling to all
(03:10):
different countries.
I've been to 75 countries.
I lived in Africa for a year,all over Europe, south America,
working for the companies that Iwas working for, and so my
coaching business actuallystarted as this byproduct of
living in Mongolia and living inNigeria and being in these
really off the beaten pathplaces, doing really cool work
(03:31):
with the job that I had andsharing about it on a blog that
I called Life Before 30 andinadvertently kind of became a
career coach.
I was getting published onBusiness Insider, on Fast
Company, and this was back inthe day when you couldn't pay
for that kind of publicity, youhad to actually contact the
editors and earn it, and sopeople discovered me from that
and I realized pretty quicklypeople were reaching out for
(03:52):
career advice and I was like,wait a second, I could monetize
this, and so I startedmonetizing it on the side of my
corporate job and then really,that gave me this taste of the
international jet setting life,the, not just in the hometown
working for a paycheck, and Irealized I could never go back
(04:13):
because I loved that lifestyleso much and that's what really
launched me into well, theintention and growing a business
is not to become a millionaireand not to have this following
and not to really do anythingexcept make enough money to buy
the next one way plane ticket.
And so I traveled the world onmy own, quit the jobs, and I
(04:35):
remember traveling through Baliin like 2016 and thinking to
myself man, if I could reallyfigure out how to make a living
from my laptop, like all thesepeople I see in the jungle, I
want to come and live herebecause that's so cool.
They get to live full time inAsia.
And, long story short, I woundup getting fired from my last
corporate job in New Zealand,from Uber, because I was just
(04:58):
done.
I sabotaged that.
I was like I don't want to workfor anyone else anymore and so,
by force, that part time thingI was doing, with some one off
sessions and just like whatwhoever came to me from the blog
had to become my full timething all of a sudden.
So that is a differenttransition into entrepreneurship
than some people who really,you know, set out to do that for
(05:22):
a long time, and that kind ofrude awakening forced me to
figure out things I had no ideaabout.
I didn't know how to marketmyself, I didn't know how to
sell, I didn't know what a nichewas or how to make a business
model around this stuff.
But one of the big parts of myjourney was actually going to a
place I was first in Berlin andthen in Bali where people were
living that lifestyle, and so Igot around them, started to
(05:44):
become friends with them, forgedrelationships and community
with people who had figured thatout.
And then, before you know it, Imet my first business coach,
because I was really at a pointwhere I was either going to need
to go home, because I'd beentrying for a year year and a
half at that point in Bali totrying to figure out how to do
this and, yeah, actually hiringa coach, investing all of my
(06:08):
remaining life savings notsomething I would recommend
everyone to do by any means Igot two more jobs to be able to
pay her and to pay for my lifeand have stability, which is
also something it's kind of acontroversial opinion that I
have that I recommend a lot thata lot of business coaches
wouldn't recommend is they dorecommend for people in the
early stages have a job.
Don't force your business toprovide when it's not ready to
(06:29):
provide, like when you don'tknow how to market and sell.
Have a steady paycheck andlearn to do this gradually on
the side.
And when you do that, you growresponsibly, and I think I
entered that stage of growingresponsibly studying marketing
and sales from someone whoreally got it.
I built a life coaching businessfirst and then later
transitioned into businesscoaching in 2020 because people
(06:50):
were really proactively askingme like, hey, I see you selling
life coaching packages and doingpretty well, that's something I
would like to do, can you teachme?
And so, by invitation really, Istepped into the marketing and
teaching what I had learned andreally quickly figured out that
I have a gift for that, that itcomes very naturally to me, and
(07:10):
people just started to really,really explode and I've been
doing that full-time since yeah,I mean full-time since 2019.
I quit my hustling jobs towardsthe end of 2019, so I've been a
full-time coach and neverexpected to literally make
millions of dollars and neverexpected to have the kind of
(07:31):
success that I've seen, and Ithink that's a testament really
to the systems and how well theywork and how well the messaging
work just works, that I didn'thave to push for it and like try
and strive and obsess about itto get to seven figures.
It just really unfoldsnaturally when you put the right
things in place.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I love that so much and I am curious because I know
you.
Obviously you've worked with somany people and you've helped
so many other coaches andpractitioners to grow their own
businesses.
What are some of the biggestmistakes that you see people
making that are getting in theway of them having the kind of
success that you've had?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh great, how much time do we have?
I'll try to do like three mainones, reel it in a little bit.
One that just came to mind ispeople get really stuck on their
niche and they really obsessabout it and they really kind of
approach it from the wrongangle and then get stuck there
(08:28):
where no niche is good enoughand nothing is fitting, and then
they never start making moneyand never get off the ground
because one you know, one daythey want to be a self-mastery
coach and the next day they wantto be a mindset coach and the
next day it's something else.
Truly, what I say is there isthere is a kind of a of a
spectrum here of expression andmarket utility, and the people
who make the biggest mistakeswith their niche.
(08:49):
They're trying to be in theself-expression bucket.
They're making their businessabout themselves, when our
businesses are about a servicethat we provide for others.
And it doesn't mean you don'tself-express in your business,
but probably not through yourniche.
It's going to come out in yourcontent.
It's going to come out in yourcontent.
It's going to come out in yourmessaging and your storytelling
and all these other parts ofyour business.
Don't get too caught up intrying to express all of the
many facets of yourself in yourniche or it's going to become
(09:11):
too convoluted and no one'sgoing to understand when they
should hire you.
I figured out very quickly lifecoach, career coach, business
coach just do something that'suseful in the market and then
put your own flair on it as yougo.
Second mistake I see a lot ofis people cannibalizing sales by
selling too many things fromthe starting gate, like your
(09:32):
zero to six figure strategyshould be really good free thing
, really good high ticket offer.
And I have seen people whenthey master those two things,
you just go from one to theother.
A lot of newer people, they'llgo.
Well, I should have a one-offsession, I should have a two-day
intensive, I should have agroup program, I should have a
course and it's like no, no, no,because your audience, they'll
(09:52):
naturally just go for what's thecheapest, easiest way I could
get this transformation.
And if some product presentsitself as if they could get the
transformation of a six-monthprogram with $97, you'll just
make the $97 sales and neverreally build stability in your
business.
And the third piece let's seestrategically going like wide on
(10:15):
marketing and focusing onplatforms and being in all the
places and going broad, thinkingthat new people and new
audiences are going to buy fromme.
The fact is, if the people rightin front of you like in your
immediate friend group, in yourFacebook circle, like the people
you went to fourth grade withif you're not offering something
that they need or know someonewho needs it and get what it is
(10:37):
and actually want to buy it orat least opt into your free
things, it's not going to work.
Just you getting in front ofmore people there's not like
magical, like new, freshaudiences where some offer
that's not really landing issuddenly going to start selling.
So I tell people focus on oneplatform that you like to hang
out on, that your ideal clientis also there.
(10:58):
Start and go deep and focus onthe messaging.
Focus on the quality of whatyou're talking about, the
quality of the types of contentthat you're putting out, and
don't try to do the YouTubechannel and the podcast and the
book and the Facebook and theTikTok all in your first year of
business.
That's like a five yearmarketing plan for your business
and you can do that all, justnot all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So good?
Yeah, definitely relate tofeeling all of those things at
some stage.
Okay, so my next question foryou is what?
Same question, but for peoplewho have, like, already been
successfully selling their highticket offer, maybe already got
to six figures what are the mainmistakes people make when it
comes to scaling beyond that?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
oh, this is good.
One would be not believing thatthey can transition into a
scaled offer, like reallyhesitating around the idea of a
mastermind, because maybe theirprocess up until then has been
very customized and verytailored.
And that's great to get yourbusiness to six figures and to
work with a certain amount ofpeople.
But if you do want to actuallyyou know everyone talks about
(12:00):
impact like, well, if you wantto make more impact and reach
more people, you've got to backup and have an intellectual,
have some intellectual property,have a process that you
understand, that you couldactually teach to someone else
and they could go and getresults for your people by
following that process.
And that is something that somepeople are going to go oh no, I
can't do that.
It's not possible with my niche.
I promise you.
(12:20):
I have seen everyone in everypossible niche be able to do
that when they've made thatdecision.
And why not?
A lot of people get to sevenfigures or beyond.
Six is because they don't makethat decision.
They don't actually get onboard with okay.
Well, I need to adapt.
I've done it one way and nowI'm going to have to do it a
different way if I want to keepgrowing and so people either
come up against that and theyreally decide well, I guess I'm
(12:42):
just going to be a six figuresand just do private coaching for
my career and that's fine,there's nothing wrong with that,
but it's not the growth path.
Second thing would be bleedingmoney honestly, like when people
start like buying and hiring somany different people and
spending so much money on team.
I speak from experience.
(13:02):
At some point I had like 10people on my team and people
look at me and they're like well, you've made millions of
dollars, you must have such abig team.
No, now my team is two people.
I've scaled down.
I mean we spend maybe 5%, 10%of our revenue on cost of
running the business.
That's a gift of being incoaching is you can have really
low overhead.
But I know a lot of coaches whoget above six figures and
(13:24):
suddenly 30%, 40% God forbid,50% of the income that they're
bringing into their business isgoing to a social media manager
and an OBM and a funnels personand ads person and all of a
sudden you are literallybleeding money on things that
don't actually move the needleand are non-essential.
And then you wind up feelinglike you're working for your
(13:47):
business because you have toreport to these people and like
give them instructions orapprove things, and there's
actually a lot of managementthat starts to happen.
So I really discourage myclients from hiring people on
monthly retainers, from signingup for agencies, signing up for
COOs and stuff like that.
The leaner you can keep yourbusiness actually, the better
that you're going to grow.
(14:08):
And that goes along with thethird mistake I would say, which
is kind of this energeticabdicating of like well, that's
not my zone of genius, so Idon't want to do it, I don't
want to know about that, I don'twant to look at it.
Systems are not my thing.
Ew, I'm allergic to data and,honestly, that mindset doesn't
breed a millionaire, doesn'tbreed a seven-figure CEO.
(14:31):
The seven-figure CEOs and Iknow many of them, many friends
have been behind the scenes inseven and eight-figure
businesses those CEOs are theleast entitled people you'll
meet.
They are so humble, like let meget my elbows in.
Oh, we got to set up a funnel.
I know how that works and I'vegot certainly an expert that's
going to help me with that.
But oh, we got to set up afunnel.
I know how that works and I'vegot certainly an expert that's
going to help me with that, butif they needed to, they could do
it.
There's so many technicalaspects of my business that if I
needed to, I could do it, or ifsomeone's sick, I can pitch in
and like I'm not too big toserve in those areas of my
(14:53):
business, and so it's very muchlike an attitude that promotes
just being actually going fromjust a coach to being a business
owner and being a CEO, andthat's a definitely can be an
adjustment period.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, I love these so much, especially number two,
because I know my first businessbefore my coaching business was
a copy agency and I was, likeyou know, doing my money mindset
and being like I want to scalemy income and work less, and so
obviously I realized that I hadto do less of the writing for my
clients.
I hired a team of a small teamof writers and then very quickly
(15:29):
I saw how more of my time waslike managing them and like
project management and I waslike this is even less fun than
just writing and that's kind ofwhat inspired me to shift and
launch my coaching business.
And I think, inspired me toshift and launch my coaching
business and I think, yeah, likeso many of us, there are so
many examples of people with,you know, very profitable
(15:50):
businesses, like you say, withhuge teams, and I think it's so
amazing to hear examples ofpeople who are making a lot of
money with small teams, becauseI think, especially for people
in my audience, like when you'relike a creative and you're like
a creative and you're aheart-led entrepreneur, you know
, yeah, obviouslyself-expression is like a big
part of what appeals to us aboutbusiness, but also actually the
(16:12):
work and the impact and workingwith clients and doing the
things that we're really good atand, you know, having these
really meaningful relationships.
So recognizing and I'm sure youknow meaningful relationships
with team is also something thatcan be like very fruitful and
collaborative and creative andenjoyable as well.
But I know that that'sdefinitely been something that
(16:33):
I've kind of gone back and forthwith in my head of like, yeah,
do I want a bigger business ordo I want to keep it smaller?
And, you know, have thesereally amazing intimate
relationships with clients andwhat am I willing to change and
evolve?
And so I love that.
And wait, what was the thirdpoint?
You said, oh, yeah, the.
I definitely had that early onin my business and I think
(16:56):
because part of the messagethere's always such
contradictory messaging inbusiness.
You know like people are alwayssaying one thing and then the
other thing and you you alwayshear like, stay in your zone of
genius and don't try and do theother things, and but you do.
You know that's also.
I think one of the mostenjoyable things about business
is that you're constantlygrowing and you are constantly
being challenged and learningnew skills and you know we we
(17:18):
have to adapt and evolve,because nothing ever stays the
same.
So I think these are suchvaluable insights and empowering
wisdom.
And that leads me to my nextquestion, which is what would
you say has changed over?
You know, in the way that, likethe coaching industry is now
and the digital landscape islike, what are the major changes
(17:40):
that you've had to adapt to inyour own business over the last
couple years?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, great questions .
I've actually gone the routelike at some point there was
this yeah, scaling up withsupport coaches and team and
trying to create this thingwhere I was kind of like, up
here and a lot of, if you wantto hire a multi-step and figure
coach, a lot of them likethey're not even going to get on
the, the mastermind call,they're not even going to be
present maybe once a month.
(18:07):
There's like those kind ofstructured businesses and I
found as I grew I didn't need todo that in order to be very
profitable and be doing well.
And actually in fact I've gonein the direction of I want my
business where people do getaccess to me and where we have
like one-to-one relationships.
I don't have other supportcoaches on my team.
People get me and only me.
(18:27):
I've added more one one-on-onesback into my containers that
people are investing highly andI want to really take care of
them and not be like, oh yeah,join my 20k mastermind and then
you don't even get one-on-onetime with me, which a lot of
coaches sell these days.
So for me personally, I sawthat kind of attitude of people
like removing themselves,removing themselves from the
(18:49):
coaching experience because theywere money driven and, you know
, focused on scaling, and I sawlike, hey, something I can offer
in the market is to not do thatActually, like really roll up
my sleeves and be with my peopleand like answer emails and
attend to them and love on them.
So I think that is part of itWhenever you see a market trend,
you can do something different,innovate, to stand out.
(19:13):
I've, in a lot of ways, mybusiness model has really been
the same, though, and I look at,okay, what has fundamentally
changed in the product suite.
I would say people seem to wantmore live attention than before
.
Like, at one point, I had a lotof courses and passive products
and things that were sellingand and they were doing great,
(19:34):
but I saw more of a shift in themarketplace of people being
like but I want to come hang outwith you.
I'm a brand new.
Where can I hang out with youfor three months and actually
get your eyes on this and notjust follow these modules?
And so I've actually feltreally energized by shifting
into yeah, the one long-termmastermind.
Most of my Sapphire clients,which is my main program, are
(19:55):
with me for 10 months.
A lot of them re-enroll andI've had some people for two,
three years now, which iswonderful.
So I love having a product suitethat has that stable,
consistent, long-term we're init.
We get close.
The closer we get, the betterthe coaching gets, the better
their businesses go as like abaseline offer in the business
and then everything else rollsup into that or down into that
(20:18):
and then shorter spurt things toreally get people into our
space.
So, like two month things,three month things, I've done a
number of like four weekaccelerators that people have
loved that I just wouldn't haveoffered maybe three years ago.
That seemed to really thrive.
So those are a couple of thethings I would say have shifted.
(20:40):
I also see people moving more inthe direction of YouTube or
podcasting, areas where it'severgreen and they're going to
have the search engineoptimization working in your
favor.
You're creating content that'sgoing to last instead of the
constant churn of social media,and it doesn't mean don't do
social media.
I just see a lot more peoplegoing okay, I'm going to put
(21:00):
some of my eggs in this basketand start growing this thing
that, like five years latersomeone could be searching a
video and my YouTube video popsup with a link to a funnel
that's been set up properly,really good.
If I could actually go back,I'd probably have done more of a
YouTube strategy from thebeginning.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, so good.
Thank you for sharing all ofthose.
And can you speak to yourapproach to funnels?
Because I know, obviously, likeit makes so much sense and and
it can seem I think you know theconcept of funnels can be like,
oh, you just set this thing upand then it's done forever.
Like what is the reality of thelevel of complexity and the
(21:43):
level of maintenance that'sreally required to have
successful funnels that make youmoney over the long term?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yeah, whatever you do , listeners, don't go hire the
guy for $20,000 who says he'sgoing to build you a funnel and
it's going to make all thismoney like.
It's a complete lie.
You funnels are not complicated.
I teach an approach to funnelsthat I call like feminine
friendly funnels.
I have a little course on thatand that's like my approach is.
They're actually very simpleand streamlined.
We don't do these convoluted,like you know 20 email sequences
(22:13):
with all of these if thenstatements and other products
and all this complicated stuff.
What actually is important ishaving a good, having good
sequence of products, makingsure that's really dialed,
making sure the messaging isreally dialed, making sure you
have a free thing that ismessaged well to capture
(22:33):
people's attention and actuallybe something that they want.
I've not seen meditations,audios, pdfs, little workbooks
convert at all whatsoever,quizzes maybe just to get emails
on your list.
But what I teach my clients isvideo masterclasses, long form
freebies and that are structuredin a very particular way.
(22:53):
That's also a really importantcomponent for people that if
your top of your funnel is afreebie and it's not structured
according to good marketingpsychology and you're not
talking about the right thingsand you're not making the right
offer, it won't convert.
You'll maybe get emailaddresses, but they're not going
to buy.
So there's so many componentsthat go into it.
And then yes, I love that youbrought that up because there is
(23:15):
a maintenance.
There is actually looking atdata and going OK, who's opting
in?
Who's responding to thismessaging?
Looking at data and going okay,who's opting in, who's
responding to this messaging?
What emails are producingclick-throughs and results and
what other parts of the businessare we seeing people engage
with?
So we could put that in thefunnel and not just use.
I think one of the biggestmistakes people make is using
templates from other businesspractitioners who are like this
(23:35):
is the ultimate funnel and youjust put your product and your
name and this thing in here.
It's like no, that's that's notgonna work.
It has to be totally customizedto who buys from you and why do
they buy and where do they buy,and really building it in a
very personalized way.
And then also understandingthat funnels are not just this
like email sequence in yourbusiness that you set up once,
but funnels are really thelayers of marketing that you
(23:57):
have overall.
So you have form, which is onInstagram or social media, these
posts, quick things wherepeople can, you know, watch you
for 90 seconds, or you know,swipe a little graphic and and
get some value.
That's like your top of funneland those should all direct into
your email funnel as well.
But then there needs to be and Ifind this is an area that a lot
of people are lacking becausethey just go to the bottom of
(24:19):
the funnel, which is the offeritself, and so they're doing
like short little video, swipeypost, buy my $10,000 thing.
And there's actually a reallyimportant like middle of our
marketing funnel.
That is, these places wherepeople can go and get to know
you more and it is free and youprovide value, not necessarily
like completely educating forfree, but they really get to
(24:40):
know your values and your storyand your approach and your
success stories and build arelationship with you, just like
you're doing on this podcast.
Podcasts are a great middle offunnel.
I do a lot of live streams onInstagram.
I have for many years, sopeople know to go there to hang
out with me a bit more, and sothose parts of your so-called
funnel that, like overallstructure of your business, are
so important to have dialed andif you have one without the
(25:03):
other, you'll find it hard tosell.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Amazing, thank you for that.
So I know you love talkingabout money and I can see that
you know your conversationsaround money have shifted as
you've kind of got to differentphases of business.
So I'm curious like what arethe main ways that your
relationship with money haschanged throughout the different
phases of you know yourmilestones that you've met as an
(25:27):
entrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, I think there is definitely like a first time
millionaire syndrome that I'veworked with many clients who
have, and I had it because if noone's taught you how to be with
money and then all of a sudden,yeah, your high ticket sell
strategy works, your funnelworks and you're starting to
make a lot of money, very oftenlike you don't know what to do
with it, and people blow throughit.
(25:49):
You know, I know that I kind ofblew through my first million
and made mistakes with it that Ididn't make on the second
million and then more mistakeshappened and then I got better
by the third million and we'relike constantly improving.
And then I got better by thethird million and we're like
constantly improving.
So I think a lot of people putoff oh, I don't want to learn
about investing or I don't knowabout you know how to save
(26:10):
properly or do my taxes properlyor manage the difference
between my personal and mybusiness finances and do things
with this like high degree ofprofessionalism.
I don't really, you know, wantto.
I can't think about real estateright now.
I can't think about learningthe stock market.
I'll just hire someone to dothat later.
But what they miss is numberone.
People you hire for thatcompletely rip you off and can
(26:31):
take up to two thirds of yourwealth.
If you just do an abdicatinglittle like I'm doing the hand
flip where you're just like Idon't want to think about stocks
and bonds, so let someone elsedo that oh, they'll take you for
a run and by retirement youwon't have enough money to
retire, even if you havemillions of dollars in there.
So it's something that youactually do need to take a high
degree of personalresponsibility over as someone
(26:52):
who's holding wealth and prepareyourself before you make all
the money to have these skillsset up Like I.
One of the most gratifyingthings I've done all year is to
run a personal finance coursefor entrepreneurs.
That teaches the nitty grittylike very practical things that
very often people are like well,once I have money, then it'll
make sense for me to take thatcourse.
(27:13):
But the really smart businessowners are the ones who go oh, I
should have a savings plan, Ishould have an investment plan,
I should know how to managemoney.
I should have a savings plan, Ishould have an investment plan.
I should know how to managemoney.
I should make sure I'm legallyprotected in my business by
choosing the right entities anddoing my taxes properly.
I should educate myself on whata real estate business is and
how I could acquire assets waysooner than I even think is
possible, because what I see inthose people and that's
something I had to get on boardwith then the money actually
(27:36):
really does start to show upbecause you know how to steward
it.
You really does start to showup because you know how to
steward it, you know how to bewith it, you have a plan for it
and it is multiplying.
So you're not just focused onwhere's that next high ticket
sale going to come from.
But you know, okay, I made a$15,000 sale where every dollar
of that $15,000 is going to go,because very often people are
like, oh, I made a high ticketsale, I'm just going to spend on
(27:58):
this thing and this thing, andyou know, two purchases later,
the 15K is gone, where thesteward, the CEO, who has this
preparation, her personalfinance, you know is empowered
in that way.
She knows, okay, this is howmuch goes to my taxes, this is
how much goes to, like, down tothe penny.
What is budgeted for thebusiness, what's budgeted for
her personal life, what issavings.
(28:19):
What is she giving or tithingThen?
What is the investment planExactly?
What stocks and bonds is itgoing into and what's her rate
of return that she's going to beseeing in 30 years?
And what is she setting asidefor her future business, her
future wedding, her other bigpurchases in her life?
She knows how to buy houses andcars and invest strategically
in her business because she'sbeen taught to do that.
(28:42):
Well, I mean, I didn't knowthose things and I just bought
houses and cars and then it waslike oh, people who know what
they're doing with money don'tdo that.
So I learned from a lot of mymistakes.
I think that's what, also, whenI teach finance is so valuable,
because I'm teaching from likehey guys, I fell on my face, I
had the millionaire syndrome.
No one taught me this stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Here's the stuff that would have changed my life if I
knew it five years sooner.
Okay, well, I think we need asecond book from you called the
millionaire syndrome, because Iwant to read that book first
time.
Millionaire syndrome um, yeah,I just published, um, my first
book and it was the six figurecreative and it's really like
the awful, awful money mistakesI made on my way to my first six
figures and I think I thinkpeople, you and it's really like
the awful, awful money mistakesI made on my way to my first
six figures and I think I thinkpeople you know it's so valuable
to know.
It's like the money just wentout as fast as it came in and I
(29:31):
was like wait, you know, Iremember when I had my first 20k
month and I was like I'm richforever, I'm never gonna have to
use a credit card ever again.
Like I thought I just like madeit and but nobody talks about
this stuff.
You know, especially women and,I think, a lot of creatives.
You know, yeah, there's a lotof gaps in the conversation and
that's like the conversationthat I'm trying to have with my
(29:52):
book, but I'm curious, like whatyou would say to people who are
kind of on their way to theirfirst six figures in terms of,
you know, stewarding the moneythat they do have like what's
the most valuable investmentsfor them to make at that phase
love this question and congratson your book.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's such a big deal to publish your first book
and thanks for the idea for thesecond one.
I that I think it might besomething around finance.
We'll see.
Please, I think they need abudget, everyone needs a budget,
and not go oh, that's scarcity,oh, that's this or that.
(30:34):
I want to live in abundance.
No, you'll be delusional,you'll be totally out of touch
with reality.
Like good business owners, likethe millionaires, I know we live
on a budget, I budget, I liveon a budget.
Yes, I make a lot of money.
I know what I spend, down tothe penny, and I'm sometimes
like on the phone going likechase, I got this extra.
You know duplicated charge for$25 and I'm like taking time to
(30:54):
make sure that no dollar isgoing wasted, because in the
past I was so frivolous withmoney I'd be be like, oh, it's
fine, I can afford it.
I'm making millions Extracharge for this, like extra
shipping for that, and it wasjust careless.
So being careful and intentionalwith your money is not
restrictive.
It actually gives you thefreedom.
Once you know a lot ofentrepreneurs, I'm really
surprised can't tell me hey,last month, here's exactly what
(31:16):
my life cost me.
Here's exactly what my businesscost me.
Here's how much debt I'm in.
Here's the plan that I have toget out of debt.
So having those things super,super important, not going crazy
in debt.
There's all this like abundancestuff about like, oh, just put
it on your credit card, it'llcome in later.
No credit cards.
78% of people who have creditcards have credit card debt like
(31:40):
consistently and don't get outof it and it's you know as much
as compound interest goes uplike this.
Credit card debt tanks us.
So really being mindful that,yes, having access to a line of
credit as a business owner iskind of a necessary thing
sometimes when you're going tohave expenses or just have that
access, but not to depend onthat and not to, you know, just
purchase, purchase, moving atthe speed of cash is often best
(32:02):
and that's why I recommend havea second.
I had a second job, I had athird, I had like three jobs
until I made it over six figures.
I knew that I don't want to putmyself under this financial
pressure.
My business isn't going to growif I'm scared about paying my
rent or covering my bills.
I'm going to make sure that'scoming in from a stable source
and that's another.
I my bills, I'm going to makesure that's coming in from a
(32:25):
stable source, and that'sanother.
I give a lot of advice.
It's unpopular, but it's likeif you guys want results, if you
want the thing to work like, Iwant that for you.
So some of this unpopular stuffis really what works.
And then saving 15% of yourincome for retirement and not
having the mindset of like, oh,that's so far off, or you know,
I'm an entrepreneur, I'm notgoing to need to retire, I'm
always going to be.
Nope, we need, everyone needsto plan for retirement.
15% of your paycheck has got togo there and I recommend giving
(32:47):
10% of your paycheck to charity, generosity, whether, like I'm
Christian, so I give 10% to mychurch, 10% like secularly.
Just studies that you know,people who don't have any kind
of faith necessarily, but whogive generously, everyone across
(33:08):
the board prospers.
They actually can correlate andnot waiting until a later stage
of business to you know, quote,unquote do philanthropy, but
making it a part of the businessand the values.
And then, guess what, you are somuch better off with that
remaining 90%, or when you takeout the 15% for the future, that
75% of your money that's left.
You're going to be so much morecareful and wise and
considerate over that percentageof your income.
It'll actually start tomultiply much faster.
(33:29):
So those are just a few thingsthat again there's overall.
It's the mindset of peoplethinking I'll just do that later
, I'll invest for retirementlater, I'll give later, I'll do
this later and truly, if you putit off until later, you're not
going to get your results untillater.
Do those things first, theresults will come faster and
then you'll be multiplying thewhole way.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
So good.
I move at the speed of cash.
I've never heard that, but Ilove it so much.
Oh, my God, so many goldnuggets in this conversation
today.
Thank you so much for beinghere and sharing your time and
wisdom.
I hope everyone's taken notes.
I hope everybody's goes andimplements these, these amazing
nuggets, and please tell us likewhat have you got going on at
(34:10):
the moment for people who wantto learn more about you?
Where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, well, I hope I didn't drop too much stuff on
you guys.
I get going.
If you give me the floor, I'mlike, all right, let's go.
I got some things to say.
Please reach out to me onInstagram my handle is
heyelanagialando and share ifyou got a takeaway from this.
I would love to know that.
You could also go toelanagialandocom.
(34:34):
Slash free gifts and I've gotfree messaging and marketing
trainings, one of them calledInbound.
That's absolutely incredibleabout getting more inbound
inquiries into your business,and I have a how I teach new
coaches to start selling fasttraining.
So if you're totally brand new,that's a great place to start
and kind of like everything inbetween.
And my main program is mySapphire Mastermind that
(34:55):
launches twice a year so you canjust reach out at any time.
Sometimes I take one-on-ones, Ihave VIP days, many different
ways that we can work together,and I'd love to meet you.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Amazing.
Thank you so much, elena.
Thank you everybody forlistening.
Please share this episode withanyone who you know would
benefit and we'll see you nextweek.
Bye, bye, guys.
For more inspirational content,head over to my website
withsarahmackcom, and pleasesupport.
What's up, this is Sarah Mack, and welcome to
Creative Magic Club.
Together, we'll discoverinspirational stories of
creative entrepreneurs livingout their dreams, doing the work
they are most passionate about,and building wealth in magical
and fun ways, while building asix-figure income.
As a writer and coach, helpingother women to launch their
dream businesses, I've connectedwith so many incredible people
(00:34):
and seen it proven again andagain that you can thrive
financially doing whatever it isyou are passionate about.
I am here to sharelife-changing strategies for
mindset, making money andreaching more people with your
work in a business and lifefilled with creativity, freedom
and fun.
Hi, everyone, welcome.
(00:59):
I'm so excited to introduce myspecial guest today.
We have with us Elena Giolando,who is a business strategist for
entrepreneurs in the coachingand online personal branding
space.
She started her own company atXero and became a self-made
multimillionaire in just threeyears.
She's also the author ofBecoming Self-Made and the host
of the Intimately with Elena Rayand Kingdom Builders podcasts.
(01:21):
Elena specializes in milliondollar messaging, offer
development, high ticket sales,scaling strategy and mindset and
management skills foraccelerated business growth.
She teaches solid, proven sevenfigure strategies with no fluff
and has helped hundreds ofcoaches to grow six, seven and
eight figures over the last sixyears.
Hi Elena, thank you so much forjoining us.
(01:43):
Hey Sarah, thanks so much forjoining us.
Hey Sarah, thanks so much forhaving me.
So I'm really excited to talkto Elena.
I have been following her for awhile now and I read your book
and it was kind of a funnymoment for me because there were
so many really random thingsthat we had in common.
Like I feel like you wentthrough a bit of an eat, pray
(02:04):
love kind of thing with, likeBali and I don't.
Were you in Bali?
Well, yeah, you Bali and youwere.
You were in Rishikesh and I waslike, wait, this is so weird.
This is exactly how I startedmy coaching business.
I ended up in Bali for a jobwith a friend.
Then I like randomly ended upin Rishikesh and I was like when
I remember, when I was in Bali,I discovered Pray Love and I
(02:25):
watched the movie and I'm likewhat is this weird phenomenon
that people just get like suckedinto Asia to kind of like be
reborn and find their purpose?
But I loved reading your bookso much and so I'm super excited
to talk to you.
So why don't you tell us, foreveryone who doesn't know you?
How did you get to doing thiswork as a coach?
What's what's the what's thestory?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, so I have a corporate background, and I say
that because I think there arecertain people that come into
entrepreneurship from acorporate space and there's
certain people that come intoentrepreneurship and have, like,
never had a job ever and, ifyou know, they're kind of
different transitions.
But basically I was doinginternational traveling to all
(03:10):
different countries.
I've been to 75 countries.
I lived in Africa for a year,all over Europe, south America,
working for the companies that Iwas working for, and so my
coaching business actuallystarted as this byproduct of
living in Mongolia and living inNigeria and being in these
really off the beaten pathplaces, doing really cool work
(03:31):
with the job that I had andsharing about it on a blog that
I called Life Before 30 andinadvertently kind of became a
career coach.
I was getting published onBusiness Insider, on Fast
Company, and this was back inthe day when you couldn't pay
for that kind of publicity, youhad to actually contact the
editors and earn it, and sopeople discovered me from that
and I realized pretty quicklypeople were reaching out for
(03:52):
career advice and I was like,wait a second, I could monetize
this, and so I startedmonetizing it on the side of my
corporate job and then really,that gave me this taste of the
international jet setting life,the, not just in the hometown
working for a paycheck, and Irealized I could never go back
(04:13):
because I loved that lifestyleso much and that's what really
launched me into well, theintention and growing a business
is not to become a millionaireand not to have this following
and not to really do anythingexcept make enough money to buy
the next one way plane ticket.
And so I traveled the world onmy own, quit the jobs, and I
(04:35):
remember traveling through Baliin like 2016 and thinking to
myself man, if I could reallyfigure out how to make a living
from my laptop, like all thesepeople I see in the jungle, I
want to come and live herebecause that's so cool.
They get to live full time inAsia.
And, long story short, I woundup getting fired from my last
corporate job in New Zealand,from Uber, because I was just
(04:58):
done.
I sabotaged that.
I was like I don't want to workfor anyone else anymore and so,
by force, that part time thingI was doing, with some one off
sessions and just like whatwhoever came to me from the blog
had to become my full timething all of a sudden.
So that is a differenttransition into entrepreneurship
than some people who really,you know, set out to do that for
(05:22):
a long time, and that kind ofrude awakening forced me to
figure out things I had no ideaabout.
I didn't know how to marketmyself, I didn't know how to
sell, I didn't know what a nichewas or how to make a business
model around this stuff.
But one of the big parts of myjourney was actually going to a
place I was first in Berlin andthen in Bali where people were
living that lifestyle, and so Igot around them, started to
(05:44):
become friends with them, forgedrelationships and community
with people who had figured thatout.
And then, before you know it, Imet my first business coach,
because I was really at a pointwhere I was either going to need
to go home, because I'd beentrying for a year year and a
half at that point in Bali totrying to figure out how to do
this and, yeah, actually hiringa coach, investing all of my
(06:08):
remaining life savings notsomething I would recommend
everyone to do by any means Igot two more jobs to be able to
pay her and to pay for my lifeand have stability, which is
also something it's kind of acontroversial opinion that I
have that I recommend a lot thata lot of business coaches
wouldn't recommend is they dorecommend for people in the
early stages have a job.
Don't force your business toprovide when it's not ready to
(06:29):
provide, like when you don'tknow how to market and sell.
Have a steady paycheck andlearn to do this gradually on
the side.
And when you do that, you growresponsibly, and I think I
entered that stage of growingresponsibly studying marketing
and sales from someone whoreally got it.
I built a life coaching businessfirst and then later
transitioned into businesscoaching in 2020 because people
(06:50):
were really proactively askingme like, hey, I see you selling
life coaching packages and doingpretty well, that's something I
would like to do, can you teachme?
And so, by invitation really, Istepped into the marketing and
teaching what I had learned andreally quickly figured out that
I have a gift for that, that itcomes very naturally to me, and
(07:10):
people just started to really,really explode and I've been
doing that full-time since yeah,I mean full-time since 2019.
I quit my hustling jobs towardsthe end of 2019, so I've been a
full-time coach and neverexpected to literally make
millions of dollars and neverexpected to have the kind of
(07:31):
success that I've seen, and Ithink that's a testament really
to the systems and how well theywork and how well the messaging
work just works, that I didn'thave to push for it and like try
and strive and obsess about itto get to seven figures.
It just really unfoldsnaturally when you put the right
things in place.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I love that so much and I am curious because I know
you.
Obviously you've worked with somany people and you've helped
so many other coaches andpractitioners to grow their own
businesses.
What are some of the biggestmistakes that you see people
making that are getting in theway of them having the kind of
success that you've had?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh great, how much time do we have?
I'll try to do like three mainones, reel it in a little bit.
One that just came to mind ispeople get really stuck on their
niche and they really obsessabout it and they really kind of
approach it from the wrongangle and then get stuck there
(08:28):
where no niche is good enoughand nothing is fitting, and then
they never start making moneyand never get off the ground
because one you know, one daythey want to be a self-mastery
coach and the next day they wantto be a mindset coach and the
next day it's something else.
Truly, what I say is there isthere is a kind of a of a
spectrum here of expression andmarket utility, and the people
who make the biggest mistakeswith their niche.
(08:49):
They're trying to be in theself-expression bucket.
They're making their businessabout themselves, when our
businesses are about a servicethat we provide for others.
And it doesn't mean you don'tself-express in your business,
but probably not through yourniche.
It's going to come out in yourcontent.
It's going to come out in yourcontent.
It's going to come out in yourmessaging and your storytelling
and all these other parts ofyour business.
Don't get too caught up intrying to express all of the
many facets of yourself in yourniche or it's going to become
(09:11):
too convoluted and no one'sgoing to understand when they
should hire you.
I figured out very quickly lifecoach, career coach, business
coach just do something that'suseful in the market and then
put your own flair on it as yougo.
Second mistake I see a lot ofis people cannibalizing sales by
selling too many things fromthe starting gate, like your
(09:32):
zero to six figure strategyshould be really good free thing
, really good high ticket offer.
And I have seen people whenthey master those two things,
you just go from one to theother.
A lot of newer people, they'llgo.
Well, I should have a one-offsession, I should have a two-day
intensive, I should have agroup program, I should have a
course and it's like no, no, no,because your audience, they'll
(09:52):
naturally just go for what's thecheapest, easiest way I could
get this transformation.
And if some product presentsitself as if they could get the
transformation of a six-monthprogram with $97, you'll just
make the $97 sales and neverreally build stability in your
business.
And the third piece let's seestrategically going like wide on
(10:15):
marketing and focusing onplatforms and being in all the
places and going broad, thinkingthat new people and new
audiences are going to buy fromme.
The fact is, if the people rightin front of you like in your
immediate friend group, in yourFacebook circle, like the people
you went to fourth grade withif you're not offering something
that they need or know someonewho needs it and get what it is
(10:37):
and actually want to buy it orat least opt into your free
things, it's not going to work.
Just you getting in front ofmore people there's not like
magical, like new, freshaudiences where some offer
that's not really landing issuddenly going to start selling.
So I tell people focus on oneplatform that you like to hang
out on, that your ideal clientis also there.
(10:58):
Start and go deep and focus onthe messaging.
Focus on the quality of whatyou're talking about, the
quality of the types of contentthat you're putting out, and
don't try to do the YouTubechannel and the podcast and the
book and the Facebook and theTikTok all in your first year of
business.
That's like a five yearmarketing plan for your business
and you can do that all, justnot all at the same time.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So good?
Yeah, definitely relate tofeeling all of those things at
some stage.
Okay, so my next question foryou is what?
Same question, but for peoplewho have, like, already been
successfully selling their highticket offer, maybe already got
to six figures what are the mainmistakes people make when it
comes to scaling beyond that?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
oh, this is good.
One would be not believing thatthey can transition into a
scaled offer, like reallyhesitating around the idea of a
mastermind, because maybe theirprocess up until then has been
very customized and verytailored.
And that's great to get yourbusiness to six figures and to
work with a certain amount ofpeople.
But if you do want to actuallyyou know everyone talks about
(12:00):
impact like, well, if you wantto make more impact and reach
more people, you've got to backup and have an intellectual,
have some intellectual property,have a process that you
understand, that you couldactually teach to someone else
and they could go and getresults for your people by
following that process.
And that is something that somepeople are going to go oh no, I
can't do that.
It's not possible with my niche.
I promise you.
(12:20):
I have seen everyone in everypossible niche be able to do
that when they've made thatdecision.
And why not?
A lot of people get to sevenfigures or beyond.
Six is because they don't makethat decision.
They don't actually get onboard with okay.
Well, I need to adapt.
I've done it one way and nowI'm going to have to do it a
different way if I want to keepgrowing and so people either
come up against that and theyreally decide well, I guess I'm
(12:42):
just going to be a six figuresand just do private coaching for
my career and that's fine,there's nothing wrong with that,
but it's not the growth path.
Second thing would be bleedingmoney honestly, like when people
start like buying and hiring somany different people and
spending so much money on team.
I speak from experience.
(13:02):
At some point I had like 10people on my team and people
look at me and they're like well, you've made millions of
dollars, you must have such abig team.
No, now my team is two people.
I've scaled down.
I mean we spend maybe 5%, 10%of our revenue on cost of
running the business.
That's a gift of being incoaching is you can have really
low overhead.
But I know a lot of coaches whoget above six figures and
(13:24):
suddenly 30%, 40% God forbid,50% of the income that they're
bringing into their business isgoing to a social media manager
and an OBM and a funnels personand ads person and all of a
sudden you are literallybleeding money on things that
don't actually move the needleand are non-essential.
And then you wind up feelinglike you're working for your
(13:47):
business because you have toreport to these people and like
give them instructions orapprove things, and there's
actually a lot of managementthat starts to happen.
So I really discourage myclients from hiring people on
monthly retainers, from signingup for agencies, signing up for
COOs and stuff like that.
The leaner you can keep yourbusiness actually, the better
that you're going to grow.
(14:08):
And that goes along with thethird mistake I would say, which
is kind of this energeticabdicating of like well, that's
not my zone of genius, so Idon't want to do it, I don't
want to know about that, I don'twant to look at it.
Systems are not my thing.
Ew, I'm allergic to data and,honestly, that mindset doesn't
breed a millionaire, doesn'tbreed a seven-figure CEO.
(14:31):
The seven-figure CEOs and Iknow many of them, many friends
have been behind the scenes inseven and eight-figure
businesses those CEOs are theleast entitled people you'll
meet.
They are so humble, like let meget my elbows in.
Oh, we got to set up a funnel.
I know how that works and I'vegot certainly an expert that's
going to help me with that.
But oh, we got to set up afunnel.
I know how that works and I'vegot certainly an expert that's
going to help me with that, butif they needed to, they could do
it.
There's so many technicalaspects of my business that if I
needed to, I could do it, or ifsomeone's sick, I can pitch in
and like I'm not too big toserve in those areas of my
(14:53):
business, and so it's very muchlike an attitude that promotes
just being actually going fromjust a coach to being a business
owner and being a CEO, andthat's a definitely can be an
adjustment period.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, I love these so much, especially number two,
because I know my first businessbefore my coaching business was
a copy agency and I was, likeyou know, doing my money mindset
and being like I want to scalemy income and work less, and so
obviously I realized that I hadto do less of the writing for my
clients.
I hired a team of a small teamof writers and then very quickly
(15:29):
I saw how more of my time waslike managing them and like
project management and I waslike this is even less fun than
just writing and that's kind ofwhat inspired me to shift and
launch my coaching business.
And I think, inspired me toshift and launch my coaching
business and I think, yeah, likeso many of us, there are so
many examples of people with,you know, very profitable
(15:50):
businesses, like you say, withhuge teams, and I think it's so
amazing to hear examples ofpeople who are making a lot of
money with small teams, becauseI think, especially for people
in my audience, like when you'relike a creative and you're like
a creative and you're aheart-led entrepreneur, you know
, yeah, obviouslyself-expression is like a big
part of what appeals to us aboutbusiness, but also actually the
(16:12):
work and the impact and workingwith clients and doing the
things that we're really good atand, you know, having these
really meaningful relationships.
So recognizing and I'm sure youknow meaningful relationships
with team is also something thatcan be like very fruitful and
collaborative and creative andenjoyable as well.
But I know that that'sdefinitely been something that
(16:33):
I've kind of gone back and forthwith in my head of like, yeah,
do I want a bigger business ordo I want to keep it smaller?
And, you know, have thesereally amazing intimate
relationships with clients andwhat am I willing to change and
evolve?
And so I love that.
And wait, what was the thirdpoint?
You said, oh, yeah, the.
I definitely had that early onin my business and I think
(16:56):
because part of the messagethere's always such
contradictory messaging inbusiness.
You know like people are alwayssaying one thing and then the
other thing and you you alwayshear like, stay in your zone of
genius and don't try and do theother things, and but you do.
You know that's also.
I think one of the mostenjoyable things about business
is that you're constantlygrowing and you are constantly
being challenged and learningnew skills and you know we we
(17:18):
have to adapt and evolve,because nothing ever stays the
same.
So I think these are suchvaluable insights and empowering
wisdom.
And that leads me to my nextquestion, which is what would
you say has changed over?
You know, in the way that, likethe coaching industry is now
and the digital landscape islike, what are the major changes
(17:40):
that you've had to adapt to inyour own business over the last
couple years?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, great questions .
I've actually gone the routelike at some point there was
this yeah, scaling up withsupport coaches and team and
trying to create this thingwhere I was kind of like, up
here and a lot of, if you wantto hire a multi-step and figure
coach, a lot of them likethey're not even going to get on
the, the mastermind call,they're not even going to be
present maybe once a month.
(18:07):
There's like those kind ofstructured businesses and I
found as I grew I didn't need todo that in order to be very
profitable and be doing well.
And actually in fact I've gonein the direction of I want my
business where people do getaccess to me and where we have
like one-to-one relationships.
I don't have other supportcoaches on my team.
People get me and only me.
(18:27):
I've added more one one-on-onesback into my containers that
people are investing highly andI want to really take care of
them and not be like, oh yeah,join my 20k mastermind and then
you don't even get one-on-onetime with me, which a lot of
coaches sell these days.
So for me personally, I sawthat kind of attitude of people
like removing themselves,removing themselves from the
(18:49):
coaching experience because theywere money driven and, you know
, focused on scaling, and I sawlike, hey, something I can offer
in the market is to not do thatActually, like really roll up
my sleeves and be with my peopleand like answer emails and
attend to them and love on them.
So I think that is part of itWhenever you see a market trend,
you can do something different,innovate, to stand out.
(19:13):
I've, in a lot of ways, mybusiness model has really been
the same, though, and I look at,okay, what has fundamentally
changed in the product suite.
I would say people seem to wantmore live attention than before
.
Like, at one point, I had a lotof courses and passive products
and things that were sellingand and they were doing great,
(19:34):
but I saw more of a shift in themarketplace of people being
like but I want to come hang outwith you.
I'm a brand new.
Where can I hang out with youfor three months and actually
get your eyes on this and notjust follow these modules?
And so I've actually feltreally energized by shifting
into yeah, the one long-termmastermind.
Most of my Sapphire clients,which is my main program, are
(19:55):
with me for 10 months.
A lot of them re-enroll andI've had some people for two,
three years now, which iswonderful.
So I love having a product suitethat has that stable,
consistent, long-term we're init.
We get close.
The closer we get, the betterthe coaching gets, the better
their businesses go as like abaseline offer in the business
and then everything else rollsup into that or down into that
(20:18):
and then shorter spurt things toreally get people into our
space.
So, like two month things,three month things, I've done a
number of like four weekaccelerators that people have
loved that I just wouldn't haveoffered maybe three years ago.
That seemed to really thrive.
So those are a couple of thethings I would say have shifted.
(20:40):
I also see people moving more inthe direction of YouTube or
podcasting, areas where it'severgreen and they're going to
have the search engineoptimization working in your
favor.
You're creating content that'sgoing to last instead of the
constant churn of social media,and it doesn't mean don't do
social media.
I just see a lot more peoplegoing okay, I'm going to put
(21:00):
some of my eggs in this basketand start growing this thing
that, like five years latersomeone could be searching a
video and my YouTube video popsup with a link to a funnel
that's been set up properly,really good.
If I could actually go back,I'd probably have done more of a
YouTube strategy from thebeginning.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, so good.
Thank you for sharing all ofthose.
And can you speak to yourapproach to funnels?
Because I know, obviously, likeit makes so much sense and and
it can seem I think you know theconcept of funnels can be like,
oh, you just set this thing upand then it's done forever.
Like what is the reality of thelevel of complexity and the
(21:43):
level of maintenance that'sreally required to have
successful funnels that make youmoney over the long term?
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Yeah, whatever you do , listeners, don't go hire the
guy for $20,000 who says he'sgoing to build you a funnel and
it's going to make all thismoney like.
It's a complete lie.
You funnels are not complicated.
I teach an approach to funnelsthat I call like feminine
friendly funnels.
I have a little course on thatand that's like my approach is.
They're actually very simpleand streamlined.
We don't do these convoluted,like you know 20 email sequences
(22:13):
with all of these if thenstatements and other products
and all this complicated stuff.
What actually is important ishaving a good, having good
sequence of products, makingsure that's really dialed,
making sure the messaging isreally dialed, making sure you
have a free thing that ismessaged well to capture
(22:33):
people's attention and actuallybe something that they want.
I've not seen meditations,audios, pdfs, little workbooks
convert at all whatsoever,quizzes maybe just to get emails
on your list.
But what I teach my clients isvideo masterclasses, long form
freebies and that are structuredin a very particular way.
(22:53):
That's also a really importantcomponent for people that if
your top of your funnel is afreebie and it's not structured
according to good marketingpsychology and you're not
talking about the right thingsand you're not making the right
offer, it won't convert.
You'll maybe get emailaddresses, but they're not going
to buy.
So there's so many componentsthat go into it.
And then yes, I love that youbrought that up because there is
(23:15):
a maintenance.
There is actually looking atdata and going OK, who's opting
in?
Who's responding to thismessaging?
Looking at data and going okay,who's opting in, who's
responding to this messaging?
What emails are producingclick-throughs and results and
what other parts of the businessare we seeing people engage
with?
So we could put that in thefunnel and not just use.
I think one of the biggestmistakes people make is using
templates from other businesspractitioners who are like this
(23:35):
is the ultimate funnel and youjust put your product and your
name and this thing in here.
It's like no, that's that's notgonna work.
It has to be totally customizedto who buys from you and why do
they buy and where do they buy,and really building it in a
very personalized way.
And then also understandingthat funnels are not just this
like email sequence in yourbusiness that you set up once,
but funnels are really thelayers of marketing that you
(23:57):
have overall.
So you have form, which is onInstagram or social media, these
posts, quick things wherepeople can, you know, watch you
for 90 seconds, or you know,swipe a little graphic and and
get some value.
That's like your top of funneland those should all direct into
your email funnel as well.
But then there needs to be and Ifind this is an area that a lot
of people are lacking becausethey just go to the bottom of
(24:19):
the funnel, which is the offeritself, and so they're doing
like short little video, swipeypost, buy my $10,000 thing.
And there's actually a reallyimportant like middle of our
marketing funnel.
That is, these places wherepeople can go and get to know
you more and it is free and youprovide value, not necessarily
like completely educating forfree, but they really get to
(24:40):
know your values and your storyand your approach and your
success stories and build arelationship with you, just like
you're doing on this podcast.
Podcasts are a great middle offunnel.
I do a lot of live streams onInstagram.
I have for many years, sopeople know to go there to hang
out with me a bit more, and sothose parts of your so-called
funnel that, like overallstructure of your business, are
so important to have dialed andif you have one without the
(25:03):
other, you'll find it hard tosell.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Amazing, thank you for that.
So I know you love talkingabout money and I can see that
you know your conversationsaround money have shifted as
you've kind of got to differentphases of business.
So I'm curious like what arethe main ways that your
relationship with money haschanged throughout the different
phases of you know yourmilestones that you've met as an
(25:27):
entrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, I think there is definitely like a first time
millionaire syndrome that I'veworked with many clients who
have, and I had it because if noone's taught you how to be with
money and then all of a sudden,yeah, your high ticket sell
strategy works, your funnelworks and you're starting to
make a lot of money, very oftenlike you don't know what to do
with it, and people blow throughit.
(25:49):
You know, I know that I kind ofblew through my first million
and made mistakes with it that Ididn't make on the second
million and then more mistakeshappened and then I got better
by the third million and we'relike constantly improving.
And then I got better by thethird million and we're like
constantly improving.
So I think a lot of people putoff oh, I don't want to learn
about investing or I don't knowabout you know how to save
(26:10):
properly or do my taxes properlyor manage the difference
between my personal and mybusiness finances and do things
with this like high degree ofprofessionalism.
I don't really, you know, wantto.
I can't think about real estateright now.
I can't think about learningthe stock market.
I'll just hire someone to dothat later.
But what they miss is numberone.
People you hire for thatcompletely rip you off and can
(26:31):
take up to two thirds of yourwealth.
If you just do an abdicatinglittle like I'm doing the hand
flip where you're just like Idon't want to think about stocks
and bonds, so let someone elsedo that oh, they'll take you for
a run and by retirement youwon't have enough money to
retire, even if you havemillions of dollars in there.
So it's something that youactually do need to take a high
degree of personalresponsibility over as someone
(26:52):
who's holding wealth and prepareyourself before you make all
the money to have these skillsset up Like I.
One of the most gratifyingthings I've done all year is to
run a personal finance coursefor entrepreneurs.
That teaches the nitty grittylike very practical things that
very often people are like well,once I have money, then it'll
make sense for me to take thatcourse.
(27:13):
But the really smart businessowners are the ones who go oh, I
should have a savings plan, Ishould have an investment plan,
I should know how to managemoney.
I should have a savings plan, Ishould have an investment plan.
I should know how to managemoney.
I should make sure I'm legallyprotected in my business by
choosing the right entities anddoing my taxes properly.
I should educate myself on whata real estate business is and
how I could acquire assets waysooner than I even think is
possible, because what I see inthose people and that's
something I had to get on boardwith then the money actually
(27:36):
really does start to show upbecause you know how to steward
it.
You really does start to showup because you know how to
steward it, you know how to bewith it, you have a plan for it
and it is multiplying.
So you're not just focused onwhere's that next high ticket
sale going to come from.
But you know, okay, I made a$15,000 sale where every dollar
of that $15,000 is going to go,because very often people are
like, oh, I made a high ticketsale, I'm just going to spend on
(27:58):
this thing and this thing, andyou know, two purchases later,
the 15K is gone, where thesteward, the CEO, who has this
preparation, her personalfinance, you know is empowered
in that way.
She knows, okay, this is howmuch goes to my taxes, this is
how much goes to, like, down tothe penny.
What is budgeted for thebusiness, what's budgeted for
her personal life, what issavings.
(28:19):
What is she giving or tithingThen?
What is the investment planExactly?
What stocks and bonds is itgoing into and what's her rate
of return that she's going to beseeing in 30 years?
And what is she setting asidefor her future business, her
future wedding, her other bigpurchases in her life?
She knows how to buy houses andcars and invest strategically
in her business because she'sbeen taught to do that.
(28:42):
Well, I mean, I didn't knowthose things and I just bought
houses and cars and then it waslike oh, people who know what
they're doing with money don'tdo that.
So I learned from a lot of mymistakes.
I think that's what, also, whenI teach finance is so valuable,
because I'm teaching from likehey guys, I fell on my face, I
had the millionaire syndrome.
No one taught me this stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Here's the stuff that would have changed my life if I
knew it five years sooner.
Okay, well, I think we need asecond book from you called the
millionaire syndrome, because Iwant to read that book first
time.
Millionaire syndrome um, yeah,I just published, um, my first
book and it was the six figurecreative and it's really like
the awful, awful money mistakesI made on my way to my first six
figures and I think I thinkpeople, you and it's really like
the awful, awful money mistakesI made on my way to my first
six figures and I think I thinkpeople you know it's so valuable
to know.
It's like the money just wentout as fast as it came in and I
(29:31):
was like wait, you know, Iremember when I had my first 20k
month and I was like I'm richforever, I'm never gonna have to
use a credit card ever again.
Like I thought I just like madeit and but nobody talks about
this stuff.
You know, especially women and,I think, a lot of creatives.
You know, yeah, there's a lotof gaps in the conversation and
that's like the conversationthat I'm trying to have with my
(29:52):
book, but I'm curious, like whatyou would say to people who are
kind of on their way to theirfirst six figures in terms of,
you know, stewarding the moneythat they do have like what's
the most valuable investmentsfor them to make at that phase
love this question and congratson your book.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
That's such a big deal to publish your first book
and thanks for the idea for thesecond one.
I that I think it might besomething around finance.
We'll see.
Please, I think they need abudget, everyone needs a budget,
and not go oh, that's scarcity,oh, that's this or that.
(30:34):
I want to live in abundance.
No, you'll be delusional,you'll be totally out of touch
with reality.
Like good business owners, likethe millionaires, I know we live
on a budget, I budget, I liveon a budget.
Yes, I make a lot of money.
I know what I spend, down tothe penny, and I'm sometimes
like on the phone going likechase, I got this extra.
You know duplicated charge for$25 and I'm like taking time to
(30:54):
make sure that no dollar isgoing wasted, because in the
past I was so frivolous withmoney I'd be be like, oh, it's
fine, I can afford it.
I'm making millions Extracharge for this, like extra
shipping for that, and it wasjust careless.
So being careful and intentionalwith your money is not
restrictive.
It actually gives you thefreedom.
Once you know a lot ofentrepreneurs, I'm really
surprised can't tell me hey,last month, here's exactly what
(31:16):
my life cost me.
Here's exactly what my businesscost me.
Here's how much debt I'm in.
Here's the plan that I have toget out of debt.
So having those things super,super important, not going crazy
in debt.
There's all this like abundancestuff about like, oh, just put
it on your credit card, it'llcome in later.
No credit cards.
78% of people who have creditcards have credit card debt like
(31:40):
consistently and don't get outof it and it's you know as much
as compound interest goes uplike this.
Credit card debt tanks us.
So really being mindful that,yes, having access to a line of
credit as a business owner iskind of a necessary thing
sometimes when you're going tohave expenses or just have that
access, but not to depend onthat and not to, you know, just
purchase, purchase, moving atthe speed of cash is often best
(32:02):
and that's why I recommend havea second.
I had a second job, I had athird, I had like three jobs
until I made it over six figures.
I knew that I don't want to putmyself under this financial
pressure.
My business isn't going to growif I'm scared about paying my
rent or covering my bills.
I'm going to make sure that'scoming in from a stable source
and that's another.
I my bills, I'm going to makesure that's coming in from a
(32:25):
stable source, and that'sanother.
I give a lot of advice.
It's unpopular, but it's likeif you guys want results, if you
want the thing to work like, Iwant that for you.
So some of this unpopular stuffis really what works.
And then saving 15% of yourincome for retirement and not
having the mindset of like, oh,that's so far off, or you know,
I'm an entrepreneur, I'm notgoing to need to retire, I'm
always going to be.
Nope, we need, everyone needsto plan for retirement.
15% of your paycheck has got togo there and I recommend giving
(32:47):
10% of your paycheck to charity, generosity, whether, like I'm
Christian, so I give 10% to mychurch, 10% like secularly.
Just studies that you know,people who don't have any kind
of faith necessarily, but whogive generously, everyone across
(33:08):
the board prospers.
They actually can correlate andnot waiting until a later stage
of business to you know, quote,unquote do philanthropy, but
making it a part of the businessand the values.
And then, guess what, you are somuch better off with that
remaining 90%, or when you takeout the 15% for the future, that
75% of your money that's left.
You're going to be so much morecareful and wise and
considerate over that percentageof your income.
It'll actually start tomultiply much faster.
(33:29):
So those are just a few thingsthat again there's overall.
It's the mindset of peoplethinking I'll just do that later
, I'll invest for retirementlater, I'll give later, I'll do
this later and truly, if you putit off until later, you're not
going to get your results untillater.
Do those things first, theresults will come faster and
then you'll be multiplying thewhole way.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
So good.
I move at the speed of cash.
I've never heard that, but Ilove it so much.
Oh, my God, so many goldnuggets in this conversation
today.
Thank you so much for beinghere and sharing your time and
wisdom.
I hope everyone's taken notes.
I hope everybody's goes andimplements these, these amazing
nuggets, and please tell us likewhat have you got going on at
(34:10):
the moment for people who wantto learn more about you?
Where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah, well, I hope I didn't drop too much stuff on
you guys.
I get going.
If you give me the floor, I'mlike, all right, let's go.
I got some things to say.
Please reach out to me onInstagram my handle is
heyelanagialando and share ifyou got a takeaway from this.
I would love to know that.
You could also go toelanagialandocom.
(34:34):
Slash free gifts and I've gotfree messaging and marketing
trainings, one of them calledInbound.
That's absolutely incredibleabout getting more inbound
inquiries into your business,and I have a how I teach new
coaches to start selling fasttraining.
So if you're totally brand new,that's a great place to start
and kind of like everything inbetween.
And my main program is mySapphire Mastermind that
(34:55):
launches twice a year so you canjust reach out at any time.
Sometimes I take one-on-ones, Ihave VIP days, many different
ways that we can work together,and I'd love to meet you.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Amazing.
Thank you so much, elena.
Thank you everybody forlistening.
Please share this episode withanyone who you know would
benefit and we'll see you nextweek.
Bye, bye, guys.
For more inspirational content,head over to my website
withsarahmackcom, and pleasesupport.
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