March 10, 2024 • 33 mins
Are you curious about conquering the chaos of entrepreneurship? Let Ely Delaney, an expert in automated systems strategy and best-selling author, be your guide. As we sit down together, Ely reveals the transformative Entrepreneur ADD principle—Automate, Delegate, Delete—that's redefining how business owners can leverage technology to carve out more time for authentic connections. His perspective is an enlightening blend of tech-savvy efficiency and the irreplaceable human element in professional relationships.
Ely's entrepreneurial path has been anything but straightforward, and in sharing it, you'll see the importance of focusing on what you do best. Reflecting on his shift from running a bustling web and graphic design agency to a more concentrated and profitable venture, he unveils the hard-learned distinction between mere revenue and actual profit. By documenting what lights us up (and what doesn't), we can strategically channel our business efforts toward growth that doesn't just look good on paper but feels rewarding. This episode is also a heartfelt reminder that despite our digital capabilities, the core of business growth is rooted in genuine human relationships that no algorithm can replicate.
As we wrap up, embrace the notion that the quirks of our personality can become our greatest assets in business. We explore the dynamics of adaptability, complex thinking, and the joy of embracing change, even when it feels daunting. Listen to how these elements weave together the entrepreneurial spirit with the strength of interpersonal bonds. By the episode's end, we'll leave you inspired to take that bold first step towards the extraordinary. Join us, and remember, it's not just about doing business—it's about doing it with heart and intellect. Don't miss out on this exploration of entrepreneurship, where passion meets practicality, and making connections is just as important as making the sale.
Takeaways
- Building relationships is crucial for business success.
- Automate, delegate, and delete tasks to focus on income-producing activities and real conversations.
- Embrace contradictions and complexity as an entrepreneur.
- Find alignment with your core values to thrive in business and life.
These are our friends. These are your friends. AND they are living the extraordinary.
For a transcript of this episode, go to www.behindthedreamers.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer (00:25):
Welcome to another episode of Behind the Dreamers.
I'm Jennifer Loehding and weare talking to the achievers,
the creators, the magic makersand the dreamers.
These are our friends, theseare your friends and they are
living the extraordinary Well.
I'm so excited about my guesttoday.
He says, with over 25 years ofexperience, he is an expert at
simplifying the complex andputting things into systems.
(00:46):
He uses technology to helpspeakers, coaches and others
knowledge experts communicatemore effectively.
So you guys are going to be infor an awesome treat.
I'm excited to chat with himbecause I've already gotten to
chat with him so many times offof this episode that we're doing
right here, and he's an amazingperson, a lot of talent, a lot
of skill, and you guys are goingto get to hear some good
information today.
But before we do that, we doneed to do a quick shout out to
(01:09):
our sponsor.
This episode is brought to youby Walt Mills Productions.
Need to add excitement to yourYouTube videos or some expert
hands for editing?
Look no further.
Walt Mills is the solutionyou've been searching for.
Walt is not only your go-to guyfor spicing up content.
He's the force behind athriving film production company
with numerous titles in thepipeline.
(01:29):
Always on the lookout for rawtalent, walt is eager to
collaborate on film and internetproductions.
With a background deeply rootedin entertainment and promotion,
walt Mills leverages years ofskills to give you the spotlight
you deserve.
Want to learn more about Waltand his work?
Head on over toWaltMillsProductionsnet and let
your content shine.
(01:49):
Okay, so with that, we're goingto bring our guests on the show
today.
Ely Delaney is an automatedsystems strategist and a
best-selling author.
He's the founder of thenetworking like a rock star
course and, as I mentionedearlier, 25 years experience
helping people simplify things.
So, Ely, welcome to the show.
We're so excited to have youhere today.
Ely (02:12):
My pleasure to come hang out with you today.
Jennifer (02:14):
This is going to be fun and you got your meat cool
people on the background becauseyou got an awesome podcast and
I love it.
Ely (02:21):
Got to have the meat cool people.
That's the whole point of life.
You know, it's like I alwaystell people.
They always get confused aboutthe fact that I'm an automation
guy and I'm like, yeah, but Iautomate everything I can so I
can do the stuff that I can'tautomate, which is having real
relationships and meeting coolpeople, and that's kind of where
it came from.
Jennifer (02:36):
Yeah, no, I agree with you, and it's always fun to
meet cool people anyway.
So if you can spend time doingthat and getting your work done,
it's kind of cool.
Exactly All right.
So let's talk about what you'redoing.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou got going on there, because
I know our people are going tobe going okay.
What's all of this about?
Ely (02:53):
Okay, so you know I'm an old school automation guy.
I started with some softwarethat we're not even going to
bring up any names, but softwarewas around for a really long
time, back in 2007.
They were very early on.
Nowadays, automation has becomea really common thing.
Everybody in their dog is anautomation expert.
But reality is, what I do is Ihelp people, not just with the
(03:15):
technology.
But how do you communicate moreeffectively, how do you build
better relationships with peoplethat you meet, whether that be
your prospects, your clients,your vendors, all that kind of
stuff and use those toolswithout losing the human touch?
And that's the magic.
That's really the biggest piecewith it is how do you use tools
(03:36):
and technology and automationand AI and all the different
things that are out there,because I know AI is a big hot
button right now but how do youuse those tools without losing
the human touch?
And how do you still have areal conversation with people
while leveraging your timebecause time is the one thing
that we can't buy more of andgive us the time to do the real
(03:59):
relationship building, the realmeeting of the goal.
Jennifer (04:03):
Yeah, and I think we've kind of touched upon that.
You mentioned that in the verybeginning about setting things
up so that you can do the coolthings that you want to do, and
I think that, yeah, I think, ina time where everything is so
busy and I always say, I feellike we always say times are
busy I think they're always busy.
I think, no matter where we arein the cycle life, we're busy.
But I do think that there'ssome truth in that that when we
(04:25):
can get systems in place whetherthat be in our careers or our
personal, whatever that is weget these systems in place it
gives us a flexibility to do thethings that we want to do and
also become more effective inthe things that we want to do.
Ely (04:38):
Right, and there's a couple of things.
One of the things I teach awhole principle, what I call
entrepreneur ADD, which isautomate, delegate and delete.
So automate what you can,delegate the stuff you can't,
and delete the crap youshouldn't be doing anyway.
And when you go through thatthree step process, what ends up
happening with it is it freesyou up to do the things that
(04:59):
can't be automated, delegated,which are the relationships it's
in.
That relationship could begoing to events, One of the
things I love to do.
I love to go to events as aspeaker.
I love being a speaker, I lovegetting on stage, but really the
magic happens when I get offstage and have conversations
with people.
That's my favorite part.
Me cool people got startedliterally because I used to in
(05:21):
2019, I was traveling around thecountry speaking to different
events and I would.
Literally, it's like I might bespeaking, but after I get off
stage, somebody's like that wasgreat, Thank you so much.
Which I always love is alwaysappreciate that, but I'm like
thank you, that was awesome.
By the way, I'm going to getsome people together for dinner.
Why don't you come join us andwe would have 10, 15, 20 people
(05:44):
to get together and we would goto some weird oddball place I
wasn't going to fancy dining, Iwould go to the hole in the wall
that had the best food and thebest environment and have the
most amazing conversations andwhen you can set your business
up to do a lot of that stuff,the behind the scenes, the heavy
lifting stuff, stuff you don'treally want to do or don't like
to do and to free you up to havethose kind of events that could
(06:08):
be a business event or goingand spending more time with your
family it doesn't really matterwhat you do with the time, as
long as you're doing somethingthat's of value and that could
be spending time with yourfamily, spending time with
relationships, helping yourhighest level clients in a more
intimate way whatever that is,and whatever that is gets you
excited.
That's what it's all about.
(06:29):
That's what automation isreally designed for, and so
that's where I like to helppeople with getting those pieces
and those foundations in place.
Jennifer (06:37):
I like the ADD.
Say that again.
I like that one, that partright there is like sticking in
my head oh yeah.
Ely (06:43):
So I always say we go into automate what you can delegate,
what you can't delete, the crapyou shouldn't be doing anyway.
That is entrepreneur ADD.
Jennifer (06:53):
Yeah, I love it.
That's what's sticking in myhead right now.
There's a lot of good takeawaysthere, though, eli, cause I
think that, yeah, I think we getso hung up on busy work, doing
tasks, and we think that because, oddly enough, I work with a
lot of ADD, adhd, whatever youwant to call these guys I work
with a lot of them.
They somehow gravitate towardsme, and one of the things I
(07:15):
always talk about because youhear from them a lot of times is
that they have trouble focusingon what's important, and I
think, as a whole, asentrepreneurs, a lot of us have
trouble focusing on what isimportant.
So I think what you're sayingis so true there, because we'll
get boggled down in things thatreally don't contribute.
They're things that probablyneed to be done, but they're not
really what I like to callincome producing activities.
They're not things that aregoing to generate income for us
(07:37):
or really put us into our zonewhere we're doing something that
we are really gifted at doing.
You know, like I talk about mine, if I talk about me like I'm a
forward facing person, I lovehaving conversations,
communicating, I'm a seller, I'mokay on the front, the behind
the scenes stuff, not that Ihave a problem being behind it,
just don't like the technicalthings, I don't like all those
(07:58):
things.
I get bored and then I end upyou know what do you call
procrastinating not getting itdone.
And so I think when you cantake this, what you're talking
about, automate, delegate anddelete, when you can come from
this perspective, you can reallystart honing in on.
Okay, maybe this is an areathat I'm not really good at.
This is a delegation area, ormaybe it's something I don't
even need in my business.
(08:18):
It's not something that isreally important to what we're
doing here, you know.
And so I think that I like whatyou, I like how you got it into
these little three letters andit can stick in somebody's head.
Ely (08:31):
Yeah, well, and here's the thing with that is that, like, I
love to automate what I can.
Really it boils down to onething and I share this so much
is because we, as human beings,we will drop the ball, we will
screw something up.
That is human nature.
We will forget, fires willhappen, things will get put on
the back burner, doesn't matterwhat the reason is, it's gonna
(08:52):
happen, right?
So if we can use the tools andtechnology that we've been given
to us to alleviate a lot ofthat and let the machine just do
its job, then that makes it so.
It's like okay, the human errorhas now been removed out of
that, and that's why I'm a bigadvocate for using automation in
our businesses as much aspossible, except not when it
(09:15):
comes to relationships.
And that's the key with that isbecause you can automate a lot
of stuff.
I have, literally I have acampaign that runs for three
years.
My running joke is I could gooutside and get hit by a bus
today and still sell you stufffor three more years.
And people hear that.
They're like oh, that's intense.
I'm like yeah, I say itjokingly and yes, don't worry
(09:35):
about me, I look to cross, orlook both ways twice before
crossing the streets, and I stayaway from buses like the plague
.
But the idea behind it is howcan you let the machine just run
so you can focus on things thatare better?
It could be your unique ability.
What is it that gets youexcited?
What is it you're really bestat?
And, most importantly, how doyou have the real conversations
(09:56):
with real people?
Because that's the key.
That's where relationships grow.
If you wanna grow your business, it is all about relationships.
But you can't be spending thetime on the relationships if
you're worried about how am Igonna post this social media
every day, or how am I going tocreate these graphics on Canva
(10:17):
or whatever it's like.
No, you shouldn't be doing thatkind of stuff.
And that's where the greatthing is.
You can delegate stuff out,which is awesome, but I try to
automate first, because evendelegating to another human,
it's still another human.
They're gonna mess things up,and it's not because there's
anything wrong with the person.
They're just.
They're human.
We make mistakes.
So let the robot do its job andthen, if the robot can't handle
(10:41):
it, then you bring in the humanperson to do the job, and then
you also look at.
You know a lot of times.
Sometimes I start people withthe delete part section first
because it's like okay, you'redoing way too many things that
are not important.
We need to get some of thatstuff.
Jennifer (10:56):
It's amazing too, when you look at other people's
activities, right, and you dothat you look and go.
Why are we working on this?
Do we even need this, right?
We're all guilty of it.
We're all just entrepreneurs.
We all are.
We all have to tick stock ofhow we're running our businesses
and where we're putting ourenergy.
And I do agree with youRelationships are the most
important, one of the things youknow.
Having been in the backgroundwith Mary Kay for as long as I
(11:17):
was, you know, I recognized thatwe were all about building
relationships, but I didn'treally even understand how
important it was even in thatcontext, until I went out on my
own and started reallyunderstanding the power.
When you really get to knowpeople and how you can, you know
you can benefit yourself andthem both when you get to know
(11:39):
people, right, because we usedto always say, mary Kay, nothing
happens till something's soldand you ain't gonna sell
anything unless you get to knowpeople, because you can't.
I mean you may, on and offchance, make a sale to somebody
on a quick sale, but in order toretain a client, you're going
to have to build a relationship.
So I love what you're doing.
So quick question because Ilike to talk about.
You know the entrepreneurjourney on here, and how long
now have you been in businessfor yourself?
(12:02):
We're going on close to 30 years, okay, so you've been doing
this a long time then.
Yeah, Okay, so I love that thisis my second business.
Ely (12:09):
The first one was a Web and Graphic Design Agency.
I grew that from my dining roomby myself, worked in insane,
crazy hours.
I ended up growing it to thepoint where I had an office.
I had five employees, close tothree to five contracts a week.
We were killing it, growinglike crazy, yeah, and I realized
I didn't like having an officeand I wasn't sure I liked my
employees either and had to makea change and Delete yeah.
Jennifer (12:31):
You had to delete.
Ely (12:32):
I had to delete, I did and I deleted, I restructured the
entire thing and the funny thingis that as soon as I did that,
I went through that process,that delete phase, and as soon
as I did that I literally themonthly income dropped by 10K a
month, but the profit increasedby doing that.
Jennifer (12:52):
Right Because.
Ely (12:53):
I became more streamlined and I focused on the most
important things.
Jennifer (12:58):
I'm glad I asked that question because that's an
important concept right there,because a lot of times people
think they're looking at thedollars coming on but then
they're not really looking atwhere their money is going.
And if you're, you know makingthis but you got a lot going out
the door because you're notautomating and deleting right,
getting systems in place, thenyou're wasting a lot of money
and you may not be taken in asmuch as you think.
So thanks for sharing thatYou're welcome.
(13:20):
It's a good point.
It's a good point.
A lot of people and I think weall I mean, like you know, I
think all of us, someentrepreneurs I've got a lot of
people, some entrepreneurs, Ifeel like get in and they, they
stay in their same, you know,they get their business and they
kind of stay through the wholetime and that same.
And I think a lot of us we sortof evolve in.
Sometimes it, you know, goesinto something else.
But I always talk about thesenonlinear paths and I always
(13:43):
feel like we sort of do similarthings.
But we get better because weevolve and we figure out where
our strengths are and we extractthe pieces that were really
good and we start to capitalizeon those pieces right.
We get smarter about where weneed to be placing our energy
and effort.
Ely (13:58):
Yeah, I mean it's.
You know, at first you're justtrying to do, you're just trying
to survive, like when you firstcome out as an entrepreneur.
You're just trying to surviveand make it in the world as,
okay, I'm going to start my ownthing.
And there's a lot of excitementwith that and it's new and it's
scary, and so you're fumbling alot.
Over time you start realizing,okay, here's the things that I'm
better at, here's the thingsthat I might be great at and
(14:21):
this is a really important one,because I've suffered from this
multiple times this is stuffthat I'm really great at, but I
hate doing it, so I shouldn't bedoing it.
And over time you kind of needto document that.
You need to really write downthese are the things that I'm
great with, these are the thingsI'm not great with, these are
the things that I enjoy doingand these are things I can't
stand to do.
And really write that stuffdown, because that will shortcut
(14:45):
your learning curve and yourgrowth and scaling capabilities.
Once you define what thosepieces are because then that
helps you define here's my pieceof genius and where I should be
focusing and you realize allthese other things are things
that you really shouldn't befocusing on.
It's like a great example forme because I come from a web
(15:08):
design background and I did that, like I said, it was almost 30
years ago.
So I have design experience, Ihave coding experience, but
today, when I'm working with myclients, the worst part of my
time is when I'm in therehelping them screw around with
one of their websites becausesomething isn't lining up quite
right and I'm like why am I?
(15:29):
doing this.
I should be doing this.
Why am I doing this?
Yeah, yeah, and the sad thingis I actually kind of enjoy it,
but it is a very, very bad part.
Use of my time, yeah, and Ishould be focusing on strategy
and things like that.
And so you have to, no matterwhere you are in business,
whether you've been around for awhile or just starting out
especially if you're startingout do it now, because you'll
(15:49):
save yourself a lot of headachedown the road and you start
making those lists of thingsthat again, it's like what are
you good at?
What are you not good at?
What do you love doing?
What is it that you can't standdoing?
Kind of, put those liststogether and you'll start seeing
where in the matrix they allfit in.
And those are the things like,when you can, it's like okay, I
(16:11):
don't like doing this thing, butthis is a repetitive task.
Can I put a little bit of timein?
That's going to cost me a bitmore and I'm not going to like
it, but if I put it in now, Ican automate it and then it just
works.
Yeah, which is what I help alot of clients with is like
there are things that they don'tlike doing and they fumble
around them and it's like let'sput in the work right now,
(16:33):
because once you build it onceand you might put in 40, 50
hours to build it in, but thefirst time it's done it's
literally going to work for youfor the next 20 years.
Yeah, is that a good trade-off?
Yes, and so you'll startfiguring those things out and
again, if you can, anything youcan automate, take advantage of
that and use it Anything.
(16:54):
Again, accept yourrelationships.
You've got to have realconversations with real human
beings.
Ad (16:58):
Entrepreneurs, are you ready to level up your leadership
skills?
Tune in now for an exclusiveoffer designed just for you.
This is my time.
Did you know?
63% of consumers preferbusinesses aligned with their
values?
Recognizing your core valuesisn't just vital for business
growth, it's the bedrock ofeffective leadership.
Things are way in the games onthe line.
Whether you're a seasonedentrepreneur or an aspiring
(17:21):
creator, identifying your corevalues is a key step in
constructing the framework of asuccessful leader, enabling you
to lead authentically, expandyour business and live life on
your terms.
Are you ready to access toolsto kickstart your leadership
(17:46):
journey?
Unlock a treasure trove ofinsights and get your free
resources at wwwlinktreecom.
Take that crucial first steptoward realizing your leadership
aspirations and elevate yourleadership game today.
Jennifer (17:59):
This is good, eli, all good.
So, because you've been inbusiness for a while, this is
probably going to be maybe not atricky question.
I don't know, but I think a lotof times, you know, when people
hear these episodes and theyhear somebody like you or myself
who's been an entrepreneur formany, many years, they look and
go okay, this is where you areright now.
Right, like, somehow you skippedall these years and went from
(18:20):
here to here and you've saidsome really valuable things
about learning, how you had tolearn to automate and delegate,
to lead your.
Whatever You've learned, thesehave been skills that you've
acquired through your time as anentrepreneur, but for somebody
listening to this, they're goingwell, okay, so, you know, I
probably, you know, might havehad this easy, and you and I
both know that is not the case,because it never is an easy
journey down the entrepreneurpath.
But I would love to know, like,maybe, if you can remember a
(18:42):
time in the beginning when youwere doing this maybe a struggle
aside from the part where youhad to learn, you know, to
figure out what was good, whatyou're good at and what you
needed to move and maybe anotherstruggle that you face coming
into this entrepreneur space.
Ely (18:56):
Okay.
So I mean I could we can goback to.
Actually, even for my designagency was actually one of the
biggest ones, which was when Ihit that point, like I was.
I mean, our business wasexcelling massively and, like I
said, I went from myself out ofmy dining room to an office,
five employees and we wereliterally closing three to five
new contracts every week.
(19:17):
I mean it was crazy, yeah.
But the things that I ran intowere I didn't like having an
office.
I didn't have to.
I didn't like having to get upand go to an office every day.
But then, more more importantly, I wasn't happy with the
relationship I had with myemployees.
The staff was just driving menuts and I was miserable and I
(19:39):
had to go through a you know,come to Jesus moment.
You know it's like what are wegoing to do here?
And I figured out that it waslike you know what.
I just can't deal with thisanymore, because I had I had one
rule with anybody who cameworking with me, and I still
keep this rule.
If anybody works with me, it'slike it's real simple If you're
not having fun, get the hell outDone, yeah, yeah.
And I actually had to go to myemployees and I'm like okay,
(20:02):
here's the deal, this is what'sgoing on, and I had all kinds of
different problems I hadliterally one of them was
freelancing and doing otherpeople's websites during while I
was paying them to work for me.
While I was out doing sales Ihad another one that was late
every day.
I mean, it was just a wholemess and I finally was like no,
this is not, this is not workingand you guys know the rule.
(20:23):
What's the rule?
And they all repeated itbecause they knew the rule and
I'm like here's the problem, I'mnot having fun, but it's my
business.
I got to do something differentand it was a really really hard
thing for me because I had notjust invested in this people
that I thought were the rightfit, and I had done a lot of
above and beyond to help themout with their personal lives
and things like that, and so Ikind of felt betrayed at the
(20:45):
same time too.
But I had invested so much inthe business to be prepared to
have all the equipment and thesoftware and everything we
needed that it hit me hard.
But I was like you know whatyou got to do it and it was a
little bit of a struggle to kindof figure out what was that
going to look like.
And once I did, it worked verywell and it's one of those
(21:11):
things.
It's a learning curve.
You know we all go through thesekind of things.
It doesn't matter what kind ofbusiness you have or how, how
long.
If you have business experience, like for me.
When I started my business, Ihad no idea.
I couldn't even spellentrepreneur.
I had no clue what it was, Ijust knew that was word it was.
It was this really big, longword that sounded fancy and what
(21:33):
ended up happening with it wasthat I had multiple jobs that I
just was miserable in, and wegot to a point where, you know,
I had multiple, multiple bosses,that we come to a mutual
understanding that I wasunemployable and so I ended up
going out on my own and Ihaven't regretted it one day.
There are days where I regretgetting up in the morning
(21:53):
because it's just realfrustrating.
But that's part ofentrepreneurship, and if you're
in this journey and you haven'thit that point yet, know you're
going to the kicker is is thatworth it for what's on the other
side?
Because even like I said,almost 30 years later, I have
(22:15):
been doing this a long time.
I've shifted to a completelyseparate business.
I have completely shifted onhow that business looks like.
What I do today is verydifferent than it was 10 years
ago.
But at the end of the day, nomatter what, I've been through
so many ups and downs and mostpeople don't even see what the
downs look like behind thescenes, but it is so much better
(22:39):
because, most importantly, Iknow I'm making a bigger impact
and to me, if I can take myknowledge and my wisdom and help
other entrepreneurs, becausethat is part of my unique
ability.
When I do that, it's all worthit at the end, and I know
there's going to be morefrustrations.
There are going to be otherdays where I'm going to throw in
(23:00):
the tail and go work atMcDonald's.
It's going to happen, but Iwon't do it.
I'll keep doing it and at theend I'll be like I'm really glad
I didn't make that decision,because today's a really good
day and that's just how it works.
Jennifer (23:15):
Yeah, and you've said a lot of really good things
there and I think that goingback to your story and thanks
for coming back to that that wasa good.
We probably should have pickedup there that good point.
It's all good.
Yeah, I think that there is,anytime you're making change and
whether it's jumping in anentrepreneur space or if you're
going to go make a change in anyarea of your life, I think it's
(23:37):
hard, especially when you getin a comfortable space where you
were financially, you werecomfortable, right, you knew
what you were doing there, youhad things right, but you were
unhappy in the space that youwere in and you recognized that.
And I think that's a harddecision sometimes, when you're
in those comfortable spaces ofdo I let that go?
And I think that's why you seeso many people in the workforce
like they'll be at a job thatthey've been at for years,
(23:57):
making good money, and then allof a sudden, you know later
stages of life.
They, just like you, know whatmy priorities.
This is not in alignment withmy core values, or and I don't
know if they want to use theword core values they'll just
realize it's not in alignmentwith their priorities.
They're miserable, right?
They just know I'm just nothappy where I'm at you and I
know better.
We know that it's because it'sprobably not lining up with who
they, how they see their liferight, and so they walk away and
(24:19):
they take a job where they makeless money but they're happier.
And I think it all comes down towhen you look at this it's
really about going.
Take.
Take what you say and whatwe're saying here about
everything learning to workwithin your gifts, finding where
you're happy in alignment withyour core values and building on
relationships.
If we had to sum up all ofthese points that we're talking
(24:41):
about in this particular episode, I really think that's the key
to being happy inentrepreneurship.
It's finding what you're goodat right, delegating, automating
, working in your zone, buildingyour relationships and making
sure that all of this is inalignment with your values.
And you got a perfectcombination.
Ely (25:00):
Yeah and know that things will change.
You know, you may get to apoint you might be happy as a
clam today and just rocking it,and then next year, six, it
could be three months from now.
All of a sudden it's just likeyou know what this isn't serving
me anymore and you may not evenknow why.
And I tend to be really slow tomake that change when I do,
because I'm a lot more stubbornand I don't like to give it up.
(25:22):
Sure, you know, even morerecently I've changed a bunch of
stuff in my own business thatit took it's taken me like a
year and a half to find the go.
Okay, fine, we're going to do,let it go.
Yeah, let it go, move on,because some of us are stubborn
and slow and you know it happens.
But know that those kind ofthings are going to happen and
it's okay.
(25:42):
And you are going to resist it,because human beings by nature
don't like change.
We want to stick with what'scomfortable.
That's why so many people stayin the same job for years.
That are miserable is becausethat's a safety zone.
They're comfortable, eventhough they're comfortable being
uncomfortable because they hateit, they don't like it, but
(26:04):
they're comfortable being thereand it's the pain is not as much
as the pleasure to move intheir eyes.
Right.
And so if you decide to jumpinto the entrepreneurial world,
that's where it's like all right, we're changing this.
And you brought up somethingearlier.
You talked about working with alot of people that are ADD or
ADHD.
Reality is that most of usentrepreneurs are.
(26:27):
Whether you've been actuallydiagnosed or not.
Chances are if you're anentrepreneur.
Chances are just admit it, justbe okay with it.
Here's a cool thing is likewhen I had, I had somebody
wanted early on, when ADHD wasstill kind of a new thing, I had
somebody that's like, well, youknow, I went to the doctor and
I've been diagnosed with ADHD.
I'm like, oh really, we had noclue.
You know, it's like justtotally joking.
(26:48):
It's like, by the way, how muchdid you pay for that?
Because I could have told youthe same thing for half the
price.
Easily Embrace it.
No, because all that is is yourbrain is wired differently and
entrepreneurs the by definitionentrepreneurs solve problems for
a profit.
Your brain is wired to look fora problem that you can fix
(27:10):
Right, and that's why focus isso difficult, because your brain
is looking for that.
The problem is that once youget the idea of how to fix it,
your brain is done.
You're moving on to the nextthing, when it might not have
actually been fixed yet.
You know how to fix it, but youdon't want to do the work.
Do you want somebody else to dothat?
That's where delegation comesin right, and always know that.
(27:31):
And know that if you are intothis entrepreneurial world,
chances are, yeah, you willprobably have a bit of ADHD in
you, and that's okay.
Embrace it, have fun with it.
And going back to relationshipsAnywhere you want to go, the
people that you meet are goingto get you there.
You've got to build therelationships.
(27:53):
That is the one key that youcannot skip that step.
Jennifer (27:57):
That's good Eli.
All good stuff, All right.
Someone asked you a funquestion.
You're going to laugh at thisone.
If you had to sum Eli up in oneword, what would that look like
?
Ely (28:07):
Oh, walking contradiction.
Jennifer (28:09):
I like it.
It was a couple of words, but Ilike it.
I've never heard that onebefore.
That's good.
You should.
You're living in a paradox,right?
Ely (28:18):
Yeah, If we got a second, I can explain it.
My daughter actually called methat one time because I am
people, drive me nuts.
You know we like it.
Jennifer (28:25):
But you love people.
Ely (28:27):
Yeah, we have all those silly, stupid things my
daughter's like you always talkabout how you hate people
because they drive you nuts, butyou love people You're hanging
out with, you talk to people allthe time.
You're like a poster child forwhat not to do on Stranger
Danger because you talk toanybody anywhere.
I was like, oh yeah, it is.
It's true, I'm a walkingcontradiction because people
drive me nuts, because they dosilly, weird things that I just
(28:49):
don't contemplate, I don'tunderstand, but at the same time
, hearing people's stories ofwhy they do what they do and how
the journey that they've beenon has been just so fascinating,
and so that's why I'm a walkingcontradiction.
Jennifer (29:01):
I like it.
Well, you know, if youunderstand the whole, I bring
this little plug in because I'vetalked about this before about
the five and not the fivedysfunctions, the levels of
adult stages of development theytalk about on the higher levels
, living sort of in a paradoxwhere, like, you can change your
mind about things.
You don't have to be set instone about everything.
That's when you mentioned aboutstubbornness.
(29:22):
It's okay to be stubborn.
Sometimes I think you've got tobe stubborn as an entrepreneur,
I think you need to be stubbornreally in a lot of things if
you want to excel.
But I think sometimes you gotto learn to let things go and
change your mind, right.
And so I think you can be awalking contradiction.
I think you can say one thingand do another, as long as
you're not hurting anybody inthe process, right?
Because we, you know, humansare complex, and I sometimes say
(29:44):
that same thing about peopletoo, because, as much as I love
people, sometimes they drive mecrazy too, the quirky things
they do and the decisions thatthey make and why they do the
same things over and over andexpect different results.
And, like you know, when I talkto people, when I'm working
with them.
It's like the same patterns ofbehavior, you know, will come up
, and one of my mentors used tosay you know that would that
which is most personal.
(30:04):
I forgot what the last part, butbasically what he was saying is
that what we think is mostpersonal, oh, that which is most
personal is universal.
We always think our things arepersonal, but the morals are
universal.
Right, like everybody's gotreally the same theme.
They just go about doing it andthey think it's personal.
You know, they do itdifferently and it looks
personal.
So you do, you watch people andthey're complex and they do
(30:25):
quirky things, and but you knowthat this is how we thrive.
Humans are meant to haverelationships and connections,
and whether you want to isolatethat, say that's only about
business, it's not, it's outsideof that too.
So I think it's OK to be awalking contradiction.
That's my point.
Ely (30:42):
I like it.
Jennifer (30:43):
It's all good, all right.
I want you to put a plug inreal quick for your podcast and
tell us where we can find youwebsite.
All those good things.
Ely (30:53):
Yeah, so the podcast is the Me Cool People podcast and it
really is exactly that.
I get you know, I have thehonor of getting to meet some
really amazing people.
You know, as a speaker, when Iwas traveling all over the
country to the point of peoplethat I meet in a virtual world,
now networking in person, that'show you, when I met, was
through somebody else that I'min another group with, I get to
(31:14):
meet some really amazing peoplein this and the podcast is my
way to be able to share themwith other people, because it's
like, ok, you're cool, you gotsome good stuff.
I want other people to meet you, and so that's what I do with
the podcast and the easiest wayfor people to get a hold of me.
It's real simple Go to connectwith Elicom.
Eli is El, why not El I?
If you go to El I, it's goingto be some dude.
(31:35):
I think it's commercial realestate dude in the middle of
South Dakota or something likethat.
Jennifer (31:39):
Not who we're talking to today.
Ely (31:41):
Yeah, so connect with Elicom.
You can find a link to thepodcast, my website, all my
social media If you thought thiswas a fun conversation.
Like I said, I love meetingcool people.
You can even book on mycalendar right there, so it's
we'll have a good chat.
This doesn't matter, it's allabout having fun meeting cool
people, so that's the best wayto connect with Elicom.
(32:01):
All the places you need to doare right there.
I do ask one thing, though ifyou're going to reach out to me,
I totally encourage it, nomatter how you do it, but please
say how you heard me.
You heard me on this showbecause I love to know where am
I making an impact?
Where am I?
Where did?
Where do people come from?
Because I would not have metyou if it hadn't been for
(32:24):
Jennifer.
Yeah, I mean that's.
That's really where it works.
So if you're reaching out to me, make sure you just put a
little note with it.
Jennifer (32:31):
Absolutely Good stuff.
You, I will make sure to.
When we get, you know, all thebills and whistles on there.
We'll get some plugs in therefor you too, so everybody knows
where to find it.
So when your website looks nice, by the way.
I checked it out.
Lots of good stuff on there, sopeople can definitely head on
over there and see what you gotgoing, and if they need to
automate, you know some systemsthen you're the person they need
to be chatting with.
Ely (32:48):
So definitely Love to chat about it All right.
Jennifer (32:53):
And then, of course, we do want to say to our
listeners if you've enjoyed theshow, head on over to Apple,
give us a review over there.
You can head on over to YouTube, subscribe.
And as I always say, in orderto live the extraordinary, you
must start, and every startbegins with a decision.
You guys, take care, be safe,be kind to one another.
We will see you next time.
Welcome to another episode of Behind the Dreamers.
I'm Jennifer Loehding and weare talking to the achievers,
the creators, the magic makersand the dreamers.
These are our friends, theseare your friends and they are
living the extraordinary Well.
I'm so excited about my guesttoday.
He says, with over 25 years ofexperience, he is an expert at
simplifying the complex andputting things into systems.
(00:46):
He uses technology to helpspeakers, coaches and others
knowledge experts communicatemore effectively.
So you guys are going to be infor an awesome treat.
I'm excited to chat with himbecause I've already gotten to
chat with him so many times offof this episode that we're doing
right here, and he's an amazingperson, a lot of talent, a lot
of skill, and you guys are goingto get to hear some good
information today.
But before we do that, we doneed to do a quick shout out to
(01:09):
our sponsor.
This episode is brought to youby Walt Mills Productions.
Need to add excitement to yourYouTube videos or some expert
hands for editing?
Look no further.
Walt Mills is the solutionyou've been searching for.
Walt is not only your go-to guyfor spicing up content.
He's the force behind athriving film production company
with numerous titles in thepipeline.
(01:29):
Always on the lookout for rawtalent, walt is eager to
collaborate on film and internetproductions.
With a background deeply rootedin entertainment and promotion,
walt Mills leverages years ofskills to give you the spotlight
you deserve.
Want to learn more about Waltand his work?
Head on over toWaltMillsProductionsnet and let
your content shine.
(01:49):
Okay, so with that, we're goingto bring our guests on the show
today.
Ely Delaney is an automatedsystems strategist and a
best-selling author.
He's the founder of thenetworking like a rock star
course and, as I mentionedearlier, 25 years experience
helping people simplify things.
So, Ely, welcome to the show.
We're so excited to have youhere today.
Ely (02:12):
My pleasure to come hang out with you today.
Jennifer (02:14):
This is going to be fun and you got your meat cool
people on the background becauseyou got an awesome podcast and
I love it.
Ely (02:21):
Got to have the meat cool people.
That's the whole point of life.
You know, it's like I alwaystell people.
They always get confused aboutthe fact that I'm an automation
guy and I'm like, yeah, but Iautomate everything I can so I
can do the stuff that I can'tautomate, which is having real
relationships and meeting coolpeople, and that's kind of where
it came from.
Jennifer (02:36):
Yeah, no, I agree with you, and it's always fun to
meet cool people anyway.
So if you can spend time doingthat and getting your work done,
it's kind of cool.
Exactly All right.
So let's talk about what you'redoing.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou got going on there, because
I know our people are going tobe going okay.
What's all of this about?
Ely (02:53):
Okay, so you know I'm an old school automation guy.
I started with some softwarethat we're not even going to
bring up any names, but softwarewas around for a really long
time, back in 2007.
They were very early on.
Nowadays, automation has becomea really common thing.
Everybody in their dog is anautomation expert.
But reality is, what I do is Ihelp people, not just with the
(03:15):
technology.
But how do you communicate moreeffectively, how do you build
better relationships with peoplethat you meet, whether that be
your prospects, your clients,your vendors, all that kind of
stuff and use those toolswithout losing the human touch?
And that's the magic.
That's really the biggest piecewith it is how do you use tools
(03:36):
and technology and automationand AI and all the different
things that are out there,because I know AI is a big hot
button right now but how do youuse those tools without losing
the human touch?
And how do you still have areal conversation with people
while leveraging your timebecause time is the one thing
that we can't buy more of andgive us the time to do the real
(03:59):
relationship building, the realmeeting of the goal.
Jennifer (04:03):
Yeah, and I think we've kind of touched upon that.
You mentioned that in the verybeginning about setting things
up so that you can do the coolthings that you want to do, and
I think that, yeah, I think, ina time where everything is so
busy and I always say, I feellike we always say times are
busy I think they're always busy.
I think, no matter where we arein the cycle life, we're busy.
But I do think that there'ssome truth in that that when we
(04:25):
can get systems in place whetherthat be in our careers or our
personal, whatever that is weget these systems in place it
gives us a flexibility to do thethings that we want to do and
also become more effective inthe things that we want to do.
Ely (04:38):
Right, and there's a couple of things.
One of the things I teach awhole principle, what I call
entrepreneur ADD, which isautomate, delegate and delete.
So automate what you can,delegate the stuff you can't,
and delete the crap youshouldn't be doing anyway.
And when you go through thatthree step process, what ends up
happening with it is it freesyou up to do the things that
(04:59):
can't be automated, delegated,which are the relationships it's
in.
That relationship could begoing to events, One of the
things I love to do.
I love to go to events as aspeaker.
I love being a speaker, I lovegetting on stage, but really the
magic happens when I get offstage and have conversations
with people.
That's my favorite part.
Me cool people got startedliterally because I used to in
(05:21):
2019, I was traveling around thecountry speaking to different
events and I would.
Literally, it's like I might bespeaking, but after I get off
stage, somebody's like that wasgreat, Thank you so much.
Which I always love is alwaysappreciate that, but I'm like
thank you, that was awesome.
By the way, I'm going to getsome people together for dinner.
Why don't you come join us andwe would have 10, 15, 20 people
(05:44):
to get together and we would goto some weird oddball place I
wasn't going to fancy dining, Iwould go to the hole in the wall
that had the best food and thebest environment and have the
most amazing conversations andwhen you can set your business
up to do a lot of that stuff,the behind the scenes, the heavy
lifting stuff, stuff you don'treally want to do or don't like
to do and to free you up to havethose kind of events that could
(06:08):
be a business event or goingand spending more time with your
family it doesn't really matterwhat you do with the time, as
long as you're doing somethingthat's of value and that could
be spending time with yourfamily, spending time with
relationships, helping yourhighest level clients in a more
intimate way whatever that is,and whatever that is gets you
excited.
That's what it's all about.
(06:29):
That's what automation isreally designed for, and so
that's where I like to helppeople with getting those pieces
and those foundations in place.
Jennifer (06:37):
I like the ADD.
Say that again.
I like that one, that partright there is like sticking in
my head oh yeah.
Ely (06:43):
So I always say we go into automate what you can delegate,
what you can't delete, the crapyou shouldn't be doing anyway.
That is entrepreneur ADD.
Jennifer (06:53):
Yeah, I love it.
That's what's sticking in myhead right now.
There's a lot of good takeawaysthere, though, eli, cause I
think that, yeah, I think we getso hung up on busy work, doing
tasks, and we think that because, oddly enough, I work with a
lot of ADD, adhd, whatever youwant to call these guys I work
with a lot of them.
They somehow gravitate towardsme, and one of the things I
(07:15):
always talk about because youhear from them a lot of times is
that they have trouble focusingon what's important, and I
think, as a whole, asentrepreneurs, a lot of us have
trouble focusing on what isimportant.
So I think what you're sayingis so true there, because we'll
get boggled down in things thatreally don't contribute.
They're things that probablyneed to be done, but they're not
really what I like to callincome producing activities.
They're not things that aregoing to generate income for us
(07:37):
or really put us into our zonewhere we're doing something that
we are really gifted at doing.
You know, like I talk about mine, if I talk about me like I'm a
forward facing person, I lovehaving conversations,
communicating, I'm a seller, I'mokay on the front, the behind
the scenes stuff, not that Ihave a problem being behind it,
just don't like the technicalthings, I don't like all those
(07:58):
things.
I get bored and then I end upyou know what do you call
procrastinating not getting itdone.
And so I think when you cantake this, what you're talking
about, automate, delegate anddelete, when you can come from
this perspective, you can reallystart honing in on.
Okay, maybe this is an areathat I'm not really good at.
This is a delegation area, ormaybe it's something I don't
even need in my business.
(08:18):
It's not something that isreally important to what we're
doing here, you know.
And so I think that I like whatyou, I like how you got it into
these little three letters andit can stick in somebody's head.
Ely (08:31):
Yeah, well, and here's the thing with that is that, like, I
love to automate what I can.
Really it boils down to onething and I share this so much
is because we, as human beings,we will drop the ball, we will
screw something up.
That is human nature.
We will forget, fires willhappen, things will get put on
the back burner, doesn't matterwhat the reason is, it's gonna
(08:52):
happen, right?
So if we can use the tools andtechnology that we've been given
to us to alleviate a lot ofthat and let the machine just do
its job, then that makes it so.
It's like okay, the human errorhas now been removed out of
that, and that's why I'm a bigadvocate for using automation in
our businesses as much aspossible, except not when it
(09:15):
comes to relationships.
And that's the key with that isbecause you can automate a lot
of stuff.
I have, literally I have acampaign that runs for three
years.
My running joke is I could gooutside and get hit by a bus
today and still sell you stufffor three more years.
And people hear that.
They're like oh, that's intense.
I'm like yeah, I say itjokingly and yes, don't worry
(09:35):
about me, I look to cross, orlook both ways twice before
crossing the streets, and I stayaway from buses like the plague
.
But the idea behind it is howcan you let the machine just run
so you can focus on things thatare better?
It could be your unique ability.
What is it that gets youexcited?
What is it you're really bestat?
And, most importantly, how doyou have the real conversations
(09:56):
with real people?
Because that's the key.
That's where relationships grow.
If you wanna grow your business, it is all about relationships.
But you can't be spending thetime on the relationships if
you're worried about how am Igonna post this social media
every day, or how am I going tocreate these graphics on Canva
(10:17):
or whatever it's like.
No, you shouldn't be doing thatkind of stuff.
And that's where the greatthing is.
You can delegate stuff out,which is awesome, but I try to
automate first, because evendelegating to another human,
it's still another human.
They're gonna mess things up,and it's not because there's
anything wrong with the person.
They're just.
They're human.
We make mistakes.
So let the robot do its job andthen, if the robot can't handle
(10:41):
it, then you bring in the humanperson to do the job, and then
you also look at.
You know a lot of times.
Sometimes I start people withthe delete part section first
because it's like okay, you'redoing way too many things that
are not important.
We need to get some of thatstuff.
Jennifer (10:56):
It's amazing too, when you look at other people's
activities, right, and you dothat you look and go.
Why are we working on this?
Do we even need this, right?
We're all guilty of it.
We're all just entrepreneurs.
We all are.
We all have to tick stock ofhow we're running our businesses
and where we're putting ourenergy.
And I do agree with youRelationships are the most
important, one of the things youknow.
Having been in the backgroundwith Mary Kay for as long as I
(11:17):
was, you know, I recognized thatwe were all about building
relationships, but I didn'treally even understand how
important it was even in thatcontext, until I went out on my
own and started reallyunderstanding the power.
When you really get to knowpeople and how you can, you know
you can benefit yourself andthem both when you get to know
(11:39):
people, right, because we usedto always say, mary Kay, nothing
happens till something's soldand you ain't gonna sell
anything unless you get to knowpeople, because you can't.
I mean you may, on and offchance, make a sale to somebody
on a quick sale, but in order toretain a client, you're going
to have to build a relationship.
So I love what you're doing.
So quick question because Ilike to talk about.
You know the entrepreneurjourney on here, and how long
now have you been in businessfor yourself?
(12:02):
We're going on close to 30 years, okay, so you've been doing
this a long time then.
Yeah, Okay, so I love that thisis my second business.
Ely (12:09):
The first one was a Web and Graphic Design Agency.
I grew that from my dining roomby myself, worked in insane,
crazy hours.
I ended up growing it to thepoint where I had an office.
I had five employees, close tothree to five contracts a week.
We were killing it, growinglike crazy, yeah, and I realized
I didn't like having an officeand I wasn't sure I liked my
employees either and had to makea change and Delete yeah.
Jennifer (12:31):
You had to delete.
Ely (12:32):
I had to delete, I did and I deleted, I restructured the
entire thing and the funny thingis that as soon as I did that,
I went through that process,that delete phase, and as soon
as I did that I literally themonthly income dropped by 10K a
month, but the profit increasedby doing that.
Jennifer (12:52):
Right Because.
Ely (12:53):
I became more streamlined and I focused on the most
important things.
Jennifer (12:58):
I'm glad I asked that question because that's an
important concept right there,because a lot of times people
think they're looking at thedollars coming on but then
they're not really looking atwhere their money is going.
And if you're, you know makingthis but you got a lot going out
the door because you're notautomating and deleting right,
getting systems in place, thenyou're wasting a lot of money
and you may not be taken in asmuch as you think.
So thanks for sharing thatYou're welcome.
(13:20):
It's a good point.
It's a good point.
A lot of people and I think weall I mean, like you know, I
think all of us, someentrepreneurs I've got a lot of
people, some entrepreneurs, Ifeel like get in and they, they
stay in their same, you know,they get their business and they
kind of stay through the wholetime and that same.
And I think a lot of us we sortof evolve in.
Sometimes it, you know, goesinto something else.
But I always talk about thesenonlinear paths and I always
(13:43):
feel like we sort of do similarthings.
But we get better because weevolve and we figure out where
our strengths are and we extractthe pieces that were really
good and we start to capitalizeon those pieces right.
We get smarter about where weneed to be placing our energy
and effort.
Ely (13:58):
Yeah, I mean it's.
You know, at first you're justtrying to do, you're just trying
to survive, like when you firstcome out as an entrepreneur.
You're just trying to surviveand make it in the world as,
okay, I'm going to start my ownthing.
And there's a lot of excitementwith that and it's new and it's
scary, and so you're fumbling alot.
Over time you start realizing,okay, here's the things that I'm
better at, here's the thingsthat I might be great at and
(14:21):
this is a really important one,because I've suffered from this
multiple times this is stuffthat I'm really great at, but I
hate doing it, so I shouldn't bedoing it.
And over time you kind of needto document that.
You need to really write downthese are the things that I'm
great with, these are the thingsI'm not great with, these are
the things that I enjoy doingand these are things I can't
stand to do.
And really write that stuffdown, because that will shortcut
(14:45):
your learning curve and yourgrowth and scaling capabilities.
Once you define what thosepieces are because then that
helps you define here's my pieceof genius and where I should be
focusing and you realize allthese other things are things
that you really shouldn't befocusing on.
It's like a great example forme because I come from a web
(15:08):
design background and I did that, like I said, it was almost 30
years ago.
So I have design experience, Ihave coding experience, but
today, when I'm working with myclients, the worst part of my
time is when I'm in therehelping them screw around with
one of their websites becausesomething isn't lining up quite
right and I'm like why am I?
(15:29):
doing this.
I should be doing this.
Why am I doing this?
Yeah, yeah, and the sad thingis I actually kind of enjoy it,
but it is a very, very bad part.
Use of my time, yeah, and Ishould be focusing on strategy
and things like that.
And so you have to, no matterwhere you are in business,
whether you've been around for awhile or just starting out
especially if you're startingout do it now, because you'll
(15:49):
save yourself a lot of headachedown the road and you start
making those lists of thingsthat again, it's like what are
you good at?
What are you not good at?
What do you love doing?
What is it that you can't standdoing?
Kind of, put those liststogether and you'll start seeing
where in the matrix they allfit in.
And those are the things like,when you can, it's like okay, I
(16:11):
don't like doing this thing, butthis is a repetitive task.
Can I put a little bit of timein?
That's going to cost me a bitmore and I'm not going to like
it, but if I put it in now, Ican automate it and then it just
works.
Yeah, which is what I help alot of clients with is like
there are things that they don'tlike doing and they fumble
around them and it's like let'sput in the work right now,
(16:33):
because once you build it onceand you might put in 40, 50
hours to build it in, but thefirst time it's done it's
literally going to work for youfor the next 20 years.
Yeah, is that a good trade-off?
Yes, and so you'll startfiguring those things out and
again, if you can, anything youcan automate, take advantage of
that and use it Anything.
(16:54):
Again, accept yourrelationships.
You've got to have realconversations with real human
beings.
Ad (16:58):
Entrepreneurs, are you ready to level up your leadership
skills?
Tune in now for an exclusiveoffer designed just for you.
This is my time.
Did you know?
63% of consumers preferbusinesses aligned with their
values?
Recognizing your core valuesisn't just vital for business
growth, it's the bedrock ofeffective leadership.
Things are way in the games onthe line.
Whether you're a seasonedentrepreneur or an aspiring
(17:21):
creator, identifying your corevalues is a key step in
constructing the framework of asuccessful leader, enabling you
to lead authentically, expandyour business and live life on
your terms.
Are you ready to access toolsto kickstart your leadership
(17:46):
journey?
Unlock a treasure trove ofinsights and get your free
resources at wwwlinktreecom.
Take that crucial first steptoward realizing your leadership
aspirations and elevate yourleadership game today.
Jennifer (17:59):
This is good, eli, all good.
So, because you've been inbusiness for a while, this is
probably going to be maybe not atricky question.
I don't know, but I think a lotof times, you know, when people
hear these episodes and theyhear somebody like you or myself
who's been an entrepreneur formany, many years, they look and
go okay, this is where you areright now.
Right, like, somehow you skippedall these years and went from
(18:20):
here to here and you've saidsome really valuable things
about learning, how you had tolearn to automate and delegate,
to lead your.
Whatever You've learned, thesehave been skills that you've
acquired through your time as anentrepreneur, but for somebody
listening to this, they're goingwell, okay, so, you know, I
probably, you know, might havehad this easy, and you and I
both know that is not the case,because it never is an easy
journey down the entrepreneurpath.
But I would love to know, like,maybe, if you can remember a
(18:42):
time in the beginning when youwere doing this maybe a struggle
aside from the part where youhad to learn, you know, to
figure out what was good, whatyou're good at and what you
needed to move and maybe anotherstruggle that you face coming
into this entrepreneur space.
Ely (18:56):
Okay.
So I mean I could we can goback to.
Actually, even for my designagency was actually one of the
biggest ones, which was when Ihit that point, like I was.
I mean, our business wasexcelling massively and, like I
said, I went from myself out ofmy dining room to an office,
five employees and we wereliterally closing three to five
new contracts every week.
(19:17):
I mean it was crazy, yeah.
But the things that I ran intowere I didn't like having an
office.
I didn't have to.
I didn't like having to get upand go to an office every day.
But then, more more importantly, I wasn't happy with the
relationship I had with myemployees.
The staff was just driving menuts and I was miserable and I
(19:39):
had to go through a you know,come to Jesus moment.
You know it's like what are wegoing to do here?
And I figured out that it waslike you know what.
I just can't deal with thisanymore, because I had I had one
rule with anybody who cameworking with me, and I still
keep this rule.
If anybody works with me, it'slike it's real simple If you're
not having fun, get the hell outDone, yeah, yeah.
And I actually had to go to myemployees and I'm like okay,
(20:02):
here's the deal, this is what'sgoing on, and I had all kinds of
different problems I hadliterally one of them was
freelancing and doing otherpeople's websites during while I
was paying them to work for me.
While I was out doing sales Ihad another one that was late
every day.
I mean, it was just a wholemess and I finally was like no,
this is not, this is not workingand you guys know the rule.
(20:23):
What's the rule?
And they all repeated itbecause they knew the rule and
I'm like here's the problem, I'mnot having fun, but it's my
business.
I got to do something differentand it was a really really hard
thing for me because I had notjust invested in this people
that I thought were the rightfit, and I had done a lot of
above and beyond to help themout with their personal lives
and things like that, and so Ikind of felt betrayed at the
(20:45):
same time too.
But I had invested so much inthe business to be prepared to
have all the equipment and thesoftware and everything we
needed that it hit me hard.
But I was like you know whatyou got to do it and it was a
little bit of a struggle to kindof figure out what was that
going to look like.
And once I did, it worked verywell and it's one of those
(21:11):
things.
It's a learning curve.
You know we all go through thesekind of things.
It doesn't matter what kind ofbusiness you have or how, how
long.
If you have business experience, like for me.
When I started my business, Ihad no idea.
I couldn't even spellentrepreneur.
I had no clue what it was, Ijust knew that was word it was.
It was this really big, longword that sounded fancy and what
(21:33):
ended up happening with it wasthat I had multiple jobs that I
just was miserable in, and wegot to a point where, you know,
I had multiple, multiple bosses,that we come to a mutual
understanding that I wasunemployable and so I ended up
going out on my own and Ihaven't regretted it one day.
There are days where I regretgetting up in the morning
(21:53):
because it's just realfrustrating.
But that's part ofentrepreneurship, and if you're
in this journey and you haven'thit that point yet, know you're
going to the kicker is is thatworth it for what's on the other
side?
Because even like I said,almost 30 years later, I have
(22:15):
been doing this a long time.
I've shifted to a completelyseparate business.
I have completely shifted onhow that business looks like.
What I do today is verydifferent than it was 10 years
ago.
But at the end of the day, nomatter what, I've been through
so many ups and downs and mostpeople don't even see what the
downs look like behind thescenes, but it is so much better
(22:39):
because, most importantly, Iknow I'm making a bigger impact
and to me, if I can take myknowledge and my wisdom and help
other entrepreneurs, becausethat is part of my unique
ability.
When I do that, it's all worthit at the end, and I know
there's going to be morefrustrations.
There are going to be otherdays where I'm going to throw in
(23:00):
the tail and go work atMcDonald's.
It's going to happen, but Iwon't do it.
I'll keep doing it and at theend I'll be like I'm really glad
I didn't make that decision,because today's a really good
day and that's just how it works.
Jennifer (23:15):
Yeah, and you've said a lot of really good things
there and I think that goingback to your story and thanks
for coming back to that that wasa good.
We probably should have pickedup there that good point.
It's all good.
Yeah, I think that there is,anytime you're making change and
whether it's jumping in anentrepreneur space or if you're
going to go make a change in anyarea of your life, I think it's
(23:37):
hard, especially when you getin a comfortable space where you
were financially, you werecomfortable, right, you knew
what you were doing there, youhad things right, but you were
unhappy in the space that youwere in and you recognized that.
And I think that's a harddecision sometimes, when you're
in those comfortable spaces ofdo I let that go?
And I think that's why you seeso many people in the workforce
like they'll be at a job thatthey've been at for years,
(23:57):
making good money, and then allof a sudden, you know later
stages of life.
They, just like you, know whatmy priorities.
This is not in alignment withmy core values, or and I don't
know if they want to use theword core values they'll just
realize it's not in alignmentwith their priorities.
They're miserable, right?
They just know I'm just nothappy where I'm at you and I
know better.
We know that it's because it'sprobably not lining up with who
they, how they see their liferight, and so they walk away and
(24:19):
they take a job where they makeless money but they're happier.
And I think it all comes down towhen you look at this it's
really about going.
Take.
Take what you say and whatwe're saying here about
everything learning to workwithin your gifts, finding where
you're happy in alignment withyour core values and building on
relationships.
If we had to sum up all ofthese points that we're talking
(24:41):
about in this particular episode, I really think that's the key
to being happy inentrepreneurship.
It's finding what you're goodat right, delegating, automating
, working in your zone, buildingyour relationships and making
sure that all of this is inalignment with your values.
And you got a perfectcombination.
Ely (25:00):
Yeah and know that things will change.
You know, you may get to apoint you might be happy as a
clam today and just rocking it,and then next year, six, it
could be three months from now.
All of a sudden it's just likeyou know what this isn't serving
me anymore and you may not evenknow why.
And I tend to be really slow tomake that change when I do,
because I'm a lot more stubbornand I don't like to give it up.
(25:22):
Sure, you know, even morerecently I've changed a bunch of
stuff in my own business thatit took it's taken me like a
year and a half to find the go.
Okay, fine, we're going to do,let it go.
Yeah, let it go, move on,because some of us are stubborn
and slow and you know it happens.
But know that those kind ofthings are going to happen and
it's okay.
(25:42):
And you are going to resist it,because human beings by nature
don't like change.
We want to stick with what'scomfortable.
That's why so many people stayin the same job for years.
That are miserable is becausethat's a safety zone.
They're comfortable, eventhough they're comfortable being
uncomfortable because they hateit, they don't like it, but
(26:04):
they're comfortable being thereand it's the pain is not as much
as the pleasure to move intheir eyes.
Right.
And so if you decide to jumpinto the entrepreneurial world,
that's where it's like all right, we're changing this.
And you brought up somethingearlier.
You talked about working with alot of people that are ADD or
ADHD.
Reality is that most of usentrepreneurs are.
(26:27):
Whether you've been actuallydiagnosed or not.
Chances are if you're anentrepreneur.
Chances are just admit it, justbe okay with it.
Here's a cool thing is likewhen I had, I had somebody
wanted early on, when ADHD wasstill kind of a new thing, I had
somebody that's like, well, youknow, I went to the doctor and
I've been diagnosed with ADHD.
I'm like, oh really, we had noclue.
You know, it's like justtotally joking.
(26:48):
It's like, by the way, how muchdid you pay for that?
Because I could have told youthe same thing for half the
price.
Easily Embrace it.
No, because all that is is yourbrain is wired differently and
entrepreneurs the by definitionentrepreneurs solve problems for
a profit.
Your brain is wired to look fora problem that you can fix
(27:10):
Right, and that's why focus isso difficult, because your brain
is looking for that.
The problem is that once youget the idea of how to fix it,
your brain is done.
You're moving on to the nextthing, when it might not have
actually been fixed yet.
You know how to fix it, but youdon't want to do the work.
Do you want somebody else to dothat?
That's where delegation comesin right, and always know that.
(27:31):
And know that if you are intothis entrepreneurial world,
chances are, yeah, you willprobably have a bit of ADHD in
you, and that's okay.
Embrace it, have fun with it.
And going back to relationshipsAnywhere you want to go, the
people that you meet are goingto get you there.
You've got to build therelationships.
(27:53):
That is the one key that youcannot skip that step.
Jennifer (27:57):
That's good Eli.
All good stuff, All right.
Someone asked you a funquestion.
You're going to laugh at thisone.
If you had to sum Eli up in oneword, what would that look like
?
Ely (28:07):
Oh, walking contradiction.
Jennifer (28:09):
I like it.
It was a couple of words, but Ilike it.
I've never heard that onebefore.
That's good.
You should.
You're living in a paradox,right?
Ely (28:18):
Yeah, If we got a second, I can explain it.
My daughter actually called methat one time because I am
people, drive me nuts.
You know we like it.
Jennifer (28:25):
But you love people.
Ely (28:27):
Yeah, we have all those silly, stupid things my
daughter's like you always talkabout how you hate people
because they drive you nuts, butyou love people You're hanging
out with, you talk to people allthe time.
You're like a poster child forwhat not to do on Stranger
Danger because you talk toanybody anywhere.
I was like, oh yeah, it is.
It's true, I'm a walkingcontradiction because people
drive me nuts, because they dosilly, weird things that I just
(28:49):
don't contemplate, I don'tunderstand, but at the same time
, hearing people's stories ofwhy they do what they do and how
the journey that they've beenon has been just so fascinating,
and so that's why I'm a walkingcontradiction.
Jennifer (29:01):
I like it.
Well, you know, if youunderstand the whole, I bring
this little plug in because I'vetalked about this before about
the five and not the fivedysfunctions, the levels of
adult stages of development theytalk about on the higher levels
, living sort of in a paradoxwhere, like, you can change your
mind about things.
You don't have to be set instone about everything.
That's when you mentioned aboutstubbornness.
(29:22):
It's okay to be stubborn.
Sometimes I think you've got tobe stubborn as an entrepreneur,
I think you need to be stubbornreally in a lot of things if
you want to excel.
But I think sometimes you gotto learn to let things go and
change your mind, right.
And so I think you can be awalking contradiction.
I think you can say one thingand do another, as long as
you're not hurting anybody inthe process, right?
Because we, you know, humansare complex, and I sometimes say
(29:44):
that same thing about peopletoo, because, as much as I love
people, sometimes they drive mecrazy too, the quirky things
they do and the decisions thatthey make and why they do the
same things over and over andexpect different results.
And, like you know, when I talkto people, when I'm working
with them.
It's like the same patterns ofbehavior, you know, will come up
, and one of my mentors used tosay you know that would that
which is most personal.
(30:04):
I forgot what the last part, butbasically what he was saying is
that what we think is mostpersonal, oh, that which is most
personal is universal.
We always think our things arepersonal, but the morals are
universal.
Right, like everybody's gotreally the same theme.
They just go about doing it andthey think it's personal.
You know, they do itdifferently and it looks
personal.
So you do, you watch people andthey're complex and they do
(30:25):
quirky things, and but you knowthat this is how we thrive.
Humans are meant to haverelationships and connections,
and whether you want to isolatethat, say that's only about
business, it's not, it's outsideof that too.
So I think it's OK to be awalking contradiction.
That's my point.
Ely (30:42):
I like it.
Jennifer (30:43):
It's all good, all right.
I want you to put a plug inreal quick for your podcast and
tell us where we can find youwebsite.
All those good things.
Ely (30:53):
Yeah, so the podcast is the Me Cool People podcast and it
really is exactly that.
I get you know, I have thehonor of getting to meet some
really amazing people.
You know, as a speaker, when Iwas traveling all over the
country to the point of peoplethat I meet in a virtual world,
now networking in person, that'show you, when I met, was
through somebody else that I'min another group with, I get to
(31:14):
meet some really amazing peoplein this and the podcast is my
way to be able to share themwith other people, because it's
like, ok, you're cool, you gotsome good stuff.
I want other people to meet you, and so that's what I do with
the podcast and the easiest wayfor people to get a hold of me.
It's real simple Go to connectwith Elicom.
Eli is El, why not El I?
If you go to El I, it's goingto be some dude.
(31:35):
I think it's commercial realestate dude in the middle of
South Dakota or something likethat.
Jennifer (31:39):
Not who we're talking to today.
Ely (31:41):
Yeah, so connect with Elicom.
You can find a link to thepodcast, my website, all my
social media If you thought thiswas a fun conversation.
Like I said, I love meetingcool people.
You can even book on mycalendar right there, so it's
we'll have a good chat.
This doesn't matter, it's allabout having fun meeting cool
people, so that's the best wayto connect with Elicom.
(32:01):
All the places you need to doare right there.
I do ask one thing, though ifyou're going to reach out to me,
I totally encourage it, nomatter how you do it, but please
say how you heard me.
You heard me on this showbecause I love to know where am
I making an impact?
Where am I?
Where did?
Where do people come from?
Because I would not have metyou if it hadn't been for
(32:24):
Jennifer.
Yeah, I mean that's.
That's really where it works.
So if you're reaching out to me, make sure you just put a
little note with it.
Jennifer (32:31):
Absolutely Good stuff.
You, I will make sure to.
When we get, you know, all thebills and whistles on there.
We'll get some plugs in therefor you too, so everybody knows
where to find it.
So when your website looks nice, by the way.
I checked it out.
Lots of good stuff on there, sopeople can definitely head on
over there and see what you gotgoing, and if they need to
automate, you know some systemsthen you're the person they need
to be chatting with.
Ely (32:48):
So definitely Love to chat about it All right.
Jennifer (32:53):
And then, of course, we do want to say to our
listeners if you've enjoyed theshow, head on over to Apple,
give us a review over there.
You can head on over to YouTube, subscribe.
And as I always say, in orderto live the extraordinary, you
must start, and every startbegins with a decision.
You guys, take care, be safe,be kind to one another.
We will see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.