Simplicity while Scaling to 7 Figures as an Introvert with Elise Danielle

Emma-Louise: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to this behind the business episode of the ambitious Introvert podcast. I’m Emma Louise. And I’m going to put my nosy one, three profile investigator hat on today im very excited about this because I’m going to dig around in today’s guests business. I mean, she’s totally okay with this.

Can I, can I just say we’ve discussed it, she’s open. She’s happy. And I’m really excited to bring to you. A fellow introvert, empath and highly sensitive person who has grown a hugely successful business and on their own terms without doing all of the things. And really without compromising their values.

Cause that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. So I’m going to dig in and I hope that you will listen to this episode and walk away feeling like, yes, that’s possible for me. I resonate with that. Like, this is totally achievable for me too. So, Elise thank you so much for joining me. [00:01:00] 

Elise: Hello.

Thank you for having me. I’m so excited. I love our chats. And so this episode just feels like a fun extension of that. 

Emma-Louise: And you know, it’s like a coffee catcher. He go, we’ve gotten into food already. It’s like a coffee catch, but other people get to join in and listen. Yeah. Yeah. See if any of my audience that don’t know who you are, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your business.

Elise: Sure. So my name is Elise. My business is Elise Danielle. That’s my middle name, actually fun fact. My surname is like a handful or mouthful rather. So we don’t go down that road very often. Thanks to my French heritage. I have. The, uh, I have a business where I work with purpose driven entrepreneurs. I’ve been in business for almost four years now.

My life’s passion and soul’s work is just really supporting my humans to birth their businesses, grow their businesses and create insane amounts of profit, [00:02:00] doing things that they love. So I’m really all about not kind of, I feel like I’m a big rule breaker in the sense of like, I just don’t abide by the rules or the very broey laws that we have to do business a certain way and that we have to have all of the correct marketing tools and even statistics to enable us to create the profit we want. And I just love supporting my humans to be able to create businesses that just feel really damn good and make them a lot of money. 

Emma-Louise: I love it. I’m going to link your podcast in the show notes as well, because I was a guest on Lisa’s podcast and I love your premise of like what we didn’t do, how we created success or how we had like a big launch or how we sold that out on a one or like what, what did we do?

Here are the things that we didn’t do. Like we didn’t do everything, but this is what we focused on. I think that’s so important for our people 

Elise: so not what we hear so often. And I think that’s like so much of the overwhelm and what [00:03:00] stops so many people from actually being able to create the business they want to.

So thank you. Yeah, I love it. 

Emma-Louise: So

at this point I would usually ask a guest if they identify as an introvert, empath and highly sensitive person, I think we’ve ascertained that. But how much do you identify as an introvert, empath and highly sensitive person ? 

Elise: Well, I think if we were to ask my husband, he would say very high on the empath and highly sensitive spectrum.

I’m definitely an introvert. I always kind of end up scoring very close to the middle, but like, there’s just nothing more important to me than quiet alone time. That’s non peopling. I think it’s surprising to a lot of people that I am an introvert as we were kind of chatting about before, because I.

Elise: am like I’m can be pretty bold in a lot of ways. I’m really passionate about the work that I do. And I think that can come across very extroverted and I feel like I am often very extroverted when. In my zone of talking about business stuff. Cause I just get so fired [00:04:00] up and excited about it all. but there’s nothing that is more important to me, aside from my puppies and like daily cuddles with them, which I feel like is very.

Calming on the nervous as time. They’re basically my therapy dogs, 

Emma-Louise: therapy animals, 

Elise: of course. like my headphones, I couldn’t live without my weighted blanket was like a life changer for me. And so yeah, I have to be really intentional about the way I’m taking care of my nervous system and taking care of myself in order to kind of show up in the way that I do.

So. Pretty high on the spectrum. I feel highly sensitive. My husband always jokes that like, I cannot decipher between emotions and other people in my own. We’re watching TV or like something I’m like, this is too intense for me. Like I literally can’t watch, like I’m always really into Ozark and I can’t watch it before bed.

It really messes me up. Does it give you 

Emma-Louise: nightmares? 

Elise: It just puts me in this heightened anxiety. [00:05:00] 

Emma-Louise: Because I’m a very vivid dreamer. And if I watch some 

Elise: crazy nightmare, then 

Emma-Louise: I get crazy and it will be really warped and twisted. And I’m like one I’m just creative when I’m awake, but then I’ll look back and I’ll be like, oh, it’s because I watched that program.

And someone mentioned this. It’s like, it’s a template for them to like, this nightmare happens. Are you into human design? I 

Elise: dabbled a little bit into it. So I’m not like I’ve, I’ve done a re I’ve, had a reading done. I’ve dabbled into it a little bit. I enjoyed it, but to me, probably because like, I have a, what is it called when it’s like colored in clearly I’m no expert.

Oh, defined. Yes. I have a defined identity center. So I just kind of knew. It’s not like I knew everything about myself, but everything in the reading, I was like, oh yeah, I know. That’s how I create. That’s how I make decisions. Thanks. It was really cool for me to very much confirm and be [00:06:00] permission giving around like how I operate right now is really how I meant to operate.

So that was really cool. I am a generator. I think I’m like a one-five. 

Emma-Louise: I thought you would be generator. I’m a wand free generator. 

Elise: Cool. Looking, 

Emma-Louise: generate to energy. So interesting to see what resonates like, I love that, that you went, oh yeah, this will make sense. Like, this is just reaffirming to what I 

Elise: already know.

A hundred percent. I’m really quickly looking up what it is cause I want to be right. I’m a five one. Sorry. I think I switched it around. 

Emma-Louise: Yes, that’s right. Yeah. your a pure generator. Say cruel. Yeah, which would explain your passion and energy when you’re fight things. So, 

Elise: yeah, it all makes a lot of sense.

Emma-Louise: What we’re talking about before with your brand can be perceived as quite extrovert. It’s very bold. It’s very fun. It’s very energetic and going to say, yeah, the [00:07:00] distinction that I want to make. People would see like Elise on the brands and be like, oh, she spends all her time, like drinking champagne and walking around in high heels.

And I don’t know, you’re like, she’s always like jumping up by the pool and like all this kind of stuff. And you’ll have, have your head off now because you’re like, no, I’ll like go and put my headphones on in silence and sit it’s understanding. You can have that duality. Yeah. I think you would be where you want.

Now, if you hadn’t prioritized looking after your nervous system and honoring your own needs. 

Elise: Hmm. No, I would have burned out and I wouldn’t have been able to sustain the growth of the business by any means. And I think actually what’s been really big for me, especially in the last year, which makes sense.

Cause we’ve kind of grown exponentially in the last year. Is that like, that’s been my primary focus. My primary focus has been me taking care of myself in the business and I’m pretty, like I highly prioritize taking care of myself to [00:08:00] begin with because I just. Movement and, ex nutritionist and all of the things.

So I’ve just the more my business grows. The more important it is for me to take that up even more nauseous. And actually I think the business grows because I take that up even higher. 

Emma-Louise: I think it’s so easy from a rational point of view to think, well, if I want to grow the business, I need to work more and I need to give more time and energy and effort to the business.

And then so easily, like. neglect ourselves. So, yeah, that’s really important and permission given. Yeah, just get into online business. What was your story? Your online coaching? 

Elise: Good question. So I have just such a mixed background. I studied psychology and philosophy in uni. I went on to study nutrition. I worked in marketing and PR after that, I moved to Australia about 10 years ago after meeting my husband and, Started my yoga teaching.

So I actually started to do that was my first jump into entrepreneurship [00:09:00] was teaching yoga. Full-time doing it more of like a contract basis. And because I had the nutrition background, I started to practice physically in person with my holistic nutrition as well. And I just knew. But I was not meant to have a normal job, I think forever.

I just knew that like working in an office, working in corporate, working in like a traditional structure was just a no for me. And so. You know, it, that looks in reality, me looking like kind of a hot mess from probably through my twenties and late thirties. Cause I wasn’t doing the traditional thing.

Like a lot of my friends and delving into the corporate or into the careers or any of that, because I just knew there was something else for me. And so my first delve into the online space was with my nutrition business. So I had an online practice for about three years built. That was really, that was just.

Gift in the sense of like, that really helped me develop my love of [00:10:00] coaching and helped me develop my love of mindset and the importance of the way we’re looking at our thoughts and the way we’re talking to ourselves and the way we’re showing up for ourselves, because I just kept seeing time and time again, how I could give all the nutrition advice in the world.

And it wouldn’t matter if we weren’t actually digging into their behavior, their thoughts, the way they were thinking about their bodies and food, the way they were talking to themselves, the way they were thinking about food, like that was just such a game changer for my clients. And it just really sparked this huge light bulb moment of like, this is like the greatest thing ever and like the most powerful tool in the world.

And so. I really kind of developed like through the nutrition business, I was like, well, this is what I cared the most about. So long story short, I grew the business. it was a hard slog. Like that was really like my learning times and me doing all of the wrong [00:11:00] things. All of the things that we now know we don’t have to do.

I did 

Emma-Louise: even better. You’ve got to experience of doing them and not doing them, 

Elise: which was such a gift because it really helped me to see, so clearly. How simple business actually can be when we kind of clear out the BS, we, you know, stop looking outside of ourselves for this like magical answer and really start looking inwards to see what’s right for us, what feels good to us, what we want to speak to all of that kind of stuff.

So I ended up burning the business down, literally firing my clients because I would just felt like. It wasn’t growing the way I wanted to, I was doing, I was working so hard and like, it just literally felt like carrying dirt. In the rain uphill on a muddy, it just felt off. And I’m the kind of, I guess, weirdo who liked once I realized something it’s like a light bulb switch and there’s just [00:12:00] no going back or turning down.

So I kind of went on a holiday with my husband. I still remember this. And I was like, something’s not right. Like, I know I meant to. Not have a traditional job. I know business is right for me, but this was just feeling so wrong. And so I kind of realized that like, I don’t really like, I love nutrition, but it’s not the thing I want to support people with.

Like, I care so much more about the mindset. And around that time too, I had started to get a lot of nutritionists who had seen me start to build up my business and see things start to get moving. They’re like, how the heck are you signing clients? Like. People don’t know you in, they’re hiring you, like, tell me about this Witchery that is online business.

Emma-Louise: you magical sorceress 

Elise: Totally. And so it was really, probably just divine. I mean, it was divine timing in the sense of, I was getting lots of signs, but also I was like, I need to make a decision and this feels like the right decision. And so I literally fired my clients. I [00:13:00] closed down a membership.

I did this over a space of a week and then. I’m going all in with like doing the thing that I’m just really feeling called to. And that’s when just business was kind of born 

Emma-Louise: beautiful. And you are year four now? 

Elise: Yeah, almost. It’ll be in March that we’re four years in. Yeah. 

Emma-Louise: Let’s meet someone else to the podcast yesterday and we’re saying.

You know, she’s been an entrepreneur for 10 years, but her current businesses like hugely successful in a very rapid, very rapid pace. And it’s that like, you know, 10 years to be an overnight success. And I think it’s so interesting because people need to know that we have not struggled necessarily.

Although carrying dirt in the rain up a hill does sound a struggle, but, but you have learnt so much. In other aspects of business to be able to bring to this. So I think sometimes when people see like, oh, I made six figures in my [00:14:00] first year and they’re like, oh, I feel like failure now. Cause I haven’t, it’s like, that might be the first year of this business or this incarnation of it.

But that person could have been trying things for like 3, 4, 5 years beforehand. 

Elise: Absolutely. I think that’s true for so many people. I know personally, do you know what I mean? Like there, it’s not like even the ones that I know that have had fast success, you know, I’m using air quotes because like, I don’t think it’s ever really fast, to be honest.

It’s just that you don’t know who they are until they become a little bit more prominent. Right? Yeah. And then you see 

Emma-Louise: them and you’re like, wow, look at them. But you don’t know the whole backstory. Yeah. 

Elise: And that like a lot of people have had. Businesses or tried it in other ways. And so, yeah, I’m always, so, and I was so open about that when I started this business and I actually think that’s what helped the business gain so much traction, because I was like, I just burnt down my business.

Like, let me, you know, like was just super honest about where I’ve been [00:15:00] out the whole time. And I. That’s helpful for people for permission. And also like we shame ourselves enough. We don’t need to be shamed and other ways too. 

Emma-Louise: I couldn’t agree more. I’m always really open about, you know, the first 18 months of my business, which was like the struggle bus.

And now I know I can see what I was doing wrong. Like I could work all of it, but if I didn’t have. I wouldn’t have gone because it was really forcing me to come. Why am I struggling? So like, why is this so hard? And, you know, have people say, oh, you it’s your mindset. And I was like, I don’t like, I’ve been doing mindset work for years.

I mean, an old Pico, like surely is it really, of course there’s always a mindset aspect, but then one day. No, it’s because I’m highly sensitive and introvert. Like, this is why I’m burning out. I’m doing the wrong things. I’m not protecting my energy. So if I hadn’t had that struggle, I wouldn’t have the brand that I’ve got now.

Elise: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And that’s so annoying to hear when you’re [00:16:00] not there. You know what I mean? Like I have this conversation with people all the time. But it’s like, it’s, it’s the best thing you can hear and really taken to be like, we’re telling you the truth. We’re not lying and saying that like, it will serve you.

If you’re really willing to look at it, it will serve you so much going forward because that will probably lead to you. You know, really creating some thought leadership around it, or like really helping you create your foundations, that you then support other people with. Like, had I not struggled? I wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t be thinking about business the same way I am now.

Emma-Louise: And you wouldn’t be not doing the things that you’re not doing 

Elise: exactly. You would be doing 

Emma-Louise: them, which wouldn’t have the same, really the same effects that sounded like quite a tongue twister. But you know what I mean? I got, I got you. Totally. 

Elise: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s such a gift. Like I have this conversation with clients all the time and like when things were feeling hard at the beginning, [00:17:00] It’s this, this is the most annoying thing to hear ever, but like, it is an opera it’s like, it is a gift because learning that early on saves you so much struggle down the line, right?

Like if I didn’t learn early on that I could build a business to, well over multiple six figures without doing 7 billion things. Well then every time I’d want to scale, I’d still be looking for something else and like, I might have not struggled as much in my pre you know, maybe I saved myself the beginning struggle, but there’d be so much more struggle down the line for me, you know, 

Emma-Louise: a hundred percent I think as well, it translates so well to clients

like I said, when I was on your show, it took me five months after I pivoted sign my first one-on-one client. Like I sold intensives and stuff, but to actually. You know, so I, my first client and it was hard and it felt miserable. I was doing the things that I needed to do and I was showing up and yeah, he’s doing all the mindset work and it was so hard.

And then I signed two clients in [00:18:00] one day and then within four months, With one-on-one because of the traction, but that five months was like, ah, and when I have clients now that are in that phase, because I, I went through it, like, I totally know how they feel like I can hold that and support them in that because I know it feels awful, but they also know that if they can stay in it, then it will change.

If someone’s like, oh, I just have like instant success and they’d never struggled then really? How can they relate to people that are 

Elise: struggling, ah, and support them. And, and I think it’s like, I love what you said of like, you can hold that space. Cause I think that’s it. Do you know what I mean? Like it’s like, that’s the magic is like being able to hold the space, not taking that on or making it mean anything about you.

Cause that’s when we can serve our people the most. Right. And I think. Harder to do that. If you don’t really understand what’s going on or where they’re coming from with. 

Emma-Louise: And it can be tough as an impact [00:19:00] care. Yeah, 

Elise: yeah. 

Emma-Louise: Too much, but 

Elise: yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s, that’s, I love that. You mentioned that.

Cause I think that’s such a thing too. Like I see this, a lot of my clients are introverts as well and paths and. That’s a hard thing to really almost learn emotional and energetic boundaries to. Yeah, I think it takes 

Emma-Louise: practice. Like a lot of people come into the online space, say a lot of extroverts who are not as energetically open and they have to learn the business.

They’ve got to learn about marketing and freebies and funnels and you know, the algorithm and all that. But then we have all the extra stuff. On top. 

Elise: How do I protect my energy so much? 

Emma-Louise: Yeah. I’ll take criticism for this. How do I not burn myself out on social media? Like, yeah. So yeah, always, always an evolution.

As [00:20:00] I say, it’s always a learning and it doesn’t stop. 

Elise: Absolutely. We like to learn a hundred percent. Yeah. It keeps things interesting. Doesn’t it? 

Emma-Louise: So you had massive. Last year. I mean, your business has been successful since the first year, but, can you, so we’re going to, let’s get nosy now. Where’s your revenue and you want of your business.

Elise: So we hit six figures cash in 10 months in if we’re looking kind of, oh, cause our Australian, goes July to June, so messed up in terms of that. So I think. I’m racking my brain. I’m pretty sure. My first year revenue, technically wasn’t very high, cause I’d only been in business for like four months. but the actual first year of business, I think we brought in about 150 

Emma-Louise: amazing to, 

Elise: we moved up to 225.

year Three. year three, I think was [00:21:00] 2 75 

Emma-Louise: steady growth. Yeah, 

Elise: totally. 

Emma-Louise: year 4 . 

Elise: Uh, 400. Woo. big increase big increase. Yeah. Yeah. Big increase. 

Emma-Louise: Are you someone that like at the start of your financial year, do you map out like, these are the spots that I’ve got, this is what I’m going to launch and kind of project what your income will be.

Elise: This is probably the first year I’ve done that. So, no, 

Emma-Louise: but when you do it, you and 400 friends. 

Elise: Yeah, totally. Well, and even, I mean, I’m a little bit, like I’m not a structured human in the sense of like, I don’t like, like I will. I find sometimes that doesn’t serve me because then I put so much pressure on myself or I’ll like, get hyper-focused on the numbers.

And I don’t give a shit about the numbers at the end of the day, to be totally honest. Is it great to earn 400 K it’s phenomenal, but like [00:22:00] I would rather earn 200 and like what I do than earn 400 and hate the process. Easily easily, like no con like it’s not even a thought for me. So I care so much more about my experience of growing the business than I do about the growth of the business.

But I find when I do that, The business grows 

Emma-Louise: because the energetics, because you’re in the hunter, this is what I love to do. This is what I want to show up and do. And yeah, I’ve been not focused on, like you say your own personal self care, your own personal growth as well. Like the business can’t not grow if not doing things that are proven to work and you’re investment time in that as well.

Yeah. 

Elise: And so. It’s been like last year, we definitely mapped out a little bit more, but to be totally honest, like I’ve been sharing this a lot lately because I think it’s so easy to hear that and be like, oh shit, I’ve got to map out all of my offers for the entire year and figure out what my launches are going to be.

And like, I don’t think that always serves you. So it’s just [00:23:00] so everyone’s so different in terms of what serves your mindset, what actually makes practical sense. I think it served me a lot to not get to planning because what really helped every consecutive, you know, and we really only have free programs at this stage too, but what’s really helped every consecutive iteration of that has been me just being so focused on just doing really good work with what we’re doing right now, and then learning from that and deciding what to do next sort of.

Emma-Louise: So not go in, oh, this program’s been out like six months, I’m bored of it. I’m going to change it and create something new because they see that so much where people, rather than seeing that they’ve created it. And now it’s out there to gain traction and to find new people. Is that like, oh, I feel like I’ve got to create something new and go through the whole process of making it and launching it.

And then six months later go, oh, I need something else. So you have pretty much stuck with the same products. 

Elise: Literally we’ve only ever added in. [00:24:00] So first year I only did one-on-one. I think I started to prep a mastermind before January the following year. second year I just did. I think I introduced my mastermind and then maybe had one other launch of it.

Third year we really just did the podcast and just kept those two programs. Really? Just my one-on-one in the mastermind. And then fourth year. Or rather, you know, we’re going into the fourth year, but last year we introduced one new offer. So like, I’ve been, I’m like really anal about that in my business.

And there’s one thing I’m anal on. It’s like being so intentional about what programs I’m releasing and making sure they’re selling really, really well before we introduce anything else so that we have continuity within the business and where. Making like we’re keeping clients, we’re serving our people even deeper and we’re scaling without doing 7 billion things.

How 

Emma-Louise: many hours a week do you work? Average? 

Elise: Yeah, [00:25:00] probably 25 average 25 to 30 average. ’cause I think couple breaks. 

Emma-Louise: Oh, I love that though. I think that’s a really nice amount because we do see a lot of people go and, you know, like, oh, I worked 10 hours a week and make, you know, like a million pounds a month.

But yeah. You know, 25 to 30, like it’s a significant amount of time, but not. 

Elise: No. And like, I want to, like, I wouldn’t, like, I mean, I’ll probably take more days off this year when we can travel. They’ll definitely be more travel. So in the last year and a bit, it’s probably been on the higher end because like, usually I would take four to eight weeks off to go visit family or travel in different places.

And that just hasn’t been on the cards. And so like, I, I like what I do. Like I love serving my humans. I love. Working in the business. So it’s like, I could work less, but I probably just don’t want to at this stage. 

Emma-Louise: Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Then I would usually during the lockdown because I was building a business up and I was like, well, I [00:26:00] can’t do anything else.

Why not? So yeah, although sometimes it was too much. I was like, I spent too long on, you know, on the laptop today, but also knowing that. Uh, work and energy that I put in that. Now, like you said, the world’s opening up. We can travel. I can be like, oh, okay. Now I can start to reap the benefits. You know what I did a few years ago.

Elise: Yeah. And if there’s always seasons, like I’ll, you know, I mean, pretty our lunches are so down pat, that there’s so much less of that because we have a team that really runs a lot of it, but like there’s seasons, I’m just. You know, I worked more in, well, I mean, I worked two part-time jobs when I started, so I probably didn’t work too much more at the very beginning, but it’s, I think I’m just available for the seasons.

Like sometimes I’ll need to put in more hours and I’m okay with that, but it’s always just checking in with what I actually want and what really feels good there 

Emma-Louise: I’m in a. Busiest season of business at the moment. And, uh, cause I, we were just saying before we hit record, cause I’m still recovering from COVID, you know, [00:27:00] and I I’ve been pretty tired and I’m like, oh, and I ha you know, a few times this week I’ve gone.

Oh, I’ve got like really a lot on my plate. And then I’m like, no, it’s fine. It’s. I haven’t a rebrand. I’m having my website done. I’m having web copy done. I’ve hired a new team. So there’s a lot of like questionnaires, logistics, outboard, and planning a launch. So, but I’m like, no, this is. Like in two or three months, this, all of that won’t be there.

It will be completely different. And knowing that, I think as an introvert, when you have to manage your energy as well, knowing that to be like this isn’t every day for the rest of my life and my business, this is just a short sprint. Get these, these things done 

Elise: live. It’s like essential as an introvert, because I think like, because of feelings, it’s hard to like, remember when you’re in the feeling that it’s not going to feel like that forever.

Do you know what I mean? Like I think, cause we do feel so things though intensely it’s like, this is it from here on out. 

Emma-Louise: Yeah. I called and I’m just going [00:28:00] to stop now, but I think that’s people talk about mindset work, obviously, you know, Big proponents of mindset work. That is mindset work. You know, it’s not just getting a journal and it’s understanding like, right.

How do I feel right now? Is this an accurate reflection of how I’m gonna feel every day for the rest of my life? No, it’s not okay. I can get through it. 

Elise: Exactly. And even just exactly like, I think it’s so true with emotions too. Like I think, you know, it’s easy to spin ourselves out and really keep that emotion fired up.

If we’re in that thought, like if you’re thinking, oh my God, What have I done? I’ve built this business where I’m feeling. So like, if that then went into a spin, then we are, your nervous system would get jacked up. Do you know what I mean? And anxiousness would be rising. So we think, I love that point because it’s so much of the, both, like, it is so much more of a.

Yeah. Mindset is often checking in with like, let’s look at this emotion. Let’s take a look, [00:29:00] feel into it. Yeah. 

Emma-Louise: Yeah. So important not to discount and very important also, but, but, you know, recognizing in the, I always say like when we can reframe our thoughts. Be aware of them in the moment. That’s the time that it’s really powerful because that’s when you’ll make the changes that enable you to take action or make different decisions.

Yeah. 

Elise: Yeah. 

Emma-Louise: So back to your 400 K. year Yeah. How did that look for you? Revenue wise? Did you have like a couple of really big months with launches and then, you know, do you have a minimum recurring revenue that is kind of standard throughout? Because I know for our nervous system. Sometimes we have like a huge month and then a small month.

It can be like, oh, you know, what’s going on. But again, I think like we were just talking about that, looking across the big picture, like how does a year generally look for you month to month? 

Elise: Yeah. In terms of like launches or income revenue, [00:30:00] that sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah. So we have, like, I think our last two quarters were six figures, which is really, really cool.

So we’re probably averaging around I can’t math 33 ish K a month. a fair bit of that was generated from a launch of the mastermind. Fair bit of that is, well, it’s probably a bit of both. obviously there’s fluctuation. If a client resigns and pays in full or a new client comes in or some, you know, we have a handful of people that come into the mastermind or pay, you know, pay in full as well.

We just did an abundance code launch. So that’s created a bit of reoccurring revenue at this stage is quite a combination of like reoccurring revenue from one-on-ones mastermind and the abundance code at the moment. So. In the last year, challenge me to math. Let me think of this. 

Emma-Louise: Even have a calculator, pen and paper.

Elise: I know, I [00:31:00] know. Oh no. I’m turning on Siri. Things are getting awry. I can do this in my head. There we go. All right. So we brought in 230 of that 400 was from the mastermind. Probably about, let’s see probably a hundred K was a one-on-ones and then the rest would have been smaller things from that. 

Emma-Louise: So you can, I think that’s really important to see that you’re not selling like eight or nine different things.

You’re not promoting a ton of different things. And I say that, I say this with love. We’re trying to dispatch just like me, but you don’t have a big audio. 

Elise: No, not at all. I should not make the money I made by technical marketing terms at all. I’m just like the queen of conversions.

And I think that’s [00:32:00] because I’m an introvert. I think that’s because like, I’m really good at connecting to my people. And like creating a lot of genuine relationships with the people in my audience. And even if like, and I think as you grow, like here’s how I look at it. Like, as I grow that energy continues to transfer.

So I think that was, that was actually a big learning curve for me, because at the beginning of my business, I was like, I know connection is my super power. I know that like, people feel how much I care. People feel how genuine I am. They feel that. I’m not just talking shit. Like I know what I’m talking about.

I’ve got the, you know, results and client results to back it up. But they also know that I really just care the most about them and supporting them in any way I can. And so at the beginning of my business, that felt easy to do because I had so much more space to really connect. A lot more one-on-one with my audience than I do now.

So that’s been a really [00:33:00] big, like looking at my introvertedness and my connection is like a super power and really looking at that being like people will feel that no matter where the touch point is, was a challenge, but a very super helpful way to do it. 

Emma-Louise: And so important to lean into your strengths.

You know, I talk about this all the time, because rather than trying to. Something different, be like someone else, or I think people focus on their weaknesses and they like, oh, I need to bring these up to speed. And, Julia Wells was on the podcast last year and we talked about this and she was like, oh my God, he was doing all these like funnels and bro market things, which is like the furthest from Julia’s energy possible.

What was actually good at and corporate. And she was like, yeah, I was just good at talking, like, just sit around the desk, talking to people. She’s like, so I started to like voice note people in my audience and just like connect on a, on a deeper level. Cause she’s also a huge introvert, but she is business as well.

Huge business. It doesn’t make sense for how many people she has in her audience. [00:34:00] And again, it’s that connection piece is everyone focuses on like 

Elise: have a big audience. No. Yeah. And I think even more so now, just the way the, the, the online space has changed. Like, I think people need more connection. People need more safety and making decisions, and desiring does deciding to hire you or purchase your programs or whatever.

Like, I think that’s, it’s just been very interesting. It’s been a gift being in the online space for so long because. You know, I was in my previous business for three years. So going on seven years, just in the online space, it was just seeing how much has changed from the beginning is like wild to me.

And, you know, yeah. You used to be able to convert, you know, whatever the numbers were through email marketing, set up a funnel. If that was your jam, maybe that would work for you, but like, that’s just not what I’m seeing to be true for the most part. Well, across the [00:35:00] board, pretty much with all of my clients and myself as like people just need to trust you.

There’s so much more noise and there’s a lot of people that have been burned too. And so they need that deeper level of trust and connection to feel safe, taking that next. So I think introverts have it made. 

Emma-Louise: That’s something that I hear so much my audience like can’t, you know, or, and from my clients like I invested in this program and I didn’t get what I needed or, you know, investments, coach, and, you know, it was no good or whatever.

And I think, yeah, that’s an extra barrier now because, because of the growth of the online space over the last two or three years, so many people have made investments that unfortunately haven’t worked out for them. So. Yeah. What people may have just jumped in before then I’ll be like, Hmm, yes, let me just check this.

And yet what better than to, you know, then to create rapport and trust and show someone that they can trust you by the making a personal connection. 

Elise: I know. Right. And like, I think sometimes that feels, it does feel extra [00:36:00] edgy for introverts, but I think we forget how, when it’s done from like, Right.

Energy of like intention and care and service. Let people feel that and are so appreciative because a lot of people don’t do that in a very genuine way, you know? 

Emma-Louise: Yeah. A hundred percent, which is why I’m very grateful that you’re just coming in, you know, bettering soul and finances.

 monthly, outgoing, let’s say we were talking about this before we hit record. Like when you start a business that can feel like there’s so many different bits of tech and different pieces to invest in and they, they take a big chunk of your income, especially if you’ve only got a couple of clients or if you’re starting out and you don’t have any clients yet, you know, you get an, all of that stuff in place.

Emma-Louise: It can feel super expensive. But as we’re saying, like, if you have a tech subscription, that’s $97 a month. Then, you know, whether you’re making nothing or whether you’re making 400 grand, it’s still [00:37:00] $97 a month. So proportionally, it becomes so much more manageable. Well, how much are your outgoings each month?

Elise: We w something that’s so cool about the last year is we actually increased our profit margin while increasing our revenue, which. Just made me my accountant link sent me this beautiful little message. And it’s like, you are just killing a head, look at you. And I was like, that is amazing. It’s always nice to hear it from someone who you’re like you see all of the backend.

So you’re making me feel real good here. You got an eight. Yeah, I don’t really, I do like to overachieve as a student.

but that was so cool to me. Cause I’m like, it really lines up with what I believe and what I teach with. Like that would have been way higher if I launched every month. Like in terms of like our profit margins would have been way lower if I was launching every month or if I was creating new program after new program, after new program, because.

Elise: All of the expenses that would go with that. Right. and so we still [00:38:00] haven’t paid for marketing or any of those things. So we’re probably sitting around, hopefully the Australian government does not listen to this, from pure business expenses around 700 K a month. because I work from home. I mean, that’s not including is that including my wage that might even be.

It might even be including my wage, cause I’m an expense as an employee. So our, our running expenses are pretty darn good, including that’s me putting into my super that’s me. Of course, you know, my vehicle is registered onto the business. but like our running costs have not grown with the growth of the income, which I think is really helpful to hear.

Yeah. And I think not including tax, I want to be clear on it. 

Emma-Louise: Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That, that is important to know because they, of course your expenses can increase as of course. Yeah. Because it can be like, oh, hire this and I’ll do this and we’ll invest in this, but that’s actually. [00:39:00] Have to be that way.

You can be very, very intentional about keeping your operating costs at the lower end. 

Elise: Yeah. And of course, that will vary if we are launching and we, you know, we’re getting extra team or team or doing more hours, or I do revenue share with my coach. So if I make more money, I’m also paying out more money there too.

So it of course varies month to month, but that’s probably our base like consistent every month. And so. Um, I love that you’re asking this question because that probably, it would have been a little bit lower when I was making less money, but not crazy. Crazy lower. Yeah. 

Emma-Louise: Not significant. I 

Elise: mean, not significantly lower.

Like it’s grown a little bit as the business has grown, but like, that’s so helpful to think about because we were just having this conversation before, but like when you’re earning, you know, around the 10 Kmart, Running cost can feel really high. And I think that’s what no one talks about because it’s like 10 K is the holy grail 

Emma-Louise: as if like [00:40:00] 10 K is the salary that is going to be in your bank account.

And it’s like, no, you can, it can be quite hard to be profitable bringing that. 

Elise: Absolutely. But I’m, you know, like I think my accountant was saying the average online from what she sees in terms of. Uh, profit margin is around like 50, 50, 50 ish, 55%. You know, a traditional business is much lower depending on the business model.

And so, like, I think that’s just helpful to talk about, cause I think. Especially at the beginning, it’s hard to invest. It’s hard to put out five K a month if you want to make 10 K, but you’re not making it yet. That’s a really hard thing to get your brain around and, you know, It’s so easy to mix up that money with your money.

And we should go into a whole conversation around the mindset around that too. But I think that’s so helpful to hear that, like, it’s going to be higher at the beginning. [00:41:00] The profit margin is going to be lower, but that’s also why it’s so helpful to really think about like, well, let’s be super intentional with what I’m doing so that we’re allowing things to run smoother and smoother and thus bring down my profit margin or increase my profit margin more.

Emma-Louise: I think it can be so easy for people to feel like they need an inverted, commerce, everything to invest in everything, because everyone does a really good job of marketing these totally. Oh, I need to hire this person and I need to have this piece of tech and I need to be at, with a coach and then a mastermind and I need.

Be running ads and that, you know, and very quickly you’re, you can be spending a lot of money and there’s nothing wrong with any of those. They, all of those things are great for growing your business. But I think the intentionality piece is like, which one do you need right now? That’s going to serve you the most to be able to grow in scale.

Elise: I’m such like a bare minimum person with that because I think I did the opposite I’m previous. Well, I [00:42:00] know I did the opposite of my previous business, where I invested in ClickFunnels. I still have like. A deep resentment towards, for no apparent reason, just because I hate, I found it clunky. It was like, I hated that it 

Emma-Louise: was the least in cheers of platform.

Maybe 

Elise: cried. I’ve definitely cried for sure. 1000000% I’ve cried with a lot. but like, That was a hundred dollars a month. I did not need to be spending like that was the dumbest thing to invest in. Like when I, I went, I think I, that’s why I went so bare bones when I started this business. Cause I was like, right.

So I know all the ways I wasted money in the previous business. Let’s not do that. I’m going to. And the really high-end coach from the get-go and then be real minimal with all of my other shit to try to compensate for that. And so I literally remember the first, like opt in conversion event, like, you know, kind of live stream event.

I did, [00:43:00] I literally just created the most ghetto landing page from like convert kit and it converted at like 63%. I had never had anywhere near that higher conversions for something. And I was like, oh shit, I’m onto something here. But kit for the wind, or it was just like, was so helpful to be like, oh, it’s reaffirming what I’m thinking, which is that like, the platform doesn’t matter, the way I’m showing up does like the way I’m communicating the value, like all of those pieces that were like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know. I know. But like, Look at the shiny thing over here. 

Emma-Louise: It’s so easy to think. Isn’t it? Like I’ve got to get it. Perfect. It’s got to look, you know, like I know Tony Robbins has got click funnels, so a hundred percent, all of the people that are promoting these things that we’ll see and you’re like, oh, you know, and then they blind you with data.

Math and out about percentages. I got, 

Elise: I shut up and that I [00:44:00] remember learning about the color of like, I literally, you guys went down a rabbit hole because I do love me some research of like what color on the button converts 

Emma-Louise: the highest. I knew you were going to say the button it’s because you’re a one, you’re a 5, 1, 1.

Elise: I do. I 

Emma-Louise: do love research. Yeah. So like you spent like an hour deciding which color to make your button 

Elise: yeah. Yeah. So dumb. It doesn’t matter is the answer and color you on to the button. I made my buttons 

Emma-Louise: orange to much my hair. I love that. See, because my brand is quite neutral and I just like, but I do want the button to stand out when I say the same color as my hair.

Elise: That’s that makes sense. Absolutely. 

Emma-Louise: So go forwards into this year 2022, early February. It’s probably going to be later when it’s released, but what are your plans what’s gonna change? Is anything going to change or are we going to keep running same products? [00:45:00] With the same

Elise: well, the cool thing I mapped, I actually do this now. So mapping out the year with the product suite, it’s very doable for us to cross the million mark this year, which is super, super exciting. So that’s kind of, I mean, that’s not the main goal. The main goal is to like help even more people support my humans, even deeper.

The challenge is. Can be annoying. It’s like my capacity, because everything is selling, I’m just, just shrinking rapidly. So we have to find ways to solve for that problem in the business realistically. So I do think there’s a new thing that is going to come out this year. to be honest, I haven’t decided what it is.

I’ve got some things. Brewing in my brain and some ideas around that, what that will be. so yeah, I think we’ll probably, I’m not just tends to be my thing. I tend to just introduce one new thing every year. So that would be in line with what we’ve been doing so far. So yeah, really just kind of continuing to help my people.

my [00:46:00] one-on-ones are pretty much always booked. I think we’re almost booked. We’re probably full for the entire year. So supporting the humans in the mastermind and then maybe introducing something else again. 

Emma-Louise: Perfect. Well, I, before we wrap up, cause I noticed your time and they want to let you have your evening.

What does an evening look like for Elise? So, you know, you’ve closed the laptop. It’s it’s time to go and introvert and reset your nervous system. 

Elise: Uh, I love this question. So I’m, I’m like, I love a bath and a shower. I’m just a bath and a shower kind of gal. So after I finished with clients for the day, me and my husband will often go for a walk with the puppies down by the beach.

and I love like, I take so many showers and baths. I mean, it’s hot and sweaty here in summer. So that was probably why too, but I just love. I got some eucalyptus hanging up in my shower. Like, I feel like I do my best thinking. We’re conditioning. Our, I love a long shot and I feel [00:47:00] like this is super woo, but I really like literally use the water to kind of like wash away the day, release anything that’s on my mind.

Elise: Just like draw a boundary between work brain. Free brain because I, I just have to, for my nervous system in my brain and all of the emotions too, usually that have a little dinner cuddle the dogs. Just really riveting 

Emma-Louise: things, not watch shows aren’t before 

Elise: bed, not watch Ozark before. That’s all hard. Yeah.

Emma-Louise: In the winds of winter at the moment, um, you know, it gets dark really early, like 4:00 PM, dark at of eight in the morning. And sometimes my energetic, like, you know, close to a business open for business is when I finished, I like to camp. Um, sometimes finished work for the day and then the candle goes on and that’s like my kind of signifies to my nervous system.

Like, Ooh, it’s like [00:48:00] cozy time to relax. Yeah. 

Elise: Love a cozy time. Slip into some pages. Weighted blanket a hundred percent. Yeah. 

Emma-Louise: I love it. Rock, rock, and roll 

Elise: French ruts. It was crazy. 

Emma-Louise: So obviously I’m going to pop all of your links in the show notes, where people find you your wonderful podcast, your lovely group, which is where we first teach in the Facebook group.

I’ll pop all of that in, and also I’d love you to share your book recommendations. For an introverts and parts, highly sensitives, whatever stage of their business journey, which book have you read that you think could help them the most? 

Elise: What? I just come back to time and time again, because it just really.

It really changed the way I looked at things was called leveraging the universe by Mike Dooley. And it’s like a very simple one, but I just love he has this, these beautiful kind of ways. He describes things in super simple ways. And one thing that always sticks out with me is just [00:49:00] like, and I think this resonates with introverts is like, Doing your part is like just sending out the ships and like sending out the ships, whatever that looks like for you, that can be any sort of strategy, any technique.

But it’s like in the trusting of the sending out of the ships that the ships are coming back, that makes, I think it’s so much easier for our nervous systems, our emotion to not feel. Sending out the ships does not mean you go and try to track the ships. And it doesn’t mean that you try to figure out where the ships are going or decide if the ships are angry at you or not.

It really just means that you’re sending the ship. You just 

Emma-Louise: wave them all and be like some play 

Elise: OSH. Exactly. And let them come back. So that’s one little snippet of it, but I just, I love that book so much. A couple of 

Emma-Louise: people have met. That book on here. And I know one of my good friends it’s yet. It’s the one that she goes back to time and time and really rates.

Thank you for that. I will pop it in the closure list. Thank you so much for joining us to go and have a shower and Elise: have a [00:50:00] beautiful, thank you, you too. Thanks so much for having me.