Welcome back to the She Dreams All Day podcast, where today we have the QUEEN of everything when it comes to running your own online business, Elley Mae. 

From her consistency, simplicity, and ability to work less and earn more, Elley is an online business coach who helps women scale their business to 6 figures by working 15 hours or less per week.

During the podcast, we both embraced the introvert lifestyle, hanging out in our PJs and chatting about all things content, business and selling. 

If you’re someone who finds selling daunting and intimidating, you’re going to love this episode. 

 

LISTEN HERE

 

 

 

WHO IS ELLEY MAE?

I’m a coach and mentor for women in business who want to scale to 100k-150k working from home.

I teach women how to scale their business in a way that feels right to them, by working less and earning more doing what they do best. 

My journey started in 2018, when I began beauty blogging. Although I loved it, and grew my Instagram to 18k followers (which I have a fraction of now and make way more money!), I kept having a feeling of ‘is this it?’

As I was blogging, I would have people reach out to me and ask how I grew my traffic to my blog and my Instagram followers.

So I transitioned into blogging about blogging, and teaching others how to grow their social media channels.

Then in 2018, I hired my first business coach. She’s still a good friend of mine, and she was key to helping me turn my blog into a business. 

Eventually, I had enough clients to quit my day job and work full time as a social media and brand photographer. 

However, I changed to become a business coach in early 2019, and it was my first six figure year. I’ve been earning multiple six figures ever since. I hired my first team members, and haven’t looked back since. 

 

 

TAKING THE LEAP WITH AN ONLINE BUSINESS

When I quit my job and went full time, I did a lot of mindset work.

I got to a point where I was working a day job and running a business, and I couldn’t take on more clients. There are only so many hours in a day, and I knew I had to take a leap of faith and go full time. 

Eventually, the timing felt right, and I was working from home on my business in the August. By mid-September, I was fully booked out and had already doubled my regular income. 

It’s proof that if you take a leap of faith, it’s going to pay off! (Just make sure you have enough money coming in to get by, first).

 

 

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF ELLEY MAE

My weeks differ depending on what time of year it is, and what I have going on.

During summer and spring, I tend to work 10-15 hours a week (or less) and I spend a lot of time outside gardening. 

During the winter when it’s colder, I don’t enjoy being outside so much! 

Mondays are a day I take for myself. My weekend is always full of activities with my husband, so I like having an introverted day to myself. It’s game-changing because it gives me time to recharge and reset. 

Tuesday is usually my podcast day, whether it’s for my own or an interview with someone else, and a day of team meetings and content creation.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are usually client call days. I will always schedule my meetings on these days so I know what’s going on each week. It’s also good to have these boundaries with yourself to manage your own time. 

Five days a week I am available to my 1:1 clients, but I keep this to set times, and I’ve never had a client complain that I wasn’t available or wasn’t working enough. It works perfectly. 

And Fridays? They’re also my day off!

 

 

THE WORK LESS, EARN MORE MENTALITY

It’s all about mindset.

Clients usually come to me and talk about how they struggle to switch off.

Working from home, there’s always something else that could be done and feel guilty about shutting the laptop down.  

So we talk about boundaries.

Setting boundaries with yourself as an entrepreneur is one of the most important things you can do to work less and earn more. 

The first step to dropping your workload to 10-20 hours a week is to commit to this. 

If one foot is in and one is out, it’s not going to work. 

Setting those boundaries was one of the best things for me and my business. It helped my physical health (by taking breaks, having rest and more sleep to recharge), and my mental health which ultimately allows me to support my clients more. 

Set up boundaries in your business for yourself.

If you have notifications on your social media, turn them off. 

I show my clients the proof that I don’t need to work all day long to have results. 

Set the hours that you work.

For me, I always finish work by 3pm. Hold yourself accountable for your decisions and commit to them.

One tip I have is to move your apps around on your phone if you subconsciously scroll.

For example, move your app to the fifth page of your home screen, so you have to consciously find it before you use it! It stops you from endlessly scrolling and working out of hours.

 

 

SELLING ON INSTAGRAM

I’ve always had the mindset that to make money in business, you need to sell. 

The limiting belief that others will find me annoying or unfollow me are still there sometimes. But I remind myself how important it is to sell to run a business. 

Think about Coca Cola. They’re one of the most well-known brands in the world, yet they still bring out adverts and run billboards. They still advertise. 

I treat my business in the same way. It is required. It’s not negative!

When you are selling a service with an ideal client in mind, you’re doing them a disservice if you don’t show up and offer it to them. 

You’re not allowing them to overcome their goals and struggles. 

My audience is full of people that are ready to work with me and go for their goals. 

They’ve overcome their struggles and let go of the shit that’s holding them back. Of course, I need to show up!

I sell in a way that is right for me and feels good for myself and my client. 

The energy I sell is not desperate energy.

It’s from a place of I want to support you and this is how I can do that.

I also sell beautiful Instagram templates that help you to show up on stories and sell your product, which can all be edited on Canva.

 

 

THE QUEEN OF CONSISTENCY

Don’t over complicate your content.

If you spend too much time thinking about it, it’s not going to come across as well as keeping it simple and just enjoying the process. 

Think about your ideal client and their desires.

What are they working towards? 

What is one thing on their mind that you KNOW you can teach them?

Or can you tell a story or insight?

It’s that simple.

Spend 10-15 minutes on one post. That’s it. Put it up. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Don’t worry about typos or mistakes. You can always make another post!

Just post it.

I usually come up with ideas for my content on the day or use the note section on my phone to jot ideas down when I think of them. 

Keep it simple, keep it consistent! 

 

 

Wow, thank you so much Elley for today’s podcast interview, and what a juicy one it was!

Elley has her own podcast ‘The Empowered CEO Show’ which has over 130 episodes all about the kind of things we spoke about today, and all things on the work less, earn more vibe. Make sure you check it out!

Alternatively, you can find Elley at @elleymae on Instagram and see what amazing masterminds and courses she’s running at the moment. 

Thank you, Elley!