Welcome Back. Here are the six quick questions. So question # one is what's your, why? Why are you getting up every single day and doing this? Because I really believe that again, you cannot pursue your full possibility and expand your mind if you're not exposed to different possibilities. And the only way to do that, I think is to get the stories of more women who are building businesses and creating and carving out these unique paths to get their stories out in front of people who haven't been exposed to that previously in their own life. So that women of all backgrounds, all socio economic statuses, all geographic regions have access to the resources and the mentorship that they need to change the world honestly with with what they're building. Absolutely. I love that Question. Number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far? Oh, marketing moment. Um, that's so hard. I mean, okay, this is popping in my mind.

I don't know if this is my favorite, but it's the most recent, we went through a recent rebranding this summer and that was huge for us because it's the first time in my life. I mean cubicle the ceo this idea or this brand came to life in early 2019. But middle of the summer 2022 like three years into the journey is the first time I truly felt like our brand had the v visuals to match what we felt was, you know, the mission and the and the impact on the work that we're doing and it felt like our brand had kind of grown up a little bit and matured a little bit and was like coming into its own and so that marketing moment and seeing people actually interact with our brand and feel some sort of affinity and loyalty to it. A quick story that I'll just share here. I had a live event in august, our first larger scale cubicle to Ceo live event and there was this girl attending who um during the audience Q and A, we had our mic flag wrapped around the, you know, the microphone handle. And so I passed it off to her to ask the question and she legit, didn't she legit stops before she asked the question.

She's like, oh my gosh, she's like, I'm so honored to be holding something with cable called a Ceo is logo on it right now, can someone take a picture of me holding this microphone? This is like such a pinch me moment. And I mean she was like fan girling over holding some something with our logo on it. And I felt like I was like dying of excitement. I was like, oh my God, like the fact that you have your own experience with our brand and you perceive it in such a way that that was definitely a marketing moment that I'll remember forever, wow, that is so cool. And I think it's those moments that are like so powerful. They're like, yes, I'm here, I'm doing it, let's go, this is cool. Yes, 100% yes. Question # three is what's your go to business resource at the moment, if you have to think about a newsletter or a book or a podcast I have been binging everything that Alex Lieberman puts out. He's founder of morning brew a media company that I really look up to, and he actually recently rebranded his own podcast, founders journal um, into the crazy ones.

Uh, Sophia Amoruso and I'm blanking on the name of his third co host right now. But even if you go back and binge the old episodes, I feel like there's so much valuable content there. Love that, love that. Yeah, I did see this new rebrand. I haven't listened to the new episodes, I need to get into that. Yes, I would Love his, his Tiktok 62nd startup, I think it's so fun. Yes, Yes, I think that's such a well done segment. Absolutely. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? I'm going to be really honest and tell you that I'm not one of those ceos that has this really fancy, well thought out morning routine or quite honestly, evening routine. I think every day looks so different for me and being accepting of that. I think, you know, sometimes in our culture we kind of feel like a failure if we don't have this meticulous schedule that we always follow and everyone else is like, what's your morning routine? I don't really have, you know, this, this, you know, put in place routine I think though for me, what feels good and helps me when the day is any moment of connection, whether it's like what we're doing right now.

Dune and feeling like, you know, meeting a friend for the first, a new friend for the first time or going out to coffee or going out to some networking event or receiving an email or DM or a voice note from someone saying, hey, this really impacted my life this week. Those small micro moments of connection is what helps me feel like that day had purpose and it was worthwhile, 100%. I love that. I'm also like not a strict routine follower and so getting kind of just a small micro things that bring me joy like making myself a juice or you know, having a hot lemon and water and like kind of doing just small micro moments here or there, how I win the day. I'm also someone who doesn't have the set routine I wish I did, but it's just, it doesn't come naturally to me totally, but I, I agree with you, I'm like a T and I, I actually do love having like a cup of hot tea at night and then I do like an iced tea, you know during the day, but or, or you know, coffee are my green drink that I drink from athletic greens.

Like all those little things help help just kick off the day. Right? Yeah, 100% question number five is, what's been your worst money mistake? And how much did it cost you? Hmm that's a great question. I mean, I think, I don't know if this was my worst money mistake. Um, but one that I learned a lot from was sometimes it can get really easy when you see the top line revenue growing to get excited to get ahead of yourself and to pour a bunch of money into something just because you want to, in a way, it's like feeding your ego right? You're like, oh if I know if I pour more money, let's say Into the ads machine. I know this much is going to come out and I think I got to this point in early 2021, we had this one tiny offer funnel that was just taking off. I mean over 9000 students have come through into our ecosystem from that one product alone and that our spending for the ads just got a little bit out of hand and I wasn't closely paying attention to the data the way that I should have been.

And when I reflected on my monthly report my profit and loss statement for that month. I remember being shocked at even though it was our highest revenue month today. At that point, it was one of our lowest profitability months and I was like, I can never let this vanity metric or this perception of success lead me astray again into not paying attention to the numbers that matter and being way more intentional with how I scale. That's a good one. That's interesting. Yeah. And question # six, last question, what is just a crazy story you can share from this journey in building a business, it can be good or bad. Oh my gosh, I'm the worst at on the spot. Like tell me about a moment, like in job interviews, there was always situational questions where I'd be like, my mind is blank. Honestly, there have been so many pinch me moments throughout, you know, the last five years of building this business that I, I honestly can't believe everything from little moments where you know, we got get like a DM voice note from someone who lives in Africa saying, hey, I started this business and it's changed my family trajectory because of listening to your podcast.

Things that you're like, I can't even fathom touching someone on the other side of the world in that way that I may never meet in real life. Like little moments like that all the way up to bigger pinch me moments. I remember when we got the email invitation to come on the Today show um, with Hoda and Jenna. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe that we're going to be on national tv. This is so crazy. Just things that you don't ever anticipate or imagine yourself doing. There's so many moments like that all throughout the spectrum and in between. And I think every day is kind of a surprise to me and that's what I love about entrepreneurship is that it's not predictable. No, two days are exactly the same and you are really, you know, creating your destiny and just along for the ride. And I think if you keep the joy and the fun in it and you kind of almost treat business like a game, then it never gets boring and you never take yourself too seriously, right? And you really get to enjoy the process more. 100%. Ellen, this was so much fun. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

I am absolutely your hype girl. I'm cheering for this next journey that you're going on in building your media company. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Hey, it's dune here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the female startup club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out female startup club dot com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D. C. And interesting business resources. And if you're a founder building an e commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called hype club at female startup club dot com forward slash hype club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate. Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops and a group of totally amazing like minded women building the future of DTC brands. As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to instagram stories.

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