I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with the phenomenal Eleanor Beaton and I’m delighted to share her incredible and inspiring interview with you today. If you didn’t know, Eleanor is practically royalty. Despite this though, she always felt different and sort of stuck out growing up.
It took time for Eleanor to grow into her presence and become the amazing leader and CEO that she is today. Her 7-figure company, Self Actualized Female Innovators (SAFI), is highly niched down to her target market—self-actualized, independent women entrepreneurs who are innovative in their space.
“With my gifts and strengths, I’m not speaking to everybody—anytime that I’ve tried to appeal to a mass market, it doesn’t work,” says Eleanor.
Interestingly, to niche down and reach the women she was meant to serve—independent women leaders, innovators, and changemakers—she had to let go of a very profitable part of her business. Eleanor hit 7 figures in just three years, and when you reach that level you start to think differently about leadership. You begin focusing on what that looks like and how to develop the right team to drive your business forward.
And so…SAFI was born. Eleanor began creating a body of work that stood on its own and ushered in the right clients: CEOs, leaders, managers, coaches, creators, and more. Her new brand attracted educated, affluent, conscious, powerful women with purchasing power. Today, she teaches her clients how to build jewel businesses—businesses made up of 30% growth, 30% profitability, and 30% of the founder’s time free and unscheduled to be able to create.
Listen to the podcast here:
No One Does Entrepreneurship Alone
Developing a jewel business is the foundation to stepping into leadership, power, influence, and freedom. What Eleanor found (which won’t surprise you), is that women have this surge capacity. We have enough resources and reserves to keep going and going, and that’s when depression, burnout, and anxiety can set in if you’re not practicing self-care.
Women then become despondent, stressed, and overwhelmed. But to fulfill our mission, it’s impossible to do it alone. No one makes it alone. “Timing is everything!” Eleanor says. Give yourself permission to follow what is right at that moment and trust your intuition. Most women have an innate ability to discern things and people around them like safety or danger, truth or lies, good intentions, etc. Relying on our intuition is a no-brainer for us.
Beyond our intuition, though “it’s so important to have women leaders, mentors, or coaches who ground you,” Eleanor shares. There is power in these relationships and when you have the right mentors and coaches at your side—an amazing network of colleagues in community with one another—you get a true mastermind.
How to Have Radical Conviction in Your Business
Did you know that the longest European study of entrepreneurship by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found that in Germany and France 80% of women’s lack of confidence was what was holding them back from growing? It was causing them to censor themselves. In New Zealand, women entrepreneurs were less confident in their ability to run their businesses compared to men—even after being in business for several years. But Ladies, we can do so much better than this for our businesses, our families, and most especially, ourselves!
We need to practice having radical conviction and deep commitment to what we’re doing, why we’re doing it—plus the ability to accept that “I am enough…what I have to offer is enough” is crucial to be in the right mindset of self-confidence and self-worth when it comes to being a female business leader. According to Eleanor, we have to come to a place of sufficiency because that’s when you’re actually able to hear yourself and trust your instincts. That is when you will stop copying what you see in your industry and stop being what others want you to be. That is when you will find your true, original voice and cultivate the leader (i.e. queen) within.
How Do You Become an Innovator in Business?
Take this inspiration from Eleanor…she is always investigating what is out of her bounds and bringing women together from different industries—much like the Brilliant Event does. When you have an ear out for what’s new and fresh outside of your industry, it helps you get away from the cookie-cutter model and the sea of sameness. True innovation comes from learning outside your own business, scope, and understanding.
A special something that sets Eleanor apart is her email strategy. This woman literally tries to get people to unsubscribe! She uses humor and a brazen tongue in her writing (which she still does all of herself) so the people who are not her audience will fall away, and the people who are picking up what she’s putting down will stick around and never unsubscribe.
Eleanor doesn’t outsource any of her copywriting because writing is HER THING. When she thought about what she was doing immediately preceding her greatest accomplishments in business she found that the written word was at the heart of it all.
“Where do I feel best in the world?” she thought. “Where am I the queen of all things? Where am I untouchable in my zone?” It always came down to the written word. Especially considering that her audience is readers: they buy books, they want depth, they read 60 books a year. So Eleanor says, I’m going to meet them where they’re at…in their inbox. There she delivers humor and insight—it’s just one smart woman talking to another smart woman. And get this—she has a 35% open rate!
I ask Eleanor what inspired living means to her. She says, “Inspired living means having that jewel business. It means having cash, influence, and autonomy—knowing you’re enough and living from that place where you’re inspired to grow not from fear, not from scarcity, but from the joy of creation.”
Despite their amazing skills and unparalleled knowledge, women still find it hard to go into the limelight of business leadership. But sometimes, all women entrepreneurs need a little motivation in the forms of business coaching and learning programs. Joining Keri Murphy is Eleanor Beaton, the Founder of Safi Media, a company on a mission to help women advance as leaders, level the game in the business industry, and allow them to hit bigger revenues. Eleanor shares the story of how they rebranded the company last year, the importance of entrepreneurial confidence, the power of mentorship, and how they conduct their unique email marketing strategy. She also underlines the importance of failure and committing mistakes in the growth of every businesswoman and achieving the feeling of worthiness in order to serve others.
Important Links:
- https://EleanorBeaton.com/
- https://www.Facebook.com/StoryIsPower/
- https://Twitter.com/eleanorbeaton
- https://www.Instagram.com/eleanorbeaton/
- https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/eleanorbeaton
- https://www.YouTube.com/eleanorbeaton
- EleanorBeaton.com/Join
- SAFI Media
- Power + Presence + Position
About Eleanor Beaton
Coach and strategic advisor to growth-oriented women entrepreneurs.
Served as Chair of the Visiting Women’s Executive Exchange Program at the Yale School of Management. Recognized as Canada’s Leadership Coach of the Year by the Corporate Excellence Awards. Her company won a 2018 Nova Scotia Export Achievement Award for our track record in international growth.
Founder of Safi Media. They are on a mission to double the number of women entrepreneurs who generate over $1M in sales by 2030, through women-focused entrepreneurship education. They offer educational content and coaching programs to women entrepreneurs worldwide, and have served clients across every continent in the world (except Antarctica!)
As a speaker on women’s entrepreneurship and leadership, she have shared the speaker roster with women such as Hilary Clinton. Her writing on women, business and leadership has been recognized as best in class, with awards and nominations from the country’s top literary and journalistic awards.
Her podcast for women entrepreneurs, Power + Presence + Position has generated 1.5 million downloads and is ranked among iTunes top 40 podcasts in entrepreneurship. Her works has been quoted and featured in The Atlantic, CTV, the CBC, The Globe and Mail, INC, Canadian Business and Readers Digest.
Spoken at over 100 conferences and companies around the world on the topic of women’s entrepreneurship and leadership. I am available and interested in speaking at events worldwide.
This Post Has One Comment
First off I would like to say fantastic blog! I had a quick
question that I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested
to know how you center yourself and clear your mind prior to writing.
I’ve had a tough time clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out.
I do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are lost simply just
trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or tips? Kudos!