Female Founders: Elle Ballard of Women of the World Network On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Start building your business with simple, cost-effective tools, then re-invest in your business and pay yourself. I overspent at the beginning of my business not realizing how many cost-effective tools are available. I also started paying myself later. Start developing a habit of re-investing back into your business and paying yourself a salary early enough.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elle Ballard.
Elle has built a successful career in marketing, helping companies promote their products nationally and internationally. Elle is a Personal Brand Coach, best-selling Author, Speaker, and Founder of Women of the World Network™. She has been leading different kinds of teams starting with the International oil and gas $3.2 billion crude oil system CPC project where she closely worked with the local government officials, continuing in the direct sales industry, and now expanding and growing Women of the World Network ™ (WOTWN). She has been a featured guest on the following podcasts: Expand Your Fempire, The Art of Feminine Marketing, Voice of America, and others. Elle is an open-minded, conscious, global leader who always striving to grow, overcome, and better herself while listening to her inner voice and trusting herself in the process. Having to start from point zero several times in her life, she knows how challenging the transition can be while maintaining your authenticity and individuality — that is the reason for creating WOTWN. Elle loves authentic women, women of substance and believes in developing a diversity-aligned and happy women leaders who then positively impact future generations. Elle loves coffee, beautiful views, ballroom dancing, and is interested in longevity and holistic health.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I am originally from Kazakhstan and came here 20 years ago. I finished an MBA program in Marketing and worked in marketing at a couple of software companies. I enjoyed the work and I learned a lot of lessons but always wanted to create something that talked to my heart. I wanted to create my own brand that I deeply believed in and that I could build to empower and help others.
When I discovered the power of consistent, daily personal growth, I started wondering how many people are missing out on these daily growth principles that can improve their lives so much more. Coming from a different culture, I had to work with my personal beliefs and mindset to start creating something I truly wanted.
My company was sold and I lost my job and decided this is a great opportunity for me to start my dream project. Women of the World Network™ was launched.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
When I started Women of the World Network™, I still had another business. That business involved a lot of travel, and I felt overwhelmed with building two businesses. Then, the whole world was faced with the pandemic, economic changes, and people leaving jobs. The whole world was under this pandemic influence. People stopped traveling and countries closed. People were not interested in travel anymore. This was when I left my travel business and decided to focus solely on expanding Women of the World Network™. I find it interesting how external circumstances can push you in the direction you are supposed to go. I was supposed to build my brand and my company.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember I opened a merchant account when I just started my business and did not even get to open and start using it officially. Then, my situation changed and I did not need the services anymore, even though I was still paying for it sometime later. I learned an important lesson — watch my budget and only spend on items that I critically need at the moment. When we are starting our businesses, we get excited about opportunities and can over-commit financially. It is important to re-invest in your business wisely when just starting your business journey.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am so grateful for so may amazing women business owners that have mentored me, women who are already successful in their businesses. One of my commitments is continued business and personal growth and improvements. I met amazing women leaders who I consult and coach with. I also belong to a few outstanding communities that offer women support, encouragement, and business advice. I am grateful for their continued example of leadership.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
I love the progress we are making as women but there is still work to be done. I believe one of the things that is holding women back is self-sabotage and lack of mentorship and guidance. When women can see the path and work on eliminating their own limiting beliefs and surround themselves with other women who are doing it — this can help reduce that gap.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Definitely! Women express their voice differently from men and we have to consider that. When we think she does not have an opinion, she is simply not sure if it is safe for her to open up. We have to create more mentorship for women for different experiences. Women with corporate experience might need different support from women who were stay-at -home moms and are now starting a business. In addition, we have to consider cultural differences and beliefs that women have. Just like Daisy Auger-Dominguez mentions in her “Inclusion Revolution” book: “I believe in you! You can never hear it enough”. We have several programs at Women of the World Network™ that help women with mindset, cultural beliefs that might inhibit their growth, and business and professional experiences.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
I know I am a better mother, leader, and human being because I gave myself permission to follow my mission. We very often do not know what we do not know. Women tend to spend a lot of their lifetime taking care of others: first their kids, then their parents. A lot of women left the workforce during the pandemic to take care of their kids when schools and kindergartens closed.
We need to provide more financial and educational support and resources to women to help them succeed. When she knows she has support and believes that she can accomplish her dreams, she will succeed in whatever her heart desires. She will have the full freedom to create a dream life for herself and others around her. Also, statistically, when women make more money and are more fulfilled, they tend to give back more to the communities they live in and their families.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
One of the big “myths” is that we can accomplish our mission ourselves. It is simply not possible. We need other people to help us. Founders need to ask for advice and delegate when needed so that they can focus on what they are good at and what they know. In my own experience, having a team of dedicated, diverse women allows me to use their expertise while also supporting them financially in the process. Both parties win.
The other big “myths” is that it will be easy. It is important to recognize it will be a fulfilling and learning experience, but not an easy one. We have to become that person and grow in order to have what we dream about. I love this quote: “Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure go to your heart”.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I think everyone can become a founder. It takes time and discipline to build something meaningful but it is not impossible. We learn the best while we are doing something. It is important to be flexible with situations and people, and with the fact that things sometimes do not turn out the way we plan. But it is an amazing experience to be a founder. As for a regular job, I personally learned some of the most important lessons while having a job and now I am creating a workplace for others. If the person has that awareness about themselves and what exactly they want to accomplish they can then choose which route to take: business ownership or a corporate career.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Start building your business with simple, cost-effective tools, then re-invest in your business and pay yourself. I overspent at the beginning of my business not realizing how many cost-effective tools are available. I also started paying myself later. Start developing a habit of re-investing back into your business and paying yourself a salary early enough.
- Delegate. Start delegating small things to contractors whenever you are ready. This has been an important aspect of my business growth when I started delegating day-to-day tasks to others and focusing on business building and the vision for my business. It is also very important to have people who believe and support your vision fully.
- Focus on your end goal and manage your disappointments. Business building is not easy. I compare it to a baby. My business is my baby. I nurture it and invest my time and effort so that it will grow into an amazing empire that will in turn inspire others. When disappointments happen, and they will, I remind myself why I started, why am I doing it, and what matters to me. Once I remind myself of that, I am ready to focus on a solution.
- Be flexible. It is never a straight road in business. We make plans and things change, pandemics happen, people change their minds, clients can no longer pay. Whether it is external circumstance or internal, be patient and flexible with yourself and others. I launched a new program that did not reap the results I planned for, but I was able to take the lesson from the situation and start planning a new program with new objectives using my lessons learned.
- Learn from others and surround yourself with people who have done it before and succeeded. I listen to the opinion of people who are doing similar things like me and succeeding. I have a few women coaches and mentors and I am part of a couple amazing business women masterminds and communities that provide valuable support for my business growth.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
My mission is to see more multinational, intersectional, minority, immigrant women grow, develop, be happy while being financially free and doing what they love.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would open a global organization educating kids from poor and under-represented families in USA, as well in Crimea and in the country I am from. I would like to give them access to education and the freedom to create and learn to think outside the box.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Madonna or Irina Hakamada (Russian economist and publicist)
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this!
Female Founders: Elle Ballard of Women of the World Network On The Five Things You Need To Thrive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.