This episode of The One Small Change podcast dives deep into the art of messaging and its transformative impact on entrepreneurial journeys. Host Yvonne McCoy is joined by Ellen Finkelstein, a guest who shares how writing her first book out of necessity ignited a successful career in technical writing, online products, and coaching, all from her own living room. The conversation reveals that pinpointing not just your knowledge, but also the implementation and the unique way you deliver it, is what attracts the right clients. The episode is packed with practical advice for discovering your core strength, addressing clients’ true pain points, and the importance of validation and self-assessment. Listen in for real stories, actionable insights, and an honest look at what it takes to stand out, be understood, and make your mark in today’s competitive business landscape.

Guest Bio:

Ellen Finkelstein is a multi-published author, online business coach, and expert in creating clear, actionable messaging that attracts clients. Starting her career after writing technical books for major publishers, she pivoted to self-publishing, building websites, digital products, and training courses on topics like AutoCAD and PowerPoint. Ellen now teaches entrepreneurs how to clarify their niche, message, and unique value to connect effectively with their ideal audience.

Chapters:

00:00 "AutoCAD Book Proposal Pitch"

05:21 Self-Publishing Sparked My Career

09:59 "Bridging the Knowledge Gap"

10:53 Identifying Problems to Engage Audiences

16:53 Discovering Your Unique Value

17:51 "Understanding and Defining Your Work"

23:48 "Focus, Consistency, and Solutions"

25:57 "Free Workbook & Self Assessment"

28:53 "Podcast Growth & Impact Insights"

31:20 Grateful Farewell Moment

Quote from the Guest:

"When you think more deeply about your message and write it both knowing what you do, listening to what other people think you do, and come out with something that explains what you do concretely and uniquely, then all of a sudden, it's like lights go on in the people who hear you."

Link:

Download the tools you need at:  https://www.changetheworldmarketing.com/freebies/

Welcome to the One Small Change. I am thrilled as always that you

have decided to take your time to join on this journey of

exploration and transformation with me. I'm your host, Yvonne

McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience

and I have a passion for discovering growth through the

power of seemingly small change. And every week we talk

about I hope to introduce you to someone who's going to talk about a small

change that really had an impact on them and they're going to share how that

change or unexpected decisions sparked a

remarkable transformation in their life, you know,

whether it's personal or professional. And today I have

with me the amazing Ellen Finkelstein.

Ellen, thank you so much for taking your time to come and talk

to us. So I have followed you from afar for a long time.

So tell the audience what it is

you do and what was, what got you into doing. What was the change that

made you decide to do what you do?

I think that one of the main things was that I

had little kids at home at the time. They're like

36 and 38 now. So it

was a long time ago. But I needed to find a way to work

from home and I had the opportunity. I

had a friend who was writing books for IDG

Books, which got bought out by Wiley and Sons. And

most of the books you see behind me, especially like the ones up there and

a couple anyway, are from that company, Wiley and Sons.

And he was writing books

and he told them that I could do some, some

technical editing of computer books because he was writing kind of

computer related books. So I did a little bit of that. I which was nice

because it was something you could do at home. And

then I was looking, asking them for another book to do technical

editing on. And they said, well, I, we have this book,

but the author backed out on us. So when we get an author,

we'll I was on AutoCAD, which is what this top shelf is, and

some of those books over there. When we have another author, we'll let you know.

And I said, well, and I had already done technical

editing on AutoCAD CAD for them for

another author. And I said could I put in a proposal?

And they in at, in those days, you

publishers who were always terrible at marketing

and you'll see how that's important later, they would buy space

on the shelves of bookstores and they'd already bought

this space for this book called

AutoCAD for Dummies quick Reference, which was

the second book that this author bailed out on. So they, I said. So they

let me put in a proposal. They were kind of desperate, I'll admit, because they

had already paid for this book. You know, it had to happen. And

they said, okay. So that was my, my first book and

it was called AutoCAD for Dummies, quick Reference, which was

they don't do them anymore, but it's like smaller than the regular For

Dummies books. And that went on

to. To a career writing computer books. So I

wrote books on AutoCAD, including that big one up there, which

they don't even allow one person to write anymore. It started out at

800 pages and ended up at like 1296 pages in

17 editions in like, 14 languages and whatever.

So that. And then I did some books on PowerPoint,

which was for McGraw Hill. They have.

They have a little separate part of them that does computer

books. And so I did those. And because

publishers are so bad at doing their own publicity, it got. It

was at the time when authors were starting to have a quote platform.

Like they would have their own website and they would write blog posts and they

would have their own mailing list. And

so I did that. 1999, I started my first website, Ellen

finkelstein.com still around. It's only on PowerPoint

right now. And I started

to create like a free offer and build

up subscribers. And my topics were.

I was very lucky in the sense that my topics, PowerPoint

and AutoCAD were things that people who use them needed to

know about really desperately. You know, and the. The keywords

were PowerPoint, AutoCAD. I used tips. I used PowerPoint tips.

So I like that. But the need was like, so strong there,

so it attracted attention. I got a little bit of a list, and then I

decided I was going to write an ebook. And that was like the small

change, I guess, or one of the small changes was to write my own

book. And that book up there, that one,

it's. In the end, it was like $50 full

price, but they sold it on Amazon for 30. And my royalty was

10% of wholesale, which was half of the retail. So

50, let's say $50 down to $25

wholesale, and I would get $2.50 for each book. Now,

it sounds like a little bit, but that book was actually a bestseller for years.

And. And the money from these books paid the down payment for my

house. You know, it was. It worked. But I realized

that I could write my own book now that I had a list and I

could sell it for $19 or something like that. And I got to keep $18

and whatever PayPal was, was taking, but that was it. I got to keep all

of thousands of dollars

doing that, writing small books on

PowerPoint and, and AutoCAD. And that really

kind of started my career of like I could

create the wealth myself

without sort of. Yeah, without going through, through a big

publisher. And it was a good thing because at that time,

you know, the whole people. It was when people were starting to do that to,

to make money on their own from their own platform.

So I kept on doing that and then I started creating

courses and, and products and more things like that. And I started

coaching and my, my list

grew. I don't have an autocad or anything like that, but I have still

have a PowerPoint list. And then I, in 2010 or

2011, I live in a small town in Iowa. It's

a college town, but it's surrounded by corn and soybean fields.

And there aren't a lot of jobs here because it's so is. So

I created a little course in my living room teaching

people how to build an online business, what I had just done,

how to make a website, how to blog, how to sell something

off of a website and deliver it.

And I created ChangeTheWorldMarketing.com

as a tool to show them. I created it

and showed them this is what I'm doing now. This is what just built it

up in real time for them to follow. And that started

changetheworldmarketing.com so now I, I teach other

people how to do that. So. So

out of necessity, you had to dip your, your

toes into the, you know, some kind of a work thing. But I think

the thing that you said that that's so interesting is

if you decide you want to do something, you don't have to be,

you can be anywhere in the world now. Yes, I've done it all

over the world. Yes. And actually start your own business.

And, and I think the thing that

to me is interesting is.

And I just said this to somebody else I used to be

very judgmental about, you know,

you'll never make money at that, you know, that kind of thing. And what I

realized is you can make money from almost anything if you

can get a hold of the right audience because there, if you thought of it,

somebody else has thought of it too, you know, or thought, I wish I had.

You know, it's kind of the build the better mousetrap kind of thing. And

yeah, if you have knowledge that that meets a need

and you can meet that need and you can help people, then you can sell

something to help people with it. Yeah, but I think the

other thing that you said is, I think, really important

about the things that you're writing about. It wasn't just the knowledge. It

was also how you implement it. You know, how to use it. And I

think that is something that's really relevant right now because, you

know, with AI and with, you know, online and

stuff, you can get basic information anywhere. Right.

The question is, how do you customize it

so it's right for that person? How do they implement it and actually

get to use it? So I don't know if that's something that, that

you talk about at all. Well, I

feel very strongly that my role is as a teacher

and to help people to actually get something done. So

you're right. There's a lot of information online, but very little of it

helps you get from point A to point to point Z. You know, they'll

tell you how to get from point A to point B. And then it's like,

well, now what? So the next person says, how to get from B to C.

Well, how did I get, you know, how. How did I get. How do I

make the connection there? And so it's. It can be very difficult

making those connections and seeing, you know, maybe I should go this

direct way. This. Maybe I should go this way. So the strategy of it, putting

it all together and then the actual technology of actually getting

it the right thing done and then

putting it in a. In terms it, you know, messaging,

your messaging, so that you actually speak in a way that people understand

and realize that they want what you have. I try to

put all of those things together. The people that I help

are experts. They. They know something and they want to get that knowledge out to

the world. But very often they speak at expert speak and doesn't

necessarily mean that they're speaking in like, using

technical terms or anything, but like, they know the

solution they solve. But the people don't even know they have that problem.

You know, like, I'll give you an example. I had a client who

helps people with leaky gut. And so she would be talking about

leaky gut and leaky gut. And I said to her, they don't know that

they have leaky gut. They know that they feel bloated or they

know they're burping or they, you know, whatever, their digestion is not working

really well, but they don't know why. And so when you're telling

them, I have a solution to your problem that they

don't know that's their problem. And so it's a matter of reaching

people where they are in a way that,

that, that they understand. So I, what you

said, I think is so important, and it's one of the things

that, to me is that people really

need to get their hands around. And that is,

can, can you say, you know, whatever you're,

Whatever it is you're doing, let's say, for instance, I'm going to teach you how

to bake a cake. Do people work up, wake up in the morning and

go, I want to bake a cake?

Probably not. Probably what they say is, I have to

bring a dessert or somebody's having a birthday party, or, you know, what

am I going to do about that? And then, you know, it's

like, how am I going to do this thing? Oh, maybe I'll

bake a cake. But, you know, you've interjected that, like, would you like

to know how to bake a cake? Easily to take to that birthday party.

And I call that, what's the elephant in the room? What is the. What

is the problem that they don't know that they have?

How do you, how do you get them to acknowledge that they have that?

And I had that same thing with my workshop because I was talking

about using the unique, you know, your unique power.

And I think people and, and when I first started doing the workshop, it started

with use your unique power to attract

clients. And I think people thought it was like, you know, I was gonna hit

them on the head with a magic wand and they would become a superhero, you

know, this, like, magic pill. And so now it. Problem that

they recognize is that they want more clients. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. And so now what I say is, you know, attract

your right client by unlocking the unique power that you already

have. And, and, and what I do is I give a story

to explain what their unique power is. Before I even go in the workshop,

I go, I know you're here for clients, and I know you probably don't think

you have a unique power, but I'm going to take that out of your way

so you can actually get the most out of this. And

their unique power is what they're born with. It's their ability

to do whatever they do the way they do it. Right?

So I think, you know, when we're talking about messaging, it

is really important we get so

passionate that we're solving a problem. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're

not looking at the client's perspective, right?

That they don't Know, they haven't diagnosed that for themselves yet.

I heard recently somebody distinguishing, and I really like this, between the

pain point and the problem. So the problem might be something that, you know,

they have, but what they ex. They know is their pain point.

So what pain point do you solve rather than what problem

do you solve? Because those actually can be two different things.

Yeah, like in that example I gave, you know, the pain point is stomach

aches, but the problem might be leaky, leaky gut. And so

those are two different things, even though they might be connected. But if the person

doesn't know they're connected, then you have to elicit that. And

I think one of the things I really like about that phrase that you,

that you use, you'll get more clients by unlocking your, your superpowers, that

word unlocking. Because then they go, oh, maybe

I do have one. I just haven't unlocked it. Let me try to unlock it.

You know, even though I don't know what it is, it opens up the possibility

that it's there even though they don't know what it is. And, you

know, I had somebody explain it by the way they said it is

paint the door red with what they want, and then when they're

inside, you give them what they actually need. And so what I found, I

was doing a thing called productivity and profit.

And what people thought they needed was time management.

They wanted time management skills, but that's really not what they

needed. What they had to prioritize,

how to figure out which of the things would help them make money, what they

needed to get rid of, what they needed to streamline. So I think, you

know, what we're talking about is. It

sounds fairly simple, but it is major. I mean, I think

every client I talk to, I talk to about this. You

know, why should people pick you? Why? You know, how

do you get them to see, you know, once they've decided that they've

got that problem and they start to investigate it, then that's a good part.

You know, it's the, the steps before that

that you have to take a look at. And that's where I think

when you're messaging and you're using examples that they

can relate to, you know, so I, I

always say I can work with enlightened men, but I don't have a lot of

guy stories to know. I gotta,

I have a lot of girl stories, a lot of women's stories, you know, a

lot of, A lot of life, you know, women's life under this, you know, under

these Tires. So

how do you, you know, how do you get

people to focus in on that and, and get clear about what

it is that people, you know, how to get them from A to B

of, you know, seeing what they, what they actually need.

So I teach people

a process of messaging for themselves

so that they can

figure out how to write in a way or talk in a

way that will

attract their client, attract clients, as we were talking about.

And it's, it's a, a simple process. It's not that

unusual because people have kind of had their, like

these little formulas of writing a, an elevator speech or something like that.

And one thing is, is that you need more than one

version of your message. You know, your elevator speeches. You need to be able to

expand that and you don't want to say the same words

over and over again. But the other thing is that

you need, you need to go deeper. I, I think that's the main

point. So people will say, you know, this is my target market

and this is the problem I solve. Well, this is the pain point I

solve, and this is how I solve it. There's just so many

ways that you need to go deeper than that. First of all, as we were

talking about, you know, as you were talking about in terms of your, your, your,

your secret, your secret power, your special

power, people often don't know

what is unique about them and how they stand out. And I was just

writing in my email this morning, sometimes it's hard for people to

brag about themselves to say, oh, I'm special this way, I'm special that

way, because we're brought up to be. We're taught that it's not

polite to brag. And so, you know, in that case, I was

talking about the value of having somebody else brag for you and partnering with

somebody. But you do still have to get there to get to the

point of what's special about you, what's unique about you.

And, and a lot of what you, what you do with that is, is

by asking other people, getting testimonials, for example,

or case studies how, or asking other people what they think is

special about you. If you, if it's hard for you to figure that out yourself

or just uncomfortable to say it yourself. And, and

the other thing is, is that you, you need to

understand what you do even

before you start saying it. You need to even understand it. And I find

with lots of people, especially like people who do something a little more vague,

like life coaches or healers

or holistic health practitioners or something like

that people who work on that kind of level, they have a really

hard time explaining concretely what they do. It's very

hard. And so you really have to do this self

assessment, I call it. But as the first step of really figuring out

what it is you do and how you do it and why it works and

all of that, you know, it's hard. There are people who

just want an intuitive. And they go, if you're intuitive, I want you. But most

people, not you, have to be a little bit more concrete than that,

either with a story or some specific framework that you do,

whatever it is. So self assessment is really important. And then

getting some objective. Other people's talking about

what you want to validate, I call them self

assessment and validation are two really important

parts of getting to your messaging that will bring your

clients. And I think the other part to that. So the first part,

there's actually three things that you said.

It's not your fault that you have trouble tooting your own

horn. Because we were raised to be. To sit

down, be quiet, be seen, not heard. You

know, to follow the instructions of what everybody else is. You know, to

follow the instructions, fit in the box, don't make waves, that whole

thing. So that's like something that, you

know, you have to unlearn. The second. Yeah.

And it makes marketing difficult for lots of people, because marketing is

tooting your own horn. That's what it is. You know, the

second thing is, I think

the smarter that you are, the harder it is to

understand what makes you special, because you

assume everybody else can do what you can do, and

so you cannot see that you have this blind spot. And,

you know, one of the things that I find really amazing

is, you know, one of the things that I do with people, and this week,

I've done a lot of it, is say to people, tell me who you think

your right client is, and then give me your introduction.

Right. And, you know, I have learned that I

have got a really good radar for being able to say

that does not speak to the people that you're talking to. Yeah, me

too. Yeah, I've had the same experience, you know, and.

And when you point out what's wrong with it, they'll go, why didn't I know

that? Why. Why couldn't I figure that out? Well, you know, because

you can't. You know, it's hard to. It's hard to do stuff by yourself sometimes,

you know? Yeah. I had one person say that I brought out things

about her and what she does that she was too timid to

say herself. And she was, she's British. And so

there's like this reserved

quality of the British that they're kind of famous for. And it's

sort of funny stories about how somebody who's British will come to the United States

and interview for a job and they, you know, what did you accomplish in your

last job? Well, you know, I was, okay, I did my job.

And, and I think the other, I think the other place that

people. That's a, A wonderful resource for

people is when you're just talking to people about

what you do or if you're a network. I remember I was on a cruise

and I was, you know, sitting in a hot tub talking to the sky about

my business. And, and I was telling him the things that

I really liked, and he said to me, so you're a life coach?

And I went, no. I was like,

that's a problem if what I'm saying makes him think

I'm a life coach. Right. And so you can get

these incredible wake up calls. And, and the new tagline

that I'm using I got from networking, and that is, you don't need to be

fixed, you just need to be found. And we were

in networking and they were talking to this poor woman and saying, you

need to do this and you need to change that and you need to do.

And I think I just got frustrated and I said, do you have

clients that love you, that love what you do for them? And she

said, yeah. And I said, you don't have a service delivery issue. You

have a client attraction issue. You don't need to be fixed, you just need to

be found. And everybody in the room went, I

was like, that's it. I mean, sometimes the

answer comes not from, you know, the

deep research and stuff, but just from life experience. Yeah,

absolutely. And someone said to me, you know, you don't need to

take your clients and pigeonhole them that they're 45 to

65 or whatever. You need to ask, what situation are

they in? Oh, I agree with that so much. I really, when people tell

me they have a certain age, I said, you know, know they'll do like women

from 50 to 65. I said, why don't you just say midlife women? Because, you

know, what if they're 49 or what if they're 66? You know, it just, it's

just pigeonholing people. And yeah, I agree. And, and

I think, I think, you know, one of the things that I see is there's

certain patterns. I Mean, so I, I remember my first

coach saying, you know, what are you looking for in a client? And I was

like, I'm looking for that. And she goes, what about money? Do they have

to have money? And I was like, oh, that would

be nice. That's a good idea, right? Yeah, yeah. You know, when you

look at your solution, where are the people that have money that

need your solution? You know, because otherwise you're not going to have,

you're not going to be able to sustain yourself and sustain your business.

And so that's the situation that you're,

you're helping them with and talking about.

And I, and I guess the last thing is, is consistency.

As entrepreneurs, we're squirrels and we want to be all over the

place. And the idea especially for me was like, what do you mean? Do

the same thing over and over and over again. And what I find is that

I go deeper and deeper and I get better and better. And

you know, all right, let me just do this. First of all, I

just want everybody to know if you've gotten my Sunday

scoop, it's in the form that it is because of

Ellen. Ellen was, she didn't even know this

until about two weeks ago. Yeah, I took her idea and used

it. So this woman knows of what she speaks.

All right, so just real fast, tell us about your gift and three things

that we can do to, to put what we talked about into action.

Okay. So my gift is called craft

your client attracting message.

And it takes you through a simple process

which you will have to deepen later on, you know, but it takes

you through the process of figuring out who your target market is, what their pain

point is, and what is unique about how you solve

that pain point, how you create, how

you, how you solve their problem. And it

does it in a way that you kind of write

little, write out some points. So think about it as before you,

you know, before you actually come down to that process so that you go a

little bit deeper. So that's one, one point that I'd like everybody

to pick up. And the link will be below the video I, I in

the notes. The second thing is to,

no matter what you're doing is to do what I call that self

assessment and following up from. When you

get this free, this workbook,

I'll invite you to a masterclass where I'll talk about

five steps and the first two of them are the self assessment. So that's

going to be my second thing after getting my freebie is doing

a self assessment so that you really know what you do

and who you do it for kind of in a deeper way. And then the

third point is to get feedback from others. And it can be in

the format of testimonials or case studies or just

asking people, not your parents, you know, not your kids, not

your spouse, but asking colleagues and, you know, people

what they think about what you do. Like, at the experience that you kind of

had, you know, you told somebody what you do and the person said, oh, you're

a life coach, so you. You get that kind of feedback that way

from somebody else. And so that's. That. That

validation of what you do is, Is. Is the third point that I wanted to

emphasize. Fantastic. All right,

so here. Here's the trick question. Just for the fun of it, so we can

make sure we have fun. And that's. When was the last time you

did something new for the first time? So

my husband and I celebrated our 50th wedding

anniversary almost exactly a year ago. And we went

to. To the Bahamas. We went to this little island

called Harbor Island. And I had a bucket list which

I. I'm one of those, you know, horseback horse girls that, you know, loved

horses all my life. So I've ridden before, but I had a bucket list thing

of riding on a beach and riding in the water, in the ocean.

So we found a place to do that. We chose the place that we went

for that. That one guy's, you know, this one guy, he

has three horses and this is what he does. And that's how we chose where

we were going just for that. And it was. It was glorious. It was really

very cool. So something I'd never done. Feel like you were

in the Black Stallion. The Black

Stallion. The kid that's on the horse that's like,

you know. Yeah, yeah. It's funny because I think of the Black Stallion,

it came out when my kids were young, maybe 7 and 9 or something like

that. And I watched it myself and it was like, it's. It. It's

really heart wrenching. You know, it's a. There's some negative stuff in

there that's not necessarily for kids. And so I wouldn't let them watch the beginning

of it with the shipwreck, you know, because he. He

loses his father and it's. It's scary. A scary kind of

thing. The rest of it is very sweet. But yeah,

it was kind of. It's just

a. Horseback riding can be a very freeing thing. And doing it on

a beach and in the water is just like a very kind of freeing feeling.

So it was. It was. It was lovely. That is my bucket list

as well. All right, well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you about the place

later on if you want to go. Sounds great.

Sounds great. Okay, so it's time for the commercial. And

if you haven't done it, be sure you subscribe and share and engage on

social media about the podcast. And the reason I do

it is I'm trying to expose you to all different kinds of

peoples and insights and thoughts that you can have to grow your business

in a way that. That's going to fuel your quest for growth and impact. And

so I hope you will continue to join me for the one small change, and

I hope that you will be able to use the information that I. That, you

know, our guests give you and that you can dive into a world of old

vision and innovative possibilities. So, Ellen,

give us your words of wisdom to, you know, to keep in mind as we

go forward and grow our business. It's just

that it can be like day and night

when you write your message in a way that's

kind of patent and formulaic. It doesn't really

attract people. But when you think more deeply about

it and write it both kind of what, knowing what you

do, listening to what other people think you do, and come

out with something that explains what you do concretely

and uniquely, then all of a sudden, it's like lights

go on in the people who hear you. And so it's a.

You know, it can be one small little change because that

creates a big influence in getting clients.

I absolutely agree. And the other thing I have to add, because

I have seen it a lot the last couple of weeks, is that when you

get the clarity that you can say it in a concrete way,

your energy and your confidence and your passion

comes through, you know, like, triple the way

that it did before. And so people are attracted to you.

So. Absolutely, Absolutely. Oh, I can't

believe we have to go. Okay, so I want you to

remember that change may seem simple, but it's not

always easy. And it does require that. That some

courage, some resilience, and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone.

So I hope that you will stay curious, that you will be

bold, that you will continue to change as you grow your business

and continue to join me on the one small change as we embark on

this great journey together. And until the next time, stay

curious. Ellen, thank you so much. Thank you for

having me. It was lovely. It was great.