Eleanor Beaton is always cooking up great ways to support women entrepreneurs to start, grow, and love their seven-figure-plus businesses – unapologetically!

She’s a master baker of great big juicy slices of life filled with clarity, confidence, and economic autonomy. Eleanor says “The more that we have, the more we can share!”

A very successful journalist, author, speaker, entrepreneur and in-demand coach who doesn’t just regurgitate theory, Eleanor lifts as she climbs by supporting other femmepreneurs to have more money, more time, more joy!

Women are starting businesses than ever before! Eleanor highlights how we are changing and shaping the business landscape in her webinars, unique missives, and top-ranked podcast; Power + Presence + Position!

I consider it a bonus ‘InBox’ day when I receive correspondence from Eleanor and Safi Media. There’s always something sassy, mind-expanding, and sometimes, ‘makes you snort out loud’ stuff in her messages!

For example - See for yourself what the calendar of a CEO who has C.I.A (cash, influence and autonomy) looks like:

How I Transformed My Weekly Calendar

About our Guest:

Eleanor Beaton is the founder of SAFI Media, an education & coaching company for women entrepreneurs. SAFI Media is committed to advancing global gender equity one woman-owned business at a time. Together with her colleagues, Eleanor is on a mission is to double the number of women entrepreneurs who scale past $1M in revenue by 2030. Eleanor hosts the Power + Presence + Position podcast, a top-ranked podcast for female founders with over 1.5 million downloads to date. 

The former chair of the Visiting Women’s Executive Exchange Program at the Yale School of Management, Eleanor has been featured in publications including The Globe & Mail, The Atlantic, CBC, Chatelaine and more.

Discover even more about Eleanor Beaton and how she Lifts & Climbs:

Eleanor Beaton - Founder & Business Coach to Women Entrepreneurs - SAFI Media

Eleanor Beaton Biz Leadership (@eleanorbeaton) • Instagram photos and videos

Power + Presence + Position with Eleanor Beaton - Helping women entrepreneurs scale in life & business

Teaser:

Listen to the end if you want to discover something about our guest that you probably won’t find on Google!

About the Host:

Isabel Banerjee - Your Next Business

Strategist and Transformation Catalyst

Dynamic, a self-made entrepreneur who overcame obstacles with an unrelenting positive nature, a farm girl work ethic and a conscious choice to thrive rather than survive, Isabel Alexander Banerjee cultivated an award-winning, $10 million+ global chemical business and grew it from dining room table to international boardrooms.

Isabel’s strengths include the ability to initiate & nurture strategic relationships, a love of lifelong learning and talents for helping others maximize their potential. An inspiring speaker within both industry and community, she is a driving force behind those with the courage to foll0ow her example of thriving against the odds.

With 50+ years of business experience across diverse industries, Isabel is respected as an advisor, a coach, a mentor and a role model. She believes in sharing collective wisdom and empowering others to economic independence.

Founder of the Lift As You Climb Movement (www.facebook.com/groups/liftasyouclimbmovement)

and

Chief Encore Officer, The Encore Catalyst (www.theencorecatalyst.com) – an accelerator for feminine wisdom, influence, and impact.

also

Author & Speaker ‘Who Am I Now? – Feminine Wisdom Unmasked Uncensored’ (www.IsabelBanerjee.com)

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/isabelalexanderbanerjee/

Thank You for Listening!

It means so much that you listened to this podcast!  If you know of anyone else who might find this show valuable or entertaining, please share it on your favorite social media platform.

If you have questions about this episode, please send me an email at Hello@TheEncoreCatalyst.com

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Leave a Review

Every bit of feedback offered to help make this a value-packed part of your week is appreciated.  

Ratings and reviews from listeners are used to improve the podcasts.  They also help others find this series in their podcast ‘App’ so reviews are very much appreciated!

Well, truly, truly special day for me.

Oh my goddess.

I get to spend some time with a friend, a mentor, an inspiration, a gal pal, and a

Canadian, my dear friend, Eleanor Beaton coming all the way through her microphone,

from Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada.

Yay!

So happy to see you!

I am so happy to be here.

When I think about where we all started...

Our friendship, it was more like an awe-ship on my side.

We have come so far, you and I.

Oh my goodness.

Absolutely true.

And that is something I want to cover today, because this show is all about

defining moments in our lives, where we figured out our identity, whether it

was a new one or just an improved one.

Where we want to have influence in the world, and how that

influence has greater impact.

So there isn't anybody better that I can have this conversation with, than

the woman behind, the power behind Power Presence, Position Podcast.

So, Woo.

Lift As You Climb, as you know, you you were a bit of a midwife, even though

you weren't aware of it at the time I've been kind of like an elephant

long gestation coming to this...

point of giving birth to a podcast.

It did begin on the journey where you and I had reconnected after a few years

in the Canadian entrepreneurs' scene.

And we met at a woman's conference, a business conference, and the Encore

Catalyst, my business was born.

And at that point, you were definitely, you had your sleeves pushed way up and you

were digging in deep building your empire.

I totally was.

I was at that time.

Yeah, I had, initially started a consulting business, which I sort

of grew and built when my boys were small, but I really felt that

for me, my path was working with women leaders and entrepreneurs.

At around the time that I first met you, I had just started that business.

And like anything, you're sort of testing the waters, seeing what it feels like.

Do you like it?

I'd made the call that I did.

And I was exactly, as you said, in the throws of startup...

hustling, building, testing, failing, trying again.

It was an intense and fun time.

I remember vividly, the fire in your eyes.

I had no doubt that you were going to do it.

I remembered the conviction that you had about women should go

after seven plus figure businesses.

that they should invest in themselves to make it happen.

Invest by having the right community around them, the right coaches,

following the, right training.

And I thought, Oh, no doubt.

No doubt.

I even remember, we had a pact, like the Michelle Bailey pact.

I can, I will.

I did.

Yeah.

I recently interviewed Michele Bailey on Lift As You Climb, because she's

just launched a new book with Forbes.

So we're a circle.

Yes.

Okay.

So...

Let's get to it...

We're talking about going back about five, six, maybe seven years.

time goes by fast, right?

Where you were just reinventing...

You were birthing this new Eleanor and what you were going to do with

the impact, that you are going to have with women entrepreneurs.

I was on the other end of the spectrum.

I had come off the stage of being a seven plus figure business owner and

trying to go like, who the hell am I now?

And I've still been bumping around with that for quite a

while, but I'm, I'm getting there.

The one thing for sure the message on my tombstone will be, she never gave up.

Give us a little overview for the audience, about what you

did over those six, seven years to get to where you are today.

I honestly think one of the most important things was...

Really learn from the lived experience of women who had

achieved what I wanted to achieve...

Who had walked before me, and who I really admired.

There's just something for me, about hearing it..

A woman's story, in her words, hearing about her path.

In that, I was always able to pull from that, the information, or

the comfort, or the encouragement that I needed at the time.

Flashback...

It's probably 2014.

I am at the very, very beginning of this company that I have a dream of starting

that really focuses on working with women leaders and women entrepreneurs.

At that time, in 2014, the whole sort of women leader women, entrepreneur

movement was still a lot younger.

Now, it's a huge market.

It's a huge movement, but back then, you didn't have as many people in this space.

There was an initiative, that one of the Canadian banks was putting

on, where they were bringing together women entrepreneurs.

There was a small gathering and it was invite only, and I got an invite.

I was like, wow, I'm special.

And I roll up, it's pouring.

I think it's like maybe November, or something.

It's pouring rain.

It's cold.

I get to this place and I had driven an hour to be there.

I was dressed up.

I just didn't know what to expect.

And I walk in and I see Isabel, you're there.

And I'm like, who is this woman?

So first of all, you guys, Isabel is dripping in diamonds.

She has like ice on her ears, around her neck, on her fingers.

I'm like, and I am a complete magpie.

I'm like, what in the living hell I need to see that ice and those diamonds.

So I make a bee line...

You have this very elegant dress, your hair is sort of swept back into this

elegant chignon, and you were just so worldly, sophisticated and rich.

And for me in my mind, I'm like, who is this woman?

And so you start telling your story, because we go around

briefly, the people in the audience briefly introduce ourselves.

You are telling more of a longer, you know, as one of the presenters,

you're telling more of your story.

And so I realize, you're self-made, you built this multimillion dollar chemical

company, you sold the chemical company, and now your mission was really inspiring

and using your education and experience, to help other women entrepreneurs.

Honestly, Isabel, and I've told you this so many times...

I remember in that moment...

You really gave me something to aspire to.

And I was like, Oh my gosh, she's so cool and sophisticated.

And this is what a self-made woman looks like.

I just remember, I basically was like, I'm 100% adopting her as my friend.

We're going to be friends, Isabel.

You're like, you should come and visit me in Phoenix.

I'm like I, 100%.

will, and I did

There's more to the story, but that was a really important relationship for me,

because I didn't have that in my life.

At the time, I didn't have women who, had the money, had the success, but

also were worldly and interesting.

That was just a super important relation to me still is it was very meaningful.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

And this is exactly what Lift As You Climb means to me.

It's recognizing that it's a responsibility.

It's a privilege, to be able to reach out and give a hand up to another woman.

Way more fun when there's a bunch of us at the top of the ladder.

And that...

Lift As You Climb is not an accidental, Woo, Woo...

maybe when you feel up to it.

It's a very purposeful and strategic plan in your life.

Always knowing that you have something to learn, someone else

to learn from, and to be looking, you know, on 360 on your radar.

On what you need there, and being very, very cognizant of

how much you have to share, and give back to other women and men.

It's not, we're not excluding men, but.

to know that, as you said, Eleanor, it's kind of a new scene...

Stepping out and owning their power, which is like synonymous with Eleanor

Beaton power, and being able to speak clearly, confidently, authoritatively.

Is what I always think about when I think about you and how much I've

learned from you, and how much I want to continue to learn from you.

It makes us all rise.

And how fun is that, right?

(Yes) Why not have more diamonds and more, more everything...

The impact that you are creating so that women will step into

the comfortness of making money.

And not apologizing for that at all.

Right?

The more that we have and create, the more we can share.

Yeah...

And also that it's fun and I think that's one of the things too,

that we also don't talk about.

But it's so important.

I have really found, and I'm sure, people who've listened to this

podcast, started spending more and more time with you, one of the

things that really came through is...

How fun it can be to be successful.

How fun it can be to build a business, how fun it can be to tell the stories

of the challenges, and the crazy situations that you end up experiencing.

And that to me is something that it's not a narrative that we hear very much.

I think we hear a lot about how challenging it is, the perils of

work-life balance, the lack of access to capital and to all these things.

We hear a lot as ambitious women about the challenges, the barriers.

Those things are true, and I'm not trying to undermine their importance, but I think

we need to counterbalance that with...

How much freaking fun it is.

Right?

Do you remember a certain cocktail party on the rooftop of a hotel, with

incredibly well-dressed football players?

I still have pictures.

Oh my gosh.

That I met so many NFL players.

That party, it was really fun.

This is the whole thing that I, wish that, we did talk more about

this in terms of entrepreneurship.

You're right...

Yes, there's risk, hard work, doubt, sacrifice crap.

But there's a reason...

It's like...

So why do you have labor pains?

So you get the baby.

And so...

Having that fun and being very purposeful, about building your

tribe of other women, that you can have fun with and celebrate with.

That's the best masterminding you can do as far as I'm concerned, right?

Yes, totally, totally.

It's interesting because I think about this...

and it's this idea of when you find those women, making sure

to keep that connection going.

And it's so funny.

Cause I think about it, like you invited me to come stay with you and it was so...

and I was like...

and then I did it.

And I, think that when you recognize...

Hey, this is somebody like we have a connection, there's

something here to our friendship.

That ability to follow up on that, and nurture those relationships,

because I don't know about you.

I mean, I'm an introverted extrovert, so I'm very extroverted, but I'm really

choosy about who I hang out with.

I have a hard time at this stage of my life, hanging out with civilians...

IE, non entrepreneurs.

I like to spend most of my time with entrepreneurs and finding women who have

blazed that trail, who are on that path.

Those kinds of friendships are so important.

And to your point, I think making the time for them honoring them,

putting yourself out there, to develop those friendships is so important.

I call that Vitamin G Eleanor, vitamin girlfriend.

I think it is an absolutely necessary health benefit for entrepreneurs.

I really have...

Over and over again in my life, I have proven the importance of

nurturing, cultivating looking for those right friends.

Like-minded, a little better at everything than me, so I can stretch

and grow with them and to nurture that and to maintain connection.

This whole pandemic has been a really good validation of that for me.

Because people that I haven't talked to for a while, there will

seem to be a little more time or at least more incentive to want

to reach out and reconnect and go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love you.

I feel better when I leave our conversation, than before I began.

So how will you said that because you live it, you show up every day.

Living the Lift As You Climb mantra, Which is, live your legacy...

Don't wait until you're dead.

And somebody reads in your eulogy about all of the money you're

leaving to a charity, But live it.

And then, empower others to create theirs.

How did that become a theme running through this tall, beautiful body here?

Oh, I think it started from a really young age.

So I grew up in, a household where my mother was actually when

my parents first got married...

in the Fiji islands.

My dad was an economist working with an organization called

VSO, Voluntary Service Overseas.

He was making, $9 a week.

He would literally go fishing after work, to catch supper.

This was my dad and my mom was a teacher.

And so when they got together, she was the main breadwinner.

They moved back to the UK, which is where I was born, and then when

I was four, we moved to Canada.

It was a totally different culture.

And so my mother didn't really feel comfortable putting me in

daycare or anything like that.

At the time the Canadian government didn't recognize her qualifications

as a teacher, she had to do some additional credits and so on.

So my dad became the breadwinner.

My mom stayed at home, and this was still a fairly traditional

relationship at that time.

But what it injected into that relationship, was an

imbalance of power financially.

My mom who was and is to this day, extraordinarily

independent, vibrant woman...

I mean, she could bench press the 45 pound plates.

She was an amazing squash player.

She was a great woodworker and amazing homemaker, just a lovely human all around.

She was completely financially dependent on my father.

And so, when you have that kind of imbalance, it can become really

challenging to feel like you can have a lot of power and authority

about where money is spent.

Money is huge currency in our lives.

So I grew up seeing that.

And I can remember her saying to me, you know, one day after they'd

had this dispute about money, she said, Eleanor, money is power.

Make sure you always make your own.

So I saw this, I saw the same pattern with my grandparents.

I really felt committed, at a young age to being financially

independent and just being able to be in charge of my own destiny.

I felt incredibly indignant on the side of my mom.

Even though my mom and dad had a great relationship,

but I felt indignant for her.

Indignation is such a useful emotion.

Every time I feel indignant about something.

Like, I feel super indignant when people call the types of businesses that

myself, and the Encore Catalyst is...

when they call them...

a lifestyle businesses.

Like they're these little hobby farms kind of thing.

Basically calling something, a lifestyle business as a hobby farm, I

get incredibly indignant about that.

And so the indignation and the desire to correct something that I think is

wrong and the ability to use my skills to explain things, or to put context

around things or to give voice to things.

That I think, has been one of the larger threads that has,

driven me and the work I do.

This is so interesting, when I met you originally, I was still

really working to make money.

You know, like I was still, I was early on that journey and as my business has grown,

and I have crossed financial milestones.

What I found to be so interesting is I'm not actually primarily motivated by money.

Once I started hitting these milestones, I was like, that's great.

But your life doesn't get that much better after a certain point.

It does to a point.

But after a certain point, it doesn't get so much better than it's like...

So it becomes about impact.

Yay.

You're expressing it, and you do, you always articulate my thoughts

better sometimes, than I can.

So thank you for that.

When you were describing your situation, and your memories of your

childhood, I was thinking of that t-shirt that you would have worn...

Who's going to stop me?

Yes.

We talked about tombstones earlier.

Mine might be...

Yours is...

She didn't quit.

She never gave up.

Mine will be like she was indignant.

I love that...

There's another one of my favorite Is, Identity Influence, Impact Indignity.

Where do you see now opportunities for your clients to lift as they're

climbing, when/where would you recommend that your clients are thinking?

Yeah, I so love this question...

I would say that one of the things that I've really seen, and continue

to observe over the years...

It connects a little bit to what I was talking about earlier in this idea that..

When I think about the typical conversation around business.

It's that more revenue and more profit, and more market share,

more clients, more customers, more products more is always better.

It's really built around this.

it was so interesting, once I started to see that.

that actually this idea of more money, became less meaningful

to me, the more money I had.

And listen, I still have lots of opportunity to fill the coffers even more.

Like I'm not, you know what I mean?

I I'm not Bill Gates.

I really saw how...

There came a point where I was like...

Huh, this is so interesting.

I have more than enough.

And this isn't the primary motivator anymore.

As my business grew, I also started making changes where I

had more leverage and freedom.

And so then it was like...

kind of, well...

There's more than enough money and there's also more than enough time.

And this is a really cool place.

And something started to shift in me where earlier in my life I'd

always been motivated primarily from this place of scarcity.

There wasn't enough, that I needed to get more, more time, more money, more clients.

All of that.

When I personally made the shift to a place of sufficiency.

Where there was more than enough.

I started noticing that my thinking...

How I thought about things shifted, my energy shifted.

I just felt like I working on a deeper level with things.

When I think about women entrepreneurs, and women change-makers, one of the most

important shifts I think we can make...

Is that transition to a place of sufficiency.

To a place of more than enough.

There is more than enough time.

To accomplish things.

How would you shift how you go about your life?

If you really accept that there's more than enough time.

You don't have to rush.

There's more than enough, money you have is sufficient.

So I understand there's a certain degree of privilege baked into this.

I do think that that idea of sufficiency is very powerful to women and that

this old model of hustle is good...

Sleep when you die...

More is better...

I think that doesn't serve women There's a huge opportunity to move beyond that.

I am so glad that you introduced that way to think about this.

I think how we used to use that as a metric...

That we had to work more hours, and have more dollars on the revenue

line and more staff and more office square footage and more...more...

And yet, we were feeling deprived and depleted in many areas of our life.

When we worked with that more...

Patriarchal method of measuring success.

I was thinking back to...

Do you remember there used to be a cigarette brand, been a

long time since I smoked...

called MORE and they were those long, skinny, skinny, dark color cigarettes...

That was false advertising...

as far as I was concerned, skinny little things.

All they ever did was help me to exercise my cheeks.

But there was...

More flavor, there wasn't more satisfaction.

There was just more opportunity to...

To make a scene, (right) To make an impress y'all.

So I really like the idea of, let's look at this from the

other avenue of opportunity...

That our success creates abundance, not only for ourselves,

but for people around us.

We get to choose.

Is it going to be abundant play?

Is it going to be abundant relationship time?

Is it going to be abundant personal and professional development.

And that choice, I think about it in terms of autonomy, what do we want as women?

I think we want, as women entrepreneurs...

cash, financial freedom and empowerment...

To do what we want to do.

I think we want influence, the ability to have our voices heard

and our best ideas acted upon.

We want to feel empowered.

But I also think there's this other dimension, which is that we want autonomy.

So freedom, and time and space.

That is so huge to do whatever the hell we want.

I believe in women, that when women have time, influence, and money...

Great things happen!

I think for too long, we've really overlooked that dimension of autonomy and

focused so much on, cash and influence.

I have found that leaves me and so many women, just wanting...

unsatisfied because that freedom, the autonomy, is that final metric

that is so meaningful to us.

Hell Yes!!!

I know that we could talk for decades, and not ever...

I'm so happy that our conversation took these twists and turns, because

we are together, and others like us, I hope are starting to influence other

women to think differently about...

The power that comes from having that autonomy...

mentally, financially, choice wise.

So Bravo for that.

I have a question I'd like to ask you.

Well, first of all, I want to make sure that our audience is aware.

Eleanor's emails, blogs...

are the thing that I read first, because she always has me, either

snappin' my head thinking...

Oh shit, I hadn't thought that way.

Or...

She's got me laughing my ass off.

She's in irreverant, and she's funny, and she's really, really informative.

So make sure in the show notes, you're gonna find out how to,

become a groupie of Eleanor Beaton and Safi Media and all that stuff.

And definitely, I hope my baby podcast grows up to be just

like a little sister to yours.

But I do have a question.

How did you come about choosing the name of your podcast?

Ohh, Yeah...

Well, this is interesting...

originally my podcast was called Fierce Feminine Leadership.(I

remember that.) Yeah.

so I chose that because it sounded good.

I felt like it had the energy that I wanted and that was really great.

I came to a place where I felt like my sort of brand had evolved beyond that.

it just didn't feel right anymore.

It started to feel constrictive, I really started thinking , how

am I going to shift this podcast?

What's important to me?

And I remember I'd had an event and I called it: Power Presence

Position and it just felt good.

I can remember the women who came.

It was just a really extraordinary group of women.

And I thought...

I'm going to call it this...

Power Presence Position.

And so that's what I call the show.

The good things I think are that it's energy, but the challenging

things about it is that it doesn't say this is just a lessons learned...

The name of the podcast.

it gives you a feeling, but it doesn't spell out who it's for, and what it does.

So, going back, really making sure that there is a really good subheadline.

That says explicitly what the show is for.

So now it's Women Entrepreneurs Scaling, really talking about what that's for.

That would be my piece of advice in terms of...

Don't do what I did, but do it a little different.

Absolutely great pearl of wisdom to give away.

And that's the other part that I think is so valuable in these conversations

that we have, that we are sharing what we've learned, how to do...

better.

What I always say is my greatest value is...

sharing what I learned not to do.

So I can save you money, time and, heartache.

Right.

Make some other interesting mistakes why don't you.

Don't make these old boring ones.

Right!

That's right!

Before I bid you adieu....

I do want to put a little pin here.

I think there's a lot that we could talk about around the

benefits of changing your mind.

Because as women, we're not static.

We are continuing to evolve, and grow, and learn, so it's perfectly all right

to change the name of your podcast.

As a matter of fact, it's probably recommended.

Right?

Because you're evolving and changing as the influencer or the leader that you are.

And speaking that through changing a title or how you brand yourself.

Also made me go wait a second...

What's she doing now?

Yes, Yes.

Yeah.

..I would like to ask you...

What is something that we might not find out about Eleanor from Google?

I thought about this, you know, what came to mind?

I am a really good juggler, like really good.

I'm also a pretty good table tennis player.

And I think these are both signs...

I've heard that being a good juggler or table tennis player

are signs of a misspent youth.

Which would not be far off the mark.

Let's be honest, but there's just this...

athleticism and coordination...

and just the physical expression of energy and all of that has

always been really important to me.

I don't necessarily know that that comes across in a big way, but I

love sport and sporting activities.

I find they are such an incredible training ground.

I'm obsessed with the Toronto Raptors and the NBA.

That's something that isn't on Google, but it's a big part of who I am,

and how I think about things, and how I learn and what inspires me.

You're right.

I don't think that shows up on your Wikipedia page.

Thank you, Eleanor, for joining me today.

Without a doubt, I love how you come into the world and you're building success

ladders for so many people and you show up in such a fun, encouraging, inspiring way.

I am deeply grateful for you, and I can't wait till we go out and

have some mischief again together!.

I know, I feel the same way about you and our relationship and your mentorship and

example has been so inspirational to me.

It's such a honor to be here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Talk again soon.