In this episode of "The One Small Change Podcast," host Yvonne McCoy welcomes guest Ell Graniel, who shares her journey of personal transformation and growth through the recognition of small yet profound changes. Ell delves into her path from a challenging upbringing to discovering the power of taking charge of her life. Together, they discuss the significance of self-discovery and the impact of embracing change to unlock one's full potential. Listen as Yvonne and Ell explore the intricacies of mindset, neuroplasticity, and the courage required to step into one's true self.

Guest Bio:

Ell Graniel is a personal development coach and expert in neuroplasticity. With over 27 years of experience, Ell specializes in helping individuals identify their unique strengths, rewire their mindset, and break free from limiting beliefs. Her work centers on empowering people to uncover their true potential and achieve transformative growth in both their personal and professional lives.

Chapters:

00:00 "Transformative Journey from Poverty"

05:54 Brain Wiring and Personal Transformation

09:43 Embracing Inner Strength

13:31 "Realizing Simple Changes"

14:17 Unlock Hidden Opportunities

18:06 "Self-Understanding Before Success"

23:44 "Generous Gift: Podcast Growth Journey"

25:24 "Pause, Reflect, and Improve"

Main Quote by the Guest:

"When you can identify what your strengths are, that can help you put together a mosaic much better." - Ell Graniel

Links to Guest's Website:

Your Success Mindset Scorecard - https://bit.ly/SuccesswithEll

Welcome to this one small change. I am thrilled as

always that you are joining me for this journey of exploration and

transformation. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring

almost thirty years of entrepreneurial experience and a

passion for growing your business through the power of what seems like

seemingly small change. And as always, I have a fabulous

guest this week, and you are gonna wanna hear what she says.

Today, my guest is Ell Grenell,

and she's gonna be sharing with you how some smaller

unexpected decision or change sparked a

remarkable transformation and growth in either her personal

her personal and her professional life. Elle, thank you for

joining me. Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here

sharing this with you as well. So yay. So

tell us about the small change. And and, you

you know, now that you know, Because it usually becomes so

much bigger, it doesn't seem like a small change anymore.

Yeah. When you, you know and when you become what I call

vintage in life, there are a lot of those small

changes, right, that make us the mosaic that we are, you

know, this beautiful, like, piece of art. And so I was

thinking back to kind of the first time I really realized

that I had a shift because, you know, I was born into

poverty, grew up in a trailer park, suffered all of the abuses,

you know, most of the abuses, and consider myself not a

survivor, but a graduate. And then

in my twenties, I started getting into self help, right,

motivational stuff. And there was a program called Nightingale Konap where

once a month, you would get a cassette series in the mail. So this is,

like, back in the nineties. And I was listening

to those, and it was, you know, it was, just so many people. It was

Les Brown and Wayne Dyer, you know, and all of these kind of, you

know, folks back then. Zig Ziglar was one of my favorites. One

day, I was sitting in the living room doing my version. I have a lot

of ways to meditate, and one of them is

I stare at a blank wall, and I just kinda just start to get quiet.

And that's never intentional. It just happens. But one day, that was I was in

that white wall space, and it

occurred to me that I'm in charge.

And I was in my late twenties maybe, and I was like, what does that

mean? I'm in charge because it was really loud. You know? It was, like,

confident and proud. And I and it was

like a light bulb came on. It's it

wasn't, you know, my upbringing. It wasn't the poverty. It

wasn't that I'm a, you know, Latina female. It wasn't you know what I

mean? But I'm from the trailer park. It wasn't all of those

things that that are an easy blame.

An easy blame for why you're not living your life on purpose, why you're not

connecting and getting out there, right, and shining. And that was the

beginning of me figuring out my career,

and it just was like, oh, you know, instead of a downward spiral, it

was an really upward spiral. So the one small change

was realizing that I'm in charge. I make

the decisions. They're my thoughts. They're my actions.

Claim them and make them mine. It it's funny that you say

that because I had a a similar experience, and and I can

see it. I was riding in the car. I was on the highway. I

was playing a cassette player, and it's

Brian Tracy. And he basically said

this is paraphrasing because it was decades ago, but he basically said,

you're an adult. Get over. Get over your parents. Get I I was

like, he's right. I'm married. I have two

kids. I have a husband. I have a career. I have and I'm

still, like, obsessing about the stuff that happened when I was a kid.

And so yeah. I mean, the shift Mhmm. I mean, it's a

sentence, really, but the

impact is almost like a wedge because it

opens up so much more. Absolutely.

Yeah. And that's that's just been continuing for me to

look at how to keep getting over myself. Because as we go

through different phases in life and situations, we do acquire

biases with the people we hang around and the state we live

in and, you know, all all of that kind of stuff. And so to

catch yourself on being, biased. Right? Because

we're all judgmental by nature. That's what keeps us alive. Right? We've gotta judge things

quickly. But it's a matter of if you're staying stuck and you're not

allowing yourself to learn more Mhmm. Is where the trouble

begins in my opinion. Well, I think I think continuous

learning I mean, here's here's what I say to people. Your life

is you're shooting at a moving target. If you're not

changing and growing, you're stagnating and falling behind just

just by the the fact that you're not doing every anything and the world

is changing. And so, you know, I don't

know that people are really clear about what you do, and I've had the experience

of experiencing that. So I want you to talk a little bit about that,

and, and I can tell you what has happened since last we

spoke. Okay. That's exciting.

So thank you. That's, like, that's a super perk.

So many years ago, once I got into this, you know, kinda self improvement type

thing, I met a woman named doctor Libby Adams

who had the International Academy of Self Knowledge, where the

subject is you. And I'm like, this is perfect. This is what, you know, what

I've been looking for. And that was back in, you know, like,

'95 or something like that. And I I just

started taking the courses. I got trained in NLP, negotiation, just all

kinds of things, all the personality type predictors, the Enneagram and

Myers Briggs. And I just became fascinated by the

brain and how the brain processes and stores and repurposes

information and how we're hardwired,

most of us, a certain way, but yet we're all we're we're

wired differently through experiences. So meshing that together, the

neuroscience of that is how can you,

take your superpower, your innate wiring, and and

and and put that more to work for you because it's easy. Right?

And then how can we shift those things like what happened when we were five

and seven and that that they're they're still trying to play

the game. You know? It's like we're stuck playing chutes and ladders,

and here we are, you know, in our thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, sliding back down

the ladder again because we haven't learned to evolve. And so

then I got trained in transformational meditation, which is what you and

I did. And so I help people in the neuroplasticity

to rewire, pull up those memories, set them straight. Most

of them don't even know it's 2025. That's the part that's really fun. It's like,

ask that part what year it is, and they'll say some decade old year. You

know? It's like, oh, well, guess what? And so it's really fun. And then once

you get those systems and those thoughts and those fears,

doubts, and worries out of the way, then you can create a new

right highway, a new pathway. And then you've got to

live it. So it's not enough to know it. It's not enough to clear

the path. Right? You've gotta drive that way, see what else is there

now because now you're going a different way, and there's all these opportunities

that weren't there before because you were stuck in those old patterns. So

I love this work. I've been doing it twenty seven years, and

it changes lives. Everything from helping people get over infidel

infidelity. People. That too,

actually, now that I think I did maybe. I did have one of

those get a better SAT scores, you know,

just lose weight, gain weight. You know? Just so

many things because we're stuck in the in the thought

that it's not possible for us even though we can see other

people. It's like, oh, but I can't because so we

get those I can'ts out of the way and put in the possibilities,

what the what ifs in a good way. So, yeah, I can go on

forever. So I'm gonna let you tell your story now. I love it. So

what what I wanna tell everybody is I am not woo

woo by nature. As as one spiritual healer said to me, you're

really very linear. But I like I like

processes. I like you know, because I had an unsettling

upbringing. And so I defaulted

to what is the objective solution as opposed to what is the

emotional. You know. So that's why I gravitated towards math because one

and one was always two, you know. I could get the answer

right. Yeah. So I tell you that that but I do

believe that there is forces outside of ourselves in a

higher power, that bring us together in in ways

there are things that we don't see that are there. I mean, I you know,

we don't see gravity, but it's there. And so you kinda have to

believe there's more than what you can see. So

I think the first thing I would say is, you know, as I thought about

this interview, I thought about it was interesting to

me that several things happened

prior to us working together. One

of them, which was this new thing that I

found that you're you don't need to be fixed. You just need to be

found. And also the feeling of

really kind of stepping into or wanting to step

in my wanting to be found. Right?

So when we did the work together, I came away

with the feeling that I was on the right track and

everything was okay. Nothing

no fireworks, no bells or whistles kinda thing.

But as I was thinking about this and thought about

the meetings that I had after that

and the meeting things that have happened in in less than a

week, I found myself

coming forward in a in in a much stronger way, a

much more you know? It's like, okay.

Because I think I have to tell you, I think I'm really a very

strong woman. I think that I have an

innate I mean, it it has showed up in really weird ways where I'll

be someplace and find that a lot of people have

gravitated towards me. Do you know? And

people start, like, what are you doing that I'll be do you know? And I

have never it's not that I'm so you know? Hey, everybody. I wanna you know?

Do you know? It's it people, I think, are pulled towards me.

So but I have, in my

own preservation, kind of, always been at the back.

I've always you know, it's like, I don't wanna overpower people. I don't

wanna whatever. So it was been very interesting to me

that in the last few days, I've really

felt not consciously, but if I look back on the

meetings, I have really stepped into my take charge

ness. Do you know? It's like, okay, guys. Enough

of that. We're gonna do this, or I'm really good at this. Or, you know,

in my connection calls, I've really been

saying, this is what I do, and I'm good at doing it. It's I've

said it before, but I don't think I've said it with such energy. And the

other thing that happened that to me is just like

is I've had two people refer people to me

that are like amazing opportunities. And instead of, you

know, going you know, it's like, this is great. I'm ready for

this. Let's go. Do you know? So Yes. You know, I think

it's I think it was the perfect timing for me to meet

you plus the work that you did to help me

to get there. Yay. Yeah. I

I feel real I I don't I can't explain it except that

it is it is a a

a bump up in confidence and energies. Is probably the way that

I would say it. Again, no bells and whistles, but just this kind

of calmness. I'm ready. I can do this. I'm good at what I

do. You know? This I feel like

the self doubt has really diminished. I mean, I think

we all have self doubt to some level, and then when you step into something

new, I think that's normal. But I have to

say, I I feel a change.

That is so wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. Couple of

things. Number one, I was also drawn to you, like how you say people

are just drawn to you. And, you know, our paths

came together because we we spoke at the Pathways to

Paydays Summit. And so I got, like, little bits of

you, and I was like, no. That's not enough. Yvonne's not

a bite sized kind of person. No. I'm

not. I'm a meal. You are a meal.

So we had to get together and do that. And, you know, when you're when

you're saying it was like nothing super grand, I think what I was getting this

image of in my head is, like, have you ever been standing in the shade

waiting, you know, for your Uber or whatever? And it's, you know, it's

kinda cold, and you realize, oh, if I just step over into the

sun so there's the sun right here, and

here we are in the shade, and and it's that easy

sometimes Mhmm. Mhmm. To go, oh, you know, so many things

are right in front of our eyes, and we're we're just so

stuck in the way that we think that this is where you stand when you're

waiting that we don't realize that's according to who.

Yeah. According to whom. And and the thing

that I would say, like, in my business, one of the things that I talk

to people, what are you leaving on the table? When you change your

focus and you start to see what uniqueness you bring,

there are opportunities that have been there the whole time that

you didn't think were worthwhile or that you could

do. I mean, it's not that, you know, I'm coming up with totally

new things. It's the things that were already there, but because of your lens

or the angle you were looking at it, didn't make sense to you or

didn't seem like it was something that you could do. So I I think

that, you know, again, I think

that these subtle shifts I mean,

they're not subtle in a way. They're really earthquakes, but, you know, but

they start out with the rumble, grow it you know, it's a rumble that grows

into an earthquake. The result of it is earthquake worthy

and and and big enough because it builds on each other. You you know, you

meet something, you're more confident that person will refer you to somebody else or you

help a client and you can help them be more confident and grow in a

bigger way. And so, like I said, it would just

you know, as I sat and thought about this this morning, I'm like, oh my

god. I have had a great week. I have had all these successes. You

know? And part of the success is that I

think that I was willing to acknowledge that, like you said at the

beginning, that I had some responsibility for it. If somebody

had some success, it was because they had been with me.

And, you know, that's always my goal is that people are better off for

having met me than if they hadn't met me.

Mhmm. So so before we get carried away, because this

is a wonderful thing Yeah. Thank you. Tell

us about your gift. Okay. I'd love

to. So one of the the ways to

introduce people to what I do is I like for them to understand the whole

cognitive side of how we think and how we feel and what we do.

Right? I don't just dive into the, you know, the neuroplasticity of it all.

We gotta start with who do you think you are and why.

So I have a it's called the success mindset scorecard.

And what you do is you evaluate yourself on a sliding

scale, and it's best done if you rapid fire

answer those questions because you know how you can go. Well, it depends if I'm

cold or hungry. You know what I mean? It's like, no. Just boom, boom, boom,

answer those questions. And then they're they're they're you'll see they're

grouped into, you know, like relationships,

work, you know, personal, spiritual kind of stuff. And

then you immediately will get your score,

and it and it gives you an excuse me. It gives you an

idea where your strengths are and where

you need some support. And so either way, you meet

with me, we go over it, and we either get you off and

running because you're like, You know, there's ahas

in there, and you're like, I got it. You know? Or it's like, I want

you to stay with me, Elle, and hold my hand. This is new. I want

it, but I want, you know, you to be there with me. So it

it can go either way. However, no matter what, when you

do that personal assessment, you go, and I

feel like I'm one of the few people in the in if you say in

the coaching realm, I'm a firm believer. Let's do

more of what you're good at. Don't spend time trying

to make you better in those areas where you're not, you know,

innately. Because if you don't enjoy it, what's what's the point?

Because you can hire somebody to do those types of

things. You know, you can collaborate. You can so many things. So

let's polish your real your brilliance, and that's what the

scorecard's all about. Like, let's find where you shine and go from there. And,

you know, that's that's exactly what you know, you don't need to be fixed. You

need to be found. And and I often say to people, you know,

if you're doing if you're doing the filing, you know, that's like

hiring an MBA to to do your filing for you. When you could hire

somebody filing, you can stay in your creative thing

that you do. And so the

other piece that I the other reason I think this is so important, the other

reason that that I I wanted to bring you to my community

is, as entrepreneurs, we're good

at what we're good at. And so we are good at

managing projects, you know, and, you know, what

we do. But the first step before that

really is knowing about yourself, managing, and leading

yourself. And that's why so many programs start with a mindset

or, you know, getting clear about what you're good at.

And that's the part that so many entrepreneurs skip. And I

think when you do that, you take the time

to do that, it will skyrocket your business. It will be a jump

start because it will take care of all the all the hidden anchors that

you're dragging along with you so that you're free to take

off. So, you know, I I

hope everybody will take advantage of this incredibly

generous gift and the this wonderful experience. So

alright. So here's your trick trick question. When was the last

time you did something new for the first time?

So what's funny about that is there's a caveat. So I do

a lot of new things, but here's the catch. Only after

I've watched a lot of other people do them first,

I'm not the first one. That's right. I neither am I.

Neither am I. And so,

however, extremely recently, I'm taking on singing

lessons, and that's something that I've wanted

to do my whole life. I've kinda dabbled in it a little bit,

and, I'm I'm competitive by nature. You wouldn't know that

I'm a closet competitor. But I would see other people

do well with scales, you know, and the things that get you going in your

singing lessons. And I just wasn't progressing, so I'm like, forget

it. But now I'm willing to put in the work. It's

like, if you want this, this is how you get there. And I found

a teacher that works with your personality,

not just your tonality, and I really loved that.

So I'm taking singing lessons. So so

when when when the student is ready, the teacher will come?

Yeah. That's exactly what happened. Yeah. And and I

feel like that that's what that's how I ran into you. We have so many

similarities because I'm not I'm not, what what did they

call that? A market leader. You know, you buy the first thing. I'm I kinda

wait. I'm a tail end kind of person. I wanna see how it goes and

and that kind of stuff. So, I'm I'm with you

there. Alright. So Yeah.

I I can't believe the time has gone so fast.

Again, I just want I I guess there's three points

that I want you to take away or, Al, three

points that you know, one is you

have innate abilities, and so you don't need to be fixed. You can

collaborate and find other people to work with it.

Two, when you can identify what your

strengths are, that can help you put together a

mosaic much better, and that's what your gift is gonna do. And you know what

popped into my mind? There's I don't know the name of it, but there's this

Japanese art where you you put something back

together and, you know, you celebrate it for its imperfections

and it's whatever. I should find that because I like that

analogy. And three,

you're always evolving, I think. And the more you

evolve, the better you get and the more you

can, you know, be set free to be yourself because you realize the

world needs you the way you are, not the way somebody thinks

you should be, I guess, is what I would is what I would say.

And I I don't know if I missed anything or

in summing that up. Yeah. What the what you are

versus what people think you should be is stellar

advice, but you've gotta know who you are.

Some people don't know how to pull the blanket or you know what I mean?

Get that's that's the true journey

is who am I. And then as you evolve, you will

continue to say who am I? Who am I? Who am I? And I love

the power of I am, so be mindful whenever you say I am,

whatever follows that is your truth. Yes. So stop saying I'm

lazy or I'm unorganized or whatever those negative words. Just

stop. You don't have to lie to yourself that doesn't work. You can't say I'm

organized. Your brain's gonna go, who are you talking about? But you can just

stop saying the negative thing and focus more on

I am fun. I am vibrant. You know? I'm a great

writer. You know? All those that define

you, the power of your I am statements. It it

can be scary to be yourself, but it is so

rewarding when you realize that you

the people that you draw to you value you for who you are.

Yeah. Absolutely. Alright. I need to wind this up.

Okay. We're having too much fun. But Too much fun. As

always, as a first step, make sure that you download this

gift because it is a generous one. Not only is it a generous tool, but

a generous gift of time and expertise.

And I also wanna make sure that you subscribe and share,

this podcast with other people. And, you know, one of the reasons that

I do this is to to help the community and give you new

insights and new information so that, you can

fuel your growth, you know, and and impact in the world. And so

I hope that you will continue to join me with for the One Small Change

as we embark on this journey, and you get to see how

seemingly small changes can have a monumental transformation.

And if you haven't listened to the first episode where I started, you should

do so because, one, you'll see how diff how much better I am

now, but but you'll also see what the premise of the show

is and see some other people that you may not have seen yet. So,

Elle, do you have any last words of wisdom for people to take

away with them? I think the wisdom comes from the other

side of the work that I do. Slow down and take a breath. We don't

have enough oxygen in our body to function, so we're in, you

know, survival mode. Slow down sometimes. Breathe before

you respond. Right? Just take those

bigger, longer, slower, deeper, more meaningful breaths and

watch how easily things can shift. So there

really is a scientific reason to stop and take a breath?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You get more oxygen in the brain. You

can get to the alpha level of consciousness where the ego's not running the show

anytime you want. It's free. I have a model that

says stop. Do you know? Before you do anything else,

stop and ask yourself what's going

right because it take it it turns you around from going to the the

negative. So maybe now I should say stop, take a

breath, and think about what's going right so they can be even better.

Alright, guys. Our time is

up. But as always, I want you to remember that change is simple,

but it's not always easy. It takes courage,

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

so I hope that you will take this, you know, bit of information

and and use it to do that. And I hope you will continue to

join me on the one small change podcast as we embark on

this on this journey, so that you see what other

innovative possibilities are out there. Until the next time,

stay curious. Elle, thank you so much for coming

and for your great wisdom.