In Chapter 16 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?" Elliot finds her growing relationships provide her actionable advice. From friends who provide level-headed advice to creative branding advice to small business advice, Elliot makes it a point to learn from those around her.
Hattie Grace Elliot is the founder and CEO of The Grace List, a social networking company that creates destination events and experiences to forge lasting personal and professional connections across its young professional members. Elliot graduated from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she studied economics, philosophy, and politics.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?
Hattie Elliot: I don’t have one particular source, like it takes a village is what I like to say. It—I’ve got a bunch of really great people in my life, in various capacities that I have great respect for, and admiration for, some—I mean, I love them all, you know, for different reasons, but I think, you know, some of them I feel like—Like, one of my girlfriends, I feel like is just really level-headed, and she comes from a corporate law background so she’s almost kind of critical and—like just the way that she thinks is very different from me, so I find it very valuable to when I’m, you know, facing certain problems, to go to her and I really admire the advice she gives me. And the perspective that she brings to the table.
And then I have friends and business contacts who are incredibly creative, and the way, you know, if I have an idea, and, you know, mention it to them, whether it’s an event, or a challenge I have with my business or branding, they bring to the table something really wonderful and different that I would never be able to come up with.
And then, you know, I have, you know, people I talk to who just have hugely successful businesses and if kind of, you know, birds of a feather, they say, stick together. I have a really great network of people that I really respect and admire who are entrepreneurs, some of them extraordinarily successful, some of them, you know, are kind of starting out, you know, at all different stages, but I find it equally valuable to talk to them and—and I seek advice from them often. And even not advice, but just kind of schedule time to have coffee and just kind of talk about the status of my company, and to hear about theirs. Learning is so empowering, and so I feel like every day is an opportunity to learn more.