Hattie Elliot on What You Learn Producing a Reality TV Show Pilot

In Chapter 2 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "What Happened With Your TV Show Pilot and What Were the Takeaways from the Experience?"  Elliot talks about what she learned producing a docusoap reality television series called "The Grace List" based on her life and her business.  The experience gives her a firsthand view of how television is made and how a show concept and characters can change after a network buys the show. 

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: What happened with your TV show pilot and what were the takeaways from the experience?

Hattie Elliot:  Wowsers, that was an incredible whirlwind. So last year, I was producing a pilot for a TV show on my business called The Grace List. And it was really kind of a pseudo—they called it a docu-soap, it profiled my personal life and my search for love along with, you know, “the daters,” you know, members of The Grace List. And it was a great concept. It was an incredible, incredibly unbelievable, unbelievably frustrating, chaotic, ridiculous experience, but at the same time, really extraordinary, and like I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world, but I just now understand why Lindsay Lohan and all these celebrities are so dysfunctional, ‘cause I feel like I’ve got a very good head on my shoulders and I’ve worked very hard for years, but even I was like, wow, to keep—be level-headed in this industry, it’s tough. 

It was a huge undertaking. I was very, very proud of the initial pilot, which the network bought, they then decided to re-tweak it and reshoot it, and change the premise quite a bit, and cast the characters, and I was really devastated, to be honest, about the final product, I was absolutely—I really worked so hard and was very actively involved, but the final edit, I was just didn’t feel—I didn’t wanna put my name on. I wouldn’t. It was very upsetting especially after putting all that time in. Do I have regrets about doing it? Never. It’s like I would rather have loved and lost, you know, I would have rather had that whirlwind experience, I learned so much. I don’t regret it. 

But would I do a show again? I might with caution, but now I understand why reality shows are never around real businesses, you know? Because when you have a real company, it’s your baby, like I take great, great pride in this company that I built, and what I do, and I’m very protective of my friends and family, and so I’ve never just been willing to sell out, you know, for 5 minutes of fame, and, you know, crouch shot on the cover of Us Weekly or something, like, it’s just not my thing. 

So at this point, the project, the second round went actually to an offsite which is basically like where all the network execs meet and see if it’s gonna go to season, made it through the offsite, went to focus group testing, and I think about halfway through focus group testing was dropped, and it was a real blessing, actually. And there’s definitely some other show concepts in the works, but they’re very different. And they are concepts that I really believe in and that I feel like I can really do justice to now that I realize what goes into a show and what—what’s negotiable and what’s not negotiable, and what the actual process is, time-wise, commitment-wise and, you know, what you have authority to have edits on and stuff, so I’m excited. It really has—it was a—it really led to a lot of opportunity for me, a lot of opportunities, so—Yeah, it was a trip. Albeit an entertaining one.

Hattie Elliot on Using a Passion for Travel in an Event Planning Career

In Chapter 4 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Are You Learning to Apply Your Passions in New Ways?   Starting her business, The Grace List, by embracing her passion for entertaining and connecting, Elliot evolves her model by adding a destination travel and event element to what she does.  By crafting destination trips, from wine adventures New Year's yacht sailing trips, Elliot is able to take her event production business to new levels.  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: How are you learning to apply your passions in new ways?

Hattie Elliot: Wow. That’s kind of a difficult question, because I feel like I built my business, the kind of the forefront of my business was taking advantage for my real passion for entertaining and taking care of people. I guess that shifted slightly because we’ve kind of focused more in the last—and this is kind of very specific to what’s going on in my company right now, but I love traveling and experiencing the world and so I’ve kind of taken that ability to connect people, like great people great events, and taking it on the road, taking it on the plane, taking it on the boat, with these Saint Barths trips that we do and created that experience in different countries and different destinations and my events always, our weekly events that we threw were always based around like learning and doing something new, whether it was a food and wine pairing event, or private flying lessons.

We go to places that I personally am very passionate about, and you’re really able to craft this really thoughtful customized experience which is really impactful when you think about the first time maybe someone’s going to Italy and these wonderful, you know, little vineyards that you arrange for them to go to and winemakers that they meet and really it’s a pretty powerful thing to be able to, you know, forever in their mind when they think back to Italy, or even when they drink a glass of wine, that’s gonna change the way that they, like, you know, their whole experience of it, and that’s kind of powerful and wonderful and what the wonderful thing about—I’ve always been passionate about traveling and how I think as I’ve had the ability to with my clients, I’ve kind of infused the business more with the destination kind of side of—kind of event production, and that’s definitely kind of taken everything to the next level of the company. 

Hattie Elliot on Growing Your Business by Making it Less About You

In Chapter 5 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "What Obstacles are You Trying to Overcome as You Grow Your Business?"  Elliot learns to make her business less about her and her personal brand and more about The Grace List events, and progressively the destination trips, that allow her business to grow.  This helps her create a more manageable business model that can scale and benefit from her business network relationships. 

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: What obstacles are you trying to overcome to grow your business?

Hattie Elliot: This has actually been a really, really challenging but incredible year for The Grace List. There’s always gonna be evolution, it’s always gonna be a work in progress. But I got to the point where I realized that I was beginning to get just—I was really kind of worn out, and I was starting to lose what I think made me so great at what I do which was this genuine, unadulterated love for bringing people together, for people themselves, for creating this wonderful—these amazing environments to connect them within. And I think that when I really had to reflect back and look at what are the issues that I’m having, why am I feeling this way, which was a tough process, and I realized that it’s because for the amount of effort I’m putting in, you know?

I feel like the business needs to be more profitable, so then I had to reevaluate the profitability, what makes money, what doesn’t. Then I realized it needs to be more scalable because it’s so Hattie-centric, you know, after I had this huge lawsuit, this intellectual property suit over the name of the company, I really stepped forward myself as kind of the pillar of the company, you know, and I did a lot of TV and I did this reality show, and—I really did that to keep the company afloat during a tough time, but in order for the company now to go to the next level, I needed to really make it less Hattie-centric and more scalable by kind of stepping back again, and making sure that the business would work and could grow if I wasn’t there. 

So those were two like really big things--profitability and scalability, so there was, you know, some major restructuring that happened. I realized that doing these events every single week, as much as I used to love them, was just exhausting. And I started losing my love for it, because it just felt between kind of hustling—making sure that, you know, we got people there, and actually setting up the event, the prep and then the cleanup and then actually putting together—all these like little thoughtful things that made the events wonderful, you know, when you’re doing it every single week in all these cities, it was exhausting. However what did make money was we started doing these big trips. 

So I decided I was gonna focus more on doing destination houses, and doing these big trips, and less on the weekly events. So that kind of solved the profitability factor, ‘cause we really make money off of membership fees, and ideally events, so now, hello, like, it’s going much more profitable, it’s also scalable because once you’ve kind of come up with a formula for these destination houses, like certain special thoughtful touches, and what people expectations they can have, you can really turn it over, you know, that formula, these special things that I do, and have other people running these different houses and trips part-time. 

And also in terms of scalability, I decided that it would be a really good idea to bring on a board of advisers and to help continue to just—to really do justice to our demographic by growing it organically through friends, and friends of friends, but doing it so through their networks. And these are people who I felt were representative of the Grace List, you know, accomplished, fun, adventurous, dynamic, just really wonderful people from different—a really diverse group of people from all over the States and all over the world, who really had great networks of their own. And that they could really take ownership in the business and get involved, and that they could be faces for the business. Because it’s all about just great people and that we could grow the membership with—through their networks, and their contacts, and it really also meant that because the destination—the offering now—the Grace List offering is much more destination based and travel based that we can open up membership worldwide. 

So it really means the business is incredibly scalable because we’re getting houses in the most, you know, exquisite and exclusive locations in the world, Aspen, you know, London, Saint Barts, The Hamptons, you know, Cape Town South Africa, so they’re places that, you know, for people of a certain age, who travel a lot, and want to mix business with pleasure, and go to these extraordinary destinations. It doesn’t matter whether you live in London or Montreal or New York, you can, you know, really reap the benefits of membership.

Hattie Elliot on Getting Family Support in an Entrepreneur Career

In Chapter 6 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "Where Has Your Family Been Most Supportive in Your Career Development?"  Elliot notes how her parents have supported her by celebrating the highs of her entrepreneur journey and also being there for her during hard times.  The experience seeing her parents find joy and pride raising a family makes Elliot realize how much she wants kids.  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: Where has your family been most supportive in your career development?

Hattie Elliot: You know, there’s obviously ebbs and flows in business, as in life, and especially with the career path that I’ve particularly chosen. And when there’s been tough times and down times, they’ve been just really supportive and encouraging and warm and wonderful. And when things have been great, it’s been like fireworks and happy new year, and they might as well have a parade and just—they’ve just been so wonderful and really focusing on the highs and really taken so much pride and—It also makes me realize how important and what a wonderful—and how much I want kids, because it’s just—to see as—you know, my brother and I have gotten older and as our careers have changed and our lives have kind of evolved, how much pride that they’ve really taken in that, and how it’s made their life so wonderful as well. I mean I feel like they’ve made my life wonderful but I really do see the joy that they deduct out of these things. 

And when I go through hard times, they’re there for me, but they’re ridiculously over the top proud and supportive when great things happen. And it—you know, whenever I’m going through these tough things I can always look back because there’s so much love there and so much support for when things are great, it’s enough to kind of like keep you going, you hold on to that little wonderful moment, that little vignette in time. And sometimes it’s all you need, just to take a breath and get through the day.

Hattie Elliot on Turning 30 and Updating Life and Career Plans

In Chapter 8 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Are Your Personal Experiences Shaping Your Professional Aspirations?"  Elliot shares how she recently turned 30 and how it has put a more immediate timeframe on her personal and professional goals.  From meeting your financial and savings goals to getting married and starting a family, Elliot makes a point to work through what she wants and how she is going to achieve those goals.  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: How are your personal experiences shaping your professional aspirations?

Hattie Elliot: Well, I’m getting older. I don’t know if I would say I’m necessarily super wiser, but older. And I think part of that is that, you know, I—there’s certain things that I’ve really wanted in my life, and it’s a lot easier when you’re in your, you know, early 20s, I turned 30 last year, I’m gonna be 31 this year. I’ve really enjoyed getting older, but at the same time you’re not in that position anymore where you’re like, “Someday I’ll have a family.” “Someday I’m gonna buy a house.” Someday this, someday that, like, today is that someday. 

So I think that that these personal aspirations and personal experiences and where you wanna be—especially when it comes to having a business in your professional life, you realize you kind of have to make sure that your professional life, especially in the case when you have your own business is able to provide you or that you’re able to, to the best of your ability, attain the personal aspirations that you want with the professional means that you have. That comes, you know, monetarily, you know, sense of security, because you wanna start building, like, a nest for yourself. A nest egg and be able to take care of yourself, and if you have kids, hope—you know, your kids and your parents as they get older, and your family. You want to be able to just live the life you wanna live. You know, you don’t wanna constantly be nickel and dime’ing it. 

If you wanna travel, or you want to live in a certain area, you wanna be able to actually provide that and be able to build that and do that for yourself and so you have to, you know, be able to—you know, whether it’s you feel like you need more time in order to do so more, personal time to, you know, build real relationships, to build a romantic relationship, to maintain relationships with friends and family to make you happy. You need more money to be able to actually just, you know, live your life the way that you wanna live it, you have to take that into account and structure your professional life accordingly. Whether it’s, you know, having more flexibility time-wise, and, you know, being more disciplined about that, or bringing in, you know, the amount of, you know, fiscal income that you need. So I’ve definitely become, you know, much more aware of that, and become much more strict about it.

Hattie Elliot: How to Survive and Thrive in New York City

In Chapter 9 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Do You Make the Most of Living in the City?"  Elliot talks about the inspiration she gets from New Yorkers and how she finds motivation in progressive, forward thinking and big ambition mindsets of New Yorkers she meets.  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: How do you make the most of living in a city?

Hattie Elliot: Wow, I mean, I think New York City is just—it inspires me. I feel like it’s my lover. It’s like a character in my life that just like the people that I love, that inspires me to do better and be better and just the dynamism of New York, it’s not for the faint at heart, just like being an entrepreneur is not for the faint at heart, but for me, it doesn’t matter what incredible place I’ve been in the world, the moment that I step off the plane, you know, I don’t care if the city is, you know, if it’s hot and “fragrant.” We all know what New York smells like in the summer. Or freezing cold and I just came from Saint Barts, I just—I feel like I’m at home. I can take a breath. 

And that’s how I know I love New York. And I feel like the incredible influx of culture and people and restaurants and just the geography of New York and the architecture and the history are so inspiring. And New York is not kind to those who are stagnant. New York forces you in a brutal but wonderful way every day to move forward. There’s just—If you’re gonna survive in New York, you have to be a progressive forward-thinking person, and this city that just has a way of doing that to people. And I personally thrive off of it. And I feel like it’s been, you know, hugely beneficial in my business and just realistically, you know, the connections you make in New York, this is a city that’s full of some of the most, you know, successful people in every different, you know, field and profession, and real movers and shakers in the international world. 

I mean you are a little fish in a big pond. You do not come to New York, you know, to be Joe Schmoe, the prettiest, tallest, hottest, wealthiest person because there’s always gonna be someone in this city who’s more than that. You really come here to be pushed. And I really love that about New Yorkers, in general. And it’s something that inspires me in my personal and professional life every day, and one of the reasons that, I mean, I can wholeheartedly I just am so proud to call this city home.

Hattie Elliot: How to Reflect on and Improve Your Life

In Chapter 10 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?"  She finds what separates the inspiring people in her life from others is how they reflect back, learn from their choices, plan for the future and execute on these plans.  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: What role has reflection played in shaping your personal growth?

Hattie Elliot: Wow, reflection I think is one of the most painful, difficult, spectacular, and just brutal processes but ultimately in life, one of the most unbelievably rewarding. It’s why—you know, when I think about New Years and birthdays and things like that, and anniversaries, it’s why people oftentimes get very sentimental because it’s a time that you—you not only look forward but you often tend to look back, it forces you to reflect. For me, as tough as it is, I think my life has been so much more rewarding to me because I just—I force myself to kind of constantly kind of acknowledge where I am and reflect back. Coming here for instance, you know. Checking in every year with you, and talking about the business, it forces you to reflect about when I was like sitting in this seat last year, like where was I? What’s changed? But I think one of the most liberating and awesome things in life, too, about being an adult, is you have the ability, you reflect back, you reflect on the good stuff, the tough stuff, but then you have the ability to really figure out--to change what’s wrong. And I think that that’s really what separates people that I really admire and that inspire me from others is that they are people that can confront that, they can reflect back, they can acknowledge it and be accountable for things in their life and what they might need to change, and what their aspirations from what they want and they come up with a plan, and not only do they come up with a plan, they’re not all show no blow, they actually execute on that, and to their best. We’re not always gonna be successful at everything but, you know, to the best of their ability. It’s something that I really strive to do in my life, and it’s something that when I look at people that I really—I hold dear and that I really admire, and wanna be surrounded by, who inspire me to do better and be better, that’s a quality that they have as well, is ability to really reflect.

Erik Michielsen: Where do you even get started with that?

Hattie Elliot: First, I think it’s realizing what reflection is and that’s what it is. It’s that feeling that you have on those particular days, the day that your father passes away, the day that your niece was born, the day that comes around every year, something significant in your mind. I kind of even trick myself but, you know, I set up—and this is just my own little trick that I play with myself but it forces me to do it, is I set up little, you know, marks that I can use, like kind of I hedge timelines in my mind, whether it’s every Friday where I was the week before, or the first weekend of every month, and there are just specific times where I force myself to look back at my to-do list the week before and what was going on, and—what was going on with everything in my personal life, my professional life, with my finances, with the—with our membership members, with the events that I was doing, with things that made me happy, sad, and just kind of see which of those things that I can personally change, or there—that I can take action on, that’ll make this time next week Friday when I reflect that I’ll be in a better situation. Or this time next year on a date that will forever be set in my mind. Because whether it’s a happy date or a sad date, where hopefully I’m in a better place because you make your future. You make your destiny—I mean we can all be struck down with bad luck, but we do have choice, we do have the ability to be better and do better and to move forward. And that’s what I choose. That’s what I choose.

Hattie Elliot on Managing Adversity by Embracing Challenge

In Chapter 11 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Have You Learned to Adapt When Things Have Not Worked Out as Planned?"  Elliot talks about the highs and lows of her life experience and the importance of acknowledging disappointments, picking up her chin, and moving forward by executing her plan.  She refuses to play the victim role and tries to emulate people who take difficult situations in stride. 

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: How have you learned to adapt when things have not worked out as planned?

Hattie Elliot: I guess for me I just don’t think there’s any other option than, you know, I can choose to sulk in a corner and have a pity party or I can choose to lift my chin up and, you know, walk forward. It’s one of the reasons I, you know, love the city, that I love being an entrepreneur, because if I don’t show up or I have a sick day, I can’t pay my bills. I just—I haven’t given myself another choice. Things constantly in my life, I’ve had such extraordinary high highs and, you know, and I’ve experienced real heartache and real tragedy, and real disappointments, but there’s, for me, something very empowering about just, you know, acknowledging, you know, the disappointments, and the times when things haven’t work out, and you know, great, take a breath, take a little ohm moment, whatever it is. And then picking my chin up, and coming up with a plan, you know, of how I’m gonna move forward in my goal, and how I’m gonna fix this, and then, most importantly, actually, you know, executing it. 

It’s—you know, never easy but it always feels so much better to me to at least know that, you know, to not be the victim and just to do and be the best I can, you know, with the situation at hand. I think that—you know, I’ve heard it said that, you know, extraordinary people are those who just kind of, act in such a way, you know, during really difficult situations, just act in a—as they would normally and conduct themselves normally. It’s not that you’re, you know, over the top, and you’re like going and saving the world, but it’s just, you know, being gracious, and handling the system—you know, the situation to the best of the ability in a way that I hope when I look back, whether it’s today, tomorrow, in 5 years, I never have any regrets about how I treated anyone, and I never say what if, I just know I handled it to the best of my ability, and that’s all I can do. I’m not perfect, but it’s just taking the deck of cards that we all have, sometimes it’s satatious, sometimes it’s fabulous, and doing what we can with it, making the best of it. Making margaritas out of limes, you know?

Hattie Elliot: How to Stay Composed and Perform Under Pressure

In Chapter 12 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "What Does It Mean to Perform Under Pressure in the Work That You Do?"  Elliot embraces working in complicated environments with many moving parts.  Experience and reflection teach her to stay calm and be mindful of what is most important when unexpected things happen in her event planning and destination travel business. 

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: What does it mean to perform under pressure in the work that you do?

Hattie Elliot: Wow, I think that that’s one of the reasons that I can do what I do. When you’re dealing with so many people and so many personalities and so many vendors, and then on top of that, just kind of any sort of production, planning these trips, these events, these destinations, you know, it’s a perfect storm, there’s always gonna be, you know, anything and everything you can imagine could go wrong, will at some point. It will. It just—It’s just the nature of the beast, it’s the nature of the business.

So being able to not freak out, not like completely lose my marbles, but keep calm, has really—Number one, I think I would absolutely hate, hate, hate, hate what I do if I got freaked out easily. It takes a lot to ruffle my feathers, that’s like one positive attribute I have, like, it really takes a lot to ruffle my feathers. So—but I really genuinely I don’t think could work in the business I did if I couldn’t operate under extreme pressure and extreme kind of crazy circumstances as if nothing’s happening and the sun is shining and the grass is green, and there’s birds tweeting, and rainbows everywhere, like, sometimes you just gotta just keep your eye on the prize and compartmentalize when everything is—when shit is hitting the fan, just like, you know, great, awesome, like, we’ll put that shit in the corner there and pretend there’s like rainbows and butterflies and just, you know, and just, you know, move forward, and it’s part insanity and part brilliance I think that it takes to do that but it’s what I do.

And I think it’s the reason I’ve been able to be successful at the business that I’m in. And I think for people that I know, I used to—I have to say this is learned. I have not always been like this. I’ve really, through the years, made a vested effort, and it’s part of this whole idea of really acknowledging and reflecting where you are. I think it gives you a really, a healthy and honest perspective on what really matters. So if the electric goes out, if, you know, the—we’re on a trip and, you know, literally, like, shit hits the fan and a holding tank explodes onto the boat which is a foul situation, don’t get me wrong. It kind of makes you realize, honestly, if no one’s dying, and no one’s sick, that everything else is kind of like, you can figure it out, you can MacGyver it, you know, it gives you that kind of perspective when you’ve really gone through adversity, you really realize what matters and, yeah, and maybe that’s why it takes a lot to ruffle my feathers. But I feel like I’ve got a pretty, you know, healthy perspective on what’s worth really, you know, having a breakdown about, and there’s not much. 

Small Business Owner Advice on Managing Personal Finances

In Chapter 13 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Has Being a Business Owner Changed Your Perspective on Managing Your Personal Finances?"  Elliot notes how the unpredictability that comes with managing a small business - in her case an event planning and destination travel business - has forced her to be more frugal and creative to make ends meet as the business grows up and stabilizes. 

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: How has being a business owner changed your perspective on managing your personal finances?

Hattie Elliot: Well, I think when you work for a company, and you get, you know, a paycheck every month and you have certain things covered, your health insurance, and there’s just kind of a level of to a certain extent, you know, transparency and predictability, monotony. Which I would say is not bad, I quite miss that sometimes. You know, you have a very strong sense of, you know, how much if you’re realistic about it, you know, what you can afford, what’s within your means. You know, the size of the apartment that you want, the amount of vacations you take a year, how much you spend going out to restaurants, all that stuff, you know. You just—you have a sense of that.

When you have your own business—and this really does vary from business to business, especially for the first few years, really there’s like, you know, great discrepancies, there’s, you know, my business is very seasonal for instance. So there are certain times—because it’s event and destination based, that people tend to, like around the holidays, right before the holidays, really wanna meet someone, and want that connection, so, you know, that’s a time that we’re really busy and that people are—we’ve got new members joining, we’re doing more things, so with not only is the business seasonal, so the amount of the cash that we bring in just kind of changes, but, you know, based on what happens with the company, with mine, you know, we have a great piece of press and all of a sudden there’s so much interest and we’ve got all these new members joining.

So it’s a little bit less predictable but as the business grows, you know, you get—gain more experience, I now know there’s gonna be certain months of the year that I’m not gonna make as much money, and it’s never perfect but you do have the more of a sense of, you know, cash flow. But because there isn’t a predictability, I think you have to be much more careful to pick and choose what you prioritize and like what you spend your money on.

And there has definitely been times I have been terrified because I’ve got, you know, my rent is due in 2 days, and I’m like, “uh, am I gonna pull this out of like a magic hat?” Like, what is gonna happen? As terrible as that situation is, and stressful, I’m just like, “oh,” you know, it gives me heart palpitations to think of that, it just forces you, you’ve got no choice, like, I’m not gonna live in a cardboard box. I’m an adult. I’ve worked really hard. I’m not gonna move back with my parents, so it forces you—it’s forced me to find ways to succeed, to make my business succeed.

And in an ideal world, as the years go on, and the, you know, the more experience you gain and the more your company is established, you figure out ways that you have to—less and less you have to deal with that kind of situation, you know what I mean? Because not only do you kind of know the cash flow, but you just—you strive to have that sustainability, you set to strive to be your own corporation, you know what I mean? You’re cutting the checks.

So, it’s made me very frugal in many ways. But I’m a girl with expensive taste, you know? I like my champagne. So I’ve had to figure ways and make compromises that you can’t—I have not been able to have everything, but I’m working towards, hopefully, you know, to be able to have that, but in the meantime, like, you know, you just have to prioritize what’s important. You know, what you’re gonna spend your money on.

And just come to terms with the fact that it’s a very—it’s—having your own business, especially in the early days, you know, most people take this risk ultimately, you know, big risk, big reward, because the ultimate payout and the benefits and pleasure you’ll get out of your business are so much more than, you know, that’s what we all of us entrepreneurs hope than when you’re working in the corporate world, but it is a big risk. And it might not be that way, so I just kind of try to own the fact that this is the life I chose. And not get too stressed out but—and not have a pity party for myself when I’m not making as much money as I have, but it’s the life I chose, and it’s been really extraordinary.

Hattie Elliot on How Entrepreneurship Fosters Personal Growth

In Chapter 14 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Has Your Entrepreneurial Experience Helped You Grow as a Person?"  For Elliot, it comes down to learning from reflective moments and accepting the accountability that comes from the entrepreneurial experience.  This gives her a greater human perspective and has taught her to be more accepting and less judgmental of others. 

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: How has your entrepreneurial experience helped you grow as a person?

Hattie Elliot: It’s funny. It feels like we keep coming back to the theme of reflection. When you are an entrepreneur, you know, when things go wrong, when you’re—you know, when you’re having trouble paying your rent, when you have employees that make major blunders, you realize 99% of the time it’s your fault, because you didn’t communicate something properly. When you are delivering a product and there’s an issue, the weight is on you. There’s really not much room for hiding behind a wall, I would say—like when you’re in the corporate world often, there’s so many levels, like when I was in advertising, you’re part of such a big team and there’s so many levels just to put together one project, when there’s a major eff-up, like, you know, there’s enough people to distribute the blame, like when I make a mistake, it’s my own, and it’s a very tough and humbling thing but in terms of personal growth, it really forces you, number one, to be accountable for your actions, if you’re gonna be a successful entrepreneur, I think accountability and reflection just are key. You need to—when things aren’t going right, you need to confront it. You need to be accountable. You need to figure out what went wrong. And not have an ego about it and figure out a way you either—I mean excuse my language, but kind of shit or get off the pot type of thing. 

If you go around blaming other people, which a lot of us have the ability to do, it’s an easy way out; you’ll never be successful. You really won’t be. So I think it’s really a matter of really acknowledging there’s this constant—you’re constantly forced to reflect, acknowledge and be accountable for your actions, which I find to be, in the grand scheme of life, has been a really incredible journey, but definitely not an easy one. But I kind of feel like I can take on the world now because I’ve had great success, I’ve had great failure, ups and downs, but it really—it gives you better perspective as a human being, it makes you a lot more sympathetic, less judgmental and more understanding towards others, and I think that that makes—has made my life, at least, so much more just rewarding on all levels, and so much more wonderful. 

Hattie Elliot on Behavioral Traits For Entrepreneur Success

In Chapter 15 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Do You Balance Experimentation and Commitment in the Projects That You Pursue?"  Elliot notes that to be a successful entrepreneur one must be stubborn - almost delusional - yet open-minded enough to be flexible and try out new options or let old ones go at the right time. 

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: How do you balance experimentation and commitment in the projects that you pursue?

Hattie Elliot: Balancing experimentation and commitment is a balance within itself, it’s—I, by no means, am perfect at it at this point, I think though that whether it is, for instance, we’re re-tweaking the Grace List offering at the moment, and I’ve kind of had to roll with the punches, if you’re gonna be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be partly really stubborn and steadfast, like when you think something’s gonna fail, you kind of, again, have to be partly delusional and partly brilliant, and just partly stupidly, like blindly stubborn to just stick things out, but then there’s also moments when you have to realize you have to wave a white flag and call a spade a spade, and realize that something’s not working, and that’s really part of I think experimentation, really being open to what’s working and not working in the business, and experimenting, maybe with new things that could be beneficial, whether it’s new employees, or something that a lot of entrepreneurs, including myself, struggle with, trusting someone and allocating them, like letting go of some of the responsibilities, and having a business is an experiment, like it’s a work in progress, I wish, you know, it’s not for people who thrive off of stability, it’s not—I mean, ultimately, you strive for that, but the journey along the way is never that. It’s full of—there’s plenty of glorious potholes, bumps, meteorites, like everything you can imagine, like a cow thrown in there through a tornado, whatever crazy images that your head conjures up, like that is the story of the journey to being an entrepreneur but it’s always laughable and like, you know, what can you do but laugh? It’s kind of hilarious, like there’s never a dull moment. 

However, you know, it’s really important not to have ego, it’s important to, you know, know when to stay strong, and when to, you know, to stand your ground, and you know, when to own something, even when you kind of have to fake it before you make it, like those moments, and also when there’s moments that you have to let something go, you know, where you just have to let it go, and—it sounds simple but it just—let it go. Because we hold onto so much, you know, with our businesses. We thought that, you know, the business is gonna go this way and this was our goal, or, we were really, you know, gung ho on the name of this new product, but guess what? Consumers aren’t being perceptive to it, so maybe we have to, you know, reevaluate it. 

So it’s—it’s, you know, making things less personal, and a lot of that just hap—you know, experimenting as part of that process, but it’s really what ultimately I believe really leads to success. Something just sticks, you know what I mean? When you trying out a bunch of different options within your company, if you didn’t experiment, you would never know that. 

Hattie Elliot on What Types of Friends Give the Best Advice

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.

Hattie Elliot on Finding Healthier Ways to Manage a Busy Schedule

In Chapter 17 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage Your Time and Your Commitments?"  Elliot emphasizes making her appointments on time and, as her schedule gets busier, she learns the importance of not overcommitting to a point where she gets run down and sick.  As a small business owner, Elliot realizes she needs to stay healthy to do her work well.  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: How are you learning to better manage your time and commitments?

Hattie Elliot: You know, being true to your word is very important, so if I say that I’m gonna be, you know, meet a client or a friend or my mom for coffee at 10:00, if I’m not there, you better believe like I’m in the E.R. on a stretcher. Like—or, you know, swimming with the fishes, like it just doesn’t happen. However, I think my issue is, I can sometimes be overly hard and overly commit myself, so in terms of time allocation, I don’t always allocate enough time just to kind of downtime, to relax, to myself, because I take all these other commitments so seriously, you know, kind of really passionate about all the things that I’m involved in and I’m involved in a lot, so as I’ve, you know, I would say the last couple of years, I’ve come to the conclusion that, no, I’m not superwoman, I’m only—I can do a lot, but I’m like, only one person, and especially, you know, being responsible for my own business, paying my own rent, having responsibilities to my family, friends, clients, just keeping the people who work for me that if I let myself get run down, sick, I overwork myself, then I’ve got nothing.

Hattie Elliot on Learning to Work With Different Personality Types

In Chapter 18 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Are You Learning to Work More Effectively With Different Personality Types?"  In her work, Elliot constantly meets new people and finds it important to be patient, especially with hardened or shy people, as she works to bring out their best.  Elliot finds it one of the most rewarding challenges of doing her work. 

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: How are you learning to work more effectively with different personality types?

Hattie Elliot: I find dealing with different personality types often almost a challenge, you know, when I deal with people who I find to be, you know, really off putting or cold, it’s like a challenge for me to open them up and to make them feel comfortable and it’s really one of the wonderful awesome things I’ve learned to do in my business is that I’m not shy. I love meeting people. I give, you know, decent first impressions, but the more that I’ve kind of through the years, run my business, and met with people, it’s been very eye opening because I’ve realized that a lot of people that you might meet on the street who seem like they’re very difficult, or might be a little cold, or off putting, or bitter or whatever, it’s just because they’re shy. Or they, you know, take a little while to warm up to you.

So, I’ve learned that so many people maybe 5 years ago, 2 years ago, I might’ve kind of brushed off, that I don’t really do that anymore when I meet people, because I feel like if you actually get to—you know, take the time to get to know people, and you make them feel comfortable, and that’s really what my business is about, is creating these great environments that are conducive to people meeting and connecting. You know, I meet a lot of people who off the bat I love. I meet some people I think, you know, are interesting but, you know, they take a little feeling out, but I’ve just been very humbled and surprised I would say, by how genuinely great and interesting most people are. It just sometimes takes certain things to bring that out. 

Hattie Elliot on Finding Better Ways to Motivate Small Business Employees

In Chapter 19 of 19 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, female entrepreneur Hattie Grace Elliot answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage and Motivate Teams?"  Elliot learns to separate her perspective as an owner from that of employees working at a small business for a job.  Elliot learns to strike a balance motivating employees by providing monetary compensation and emotional compensation. 

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: How are you learning to better manage and motivate teams?

Hattie Elliot: It’s easy for me to stay motivated with my business because it’s my baby, you know? I own it. It’s kind of—there’s no separation of church and state, it’s my everything. When people are working for you, you know, as much as they might, you know, like what they’re doing, and believe in you, and like the business, it’s different than when you’re an owner, so there’s a few different things that are really important in motivating people. People need to pay their bills, like there’s—there’s monetarily compensating someone. And I’ve learned, you know, with my business, ways to do that is scaled, not just—let’s say paying a—just kind of a normal salary but really scaling it based on performance. Especially it’s a win-win as a small business owner, because, you know, if they’re bringing in money and business, like, hey, I am more than happy to share the wealth, you know, everyone wins.

If you’re really underperforming, and you’re not really working your tail off, then, you know, your monetary compensation is gonna reflect that, so that’s actually been kind of striking that balance and figuring out how to monetarily compensate people so they also feel really valued, and it motivates them is important. Just kind of I would say emotional compensation, really not—really when someone does something that’s great and wonderful, and it’s beneficial, encouraging it, acknowledging it, when they mess up, acknowledging that too which is hard, but doing it in a way that’s productive, so you’re not just, you know, putting them down, and like kind of cutting it off there, but you’re giving them an alternative or a suggestion, a way to do their job better, to be better, to craft it because I always try to empower my employees and people I work with, because I feel like whether they work—I mean they’re not gonna work for me forever, you know, hopefully, they go out and they, you know, end up being a big baller, starting a hugely successful business or working for a big corporation making millions.

I can’t guarantee I’ll ever be able to pay them that, but at least then you’re really empowering them with skills, and confidence, and tools, so—that they can really use and are beneficial to them personally later on. And I think when you proposition and position it that way that they really appreciate it and also feel much more responsibility to kind of performing because you know when you’re very protective and you—and you encourage them, they also feel kind of more accountable towards doing a really good job for you.

Manager Advice on Creating Teachable Moments to Train Your Team

In Chapter 6 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "How Are You Becoming a Better Teacher?"  Rona talks about how he is learning to better communicate wisdom in more memorable ways.  For Rona, this means looking for teachable moments to use vivid stories, feedback, and timing to teach his young managers core job skills. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising, sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you becoming a better teacher?

Ken Rona: The part of it is you’ve got to think about how you communicate the wisdom that you have in a way that is easily remembered. And to tell stories, right? So what I wanna do is tell stories around why I’m doing something or what I was thinking about. What I’m trying to do is shift a little bit to say, here’s the punchy phrase that summarizes what I’m trying to teach you here. And also the things that I’m giving people feedback on, tends to be much more managerial. So the other day something happened where somebody said something in a meeting that probably, like one-on-one would’ve been perfectly appropriate, and instead, he said it in a large meeting and it wasn’t appropriate to do it in front of a more junior staff. And as he was saying it, the first thing as—I mean I knew where he was going, he said kind of what he meant in the first sentence and I said hold it, let’s talk about this afterwards. After the meeting, I asked him to come in to my office and I said, look, as someone at your level you can’t make those comments in front of junior staff. Like you have a responsibility now—Like, have you read the Steve Jobs book?

Erik Michielsen: Some of it.

Ken Rona: So there’s this part where he talks about the difference between responsibility between a janitor and a vice president. And the difference is that that janitor, if he can’t get in your office because he doesn’t have the key to dump your garbage, that’s reasonable. Not reasonable for a vice president to say that. Vice president’s got it. So I kind of gave him a very short version of that story I just said, look, you know, there’s—there comes times in your career where there’s a difference between responsibility and the things you can say, and it’s not gradual. It’s actually a step change. You get promoted to X, you’re in a role, your role is different, and there are totally different expectations. Now, one would like to think like it is a step change, you’re walking up the steps, so you need to kind of go through those steps in your career, and what I was saying to him was, look, you’re—you’ve just taken the next step, the stuff you said at the previous point, you can’t say that anymore. You got—your communication is different. 

So there’s kind of another piece around the teaching where I tried to make it very vivid for him. To say like I mean I told the story about the steps and—So another thing you can do even though as I say I like to tell stories, really what I’m trying to do I guess is make these teachable moments very vivid for them so they remember it. And I think, you know, for that particular incident, stopping him in the middle of the meeting, bringing him in to my office, telling him the Steve Jobs story, and then saying you know, this applies to you. I’m 100% sure he got the message. So I guess some of that is I guess another important part of the teaching is the reinforcement, with that particular case, I reinforced 4 times in like, you know, 15 minutes. But I think that’s how you create teachable moments.

Ken Rona on Making a Career Transition from Specialist to Generalist

In Chapter 7 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "What Do You Enjoy Most About What You Do?"  Rona talks about the rewarding elements of his progressive managerial responsibilities interfacing with C-level executives and his related career transition from more specialist-oriented job roles to more generalist-oriented ones. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What do you enjoy most about what you do?

Ken Rona: I notice a shift in my—in what I spend my time doing—in the last year. The team is functioning I think very effectively. Instead, my job has more evolved to—I have to communicate what the team does. Right? To people—to people outside the organization or even inside the division I’m in. To monitor what’s going on in the industry. To interface with our C-level officers.

So I think—I think that’s been a shift in the role and I found that very interesting. It’s no longer am I solely valued for my analytic skills or my product management, my analytic product management skills. Now my value is coming from how I communicate with our senior folk and other folks that are kind of in the industry.

And that’s been—That’s been very interesting. As I say it’s—it requires a bit of a shift in mentality. As I say, it’s like –It’s a seat change, or it’s a step change, in what I was doing. So I felt like this year in particular, my career has taken a—my job has shifted. That it’s—it still encompasses the old stuff but it has a much more of a component around communication.