Meet Chloe Elise of Deeper Than Money

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chloe Elise.

Hi Chloe, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Chloe Elise and I am the CEO of Deeper Than Money, a global financial literacy company on a mission to show people how to take control of their finances and change the trajectory of their lives. Growing up, I had the mindset to work really hard, make money, and then spend all my money. I worked multiple jobs at a time throughout college and was donating plasma as often as I could just to have money to socialize with my friends and have fun. But my bank account was still sparred.

Since I always had no money left at the end of the week and then would work more hours, I was constantly missing out on the fun. Time and time again I would have a meltdown in my room before work when my friends were going to have fun and I was going to go work. What the hell was the point when I was broke anyway? I might as well NOT work and be broke if I was going to work, miss out on fun & still be broke. If I stopped working so much at least I wouldn’t also miss out on the fun, right? I knew something needed to change.

Keep in mind at this time I didn’t even have an online login to my bank. I didn’t know how much debt I was in. I didn’t know what a credit score was. Money was the biggest stress in my life & I didn’t know how to fix that. But, I was ready to try. So I did. I read every book I could find. I took courses. I listened to podcasts. I went to webinars. I even got my first ever financial coaching certification simply because I wanted to learn, I had no idea I would actually succeed and end up teaching others.

I still kept working more to make more money, but started realizing making more money wasn’t solving my problems. Step 1 was figuring out where I was even at and how much debt I had. I knew I had a $10,000 car loan, but I had no idea how much I had in student loans. My thought was “there’s no way it could be over $5,000.”

I called my mom to get the log-in & found out I had $26,000 of student loans. To me, it felt like a million dollars. I was working in the mailroom making $7 an hour when I found that out. I literally typed 36,000 divided by 7 in my phone calculator to find out I would have to work 6,000 hours (after-tax) or 750 days straight with 100% of my income going to debt to become debt-free. It felt so heavy and impossible.

I started working on paying off debt but was in SUCH a state of restriction. I would tell myself I couldn’t spend anything on eating out & I would still miss out on events with my friends because I didn’t want to spend money. I was making financial progress, but I was miserable and still constantly stressed with money.

I realized there had to be a better way. It wasn’t just about the finances, it was deeper than that. I started doing the inner work with finances to find that there was a way I could get ahead with money WHILE enjoying my life and not sacrificing things I cared about. And magic started happening.

I graduated college & got a big girl job (+negotiated my starting salary & sign-on bonus!) I went on to pay off over $36,000 of debt in 18 months (exactly one-year post-graduation from college). Holy crap, I was debt-free. I could NOT believe that I did it. The broke girl who was horrible for money made good money but had nothing to show for it… who just raised her net worth by $36,000 in 18 months.

I knew I was onto something great but didn’t want to stop there. I wanted to not only become wildly wealthy, but I also wanted to teach other women how to become wealthy too. And not JUST paying off debt or growing savings, but also healing their relationship with money and so they can use money as a tool to enjoy the hell out of their lives now too.

I started my business with a $500 transfer from my personal savings to my new business account that I opened after registering my business for about $40 (perks of living in the Midwest). I was worried my dream of starting a business was silly, but I trusted my gut and knew I wanted to go all in and see if I could make it work.

I had an unshakable belief that my business would succeed that I genuinely owe to: grit, some business books I had rented on Audible, and the idea that if I went all in and failed, then at least I tried. After my original $500 loan from my personal savings account, every dime that I made, I reinvested back into my business for the first 8 months. This allowed my business to take off while I was still in a corporate job and wouldn’t need to count on that paycheck.

I started my business in August of 2018 with $500 from my savings. In 2018, Deeper Than Money did less than $5,000 in revenue. In 2019, Deeper Than Money did over $200k in revenue. In 2020, Deeper Than Money did over $550k in revenue. And in 2021 we are on pace for well over $1 million generated in revenue. We’ve more than doubled revenue every year while staying highly profitable—all because of a $500 loan from my savings account, taking advantage of free advertising through social media, and going all-in on that “silly” dream I had in August of 2018.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Business ownership and entrepreneurship is never easy road. One struggle is just figuring out all the logistics and legalities of owning a business from registering a business, paying taxes, and making sure that the business is self-sustaining.

Beyond the technicalities, the biggest struggle was continuing to pursue my business when doubt came up and tried to get in the way.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Deeper Than Money?
Deeper Than Money is a financial literacy company founded in 2018. Through coaching, self-study courses, live events, free resources, and more, Deeper Than Money teaches people from all backgrounds how to take control of their finances and change the trajectory of their lives.

We believe that financial education is more than learning how to budget, pay off debt, or save for retirement. It’s about the freedom that financial stability can provide. It’s about being able to live life to the fullest, give generously, and improve the lives of those around us. We provide an abundance of resources from our podcast, to coaching, and self-study courses no matter your background, financial status, or money goals.

Our mission is more than just growing the numbers in your bank account- we empower people to make the best decisions for themselves and transform their lives. We lead by example, showing people how to use money as a tool to create the life they want and go after their biggest dreams.

Many of our services center around coaching and personal finance training from our Wealth Accelerator Program, our online classes, and self-study courses that focus on growing personal wealth and changing a client’s mindset around money by giving them tools to empower their financial journey and make logistical and personal decisions that will help them to reach their ultimate goals.

Additionally, we provide coaching for business owners and entrepreneurs on how they can scale their business to the next level.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Be flexible and adapt your services to fit the needs of your customers. Being an online business, we were fortunate that we do not rely on in-person face-to-face customer interaction to deliver our services. Also, we found that during Covid there were a lot of new financial questions coming from our audience.

With many people losing their jobs, getting a pay cut, or exploring what their next career move should be, during the pandemic, we were able to tailor our services and offerings to help meet those needs. For instance, when student loans were put on hold, we had an influx of questions on what to do and if clients should be still making payments, so we created a class addressing questions on student loans.

Pricing:

• We have resources for any price point. Deeper Than Money offers a variety of free resources (check out The Deeper Than Money Podcast, our free 3-Day $1000 Challenge, our extremely popular High Yield Savings Account Training, or the Puppy Fund freebie)
• For those who want more coaching and a deeper dive into their finances, we have classes on a variety of money and mindset topics (from home buying, investing, and paying off debt). Or for even more one-on-one support and guidance, we have coaching programs where we work with groups of individuals to help them with their current financial needs and questions and help them build a sustainable strategy to meet their financial and business goals.

Contact Info:

• Email: contact@deeperthanmoney.com
• Website: https://www.deeperthanmoney.com/
• Instagram: @deeper.than.money and @deeperthanmoneyco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/316234549040925
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/1RNkcNZKobPAhruwqbQEoR?si=d38ef4208fe3436d

Image Credits
Kira Whitney Photography and Jo & Co Photography