Ellie Diop

Before the world entered a crisis because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ellie Diop was in one of her own. In 2019, the mother of two had been laid off from her sales director job, was going through a divorce and pregnant with twins. "I recognized that the only place I could go was up. It was already bad. It couldn't get much worse than it was, and that gave me a little inkling of hope, and I just took it and ran with it," Diop told Atlanta Black Star. All she needed was a $1,200 stimulus check, and the new mother of four made her own second chance. Thanks to a background in finance and experience leading a sales team of 70, Diop had valuable insights to help entrepreneurs build a strong business foundation. Diop was discouraged when she didn't see any single-mom coaches after several weeks of researching the industry, so she saw a significant opportunity to cater to that underserved group. Two ring lights, a Canva membership, and a domain name later, Ellie Talks Money was born. She built her website and leveraged Instagram to market her coaching products to millennials who were increasingly turning to entrepreneurship. She frequently went live on Instagram to connect with people and offer free business tips. That social media audience quickly grew from 300 to 100,000 in six months. In 18 months, Ellie Talks Money reached $3 million in revenue by helping entrepreneurs like herself.