Ellie Talks Money: Ellie Diop

Ellie Diop, In the depths of the 2020 pandemic, when millions lost their jobs and financial security seemed like a distant memory, one single mother of four made a decision that would not only change her life but inspire thousands of others. Known across social media platforms as “Ellie Talks Money,” took her $1,200 stimulus check and transformed it into a multi-million dollar online academy earning $1.3 million in just 10 months. Her story isn’t just about entrepreneurial success; it’s a masterclass in turning crisis into opportunity and expertise into generational wealth.

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From Corporate Director to Unemployed Single Mother

Ellie Diop had built an impressive career as a director of sales in corporate America, making big financial decisions with serious potential profits and losses on the table. At just 25 years old, she was leading a team of 100 people as director of sales for a financial institution. Her background in business, finance, and marketing positioned her as a rising star in the corporate world.

But corporate “security” proved illusionary. Ellie was laid off from her job, and shortly after that, she got a divorce. She started her business in 2020, at 27, with 4 kids, in a corner. Suddenly without income and as a mother of four, she had serious financial responsibilities to live up to, moving back home to her mom’s house.

After being laid off, she applied to 53 positions and got no job offers, eventually having to apply for public assistance to make ends meet. For many people, this would have been rock bottom. For Ellie, it was the launching pad.

The $1,200 Decision That Changed Everything

When the government issued stimulus checks in 2020, most Americans used them to cover immediate expenses. Ellie used her $1,200 stimulus check as seed capital, knowing she wanted to share her knowledge about business, finance, and entrepreneurship. With two ring lights, a Canva subscription, and securing her “EllieTalksMoney” domain, she was able to build a multi-million dollar business.

She started the business 5 months after finalizing her divorce—in the midst of losing one identity as a wife, she gained another as an entrepreneur. The timing seemed impossible, but Ellie understood something crucial: she already possessed everything she needed to succeed.

What followed was nothing short of remarkable. In just 10 months after starting her business, she made $1.3 million. However, the first four or five months brought in very little money—those moments when many entrepreneurs stop. Ellie’s advice? Keep going. Consistency matters most during the challenging months.

Building Ellievated Academy: An Empire of Education

Today, Ellie Diop operates multiple interconnected brands under her business umbrella, with Ellievated Academy serving as the flagship educational platform. She has served over 50,000 business students, built an online community of over 500,000 people, and helped her students secure over $5 million in business funding.

Her Instagram following stands at 780,000 followers, while her TikTok presence includes 76,400 followers. The academy boasts monthly revenue between $300,000 to $400,000, and she has earned over 7 figures in revenue since launching using Thinkific.

The GSF Method: Get, Split, Flip

At Ellievated Academy, they apply the GSF Method to all business building activities: (1) Get The Bag, (2) Split The Bag, and (3) Flip The Bag. This straightforward framework breaks down wealth building into actionable steps:

• Get The Bag: Access capital through business credit, grants, and funding opportunities
• Split The Bag: Diversify income streams and manage money strategically
• Flip The Bag: Invest and build assets that create generational wealth

This method resonates particularly with her target audience: women entrepreneurs, especially mothers and entrepreneurs of color who face systemic barriers to business funding.

Why Ellie’s Content Is Genuinely Helpful

Ellie Talks Money’s educational content stands out in the crowded online business coaching space for several compelling reasons:

1. Lived Experience, Not Just Theory

Unlike many business coaches who teach from a place of privilege or distant past experience, Ellie’s story is recent, raw, and relatable. She wasn’t handed a trust fund or venture capital. She went from applying for public assistance to making over $1.3 million in 10 months. When she teaches about building from nothing, overcoming imposter syndrome, or managing business while raising children, students know she’s been there—very recently.

Ellie advises anyone to double down on their list of knowledge and value they offer, getting comfortable with continuing to look at experience and accomplishments, saying “yes, I’ve helped people do this. This is part of my track record. I’m qualified to talk about it.”

2. Focus on Accessible Capital

One of Ellie’s unique value propositions is her expertise in business funding that doesn’t require perfect credit or personal wealth. Her teaching covers trust and investment portfolio creation, applying for business credit, and grants to win free money.

This matters enormously. While most business coaches focus on bootstrapping or venture capital (neither realistic for most aspiring entrepreneurs), Ellie teaches about:

• Small business grants specifically available to underrepresented entrepreneurs
• Building business credit separate from personal credit
• Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
• Strategic use of Other People’s Money (OPM)

Students share results showing how their businesses have grown, how they’ve gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding, and how they’re making $15,000 a month. According to testimonials, one student began earning over $185,000 in annual income and bought a new house after being approved for a $25,000 personal loan, while others received $25,000 to $35,000 in business funding.

3. Comprehensive Course Ecosystem

Ellievated Academy isn’t a single course—it’s a complete educational ecosystem designed to meet entrepreneurs at different stages:

For Beginners:

• The 7-Figure Starter Kit Reloaded provides comprehensive guidance on building strong business foundations, covering niche finding, target audience identification, permits and licenses, taxes, domains, landing pages, and content development

For Scaling:

• Build Your Business is a 3-day virtual workshop covering branding and marketing fundamentals, content sales strategy, and business necessities like cash flow, insurance, and payment processors

For Specific Ventures:

• How to Buy a Hotel with Business Credit teaches specialized strategies for real estate and hospitality ventures

For Mothers:

• The Millionaire Mommy Blueprint centers around content creation, guiding mompreneurs in becoming digital content queens with techniques to monetize content

For Passive Income:

• The Passive Income Challenge covers 6 passive income streams over 6 days that students can start implementing immediately

This variety allows students to choose their path rather than forcing everyone through a one-size-fits-all program.

4. Interactive, Accountability-Driven Learning

Ellie wanted her academy to be a branded experience, which she achieved with Thinkific Plus, creating a modular experience where students take quizzes to graduate to the next module. Initially, some people might have bought the product but never engaged with it. Now she focuses on ensuring high completion rates because she wants students to gain from the information, with more in-depth courses and built-in accountability producing better results.

This evolution from passive consumption to active engagement is critical. Most online courses have abysmal completion rates (typically under 15%). By building accountability mechanisms and community support, Ellie increases the likelihood that students actually implement what they learn.

5. Community and Mission-Driven Approach

Ellie’s mission extends beyond profit. She has been recognized as one of the 25 Most Influential New Voices of Money by NextAdvisor in partnership with Time. She believes entrepreneurship is an act of activism for the Black community and is eager to share what she knows to help the community.

As a Black woman, mom, and entrepreneur, she creates ACCESS to entrepreneurship spaces so that people from underserved communities can have opportunities to start and scale their businesses. This isn’t performative it’s central to her entire business model.

She has run the Mommy to Millionaire challenge, creating movement around tangible wealth-building, with plans to help mommies buy properties, multi-family homes, or hotels where each woman could own equity in a building they can point to and say “Mommy owns a part of that”.

Ellie’s Unique Edge in Content Creation

What separates Ellie Diop from thousands of other online business coaches? Several distinctive advantages give her content unique value:

From Corporate Sales Leadership to Entrepreneurship

Her extensive experience in sales, management, and leadership development gives her insights most entrepreneurs lack. She understands corporate systems, team leadership, and high-stakes decision-making. This corporate background, combined with her entrepreneurial success, creates a rare dual perspective.

Authentic Vulnerability Creates Trust

Ellie openly shares her journey being laid off, going through divorce, moving back with her mother, applying for public assistance. This vulnerability isn’t weakness; it’s strategic transparency that builds deep trust with her audience. Students don’t feel they’re being sold a fantasy they’re being shown a real path someone like them actually walked.

Speed and Scale of Success

The timeline itself is remarkable. Going from unemployment and public assistance to $1.3 million in 10 months creates a powerful narrative. While skeptics might question these numbers, her success story has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Black Enterprise, Fox News, Newsweek, CNBC, INC, and Entrepreneur magazines, lending credibility to her claims.

Platform Agnostic Presence

She used Instagram and TikTok to grow her seven-figure platform through her own social media marketing strategies, stating that “the connections you make through your social media is the difference between the five to seven-figure businesses”. She doesn’t rely on a single platform, instead maintaining strong presences across:

• Instagram (780K followers)
• TikTok (76.4K followers)
• YouTube (Ellie Talks Money channel)
• Her own academy website
• Podcast (Get Ellievated Podcast)

This diversification protects her business from platform algorithm changes while maximizing reach.

“Where Moms Become Millionaires”

Her tagline “WHERE MOMS BECOME MILLIONAIRES & CREATE TRUST FUND BABIES” speaks directly to an underserved audience: mothers who want financial success without sacrificing family. This positioning is brilliant—it’s specific enough to resonate deeply while broad enough to include millions of potential students.

Direct Mentorship and Accessibility

Ellie remains highly involved in the academy, creating courses and facilitating the 1:1 mentorship program, time blocking her weeks to ensure she’s organized for attending meetings, posting content, and going live for her community. It costs $2,000 to book Ellie Diop for a 90-minute session, making her relatively accessible compared to many high-level business coaches who charge $10,000+ for similar access.

The Business Coaching Industry: A Field Primed for Success

Ellie Diop’s decision to build a business coaching empire comes at an opportune moment. The industry data overwhelmingly demonstrates this is a field experiencing explosive growth with massive opportunity:

Coaching Market: Explosive Global Growth

The coaching industry represents one of the fastest-growing sectors in professional services:

• The global coaching market hit $6.25 billion in 2024 and is on track to grow to $7.3 billion by 2025
• Coaching revenue jumped to $4.65 billion in 2022, up 60% since 2019
• Active coaches worldwide numbered 145,500 in 2024, with 167,300 expected by 2025 more than doubling from 71,000 in 2019
• The global coaching market is experiencing a growth rate of 15.43% between 2023 and 2024

This isn’t incremental growth it’s exponential expansion reflecting surging demand for professional guidance in entrepreneurship and business development.

Business Coaching Specifically: Massive Demand

Within the broader coaching industry, business coaching represents the largest and fastest-growing segment:

• The U.S. business coaching market size is estimated at $20 billion in 2025, growing at a 4.5% CAGR
• The global business coaching services market was valued at $1.44 billion in 2024, expected to reach $2.78 billion by 2033, with a CAGR of 7.60%
• Around 65% of professional coaches identify as business coaches, making it the largest specialization in the industry
• 38% of business coaches work directly with HR teams for ongoing leadership and performance training

Business coaching isn’t a niche—it’s the core of the entire coaching economy.

Online Coaching: The Digital Revolution

The shift to online delivery has democratized access and created unprecedented scalability:

• The online coaching market is expected to reach $11.7 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 14%
• Virtual coaching sessions shot up 40% since 2020, and today 72% of clients prefer remote or hybrid coaching
• 58% of coaches have adopted digital formats, while 49% use mobile access

This digital transformation plays directly to Ellie’s strengths—she built her entire empire online, proving the model works at scale.

Impressive ROI Attracts Corporate Investment

The coaching industry delivers measurable results that justify continued investment:

• The average ROI of executive coaching is 5-7X the investment (for every $1 spent, companies typically make $5-$7 back)
• Studies show that coaching delivers an average ROI of 7x the investment, with companies like Intel reporting annual benefits exceeding $1 billion from their coaching programs
• 99% of clients are “satisfied” or “very satisfied,” while 86% of companies that calculated ROI made back their initial investment
• Sales coaching creates an extraordinary 962% return on investment, driven by a 14.46% improvement in overall performance and a satisfaction rate of 96.22%

These aren’t marginal improvements they’re transformative results that keep corporate budgets flowing toward coaching services.

Growing Professionalization and Specialization

The coaching industry is maturing into a legitimate professional sector:

• Coaches who zero in on a niche grow 30% faster than generalists
• 63% of clients seek leadership support, while 52% integrate feedback tools and 45% value skill-based sessions
• 62% of organizations improved staff development, 58% increased morale, and 47% boosted succession readiness through coaching

This professionalization creates opportunities for specialists like Ellie who focus on specific demographics (women, mothers, entrepreneurs of color) and specific outcomes (business funding, passive income, generational wealth).

Women Entrepreneurs: The Demographic Ellie Serves

Ellie’s focus on women entrepreneurs, particularly mothers and women of color, positions her perfectly within the fastest-growing entrepreneurial demographic in America:

Women’s Entrepreneurship: Unprecedented Growth

The data on women in business reveals a demographic revolution:

• Women started 49% of new businesses in 2024, a 69% increase from 2019 and a five-year high
• Women-owned businesses generate over $1.8 trillion in annual revenue and employ nearly 10 million people in the United States
• The number of women-owned businesses increased by 43.5% faster than men-owned businesses from 2019 to 2024
• 14.5 million women-owned businesses exist in the U.S. as of 2024, comprising 39.2% of all U.S. firms

Women aren’t just participating in entrepreneurship—they’re driving it.

Post-Pandemic Boom

The pandemic created conditions that particularly benefited women entrepreneurs:

• Women’s entrepreneurial ventures were the driving force behind America’s economic rebound from COVID-19, creating about half of all new U.S. businesses compared to just 29% before the pandemic
• In 2019, women started nearly 29% of new businesses. By 2024, women started almost half of new businesses the highest share recorded since Gusto began publishing its New Business Formation report

Ellie launched her business in 2020, riding this exact wave while also helping create it through her teaching.

Startup Success and Survival

Women-owned businesses aren’t just numerous—they’re resilient and successful:

• Women’s startup activity rates rose from 6.1% in 2001-2005 to 10.4% in 2021-2023
• During economic downturns, women-owned businesses are 32% more likely to adjust business models than male-owned firms
• 56% of women-owned businesses reported profitability in 2024

Growth Trajectory and Economic Impact

The future looks even brighter:

• 56% of women entrepreneurs surveyed have seen more revenue growth in 2025 than in 2024, while 66% expect to see revenue growth in 2026
• Women-owned businesses have the potential to add an extra $10.2 trillion annually to the U.S. economy if their average revenue matched that of male-owned businesses
• 87.6% of women CEOs plan on pursuing organic growth initiatives, while 50.5% also plan on prioritizing inorganic growth strategies

Black Women: Leading the Charge

Within women’s entrepreneurship, Black women represent the fastest-growing segment:

• Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States, with rates more than doubling from 2019 to 2023
• 2.1 million American businesses are owned by Black women, accounting for 15% of all women-owned businesses, generating $98.3 billion in annual revenue
• In 2024, AAPI- and Black-owned businesses were more likely to be started by women than men

As a Black woman entrepreneur, Ellie represents and serves this demographic authentically, understanding their unique challenges and opportunities.

The Funding Gap: Ellie’s Competitive Advantage

Despite impressive growth, women entrepreneurs face persistent funding challenges:

• 46% of American women entrepreneurs experienced gender bias when trying to raise capital
• Women were more likely to use personal loans or financing from family and friends to start their businesses, with fewer securing SBA loans or private equity, increasing their personal financial exposure

This funding gap is precisely where Ellie’s expertise becomes invaluable. Her focus on business credit, grants, and alternative funding sources directly addresses the biggest barrier women entrepreneurs face. The platform specifically serves women-owned businesses and entrepreneurs of color who typically have a difficult time getting funding.

The Challenges: Why Educators Like Ellie Matter

While the statistics paint an optimistic picture, entrepreneurship especially for women and people of color remains challenging. These challenges create the need for educators like Ellie:

The Success Rate Reality

Many women-owned businesses are newly fledged businesses still navigating their initial years of operation. Most entrepreneurs struggle, particularly in the early stages. Ellie herself didn’t make a lot of money for the first four or five months. Her willingness to teach others how to push through these critical early months becomes invaluable.

Operational Challenges

More than half (54%) of women entrepreneurs reported difficulty finding or retaining employees in 2024. 31% of women entrepreneurs refrained from bringing on new hires. Navigating hiring, operations, and growth requires guidance that Ellie’s courses provide.

Capital Access Barriers

Despite progress, systemic barriers remain. Only 2.4% of women-owned businesses qualify as middle-market firms, suggesting a “missing middle” where businesses struggle to scale beyond initial success. This is where strategic funding knowledge becomes critical.

Looking Forward: Ellie’s Vision

Ellie wants to continue to scale Ellievated Academy and run Mommy to Millionaire again, focusing on helping mommies buy actual tangible assets like properties, multi-family homes, or hotels. Her vision extends beyond individual success to collective wealth building and community ownership.

Ellie emphasizes that “What you need to create a business, you already have,” explaining that “You already have everything you need to start a business thanks to your life and work experiences,” but it’s a matter of finding the right people who need what you have to offer.

Evaluating the Platform: Transparency About Challenges

It’s important to note that, like any educational platform, Ellievated Academy has mixed reviews:

Most positive reviews revolve around business foundations people have learned and news about successfully acquiring funding (usually around $25,000). However, negative reviews express doubt about Ellie Diop’s reputation, with one commenter criticizing basic content of a $20 ebook and another doubting the authenticity of Ellie’s claims.

For an academy that boasts more than 50,000 students and $300,000 to $400,000 in monthly revenue, there’s a lack of external reviews from previous students. Most success stories appear on the academy’s website or in Ellie’s own interviews.

Additionally, all Ellievated Academy courses are non-refundable, and the academy has multiple programs teaching different business models, which can be overwhelming for beginners. Courses range from $20 to $777.

These considerations don’t invalidate Ellie’s success or teaching, but prospective students should research thoroughly before investing.

Conclusion: The Power of Turning Knowledge Into Liberation

Ellie Diop’s story represents something larger than individual success. It’s proof that:

1. Crisis can be catalyst: Being laid off, divorced, and on public assistance didn’t disqualify Ellie it motivated her.
2. You don’t need much to start: $1,200, two ring lights, a Canva subscription, and a domain name were sufficient to build a multi-million dollar business.
3. Your expertise has value: Ellie’s corporate sales experience, combined with her finance and marketing knowledge, became the foundation of a thriving education business.
4. Community matters: By building over 500,000 followers and helping students secure $5+ million in funding, Ellie created a movement, not just a business.
5. The industry is booming: With the coaching market growing from $6.25 billion to a projected $7.3 billion in 2025, business coaching at $20 billion in the U.S., and women starting 49% of new businesses, the conditions for success have never been better.

As Ellie states, “Entrepreneurship changed my life. As a Black woman, mom, and entrepreneur, it is important to me to create ACCESS to these spaces so that people from underserved communities can have the opportunities to start and scale their business as well.”

The business coaching industry is projected to nearly double by 2033. Women’s entrepreneurship is at an all-time high and continuing to accelerate. The online education market is exploding. And at the intersection of all these trends stands Ellie Diop proof that with the right knowledge, determination, and willingness to share your journey, transformation isn’t just possible; it’s probable.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly women and people of color facing systemic barriers to traditional funding and corporate advancement, Ellie Talks Money represents more than education it represents possibility. And in an economy where the coaching industry delivers 7X ROI and women are starting businesses at unprecedented rates, that possibility has never been more real or more valuable.