Natalie Ellis
Appearances
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
You know what I've been thinking about lately is obviously just had a baby two years ago and have been in my own postpartum health journey, which is before I had a baby, I found it really easy to work out and be healthy and like do all the research. And I had more time than I have now. But since having a baby, I've realized for me, wellness is very much It's mental health.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
This exists. I just got pitched on this.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah. I just got a company reach out to me pitching me. That's all they do is social media insurance on your account and they'll pay you out. Oh, let me find it. There's actually, when I looked into it, even the company that we currently work with for business insurance now offers this. It's wild. Let me find, see if I can find it in my inbox. Like it blew my mind that this was a thing.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Get-notch.com slash Instagram. But it's insurance for digital assets. So it says, this is for influencers and shop owners to coaches and artists. Insurance for digital assets is essential for anyone who relies on web for their content and their income. So they will literally insure your Instagram, your YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, NFTs, soon to be Twitter. Yeah. It's genius.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
That's really smart. You feel like they would just fully focus in on that.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah, no one wants that.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah. Okay. Good call. I like that. I like that idea of having sub-brands actually. And just like feeling, even if it's the same company, but feeling like they know exactly what they're doing. They understand it inside out. Because you're right as well. Most people do go heavy on one platform specifically.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
So that makes total sense. I also feel like I wonder if people would ever ensure email lists. Cause that's also such a panic for people. What would happen if I ever lost my email list? Oh my God. Like do they, would they ensure email lists?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I mean, it changes all the time. It's around 400,000 now, but I had a situation last year, last October, I had this cold DM. I mean, we're talking how they can be good. This one went kind of South. So it was a cold email and they were talking, they were on my email list and they feel like we could boost our open rates. Our open rates were about 32% could boost our open rates, click-through rates.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
It's your physical health. It's everything all in one. And I've been daydreaming about starting this company that's specific. Like I love a niche. I feel like I love a niche that's specifically for pregnant or postpartum women to come and just take every single box. when it comes to health and make it so easy for them.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And I dug into this company and I actually knew the founder. Not super close, but knew the founder, had mutual friends. And I thought, yeah, let's give this a shot. Anyway, they came in. And what they actually did in our account got us blacklisted with Google. So our email open rates went from 32% to pretty much nothing. Like we were getting barely anyone opening the email list.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And overnight, I was worried my entire business had just like went to shit. And we had to go through a whole process of resurrecting it. And that was a whole thing. But in that moment, to have insurance on your email list would have been golden. And also having someone Like having an insurance company like that, you could reach out to and say, okay, I've lost my entire email.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
This has been blacklisted. What am I going to do? Like they would probably have steps to recover. I felt like there was nobody could help me. I was getting different advice from everyone. And most people are like, you know, this is just a process. I eventually did figure out how to do it, but it was a nightmare.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And I would pay for insurance to have someone to like call in an emergency situation to just resurrect things.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
That is a genius idea. Wait, how do you do this podcast and not go start new businesses? How do you
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
That is actually a genius idea though, because I would have absolutely, and Beehive, by the way, were the only people that helped me resurrect my list of anyone.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah. So it was costing me, um, I was spending 50,000 a year on a different platform. And when this happened, I couldn't get in touch with anybody. And I've been with them. I've had a big email list for a really, really long time, like eight years maybe. And way before it was cool. And I couldn't get in contact with them. They kept sending me to live chat. People kept saying they couldn't help me.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Like I would love when I was pregnant for someone to just give me this, all the list of like the mineral testing that I should be doing, the gut testing, the blood work, and then have one person read the MRI, like have one person read all the information and then give me a full plan based on that. Cause I'm so used to going to different people for different things.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I was asking for a phone number. No one would help me. And I reached out to Beehive. I was like, please, can somebody help me? Like, I have this list. I don't know what to do. They got on a call with me right away. And we're like, okay, let's talk this through. And it was the most help that I've had. And we switched to them.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
We went from spending that much money to spending 10K a year or something like that. And it's been the best experience ever. And just instantly they helped me. Like I'd actually felt like someone cared enough to like help me solve the problem. But that blows my mind when you can be a client for so long and spend so much money with someone and you can't even get them on the phone.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Like that's the easiest way to lose business. And that company keeps losing more and more business to platforms like Beehive.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
it's worth so much when your whole business is wrapped up in your email list which most businesses should versus social you have to have someone that can support you we need to do this idea that and I also discovered something during this process of how to resurrect your email which I don't really want to share right now but if anyone's like in the in the situation they can message me
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
But I learned a lot and I feel like an insurance company could totally charge for that information because it's very niche information. Like you Google it and you're not going to learn how to get off a Google blacklist unless you're like sending, you know, to a very small segment of your list over and over and over again.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
The company that we initially worked with, they charged us 20K for consulting. They couldn't solve the problem. They were like, yeah, it's probably going to be three months and we'll just start by... sending emails to a couple of thousand. And I was like, this doesn't work for me. I can't have my whole business stop for three months. So, yeah.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah. That's not going to work for me. I need a solution tomorrow. I need to. And I had partners. I had to cancel partnerships, sponsors, because I wasn't going to put it out and then have no one open it. So it impacts so much of your business. Let's say you have... So we have sponsors locked in for 12 months at a time. You should be able to give that info to your insurance company.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Or I do feel like a lot of the companies out there that do this are very masculine and male focused and are like fast, cold planche, like all the things, which is great, but not necessarily what you want when you're in like that stage of your life. So that's one idea that I have that I just wish someone would run with.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
That's so smart. I even think too about like shoulder a cry on businesses like when your ads account gets shut down and your whole business relies on ads. Like there's so many of these little spaces where business owners need shoulders to cry on.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah, give me an idea.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I feel like you could make it really high ticket, like make it expensive, put together these packages that, you know, you sell to fewer people, but you just give the best service and really take care of women and like take that one thing that's in their mind, like completely off their plate.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah, I could totally see that. I feel like too, it would be really great to have someone that you can come to or like AI that you can come to and say, give me, just lay out all my options. Cause I sometimes feel like with financial advisor, you kind of, the quality of that advice you get is the quality of the questions that you ask. But I often don't know the kind of questions that I want to ask.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And so I could see someone in AI coming and like laying out all your different options and playing out all the different scenarios for you and you deciding which one you want to go into. Because if you're someone like me who doesn't know, I just fully trust my financial advisor. I don't really know the kind of questions to ask. I'm like, take care of my money and help me make more.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
But I would love to have that more laid out for me. But I also could see that working generally in the business space. Like I'm not from America. So having a company here, I find really confusing. Like setting up your company and then the different reports you've got to file every year and then all the tax returns and all the... There's so many things.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
It would be so great to have an AI that just is on top of all of this stuff and comes to you and says, okay, we need to file this report now. There's so many different things like that for every different country as well.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And if you're running a company in multiple countries, it'd be so good to have an AI that just scours all of the different laws and different things you need to do and brings it to you.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I like this a lot because there's so and even when we're talking about like the social media insurance piece, just having this AI that just sends you these things. Have you thought about insuring XYZ? Have you thought about like there's so many things that you have to think about when you are a business owner or you own property or you have money that you want to invest?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
There's so many things to just have it distilled like that. I think would be genius. Like it's almost just like a family office AI.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
yeah explain you know talk more about that okay so i just feel like family offices are great if you hit it if you hit a certain wealth threshold but there's a lot of people that maybe don't meet the threshold that actually still need a lot of the support like have businesses have property have some money that they want to invest um just have a lot of moving parts in their life.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And it would be so great to have one agent, one AI, one person, thing, robot responsible for just keeping everything in check. Have you paid your property tax? Have you... maxed out your 401k? Have you submitted your workforce report? All of those different things.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And maybe you come to the AI and there's a detailed questionnaire and you fill it out with all of your different things that you have going on in life. And then everything just gets Like every month, maybe January, the stuff to do, February, the stuff to do. And you can input all. And I could honestly see it going, like I'm a granular person.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I could see it being like a whole manual of being able to run your life and business for you with all the details. Like even as detailed as like, here's if you own three properties, here's how often you have to change the air conditioning unit. Here's how often you need to do X, Y, Z. Like the mental load of having stuff or running things is so high.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
If you could have AI take that mental load, I think people would be willing to really pay for that.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I don't know. I think it's probably a sliding scale based on the net worth of their businesses and property. Like, you know, I, as we start owning more and more property, I just realized the mental load gets bigger and bigger. So I'd probably pay more and more per month to, to manage more things.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
So I could like, you know, when you sign up for a newsletter and you like slide the scale to say how many subscribers you have, and it gives you a price almost, you could slide the scale to say like, here's what my property and businesses is all worth. And then it gives you a monthly fee.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah. And if you can sell peace of mind, you're going to be very wealthy, I feel like.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah, and convenience. And yeah, I think the mental load just continues to get bigger and bigger every year. And if you could just take that mental load off and give it to an AI, and you probably get a report every week and then things that you need to do. And it's just like, you know, okay, I'm not getting sent to jail because I forgot to do my tax return or my house isn't going to...
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Johanna, it's Y-O-H-A-N-A and it's the personal assistant app for parents. So it's this app. They call it the ultimate parenting hack. And basically the goal of Johanna is to take the mental load of parenting off of you.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
So like some of the things that they do is plan date nights, hire a handyman, plan birthday parties, book appointments, weekly meal planning, order costumes, maintain the car, cleaning service.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
babysitters like the mental load of parenting basically they handle and they use AI and then they also have real people which I feel like they'll probably switch to AI fully AI in the near future um I think it's kind of like this it's Johanna but for like family office or like the the different areas of your life but basically they're selling peace of mind for parents because as a parent there's like always so much shit to do there's like always a holiday coming up there's always a birthday coming up there's always
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah. I could totally see that. Like they text and it's like, here's the specific things you want to focus on this week. And it's just done. And you could maybe even text them back to get more specific advice. Like I'm having issues with this. I'm having issues with my milk supply.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I feel like it could be like a Johanna for entrepreneurs, Johanna for property. Like there's so many different verticals you could go into with this. And it's the same business model, but if I was going to do this and use AI, I would probably go for more of like a higher priced service, like a very white glove.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
But I feel like the way Johanna's doing it, it's just very affordable and approachable, which is also amazing for parents. Yeah.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Wait, I don't know that I could do this as often as you do. I want to go and start so many new businesses right now.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I feel like I don't have the willpower to talk about ideas this often.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Do you ever get people listening to the show and then writing and saying, oh, my God, took this idea, ended up starting it. Here's where I'm at.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
That makes sense. I love it. So fun.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
The best place is my podcast. You can just search for the Boss Lady podcast. We release twice a week.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I'm like, cause there's so like, I remember when I was postpartum, there was so many supplements I couldn't take, but then you can't just like call your doctor every single time. Can I take this? Can I take this? It's like having someone that you can just ask those questions to. I feel like people would pay so much money to have that solved for them.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
think if I was to do this what I would do is put together like a very detailed package and a very detailed person and I would just do direct reach out like actually email the person something like very compelling direct response like here's exactly what I'm going to do for you And just directly reach out to people, get them on calls and sell them in.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I would probably also do it for free to a bunch of influencers who have audiences of the women I'm going after. Like looking for influencers who have audience of women who are pregnant or newly postpartum and actually are looking to pay for a service like this. But when I started CEO Mama, which is a mastermind for seven to nine figure mom entrepreneurs, this was my approach.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah. And if you can sell peace of mind, you're going to be very wealthy, I feel like.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I literally wrote down in my notes app, all of the women that would be a dream to have in. And I just reached out to them one by one. And it was so easy. Like they were like, this solves my problem. I sent like a seven minute loom video. They were like, this solves all my problems. Sign me up.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
So I feel like I'd probably just do more of a sales approach than an audience approach with this one and really get that product market fit. Because I feel like people are going to come back and say, well, does it include this? Does it include this? I'm looking for this. And you can like tailor what you're offering.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
But I feel like you could get to seven figures so fast just doing that with no audience at all. And then if you wanted to build an audience, you totally could. But I feel like I probably wouldn't. Would you?
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I don't think you need it. I will say it's definitely been an advantage for me, but I received this email from someone about a month ago and she is a stylist and she sent me this email and I've never heard of her before. And she was like, hi, I'm getting back into business after taking the last decade off to have babies. I was a stylist. I'm getting back into it. It's just open very honestly.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
She's like, I went ahead and pulled 10 looks for you that I think you'd absolutely love. I've linked all the looks in the PDF. You don't even have to reply to this if you don't want, just go ahead and buy the outfits if you love it. If you do like it and you'd want to work in a more formal way, let me know.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
So I opened this, it was like this PDF made in Canva and it was 10 looks pulled for Natalie Ellis. Here's Natalie's style summed up and then it was 10 outfits on 10 different pages with all the links. And I went through, I absolutely loved it. And I got back to her and I was like, okay, I want to work more formally with you.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And I've just spent, I think I've spent maybe $2,500 with her to have her pull all my looks virtually. I'd never heard of her before, but I feel like she reached out with such a personalized approach. She doesn't have an audience or anything like that, but she just puts so much time and effort into it. It like really caught my attention.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
So I could see if you didn't have the social capital, doing something like that could actually really work.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah, when someone reaches out and they directly solve your problem in the most convenient way, you're like, yes, please, I'll totally sign up. And I feel like you could do that with this idea or similar spaces if you don't have the audience and you are like, okay, my revenue goal is this. I would just do more of that.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
But it's like, I also feel like, and this might upset people, but I feel like sometimes people are not willing to go the extra mile and they like just put out the most basic shit and expect it to work. Like I'm hiring right now. And some of the applications I get in, I'm like, on what planet do you feel like this is a good application? Oh, I get some people reaching out, selling me stuff in my DMs.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And it's such a generic copy paste. I just think if you just went the extra mile, there's so few people willing to do that, you're going to stand out. And I think that's the approach you need to have, especially in the startup phase of a business.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
How can I go the extra mile to really dial in my offer, make it completely irresistible, maybe do some of the things that aren't scalable, but it's going to attract the right people to me. It's going to give me feedback on my product and then you can scale that way. But I don't feel like a lot of people are willing to go the extra mile or I don't see it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I'm excited about this. I love getting a chance to talk ideas. I always daydream about starting other businesses when I should not be starting any more businesses. So this is a perfect excuse.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
you know hire it when you're when you apply for a job it's the same thing as as you're selling yourself ultimately right so and sometimes we'll have people complete um test projects and i've even had like i have them complete the test project and put it into the application have some responses saying i don't work for free like well you're not working at all bye-bye mic drop that's so good
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Oh my goodness. It drives me insane. But yeah, it's like taking that approach. Like I feel like every successful entrepreneur that you speak to has, and probably is still willing to just fully roll their sleeves up and do the things most people aren't willing to do.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And, you know, spend the time on a proposal that might not even get a response, but know that the work you're putting out, you're really proud of, and you can see where this is going. And I think you have to be willing to do that with any idea. And then you can pivot. You'll get great data, but yeah. I don't think it's hard to go the extra mile.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I don't think it's hard to do something incredible because most people won't do it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Do you ever think about that? If you want to start from scratch right now, like, yes, people can say, you know, the job market saturated or the entrepreneurship space is saturated. This industry is saturated. Whenever I'm looking at starting again from scratch, I actually feel like I'm so well positioned to start again because I'm just willing to do those things.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
I'm willing to think about, does my background look decent? You know, am I willing to prep for this call? I'm just willing to do those things. And I feel like if you go into anything, applying for jobs, startup ideas, anything with just this attitude of expectation, you're just not going to get there.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
And I know that's harsh to say, but I also don't think this Gen Z movement, the quiet quitting, all that stuff, I don't think that's really setting people up for success at all. I have strong opinions on all of that.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
If that doesn't sum up this conversation, I don't know what is.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah, it really does still work. It's not such, I don't feel like And I'm still a big advocate of building audience on social. I don't think it's too saturated. I just think it's the way that you approach it.
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
If you're going to approach it trying to do the same thing that everyone else is doing and have this low effort approach, I don't think you're going to get the results that you're looking for. So yeah, across the board. What are some of your startup ideas lately? They're like, oh, let me consult my...
The Startup Ideas Podcast
Peace of mind business ideas (and why they print cash)
Yeah, I have loads. Tell me why you want me to start.