Meet The Coach! Ebony Ellis

Introduce yourself and the nature of your coaching business: 

                My name is Ebony Ellis and I am the Founder of Officially She LLC. My signature program is my membership club, Phenomenally Free. During this 10 month program, I teach women how to create action plans to battle self-limiting beliefs and stop self-defeating behavior through journaling. Membership includes group coaching, themed subscription boxes of tools and treats to help members work through the related topic (received every 60 days) and my guided journals. The journals are designed to help members build a plan to tackle those areas of our lives where our inner critic tends to yell the loudest.  Some topics are Emotional Triggers, Building Boundaries and Sticking to them, Goal Setting and every one's favorite,  Money. ​

What inspired you to become a coach?
                   Two things, my colleagues and my clients: First,  as an attorney, I grew tired of being  one of the few women in the room, oftentimes the only woman of color. So many of my colleagues were hard-working, brilliant women  yet they were overlooked for promotions, sat silently during meetings and never received recognition or even honorable mention as the brains behind revolutionary company changes. Based on my own observations 60% of these women lacked the confidence to speak their truth. Those who had been quite vocal in the past were shut out/alienated because of it. I so desperately wanted to see more women like me in the predominately white male spaces that I started a grass roots think tank to figure out how we could resolve the issue. I couldn't put my finger on it then but I was in fact coaching. 

                  Second, I didn't want clients to depend on me to articulate their wants and needs, I wanted to teach them to be Super Woman for themselves.  I owned and operated a  Divorce  Law Firm, and although I liked the courtroom , I LOVED settlement conferences and mediation sessions. Those were the only two phases during the process where the client's voice mattered more than case legalities. More importantly, Attorneys were usually not allowed in these court ordered sessions; parties had to speak for themselves.  I prepped clients for mediation through what I call futuristic coaching. Futuristic coaching helps those who are struggling imagine their future and fill in the gaps between the present and the future to get there! I found that prepping clients this way rather than on the legal stuff enhanced the possibility of my settlements "sticking."  Clients were better able to defend the agreements in my absence and they were more likely to abide by the Orders because the Agreement was written in their voice reflecting their terms. Due to the inherent time pressures  of litigation, I couldnt spend as much time coaching my clients forward as I would have liked, thus I decided to become a Certified Life Coach. 

What top 2 problems does your coaching solve?
                Self-sabotage and shrinking   Through my 9 step framework,  women learn how to stop playing small and live on their own terms, without alienating others. Phenomenally Free is just one piece of the mindset portion of my framework. Those who choose to go deeper join my Mastermind group, Simply Unstoppable! There we do mindset work, strength discovery and leveraging, external reshaping, assertive communication and more.

Any advice to readers that may be facing those problems right now?
           
               Tip #1:  Focus on developing a "present moment" mindset.  Concentrating on being in the present means you have less time to thinking about the                           uncertainty of the future or the failures of the past. This will decrease anxiety and increase gratitude and confidence to move forward. 

               Tip #2: Use a Journal! Journaling helps to identify negative thinking patterns. Hopefully, readers can join Phenomenally Free to learn how to turn                          those journals into playbooks for frequent use. Membership enrollment closes July 31st but I will extend it until 8/7/2020 for the readers. For those who 
              can't join, should "brain dump" in a journal to prevent mind clutter. Until one learns how to use the journal as an action tool, I wouldn't 
              recommend re-reading journal entries. (You don't want to keep reliving negative moments) The journal should only serve as a release. 

How can readers connect with you online?

            Website:     www.officiallyshe.com
            Instagram: Instagram.com/thee_journal_coach
            Email: info@officiallyshe.com
            Facebook: Officially She