How Saying Yes Built a Business | Elissa Zylbershlag | Ep04

***She built a mentoring program before she knew it was her business.*** What happens when the thing people keep pulling you aside to do quietly becomes the thing you can't stop building? Elissa Zylbershlag, M.Ed., is the Founder of Work Wise Labs, helping new leaders build the confidence to lead, manage, and hold a room. She's spent 20+ years in professional development, with leadership roles at the Anti-Defamation League, the NJ State Bar Foundation, and the NJ Division on Civil Rights, and she's Certified in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She built her own IP-rich curriculum from scratch and grew her practice from 3 paid programs in 2023 to 7 the next year, all while working full-time. Now she runs monthly public workshops and coaches leaders through the exact confidence gap she's had to close herself. In today's episode, we talked about: • Pricing yourself for the first time, and why **"I don't know what to charge"** isn't a character flaw, it's a rite of passage •  Why every discount should cost the client something too **("that value is the value")** •  The moment she blurted out **a service she hadn't built yet**, and landed a six-month contract anyway • **Bombing a 250-person keynote** after crushing the same room two years earlier, and what that taught her about the difference between a facilitator and a speaker •  Her framework for confidence as a fundraising thermometer: **insecurity first, then the skill, then the stumble, then the win** Pull quotes: "We are all in the same business, and that is the business of making money." "Facilitation is guide on the side. Speaking is sage on the stage." She still doesn't have a will. But she's got a company, a client list, and a keynote she's determined to nail, Toastmasters and all. Resources and links (Elissa Zylbershlag) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elissazylbershlag/ Website: www.workwiselabs.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workwiselabs/ Watch this episode on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/20jKUdIdaQ8 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PuNBpWpZKzCnuwmFQOPI4?si=97a26df7e350478a Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/onlyfounders/id1832541527 Follow Anne Gillaspie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annegillaspie/ Follow Anne Gillaspie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annegillaspie/ Join Coffee Club: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevT9HVr57sn4fFUVpsWpcO-ZMeQKgftrg19tdVXPPrM5xQIQ/viewform Visit our website: https://theannegillaspie.com/  If this conversation resonated with you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with another founder who needs to hear it.