Age: 31
Title/Organization: National Project Management Office Lead, Enterprise Sustainability, Deloitte Consulting
Connection to YWSE: Co-founded YWSE in 1999
Associations/memberships: Social Venture Network; RSF Social Finance (Board); YWSE (National Board)
Hobbies: Yoga, playing guitar, chanting and singing, running, skiing, sailing, international travel, hiking with our dog, cooking/entertaining
Where did you grow up? What's your history? I grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, which is in the Black Hills. Growing up in the natural, pristine beauty of the Black Hills gave me a foundation for loving the earth. I also gained a sense of spiritual connection. It’s a sacred place to many people, including the Lakota Native Americans.
When I was 15, I had a turning point. I read Anita Roddick’s autobiography Body & Soul. She founded the Body Shop. The next year I read Ben and Jerry’s book, Double Dip. I thought, “That’s what I want to do with my life.” It was so compelling to me that you could leverage business for social and environmental good.
What were your experiences after coming to California? I left South Dakota at age 18 to go to Stanford. While at Stanford, I spent the summer of 1997 interning with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which was another pivotal moment. The bank’s founder, Dr. Muhammed Yunus, then won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. While in Bangladesh, I spent five weeks traveling to remote villages to interview 100 women who had received loans from the bank. I asked them about how their lives had changed: Were they now educating their daughters as well as their sons? Did they now have decision-making power in their households? Was there a lower incidence of domestic violence? That research reflected a theme in all the work I have done – leveraging dominant paradigms like money and business for social and environmental progress.
After finishing my undergrad, I worked for RSF Social Finance [the fiscal sponsor of YWSE – Eds]. While there, I founded YWSE in 1999. In 2002, I founded Ellis Group, a consulting and coaching firm that helped companies be more values-based. Then I got my MBA from Stanford in 2006. Since then, I have been at Deloitte and now am the national manager for our sustainability and corporate responsibility services for our clients.
What were some of your challenges in starting your own business, the Ellis Group? First, it was challenging to have clarity of vision and hone in on which services to offer. You can’t market yourself well unless you’re clear and specific about your value. People wanted me to do things that were outside the scope of coaching and consulting. For example, I ended up doing all the ad sales for a special issue of Utne magazine that was on Rudolf Steiner. This was my bread and butter income for six months, but it was not really aligned with the purpose of the business. I had to seek a balance between being focused on my business mission and opportunistic about financial and networking activities that were not obviously tied to my mission.
Second, it was lonely. I didn’t hire people to work for me until more than a year and a half after I had been in business. I’m an extrovert and needed interaction. My advice for extroverted entrepreneurs is to go to YWSE meetings, networking events, and lunches.
Third, I wondered whether I could support myself financially. I’d earn $20,000 one month, and $1200 the next month. I had a fantastic financial coach, Jeromy Johnson, who helped me put together a personal and business budget and an income plan. Having those goals helped me determine my billing rates. I knew I wanted to make $100,000 annually and work 35 hours a week. I set my rates accordingly.
Why did you go to business school, and how has that affected your career? I came to a point with my consulting business where I was working at the executive level with small and medium-sized companies, but had always dreamed of working with Fortune 500’s. Most of my work experience had been with small companies, entrepreneurs, and non-profits. I thought that an MBA from a reputable school would give me more legitimacy as a consultant to Fortune 500 executives.
For people who want to go to a mainstream business school and are interested in social responsibility and environmental sustainability, Stanford is one of the best options, with resources like the Center for Social Innovation. The majority of my classmates had traditional work backgrounds such as investment banking and big firm consulting, so I learned to talk that talk. I loved having class discussions on questions like, should the environment even be considered by publicly-traded companies? Before business school, I had not only been “preaching to the choir,” but also hanging out only with the choir.
Do you recommend social entrepreneurs seek out interaction with traditional business people? It’s really useful to “hang out with the choir” when ideas are in the gestation phase. After that, it only strengthens ideas to get different perspectives. I think most of us have people who aren’t “in the choir” in our lives, whether it’s family, your local Chamber of Commerce, or classmates or friends who have taken a different career path.
Who do you admire – either famous people or those close to you? Anita Roddick has been and continues to be a key inspiration. She was a pioneer in the field of socially responsible business; she set standards and did things in a way that they had never been done before. She was an activist and a businesswoman, as I strive to be.
My father, Dave Ellis, is one of my best friends and an inspiring businessman, teacher, and philanthropist. As I wrote about in “Being-Based Business” in Building an Extraordinary Business: Successful Strategies for Growing Your Business From the Worlds’ Premier Business Coaches, the publishing company he ran was values-based. They had hug breaks instead of coffee breaks and total transparency around finances, salaries, and performance evaluations. Fourteen years after starting the business, he sold it to Houghton Mifflin. He took the majority of the money from the sale and put it into philanthropic work. He lives on about one-fourth of his income and gives away over half. Talk about leveraging resources for change!
Lynne Twist, who wrote Soul of Money, is another important mentor who encouraged me to go to Bangladesh. I admire her as a woman who has had a lot of influence with a different style than Anita’s. Anita’s style is fiery; Lynne’s style is tender.
Finally, my mom, Karen Ellis Hearne, has been a guiding light who taught me unconditional love. She is an elementary school teacher serving low-income neighborhoods with children who are abused or living month-to-month in motel rooms. For the first twenty years of her career, she taught primarily Native American children, some of whom missed months of the school year as they moved on and off the Pine Ridge Reservation. She has an amazing ability to love and nurture children. As I’m about to become a mother, I feel one of the biggest ways we can make a difference in the world is to teach children they can do anything, as she taught me.
What do you envision for your work and life in the future? My career in my 30’s will probably look a lot like it does now, and I will devote much of my energy to having two children and building a family with my husband, Rob. My position at Deloitte is a great fit for being a mom and helping corporations be more socially and environmentally responsible.
In my 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, my dream – and I encourage everyone to dream ambitiously – is to become a thought leader in this space of leveraging the power of business for social and environmental change. I hope to do a lot of public speaking and maybe write a book, and just be a source of guidance and inspiration for leaders in business to see that there’s a better way for us to do conduct business, a way that reflects our love for all beings and creates a world that works for everyone.
What does being a certified Falling Awake coach help you be more mindful of? I try to be really conscious in my conversations to balance speaking about the past, present, and future. For me the most pleasure happens in the present. I’m also hugely nostalgic and love the past. And social change, vision, and ideas for new organizations happen when we’re thinking about the future.
I’ve also noticed a difference between talking about things (the least intimate), people and loved ones (more intimate), sharing about ourselves, and talking about our relationships (the most intimate). Talking with someone about my relationship with them can be scary but is always satisfying; I find those conservations lead to insights and closeness.
How has YWSE helped you in your growth? While we were building the organization, YWSE was a safe place to practice the things I wanted to learn. I learned how to facilitate from facilitating our board and member meetings. I learned a lot about public speaking. YWSE gave me the opportunity to lead and practice leading, and I hope that’s what it can be for our board and other members. If you want to learn finances, be in charge of the budget. If you want to learn about body image, create a workshop around positive body image. Teaching is a way to learn something for ourselves.
You mentioned that when you worked for yourself, your goal was to limit your work to 35 hours a week. How do you achieve balance in your life? It hasn’t come easily for me at all, and I’ve struggled with it since high school. Some practical solutions are scheduling appointments with myself for yoga and weekly dates with my husband. Like most things, it’s also a matter of practice. I’ll make a commitment and practice, practice, fail, practice, and then do a little better. I wanted a daily yoga practice, and that was a goal for 5 years before I made it a reality.
I also have a list of the 100 most important people in my life. When things are busy I don’t respond to emails from people not on that list. That broke my heart for a while, but it allows me to have time for the people I love, including myself.
Do you have advice for young women in the YWSE network who are social entrepreneurs or aspiring to be? First, surround yourself with people who will ask you about your vision and affirm it. Hang out with people will propel your vision, people who say, “You can totally do that, and here’s someone who can help you make it happen... I can envision what the world will be like once you’ve accomplished that!” I hope the YWSE network can be that for members.
I’ve given myself the gift of an hour of life coaching weekly every year of my life since 1997. I need someone who asks “What do you want?” and says, “Yes, you can have it.” A life coach listens another person’s brilliance into existence.
Second, take really good care of yourself. We are more productive when our cup is full. Fill your cup up and let it overflow, rather than pouring from a cup that is depleted. It is a legitimate work activity to go to yoga class or have an inspiring conversation. Self-care has got to be number one on the list. Then we can truly give from that place of self-fulfillment.
Third, remember that the world needs young women to pursue their dreams. The women I know have the types of dreams that will make the world better. I want women to have the confidence and courage to pursue their dreams and passions. On that topic, I’ll offer one of my favorite quotes:
“Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman (1900-1981), minister, educator, civil rights leader
Download FacesYWSE-SaraEllisConant2008.pdf
Interview on February 13, 2008, by Jeana Zelan and Emily Sadigh, Board Members, YWSE-SF
