Funding Dreams with The Elleiance Network

Welcome back to Proof It's Possible! In this conversation, Dayle and Erin Sisko discuss the creation and growth of The Elleiance Network, a community for women entrepreneurs in Canada. Erin shares her journey from corporate life to founding the network, emphasizing the importance of relationship building over traditional networking. They explore themes of overcoming imposter syndrome, the significance of collaboration among women, and the launch of the Capital Elle Business Impact Award aimed at supporting women in underfunded industries. The discussion concludes with actionable advice for listeners to connect and collaborate with others in their network. Tune in to discover: 

• Why taking action is essential for overcoming self-doubt
• Why networking should be reframed as relationship building
• Where you can find The Elleiance Network, a community for Canadian female entrepreneurs, in the Canadian city nearest you, or how to bring it to your city
• How The Elleiance Network's Capital Elle Business Impact Award is impacting female entrepreneurs across Canada
• How to apply or nominate someone for The Elleiance Network's Capital Elle Business Impact Award

Which female entrepreneur would you nominate for the Capital Elle Business Impact Award? Share your thoughts with us — we’d love to hear! DM us on Instagram @dayle_sheehan_designs & @jamiedfrancis! See you next time!

This episode is sponsored by our Ultimate Girls Trip! Be sure to go to www.proofitspossible.com for more info. 

Where to find the Elleiance Network:

Instagram

Elleiance Network Website

Apply or Nominate Someone for the Capital Elle Business Impact Award. Applications close on October 28th. 

For More Information:
• Proof It's Possible Website
• The Ultimate Girls Trip Instagram

Dayle:
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Website
• Interior Design

Jamie:
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Website

Transcript

Dayle (00:31)
Welcome back. am so, so, so excited to have the brilliant Erin Cisco from the, she's the founder of the Elleiance Network and the Elleiance Network we'll jump into. But the Elleiance Network basically is a nationwide group of entrepreneurial women who mastermind together. And I'll let Erin kind of explain it cause it's her baby and it's brilliant.

Erin Sisko (00:57)
Hi, thank you.

Dayle (00:57)
Hi, Erin, how are you?

Can you tell us a little bit about Elleiance Network just so that everybody knows what that is?

Erin Sisko (01:05)
Of course, the Elleiance Network is a business mastermind community for Canadian women entrepreneurs.

Dayle (01:14)
Amazing. And so tell us about the moment in your life that made you realize that this network needed to exist.

Erin Sisko (01:21)
sure. So that is going back quite a few years. And I actually feel like I don't have the traditional story of I built this because I was building a business and I felt lonely. I built this because I was working in a corporate job. And I got appointed a role which was called the ambassador for women entrepreneurs in Ontario. And

that got me speaking to more and more women tasked to find out what they found their biggest challenge was in growing their business. And what was interesting to me was every single woman that I talked to and asked that question to, which was about 20 women at the time, said somewhere in their answer, making the right connections was one of their biggest challenges. So

At the time, I was a corporate gal and I identified very closely to that and I always worked hard and did exactly what I was supposed to do. So I really wanted to figure out a way to address and help that. So I did some Googling and some brainstorming and I went back to all the women about three months later and said, if I start a group, would you come? And...

Sure enough, I had 10 women around a table on October of 2019. And I had set an agenda and said, why don't we meet once a month and talk about business and support each other and I'll set the agenda and we'll see what happens. So that was really how it got started. It was just me really wanting to help my clients at the time. And one powerful thing that happened at that meeting

which did lead me to believe that I might be onto something is every first meeting, there's always some introductions that happen. Everyone introduces themselves and talks with their story around the table. And I had this one woman that had showed up to this meeting and she was transitioning out of her business. She had been building her businesses for about 40 years and was transitioning them over to her three sons.

and they were in the automotive industry, like multi-million dollar dealerships. So I was really like a little bit intimidated actually to have her at my table because she was very successful and she's introducing herself. And after she's done her introduction, she looks at me and she says, thank you so much for creating this table. I've never been invited to anything like this before. And I will never forget that moment because

Dayle (03:51)
Really.

Erin Sisko (03:56)
I was full of imposter syndrome being there leading this first meeting, feeling completely out of my element. And to have this woman not only show up, but then give me that feedback, I was just in awe. Like I was like, maybe I'm onto something here. Maybe this isn't happening as often as I think it is, you know?

Dayle (03:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's amazing, for sure.

Definitely. Well, and speaking of imposter syndrome, you know, I think everybody that wants to step into something new or different, whether it's from corporate to an entrepreneurial role, or they have a dream in their mind to have some sort of a business or whatever it looks like or change their business. I do think that it it's part of the process. None of us actually feel like we're ever ready because the thing is, until we do something, we don't know how to do it.

You know, we can learn about it, we can read about it, we can think about it. We can make notes forever in our journals about it. But the fact of it is, is that it takes like an invisible self belief that it'll all work out. And then it also takes day after day after day consistency. But truthfully, like what do you think is the difference? And now that you've met all of these women throughout all these years of hosting these events, what do you...

Think is the difference between a successful entrepreneur and a non-successful entrepreneur.

Erin Sisko (05:13)
Yeah, I think that what you just said is related to it. What I've done, it's been four years this month of me doing this full time and I've done a ton of work on myself and my mindset. And now I would say that it's just taking action every single day, even when you're scared, even when it feels uncomfortable.

When you don't know what to do, just reach out to one person. If you're not sure of the next step, that is the next step. Just do that. One person, then make it another person. Reply to the email, say yes to the thing. Action is what continuously breeds opportunity.

And it's only when you stay still and frozen and unsure that we kind of get stuck in our heads and we can get on a little bit of a spiral that we're not good enough, that we don't know what we're doing. Who do we think we are? All the self-talk that goes on a loop in our brain. So how I quiet that voice is when I am taking forward moving action,

Dayle (06:24)
Mm-hmm.

Erin Sisko (06:24)
It

seems to trump, like the thought process of moving forward and doing the thing and trying to figure that out and doing it the right way seems to push the voice that's telling me, like, who do you think you are, Erin? It makes it quieter and pushes it a little bit more in the backseat, which then gives me just enough courage to do the thing. And now I am, you know, I find it exciting because it's that

space of potentiality that if I reach out to you, for example, and invite you into a conversation with me, and you might say yes, and if you do, then where could that go? Could I land on your podcast one day speaking to a platform that you've created? You know, like, it's so much potential out there. And the only way that we are able to access that is by

Dayle (07:00)
Hmm.

Erin Sisko (07:19)
keeping to move forward and doing things, even if it's super tiny, just do the thing.

Dayle (07:24)
For sure.

What would you say, like, what do you think people often get wrong about networking? If they're not in the habit of it, I know it feels intimidating, I know it feels scary to just show up to an event and be alone and not know anybody. What would be the thing that you would say, especially for women, about networking and getting yourself there? What is the misconceptions that, you know, after all of these different networking events you've put on and you've become

a guru in. What do you think that we're what story are we making up that isn't actually true?

Erin Sisko (07:57)
Yeah, lots of stories. And I think that especially for women, but really for all people, we need to maybe remove the term networking and replace it with the term relationship building. And I think for women, relationship building is one of our superpowers and it's something that we naturally love to do. So

Dayle (08:20)
Yes.

Yes.

Erin Sisko (08:25)
Once that reframe happens in our mind, then showing up in a room thinking to yourself, all that I need to do is to build one meaningful relationship today. And I love making meaningful relationships with like-minded people. That's like no sales pitch, no business card exchange, just genuine conversation with one interesting person.

I think that then that takes all the fear and the ick factor away from it because it's just you and I sitting down together or standing around a cocktail bar and me asking you your name, what you're working on, what's going on, you know, and just like listening. Just listening. Like there's nothing else to do but build a relationship with you at this point.

Dayle (09:09)
What you're excited about exactly, for sure.

For sure. And the pressure isn't real. Like I also think that the misconception with networking is that you'll everybody once you get there will already know each other. They'll be good at this. We're not as good at it. And so going and just kind of fumbling our way through these events isn't, you know, going to show well for our business or things like that. And that's what I think is like a really big misconception is that everyone feels a little bit uncomfortable.

to show up to any room, whether it's a big room, a small room. You know, when you think, well, small rooms easier because it's like not as many people, but it might be more intimate. It might be more one on one conversations. Whereas a big conference where there's people just listening all day, you know, you might not actually talk to anybody as much and it might be less of a networking opportunity, even though there's a ton of people there. So I do think that we all have the exact same nervousness around the networking space and

Erin Sisko (10:03)
Mm-hmm.

Dayle (10:11)
I love, love, love that you have created a place that and now expanded it. So tell us where your branches are and where people can take part like locally if they live in those areas and what are the opportunities for online if they don't live in those areas.

Erin Sisko (10:27)
Okay, so yes, the Elleiance Network is growing across Canada, literally city by city by city. So we are now in 12 Canadian cities and I'm gonna try to remember them all. So from west to east and check the website to double check my memory here. ⁓ So farthest west, Langley, BC. Alberta is actually our most booming

Dayle (10:44)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Erin Sisko (10:53)
province. So yay Alberta. We have Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Cochrane, Calgary, and I'm hoping Edmonton soon. ⁓ Maybe actually also Grand Prairie soon as well. Okay then we jump over to Ontario where I am in Thunder Bay. There's one in North Bay, Huntsville, Ottawa.

Dayle (11:04)
awesome.

Very good. Awesome.

Erin Sisko (11:19)
And then in the East Coast, there is Dartmouth, Moncton, and PEI.

Dayle (11:25)
Amazing. And are you looking for people to open new branches in cities that don't have them yet? Awesome.

Erin Sisko (11:32)
Yes, so

if that, if being a mastermind facilitator interests you and you did not hear your city mentioned, we have a very big goal of being in 5,000 Canadian cities having at least one in-person mastermind group. So this is all brand new within the last nine months or so and I'm just so excited to keep chugging along on this.

Dayle (11:58)
Amazing. All right. So part of your story that we haven't really touched on was that while you worked in corporate, you worked for a banking bank, correct? And part of the stories that you kept hearing over and over and over again were that women felt like they couldn't get the funding they needed to grow. So they would get a great business. They would work hard at it, but then they would want the funding opportunities to maybe grow it and staff it and do it differently.

So you decided, and I'll let you talk more to this, but to create the award. It's a funding award and it is for women, female entrepreneurs, correct? Yeah. And so tell us a little bit about that and how people can like get involved and apply for it, because it is live right now. So we need all the details, please.

Erin Sisko (12:46)
Okay, yes, so actually when I was working for the bank, I realized about seven years in, it took me a long time for this realization to land, but I realized that I was actually only doing business with men and I got really curious and determined to figure out why. So that was also a part of my story and took me on a journey that probably led me exactly where I am today.

So when I left the bank to run the Elleiance Network full time, I always knew I wanted to integrate in a funding aspect because I had lived so long in that space and it was in my blood. So in 2024, I launched the Capital Elle Business Impact Award. So this is now year two. In 2025, we have 3x'd every component of this award. So

along the Elleiance Network, along with 30 partners coast to coast, are offering a $50,000 prize package that is for Canadian women entrepreneurs. And specifically this year, we are funding the unfundables, which that means that we are specifically looking to support women who operate in the three least funded industries in Canada.

Dayle (13:51)
Wow.

Erin Sisko (14:10)
and those are social impact, service, and creative industries. And yeah, we're looking to bridge a gap in this area, help women feel worthy, seen, valued, have their business model on a funding application, and just represent this large and growing sector of the economy.

Dayle (14:36)
Yeah.

Erin Sisko (14:38)
you know, on the face of entrepreneurship is drastically changing from what it was 50 years ago when it was very inventory heavy, brick and mortar heavy tractor heavy, know, like we're in a different type of data AI economy. And I do see a gap between funding frameworks in Canada and where business is going. So I'm excited to.

Dayle (14:49)
Yep.

amazing.

Erin Sisko (15:06)
open up that conversation and provide a solution.

Dayle (15:11)
And where can people go to apply?

Erin Sisko (15:14)
So right on the website, elleiance.ca, you will see big buttons everywhere that says apply for the 2025 award. And I just need to add that a really exciting component that we added to the award this year is a button to apply and right beside it is a big button to nominate. So I really want to encourage that if this award is, you don't see yourself represented in this award for whatever reason,

Dayle (15:35)
to have. This is great.

Erin Sisko (15:44)
Or if you do, it literally, we have designed the nomination process. It's literally a five second thing to nominate someone who you think is amazing. It lands in their inbox. It literally brightens their whole week to know that somebody thought about them and nominated them for this award. And it's just the most generous collaborative thing that you can do. So I really encourage you to nominate somebody as well.

Dayle (15:58)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Amazing. Okay, I want to do a quick little rapid fire to kind of end off our chat. So question one, how can women collaborate instead of compete in business?

Erin Sisko (16:23)
Yeah, that's my favorite topic actually. So how they can do it is just being super open to all of the opportunities around them. What I need women to understand is collaboration is actually the new growth currency. We have been fed a lie.

forever and ever and ever that there's only so much pie to go around and you need to take down that person beside you in order to get your piece of the pie. And that is a bold myth and a bold lie. And actually what is real is the more that we work together and shout out our partners and our competitors even from the rooftops.

the more business floods in your way. So I just encourage you to even just dabble in that and try it. And I will let me know how it works for you because it has transformed every single aspect of my business when I work with other like-minded women that are very values aligned to myself. ⁓ Yeah, that's what I want to say about that.

Dayle (17:33)
Absolutely.

One word to describe the women in your network.

Erin Sisko (17:39)
think the word that comes up, there's so many, but I want to use the word bold today.

Dayle (17:44)
Yeah, I agree. Coffee, date or boardroom meeting for you.

Erin Sisko (17:49)
I do like both, but I'm going to choose coffee.

Dayle (17:53)
Amazing, me too. The best piece of advice you've heard from another woman in business.

Erin Sisko (17:57)
well...

I'm going to choose this one. Become wildly passionate about something. And if you aren't sure what you want to be wildly passionate about, if something is not like beating on your heart like crazy and it's not super clear, then become wildly passionate about yourself and developing yourself.

and becoming the best version of yourself that you could possibly be. And just trust that through that process, all of the answers that you need will come to you and you'll be well on your way.

Dayle (18:31)
I agree and that mirrors my personal story so much. Until I could feel like I was physically healthy and on the right track with my health and my insides, I couldn't be great at my job. I couldn't step into my interior design business. So I totally agree with that. What is your big dream for this network in the next five years?

Erin Sisko (18:53)
Well, I mentioned live in-person Elleiance masterminding in 5,000 Canadian cities. If I could do that in five years, then let's go. Let's do it.

Dayle (19:02)
amazing.

Yeah,

absolutely. Let's go. Okay, if every woman listening took one small step away today, what would you want it to be?

Erin Sisko (19:16)
I would want it to be that today you take five minutes and you reach out to another person in your network that you really admire, that inspires you, that something about them is leading you to know that you need to connect with them. Reach out to them, send them an email, send them a DM, tell them that they inspire you and why, and ask if they would be willing to have

Like you can buy them a coffee, whether that's local or virtual, and learn more about their story. That's it. No sales pitch. You are inspired by them and you want to learn more about their story. And I promise you that that is the start of magic happening.

Dayle (20:03)
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us. You guys, if the award feels like it is something that will push your business further, you have to go apply for it. It is such a game changer for the women that have applied and won in the past. And why not you? Why is your business not the one that could win? So I hope that you'll all go immediately after watching this and apply for the award. And that is

Elleiance, E-L-L, not alliance, just so that dot C-A, right? Elleiance, for everybody listening. And we'll have that link in the show notes. So have a great day and thank you, Erin, for being with us.

Erin Sisko (20:34)
Yes. Yes.

Thank you.