Author Chloe Elise goes deeper than money with The Pitch Questionnaire

Chloe Elise of Deeper Than Money // Photo by Joelle Elizabeth Photography

Girl dinner, meet girl finances. According to Chloe Elise of Deeper Than Money, girl finances include having a high-yield savings account, ditching shame, and building a holistic spending plan that aligns with your unique values.

In the process of paying off $36k of debt at age 19, a passion was unearthed. Old-school restrictive financial advice was not working for Chloe, so as she paved her own way–free of shame, full of Starbucks–she couldn’t help but share the effective new mindset and strategies she had cultivated. Chloe founded Deeper Than Money (DTM), a financial literacy company, from her Kansas City apartment in 2018. 

Fast forward to age 28, DTM now includes a podcast, virtual courses, free workshops, informative social channels, and the newest development: a book. Deeper Than Money released this week, (and is currently ranked number one on Amazon for New Releases in its category) so we caught up with Chloe to chat about young entrepreneurship, the process of writing a book, and any free advice we could glean.

Oh, and now? She is a literal millionaire.

Chloe Elise of Deeper Than Money // Photo by Joelle Elizabeth Photography

Social handles

Chloe’s Instagram: @deeper.than.money

Deeper Than Money Instagram: @deeperthanmoneyco

Twitter: @ChloeEliseDTM

TikTok: @deeperthanmoney

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Deeper.Than.Money

Hometown: Indianola, IA

Current neighborhood: Just moved from downtown KC to the ‘burbs.

The fun stuff

What do you wish people (in other cities) knew about Kansas City?

The one thing I always say to explain Kansas City is that it has all of the perks of what you would love about a big city: we have professional sporting teams, the best bar scene, the best food scene. There’s always fun things to do on weekdays, weekends, all of that. But none of the downsides of a city like wild traffic or overcrowding to where you’re bumping into somebody on the street. I think it’s so cool to be in the Midwest but also if it’s Tuesday, and I want to go to a major league baseball game, I can.

What does Kansas City need more of?

I think you can never have enough rooftop patios. I love rooftop patios, and to take it a step further, especially in a week like this week. Rooftop patios with those misters because I feel like a lot of them have the like warmers for when it gets cooler, but I don’t know of any that have misters for hot days. 

What Kansas City maker/artist/musician are you digging right now?

One of my favorite things to do is go to the River Market on Saturday or Sunday mornings. One of the small businesses down there I’m just obsessed with is Gnarly Hussle who pops up on Sundays. I’m not even looking for anything, and I’m like ‘this was made for me.’ Another small business I’ve been obsessed with–also found at River Market–are candles from the Big Gay Collective. This candle is not even lit and this entire room smells so good. 

What is something you’re gatekeeping right now?

I’m trying to love dirty martinis because I love olives. At Prime Social the bartender told me to order a dirty martini with avocado oil. He was like, ‘if you think they’re a little too strong, add avocado oil, I promise.’ It was the best drink–not just martini–the best drink I’ve ever had, period.

What is the most used app on your phone?

Recently I have been obsessed with Notion. My notes app is definitely number one and has been for years, but Notion is like notes meets Google Calendar meets some sort of CRM. It has checklists and due dates, and it’s so great for my team communications.

How do you prefer to consume the news?

Honestly, I love email newsletters, and being able to sit down and read the bullet points of what’s going on just feels so much more digestible. The Skimm, Market Watch, Morning Brew–I love quick consumable content that is as neutral as possible.

Down to business

What is your entrepreneur origin story?

Deeper Than Money really started as an antidote to my own journey. 

I grew up in small-town Iowa, and got those Midwestern hard-working beliefs passed down to me. You want something? Go out and work for it. I was working a ton of part-time jobs in high school and college. I was making money and supporting myself and being able to pay for things, but I never knew what to do with that money. I would spend it, get hit with overdraft fees, then make more money and then I wouldn’t have it, and I just never could get ahead. I didn’t know anything about money, but I also knew I wasn’t supposed to talk about it. So I didn’t talk about it. 

I went to college, signing my life away on student loan debt when I didn’t even know what that was. I finally reached this point where I’m like, alright, I’m sick of this. I have to figure out money. And that’s when I figured out ‘oh, holy cow I’m $36,000 in debt. I have no idea how to get out of this.’ So I turned to the financial industry: I checked out finance books, listened to podcasts, Googled how to get ahead with money.

Everything said you’re just not trying hard enough. Stop spending money, stop going out with your friends, stop doing this. Here I am with one year left of college and I’m being told that I either can care about money and get ahead, or I can enjoy my last year of college. I felt guilty either way–there’s so much shame around this. Through failing over and over using this mainstream financial advice, I knew there had to be another way.

So Deeper Than Money was born.

Deeper Than Money was born of this philosophy of it’s not just about what’s best on paper: it’s about understanding finances holistically. It’s about understanding your beliefs, money, psychology, all of these other factors that have gone into where you’re at with money. Basically, I  wrote the book that I wish I would have had at 19 when I was searching and all I found was shame. 

We can do it without deprivation. We can do it without constantly doubting ourselves and thinking, am I not working hard enough? Why am I so bad with money? And instead, healing our relationship with money and ultimately healing our relationship with ourselves. 

What is the best business advice you’ve ever received?

The first thing that comes to mind is when I was going to quit my corporate job and go full time in my own business. Pretty much everyone was telling me like, What are you doing- you have a good corporate job, why would you give that up? But a friend of a friend so matter of factly goes “I mean you can always go find another corporate job.” 

And for some reason, it just hit me so deeply. I’ve had that mindset in business since that day, like, okay so what if it fails–you can always go get another job. It was so reassuring. The funny thing is it comes back to shame. If we don’t claim shame in that narrative, we allow ourselves to try. 

What surprised you the most about writing a book?

Honestly, how hard it was. The publishing industry is its own monster. Every year for my birthday, I write a list of things I want to do that year. When I was 25, I wrote on that list “I’m gonna write a book.” That night I Googled, “how do you get a book deal?” And boy, oh boy, that Google search did not actually paint an accurate picture of what it takes. It is a wild process. 

Level up

What is the first piece of advice you’d give someone who wants to get their finances under control?

The biggest thing is to get into a neutral state. That is my absolute top priority because if you are feeling like ‘oh my gosh, I have so much debt Chloe, how do I pay it off? What should I do?’ And then I’ve started giving you ‘first do this then do this, then do this,’ we’re adding frantic energy on top of frantic energy. It ends up feeling more scary and out of control. So the first thing is to take a deep breath, take a step back, and get into a neutral state with whatever that goal is.

Bonus tip:

My tried and true number one tip is to open a high yield savings account. If you’re reading this, you need one. One of the biggest things that stops people is that they’re nervous to open the account, click the wrong thing. We have a free training, just 10 minutes, where literally I screen share and they can watch me do it while they pull up a screen. It is one thing where you can start saying Wait, my money’s working for me. I can do this. And it’s this win where it’s so much more than just money–it’s about seeing yourself as someone who has a financial goal, and completes it. Creating that win and sustainability matters so much.