A million in turnover in 2022 and a personalized method to help businesses and professionals. It is the story of Elena Setzu, from Cagliari born in 1987, who today is the head of the Diamond Coaching agency, active in the High ticket consultancy sector, which creates methods for companies to use their resources and position themselves better on the market.
After studying at the IED in Cagliari, like so many young people, he began to look for work in the world of marketing, curricula left and right, but many doors were closed in his face: «I went to a print shop near my town, Villacidro, I was even willing to do the cleaning just to stay in that environment, but there was no way to get in, they didn't take me».
And then, at the age of 23, the departure for Milan: «I was almost forced if I wanted to achieve my goals, I don't come from a rich family and I didn't intend to burden them further. So I opened a VAT number even though everyone advised me against it: "it's terrible, they'll eat you alive". In my pocket I had 1,800 euros received as compensation for an accident, I used them to rent a studio flat to use as a home and office and to pay for ship tickets».
How were the beginnings?
«After being a freelancer, I opened an agency with a group of people, we have worked for many years and also with excellent results, we have helped numerous Sardinian companies - I lost count after the first 120 -, and many entrepreneurs creating services for They. When so many began to speak well of us, more and more customers arrived: we had to abandon the concept of agency and moved on to consultancy».
What do you do today?
"We explain to businesses or even freelancers everything they can do, from A to Z, to start selling online - exclusively or not - and how to best position themselves on the market, creating personalized paths".
What is High ticket consultancy?
«When you have the responsibility of taking over the budget of a company which must then become the source of livelihood, you cannot make "slips" or think about saving, or have software that you do not know. Nor underpaying collaborators: ours are all paid at high levels, this is the High ticket. We make a selection at the entrance: do you have a serious project? Do you have a serious mental approach? These are the requirements of highly paid consultancy».
Why then did you decide to return to Sardinia?
«In my opinion, the months I spent in Milan, 6 or 7, were like spending three years in Sardinia. When you wake up in the morning and you know you're running out of money and no one can help you, you start doing everything. So I started marketing on Facebook, it was 2011, studying how to build websites and sell them at low cost to get through the ranks. And thanks to social networks, people have contacted me again. I lived in Milan but most of my clients were in Sardinia».
That land that hadn't been able to appreciate it, a revenge?
"At the time I thought it was a bit like that, today I have to say that - even if I don't like the word rematch very much - it is from many points of view".
Is it true that he created his own method?
«In these years of experience, working for hundreds of companies, I have encountered "patterns", things that always worked and others never. I have therefore established an online presence method for all the companies that have turned to me. First we implemented it, now we teach it so that they are independent».
So how to create a site for example?
«Not only that, sometimes a radical change is needed: it often happens that there are resources that are not valued. Maybe there's an intern sent by the Region who spends his time posting on Facebook without having been prepared to do so. Or a secretary who has had a reduction in hours because work has decreased: you can bring her back to full time by filling in the activity reports. In short, recover internal resources to go in a new direction with new sources of revenue".
After the pandemic, now that everything has reopened, has the trend of online sales decreased?
«On the contrary, it is increasing because habits have now changed and are not going back to how they were before. Amazon recently created a team of coaches who train entrepreneurs who sell on the platform in order to increase sales, and shopkeepers are more and more. With the problem of expensive fuel and the cost of raw materials, many physical businesses are closing down and not all of them reinvent themselves on the internet. There are many entrepreneurs who go to look for work as employees, but it is clear that, for example, you cannot teach how to make pizza online".
Raising prices, in his view, is more vital than ever, but many consumers would disagree.
«The question must be seen from another point of view: the result is that the value rises. If three years ago you could turn to me to have a website and well-maintained social media accounts for 3,000 euros, today you have access to a consultancy path in which the value that the end customer takes home is something extremely superior» .
How do you position yourself correctly on the market?
«Differentiating and making yourself unique is the best way. Not only that: in the field of nutrition there are many people who offer their work, perhaps they have been fired from the gyms. Today they sell coaching programs from 4,000 to 20,000 euros a month, they are no longer personal trainers but follow their clients from morning to night, dedicating themselves completely to them at any time of the day. Here is the change of perspective: it is no longer a matter of going crazy looking for 100 customers at one euro each but 10 customers who pay much more».
How many collaborators do you have in Diamond Coaching?
«26 all over the world, several are Italian, others foreigners».
Why this name?
«One of my visual characteristics – the ones I consider very important to stand out – has always been to put a diamond symbol at the end of emails or messages, next to the signature. A reminder that I too am a bit like an emoji, simple and genuine. I don't have a briefcase and an unpleasant look, I enter the company and I put all of myself into it. It costs a lot and it's for a few".
Did this marketing-minded soul inherit it from anyone in the family?
«My father had started to see flowers in the markets, when he died I was one and a half years old, and my mother continued the business. Now you don't fully understand what I do, the fact that I address people from all over the world. For example, yesterday we acquired a customer in Australia. I can't explain exactly what my job is, but I respect my initial mission: that of positively improving your life, and in my heart I know that I am doing it».