Meet Elena Wilhoit

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elena Wilhoit a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elena, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

My confidence and self-esteem have been strengthened thanks to the word of God, who constantly reminds me that I am his daughter, that I was created for perfection. Before starting out, I had many insecurities, I thought I had to have more knowledge, a partner to share expenses, failures, etc. and I did not dare to take that step to start. I remember one day, I felt so bad, because I felt that everythings was going wrong for me, a person approached me and said “get up, we see in you a beautiful, intelligent woman, with potencial, that is what you radiate”, that is what she told me among other things, literally at that moment I felt that it was God speaking to me and I said to myself “why if other people see that in me, am I not able to see it? From there I began to work on my self-esteem and behave as God sees me. From there I began my first venture, without expecting everything to be perfect, and it has gone very well for me. If you think you are good at something, do not be afraid, continue forward hand in hand with God.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a Venezuelan woman, a fighter, with a desire to excel and to leave a legacy to the people who for some reason come into my life, all this by the hand of my best Partner “God”. I arrived in the United States in 2019, at the beginning of the Pandemic, I had to stay because of the Coronavirus and the country situation, which Venezuela is experiencing to this day. Like most immigrants, the anguish of getting a job begins to generate the economic resources we need to live and due to lack of knowledge, language difficulty, fears, etc., we begin to work in those jobs that we do not feel comfortable but it is what we have to do at the moment. By the second year in the United States, my desperation begins to get a more professional job, one that I like and where I can serve people. In that constant search through a friend I did an Immigration Document Preparer Course and I was certified for this job, later after a year I decided to start my own company, offering multi-services where I offer the filling of immigration forms (for cases that do not require a lawyer), Health Insurance, among other services. It should be noted that for this profession I am constantly updating information, receiving workshops, attending talks with lawyers, acquiring licenses or certificates to practice, etc.

I love this profession because in addition to the fact that it facilitates the subject of documents (handling computer tools, writing, organization, etc.) I can help people to obtain their legal documents; for me it is a great satisfaction to see the happiness of a client when they receive their work permit, their TPS approval, etc. I’m an immigrant myself, and I know what it’s like to be in the country legally. This venture is what gives me the day to day to maintain my expenses.

The loneliness in this country has given me the opportunity to re-educate myself, through Podcasts, online trainings, reading books by millionaires, such as Rich Dad Poor Dad, the richest man in Babylon, the compound effect, among others. This has made my mentality change and therefore my attitude. So, in that we must have several sources of income, in addition to my service company Smart Financial Solution LLC; I have started another venture, in parallel, this time dedicated to Real Estate.

Smart Property Investment, is a company currently dedicated to Fix and Flip; for this I also had to study and I am already in practice doing the remodeling. Although this item has nothing to do with the immigration services company; It also gives me incredible satisfaction, first the realization of the work, to see how you take a destroyed property and turn it into a beautiful and safe place to live; And you also create job opportunities for people, you know that you are helping with the economy of a family.

This undertaking is a challenge, it is not easy but not impossible either, the important thing is to be constant and persevering. Also, you meet a lot of important people who have the same interests, who help the community grow, it’s fantastic.

On August 5, the book “Beyond the American Dream” was launched, by Sabrina Franco, founder of the Fix and Flip academy; The book summarizes some stories of overcoming of participants in the academy, among them is mine. I invite you to get it through Amazon.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think that the first thing you should put in your life to improve it is the presence of God, He will fill every empty space in your heart and that will give you the wisdom to make better decisions, see opportunities where others do not see it, remove from your life people and attitudes that do not go with your life purpose.

In that sense, among my qualities is empathy and the desire to help people, which allows me to understand their needs and provide an honest service. Among the skills, I like knowledge and that is why I keep up to date with the topics that interest me and attend conferences, workshops, courses, talks, etc.

My advice to people who are starting out in the country and want to achieve their dreams, in addition to putting God in your plans, first educate yourself, look for accurate information; second, look for and join people who have the same vision as you and who are where you want to be and third, take action, don’t wait to have everything you need, start with what you have and the rest will follow.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

Definitely, God is the one who gives you everything to be successful. He is the one who gives you the wisdom and strength to overcome adversity. However, we must take action to make things happen.

Then there is knowledge, looking for information from appropriate sources and if possible having a coach. For example, when I started in Real Estate, I had to attend a training to learn all the theory of the subject and minimize mistakes.

Followed by Action; You have to take action, not wait for everything to be aligned to start. We have to start acting with what we have at hand.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @smartfsolution / @elenaw.investor