13 Apr Elisabeth Gould Recorded Motivational Videos on Her Lunch Break Then Built a Trading University
On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, host Jeff Crilley sits down with Elisabeth Gould — author, professional speaker, and Growth Catalyst Coach behind Speaking At Her Best. Elisabeth shares the story behind her self-published devotional, 31 Best Ways to Love Yourself, which she wrote during the early days of COVID in March 2020 as a personal reminder to practice self-love through difficult seasons. The conversation takes a surprising turn when she reveals her work as a Nasdaq futures day trader and introduces Pretty Girl Swag University (PGSU), a coaching platform designed for women looking to pivot from corporate careers into entrepreneurship and additional income streams. Elisabeth also recounts meeting Oprah Winfrey at age 18 during a Business Professionals of America nationals trip to Chicago. Throughout the episode, her faith anchors every topic — from the motivational videos she recorded on corporate lunch breaks to her encouragement for viewers facing heavy moments in life.
Key Topics
- self-love as a daily practice
- writing a devotional during COVID
- meeting Oprah at 18
- Pretty Girl Swag University
- day trading Nasdaq futures
- pivoting from corporate America to entrepreneurship
- faith through difficult seasons
Episode Timestamps
- 01:21 – Jeff introduces Elisabeth Gould and her background
- 02:14 – Elisabeth's speaking career dating back to elementary school
- 02:23 – The story of meeting Oprah Winfrey at age 18
- 03:27 – The origin of 31 Best Ways to Love Yourself during COVID
- 04:37 – Introducing Pretty Girl Swag University (PGSU)
- 05:51 – Elisabeth reveals she's a Nasdaq futures day trader
- 06:08 – Is day trading easy? Her honest answer
- 07:10 – Who's a good candidate for PGSU
- 08:19 – "Be still and know" — Elisabeth's viral motivational video
- 09:21 – She recorded it on a corporate lunch break
- 10:02 – Elisabeth's message to anyone going through a heavy season
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Episode Chapters
- 00:00 – Introduction
- 01:21 – Meet Elisabeth Gould
- 01:51 – Early Speaking Career & Meeting Oprah
- 03:20 – 31 Best Ways to Love Yourself
- 04:37 – Pretty Girl Swag University
- 06:00 – Day Trading & Empowering Women
- 08:19 – Be Still and Know: Inspirational Message
- 09:52 – Words of Encouragement & Closing
The author, speaker, and Nasdaq futures day trader tells Jeff Crilley how a self-love devotional written during COVID, a childhood meeting with Oprah, and years in corporate America led her to launch Pretty Girl Swag University for women planning their exit.
A Video From the Cubicle
Elisabeth Gould is sitting somewhere inside corporate America, on her lunch break, holding up her phone. She records a video — no script, no studio, just conviction. "Be still and know," she says into the camera. "You be still while believing with everything in your being that whatever the Lord promised you will indeed come to pass." The clip goes out under her brand, Speaking At Her Best. She goes back to work.
When Jeff Crilley played that video during their interview at his Dallas studio, he asked Gould if she remembered where she was when she made it. "I do," she said. "I was in corporate America on my lunch break. Be still and knowing that, Lord, you have got to have something around the corner. And sure enough, he did." What came around the corner was something almost nobody would have predicted: Nasdaq futures trading, and a university built to teach other women how to do it.
A Speaker Since Elementary School
Gould's comfort in front of a camera didn't come from nowhere. "I have been speaking since 2002," she told Crilley. "However, really I've been speaking all my life. I mean, go back as early as elementary. I actually was in, like, UIL, and I used to do poetry and things of that sort. So I have, like, all the ribbons and competition. So it's kinda just been a part of my day to day."
At eighteen, that trajectory carried her to a national stage. Gould competed in Business Professionals of America and advanced to the national competition in Chicago, Illinois. While there, she attended a taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show. "After the show we got a chance to talk with her and let her know why I was there," Gould recalled. "That's how I got a chance to meet Oprah." A photo of the encounter still sits on her website.
A Devotional Born in Lockdown
The book came during the strangest of windows. Gould self-published *31 Best Ways to Love Yourself* in March 2020, just as COVID shut the country down. She described the book not as a one-time read but as a personal tool — a devotional she returns to when life gets hard. "I use this book as a reminder for myself on whenever I would have moments that were not so easy to get through," she said. "I would actually open up my devotional and I would read it for myself."
The weight behind those words was not abstract. "It's helped me through a lot — and I mean a lot — of trials and tribulations to get to where I'm at today," Gould told Crilley. "That's why I'm forever promoting 31 best ways to love yourself. Because download complete." She said it like a mantra, like someone who had tested the material under real pressure and found it held.
From Corporate America to Nasdaq Futures
The pivot that surprised everyone — possibly including Crilley, who let out an audible "Oh, wow" on camera — was the trading. Gould is a day trader on the Nasdaq futures market. When Crilley asked if it was easy, she didn't flinch. "No. It is not easy at all," she said. "Otherwise, everybody will be trading in the stock market already going to the bank and getting all this money. However, it's a rather challenging yet rewarding skill set to learn."
She was equally direct about her approach. When Crilley asked whether geopolitical events like the recent war might present a strategy in the futures market, Gould declined to speculate. "I can't speak for any of those things only because I myself do not allow those things to distract me in the way that I trade," she said. "Whatever works for you, do what works for you, because I've learned what works for me."
Pretty Girl Swag University
That trading skill became the core offering of her newest venture, Pretty Girl Swag University — or PGSU, as Gould insists it be called, with a cheerleader's enthusiasm she freely owns. "In high school I was a cheerleader as well, if you can't tell," she said. "I'm like go this, go that, love it. I got the spirit fingers and everything."
The platform is aimed squarely at women in corporate America who want out. "It's not a secret — I was a corporate America lady for quite some time. I did my dues, y'all. I did my dues," Gould said. Her ideal student is "an ambitious woman who basically says, I am wanting to pivot. I don't necessarily want to stay where I'm currently at." The pitch is specific: not just entrepreneurship in the abstract, but a concrete skill — day trading — as a vehicle for additional income or a full exit from the corporate world.
Faith as Foundation
Underneath the trading charts and the university branding, Gould's story runs on something older. Asked to speak to viewers who might be struggling, she didn't offer tactics. "I am indeed team Jesus," she said. "And the reason for that is because life has been heavy for me. And due to my belief system in myself and in my relationship with the Lord connecting me with the right individuals to help me forward in reference to this thing called life — all I'll say is this: hold on to your belief no matter what you're going through."
It's the same message as the lunch-break video, the same core as the devotional. The packaging keeps changing — a book, a social media clip, a trading university — but the engine is consistent.
Still Believing
Gould left the studio the way she entered it: with certainty. "As I said in that video before, be still and know that his promises are yes and amen," she told Crilley near the end of the interview. "If you don't know how to do anything else, just hold on to that, because sometimes that's all we got. That's all we can hold on to." Pretty Girl Swag University is now accepting applicants, and Gould — the cheerleader, the poet, the trader, the author — is coaching the first class herself.
Elisabeth Gould is a speaker, author, and Growth Catalyst Coach. She is the founder of Pretty Girl Swag University and the author of 31 Best Ways to Love Yourself. Learn more at her brand, Speaking At Her Best. This episode was recorded at The Jeff Crilley Show studios in Dallas, Texas.