Transcript Ep #188: The Results Of Practicing Your Signature Talk In Public Over 200 Times With Liz Wilcox

[00:01:35] Well, hey, friend, welcome back to another episode. This week we’re doing a case study by my friend, the incredible Liz Wilcox. I’ll tell you all about it here in a moment. But as you’re listening to this episode today, y’all. It’s a very, very exciting time. If you’re listening to this, the week that this episode goes live, something magical is coming and I could not be more excited. 

If you listen to this show, obviously, you like listening to podcasts, so I have something really special for you, and that is a private podcast. That it’s not this podcast. It’s a separate one. It’s a private secret one called, Becoming the Known Authority. If you are an expert, if you have your own business and you’re looking to be seen more as the credible authority, you want to get more into speaking on stages. You’re like, I wanna be that person that everyone thinks about.

[00:02:27] And maybe it’s not like you’re trying to be the Beyonce of your industry, but maybe you’re like, ah, I want to be able to, to to be that person people think of when they think of my topic. You wanna be referred. You want to stop chasing all those opportunities and finding your perfect person and start attracting your perfect person.

[00:02:45] You’ve been asking questions around what does it take to really become that person that speaks on stages? How do I talk about my content in a way that really resonates with my ideal person and makes them want to take action? It’s probably one of the reasons you listen to me and my podcast. If that’s you, I’ve lined up my absolute best of the best trainings that I have only taught, like behind closed doors for paying clients or inside one of my paid workshop series. I am laying all the juicy details out of exactly what it takes to become that known authority and speak magnetically on stages in this private podcast training.

[00:03:21] So if you wanna get your hands on it, and also as a gift for you, it’s coming out and then it’ll be my birthday week. I’m throwing a birthday party and birthday week where I am doing live coaching sessions to actually help you dial in what is your speaking topic and what kind of stages should you be targeting in 2023 to get the most out of your efforts because I believe the time you spend on stage should give you more freedom and flexibility off stage. 

[00:03:48] So if you want to get your hands on this training and that private workshop experience where I’m gonna help you get those ideas outta your head and nail in your signature topic, head on over to the speakerco.com/authority. I need to peek up my little paper here to make sure I didn’t get that messed up. The speakerco.com/authority. You can also find the link in today’s podcast show notes. This is gonna be so good y’all. It’s gonna be so, so good, and I hope to see you there. 

[00:04:18] For today, what I wanted to do was I wanted to show you some examples of how not only speaking can help accelerate your business. I also wanted to show you examples of what happens when you start building momentum, And that’s why the next two weeks I’m gonna be sharing with you some of my clients who have gone through my programs over the last few years, share with you some of their results and how they’ve been approaching speaking. 

[00:04:46] Starting with today, Liz Wilcox, who has been on the show before. She came, actually both of my guests in the next two weeks have been on the show before, but now we’re talking about the speaking side, which is super freaking cool. But Liz Wilcox, she’s an email marketing strategist and keynote speaker, which is something that she’s added to her bio here in the last few years.

[00:05:08] She shows small business owners how to build online relationships, package up their magic, and turn it into emails that people want to read, and most importantly, purchase from. I’m gonna say Liz is like my spirit animal of what I do for people with saying their shit out loud with their voice. She does that, helping them do that in email.

[00:05:25] What we’re talking about today is how Liz has captured her own magic. Someone who is great with words, but she knew she wanted to make a bigger impact and reach more people for her programs and through for her business. She wanted to do that by speaking more on stage. So Liz, we’ll talk about it in the episode.

[00:05:46] She is one of my former clients. She came through my program right, literally right, when the world shut down the pandemic. She was part of my quarantine cohort. Liz built her signature talk and has now become a staple in her business. She has spoken on more than a hundred stages just in the last 12 months.

[00:06:05] And from it, ah, the impact that she’s had, it is, it’s inspiring to me. I’m like, whoa, y’all, I gotta keep up. I gotta keep up here. And I just wanna show you what’s possible. This interview is going to light you up. You’re gonna be on fire. You’re gonna be so excited about what’s possible for you in your topic. I will not make you wait anymore. Let’s get to my interview with the incredible Liz Wilcox.

[00:06:41] This is the podcast for the entrepreneur who wants to make a big. Who doesn’t shy away from hard work, but also. Well, Liz, welcome back officially to the show. I’m so happy to see you today. Thanks for being here.. 

[00:06:53] Liz: Oh my gosh, I cannot wait to talk about this. I love speaking. 

[00:06:59] Heather: I know you do love speaking. It’s been so great. You okay, you’re a second time guest on the podcast. And here’s what’s interesting. I look back at our notes. I’m pretty confident the last time you were on the podcast, the podcast had it. Well, I know it had a different name, but I actually think it had the original name. Was it still finding your factor when you were on?

[00:07:17] Liz: I think so, yeah. It’s been a, Heather and I are OG friends. We go back a while.

[00:07:22] Heather: In internet years. It’s like we’ve known each other, our entire internet lives like, right? 

[00:07:27] Liz: Right. 

[00:07:29] Heather: Okay. For those of you who might be newer listening to the show that might not have heard back that original episode, which we will link in the show notes cuz Liz talks all things about simple launching, which I have adopted that mantra. That was what our original episode was about. But can you share a little bit about what you do, the Fresh Princess of email? 

[00:07:47] Liz: Yeah, so you know that feeling you get when you listen to an amazing podcast like this one, and you know, somebody comes on and they’re talking about email marketing and they’re shouting, you know, for every dollar you spend with email, you can get 40 bucks in return. Go, go, go, go, and you get super hyped up. So you log into Active Campaign or Convertkit or whatever the heck you use, and then you promptly feel kind of dumb cuz you have no idea what to say. Well, what’s up? I’m Liz Wilcox and I help eliminate that problem. I make email writing super simple. 

[00:08:22] Heather: You do. You make it super simple and fun and you have a pretty freaking amazing membership. What I wanna talk about that real quick, cuz the business model that you run, I freaking love it. And that’s gonna be a big part of what we talk about here on today’s show is around how speaking can serve different business models. Can you just for a moment talk about your membership?

[00:08:42] Liz: Yeah, absolutely, but I wanna shout out if you thought that intro was awesome. Heather and I used to practice that together. You know, obviously I’ve hired her. I love the way she teaches speaking and that was something that we came up together in a group cohort of something she had. So if you are looking for something like that, Heather is your gal. So see, we just love each other. We just help each other out and promo each other, anyway.

[00:09:08] I have something called email marketing membership and it’s a weekly newsletter template membership. So every single week I send you a plug and play template with a video walkthrough and you know, different business examples. So for example, I just wrote it today. It was like, one, was from E-commerce, the other one was a faith-based blogger so you can actually see how it would work for you, and it’s two years old now. I have over 3000 members. It feels wild and crazy and it’s just nine bucks a month. And yeah, I’ve definitely used speaking, used podcast interviews, onstage interviews, private trainings, all of that to go out and find my members.

[00:09:50] Heather: Yes. Okay. I love this. So let’s, okay, on that note, I’m gonna pivot and we’re gonna take it back here in a couple years. We joke that we’ve known each other forever in dog years or in internet years. Let’s go back to when you and I first met. It was like late 19, 2019, early 2019. 

[00:10:05] Liz: Now, yeah. I think it was about four years ago at the time of this recording, like, yeah. So I think it was like spring 2019. 

[00:10:12] Heather: Yeah. So why don’t you share a little bit around what was it about speaking that was interesting to you and in particular what you were trying to create?

[00:10:23] Liz: Yeah, so listen up y’all. When I found out I could click a mouse and make money online. I, it was like whiplash. I was like, y’all, these rich folks have been lying. You need to get in on this . And when Heather and I first met, I started, I was an RV travel blogger. And so, you know, I had courses around RV travel, you know, a book, et cetera, et cetera, and I had just launched something and it actually, I had 141 people on the waitlist and I made 141 sales, and we talk a lot about how I did that in the previous episode which is in the show notes.

[00:11:04] But what I realized was that that was really atypical. That was really, you know, when I tell that story, even now, people usually, their jaw drops. You know, if you’re not familiar, typical launches do one to 5%, maybe 10% if you’re really, really good. That was a hundred percent which is wild. And so when I realized my friends were struggling with this, you know, I thought, well, it’s just email marketing.

[00:11:29] And they said, oh, there’s no such thing as just email marketing. But in my mind, it was that gift that I had, right? It was that thing that just came so naturally to me, and so, you know, couple that with the, oh my gosh, I can make money online, what ?I knew I had to go all in. So I mentioned all that to say I know I have a message and I knew back then, and I know now that I want to get it out to as many people as possible.

[00:11:58] I know I cannot play small cuz I mean, I joke, oh, these rich folks, they’ve been lying. You know, move over Jeff Bezos, y’all, I grew up so poor. I have been supporting my mother financially since I was 16. It’s always been a make or break for me. And so when I think about those other people out there and maybe you are one of them as you listen, where you’re like, Ugh, I have this certain circumstance.

[00:12:21] I know I’ve gotta figure this thing out online so that I can, you know, move to the next level of life. And so that’s why I chose speaking because I knew I needed to get the word out there and I knew if I played small, I was doing a disservice to the people that truly needed my gift out there. 

[00:12:42] Heather: I love that. I love that. I think that’s one of those things that’s so universal. And I also think it’s hard for people to say that out loud, is that it almost feels like when we say, I have something to share, like, I know I meant to share this thing. It almost feels like we feel some guilt around it, like, who am I to share that? Did you have any of that at the get go? 

[00:13:00] Liz: No. I mean, if you, if you’ve met me or you know, keep listening, you’ll see why. For me though, it really was, you know, looking at all the people that came before me and I didn’t, I tend to follow a really low information diet, so I don’t consume a lot of content. I just, you know, I hear Heather saying, oh yeah, you know, I quit my corporate job. I really wanted to teach people this. I hear other people, even, you know, celebrities, you know, look at some of my favorite people to follow are, you know, musical artists. I’m like, well, they don’t, they’re out there just talking about shaking butts with no shame, like, surely I can get out there and use my voice to actually change people’s lives.

[00:13:43] And for me, again, going back to really needing the money and needing to get the message out there whether I was doing RV travel or you know, this email marketing thing or whatever the heck, I didn’t have a lot of room for head junk. I had to do it. When you think about your mom and, and if you don’t make the rent, she’s going homeless. You know what I mean? Like there’s no real room for head trash when you don’t have a choice but to make money. So I don’t say that in a cocky way. You know, it just came from my circumstances. 

[00:14:20] Heather: Yeah. It’s almost like, I think a lot of people feel that they have to then feel. They’re supposed to feel guilty by having that big ambition and knowing deep down, like I know I’m meant to share big things. I know like, this is the community where we accept that we have big messages to share and it’s okay and we raise our hands and we go out and freaking do it, so I I love that. 

[00:14:39] So you knew, I remember you taken, okay baby, I’m gonna take over the internet. It’s literally what you said, like when we first talked on Zoom about this. I’m curious when you think about speaking and getting your message out there in the big way. Were you thinking like, I wanna be a keynote at a conference or did you have a different definition in mind around what that meant? I always say, everyone knows this by now. My definition of a stage is simply a platform to share your message, whether that’s a conference stage, a virtual summit, a podcast like wherever you can show up and share your message. That is a stage and in our virtual world, we have so many available to us. 

[00:15:16] But it’s always fascinating to me ’cause when people hear me as a speaking coach, they instantly put me in the container of keynote conference stage, which you and I both know, it’s way more than that. What was your initial goal or your initial picture around what bringing that bigger message looked like?

[00:15:31] Liz: Yeah, of course. You know, I. I’m just a very ambitious person. So you know, when I think about a stage, yes, of course my mind goes to, you know, Grant Cardone, 10x. You know, I’m sitting next to Kevin Hart talking about email marketing. You know, that’s the big, big dream. But I also live in the real world and know where I sit today and know where I sat three years ago and I was also thinking about private training. You know, virtual retreats, podcasts. I had done podcasts in my previous business to grow, and I knew I was really good at them. I knew I, you know, I love talking right? So, and I have that message, and that’s one of the reasons I went with Heather. I was like, okay, I have A, B, and C. How do I put them together so they flow? 

[00:16:16] So when I get on a podcast, when I get on a stage, I sound like wow, that lady really knows what she’s talking about, right? And so I had a lot of different images in my head. It wasn’t just the one thing for me, I’m always, what do they say? You know, I’m very determined, like I have the vision in my head, but I’m flexible on the details of how to get there and given my previous experience, I knew the word stage meant a lot of different things. And even if I get on a podcast and I’m just talking to the host and I’m just convincing the host to try email, then that’s the stage I need to be on that day, right?

[00:16:55] Heather: I love. I love that idea right there that you just brought up, it’s like something that we don’t normally think about. So often when we think about speaking, we think, how can we reach more people and when you have a message that you wanna share and you know when you wanna make an impact, sometimes the impact is just one person. That relationship with the host, I mean, not only could that be profound for them using email, but the doors they can open when they become effective with email and then sing your praises, like that’s like a ripple effect that really, really carries on. I think it’s pretty cool. 

[00:17:23] Liz: Absolutely. I’ll add one more thing for me. You know, I joke about, oh, sitting next to Kevin Hart on the stage, you know, in a stadium. Y’all, you can’t get to that vision if you are not just doing the day-to-day mm-hmm. You know, you can’t jump there. That’s not gonna happen for me if I’m not willing to sit and be present in the moment and be present with the person that’s right in front of me. If I’m always thinking about that big, big stage, then I’m annoyed with the stage I’m at right now, and I don’t wanna be annoyed. I love life and I love the people that are willing to give me a shot right now. 

And so I always go back to this story. Will Smith shares it. He talks about his knocked down a wall in this building and they had to, they had to rebuild it. And he says, dad, it’s impossible. The wall is gone, like, let it go. And he said, son, you don’t build a wall. You just lay a brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid, and one day you’ll have a wall. And that’s the way that I look at speaking on stages. That’s the way I look at, oh, you know, that big, you know Kevin Hart, he’s gonna know me one day, right, is, you know, I’m not, I’m not looking for Kevin Hart. I’m looking for just that one person, that one podcast host, that one person in my inbox that whatever the stage is, right, that one person commenting on a, in a Facebook group, what can I say to them? How can I lay that brick perfectly for them? So that one day, yeah, I’ve got that wall, I’ve got that big stage. 

[00:18:50] Heather: This is a great example of, I say this all the time, is you have to be confident and you have to pair that confidence with humility. One of the big mistakes that people make when they have that really high ambition to speak on big stages is they start acting from ego, right? They wanna be on that big stage. I’m gonna act like I’m there, which means I’m better than other people or this other little stages, peanuts. And that’s not how you get those big stages. It’s treating every single opportunity to show up, do your best, serve a message, like if you can’t make an impact on a smaller stage, how can you expect to make an impact that people talk about on a bigger stage?

[00:19:25] So I love that you model that, and I love freaking love that you, you brought that up. You did mention that you were already good at podcasts. You are, you like to speak, you were already good at speaking. So what was it that made you go, I actually need to learn how to do this so that I can give it a bigger impact, like what was that motivator? 

[00:19:43] Liz: Okay. As you listen, and if you don’t know me, you might be thinking, whoa, this lady’s really confident. She’s slightly cocky. I’m not. I’m not trying to come off that way. I actually was mute until the age of seven, like words did not come naturally to me. I had to learn to speak and for many, many years, and even to this day, I’m terrified of public speaking.

[00:20:04] Now that we’re talking about it, Heather can see my neck is starting to break out. I still get that rash. Heather knows you know all about it. The first piece of advice she gave me was when you feel that rash, start scraping your toes in your shoes, I still do that. And so, it’s not, you know, it’s not this thing that just came naturally.

[00:20:24] But I told Heather when we first met, and I was trying, you know, debating her program was, I know what has gotten me here is not gonna get me to the next level. I can only go so far on talent. Michael Jordan only went so far on talent, but he was in the gym, he was, you know, at practice, 2, 3, 4 hours before everybody else, you know, because he wanted to be number one.

[00:20:50] He wanted to get better every single day. What got him here was not gonna get him there. And that was the kind of you know, approach I wanted to take. That was the kind of discipline I was willing to put in, and I knew Heather knew had something and she knew something that I didn’t know. I was just going on pure talent and, and a little bit of bravery and confidence but I knew I needed something actually succinct. I needed to learn a little bit more about the art of speaking and that’s what really pushed me over the edge. 

[00:21:22] Heather: Yeah. So let’s talk about what we created together. We created your signature talk inside my group, group program. Let’s talk about that signature talk. When you first created that talk, did you think that was going to be the thing that you would continually talk about over and over again or did you just like, I’m just gonna put this thing together cuz she said I should. 

[00:21:40] Liz: I knew, I knew it was gonna be something. It was gonna be the foundation of my teachings, and I came to Heather with a pretty well planned out kind of methodology, a framework. If you don’t have a framework, I suggest you know, taking a look at what you do and putting it into a framework. I’m sure Heather talks about that in her program now. I remember her talking about it, you know, back then. And so I knew that it was gonna be the foundation, that signature piece, but I also knew, you know what I can talk about in 20 minutes, 40 minutes is not all I can talk about. And so I knew I would have one-offs and now I have over a dozen trainings and they all sound really great, but they’re all based off of that signature talk or they’re all, you know, the dots, dots, dots, what’s next of that or the prereqs of the main conversation.

[00:22:34] Heather: Yeah. So when you, let’s go back to when you first put together that talk. Do you remember, did you get tripped up anywhere as we were going through that initial creation process? I’m scratching my head now. Thinking back, I don’t know what the answer to the question is gonna be so this is kind of risky.

[00:22:49] Liz: Well, for me it’s, it’s, I think it’s the plight of every speaker and every person who’s passion driven and wants to help other people is you just wanna give them everything. And even today, I’ve, I built this signature talk three years ago, even today, I’m like, oh, I gotta cut that, Liz, you don’t actually need to say that. That’s too much information for them. 

[00:23:12] And yeah, I think it was two and a half years. So about a few year or a few months ago, I went back and I revised it. After two years of giving this talk over a hundred times, I said, oh, Liz, you gotta trim the fat, baby, like this has gone on too long. You know, people, people are exhausted. You know, you gotta pass out like cans of Mountain Dew after this cause it’s so, it’s so tiring. So that’s where, you know, I got tripped up. And even today, I think, oh, you know. I could cut that or let me add that back in. You know, you’re always tweaking, right? 

[00:23:45] Heather: Yeah. I think, well, let’s talk about, let’s talk about that piece because the tendency for most experts is that they continually recreate their talks. Most people are building their decks the night before or constantly feeling like they need to do something different. Did you ever have that desire or that, like even after you built the signature talk, Ooh, I need to build something custom. How did you navigate that?

[00:24:07] Liz: I just said no. You know, like they used to teach us and dare. Just say, no, Heather taught me, just say no, don’t do that. You can, when you know your signature talk forward and backwards, you can just tweak on the fly. Y’all, I didn’t know what questions Heather was gonna ask me. This isn’t even my signature talk. I talk about email, right? But you know, when you say certain things over and over, you give it four or five times. 

When you just can say, okay, I know enough and I’m not an idiot. I don’t need to tweak my slides, even saying things like, oh, this slide should say this. I didn’t have enough time to tweak it, but it should say this. People live in the real world. You know, the pandemic was terrible, but that’s one thing that came outta the pandemic, is that people are a little more lax when it comes to technology slides, flubbing up, you know, having your cat in the background, accidentally turning into a cat. [00:25:00] You remember that, with that lawyer? 

[00:25:03] Heather: I love that video. 

[00:25:04] Liz: You know, but people, you know, people understand you can’t, unless you’re getting paid tens of thousands of dollars, you know, you don’t have to tweak, and I was never really tempted. It’s only now, actually after three years of this signature talk. I got on the phone with somebody the other day and I said, oh, I have to tweak this. That’s the first time in three years I’ve given that signature talk almost 200 times, and this is the first time where I thought, yeah, I need to change this slide and that slide.

[00:25:35] Heather: I love that you say this because I think it’s really an ego play that comes in where we think that everything we do has to be customized. This is also the same problem a lot of coaches or educators have that go from one-on-one into group training is they’re like, oh, it has to be custom, like I have to get to know them and I have to do it special.

[00:25:52] And spoiler, y’all like, once you have your messaging down and you know those talking points in a signature talk, like, you know how, by the way, I teach y’all how to do this, how you customize it through examples and stories and stuff so can you speak to that a little bit? 

[00:26:06] Liz: Absolutely. I was, I was pointing, if you’re just listening to the podcast, you’re not watching the video. I was literally like pointing at Heather, like that. 

[00:26:13] Heather: My turn. Give me the mic . 

[00:26:15] Liz: P, A, R T, that part, you know, you’ve got to, and what I loved about working with Heather and getting the practice was, you know, I got all that gross, nasty you know, trial runs outta the way so by the time I started, you know, doing it in public, I could vary the content. I could say, oh, you know, today I’m talking to e-commerce folks. Here’s what, you know, here’s what I wanna say right here. And, oh, now we’re talking to authors. Here’s what I wanna say about that. And if you look at my business, I’m niched in the email marketing, but we talked about my membership. I have over 3000 people in that membership. 

[00:26:52] Lemme tell you something, they’re not all course creators. I do have those e-commerce y’all. There is a nun, a rabbi, and a pastor from Georgia named Carleton in there. You know, I don’t know 

[00:27:02] Heather: This is the start of a joke. It’s like a start of like a very famous joke. 

[00:27:05] Liz: There’s a BDSM lady in there. I mean, there’s all sorts of folks but the talk is the same. They’ve all come in through podcasts or private trainings of basically that signature talk that Heather and I, you know, worked together to craft, and it’s the same thing over and over. I can insert those examples and something that I love to do, as you know, when I’m going on a podcast, like today I was on a podcast about makers. So I just, I had a little note card and I jotted down, you know, a couple things that were specific to that audience.

[00:27:41] You know, I’ve thought about, oh, well I love this Etsy shop, and I even wore two things that I bought off Etsy to remind myself as I was going to give those examples, right? And so you can definitely do that as you get on stages. You know, ask the person who, who is listening, you know, what do they like? What do you think, you know, describe your audience to me and they will give you the examples themselves often. 

[00:28:05] Heather: They really will. I think those, by the way, what she’s referencing are, these are power prep questions that when you have your signature talk down, you know your main talking points. There’s a list of little mini questions you can go through to get yourself in the right frame of reference and to customize your talk without changing your talk so that was a really beautiful example. 

[00:28:22] Let’s talk about what your talk has done for your business and I wanna talk about this in a couple areas. One of the reasons I wanted to have Liz on is not only is she amazing and she’s giving you so many things to think about around what’s possible with your, with your speaking.

[00:28:37] But you also, it’s been a few years since you went through the program and I think a lot of times when people talk about their programs, they talk about their trainings, they don’t really get real with sometimes how long it takes to get results and how the results keep going. So I like to show examples of immediate wins, longer term wins. I’m a huge believer that speaking is a skill and the more that you practice, the better and better that you get. 

[00:29:01] So let’s go back three years and walk us through some of the what happened for you, right on the coattails of creating that talk. Where did you start and then let’s start exploring what’s happened since?

[00:29:12] Liz: Yeah, one word comes to mind and it’s cringe. I think that’s what the cool kids say. I don’t, I don’t know. I just feel. At first, it was just me trying to get out there, you know, thinking about that mission I had and how can I find people. I know I’ve got, I know I’ve got this message and you know, I was stumbling and you know, I wasn’t able to just off the cuff, oh yeah, makers should do this and you know, it was very not good, kind of like how I’m starting this answer, right? Cuz it’s a brand new question that hasn’t been asked of me. 

[00:29:45] Heather and I have the meta thing in common. The first year, well, let’s talk about the first six months. You know, I just started pitching myself. I also, I know Christina Lenkowski has been on your podcast. Check her out. I did hire her to pitch me on podcasts and she guarantees two a month. And for me, I thought, okay, that’s kind of a stretch for money but if I can pitch myself at the same time as she’s pitching me, you know, I’ll, I’ll make double my money, right? I’ll, it’ll really be worth it. And so I started getting on these podcasts and you know, practicing in public and I just got better.

[00:30:25] And one thing that I realized is if I did a very good job, if I was able to wow my host, I could turn that one episode into two or three. They would either ask me back, and going through Heather’s program, I was able to put my stuff into buckets, and we only talk about one bucket at a time so that it leads into, oh, Liz, we’ve gotta have you back to talk about X.

[00:30:51] You hinted about it, you know, and I turned it into two podcasts or I even said this yesterday. I was on a podcast with someone I’d never met.  They, somebody found, or somebody referred me and they said, oh, this is the first stranger I’ve ever had on the podcast. I said, look, hit record. We’re about to be best friends.

[00:31:08] And by the end she said, wow, that was so good. You’re so well-spoken. And I said, well, if you really mean that, can you introduce me to some friends? And she sent me two people. She introduced me via email to two people. So one of the things I got really good at in those first six months was taking the talk that I, you know, workshop with Heather in the gang and breaking it up, putting it, taking it back out of the buckets or putting it back in buckets and doing that on the episode.

[00:31:37] And then again, just being kind of shameless, oh, if you really mean that, you know, can you introduce me to a friend? Or, Hey, I love this message. I’m so glad it resonated with you. I’m so glad you learned something. Is there anybody else who has an audience that you’re friends with that could use this? We both know the power of email marketing. That’s why you had me on on your show. You know, I’d love to continue to spread that mission. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You know, Heather? I gotta email Heather for you, right? And just again, going back to your purpose, cuz it, it seems scary and public speaking is scary in itself, but, you know, being kind of unashamedly or unapologetic about getting that message out there is really important.

[00:32:20] You are your own hype man. There’s no one coming out before the stage to hype you up. You have to do that yourself. So that happened in the first six months and it just kind of spiraled from there. I know almost all my leads come from private trainings, podcasts, digital summits, on or in-person stages as well. And in the last three years, my email list has grown from like 300 to almost 8,000, and it’s over 50% customer. 

[00:32:49] Heather: That’s beautiful. Oh my gosh, that is so good. Okay. The hype thing that you brought up, I remember very clearly us talking about that in the last episode. It was one of my favorite things that comes all the [00:33:00] time around, like, you have to, like, you have to be the hype, like you can’t expect anyone else to, if you can’t get excited about your topic and excited about what you’re doing, how can you expect other people to do it? So I freaking love that.

[00:33:11] I wrote down a couple things that I wanna hit on one. When you talk about asking boldly for the referral, so many people are like, I’m so scared of that, and you do it so, so well. We call that, or I call that the speaking snowball is that speaking opportunities should create more speaking opportunities.

[00:33:29] Liz: Absolutely. 

[00:33:30] Heather: So many people are like, okay, I’m gonna say this. I hate the question, but it’s one I get all the time. It’s like, Heather, how do I find speaking opportunities? Heather, how do I get on the speaking circuit? And I giggle because the best way to get speaking opportunities is to start speaking. It’s like a total chicken and an egg, but like get your booty on a stage or on a podcast. That is the best way to get more, like trying to cold find them. It is a way, you start there, but the snowball is a big thing. 

[00:33:55] But what I wanna hit on is you mentioned the first thing that you said was cringe, when you first got started. Okay, I wanna go back to that because here’s what I, here’s what I know to be true. So many entrepreneurs get stuck in this perfection trap and they think, Ooh, if I sign up for a program, if I work with Heather or someone else to craft this talk, then I won’t sound like an idiot, then I’ll skip the process where I sound like a fuddy-duddy on stage, and there’s some truth and it’s still gonna be a little bit cringe. Can you talk about what, can you talk about that piece? What you mean when you look back into your cringey? Because at the time it wasn’t cringey. 

[00:34:32] Liz: Right. Well, I mean, I was cringing a little bit, but I knew, you know, again, working with Heather and getting that signature talk, I had that confidence piece, like you said, if you’re thinking of joining, like, oh yeah, if I only have this. So I knew I had that, so that did help with some confidence, but it’s still cringey. It’s still all brand new, you know, it’s still learning how to walk. It’s still, oh gosh, you know, Heather, in the back of my head, you know, this is where you insert that mini story or you’ve said too much, Liz. Take it, you know, bring it back, stop talking. Allow for a pause. You know, all those things. 

[00:35:05] So of course, you know, I have that in my head, but really it is that practice makes perfect. I mean, I did a podcast interview today and I got off and I thought, you freaking nailed that, Liz. You sound like such a professional, like wow. I mean I was, I was taken back by myself but that’s cause I know what bad is. I know what it’s like to hang up the phone and think, oh man, your voice was shaking the whole time. You were staring at yourself in the zoom mirror. You know, the dog was barking. You know, this, that. Your internet went out. You had to turn your camera off. You’re sweating.

[00:35:43] You know, I, I went through all that bad stuff, so, you know, allow yourself to just go through the mud because one day you’re gonna hang up the zoom call or you’re gonna walk off that stage and you’re gonna be like, I am an actual badass.

[00:36:00] Heather: I love that so much and we all want that moment. I would argue everyone’s had their version of that moment, but being able to have that on public display as in like you did that on a stage, that is a high unlike anything else. I think anybody who’s drawn to speaking, they know kind of that high that you get when you’re in your mode on a stage and like jiving with an audience like that feels.

[00:36:22] It’s mildly addictive, like that’s a good, that’s a really, really good feeling. I crave more and more of that. Are you finding that too? I mean, you’re doing a crap ton of speaking events every year. 

[00:36:30] Liz: Oh yeah. It, it kinda is addicting, but also it’s, you know, it’s so awesome to think, oh, I just helped that person especially when you can start to get into private trainings or in-person retreats or something, and you see that person at, you know, you see the light bulb go off and it’s, yeah, I did that and that is just as addicting as, you know, the high you get from talking on stage or knowing, oh yeah, I nailed that piece of my talk and it’s just priceless to me.

[00:37:02] Heather: Yeah. Well, you mentioned earlier you’re doing virtual summits and private trainings. What are some of the stages that you speak on now, like types of stages and what are your favorites? 

[00:37:11] Liz: I think my favorite is still a podcast because I love talking to the host one-on-one and seeing, you know, seeing all those light bulb moments go off. Seeing them, you know, write notes and they getting that direct feedback of, I’ve never heard anyone explain email that simply. I’m gonna go write my newsletter right now, Liz, and that feels really good. I also love doing the private trainings where now I mean, you can only have one signature talk, but I have two or three that I’ve given dozens of times that people request and those are really fun cuz I can now, I’ve turned them into workshops where, you know, they’re a little longer, two, two and a half hours and I see people working on them and I’m getting paid to do them.

[00:37:58] You know, someone come, someone pays me to come in to private membership or we do like a JV thing and that feels good. Not only to get paid to speak, finally the dream, right? That’s what everybody wants. But also to be able to see those people live working on something that previously feels like nails on a chalkboard, and to be able to hear them say, Liz, you’re making this fun which you think email, marketing, email and fun like that doesn’t really go together but to see that live is so amazing. I really love it. 

[00:38:31] Heather: Yeah, me too. I think that’s, I mean, similar thing where you mentioned before that we both do meta, right? You do email, talk about email. I do speaking, talk about speaking. There is kind of an element of that. I always love that moment where you leave a training and people give you immediate feedback.

[00:38:49] One of the things that I love about you is you do a really good job capturing that feedback via screenshots or people writing in. How do you leverage that to get more speaking opportunity? 

[00:39:00] Liz: I didn’t know I did that well, so thank you . You know, that immediate feedback she was just talking about is so nice to hear. If you’re not watching now, I’m blushing. Can you ask me the question again? How do I leverage that for more speaking opportunities? 

[00:39:19] Heather: You, well, and just in general, how do you leverage that? Because you do screenshots. I’ll serve this up a little different way for you. You recently launched a very sexy page on your website, all dedicated to speaking, and this was, so the 

[00:39:32] Liz: Oh, yeah, I did.

[00:39:33] Heather: Yeah, so, oh yeah, you did and it’s great. I always joked inside my program, especially when Liz went through it a couple years ago, I was like, oh, you don’t need a speaking page. I still to this day use a Google Doc, like, don’t overcomplicate it, like people hide behind their fancy, and I love that you, like, you gave yourself time for speaking, but now you are fancy and I freaking love it. Let’s talk about your speaking page and I just, I just want you to talk about it. 

[00:39:57] Liz: Yeah, yeah. Okay. One thing that I do, of course now I have the speaking page, lizwilcox.com/speaking. Just swipe it, steal it. Anything I create is yours. And so I’ve been slowly but surely capturing those screenshots, putting them in a Google Drive, capturing enough video of myself to make that speaking page.

[00:40:19] But really the one thing that I’ve done to get more speaking gigs and to capture that awesomeness, so to speak, that social proof is in my email signature, if you email me and I reply to you, it says, PS. Liz is trying to get on more podcasts. Do you know of one? She’s often told she’s the best guest they’ve had. We can’t share screenshots of that. So creating the intrigue, but you can go to her media page and check it out and it will link to that speaking page and I get so many opportunity, people I would never think had a podcast or I would never, oh, do you know so-and-so, let me introduce you, and these are the greatest introductions because they’re people that have seen results.

[00:41:06] They’re people of my community and they’re, oh my gosh, do you know Liz Wilcox? You know, basically like you’re an idiot if you don’t, book her now, like, I’ve been listening to her podcast forever. I want her on your show. Everybody needs her and those are so amazing, or even people in my community. I had a podcast interview I never would’ve thought to pitch myself. I never would’ve thought to Google this podcast. It was for goat farmers, specifically, creating goat products like goat milk, goat soap, things like that. And we named the episode like the Goat of Marketing email, like Greatest of all Time, right?

[00:41:42] And I got so many amazing leads, so many members in my membership like, wow, you made email make sense, and so using that sort of intrigue in my PS. And saying, you know, oh, I can’t, you know, I couldn’t say like, oh yeah, so and so said I was the best, like, that’s you know, invasion of privacy. They might not, you know, that might be like, oh, well I thought I was the best. They told me that too, right? 

[00:42:05] But using that intrigue and then sending them to the speaking page where there are screenshots of, you know, the chat in a digital summit or an in-person, I’ve got a video, has worked wonders for me. I hardly ever pitch myself anymore, and I haven’t in like 18 months. 

[00:42:23] Heather: Yeah. That’s, that’s beautiful. That’s the thing that I, I think that’s the goal. A lot of people want those opportunities coming to them. It’s why I use that word magnetic so much. The goal is right, you having opportunities come to you so you can be choosy with your yeses. And I love, I love how you did that, that social proof piece.

[00:42:39] One of the hardest things getting started as a speaker is you know your stuff is really, really good , but to tell other people that it’s good, it’s kind of like a dime a dozen. Everybody thinks they’re awesome, but when you have proof that other people say that, not only is your content good, but you delivering content is good, that is currency, that is unlike anything else because what’s fascinating is there are so many podcasts and so many stages available and so many people who say they can teach, but there is a shortage of good teachers. There’s a shortage of people who are good at explaining and make it fun and exciting. So if you can be that person, you create those brand. You essentially create a whole army of brand ambassadors, Liz.

[00:43:23] Liz: You know what Heather’s talking about is so true and I’m not just saying that because I want you to join her program. It so is like if you can, if you have the framework, yeah, that’s great. If you, your content’s great, but if you can’t deliver it in this magnetic way, It’s really a disservice and of course you have to go through, everybody has to go through the crappy stage.

[00:43:47] Everybody has to go through the, oh gosh, that wasn’t what I thought it could be type of stage. But once you get to that point, it is gold, like I have my membership and I do quarterly guest experts, and there’s been a few people that I said yes to and then they delivered their talk. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is not going up on the dashboard, because it just, it wasn’t up to my standard. It wasn’t the same tone as my membership does. I have, now that I know that I can do it well, and I’ve, you know, paid money to get really good at this and I’ve practiced and practice, and practice and practice, I have very high standards and often those stages that you want to get on probably have high standards too.

[00:44:30] And so, If you get nothing out of this podcast, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, lay those bricks one day, you will get there. I believe it. If I can do it, you know, coming from not even speaking until I was seven, being terrified. I’m still, you know, I’m still scared most of the time. I would say 80% of the time I still get that heart flutter and have to scrape my toes in my shoes. If I can do it, I, I know you can. 

[00:44:59] Heather: I love that. Okay. That is just like a mic. That is a mic drop. That is a mic drop. We’re going to, please don’t actually drop your mic because you need that for another podcast interview, I’m sure. Oh, you are incredible. That was really, really good advice. That was really good advice.

[00:45:15] Where I, we’ve already talked about your website a lot, but the best place for people to go to learn more about email marketing from you is 

[00:45:23] Liz: Yeah, of course. I’m an email marketer, so I’d love for you to join my list. You can go directly to lizwilcox.com. In the top right hand corner, there’s a hot pink button. You cannot miss it. It’s gonna give you an entire welcome sequence, already written for you, for you to take and make your own, three newsletter examples, if you are like I said at the beginning, like, what do I write? And you’re also gonna get 52 subject lines because writing from scratch totally sucks. Liz wilcox.com, hot pink button. 

[00:45:51] Heather: Yeah, and as she mentioned before, her speaking page is awesome. I use it as an example inside my program, which by the way, will teach you how to create your own set of resources around how you show up online so people can see you and be like, oh my gosh, this is legit. This person stands out in a different way.

[00:46:05] So you’re just, you’re incredible. Liz, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being so generous and sharing so much with our audience. Any last final advice for someone who’s exploring this idea of, is now the right time for me getting started with speaking, like, is that really relevant in my business? What should they be thinking about or do? 

[00:46:22] Liz: Why wait darling? Why wait? Just get going. You know, you have a message and there are people out there waiting to hear it just from you, so you better get going right now. 

[00:46:36] Heather: Get on it. I love it. I love it. You know, the, at the time of this episode drops, I’ve just released that I’m doing a free audio training. It’s a private podcast that’s out called, Becoming the Known Authority, and here’s the incredible thing is Liz, I could not have planned this better because you are the authority, like you very much have stepped in and said, I am the email, I am the email gal. And not just in a way where you’ve done it to serve you and to be like, oh, I wear that title.

[00:47:04] You’ve done it in a way of helping one single person at a time, really caring about the people that you serve. That’s how you’ve become the known authority. So if y’all wanna learn how to do that for yourself in your own industry, check out the link in the show notes here. I’m gonna give you all access, I’m giving away for free of exactly what it takes to get started with speaking, and then if it’s a right fit for you and now is the time. I’ll give you information around how to join us in the next round of my Signature Talk Accelerator where I’ll teach to do exactly what Liz and I did together and create your signature talks so you can start rocking and on stages. 

[00:47:37] All right, Liz, thanks for coming today. I appreciate you. I can’t wait to share your story with all of our people. Y’all, thanks so much for listening. We’ll see you in the next episode.