October 1, 2025 • 28 mins
“Keep your business simple enough that stepping away doesn’t break it.”
Notable Moments
00:07:22 – Liz explains how her business made money while she was on the cruise.
00:09:41 – The role of an operations manager and creating a business manual.
00:14:22 – Planning bursts of work to allow time off.
00:15:14 – Work-life balance compared to the tide.
00:17:35 – Why her $9 membership model works.
00:23:19 – Inclusivity and supporting beginners as a core value.
Liz Wilcox joins me to share how she built a business that thrives without her. From designing systems and hiring support to embracing a simple $9 membership model, Liz proves you can step away, enjoy life, and still see growth.
Read the blog for more from this episode.
Connect with Liz Wilcox
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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sugarjmaberry/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jodymaberry
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
Welcome to the Judy Mayberry Show. I'm here with
returning guest, third time, I think, Ms. Liz
Wilcox. Hi, Liz. Oh, my gosh. Hey, friends. So
excited to be here again. I'm the best. I win.
Yes, she's the best. She wins. Now, this is
(00:23):
a bit different because Liz and I are in person. And let me
tell you the story of why we're in person. I told Liz
more than almost a year ago that I was a guest
speaker, a guest lecturer for Royal Caribbean
on a cruise to Alaska. And Liz said, oh, my gosh, if you ever do
that again, I want to go. Well, I got booked to do it again.
(00:45):
And I called Liz and I said, guess what, Liz? I got booked to do
it again. And Liz signed up to do the cruise.
Nobody actually does what they say they're going to do. Liz, you said,
if you book that again, I'm going to do it. And then you did. And
that's why I'm the best. Yes. That's why Liz wins. Now we
have context here. Well, honestly, you told me
(01:06):
so Jody text me or DM'd me or something and said, hey, I'm getting
on that cruise. Here's the link. And I took a look at it, and I
was like, I did say I would, and I do want to
go, but who would I go with? Should I go alone? Should I bring my
kid? You know, because it was in September, so she's in school,
and I don't know, it maybe took me a couple weeks. And my
(01:29):
daughter didn't have her passport, and she needs a passport because we made one stop
in Canada. And so I asked her dad, like, hey, can we get her passport?
I want to take her on this cruise. And he said, yes. And so that's
when I knew, like, okay, yes, I'm definitely going. And Jody
hooked me up with a travel agent that he knew, and now we're
here, literally in his. What do you call this? A cabin, a
(01:51):
stateroom, a state room, Recording this
podcast. Yeah, we've had a great time. Just like that.
It worked out great. I really didn't think you'd come, Liz, when you said you
would. But I really didn't think I was coming either. I was like,
well, dang, you know, like, nobody's going to hold it against me if
I'm like, not this time. But then I thought, well, there was a reason I
(02:13):
said it. I did want to come. I do love hearing you lecture.
The topic sounds awesome. The location, Alaska. Who
wouldn't want to go? And I thought, yeah, this could be like our one family
vacation. Why wouldn't I go? So I've had a blast.
I have a real business reason why I
wanted to bring Liz on and talk to her. But we've got some other things
(02:35):
to get through. Liz was on Survivor season
46 and people still know her.
Millions of people saw her on national television. She still
gets recognized where she goes. So we started by we,
I mean, me and Liz just kind of went along with it. I said,
okay, Liz, one of the fun things about being a lecturer on a cruise is
(02:57):
for the rest of the cruise, people recognize you and will come up and
talk to you and it's a lot of fun. And day one, people were
already recognizing Liz from being on Survivor. So
we started a competition who's going to get recognized more?
And Liz was blowing me away for a long time.
Out of the water. Out of the water. And I have had
(03:20):
a very sharp comeback. And we are now tied six
to six. I've been recognized six times. Liz has been
recognized six times. Well, you know, that's. It's like Survivor.
You never know. You know, you can't give up because you never know
who's coming from behind. So I told Jodi, I said, tonight we're playing
uno on the main deck and I'm wearing my Survivor hat because
(03:42):
I'm going to win this thing. Yeah, it just
worked out great because Liz was winning 6 to 4.
We got off the ship in Victoria, Canada, and not
long after, someone recognized me. And then on the way
back to the ship in the dark, someone recognized in the dark.
It's an ego blow for sure. Yeah.
(04:05):
So as of now, Liz and I are tied six to six.
We have a little bit of time left. You can assume I ended up winning.
We'll just leave it at that. We can. I will let Jodi
win. All right, moving on. We'll leave it at that. Here's
another distinction. Liz has. Liz has now seen me
speak at two conferences and now three times
(04:27):
on this ship. I don't think anybody has seen me speak five times.
Well, actually, so I think two conferences
and your workshop. Oh, my goodness. Which was like a two day
event, wasn't it? And now
three days of the cruise. So
I'm a Jody Mayberry fan. Of course I want him to get
(04:50):
recognized as much as me. So this. I
forgot about the workshop. I guess we can only count that as once
because it was one workshop, but it was two days. That is
a lot of sugar, J.
That's a lot of sugar, J for sure. All right. Well, the
topics here on the cruise, much different than what you've seen me talk about
(05:13):
in the past. But I will say these. For me, I do
enjoy talking business, but talking whales, talking
history, that's way more fun. Okay. That was one of the reasons I
really wanted to come on the cruise with Jody because,
you know, he's always talking about his park ranger days. You know, it's like the
glory days of Jody Mayberry, I feel like, sometimes.
(05:36):
And so when he said he was going to talk about, like, whales and the
history of Alaska and all that, I was like, oh,
that is cool. Like, that's awesome that they bring. I've never been
on a cruise, so I had no idea that there were so many activities. And
so I thought, oh, that's cool. I can hear Jody
speak. He's a guy that I respect and I like to hear from,
(05:59):
and I can learn stuff that's like, outside of business
because, yeah, we all need breaks, you know? And so I was like, oh,
yeah, I definitely got to get on this cruise. I gave one
talk on Wales of Alaska, one talk on the history of
Alaska, and one talk on the unexpected Civil
War history of Alaska. Which was your favorite, Liz?
(06:21):
The last one, the unexpected history of the Civil
War in Alaska. I thought that was so cool. I didn't know a lot of
that stuff, and yeah, it was awesome.
Yeah, that is such a good story. All I have to do is tell it.
I mean, it's. That should be a separate episode, honestly, just like
a little bonus, like, you know, leave them guessing, you know,
(06:43):
what is the unexpected history of Alaska? Well, we won't talk about that
anymore. So, Liz, there's something you've
done that I think is incredible. I want to reintroduce
Liz to you a little bit. Hopefully you remember her from past episodes, but
she's known as the fresh princess of email marketing.
If you want to know anything about email marketing, Liz is
(07:06):
your girl. And she has this great business built
around a $9 a month membership site. And this is what has
floored me away. I have been stressing this whole week
because I've had to do my presentations, but I really don't have
anyone. Like, my business is paused while I'm
here, and I feel things are backlogging. I've got to sell tickets
(07:28):
for this. I've got to answer emails. I've got to do this. Liz is
having the time of her life. I haven't thought about business at all,
but I knew we were recording this, so I looked and
I wrote a few emails in advance and sent them out on
autopilot, so to speak. And my sister works for me
full time, so she made sure that all got sent out properly.
(07:50):
And you know, we, we made like $2,000 while I was on this
cruise. So that paid for my massages and my acupuncture
and all my little magnets, you know, when we got
onto land. That is, that's amazing, Liz. That's what I
want to talk about. Tell me it's probably a longer term
answer than what you did the week before you went on the cruise, but
(08:13):
what have you done to set yourself up to have a business where
you can disappear for a week? Yeah, so I've
sold two businesses before. And so growing this
membership site and my business, I know that it's
in the entrepreneur's best interest to build
a business to sell. And you can't sell a business
(08:36):
if you are the only person running the business. And
not that I ever want to sell this one. I mean, it's under
lizwilcox.com My face is all over it. Every video is
me. You know, I've been on, gosh, hundreds of
podcasts. Liz Wilcox.com you know, like, I don't really want to
sell it, but I know that if it's built to
(08:56):
sell, I can step away from it. And that's what I learned
from selling my first two businesses. I had to remove myself from
it, so this was much easier. But I will say the push
that really, or the thing that really pushed me to
build this, to sell, so to speak, was Survivor. I
applied and they got back to me within 15 minutes. And I
(09:18):
just knew in my gut I was going to get on that show. And
I knew that the business had to live without me. And so
for months I hired an operations manager and
she helped basically upload everything from
my brain onto a computer. And
the same way as if you have a 9 to 5 or you used to.
(09:41):
There was a work manual, right? And here's our standard
operating procedures, here's how we do things, here's our brand
voice, here's how we interact with customers, all of that.
I have that in something called Notion. That's the task
manager that we use. And I was able to. My sister worked for me
part time. I was able to bring her in full time. And as I was
(10:03):
building out that, you know, work manual, basically company
manual, you know, she was there beside me
reading it every step of the way. And so when I went to
Fiji to film, she stepped in full time.
And when I came home, spoiler alert. I did not win Survivor
if you haven't watched it. But I came really close. And I was very
(10:25):
physically and mentally exhausted. And so I took extra
time off after the show. And I just realized, like, oh,
like Jodi just said, I don't actually have to be in my business. The business
doesn't pause when I do. And that's been the biggest
blessing. So really was hiring the operations manager to
understand what needed to come out of my brain and onto the computer
(10:46):
to transfer that to other people. And since then, in the last two, two and
a half years, we've hired contractors. They've just been able to come in,
read the manual, read through things and understand the way
the business works, understand my expectations, what's important,
what's not, and so I can step away. The
second part of that, just really quickly, is I have a membership model
(11:09):
and it's $9. I read somewhere that somebody said
it's easier to sell 20 people on a
$5,000 package than 100 people on
$25 or something like that. And I thought, yeah, that's
true. But you have to deliver more on the
$5,000 package I sell every single
(11:30):
month, 4,000 people giving me $9. I
have to deliver $9. That's it. I get to go
on a cruise with Jody. When he says, yeah, I'm going back. And I said,
oh, cool. Who are you bringing? Oh, your daughter. I'm bringing my daughter too.
Let's hang out. And we've been able to hang out nearly every second of the
day. It's felt like, which has been awesome. And I have not thought about
(11:51):
work, but I think one time my sister asked me a
question about a link and that was it.
And yeah, so it's been that mixture of building
it to sell, making sure it can operate without you.
And then I have a very simple business model where the expectations
on me, the face of the company are very low.
(12:14):
There's a couple of really interesting things with that. One is that
you have built a personality based business
that also doesn't need you, which is incredible. That is
actually crazy when you put it that way. You're so right. Wow,
I do win. Yeah, you do win. Because
most people that have personality based businesses, it does not work
(12:38):
without them. And not only can Liz go on a cruise
for a week, Liz can disappear and play Survivor and no one
knows. Right. And I think a lot of that is also the strategies
that I put into place. They're evergreen. You know, I have a
blog I have a podcast I've been on.
I think at this point it's at least 300 podcasts. All of
(13:00):
that lives in perpetuity. Right. So people are finding me
whether or not I'm on the Internet. And then I mentioned,
oh, I wrote a few emails before I went on the cruise.
And so, you know, I work in bursts nowadays
rather than every week. You know, I took the summer off and
so April and May were pretty busy. I was hunkered down
(13:22):
doing a lot of writing. Okay, what's happening in July and August? Let
me write that in April and May, you know, so the business still
needs me, but it doesn't need me
stretched out, just more. I work a lot in bursts,
which. Is great because then you can plan when those bursts
are. Yes. And I do. And nowadays, with the membership being,
(13:45):
at the time of this recording, four and a half years old, I know the
cycles. I know when I'm launching, you know what I call my
annual pass, which is a big bonus thing you get if you
sign up for a year. I know that only happens three times a year.
So six weeks before I need to be working in births, what am
I going to talk about for the next six weeks? I know I want to
(14:07):
take summers off because that's when my kid has time off.
So I know in the spring I need to be working extra hard,
even for this cruise. I'll go home tomorrow,
I'll be home for 36 hours, and then I go to Germany. And
so I worked a lot in August to be able to take time off in
September. So, yeah, it's important if you want
(14:29):
time off in your business to create that sort of. I don't know,
what do you call it? Like a life cycle of your business, knowing when
you're doing something, how much effort it's going to take,
what's the purpose of doing it, and, you know,
sticking to that schedule. A lot of entrepreneurs cannot stick to their
own schedule, so I guess that's my third thing I'm able
(14:52):
to stick to my own schedule. And it works really well. Yeah, not many can
do that. Yeah. I think Liz is a good example of
what work life balance really is. Not the myth of
it. I always think of it where people talk about work
life balance. Like there's a line, for example,
you live in Florida, I live in Washington. We both have tides. Yeah.
(15:14):
There is a line that is the median tide line,
but it's never there. I mean, it briefly passes it twice a day.
Right. But the tide is either really high or really low. And I think
what we do, work, life balance, is much like that.
Sometimes you have to be all in for quite a while, like
a high tide. And sometimes it tides out. You can do whatever you want. Yeah,
(15:37):
that's so true. And it changes based on the lunar
cycle. Right. You know, like, it's always different.
Yeah, I love that analogy. And I, I really,
when I meet new people or my friends come to town
and I might say, oh, I'm working a lot, they're like, oh, I thought you
said you'd never work. I'm like, well, I never really do. And they're like, well,
(15:58):
you've been working nonstop. I'm like, oh, well, I work this week, but
next week I'm not really working at all. And so, yeah, it's this
tide, you know, sometimes it's all the way out and sometimes it's all the way
in versus, you know, like 50, 50 or
something like that. And I've noticed, really, especially since coming
back from Survivor and being able to be out of the business, I really
(16:20):
can decide, okay, right now I'm working a crap
ton because I know I want to take this much time off.
And those little bursts feel much better to me than having
to, you know, work that nine to five
schedule every day with the hopes of taking Christmas
off and a few weeks in the summer. All right, one more piece. I
(16:42):
want to make sure I bring up you did
something I've never seen anyone pull off quite like it.
$9 membership, 4,000 people. I've
heard so many times since you did that, oh,
I'm going to do a model. Kind of like Liz. I'm going to do a
$9 model. Liz Wilcox. So many people say it,
(17:03):
and they either don't do it or they try, and it doesn't work.
So why did it work for you? There was a
huge gap in the market. And I'm relentless. I've been on this
podcast three times. I am relentless.
I just have that personality of, you know, the stick
to it ness, I guess, of, you know, this is the thing I'm going to
(17:25):
go for. I'm going to give myself time. I know it's not going to happen
overnight. And so when you give yourself permission to
go slow, you don't build as much resentment. A lot of people
might say, oh, I'm going to do this $9 thing or even $20. And
after six months, they have 10 people, and it's like, I'm doing all this
work for what, $60, $100 a
(17:47):
month, and they Start to resent the idea or the customers or
the work itself. But I said, I'm going to do this for two
years. I don't expect this to make any real kind of cash for two years.
And so it was more of like a seven dwarves whistle while you work
situation. I was excited. I was like, in two years this is going to be
a thing. And for me it just took off a lot faster. But
(18:09):
that definitely being relentless about it and also
that huge gap in the market. I mean, I feel like again,
seven Dwarves, like I was in the gem mine. Like I
work with email marketing, right? That's usually a very high ticket thing.
You have to kind of know what you're doing a little bit so that you
can afford somebody who knows, who really knows what they're doing. And I
(18:32):
said, well, actually I'm going to go with the beginners who don't know what they're
doing and I'm going to charge a beginner price because guess what,
there are a lot of beginners and there's only so many people who
get it over here. And so I think just really
knowing the customer and knowing that there was a gap in the market
and being again, relentless, like super extra loud about
(18:53):
it, like, hey, I'm over here. I know everyone else is ignoring you, but
I'm going to help you. Has really shown success. So if
you're trying this low ticket thing, really ask yourself, like,
is this a gap in the market? Or where is the gap in the market?
How can I fill it? Whether it's low ticket or high or somewhere in
between, really finding, you know, that unique
(19:15):
position of your offer can really help you succeed, no
matter what it is. What you said earlier about your $9 offer
is that you only have to deliver $9 of value
a month. That is incredible. You could deliver
$15 a month. And it's people are getting a great deal and it's
not much for you. I never heard you say that about your membership before.
(19:38):
Yeah, and I don't say like nonchalantly or like I don't
care about my customers. I care so much if you even go into my Facebook
group. It's called the email sound booth. You can get in there for free. You
will see. I was in there today asking people, what do you need
from me? I'm here, y', all, I'm on a cruise. And they know I'm on
a cruise. So not many people actually responded. One lady asked me
(19:59):
about my allergies and I've been DMing her. That has Nothing to do with
my email marketing membership. Like, I do care about my people, but I also
care about my rest. I care about my child who is literally five feet away
from us, you know, being very good and I appreciate her. You
know, I care about my family. I care about turning off my computer at night.
And so for the $9, I don't have to feel guilty.
(20:22):
You know, if I had a $5,000 client, I might be like,
Jodi, like, oh, maybe I should do a little bit more work. Oh, can you
guys go up and play foosball? Be there in 20 minutes.
Let me just answer this email. I don't have to do that because it's
$9 and I think my customers understand that it's $9.
And any of that extra attention they're willing to wait
(20:44):
for because they know they're getting a heck of a deal. Yeah, that
is great to hear because so many. And there's no, neither
is right, neither is wrong. But so many people
push other people towards. You should have high ticket. That's all
you should be talking about, high ticket. And you took the exact opposite.
Yeah, well, I mean, I just stole it from Netflix. I mean, I'm not
(21:07):
a genius. I was like, wait a second, Netflix,
Costco, all these very low ticket memberships are
way more successful than, you
know, these high ticket things, right? Like look at
Walmart. Walmart is worth what, something like $500
billion. They're, you know, the Every Man's Shopping
(21:29):
center, right, versus Gucci, which is only worth 50
billion or million or something. It's like, why wouldn't I want to be the
Walmart? Why wouldn't I want everyone to come shop with me? You
know, that's what I want. And I can sleep at night because I'm not staying
up with client work. That's a win win. I'm going to go that
way. Well, I've also noticed that Liz has
(21:52):
a heart for or an interest in the
beginner, the person that isn't quite there. Now, Liz,
I've noticed this in your Facebook group. I've noticed
this in the way you market. But I haven't told you about this before. I
noticed it when you came to my workshop. There was one person
who wasn't quite where the others were. I mean, we had some
(22:14):
very executive business owners. Yeah, I was thinking about
him today actually. That's so funny you bring that up. Yeah.
And I noticed that from the front of the room, like, okay, there's all these
successful people in this room. There's one who's not yet.
And Liz sought out that person to spend time
with. Yeah, well, you know, something that I learned, actually, from those
(22:37):
survivor psychologists, they make you see a psychologist
after the show for about a year. If you've ever seen the show, you can
understand why. And she mentioned to me, this is not something that I really knew
about myself. She said, inclusivity is very important to you,
Liz. You want to make sure everyone is taken care of. And
Jody and I have joked a lot about being the middle child this
(22:59):
cruise, and I think that's also a trait of the middle child to make sure,
like, oh, are you okay? Are you okay over here? Because we kind of see
everything and we see all sides, and that is very, very,
very important to me. And I realized, yeah, you know,
there's a gap in the market, but also there's a gap in education.
And I come from an education background. I have a master's in leadership.
(23:21):
I like to get behind people and push them towards their dreams.
And I just notice, like, no people are. You're leaving
behind all these people, like, okay, if you're
not going to do it, I'll do it. I'll set up this membership. I'll write
your emails for you. Literally $9. Just give it a chance. I know it's
going to change your life, and I really do love it. Thank you for sharing
(23:44):
that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was neat for me to see because
as the instructor, I have to worry about the whole experience,
the whole event, and I could, from the front of the room
and from the conversation, see and feel where the gaps
were, but I can't do anything about it from what I was
doing. So that's why it was so noticeable to me that you stepped in.
(24:07):
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say about that, because people. People
will say similar things to me in my group and my membership,
and I just tell them, like, this is what I'm educated in. I
have an education in elementary education. And they preach
inclusivity and differentiation and instruction.
So it's just something that I guess now comes naturally. But I was
(24:31):
really trained in learning how to talk to all different
kinds of people at different levels and how to bring them up to
the same level. And so I think that's. Thank you for bringing that up.
I don't give myself enough credit sometimes. That's why the membership
works so well, and that's why it's grown from word of mouth,
as people say. Oh, you know, I've heard this before. But the way
(24:53):
Liz said it to me and the way her membership is designed for
all different kinds of learners, I finally got it. I'm
finally emailing. I'm finally seeing some movement here. Well,
What a bargain. $9 to get your email
templates and feel heard. That's quite a bargain. Thank you.
Yeah, I think it's a steal of a deal. Nine bucks. I will
(25:15):
unashamedly tell you to go to LizWilcox.com and hit that yellow button at
the top and check it out. But we are talking about taking time
off, so I really hope people kind of think about that
concept of building to sell. Even if you never plan on
selling, I want you to take time off. It feels
so freaking good. I can't tell you how awesome this cruise has been.
(25:37):
And I know there's many more to come. And it's been, you
know, totally pain free for both me and, you know, my
sister who works for me. It's been totally smooth. So, you
know, work to work yourself out of your company and
you're going to love it. Before we wrap up, Liz, I have
one I want to get your take on one thing. I was in Skagway.
(26:00):
My daughter and I are Skagway, Alaska. My daughter and I are walking down the
street. There's some ladies on the street promoting a
play. And I got a picture with one on the street,
walked down a little bit, and one hollers from the window up
above second floor and hollers down at us. And it was
funny. Whatever she said was funny. And it caught my attention and I said, oh,
(26:22):
you're wonderful. Can I take your picture? And she said, honey, I wouldn't be
hanging out of a window if I didn't want more attention. Love it. And I
thought, number one, she's a middle child, and number
two, what great marketing. And so I just want your take on that.
I love it. That is great marketing because it's something that
Jody said in one of his presentations this week
(26:44):
was about, you know, having the listener be, like,
interested enough by the end to take action
and, you know, move forward with learning more. And
that's exactly what she did. You know, it was like, oh, wouldn't be hanging out
the window. Oh, what kind of attention do you want? What do I need to
be paying attention to? Right. She provoked you to think more about it.
(27:05):
I think that's great marketing. I think it's really fun. And it's kind
of like zigging when everyone else is zagging. Right. She said something
a little provocative and fun where some People might just be like, yeah,
come to the show. Here's a flyer. I love that so much. Yeah, that was
great. Liz, it has been wonderful to be on a
cruise with you. You've been a lot of fun. I think Gretel and
(27:28):
I have enjoyed Chelsea so much. We just might take
her home. Well, Chelsea is my daughter, so I'll take her
home, but I'll definitely ship her to you if we're having
problems, so be warned. All right. Well, neither
of us would complain. We've had a lot of fun with that. You
mentioned the yellow box. Lizwilcox.com that's
(27:50):
where people can catch up with you, find out what's going on. Yeah. If you
want to learn More about the $9 membership, you can go to LizWilcox.com
There's a yellow bar at the top that says, did you hear about that 9DOL
membership? Click here. You can click right there and check it out. Or if
you just want to get started with email, there's a hot pink button. You can
click that and get started with your email marketing. All right, there it is.
(28:11):
Liz Wilcox. Liz is so great to have you back on the
show. Next time we don't have to go on a cruise just for you
to come back. You can come on the show anytime you want. All right, I'll
take you up on that. Thank you, Liz. And thank you for listening to the
Jody Maybank show.
(28:34):
Wouldn't trust him to run a meat raffle at the footy. It's Sugar J.
Foreign.
Welcome to the Judy Mayberry Show. I'm here with
returning guest, third time, I think, Ms. Liz
Wilcox. Hi, Liz. Oh, my gosh. Hey, friends. So
excited to be here again. I'm the best. I win.
Yes, she's the best. She wins. Now, this is
(00:23):
a bit different because Liz and I are in person. And let me
tell you the story of why we're in person. I told Liz
more than almost a year ago that I was a guest
speaker, a guest lecturer for Royal Caribbean
on a cruise to Alaska. And Liz said, oh, my gosh, if you ever do
that again, I want to go. Well, I got booked to do it again.
(00:45):
And I called Liz and I said, guess what, Liz? I got booked to do
it again. And Liz signed up to do the cruise.
Nobody actually does what they say they're going to do. Liz, you said,
if you book that again, I'm going to do it. And then you did. And
that's why I'm the best. Yes. That's why Liz wins. Now we
have context here. Well, honestly, you told me
(01:06):
so Jody text me or DM'd me or something and said, hey, I'm getting
on that cruise. Here's the link. And I took a look at it, and I
was like, I did say I would, and I do want to
go, but who would I go with? Should I go alone? Should I bring my
kid? You know, because it was in September, so she's in school,
and I don't know, it maybe took me a couple weeks. And my
(01:29):
daughter didn't have her passport, and she needs a passport because we made one stop
in Canada. And so I asked her dad, like, hey, can we get her passport?
I want to take her on this cruise. And he said, yes. And so that's
when I knew, like, okay, yes, I'm definitely going. And Jody
hooked me up with a travel agent that he knew, and now we're
here, literally in his. What do you call this? A cabin, a
(01:51):
stateroom, a state room, Recording this
podcast. Yeah, we've had a great time. Just like that.
It worked out great. I really didn't think you'd come, Liz, when you said you
would. But I really didn't think I was coming either. I was like,
well, dang, you know, like, nobody's going to hold it against me if
I'm like, not this time. But then I thought, well, there was a reason I
(02:13):
said it. I did want to come. I do love hearing you lecture.
The topic sounds awesome. The location, Alaska. Who
wouldn't want to go? And I thought, yeah, this could be like our one family
vacation. Why wouldn't I go? So I've had a blast.
I have a real business reason why I
wanted to bring Liz on and talk to her. But we've got some other things
(02:35):
to get through. Liz was on Survivor season
46 and people still know her.
Millions of people saw her on national television. She still
gets recognized where she goes. So we started by we,
I mean, me and Liz just kind of went along with it. I said,
okay, Liz, one of the fun things about being a lecturer on a cruise is
(02:57):
for the rest of the cruise, people recognize you and will come up and
talk to you and it's a lot of fun. And day one, people were
already recognizing Liz from being on Survivor. So
we started a competition who's going to get recognized more?
And Liz was blowing me away for a long time.
Out of the water. Out of the water. And I have had
(03:20):
a very sharp comeback. And we are now tied six
to six. I've been recognized six times. Liz has been
recognized six times. Well, you know, that's. It's like Survivor.
You never know. You know, you can't give up because you never know
who's coming from behind. So I told Jodi, I said, tonight we're playing
uno on the main deck and I'm wearing my Survivor hat because
(03:42):
I'm going to win this thing. Yeah, it just
worked out great because Liz was winning 6 to 4.
We got off the ship in Victoria, Canada, and not
long after, someone recognized me. And then on the way
back to the ship in the dark, someone recognized in the dark.
It's an ego blow for sure. Yeah.
(04:05):
So as of now, Liz and I are tied six to six.
We have a little bit of time left. You can assume I ended up winning.
We'll just leave it at that. We can. I will let Jodi
win. All right, moving on. We'll leave it at that. Here's
another distinction. Liz has. Liz has now seen me
speak at two conferences and now three times
(04:27):
on this ship. I don't think anybody has seen me speak five times.
Well, actually, so I think two conferences
and your workshop. Oh, my goodness. Which was like a two day
event, wasn't it? And now
three days of the cruise. So
I'm a Jody Mayberry fan. Of course I want him to get
(04:50):
recognized as much as me. So this. I
forgot about the workshop. I guess we can only count that as once
because it was one workshop, but it was two days. That is
a lot of sugar, J.
That's a lot of sugar, J for sure. All right. Well, the
topics here on the cruise, much different than what you've seen me talk about
(05:13):
in the past. But I will say these. For me, I do
enjoy talking business, but talking whales, talking
history, that's way more fun. Okay. That was one of the reasons I
really wanted to come on the cruise with Jody because,
you know, he's always talking about his park ranger days. You know, it's like the
glory days of Jody Mayberry, I feel like, sometimes.
(05:36):
And so when he said he was going to talk about, like, whales and the
history of Alaska and all that, I was like, oh,
that is cool. Like, that's awesome that they bring. I've never been
on a cruise, so I had no idea that there were so many activities. And
so I thought, oh, that's cool. I can hear Jody
speak. He's a guy that I respect and I like to hear from,
(05:59):
and I can learn stuff that's like, outside of business
because, yeah, we all need breaks, you know? And so I was like, oh,
yeah, I definitely got to get on this cruise. I gave one
talk on Wales of Alaska, one talk on the history of
Alaska, and one talk on the unexpected Civil
War history of Alaska. Which was your favorite, Liz?
(06:21):
The last one, the unexpected history of the Civil
War in Alaska. I thought that was so cool. I didn't know a lot of
that stuff, and yeah, it was awesome.
Yeah, that is such a good story. All I have to do is tell it.
I mean, it's. That should be a separate episode, honestly, just like
a little bonus, like, you know, leave them guessing, you know,
(06:43):
what is the unexpected history of Alaska? Well, we won't talk about that
anymore. So, Liz, there's something you've
done that I think is incredible. I want to reintroduce
Liz to you a little bit. Hopefully you remember her from past episodes, but
she's known as the fresh princess of email marketing.
If you want to know anything about email marketing, Liz is
(07:06):
your girl. And she has this great business built
around a $9 a month membership site. And this is what has
floored me away. I have been stressing this whole week
because I've had to do my presentations, but I really don't have
anyone. Like, my business is paused while I'm
here, and I feel things are backlogging. I've got to sell tickets
(07:28):
for this. I've got to answer emails. I've got to do this. Liz is
having the time of her life. I haven't thought about business at all,
but I knew we were recording this, so I looked and
I wrote a few emails in advance and sent them out on
autopilot, so to speak. And my sister works for me
full time, so she made sure that all got sent out properly.
(07:50):
And you know, we, we made like $2,000 while I was on this
cruise. So that paid for my massages and my acupuncture
and all my little magnets, you know, when we got
onto land. That is, that's amazing, Liz. That's what I
want to talk about. Tell me it's probably a longer term
answer than what you did the week before you went on the cruise, but
(08:13):
what have you done to set yourself up to have a business where
you can disappear for a week? Yeah, so I've
sold two businesses before. And so growing this
membership site and my business, I know that it's
in the entrepreneur's best interest to build
a business to sell. And you can't sell a business
(08:36):
if you are the only person running the business. And
not that I ever want to sell this one. I mean, it's under
lizwilcox.com My face is all over it. Every video is
me. You know, I've been on, gosh, hundreds of
podcasts. Liz Wilcox.com you know, like, I don't really want to
sell it, but I know that if it's built to
(08:56):
sell, I can step away from it. And that's what I learned
from selling my first two businesses. I had to remove myself from
it, so this was much easier. But I will say the push
that really, or the thing that really pushed me to
build this, to sell, so to speak, was Survivor. I
applied and they got back to me within 15 minutes. And I
(09:18):
just knew in my gut I was going to get on that show. And
I knew that the business had to live without me. And so
for months I hired an operations manager and
she helped basically upload everything from
my brain onto a computer. And
the same way as if you have a 9 to 5 or you used to.
(09:41):
There was a work manual, right? And here's our standard
operating procedures, here's how we do things, here's our brand
voice, here's how we interact with customers, all of that.
I have that in something called Notion. That's the task
manager that we use. And I was able to. My sister worked for me
part time. I was able to bring her in full time. And as I was
(10:03):
building out that, you know, work manual, basically company
manual, you know, she was there beside me
reading it every step of the way. And so when I went to
Fiji to film, she stepped in full time.
And when I came home, spoiler alert. I did not win Survivor
if you haven't watched it. But I came really close. And I was very
(10:25):
physically and mentally exhausted. And so I took extra
time off after the show. And I just realized, like, oh,
like Jodi just said, I don't actually have to be in my business. The business
doesn't pause when I do. And that's been the biggest
blessing. So really was hiring the operations manager to
understand what needed to come out of my brain and onto the computer
(10:46):
to transfer that to other people. And since then, in the last two, two and
a half years, we've hired contractors. They've just been able to come in,
read the manual, read through things and understand the way
the business works, understand my expectations, what's important,
what's not, and so I can step away. The
second part of that, just really quickly, is I have a membership model
(11:09):
and it's $9. I read somewhere that somebody said
it's easier to sell 20 people on a
$5,000 package than 100 people on
$25 or something like that. And I thought, yeah, that's
true. But you have to deliver more on the
$5,000 package I sell every single
(11:30):
month, 4,000 people giving me $9. I
have to deliver $9. That's it. I get to go
on a cruise with Jody. When he says, yeah, I'm going back. And I said,
oh, cool. Who are you bringing? Oh, your daughter. I'm bringing my daughter too.
Let's hang out. And we've been able to hang out nearly every second of the
day. It's felt like, which has been awesome. And I have not thought about
(11:51):
work, but I think one time my sister asked me a
question about a link and that was it.
And yeah, so it's been that mixture of building
it to sell, making sure it can operate without you.
And then I have a very simple business model where the expectations
on me, the face of the company are very low.
(12:14):
There's a couple of really interesting things with that. One is that
you have built a personality based business
that also doesn't need you, which is incredible. That is
actually crazy when you put it that way. You're so right. Wow,
I do win. Yeah, you do win. Because
most people that have personality based businesses, it does not work
(12:38):
without them. And not only can Liz go on a cruise
for a week, Liz can disappear and play Survivor and no one
knows. Right. And I think a lot of that is also the strategies
that I put into place. They're evergreen. You know, I have a
blog I have a podcast I've been on.
I think at this point it's at least 300 podcasts. All of
(13:00):
that lives in perpetuity. Right. So people are finding me
whether or not I'm on the Internet. And then I mentioned,
oh, I wrote a few emails before I went on the cruise.
And so, you know, I work in bursts nowadays
rather than every week. You know, I took the summer off and
so April and May were pretty busy. I was hunkered down
(13:22):
doing a lot of writing. Okay, what's happening in July and August? Let
me write that in April and May, you know, so the business still
needs me, but it doesn't need me
stretched out, just more. I work a lot in bursts,
which. Is great because then you can plan when those bursts
are. Yes. And I do. And nowadays, with the membership being,
(13:45):
at the time of this recording, four and a half years old, I know the
cycles. I know when I'm launching, you know what I call my
annual pass, which is a big bonus thing you get if you
sign up for a year. I know that only happens three times a year.
So six weeks before I need to be working in births, what am
I going to talk about for the next six weeks? I know I want to
(14:07):
take summers off because that's when my kid has time off.
So I know in the spring I need to be working extra hard,
even for this cruise. I'll go home tomorrow,
I'll be home for 36 hours, and then I go to Germany. And
so I worked a lot in August to be able to take time off in
September. So, yeah, it's important if you want
(14:29):
time off in your business to create that sort of. I don't know,
what do you call it? Like a life cycle of your business, knowing when
you're doing something, how much effort it's going to take,
what's the purpose of doing it, and, you know,
sticking to that schedule. A lot of entrepreneurs cannot stick to their
own schedule, so I guess that's my third thing I'm able
(14:52):
to stick to my own schedule. And it works really well. Yeah, not many can
do that. Yeah. I think Liz is a good example of
what work life balance really is. Not the myth of
it. I always think of it where people talk about work
life balance. Like there's a line, for example,
you live in Florida, I live in Washington. We both have tides. Yeah.
(15:14):
There is a line that is the median tide line,
but it's never there. I mean, it briefly passes it twice a day.
Right. But the tide is either really high or really low. And I think
what we do, work, life balance, is much like that.
Sometimes you have to be all in for quite a while, like
a high tide. And sometimes it tides out. You can do whatever you want. Yeah,
(15:37):
that's so true. And it changes based on the lunar
cycle. Right. You know, like, it's always different.
Yeah, I love that analogy. And I, I really,
when I meet new people or my friends come to town
and I might say, oh, I'm working a lot, they're like, oh, I thought you
said you'd never work. I'm like, well, I never really do. And they're like, well,
(15:58):
you've been working nonstop. I'm like, oh, well, I work this week, but
next week I'm not really working at all. And so, yeah, it's this
tide, you know, sometimes it's all the way out and sometimes it's all the way
in versus, you know, like 50, 50 or
something like that. And I've noticed, really, especially since coming
back from Survivor and being able to be out of the business, I really
(16:20):
can decide, okay, right now I'm working a crap
ton because I know I want to take this much time off.
And those little bursts feel much better to me than having
to, you know, work that nine to five
schedule every day with the hopes of taking Christmas
off and a few weeks in the summer. All right, one more piece. I
(16:42):
want to make sure I bring up you did
something I've never seen anyone pull off quite like it.
$9 membership, 4,000 people. I've
heard so many times since you did that, oh,
I'm going to do a model. Kind of like Liz. I'm going to do a
$9 model. Liz Wilcox. So many people say it,
(17:03):
and they either don't do it or they try, and it doesn't work.
So why did it work for you? There was a
huge gap in the market. And I'm relentless. I've been on this
podcast three times. I am relentless.
I just have that personality of, you know, the stick
to it ness, I guess, of, you know, this is the thing I'm going to
(17:25):
go for. I'm going to give myself time. I know it's not going to happen
overnight. And so when you give yourself permission to
go slow, you don't build as much resentment. A lot of people
might say, oh, I'm going to do this $9 thing or even $20. And
after six months, they have 10 people, and it's like, I'm doing all this
work for what, $60, $100 a
(17:47):
month, and they Start to resent the idea or the customers or
the work itself. But I said, I'm going to do this for two
years. I don't expect this to make any real kind of cash for two years.
And so it was more of like a seven dwarves whistle while you work
situation. I was excited. I was like, in two years this is going to be
a thing. And for me it just took off a lot faster. But
(18:09):
that definitely being relentless about it and also
that huge gap in the market. I mean, I feel like again,
seven Dwarves, like I was in the gem mine. Like I
work with email marketing, right? That's usually a very high ticket thing.
You have to kind of know what you're doing a little bit so that you
can afford somebody who knows, who really knows what they're doing. And I
(18:32):
said, well, actually I'm going to go with the beginners who don't know what they're
doing and I'm going to charge a beginner price because guess what,
there are a lot of beginners and there's only so many people who
get it over here. And so I think just really
knowing the customer and knowing that there was a gap in the market
and being again, relentless, like super extra loud about
(18:53):
it, like, hey, I'm over here. I know everyone else is ignoring you, but
I'm going to help you. Has really shown success. So if
you're trying this low ticket thing, really ask yourself, like,
is this a gap in the market? Or where is the gap in the market?
How can I fill it? Whether it's low ticket or high or somewhere in
between, really finding, you know, that unique
(19:15):
position of your offer can really help you succeed, no
matter what it is. What you said earlier about your $9 offer
is that you only have to deliver $9 of value
a month. That is incredible. You could deliver
$15 a month. And it's people are getting a great deal and it's
not much for you. I never heard you say that about your membership before.
(19:38):
Yeah, and I don't say like nonchalantly or like I don't
care about my customers. I care so much if you even go into my Facebook
group. It's called the email sound booth. You can get in there for free. You
will see. I was in there today asking people, what do you need
from me? I'm here, y', all, I'm on a cruise. And they know I'm on
a cruise. So not many people actually responded. One lady asked me
(19:59):
about my allergies and I've been DMing her. That has Nothing to do with
my email marketing membership. Like, I do care about my people, but I also
care about my rest. I care about my child who is literally five feet away
from us, you know, being very good and I appreciate her. You
know, I care about my family. I care about turning off my computer at night.
And so for the $9, I don't have to feel guilty.
(20:22):
You know, if I had a $5,000 client, I might be like,
Jodi, like, oh, maybe I should do a little bit more work. Oh, can you
guys go up and play foosball? Be there in 20 minutes.
Let me just answer this email. I don't have to do that because it's
$9 and I think my customers understand that it's $9.
And any of that extra attention they're willing to wait
(20:44):
for because they know they're getting a heck of a deal. Yeah, that
is great to hear because so many. And there's no, neither
is right, neither is wrong. But so many people
push other people towards. You should have high ticket. That's all
you should be talking about, high ticket. And you took the exact opposite.
Yeah, well, I mean, I just stole it from Netflix. I mean, I'm not
(21:07):
a genius. I was like, wait a second, Netflix,
Costco, all these very low ticket memberships are
way more successful than, you
know, these high ticket things, right? Like look at
Walmart. Walmart is worth what, something like $500
billion. They're, you know, the Every Man's Shopping
(21:29):
center, right, versus Gucci, which is only worth 50
billion or million or something. It's like, why wouldn't I want to be the
Walmart? Why wouldn't I want everyone to come shop with me? You
know, that's what I want. And I can sleep at night because I'm not staying
up with client work. That's a win win. I'm going to go that
way. Well, I've also noticed that Liz has
(21:52):
a heart for or an interest in the
beginner, the person that isn't quite there. Now, Liz,
I've noticed this in your Facebook group. I've noticed
this in the way you market. But I haven't told you about this before. I
noticed it when you came to my workshop. There was one person
who wasn't quite where the others were. I mean, we had some
(22:14):
very executive business owners. Yeah, I was thinking about
him today actually. That's so funny you bring that up. Yeah.
And I noticed that from the front of the room, like, okay, there's all these
successful people in this room. There's one who's not yet.
And Liz sought out that person to spend time
with. Yeah, well, you know, something that I learned, actually, from those
(22:37):
survivor psychologists, they make you see a psychologist
after the show for about a year. If you've ever seen the show, you can
understand why. And she mentioned to me, this is not something that I really knew
about myself. She said, inclusivity is very important to you,
Liz. You want to make sure everyone is taken care of. And
Jody and I have joked a lot about being the middle child this
(22:59):
cruise, and I think that's also a trait of the middle child to make sure,
like, oh, are you okay? Are you okay over here? Because we kind of see
everything and we see all sides, and that is very, very,
very important to me. And I realized, yeah, you know,
there's a gap in the market, but also there's a gap in education.
And I come from an education background. I have a master's in leadership.
(23:21):
I like to get behind people and push them towards their dreams.
And I just notice, like, no people are. You're leaving
behind all these people, like, okay, if you're
not going to do it, I'll do it. I'll set up this membership. I'll write
your emails for you. Literally $9. Just give it a chance. I know it's
going to change your life, and I really do love it. Thank you for sharing
(23:44):
that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was neat for me to see because
as the instructor, I have to worry about the whole experience,
the whole event, and I could, from the front of the room
and from the conversation, see and feel where the gaps
were, but I can't do anything about it from what I was
doing. So that's why it was so noticeable to me that you stepped in.
(24:07):
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say about that, because people. People
will say similar things to me in my group and my membership,
and I just tell them, like, this is what I'm educated in. I
have an education in elementary education. And they preach
inclusivity and differentiation and instruction.
So it's just something that I guess now comes naturally. But I was
(24:31):
really trained in learning how to talk to all different
kinds of people at different levels and how to bring them up to
the same level. And so I think that's. Thank you for bringing that up.
I don't give myself enough credit sometimes. That's why the membership
works so well, and that's why it's grown from word of mouth,
as people say. Oh, you know, I've heard this before. But the way
(24:53):
Liz said it to me and the way her membership is designed for
all different kinds of learners, I finally got it. I'm
finally emailing. I'm finally seeing some movement here. Well,
What a bargain. $9 to get your email
templates and feel heard. That's quite a bargain. Thank you.
Yeah, I think it's a steal of a deal. Nine bucks. I will
(25:15):
unashamedly tell you to go to LizWilcox.com and hit that yellow button at
the top and check it out. But we are talking about taking time
off, so I really hope people kind of think about that
concept of building to sell. Even if you never plan on
selling, I want you to take time off. It feels
so freaking good. I can't tell you how awesome this cruise has been.
(25:37):
And I know there's many more to come. And it's been, you
know, totally pain free for both me and, you know, my
sister who works for me. It's been totally smooth. So, you
know, work to work yourself out of your company and
you're going to love it. Before we wrap up, Liz, I have
one I want to get your take on one thing. I was in Skagway.
(26:00):
My daughter and I are Skagway, Alaska. My daughter and I are walking down the
street. There's some ladies on the street promoting a
play. And I got a picture with one on the street,
walked down a little bit, and one hollers from the window up
above second floor and hollers down at us. And it was
funny. Whatever she said was funny. And it caught my attention and I said, oh,
(26:22):
you're wonderful. Can I take your picture? And she said, honey, I wouldn't be
hanging out of a window if I didn't want more attention. Love it. And I
thought, number one, she's a middle child, and number
two, what great marketing. And so I just want your take on that.
I love it. That is great marketing because it's something that
Jody said in one of his presentations this week
(26:44):
was about, you know, having the listener be, like,
interested enough by the end to take action
and, you know, move forward with learning more. And
that's exactly what she did. You know, it was like, oh, wouldn't be hanging out
the window. Oh, what kind of attention do you want? What do I need to
be paying attention to? Right. She provoked you to think more about it.
(27:05):
I think that's great marketing. I think it's really fun. And it's kind
of like zigging when everyone else is zagging. Right. She said something
a little provocative and fun where some People might just be like, yeah,
come to the show. Here's a flyer. I love that so much. Yeah, that was
great. Liz, it has been wonderful to be on a
cruise with you. You've been a lot of fun. I think Gretel and
(27:28):
I have enjoyed Chelsea so much. We just might take
her home. Well, Chelsea is my daughter, so I'll take her
home, but I'll definitely ship her to you if we're having
problems, so be warned. All right. Well, neither
of us would complain. We've had a lot of fun with that. You
mentioned the yellow box. Lizwilcox.com that's
(27:50):
where people can catch up with you, find out what's going on. Yeah. If you
want to learn More about the $9 membership, you can go to LizWilcox.com
There's a yellow bar at the top that says, did you hear about that 9DOL
membership? Click here. You can click right there and check it out. Or if
you just want to get started with email, there's a hot pink button. You can
click that and get started with your email marketing. All right, there it is.
(28:11):
Liz Wilcox. Liz is so great to have you back on the
show. Next time we don't have to go on a cruise just for you
to come back. You can come on the show anytime you want. All right, I'll
take you up on that. Thank you, Liz. And thank you for listening to the
Jody Maybank show.
(28:34):
Wouldn't trust him to run a meat raffle at the footy. It's Sugar J.
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