IAM129- Business Coach and Founder Helps Entrepreneurs Find Clarity and Market Themselves with Confidence

Liz Theresa, business coach and founder of LizTheresa.com, has been helping entrepreneurs find clarity and uniquely market themselves with confidence for the past 7 years through her strategic website design and clever copywriting services. She wants every entrepreneur to rise and be the star of their own business. She’s also the creator of Concept to Creation™, her flagship branding and web design program and you can download a free copywriting training video from her at freecopyvideo.com.

• CEO Hack: Time auditing, accounting for every minute.
• CEO Nugget: It's okay to say no if the next client is not right for you.
• CEO Defined: (1) Being a leader to your team, industry and client.  (2) Showing up for love as a mentor

Website: https://liztheresa.com/

FreeCopyVideo.com (Free Downloadable Copywriting Training Video): http://FreeCopyVideo.com
LizTheresa.com/podcast (Liz on Biz podcast Website) – https://liztheresa.com/podcast
Internet Fame Now Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/InternetFameNow/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/liztheresa
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/liztheresa
Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/liztheresa

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Liz Theresa of liztheresa.com. Liz, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Liz Theresa 0:26
Hey, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:31
Yes, I'm excited to have you on and I have been looking forward to this one. And I wanted to read a little bit more about Liz so that you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Liz is a business coach and founder of liztheresa.com. And she has been helping entrepreneurs find clarity and uniquely market themselves with confidence for the past seven years through her strategic web design and clever copywriting services.

She wants every entrepreneur to rise and be the star of their own business. She's also the creator of Concept to Creation, her flagship branding and web design program and you can download a free copywriting training program from her at freecopyvideo.com. Liz, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Liz Theresa 1:20

Yeah, and I'm so grateful for everybody lending us their ear.

Gresham Harkless 1:24

Yes, definitely. And just to kind of start everything out, I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Liz Theresa 1:31

I know I always have to remind myself that I am a CEO because it sounds so freakin cool. My background is a little funny. I was pursuing a degree in English at Bridgewater State University. And so I was getting my masters there. And the reason why I went to pursue my master's degree is that there were absolutely no jobs when I graduated with my bachelor's in 2009. And so I thought, what better way to pass the time than to just continue, you know, my education?

And so I ended up going to Bridgewater, and it was there actually, that I discovered online marketing, because just to give everybody a little bit of a flashback, back in 2009. I mean, that's when Twitter was invented. And that's pretty much when I started graduate school. So to talk about online marketing in 2009, 2010, and 2011, which is when I started to get into it, I was like a pioneer, I was very much a cool cat. And the way that it happened is I was an experienced person in camera presence. So like being on camera. And so I was trying to teach someone who was an administrator of the school, how to use video with his students.

And then it turned out that he said, my brand had something wrong with it. He was like, Oh, you're using Twitter, so wrong. And I looked at my Twitter and I thought, wow, I look so pleasant. Like I had a cowboy hat on. And I was like that, yeah, because I was 21 years old. It seemed like a great idea. Then he told me all about personal branding. And then given my literature background, I read everything I could on online marketing, and I got addicted. And I started my business just after graduate school. And I would say I soft-launched. So I had a job while I was launching my business. I did try to work in English and tried to get into social media marketing with my English degree. But everything like you needed three to five years of experience.

And I did have one interview, even though the economy was still terrible in 2011, I did get one interview, but then they told me that I was too creative to work there. And the job would suck the soul from my body. So then I that's really like verbatim and I never forgot it. It's just one of those things, you know, and then I guess, fast forward to now, and I'm offering full-service website design, social media, not social media marketing anymore, but that was kind of how I got started. But I do some social media consulting, as well as copywriting.

Gresham Harkless 3:46

Nice, nice, nice. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Funny enough, I too, was an English major. And I too graduated in 2009. But, I didn't go to Bridgewater, I think that you said that's where you went. But I knew firsthand, kind of like all the craziness and funny things around that time, it seems like the business world changed a lot and, kind of moved towards, you know, social media and a different type of digital marketing, so to speak.

Liz Theresa 4:07

Yeah, it was all kind of rapidly changing at that point. And everybody seemed to want to use Facebook. And so like I became an expert on that just because it was so, I mean, I don't want to say it was easy to, but it was because there was so little information that it was easy to know everything about it.

Gresham Harkless 4:21

Yeah.

Liz Theresa 4:22

Back then.

Gresham Harkless 4:23

Yeah. And it helped, that Facebook wasn't what it is now as far as business pages and all that fun stuff.

Liz Theresa 4:28

Yeah, it's a real animal now.

Gresham Harkless 4:30

Exactly. So I know you touched a little bit more on it, and I want to drill a little bit deeper to hear a little bit more about like how you serve the clients that you work with.

Liz Theresa 4:38

So I got my first client who was on this show. By the way, Marie Tobin was the first client I ever got, and I got her at a networking event, you know, those old-fashioned ones where you kind of just walk around and it's very awkward. I met somebody that hooked me up with Laurie and it's been true love ever since. So that was awesome. As far as how I got my first client because I feel it's like you get clients in funny ways when you're starting.

And then, all of a sudden, it's like you meet one person, and that one person opens up like a whole hallway of doors for you. And I met someone on Twitter who ended up, her name was Caitlin. And she just became like a friend. And I would say, a great mentor to me. And she introduced me to like the next six or seven clients I had, I mean, at least, and then after that, some of those people are still with me today. And that was not like seven years ago, this was a while and you know, it's just so funny. I feel like it's like who you know, can be so impactful.

Gresham Harkless 5:33

Yeah, definitely. And as you said, if you happen to meet that right person, it opens up an entire hallway for you with his endless doors, it kind of seems like, and yeah, Laurie was awesome. We had her on episode number 65, I believe. And he had an awesome interview. So it was great to kind of hear how everything comes full circle.

Liz Theresa 5:50

I know now we're all connected. We're like a family.

Gresham Harkless 5:55

Anyway, there you go.

Liz Theresa 5:56

Casting fan.

Gresham Harkless 5:58

Exactly. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart.

Liz Theresa 6:05

So I think for me, and I think for service providers, it should really, you could kind of borrow from my secret sauce. But my secret sauce is my business that's what I would say. So the things that make me so essentially, Liz, which is not to say I'm like the rock where I was talking to the third person, it's not like that. But what I believe is that if you are a service-based business, and if you're a personal brand, one of the best ways to distinguish yourself from your competition is to bring your personality into things as much as possible.

And I will tell you with absolute certainty, that one of the biggest reasons people hire me is because they'll like read the copy on my website and think to themselves, she sounds really fun. And I mean, like with more enthusiasm, but they'd like it and would end up scheduling a call. That's like one of the first things that you know, the good consultation, this is the way they go, they usually say something like, oh, I read your copy.

And I just knew I had to have you in my life. And in my business, I just have to have you around. Like, that's how it starts. It's not that they know that they want to buy something specific, they don't know that they need a website or just consulting, or how I fit into their world, they just know I have to fit into their world. So it's not your products that distinguish you. It is your uniqueness that distinguishes you.

Gresham Harkless 7:17

I love that I love that. And you might have the trademark the word lessness. I think that is a great word as well, too. And yeah, a lot of times people forget that you don't buy necessarily products and services, you buy from people you know and trust, and those people you develop relationships with. So it's great that you have been kind of authentic to yourself. And by being authentic to yourself and showing who you are, you have attracted sounds like the right people in your life.

Liz Theresa 7:40

Well, it's even like how, you know, if Apple made like the iBooths, you know, and they were like these special booths that like think with Apple Health and told you about your foot health? I don't know, I'm just making something up. I probably buy him because Apple made it. I mean, I don't know, I feel like that's a good example of a brand so it doesn't have to be a personal brand. I guess you could think about corporate kind of borrows from that by creating like no interest, which is what you got at definitely,

Gresham Harkless 8:02

Yeah, absolutely. When you start to you know, build that relationship, and that person starts to identify themselves with everything that is you like the business that you talked about, you start to, and want to be involved and have every product and service that that person is putting out because you feel so tied in and it feels like you connect with it.

Liz Theresa 8:19

Yeah, we should say put more lessness in your business. So she's the one I have watched people roll their eyes, and we'll all have a good laugh. But yeah, I love it.

Gresham Harkless 8:30

Yeah, definitely. So now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

Liz Theresa 8:42

So my favorite thing that I do is something called time auditing. And have you done one of these?

Gresham Harkless 8:50

I haven't, I'm afraid to do it.

Liz Theresa 8:52

Okay, you know what, that's very normal because it's kind of weird. And it's, it's kind of it's overly insightful, maybe for some people. But, for people who don't know, the way that I like to describe a time audit is if you open the Notes app on your phone, which is how I like to do it.

And then I write a minute-by-minute account of everything I do in a day, the reason why I think time auditing is incredibly awesome is that it tells you how you're spending your time. And so for anybody that like if you end a workday, and you're like I didn't get anything done, this will make that go away because you'll have written proof that you did.

So that's super helpful. Additionally, you're less tempted to waste time. So you end up finding more time and you end up accomplishing more because you're more conscious of you know, like when five minutes past what did you do, you know, like, I mean, I write down everything I write down like, from 10:23 to 10:27 Liz walks downstairs, got some water and then maybe use the bathroom and then came back like, I might do that. It's so impactful. You know, especially for entrepreneurs where like, if you're a person and you're doing everything for your business, your every department, you need to be so intentional with how you spend your time.

Gresham Harkless 9:58

Yeah, I would definitely Well, it's funny, like I tried to do the time blocking. But I think time auditing goes to a different level because you start to figure out like, where all those nuances are in those last maybe 30 minutes to an hour where you're not sure exactly what happened, you can start to look at your logs, so to speak and see exactly, you know how you're spending it. And if you can kind of adjust that to be more effective.

Liz Theresa 10:18

And I had I talked to this lady, honestly, yesterday, this is so random but related, and she said this quote that I'm going to repeat. And her name is Jamie Palmer, from a company called Outlier Marketing Group. So she's like a marketing person. But she said work expands to time allowed. So like, if you have like blocks of time, because I still use blocks of time as well like you can't use one. I mean, you really should use a bunch of different ways to manage your time. But if you say I have an hour to finish this email, that email is going to take you an hour, you know, that email is not going to take you five minutes. And so I thought that was also a cool way to think about it.

Gresham Harkless 10:52

Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of times when you have that conflict, or you don't have enough time, you start to become creative on how you can kind of accomplish those goals. So when you have ambitious goals, you have a short deadline, and sometimes you figure out exactly how to reach those goals.

Liz Theresa 11:06

Oh, yeah.

Gresham Harkless 11:06

Definitely. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Liz Theresa 11:15

Oh, that it's okay to sing? No, it's the person that's calling and ready to give you money that isn't right for you.

Gresham Harkless 11:22

That's powerful. It has power.

Liz Theresa 11:24

And people are afraid, though. That's why people are afraid to say no.

Gresham Harkless 11:27

Yeah, you always have and wonder if that next client gonna come in. So you have to say yes to this person, or you may not be able to pay your bills and do all those things. So definitely fear associated with it.

Liz Theresa 11:37

And I'm big like, I mean, I'm big on also, aside from saying, No, it's better to say no, early, or just not say anything. So like, if you say, I don't know, like I had somebody ask for a quote, this is just an example. And they wanted a website, just to give you an idea. And they were very complimentary on the phone. And then they emailed a follow-up trash thing, trash-talking a bunch of my clients, and she was like, I hope you didn't make their website because it looks awful and embarrassing. And I was like, lucky for my ego. I didn't make those websites. But it didn't mean that I don't love those clients.

So then, I thought to myself, I was like, wow, how about the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated? About people like that. But then I was like, I'm just gonna, let this puppy go and just not respond anymore. Because she was like, ready to do something she kept following up. And I was like, I just don't want to talk to negative nancies. Like you and I say it on my website, too. So don't be afraid to say that somewhere that you'd like to work with people that are good and nice.

Gresham Harkless 12:37

There you go. Yeah, you know, don't be afraid to ask for what you want. Because sometimes you'll get it. And if you don't ask for it, sometimes you'll get what you don't want. So definitely a good reminder. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So I want to ask you what does being a CEO mean to you.

Liz Theresa 12:56

I'm very emphatic that I think that it's so important to be a good leader, it's being a leader in your industry, being a leader to your clients, and being a leader to your team. So it's about exhibiting positive and strong leadership skills. And I think in those three different arenas, and I would say, of the three most important to your team, so when I onboard, people that work with me, I try hard. And by working with me, I mean, like contractors, I hire whoever I try hard to show up as love is what I always say, like, always show up as love.

And then in showing up as love saying to that person I'm hiring, what are your strengths? And how can I make you feel stronger? What strengths can we play to? So how can I, you know, give you tasks and delegate things that you'll enjoy doing that will light you up? And what do you want to learn? You know, how can you grow? And how can I be a mentor for you? And so that's kind of how I show up as a CEO, I quoted so much with showing up as being a positive leader or mentor.

Gresham Harkless 13:58

I love that, I love what you're saying it shows up as love, and that makes perfect sense. And when you kind of set that standard and set that kind of culture, so to speak, you start to attract great people, and you start to do of course great work. So I think that's a phenomenal definition. And Liz, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, and just see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and also how everyone can get a hold of you.

Liz Theresa 14:21

Oh, I would love that. I think if I had any more nuggets of advice, I would say don't wait to start something like don't wait for perfection. Just go ahead and start because like if you don't start you're always gonna have reasons not to and there is no time where you'll feel ready to like launch a business or even shift a business. There's no ready period, there's just kind of like deciding if it's important enough to do it or not.

So just know that and then as far as like where you can find me and fun things that you can do. I am on iTunes and I have my amazing show. It's called Liz on Biz, and you can find it on iTunes or Google Play. You can also find me at liztheresa.com which is Liz Theresa or if you are just feeling crafty, you could download my free copywriting class which is available at freecopyvideo.com.

Gresham Harkless 15:08

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I will have those links in the show notes to your podcast and also your website and of course, the free training that you have as well too. But Liz, thank you so much for taking some time out. I truly appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Liz Theresa 15:21

Thank you.

Outro 15:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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