IAM1125- Consultant Helps Business Owners Systematize, Delegate, and Scale

Liz Illg is a multi-industry entrepreneur with brick-and-mortar businesses across Phoenix, Arizona, and several online businesses including her own consulting business. Liz Illg Consulting was founded when business owners continually asked Liz how she grew her brick-and-mortar storefront to multiple locations in a short amount of time. Liz attributes all of her success in business growth to systems, effective delegation, and strategic planning. Business owners consult with Liz when they're ready to systematize, delegate, and scale.

• CEO Hack: Self-care
• CEO Nugget: Do not be a technician in your business if you want to scale
• CEO Defined: Having freedom

Website: https://www.lizillg.com/work-with-liz/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liz.illg/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizillg/

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Transcription

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00:22 – 00:48 Intro :

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:49 – 00:59 Gresham Harkless:

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Liz Ileg of Liz Ileg Consulting. Liz, it's great to have you on the show.

01:00 – 01:02 Liz Illg:

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

01:03 – 01:34 Gresham Harkless:

Super excited to have you on as well. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Liz so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Liz is a multi-industry entrepreneur with brick-and-mortar businesses across Phoenix, Arizona, and several online businesses, including her own consulting business. Liz Eleg Consulting was founded when business owners continually asked Liz how she grew her brick-and-mortar storefront to multiple locations in a short amount of time.

Liz attributes all of her success in business growth to systems, effective delegation, and strategic planning. Business owners consult with Liz when they're ready to systematize, delegate, and scale. And that is the name of the game. I love everything about systems and processes. So I love everything that Liz does. It's how you build a successful business. So Liz, great to hear from you. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:52 – 01:56 Liz Illg:

Yes, I'm so excited, and just thanks for having me today.

01:56 – 02:04 Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, absolutely. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit. Hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:05 – 02:48 Liz Illg:

Yeah, so it, from early, early childhood, I would say 1995, I have been creating And at that time I was creating like little products here and there and things like that. But in 1895 I got my first dog and I had asked my parents for a dog for years upon years. And I'm originally from Iowa. And so we traveled up to Phoenix, Arizona. So I named my first dog Phoenix because I eventually wanted to move to Phoenix. And so I moved to Phoenix in 2005. So even from those 10 years, I knew before and I was young at the time. So I've always had a passion for pets. So I own multiple businesses. So I also know the brick and mortar business and I also know the I know the digital aspects of online businesses.

And so I have a total of 10 businesses and 6 of them are brick and mortar and they are pet grooming shops. And so I always tell people about my dog, Phoenix, because even from an early age, I was constantly creating pet products. And then eventually moved out to Arizona and I went and got my undergrad and my business. And I started working corporate jobs because that's really what was in my family is like you go to college and you go get a corporate job and I was melting away at my corporate job And I was like I have to do something with my entrepreneurial spirit that I had since a young age.

And so in 2013, I bought my first brick-and-mortar pet grooming location. It was 450 square feet. I was so glad I had no business buying a business because I was $60, 000 in debt. I had to go buy an existing I wanted to buy an existing business because from a brick-and-mortar standpoint, There's a little bit more comfort in knowing that you have customers But it wasn't really a small, grooming shop and so when I was working my my my corporate job I went from bank to bank during my lunch hour to see if somebody would give me a business loan well little did I know this is still 2013 nobody was giving business loans to somebody that has no business really experience. I have, you know, a business degree, but that was about it.

And 1 bank told me, I will give you a line of credit.  And I'm like, at this point, I'll take it. Right. But the interest rate on it was 18%. So just do the math on any kind of number, you're dealing with a really large interest number, not even paying off the principal. So that's originally how I got started, is I took a large, large risk, but since then I've learned so many tactical things along the way that I went from 1 location owning it, And now I have 6 of those locations and then I have 4 other online businesses now.

05:24 – 05:35 Gresham Harkless:

Yeah, absolutely. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I wanted to hear about your empire and everything you've been able to build. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you're working with your clients? And of course your consulting practice and what you're doing there as well.

05:35 – 06:06 Liz Illg:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I started publicly speaking in about 2018 about taking risks and empowering your passion and things like that. And people would come up to me and say, hey, I want to work with you. And I'm like, you can bring your pet into 1 of my shops, right? Like that was the only way that's all that I knew. And so I went home to my husband, who was my fiance at the time. And I said, hey, people keep like, I must be inspiring people, right, to take a risk or do something a little bit unknown. But, and people want to work with me. I don't have a service. I just have, I have a lot of jobs. And he looked at me and he said, Liz, you know how to build systems from process and documentation and delegate work out. And I looked at him and I go, whoa, yeah, that is what I, I mean, that was 1 thing that has made my success very clear. And that's what I'm gonna start doing for a living.

So, at that time I had more grooming shops and those are running on autopilot with amazing staff and things like that. And so I started my consulting business where I was helping people build and step out of their businesses and not allow them to be the technicians of their business through documentation and process building. 2 years and we continue to do that. And then I work with people one-on-one now, specifically growing and scaling businesses, but I also have a full creative and system agency that's called LI group now. And so the theme here is that that now runs with amazing people. And so I then work with people within my consulting. And then I also have a few other businesses where I teach people about online courses and things like that.

So it's like really finding out what you're good at and deciding is that what you wanna do, right? Narrow in. And so when it comes to systems and documentation, we work as a like group. Now we work with large companies that want to franchise or want to step out of their businesses which they never thought was possible. And so we build these systems so that we get off these calls with them. And I'm like, you might not ever have to repeat this information because we're going to document it. And it's going to become a process. And that's when all the other layers, All the things that you've been bombarded with start to open up. And that's when you can start growing and scaling.

A lot of people, and you probably see this, is that people want to hire people, But they don't invest in teaching them and showing them how it needs to be done. And that's what I did in my grooming shops. I tell people to this day, that's something that I'll have to live with the rest of my life, where I brought people on when I wasn't ready for it. And those people failed. And I failed them that you know, yes, they may have failed at their job, but I, I set them up for failure because I didn't give them the things and the tools and the resources and the knowledge that I've built for them to be successful.

And so I always tell people, stop investing in people right away until you can invest in your operations and your back office. Once you have that clearly defined and you can onboard somebody to be successful, that's when you can start investing in people within your organization. A lot of people just say, I'm so busy, I'm so busy, I'm so busy, I want to hire, hire, hire, hire. They bring them on and then they wonder why those people are either unhappy or they don't work out right and that person probably wants to be at that company or work for that person but that person's not setting them up for success.

09:45 – 09:58 Gresham Harkless:

Absolutely. Would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? The thing you feel has set you apart and makes you unique is that ability to be able to understand that, but also to articulate that and maybe even translate it to the people you work with.

09:58 – 10:35 Liz Illg:

100%. And that's what I've always said: building a standard operating procedure is the secret sauce to your business. Whether you're going to sell your business eventually, or whether you want to bring new team members into your team and bring them into your culture, Every business is unique to some degree. Everybody's like, oh, I just own that business. Everybody else does. No, there's something unique that's made you successful and document that and bring your culture together, all the people and make them understand that because then they're gonna buy into your culture and the knowledge and the secret sauce of how have we been successful?

10:41 – 11:04 Gresham Harkless:

Absolutely, yeah, I love that. And I think it's so important to be able to tap into that because that allows you to spend more time, serving in clients when you're able to say, okay, these processes and systems are in place and they're impeccable. So absolutely appreciate that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:05 – 11:33 Liz Illg:

Self-care. I have had to learn this over the past few years. When you're growing and scaling your business, it can be really hard to put yourself first, but that's 1 thing that I learned because I wasn't doing it. There was a point where I was starting to gain weight. I was sitting so much, I was stagnant. And so I had to look within and say, Hey, I need to take care of myself so I can be better for people. So,1 of my hacks is self-care, getting in my activity, nourishing my body with amazing food. But that is where if I do that, I'm a better person for everybody else.

11:42 – 11:52 Gresham Harkless:

I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:53 – 12:28 Liz Illg:

I would say, do not be a technician in your business if you want to grow and scale. You know, it's 1 of those things. And My favorite book is The E-Myth. I read it way before I even owned my grooming shop. And I understood that I didn't need to, I could be successful without having to be the bee. Right? Like I didn't have to be at all, right? And that's what the 1 thing within my LI group and my businesses is I bring in people that can do things better than I can.

And I'm the first 1 to raise my hand and say, I don't know how to do it, but I have a squad and I have people that can do it better than I can. And I think that's something CEOs sometimes don't want to say. And I think it's really important to say, No, I bring people and I walk alongside everybody. Nobody's in front of me, nobody's behind me. It's like, we're all on the same playing field. We're all on that same mission of success.

12:58 – 13:07 Gresham Harkless:

Awesome. And so I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping our different quote-unquote CEOs are on the show. So Liz, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:07 – 13:42 Liz Illg:

Having freedom. And I thought about this in 2013 when I bought my first brick-and-mortar and I was working a corporate job. I said, here's the thing. I might not be that successful for a long time or a while and I'm going to be a lot of a lot of serious debt but freedom was important to me to pick my schedule to be able to do the things that I want to do, right? Whether that be making a decision or not working a day, just having freedom has meant a lot to me. And that's what I've always said from the very beginning I was willing to make a lot of sacrifices to have the freedom of being a scale.

13:50 – 14:01 Gresham Harkless:

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And so now I wanted to pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:02 – 14:37 Liz Illg:

Yes, I would love to connect with you if you're looking to grow and scale your business, you're looking for techniques, and also maybe just some inspiration. Like I hope that you're listening now and you're saying, wow, There is something I'm passionate about and how do I get from point A to Z going back to that story about my husband?

Sometimes we don't see Something in ourselves and somebody else does so ask a person right that knows you sometimes it takes somebody else to see something that we're already good at but because it comes so naturally for me I'm a type A personality you would think that I would have known that I'm good at that but I didn't really acknowledge it and so ask others right If you're on this journey of saying what are you good at is go seek that. I would love people to follow me on Instagram. That's mostly where I am. It's Liz. Illg and I also can be found on my website, Lizillgl.com.

15:06 – 15:29 Gresham Harkless:

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Liz, truly appreciate you for taking some time out. We will have the links and information in the show notes. I love you know what you said and that kind of last part that you gave us as well too, because I think so many times when things come naturally, because they're our gift and the thing that we're supposed to be doing, we take it for granted.

Sometimes we don't even value it. And often it's the people that are around us that see our gift and can tell us this is your gift. You should try to do that, that leads us in that direction. So thank you so much for telling us about that. Of course, for doing that as well, too, and living that. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:38 – Outro