The Power of Showing Up with guest Liz Illg
Episode Summary
In this episode, we welcome Liz Illg who is sharing her story of taking her passion, starting a successful business, and then showing up and using standard procedures and workflows to grow her business into five successful locations.
She also shares what was at risk if she had not continually made the choice to show up for her dreams and provides encouraging advice for you to choose to show up for your own dreams.
About Liz Illg
Liz Illg is the Owner of Puff & Fluff Grooming and Pet Sitting with five locations in the Phoenix, AZ area. Not only has Liz turned her passion for animals into a thriving business, but she is also an expert when it comes to creating an environment of growth for your business as well. In fact, as an Operational Strategist, Liz specializes in working with small business owners and entrepreneurs to assist with everything from streamlining systems, building online courses, or helping you tell people what they need to know!
E-Myth by Michael Gerber: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280
Liz’s DIY Standard Operating Procedures: https://www.lizillg.com/product/diy-standard-operating-procedures
Find The Liz Online:
Website: lizillg.com
Instagram: instagram.com/liz.illg
Facebook: facebook.com/illgliz
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Website: sarahschraderdesign.com
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Website: shaunae.com
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Podcast Transcript
Liz Illg 0:14
one step further in our business one step further in our relationship, and it starts building, we’re constantly building upon something.
Sarah Schrader 0:33
You’re listening to The Creative Legacy Podcast, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs to build their business, while leading a life of intention, joy and adventure. I’m Sarah, a brand strategist and designer, helping entrepreneurs craft their brands to speak boldly and reach their ideal client. I’m joined by my friend and co host, Shaune, a wedding photographer and educator that helps photographers creatives and small business owners cultivate intentional lives and build their most abundant business. Our guest for this episode is no stranger to follow a passion to step into the unknown and reach her goals. She embraced her love of animals to open up a pet shop, something she was completely new to and had to learn from scratch and expanded into several thriving locations. Liz joins us to share her story and how showing up every day made all the difference to her success. Keep listening to find out what that looks like.
Shaune Teske 1:31
Sometimes when we think about our dream life, it can feel like just that a dream. And we don’t always know how to get there, or how we can take those risks to lead us to that beautiful place that dream life those goals you want to accomplish? How do we get there. And we are so excited to be chatting with our guests today, Liz Illg talking about just that a power of showing up, and how you can take risks in your life to lead you to live that life of your dreams. So Liz, thank you so much for being here.
Liz Illg 2:07
Thanks for having me.
Shaune Teske 2:11
So tell us a little bit about who you are. We have a whole bio about everything you’re about. But I actually would just love for our listeners to hear it right from you, and just share exactly who you are and what you’re all about.
Liz Illg 2:25
Yes, thank you so much. So I’m Liz elink. And I am a communication expert. And I help people with their internal and external communications. But I didn’t just land on that I have worked really hard to get to this place to have the life that I have. And it really all started out. I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I am from originally from Iowa.
Shaune Teske 2:54
Oh, wow. Yeah, what part I have the sabie real quick, what part of Iowa?
Liz Illg 2:59
I’m from Fort Dodge.
Shaune Teske 3:01
I have no idea where that is. My husband’s is from there. So I’m always like we’re Oh, someone else from Iowa. Yeah, born and raised. Awesome. Okay, anyway, continue.
Liz Illg 3:12
Um, so I moved out to Phoenix in 2005, to go to ASU. And I studied business. And there was always like a sense of me that had like an entrepreneurial spirit. When I was little I would be like in invention convention and my mom and I would be like creating products. None ever hit the market. I definitely was creating. And so I actually created two, two products when I was probably in like fifth and sixth grade. One was a glow in the dark map, which that was before cell phones. We would travel and we never had enough money to actually like fly to places. So we would just hop in the car and take trips. With family. I have five siblings. So there’s five of us. And it would get dark at night. And one night we were driving and I’m like what if we had glow in the dark maps. So I literally created like, took like markers and blown that arc and painted over the whole map so that we could like see the map while we were driving. So that was the first time it ever hit the market because phones came out. Right? And then my other my big passion is pets. I got my first dog in 1995 and I actually named my dog Phoenix because I wanted to move to Phoenix someday, which is kind of kind of crazy. I was like nine years old at the time. And the second product of that was he can eat the dish and my family. I come from farmers and so I created a bowl. That was like my grandpa raised buffaloes at the time. And so I took buffalo me and made an actual bowl, and then we would like broil it. So then I would put kibble inside the bowl, and then the dog could eat the bowl after.
Shaune Teske 5:12
I love this idea.
Liz Illg 5:13
It’s a good idea. I need to bring it to the market. Yes. But that one never did hit the market. So I’ve always had a sense of entrepreneurial spirit. My, my dad was a farmer, my grandpa was a farmer. But other than that, my really my remaining family works in the corporate world. So when I got out to Arizona, I had to pay myself through school. So I started a little pet sitting business on the side, and really thought, okay, everybody wanted me to pet sit, I was like, this is great. And then eventually, I was like, I don’t have enough time to do this. So I’m going to start hiring some other pet sitters to work for me. So it literally organically just happened, where I really had like a pet sitting business as a hobby. And in the meantime, and going to school ended up getting my master’s degree at NAU, in Educational Leadership, while I was working a full time job at careerbuilder. And I was sitting at a cubicle, and there was just something in me, like, every single day, I’m complaining, I would like not want to go to work. And I knew I had to pay the bills, and all of that. And it was about 2012, I was really at a place where I was like, I just can’t, I can’t operate like this anymore. And I was like, I’m going to take matters into my own hands. It was December of 2012, like, I gotta do something. So I started researching online on Google, pet businesses for sale. From like, I don’t know, I have no money. I always tell people, I had no business buying or looking for a business. I was probably realistically like, $90,000 in debt at this point. I’m paying myself through my undergrad and getting my masters. And I had a house since I had a mortgage. It was just, I don’t know, like, literally, I don’t even know what I was. Thinking about that, because like, my life has changed a lot, which we’re going to talk about today. And so I saw a mom and pop Pet Grooming location for sale. Once again, I had no money, but I was like, I’m gonna buy this. So I took my lunch break. So I went to seven banks. throughout a few weeks while I was working at careerbuilder. And they ended up finding one bank, that would give me a loan. And when I say loan, it wasn’t like a small business loan. Nobody was giving that out in 2013. Because the economy, but I had a bank say they would give me a line of credit. And I’m like, Ooh, okay, it’s money’s money, right? So then I’m like, oh, what’s the interest rate? And they’re like, 18%, like, whoo, okay, that’s a little steep. Like, I, I have no other option, I need to start something or buy something that is really turnkey, that I can take what I know, and make it expand and really build my empire. So I did it. I was like, let’s do this. Well, I was $4,000. Short from the asking price of what I needed. And the thing was, I reached out to family members, I heard a lot of no’s. And that really has taught me to not take no as so seriously. When you’re thinking about risks, and so I called my dad and as I said, he’s a farmer, so he wasn’t really emotionally connected to animals like like, like I was, and he was like a grooming shop, you don’t even know how to groom a dog. I’m like, I don’t need to learn how to groom I know how to like run something. So after the call, he said he would think about it. So a few days after he went out to the mailbox, and I opened up an envelope and he had a scratch piece of paper in there and he said you can pay me back when you are a success. Meaning he gave me the remaining $4,000 that I needed to make my dream come true.
Shaune Teske 9:30
Oh, wow.
Liz Illg 9:32
Yeah, um, and I get emotional about it because he now has pasted but he was able to see me buy my first grooming shop that I had. So I literally went to the bank I signed, I signed on the dotted line. And you know, looking back and being honest, I don’t really think I knew how big of a risk I was taking. Based on I didn’t really know anything about the grooming industry. So I really ran into this and said, Okay, I’m just gonna, I’m gonna put my heart and soul into this, I have no other option, I’m gonna quit my job. And I’m just, I’m just going to see this through, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it work. I didn’t, I never really, I don’t even think I really self doubted myself, I really put myself in a lane that I was going to I was going to be a success. And I didn’t know how there wasn’t an option to fail, I would have lost a lot of things if that wouldn’t have worked. And at the time, I was single, so I didn’t have anybody to really fall back on to at that time. So that led me to my first grooming shop. And really where I started understanding business and marketing strategies and learning everything I needed to take it even one step further. So I became the operations of the business, I was opening and closing my storefront. It was always something that I like thought about, you know, you go into, like these cute mom and pop, like, you know, boutiques and you’re like, Oh, I wish I have one like that was me for a lot of years. And so I really was able to take, you know, this small grooming shop and expand it into, you know, a well known Pet Grooming location. AndI had a good problem, the phone kept ringing. So I’m like, this is great, this is great. And that’s really where I took and expanded my business into multiple locations. And I actually have five locations in the Phoenix area now. And they all are standalone and run on their own without me.
Shaune Teske 11:52
Wow, that’s amazing.
Sarah Schrader 11:54
That’s like the ideal place to be when you have a physical location.
Liz Illg 11:59
Yeah, yeah, you know, and I always help I work with a lot of clients and, you know, operations of an actual business that opens and closes every single day is really no joke, there are so many actionable things that have to play out every single day. That have to happen, and there’s a lot more responsibility, you know, and I’m saying that because I do have an online business and five brick and mortar locations, there’s just more that it’s just different, you know, not one is harder than the other, they’re just different.
Shaune Teske 12:34
Could you talk a little bit about that? What is different? What are some of those challenges you faced, and how you can go forward managing everything?
Liz Illg 12:45
Yeah the one thing that I would say about having a brick and mortar is there’s just more financial risk involved, there’s a lot more overhead that you’re responsible for. And you know, I look at my p&l’s, often and I’m like, Okay, I’m paying five, rent, five, internet, five, electricity, you know, it’s fine with everything. So you’re literally multiplying on everything that you need at one storefront is at another storefront. And, having that responsibility, and making sure that people, you know, show up to actually, you know, work and, you know, really also creating a culture within my business and my employees is very welcoming, you know, having an amazing client experience really being and trying to be the best in the industry to be outstanding so that people continuously come through those doors, because we have a lot of options, you know, with service industry that have brick and mortars.
Shaune Teske 13:54
It sounds like your days are very busy. They’re so fun, though, that you get to you talked a lot about that the brick and mortar those business, but then you also have this online business. Can you talk a little bit about what that’s like and what you offer? With that you said you were a communication expert, and I’d love to hear a little bit more about that.
Liz Illg 14:17
Yes, for sure. So this really this, my consulting business just landed on my lap and I say that because of what I have had to learn to get to where I am. About two years ago, I started public speaking and speaking on taking risks, because that was that was my thing, right? Really, you know, showing up doing, you know, doing whatever it took to make my business successful, whether it be you know, working all nighters going, you know, tireless, you know, days of networking and finding out how I can outreach and partnership show at events, you know me hosting events for my grooming shops and really bringing the community together. So I really started speaking on taking risks and what I was able to do. And there was a theme people would come up to me after and go, how did you do it? Well, you know, like, how are you able to expand in five years to five locations, and like some of those years, I bought two storefronts at a time. So I mean, this was rapid growth. So I went home to my husband. And I’m like, people keep asking me, like, what was it that I have done, and he’s like, you built systems. And I’m such an organized person by nature, I didn’t really understand what I was even doing to set my business up for success. And that has led me into my consulting business. So what I did in 2016, when I bought my second storefront, I always tell people, the nightmare occurred, and people were like what kinda nightmare in this business, are you talking about this, and I said, I literally had two managers from two of my only locations, calling me with the same exact issue of having to refund the client because we did the wrong haircut on a dog. And at that time, I wanted to pull my own hair out, because I’m thinking, Okay, I cannot be in two places at one time, I have not empowered the people around me with my knowledge of how I’ve built this business and how I operate it. And I came to this place of feeling like I was failing everybody around me, because I knew my business so well. And I knew how to bring business in, I knew my client experience, I knew it, I was the keeper of all knowledge. And that was very selfish of me. But I didn’t know any better. And so what I started doing is I took one year, and I started writing down every single question that my employees would ask me on a daily basis about what they needed to know about the business. And I took those questions at the end of the year. And I made a standard operating procedure for how the business is run. And I have experience in technical writing. So I built out a beautiful standard operating procedure that we still use to this day, that’s online. It’s a working breathing document, it changes all the time, based on the business needs and demands. And that’s my secret sauce of you know, how I was able to do what I could do after I took this huge risk of buying, you know, one storefront, you know, on a line of credit, is I really took it to the next step and said, Hey, now I have this blueprint of my business and how it runs, let’s go buy more. And it will be simple. It became something that I could do within like, one week. And I’m not joking, right? Like, because I have become now the visionary, and the ambassador in my business. And so now I reinvest my money from each storefront. And I put it back into the business by buying additional businesses, which, in fact, changes you know, my, my revenue, and so forth. So I just landed on creating systems of my own. And people started saying, hey, I want to grow and scale my business like you have had, how do you do it? And I always tell owners that sometimes we’re so close to our brands, and you two probably can relate that sometimes we don’t speak the obvious. So true. Yeah, we know our operations, and we know how to run our business so well, because we do it on a daily basis. But the moment you need to hand over the keys, or the knowledge, that’s always a problem.
Shaune Teske 19:16
100% I feel like a lot of people, a lot of creative, a lot of business owners would resonate with that. Because usually when you’re when you start or maybe, you’re still at this place, you’re a one person operation. So now how can you scale or grow and work on other things? When you are the only one that knows everything? How can you hire out? How can you do that? So what’s your advice for someone? I think everyone should have this. Now it should write out the entire steps of their business. What’s your advice for someone to get started on that?
Liz Illg 19:52
So I actually have a template on my website that I sell for $59 and it’s actually a blueprint of everything that you need to have in your standard operating procedure, and it’s fillable. So you can really start downloading your brain in compartments and that’s what I tell people. And I always like to encourage that if you have a team member that’s already on board for that person to help out too, because sometimes, as a business owner, we don’t see the obvious of how we have to actually train people. And it’s really looking at what do you do on a daily basis and start capturing and writing down those actions. So for instance, if you hire somebody, and you want them to post your blogs, well, you’re going to have to have step by step process that is very detailed, even screenshots and so forth available to show what needs to happen in order for it to be done the way you want it to be done. Instead of, you know, going to YouTube and trying to figure it out. It’s really, I always tell people to make sure your recipes are very original to you, and speak your language and really, and really capture that voice of your brand. And really, it’s important to start doing brain dumps and write down the questions that come up in your business that you need to put down on paper. Because like I told you, originally, I failed my people. You know, they wanted to be able to run the show, but they didn’t know how to because I didn’t fill them and empower them with with what they needed.
Shaune Teske 21:31
Yeah, with knowledge with having that that’s so true. And so just simple step. I think we overlook when when we’re starting a business, or we’ve been doing it for a while, and we want to grow and scale. Just is there a record of how everything runs? You know?
Liz Illg 21:47
Yeah, I always say, you know, it’s like, you know, football players they have, they have a playbook of what the seasons going to look like what plays they’re going to have. And us as business owners, we need to be able to have that as well for when we’re ready to take the next step in our business, whether it’s bringing one team member on or even selling your business, how would you ever be able to transfer as much knowledge as we know, when we want to go sell, and I’ve had experience, I bought five grooming shops, and none of them came with any of this. So it allows you to add value to your business, whether you’re just starting out, you want to grow it, you want to scale it or you want to sell it, you need to have it in your back pocket because it’s a powerful tool to have.
Sarah Schrader 22:37
I have a kind of like a mentor that I look up to Sean McCabe, he always says that. If you don’t have a procedure written down, you don’t have a procedure, like you have it in your head doesn’t mean anything. Because yeah, it’s not valuing anybody else if they need to come in and do the thing.
Liz Illg 22:55
I love it. Yes, that’s exactly. So that’s where I, you know, I came to a place of saying, Okay, well, I know how to do it, I know how to do it well, and that’s what has landed, you know, me having a consulting business. And I, of course, do a lot of other things. But I basically specialized in one of a kind of internal and external messaging. So the internal aspects are your playbook, your training and hiring, you know, all of your processes related to those aspects. And then the external messaging is aligning, how you show up for your audience. So whether it be your web copy, any collateral material, your monthly content, so we really specialize. I was about a year ago, I branded myself as a system person, because I was really creating mostly standard operating procedures. As I was working with my clients, I would learn so much about their business and start talking to them about their marketing strategies and how they’re showing up because I actually cover that in my standard operating procedures of like, what’s the next you know, five years look like in 10 years, we break it down into timelines of events. And that’s really where we were like, people needed help with really capturing their vision and their voice on paper. And how I work with my clients is I really take most business owners don’t have a lot of time and energy, but we’re vision people we see ahead. We want to do all these amazing things. We want to be in these masterminds we want to be and absorb all this information, and we want to go and do the next thing. But because of time and energy, a lot of people are not able to create an online course work on their monthly content for how they’re going to show up to their audience, their press release pitches and so forth. So that’s really where I excel with my clients is really taking, taking their vision and their expertise and being able to put it out down on paper for them so that they can go do whatever they want with that paper, whether it be an online course that they’re going to sell online. And that’s my expertise, working with the clients and really understanding what what their vision is what they want to teach on. And then I can create all of the content and collateral material for them to go upload it onto a platform to actually sell.
Shaune Teske 25:26
Beautiful, that sounds so helpful, and just so great, being able to get it all out there because we get so close to it, you know, and really stops things from actually happening, because now how do we have the time to go create it? I want to get back to you a little bit about, you know, this was a big risk to do. And how do you talk into the people that are maybe thinking about something or have that pull, like you said, you had no business buying a business? You know, though, I think a lot of people resonate with that, where they feel this poll to do this thing? How can they take the risk? How can they show up for themselves,
Liz Illg 26:10
I always tell my clients to really start off on like the why find your why. Find your purpose, find your passion, and find something that you can relate to and be invested in. And just because I’m not involved in my grooming shops on a daily basis, now, it still is my passion, providing special care for pets, like that is one of my, you know, core missions in life is to like, I’m a crazy animal person, like, I love animals. And so, you know, I knew that that was something that I wanted to do. So I always go through a discovery phase with my clients and say, Hey, like, what is your Why? What is your purpose. And also, one of the best books I’ve ever read is the E myth. And I actually read that book in 2011. And it basically is a book of systems. And sometimes we buy or we start a business because we love to bake, but in five years, are you still going to want to be the baker. And that’s really something that every business owner should ask themselves. I thought when I bought the business, I was going to be running the operations for at least five to 10 years to make sure that you know, it was profitable, and it needed to be where it was, but because I aligned myself with, okay, maybe there is a three year exit strategy. And it really started falling onto my lap of saying, okay, you have to be able to go do the following things. And when I took this huge risk, you know, looking back I, I always say, you know, if I would have known, you know, what I know now, around finances, I probably would have not done that. But I was like 25, and didn’t really understand numbers as much as I understand them now. But what I did is I literally constantly was showing up everywhere. Like everywhere, I answered my phone, like 24/7, I was being ridiculous, like, answering the phone at eight o’clock at night. But there was consequences. If something did not work out, I had a lot to lose. And I work with a lot of clients that are like, I’m still have this job and we can’t financially take the risk. And you know, that’s one of those things. That is it is a challenge for a lot of entrepreneurs that are looking to get into get into a space of being an entrepreneur is they’re just not able to take that full leap. But what I tell people, I took a huge leap of faith, believing in myself when a lot of other people didn’t believe that I can do anything. This was not a good idea. I mean, I had family members flat out telling me this is not a good idea. And I almost feel like that No sometimes makes you even want it more. To fight harder for what you believe in and what your passion is, and what inspires you. Like the thing that inspires me to this day is that we have so many clients that we’re able to serve that love coming into the business and that we can serve. And I really feel that if people go into business with the right intentions. There is no failure. There’s no failure even out there because you believe in what you’re doing and you are just you will be a success, but you have to be able to show up in your space, I see a lot of business owners wanting business to come in, and then you ask them what they’re doing. And they’re not doing that much, they can’t even, you know, say five things that they’re doing to push their business forward. And I will say, I’ve had to hit the pavement running many, many years, in order to get the, you know, the presence that I now have, and the exposure, based on what I was able to do showing up when I was tired, showing up when I just didn’t think I was worthy to show up to something. and I showed up, and I was present. And based on all of those things, I had this business, this line of credit paid off within nine months.
Shaune Teske 30:48
Yes, celebration, oh, yeah,
Liz Illg 30:51
A lot of ramen noodles. These are the things I mean, you know, a lot of business owners I work work with, they want this dream life right away. And it might not necessarily come like that, because it did it. For me, this has taken a lot of time and effort and showing up and being, you know, vulnerable in certain situations, to have the success that I now have, where I don’t have to focus on that passion as much. And now I can really take it as a vision and be an investor and really grow it based on my passion, but also have an opportunity to help people do exactly what I’ve been able to do. And, you know, really push them forward to believe in themselves and to see like, even when, you know, even when we’re writing free people’s processes, and they see it come to life. And it’s like we were on a call for two hours. And literally three weeks later, they have 40 to 50 pages of the business they built. And it’s just so powerful to actually see their whole vision, everything that you live every single day, actually on paper. And I believe it allows people to free their mind.
Sarah Schrader 32:18
100% agree with that statement. Even just like my daily like to do lists and stuff. I have to write it down to get it free from my mind.
Liz Illg 32:25
Yeah, yeah, and that’s where it gives people freedom. And a lot of you know, having having the life of my dreams was having freedom. Like that meant a lot to me. I you know, I came to a place before I bought this business. And I said, Okay, do I want what do I value, and I valued freedom, I didn’t even value money as much as I wanted freedom. I wanted freedom to build something and have an impact in something that I believed in so much that I literally took my paycheck and said, okay, every single day, how much money do I have to bring home in my grooming shop in order to pay my bills like, this was not easy. But you know, as I reflect going, this month, going into seven years of business, I’ve worked really, really hard. And it was it was all about the power of showing up and knowing that I took this huge risk, but I would show up in any capacity that I needed to in order to make things work. And now I can kind of sit back and see the fruits of my labor.
Shaune Teske 33:39
Yes. And I think in the grand scheme of life, you know, you did you showed up, you worked hard, and for years, or whatever it may be, but in the grand scheme of life, now you can be at that place. So it’s not like you’re working, you’re going to keep working hard and going to these new levels. But it doesn’t always have to be as intense as it was. I would love to hear some examples that you can give people of showing up how they can show up for themselves. What are some, like tangible, you know, takeaway actions they could take from this episode, they can go and start showing up and pushing their business.
Liz Illg 34:16
Yeah, I would definitely say like show up for yourself. We we as humans give a lot. We give, give give. But really looking at this looking at it in the light of how do you show up for yourself? How do you push yourself forward on a daily basis to make a dream life? Every choice that we make every single day could push us one step further. And I love the word step because I use steps to build processes. And we have to every single day, take one step further. Whether it be you know one step further with our fitness one step further in our business one step further, and our relationship. And it starts building, having building blocks and processes, right? Like we are constantly building upon something. And that’s where you have to think of every thing that you do in your life as a step or a process of taking you further as we walk. It takes us further, you know, we move we move forward. And so really showing up in that space for yourself, showing up at events showing up in front of people, keeping your word, you know, there was a lot of times where I did just wanted to be like, nope, we can’t do this, I can’t do this. But I said I was and I said, once I say, Yes, I go. And you know, I keep my word on that for sure. I also think that the power of showing up means that you’re real and authentic, based on based on what you need, and really being transparent with yourself and with others, in order to make sure you’re on the right track. And that you, you really find this like common ground of like where you’re at with people like there was a lot of times when I was struggling, you know, I listened to people say this and that, you know, all these different things of you know, maybe this wasn’t a good idea, you shouldn’t do this, but I really just stayed on on my course. And you have to believe in yourself. You have to, you have to step in a zone and say, here’s what I’m going to do today to push myself one step further. And here’s how I’m going to show up. Today. Here’s what I’m going to go out and do tomorrow. And I really think you as a business owner, you have to be creative. You have to, you know, have leadership like thought leadership of how do you want to make something new? How do you want to show your vision, and not that we have to reinvent something all the time. But think one step further. All the time. I’ll give a few examples have been within my grooming business. About six years ago, nobody had an option to book online. Well, I brought that option in 2016. And, you know, it changed the way people started booking their appointments, and it became easy. And that was one thing that I changed within my client experience really, really quick. But it really changed how how my business was run. And I started connecting with other business owners in the community, I started having, you know, hosting events where people can collaborate with their dogs and make friendships you know, like, you almost have to think outside of the box of how you can show up, in order to bring more people into your business.
Sarah Schrader 37:58
You talk a lot about a question I was just gonna ask about how do you shop like in those moments, you had a lot of things that you could have said no, like you didn’t have enough money to start with, you didn’t know the business side of things. Like it’s just different unknown. People like when they’re having these dreams are constantly facing different things that make it easier. Give them kind of like an outlet fear. I’m going to say no to this. So how do you get beyond that? How do you trust yourself to show up? How when you say you didn’t want to do something, but you did it anyway. What did you go to? Was there any like mindset things that you had to keep reminding yourself of to do anything to keep you in that space of showing up?
Liz Illg 38:44
Yeah, so I’ve always every single month, even to this day, have always picked a word of the month. And the reason I do this is I actually put a post it note at my desk of the word of the month. And it’s however I want to actually start showing up for people or for myself. So this past month was discipline and discipline yes is like a wide range of things, but in everything that I’ve done this month, has been all around discipline. If I said I was going to do something, I’m going to follow through and do it. Here’s my agenda, I’m going to follow through, you know, really taking each word that I applied to the month and really bring it to life every single day. And you know, have mantras in the morning to like, get yourself to that next step because, you know, looking back at those days that were so hard, they weren’t yet so rewarding because I pushed through and did the things that I didn’t think I could do. And you know, I often say that it’s like about kind of like working out right sometimes we don’t want to do it. But the moment we we do it or almost are done with it. We’re so glad we did it. Right. So it’s kind of fun. Yeah, sometimes the pain is like thinking about the pain is like, Oh, we don’t want to do it. No, no, no. And then when you, when you start doing it, you’re like, oh, okay, this is good for me, this is good for me. And then after you’re like, I feel amazing. It’s really how we positioned those, what we want to do, like we are in so control of, what we put in our minds, and how we think.
Sarah Schrader 40:29
What is the risk of that showing up? So you have the five locations, you have the consulting business, you’re doing public speaking, and your here on the podcast, like, there’s all these things. But what else is there like that was at risk for you in your dream life, if you hadn’t shown up.
Liz Illg 40:49
Really thinking about that, frightens me. It frightens me to think that, you know, all like even the past seven years, how much I’ve been able to use my mind, influence others empower other people around me give people promotions, like, there has been so many amazing things that I’ve been able to do for people, because I took a huge risk. And every single day, a lot of what I do, I do it for people, you know, people when my first employee at my first store fronts were like, how am I ever going to excel in this business, I’m like, I’m going to, you know, buy another grooming shop, and you can run it, right? It’s like, I almost fell off good energy of what people wanted more of. And I feed into that really good energy. So the thought of me having to be sitting at a cubicle right now. And working for somebody else’s dreams, literally gives me the heebie jeebies, like, then, like, I can’t even think about that, because it’s so far from like, what, my full potential was. And that’s where I think a lot of entrepreneurs or people that want to be entrepreneurs are like, maybe I just don’t have it, well, you probably have it, you just have to have a different mindset, and go into it with the right intentions. And really take that leap of faith and believe in yourself, and have the strength inside of you to push through no matter what the circumstance is.
Shaune Teske 42:30
That is so beautiful. I think everyone is gonna be so inspired. Hearing that, and feeling very encouraged to show up for the business, no one’s gonna do it. But them, you know, we keep thinking like we’re looking for help. We’re looking for these ways, but really, no one can do it. But you. And I just wanted to ask is there any other things you would love our listeners to know or hear from, how they can show up in their own lives, how they can take risks, anything else to encourage them?
Liz Illg 43:05
Believe in yourself, show up for yourself. Because if you’re not going to show up for yourself, you can’t do any, anything more for other people around you. And you have to be able to look and find that passion and understand what your passion is, and really go deep into into your why what is your purpose? What do you want the next five years to look like? Because I see a lot of business owners jump into a business one to two years. And they’re like this wasn’t what I intended, how do I now step out of my business. And so sometimes we actually create businesses that are not able to grow and scale because of how we built them. So when I work with my clients, I say you’re going to start this business now. But what do you want to in five years and if you start thinking about the dream life of your business or your personal life in five years, you possibly will set your business up a lot differently based on what you want the end goal to be.
Sarah Schrader 44:06
That’s awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all this. I’ve had several moments of just like chills being inspired by you and your passion and drive and just the words you’ve said, So, so amazing. We do want to give you a chance to let people know where they can find you and connect with you. But before we do that, we like to ask a few rapid fire questions to our guests. So we’d like to ask if we can do that with you.
Liz Illg 44:29
Yes.
Shaune Teske 44:31
Okay, Liz, are you a morning person or a night owl?
Liz Illg 44:36
Morning person very, very, very early.
Shaune Teske 44:42
How do you take your coffee or your tea?
Liz Illg 44:46
I take my coffee with non dairy milk, a splashing
Shaune Teske 44:51
Just a splash. Okay, we’re very serious about our drinks over here. So favorite way to give herself that extra self care.
Liz Illg 45:02
I have a very large garden. And I love to spend time in my garden. It’s very therapeutic to me and eating produce that I was able to grow is is like a huge passion of mine.
Sarah Schrader 45:17
I do that in the spring here, we’re in the midst of snow.
Shaune Teske 45:22
What is your go to book recommendation?
Liz Illg 45:27
It is going to be I have two it’s going to be the E Myth because I read that before I started my grooming shops. And my second one is Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller.
Shaune Teske 45:38
Yeah, that’s our face. We always talk about it. Favorite indulgent treat.
Liz Illg 45:49
I make banana ice cream. And it’s so good.
Shaune Teske 45:53
Oh, wow, that sounds incredible. What is one place you’d like to travel to next?
Liz Illg 46:02
I am a homebody. I will admit there is a beautiful place in Arizona. It’s called Castle Hot Springs. And it’s actual hot springs from the earth the most beautiful place that anybody will ever go. And it’s so simple. And it burned down in the 70s. And it was rebuilt recently. And so I want to go there all the time.
Sarah Schrader 46:25
Wow.
Shaune Teske 46:27
And then the last question we think is one of the most important questions. What do you believe your legacy is?
Liz Illg 46:36
Empowering others around me.
Shaune Teske 46:40
Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for being here. Liz, where can our listeners find you and learn more about all the beautiful things you talked about today?
Liz Illg 46:50
I hang out on Instagram. That’s my platform of choice. I can be reached @lizillg and my website is lizillg.com.
Sarah Schrader 47:06
Perfect. So thanks so much for joining us, we are glad to be able to talk to you.
Liz Illg 47:11
Thanks for having me. This was a true honor.
Sarah Schrader 47:30
Thanks for listening to the show. As always, we really appreciate your thoughts and feedback. You can reach out to us on Instagram at the creative legacy podcast or leave a review on Apple podcasts and we might include yours in an upcoming episode.
Shaune Teske 47:43
All the show notes and links to resources from this episode can be found at TheCreativeLegacyPodcast.com/episodes
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