Joe Casabona: I was at Disney World once, one of my favorite places, and I was stressed out of my mind. Not because of the lines or because of how expensive everything was, but because my phone was going off. All of my clients websites were down, my server had gone down. And even though I was miles away, not in front of a computer, I felt this panic that I had to fix it right now. And mind you, my website sites are not mission critical. Massive e commerce government benefits websites, they were mostly informational sites. And I was the first one to notice before my clients did, which you want, but nobody was calling me and yelling at me. I realized right there, standing in the happiest place on earth, that my business didn't give me freedom and I was chained to my phone, my desk, my computer, even when I was on vacation. Joe Casabona: That's why I'm really excited to talk to Liz Wilcox today. I've made massive changes in my business, especially since becoming a dad. But Liz, the fresh princess of email marketing, has built a half million dollar business on a $9 membership. Even better, she made $100,000 while taking 100 days off. She did it by designing a business that serves her life, not the other way around. And this is the mission that I try to serve on this podcast. So if you're tired of your business running you, you absolutely need to hear how Liz went from delivering an entire membership via Google Docs to setting up a system to allow her to take three months off every single summer. Liz Wilcox is an absolute delight. Joe Casabona: I loved talking to her. I don't think I've laughed as much as I have in any interview than I have with her. So definitely listen to this episode. Join her mailing list. It's excellent. We'll get into that in a minute, but first, let's get to the intro. Look, you're trying to grow your small business while still having a life and not losing your sanity. On streamline Solopreneur. Joe Casabona: We help small business owners grow without burning out through simple, powerful online automations and systems. I know you're busy, so let's get started. All right. I am here with Liz Wilcox, the fresh princess of email marketing. Liz, thanks for being here. Liz Wilcox: Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Let's talk. Joe Casabona: Let's talk. And I want to dive right into it. And I want to ask you, you have a $9 per month membership and you say that you want to you keep that nine dollar promise. Where did the nine dollars come from? And why are you so ardent about keeping that promise? Liz Wilcox: Yeah, so listen, y' all I grew up super poor, and even when I started my business, you know, I was committed, right? But who wasn't committed? My bank account, my then husband, you know, that both of them were like, I don't know about this. This sounds like a scam. This sounds like a harebrained idea or whatever the saying is. And so when I eventually started making it and figuring out this online thing and I started teaching email marketing, I realized that, you know, I'm not the only one that has this dream of making it online, but also, like, doesn't have a bank account to really reflect that dream. Right. And so with the $9 price tag, I really wanted to reach the maximum amount of people. A lot of people say, oh, you know, you don't want to work with beginners. You want to work with people that are already making money that can afford you. Liz Wilcox: And, you know, you're, you're high value. And y', all, I know I'm high value. I know that I bring a lot to the table, so to speak, the email marketing table, the inbox, if you will. But I also know that people are people and, like, circumstances are real. They're not excuses. And I actually love working with beginners. I have a background in education. I think simple is my superpower. Liz Wilcox: So I knew that I could reach a wider, broader and even like more beginner audience. And so that $9 price t kind of encapsulates all of that. You know, if you're just starting out, this is, this is really going to be for you not only price wise, but Liz is really good at breaking down complicated concepts, so you can just get started. And I love my $9 price tag. I've been sending renewal emails this month like, hey, your subscription is about, about to renew for your annual. And people are emailing like, you know, well, what's the price this year? And I've been so surprised because I'm like, well, the price hasn't gone up in almost five years. The price is the price, baby. And people have just been so surprised and delighted, especially in 2025, that the price is not going up. Liz Wilcox: And also something about that just, oh, it just makes me smile. Maybe you're not watching the video of this, but I am beaming to be able to say yes, Even if in 2025 and beyond, I don't have to raise my price. And, you know, I can pass that onto my customers. It feels so good. Joe Casabona: So I love that, that you are, that you do keep this $9 price because I think you're serving an audience and having that fixed cost and confidence in having that fixed cost is really important for small business owners especially. So did you have a big audience when you launched this membership? Liz Wilcox: No, sir. So when I launched the membership, I was about a year into growing my email list, so I had about 800 people on the list, and I launched it. The day I thought about it was the day I launched it. I was like, you know, enough. Let's do it, baby. Let's do it. And I said, hey, literally, my friend, the subject line was, can I have $9? And I was just looking for anyone, you know, looking to test if this was even a good idea. Right? And so I, hey, it's $9. Liz Wilcox: Here's what's going to be included. Weekly newsletter templates, a live Q and A, maybe some other things as we move down the road. It's $9. Not because it's crap, but because I want you to trust me enough to just, you know, start this new thing. And we launched it to eight. We, me launched it to 800 people. Me and my dream. That's. Liz Wilcox: We. We launched it to about 800 people. And in the first 24 hours, we had made over 30 sales. In the first four weeks, we sold a hundred. So that's when I knew, okay, I'm onto something. Let's go. Joe Casabona: That's awesome. And then was that mostly. Do you sell per month and annually, or do you just sell, like, annual breaks down to $9 a month. Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So when I first launched, it was just $9 a month. And about nine months later, it was Black Friday. And I thought, what could I do for Black Friday? Oh, I could have, like, an annual rate. Most people do an Ann. It's like their price times 10 months. Right. So you get two months for free. Liz Wilcox: But I wanted that $108. Nine times 12. Right. I didn't want to go. It's already so wicked cheap. Right, Right. I didn't want to go under a hundred dollars. So I said, well, what if I just did, you know, nine times 12, 108 bucks. Liz Wilcox: And what if you just got all my other trainings for free? Right. Kind of like Costco. Right? That's what I stole the idea from Costco, you know, come at. It was, you know, when you. When you pay for a Costco membership, it's like 60 bucks, right. They don't make any money off anything but their memberships. Right. That's why it's called Costco. Liz Wilcox: They're selling everything at cost. Okay. They're not making any Money off of you buying a TV there. Right. But they're making money off the membership fee. So I said, okay, the membership fee, so to speak, for LizWilcox.com is going to be 108 bucks. You get access to the membership, you get everything else for free. You know, workshops, courses, accountability, all that stuff. Liz Wilcox: And, you know, over the last five years, I've built onto that. It's, you know, now over $2,000 worth of stuff. And that's great. So to Joe's question, I do the monthly, and that's available all day, every day. You could go sign up right now for $9. And then I do the annual that, you know, Costco ask, like, hey, buy the membership and you get everything else, Right. That's only three times a year. I do that in March for my birthday, like a birthday sale. Liz Wilcox: I do a Christmas in July sale, and then, of course, Black Friday. Joe Casabona: Nice. Love that. Cool. And. And so I want to really drive home the point here, that you launched to a list of 800 people, and then, what, a few. Few weeks later you had made 900 bucks, essentially, right? Liz Wilcox: Amen. Joe Casabona: Yeah, that's. That's so cool. Right? That's amazing. Like, that's, like, that's my dream. I want to do exactly what you did, and I just don't think I have. I mean, I've changed niches a bunch in the last couple of years, which is probably part of it. But, like, how have. How do you think the. Joe Casabona: Those people who bought that first time were just like, yeah, I'll give Liz nine bucks. Like. Like, how have you nurtured them up until that point to make them realize how insanely valuable $9 is? Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So, number one, I know my customer or my potential customer. I came from an RV travel background. I was. I owned an RV travel site, so I was a blogger, essentially, right? YouTuber, content creator, all that. And I know that the last thing they want to do is write an email, right? It's like, well, I just created all this content, you know, I spent all day you know, setting up my, you know, stuff to record. I'm exhausted. Now I gotta send an email, right? Like, what do I even say? I don't want to spam people. Liz Wilcox: So I knew that was a really big problem, right? And then as far as nurturing goes, I sent that weekly newsletter, right? I was consistent. I showed them, hey, I actually know how to write a newsletter. And the proof is in the pudding, because you open this one, right? And I know you opened last week, too, and you've been clicking. Sources say you've clicked. Right. So really nurturing as far as, you know, even just a weekly newsletter was what I was doing at the time. I had sold a couple one off worksheets and workshops before, so I had a couple, you know, a few customers on the list at that point. But really just being consistent, showing up for them, providing value. Liz Wilcox: And that's not just to say, you know, giving everything away for free, even, you know, hosting a 20 to $100 workshop is providing value. Right. So just doing those things and then when I launched, really knowing the customer, right? Knowing that they loved a little bit of my snarkiness. Can I have $9 as the subject line, right? Like, oh, whoa, this lady is something else, right? Knowing that, you know, $9 is appealing to a lot of them because I know that I'm attracting beginners because I am able to break things down. So simply knowing that as content creators, as membership site owners, as course creators, the last thing that's on the list is email marketing because, you know, it's not as in your face as other things like social media at YouTube, etc. So a combination of that, I think was sort of a perfect storm of, you know, getting those first 30, those first hundred people in. Joe Casabona: Yeah. So what I'm really hearing here is understanding your audience and building trust that you deliver. Right. Like, yes, you launched it kind of, I don't want to say on a whim, but you decided and then launched it that day. But you're not like some fly by night. This, it didn't, it didn't come off as, hey, I'm trying to, to squeeze money out of you. Liz Wilcox: Right, Right. That's absolutely correct, y'. All, You've got to be consistent with your audience and even just transparent behind the scenes stuff. You know, if you're like Joe, someone who has, you know, switched topics a few times, even just being transparent about that, hey, I was super passionate about this. XYZ happened. Now I want to talk to you about this, right? People will be and can be along for the ride, but you've just got to be super transparent. And that's another thing that I think I do really well is just sharing the journey where most people think, oh, they don't care, they just want to learn about abc. Really, they want to learn about ABC through and by you, right? You being a major component of it. Liz Wilcox: So you being transparent about what's going on, why you're doing something, why you're charging $9, you know, all those things I put in that email, it's $9. Not because I think it's going to be crap, but because I just want you to take a chance on me. Right. You know, this is, this is the way I'm going because I don't want to take clients forever. I even said I want to get a hundred people in the first 30 days. You know, maybe you'll be one of those hundred. I would love that. Hit reply if you need to know more information before joining the hundred. Liz Wilcox: Right. So sharing that behind the scenes, sharing how you're invested so other people can invest as well. Oh, my gosh, it's glorious. Joe Casabona: Yeah. I just want to reinforce what you said there because, like, when I launched my newsletter proper, I was talking a lot about WordPress and web development. And when I decided to switch, I sent like a three or four email sequence. It's like, hey, you join this list to learn WordPress. I have changed. What I'm talking about here is a massive unsubscribe button. I could not make it easier. If you don't care about what I'm about to talk about, which was like podcasting and automation, which is still what I do today, unsubscribe. Joe Casabona: Very few people. I still have a lot of people on my list from those, those first few from those first couple of years. And when I ask why, they're like, you, you share. You are genuine. Right? Everything that you just said. So I can't discount like or I can't like, don't discount being genuine and being open with people, because that, that does build trust, especially in a world where it's like, AI, write my newsletter for me. Liz Wilcox: Ew. Joe Casabona: Ew. Yes. See, I knew that. I knew you'd be a great guest. So 1. The last question I want to ask you on this is you saw before we started recording how tangled up my brain gets when thinking through implementation, you decided one day to launch this membership. You launched it. How did you deliver it? Liz Wilcox: Oh, you. You all are gonna love this. It was a Google Drive, y'. All. It was a link to a Google document. So I have spent a lot of time before I even started a business learning to have, like, a bias towards action, right? And that's something I think a lot of entrepreneurs don't have when they get started. But, you know, once they get rolling there, they have to learn that, right? We just have to take action. We have to ship. Liz Wilcox: I think. What's his name? Seth Godin. He always talks about, like, just ship it, just ship it, just ship it. And so, mind you, like, I had a hat. This is my third business, right? So I had spent a lot of time just shipping, honestly, a lot of garbage. And see, you know, so I knew that this was gonna be good. And I even said in that, can I have $9 email? Hey, when you sign up, nothing is gonna happen. I have to go get my daughter off the school bus. Liz Wilcox: And this is just an idea. And I'm not gonna do it unless people purchase. So when you sign up, nothing's gonna happen. But I promise you, you'll have something by 8am tomorrow morning, right? Again, that transparency, right? Just telling it like it is. Just saying, hey, this is my idea. It's $9. Why not try it? You know, you've been on my list for a while. You got a little bit of trust to know that I'm not gonna just steal your nine bucks, right? So the next morning, I got up super early because I'd made like at that point, like 20 sales. Liz Wilcox: I'm like, oh, sweet. Whatever that is. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I made over a hundred dollars. It's amazing, right? So you know, that got my butt out of bed. I wrote the template, right? So it was Deliver a template, a weekly newsletter. You don't know how to write your newsletter? I know how to write it. Fill in the blanks. Mad Lib style, right? And so I wrote the template in a Google Doc and I just sent it out in a Google Doc I didn't even think about. Liz Wilcox: Well, I gotta get a membership site. I gotta do this. Passwords, y'. All. It's 20 people. Am I with 800 people on my list? I'm. I'm. I'm a nobody, right? Like, am I worried about people stealing from me at this point? No, I, you know, I can't beg people to find me and steal from me right now. Liz Wilcox: Like, I'm desperate to be found, right? Like, I'm spending all day, every day trying to get found on the Internet. Like, you think somebody's going to steal from me? No. So. And I, I did that, the Google Doc, Google Drive thing every single week for 52 weeks. Once at one year, I had hit a thousand members, which is actually insane. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: That's amazing. And so I was making, you know, about $9,000 a month, right? Oh, my gosh, that's so. Still to this day, it's almost five years and it still blows my mind. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: That's when I was like, maybe I should put this behind a paywall. Maybe this should be a Little more organized. And so to Joe and his WordPress days. I, I used all free plugins on WordPress to create passwords and to make a membership quote site. Right. And I, again, I use that for a whole nother year until I needed to upgrade to something a little fancier when we had 3,000 members in two years. So I just allowed the membership to grow as I grew instead of, you know, putting, putting it in, you know, big girl shoes and hoping that the feet grow. Right. Liz Wilcox: I just was like, well, we're going to just do what works right now until enough people complain and then we'll upgrade. And I still do that to this day. Joe Casabona: That's so good. I love that. I was talking to my friend Kat Mulvihil. I don't know if you met her at. Oh yeah, I create a camp as well. But she, she has always complimented me on my bias towards action. Despite my neuroses for implementation. I've learned a lot of tools so that I can still implement quickly. Joe Casabona: But what you said, like, really reinforces things I've been saying for a long time, which is like, we're not building skyscrapers, we're building on the Internet and we can iterate as often as we want and then don't ask or don't answer questions people aren't asking. Right. Like, you did what is easiest for you and then when you saw a need. Right. We don't. It doesn't have to be perfect. Right. I think the other, the other thought I had while you were talking is I think we're always worried about people's expectations, but people have the expectations that you set, right? So like, you set the expectation that, hey, you're going to pay for something and it's not going to get delivered right now. Joe Casabona: It will be delivered by 8am tomorrow. And as long as that happens, you still have people's trust. Liz Wilcox: Yeah, let's talk about that just for one second because I know that there's somebody out there like, oh my gosh, Liz, 3,000 members at $9. All of these people must be sucking the life out of you. Right? Like, we always hear like, low ticket means high maintenance people, y'. All. I, I could not have experienced anything further from that. My people are so awesome. But I think it's what said, I'm constantly setting that expectation. Hey, you're paying $9 for this, right? If somebody, if somebody, you know, hits reply, hey, Liz, my login's not working. Liz Wilcox: And of course we've since, you know, replaced logins, we've upgraded Things. But I always say something like, oh, my gosh, you know, we're working on this. And it's true. We are. We're all, you know, obviously, we don't want people's logins to be breaking. Joe Casabona: Right. Liz Wilcox: You know, thank you for being patient while we look for a solution that can maintain this $9 price tag that sets the expectation that reminds them, hey, you're paying $9 for this. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: Okay. Like, we are not. And I say with love, we're not Amy Porterfield, you know, we're not Pat Flynn, you know, charging you 50 to $300 a month for a membership. You're getting this content for $9. This content is well worth $9. You know, like bare minimum. Right? Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: One page of this website is worth $9. Right. And there's hundreds of pages and people always come back. Oh, my gosh. Yes. I love this membership. It's my favorite purchase every single month. You know, it just kind of resets that tone, that expectation. Liz Wilcox: And I even put that in our onboarding. When you join, I say things like, nowadays we have a membership site where the videos. We cannot turn off the autoplay. Please mute your computer if that annoys you. It annoys us to. We have absolutely no way of changing it at this time. Yeah, you know, wow, aren't you getting a steal for $9? And so I'm always saying that even in my week, you know, y', all, I send out a weekly email with the template, and I'm always reiterating the $9 price tag to reiterate those expectations of, you're so smart for getting this for $9 or, whoops, we sent out the link. I guess that's what you get when you only pay $9. Liz Wilcox: You know, it's a circus show back here or whatever, you know, and people love it. You know, setting that expectation to Joy's Joe's point is so important, and it really can set the absolute tone for your business. Joe Casabona: Yeah. So good. Okay, so fast forward five years. If I do my math right, you launched this membership during the pandemic. Liz Wilcox: Yeah, February 16, 2021. Best day of my life. Joe Casabona: Nice. I love that. It's like a half a million dollar membership now. Liz Wilcox: Correct. Joe Casabona: And I want to dig in on one thing that you said when you launched, which was, I have to go pick up my daughter. Right. You are still. You're running a lifestyle business. You're a very present parent. How do you manage those two things? Liz Wilcox: I have worked really hard on learning to say no and focusing on money making Activities alone. I don't. Y'. All, Joe and I met at a place called Creator Camp. Okay. It's an ecamm, if you've ever heard of ecamm, like amazing live streaming and recording software. Okay. I've been using it since 2017. Joe Casabona: Wow. Liz Wilcox: Right? Yeah, I've been. I've been one of the OGs. Now. ECAMM has a lot of features. Okay. I only know how to use a few. Okay. Because I've had to say no to learning new features because I gotta go pick up my kid. Liz Wilcox: I gotta do this. I gotta. You know, I go to Creator Camp every year. I've been there every year. I learn one new little thing every year, and maybe I implement it. Maybe I just tell people that you can do it and join with my affiliate link. Right? Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: But the point is, you know, it's not a money making activity for me to increase my audio quality, to set up my camera. You know, the money making activity is just hitting record and sending that recording out and again, setting that expectation of, hey, my recording could be better, but the content is really good, so I hope you listen to it anyway. Right? And so learning to say no to things, even if it would make it a smidge better, just knowing when good enough is good enough and then being really intentional about those money making activities, you know, I go to Creator Camp. Why? Because I meet awesome people. You know, Joe and I, we. We've met each other the last couple of years. Now I'm on his podcast. Maybe you join my email list. Liz Wilcox: It was worth it, right? That was money making activity. Right? Just really super focused on that. And then also creating a membership that is low cost because that means low responsibility. Of course. I take my members and my students very seriously. Like I said, creating that membership, that was the best day of my life, y'. All. I have a child. Liz Wilcox: You know, I didn't say giving birth to her was the best day of my life. You know, like Joe, you can't see him, but he. He literally almost just fell out. Joe Casabona: Oh, my gosh. Liz Wilcox: Okay. Not that I don't love my child. Obviously I do. That was just a lot. A lot of pain, right? Creating the membership was actually really simple and easy and didn't cause me any physical or emotional trauma. Okay. So that's. That's all I'm saying. Joe Casabona: I want to say I'm a dad of three and I didn't catch that. I was like, yeah, of course. That's amazing. When you said, that's the best day of my life, I Was like, yeah, obviously. Liz Wilcox: Obviously. We're entrepreneurs. It worked. It was your best idea, Liz. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: What was the point of that? I don't remember. Oh, the point. Joe Casabona: Balancing. Liz Wilcox: Yes. The point is the membership is low responsibility. Right. I can say, you know, Maybe I've got 10 people in the inbox asking me questions about the membership. Right. Or asking me questions about email. I can say, well, for $9, I gotta go pick up my kid and I can answer that tomorrow. They can wait. Liz Wilcox: Right. When I was taking clients, I didn't feel like I could do that. I mean, whether or not that's true, you know, that's up to you to decide. But I felt like, oh, you're paying me $10,000. I need to answer that question in the next 10 minutes. Right. I can't go to bed without fulfilling that promise that I've made to them. I can go to bed every single y'. Liz Wilcox: All. I sleep so good. I sleep like a baby. And so. And most people, you know, with that $9 price tag understand that they're getting incredible value. Most people. Oh, Liz, I can't believe you personally emailed me back. You know, things like that. Liz Wilcox: But I get to. That makes it fun for me. And so I've created this business where I can turn off the computer. Where before, when I was taking clients selling very high ticket items, I felt like I was chained to the computer. And, you know, my personal life came second because of that. Joe Casabona: Yeah. When we set a price that feels good and manage the expectation, we can build for the life that we. That we want. That we want to have. And I've done the same thing in recent years. Liz Wilcox: That's so awesome. And, yeah. I mean, whether the feeling is true or not, you know, the feeling is valid. Right. If you feel the pressure, the pressure is there, you know, tell yourself it doesn't matter all day. But if you feel that it matters, you know, it's going to. And for me, creating this business and even, you know, bringing on my sister, who she helps tremendously now, and. But it's still. Liz Wilcox: It's still just my sister and myself as the employees of the business, as the ones running the membership. And that, to me, also feels good that, you know, I'm giving my sister a job where her boss isn't a total douche. Can I say that? Sorry? Joe Casabona: You can say that. Yeah. Liz Wilcox: You know, giving her, you know, bonuses and things when I feel like she needs it or she deserves it, that just feels so, so good. And it allows me. She's really good at keeping my Boundaries of saying, like, oh, no, we're not doing any more interviews right now, or, you know, oh, no, Liz, you need that day off because don't forget, your kid has, you know, isn't going to school that day. So we're not. We're not gonna schedule anything for that day. Like, that has also super duper helped. I mean, it doesn't have to be your sister, but having a reliable person, right hand man, so to speak, that enforces those boundaries, even when you tend to break them. Like, this year, we're not doing podcast interviews. Liz Wilcox: Guess what? I was hanging out with Joe. Yeah, I'll do your podcast. You know, I'm the. I'm the one that did typically breaks the boundary where, you know, my assistant slash sister slash life manager, she always keeps it. Joe Casabona: Yeah, that's really important. Right. Because again, you bias towards action. And so when you see something like, I should act, you need somebody to be like, should you act, though? Like, shouldn't you? My. My mastermind group is really good at that. I'm like, I'm thinking about this. And they're like, why? Why? And I'm like, well, because I want to. They're like, right, so think that for your mind. Liz Wilcox: I'm thinking about it. What do you mean, why? Joe Casabona: What do you mean, why? Liz Wilcox: That's so awesome. Yeah. We all need that group of people or that person that, you know, wrangles us in because we're entrepreneurs, right? We're visionaries. We have lots of ideas. We want to seize every opportunity. So it's important, especially in times when you lack discipline, to have those friends, mastermind members, family, whatever, to be like, hey, actually, you said your objective was this, and, you know, now you're messing it all up, so just thought you should know. Joe Casabona: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because it is easier to give advice than take your own advice. And having it given back to you is a good quality in a friend to have. I always tell my friends, I'm like, don't. Don't worry about hurting my feelings. I might look hurt because I wear my feelings on my face, but I. Tell me what I need to hear. Joe Casabona: I'd rather. I'd rather hear it and be hurt temporarily. Liz Wilcox: Amen. Yeah. Joe Casabona: Now, and. And I mean, you. You, like, really live your values, right? Because you. You have your daughter, you've hired your sister, you are supporting multiple other folks with this business that you've built. So I just. I want to. There's no question here. I just want to mention this because I'm sick of hearing about hustle culture and, hey, skip recitals if you want to make money. Joe Casabona: Skip recitals. And I'm like, cool. If you don't want to have friends or family or a life like, I don't know, like Ebenezer Scrooge didn't even want to have on his tombstone, like, died alone but had money, right? He was like, oh, this is bad. Yeah. Liz Wilcox: Yeah. And that's all that comes back to just being intentional. Of course, when I first started this membership, you know, I was hustling, right? But I just knew that this was not in alignment with what I wanted, what I believed. And also unsustainable, really, you know, just. Just clearly unsustainable. And so for a while, I mean, truth be told, when I launched the membership, I was still taking clients. I had quite a bit of client work, actually, and it was. It was a little bit of a grind. Liz Wilcox: But it's because I believed in my offer. I believed in myself. I believed that this wasn't forever. I was able to push for a while. And I was getting up at four in the morning to work on client stuff. Getting up, getting the kid on the bus, coming back, doing a little bit of client work. But here's the difference. I didn't let the client work consume me again. Liz Wilcox: I was very intentional. So there were at least two hours a day where I was working on Liz Wilcox.com where I was making sure, okay, I need to push out the membership. I need to write a newsletter. I need to reach out to Joe to see if we're still going to do that podcast. You know, things like that. I made sure to do, even if it felt like I was behind on the client work, because I knew my values, right? Even if I wasn't living them fully in that moment, I knew my values. I knew family comes first. I knew also, rest. Liz Wilcox: Oh, my gosh, please let me rest. That's a value of mine. And so I knew if I didn't take myself seriously and put myself on the calendar, no one else was going to. And I was always going to be in this perpetual cycle of client work, putting other people first, you know, having to tell my daughter, no, we can't go do that. I have to do this, right? And that sucks, man, that she's a lot bigger now. But back in the day, you know, her little puppy dog face was like, oh, man, I do want to go to the beach, baby. But I also want to pay this electric bill, you know, that sucks. And so putting myself on the calendar, getting up a little earlier every day For, I think it was about six to eight months, you know, grinding, hustling, whatever. Liz Wilcox: That was something that I had to do. But I knew that I was laying the bricks, setting that foundation for this is temporary. If you don't give yourself a timeline, if you don't give yourself the time of day, it's. You know, you might say that you have these values, but, you know, you're not really living in them. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Yeah, I really like that. And really important. Right. It's. It's not never hustle. It's don't or never grind. Whatever you want to say. Joe Casabona: Like, don't sacrifice everything for the sake of making money. Right. I think, like, me, that's, like. Because I don't want people to hear what you're not saying. Right. I definitely want them to hear what you are saying. Liz Wilcox: Right. And let's. Let's unpack that a little even further of, you know, y', all. If anybody knows, you know, the desperation for cash, it's Liz Wilcox. You know, don't let the, you know, it's just $9, half a million dollars fool you. When I started this membership, I was desperate for money, y'. All. I have supported my mom financially, either fully or partly, since I was 16 years old. Liz Wilcox: I had two jobs in high school to get away, to get around labor laws. Okay. Because I need. We needed money. My family needed money. Like, when I started my business, I lived in an RV, you know, in the 400 lot. Rent felt like a lot. Okay. Liz Wilcox: So I. I know what it's like to feel like, okay, well, that's great. The puppy dog eyes. That's super cute. Yeah, I want to go to the beach. But, like, you know, I joked about the electric bill, but that's real. Okay. I literally paid three electric bills this morning before 6:00am okay. Liz Wilcox: Oh, that felt so good to just get that out of the way in the first week of the month. So I don't say any of this like, you know, I understand. Like, I'm very privileged now, but I haven't always been. And I understand that sometimes you have to grind. You have to do this, you have to do that. You need money. It doesn't matter. If you need rest, you have to work. Liz Wilcox: I totally, 100% understand that. And that's one of the reasons I keep my prices so low. Right. We mentioned that at the very top of the hour. But again, it just comes back to that intentionality, putting your values in the forefront and saying, okay, well, I have to hustle right now. But I know I Don't want to forever. So what are some creative ways I can change this? And that's how I came up with that $9 a month membership. Joe Casabona: Yeah, I love that. Now, you did do something that a lot of entrepreneurs don't do and that you took off. What was it, 60, 90 days? Something like that. Liz Wilcox: Yeah. Actually, every summer I take three months off. It started with I got cast on this little, little show called Survivor. Maybe you've heard of it. Please don't Google me, baby. Finish the podcast first. I'm really cool, I swear. It was edited, I swear. Liz Wilcox: Yeah, so I went on Survivor and I applied. I always, you know, I always knew that I could get on that show. You know, I'm just that kind of weirdo. Just that kind of, you know, really gritty weirdo. Right. Perfect combo. And so when I applied, I just knew I was going to get on the. On the show. Liz Wilcox: So I was. And I knew that I was going to have to be gone for a month or two months. Right. So I immediately started working on taking myself out of the business again. This is perfect. Talking about intentionality, I knew I didn't want to always be in the business. And Survivor actually helped me see, like, oh, I actually don't need to be in the business that much. I can batch this content. Liz Wilcox: I can ask, you know, trusted peers to come in and fill in for live Q and A's for a month or two. And, you know, I went on the show, I didn't worry about the business at all. In fact, I was able to take a hundred days off to go on the show, recover from the show, emotionally, physically, all of that. And in those hundred days, I made a hundred thousand dollars. It's just so dumb. It just, like I say it and I'm like, holy crap, that's wild. Like, I want to learn from that lady. Like, it's so wild. Liz Wilcox: But the point is, I've set up that membership. I've set up the business with people that I trust. My sister and I've done, you know, contractors and such during the summertime. So she has support. I'm able to, you know, hustle for a little bit. Right. If I'm taking June, July, August off, May is a busy month for me because I'm batching all that content. I'm making sure my customers know, hey, I'm going to be away, but here's who's replacing me. Liz Wilcox: Here's why you should trust them. If there's an absolute emergency, don't worry, you're going to be Taken care of, et cetera. So it's been. It's been super, super awesome. I've done it. So I've done it three years in a row now. Joe Casabona: This would be taking summers off, not surviving. Liz Wilcox: Taking summers off. Taking summers three years in a row now. I haven't worked this podcast. My first thing. No, I'm kidding. Yeah. So three summers in a row, it's been super amazing. We tend to make more money when I'm not around, probably because I'm not switching up the game constantly. Liz Wilcox: We're sticking to a plan. Right. All my entrepreneur know that's a true mark of entrepreneurship. Okay. And it work. It works really, really well. And honestly, the more you do it, the easier it becomes because you can really, truly rinse and repeat as long as you're always growing your audience. You know, you can use an email that you wrote a year ago. Liz Wilcox: Two years ago, I'm doing that right now. I sent out an email right before Joe and I hit record. I wrote that email two years ago. I just shushed it up, made sure the links were proper, and hit send. And it's probably going to have like a 50% open rate. It's going to be great. Joe Casabona: Click one, please, and thank you. Liz Wilcox: Yep, that's the email. Great subject line, right? Joe Casabona: Yeah. So good. I open every single one of your emails. Like, the subject lines are just so, like they're, you know, they're. They seem genuine, Right. Like it's. It's not like, optimized for clicks or whatever. It's like, feels good. Joe Casabona: I got the can I have $9 email, right? Liz Wilcox: Yeah. I love that. It's just optimized for Joe, it's optimized for Liz, it's optimized for Shahara. Like, just for somebody who's my email buddy. And we love talking about email together. And click one, please and thank you. That's what I would really say in real life. Joe Casabona: Yeah. Did it have any additional impacts by putting you in a national spotlight? Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So the typical. Oh, my gosh, you must have gotten a lot of new followers or whatever, right? Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: Wrong. You know, it's Survivor. It's not email marketing on an island. But I will say Survivor in the very first episode did actually show me saying, I teach people how to make money on the Internet with email marketing. I couldn't believe it. I was like, this is great. Joe Casabona: Wow. Liz Wilcox: So I actually have had people join and, you know, it's been about a year and a half since the airing ended and, you know, people trickle in. Oh, I Found you through Survivor. So, you know, yes, it did grow the business in that way. But honestly, going on Survivor was probably the worst thing I could have ever done for my business. Not because I had a weird edit or, you know, I had a major meltdown on national tv, whatever. My people loved it, to be honest. They were like, liz, we knew you were real, but wow, you really don't care. And we love it, but it just, it was so physically and emotionally taxing on me that it has taken me about two and a half years. Liz Wilcox: It's been about two and a half years since I've been home and I'm honestly, in the last 30 to 60 days, finally feel like I'm coming out of a fog. I do have a lot of food issues and I tend to have a very sensitive body. Not to be super woo woo. That's what my doctor says, you know, medical doctor, not the woo woo one. And so it really caused a deep impact on my body. I lost like 14% of my body weight in 25 days. I still have not ever gained that muscle back. And it just, you know, and then the emotional side of it, right, Having to watch it back. Liz Wilcox: Spoiler alert. I lost. I came very, very close. You would never know it by the edit, but I was the last person eliminated from the competition. And maybe, like you listening, I'm very competitive. Maybe that's why we started entrepreneurship, right? Like, if I want something, I go out and get it, right? 100 people in the first 30 days. That's what I said I wanted in my membership. That's what I got. Liz Wilcox: So to be honest and vulnerable, losing was incredibly hard for me and it took a long time to get over. And I, and I was trying to compensate with my business, but I was also still experiencing incredible brain fog. You know, to be honest, I was getting crazy death threats. I got reported to the irs, you know, so it was just incredibly emotionally taxing. And I feel like two and a half years later, I finally have detached myself and it, you know, it's all fun and games, what it's supposed to be. It's all fun and games now. And I feel like I'm just coming back to the business fully like the Liz Wilcox that launched that membership almost five years ago. She's back, baby. Liz Wilcox: She's back in a big way. And I'm excited for the membership to grow at the rate that it did in those first few years before Survivor. Joe Casabona: This is, I, I wanted to really like, I, I'm glad you drove that point home that it's like, I think people are like, I'm gonna get in front of a lot of people and it's gonna be great for my business. And, like, getting in front of the right people is so much better than getting in front of a lot of people. Liz Wilcox: Oh, yeah. I mean, y', all. Survivor airs in 125 countries. It is probably the largest show of all time, you know, other than, like, the NFL, Right? Joe Casabona: Yeah. Liz Wilcox: I think the finale of the first season is still, like, the number one or number two, most watched thing ever on the planet. Okay. Joe Casabona: Like Survivor. Liz Wilcox: Yes, it's still on. Right? You might not even know that it was still on, but, yes, it's still on and it's watched and it's still the number one show that's watched on television. Like, actually, you turn on the TV and you watch it. Right. And so I was in front of millions of people every single day for six months, and maybe I've gotten 1,000 subscribers from that. Okay, that's a terrible conversion rate. But I'm gonna be on Joe's podcast. You're listening to, you join, you feel, you know, some warmth from me. Liz Wilcox: You want to learn more about email. You want to check out how I actually sell that $9 thing. Right. That's worth way more than one person who watches Survivor and, you know, wants a closer look at Liz. Joe Casabona: Yeah, love that. And so let's wrap up here with you mentioned you're excited to be back and continue with the membership, I assume. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like it's going to stay at $9 a month. Liz Wilcox: Amen. Joe Casabona: Amen. What are your plans for the membership? Like, how do you keep it? Because I think there's a pressure with memberships to be like, I gotta deliver, I gotta deliver. I think you've set the expectation that it's like, the things I deliver are very valuable, but I feel like there's still probably something in your brain that's like, how do I keep this feeling fresh for people who have been around for a long time? Liz Wilcox: I love that. So they call me the fresh princess, right? So I'm constant. Even I got fresh in the background. Like, I. I love keeping things fresh. So every year I do sort of refresh the membership in that I do a lot of live events. Right. So based on what I'm hearing, how I'm feeling about the year is gonna go. Liz Wilcox: I'll do live events. So in January, I always do, like a live welcome sequence workshop every year. You should be refreshing Your welcome sequence. So that's coming this year and next year. I feel like we as entrepreneurs really need to focus on audience building. Right. So I'm introducing list building challenges. You know, how to get people off social media, how to network so you can get on people's podcasts, things like that. Liz Wilcox: I'll be introducing short challenges just to get people going. And honestly, something that I'm introducing just to people that are on that annual plan. I'm introducing quarterly planning sessions. So we'll do, you know, hey, I know I send you a weekly template, but you have to be the one that plans out, you know, when you're gonna sell something. Right? I can't do that for you. Well, now I can do it with you. So we're doing quarterly planning sessions where, hey, for the next 90 days, what do you want from your email list? Are you just gonna focus on connecting? Are you gonna focus on getting your clicks up? Do you need to get replies or do you need to make sales? Let's map that out together. And I'll also be doing quarterly brainstorming sessions. Liz Wilcox: A lot of my people, again, they're newbies. They're in those first zero to three years or zero to three years of just working on their email list. And so we're gonna do offer brainstorming sessions where you come in, tell me about your audience, tell me about what lights you up, tell me what you're good at. Let's create an offer together. And I just. I did that for Black Friday in 2025, and, wow, it was the most fun I think I've ever had on the Internet. We were all dying, laughing. We were all feeling good about selling, which is a miracle, right? And people are so excited for their Black Friday offers. Liz Wilcox: And I was like, we need to do this all the time. So that's what I'm doing to kind of reintroduce or refresh the membership and also reintroduce Liz Wilcox into the membership. Because I feel like, you know, I've been there, but honestly, I've been really, really sick since the airing of or, well, since the taping of Survivor, which has now been two and a half years. And I feel like I'm back fully. And I want people to know, hey, I know it's $9, but I actually care a lot. So come hang out with me. Let me show you how much I care. Let me, you know, hold your hand, and let's do this together. Liz Wilcox: Oh, I'm so excited. Joe Casabona: Yeah, that's awesome. And I can say confirmed here. I joined on Black Friday. This episode comes out shortly after. So, yeah. Awesome, Liz. This has been awesome. If people want to learn more about you, maybe join a mailing list or something like that. Joe Casabona: Where can they find you? Liz Wilcox: Yeah, of course. I'm an email marketer. I want you to join my list. You can go directly to lizwilcox.com in the top right hand corner. You can't miss it. There's a hot pink button. It's going to give you an entire welcome sequence already written for you. Three newsletter samples from that membership we've been going on about, and 52 subject lines. Liz Wilcox: Writing. Writing from scratch. Totally sucks. Let me do it for you, Liz. Wilcox.com Hot pink button. And spoiler alert. If you join the list, you hit that hot pink button. You put your name and address in there. Liz Wilcox: It's going to take you to a site that you can get the membership for $1. Okay? So if you want to check that out for a buck, that's how you do it. All right, thanks so much, Joe. Joe Casabona: Thanks, Liz, for being here. Thanks everyone for listening. And until next time, I hope you find some space in your week.