Reality TV and Personal Branding: Insights from Survivor’s Liz Wilcox

Larry Roberts [00:00:09]:

What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts.

Sara Lohse [00:00:12]:

And I'm Sara Lohse. And this is Branded, Your comprehensive guide to creative branding.

Larry Roberts [00:00:16]:

And on this awesome episode of the podcast, we have an amazing guest in the house. And Sara, we talked about it this morning. She's gonna do the intro.

Sara Lohse [00:00:26]:

I never do this. This is like a special moment for me. Today we're joined by Liz Wilcox, she fresh princess of email marketing, and she's also a contestant on the current season of Survivor, which is crazy awesome. We're so glad that we have her here today. She's going to give us some awesome tips about email marketing and talk a little bit about what it's like to be a reality TV star, because you are that right now. That's crazy. So welcome, Liz. Thanks so much for joining us.

Liz Wilcox [00:00:52]:

Hey, friends. I feel so honored to be on the show. I feel like I've made it. I feel like I've branded myself properly. We'll see at the end of the show if that depiction is still accurate.

Larry Roberts [00:01:06]:

Well, that's usually how we vet our guests, is be like, have they been on reality TV? Do they have any. Are they on IMDb? Where are we at here? And. Right, you made the cut. So congratulations.

Liz Wilcox [00:01:17]:

Rock on.

Sara Lohse [00:01:19]:

No, that's awesome. Yeah, we met back at PodFest because you are, like I said, the princess of email marketing. So you're really involved in that world. But how did you go from email marketing to I'm a contestant on Survivor?

Liz Wilcox [00:01:35]:

Yeah. So actually, if I had never mastered email marketing, I wouldn't have been able to be on the show. So I grew up really poor, and I also grew up watching Survivor. You know, I'm mid to late 30s, so it came out when I was a kid, and, you know, it was just that phenomena of our culture. And I always knew I wanted to be on the show. And maybe this is a little cocky or. I always knew I would get on the show if I applied. I just, you know, I just knew that I was.

Liz Wilcox [00:02:07]:

Yeah, I'm one of those weirdos that, yeah, they're going to want me for sure. There's. I mean, there's reality tv, I feel like. And then there's Survivor. Like, not a lot of people that would apply to Big Brother or, you know, any kind of dating show would apply to, you know, live on a deserted island with no food for a month. Right. Like, that takes a special person. And so I always knew I wanted to be on the show.

Liz Wilcox [00:02:32]:

I always just had this gut feeling that it wouldn't be a problem to get on the show. But I never applied because I grew up really poor when I'm not married anymore. But when I got married, we still didn't have a lot of money. There was not a lot of financial stability. In order to go on a reality show, you kind of have to disappear from the world for, you know, anywhere from a few weeks to a few months at a time. Right. And with Survivor, I knew it was going to be at least five weeks. I would have to disappear.

Liz Wilcox [00:03:04]:

And I was watching with my daughter. My daughter was, I think, six or seven at the time. And, you know, the host comes on and he says, want to apply? You know, is this your dream, apply now type of stuff? And I said, gosh, I really think I could be on that show. I really think I would do well. And my daughter said, are you going to think about it or are you going to do it? Oh, and right. I mean, she is a boss, even at, you know, seven years of age. So, you know, like, I pull up my phone and I see somebody had canceled my 9am for the next day. And so I booked myself.

Liz Wilcox [00:03:41]:

True entrepreneur fashion. Right? I booked myself and I said, I'm going to apply tomorrow. And she said, well, I'll believe it when you're on tv. But the whole. That whole story, yeah, it's awesome. Like, I never would have.

Sara Lohse [00:03:54]:

She's gonna be president one day.

Liz Wilcox [00:03:56]:

She's gonna be something. I mean, she already is something. She's going places. I don't know where it is, but it's straight to the top. Wherever it is, she is a boss.

Sara Lohse [00:04:05]:

Might be the White House, might be prison. We'll find out.

Liz Wilcox [00:04:08]:

Right? Right. Might be just to her room for the night for talking back. But anyway, she's a good kid, but I never would have applied had I not mastered my email marketing. So to Sara's question about, like, how did I go from this to that? If I would have had a typical nine to five, you know, I'm a single mom. I support three households. Taking that time off would be impossible. Right. But because I own my own business, because it's branded super, super.

Liz Wilcox [00:04:36]:

Well, because the email marketing is dialed in, I was able to not only take five weeks off, I actually took 90 consecutive days off of work. And I was able to make, I think, over $1,000 a day while I was on the island, on top of whatever prize money I make, which is to be determined. No spoilers here.

Sara Lohse [00:05:00]:

I think at the time we're recording episode 16 episode.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:05]:

We're about to be on episode 7.

Sara Lohse [00:05:10]:

We're about halfway.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:12]:

You're good.

Sara Lohse [00:05:13]:

Okay.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:14]:

We're about halfway through the show right now.

Sara Lohse [00:05:16]:

Okay.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:16]:

And I'm still there.

Larry Roberts [00:05:18]:

Yeah. Last night I got. I think last night was the latest episode. It came on and I got caught up last night, and we're actually at that point where everybody just merged, so.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:30]:

Correct.

Larry Roberts [00:05:31]:

Yeah. Yeah. So that was interesting to see because we haven't seen a lot of you on the show.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:36]:

And I know I. I can't really say much about it right now, but I was there just as much as everyone else.

Sara Lohse [00:05:46]:

Seems like it's like, because you win and they focus on the people who don't. Maybe.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:53]:

I hope Sara's right. I. I hope. I mean, like.

Sara Lohse [00:05:56]:

Like, your team has been winning a lot. So.

Liz Wilcox [00:05:59]:

Yeah.

Sara Lohse [00:06:00]:

Attention on the team that isn't.

Liz Wilcox [00:06:03]:

Yeah. And this is kind of, you know, when, as you know, people with audiences, we tend to focus on the majority. Right. Like the people that need the most help. Right. And so with the edit, it's kind of the same. It's the. We were winning as a tribe.

Liz Wilcox [00:06:20]:

So if you're not familiar with Survivor, the first half of the game, you're in a tribe, which is pretty much the only time as a white person I can say I was part of a tribe. And so we won every one of our challenges, and so we never had to vote someone off. That's how the game is. You vote people off, you go to something called Tribal Council. And so there's not really been a lot of Liz especially. This is such a good conversation for branding. In my business, I brand myself as. I'm super loud and outgoing.

Liz Wilcox [00:06:54]:

And even during the casting process, they said, liz, you don't seem like the type of person that could blend in if you tried. And so. So going out on the island, I'm thinking, how am I going to brand myself? And I thought I was going to be this very loud, proud, you know, the same person. You see her today. But what I realized out there is there's already a lot of those. And when you're building your business, you know, branding, Part of branding is how can I stick out for my unique service or business. Right. And so I was like, okay, well, I don't have to stick out by being loud.

Liz Wilcox [00:07:32]:

You know, I can brand myself in a different way. And I kind of was trying to brand myself as being in the middle, which I think is, to Larry's point about, oh, we're not really seeing much of Liz. That is a very specific, particular, and intentional branding that Liz has done. That's all I can say.

Larry Roberts [00:07:53]:

I find it super interesting, too, because, you know, you're very colorful. Even your glasses are multicolored and you've worn a ton of colors on the show and even had that. I called it the fruity pebble sweater because it looked like.

Liz Wilcox [00:08:07]:

Yeah, I love that.

Larry Roberts [00:08:09]:

Whatever happened to the sweater? I thought that was going to be, like, the thing.

Liz Wilcox [00:08:13]:

I love my sweater. I'm sure I'll wear it again. I wore it the whole time I was out there. I burned holes in it. You know, I still have it. It's in my bedroom right now. But, yeah. And it's interesting from a branding perspective when I.

Liz Wilcox [00:08:28]:

They help us with our clothing. I picked, like, all those clothes are mine and they. They help us.

Sara Lohse [00:08:34]:

One of the shirts was like, you bought this in, like, high school at a thrift store and you never.

Liz Wilcox [00:08:38]:

Yeah, my mid shirt. It's a rainbow shirt. I bought it, I don't know, like high school or my first year of college or something at a thrift store. And so it was interesting. When we first saw ourselves, you know, in our. In our work clothes, in our tribe clothes, I was like, oh, this guy is going to be, you know, super. I already know he's the loud guy because he's wearing the loudest shirt. And a lot of people, to be honest, thought that I was going to be.

Liz Wilcox [00:09:07]:

This is kind of funny. They thought because they dressed me all in rainbow. Oh, this is. This is going to be a big lesbian story. So it's interesting how, you know, the public perceived. And this is what makes branding so important is, you know, you've got to get your branding right so people get the right impression. Spoiler alert. I am straight.

Liz Wilcox [00:09:31]:

I just love rainbow and I just love color.

Sara Lohse [00:09:34]:

It's allowed.

Liz Wilcox [00:09:36]:

It's right.

Sara Lohse [00:09:36]:

Right.

Liz Wilcox [00:09:37]:

It just. It's just the glasses. I don't. I mean, I'm wearing rainbow today. I. I guess I didn't realize how much I wear rainbow, how much I love color until I got out there and everyone was like, wow, I love your sweater. I love your shirt. Your glasses are rainbow.

Liz Wilcox [00:09:52]:

You know, I didn't realize how I love color, but I guess it's just a part of me. And branding yourself, like, you have to be true to yourself. Right? Sure.

Larry Roberts [00:10:00]:

I gotta. I gotta say that I realized how much you loved color even when we first met. I think it was at what, BJ's, the restaurant there in Florida. We walked in and you guys were sitting there, you'd already eaten, and that's from the first time That I had the opportunity to meet you. And you were. You were very colorful. Ben as well.

Liz Wilcox [00:10:15]:

Yeah. You know, I used to wear all black. I think that's it's pretty easy to wear all black. Right. And I realized the older I got, the more I was like, I don't want to look like everyone else. You know, I can be a little braver and wear some color, and it's just become part of me, I guess. And even, you know, even my little square here, my rectangle, I gotta have a little pop of color here. I find it to be the easiest way to stand out.

Sara Lohse [00:10:46]:

I love it. And your nickname is the Fresh Princess, which I just love. Like the call back to the Fresh Prince. And you're so good at the, like, the branding of it. Like, even your little. The little shape behind your name on the screen, it's so 90s and it just works.

Larry Roberts [00:11:03]:

Rocking the backwards hat, you know, you definitely got to look nailed. And, you know, and I love it because, I mean, I am from the 90s. I grew up in the 80s and 90s because I'm a lot older than anybody else in this call. But. But I love the way that you've taken it and you've owned it. And I'm curious in establishing that brand, and you mentioned before that, and I don't remember if we'd hit record yet, but you were talking about how if you weren't the expert that you are at the email marketing, you would have never landed on Survivor.

Liz Wilcox [00:11:34]:

Right?

Larry Roberts [00:11:34]:

Talk to us a little bit more about that. I mean, we could talk about Survivor all day up to the point of where we have NDAs, but we want to make sure that we get a little bit of branding insight here too. How did you leverage that brand and your expertise in email marketing to make yourself stand out and make those connections?

Liz Wilcox [00:11:52]:

Yeah, so actually this email marketing thing is my third business. So I made all the mistakes in the businesses that I sold. My first business was an RV travel blog. And in it, you know, I was still Liz Wilcox. I can never not be myself. But it was a more toned down version. My ideal client and customer was a man in his 60s. So maybe, you know, I didn't have NSYNC in the background.

Sara Lohse [00:12:20]:

Right.

Liz Wilcox [00:12:21]:

They don't say that was right. That was not relatable. Maybe I was talking more about how my first concert was Aerosmith versus Oh my gosh, I wish I could have gone to an insane concert.

Sara Lohse [00:12:32]:

Are they doing a comeback tour or something?

Liz Wilcox [00:12:34]:

I mean, that's a rumor that I am trying to manifest for the last.

Sara Lohse [00:12:38]:

I went to the Backstreet Boys reunion tour.

Liz Wilcox [00:12:42]:

Yeah, they do bsb. They never went on a hiatus, like in sync. But anyway, that's where I personally if.

Larry Roberts [00:12:51]:

Color me bad.

Liz Wilcox [00:12:52]:

Okay. Yes, that would be awesome. I also love Boys to men, and those two groups really influenced NSync, Backstreet Boys, one Direction, like, very heavily. So I was talking about something important. Oh, yes.

Sara Lohse [00:13:11]:

This was your RV blog.

Liz Wilcox [00:13:13]:

Yeah. And so with, with the emails, I got really good at learning how to connect with these people on my email list and leaning into that and leaning into a brand that was very relatable for my ideal customer. But I just realized after a few years, I had leaned a little too far this way. You know, I didn't really care that much about these brand pillars that I had created. And so I knew when I was going to sell that blog, whatever I did next was going to be 100% Liz Wilcox. Right. And that I was going to only attract the people I wanted to work with. And that served me really well.

Liz Wilcox [00:13:56]:

Of course I can show up today, like, basically completely unprepared. I had no idea I was even wearing a rainbow sweater, that my back, my hat was backwards. Like, I really just am who I am. And so I can just, you know, show up to a live like this and be on brand, so to speak, because the brand is very much who I am and who I choose to embody in the world. And as far as, like, being able to take a step back, having such a strong brand really helps you stay top of mind, which is, you know, the number one thing you need in your business. Right. If I'm, for example, like Coke and Pepsi, Right. I live in Florida.

Liz Wilcox [00:14:41]:

A lot of people drink Coca Cola. So when I'm in Florida, I'm drinking Coca Cola if I'm going to get a soda from the fountain. Right. But when I'm in Michigan, Michigan, Pepsi spends a lot of marketing dollars outside of Detroit because they bottle in Detroit. And so almost everyone there drinks Pepsi. And so guess what I'm drinking over there? Pepsi. Because that's what people are buying. That's what's, you know, available at restaurants.

Liz Wilcox [00:15:06]:

I know, I hate Pepsi. I think it's so gross. But if I'm going to drink something, that's what they're offering me, right. It's top of mind. And so when you have your brand dialed in the way that I did, I was able to take those 90 days off. I was still top of mind when someone needed newsletter templates or email marketing Help. They wanted to listen to a podcast about email. They thought Liz Wilcox, even when I wasn't there, because the branding, the email automations, et cetera were so strong.

Sara Lohse [00:15:40]:

That's awesome. I aspire to be you at this point.

Liz Wilcox [00:15:44]:

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Can I mention one more thing about that? Staying top of mind and branding. Part of my brand is also like, very semi pro. Like my instinct poster, I noticed it's like crooked right now. You know, like the mic, it could probably be placed a little better so it's not cutting out. You know, all this other stuff. My sister, she says it drives her crazy that I have a dresser on this side and not on that side.

Liz Wilcox [00:16:12]:

And so I tend to be only semi pro. And also part of that is being incredibly transparent. That's one of my brand values. And so while I couldn't tell people I was going on Survivor, I did tell them and I walked them through the process of me leaving for a few months. And part of the branding was, well, now we're going to. I'm going to take you to summer school. I'm taking the summer off, but now my assistant, while I'm away, is going to show you the ins and outs of everything we've done the last four months so that Liz can take time off. I'm really leaning into your brand values, and being an embodiment of that helps you also stay top of mind even when you take a vacation.

Larry Roberts [00:16:58]:

I'm semi pro, but I like to think that I'm proud because everything has to be so perfect. I mean, I'm upset right now that my mic is actually visible. So it's, it's a little frustrating. But, I mean, even if you look at my background, you know, I've got light bulbs that sit on the outer frames of, or outer edges of the frame, and they're both covered up just a fraction of an inch on both sides. Everything has to be so precise. And my bookshelf in the back, it's level with the camera. It has to be. I mean, everything.

Sara Lohse [00:17:27]:

The hat has to be 15 degrees.

Larry Roberts [00:17:29]:

15 degrees to the right. I mean, it's got to be. You notice the center line of the hat? Where is it? Right there. My nose is here, so it's always got to be that same distance.

Liz Wilcox [00:17:36]:

I mean, it's, it's, it's giving Curtis Jackson 50 Cent. Yeah, I love it.

Sara Lohse [00:17:44]:

But then I am like you. Like, I just show up and I don't know, for the mo. For the longest time, my mic was actually backwards and the shore was upside down and I had a meeting with, with one of my friends that's also a producer and he's like, can you please fix it? Because it's driving me crazy. But I'm the same way. Like I worked in finance and I was just not myself and I was leaning really into this personality of a financial professional that just wasn't me. So I left that industry. I launched Favorite Daughter. Everything is pink.

Sara Lohse [00:18:20]:

Like I may have like over corrected because I put everything is pink. I wear pink everywhere I go if I'm like on brand and it's the same thing. But then I also like I'm not going to be perfect and if you want someone that's going to show up perfectly, I don't want you to work with me.

Liz Wilcox [00:18:37]:

Amen. Amen. And it's funny, I love what Larry said about like, oh, I'm professional but I want to be semi pro or whatever. Yeah, my, my sister tends to tell me when I make the joke about semi pro. She's like, actually Liz, like you're very professional and you like pretend to be semi pro. Like now you've done it so many times like you're actually, you know, truly professional. And I've, I've even noticed that in. So I just redid my membership site.

Liz Wilcox [00:19:10]:

We celebrated three years of having the membership and I was like I've got to upgrade this site. This site is so unprofessional. Like it's just, it's breaking. I think it, it had like 4. Once it hit like 3000 users the site just really started having more glitches. So I needed to upgrade and I noticed when I was redoing a lot of my trainings because I do so much professional speaking now that the semi pro was kind of gone but I had to reel it back in. And you know we joke about semi pro but I had to realize like my brand isn't being semi professional, it's being fun, light hearted, relatable. And so you know I, I relaxed a little bit, you know, like slump down, like move the mic a little bit, you know, instead of this kind of buttoned up.

Liz Wilcox [00:20:01]:

And you know, I made sure like if I, if I was stumbling over my words, like I just made a joke about it instead of hitting record or pausing it to take a break, you know, I just say hey, I'm just gonna keep going. I flubbed that word up but you get what I'm saying anyway. Da da da. So I have to practice. Really does make perfect. And I know my brand isn't you know, it's the opposite of being perfect. And so, you know, sometimes I have to remember to like, loosen up, get, get a soda. Coca Cola, preferably.

Sara Lohse [00:20:31]:

And yeah, come on, Coca Cola.

Liz Wilcox [00:20:34]:

Sponsored by Coca Cola.

Larry Roberts [00:20:37]:

This is under contract with Coca Cola. Thanks to a relationship on Survivor, right?

Liz Wilcox [00:20:43]:

Shout out to fans in the gang. Shout out to Banta and the gang.

Larry Roberts [00:20:48]:

You know, it's funny though, because I'm kind of. I see similarities there in that, you know, when I first started developing my personal brand, the red hat really started taking off. I was known as the red hat guy and I always wore hoodies. But as the brand continued to grow and as I started landing more professional gigs on bigger stages in front of higher profile business owners and some, some, you know, some people with some money that have real businesses, you know what I mean? I'm starting to feel the, I'm, I'm feeling, well, intimidated to wear the red hat and the hoodie. So I upgraded. So now whenever you see me, I've got a nice little three quarter zip pullover that's always branded and it's embroidered. So it's interesting to see how as the evolution of my brand has grown, I've felt the influence to evolve along with it. When you think about it, that's not what brought me to the dance.

Larry Roberts [00:21:45]:

What brought me to the dance was the freaking hoodie and the hat. Now I still always wear the hat. I'll never go anywhere without the hat. It doesn't matter what stage I'm on. But I have, you know, shied away from the hoodie because it just didn't quite feel as professional as it needed to be to be on a entrepreneur's organization stage or a Dallas business broker stage. Those were, they just seem a little too pro. And Sara and I, we even go back and forth because, you know, we have branded as an LLC together. And this branding that you see here on the podcast is on everything.

Larry Roberts [00:22:16]:

It's on our proposals, it's on our contracts, it's on our pitch decks, it's on everything. And some of the clients that we've been landing as of late have been a little more polished and a little more, I'll call them, professional looking. So I feel inclined to make our proposals, you know, shed some of that color, shed some of that pink, make it look a little more standardized, a little more corporate. And that's causing a little, little contention from time to time.

Sara Lohse [00:22:44]:

Got a lot contention. We. So it's interesting though, because we have three brands together. Like I have favorite daughter, he has Red Hat, and together we have branded, and they have three different personalities. So when we talk to those more corporate clients, I'm like, all right, just talk to them as Red Hat, and then I'll just work with you under your branding. And if it's a very. Like, they're going to like everything being pink, then we talk to them as favorite daughter. So we're able to just pick the brand that fits the audience, which.

Sara Lohse [00:23:14]:

It took us a while to figure that out.

Liz Wilcox [00:23:16]:

Yeah, yeah.

Sara Lohse [00:23:16]:

And I think we were even doing it subconsciously just like, yeah, no, like, this is a really fancy people. We're going to go as Red Hat. Like, we didn't even think it through. But that's kind of what it's become, is just pick whichever brand resonates with the audience, and that's what we lead with because we're going to do the same great work regardless of what logo is on the contract. So I don't know. It's been. It's been really interesting to be able to have those different brands and still be ourselves under them.

Larry Roberts [00:23:46]:

Yeah, that's. I mean, you can look at the difference in the. In the. In the setups. It's Sara, colorful and geometric, and I'm over here. You know, it's all dark, and it's like I'm in the bat cave. And, yeah, it's just a entirely different scenario, but it reflects our personalities, just like you're talking about there, Liz.

Liz Wilcox [00:24:04]:

Yeah, I love that.

Sara Lohse [00:24:06]:

I really want to. So one of the things when I think of, like, people going on reality tv and like you said, like, Survivor and reality tv, it's. They're very different. Like, this isn't like you went on the Bachelor, but as someone who religiously watches the Bachelor, one of the conversations is always like, did you just go on this for clout and for Instagram followers? And I know, I know you didn't. This is not it. This is not an accusation.

Liz Wilcox [00:24:29]:

Yeah.

Sara Lohse [00:24:29]:

I am curious, like, what your thoughts were around that. Like, I'm going to go on this show. How is this going to impact my personal brand outside of the show? Because you've talked about how you've branded yourself on it, but how is it impacted, like, outside of it?

Liz Wilcox [00:24:44]:

Yeah. You know, I love that Sara's asking this question because Reddit is convinced that I went on Survivor to grow my business, but those people have clearly never heard of Facebook ads. And I think that would have been a lot cheaper and easier to grow my business with Facebook ads than to spend six months trying to get on a reality show, flying to Fiji, not eating for X amount of days, I can't tell you how many. And, you know, going home and trying to physically and mentally recover from that. There are way, like, clearly those people aren't business owners because there are way easier ways to make money and grow your business than to get cast on Survivor. That was. Getting cast on Survivor was clearly just an ego thing. I wanted to do it, it sounded cool.

Liz Wilcox [00:25:35]:

And, oh, yeah, you know, I love making money. Why not make money? Why not make a million dollars in 26 days? We'll see if I do it. So as far as, like, how is this working with my brand or did I even think about it? I didn't really think about it until, you know, my sister, my friends and colleagues like, you guys, oh, this is going to be so good for your business. And my immediate before I even went on the show was, this is going to hurt my business. Number one, I'm having to take time off and being, you know, a very, like, personally branded company. You know, when you disappear, does the revenue disappear? Right? So I thought, oh, this is. This could possibly hurt my business. And then I think we mentioned it at the top of the hour.

Liz Wilcox [00:26:28]:

I don't have any control over my edit. If you are not watching the show, I am coming off as a very arrogant, aloof, very rich person. On Twitter, the running gag is rumored billionaire Liz Wilcox. And then, you know, whatever, right? Like, someone tagged me the other day and it said, rumored billionaire Liz Wilcox, will you please bring the sun back after the eclipse? And I, you know, I just reposted it and was like, it is done.

Sara Lohse [00:27:03]:

You're welcome.

Liz Wilcox [00:27:04]:

Yeah, like, it is done. And I put like a picture of the sun or something. And so some people are having fun with it, but some people, you know, obviously a lot of people have money mindset issues. And so a lot of people are not liking the fact that I talked about owning four businesses. Right. Even though I've never been shown on the show saying anything about how much money I make, what I sold the businesses for, et cetera, et cetera. And so I knew going in, coming out that this could possibly hurt my brand because my whole business is around helping people make money. My whole business is about caring about your success.

Liz Wilcox [00:27:48]:

And honestly, the first couple episodes, I looked the opposite. I looked money hungry. Again, like I said, arrogant, aloof. And so, you know, we're still in the middle of things. It's to be determined. But I will say I mostly thought that this would hurt my business. Not enough to not do it, because I know myself. I'm comfortable with myself.

Liz Wilcox [00:28:12]:

I've built a very strong brand that is very connected to my audience and has a strong knit community. But I will say, in those first two episodes, I was asked to be on about five or six podcasts because they did show. They mentioned me saying my full name, and they mentioned me saying exactly what I do. I help people make money on the Internet through email. I couldn't believe that they put that sound clip, because that's exactly what I do. Like, in a nutshell. And so I did get a lot of people joining my email list asking me for advice. I couldn't believe it.

Liz Wilcox [00:28:51]:

I did not go on the show for that. Like I said, Facebook ads, way easier to do than competing in the jungle for a million dollars without food. But if that. Huh?

Sara Lohse [00:29:02]:

Are you sure? I feel like. I mean, with the. With all the algorithms, it's got to be.

Liz Wilcox [00:29:05]:

Oh, right, right. I mean, honestly, I've never run a Facebook ad, but I imagine it's easier. But I was on Survivor, and that was incredibly difficult. So, you know, I can't hire someone to play Survivor for me, but I can hire someone to run Facebook ads for me.

Sara Lohse [00:29:21]:

That's fair.

Larry Roberts [00:29:22]:

Well, you know, in all fairness, they do say that quite often on Shark Tank. When people go on Shark Tank and they don't really feel like they're there for a deal, they're just there to get that attention and get that ad. So that same mentality probably carries over to other reality show contestants as well.

Liz Wilcox [00:29:38]:

Yeah. And I could see. And especially with my business, you know, Larry, Sara, and I, we all have, like, personally branded businesses. Right. And so I was getting a lot of flack, and I guess I probably still am. I've stopped looking about, you know. Oh, this season has a lot of influencers, but people that really dig in. They're like, actually, Liz seems to be the only one that seems to be making money from an online community, and her community is really small.

Liz Wilcox [00:30:08]:

Like, she's only got. I think at the time, my Instagram, before the show premiered, had around 4,000 people. And I actually had a lot of people DM, like, hundreds of people DMing me and finding my phone number and leaving me voicemails about me being a scammer. And there's no way I can be making this much money because my social media following is so small.

Larry Roberts [00:30:33]:

Yeah.

Liz Wilcox [00:30:34]:

And I'm like, well, clearly you don't know anything about email marketing or business. So, like, delete, archive, ignore.

Larry Roberts [00:30:43]:

That's hilarious because I thought I made it the other day because shortly after Podfest there was a post on that was brought to my attention. I think it was on Rumble and I don't visit Rumble ever, so. But someone said, hey, somebody over on Rubble saying that Larry Roberts is a fraud. Discuss. And I was like, oh, this is so cool.

Liz Wilcox [00:31:00]:

You made it, baby. I know. I feel, I feel the same, Larry.

Sara Lohse [00:31:03]:

I feel like no one discussed.

Larry Roberts [00:31:05]:

Yeah, no one.

Sara Lohse [00:31:06]:

There was no discussion.

Larry Roberts [00:31:07]:

I went and I posted. I said, okay, let's discuss. And nothing. So I guess I'm not that big.

Liz Wilcox [00:31:12]:

That's so funny. Well, if you go to Reddit and you search Survivor, Liz, I, A lot of people are discussing how I own a multi level marketing company and I sell snake oil. And so like back to Sara's question of like the brand and being on the show. I think right now it's taken a little hit, but only from the public that aren't actually my customers. What I'm seeing in my community is people are actually doubling down on me, which has been like, honestly super amazing. And I'm so incredibly grateful for my community because they, I can't believe they're showing Liz like this. Liz is the opposite. You know, she's very caring.

Liz Wilcox [00:31:57]:

She's helped me do xyz. Oh, somebody actually got banned from the Survivor subreddit because they, they were defending me. They said it was their first comment ever and they said, oh, actually I've been a customer of Liz's for a few years. I was a private client of hers. She's the real deal. And they banned her immediately from the subject.

Larry Roberts [00:32:22]:

Yeah, I don't, I don't, I steer clear of Reddit always.

Sara Lohse [00:32:25]:

I don't think I've ever been on Reddit, but it seems like a cesspool.

Larry Roberts [00:32:29]:

It's a scary place.

Liz Wilcox [00:32:30]:

I, I mean, I, you know, I'm a Survivor fan. So I was on there, you know, discussing the show beforehand. But I'm definitely trying to steer clear of it right now. But I think overall it, it should enhance my brand. Maybe not for customer base but for my authority to get into, you know, online publications and things like that.

Larry Roberts [00:32:52]:

That's super cool. I got, I gotta, I gotta ask though. Now that you've done Survivor and obviously we're still doing Survivor, but you've, you've been there, you've done that. You got the T shirt and the fruity pebble sweater. Are we going to see you on Naked and Afraid?

Liz Wilcox [00:33:08]:

I don't, I don't know. Probably not I'm not much, you know, on. On the island and I'm allergic to everything. And. But I could eat crabs, and so we would try to go crabbing every day, and I could not catch a crab from literally for my life. I tried so hard. So I don't think I would get cast on naked and afraid because I starved it up if.

Sara Lohse [00:33:35]:

If not Survivor. Like, was there, like, a second choice? Like, was there another. You've thought about Survivors, the only show.

Liz Wilcox [00:33:42]:

I've ever wanted to be on, because it's not even. It's not even. I didn't want to be on the show. I wanted to play Survivor. I didn't care about the show. A lot of people out there, oh, my gosh, I can't believe I'm on Survivor and I'm like, some of y'all are on Survivor and some of y'all are playing Survivor. I'm playing Survivor. So I didn't really care about the show at all.

Liz Wilcox [00:34:05]:

I just wanted to play the game. I'm an incredibly competitive person. That's probably why I've been able to grow my membership so well and so quickly. I just have that very ambitious spirit. And so, yeah, I don't. I wouldn't be interested in another reality show, you know, I guess, unless the pay. Rumored billionaire would say, if. If the pay was okay, I would do it.

Sara Lohse [00:34:30]:

Everyone's got a prize, right? I don't know if you can answer this if you're allowed to, but. And you don't have to give names. The people who seemed more like, I'm on Survivor versus I'm playing Survivor, how did they fare in the actual competition?

Liz Wilcox [00:34:47]:

Yeah, no comment.

Sara Lohse [00:34:48]:

Okay. I figured I had to ask, though.

Liz Wilcox [00:34:51]:

Yeah. We all did our best, and I'm proud of all of us.

Larry Roberts [00:34:56]:

But, you know, I love your strategy right now because I never picked up on any of the negativity that's surrounding you and your parents on the show. Show. I think you're. You've been extremely strategic in your approach. You've been pretty quiet. You're not really standing out. You're not really offending anybody. And then, you know, last night when the.

Larry Roberts [00:35:16]:

When the merger happened and your team lost, and now there's a potential really, for. For Liz to be brought into the limelight. They never even mentioned your name. So you're. You're playing a nice strategic game there where nobody feels like they're threatened yet, and you're not standing out. You're not offending anybody. So so far, I think you've done an amazing job. So good job.

Liz Wilcox [00:35:37]:

Thank you again. No comment. But I hope.

Larry Roberts [00:35:40]:

No, no, I got you. I got to get that out there. So. Hey, Liz, before we wrap this thing up, man, where can people find you and learn more about you and your business other than Reddit?

Liz Wilcox [00:35:51]:

Yeah. So I would love for you to join my email list. Obviously you can go directly to lizwilcox.com in the top right hand corner, there's a hot pink button. You can't miss it. It's going to give you everything you need to get your email marketing set up. It's going to give you a welcome sequence so you can guide new leads into customers. It's going to give you three newsletter samples from my membership and it's going to give you 52 subject lines for a year, full of prompts. Writing from scratch totally sucks.

Liz Wilcox [00:36:18]:

Let me do it for you. LizWilcox.com Hot pink button.

Sara Lohse [00:36:22]:

And we have a direct link to that. It's called the swipe file. And so we'll have that in the show notes as well so everyone can check it out.

Larry Roberts [00:36:30]:

Cool. Deal. Well, Liz, thank you once again for joining us. We really, really appreciate it.

Liz Wilcox [00:36:34]:

Yeah, thank you. I can't wait to see what everybody does with email. Sweet.

Larry Roberts [00:36:38]:

Hey, everybody, if you got some value out of this episode, and I know you did, do us a favor, smash that subscribe button so we can continue to bring you these amazing episodes, these amazing guests. I mean, Liz Wilcox of Survivor was here. It's amazing. Tune in next week. We'd love to talk to you. So with that, I'm Larry Roberts.

Sara Lohse [00:36:54]:

I'm Sara Lohse. And we will never vote Liz off the island.