The list of sales strategies for closing deals ranges from doing thorough research about the one you’re finalizing a deal with, up to creating a sense of urgency. As these strategies vary from one sales team to another, the starting point should always be self-awareness and understanding of the value that you offer because only then can you amplify your influence. A millennial obsessed with all things business and personal growth is Liz J. Simpson. She dives deep into strengthening personal branding and building your authority, be it in life or business. As a B2B sales expert for women, learn her business hacks on building a brand and landing high-paying clients while finding out how she unbecome herself from the experience of domestic violence.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Amplify Your Influence with Liz J. Simpson

I am bringing a new friend of mine, Liz J. Simpson, to the show to talk about why owning your story is the greatest business tool that you can implement right away in your business and then land some high-paying clients.

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I am so happy that you’re here for this conversation because I have found this interview to be one of the most impactful conversations I’ve had. The reason is that Liz J. Simpson, a new friend of mine, she just comes at business and life with such boldness and such honesty. You will hear her story come through and it is such an impactful story. It is such an empowering story and it shows you a lot about who she is and how she is standing and showing up in the world. It’s inspiring. If you are new to the show or you’ve been here for a while and you might be wondering what Unbecoming is, I have created an Unbecoming Process. It’s six quick steps. I get asked all the time, “How do you actually unbecome in business and life to create better results in your business and life?” What I did is I created a free six-part audio series to help you through the process. I’ve extracted the most impactful exercises and broken them up into six short steps. You can find that on UnbecomingPodcast.com/Success. As we go through the episode, we talked quite a bit about business, which on this show, I tend to steer away from it but I like to go with the flow of the episode and the conversation.

I steered it in a way that we got a lot of great business information if you’re growing your business, but we also coupled that with some great juicy personal development information and knowledge and exercises. However, what I think is important is when I have the attention of someone as great and as successful as Liz is, I want to make sure that I ask the questions that maybe you would be asking for yourself to grow your business. What I did is I asked her to stay on after the show and answer some rapid-fire questions in the segment I call After Hours. It’s After Hours with Liz J. Simpson. I asked her five questions, three of those are, “What is the greatest strategy that you’ve implemented that had the most significant impact on the growth of your business?” Her answer was so honest. It’s something I believe in, so you’ll definitely want to check that out.

Number two was, “What’s the biggest mistake that you see brands or creators are making as it relates to building a business or building a brand?” I cannot tell you how many people I see making this mistake as well. Another question was, “When people approach you about growing their influence or landing high-paying clients, what is the most commonly asked question and how do you respond?” This is a question that I’ve implemented in a lot of these conversations. I’ve added it because I think that why not ask them what I should be asking them for you.

I asked all of these questions and a couple other really important ones in the After Hour segment so you can find those at UnbecomingPodcast.com/Liz. I think it’s going to have a significant impact on the success of your business. I want to make sure that I set the scene so you know who she actually is. We talk so much about her personal life, and I hate to brag about them because it feels really awkward. I know being on the other side of that, it always feels awkward when someone’s reading your bio, but I do want you to know who I’m starting this episode with. Liz J. Simpson is a Millennial obsessed with all things business and personal growth. She spent ten-plus years in a corporate sales career fulfilling every role imaginable prior to leaving abruptly in pursuit of fulfillment.

That journey led her to write a book on self-discovery, which we talked about in this episode, and to create a global domestic violence awareness platform for trauma survivors, and we dig deep into that as well. The last thing Liz ever expected was for herself discovery journey to bring her right back to where she thought she was running from, sales. Determined to disrupt the status quo and empower female founders to consistently close high-value, Liz created a B2B sales system rooted in authenticity, business acumen and proven communication strategies. As Founder of Stimulyst, she has helped clients close as much as $2.3 million in eighteen months and a record $600,000 in one month. She is a total badass in business and I can’t wait for you to read this. Don’t forget to head over to UnbecomingPodcast.com/Liz for more information and more tips, tools and strategies on how to grow your business.

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I am so excited to welcome a new friend of mine, Liz J. Simpson to the show. Liz, thank you so much for being here.

It’s my pleasure. I’m excited to have a new friend.

Just to give people a little context, we actually didn’t really meet necessarily. I saw you speak at South by Southwest on a women’s panel. To be honest, I don’t invite people that I don’t know personally to the show, but there was something about you. I think it was your honesty, your energy and the stories that you are willing to open up about on stage. From that moment I thought, “She would be a perfect guest for this show.” We are new friends. I feel I already know you from a lot of the research I’ve been doing. I’m excited and I’m so grateful that you are here. Thank you so much.

I was telling you about reading some of the episodes and this is a much-needed message. The fact that you are able to even encapsulate it in one word of unbecoming is so genius and so on point. I’m excited to be here and I can’t wait for this conversation.

I want to start off this conversation with who is the real Liz J. Simpson.

The real Liz J. Simpson is this girl in a woman’s body that is looking for permission for her fullest self-expression to do good and to love herself. That shows up in many different ways, but that’s who I am. This girl is looking to self-actualize in this aging body.

You talked about how you like the phrase unbecoming and that that is so important to you. I would love to hear why that’s important to you. Is there a definition that you’ve been using or something that’s a reason why unbecoming resonates with you?

The most groundbreaking thing any of us can do on our time on earth is to figure out who we are and love that person. Click To Tweet

It’s interesting because when I first learned about your podcast, I was like, “Unbecoming, that’s probably more poignant than what I refer to, which is shedding.” I felt my experience in life has been shedding the baggage, the programming, the inner critic, all of the other influence in this effort to find myself and to be loyal to me. I was a very accomplished young lady. When I was a kid, I always had great grades. I had people who said I had an old soul because I wrote a lot of poetry. When it came to civil rights or activism, I was one of those outspoken children. Adults were always surprised by the things that would come out of my mouth. Everyone said I was this kid with an old soul. I’ve had this very promising future. I was that person that people always thought, “Liz is going to go out in the world and do things.” I got an academic scholarship to a Big Ten University and when I got there, I realized I had no clue who I was or what I was doing. Originally, I had applied for college as a Political Science major because I want it to be an activist. I wanted to create social change and I wanted to make impact and in order to get my academic scholarship, I had to change to a business major. When I got to college and I was studying business, I didn’t know what I was doing. My two favorite classes, I had studied Spanish for six years and French for eight years.

All I wanted to do was to travel the world and consume culture because I appreciated people and other ways of approaching life. Being lost, I found myself in a relationship I had no business being in and the next thing I know, I became a domestic violence survivor. I was pregnant. I was in an unsafe situation. The next thing I knew I was running for my life as an unwed young mother and that situation let me to living in a domestic violence shelter for nine months. I was trying to escape off the map, which also leads at some point to him kidnapping my daughter, which I would say as human beings, we’re very removed from the stone ages, the caveman days.

If I ever saw myself at a savage, very human element, I always joke that that was my Medusa days. When my daughter was kidnapped, I became very basic. I want my daughter. I want to survive. I was fighting for life. When I got my daughter back, I was a different person. I have matured in a way that as a mother, I don’t want my kids to have to go through things like that to self-actualize. That was a time where I saw how brave and bold I could be. A lot of people who once had high praise for me, gave up. They were like, “That’s that girl who had a lot of potential.” We’re going to look at her ten years from now and say, “She used to be someone who had a lot of potential and now look at her life.” I lost a lot of great relationships.

I spent the next ten years working my way to approval. I had a corporate sales career. It was a great career. I worked my ass off and next thing I knew on my 30th birthday, I was talking to a best friend and she’s like, “I’m so proud of you. You’re 30. I remember ten years ago, all the things you said you want it and you have them now.” She was referring to like I had the six-figure career. I was married to an amazing husband. We had a blended family. I have great kids at this big Texas house.” When she said that, tears started falling down my eyes because I was like, “Is this what I worked for?” This life that appears successful to everyone else, but I’m miserable?”

I am held captive in the appearance of success. What I didn’t realize I was doing and the major danger of not unbecoming is that you will work your ass off to become someone that isn’t who you want it to be in the first place. If we’re not cognizant of the programming and the messages, I was working so hard to prove myself to other people that I had completely betrayed myself. That’s been my past five years have been unbecoming. I left Corporate America on this evolution of doing business that feels good, that creates an impact, where I get to show up. I literally have on my wall that what I want is for all of me to be able to come into my business and to the tables that I find myself at. That’s what unbecoming is for me.

This is why I wanted you on this show because I knew that you personified unbecoming. Everything that you’ve been through is so remarkable. Where do you think you are in the unbecoming phase? When you hit 30, all of a sudden it opened a door. Where do you feel like you are?

I’m clear on who I am. I’m in the process of continually molding the business to align with that. I see the vision, but now I’m doing the work. A friend of mine, T.D. Jakes did a talk. He talked about if someone’s in the spiritual world, there are so many talks where they talk about building faith upon solid foundation and I’ve heard that before. What was different about these T.D. Jakes’ talk is he talked about when you’re building a house and how they have to dig up all the ground beneath it until they hit rock. Then they built the framing or foundation depending on where you are in the country and your geography upon that. He talked about how the shovel is people, how it’s through our relationships and interactions with people that help mold us and help us find that foundation and that’s where I’m at. I’m a visionary. I naturally see things five years, ten years out. I see the vision. Now, I’m doing the work of building it and trying to find people who believe in what I believe. I’m trying to find people that I want to do business with. I call it the building phase is where I’m at.

I want to go back into your story. When you’re running from this guy, you’re in corporate, you’re trying to repel all of the judgement from other people or maybe proved everybody else, did you ever feel a pressure to get in a new relationship? How did the relationship start?

I didn’t feel pressure for a new relationship. What’s interesting is that the situation where I was in domestic violence, I was only with him about 90 days before I got pregnant. It’s a very brief interaction. However, what happens when you look at the cycle of violence is that my pregnancy only escalated it. Most of the violence that I dealt with was outside of our romantic relationship. We weren’t together anymore but because now we were parents, there were interactions. I definitely dated in that time. I was looking for the right relationship. I had the Jerry Maguire single mom tendency to where, “I have a kid. I’m not really dating. Are you my future husband or not?” I definitely had those tendencies and what’s interesting is that I didn’t find my husband until I changed that approach. I have no hair basically.

Not many people can pull that off, I have to say.

I have so many layers to my unbecoming story. It’s ridiculous. All of these are phases of my never-ending unbecoming journey. Ten years ago, I cut all my hair off. I was so focused on me and trying to find a way to love this person I woke up to in the mirror every day and trying to figure out who she was. I cut my hair off and I assumed that no man in his right mind was ever going to be attracted to me again and I didn’t care. I journaled and I went into this very deep spiritual place of trying to find myself and I was on a website. After cutting all my hair off and starting to love myself, this man reached out to me on this online dating platform. It was funny because I was really interested in him.

I could immediately tell by the way that he put his words together, he had well-thought grammar and sentence structure. I was so intrigued by the way he could string words together. One of my first thoughts was, “All my photos were frivolous. I’m in bikinis on the beach with long flowing locks and all this hair. What do I do? Is it awkward to tell this guy, ‘I know you’re probably attracted to these photos, but I cut all my hair off?’” I told him and I was like, “I cut all my hair off.” I sent him photos and he’s like, “Yeah, but it’s your smile that I’m attracted to.” That was the beginning of our love story. I didn’t feel the pressure for other relationships. I took my time to find my husband and I’m thankful that I did.

I’m single, so I’m always asking people questions about their relationships because I think it is really important. As somebody who has had such a serious story, all stories are valid, but you went through so much and then to enter a new relationship. Maybe ground zero where you’re like, “The bar’s pretty low and let’s get on with it.” I love hearing nuances to your story about you went and you started doing some personal development work. You’ve integrated some of the spiritual stuff into what you’re saying. I know that you wrote a memoir called The Puzzle Pieces of Me: How to Find Yourself, Love Yourself, and Live the Life of Your Dreams, which I absolutely love. I want to hear where did that come into the picture?

Circling back to the 30th birthday conversation, that conversation set off feelers that something’s not right. You are held captive by this lie, by this facade of success. I started looking for an escape. Happenstance, coincidence, fate or whatever you want to call it, there was a speaker who’s coming into town. His name’s Delatorro McNeal II and he became my speaker mentor. I met Delatorro in San Antonio. He was having a conference in Florida. My husband and I signed up to go to this conference. It was focused on peak performance and things of that nature, motivation and empowerment. While I was there, he made this offer for what he was calling The Keynote, which is a pilot reality show.

It was a speaker competition for those who want to be speakers. It was baptism by fire and them documenting the journey of us embarrassing ourselves all over the place. When he was pitching this reality show and inviting attendees, I went to the information session and I was like, “I’m not sure.” I was a life and health insurance broker at the time. My career took a lot of my time. He grabbed me and we were in this empty auditorium at this point, where this huge conference was. He puts me front and center at the podium overlooking the audience and he goes, “How long have you seen this?” It’s one of the creepiest moments of my life because without thinking I went, “My whole life I’ve been seeing this my whole life.”

Be who you are but don't settle. Click To Tweet

That was the pivotal moment. We would have to go so much deeper. I’m a preacher’s kid. I am a daddy’s girl. I think my dad’s one of the most brilliant men. I’ve watched him my whole life speaking “from the stage of church.” I’m always that person who does private monologues in my mirror where I’m changing lives in my room, all the corny stuff I wouldn’t tell people, but I’ve always wanted to change lives through the power of my words. I quit my job. I almost earned a divorce by quitting my job and that telling my husband in advance. Part of this reality show series was we were supposed to write our book, create a platform and speak. In my journey of leaving Corporate America, I’m like, “If I’m at ground zero and I’m starting over, if I’m going to have a platform, if I’m going to earn the right for someone to want to listen to me, what would I say that matters?”

The thing I settled on was self-discovery. I feel the most important journey in our lives, the most groundbreaking thing any of us can do on our time on Earth is to figure out who we are and love about that person. Self-discovery became my platform. I thought, if I’m going to write a book, probably the best way, like the Marianne Williamson quote is that, “When we love ourselves, when we give ourselves permission to shine brightly and to be ourselves, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.” I felt instead of preaching to people what I think they should do when I’m figuring it out as I go. I’m definitely not the expert. The best thing I can do is lead, be vulnerable and lead by example by telling my story. That’s how The Puzzle Pieces of Me came about.

I love the story about him putting you front and center and you came out right away. Talk to me about that. As you were going through this and you were speaking, was there any hesitation? Were you nervous? Why did you feel that way?

I like to control my narrative. My narrative is that I’m a strong, powerful woman who was intelligent and in control. I’m a high D. I’m a decisive personality. I’ve been in sales a long time. I spend a lot of time in the masculine energy or had in the majority of my career. The idea of telling people that I’m a victim, I escaped to a shelter, I was on welfare, transitional housing, went through therapy and love someone enough that I questioned my own worth, that’s not a part of the narrative. As an entrepreneur, some of this sounds crazy to say but that’s because I’ve been an entrepreneur for five or six years. When all you’ve known is corporate and a very professional world, the idea of telling a truth that’s not buttoned up, it felt like, “How am I ever going to get a job?”

If people read my book, there’s no way to be a phony after that. I tell all my business. I told way too much in my book. My husband was my greatest support system, “Do it. Women need to hear this. People need to hear this.” It also triggered anxiety again. I tell stories coaching domestic violence, victims and survivors. It re-triggered all my stuff. I would have panic attacks in grocery stores. There was a time where I was in a grocery store. I was afraid to go down the aisle because I kept seeing my abuser everywhere. I used to call my husband, “I’m in the grocery store and I’m so freaking afraid to go down the aisle.” I had been ten years removed from abuse, but writing the book meant reliving it because in order to tell the truth, I had to go back to that place.

It could have gone one of two ways. Your corporate life could have just fizzled out and people are like, “I want to hire you,” but the reality is everyone needs to hear that story. I love though that you took the jump into entrepreneurship. Was that a big leap for you?

I had a knowing in my spirit. I’ve lived in domestic violence shelter for nine months and been on welfare. What’s the worst that could happen? Many years later I’m like, “If only you knew the worst that could happen in the business journey.” I don’t think shelter should be your ground zero. All jokes aside, I had a knowing in my gut, the hardest thing was telling other people because you have to sell other people. That’s the worst part. Even when you’re sold, I have a responsibility to tell my husband and tell all the other people will think I’m crazy. Jumping wasn’t hard. It was being a responsible adult that was accountable to other people that was hard.

 

You mentioned that you’re a daddy’s girl and that your dad has been a huge influence on your life. How has that relationship developed or evolved from when you were younger?

Quite differently and then not. What’s interesting is the book introduced everyone to the adult me. I think we have relationships and with people that you spend a lot of time with, who we are internally, sometimes is hard for people to see. I tell all my business in the book, from spirituality, to sex, to my thoughts. If someone wants the dissertation on who Liz is or who she was captured in time several years ago, that book was that. My dad reading that book allowed him to see who I was or who I saw myself as, which opened up our relationship in different ways, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. I’m a girl that wants daddy’s approval. I’m aware of that and I allow that to motivate me in healthy ways. Meaning that I want to become someone and continually evolving to being someone that I’m proud of. I know if I’m proud of myself, my dad will be proud of me but what’s different is I’m no longer willing to sacrifice me so that other people can be proud of what I’m doing.

I can’t imagine being a parent and reading a book like that. There are so many feelings and emotions that I’m sure came out of that book where your heart is on the paper. You’re going through the details of what this was, what happened, all of that. I can’t imagine how he must have felt at that moment. Did you sit down and have a conversation about it? Was this, “Toss it over there, please read it, but I don’t want you to read it but let’s see?”

My parents are my greatest advocates. They read it. They financially helped with the publishing of the book. My parents were buying crates of books and sending them to influencers, “I sent your book to so and so because I thought they should read it.” We had conversations. We sat down. I created a global domestic violence platform, where for ten weeks I have Noble Prize winners, sociologists, psychologists, social workers talk about the journey of domestic violence and survivors. What’s crazy about us not telling our stories is that we allow cycles to recreate themselves. What I didn’t know is my mom was a domestic violence survivor.

My dad is her second marriage and her first marriage mirrored my abuse situation. When I was going through my ten weeks series, we had very open conversations. What’s interesting about our narratives, our critic, in our stories and the things we have to unbecome is that sometimes we translate what loved ones expect of us and our own narrative. No one told me to not be myself to be successful, but I want it so badly to fit in the box of what I thought success looked like, that I betrayed myself. That’s one part too. Sometimes we get caught up in our narratives of what should be and then when you have conversations with people and they’re like, “That’s how you felt about it. No one was asking you to do that.”

That’s hard to rewrite that story because you’re like, “That was my experience and I have a similar thing.” I think everybody does and understand where you start and the family ends or where you fit in is hard. As you’re a parent, what do you do to help your kids not feel that way?

I’ve accepted that I’m going to screw my kids up one way or another. I’m going to focus on one area and years later they’re going to be like, “You miss this area over here that I needed from you.” I’ve embraced the internal screw up that’s going to happen as a parent but I focus a lot on freedom, fulfillment and what do you want to do? All the things that I want and that I focus on from myself or things that I give them. I have my kids read The Success Principles and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Tony Robbins. I want them to know them. We pulled our kids out to homeschool for a few years during their middle school years because we know those are pivotal years in their life.

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My son is on his last year of homeschooling and then he enters high school in the fall, but taking these pre-teenage years to give them time to figure out who they are outside of the noise of public school. I feel if my kids know who they are, love who they are, are secure in their identity and know that they have a support system, that’s the best I can give them. My husband wrote a book too, his own version of a memoir. His is a little bit different. His is raw and real as well and our kids have read both of our memoirs. There are no lies, there are no fables about who mom and dad are. They get to see us as flawed humans and in that hopefully, they see our superpowers.

What an amazing gift because that was going to be my question. Have they read your book? What conversations are important to you to be having? You said identity who they are that they love themselves, but when they’re wobbling a little bit, how do you bring them back to center? What are the conversations? What are those sound at your house?

We’re very free thinkers in our household, independent and open to challenging the status quo. The thing about children is that they’re more self-assured than we adults are. It’s very black and white for them. My daughter tells me all the time what’s wrong and what’s not right. Kids have a very clear moral compass. Adults muddy it for them, with our politics, bureaucracy and things that we can’t explain that we try to make up explanations for. More often than not, my kids are giving me the moral compass and I’m telling them the bureaucracy of life. It’s asking them what they think and what they feel. How do you feel about that? What do you think?

My husband is an amazing teacher. He leads to the homeschooling, so he’ll have them listen to songs and share what his takeaways are from the song. How does he translate the lyrics? Our jaws are on the floor. If we as adults became students of our children, they have the answers. We’re here to reinforce. I’m a guide to say, what do you think and what do you feel? There’s nothing wrong with that. Here are some books you can read that support that or this is what you can tie that too. As I say, all that you seek or resides within, that’s definitely true of the babies.

What I say to my clients is I’m the bumpers in a bowling alley. I don’t have to make sure you hit strike, I just got to keep you in play. The way that you’re approaching your kids is inspirational, for me to hear that you are keeping them in play. Giving them the resources for them to make their own decisions and also say, “I’ll just fan your flame.” For you to be that fan to their flame, I would love to meet your kids when they are making decisions on their own. How old are your kids?

They are thirteen and fourteen and I’m terrified. They are about to hit high school, we’re turning the corner of the last four years. I have a two-year-old. She normally gets all the attention. She runs the household.

What do you hope one day that your kids are saying about you? If I were to bring one or two of them on here, not the two-year-old, what would you hope that they would say about you?

 

That I’m strong and that I’m real and that I gave it all to give them the world. That’s what I’m doing. I feel I am trying to become who I need to be so I can be the example for them, to not have to work so hard to unbecome. I’m hoping that I’m leading by example. My dad’s the cool dad and I’m the strict crazy mom that has insane expectations. Don’t get it twisted, I’m like, “Be who you are but don’t settle.” I’m all about stretching my kids to dream it and then how do you actualize that. They’re at an age where they settle, there’s peer pressure, there are the easy route and inner critics. We’re done with that. In order to ask them to aspire for more, they have to see me breaking down the status quo and disrupting the status quo for myself. If they were on here, I would hope that they say, “My mom is breaking down barriers, being real and loving.”

From what I know about what you’re doing actually in business and if we shift that way, how you do one thing is how you do everything and what you’re doing for your kids sounds very much what you’re doing for your clients. Can you talk to me a little bit more about what you do in work?

What I do in work all boils down to sales. Helping business to business clients to land high-value clients, high-paying clients that shows up in many different ways. My passion, the message that drives me is that survival is selfish. That’s what I learned from my domestic violence journey is that when I pulled my head out of my own crap, I realized that I was not able to give to anyone else because I was barely getting by. That’s the story of a lot of business owners. We’re settling for good enough in getting by, which means that you’re not able to create more jobs, to financially give to social causes that you care about or create the cultures that have the propensity to change our society.

The way that I create change from my corner of the world is empowering them with the confidence, skill sets and the influence to sell, to land high-paying clients and to make big money. Big money’s a phrase I use that is not as tongue in cheek as it sounds. It’s about money that’s bigger than you. It’s about legacy building, creating the type of wealth, revenue that changes generations and all your stakeholders. The interesting thing as all things is that I can easily give someone a sales system, tell them what to propose, how to prospect and how to do lead generation. How to leverage social selling, how to propose and what should be in your contract, but the greatest breakthrough is the mind.

Salespeople do not get enough credit for the mental warfare that they’re dealing with day in and day out. You have to manage your mindset all the time in order to be in sales. I was blessed having been in corporate sales. I was trained and I was the typical Millennial who did a job for eighteen to 24 months and left. I had a lot of shame around that, but then the blessing is my clients to get the best of the best. I have worked for many Fortune 500 companies and I’ve seen the best of their training. I get to diffuse the best parts of that and then also integrate things that I thought were missing, which are the spirituality of mindset. My greatest passion is women.

If you want to really piss me off, let’s talk about the revenue disparity for women-owned businesses versus others, especially women of color. On the same token though, when you talk to women, we have a lot of aversion to sales and business development. We think it’s sleazy and we have to do the work to change our mindset on that because you have no business being in business if you averse to revenue because otherwise go get a hobby or go volunteer. If you want a business, then you have a responsibility to bring in revenue. We have a responsibility to bring in big money so that we can create impact. That’s what I do for a living.

This whole entrepreneurial game, it’s become this very glitzy and glam industry where people think, “I slap website on and all of a sudden I’m in business.” It’s doing the real entrepreneurs a huge disservice because you’re not showing. The leaders need to be showing, needs to be more honest about what this actually looks like. I loved what you say mental warfare. That is true. When you’re going through day after day high-ticket selling. I’m curious when you’re working with someone, especially at the beginning, what are the pain points that they have as far as going out and selling something? What is that real conversation? What do they think it is and what’s actually going on?

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What they think it is that sales feels manipulative, sleazy, I have to hard close them, be rude and talk over them. They have this very ugly connotation of twisting someone’s arm to sell, which I understand where that comes from. I’m not naive because I get those phone calls myself. I understand where it comes from, but when it comes to high ticket and I’m talking five-figure, six-figure, seven-figure deals, if you are in the service space and B2B space, you’re selling to executives or real estate investors and things of that nature. First of all, in business, if you’re in a service-based business, you’re not doing transactional sales. The viability of your business comes from retention and low churn.

In so ways should your sales process be manipulative because even if you get the yes now, you wouldn’t sustain the relationship. It’s not about sacrificing a relationship to get a sale. It’s walking them through, “That’s what you think sales is, but let’s walk through what that would look like.” How would you have a relationship if that’s what sales look like? Executives are brilliant. The truth is that if you’re looking to work with an executive and close high-ticket sales, it’s about you. You have to be a trusted advisor. You have to have strong business acumen. You have to be trustworthy. The fact of the matter is that the Millennial buyer is the largest buyer in the B2B space, and the Millennial buyer sniffs out twenty miles away. We are looking for confidence, self-assurance.

One of the stats I share with people that blows their mind is that when they do studies of highly effective salespeople, the number one trait of highly effective salespeople is self-awareness. It’s about you. It’s about your confidence. First, they show up with that connotation of sales, but what gets in their way is their narrative. What I do is the perfect match between the self-discovery me and the corporate me. I have to coach people through their stories in order for them to be effective in sales. If all I was, was a technician that taught the sales part, I would not be effective because most of it is mindset. I had a client touch my heart where she was sharing one of the challenges with increasing her pricing actually goes back to a traumatic relationship. She’s created this narrative where she’s got to work hard to get by and take whatever comes her way.

A lot of women have that story of, “If I get all the degrees and all the PhDs, the world would give me what I deserve.” It might be nice to wake up in that world, but that’s not your world. You get what you demand, you get what you get. Empowering them and working through their stories and everyone’s story is different, but my job is to be gentle. I have a high D personality, I’m definitely the person who’s direct and doesn’t like a lot of excuses, but how I first show up is more of a coach. What’s going on? What’s the dream? What’s the vision? What’s showing up for you? I ask a lot of questions on the frontend so that I can understand the story that they’re living on. I work with them to change the narrative and release the story and the easiest part is teaching them how to sell better.

What you said is reaffirming my own belief, which is that we build businesses as extensions of ourselves. If we’re not working, our business is not working. What’s so great about what you do is drawing the parallels between the personal life, the story and what you’re actually doing. I love what you said at the end about how the easiest part is the selling. The hard part is everything else that comes after that. I’m like, “If only I had the skill set and if only I knew the framework from which to sell,” that’s actually backwards if you only own your story. I love hearing because what you say on one of your profile, it speaks the language of results to attract high paying clients. Would you say that’s how you’re attracting people, it’s one of those signs on the door says this, but what you actually give them is the training on who they are, extracting their story and integrating their story into what or how they’re selling?

I think it’s how everyone should do business. I call it giving them the ice cream with the spinach inside. It’s my personal belief for how business should be done is that human psychology, we should be advertising outcomes and results. People are looking for a change. Your messaging, regardless of your business, should be on the final outcome, the final result that you’re offering them. As they come into work with you when you’re explaining your services, your packages, that’s when you explain your unique process for how you do that. The result is I’ve helped clients close millions of dollars. I help them to consistently close high-value clients.

That’s the messaging, but the way we do that is my process. My process is both helping them with self-awareness, gaining confidence and influence is huge, especially this is not getting any less critical. Personal branding is so powerful. People think sales as transactional, sales is someone signs a contract for me, but I talk all the time about creating opportunities. One of my favorite sales mentors, Anthony Iannarino, talks about sales being mastery of creating opportunities. If you understand the communication skill sets involved in sales, confidence, listening, looking people in the eye, your body language and just all of those things. What’s happened is when I’m not “actively selling” my influence has created so many opportunities for me and those are better than the things that I go after.

 

Those opportunities where someone’s like, “Because of me being exposed to you, I curated this opportunity just for you.” That means I’m not competing with someone else. It means that these are things that are designed for me and I might be being too vague. I’ve had four business leaders offer me succession and their multimillion-dollar corporations because of how I show up in the world. My inner critic would say that I don’t have a degree, I’m not worthy of those things. I wouldn’t ever believe in my wildest dreams that I’ve been a chief growth officer of a leading consulting firm. I won’t say I didn’t ask for that opportunity because I think subconsciously I did, but I didn’t know that opportunity was available to me, but we create opportunities through our confidence. It’s not just selling to get someone to sign a contract, it’s learning how to be confident and amplify your influence.

The majority of the people reading to this have a team of definitely ten or fewer, but they’re probably two to five years into business and trying to gain some traction and some momentum moving forward. As far as attracting those high paying clients, could you give us one or two things that people could actually take away, run with, integrate or implement into their business?

As simple as it sounds, what’s most missing is clarity on their messaging and their buyer. I’m a huge fan of market segmentation strategies, meaning that you should have vertical and horizontal segmentation, if not at least one. What that looks like is that, if you’ve been in business two to five years, you know what the PITA clients are, the Pain In The Ass clients look like that you don’t want to work with anymore. Think about that dream client that understands the value, doesn’t complain about your pricing, highly engaged and you’re able to create a strong ROI for them because you’re partners in your efforts.

Think about that client and then think about how to duplicate them. Identify what their role is, what industry they’re in, what’s unique about them and think about the results you create for them. From there, one of the biggest reasons I think people struggle with pricing appropriately in closing high-value clients is that they don’t understand the value that they offer. If you can identify the buyer, if you first then focus on the result that you create for them, then you need to do your homework. One of the things I work with my clients on is called “qualify and quantify the cost of the status quo.” You need to understand the true value of the result that you create. Looking at studies, understanding what’s the impact of it, qualitative and quantitative, and oftentimes if you do the homework, you’ll realize, the business impact of the problem I’m solving is worth $150,000 a year for this client and we’re only charging $2,000 a month. Even if you don’t increase your pricing, it’s so much easier to close something, when you know that what you’re charging is a drop in the bucket to the impact that you’re creating. I’d say start there, start understanding the buyer, the problem you saw and then the value you create. There’s a lot of homework, but I would say start there.

I love for things to be actionable. I know that you’re somebody who takes big action, thank you for that. What is something that you wish more people knew about you?

I’m figuring it out each day as I go.

The woman who I saw on stage, you look like you have it all together, but there were moments where your humor is injected into it. I can see myself in you and so much of what you said is just being authentic, being yourself and the opportunities that are created out of that. I saw you on stage and I was like, “She’s got to be on my show. I don’t know her but I’m willing to make an exception.”

The greatest journey is the one inside of you that you need to go on. Click To Tweet

For them to know about me is that I’m figuring it out as I go. I think it was Alison Bert, one of my mentors, at some point who has said it, “Mediocrity is contagious.” We know what we want to do most times. We might have to shed or work on unbecoming, but we have an idea of what we want, but we dust it off or shake it off. If more people had the gall, the boldness and the endurance to go after the impact they want to create by any means necessary, I have a heart for bold people. The change makers, the way makers, those of I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but I know that there’s a higher vibration from my life. If I could encourage those people, keep going, be bold. It’s not going to fall into your lap and to your point, this hustle is not glamorous.

I hate the word hustle, but I’m going to admit it feels like a lot of hustle some days. It’s not glamorous. It’s not glitzy, but I would say this is the most fulfilling work. I would not trade this. Obviously, I wouldn’t trade it because I’m a salesperson. I could go get a job. I’m choosing this because there’s something so magical about it and I’m not one of those people who preaches entrepreneurism as if it’s for everyone. I definitely think you have to love the journey in order to sustain it but if it’s for you, be bold and create a bigger impact.

Thank you. I use it way more eloquently than I did. Where can people find you if they want to learn more about you, maybe work or learn more from you?

I’m on Instagram, @LizJSimpson or LinkedIn. My website is Stimulyst.com. They can always check out my website to catch up with me.

I love watching your Instagram stories. If you had 30 seconds and this was broadcasted to the entire world, what message would you have or what would you say?

That you are divine and you are perfect just the way you are. As they say, the struggle, the imperfections, the flaws, the contradictions that come together to create you are perfectly designed. Walk in your imperfection because as hypocritical as it sounds, it’s what makes you unique. It’s what makes you perfect as you are. Love yourself. We need to hear your voice. There is someone who was going through some type of struggle and your truth, who you are, your light has the power to release them. No matter how we dress ourselves up as human beings, we are all creatures looking for validation and for love. If you can find out how to empower others and be yourself to free others, you won’t ever have to look for a tribe and you won’t struggle building a business. People will be magnetized towards you, and it gives you the ability to know that you’re not alone. If I can emphasize that the greatest journey is the one inside of you that you need to go on.

I want to thank you for showing up, for doing this with me. I have been looking forward to this for so long since we first started talking. I’m so grateful that you took the time out, that you are empowering and fanning the flame of so many amazing people. There’s somebody reading this who needed to see exactly what you said. Thank you so much for how you show up in the world, how you show up in your family. You’re raising amazing kids that are going to live a life that is very inspired and we need more like that. Thank you for being that. I appreciate it.

I appreciate you. Thank you for the platform of this. It’s so needed, and it’s easy in the entrepreneur space to talk about so many different aspects related to business. The fact that you’d built a platform on unbecoming, the truth of what’s needed, the real work, to find guests, it’s beautiful work and it’s much needed. I appreciate you for reaching out to me. This has been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Liz is such a powerhouse, a woman, a mother and a business owner. If you do not feel lit up and inspired by that conversation, I don’t know what will make you feel that way because I feel that way. I wanted to remind you that we stayed for another five minutes and she recorded her response to my five questions about how to build a better business, landing high-paying clients and how to show up and own your story and sell in a way that feels genuine and authentic to you. You can find that at UnbecomingPodcast.com/Liz. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I look forward to seeing you in our next episode.

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I have five questions for you. The first one is what is the greatest strategy, tool or resource that you’ve integrated in the past three years that’s had the most significant impact on your business?

Selling.

Learning how to sell, is that what you’re referring?

Yeah and embracing it. I had a career in sales and it’s crazy that when I went to entrepreneurship, I threw away everything. I was like, “I’m not doing this.” Then I realized, “No, wait.”

What is the biggest mistake that you see brands making or creators or entrepreneurs making as it relates to building their brand or amplifying their influence?

Not having the business acumen to understand the business value that they create. Aesthetics are great, but what are you doing for the business? What problem are you solving?

What is one action step that someone could make who wants to amplify their influence?

Stretch outside of their comfort zone. Do one bold thing that scares you to death and by doing it, you’ll gain confidence to do more.

What is a quality that you look for in a new client? What is the most significant or most important quality that you look for?

Bold dreams, bold desires, wants to do more and is willing to do the work but just doesn’t know what to do.

When people approach you about growing their influence or landing high-paying clients, what is the most commonly asked question and how do you usually respond?

I usually respond by knowing how to qualify and quantify the status quo. You can’t increase pricing if you don’t know the value that it creates for the buyer.

What is one thing that my community can do to help you spread your message?

Follow, join my tribe and share the news with others.

Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Important Links:

• Liz J. Simpson
• UnbecomingPodcast.com/Success
• UnbecomingPodcast.com/Liz
• Stimulyst
• South by Southwest
• T.D. Jakes
• The Puzzle Pieces of Me: How to Find Yourself, Love Yourself, and Live the Life of Your Dreams
• Delatorro McNeal II
• Marianne Williamson
• The Success Principles
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Anthony Iannarino
• @LizJSimpson – Liz J Simpson’s Instagram Account
• LinkedIn – Liz J Simpson’s LinkedIn Account
• www.Stimulyst.com

About Liz J. Simpson

Liz J. Simpson is a millennial obsessed with all things business & personal growth.

She spent 10+ years in a corporate sales career fulfilling every role imaginable prior to abruptly leaving in pursuit of fulfillment. She became massively obsessed with neuroscience, human behavior, and peak performance. Her unorthodox journey led her to write a book on self-discovery and to create a global domestic violence awareness platform for trauma survivors.

The last thing Liz ever expected was for her self-discovery journey to bring her right back to what she thought she was running from sales.

Determined to disrupt the status quo and empower female founders to consistently close high-value clients, Liz created a B2B sales system rooted in authenticity, business acumen, and proven communication strategies. As founder of Stimulyst, she has helped clients close as much as $2.3M in 18 months and a record $600k in one month.

FREEBIE:
They can text REVENUE to 444999 to receive my complimentary sales training: “3 critical steps to landing high-value business clients”