Liz Wolf has an entrepreneurial spirit that was nurtured in an unlikely place—a sheep farm in western Pennsylvania. Growing up with her mother and two sisters, Liz learned the ropes of running a business through their cottage industry selling sheepskin and wool items. This early exposure to entrepreneurship was not just about the adorable fluffiness of sheep but also about the hard realities of animal husbandry and the importance of resilience.
One might think managing 300 sheep could get a bit... aromatic, but Liz explained the importance of space and proper care in preventing the stink—a lesson that translates well into the business world. The farm also faced its share of predators, not coyotes, but stray dogs and even sheep thieves. These challenges were a testament to the need for vigilance and protection, much like safeguarding a business.
Liz's journey took a turn when she moved to New York City and, alongside her husband John, established a successful computer consulting business. They specialized in implementing a CRM software called Maximizer, helping businesses streamline their sales processes. This experience reinforced the value of systems and communication in achieving business success.
After years in the tech industry, Liz felt a calling to pivot her career toward coaching. Despite the fear of financial uncertainty and the potential strain on her marriage, she leaped. This transition was not just a career change but a personal evolution, reflecting the courage to pursue a path aligned with her passion for personal development and abundance principles.
Connect with Liz on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizwolfecoach/.
Learn more about Liz at https://lizwolfecoaching.com/.
Key Points
Transcript
Craig Andrews 00:07
Today I want to welcome Liz Wolf. She is a business coach, author and speaker who coaches entrepreneurs. She helps them get unstuck thing launch and grow an abundant business. As a matter of fact, abundance is at her core in all that she does. She got her entrepreneurial start growing up on a sheep farm in western Pennsylvania with her mother and two sisters. And later she moved to New York City where she created successful computer consulting business with her husband. We're going to talk more about that. Her husband's name is John and eventually she transitioned out of the technology business to coaching business owners to develop an abundance mindset. And recently she published the book The Power of Asking how your reluctance to ask puts your business at risk. Liz, welcome.
Liz Wolfe 01:04
Thank you. Thank you for having me on, Greg.
Craig Andrews 01:08
So we got so much to cover here. I'm really looking forward to this, but I feel like I'd be missing something if we didn't start with a sheep farm. What was that like growing up on a sheep farm?
Liz Wolfe 01:23
Well, they're very fluffy and very cute until they run away from you. When you need them to be going in one direction and they're going in the other direction, then they're not as fluffy or cute and they die sometimes and they get out. And we had 300 of them. So as you can imagine, there were occasional problems. But I know all about sheep and it was the birthplace, literally, of my entrepreneurial start because we created a cottage industry selling sheepskin and wool items. And so I've been speaking in front of groups of people since I was about eight years old, selling them wool products. For that, I thank my mother.
Craig Andrews 02:09
That's cool. Now, aren't they stinky? Like, if you get 300 of them together, don't they stink a little bit?
Liz Wolfe 02:18
That's interesting that you say that people think pigs are very stinky and all that. Where the stinkiness comes in is when you
Liz Wolfe 02:31
where the stinkiness comes in is when you crowd them too much together. Right. If you don't give them enough freedom and enough space to be outside and be going where they need to go so that they animals are naturally clean. So the stinkiness is when you cram them all together and you don't take.
Craig Andrews 02:49
Care of ah, yeah, that makes sense. What about so I would imagine you have coyotes out in western Pennsylvania.
Liz Wolfe 03:01
Actually, no, we didn't have coyotes. The worst predators were stray dogs. Really had a number of dogs that would form packs and they would come in and that was part of the fence, if the fence was broken or something. We actually occasionally had people who would steal sheep, too. We would go and we'd see where they had killed the sheep and they took it to eat. They took off the skin and left it behind. I mean, it's kind of weird, but mostly not mostly the things that were the most challenging what would naturally occur where you're in birthing season and the lamb might die from or the mother might die or the mother might abandon it. We had a lot of orphan lambs in our house. Other people had cats and dogs in their house. We had a lot of lambs and on the kitchen floor.
Craig Andrews 04:05
So they were actually inside.
Liz Wolfe 04:07
Oh, yeah. Because you had to keep them warm. Sometimes we had them in the barn, but when they're 2 hours old, you need to do something with them. We put them by the little fireplace heater and bottle fed them.
Craig Andrews 04:23
Oh, wow.
Liz Wolfe 04:24
Yeah.
Craig Andrews 04:26
Did that make it hard when you eventually had to say goodbye to them? Yeah.
Liz Wolfe 04:32
A lot of people would say, oh, how could you kill those poor little those cute little sweet animals? And I'm not kidding when I tell you that it's a different kind of affection. You're not treating your animals like pets. We did occasionally have, let's say an orphan lamb or something, but mostly you're just trying to keep them alive because it was your livelihood. And so it was just part of what you did is you raised them to a certain time and then you either could sell them or take them to the slaughterhouse or whatever it was, and we sold the lamb meat. I ate a lot of lamb growing up, but I also ate other things too. I'm not a big beef eater now because I ate a lot of beef. Because you kill a cow, that's a lot of beef. But it's a different kind of affection. Obviously you're taking care of your animals, but it's because it's your livelihood. It's not a pet that jumps up on your lap and anything like that. It's a different kind of experience.
Craig Andrews 05:38
Down here in Texas, if you see sheep in the field, if you look around, you'll eventually see a donkey and the donkey is there to run off the coyotes because apparently donkeys hate coyotes and know how to deal with them.
Liz Wolfe 05:55
That's interesting. Well, we actually, out of the fact that we had had a few attacks there's a sheep dog, it's an Anatolian dog that's actually from Turkey. And what their job is, is to guard the sheep, not herd the sheep, which is totally different animal. And once we got her name was April. Once we got April, it was actually a program through a college I want to say Smith, I'm not sure this was a while ago and they gave you it was like you had the dog on loan. And it just naturally, instinctively would guard. And we never had any problems after that. She was the most faithful dog ever and she stayed with the sheep.
Craig Andrews 06:38
Wow, that's cool.
Liz Wolfe 06:39
Yeah. But we didn't have a donkey. I didn't know about donkeys.
Craig Andrews 06:43
Yeah, well, if you have coyote problems, they're good for that.
Liz Wolfe 06:47
Yeah, good to know for future. And I will not have a sheep Farm in my future. So I'm going to store that as interesting information but not useful.
Craig Andrews 06:59
You you were telling me. So you go from Sheep Farm to you and your husband John, you had a consulting business for CRMs. What's that know, what would y'all do for people?
Liz Wolfe 07:13
Yes. So we sell and implement a software program called Maximizer. It's for small to medium sized businesses to help you manage your sales process. And it's a well established company that Maximizer is created in Vancouver, developed in Vancouver. So we are resellers of that software and that is what we have been doing. We established the business in 1995 and I actually got my husband to quit his job. He was selling, I was already training. I was like, I was the front of the room person, he was the back end person selling technical. He would do the installations and that sort of thing. This is at a time when you went into people's offices and installed software. It was like before the cloud. And so we helped people with their process, with their business process, converting, creating systems, which is what he still does to this day. Creating systems from your scattered processes that you do potentially on paper or spreadsheets and put them into a system that implements, brings together your salespeople and your marketing teams and your executive team and everything so that everybody knows what's happening. And of course it helps you with.
Craig Andrews 08:31
Think, you know, so many challenges in business are quickly overcome if you just have systems and processes so that people GK. Chesterton and I believe said the problem with communication is the illusion that has occurred. And these systems, they basically facilitate natural communication.
Liz Wolfe 08:58
Yes, it's all about communication. It's absolutely about a we, we use Maximizer internally of mean, even between John and it may sound funny to some people, but we're married. And then I'll say, hey honey, I'm going out to a bluegrass jam tonight. And he says what? And I say it's on the calendar. You don't check the calendar. And then I leave with my little guitar and I go do my thing. Now, did I bring it to his attention? Probably not, but he's going to check the calendar at any time. So yeah, that's all about communication for sure.
Craig Andrews 09:36
Yeah. So at some point you and John were doing this together and at some point you decided you wanted to do something different. So what was that? And how long ago was that?
Liz Wolfe 09:48
About ten years ago. So I've done a lot of what you would call personal development work in my life. Even before I met John, I had done a variety of leadership trainings and a variety of, say, personal development type work. So very interested in that. And so that's always been a theme through all of the work that I've done, has always been this bringing forth the principles of abundance and how you can apply that in your business. And for some people listening, this may sound kind of like, what? But there was a time when learning Excel was truly professionally impactful because people did not know how to use Excel or applying a CRM. It reminds me of a story I read about a veterinarian who lived in the early part of the 20th century when penicillin was just being starting to be used, and he would go to these farms and he would administer penicillin to the sick animals, and the next day they would be better. It was that impactful, and that's really what CRM was in the was really that impactful. Now there's always stuff you can use Monday.com or salesforce or whatever, so there's a lot more of it. But at that time, it was very impactful. But I got tired of the technology. It was interesting at first, and then it became not interesting. And I think this is something that a lot of times entrepreneurs or business owners is a struggle that they have, which is, I'm doing this for ten years or 20 years, and now I'm kind of done, and I want to do something else. And so I decided I had only interest in coaching entrepreneurs, in how to be successful in their business. I knew that technology would be a part of that, but I didn't want to make that be the main point of it. So I decided to start coaching people instead.
Craig Andrews 11:45
So you have this business that you and John had started together, and now you're about to tell John, I want to go do something different.
Liz Wolfe 11:54
Yeah.
Craig Andrews 11:56
How's that feel?
Liz Wolfe 11:57
Yeah. Not only did I tell him that, but of course it costs money because I was going to make less money at first because I already had this established business, and also I did variety of trainings. I always like to tell my clients, I took the $10,000 training so you don't have to. And so there's all those $10,000 programs everybody's buying because you want to get certified, whatever. But it was very stressful, and they're making kind of extracting myself from it. And one of the things that I sometimes share about that is because my parents bought that sheep farm together, but within three years, they were divorced, and my father had moved back to Pittsburgh. So the farm was my mother's idea. It was not my father's idea. His idea was, oh, we'll have a lovely country home, and it's pretty close to Pittsburgh. He was an engineer. He could drive into know, to us, the commute would be nothing, right? And in the world we live in today. And as a result, they got divorced. So the fear that was instilled in me from a very young age is, oh, Liz, if you go off and do something creative and interesting that you enjoy, you're putting your marriage at risk. And I very clearly wanted to be married, so I had to overcome the fear that if I extracted myself from this business, that it would be harmful to our relationship. And that was a very difficult time because there was some harm to the relationship and that I wasn't helping. I wasn't doing it anymore. I wasn't making as much wasn't at that time. I wasn't answering the phone. I was being indignant about what I wanted to do. And he was just like, why don't you just keep doing what you're doing? I was like, Because I don't want to. And it was hard, but we worked through it.
Craig Andrews 13:56
Wow. Did John know that those know that some of this was a replay of what you saw your mom and dad go through?
Liz Wolfe 14:05
Yeah, I don't think I really realized that in the moment. And he has a very different history of well, he didn't grow up on a farm. He grew up in Queens, New York. That's the first thing. And both of his parents are single or only children, so he doesn't have a lot of family dynamics the way I did with my aunts and uncles and people getting divorced and all doesn't it's not part of his experience. And he's also a very steadfast person. He sticks with something. He's what is known as an upholder. Right. He says he's going to do something, he does it. I say, I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. But I also want to do these six other things. Please.
Craig Andrews 14:51
What advice would you give to somebody who if you had a friend who was kind of at the same crossroads that you were at, that they're about to make that choice? How would you help them navigate that today in their life?
Liz Wolfe 15:10
The reason we don't do things is fear. That's the number one reason we don't do it. And the biggest fear we have is that it's not going to work out, that I'm going to fail. And what does that mean? I am a failure. I coach a lot of people who have started a few businesses unsuccessfully. When I say unsuccessfully, they don't look at it like it was an economic success or it wasn't. And then they have a new idea. Entrepreneurs are very creative people, so they have a lot of ideas. So fear is the biggest thing that's going to hold you back. But most of us are listening to that fear as a rational voice in our head. What we don't do is we don't coaching is all about making distinctions. That's what coaching is. In case anybody has a question, what is coaching list. It's all about making distinctions. So by distinctions, what I mean is, well, let's listen to this voice. Let's listen to the fear voice. What are the conversations? One distinction you can make is the distinction between I have results. I am not my result. So I have, let's say, not made the sales I want this month, but that does not mean I am not a bad salesman or that does not mean I am a failure. So we're separating those fear conversations so that people can be more empowered to take action. Because when you're in a space of fear, you don't take action if you're afraid it's not going to work out. That's the biggest fear everybody has, not going to work out.
Craig Andrews 16:49
Yeah. So
Craig Andrews 16:55
how do you navigate that? Because we all have that fear at some level, and I guess some people are afraid it's not going to work out, and they go ahead and give it a shot. Other people are afraid it's not going to work out. And they say, Because it's not going to work out, I'm not going to try.
Liz Wolfe 17:13
Right.
Craig Andrews 17:13
So how do you coach people through that? What advice would you give?
Liz Wolfe 17:19
Well, first of all, to get a coach, you knew I was going to say that you need someone in your life who unequivocally believes that you're going to succeed in it. I am detached. I don't have the same fears that my clients have about their business. For instance, I have a woman who started a publishing she's doing self publishing as part of her business. Fascinating industry. And I know for a fact that a lot of people are very successful doing that. Why would it be different for her? She could be just as successful as they are. So if there's ample evidence, we're always looking for evidence to show, okay, who is it working for? And as much as I really don't like doing it, that's what market research is all about. People. You find out whether or not people are interested in it. You talk to people. You don't go into it going, all right, let me just try it. Even though that's extra work, most people don't want to do it. So you find somebody that's supporting you and that person, and it could be a mentor, it could be a coach, it could be your sister, it could be anybody. But who it should not be is people who go, well, I don't know that entrepreneur stuff. Why don't you just go get a job? Like, if you hear you only want to talk to people that are going to support you. And then the second part of that, which is the work that we do, is making those distinctions where you are.
Liz Wolfe 18:59
You look at the fear. Anytime you're not doing something, I'm going to tell you why you're not doing it. You have resistance. It's not because you're lazy. It's not because you're procrastinating. It's not because you never it's not all those stories. You're resisting something. And if you can ask yourself the question, what am I resisting? When you find yourself stuck or not wanting to do something, there's always an answer there. And that's the first place that I would always start with somebody just find out, well, what are you resisting? Because that's where the fear is about not having to face whatever, that thing you're resisting.
Craig Andrews 19:41
Yeah. You said something really interesting there about the people speaking into your life. The fact is, most people aren't entrepreneurs. Most people don't get it. Most people would rather work in a work in a business that's predictable, delivers that paycheck. They got their health benefits, they got the predictability. For most people, that's their comfort zone. And what you're saying is, don't go to those people for your support.
Liz Wolfe 20:19
Don't go to them for your support. I am a mother, so I'm going to say this, even though I'm going to say don't talk to your mom. Okay, talk to your mom. But I'm saying your mom wants to keep you safe. Everybody wants to keep you safe. They don't want you to take risks. They don't want you to try again. I can't tell you how many people I have talked to that literally do not tell anyone but me that they're working on a business because they're afraid that because they've tried other ones and they weren't successful and they were public about those, that people are going to think badly of them.
Liz Wolfe 20:56
That's a damn shame, to be honest. That's a real shame, because you don't feel free. How free can you be to express yourself and get out there in the world if you can't be public about it? So there's some shame sometimes associated with that failure in business, but, yeah, I actually think you should talk to your friends and family. If they support you, that's great, but don't get business advice from them. They're not business people talk to business. People talk to other people. Again, whether it's a business coach or there's, like, mastermind groups. I have an accountability partner that I talk to, like, every two weeks, and we trust each other, so I can rely on her to give me accurate feedback. But even then, I have to go with what is true for me.
Craig Andrews 21:49
Yeah, well, and I think if people don't walk away with anything other than that, it's the importance of being very selective about who you let speak into your business and the fact that the vast majority of people out there think.
Liz Wolfe 22:05
You'Re nuts and would never do it, even though they want to sometimes.
Craig Andrews 22:11
Yeah. Wow. Well, this has been such a great conversation. Your book is the power of asking how your reluctance to ask puts your business at risk. And so obviously, people should go out and read that. How did people reach you?
Liz Wolfe 22:33
So, first of all, my last name is Wolf, which we didn't notice the joke that my last name is Wolf and I grew up on a sheep farm, so that's how you can remember it. But it does have an E at the end of it, so it's Lizwolfcoaching.com. And speaking of all this conversation that we had about, do I have what it takes to be successful at business? Which is really the undercurrent of all these fears like, do I have what it takes? So I have a quiz that you can take, anyone can take. So Lizwolfcoachingquiz.com quiz and it tells you what type of an entrepreneur you are and then it will give you some feedback about the pluses and minuses of your style, the Chief enthusiasm Officer, the Chief Expert Officer, the Chief Empowerment Officer, or the Chief Excellence Officer. So once you find where you fall in that it helps you to understand why you would get stuck at certain points. So that's where I recommend as a free resource for people to access. And of course, I do have a book list on my website where you can look at my book.
