I am on an absolute mission to help people rise above their circumstances! To do that, I know I have to reach you. I know I have to get out of my comfort zone and put myself out there. And I know I have to risk a tiny bit of my privacy!
But there’s a difference between sharing your personality and sharing your personal life!
Today’s AskLiz session digs into exactly where to draw that line.
When you show up consistently, your values shine through on their own. That’s why you don’t need to dox your whole family or disclose private details to appear “authentic!”
In fact, leaning too much into your truth can backfire in many ways. Right now, a nap feels more authentic to me than recording my fourth episode of the day. But then I wouldn’t be covering this very important topic!
From the lessons learned following my stint on Survivor to overcoming the fear of being public, this is a must-listen episode. You’ll get my thoughts on how to protect yourself while still serving your people and setting a brave example.
Tune in!
You’ll Learn
- Overcoming the fear of being public
- How putting yourself out there helps your people
- Why I share my personality, not my personal life
- Balancing consistency, authenticity, and privacy
- Lessons learned during my stint on Survivor
- Changing your mindset around fear
Resources
- Send in your online business questions at SpeakPipe.com/LizWilcox to be featured on the show and get some awesome free swag
- Subscribe to Superfans Secrets—our weekly newsletter on the strategies behind building real relationships with your audience, delivered free, straight to your inbox
- Check out our special deal at SmartPassiveIncome.com/2026 and use the code SECRET50 to join the SPI Community at 50% off your subscription for life
- Connect with me on Instagram
AL 024: Can a Private Person Still Build a Creator Business?
Liz Wilcox: Oh my gosh, you hit the play button? Ugh. Is it weird to say I love you? It’s probably a little weird, so I already said it. Paul, don’t edit it out. I feel love that you would listen, especially when I’m making those really weird pauses. Anyway, I’m very excited about this episode. I think this is probably #relatable, the most relatable question that ever was questioned for Ask Liz, not that we’re, like, a thousand episodes in or anything.
But I heard this, and I was like, “This has to be the next episode because it’s so, so very relatable for everyone, including me.” So thank you for listening. Welcome to Ask Liz. You can go to the link in show notes and ask your question, and I will answer it. Yeah, okay, let’s get into it.
Hal: Hey, Liz. Hal here, English tutor.
Here’s my ask. Last night my kid had 103 fever, so we’re watching X-Men2: X-Men United, which I hadn’t seen since it came out. And NSYNC gets dissed a little in this scene, and I thought, “Where does all this John Denver hatred still come from,” right?
So here’s my mindset ask. What did you do to get past your fear of being public? My son and I are ready to launch our new business, and even though we’re gonna do it anyway, we’re private people, and we’re, we’re fearful about being public. A word of encouragement from you would go a long ways right now, babe.
It’s signed Hal and Nikesh. And P.S., we love you.
Liz Wilcox: All right, Mr. Hal, I just realized that you did a PS I love you, so maybe saying I love you isn’t so weird. If you mean it, I love you, too. Listen, listen, listen, I know it is hard to get public when you are a private person. Patricia, my life manager, assistant, now she’s working over on the SPI side.
If you’ve ever emailed us, you’ve probably heard from her in the last 60 days. She is an incredibly private person, and, like, if you come to our Zoom calls in the SPI Community, you’ll see, like, she has a fake Seinfeld background ’cause she doesn’t even want people to know what her office looks like. Okay, so I hear you, I see you, and yes, I love you, if that’s not too weird.
But here’s the part where you get out of your comfort zone. Patricia just works for me. She doesn’t have a vision and a mission the way you and I do. You want to serve your people. And so I look at it as I am– I know that people like you, people like your son, and those listening, you listening, I know I need to reach you, and I know in order to do that, I have to get out of my comfort zone, and I have to be seen. I have to be public.
I am on an absolute mission to help people rise above their own circumstances. If you have a dream of building something online to make income, I am here for you because I grew up incredibly poor. I was taught, like I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, I was taught if you want to make more money, you have to work harder than anybody out there, and that’s not true.
We can make money on the internet. When I made my first $30, I was like, “Oh my gosh, these rich folks have been lying.” And I have been on a mission to help other people have those moments, too. If you go back and listen to the Member Monday with Tevin Davis, I don’t know, it was like five or six episodes ago.
I don’t know. Who can keep track? When we’re doing three times a week. He talked about when he made his first dollar, just the exhale he allowed himself to exhale, right? To breathe. The, the freedom he felt from that. I want everyone to have that feeling. And so I, no matter how much I don’t like it, have to get visible.
And so I wanna share… I’ve got a couple thoughts here. First, private is totally okay. I’m actually a pretty private person too, believe it or not. If you pay close attention, I never share where I live. I always say, “Oh, I live in Destin, Florida.” I don’t actually live in Destin, Florida. I live somewhere adjacent, okay?
I share that I have a daughter, and I share that I, in the last year or so, brought in, adopted a teenager, but I don’t share pictures. You know, every once in a while I’ll share their names, but I’m pretty private about that. I also don’t share my love life. You guys don’t know if I’m… I, I mean, I mention I’m a single parent, but who knows?
I could be engaged right now. You don’t know because I don’t tell you, because that’s private. That’s just for me. Okay? Now what I do focus on is four things. So three are really tangible. Personality. You know a lot about my personality. I’m loud, I’m proud, I love color. I love The Fresh Prince, I love the ’90s.
NSYNC for life, right? Like, you know that about me. Those are, those are parts of my personality. I’m ambitious, I’m cunning, I I like to think I’m a little funny. Maybe I’m self-deprecating a, a bit. I like to get to the point, even though we’re five minutes in and I still haven’t answered the question. Well, I’m answering it. I’m answering it, right? Right.
So focus on the personality, sharing my personality versus my personal details. I share my vision. I want you to make money on the internet. That’s my vision for you. I don’t care what podcast mic you use. I’d love for you to use Kit as your email service provider, but whatever works for your brain and budget, right?
Like, all I really care about is that you are moving and grooving and you have monetized your audience. That’s all I care about. And then my values. You know my values. I really value inclusivity. I’m all about… Even you’ve probably noticed the, the wide variety of guests that I’ve had in the last eight weeks.
I really value diversity. I value including everyone. You know, people that are just talking about, “Oh, I, I reached my first thousand dollars,” to, “I’ve been in business for 12 years. Here’s what I’ve learned,” right? Really inclusive guests on the show, really diverse set of people. I also value affordability.
We are running a, a lifetime deal for Black Friday, 800 bucks. You don’t have to spend another dime with me ever again. That, in the grand scheme, is crazy affordable, right? Especially when you consider all the money you could spend on learning how to build something online and make money from it. 800 bucks, not bad.
So, and then the last thing, so that’s personality, vision, and values, and the last thing I really focus on, especially as a, as a private person, is a focus on serving.
Kinda bringing it back to what I said five minutes ago of like, I know I’m meant to serve these people, and when I can focus on just serving them, everything else kind of falls away. Seth Godin says it best, like people… Everybody says authenticity, authenticity, and yes, I’m authentic, but really people need consistency.
It would be authentic to me right now to not be recording this. It’s 4:28 PM. I have to drive my daughter to her first band concert in 45 minutes, and this is literally the fourth podcast episode I’ve recorded today on top of two calls and recording some content for Instagram. I’m tired. It would be authentic to take a nap.
But people need consistency. So don’t worry so much about authenticity. Your real self is gonna shine. You’re gonna sh- naturally share personality, vision, values, okay? But just focus on being consistent.
And then I wanna share just one quick story to help you realize that your people matter more than your fear of being seen and going public.
So you probably know this, I was on a show called Survivor. Survivor is still like the number one watched show in the entire world. It’s aired in 125 countries. Just talking about it, my chest is tightening. You wanna talk about visibility. You wanna talk about lack of privacy. While the show was airing, I received a lot of hate.
I won’t get into it because we’re here to inspire you, not scare you away forever, right? I experienced a lot of hate, and you know, it’s like boo, tomato, people throwing tomatoes at me virtually, basically, right? But it was all worth it for those people that would DM me, those people that still stop me in the airport today and tell me “You know what, Liz? You be… I used to watch this show with my Uncle Joe, and since then, you know, my Uncle Joe has passed 10 years ago, but because you were on the show, I’m still able to watch it and keep the memory of Uncle Joe alive.”
And that, Hal, is such a, it’s such a mindset shift of like, oh, well, I went on the show for me.
Like, oh, I started my business because I need to make money. I need to support my three households. Maybe you’re star- you’re starting your business, you know, of course, to serve your people, but, you know, you have selfish reasons, too, and that’s totally fine. I say all the time I’m trying to put the I back in SPI. I stands for income. We all need money.
But when I, when I hear stuff like that, I realize it was never about me. It was about serving those people, going and playing hard for those people that wanna keep Uncle Joe alive. There was even one person that shared with me they had severe allergies, and I d- I do, too, or I did at the time of the show.
I’ve since been able to heal a lot of what was wrong with me. They said, “I’ve had these allergies, and for the last five years I’ve been afraid to leave my house, and my allergies keep getting worse. But you showed me that I can live a full life despite my allergies, that I can say to heck with it, not be unsafe, obviously, but I, I can do more things than I thought was possible. And I have since left my house.” And oh, my gosh, if I had been too scared to apply because I’m a private person, and I d- I didn’t want that hate coming my way, that person might not have ever left their house. And in my business, I hear things like that as well, and it, it’s just, Hal, you and your son were meant to help other people.
And so we can set aside the fear. The fear doesn’t go away, but we can set it to the side and say, “Okay, fear, you know, thank you, but what I’m doing for these people is more important, and I’m actually gonna be okay. I’m gonna be safe. I’m not going on Survivor like Liz. I’m not airing myself in 125 countries.
I think I’m gonna be okay.” All right. I really hope that this is helpful. I’m so glad you asked this question. I think this is gonna resonate with a lot of people, and you listening, I hope that you set that fear aside, too, so you can make a difference in people’s lives because I know that is what you wanna do.
You wouldn’t be listening to this podcast if otherwise. Thanks for listening. I’m Liz Wilcox. As always, you are so amazing, and you are meant for big things. I’ll see you on the next episode.
Psst. Are you still listening? Quick, while Pat’s away, I’ve got a special little secret just for you and me. If you love this episode and want more, like a lot more, you need to get yourself into the SPI community.
You know that’s where I’m hanging out as the director. My friend, it really is where the magic happens. You get access to the full super fan system, you know, Pat Flynn’s entire framework for turning strangers into ride or die fans of your business that actually buy from your business, right? We’ve got courses, resources, implementation guides.
It’s all in there. Okay, okay, listen up. This is the part where you and I can get really close to your monetization goals. I do office hours inside the community. That’s right, you can bring your business questions, you can screen share. Whatever’s holding you back, we will figure it out together. But here’s the secret.
The SPI community, normally $99 a month. But with the coupon code SECRET50, you get 50% off. That’s less than 50 bucks a month for life as long as you stay active. This deal is just for the people listening to this Ask Liz episode, so don’t sleep on it, babe. Head to smartpassiveincome.com/2026 and use code SECRET50 at checkout.
I will see you in there.
