In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews fitness entrepreneur and video‑marketing expert Liz Germain. Liz shares a personal story about the suicide of a close friend after high school, which taught her that life is short and motivates her to serve others. She then outlines the most valuable insight from her six‑year online fitness business: focus on high‑ROI, search‑driven platforms—specifically YouTube and Pinterest—because they function like Google and deliver long‑term organic leads, unlike timeline‑based platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Liz offers broader business advice, emphasizing diversification of income streams, building recurring revenue, and finding affordable qualified lead sources, with a strong preference for organic search traffic. When asked what she would tell her younger self, she stresses investing in education and hiring experts rather than trying to do everything solo. Tyler and Liz discuss the solopreneur’s transition from total control to strategic delegation as a growth necessity. Liz describes her view of happiness as an "inside job" rooted in service to others and continual personal growth. She recommends Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People as the most impactful book, highlighting the lesson that success requires collaboration. Her favorite quote, "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body," reflects her belief that the body is a vessel for the soul, underscoring personal responsibility for health and purpose. The episode concludes with Liz directing listeners to her website (LizGerman.com) and her fitness brand Super Sister Fitness, including its YouTube channel, for further connection.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Liz Germain with us. She helps business owners grow and scale their brand using YouTube as an organic lead source. So welcome to the show, Liz.
Hi, thank you for having me.
Of course. Thanks for joining us. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Liz, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
So this is a tough one because obviously there's many, many stories from my life that have been valuable or impactful. But I think the one so far in my life that has been the most impactful with the most applicable lessons for other people was the death of a close friend when I was in— I had just graduated high school, so I was quite young and as was he. Committed suicide, and that changed my entire life. It just— it showed me how short life is. I think he was 19 when he died. And it really reminded me that— or really taught me for the first time in my life that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. And what we get to do here in this lifetime is share our gifts and cultivate our gifts and really be a strong stand for people to find their own way in life, whatever that looks for people. So I think in general, the, the underlying message that that experience taught me is that life is short and now is all we have. Tomorrow's not guaranteed.
Thank you, uh, for sharing that with us. Um, the next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So this is a great question. I get super excited about answering questions like this. I've seen a lot of people who are getting into the online space. I've now been, just to give you kind of a background about myself, I've been running an online business for the last 6 years in the fitness industry, and it's been an amazing gift and absolutely incredible. I'm so grateful for being able to run that company and that I get to live such a cool life by it. And now it's interesting because 6 years later, the internet has changed so much, social media has changed so much, and I'm seeing more and more people step into this online space. And it's And it's really interesting to see their approaches. And I've noticed that a lot of people, whether they're clients or people who are coming to me for advice with video marketing, or maybe they're just friends that are in the space that I'm meeting through networking events and speaking gigs and things like that. What I'm noticing is that people are very overwhelmed with the amount of content that they're having to produce. And so the most valuable piece of information that I can share with you after having done this for 6 years now, full-time, I would say is to focus on things that are going to be having the highest return on your investment, whether it's investment in time, energy, or money. And for me, what I found over the last 6 years in being a fitness influencer and fitness business owner online is that I focus— I really looked at all the metrics in our, our model and we dialed back almost everything that wasn't having that long-term return with the minimal investment of time, energy, and money. And so when you look at all the search or all the platforms that are available to you, whether it's Facebook or Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, there's like a million things, right? And we can all be like going all day long. What we found in our business was the two platforms that returned the highest yield on our investment was YouTube and Pinterest. And the reason why is that they are search engines. They're not timeline-bound. They work just like Google works. So you go type things in and they have an algorithm that pulls up the best content based on keywords. For us, that was a really huge realization, is that all the time we were spending on social media like Facebook and Instagram was— not to say it wasn't lucrative, but it, for the long term, for the long game that we're in, it wasn't the highest return on investment. So the best piece of advice I could give is that YouTube is a search engine, as is Pinterest, and I would invest all of my time there if I were to go back and start over.
Wow, that is some Solid advice. That's awesome. The next one I have for you is what is the best piece of overall business advice that you have? So not necessarily industry specific.
Yeah, so this is a great question as well. I would say my best piece of overall business advice would be to diversify income streams. Don't rely on just one source. And in doing that, I would also make sure you have at least one or two different recurring revenue sources. Things that are not just like a one and done type thing. And last but not least, I would say finding a qualified lead source that you can actually afford. So if you're just starting out, you may not be ready to, to invest in Facebook ads. Facebook ads are quite complicated. They also require constant monitoring. And unless you're hiring an agency, it can be really, really tricky. So I would say finding a qualified lead source that you can actually afford is one of the best things you can do. And that's why I'm so obsessed with YouTube and Pinterest because Anyone, if you understand how to use keyword strategies and specifically long tail keywords, you can, you don't have to pay. You can just create cool content that people are actually searching for and get in front of those eyeballs versus Facebook and Instagram, which are the same. They're both owned by Facebook. You have to actually pay to play to get in front of people. And because it's that timeline and it's, you know, usually a 24, 48 hour turnaround, it's a lot more competitive and a lot more challenging to actually get eyeballs on your content.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Invest more in your education. So what, find your, identify your skill gaps and find someone who has already mastered those skills and hire them. That'd be number one thing that I would do if I was going back to the old days. I had this like strong story that, oh, well, I'll just do it myself or I'll just save, you know, I'll save more money and be able to make more eventually down the road if I just, I can just do it myself. And it's just not true. It's not true. You actually end up wasting a ton of time, tons of energy, and you end up losing and leaving a lot of money on the table by doing that. Yeah.
Well, actually, I'll dive in here because I think it's interesting. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, right? Obviously, we all kind of start out on our own, or at least most of us do. So, you start out as like a solopreneur is I guess what they call it. And what's interesting is to become successful as a solopreneur is like you controlling everything and you kind of taking things in your own hands. But to get to the next level, It's an interesting thing is you actually have to kind of do the opposite and let go of the control. You still have to like monitor and stuff, but actually, like you said, like hire out. And that's a very hard thing. I, I experienced it a couple years ago in my business when I was going through that, because it's like literally what gets you to that first success metric, whatever that is, is not what's going to get you to like running a company of like 20 people, 30 people, because you just cannot micromanage everything. You don't physically have the time. Um, so yeah, I just think it's interesting how you go from controlling everything and then you have to let go of everything to actually get to the next level.
Totally.
Um, the next one is a little bit of a different, uh, path, but in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Yeah, this is very philosophical, which is fun, because at the end of the day, you could be a business owner or whatever, but first and foremost, you're human. So I love this question too. Uh, for me, and I don't claim to know what the key to happiness is for everyone, I truly believe that that's inside job. And it's different for everybody. But for me personally, what I've discovered is that when I'm in service, and I'm focusing out, and I'm really not just thinking about myself, but thinking about what's the legacy I want to leave, how do I want to help the world, all of those types of things have been incredibly important for my overall happiness, and then some sort of growth as well. I feel that if we're, you know, we all— I think we've all heard Tony, Tony Robbins say, if you're not growing, you're dying, or some quote around that. Anyway, I truly believe that. I think growth and having goals and things that you're moving towards really gives the human soul a reason to live and a reason to get up every day and just absolutely crush your— whatever it is that you're working on. So service and growth, I would say for me, is what I found.
I agree. And what is the best book that you've read and what is— what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Hands down, I was going to put in because I have Audible and so I'm constantly rotating all the books that I'm looking at and I was there's a couple that have been really great, but then I came back to the old tried and true. How to Win Friends and Influence People has been one of the most impactful books, not just in business, but in my personal life and just really in everything that I do, because at the end of the day, we can't do things alone. So that book is full of golden nuggets of wisdom. And I would highly recommend— it was one of the first books that I ever read on my entrepreneurial journey. And it's just so good. It's such a classic. And the number one thing I learned is, yeah, really, that you can't do it alone. And trying to do it alone is you're gonna just spin your wheels and be totally unhappy whether you realize that or not. So being able to really meet people where they're at and speak in the languages that other people are going to actually be able to understand, not just like pushing your stuff out there, really having a much bigger vision than just you and what your ego wants has been absolutely transformational in both personal and professional. Yes.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is, "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." And the reason why is because I'm obviously— I've been in the fitness industry for the last 6 or 7 years. And realizing that your body is your vessel has been very impactful and very transformational for me personally, because no one else can take care of it for you. No one's coming to save you. No one will do this stuff for you. So you get to learn how to do that for yourself. And as a soul, I truly believe I believe that that is what our mission is here on this planet. I don't really know. I don't think anyone really knows where we came from or for what purpose. But if there is a purpose for me that I could kind of see being possible, it would be that, okay, your soul came here for this journey to figure out how do we truly make this vessel happy? I love it. How do we take care of it, get healthy, do all the things that are going to be moving you forward?
Yes, I love it. Thank you so much for coming on. I agree with a lot of what you said. Yeah, really the last question that I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find and connect with you online?
The best place to currently find me is at LizGerman.com. It's G-E-R-M-A-I-N. And you can also check out my fitness business and all of that at Super Sister Fitness. We have a YouTube channel. So if you want to see how we're using YouTube for lead generation, you can feel free to go over there or SuperSisterFitness.com as well.
Perfect. Thanks again for coming on. We appreciate it.
