The Messy Success Podcast

Latest Episodes:

247: When to Collaborate in Business (And When to Say No) Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. If your calendar is filling up with collaboration requests and your revenue isn't following, this episode is for you. Elizabeth breaks down when to collaborate in business, when to say no, and why there's a specific growth phase where accepting every invitation actually works against you. This episode is for the business owner who has moved past the early "collaborate with everyone" stage and is starting to feel drained, overextended, or unsure why events with other business owners aren't filling the room. Elizabeth shares the marketing campaign mistake most people make with collaborations, why she now limits herself to one collaboration a month, and how to tell whether a collaboration is actually serving your business goals or just keeping you in a repetitive pattern. She also offers a completely different model for supporting other business owners without becoming a full partner, one that protects your time and energy while still showing up for your community. If you've been feeling guilty about setting business collaboration boundaries, this conversation will give you permission and a framework to do it well. Press play and start protecting your calendar like the CEO you're becoming.

246: The Competitive Advantage in Business: How to Give People the Experience of You Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. This week Elizabeth is talking about the real competitive advantage in business, and it has nothing to do with a fancy funnel, strategy, or system. Inspired by the viral Yap Challenge and a coaching call inside her signature program, she breaks down why simply being willing to show up as yourself, on camera, live, unpolished, is the thing most business owners are too afraid to do, and exactly why that fear is your opportunity. This episode is for the entrepreneur who has been avoiding talking head content, going live, or starting a podcast because it feels exposing or uncomfortable. Elizabeth shares real numbers from a room of twelve business owners, only three of whom were actually creating this kind of authentic content marketing, and explains why criticism holds no more weight than someone calling you a color that isn't real. She talks about the difference between chasing validation and building ten out of ten certainty, and why giving people an actual experience of you, not a curated caption, is what grows trust and community. If fear has been quietly running your content strategy, this episode is the nudge to put in the reps anyway. Take a listen, and ask yourself what you have been too afraid to try.

245: Posting Every Day With No Sales: What You're Actually Missing Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. If you've been posting content and getting no results, you are not alone, and today Elizabeth is challenging the whole way you're measuring "working." This episode is for the creative entrepreneur who is showing up online every day, hearing crickets, and starting to wonder if any of it matters. Elizabeth shares why likes and comments were never the real metric, how building trust on social media actually happens quietly over time, and why she has built what she calls an algorithm-proof business, one that doesn't depend on virality or a single platform to survive. She walks through how to diagnose what's actually going wrong in your content (is it a traffic problem, a messaging problem, an alignment problem) instead of just deciding your offer is bad and starting over. She also gets into why becoming the local authority in your area can feed your entire online presence, and why the entrepreneurs who make it are the ones who stay in the game long enough to build real trust. Plus, a behind the scenes update on Elizabeth's Hampton Roads Creative Network and the new site being built for it. If you've been feeling like you're talking to no one, press play and let this one recalibrate how you think about your content.

244: Business Built Around Your Life: A Personal Story About Friendship and Saying Yes Jul 08, 2026

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Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. This week's episode is a personal story about what it really means to have a business built around your life, one that lets you say yes to the people and moments that matter most, even when they show up without warning. Elizabeth shares the story of reconnecting with a childhood best friend during a hard season, dropping everything for a week to help her, and what that trip revealed about the freedom in entrepreneurship she has spent years building toward. This episode is for anyone who has ever felt torn between showing up for their business and showing up for their people, and anyone quietly wondering if entrepreneurship is actually giving them the freedom they were promised. Elizabeth talks through the guilt that can creep in before saying yes to something big, the difference between building a life around a business versus a business around a life, and why community, both personal and professional, is not optional. She also gets honest about what it felt like to unplug for an entire week and trust that her business would still be there when she got back. If you needed a reminder that the whole point of this was never just the business itself, this one is for you. Take a listen, and let yourself sit with the question: what is your business actually allowing you to do?

243: The Habit That's Quietly Holding You Back From Your Next Breakthrough Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast. This week Elizabeth is talking about one of the most expensive habits in business, and it has nothing to do with money. It is waiting. Waiting for the right time, waiting for more confidence, waiting for life to calm down before taking action. This episode is for the business owner who feels stuck in a holding pattern, telling themselves they will show up fully once things settle. Elizabeth shares how she protects her own working "containers," even during the hardest seasons of life, and why showing up imperfectly will always beat waiting for perfect conditions. She also gets into a concept that has been resonating with her lately: the idea that the first 10 people in your business matter more than the first 10,000. Chasing reach and followers can pull focus away from the people already in your community, the ones who are your real relationship capital. If you have been waiting for more time, more certainty, or a bigger audience before you take your next step, this episode is your reminder that movement creates momentum, not the other way around. Take a few minutes today to think about who is already in your front row, and how you might show up for them.

242: When Your Dream No Longer Fits: A Raw Story from Jennie Tack Jun 24, 2026

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Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast, where we get honest about the messy middle of building something that actually means something to you. This episode is something a little different, and honestly, something really special. Jenny Tack, owner of Hex and Hair in Hampton Roads and host of the Conversations at the Crossroads podcast, attended Elevate and Inspire back in April and shared her experience on her own show. Her story was so good that Elizabeth knew it belonged here too. This one is for anyone who has ever wondered if finding your why in business means letting go of the dream you started with. Jenny arrived at Elevate and Inspire already cracked open by a brutal week of nervous system chaos, a truck that ran out of gas on the interstate, and the kind of uncertainty that makes everything feel fragile. What she found inside that room was a full business identity shift she hadn't even known was coming. You'll hear her talk about the moment she realized her first blank in Elizabeth's "I am a blank" exercise didn't fit anymore, what it means to let a dream grow instead of letting it go, and why sometimes the breakdown before the breakthrough is exactly what makes you available to receive something new.

241: How to Make Big Decisions in Your Business (Using One Simple Question) Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast! In this episode, Elizabeth is coming to you live from her brand new podcast studio, and she's got a lot to celebrate and a lot to share. This is a behind-the-scenes catch-up episode centered around one powerful question that Elizabeth's mastermind coach introduced her to: what needs to be true in order to achieve your desired outcome? If you've been in a season of waffling on a decision, feeling stuck between what you want and what feels practical, this episode is for you. Elizabeth breaks down how asking this question honestly and specifically led her to finally rent a dedicated workspace, book out a workday structure that protects her mental health, and commit to a 30-day TikTok live challenge, even when it's frustrating and imperfect in the middle. This is also for the business owner who is in the middle of something hard and needs a reminder that the messy middle is still forward motion. Elizabeth talks about what her TikTok live experiment is actually teaching her (20 to 30 new followers a day, and also some real algorithm frustration), a consulting project she said yes to after almost saying no, and why being six months into your best year yet is still a process, not a destination.

240: Grow Your Business on TikTok with Will Harris: The Live Strategy That Made $500K in 6 Months Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast, and this one is a good one. If you've ever struggled to show up online the way you show up in a room full of people, this episode is going to feel like a direct answer to that problem. Elizabeth sits down with Will Harris, founder of Fitness Beyond 40 and one of TikTok's most compelling live creators, to talk about the TikTok live strategy that took him from three viewers to over 250,000 followers and half a million dollars in revenue in just six months. Will is not just dropping theory here. He breaks down exactly how he built his daily live format, how he thinks about casting a wide net while still attracting the right audience, and why going live every day at the same time is the single most important thing you can do right now. Elizabeth is 12 days into her own 30-day TikTok live experiment as they record, so you're getting real questions, real coaching, and real results in real time. This episode is for creative entrepreneurs and small business owners who know they have something powerful to offer but keep hitting a wall when it comes to translating that in-person magic into something that works online. Whether you've been curious about TikTok or completely skeptical, you're going to walk away with a clear picture of why live content is changing everything and a simple framework to start today. Go live. Be consistent. Build your tribe.

239: Building Annual Events That Scale: Behind the Scenes of Elevate and Inspire 2026 Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast, where we pull back the curtain on what it actually looks like to build a business over time. This episode is a full debrief of Elizabeth's third annual in-person event, Elevate and Inspire 2026, and it is one of the most honest and useful conversations she has had on the show about how to host a live event for your business. In-person event planning for entrepreneurs is no small task, and Elizabeth walks you through everything: what changed from year one to year three, how the new venue shaped the entire attendee experience, what she did differently with programming, and how sponsorships completely transformed the financial picture. For the first time ever, the event was profitable on the front end before a single post-event sale came in. This one is for you if you host live events, want to host them someday, or simply need a reminder that repeating what works in your business is where the real growth happens. Elizabeth talks about what it means to build anchor moments into your year, why consistency is key, and how you genuinely cannot improve what you do not repeat. She also gets into alumni strategy, swag bag decisions, and what she is already considering for 2027.

238: Mundane Magic: How to Turn Everyday Chores into a Daily Practice You Actually Enjoy with bestselling author Molly Donlan May 27, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to the Messy Success Podcast! This week Elizabeth is sitting down with Reiki master, bestselling author, and all-around magical human Molly Donlan to talk about her book Mundane Magic, a lazy witch's guide to hacking your brain, building a daily practice, and actually getting stuff done. If you have ever stared down a pile of laundry or a sink full of dishes and felt your soul leave your body, this episode is for you. Molly came into the energy and Reiki world as a full blown skeptic, burned out from nearly a decade of advocacy work for survivors of sexual violence. What started as her own healing journey became a thriving online business, a community with an 88 percent course completion rate, and now a book that is making people cry in the best possible way because they finally feel seen. In this conversation Elizabeth and Molly talk about what it really looks like to build a business by following your gut instead of a formula, why consent based marketing actually converts better than pressure tactics, and how turning your most dreaded household tasks into intentional daily rituals can unlock creativity, focus, and a whole lot more peace. Molly also shares the free download she has available and where to find the book.

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