Once you have a lick learned, play it - and it only. Over and over and over. Repetition is key. Then play it over a backing track. Not one backing track – play it over several backing tracks. Mess around with the lick, vary it, extend it, shorten it, vary it again. Make it yours. Milk that lick for all it is worth until it is beginning to speak your words. If it isn’t speaking then force it. Make up some words that it could be saying. These can be nonsense at first. Just make it say something. Imagine that lick as an expression of something you want to say or sing.