Meet Lisa Martinez

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lisa Martinez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lisa below.

Hi Lisa , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My life has been filled with much trauma. From being sexually abused as a child by multiple relatives, to growing up in a home with domestic violence & emotional abuse, to loving someone with a substance use disorder – there have been times when I have felt like I just couldn’t go on. As a teenager, I cut myself in a sloppy attempt to commit suicide. However, by the grace of God, the cut I made was superficial – and it served as a wake-up call. I could choose to stay low and allow the sadness I feel from the traumatic experiences I have had to weigh me down in despair. Or I could choose to keep going – even if my movement was more akin to a snail’s pace.
The definition of resilience is one’s ability to cope and recover from setbacks. Some of my coping skills over the years to help me recover include reading, writing poetry, singing, and music. I feel strongly that the Good Lord allowed me to discover books & music to help me forget my woes and refocus my mind. Not to mention, books have enabled me – a girl who grew up in a lower-class family & dropped out of 9th grade – to broaden my horizons. Books gave me an excellent vocabulary and an idea of the wide world beyond. I knew life could be different because of books and music. So, I would have to say my resilience comes from books and music.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

As I mentioned in the previous question, I have been through a lot. My major coping techniques are books & music. As a child, I promised myself I would write a book by the time I turned 50 years of age. One month after my 50th birthday in 2021, I decided to stop procrastinating and put together a book of my poetry. My book is called Poetic Expressions from an Overcomer, Part I. It consists of poetry I have written over the years to help me process my emotions over experiences I had or over experiences my loved ones have had. I am proud of my book for many reasons. One, it is my words on various topics that I often can’t articulate with my voice in everyday conversation. Second, most of the women in my family have barely had any formal education of any kind – to be the first in my Mexican American family to publish a book is just amazing! Third, if my words can help one person temporarily forget their woes, or introduce them to something new, or help them realize they aren’t alone – just like books did for me – then I consider myself absolutely blessed!!!

Since my poetry book, I have published two short stories and one motivational journal. All of my books can be found on Amazon. I am currently working on something very different for me and my goal is to publish my first book with 10,000 words or more. Additionally, I participate in various local author events hosted by our local libraries. There is one coming up at Watauga Public Library in November.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three qualities/skills/areas of knowledge most impactful to me on my journey are: hope, grace, and kindness. When I had to unexpectedly raise my child as a single mom, there were times when money was extremely tight. I didn’t know how I would pay bills much less buy gifts for my child for Christmas. It has been the generous kindness of others who helped me and restored my hope in better days to come. One example is when my coworkers and I were discussing Christmas. Most of us were parents and the conversation soon turned into gifts our kids wanted. That year, my child expressed an interest in a bicycle, but I knew I couldn’t afford to buy one. I didn’t share that with coworkers, but one coworker had observed how quiet I was during that part of the conversation. She noticed that I rarely ate lunch out and other things I couldn’t hide (like not having new clothes). She knew I was a single mom. She stopped me after work one day and asked me to share one thing my child had really wanted for Christmas. I told her about the bicycle. We parted ways and I thought no more about it. The next day, she bought a receipt from a local store and told me that I needed to go pick up a bike they had purchased. She said they didn’t want credit for the gift – she insisted I either take credit for the gift or give the credit to Santa Claus. That is just one example of how God has used earthly angels to restore my faith.

My advice is to keep looking for the ways God (or whatever higher power you believe in) speaks to you to help you hold on to your hope. Sometimes, the hope builds from doing for others what you would like done for you. There were many times when I would volunteer with Toys for Tots or other programs to help families who were experiencing what I was going through or worse. It really helped me refocus and put my life into perspective.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

One of the questions you have on this form is about imposter syndrome. When you grow up in a dysfunctional environment like I did, it is easy to believe you aren’t good enough to achieve your goals or dreams. All my life, most of the elders in my family told me I thought too highly of myself or that I was no good. When I self-published my book, only two of my aunts congratulated me and wanted to get signed copies of my works. Nobody else from that generation acknowledged my accomplishment. It hurt because I know if my child or niece/nephew does something similar, I will be the first in line to buy their book or art or whatever they create. I will vocalize how proud I am of them and try to support their endeavors in whatever way I could. I had to refocus on the fact that my own blood doesn’t support me to how awesome it has been to have strangers support me. My fanbase isn’t large by any means, but I am not going to allow that to deter me from writing, publishing, and putting my works out there at various author events and such. Every sale I make is a blessing because I never would have believed I would make even one sale before.

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