We recently connected with Liz Stubbs and have shared our conversation below.
Liz, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Resilience is such a cornerstone quality, isn’t it? I wonder if we might benefit from courses in it. I was lucky to have four big brothers who modeled resilience, and I absorbed their figure-it-out fortitude. From earliest memories, I loved watching (sometimes spying) them rebuild car engines and bicycles, put together model trains and rockets, teach themselves musical instruments … all fascinating builder-maker activities to me. Maybe they didn’t always get it working on the first try, maybe they had to improvise one part for another, maybe it was more mystery than masterpiece, but they ALWAYS kept at it, tried different approaches, and figured it out. To this day I have every confidence in them that they will solve any challenge because they will keep looking for and creating solutions. I admire their resilience, and thankfully had their examples as my models. Because of their attitude and ingenuity, I see “failure” as information and an opportunity to shift perception or perspective. Fresh eyes and the belief that everything is figure-outable is a highly valuable tool for all of us. Like most cinematic stories of plucky heroes and heroines, resilience is what gets them beyond the doubts and challenges in their journeys.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
It is incredibly meaningful to me to create space for people to see their own light. I became a portrait photographer so clients could see themselves with appreciation, so they could see themselves with fresh eyes as we captured moments in front of the lens as they lit up and radiated with their joy or strength or whatever in the moment animated them.
To complement empowering visuals in portraits and branding photography, I am newly offering media training and coaching people how to be powerful presenters and deliver savvy interviews, optimizing their messaging to be memorable and magnetic as well as refining and up-leveling their non-verbal communication skills. For decades, in my role as director for broadcast and web clients, I have media trained and directed countless talent from celebrities to CEOs to media novices, and I adore creating that space and energy for them to shine.
At the beginning of 2024, I also self-published a new book, Creative Resilience: Thriving in Uncertainty, as a guidebook to help us all get out of our own ways in the limiting stories, beliefs and patterns we may hold that keep us playing small in our lives. It is a curated collection of practices and exercises, drawing from neuroscience, behavioral science, elite athlete coaching, creativity gurus, etc. that change our approach and relationship to uncertainty and change so we can thrive through resilience and innovation.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
First and foremost, accountability in a person and service is paramount. So INTEGRITY, for me, is non-negotiable. I want to interact with people and businesses who do what they say, and say what they do. Simple. Be honorable and a person of your word. Your word is your contract.
Secondly, CURIOSITY. With the openness to explore and to learn, there is always the possibility to improve, discover, understand more deeply and gain expanded perspectives and appreciation. Curiosity opens doors, solves challenges and makes life all around richer, I think. It also keeps us nimble. If we think we know or are the expert, then we might miss gaining new insight and experience.
Finally PLAY. I cannot tell you how many times as a portrait photographer and a director when PLAY has come to the rescue. We can get so in our minds about what and how we should be, that we disconnect from our hearts and courage. Play keeps us in flowing and positive energies, where possibility and ease live. And as kids know, life is much more delightful when we bring a sense of play into our days.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
My parents imprinted two keys (among many) that come to mind when I consider my road as an entrepreneur. One is to see the glass half full. My dad would literally take me outside to look at nature and ask me what I saw. We would talk about what it meant to see the world as half full or half empty. We choose the lens through which we perceive and experience life. We can see as if the glass is half empty, a diminishing and draining perspective. Or we can see it as half full and bring our focus to the positives, the aspects of value that already support our mission. And what we focus on we create more of.
Secondly, they encouraged me to stretch. Sure, drawing and art were my happy place with my Crayola box and sketch pad at home, but how much more my world opened to me when they took me to art class, even though my shyness might have kept me doodling solo in private. I might have turned back from travels, opting for the comfort of familiar, had they not shared how important and expansive seeing the world would be. I will forever be grateful to them for both encouragements.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lizstubbsphotography.com
- Instagram: @lizstubbs
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizstubbs/
Image Credits
All images are by Liz Stubbs
