Story & Lesson Highlights with Elizabeth Jean Olivia GAGNON

We recently had the chance to connect with Elizabeth Jean Olivia GAGNON and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Elizabeth Jean Olivia, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What do you think is misunderstood about your business? 
“One of the biggest misunderstandings about my business is that people think it’s just about tea. In truth, T-E-A stands for Teaching Educational Awareness — it’s a movement, not a beverage. My work weaves together storytelling, healing, art, and education to create spaces where individuals and communities can find transformation.

What’s often overlooked is the humanity at the heart of what I do. In a business world so focused on the polished success story, my mission is to also honor the adversity it took to get there. I serve differently because I bring forward the raw, real, and often unseen struggles that shape resilience and growth.

Another misunderstanding is that people sometimes see my brand as only a product line or a podcast. What they don’t always realize is that Miss Liz is a legacy project — a platform for global change, kindness, and inclusion. Every journal, deck, workshop, circle, or conversation is designed to touch lives, open dialogues, and plant seeds of awareness.

It’s not about selling tea or things; it’s about serving people and creating impact by showing that being different, and not always understood, is actually where the deepest change begins. One cup, one story, one journey at a time.”

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
“My name is Elizabeth Jean Olivia Gagnon, but most people know me as Miss Liz. I am the founder of Miss Liz’s T-E-E — which stands for Transcend, Embrace, Envision — as well as Teatime with Miss Liz and global storytelling initiatives. My brand is built on the idea of Teaching Educational Awareness (T-E-A) through storytelling, healing, and creativity.

What makes my work unique is that it’s not just about selling products or hosting conversations — it’s about creating impact. I’m currently working on launching a store that brings a fresh new look and experience to the way we see tea. In my world, tea is a metaphor for time travel through words and storytelling — past, present, and future blending together in every cup, every conversation, every creation.

I’m also the author of my own T-E-A book, where I share tools for self-belief and the journey of being an underdog who worked hard to show the world that change is possible by daring to be different. Through podcasting, writing, speaking, and advocating, I’ve become the change I needed growing up — and I use my voice to help others believe in theirs.

Right now, I’m expanding Miss Liz’s T-E-E into global circles of humanity — spaces where men, women, and youth can come together for kindness, awareness, and transformation.

Miss Liz is more than a brand; it’s a living legacy of resilience, self-belief, and doing different, to get different results.”

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
When I was a child I believed I had to shrink to be safe. I thought being different meant I was broken — that my voice was loud and awkward in rooms where quiet was rewarded. I believed success looked like fitting in, having everyone nod and agree, and that the struggles I carried were things to hide, not to share.

Today I no longer believe those things. I’ve learned that my difference is my map — the very thing that points me toward the people I’m meant to serve. I no longer measure success by how “acceptable” I am, but by how much healing and honesty I invite into a room. I don’t believe my story is a liability; I believe it’s a bridge. My voice doesn’t need permission to matter — it needs an audience willing to hear the truth.

That shift — from shrinking to standing — is at the heart of Miss Liz. It’s why I build spaces where the unseen is seen, where the underdog is heard, and where being different becomes the pathway to real, lasting change. One cup, one story, one brave step at a time.

Short quote:
“I used to think being different meant I had to hide. Now I know my difference is my compass — and my story is how I lead others home.”

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me what success never could — the depth of my own strength. Success often gets celebrated as the shiny end result, but suffering forced me to sit with the cracks, the silence, and the places no one applauds. It taught me compassion, because once you’ve known deep pain, you see others differently. You don’t rush past their struggles; you recognize them, you honor them.

Suffering showed me that resilience isn’t about winning — it’s about choosing to get back up when no one is watching. It gave me creativity, because when everything else was stripped away, I learned to build with what I had: my words, my voice, my story. And it taught me that being an underdog isn’t a curse — it’s a calling.

Success will never teach me those lessons. But suffering did — and that’s why I serve differently, why I create differently, and why Miss Liz is rooted not in perfection, but in truth. One cup, one story, one journey at a time.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
An important truth I hold — one that few people fully agree with me on — is that adversity is as valuable as success. We live in a world obsessed with wins, highlights, and picture-perfect outcomes. But I believe the raw, unpolished struggles teach us more than victories ever could.

People often want to skip past the pain, erase the failures, or hide the mistakes. I see them as sacred teachers. Without adversity, there is no resilience, no compassion, no true understanding of humanity. My truth is that the cracks are not flaws to be fixed — they are doorways to transformation.

This makes people uncomfortable, because it challenges the story we’ve all been fed: that being different, struggling, or failing makes us less. But I’ve learned that those very differences are what make us most powerful.

That’s why Miss Liz exists — to prove that being unseen, underestimated, or misunderstood can actually become your compass, pointing you toward the change you were born to make. One cup, one story, one journey at a time.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
I think what people may most misunderstand about my legacy is that it was never about the things I created — the books, the products, the podcasts, or the events. Those are the vessels, but not the legacy.

My legacy is about the humanity behind them: the rawness, the adversity, the belief that being different is not something to fix but something to honor. Some may mistake my work for just another business or brand, when in truth it’s a movement — a reminder that resilience, compassion, and self-belief matter more than polished success.

People may also misunderstand that my legacy isn’t about me. It’s about the doors I opened for others — the voices I lifted, the stories I held space for, and the cups of truth I poured so others could find themselves in the reflection.

If anything, I hope they’ll one day see that my legacy wasn’t about creating perfection, but about planting seeds of awareness — and proving that change is possible when we dare to do different, to get different results.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.misslizstee.com &www.misslizsteatime.com
• Instagram: @misslizsteatime
• Linkedin: @elizabethgagnon
• Twitter: @sweetnothing_74
• Facebook: @elizabethjeanoliviagagnon
• Youtube: @misslizsteatimes
• Other: @misslizsteatime on linktree @miislizstee on tictok

Image Credits
Images created by Miss Liz books awards and statements or quotes that I live and stand by. Use or have come up with.