We recently connected with Jennifer Lieberman and have shared our conversation below.
Jennifer, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I don’t necessary think of my self as resilient, it’s more like I just refuse to die. I believe in any creative field, if you stick around long enough and bang on enough doors, something is bound to happen.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m basically an actor who started writing and producing to give myself roles. After spinning my wheels for several years trying to get a ‘foot in the door’ I decided to create my own one-woman-show to showcase my talents. The play was the beginning of me taking matters into my own hands and switching from a creative to a creator. Yes, there is a lot more work involved in being a creator, but I also have more control than other actors waiting to get cast. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting cast and showing up just as the actor, butover time that waiting around can get frustrating. I’ve always believed that work begets more work; the busier I keep myself with writing and small indie projects, the more bigger productions seem to find me. Also, I became so inspired and fulfilled from my own small indie projects that I founded Make Your Own Break, a production and consulting business to help other fellow struggling creatives to launch their own vehicles and take control of their own careers. For me, there is nothing more exciting than the creative process, so I feel really lucky that’s what I get to spend my time doing for both my projects and for other people.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I know there is a lot of talk about alignment and resistance, these words are super trendy right now, so let me put this out there – there can still be resistance even when you are aligned with your goals. One of my acting teachers Larry Moss says “in order to be happy, you have to do at least one thing every day that you don’t want to do.” I believe it. When you are creative you are a solopreneur and you are going to have to wake up every day and get on it, even if you don’t feel like it. So #1 get used to doing things you don’t want to do, #2 learn new skills regularly so you don’t get left behind and #3 keep pivoting through the doors that do open, they may even lead someplace better than where you planned to go.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
My #1 obstacle, ohhhhh gosh, social media for sure. It’s just super unnatural for me to constantly document my day and I feel really silly posting most of the time. I know I need to get over myself and just lean into it, but I do feel a lot of resistance in this area. I think it might be time to hire someone to help me with this – which is another great skill – knowing when you need outside help and brining on collaborators!