Sharing Secrets (and Other Useful Stuff to Get Us Through All Kinds of Transitions in Life)

Ask my friends and colleagues, and they will tell you that I love sharing links to podcasts, articles, books, etc., with them. I am an avid reader of fiction and non-fiction and a pretty obsessive podcast listener. When reading and listening to these resources, I often think of people who would love (or possibly hate, but benefit from) something I just heard or read about. So, frequently, I send unsolicited emails or WhatsApp messages with links to these various resources.

Since I started working as a coach, I often have moments between sessions where I come across an idea or a resource that I think would suit a client perfectly. Sometimes I write an email and then realize it would actually suit another person too. So, I write another email, sharing the resource. And another one. Recently, a friend suggested I should start a newsletter. But it seems newsletters have become a thing of the past, and Substack is the new way to go, as I have read here.

If you are reading this, you are likely my friend, coaching client, or colleague. But if you stumbled across this Substack by chance, then let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Liza (pronounced Leeza). I’ve been alive for 50 years, was born in Slovenia in— you do the math— and have since then lived, studied, and worked in the UK, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sweden, Spain, Italy, and Portugal.

This is me (photo by: Gregory Garretson)

I am a social anthropologist with a passion for gender equality and social inclusion and have spent over 20 years doing research in Sub-Saharan Africa. I started my career in academia, and then about 7 years after completing my Ph.D. (on the social meaning of food in urban Burkina Faso), I packed up my bags and moved to Ethiopia. There, I started working for a research-for-development organization focused on water resources and small-scale agriculture. I took a deep dive into participatory approaches, development theory (and practice) in the area of gender equality and social inclusion. I got involved in exciting transdisciplinary projects using innovative methods like participatory 3D mapping and studied the political economy of water in Karamoja, Uganda. I led the policy component of a large EU Horizon 2020 project on the impact of rural out-migration on the communities that stay behind. Just as COVID hit, I had accepted a job in Stockholm, Sweden, and I went to live in this beautiful but rather lonely city for two years. In 2022, after several years of thinking and dreaming about it, I finally plucked up the courage and quit my well-paying job at an international organization focused on water governance and started a career as an independent consultant and professional coach. I spent a year traveling around Southern Europe (between Portugal, Spain, and Italy), trying to decide where I wanted to live, and I finally settled on Lisbon, Portugal. I am now starting my life from scratch again. In a new place and in a new language. I am excited and can also sense some trepidation in my steps as I transition into a new phase of my life.

This brings me to why I am starting this Substack. My hope is to offer a space where we can share tips, ideas, and thought-provoking questions that can help us in life. Like a WhatsApp group with friends and acquaintances asking questions and sharing links, tips, and ideas, but one that you can actually mute and only go and read when you feel like it (with an occasional email from the Substack app (only if you choose to subscribe) in your inbox reminding you that there is something exciting going on here).

My hope is for this space to be like a little magic box with a number of potions and spells (that may just be tried and tested practical ideas) that will make life easier. I will share what worked for me and what didn’t, and I hope that anyone who subscribes to this Substack and has something cool to share would do the same. It is also a space to say, “I tried what you recommend, and it didn’t work for me because of such and such.” They say, “live and learn.” And I am all for that, but if I've gone down a blind alley and can let you know before you waste a ton of time, energy, or money doing the same only to experience the same failure, you may wish to know that. And maybe you still need to go down that blind alley because sometimes we have to fall flat on our face to learn something. You can use the comments space to tell us about it.

As I say to my potential coaching clients, I will make sure this is a safe space, but sometimes it is not going to be comfortable. There is a cost to transformations and growth. We need to leave some things behind to make space for new things in life. By starting this Substack, I am leaving behind my enourmous fear of making my writing public, but I am also hoping to make space for potential new connections. I hope you will join me on this new and exciting journey and share some of your life secrets.