We recently connected with Elizabeth (Lisa) Liang and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth (Lisa), thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is to remind everyone: Our stories and our feelings about them matter. Honor them.

The “why” for my mission is that I had never seen a story like mine told, so as a professional actress and published writer, I decided to write, produce, and perform a one-woman show about my life, Alien Citizen. It had a successful run in Hollywood and ended up touring internationally for six years. Since it did so well, I believed I could help other people tell their intercultural stories, so I began leading workshops on creating a solo show or memoir at colleges, universities, summer schools, and conferences in the US. I also began leading private sessions online with participants all over the world. The vast majority of them have been women, over half of whom are women of color, which is very gratifying.

Meanwhile, Alien Citizen was made into a film, now on DVD and streamable, and is being used as a teaching and counseling resource on campuses around the world. I also deliver keynotes on the transformative power of intersectional storytelling. The business morphed to contain all of these facets, but the impetus behind it was this realization: I’m going to have to tell my story myself and then help other intercultural women tell theirs, because no one is specifically helping us otherwise.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up as a mixed race kid in Central America, North Africa, the Middle East, and Connecticut. My dad worked for Xerox and they moved us around.

Moving from culture to culture made me a Third Culture Kid (TCK). Being a multiracial dual citizen and TCK made me a Cross-Cultural Kid (CCK).

In other words, I’m not from a place, I’m from people (the family I grew up with and now my husband).

Books, theatre, and movies were a constant in my life wherever my family lived, so it makes sense that I became a bilingual actress and an audiobook narrator. I’m very driven by story, so I also became a theatre and film producer, published writer, public speaker, and leader of personal narrative workshops.

My small business validates and advocates for women and intercultural people (multiracial people, children of immigrants, borderlanders, Third Culture Kids, transnationally adopted people, and so many more) via my workshops, film, and keynotes. At this challenging time in history, my work weaves cultures together on different levels with humor and candor – It helps people to overcome the fear of others and the pain of feeling other/alone. My work brings connection, which is a building block for transformation.

I’m most proud of these achievements in my business:
1. My workshops have helped people around the world tell their own stories and develop an easy, pleasurable writing practice. Participants have gone on to have their work published or produced.
2. The film of my solo show, Alien Citizen, is used as a teaching resource on college and university campuses.
3. My keynotes really help people to understand intersectionality and the importance of sharing our stories in some creative form.

My small business description, in case you’re curious: HapaLis Prods is an interculturally focused entertainment & education company founded to create and facilitate transformative storytelling on the page, stage, screen, and in the school & workplace.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I got started by creating my one-woman show, Alien Citizen, which premiered in Hollywood in 2013. Then I took it on tour. I had no idea how to tour a show, so I spent many hours on the internet researching emails for professors and student clubs that might be interested in an intercultural show. I also contacted friends and colleagues who worked on college campuses. I pitched them all the live show, and lo and behold, managed to book numerous gigs across the US in 2014. I secured a booking agent who booked a couple of gigs for me as well that year.

So in 2014 I was also working a day job while pursuing my acting career, when suddenly I found myself at LAX every three weeks, flying to yet another city to perform the solo show at a college, conference, or international school. Meanwhile, I had begun leading workshops to help people tell their own stories, in private workshops as well as on college campuses. I loved helping students discover the gold in their stories!

Halfway through the year, I quit my day job to pursue the tour and workshops full-time, with the additional help of residuals I was receiving from a commercial. It was risky to take the full-time small business plunge, but worth it. I’ve worked for myself ever since, with the occasional union screen acting gig. That’s become the side hustle, while my small business is full time.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I retired the solo show in 2019. I had filmed it, so I began offering it as a screening with a filmmaker talk-back along with my workshop. It worked! I had bookings lined up for 2020…and then the pandemic hit. From March onward, all of my bookings were canceled. So I did what virtually every small business owner did: searched for grants and loans while pivoting. Fortunately, I received the SBA EIDL grant and loan as well as the CA Small Business Covid-19 Relief Grant, and managed to book screenings of Alien Citizen followed by talk-backs and my workshop, all online! 2021 was a much better year than I had expected it to be. I was and still am grateful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://elizabethliang.com/HapaLis-Prods
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hapalis/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interculturalstorytelling/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-liang-intercultural/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwm0xUmE1cJXBAQ1uLU3_Nw

Image Credits
Bailey Yoo Rim Steinbach, Daniel Lawrence, Jacquie Weber