People usually say “You can be healthy, have good grades/career, or have a social life- pick two.” Liz is here to show everyone that if you try, it’s possible to have all three!
Let’s go back to senior year of high school, when Liz got her start in lifting by using the gym as an escape. As is often the case, the more she went, the more she got into it, and come college time she found that there were students who worked as personal trainers, which was something she was very interested in. Liz went on to get her certification and started working as a trainer at her school in the summer of her sophomore year. This is all on top of managing her business school classes, getting her own workouts in, running her social media, and more! The key to this is that no matter how much Liz took on, her mindset was never “Ah I can’t do this, it’s too much,” but rather “Go go go!”
Social media came into the picture for Liz around the time when she got her personal training certification. Initially, it was a great way to keep herself accountable and become a better personal trainer, but somewhere on the path to where she is now the focus shifted. It stopped being about herself and more about the people who follow her and are counting on her. One look at Liz’s page will tell you that she hasn’t been letting them down, since she’s been super consistent for about as far as you can scroll. With that consistency almost always comes burnout, especially with all the other things Liz is stacking on her plate as well. The keyword here is “almost”, though. Because Liz mostly posts about the actual workouts she’s doing, the mental and time strain aren’t too bad, although educational content does take a lot more time and effort.
Speaking of time and effort, Liz has just recently started expanding into podcasting with Confessions of a Gym Rat and her new YouTube! Liz tried YouTube in the past, but felt like they were kind of half-assed and wanted to put more research and effort into them this time around. This is a pretty consistent trend I see with creators who expand from Instagram or TikTok-style content into YouTube’s longform videos. A 20 second video or a post of images and text are night and day when compared to a 10-minute video, so it’s like learning an entirely new skillset!
When I ask creators about their medium to long-term plans, they almost always mention a focus on trying to ditch their 9-5 and go full-time if they aren’t already, but Liz has a particularly interesting take on the topic. A large part of her brand is that she isn’t a fitness influencer with 6 hours a day to spend in the gym, but has a full-time job and social life just like the people who follow her. Having a full-time position also gives Liz a lot of leverage on the monetization side, since she has the freedom to only do things she’s really excited about, like brand deals with products she actually loves.
Now that we’re rolling into the new year, Liz has some big things coming. She plans to meet more big people in the fitness space to collaborate with, make her face more of a part of the brands she works with, build her online training business, and grow her merch line. If you’d like to come along for this year’s ride with Liz, you can find her on Instagram @liftswithliz, YouTube @liftswithliz , and on her website liftswithliz.com
