Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Jin.
Elizabeth, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I had a pretty traditional career path. I went to law school straight after college and landed my first job at a law firm in New York City as a transactional associate. Three years later, I was offered an opportunity to move to my firm’s London office, where I worked on corporate deals in Europe and Asia. During this time, I learned a tremendous amount about the corporate world and gained the foundational skills required of an attorney, but it was a grueling lifestyle and ultimately one that wasn’t sustainable for me. I had interned at Coca-Cola in college, and I always dreamed of working there someday as in-house counsel. I loved the idea of working for a company that is recognized globally but whose products reflect the local community. My memories of Coke have always been positive ones around family, holidays and togetherness. Fittingly, at the time that I applied to work at Coke, the advertising campaign was “Open Happiness”.
In September 2017, I was laid off from my job and I decided to take a year off to re-assess my career goals as I was considering leaving the law and moving to the business side. During this time, I consciously didn’t look for a job and instead focused on my health, spending time with my family, improving my public speaking through my involvement with Toastmasters, and creating motivational videos on YouTube. Six months later to the day, I received a phone call from a former business client who asked me to join her team, which is how I came to be in my current role as a Director of Business Affairs at Coca-Cola. As crazy as it sounds, when I let go and genuinely believed that everything would work out, it did.
While I enjoy my current job, I never stopped creating videos. Since 2013, I had been creating 2-minute films just for fun with my friend, who is a videographer. I’ve been a lawyer for the last decade and, for better or worse, it’s shaped a lot of who I am. But I think of myself as much more than just a lawyer and I felt compelled to find a creative outlet to tell my stories and to put “bursts of happiness” out into the world.
Eventually, my short films turned into weekly vlogs and I created my website, www.unburythatbadass.com, and YouTube channel. Looking back now, I realize that these videos were a sort of live catharsis where I opened up about my hopes and struggles and offered encouragement to people who might be facing similar situations.
Unbury that Badass also led me to my other passion — public speaking. Creating motivational content on a weekly basis inspired me to start my consulting firm, Liz Jin Consulting, where I could combine my love for the law with my passion for storytelling and teaching. In addition to my day job, I am grateful for the opportunity to travel around the country providing legal trainings to law firms on a variety of topics.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think many people — especially lawyers — are burnt out and seeking the answer to that elusive question “What is my passion?”
One of the best lessons I learned was to follow your curiosity instead of pressuring yourself to find your passion. Because creating motivational videos is a hobby, I feel free to experiment, have fun and not feel stressed that it will lead to anything. Ironically, and perhaps not surprisingly, this relaxed attitude led me to my passion for public speaking and being able to incorporate my videos into my trainings.
Lawyers also tend to be type-A perfectionists who don’t like being “bad” at anything, which makes it hard to try new things and to follow that curiosity. Something that I continue to work on is to let go of perfection and to strive instead for authenticity.
Before starting my blog, I had never even picked up a camera. I now create, film and edit my own content, but I’m grateful to my talented friends who took the time to teach me how to use a camera and help design my website. I’ve found that if you wait until you have the perfect content or you’re an expert at something, you’ll never start. I bought an affordable camera, a tripod and some lights and just went for it. 100+ videos later and I’m still learning!
The same goes for my speaking engagements. I had to get over my imposter syndrome that I wasn’t qualified to give legal trainings because I hadn’t been practicing law for decades. I learned that you have to do things before you think you’re ready. Because you are. But I also spend hours and hours preparing my material, thoughtfully tailoring the presentation for each audience and practicing my delivery — it’s 100% true that hard work will never lie to you.
I also worried that I was joining an already overcrowded field of professional speakers. But I believe in having a mindset of abundance. There is room for everyone; I continually challenge myself to be “daringly narrow” about my brand and to trust that I will connect with the right clients who appreciate what I have to offer.
Liz Jin Consulting – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
As a lawyer for over ten years, I have sat through dozens and dozens of CLEs and legal trainings…and I can’t remember a single one where I wasn’t on my laptop multitasking because the content was less than stellar.
This was so disappointing to me as I genuinely believe that lawyers love to learn and want to grow. So why can’t trainings be fun? Entertaining? Inspiring even? Why can’t the visual aids be beautiful and creative? Why can’t there be memorable anecdotes and funny videos?
I offer trainings to law firm associates that are educational and practical but also entertaining and motivational.
I currently offer trainings on the following topics: “Addressing Burnout”, “Writing Effective Emails and Correspondence,” “Public Speaking Skills/Effective Communication”, “Attorney-Client Privilege”, “The Basics of a Corporate Deal” and “Effectively Delivering and Asking for Feedback”. My trainings are typically 1-hour long (“The Basics of a Corporate Deal” can be tailored to be anywhere from 3-6 hours long). My trainings are geared towards 1st year associates.
I’m proud to offer a different kind of legal training that combines substantive teaching with a motivational twist through storytelling and engaging audio-visual content.
I think that lawyers are complete badasses (hello Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Jack McCoy!). Through my trainings, I hope to elevate the legal profession and to help a new generation of lawyers thrive in the ultra high-pressure environment of a corporate law firm.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
To me, success is about continually striving to grow and evolve. Stretching yourself past your comfort zone and being a “beginner” again. When I first started Unbury that Badass, I made a commitment to upload a new video every Friday so that I could improve my storytelling skills. I have a full-time job, which meant that I had to make time to film and edit videos after work, on weekends, and sometimes at 6am before work. When I started Liz Jin Consulting, my first trainings went well but I knew that I had lots of areas to improve upon (and I still do!) and I embraced this as a blessing.
I also believe that success comes from a willingness to be vulnerable. Find your voice and believe that you have something worth sharing. I don’t have the best video equipment and there are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs and YouTube channels out there. I also haven’t been practicing law for decades and there are literally hundreds of thousands of professional speakers out there. But I speak from the heart and my willingness to make myself vulnerable has allowed me to turn my experiences and “failures” into powerful tools to teach and inspire others.
Embrace your stories and your struggle because that’s what makes you you. No one else has gone through exactly what you’ve been through. No one else sees the world quite like you do. You can’t please everyone but if you are honest and authentic, your story will resonate with the people it needs to reach.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.unburythatbadass.com
- Email: liz.jin@gmail.com
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