Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have a special guest with me, Lizette Epps. Welcome to the Project.
Lizette Epps: Thank you.
Toni: So Lizette, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Lizette: I am the Director of Impact and Engagement at Visions Federal Credit Union. I manage our financial education program, and I also manage our sponsorship dollars there. I am also known as a community and social justice advocate here in Berks. I also am a solopreneur for my company, Breadth of Hope.
Toni: You’re a busy lady.
Lizette: I am, a little bit.
Toni: Oh my goodness. All right, let’s get into the Project.
Lizette: Perfect.
Toni: What does inspiration mean to you?
Lizette: Inspiration to me is having the drive and the passion to do something that you love and encouraging others to do so for themselves. For me, inspiration is just a wonderful thing to be able to help people find that little spark inside themselves, to feel like they can do something that maybe somebody told them that they couldn’t do or something that they may themselves believe that they couldn’t do.
Toni: So you come at inspiration as far as how you inspire others.
Lizette: A little bit of both. It’s about how we as people can inspire others, but just really helping people find it for themselves. I think everybody has it in them; it’s just a matter of finding a way to bring that to light for people.
Toni: Do you know when you’re inspired?
Lizette: I do, and it’s not always obvious. It usually comes after a lot of deep thought and thinking for days on just something that I’ve seen or a message that’s come to me in a way that really isn't always that obvious, but once I do realize that I’m inspired, it’s just like a kick of motivation.
Toni: How’s it feel? What’s it feel like?
Lizette: It’s excitement.
Toni: Yeah.
Lizette: It is. It’s really exciting when I find that I’ve been inspired by something, because I just wanna go out there and take on the world and get whatever it is that I’m focused on done.
Toni: When you feel that spark and you’re ready to put something in place, how do you take that and put it into practice here in Berks County?
Lizette: As far as putting it into practice in Berks, I think every day I kind of just hit the ground running with moving forward with what inspires me in the community. I mean, I think that I’ve been, for the last 10 years, kind of interacting with people and interfacing with folks in the community that are aligned with the things that are important to me. I’m a big advocate for women and children’s initiatives in the Latino population as a whole, so I’ve made it kind of my life’s work to go out and bring different kind of educational programs, whether it be through my business or through the job that I currently have to help others find what it is that is going to influence them and keep them charging forward, if that makes sense.
Toni: So it seems to be always you take when you are inspired and you put it into action in service of others.
Lizette: Yes. I am very much about serving others. I was having a conversation the other day with someone about leadership, and they asked me my leadership style. It’s very much servant leadership. I’m very much about people helping people, and that’s kind of the philosophy that every role that I have in my life faces. It’s a very people-oriented kind of look that I have. When I see someone or when I meet someone, we take the time to talk and I learn more about them; sometimes when you’re talking to people you can hear the things that they don’t really see for themselves. I always try to point those things out so people can kind of think about it and really find how that could help them be a better person or make a change in the people that are around them.
Toni: Do you get to see the spark in others when it happens?
Lizette: I do. I do. It doesn’t always happen right that second, but usually what’ll happen is I’ll get a phone call or I’ll get an email message to say, “Hey, from our conversation, X, Y, and Z kind of came to me. I’ve started working on this project.” Or, “I’ve decided I’m going to go for this new job.” It doesn’t always happen instantaneously, but it does come around and it’s wonderful to see it.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Lizette: My biggest inspiration in Berks County is Annarose Ingarra-Milch. About a year-and-a-half ago, Annarose, who didn’t know me from a hole in the wall, came to an event where I was speaking and I told my life story for the first time. At the end of the event we were taking questions, and Annarose popped her hand up. She looked at me and she said, “What’s next?” and it totally caught me off guard, because I had no idea. I didn’t know what was next. I took that question back and I just thought about it and thought about it. Her, “What’s next?” question led me to starting my own business, and then it just kind of has evolved from there. I think Annarose has really played a big part in inspiring me in that way and then just from seeing the kind of woman that she is — someone who is always up for a challenge and really doesn’t back down from things — that’s very inspiring to me.
Toni: She lit a spark, didn’t she?
Lizette: She absolutely did.
Toni: So, what do you want your legacy to be?
Lizette: That’s such a tough question. As far as my legacy, I’d really like it to be one of continued advocacy for women and children and the Latino population, and really just for people to know that they can really do whatever they want and whatever they set their mind to. It takes a little bit of work, and it takes a little bit of faith and for them to continue believing in themselves.
Toni: Are you working your legacy today?
Lizette: I am. I work my legacy every single day. It’s definitely something that I try to instill in my own children and just everybody that I encounter. I let them know that they are important and what they want to do is important, so just really keep your eye on the prize.
Toni: I’ll tell you what. People get a little turned around by the legacy question, but what they don’t realize is that they really are living their legacy every day, and so watching you, listening to you, and having you light the spark of others so that you can also be sparked is an amazing thing to watch.
Lizette: Oh, thank you.
Toni: Thank you for showing up to the Project today.
Lizette: Thanks so much.
