My story & experience
You can find the TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) below
I am Lisa de Bruijn, 25 years old (I’m a 2000 baby & a Virgo) and I live in a small garden house at the edge of the forest near Breda (NL). I am someone who seeks adventure and joy in every aspect of Life. Every step is a new journey, every meeting can possibly become a deep connection. Every unknown twist can turn out to be the biggest gift Life has ever offered. I have an old ambulance campervan that I lived in for 3 years. I like to sleep under the stars and swim in every lake I find. I am blessed with a lot of beautiful friends and a loving boyfriend of 4 years. I have had a rather spiritual upbringing with a magical shaman mother. But I also have a down-to-Earth no nonsense father (love you Dad) which makes me… both? I am an artist under the name Liza Weald and now I have started my new business Studio North Star, which I hope will become a support haven for many creative and conscious entrepreneurs. I love all kinds of music from neo-classical to jazz to techno. I love to travel. I make really good shakshuka. Life is crazy good.
But it hasn’t always been like that. I come from a small town and went to a reformed gymnasium High School in Belgium. And as the cliché goes: I was always different and couldn’t fit in. I was ‘the dreamer girl’, a deep feeler, someone who didn’t want to smash the insects but put them in a little jar and give them names. It was challenging for me, a gentle soul, to walk among such loudness and hardened frames. It all felt so horribly off. How could the world expect me to behave and function in a landscape so different from the one blooming in my heart? I always believed I was meant to bring good to this world. That maybe, when I grew up, I would be free to create my own frame, where softness ruled and being different would mean being able to bring change. I was (and still am) expressive, loving, joyful, multi passionate and witty. But still I feel very privileged, because my parents allowed me to be my weird self and let me practice theatre, drama, dance, singing, guitar and painting.
I couldn’t fit in one box so finding a profession was hard for me. I was interested in so many things! All my classmates went to law school or became doctors; I myself decided that I wanted to become an artist. At the age of 17, I got accepted to the Conservatory of Music to study Songwriting, and left for the big city of Rotterdam to live in a student room. I didn’t even know how the washing machine worked, but I said to myself: “I’ll figure it out.” And I did. In 2022, I graduated Cum Laude, my clothes were clean and I was an established artistic entrepreneur setting out into the world to spread my music. Liza Weald has been my North Star ever since and brought me to so many places, external as well as within myself. I released a studio album, met so many other beautiful artists I now work together with and played a lot (and I mean a lot) of concerts. I never knew I would become a business woman, but having a music project definitely caused me to not only be the singer and songwriter of the brand, but also the marketeer, the saleswoman, the venue coördinator, the ‘boss’ of session musicians, the arranger, the fixer and many other things.
This is me at 6 years old, planning my first official event.
Music couldn’t pay all my bills. so I ended up working different jobs on the side. But even though a voice in my head shamed me for ‘not making it as an artist’, I wasn’t sad because it meant I could learn something new. I worked as a music teacher in different schools, I sat behind a reception desk at a camping and worked in different retail shops. And you know? I think a lot of creative / conscious entrepreneurs recognize this and there’s no need to shame ourselves. Our business is not about scaling up to 30 employees and making six or seven figures as fast as possible, although making a revenue like this is 100% possible and something you deserve. But in the essence, it’s about passion, about that feeling deep inside of us that we are meant to bring something softer and gentler into this world. It’s a North Star shining in the dark sky, a burst of color on a grey palette. It’s not about ‘making it’ because we are already there. We are artists, we are helpers, healers, space holders, alchemists, creators & so much more. We need to protect who we are, cherish it and never let anyone dim our light. You can see the motivation I had for creating Studio North Star (:
At the reception, I found out (by accident) that I’m really good at administration and finance, which brought me to the shores of one of the biggest corporations out there: ING Bank. Working as a financial advisor within the field of credits, I helped customers in calculating their budget and making decisions on the amount of money they were allowed to lend. I got two certificates: a WFT Basis, giving me credibility in the fundamentals of financial services, and the WFT Consumer Credit. ING brought out the corporate girl in me and eventually led me to step into another corporate field: Howden, an established insurance broker. Here I got my WFT Income, allowing me to be an advisor for small businesses and mediate in everything related to loss of income and disability insurances. I never imagined I would learn skills like these or that finance would be something I’d even remotely be interested in.
But even though I have learned a lot from these jobs, you can probably imagine that the gentle little girl inside me is not happy in these offices. I’m not here to fit in or conform. I’m here to create something new, on my terms. So here I am. Starting a business like I have nothing to lose (I really don’t. We never do. Failure is just a concept). Along with all the experience gained from the past years. I feel really proud and confident to open Studio North Star and help other entrepreneurs follow their shining light. To be able to work my own hours, from anywhere I want. And to build a business where I create my own rules which are a) sensitivity is your power and your virtue, never a weakness, b) there should be a place in the world for gentle hearted entrepreneurs without them having to scream for attention or change who they are and c) I shall always believe and trust in my own ability to create new things and be successful by simply being who I am. “I’ll figure it out,” said the 17 year old girl. And figure it out I will.
I will always do it for her.
It is with that same joyful feeling that I welcome you to Studio North Star.
Liza Weald concert in Vondelkerk Amsterdam
TL;DR summary
Career experience
Howden Group: business income loss and disability insurance advisor
ING Bank: financial credit advisor
Reception: administration, customer service, planning, systems and tools, personal assistance
Retail: customer service, sales
music teacher: creating course material, teaching and motivating
artistic coach: working with other artists on songs and branding
Liza Weald: artistic leader and executive of my own music project
Credibility
Gymnasium High School (Latin and Math)
Cum Laude Bachelor of Music in Songwriting, with branches in artistic entrepreneurship and education
WFT Basis (fundamentals of financial services such as taxes, the social benefits system, pensions and investing)
WFT consumer credit (I may advise in budgets, spending and credit)
WFT income (I may advise in loss of income and disability insurances)