Being the creator is not an easy thing to do. You need to have the passion and energy to fulfill the tasks that your creativity puts in front of you. So can you imagine taking a trip from Belgrade to Montenegro on Vespa? That’s exactly what Elizabeth Duong – Liz did to create a movie which is part of her usual job.
Liz is producing video content for different advertising purposes but also is running her blog where she wants to help other expats in Serbia to learn Serbian easier since she managed to learn it in a very short period. And she is from Vietnam, right? Check out her youtube channel “Liz Learns Serbian”.
Hopefully, her story will inspire you too to turn your engines and start creating things that make your world go around. We are very proud to have such a brave tenants as part of our HUB8 community.
H8: Hello, can you give us a little introduction to who you are and what you do? Where do you live? What do you love about it?
Elizabeth Duong: I’m Australian, born to Vietnamese parents who immigrated to Australia at the end of the 80s after the fall of Saigon. “Who I am” is a bit of a deep question for this survey, but I feel closer to finding the answer now that I am in Serbia and in the Balkans.
I am currently a video editor, YouTuber and model. I love everything about my life right now, I feel like I’m living truer to myself here than I was in Australia. I love creating videos that help people see the beauty of their life, their language and the beautiful place that they call home. My job is basically showing people how I see the world through film and I get to do that in an environment that really inspires me.
My job lets me travel around the Balkans where I’m able to learn a lot more about people, culture, language and I’ve also learnt a lot about myself. So I guess in short, what I love most about my job is that it feels right.
H8: What are you working on just now that you are most excited about doing?
ED: I just hired a videographer to help me film more videos, because I really suck at filming myself and often forget to film stuff when I am at places and the regret it when I am editing. I am excited that next year, I have organised with a few tourist organisations from different cities around Serbia to create unique travel videos in their cities.
I know that the skills that I have and the product that I have to sell them is something really unique and is easy to sell, so next year will be lots more travel, filming and creating content that are going to help showcase these beautiful little towns and villages outside of the capital of Serbia.
H8: What has been your favorite moment on the project so far? What are you looking forward to the most in the future of the project?
ED: I have got to say my month in Nikšić. Almost everyone has commented on the video saying that in my short time in Nikšić, I was able to really capture the soul of the people and of the city in that one month and it came across very strongly and authetically in the video.
H8: How do you prefer to start your day?
ED: I lie in bed for a few minutes visualising what I am excited to work on that day.
H8: What would we most likely find you doing on the weekend? Any story to share?
ED: Because of the nature of my work, I don’t really have a distinction between weekdays or the weekend. I am always working and always have time to myself. When I am not working, I usually like going to visit art galleries, I paint, I read, I am writing a book, I make Instagram reels to sell my old clothes, I love musicals so I might be at the theatre at Terazija. I also like to cook.
I see friends mostly throughout the whole week or go to the gym. I’m not really one for parties, bars or clubs. When I finish big video projects, I usually open up a bottle of wine and sing and dance in my room. That is my ideal weekend. My stories will be shared one day in book form.
H8: What’s your go-to productivity trick?
ED: I’ve long given up on productivity tricks, which is strange for someone who used to be a project manager. I think that part of me I left behind in Australia. I’ve mostly just let life take me on it’s ride and if the last year has been an indication, I’m in for a really wild ride. To try to install safety barriers on this rollercoaster would be such a shame, I want to let life lead me off the rails.
H8: What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from?
ED: I would have to say that it would have had to be my first conversation with my old boss back when I was 21. At the time I was finishing a engineering and business double degree, a diploma of languages, a Cert III & IV in personal training, training for a bodybuilding competition and also the president of a few university clubs that don’t matter anymore as well as juggling two jobs.
We had our first meeting, it was actually an interview for a job at his gym. He listened to me talking about all the things that I was doing and then he just asked me, “Why?” That simple word brought my whole universe down to the ground. I was doing so much and saying yes to everything, but I had never stopped to ask myself, why. He was actually the initiator of a big clean up that I did of my entire life that eventually brought me to Serbia 3 years after that.
I will be eternally grateful to him for what he did for me. He helped me clear up all the noise that I had in my life and to start listening to what it was that I wanted. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have this life that I have right now.
H8: If you could share one piece of advice for those who are just starting to create?
Elizabeth Duong: “Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.” ― Terence McKenna
You create something too?
Feel free to share your story with us at office@hub8.rs
