I used to think I needed to hide who I was, but she is the reason I am here. She taught me resilience and grit. She is not my shame, she is my power.
How She Made Peace With Who She Used To Be
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Empathy changed how I measured success - from speed to how people felt. It meant slowing down, listening deeply, and creating space for honesty in difficult moments.
Liza Yefimova · In Her Own Words
From How She Did It
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Her Story
About Liza
Liza Yefimova is a people first culture leader and experience designer with over nine years of experience across the Human Resources lifecycle. With a background in psychology from Borough of Manhattan Community College and Touro University, she specializes in workplace and employee experience, engagement, and recognition, building cultures rooted in trust, belonging, and intention. Her philosophy is simple. Culture lives in how people feel and the confidence they have to use their voice.
She has led end to end HR operations and enterprise wide culture strategies across high growth and regulated industries, including sports betting and online gaming, most recently serving as Manager of Culture, Belonging and Experience at BetMGM. Liza is also the founder of Brag Lab LLC, an experience and events company focused on creating moments that matter through corporate experiences and intimate gatherings designed to spark connection, meaning, and lasting impact.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Liza
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to resilience, self trust, and an unwavering belief in people. I have navigated uncertainty, growth, and change by staying grounded in my values and choosing to keep going even when the path was not clear. Learning to trust my instincts and my voice changed everything.
I also credit my success to listening deeply. Paying attention to what people say and what they hesitate to say has shaped how I lead, build culture, and design experiences. Every challenge taught me perspective, empathy, and the importance of creating spaces where people feel seen and supported.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received was to stop waiting to be chosen and start choosing myself. Early on, I learned that clarity, confidence, and consistency matter more than permission. When I stopped trying to fit into expectations and instead leaned into who I am, the right opportunities followed.
That advice taught me to trust my voice, take ownership of my path, and build a career rooted in values, not approval. Staying authentic to who you are will always lead you to the right opportunities.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You will question yourself more than you should. That does not mean you are failing. It means you care. Trust your instincts, stay curious, and give yourself permission to grow in real time.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Working in a male dominated field comes with challenges, but it also creates space for meaningful change. It is an opportunity to challenge the status quo, elevate diverse voices, and help shape a more inclusive future for the industry.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me in both my work and personal life are honesty, integrity, and authenticity. I believe in being transparent, consistent, and true to who I am, even when it is uncomfortable. Doing the right thing is not always the easiest choice, but it is the one that builds real trust and lasting respect.
I strive to lead and live in a way that aligns my actions with my values. Whether in decision making, relationships, or moments of challenge, I choose integrity over convenience and authenticity over approval.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Liza
In a culture that rewards comparison, being a girls’ girl is a choice every woman makes for herself. This piece unpacks why real allyship between women matters more than we think.
Being a Girls’ Girl Is a Choice, Not a Caption
It is not about being nice or paying a compliment on a haircut. It is about integrity, loyalty, and how you treat other women when support costs you something instead of earning you applause.
Everyone says they are a girls’ girl.
Few actually know what it means.
Somewhere along the way, the phrase became diluted. Turned into an aesthetic. A slogan. A way to sound supportive without ever putting in the work. But being a girls’ girl is not about captions or compliments. It is about what you do when there is nothing to gain from being kind and everything to lose by staying silent.
Being a girls’ girl starts one truth. Other women are not your competition.
Not for success. Not for attention. Not for belonging.
A girls’ girl does not measure her worth against another woman’s life. She does not scan rooms looking for someone to outshine or outsmart. She understands that another woman’s success is not a threat, but proof that together more opportunity becomes possible.
And when that success happens, she does not question how it was earned. She celebrates it. Publicly. Without needing anything in return.
Being a girls’ girl is not blind loyalty. On the contrary, It means supporting women while still holding them accountable. It means being honest in private and loyal in public. It means correcting quietly and defending loudly.
It also means refusing to participate in subtle sabotage. No whispering. No side-eye commentary. No watching another woman struggle and refusing to lend a hand. A girls’ girl does not mistake indifference for maturity or silence for class.
She speaks up.
A girls’ girl shares information instead of guarding it. She opens doors instead of pretending they do not exist. She recommends other women for opportunities even when she could take the spotlight herself. Especially then.
She does not fear being replaced, because she does not compete, she knows what she deserves won't miss her.
Being a girls’ girl also requires unlearning. Unlearning the belief that there is only room for a few. Unlearning the reflex to compare each other's journeys. Unlearning the need to compete for validation in spaces that were never designed with women in mind.
It means choosing collaboration in a culture that quietly rewards our division.
A girls’ girl understands that support is not always comfortable. Sometimes it looks like hard conversations. Sometimes it looks like telling the truth instead of offering empty encouragement. Sometimes it looks like setting boundaries with women who are not aligned.
Support does not mean self-betrayal. It means integrity.
And here is the part that rarely gets said. Being a girls’ girl is not about being liked by every woman in the room. It is about being respected for how you move through it.
The women who embody this do not announce it. They are felt. They change the temperature of spaces. They make rooms safer. They make success less lonely. They make other women feel seen instead of isolated.
The irony is that girls’ girls tend to win more. Not because they make another woman feel small, but because they build trust. They attract community. They create environments people want to be part of.
That is influence.
In a world that benefits from women being divided, choosing to be a girls’ girl is not soft. It is powerful. It is brave. It is disruptive.
Because being a girls’ girl is not about saying the right things.
It is about standing up for what's right.
And the women who understand that do not dim other women’s light.
They make the room brighter.
An inspiring exploration of female resilience, authenticity, and leadership. Discover how women who refuse to shrink themselves, embrace their complexity, and choose self-belief over self-editing become the true agents of cultural change and influential voices in their fields.
Unedited: Unapologetic and Winning
From Pressure To Power; the beauty of not breaking
There is a quiet expectation placed on women as they climb. Be impressive, but not intimidating. Be confident, but not too loud. Be ambitious, but make it look effortless. Success often comes with a subtle request to edit yourself.
Many women learn early that fitting in can feel safer than standing out. That softening opinions can feel like strategy. That shrinking can feel like survival.
But the women who truly move culture forward tend to reach a moment where they decide they are done auditioning for permission.
Resilience is not just about surviving hard seasons. It is about surviving the pressure to become someone else in order to be accepted. It is built in rejection emails, awkward reinventions, career pivots that scare everyone but feel right, and the deeply humbling process of figuring things out in real time.
Growth is rarely glamorous. It looks like trial and error. Like betting on yourself when there is no applause yet. Like hearing “that might not work” and choosing to try anyway. Like rebuilding confidence after setbacks that would have been easier to quit over.
Many women know what it feels like to hit a low point and wonder if they have reached their ceiling. To feel underestimated. To feel like the room has already decided who they are allowed to be.
And yet, some women choose to rewrite the script.
They stop performing palatable versions of themselves. They stop apologizing for their drive. They stop shrinking their stories to make other people comfortable. They allow themselves to be complex. Emotional. Strategic. Soft. Bold. Funny. Serious. Human.
Their power does not come from being perfect. It comes from being honest. From trusting their instincts. From choosing self belief over self editing. From continuing to show up even when the path is messy, nonlinear, and occasionally chaotic.
These women are influential not because they never struggle, but because they refuse to let struggle define or limit them.
In a world that often encourages women to fit a mold, choosing to remain fully yourself is not arrogance.
It is courage.
It is leadership.
And sometimes, it is the bravest voice in the room.
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