I have a confession to make.

At the time I interviewed Liz, I really liked her music. But I didn’t truly appreciate her as a musician.

All that’s changed. I’ve seen the light.

After spending a couple of hours with Liz, listening to her brain effortlessly skip up and down five octaves of thinking, I’m a groupie. Is it her seen-on-the-cover-of-Vanity-Fair style? No. That voice so luscious it prompts impure thoughts from anyone within earshot? No. It’s because she’s a freakin’ smart businesswoman.

Liz described how most people, especially creative people, don’t think of themselves as a business, or their employer as a business partner. But they should. Liz interacts with her label as a strategic alliance: she meets their needs as quickly and adeptly as possible, and asks them to support her growth. She’s accountable to every single person in the record company, and in return, she makes sure they’re accountable to her.

Her greatest asset, she says, is her ability to think from her label’s point of view, and her audience’s point of view, so she can deliver exactly what they need. That’s how she retains enough creative control to create the music she feels most passionate about.

“I have no right to get all the opportunities I do. It’s because of my gumption. When I show up to a photo shoot, everyone knows I’m going to kick some ass. People will give me opportunities they wouldn’t give to others because they know I know what they need.”

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