In this informal Sister Circle recorded at the She Speaks Conference, host Speaker A sits with author‑speaker Liz Curtis Higgs, Nicki Koziarz, and Wynter Pitts. The conversation weaves through several strands: Liz’s prolific writing career (37 books) and her deep love for long‑time readers, the role of humor in her family and ministry, and how she learned to own that comedic gift despite early doubts about fitting a “serious” Christian image. They discuss the dynamics of storytelling within families, the tension between personal illustration and shared narratives, and the process of accepting one’s innate personality traits as God‑given. Liz reflects on aging, the evolution of her identity over two decades, and the idea that all past versions of herself remain present. The dialogue blends anecdotes, faith‑based encouragement, and practical insights for creators seeking to honor their unique design while serving others.
Chapters
Hey girls, thanks for joining me. We are sitting in a hotel room and do y'all see the yellow? We tried to bring in the yellow with the Embassy Suites hotel situation. I am here with Liz Curtis Higgs and Nikki Coziarz. You know, I've been asked a few times to make sure that people are saying your name right. I was like, I know how to say it because I asked her. And then my cousin Winter Pitts, and we're here. The She Speaks Conference is happening and Liz, you're speaking tomorrow night.—
I am.—
And you are speaking tonight, right after we record this video.—
Unbelievable.—
But we are making time to have a Sister Circle conversation. If you don't know anything about Liz Curtis Higgs or Nikki Coziarz or Wynter, which by now you should know about Wynter, you need to Google them and find out. Liz Curtis Higgs is a prolific writer. How many books?—
37, comes out this fall.— Wow. I know, it's crazy. It's an addiction.
I just, you know, move from one thing to another. But you love writing, and I heard you say yesterday you love your readers, which I love that you said that.
Yeah, I do.
Why do you love your readers? I've never heard anybody say that.
Oh yeah, first of all, they're just amazing women, and many of them have been with me for years. Here at this conference, I've been running into people who literally have read my books for the last 20 years. Wow, that's a long time. I know, so it's so fun to go back and talk about something that they read that long ago, 3 covers ago, you know, because you change your books, trust me, after a while they start changing your covers, just try to make them look happier and fresher. But the reality is, the books, the books still do the work. I think it's what I love is that when you write, it has a much longer shelf life, literally, than a message. Though I love to speak, but you speak and gone.
Yeah.
It's just gone.
They may remember a joke or a story, but they certainly don't remember all of your 3 points and your verses and your examples.
And all that. No, they don't. And proof of that is they'll hear the same exact message a couple weeks later and go, "Oh, I love that.
A little bit of it was familiar." You're thinking, wow.
So I love my readers because they've been with me a long time. I love them because we obviously resonate together. Everybody has a different writing style. Everybody has their own voice. And we have favorite authors, people that you just, when you read them, it's like—
There's a connection.
Yeah, there's a connection. They're your friend. And so I've just been at it long enough, I got a lot of friends. So it's really, they're very special to me.
Well, one of the reasons I know your readers love you or people of you when they read your words or they listen to you speak is that you are hilarious.
I keep trying to straighten up. It never lasts very long.
Have you always been the person to crack a joke?
Yes.
Just always been that way?
I grew up in an all funny family. That was part of it.
All funny family?
I did. There were 6 kids. In my family, you had to be funny or you were asked to leave. Where do you fall in? Seriously.
Yeah, where is your mom?
Oh, I am the youngest by far, by far, by far. The 5 of them all came close together, 9 years. My mama had me at 43.
Wow.
Which is a little more common now, but back in the day you just didn't do that. You weren't getting pregnant after 40. And so all the women in the bridge club were just, "Oh, look at her!" But anyway, so, yeah, so I learned from the best. My brothers and sisters were storytellers. They were funny.
Wow.
We would sit around the dinner table, and I thought every family did this, only later found out this is not what people do.
Yeah.
But we would sit around, all of us, and carry on and tell stories, funny stuff we saw that day. It was kind of a can you top this, I got one, I got one, that kind of thing. And so that's what I thought families all did, because that's what we did. Humor was currency. You got, you know, points if you were funny.
So I just hear, I'm like, when that happens at my dinner table, I'm like, One person at a time. So now I'm like, maybe I need to work on that. Maybe you're squelching the spirit of funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Squelching the spirit of funny.
Right.
I was the one who told jokes at the dinner table.
Uh-huh.
I thought. And then my youngest brother, everybody would be quiet. Oh, crickets. Really? And then my youngest brother would go, "Brrr, brrr, brrr." He's like, "They were crickets," because nobody thought that was funny. And then they would laugh at me.
As crickets. Not with me. Yeah, yeah.
At me. So one of the One of the best things that I enjoy speaking is that people actually laugh. They laugh.
I'm like, "No crickets." I do have currency. I'm gonna do the crickets tonight.
Just one quiet moment. Yeah, no crickets. And then in my family, it's not storytelling as much as it is illustration creation. Of course. Which can be story, but we're trying to top each other, or we think we're giving a good illustration and someone says, "Well, no, that actually doesn't parallel with your point." I mean, you're just like, "What?" Yeah, that would be hard to be from a family of speakers.
Holy cow, I never even thought about that. Well, and you have to watch your stories because it could end up being someone else's illustration. Yeah.
You're like, "I knew that!" Oh, no, no, no, we fight over illustrations. Like, someone will say something and not realize it's a good illustration, and then we'll say, "Okay, well, that's mine, I take it." Yes, dibs! Yep, and I would tell a story and then hear Ursula tell it, and I was like, "No, no, no, no, no." I need my stories. I'm just getting started.
You know what I mean? That's right.
I need my—
You got your stories.
I need my stories. Well, that's great. Well, you bring that hilarity to everything that you do, to your writing, to your speaking. And all your writing isn't laughable. I mean, a lot of it is very serious and very thought-provoking and spirit-moving. But you carry that with you in one-on-one conversations. And I just think it is a great gift. It is a great gift.
Well, it's one I can't give back, apparently. And it took a while. Honestly, when I became a believer as an adult at 27, I thought, "Oh my word, I now have to straighten up because I'm a Christian and they're serious people." And I thought, "I'm in trouble." You know, I'm just in trouble because I can't— I kept trying to straighten up and I kept being silly, especially on the platform trying to teach the Bible, be very serious, but I would always think of funny things. And thank goodness it turned out to be okay.
How did you get comfortable with that? Because your thing may be funny,— but there are a lot of people, not even on the platform, they're trying to figure out what pieces of themselves that are okay to keep. Right. You know, they're not sin issues, it's just, is this okay for me to be me?
Right.
How did you make peace with being you, particularly on a platform?
That's a really good question. First of all was the realization that I couldn't lay it down, that it was part of me and had been hardwired into me. So if it's part of me, that means God put it there. So I just asked the Lord, I said, "Okay, this humor piece, do you need me to lay that down?" And he said, "Are you kidding? We have enough serious people out there. The church needs joy, you do that." And so I, you know, once I had that word from the Lord, that was it. I just— me, it's just a package. It also helps to mature. The older you get, the more you outlive people, frankly. You realize I This is it. This is apparently what God intended. It doesn't— isn't necessarily the package I would choose if I could do a cafeteria style, you know, what I would want either in my personality or appearance or any of that. But you work with what you have and you say, "Lord, it's all yours. Do with it as you will." What would you choose?
What would you trade? What parts of yourself, if you got to pick?
Well, you know, it's interesting. If you'd asked me that 10 years ago, I would have had an immediate list. 10 years ago, of course, I would have said thick hair with color in it, you know, ideally instead of silver, though it's natural. I never have to worry about my roots there down here. I would have picked obviously, oh, I don't know, about a size 8. Any single digit would be beautiful. Mm-hmm.
Single digits.
You know, right, and lots of things like that. But You know, if I had all that, I wouldn't be the person I am today. Because the truth is, when some gifts are given to us, others are not. And when there are things that you don't have in the natural, then you ask God to breathe something into you that is all him, that's supernatural. Does that make sense? So I'll take the package, weird and strange as it is.
Did you just morph into that though? Did you just wake up one day and say like—
Oh gosh, no, that took 20 years. Oh no, it did. It took a long time. It did. You're moving at lightning speed.
Am I moving at lightning speed?
Yes, you are, because you're there.
Am I?
You are there.
How do you know?
And I rejoice in that.
How do you know when you're there?
Well, I think other people help you know you're there.
Okay.
So, you know, just by reading your book, She's still there?
She's still there. Which version of me is still there?
Well, here's the truth. All the versions are still there. That's a fact.
Wow.
And that took a long time for me to embrace because I thought I could grow past that old bad girl Liz and leave her in the dust. And every time I tried, God says, "What are you kidding? You're going to waste those 10 years out in the—" far country. Don't waste those years. Let's use those years. Use them to minister. Use them to encourage. So I've had to reclaim my 10 years out in the far country. I mean, I didn't just visit there. I had like a post office box, you know what I'm saying? I was there for a long time.
