“Our desire for approval and acceptance is real, it is human nature, and while we may desire that from the outside world, it’s more important to accept ourselves for who we are on the inside,” – Liz Brunner in Dare to Own You: Taking Your Authenticity and Dreams into Your Next Chapter
GracePoint Publishing author, Liz Brunner, the CEO & Founder of Brunner Communications and award-winning former news anchor for ABC-TV in Boston, joins Michelle to talk about the release of her debut title, Dare to Own You. Gracepoint Publishing is honored to be publishing Liz’s incredible work, we can’t wait to share Liz’s story with you.
In Dare to Own You, Liz Brunner reflects on the risks she has taken, the obstacles she’s overcome, and the lessons learned along the way. Mixing memoir with practical, implementable transformational tools, this book weaves her story about determination, perseverance, resilience, faith, and trust. What emerges is an approach to life that will empower others to dare to own who they are and move into the next chapter of their professional and private lives with courage, confidence, and authenticity.
Dare to Own You is now available now in audiobook, eBook, paperback, and hardback, on Amazon, Audible, and wherever you get your favorite books.
To find out more about Liz and her work, please visit her website at lizbrunner.com and check out her amazing podcast, Live Your Best Life with Liz Brunner, at lizbrunner.com/live-your-best-life
Keep writing. Keep creating. Your words matter. Find out how to begin your book publishing journey at gracepointpublishing.com
Produced by Number Three Productions, numberthreeproductions.com
Full Transcript
Intro
Welcome to the GracePoint Publishing authors podcast. Join us as we discuss the challenges, triumphs, inspirations, and unique aspects of our authors journey. As you listen, you will learn about how we publish our books, the ways we pivot and adjust to our ever changing industry, and how you can begin your own book publishing journey. And now here’s your host, co-founder and publisher of Gracepoint Publishing, Michelle Vandepas.
Michelle
Hello, and welcome. I’m Michelle Vandepas, your host with GracePoint Publishing. And today I’m so excited. I’ve known Liz Brunner for a few years now. And I think I might be able to call her a friend, not just my client and a fantastic author, and published author at GracePoint Publishing. Her new book is Dare To Own You: Taking Your Authenticity and Dreams Into Your Next Chapter. And you got the foreword by Jack Canfield and endorsements from Marcy Shimoff, and Brian Tracy, amongst others. Welcome to the show, Liz.
Liz
Oh, thank you so much, Michelle. And yes, you better call me a friend after all this amount of time.
Michelle
So great to have you here on the podcast, we interview authors who have gone with GracePoint Publishing to find out not only about your book, but like what was the most surprising thing you can share about having a book published.
Liz
It still feels surreal, if that’s even possible, at this juncture, because if you had said to me a year ago, now we’re recording this in January 2022. If you had asked me in January 2021, if I would have a book published by the end of that year, I would have said, How in the world is that going to happen? It really was not on my radar screen at that point in time. So now it’ll be a year later. From that. And even just a couple of months out from having it actually published and out there in the world. It still feels pretty amazing. And I’m really excited about it. I’m really proud of myself for doing it.
Michelle
For those who are thinking about writing a book. I know the answer to this, but just bear with us. Did you have the book written a year ago? Last January? Did you have thoughts in your head? Where were you a year ago with your book?
Liz
A year ago, I probably had maybe five or six thousand words. And I really need to go back to the summer of 2019. When I first started writing mike so called the book. Now, it’s not the same title or anything that is out there in the world today. But I had begun writing it and felt like I was going off course. And so I stopped. I stopped writing. And I really did not pick it back up again until March of 2022 when I actually got connected with Gracepoint publishing. And so what was really great about that was once I got connected and learning, you know what some of the steps were in the processes. I was on a mission. I suddenly felt like yes, I am ready to write this. I can write this. And I did. And so for the next really four months till mid August, it was like hanging out on the on the keyboard many times a day.
Michelle
Yes, it was an I think you said 2022. And that’s kind of what COVID did to us. You know, it screwed up all our timelines. I think you meant 2021 is when you were.
Liz
Oh, yes. Yes, I apologize. So March of 2021 was when I really dug into it. Yes, you are correct. Thank you for correcting me.
Michelle
All of us are kind of in a daze of the last couple of years with timing right and dates and all of that. So I love this book. It’s quite an accomplishment to get Jack Canfield to write the foreword. Tell me how that made you feel?
Liz
Well, the day that I got his email saying congratulations on writing a great book. And here’s the foreword. I was beside myself, but I kind of need to go back of how I even got connected to him, which was I invited him to be a guest on my podcast, live your best life with Liz Bruner. Now, it took about a year to finally make that happen, as sometimes these things do. But when I connected with him, we had a really great show. He was so complimentary about the show and about my homework and working on it. And I felt like at that point I could reach out to him. I was scared to do so trust me. I was very scared to do so. But I practiced one of his success principles number 17. Just ask. And so I did. And he said to me, I can’t put my name on it unless I read it. It’s my reputation. So I was okay, here we go. Here’s the draft of it, it wasn’t even completely edited was very minimal editing at that point. So the fact that he said yes, and put his name to it, I’m so honored and humbled that he did. And I’m an admirer of his. And he’s in that transformational space, which is kind of where I feel like I am now. So that that was very exciting day. It was a very exciting day.
Michelle
There’s two things that I heard you say that I want to circle back to one is that took a year to get him on your podcast. I think there’s a lesson in there about being tenacious persistent. Is that a theme you’ve had through your life to be persistent?
Liz
Absolutely, yes. And I think it’s persistence. It’s tenacity, it’s perseverance. Choose whichever word you want. It really comes down to, you’ve got to sometime34s figure out how to go around, get over get under whatever the case is, in order to achieve a goal or a dream that you have. One of those was when I wanted to interview President Barack Obama. And it took me four years to get that interview. So at least Jack Canfield wasn’t as long. But I kept writing to the White House. And I finally four years later, you know, after many, many, many, many emails, not getting any replies, I finally got a reply, and I got a name. And that’s part of it, too, is you have to be able to figure out, alright, how can I connect with someone who else might I need to go to? Where else could I be creative, and inventive and innovative and trying to figure out how to connect with that person. And so once those things happen, then you can make your dreams come true. Sometimes in getting the interview with President Barack Obama. Anytime you interview a sitting president, it’s quite an honor, no matter your politics. And when I got Jack Canfield, it was sort of that same feeling of okay, I did it, I figured it out. So there is a lesson in that. Yes, absolutely.
Michelle
One of the things you talk about in your book, and the other piece I wanted to come around to is you didn’t see the fact that it took so long as being a No, you didn’t see it. And with Barack Obama as well, you didn’t see it as Oh, my gosh, I’m not worthy enough. You. And I think that’s what happens to many of us. When we go after something that it feels like a block we take it as the No, we take it at all. It’s not supposed to remind to do Oh, I’m not worthy. Oh, whatever the excuses are, we tell ourselves, but actually, you’re just saying Be persistent. Just keep going for it.
Liz
Well, all of those things are limiting beliefs to think that we’re not enough. And until somebody says no to me, I’m kind of determined to you know, if it’s something I really want to achieve, and I mean, eventually, sometimes yes, no, of truly does mean no. And you do have to pivot, but maybe not, maybe not. So don’t give up unless you’ve exhausted all avenues of something. And try to negate some of those limiting beliefs that we often all have about ourselves that were either not enough, or maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. And there are all kinds of things we tell ourselves, these inner critics that are in our head. And if we can let go of some of those negative things and replace them with positive things of well, what if, what if, and, in fact, one of the quotes I think, which is in my very first chapter of the book, which is by Robert Schuller, Reverend Robert Schuller, what would you attempt to do? If you knew you could not fail? What would any of us do if we thought, hey, maybe I’ll succeed.
Michelle
You talk about how you came to actually be a news anchor. And that wasn’t really a dream. That wasn’t something that was on the horizon that I knew I could do it, or I would go forward if I knew I couldn’t fail wasn’t even on the horizon. So there’s also this place where you have to be open to opportunity, even if it’s not your dream. So talk about because I know you coach around this. I know that on your podcast, you talk about this and in your book, Dare To Own You, You talked about this, just take us through the piece of when a new opportunity comes that may not be the dream you thought you had for yourself, how do you know what’s right for you?
Liz
I think it’s an evolutionary process to really be open as you say to what opportunities ideas may come to you. I was actually a high school music teacher and singing semi professionally. And while I enjoyed the teaching process With my high school students, I was teaching music. I felt like there was something more I was supposed to do. I had no clue what it was. But I began that exploration process of asking myself, well, what if and back then the internet really wasn’t around much. I mean, I’m really dating myself now. But I was trying to do all these assessment test and I thought maybe I’d be a psychologist, maybe I do this. Maybe I do that maybe construction. I love to drawing floor plans, and I still do. But then suddenly, I had this idea of well, what about television? I had done one television commercial when I was Miss Illinois 1979, which paid for my college education. So I’m very proud of that. But it really was, well, could I be in television? And if I did, what would that look like? What would I do? And I had no clue did I have to go back to school did I have to get another degree, and I bravely and blindly called up two television stations in the city that I was living in Champaign Urbana, Illinois, and I went on informational interviews and just asked questions. What does somebody like me? Do? You know, could I do something like this, and I’ll give you the shortened Reader’s Digest version. After about six months of conversation with one of the stations, the CBS affiliate opposition was literally created for me, I learned everything from the ground up, because I was willing to say yes to just about everything, and learn from my experiences. My grandmother, Chaco, who you meet in the book, had a phrase of no knowledge is ever wasted. No knowledge, no experience, good or bad. No knowledge is ever wasted. And when you begin to connect the dots of all of your experiences of all of that knowledge, guess what, you can create next chapters for yourself. So I went from being a high school music teacher worked in retail to pay the bills, while I figured out what my next career was going to be. That was chapter two. Chapter Three was my television career, which lasted 28 years. That’s a long time. And then now my business and my entrepreneur role, and my podcast and my Brunneracademy.com. And now my book is chapter four.
Michelle
You talked about going on an informational interview, I love this concept. I’m always inviting people to just ask questions of other mentors of people they know. And there’s something where you have to be uniquely curious about things you don’t know about and be open to the answer. It feels like that’s sort of a lost art these days.
Liz
I think you’re right about that. Because I think what sometimes happens is, if people are looking to mentors, or other individuals in an industry that are interested in they make it about them, as opposed to learning, what can I learn from this person that I’m talking to? What advice could they give me what direction? They’re all you know, and how can I support them? How can I be of service in some way to them as well make it a two way street. But I do think it’s kind of a lost art and people hate networking. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Because I’m very curious individual. And that curiosity actually was what made me very successful in television, during all of my interviews, and now as a podcaster, as well. It’s that natural curiosity, what can you learn? What can you learn from every experience that you’re in? You know, when I when I was leaving television and trying to figure out what that next chapter was going to be? It took me a couple of years to figure it out. And it’s when I started again, on informational interviews, talking to people, what, what does somebody like me do next? What do you see as my skill set, I needed to turn that lens around a little bit. What was interesting was so many of them would say to me, Well, what do you like to do? What do you want to do? I like to do a lot of things. You know, and so I had to then begin to think about what my skill set was in television and how I could relate it to what they knew in the corporate world. And I like in the example of breaking news in my world, is perhaps, you know, craziness in their world where you know, they’ve got all kinds of things going on. Or if I’m in the news business, writing a story and putting it all together. Well, that’s like a project manager in the corporate world. So there are a lot of similar skills that I had, but I had to figure out how to translate it to their language.
Michelle
And then you got deep into this business, quite successful being an entrepreneur, teaching people how to speak on stage had stage presence, and then COVID happened and you had to pivot yet again. And I think again, it was your curiosity about what’s next that help you take it to podcasting help you teach others how to podcast, help you teach others how to have zoompresence Right. And maybe speaking is coming back and you’ve got the Brunner Academy that you teach all of these skills, and maybe speaking will be back in your repertoire again in the next few months, right?
Liz
I sure hope so because I absolutely love being able to connect with an audience, particularly in person. Yes, I had to pivot just like a lot of people did. But what was so fascinating was that as many either former clients or new clients began to understand, wait a minute, this is Liz’s wheelhouse, the whole virtual world, anybody who’s doing anything virtually guess what you are now on TV, and you need to think about it like that. And if you do, chances are, you’re going to be more successful because you’ve got that mindset, among other things. And I love teaching people about how to be successful how to set yourself up for success in a virtual world. But what’s fascinating too, about doing things virtually versus in person, a lot of people don’t understand this, when you’re in person, you generally will feed off of the energy of the audience, you can read them, you can feel them. And I could be on stage for hours, because I’m feeding off of that energy from the audience. But when you’re doing something virtually, you don’t feel it coming back at you, you have to generate 100% of the energy. And it takes more. It just simply takes more. And when you can give more. You’re gonna connect, communicate and engage with your audience virtually.
Michelle
And like I mentioned, you teach all this, only go back to your book for a minute. It’s available hardback paperback, ebook and audio books that’s so exciting.
Liz
Yes, yes, yes. Yes, it is now available. Wow, it was quite the process as I knew it would be. But what I think is funny is it’s five hours and one minute long. I’m like, What is that one minute? It’s funny, because people would ask me, Are you going to do an audio book? And and who’s going to, you know, voice it? Excuse me? Voice it? Me, I’m going to voice it. Why would I have somebody else do my stories. So for me, I was very comfortable doing it.
Michelle
Your book’s available everywhere. And I know Barnes and Noble has ordered and you’ve hit number one and hit bestseller on Amazon and so exciting for you so excited for you. So talk to me about and maybe it’s a relative, but who has the biggest influence in your life?
Liz
Well, I probably would have to be my mom. And I dedicated the book to my mom, she’s perhaps the wisest woman I know. And she was always so supportive of whatever each one of us kids wanted to do. And I’m so grateful for that. And I’m also grateful that my grandmother, her mother, had the quote of no knowledge is ever wasted. Because between my grandmother saying it all the time between my mother saying it all the time, I really feel like she was such an incredible influence on me. And she’s 86 years old now. And she’s doing pretty well. But you know, there’s that reality in my head of whenever that day may be. I’m not wishing it upon us anytime soon. But I have thought about it. And I thought about it a lot when I wrote this book actually, kind of hit me. kind of hit me. Yeah, yeah. Is there someone that is teaching today or out there in the world today that you would love to? Meet? Learn from be curious with ask questions like who would be your next big interview? I guess that’s really the question. My list is so long. Michelle, I can share with you that two days from now I’m going to be interviewing John Tesh. Oh, interesting. He has a new book out as well. And I’m very excited to interview him. I think it’s going to be a fun, fun interview. I’ve got quite the list of people that I’ve reached out to right now. So crossing my fingers that it’ll all come together somehow.
Michelle
I love your podcast. We’ll put it all in the show notes for people to Yeah, absolutely. So what is the one thing that you would share with new authors that you want them to know?
Liz
Trust yourself, own your experiences. And allow yourself to be as authentic and vulnerable as you can be. In particular, if you’re writing a memoir, which mine is a memoir, both personal and professional memoir. It takes a lot of courage and confidence to write a memoir. And for me, there were days when tears would surface. There were days when I was scared to death to put some of that content in there. And I’ll share one story about that, in particular, where I was writing about my family ancestry. And I kept saying to myself, who cares about my family ancestry. And so I stopped writing and I went over to walk the Charles River, which I love to do as much as I possibly can. And I’m walking over and I’m literally talking to the universe. Why do I feel so compelled to put this in there? And it suddenly dawned on me, as the tears started to flow, that I felt the weight of my ancestors and their accomplishments. And what occurred to me is, how many of us placed an expectation on ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, of we should be a doctor, we should be a lawyer, our parents want us to follow in the family business, or whatever that case may be? And how many times do we put that on ourselves? And what does that do to our own personal journeys of where we go professionally and personally. And that’s why I put it in the book, because so many of us have those expectations on us. And I wanted us to understand I wanted I wanted readers to understand I want listeners to understand that each of us has to be our own authentic self, we have to give ourselves permission to own who we are, authentically, so that we can create those dreams so that we can create those next chapters, or even our first chapter. I was gonna ask you, what do you hope the biggest takeaway from your book would be? And that’s probably the same thing. Well, that is one piece of it. Yes. And the other flip side of that coin is, if I can do it, if I can create all these next chapters, guess what? Anybody can?
Michelle
The book is Dare To Own You: Taking Your Authenticity and Dreams Into Your Next Chapter by Liz Brunner. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show today.
Liz
I’m so delighted to have this time with you, Michelle, thank you very much. And thank you to GracePoint for giving me this opportunity. I really appreciate it. Always a pleasure to see you.
Outro
Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Gracepoint publishing authors podcast. We can’t wait to talk more next time as we introduce you to another one of our amazing authors. Make sure you hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform, so you never miss a single episode of The Gracepoint publishing authors podcast. To find out more about our authors and to see how we can help you publish your book, head to Gracepoint publishing.com. Keep writing. Keep creating your word matter.