Leveraging Life Lessons for Career and Growth
Episode 14728th May 2025 • Human-centric Investing Podcast • Hartford Funds
00:00:00 00:26:43

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Think your past jobs don’t matter? Think again. Liz Brunner, CEO and Founder of Brunner Communications, went from the classroom to the newsroom to the boardroom, proving that every chapter of your career can be a stepping stone.

Transcripts

John [:

Hi, I’m John.

Julie [:

And I’m Julie.

John [:

We’re the hosts of the Hartford Fund’s human-centric investing podcast.

Julie [:

Every other week we’re talking with inspiring thought leaders to hear their best ideas for how you can transform your relationships with your clients.

John [:

Let’s go!

Julie [:

Liz, welcome to the Human Centric Investing Podcast. We’re so excited to be here with you today.

Liz [:

Oh, I’m delighted to see you. Both of you today. Thank you so much for having me on the show. I’m excited too.

John [:

Absolutely, Liz, thanks again for joining us. And I guess today’s episode is really going to center around life lessons. And I know some of your thoughts are around the concept that the life lessons that we learn actually provide opportunities for career growth. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about this concept and maybe a little about your own story?

Liz [:

Well, I am a firm believer that no matter where you are in your career journey, there might be another chapter and then there might another chapter after that. And no matter how successful you are, no matter happy you are no matter much money you may be making in this day and age, I think it’s so important to be thinking of what else might I do next? I consider myself Liz 4.0. I am in my fourth career chapter. I started out as a classically trained singer and taught high school choral music, sang all through Europe, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria. It was delightful, it was so much fun. Even sang for Pope John Paul II when I was over in Italy. And I taught high-school music for a couple of years, but then I had this feeling, John, organically within my soul that there was something more I was supposed to do. Now, I really had absolutely no clue what that was going to be. And this is before Google and the internet. And so I was going to the library and I was reading books and I started reading one book called Who’s Hiring Who by Richard Lathrop. And I had left teaching and I was working in retail and I was reading this book and he talks about informational interviews. I’d never heard of such a thing. But when I was Miss Illinois in 1979 in the Miss America scholarship page, and I’m very proud of that because I paid for my college education thanks to those scholarships. I wondered whether or not I could do something in television. So I bravely and blindly called up the two television stations that were in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois at the time. And I will fast forward the story and condense it down to after about six months of conversation with the CBS affiliate, a position was literally created for me. And I was, this is such a fancy title, the liaison for the community relations liaison. I think that was my title. And I learned everything on the job. And one thing led to another, and they had me voicing things, and then they had be doing my own little talk show. And then I was also one of the three women on the weather team. Probably the only one in the country at that time. And I was at Channel 3, WCIA in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois for three years. And then, I got this call to go to Tampa as the Director of Community Relations. And I the only female in upper management. And within a year, they tapped me to be on the air to anchor the morning, early morning. I need to phrase that early morning newscast. And, but I kept my night job as well, my day job. So I was working about 80 hours a week. And finally, after about four years of doing that, I asked to be taken off the air, which I was. I stayed in the management role. And I said, you know what? If God wants me back on the Air, it’s gonna happen. And it did a year later. I was called to come to Boston. And I was at Channel 5 here in Boston as Chronicle for our news magazine show. And that was such a wonderful experience. And again, within a year, I was tapped to be the morning news anchor, the early morning news anchored. I think I have a sign on my back that says, please give me two jobs to do at the same time. And so I was working ridiculous hours again. And then finally I ended up just going completely to the news department. And ultimately was on probably every show that we ever had at New Center Five. And after 20 years, two years prior to leaving, I started getting that feeling once again, there’s something more I’m supposed to do. And I began again, those informational interviews and I quietly and confidentially was talking to leaders in the community. What does somebody like me do when you think maybe you’re ready to do something else? And their answers were always entertaining and some of them were helpful. One person said to me, well, I see you read the news. Trust me, it’s more than just reading the news, but one of my other mentors said to my Liz, you’re well-known, you’re respected, you have credibility, that is value. Why would you give that value to somebody else? Launch a business, and if in six months or nine months you don’t like it, you don’ have any clients, you can always go do something else. You know what, guys? Kaleidoscope went click, and in that moment, I made the decision in his office, I’m gonna launch a business. But I’d never ever wanted to own my own business. I didn’t think I was smart enough to own my own own business, that’s a limiting belief. But I did, six weeks later I left and that was 12 years ago. So, you know, what’s interesting about that, people are like, how did you go from this to this? Well, I connected my themes and patterns and this is what I really want people to understand. You know more than you think you know. No knowledge is ever wasted. As a high school music teacher and a singer. I was sharing stories through song, using my voice. As a news anchor, a reporter, or a journalist, I was showing other people’s stories. And now, as an executive communications coach, I’m helping other people learn to tell their stories and learn to use their voice. And as a keynote speaker, I’m now sharing my story, using voice. So my themes and patterns have always been storytelling and using my voice. Those are how you connect the dots.

Julie [:

That is such a fascinating story. I love it. I’m so energized. And I think there’s so much of that translates to financial services, because so many financial professionals, this isn’t their first career. And it’s so exciting to see how so many have transitioned from other passions that they’ve had into financial advising. But what’s really interesting in conversations that I have with individuals, whether they’re a financial advisor or they play a different role on a team, is thinking about just leveraging their natural strengths. I like to call them their superpowers, but we can call them whatever we want. But Liz, maybe you could share your ideas and give our listeners some of your wisdom on how do people find that or tap into that. Obviously you’ve done that for yourself. But for those that are thinking, how do I figure out what those things are? How do I leverage that? Maybe I’m at that place in my career where I want to make sure that I’m making the most out of me. What would you say to those individuals and how do we help people tap into that?

Liz [:

It starts first and foremost with really accepting that you know more than you think you know. And there are a lot of people who will start off saying, well, I’ve never done that, so I’m not ready or I can’t do that or whatever. You have to get past that mindset. That’s the first step is getting past that mind set and really being open-minded and thinking outside the box. The second thing is that you know more that you think, you know, all right? No knowledge is ever wasted. And you have to really begin to... Be self-aware. When I’m working with some of my clients who want to connect those themes and patterns of their lives and they run through your life like rivers, I start back with, what did you wanna be when you were growing up as a kid? Let’s start with that. What were the things that you found you had passions for, you were excited about, and are you doing any of that today? And if you’re not, how might you be able to incorporate that? Could it be a skill? Maybe you were, you know, a computer. Geek, for lack of a better word. You loved technology. Well, are you doing any of that today? If you were really good with numbers, are you doing anything of that today? So how can you look backwards first and then begin to pull all of that together and begin to understand, well, you know what I really love to do? You know what excites me? You know, what I feel passionate about? You have to be taking that time to do a lot of self-awareness and then start asking other people, what do you think I’d be good at? When I was doing all those informational interviews of trying to figure out what I thought my next chapter would be, one thing I did learn was that I had to be able to translate the language we use in TV to the language that the corporate world used. For example, breaking news in television might be something like not breaking news in the corporate word, but when there’s tragedies going on. They have high... Things that are just not working in their world. So how would that, what might that look like? And then the second thing is when I was thinking, what are those languages that they speak and I speak? A project manager is like a reporter. So I was able to now speak their language so that I could then understand what my skillset was and they could understand what my skillsets was because we spoke different languages. So it’s really taking the time to do that. That’s the first place to start. And it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, any industry, that’s how you begin.

John [:

So Liz, I thought it was interesting. It seems to me like you mentioned the common thread that kind of followed you through, but it probably wasn’t something you were aware of right up front, right? That’s something that you had to discover over time. I guess there’s two ways to look at this. One is that the financial advisor themselves, either getting into this business from something different, or maybe even exploring where they go from here, but another angle. Is to help many of our clients who may be expressing that they think there’s something more. They’ve been doing what they’ve been doing for a long time. They perhaps would you recommend as a financial advisor actually suggesting some of these same steps to maybe a client who’s expressing that kind of dissatisfaction or apathy or just they’ve kind of lost that energy for. A passion, I guess it would be, of what got them started.

Liz [:

There’s so many different ways that you can start. I would absolutely agree. Start with what I just suggested. Another thing would be, this was recommended to me, make a list of, start with three to five people whom you feel you respect and you admire. They may be in an industry that you’re interested in, they may not be, but they might be people you respect, and admire. And begin to do those informational interviews and ask them what they see as your skillset. What ideas might they have for you? So that’s another place to start. One of the things when I was trying to figure out what this next chapter was going to be, I would go on LinkedIn and I would put in, you know, search for such and such a job, maybe community relations or being an executive director of a nonprofit. And I would look at all these various skills that were required of the job description that somebody was looking for someone for. And I’d say, yes, I can do that. Yes, I like that. No, I would never wanna do that And I literally kind of went down this checklist in my brain. Now, I never did anything about any of those positions, but again, it helps fine tune my brain to where I wanted to go. And that’s how I ended up kind of deciding there were three roads I could go down. One would be maybe being at a nonprofit as an executive director. Maybe it would be being a communications expert for a corporation, or maybe it would starting my own business, which again, I’ve never ever wanted to do. But ultimately, That was the best course of action for me.

Julie [:

Is after you’ve gone through this reflective period, let’s say, maybe you’ve discovered some of these ideas or directions or paths or skill sets. What do you do with it? Where do you go from there? How do you communicate or signal this change in order to actually have an impact on your life or get to that 2.0 or 3.0, or maybe even 4.0 like the stage that maybe you’re And you’re in your career?

Liz [:

I think it is first reaching out to your current network because you may know someone that you went to college with or was in a different career that you were in. Who do you know that may know somebody in the career that you think you might wanna do something in? And it really is about networking. It’s doing a lot of background homework. I’m not saying this is easy. And to your point, John, I didn’t know what my themes and patterns were until I looked backwards. And then I realized I could connect the dots. But that’s how you begin. And take advantage of LinkedIn. Take advantage of your network. Take advantage your community. Maybe you have a church. Maybe you a volunteer group that you’re a part of. Maybe you’re in a social group. Who do you know that may know somebody else? And then when you ask for that connection, Then you need to say after you’ve had that wonderful conversation, even if it didn’t go anywhere, thank you very much. This is helpful. It’s fine tuning my brain a little bit. Who else should I be talking to? And will you connect me? That is the most important piece. Will you connect to me?

John [:

It reminds me, Liz, Julie and I and our colleagues talk a lot about a concept we call the freedom paradox, where once someone retires, it’s kind of like, we’ve been waiting for retirement forever, right? Because we’re gonna get our calendars back and our time back, and we can spend our time however we want, and then we kind of do nothing with it because we’re not sure where to go or what to do, but it sounds like this concept of informational interviewing with your network. Really is a great first step to try and find that. But I do have an interesting question that popped into my mind. You said you never thought about starting your own business. You’ve been in it for 12 years now in your own business. How long did it take for you to get out of the, did I make a mistake here? Or were you never in that position?

Liz [:

I’ve thankfully never felt like I made a mistake. That’s not to say it’s been easy, okay? Right, right. Let’s face it, it has not been easy. Especially going through COVID and everything else, I’ve survived, okay. But the key thing here was, and look, I know how fortunate I was to have had this huge platform of being on a major newscast, the number one newscast at 6 p.m. Here in the Boston market to be able to share with the world. To the hundreds of thousands of people that watched us. Yes, I’m leaving channel five and here’s where I’m going. And I literally had more than a thousand hits on my website in that first 24 hours. So I know how lucky I am. But I also made a point of getting out into networking events and talking about the fact that I was doing something else. And that’s where one of my first biggest longest term clients came from. Boston had this thing called the Power 50. And it was a networking event where 50 leaders in the community were recognized. And I remember opening up the Boston Globe one day and I saw this full page ad for the event. And I looked down the list of all the people that had been chosen as the 50 leaders. I’m like, well, I know that person, I know this person, I knew that person. I know, this person. I bought myself a ticket and I went. With the sole intent, because now I had to change my brand from people knowing me as the main news anchor. To, oh, wait a minute, she’s a CEO, she is a founder, she’s an executive communications coach. So I took that chance, I stepped out of my box, even some of my comfort zone, to go and do that. And that’s what. What it takes.

Julie [:

It’s so interesting and my mind is swirling. I have so many more questions, but I’m curious, what are your thoughts on if someone is sort of thinking about these changes and, you know, I love the idea of stepping out of your comfort zone. I mean, I think there we could have a whole podcast dedicated to that, but the power of having someone, you an accountability partner or a coach or a sounding board, whatever we wanna call it, but. You know, having someone to work with you or help you, whether it’s formal or informal, but that trusted partner in this process versus we get in our own heads and we’re sitting there and we know we want or need to make the change and we are frustrated or we’re fed up or we are just feeling like we need more and the changes aren’t happening. Will you talk to us a little bit about your thoughts on kind of having that person that can help us get to that next step and just that, again, that trusted sounding board.

Liz [:

I do think that’s important. And I surrounded myself with people who knew more than me. I surrounded my self with good people who know more than me because I really didn’t, I didn’t know how to run a business and the business plan that I put together, I blew out of the water in the first three months. It was a good problem to have, but I found a great accountant. I found great lawyer. I found other people to kind of guide me. And when I would be working with clients, and I was starting to see results and success or they were starting to results and successful, I started to own more of the fact that, you know what, Liz? Again, you know more than you think you know. Trust that. But I truly surrounded myself with good people. And that I think is so important, whether it’s one person who’s an accountability partner or you build an advisory group or a community or you have a partner with whom you can bounce ideas off of. I do believe that’s important. Now, the other thing that’s really also important to remember is not everybody is going to cheer you on. Not everybody’s gonna be happy that you wanna make this big change in your life. And you have to find people that will support you and allow yourself permission to say, it’s okay. If you don’t agree, I know this is right for me. And that is really hard to do sometimes.

John [:

So Liz, as we think about that, the networking that you did, what are the keys to communicating effectively as you try to reach out to your network? What is, what would you say that really worked the best for you and that you maybe even share with your clients today?

Liz [:

Well, I do entire workshops just on networking 101, okay? I have a three-prong approach. Your first is your pre-game, your game time, and then your post-game. But that’s a story for another day. But in this particular situation, I really began to, I go back to that list of who were those first three to five people that I respected in this community. And I was hoping to have confidential conversations with them. I believe most of them were confidential prior to me leaving. But I just wanted to find out, again, I wanted their opinion, their point of view. And so I was very clear when I reached out, and it started with the first person who gave me that advice. His name was Peter. And I said, okay, Peter, you’re telling me I need to do this. Here are the three to five people that I’ve come up with. I know you know them. Will you please start this chain? And he did. And so once that chain started with each one of those three people, I would have a game plan of, okay, who else do you think I should be talking to? Why do you I should talking to them? And will you connect me? And so when they started with that, and sometimes I may not know right away, or they may not right away who they wanted to connect me with, I would come back to them. And I’ll never forget that same mentor who told me that I had all this value. He asked me to help him with a project and be an MC for a gala that they were having. And he was so excited that I said, yes. I’m like, well, at least I can do for you everything you did for me. He said, no, let me know how I can help you. Let me know, how I could help you? I said you know what? I don’t know in this moment of time but I’m gonna come back to you. And I did. And I came back to him with a couple people that I had said, will you connect me with these people? I know you know them very well. And I would like to talk with them about possibly being a coach on their team or for their company. Or individuals, and that’s how I did it. I mean, you have to be brave, but you also have to have a mission. You have to know what you’re going after. And even if it’s only two or three questions that you have already prepared, be prepared. Don’t waste anybody’s time.

John [:

I think that’s such a great point and I think being able to have that self-confidence to be able to also maybe take a withdrawal of the relationship capital out of the bank every once in a while, right? We sometimes put a lot in and it’s hard to take a withdraw every once and a while especially on ourselves.

Liz [:

Now, the other thing that’s so important to remember is business is about relationships. Without relationships, you have no business. Without those relationships, you have not business being in any business, for that matter. It all comes down to relationships. And I remember one of the very first people who said to me, Liz, you could teach people about presence. And I said, I could do what? He said, you can teach people about presence and I had to stop and think about that. And how, what did that mean and how could I do it? But this is someone who saw me in that light. I didn’t even see it in myself. So that’s why it’s so helpful to get other people’s perspectives.

John [:

That makes a ton of sense. And Liz, I want to thank you for sharing your story and some of these insights with us. But before we let you go, Julie and I have a little game that we like to play with our guests. Okay. That we call our lightning round of questions. So here’s how the lightning round works. And it’s solely meant to help our audience understand a little bit more who Liz is as a person beyond what we already discussed. So if your game. We’ll ask you some really high level simple questions and all we want are kind of your top of the mind answers in terms of how you would respond to it.

Liz [:

Bring it on. I’m ready. I am ready.

John [:

I’ll let Julie serve up the first one and we’ll go from there.

Julie [:

Okay, perfect. Okay, Liz, on a scale of one to 10, how good of a driver are you?

Liz [:

Oh, I’m a 9.5.

Julie [:

Oh, I love it. I love the confidence.

John [:

And in Boston, that’ll come in handy.

Liz [:

No kidding. I walk a lot in Boston, okay? That’s why I’m confident I can say 9.5.

John [:

Now, I think the I know the answer to this one, but I have to double check because you share with us a little bit about your career path. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Liz [:

I have been both. I am currently a morning person now. But if you think about the fact that I was on the 11 o’clock news, I had no choice but to be a night person.

Julie [:

That’s true.

John [:

Right, right, that makes sense.

Julie [:

Oh my goodness. What’s the best age?

Liz [:

What’s the best age? Like, like now. Like now. Although, so I often say if I was 42 again, that would be wonderful, but no, I’m happy with my age, even though it’s, how did I get here? I don’t know.

Julie [:

How did any of us get here.

Liz [:

I have no idea how this happened.

John [:

With that in mind, would you rather travel to the past or travel to the future?

Liz [:

Ooh, oh wow. I believe we have the opportunity to create our future. We cannot recreate our past. So I think I might like the future.

John [:

Good answer.

Julie [:

What’s the ideal outside temperature?

Liz [:

Ah, 82.

John [:

Oh, warm, there you go.

Liz [:

And it’s not 82 here today in Boston, trust me, I wish.

John [:

Liz, would you rather read a book or listen to Audible?

Liz [:

Read.

John [:

Well, Liz, we can’t thank you enough for joining us today on the Human Centric Investing podcast. And for our listeners, if you’re interested in hearing more from Liz, you can visit her website at lizbrunner.com. You can request her as a keynote speaker. As she mentioned, she does one-on-one coaching. She leads workshops. She also has her own book. It’s called, Dare to Own You. And she has her podcast. It’s call, Live Your Best Life with Liz Brunner And if you want to email her directly, it’s info at LizBrunner.com. Again, Liz, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing all of your insights.

Liz [:

Well, thank you so much, both you and both of you guys for having me on today. I’m so grateful. I really appreciate it.

Julie [:

Thanks for listening to the Hartford Bunds human-centric investing podcast. If you’d like to tune in for more episodes, don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube.

John [:

And if you’d like to be a guest and share your best ideas for transforming client relationships, email us at guestbooking at HartfordFunds.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Julie [:

Talk to you soon.

VO [:

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the guest who is not affiliated with Hartford funds. Hartford Mutual Funds may or may not be invested in the companies referenced herein; however, no particular endorsement of any product or service is being made.

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