Hello, everybody.
Today on the Write On Purpose podcast, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to a wonderful woman and recently turned published author. By the time this appears online, you will be published. I want to introduce you to Laurel Fox, whose journey began when her teenage daughter faced a life-threatening crisis. Stunning the world as she knew it turned upside down. Amidst overwhelming challenges and some personal sorrow, Laurel unearthed a profound strength and devotion she never knew she had.
With unwavering positivity, resilience, and a touch of humor, she tackled each day, advocating tirelessly for her daughter's recovery. Her story reveals the boundless power of a mother's love and her courageous fight to cherish every small triumph and foster community support. Laurel's transformative experiences not only inspire us but also showcase her remarkable journey of self-discovery and the true essence of maternal sacrifice and support. Her book, Braving the Way, will be available on Amazon by the time this episode podcast is released. So welcome to the Write On Purpose podcast, Laurel.
Thank you, Brad. Thank you for having me. I'm honored. I am also honored. Laurel happens to also be one of my favorite Write On Purpose clients. As I remember correctly, she was referred to me by Olivia Savard of Light of the Moons Incorporated, which she's been doing a good bit of work with in preparation for this book as well.
Now, I just want to put one thing in here since this is a fairly new podcast. I think it's typical for podcasters like me to interview famous, best-selling authors, but I think it's also equally important to talk with the up-and-coming authors, especially those who realize that their book or books can become a part of their life legacy and something that can be a contribution, not only today, but for years to come. So let's just go ahead and jump in. Let me just buzz you with a few questions that you can respond to as well.
I want to start off, given the nature of the book that you have written, which is really about healing and self-discovery. So I want to ask you, in what ways has writing this book served as a tool for personal healing and growth for you?
Yeah, and I just also want to mention, um, traumatic brain injury is a very big reason why I wrote the book. I really want to shed some light on the issue we have not only in America, but in the world. It's a very common thing and there are very big residual effects from it. And then there are sometimes few. So, but it happens and it happens mostly in kids and teenagers. So anyway, going back to your question, which is, how has writing this book served as a tool for personal healing and growth for you and perhaps for your family?
Yeah, so for me, just going back to the trauma, I started writing when it happened 10 years ago. And it was a really big, important healing process for me, just writing and being able to be by myself and having that outlet. It was extremely supportive for me without having therapists and friends around. I found it to be my inner strength, my writing. And so it worked for me in many ways, not only that, but it was also years later when I was writing again, because it took me 10 years to write this book. I found that going back to the drama was very difficult, right? So you go through therapy time, you do that. And I had to deal with that. And I had to feel that every time. So it has been to help a lot of people through that process.
Yeah, and again, I'm asking this question as though there's a right answer to it, and there really is not. How has the practice of writing, and both writing the book, but also, if I remember correctly, you did a lot of journaling during the process that kind of led to your writing the book. So how has all of that helped you to kind of make sense of your own life experiences, especially during this really challenging decade?
Yeah, so the journal was definitely the catalyst. And it's amazing when you are four years out of a trauma and you look back to that journal, right? And what hindsight is. And it was a beautiful experience for me. And so it's sort of after reading the journal four years later, which was you know, 150 days of journaling. Um, it, it was my catalyst to sit down and tell more and go deeper. And so it has been, um, extremely healing for me for sure. And my family, and also just kind of showing someone how to deal with trauma, I guess is, is a little bit of a, it's a little bit of an outline for that, right. Of, of what that writing did for me and how it soothes you a little bit.
Yeah, very good. And, you know, given that this podcast is about encouraging and inspiring other people who've thought about one day, someday writing a book, what advice would you give others who are looking to use writing for their own self-discovery?
Yes. And by the way, I have never thought of myself as an author. So this has definitely been a journey, right? When you have these little voices saying, well, I can't do that. I can't be that. That's not good enough. I highly recommend still writing it, still trying, doing it for you. And all of the sudden, I personally saw, oh, this is good. And then, of course, needed you and a couple other people to sort of light fires for me. But we did that.
Yeah, and it kind of segues into the next area I wanted to explore with you. It's yourself. You're talking about the little voice that says, you know, what am I thinking about? You're trying to write. Obviously, there's the need to develop a certain amount of resilience and perseverance, both as a person who's going through the trauma you went through with your family, but then also to continue that perseverance and resilience as a writer. So what are some of the biggest challenges and setbacks that you faced on this authorial journey that you're on?
Yeah, so I did face a lot of rejection by just being an actor. And so that sort of helped me through this. I will admit that. But there was rejection. I contacted big agents and I had to deal with that. And it's tricky. It's tricky to have confidence in yourself. It's tricky to have confidence in your own story, right? But putting that all aside, finally, I was able to do that. And I think that's what really gave me the courage is just realizing this isn't for anybody else. And until it's done, it's for me, right? And so I recommend that if you have a story, you do it just for you and get it out and then see. Just then, you know, then you can, but rejection is going to happen in anything in life, right? And so, gosh, I would love to be able to encourage people to not let that bog them down, you know, just like everything. But that's wisdom. That's being a little older. That's, you know, yeah.
Yeah, well, that's why I tend to love working with aspiring authors in the second half of their life when they accumulate a little bit of that wisdom to be able to, you know, balance that whole notion of because there's so much out there in the world about best selling this and best selling that. And, you know, you know, sell a million copies and, and, you know, it's great. And everybody, I've never met an author who doesn't like, you know, being able to sell their book. But what if that's, you know, that kind of cultural nuances of the publishing industry can also be undermining when you're an aspiring author just starting out. Like you said, I think it's a very great way of looking. It's like, write that first book for yourself. And then once it's written, put it out there in the world and see who else it can contribute to itself. And we want to talk a little bit more about who it can contribute to here in just a moment. Were there any mindset shifts or any practices that helped you persevere, you know, through the difficult times? And again, for me, it's in your situation is both persevering during the challenging time with your daughter, but also during the writing process.
Yeah. And so what I did was I sort of, I sort of molded some practices I had during the trauma into my writing process, which was very interesting. I didn't really realize I did that until much later. But when we were going through the trauma, I made it a very big priority to let my feelings out, whether that was in yoga or boxing or playing tennis, hitting a ball. I just knew that I couldn't pick up a glass of vodka or take a Xanax. And so I had to deal with what was happening and the way that I dealt with it was I gave myself an hour a day, whether that was for a massage or it was just self care. And so I found in the writing process that the best thing to do was to, in the morning, if I wasn't gonna meditate or do anything, I was gonna write. And that was happening naturally. I would wake up at 5:30 and go, okay, what am I doing? The house was quiet, the kids were asleep, I would, you know, and then it just turned into every day, 5:30, I would write for 30 minutes. And then it turned into 5:30, I'd write for an hour. And then it turned into, you know, more than that. And then it turned into afternoons too. And it just became sort of this soothing thing for me, this sort of meditation, right? And it helped. And it helped for me to know that it was not gonna be a bad thing if I did it, even for 15 minutes. But that never happened. I would just sink into it.
Yeah, which was great. And I think that's a big part of being an author is when do I have time to write? When do I have time to do this? When do I have time? How do I do that, manage with my life? Mornings are beautiful.
Yes, that's my ideal time of writing, although it varies from author to author and even from various phases of itself. But to be able to, this whole notion that you have to devote an hour or two hours or three hours at a sitting, I'm a big encourager of the pomodoro methodology set your set your clock for 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 40 minutes 40 minutes seems to be my my sweet spot 40 minutes writing concentrating on the writing 20 minute break another 40 minutes it works well you know in that uh again kind of getting in the zone, because that's what I hear you're talking about, is really kind of being in the writer's zone, and we don't necessarily wake up in the morning in the writer's zone. It takes, you know, again, going back to that perseverance and resilience itself.
Yeah, and again, I don't want to sound like I sat down and I wrote for a straight 30 minutes. I would sometimes stare at a and just take it in. So I don't want to sound like I'm some guru or whatever, but it still helped me. It still was helpful.
Yeah, exactly. That's an excellent point to make. You don't necessarily have your fingers flying across the keyboard sometimes. Sometimes you're sitting there like, Okay. All right. Yeah, I'm reading that sentence again and again. But that's still, you're at the desk with the butt in the chair, so to speak, and that's what really counts. That's what matters. So one of the things that I've been really interested in creating a possibility for is this whole notion of moving not so much away from the idea of best-selling authors and best-selling books, but expanding that to this whole notion of what is a legacy-worthy book. That, again, just kind of a different mindset, a different way of looking. So I want to look a little bit at this whole thing about leaving a legacy through your creative work. So what kind of long-term impact do you hope?
And again, it's all in the area of hope and what your stand is. What do you hope to have your writing and creative work? What kind of long-term impact are you hoping for?
I mean, in my perfect world, I am helping raise awareness for brain injury, traumatic brain injury. And I am helping advocates, parents, single parents, because I was single when this was all happening. My daughters have a father, but I was very much alone. Finding a way to be helpful in strengthening those people. Most importantly, though, my legacy of this book and the main reason I wrote it is for my kids and my friends and community that went through this with me. So I just hope that, and by the way, when I was in this trauma, I would have loved to have had a book like mine. And so I hope that that is also the legacy. If someone could hand them this, you know, it would be helpful in some way. And I, and I hope to I hope to be able to do that, whether I'm speaking to children to wear helmets or I'm speaking to parents or whatever that is, or going to hospitals to raise awareness. You know, a lot of people have brain injury month. Yeah, who knows what that is.
It reminds me, let's see, about three years ago now, I was diagnosed with cancer. And I reached out to my friends and family members and two different people, two different friends of mine who were also going through their own bout with cancer, recommended a book to me called Radical Remission. And if that author had not, written that book, they wouldn't have been able to offer it. So you never know how that book, what kind of an impact that book will make. You may never even hear about it. You know, I probably should write to that author and, you know, thank her, you know, for doing all the work that it took her to write that book as well. And, um, did you have any idea about leaving a legacy when you approached creating this book? Was that even in?
Absolutely not. No, no. And that just came to me, I would say, in the last year about what this really could be and the legacy I will leave with it or the power of the outreach it might have. I'm a big believer in outreach. So yeah, that was very recent for me.
Yeah, yeah, very good. And what advice, again, always looking for helping aspiring authors, what advice would you give others who want their creative work to contribute and make a difference to others? Any suggestions you would make on that?
Yeah, gosh, wow. I was in the spot of I could never do this. And so I really recommend believing in yourself, first and foremost. And then secondly, that it will be a good story, no matter what that looks like. And I think, lastly, I feel like you don't need a lot of money to be an author. And I always thought, gosh, I don't feel like I could reach that goal or do that. And yes, I spent some money, right? And I've self-published. And the reason I've chosen that is because of my story and the content. But look, if you have a publisher, great, but there's also other ways and you can do it and you can take those pathways. And yeah, I mean, a big thing in my book is be brave. I've We recommend being brave. Yeah.
So not surprisingly, the title of the book is Braving the Way. So let's get to a minute or two about the book. So I'm always curious, when did the title, which I think is a really, I love plays on words like that. When did the title come to you? When did you get clear? This is the title for my book.
Yes, oh, the title. Oh, the title where braving is not spelled correctly, but it is B-R-A-V-E with a smaller I-N-G. And I really wanted it to be that way because I want it to also read Brave the Way. And I'll be honest, six months ago, in the middle of the night, it came to me. And I was writing a chapter where I said Brave the Way. And, and it just sort of happened where I'm like, Oh, that's a good play on words. That's a good, you know, cause I paved the way for my daughter. I feel like I paved the way for me. So yeah, it just came to me and I was very lucky because wow, I had a lot of titles written down and I knew this was the one.
Yeah, that's right. You get you. It doesn't always hit that way. But but it's so sweet when you really do. You wake up and realize that's the title, you know. I actually remember a few years ago, I was two-thirds, maybe three-quarters of the way through the book that had the working title, Amberica. And I was actually talking to a minister about the book, and it's political satire, the first one I ever wrote. And she said something, and somewhere in the conversation came out, well, she sounds like a fringe candidate. And I was like, what? That's the name of the book. And so it hits from all different places itself. So by the time, like I said, by the time this podcast air, the book will be available. It's coming out on June the 20th. Braving the Way, B-R-A-V-E. Smaller letters, I-N-G, by Laurel Fox is how it's going to appear on the cover, right? Laurel C. Fox. Available on Instagram at Laurel Carini. I'm going to spell that out. L-A-U-R-E-L-C-A-R-I. I-N-I. I got it. I suddenly lost it. I was going to spell it correctly. It's available. It will be available when this podcast is out. If you want to pick up a copy for yourself and for your family members, anybody else who's had dealt with traumatic brain injury or other severe challenges in life where a little extra inspiration and encouragement, I would encourage you to pick this up. Anything else you'd like to share, Laurel, as we begin to sign off here today?
No, I just want to thank you so much, Brad. You've been a great help to me, a great mentor to me. Yeah, and I just appreciate you. So I hope if you do read it, you love it. That's all.
Okay, very good. All right, thank you, everybody. This is Brad Swift, your Write On Purpose coach, and this has been the Write On Purpose podcast. Take care.
braveing the Way is now available on Amazon.
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