The Cameo Show
The Cameo Show is a podcast about sharing our life experiences and learning from each other. Through solo stories and inspiring conversations with a wide variety of guests, we explore the secrets and strategies for feeling confident, empowered and equipped to live the life we want to lead. Tune in to learn how to find joy and fulfillment in your life and to gain valuable insights from the amazing stories and lessons of our guests.
The Cameo Show
Before the Book Drops: Doubt, Judgment & Letting Go
In this special episode, Cameo takes you behind the scenes of her debut book The Reset Button, coming May 20. After five years of writing, re-writing, doubting, deleting, and digging deep—it’s finally happening. But the truth? She’s feeling everything.
- What it really took to finish the book (spoiler: not just time)
- The fears she’s still navigating as launch day approaches
- Why writing a memoir means facing hard truths—and harder conversations
- Behind the 3 R’s framework: Reflect, Reset, Reinvent
- Facing judgement
- The meaning behind the circular arrows on the cover
- What she hopes you will take away from the pages
This isn’t a promo episode—it’s a heart-to-heart from the middle of the mess. If you’ve ever felt afraid to be seen, or like you’re sitting on a dream you’re scared to share, this one’s for you!
More about The Reset Button at cameoelysebraun.com/theresetbutton
Available May 20 on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and e-book.
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Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, cameo. We are joined by my husband and co-host, greg Braun Woo. That was a lot of enthusiasm this morning.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm jacked up, super excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Awesome, you always have a dad joke, so let's get started with a little chuckle here, or not?
Speaker 2:Remember when plastic surgery was taboo.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And now you mentioned Botox, and nobody lifts an eyebrow.
Speaker 1:That's actually really funny, because it's true. Sometimes they get frozen and they can't move.
Speaker 2:You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you. What are we talking about todayreg?
Speaker 2:I have no idea what. What should we talk about? Um, I mean, what in the world is going on that we should be telling everyone about?
Speaker 1:for those of you not watching the video, greg's pointing to a giant stack of a turquoise book called the reset button, which is, coincidentally, my book that releases on may 20th, so in like under two weeks from when this airs, which is insane, insane, insane I, uh, I just can't believe we're right here and I keep telling you, enjoy you.
Speaker 2:Enjoy this moment. Enjoy this moment Because this buildup and crescendo to the release day is like where all the excitement lies, you know.
Speaker 1:You're right, and it is very exciting. I've been working on this book for five years. It's finally going to be released.
Speaker 1:It's just that writing it is one thing, yeah, and releasing it is another yeah so I'm trying really hard to enjoy this moment because it's been a long time coming and I am very excited about it, and I'm excited about the potential that the book has, not just for me, but mostly to help so many people who might feel stuck in their lives or hiding from shame and living a life of the shoulds. I should be doing this. I should be doing that the potential to help so many people but it's scary. So, as much as I'd like to enjoy these couple of weeks leading up to release, I also am just a ping pong ball in my mind of emotion back and forth between this is awesome and this is stupid, and this is going to be amazing and you shouldn't be doing this at all. What are you thinking? So it's a wild ride, man.
Speaker 2:And people probably wouldn't really guess this, but even as we're just a few weeks out, you're still contemplating not releasing it.
Speaker 1:It's true. I mean, I have this amazing group of women who are on my launch team, who are supporting me, and friends who aren't on my launch team just because maybe they don't have the capacity to commit to that, but are being supportive and sharing on social media and sending me texts that say, hey, I'm so excited, I'm so proud of you, and I don't want to let them down because they're working hard for me, you know, to help me out in, in promoting this book, which is amazing. It's more than I could ever imagine or ask for. Right.
Speaker 1:But also just the constant trepidation is a lot.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's something to talk about too If somebody wants to help out, how can they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can email me at hello at cameoelisebroncom, If you'd like to join my launch team to help promote the book. I can send you some things to make it easy for you to do so. Or you can simply share, mention something that I've already posted or something that's your own words, because that's going to land better with the people that you love and care about than something I've made for you about what this book might mean to you or your excitement around the book coming out. So there's no wrong way to help. There's no wrong way to promote, and each time someone shares something, I am literally almost brought to tears because I I can't believe it.
Speaker 1:You know honestly like it's a it's unlike anything I've ever experienced, quite honestly, up to this point, especially as an adult.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been really cool to see people step up and help you and offer their you know support and give you a shout out on their social media feed. And you know, because you've been working on this for a long time and, just like everything else in the beginning, it's just you.
Speaker 2:It's just you and a dream you know, and you're just, you're just working away at it on a saturday night or a sunday afternoon or constantly in my head, never ending, and you're and you're constantly, you know, just chipping away in silence and there's never anyone cheering for you and it's like you're just training and it's, you know, you're just doing all and so to you to be at this point of it, and then people stepping up and like, hey, you know, showing support, showing love, and then how much that means to you and to me, you know, as your, as your spouse, it's like it's really cool to see the positive, supportive side of social media, of people that are sharing good stuff.
Speaker 2:You know, and they haven't even read the book yet. But just based on your vibe and what you've shared on this, you know, last 10 years of our journey on rebuilding our lives, you know the little bit that you've shared on social media. Obviously you can't share everything, but like it's, you know it's connecting with people in. Like it's, you know it's connecting with people in the right way, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. This podcast is a huge part of that too, because when we started this podcast a couple of years ago, I really wasn't sure what to expect or anticipate. It was just a way for me to kind of get some of these ideas out as I was writing and see how they landed and see how they helped people, and so the positive reinforcement that I've had, or we've had, from sharing little glimpses into our life, into the things that we struggle with, into our own story, along with a lot of other people and our guests along the way, has been motivating and also encouraging and an affirmation, maybe confirmation, that what we're talking about people feel, people experience in their own way and that it's helpful. Each time I get a message from someone again kind of like the support I'm getting for the book but each time I get a message from someone about how this podcast has helped them see things from a different perspective or encouraged them to keep going in a moment when they weren't sure, it reiterates that the intentionality is right and that sharing our life is helpful in a way that impacts humanity, and that's all I could ever ask for.
Speaker 1:I really just didn't know what to expect Ever With any of these projects. I just knew it felt right, it's scary. Let me say yeah, it's scary yeah.
Speaker 1:Let me say that, again, it's scary, it's frightening, but, um, you know, I feel brave and have the courage to keep going each time I hear someone else say that they could too.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting because, uh, you only keep what you have by giving it away, and that's just no different than working out in the gym. You can't stay strong just by getting strong one time. You've got to continually keep working at it and you can't stay mentally strong, emotionally strong, you don't just set it and forget it and never get back to it. It's a constant. So, literally this book and I've read it a few times now but even reading about it and a lot of it is my life, I don't think, you know, maybe not everyone understands that, but, like, there's a lot about me in this book too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this book is as much yours as it is mine, right?
Speaker 2:And that's exciting too, because there's so much about me and my history that a lot of people don't know probably you know. So it's just, it's just wild to see, you know, even when I'm reading a book about my life that you wrote and our journey, and I still read it and take things away from it. And I still read it and take things away from it, like when I've read through it a few times, I always have this huge hit of hope and because essentially this is a love story or a journey of a couple through life's twists and turns that are very relatable with money and and substances and you know just all the things all the things parenting relationship struggles yeah career choices, I mean just and it's not like you did that on, it's just literally the way it has gone, like all of the areas and they've all been flipped on their head, re reprogrammed, renovated from top to bottom because they had to be, because you couldn't just be, you couldn't leave one thing open.
Speaker 2:I mean, can you talk about like that? I mean, can you talk about the in a little better detail of? Of these pillars of this book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think the best way to put it is that we don't live our lives in a vacuum and all of these separate entities and things that we do, they overlap. I found myself in a place when I started writing this book where I had done a lot of internal work, and so it started as kind of a almost like a journal, like almost just.
Speaker 1:I started writing it for me to express all of the things that I had been through and felt and learned along the way, and there was just so much overlap with you. You're my husband, you're my partner, you're the love of my life, you're in every twist and turn along the way. And so then it was like well gosh, in learning about myself, I've learned so much about partnership and a relationship and respect and trust and communication. And then I realized that's translated into how we parent our kids, how we show up for them, how we communicate with them, how we create this openness and this reciprocated respect for each other, and that none of this has ever been easy. When I say all this, I don't mean like it's just been an easy journey. I just mean that it's all been something that we've worked through, just mean that it's all been something that we've worked through, and a lot of the ways that we've worked through, some of the things that we've encountered, have helped us.
Speaker 2:When we encounter new things, we've been tools that you pick up along the way right.
Speaker 1:There's been a preparedness, or more of a readiness, by letting these things really sink in as a framework or a way to approach things in life, and that then bled into the choices that we made about my career and starting a business and way back when balancing being a stay-at-home mom and wanting to still have my career, and how and when that went off the rails because I didn't have these tools, I didn't have this framework or the maturity level, quite honestly, to really understand who I was and where I was at that time. So you asked the question about how do these things all play together? How did it just end up that way? Well, I'm just literally in the most raw form, sharing my life. Something challenging about writing this book because it's a memoir and it's a manual is that just because things happen doesn't make them interesting.
Speaker 1:You know, there's a lot that is in this book. There's a lot that is not because not everything is super helpful in a in a book like this, you know, for for someone to read, and that another thing that I had to continuously tell myself along the way was that just because I didn't put it in the book doesn't mean it didn't happen or that it isn't true. It's just I had to carefully pick and choose what I wanted to share because I wanted it to meet people where they are in their life.
Speaker 1:This book is about me, but it isn't about me at all. So the evolution of writing it for me then turned into oh man, this is actually for everybody else. It gives me chills. I'm such a nerd, but it's true and it's really one of the only things that's kept me going and keeps me hanging on to why I'm releasing this in the first place, Because if I get too far ahead of myself and I make it about me, I am scared to death. If I'm just being honest, you know. I'm human.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but when I make sure that I keep at the forefront the why and that it's for everyone else, it's not quite as scary. Yeah. And it puts me back on the right path of doing.
Speaker 2:doing this, releasing this, and also in a world where there's so many experts. That's not the vibe here, it's not your vibe of your book. It's, you know, my vibe. Yes, we've figured some things out and yes, we've been through some shitty stuff and, yes, we pulled through, and some stuff not so much, and I mean, but the whole tone of this is not like. Listen to me, I have. The only way this is how it goes and that's also refreshing too is like it's not. The tone of it is. I feel like I'm hanging out with my cool aunt. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like if, if you're, if you're reading this book, you're going to be like again. I'm trying not to be the character in the story, but like if someone's reading it's like If you don't do it this way, you fail.
Speaker 1:It's meant to be expertise by experience.
Speaker 1:And sometimes that experience and the expertise that comes out of it is wrong, and I'm not afraid to share that, because I've made many turns in my life that have ended up being a wrong turn and I've had to determine then, okay, how do I go forward? Which, what direction do I go? And it was really important to me for that to be the tone of the book, because I I'm still figuring it out as well. I just know that some of the things that I have figured out thus far continuously helped me when I get stuck now. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I know that that can be freeing for other people who are suffering in silence with things that they aren't sure how to approach or who to talk to about it or what to do. Right. Because it's scary for everyone. It's not just scary for me to share this, it's scary for everyone to face it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got goosebumps.
Speaker 1:I know I could cry. I've got to walk the tissues. Get them out, let's go I feel like this year you've been interviewing me a lot and I just am not sure how I feel about this, because you know I'm usually the one in the interview seat. But well, a lot of things happening and I'm learning a lot about myself every single day, especially this year, as I'm facing bigger, scarier, exciting big stuff yeah things, but you know, that's I.
Speaker 1:I just keep reminding myself that this is one what you hoped for to be at this spot where you have what you dreamed about physically have a book in your hand, but also um, you know how you grow and I, I just want to continue to grow every single day, and sometimes that means doing often.
Speaker 2:Usually that means doing really scary things when you don't want to well, and that's what's cool about this is, this is a book that if someone again, I don't want to give people unsolicited advice, but if someone came to me and said, hey, I'm kind of in a bad spot, I'm kind of stuck with this or with work, or I've got, you know, relationship issues, it's like this is is the perfect thing to give to somebody or any sort of life transition, or, you know, because it's a story of bravery, transition. Or you know, because it's a story of bravery, you know encouragement, you know taking a chance and, I think, knowing that as humans we over-exaggerate the negative 90% and underestimate the optimistic side. A lot of times we make decisions fear-based that are grossly wrong to stay safe, to keep us safe, but they're the wrong decision because it's based out of fear, not that deep. Knowing that you know what I can do this, I'm going to bet on me this time.
Speaker 1:And that's definitely what this story is about. I remove myself. That fear feels so real in the moment it's really hard to discern that it's different On the book, just about the story you mentioned. It's a love story, it's a redemption story, all of the things that you said. It's also, in my opinion, a reminder that we're all on our own path.
Speaker 1:So, even though our story, our love story, and where the characters in the book ended up turning out the way that it has, doesn't mean that if the reader, if their life or their choices haven't ended up that way, it doesn't mean that they won't or that all is lost.
Speaker 1:It's you know. I feel it's important to mention that because I don't want someone to feel like, well great, I recently divorced, so your book's not going to help me a whole lot because I wasn't able to save or salvage or repair my marriage. It's not about that. I just want to make that very clear, that it's not just for people who are saving their marriage or just for people who use alcohol or substances as a way to cope with things, because we talk about that stuff a lot. It's a major theme of the book but it's for anyone, wherever they are or whatever their relationship status is or whatever their coping mechanism is. It's really about being curious, yeah. It's about reflecting and having the courage to say I'm going to question these things, because questions are power, yeah, and questions are perspective yeah, so so let's jump into that.
Speaker 2:So this is literally two books in one, because there's a memoir, which is the journey, the story, and then there's the workbook, there's the manual, there's the like how-to, which I freaking love because I've read plenty of books and like it's a great memoir, but you always are left with like, yeah, but I would love to know what your framework was. Or you read, you know, a manual and it's like you know, I'd love to know the story behind it, but this is like all in one which you know. Hopefully people enjoy that as much as I've enjoyed reading it too.
Speaker 2:But what are your high level? What's the concept here of the book?
Speaker 1:So the framework.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you asked the framework of the reset button is simple and it may even feel really simple, but that's on purpose, because again back to the expert thing it's hard to remember all the psychology of your thoughts and how to do this right. It's not about doing it right, it's about just remembering three simple R's Reflect, where you question things and you look at everything objectively to figure out like where am I, why am I here, what do I want, what do I not want? The curious part Reset that's permission to say okay, now I kind of understand where I'm at. What do I need to do differently? What changes can I make? And I'm going to feel empowered to do so.
Speaker 1:I don't have to do things the way that I always have just because that's the way that I was conditioned, or that's what I've picked up somewhere, or that's what I've seen as my example, or that's what's always worked and I'm clinging to it because I'm afraid to do something different. Reset, permission. And then the reinvention is kind of the good part. It's where you get to show up in this new version of yourself and start the 3R process all over again, really, because it's a never-ending evolution of doing it as many times as you need to and as you want to, as life throws curveballs at you, to navigate what's happening and make sure that you stay in alignment with who you really are without getting lost or feeling stuck so the reset button is simple Reflect, reset and reinvent yourself over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:Hit it. Hit the reset button as many times as you need.
Speaker 2:That's awesome Tweet tweet.
Speaker 1:So it's simple, but it's on purpose, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's awesome and I think a lot of people will get that. I mean, that makes sense. It's something that you can apply right away to any aspect of your life, any area of your life parenting work. For me, it seems like this. This last frontier is like my how I talk to myself. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean when you're building and building, building, building, and you're, and you're doing all these things. You're, you're so focused on doing these external things and I'm sure a lot of people out there can relate to that You're busy, you're too busy to think about yourself, little old me, you know, and you're doing all these things. But I find myself personally in a spot where I'm like doing the three hours for myself and like why do I think that way, why do I view that differently than this? Or? And? And really investigating that. And that's where my work has been lately, you know, again, just applying these things real time. It's a never ending. It's just like. It's like someone that likes to tinker and do do household projects, like going around your house and looking like, oh, that that needs trimmed up, that needs fixed, that could use it. You know it's. It's your whole life can be constantly be, uh, under improvement, and there's no shame in that. Like we're not running around trying to act perfect or act like we've got it all figured out, far from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Far from it. But here's the stuff that's helped us this far, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the reset button book is broken down into sections. Yeah, with the manual three r's at the end of each section. Yeah, so what I've tried to do at the end of each section is give you some starting points with the reflect, some questions to ask yourself, yeah, as the reader, about yourself. The key to those questions is brutal honesty, even when it sucks, because the answers to those questions are often, if you're being brutally honest, not easy to face when you find yourself stuck or unhappy or unsure or just have this feeling inside of like resentment why, why do I feel this way? Everything's great. Why am I still feeling unresolved about something? And you know, those questions are sometimes a big smack in the face, honestly, if you answer them with truth, with your truth, with where you are in your life, and then the reset gives some new ideas just to spark, you know, a jumping off point, because sometimes you find those answers and you're like, oh shit. Yeah.
Speaker 1:What am I supposed to do now? So the reset part of each section gives some ideas, and then the reinvention part is really for inspiration, to say like this is what has kind of happened in our life since doing these things and what I've found that you might find as a continuing residual effect right the reset ripple effect in your life. Yeah, and that's real yeah, it's real.
Speaker 1:I I've, along the way of writing this, reverted back to these three r's so many times I can't even tell you, and I still do, almost every single day. And now it's just. This framework has become part of, like, my own inner narrative. Like you said, this is what I hear in my head now. On the cover of the book there's an image of arrows and they go in a circle, and someone pointed out to me once or as we were writing this book and designing the cover. You know I have to bring this up because it bothers me that when you're hitting the reset button, you're not making the same choices over and over and over again. You're making different choices. So it feels like the arrows should be shooting out all over the place, and I couldn't agree more, except the concept of the image is that it never ends. It's a constant cycle of hitting the reset button.
Speaker 1:I love both perspectives of that because I can see how it plays in, but that image to me means and stands as a reminder that it just you just go round and round, and not round and round like chasing your tail, but round and round, and there's never an ending to this idea that you can restart round and round and there's never an ending yeah to this idea that you can restart, reinvent. You know, that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because I think is, as humans, we love to have certainty. That's why we love sports, because there's a finite winner and a loser, you know, but in life really, it's not. You don't just get it right and that's it. It it's a constant. You're always doing it. You always show up every day. It's not like you just do it one time and well, I figured that out and now I can move on and never have to deal with that again. It's like this is going to show up every day in your life until you deal with that problem, and this is a great way to help people maybe tackle something that's just been the elephant in the room their whole life and like I don't even know where to begin. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I talk a lot about therapy in the book because it's one of the tools that we used when we were having trouble in our relationship, but also as individuals. Even during the writing process I went back to therapy, you know, because writing this, as you mentioned, has been therapeutic and things that I thought I had already kind of worked through resurfaced in a different way, and so it's kind of back to what you just said. It's never ending and you really just evolve as a person and then kind of find these repeating patterns until you actually get to the bottom of them.
Speaker 1:One of my biggest fears is judgment out of this book, because when you write a memoir, I mean I'm exposing some of the ugliest, most embarrassing, most shameful things that I've ever experienced in my life. So you worry about judgment, but again, that's when I make it about me. And also, you know, one of the things that I've had to continuously remind myself about that is that and this is for everyone to remind themselves when they feel judged or when they don't see eye to eye with someone is that a lot of times, judgment is coming from someone else's triggers. They're responding to you or reacting to you based on how it makes them feel about something they've experienced in their own life, not necessarily about you as a person. That's a theme as I revisit, releasing this that this fear of being judged.
Speaker 1:It's real and I will be judged, and I'm okay with that because I know that the judgment isn't necessarily about who I am today. It might be about who I was or the things that I have done in my past, but or also, and most likely, about the person and what they've experienced in their own life, because we tend to view outside things through our own lens and our own experiences, and so that's been very helpful for me and I know that can be helpful for others, in a way of like freeing themselves from judgment as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The other thing just to touch on is that in writing a memoir, it involves the people that you love.
Speaker 1:So in releasing this book, I've had to have some hard conversations with the people that I love, you know our kids, our parents and that sucks. There's no like easy way to say it. I'm trying to find an eloquent word, but the word is just it sucks. Because you never want to hurt or disappoint someone. All you can ask for in that moment and sharing is for them to understand that you're expressing yourself in the way that you experienced what was going on in your life at that time and how that might have impacted your relationship with them at that time, or how that might impact their relationship with you now, as you've grown and changed as a person and I know for people, change is very scary and one of the reasons for that is because of that very same reason. So the reason I bring that up is that I'm experiencing it. Even back to the I don't have it all figured out. I'm experiencing it now, releasing a book that I wrote about recognizing these cycles in your life.
Speaker 1:So, again back to the. It's never ending, but all we can hope for is to understand it better, to stay curious, to always be making decisions that help us feel like we're mending, resolving, evolving and continuing the cycle.
Speaker 2:So when's the book come out? May?
Speaker 1:20th May, 20th come out May 20th.
Speaker 2:May 20th, thursday, may 20th. How do we get it?
Speaker 1:It will be available in paperback, e-book and hardcover on Amazon.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when we say that, it's like, oh my God, it's so exciting, and then all my self-doubt rushes into yeah, but don't get too excited. Yeah, but yeah but, um, I I do hope you'll grab a coffee copy. I I do believe in the power of the framework and the relatability of the life lessons and stories.
Speaker 1:I know that so many people will see themselves in our story and our lives, from my childhood to how we met and you know, started our young adult life with kids and the balancing act of kids and career and all of the things that we've faced since and what we did to get honest and decide to turn it around, turn the ship around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited for everyone to read it and you're going to just be like, oh my gosh, wow.
Speaker 1:I hope so. I hope that people see themselves enough to be able to lend some compassion to themselves, to the people that they love, and feel courageous and brave enough and inspired enough and empowered enough to say I got this, this is the one life that I get, and I'm not going to carry around this big, heavy backpack full of shame and what I should have been doing for everybody else anymore. I'm going to start making decisions for me. I choose me today. Yep.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thanks for asking me about the book. I'm still a little squirmy about it and a little squirmy in this position Tied behind a pillow I know it's my comfort pillow and thank you all for being here. We have new episodes of the Cameo Show every Wednesday. Please like, follow, subscribe. Whatever it is that you have to do, on, whatever platform you're listening to or from, and you can check out more about the reset button at cameoelisebrauncom. Backslash the reset button until next time, peace.
