Conversations That Make a Difference with Teresa Velardi

The Power of Collaboration, Connection & Community with Suzy Prudden

• Teresa Velardi

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How do collaboration, connection, and community change lives? In this inspiring episode of Conversations That Make a Difference, Teresa Velardi sits down with legendary speaker, bestselling author, media personality, and publishing pioneer Suzy Prudden to explore The Power of the 3 Cs: Collaboration, Connection & Community.

From sharing stages with icons like Tony Robbins, Louise Hay, and Deepak Chopra to appearing on Oprah and Good Morning America, Suzy shares incredible stories from her remarkable 60-year career—and the powerful lessons she’s learned about relationships, visibility, purpose, and making a difference. Together, Teresa and Suzy discuss:
✨ Why collaboration beats competition
✨ How meaningful connections create unexpected opportunities
✨ The power of storytelling to heal, inspire, and transform lives
✨ Divine guidance, spiritual assignments & trusting intuition
✨ Louise Hay, Oprah, Barbara Walters & behind-the-scenes stories
✨ Why becoming known matters if you want to grow your impact
✨ Human trafficking awareness and creating change together
✨ Helping everyday people become published authors
This heartfelt conversation reminds us that every story matters, every connection has purpose, and sometimes the people we meet become the bridge to making a greater difference in the world.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your voice, story, or purpose matters, this episode is for you.

If this resonates with you: Like, subscribe, and share with someone who could benefit from it today. Tell us in the comments: What collaboration or connection changed your life?

Resources for Suzy Prudden:
Facebook: facebook.com/suzyprudden
Instagram: instagram.com/suzyprudden
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/suzyprudden
Email: suzyprudden@gmail.com
Email: suzy@ittybittypublishing.com
Call or Text: 310-640-8885

Stay in Touch with Teresa Velardi:
SUBSCRIBE to this channel for more inspiring conversations, author spotlights, and heart-centered teachings. Tap SUBSCRIBE and turn your notifications ON. www.conversationsthatmakeadifference.com
New episodes every Tuesday

AEP = Authentic Endeavors Publishing
www.authenticendeavorspublishing.com
Our mission is to communicate with purpose, create with authenticity, and gather a global community rooted in gratitude. We strive to inspire leadership and offer heartfelt encouragement through meaningful writing, empowering every voice to shine and every story to make a lasting impact.

The Daily Gift Book Series - Each book is a compilation of real stories from real people, designed to uplift, encourage, and remind you that you’re never alone on the journey.
Visit: www.dailygiftbookseries.com or look up Teresa Velardi on Amazon

Join the Grateful Hearts Community
If you’d like to grow a life rooted in gratitude, hope, kindness, peace, and authentic friendship, join us in the Grateful Hearts Community on Facebook.
Access The Grateful Hearts Community on Facebook and request to join:   / thegratefulheartscommunitygroup  

Conversations That Make a Difference with Teresa Velardi

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Conversations That Make a Difference. With your host, Teresa Villardi. We believe that authentic, meaningful, and diverse conversations are the glue that binds us together. Our discussions remind us we have the power to uplift, challenge, stretch, and invite life. Are you like it? Feeling like you'll find out the seating your hands in life. Join us for conversations filled with gratitude, values, abundance, authenticity, and faith. Here's the host of our show, Teresa Villar.

Start with Gratitude, Faith & Purpose

SPEAKER_01

Hey everyone, and welcome to Conversations That Make a Difference. And with today we have Susie Prudent with us. But before I introduce my guests, we know that for those of you who have been watching me for a while, we start off with a prayer. We start with a serenity prayer, and then we'll get right into our discussion because we have a lot to talk about today. So let's start with the serenity prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. And it is by God's grace that we are fabulous, blessed, and highly favored, living in our greatness with passion and purpose, using our gifts and talents, making a difference in the lives of others. And all of God's great universe is conspiring in our favor. And together we say amen. Amen.

Meet Suzy Prudden: A 60-Year Business Pioneer

SPEAKER_01

Amen. Susie Prudin, welcome to Conversations That Make a Difference.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here and honored at the same time.

SPEAKER_01

I'm happy to have you. I'm happy to have you. Let me tell the audience I'm going to read your um your bio so the the audience knows a little bit about who you are and um how you be. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Okie dokie.

SPEAKER_01

Susie Putin is a legend. She's an influencer and business pioneer for the last 60 years. Yes, I said 6-0. Susie is now bringing her expertise to the publishing world. She's an award-winning internationally acclaimed speaker, workshop, and seminar leader, New York Times best-selling author, fitness expert, mind-body pioneer, success and empowerment coach, TV host for NBC and Nickelodeon, radio host uh for WAI in uh New York, creator of the Inner Mind Certification Program and publisher. She is, she shared this stage with Tony Robbins. Get ready. Abraham, and that's just to name a few. She's been interviewed by Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, Walter Cronkite, Jane Pauly, Joan London, Regis Philbin, Mike Douglas, and more. You've seen Susie on Oprah, Good Morning America, and the Today Show. If Susie's talking about it today, the rest of the country will be talking about tomorrow, as per the New York Times. Susie, I'm so excited to have you. Welcome again to Conversations That Make a Difference.

SPEAKER_02

You've been hanging with some people, haven't you? I have. You know, it's so funny, Therese. When when when every once in a while I'll remember something like until last summer, seriously, I had forgotten about Barbara Walters. I just forgot, you know, life goes on, we go forward. And I was talking to Kim Yancey, the co-founder of eWomen Network. I was going to be speaking at their conference in Dallas last summer. And I, oh, he said to me, he said, You're the real deal, aren't you? And I

How Suzy Went from Fitness Expert to Media Icon

SPEAKER_02

said, Yes. And in that instant, I remembered this was 1960, July of 1965. I was not eight months pregnant. I had started my business the year before. And I was as a fitness person, I was teaching people in my living room on a five-flight walk-up in in Greenwich Village. I told people people got in shape just getting to my apartment. And I get a I I get a call from ABC. Would you like to come down and do a radio interview? Because they knew my name. This is what I talk about today. They have to know you. It's not about you knowing them, it's they knowing you. They knew my name. They called me. Would you like to come and do a half-hour radio interview? Now, I don't know anything. I'm new in business. I'm 20, uh, 20 I'm 22 years old. And um, sure. So I go down to ABC or up to ABC, and I I go to the studio where I'm going to be interviewed, and the woman comes out of the studio, reaches out her hand to introduce herself and says, Hello, I'm Barbara Walters. Wow. And it just kept going like that. And again, it's because of the people that knew me in that in the fitness world. My mother was a very famous fitness authority.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And her name was Bonnie Prudent. She started the president's council on physical fitness and sports. And so when I went into fitness, I chose her name, Prudent. That was not my birth name. She gave me permission. She trained me.

The Secret to Success: Become Known

SPEAKER_02

And so I was Susie Prudent. I've been Susie Prudence since 1965, and people know my name. And for everybody listening, watching, hearing this interview, you have to get known if you want to sell your if you want to people to buy your product.

Why Collaboration Beats Competition

SPEAKER_02

And when you're collaborating with people, you always you know because you have a name and people know you, that you are adding value to the person who is adding value to you. For example, you are adding value to me by having me on this show and my name. And I don't say that egotistically, it's just a fact. The name Pruden. People pay attention. I had a client this morning. I spoke in San Diego recently, and I had a client this morning who said, I chose to go to that meeting specifically because you were going to be there.

SPEAKER_01

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02

And so that's what everybody needs, that kind of recognition.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And you know, here's the thing. Um, you know, we talk about collaboration, we talk about uh connection, we talk about community. The connections that you have will not just benefit you and your business, but they will benefit people that you are associated

Publishers Supporting Publishers: A New Mindset

SPEAKER_01

with. And the same thing with, you know, like the uh people would say to me, Teresa, you're a publisher. Why would you have another publisher on your show? Well, because the publishing industry, number one, is huge. Susie and I do different things, different things, right? Totally different things. Um, she is she and I are collaborating in a way that she's going to be um a contributing author to one of the daily gift books, which my audience knows about. Um, and we're going to talk about that later on. And so we give each other, we add by connecting with people in different arenas, you edify one another, thus raising both of you higher up in the circle of of people that are you know having or interested in these conversations that we're having, right?

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. And another thing is that I want my authors to have the opportunity to be in one of your books. I don't do that. And a friend of mine who's a publisher, um, Karen Strauss in New York. I know Karen. I sent her a client and we were talking, and she said, Why did you send me that client? I said, Because I don't do what you do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And so it's not about me keeping all the, I mean, if I don't do what that what if I don't have the kind of books that you have. So why wouldn't I want my authors to have the opportunity to do something that for your readers?

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Yeah. It's you know, it's exactly I know Karen by the way, and I love that Karen, you know what, you know when I first learned about Karen in the beginning, uh, before I got to know her a little bit. Um, she was the publicist for Augmandino.

SPEAKER_02

I didn't know that. She was. I believe you. I bought a book simply because he recommended it. Yeah. You know the book uh mutant message down under?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

So it says recommended by Augmandino. I said, okay, good enough for him. It's good enough for me.

SPEAKER_01

It's good enough for you. I love Ogmandino's books. I love his books. And when I found out about her, you know, being um associated in that way with Augmandino, it immediately, I'm saying this because it immediately brings a level of respect to the person who has the connection to him.

Oprah, Barbara Walters & Building Meaningful Relationships

SPEAKER_01

The same thing that we're talking about. I mean, one of your first interviews, you walk in and you're shaking hands with Barbara Walters. Hello. Yeah. Hello.

SPEAKER_02

The same thing with with with Oprah. I mean, I started doing Oprah's show. I well, she wasn't Oprah at the time yet. 1981, she was still in in um Baltimore as a newscaster. 1981, I was on a book tour, she interviewed me. 1983, I was on another book tour, she interviewed me. Then in 1986, she was in Chicago, not yet the Oprah show. She was on AM Chicago and they called me. Would you come on the show? And you know, it's like, what time do you want me to be there? Right.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And then in 89, when my book MetaFitness, published by Hay House, came out. Um they couldn't get me on the show. Wow. So I hired my own publicist. He got me on the show. He had a friend who was a producer. I didn't know this, I just knew he was gonna do it, and he did it. Um, it's so the this world is so fascinating with all the ins and outs

Teresa’s Divine Assignment to Create Books

SPEAKER_02

and the history and and and so many. It's like I love your series, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we um this was an assignment. I don't know if you know the story behind this, right? I'll I'll tell you the story so that you know the assignment, the assignment that I got. So I'm I'm a ceramic artist, I'm a potter. I was I gifted with that gift, and I didn't realize it until I made my first pottery in in a high school classroom. And I've been doing pottery for years. When I moved to Pennsylvania, I set up my own studio, was doing a whole bunch of things that, you know, classes and shows and whatnot, and people got to know me as a potter. And then one day I'm sitting at the wheel, and it was always it's always been a spiritual experience for me, always. And so I'm sitting at the wheel and I'm having a conversation with God. All right, is this all there is? Am I gonna keep my hands in the mud for the rest of my life? Or is there something else? And I heard in my spirit that there were books. Now I had been journaling for years and years, um, you know, to get through with whatever whatever life was giving me and keeping a gratitude journal too. Um, and then I heard a daily gift, and then I heard gratitude

Daily Gift Book Series

SPEAKER_01

first, and then voila. Oh gratitude. Right. So, and this um the beautiful thing about this is I incorporate however many people that have touched my life along the way, um, I try and give them um some, you know, some uh a nod to say thank you for being part of my life. This picture was taken on a beach in Long Island by one of my friends who goes to the beach every night and takes a picture of the sunset. Thank you, Nick Caritas. Then when after gratitude, I started getting a list of books to put together. So, gratitude, a grateful heart reads a hopeful heart. So we have hope and we have the Montauk Lighthouse because lighthouses are beacons of hope for sailors lost at sea, right? So we got now a hope, a grateful heart becomes a hopeful heart, becomes a kind heart, which is then you know, daily gift of kindness is next, right? And then with all of those things put together, we have a sense of peace within our souls. So we have a daily gift of peace, riding on the wings of a seagull. I was always on the beach, and this picture was taken by an elementary school friend at the um Outer Banks in North Carolina. Thank you, Roy. And um he takes a picture of the sunrise every morning. So I get the opportunity to um to showcase them as well. People have made a difference in my life because that's what this is, right? Conversations that make a difference.

The Yellow Rose Story: Louise Hay & Divine Connection

SPEAKER_01

Then the friendship book has the rose on it, the yellow rose is a symbol of friendship.

SPEAKER_02

Um I have a story about that too. Go ahead, tell me. So in 1980, I think it was 86 or 87, I belonged to an organization called the Inside Edge. And that's where Jack Canfield started, Mark Victor Hansen started, Louise Hay, Barbara D'Angelis. So I was speaking one week, and Louise was speaking on at the same, not the same time, but on the same um bill, so to speak. And uh Diana, who who run the ran the organization, said, Where do you want to sit? It's a breakfast meeting. I said, with Louise. I had not yet met her. And so um I was at Louise's table. We were sitting next to each other, and we're having a wonderful time. And it turns out that she lived literally 10 blocks from where I lived in the Palisades, which unfortunately is no longer. And so she invited me over that afternoon. So on my way, I stopped at a garden center and got a rose plant, a yellow rose plant. Oh, interesting. And I just got it because it felt like the right thing to do. You know, it's like you, it's like God pointed me to that bush, and I picked it up and brought it to her. She said, she was very grateful. She said, Thank you. Um, I don't remember telling you that yellow roses are my favorite flower. I said, You didn't tell. And she goes, Oh. We became such good friends. She used to come over to my house twice a week. We'd exercise together because I was moving from that career to body mind technology. She was in the body-mind technology. One day, this great story. See that picture of me there? Uh I'm I'm not used to having this there.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, with Oprah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, and the book that we're holding, I'm holding is MetaFitness. So I'm working out with Louise. She hurt her hip. Oh, my hip hurts. I said, Well, Louise, you're the expert. What does it mean? And she said, I can't remember what she said, but it means such and such and such and such. Okay, I've got it. And and I had an idea. I said, Louise, why don't we do a book together? I'll do the a video together, I'll do the exercises, you do the affirmations. And so then next week we're exercising again together, and she had gone to the board, they said yes. So we did the video, we did a book, that's what got me on the Oprah show that last time. And I did a 15 city tour with it. It's interesting, I still have the video, it's now in the MP4, and uh somebody was watching it one day. She said, Oh, Susie, you look like you're in the 80s. I said, I am in the 80s.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because with the with the with this, with the socks and the leotard, and uh, you know, and I had a group behind me, and Louise's voice is there. There's you can hear her voice consciously, and then there's a whole track of subliminal. It was a great project. It was a great project.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Living Guided by Faith & Intuition

SPEAKER_01

But how how many people can say they were friends with Louise Hay? She lived 10 blocks away, and you hit it off immediately. And I find it really interesting. It's just, you know, we're all connected. We are all connected in one way or another. How else would you have known that the yellow rose was her favorite? You wouldn't have known it, but that little seed was planted in your heart when you went that day to get something and it spoke to you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And that's how I live my life. And like you did, you you said something I say often. I was talking to God.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, it's like, hey God, how are you doing today? And and and God says, fine, how are you doing? Or you're not doing too well today, Susie. Or just go around the corner. There's such an amazing surprise waiting for you there. And and and God, like you said, is this all there is? It's like is where do you need me? When I was homeless, that's another story. Um, every day I used to say, Okay, God, where do you want me? Now I never had to live in my car or on the street. I always had wonderful places to stay. That's a whole other story. And a funny one, I it's a TEDx talk. Um, but it was it was like, okay, you've got me out here. I don't have a home yet. Yeah. Where do you want me? And so I knew that wherever I was, that's where God chose for me to be.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know, a lot of people, um, I there was somebody who I forget exactly. Oh, I know. Um, I I was working, I worked with uh Dennis Potoco on a project called Unsheltered, a book. And there was a story in there about a nun who chose to live on the streets, and her ministry was on the streets, right? And every day brought um something new for her. And she had safe places to sleep at night. She had people who took her in, who took care of her. Um, but she made a difference on the streets for the people. So everybody has an assignment, so to speak. Everybody, I believe everybody has an assignment. We have the gifts and talents in order to be able to do that assignment to the best of our ability while we are here on this spinning ball called planet Earth. It's an island. Yeah, yeah. I'm an island in space. Yeah, an island in space, exactly. Some people call it a spinning ball, some people have another opinion. I I um um we will never know. We won't know until the time comes when we leave, whatever this is, right?

When Life Changes: Lessons from Loss & Grief

SPEAKER_01

We won't know for sure.

SPEAKER_02

So when when my as my sister was dying, I was talking to her on the phone. She wasn't talking back, she was listening, and she was literally on her way out. So I said her daughter was with her. I said to her, Petey, write to me when you get there. She said, now Petey was not communicating with anybody. She she was basically on her way out. So I said that to her, and Jackie said, She's laughing. Yeah, so she heard me, even though she was not communicating because I made her laugh as she was dying. I did I did talk to a medium and I did talk to her.

SPEAKER_01

You did?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And um she she said, it's different here. The interesting thing, she said, Susie, I did not know how much pain I was in until I got here, and I have no pain. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I think that's the thing that um a lot of people, I believe my mom died of cancer. And a lot of people, you know, they're like, Oh, um, you know, you should just get do whatever, whatever, whatever to keep her alive, keep her alive. And I'm like, why? Why? You know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

My sister chose, she chose, she had taken a very bad fall, and she said to her daughter, I can't do this anymore. And she basically just stopped eating, stopped drinking. And then if someone gave her some water, Jackie would say, Every time you give her a sip of water, it makes her stay here one more day. And she was in so much. They gave her, I mean, morphine and stuff to dull the pain, but still, that's not living.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, but I'll tell you a quick story about my mom before she left. She a couple of nights beforehand, I'm having a conversation with her, just like you and I are talking, and I'm sitting on this on the edge of the bed, and all of a sudden she's looking like in the corner, and something has her attention. Yep. What it is, but something has her attention. And then she started giggling. And I'm like, Mom, I realized what was going on. I said, Mom, all right, who's here? And she started naming all of my relatives and my grandmother, my great aunt, and my great grandmother on Sunday afternoons with my uncle, my My grandmother's brother. We used to have dinner together. And after dinner, we would go downstairs and into the second kitchen because every good Italian woman in that day had two kitchens in her house, one for the meal and one to make the pasta.

SPEAKER_02

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01

I said to my mother, I said, Mom, what are they doing? And she said, They're cooking the pasta for the party. I'm going home. Oh. That's beautiful. Yeah. So immediately I went back in my head to when I was a little kid, and I was in that moment with her, knowing exactly what she was feeling, because it brought my memory back to when I was a child and had them all around me making the pasta. You know, so we did everything raviolis, but whatever. We made all the pasta. Um, what a beautiful story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

She just she was gonna have a party, I'm going home.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they're cooking the pasta for the party. I'm going home. Well, they say anytime somebody goes home, they have a party. So I didn't know that either.

SPEAKER_02

This is a this is an opportunity of education.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, see that? See

Healing Storytelling: How Stories Become Healing for Others

SPEAKER_01

that. Well, no, and I I just I get see one of the things that that I love about what we do now is the uh with the books is we get to tell those stories and let everybody enjoy them. I think that um I I did, I think I put that story in um a daily gift of hope. I think I put that in that in that story in in that book. But um, you know, there's a lot of things that happen in our lives that we think are just like passing moments, and then somebody shows up that has had a similar experience where you can we can share notes just like we just did, just like we just did. And we can put it on paper and get it out there for somebody else to enjoy and somebody else to have hope from, somebody else to find a peaceful moment with, you know, and and then share it in kindness to others. So I think that I think that um we're supposed to have these conversations. Yes, and we're supposed to have these.

SPEAKER_02

My my most favorite, my most favorite question I was ever asked at a party one time was, are you a pathological liar? Why would somebody ask you that? I know, and I said, Why do you ask me that? And she said, these things that you're saying, they can't be true. And I'm saying, Well, they are. And and she said, But but they can't be. These are the kinds of things that that that people that people say in in in these are stories for movies. This isn't a a real life. I said it's yeah, my real life. And it was just an interesting, um it was just you know, it was but I I love the question.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And um so anyway, that was yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, movies are based on real life stuff. Um because how many, how many not so much documentary, not so much outside of um documentaries, but it they're based on a real life story that comes from somebody who somewhere along the line used an event in their life, added their imagination to it, and came up with the notebook. Right. You know?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's it's it. I mean, I when I when I see movies that are fantasy and stuff like that, I I wonder if if that's uh a premonition almost. It's like um 7,000 leagues under the sea. Now we have submarines. It's like the rocket ships. Books came first, then the movies of the books, and then now we had rocket

Every Person Has an Assignment

SPEAKER_02

ships. But it starts it all starts up here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And the the other thing I I mean when when when you ask God, is this all there is? And uh God gave you the books, basically. You you can you uh received a vision, and you receive that vision from a higher source, and so it is a meant to be, and you have all the support. It's like with with my company with itty bitty, my sister and I had a vision, and then we started it, right? And then now the universe God is supporting that vision. Yes, and as it grows and as it morphs and as it changes, it's almost as if the vision is pulling instead of pushing. And it's literally in a in a in a God bubble, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

In this little bubble and being moved forward.

SPEAKER_01

And what an honor to to what an honor it is to be alive. Amen.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Especially during this time when I think that these stories, the stories that you write, the stories that I write, the stories that other people write, because this is not all me, and it's not, you know, it's it's other people's um dreams that are going on these pages. And so, and and and I think more than anything now, I think the world needs to have those dreams and those visions of what can be, um, even from what was, you know, it I was, I still am a potter. I still I still gotta get my client, my hands in the dirt. I still gotta get my hands in the dirt. Um, I am still a potter, and you know, and that's part of who I am. I can use that to tell stories too, because when you construct a story, it's not even it's not different than creating a piece of pottery. There are steps to making it happen.

SPEAKER_02

And it's interesting that you just said that because I got a feeling because you said you've got to get your hands in the dirt. And for me, I wanted to be a dancer when I was a child, and I became a fitness expert, but I'm also still a dancer. So today, okay, so I'm now 82 years old. I hear music, and automatically my body starts to move. I've got to get and and then for me, someone said, Susie, when you dance, it's as if the music moves you. And I said, that's exactly what happens.

SPEAKER_01

That's exactly what happens.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's exactly the music comes inside.

SPEAKER_01

Funny, we have so many things in common. I was I I spent the 70s and the early 80s in the clubs dancing. When did Saturday Night Fever come out, Susie? When did Saturday Night? Oh, 70. That was the 70s, wasn't it? 77, I think. 77.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I spent time. I spent times in clubs too. I was married at the time, but we used to summer in East Hampton. We eventually got a house there. And the clubs in East Hampton, this is, I mean, this is 40, this is 50 years ago, 60 years ago. And they were not that crowded. They were great. But now you can't even move. But yeah, I spent times dancing in the clubs too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Fun. And it and the um what was the name of the club where that movie was filmed? Was it 2001, 2001 with the glass, the lighted floor in um Saturday Night Beaver? Yeah, Saturday Night Beaver with John Travolta, dancing on the lighted floor. Well, they put one of those, uh they put one of those um clubs, the the exact same name, close to where I lived on Long Island. And I would go, I would go there, um, I would go there, um and and dance there. Somebody's somebody in the chat says Studio 54. Been there, know who the guests of honor were? The guests of honor were Darth Vader and R2D2 the night that I was there in Star Wars at just.

SPEAKER_02

So I was gonna bring that up. I was gonna bring that up. I met this was in 1984. I met the man I would then live with for three and a half years and moved to California with, and who is still a friend of mine at a party at Studio 54. Nice, anyways. Yeah, that's one of the stories. That's it that can't possibly happen.

SPEAKER_01

One of the stories. That's why I'm a pathological liar, she thought. Nobody has that. Yeah, well, I did.

SPEAKER_02

Who would say that to you? Um, I don't remember her name. She was a friend of my cousin's, and we were at a party in San Francisco, and I was just talking to her. And, you know, she would ask me questions and I'd answer. Are you a pathological? It's my favorite question.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Human Trafficking Awareness: Making a Difference Together

SPEAKER_01

Interesting. It's interesting. But you know, um, and we can do we can do a lot of things with um with the people that we know. You know, I am good friends with Andy Berger from Voices Against Trafficking. We want to talk about connections, collaboration, community. Um, we uh with with the famous DZD, who is my producer, we he put together last year DJs against trafficking. And we are going to do it again. We're gonna do it um on September 26th. We're gonna let the cat out of the bag here right now. Um, and Andy, right now, Andy Berger and I are going to host um a panel in the morning. And throughout the day, we're gonna have uh Dizzy is busy working on getting DJs from around the globe to play music. Um, while we have um, you know, everything there. Here we go. DJs against trafficking and hunger. Wow, to raise money um

Collaboration in Action: Turn Conversations into Impact

SPEAKER_01

for these two causes.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, look at those beautiful people. And I have an author who wrote a book on ending, an itty bitty book on ending out trafficking. Yeah, I'll introduce you to her.

SPEAKER_01

That yes, please do, please do. Uh Andy has um is recovering from shoulder surgery, so please keep her in your prayers as we um as we wait for her to heal completely from from what she's been through with her shoulder. Um that's a tough one. Yeah, this is the second surgery, so um she's yeah, she's she's going through it. So please, please pray for Andy Berger. Um, but we're looking forward to that and and raising some money for two good causes. And actually, um Tony Robbins is all on board the ending hunger um conversation, and Tim Tebow is um a bright light, bringing um bringing um consciousness to uh trafficking on another level. And so, you know, he's doing it, he's doing a lot of stuff. So there's a lot of people doing a lot of things to help rescue um people from from what this world has become in that in that arena.

SPEAKER_02

It's so pervasive, and it's shocking. I went to a a an event, um, I was invited by the Beckwiths, and it was there were it was an awards evening, um five people who had been trafficked and escaped and their stories, and literally it was jaw-dropping, yeah, because we think of it as just young girls. No, it's it's all ages, men, women, children, black, white, span, I mean, all ages, all nationalities, it is everywhere. And uh, my author, Linda, who wrote the book on ending child trafficking, it focuses on the trafficking that's done on the internet.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that's yeah, and parents don't know. Exactly. And that was one of the things that um we addressed with the um with the event last last time, and we'll do it again, um, is you know, keeping your kids safe from what's going on on the internet and lots of different, we gave lots of information on how to educate your children, educate your families, educate your friends on, you know, to be aware, to put pieces together, you know, to know that if this and this normally don't go together, there's something wrong. You know, there's something like, and if you see something, say something. If you can do something, you do something, you know. So it's um, yeah. You know, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_02

Linda was telling me, I said, are you speaking in schools and stuff? And she said, When I can, but a lot of people don't want to know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, well, you know, a lot of people don't want to know because they might get found out. They might get found out. You know, that's where a lot of people don't know because they might find out that somebody that they know is doing something that they shouldn't be doing. That's one thing. And a lot of people don't want and not a lot of people don't want to know because they just want to keep their head in the sand and pretend that it doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. And those are the people that she's trying that she's really she's a PI. Oh, is she? I know, and she's so fast, she's so fun. Because when she gets on our call every every Tuesday night, we say, Okay, what what are you what are you looking into right now? What are you looking into right now? Sometimes she has great stories and something I can't talk about it. Yeah, yeah. But she's her passion is ending child trafficking.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and we have I have people in my life who are looking to put together safe houses and um do all kinds of things to make a difference to people who got rescued because getting rescued is only part of the. That's the first step. That's the first step, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

It's only the can you imagine the healing that has to take place? And it's years.

SPEAKER_01

The trauma that they've been through, PTSD, all kinds of all kinds of physical ailments from the from the abuse that they've taken. Um, yeah, and there's there's lots of, and it takes it who wrote the book, it takes a village. It takes it takes a heck of a lot more than a village. It takes a community, it takes a it takes connection, it takes collaboration. Who would have thought that in this conversation, this is where we would go, you know, because but you have somebody, but here look look at it, look

The Butterfly Effect: How We Are All Connected

SPEAKER_01

at it though. You have somebody who's written a book who's on board this train who could potentially be part of what we are putting together in September. This is the way it works. So, people, if you think that you're in and you're in um competition with people, think again, because somewhere along the line, there is a string that ties you together, which becomes a rope, which becomes a lifeline for somebody, you know. So I believe that that is um that's exactly what goes on.

SPEAKER_02

And whether we're talking about writing a story or we're talking about saving the world, it's you know exactly what Michael Beckwith in a in a uh talk I heard him give one time said, we are like the ocean, all of us the individual waves that make one body of water, yeah. And then, like when I heard that, I've heard him speak many, many times. And I was I was in a conference where I was taking notes because I would have to create for that evening um program a hypnosis process of what he spoke on all day long. It was a wonderful experience for me, and so I'm madly taking notes. And when he said that, I literally had to stop writing. Yeah, because for me it was such a profound statement. When you look at the ocean, and then you look at it when it's storming, you look at it when it's flat, you look at single, you know, just one wave here and there, it's all one body of water.

SPEAKER_01

It's all one body of water, exactly, exactly. And then you look at um look at look at the butterfly effect. Do you ever watch um ever watch any of the movies that Louis Schwartzberg puts together with the way you can actually see um like um he just he just does slow motion photography where you can actually just see every movement. Oh yeah, he does slow motion photography and puts it into um movie, you know, and he did one on gratitude, which was amazing. Look him up, and um I think about like the butterfly effect, a butterfly flaps its wings over there, and then something else happens on the other side of the world as a result of that butterfly flapping its wings, and that is we're all connected. We are all connected, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

Near-Death Experiences & Messages from Beyond

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I have I have a I have a book that I got from I watched a YouTube video by somebody who had a near-death experience and came back with 10 things that we needed to know. And the one thing one of the things was we are all connected. So if anybody thinks that uh we're not, you know, um straight from the heavens, it came. We are all connected.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we are all connected, and we live on one island, and the air we breathe is the air that has been here for as long as there was air, and so we are breathing the same air that Christ breathed, it's the same air, it's just been through a bazillion different iterations, different people, and um my mother had a near-death experience, and she said fascinates me.

SPEAKER_01

Pardon me, this fascinates me.

SPEAKER_02

She said that when she was there, wherever there is, um she was talking to God and he said, You have to go back. And she said, I don't want to go back. Because she said it was such there was such love there. He said, No, you you still have work to do. Yeah, and when she came back, she created a whole form of therapy that it's called myotherapy, and she created it just all of a sudden she just knew what to do, and she documented it, created it. She's got a phenomenal phenomenal book, many, but this one is called Pain Erasure, the Bonnie Prudent Way. It has a 98% success rate with all physical pain.

SPEAKER_04

Wow.

SPEAKER_02

If it's not pathological, you know, if it's not, if it's not a disease, if it's like a sprained ankle, a torn knee, um, all kinds, you know, even even migraines can be healed through this process. But she she had to die and go there and come back with it. She got an assignment. She got another assignment.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, she got an assignment, just like I got an assignment, you got an assignment. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And everybody listening and watching and experiencing our conversation is living an assignment, whether they know it or not.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Exactly, exactly. It's just amazing to me how um, you know, when people get together and start talking about one little thing, look how it evolves into so many topics that we can talk about. Um, and who knows, you may get somebody reaching out to you for something that we have discussed. I might get somebody reaching out to me that we need to make connections for. And that's the other thing, too. You know, I love how you know you said you've got so many connections and you come to the table with them, and how things have happened because of these connections that have made a difference for you or somebody in your circle, so to speak.

SPEAKER_02

Um, you know, well, a simple example of that, Teresa, is is like you mentioned this event you're having in September, and I have an author that could become a part of who's who's whose mission is ending child trafficking. Yeah. And we would not have known without this conversation.

SPEAKER_01

Not have known that, not have known that, exactly. So, yeah, and then people say, people say, oh, sh she knows so many celebrity people. I wonder if she knows so and so. Can she make a connection for me or whatever, like that? And it's like, you know what? Just because somebody is in um in the limelight, so to speak, at one time in their life, doesn't necessarily mean that they have answers to questions that you may have. But I do believe that whoever is supposed to, whoever you're supposed to meet is going to come into your life, whether it's whether you bump into them on the street, or whether you um get a get an introduction at an event, you meet at a conference, or you get somebody like Susie Prudent, who has uh connections like crazy, um, to make an introduction. And it would have to be for me, it would have to be for a good cause. It would have to be for a good cause. It would have to make a difference for somebody else. Just like the same thing we're using the same example. You know, the conversation came up about um voice against trafficking and and hunger, and you have this connection, which is going to be a great thing. I'm sure. that if if um if what's her name linda linda berg henning okay if i'll i'll send it all to you and i'll i'll connect you i'll do a i'll do an email introduction perfect exactly if she if she decides that she wants to come to what we're putting together it's one more voice for the cause it's one more voice to make a difference and she can send people yeah you know because that's a world that she is in and so again it's that butterfly and all of a sudden it it can make a tremendous difference that when we started this conversation we didn't know this road this is the road we would go down at all and but that's collaboration yes across the board and again and and I want to you know re-emphasize that you and I are both publishers we publish entirely different things I have people in my stable of authors who would benefit from being part of your stable so to speak yes and you have people that would benefit and and everybody

Author Dreams: Helping People Become Published - Poetry & Stories

SPEAKER_01

somebody out there listening I just started a new book I'm so excited about it it's a poetry anthology and I started it because I'm thinking there are so many people who write poet poems and it's too expensive to publish your own there's you know own book with power with your poems but you could become one of 30 people and and so therefore I just wanted to do it because I knew it would it would make people feel good. Makes a difference it's all about making a difference make people feel good you're absolutely right so for people who have who are poets who want to um know more about your project how do they get in touch with you or how did they learn about that Susie?

SPEAKER_02

Very simple you can call me or text me 310 640 8885 that's 310 64085 or email me at Susie Prudent at gmail s u Z Y P-R U D D E N at Gmail um and I would and if you know somebody who would like to write this Linda wrote an itty bitty book this is what an itty bitty book looks like it's just a 30 page book written in numbered sentences and paragraphs.

SPEAKER_01

If you're an expert and want to get known in the world write a book it's the same you would do the same thing and tell me more about how many books okay so I have itty bitty publishing I have legacy press publishing I have little dog prep publishing which is um children's books I have the new poetry anthology if any of those things interest any of you please contact me I would love to talk to you and also are you still collecting people for your yes yes we the the the uh deadline is coming up short for a daily gift of inspiration but you can go to dailygiftbooksseries.com it'll take you to the Authentic Endeavors publishing website for that page where you can learn what we need it's just 250 words you get to put a 50 word bio in there and your picture and if you want to be on the front cover we can make that happen too all the information is on the site um and the next one coming is going to be a daily gift of happiness and joy and I would we want to redo we want excuse me we want to release that one around a Thanksgiving for Christmas how would you like to get a book called happiness and joy in this day and age yes is that the one I'm in you're in inspiration but if you want to be in happiness and joy that one's coming right behind it we can make that happen too okay let's do it yeah let's do it you you offers it's so wonderful both of us are loving what we do absolutely absolutely absolutely it brings me so much joy you know i i say that if you have ever wanted to become an author i can make that dream come true for you with only 250 words yeah yeah and i and then and i can do the same with 30 pages written in numbered sentences and paragraphs and and bullet points and make you we have now we've I think we've done 164 bestseller campaigns we have 164 bestsellers nice so yeah it's it's an interesting being in the publishing world is interesting because what you and I do is help people achieve their dreams exactly exactly exactly and you know for for people uh the children's book I mean I I did I did a panel of three children's authors um a couple of weeks ago uh three women so susie what what do a cupcake a super fast fly and a raccoon have in common I have no idea they spread kindness friendship and resilience uh to the to themselves their characters and to the children who read their books so it's just you know you have every you have just I just I just have so much fun doing this it's crazy I have so much

Autism, Children’s Books & Stories That Matter

SPEAKER_01

fun we because we have it we have a children's book that focuses on autism it's called a be like me a be like me a be like me and it was written by a woman who is a high functioning autistic who has two autistic children and the artist is a high functioning autistic woman and her message is what she wanted people to know she she wanted people to understand autism and when I read the book I'm like I didn't know this I didn't know this and it's a children's story yeah yeah but you know I I would imagine that that book brings um if there's any such thing as normal it brings it brings the fact that these people who have autism on every level of this book that you're telling me about get to be who they are authentically and share something that can make a difference for someone else. And that's and they get to be right for who they are not wrong for who they are.

SPEAKER_02

The other wonderful story I have is a woman who wrote a book she signed up to do an itty bitty book and that's very very style I mean it's literally 30 pages 15 chapters two pages each and it's we have a template and you have to follow the rules in it and it was on a it's on she's a doula and the book is on birth to six weeks just the first six weeks of life and she sent me her manuscript and it was too long and I called her and I said it's too long and she goes oh I said don't worry I can't cut it I have to put you into legacy press because I have another I have a company where you have big books I couldn't cut it yeah because it was too good. And I said to her if I had known what you taught me in your book when my son was born we would have had a very different experience.

SPEAKER_01

Different experience exactly somebody I was I was talking to uh recently um is also a doula and you know anyone anyone who has that knowledge to help women um birth their children in a a much more calm less hustle and bustle sterile environment um I think I think all of our experiences in life should bring some sense of calm peace joy to us regardless of what it is um even even like even coming through surgery somewhere along the line the peace of knowing that whatever the problem was when you went in there is going to be not so much on when you come out um you're gonna be in pain yeah but surgical pain is a lot less a lot less um taxing on the body than the pain that you go through that led you into surgery in the first place right yeah yeah I know because I had my knees done I had my knees oh I had my hip done but knees oh bless you I mean that's that's I'm so glad that I've had my body is is choosing that my knees are choosing to be okay did you you didn't do them at the same time did you no no no I did them five years apart from one another but um still I mean but you're okay now I'm I I'm yes so me too before I had my my hip done we didn't know what was wrong because I had this horrible sciatic I mean I could barely walk and we finally figured out oh you have no hip bone and I had the surgery afterwards it's like my doctor was so sweetie when I walked into his office after the surgery he said that's why I do this work so that you can walk into the surgery into the my office without pain yeah yeah it yeah and that's you know and we do our work so we can open doors for people and have people feeling really great about something they've created. Exactly and um yeah yeah it's so exciting to watch some of that pardon me it is very exciting well I've had authors video themselves when they get their books you know we send everybody 20 books for their promotions and I had one author do a Facebook live thing when she got her books and she's you know look at my book look at my book it's yeah it's it's it's a wonderful feeling

Showing Up Authentically in Life & Business

SPEAKER_01

it is it's a and then when you're someplace and you say I wrote a book you wrote a book it shifts the dynamic it yeah exactly exactly and they say you know and people write books about everything everything everything like that I don't think there's any one topic and no stones unturned when it comes to writing because everybody has a story and what you do with that is strictly you you know you your your voice that's one thing that I'm I'm adamant about like when people come to me and they they they write their story I make sure that even through the editing process you know that it's their story. Nobody took their voice away and that it's their story. People you know for me I learned a long time ago that um showing up authentically is the best thing that you can do for yourself and the people around you because they know who you are and and they know that they're gonna in any circumstance or any situation can you have emotions? Yes of course but I I had a friend one time tell me Teresa whether you're sending me a text whether you're talking to me on the phone whether you're writing something online or you've sent me something in the mail I know it's you I know you wrote it.

SPEAKER_02

I know that it's you it's your voice coming through every time I had a similar story when I was still in New York um and I was still being the Susie Pruden fitness person and a manager and we were talking to a PR company because they wanted to hire me for something I can't remember what it was. And so we're having lunch and I got up there to go to the ladies room and um when I came back I was I heard my manager saying to these people what you see is what you get this person that you're meeting is no different in front of a camera than she is in person and she is sitting here at this table.

SPEAKER_01

I got the job yay yay yay and that's and people want that they want to have you know they want to have somebody who's real they want to have somebody who's compassionate they want to have somebody who's can um can guide them in whatever direction they need to go we have three minutes left this hour is almost gone Susie this hour is almost gone

The Power of the 3 Cs: Collaboration, Connection & Community

SPEAKER_01

let's let's do this invite I want to invite you guys and anybody who's listening anyone who's listening instead of living in a world where competition is the word of the hour I'm gonna invite you all to into into collaboration and instead of being um isolated become connected and instead of being home alone and get out into the community create a community that is um for the same cause as you doing the same kind of work making a difference like you are doing um you know and and here this is a great example of how two voices from the same um industry the same industry the same field um i'm I'm a word nerd you call yourself a word nerd I'm a word nerd so we collaborate as word nerds and make sure that everybody who wants to get their voice out there and heard they can get their voice out there. Susie one more time give your contact information um and I know you're on Facebook and some social media platforms it's all in the in the description that will be below this video but go ahead the easiest the easiest is susie prudent at gmail is a direct link to my gmail account and also my company itty bitty publishing susie at itty bitty publishing and if you want to write a book if you want to write a story if you are an expert in your field and you want to get known is the best way to to do it if you're a poet you know call me 310 640 8885. Yeah or call me and if we if we will wherever you fit wherever your wherever your story fits that's where that's where we can help you to be the to shine like the superstar that you are in the in the place that is best suited for your story. So now I have to say I have to say goodbye to everybody.

SPEAKER_02

I don't want to do that but I know I'm having too much fun and Teresa you've got to come on my author's call. I will I will and I'm gonna introduce you to Linda okay and thank you for this opportunity this has been fun.

SPEAKER_01

You're welcome it's

Final Inspiration: Every Story Makes a Difference

SPEAKER_01

been a lot of fun so everybody who's listening every conversation that you have makes a difference in the life of somebody else and it makes a difference in your life until we meet again let all the conversations that you have this week make a difference for someone else or for yourself.

SPEAKER_00

We'll see you next time bye bye that brings us to the close of another episode of Conversations That Make a Difference with host Teresa Vellardi we want to sincerely thank you for tuning in and sharing your time with us today. Our greatest hope is that today's discussion inspired your personal growth encouraged you to share your unique gift and gave you the courage to write your own magnificent story. If this message resonated with you let's keep the conversation going. Take a moment to like comment and subscribe on YouTube and follow us on our conversations that make a difference Facebook page this will ensure you never miss a moment of inspiration. We air new episodes every Tuesday at 5 p.m Eastern time don't forget to like comment and subscribe it truly helps us reach and empower more people until next time keep making a difference we look forward to welcoming you back next Tuesday to our next conversation