Theresa Bruno is a renowned jewelry designer and host of Soul Talks podcast

Wendy Valentine: Welcome back to the Midlife Makeover Show. I’m your host, Wendy Valentine, and today I am beyond thrilled to welcome the inspiring Teresa Bruno to the show. Theresa is a renowned bespoke jewelry designer whose creations have adorned the likes of Oprah. Hey, that’s my bestie, Julia Roberts, and even Michelle Obama. But her story goes far beyond sparkling jewels and red carpets. After facing unimaginable loss with the death of her husband and the collapse of her business, Teresa has risen stronger than ever, transforming her pain into purpose. Oh, yeah. Now, as the host of the Soul Talks podcast, Teresa uses her voice to shed light on life’s darkest moments and the incredible healing power of gratitude, acceptance, and connection. Her journey is a powerful reminder that we can all rewrite our stories. Oh, yes, definitely. No matter the challenges we face, get ready for an uplifting conversation that will inspire you to embrace vulnerability, find resilience, and live your truth.

Please join me in welcoming the amazing Teresa Bruno to the show

Please join me in welcoming the amazing Teresa Bruno to the show.

Theresa Bruno: I love that intro. Can you just do that for me? Every single day at the beginning of.

Wendy Valentine: The day, I’ve heard people say. They’re like, can you just record that? And then I’ll just, like, play it on my phone in the morning.

Theresa Bruno: that’s just. That’s a shot of coffee, for sure. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for all the amazing good you do in the world, encouraging women to, you know, take risks, to have courage, to remake themselves, no matter what they’ve been through. So thank you.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, thank you for being here. And, you know what? I mean, we talked a lot before hitting record, as always. But, you know, one thing I know, sharing my own story, it’s very vulnerable. You, like, feel just so naked out in the world, like, oh, my gosh, sharing your story. What are people going to say? What are they going to think? And so, first of all, thank you for sharing your story and being so brave to do that, but I would love to hear more of. Sounds odd to say. I love to hear more of your dark story, but that’s where the juicy stuff is, right?

Theresa Bruno: That’s right.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Wendy says sharing our pain lessens its power

Take us to. I, would say, probably, I would guess, is that really that dark moment in your life of losing your husband and losing your business?

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. And they all. And it came all at once, which, you know, sometimes life does that.

Wendy Valentine: Yep.

Theresa Bruno: and to your point, and I’ll dive into that. But to your listeners, I’d want to say I’m a really private person. I’ve always been extraordinarily private. And, It m was trying to make sense of the tragedies that happened to me that where I went, okay, you know, I can be brave, I can be vulnerable enough to say there’s probably somebody else going through a lot of grief and sorrow who could benefit from maybe just a few of the tools I’ve learned along the way. But what I found was the minute I started sharing what had happened to me and sharing, you know, as vulnerably as I could without being in a million pieces on the floor in front of everybody, which I do that a lot. Anyway, you know, when we share our pain, when we really can’t get vulnerable, be honest about our sorrow and what we’ve been through, it’s as though the universe takes pieces of the pain and just kind of takes it away from you. Because sharing our pain lessens its power. And I watch it happen every single time. So, that’s a first survival tool that I would put out there to your listeners to say, no matter what you’re going through, and everybody’s going through something that hurts. Exactly. Some loss, you know, just big self esteem issues. Whatever it is, everybody’s in some place, whether they admit it or not, that isn’t the lightest of places. So, friends, find family you can trust and share, share it will lessen the pain.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, I totally agree with you. Yeah. Because I mean, if you think about that, all of those, those thoughts and feelings, the emotions that swirl around with that dark energy, if you keep that within you, that’s harming you. And the more that you can share that and get that energy out, the better you will be. I mean, no matter, like I may. I think back like my, my Aunt Annie was the best sounding board on the planet. And sometimes that’s all you need. You just need someone to sit there and go, Uh-huh. Uh-huh. uh-huh. You know, even if they’re not offering advice or anything, they’re just listening and absorb being and not judging you. They’re just like, okay, get it out, get it out. And it feels so good. So. Yeah, you’re so right on that.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. I’ve noted in my journey along the way now I have people come to me all the time who want to share their pain, to want to tell me their story. And you know, they know that I’ve kind of been through the unimaginable in tragedy and I’ve survived it. So it’s like, it’s like I’m, a compatriot along the journey with him. And exactly as you said, Wendy. They don’t need my advice. They don’t need an answer. They m. Need me to walk alongside them in the sorrow.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. And to know that it’s okay. No matter what it is that you have gone through or going through and what you will go through, it’s okay. It’s. I always say, like we’re, we’re human beings being human.

Theresa Bruno: Right.

Wendy Valentine: Like this is part of life and even the s* parts, it’s part of life.

Theresa Bruno: And I never thought my life would go this far. I didn’t think it could go down that far. the coming back and where I am now is pretty joyful.

You lost your jewelry business to fraud and then your husband committed suicide

But I’ll start at the Nexus you asked me about. So I had just this crazy wild ride in the jewelry business of being completely self taught and going from knowing nothing to being on kind of the COVID of almost every major fashion mag and having lots of stars wear the jewelry and Mrs. Obama naming me as one of her favorite American designers. And I had had a very successful, fairly large marketing business and still had it. So I was at that point running two businesses at one time. Didn’t know anything about running the jewelry business. Just had lots of ideas for designs and it turned out people liked them. Basically. the long and the short of it was after about, I think it’s 13, 14 years, I had a terrible case of fraud that was going on underneath my nose. Had been for about two years. And it was so egregious, so vast in the business that I could have chosen to bankrupt and didn’t want to do that. I could pay back all the fraudulent credit cards and all the things that had been opened in my name and pay back all the bills that hadn’t been paid but covered over. and the only way to do that was to close the business and just payback model. It was so heartbreaking. And I, this was a real character journey for me. It, just, I took on so much shame with it. I took on shame as a woman because as a woman in our generation we’ve had so much pressure about success in business, entrepreneurial success. Can we do it? You know, are we good enough? And the fact that I didn’t see that fraud happening, I was, I was so ashamed of that. I was ashamed to have to tell all the stores, every Neiman Marcus and Sachs and every small boutique that had believed in me. You know, it was so shameful to have to say I didn’t make it. I’ve got to close my doors I hated it for clients who had been so faithful for the, you know, the employees who walked alongside. So I was coming. You know, I had just shuttered the doors and matter of fact, we had, two freestanding boutiques, one in Houston and one in Birmingham, Alabama. And the rest of it, you know, was in other stores. We were just closing all of that up and my husband, was helping me do all of that. And Covid hit in March of 2020 and he, just one month after that, my husband took his life.

Wendy Valentine: Oh God.

Theresa Bruno: So I had been, I was carrying guilt and shame over a business loss, which is nothing compared to the loss of the husband of a lifetime, father of two kids. And I had never, it just had never gone between my ears that that could happen to us as a family. Clearly. Then I just added on my shame and guilt going, why didn’t I see it? I knew he was down depressed, but it would never have thought he would have taken his life. So, you know, my, what I came out of that with was a. I had a lot of work to do. I had a lot of work to begin to climb out of. just tremendous tragedy, grief, you know, just boundless, earth shattering grief, sorrow, you know, and I don’t sugarcoat that. I’m writing a book like you and will be on the shelves in the summer, called He’s Not Coming Back. It’s a tragedy through sorrow and grief into courage and gratitude. But I think it’s important for any of us who have lost, especially to suicide, because not many people want to talk about it, to be pretty honest, as honest as we can be about it, kind of shatters and betrays everything you ever thought you knew as your ground.

Theresa Bruno: And. And then I was carrying the loss of the business too, which is minimal comparatively. But I had, it was an added. It was like if you watch football, my kids watch college football all the time. So it was like, you know, an add on penalty, as they would say. But so that’s, that’s.

How did, how did you deal with the, the what ifs that popped up

Wendy Valentine: How did, how did you deal with the, the what ifs that popped up? Whether from. And what. What were some of those what if questions that you had when you were losing the business and then losing your husband? Like, what if. What if I had done this? Or what if I had not done that?

Theresa Bruno: So mad at myself with the business. And this was the m. My most key and most trusted employee. And you know, that tends to be the one who can get inside your business and take advantage of you. I I was furious that I had not seen what was happening. And. And you know that I. I think I was running all the time. I was traveling all the time. I was running two businesses. and I wasn’t maybe as present to hear and see what was going on. So I was really mad at myself.

Wendy Valentine: M.

Theresa Bruno: And disappointed in myself coming out of that with James. The what ifs, oh, gosh, they were stark and they were rough and it’s. It is what you can’t. I. What you can’t help but do to yourself. And I now know, five years later, with all the survivors I’ve talked to, you know, it is the thing we do, but it’s kind of the worst thing we can do. You know, what if I had just noticed what he was going through that day? What if I had realized that he was more depressed than what I thought? What. What if I had been home? Or you just whatever that you just ask yourself a million what ifs. Yeah, it doesn’t do any good. They’re unanswerable. M. It didn’t happen early or fast for me. My climate. I say that I did absolutely everything wrong in grief. I sat on the sofa for about two years and just.

Wendy Valentine: But sometimes that’s okay, you know what I mean? Like, I always feel like, is there a right way to grieve? You know what I mean? Like. And actually the fact that you grieved was the right thing.

Theresa Bruno: There is no right way. If you and I to people all the time, you know, if you need to sleep, sleep.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: Don’t let people tell you to get up. If you need to eat, eat everything you want to eat, or if you need to not eat or if you need to just sob and sob and sob, which is what I did a lot of. Just let the body do what the body needs to do to express something that is not anything you’ve ever named before when you’re going through that kind of grief. but one of the things that happened for me, I’m not gonna at all sugarcoat it. It wasn’t early. but you try to find things to cling to. Just the tiniest little thing you try to find, to cling to that just, you know, you go, oh, I can get out of the bed today kind of thing. I’m very, very attached to nature. And so, windows in, in the bedroom. Drapes. If I would just pull open the drapes and say, you know, as my Angelou used to say, I’m thankful for this day. I Haven’t seen this one before. You know? I love that.

Wendy Valentine: Yes. I love. Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: M. But I. You know, just the simple act of opening the drapes became a ritual of there’s something active I can do just. That’s positive, that’s not just sitting in this grief. And then that turned into. And I come at gratitude kind of bass backwards, if you will. my gratitude became kind of an act of defiance. It was like, I’m, gonna figure this out so grief doesn’t eat me whole. And so I would be grateful for the tiniest thing. You know, a rose blew me out the window, a bird that landed. I wasn’t thankful. I, I wasn’t thankful for any big thing that I could think of other than my kids being with me and healthy. But gratitude, as you know, it gave me kind of the courage to run up against the grief and go, no, you’re not going to take me with you. No. And so a gra. A, gratitude practice that was born in defiance now five years later, is something that I lean so deeply into. And I don’t mean the steaming mug of coffee with the sunshine on it, and right like that, you know, I mean, you know, gratitude that is born of pain and suffering and leaning hard into, a true gratefulness for this life.

When you lose someone to suicide, it does something different than other tragedies

Wendy Valentine: M. Would you say was that your dark night of the soul during that time?

Theresa Bruno: 100. I. I just never knew. I never knew that in this lifetime we had to face something so hard. M. And I’m. I would. I don’t know this because it. It’s my tragedy, you know, but I would think when you lose someone to suicide, it does something to you that’s different than losing someone to a horrible death, cancer, whatever. I would think losing a child would, more than.

Wendy Valentine: Yes.

Theresa Bruno: Parallel what I’ve been through. So, Yeah, I definitely put that out there.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

If you have children, you go through great grief as a mother

And speaking of children, I’m sure for you, it’s like, as a mother, then you’re holding their pain, their grief, you’re worried about them, but then you’re trying to, like, put the oxygen mask on yourself first, and it’s this toggle between of, who to take care of and. So how did you. How did you handle all of that?

Theresa Bruno: Well, that’s one of the beautiful things, is that children. If you have children and you go through great grief as a mother. For me, I wanted. I knew the minute. And this is a little bit, rough to say, but I found my husband, and I knew the second that I found him, you know, somehow there’s a strength that happens really fast and then that completely goes away later.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, like the fight or flight kicks in and then it’s getting there, going.

Theresa Bruno: Okay. I have these two boys and they’re both in their early 20s and every single step I take from here forward will be remembered for the rest of their lives. Who hears about it first, Whether I’m completely falling apart or if I have composure, who I call how I handle this is what they will take forward forever. And I don’t know how that was purely grace that I could think that way in the moment. And so, so many things were about the boys. It was, you know, I would come out of my bedroom and make coffee and be there for them and then completely fall apart later. But the kids gave me a reason, you know, and I knew so go however I went was how they were going to go. So if I could not get it together, if I was just a complete basket case with no ability to move forward, that would give them license to quit on life. and that’s exactly what I didn’t want. So, they gave me, they gave me purpose.

Wendy Valentine: Isn’t that great? I was just thinking too, like I was telling someone the other day, sometimes the best way that we can teach, whether it’s our children or friends or a family, is by example. Not so much the words that we will like, bits of advice that we would give. So to me that’s really what you did is like teaching by example. Okay, yes, we’ve had something tragic happen to us, but we got to pick up, we got to still go make our cup of coffee and we still got to like, keep moving throughout the day. Yes, you grieve and like, it’s this.

Theresa Bruno: Got to go to work. Yeah, keep going. The other thing, my, my husband was just the kindest man you’d probably ever make Italian. And he had just infused, infused and imbued our lives with, you know, this spirit of goodness and kindness and care for others, acts of service. That’s just how he was wired. And so it was kind of easy to pull from his life and say, hey guys, you know, we didn’t any of us know what dad was going through, but we are going to keep him alive. You know, we’re going to keep him alive in doing as he would do if this happened to him. And so even though it was hard, even at the funeral, you know, it was, it was all so hard. But we learned to tell the funny stories. He was a funny man with a great sense of humor and he was always doing goofy things. And so one of the ways that was healing, bittersweet but very healing, was we would sit around the table with their girlfriends and me and we would just tell the craziest stories about their dad. And it became, yeah, you might go off and cry a minute, but it shifted it, you know, so that he wasn’t gone. I didn’t want them to feel like, well, you never can speak his name again. It’s too hard or right. You know, and learning to live. And that’s one of the biggest things I learned, you know, in, in America, I don’t think it’s this way. Certainly in Eastern cultures it’s not. But we don’t have verbiage for death, language. We don’t give anybody time to grieve. You know, most you get is two weeks off from work and then you better be back and oh, are you good? Are you over?

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. As your email inbox fills up. Right, right.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. So the thing I learned and, and I think the boys helped me a lot with this too was there’s no timeframe on grief. I’m still grieving five years later. I’ll probably be grieving for the rest of my life. But it’s, it’s like two cups. You know, you hold grief in this one cup in your hand and you learn to live with it and to sleep with it and to drink it, to bathe with it. It doesn’t go away. But you do have a choice about what’s on the other hand.

Wendy Valentine: Yes.

Theresa Bruno: What are you balancing? Are you balancing? Okay, this is absolutely horrible. But I, I want to come out of it. I want to figure this out. I want to figure out what’s next in all this. and so you learn to hold different things as your journey progresses.

Wendy Valentine: Courage.

Theresa Bruno: You know, you learn where to turn fear. Because fear is so much a part of grief. Fear cripples.

Wendy Valentine: Oh gosh. I mean, fear really just explodes during grief. Like fears that you don’t even know that you had.

Theresa Bruno: Totally. Like.

Wendy Valentine: And you can create new ones because of the, the tragedy, right?

Theresa Bruno: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I became a different person in it. I used to kind of walk around a little cocky and go, yeah, I’m sort of fearless. I’ll try anything. You know, after James died and I don’t know why this, I, I couldn’t even go in the grocery store. I think it was fear of seeing people and not wanting asked what happened? How could this have happened? What didn’t? You know? You know, because those are the things people would say. but I became paralyzed. I remember pulling up to a publix and really needed just a little bit of food. And I. I sat in the car and I mean, there I could not go in. Then I drove all around town and pulled in various different parking lots of other publixes and thought, well, maybe I’ll go in places where I don’t know anybody. There’s no way I’ll run into anybody. But I still was paralyzed, you know. And it was such unnatural feeling for me. because I had lived my life pretty big and I became very small for a while. The fear.

Learning what to do with that fear is really important too

The fear did that. So learning what to do with that fear is really important too.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. It’s interesting with trauma. That’s one thing I’ve learned in my life too, that like you were talking earlier when you. Unfortunately, you had found your husband that fight or flight kicks in. Fight flight or freeze. That. That can continue. Like it can. You’ll get re triggered and re triggered and then the fight flight kicks in and it’s exhausting. Exhausting.

Theresa Bruno: I still have to work on it a lot.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Yes.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. Yeah. And I, you know, big believer in therapy.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. I was going to ask you about that.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. So I was in talk therapy when James died and it just really wasn’t working for me anymore. and someone pointed me toward a, really, really good therapist who was doing emdr.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, that’s what I did.

Theresa Bruno: Yes. And it helped me more than anything get through some of the real big beats that just where I was stuck. Just so stuck. And so I would encourage anybody to seek out a modality, a therapeutic modality. That’s helpful.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, I totally agree. EMDR was amazing for me. And then I even did a ketamine journey as well. Yeah. Which was so cool. but yeah, you have to kind of find what works for you. There’s. The cool thing is nowadays there’s so many tools, different types of therapists, different. Like, it’s great. I mean, we have everything even like. Right. On our computers that you know, to get help. But definitely, like the key is to get help. Right.

Theresa Bruno: So I’m ashamed. Do not. Oh, yeah.

Wendy Valentine: No. it will, ah.

Theresa Bruno: Help you see yourself and help you come alive to yourself again.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Just like I said earlier, we’re all human beings being human here. Like there’s. It’s all part of it. Right. Like we’re all built with these emotions and, and just accept it for what it is. Like it’s. There’s no. No Reason to feel shame or guilt.

A little saying stuck hard and it made me okay today

So I’m curious. I was. Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

Theresa Bruno: I’ll just give you a little snippet to. For your listeners. M. To take away. And a really good friend who walked through part of this journey with me and her little saying, which sounds so silly, but it just stuck hard and it made me okay. A lot of days she would say, hey, it’s just okay not to be okay.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: And I was like, okay, I can hold on to that today, because I’m not okay, but I’m still okay.

Wendy Valentine: Isn’t that funny, though? Yeah. There. Those little words that actually. Or a magnet on the refrigerator or.

Theresa Bruno: Anything that’s just like, whatever it takes, if it works.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. You just grab whatever you can.

James suicide triggered memories from childhood that bubbled to the surface

So, I’m curious if anything. They. They say the professionals like. But sometimes you’ll experience a loss, especially a very traumatic loss, and then other losses bubble to the surface. Even from, like, childhood. Is there anything like, bubbled to the surface for you during that time?

Theresa Bruno: Oh, yeah. you know, and it sounds like I’ve just had the most terrible life I’ve had.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, no. Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: I didn’t come from a happy home. I came from, an abusive home and parents who didn’t love each other. And there was just a, you know, there was just a lot in that house that was not good. And though I had worked through, I thought I had worked through all of it. The betrayal you feel as a child, you know, when a parent isn’t attentive or a parent is abusive, there’s such a deep betrayal, of what? You know, we come into the world as little babies, you know, just bright and shiny and believing we’re going to be loved. We expect to be loved. But it’s like a new kitten or a puppy, you know, they come out running around and crazy. You kick them enough in the corner, and they’re never going to run around and be cute and crazy again.

Wendy Valentine: Yep.

Theresa Bruno: Well, I had. I had worked through a lot of that, but I had no idea how James suicide would trigger all of that past betrayal. And I had to do a lot of really deep work. And that’s. That’s a very good question and one for your listeners to remember that sometimes all the gunk we feel that comes to the surface isn’t what we’re experiencing today. Yes.

Wendy Valentine: Yes. Yeah. It’s so true. Right. And then to sit with that and go, okay, what? I. I have to ask myself this question several times, sometimes every day, like, all right, what’s underneath this Wendy.

Theresa Bruno: Well, but that’s a, that’s such a good question because then you know what you’re reacting to. Am I reacting to you, Wendy, today and having a blast or I’m feeling. Or am I feeling the neglect and the insecurities of a child and so then I can’t talk to you? Yes.

Wendy Valentine: Yep. Like I mean have anything to do with the person or the event or whatever the situation is. It could have something to do with something that happened 40 years ago.

Theresa Bruno: Absolutely.

Wendy Valentine: Yes.

Theresa Bruno: So forward.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

James took his life five years ago and it still hits hard sometimes

What, what are some of, if you don’t mind sharing some of the, some of your triggers that you still have now from that event. And then how do you, how do you find that relief? What are, what’s your, what’s in your toolbox instead of like what’s in your wallet? What’s your toolbox?

Theresa Bruno: Lots of tools that I’ve learned and I’m still working on, so I’d love to share some of those. the triggers, I think the biggest triggers, that happened as a result of losing the business because of fraud to someone I tr. The fraud came through someone I trusted. Okay. So I didn’t feel safe m. And feel safe with people in business. I didn’t feel safe as a child for most of my children. But when James took his life, everything around me didn’t feel safe. I’ve m. Had to really work on and so I want to run from everything, you know, or I want to close in on myself. And so I’ve had to learn that I don’t have to be. I don’t have to run to be safe.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. You don’t have to be the runaway bride. Like just keep running until. Yeah, yeah.

Theresa Bruno: Actually, I mean it’s been the hardest lesson because I, I came into this journ very self protected, you know, very private and now I’m just telling everything there is to tell. But it’s. It’s learning that vulnerability, you know, when you can be that vulnerable and you can share what you’re going through and you have trusted people. I mean, I’m not saying just share your darkness with anybody, but there’s so much healing. That’s what pulls you out of your shame and your isolation is being m Willing to be vulnerable and tell your story.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: Shame and isolation do not help you heal.

Wendy Valentine: No, no, definitely not at all. And kind of going back to what we were saying earlier with, I mean basically giving yourself the gift of grieving. It is a gift. And to allow yourself like it’s, it’s A freaking roller coaster. Right?

Theresa Bruno: Roller coaster. And I. I will say, five years in, it still hits hard sometimes. Yeah, hard. And. But I’ve learned. I’ve learned to know what I’m experiencing. And I do have tools. I’ve learned to have tools that are very helpful.

How are you a stronger woman now because of what you went through

Wendy Valentine: How are you a stronger woman now because of what you went through?

Theresa Bruno: I think my strength is more transparent. it’s not. It’s not strength based on definitions of success that were predominantly material and, defined by, you know, the things early in life we define our successes by. You know, it’s not what house I live in or what car I drive or do I have good hair today or. Yeah, you know, it’s those definitions. They went away so fast. And so I’m stronger as a woman to be able to sit here and say, you know, I’ve had some really huge failures. What I’m most proud of about myself is that I’m resilient. I am figuring it out. you know, I’m learning. I thought I was courageous before because I was brave about opening businesses. You know, I thought I was courageous because somehow in the midst of all, all the chaos of my life, I had two amazing kids and I was like, oh, ah, being a mom’s easy. Well, it’s not, you know.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. definitely not.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah, it’s not an older they get, the bigger the problems kind of thing. But, yeah, I think I’m stronger in my weak. Maybe weakness is the wrong word. I’m stronger in because I’m just so damned honest about all of it.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Yeah. Like, this is me.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. I mean, y’all. It’s messy, raw. It’s. It’s not a beautiful journey. It’s not.

When I started the Soul Talks podcast, I was struggling with grief

Wendy Valentine: I was just thinking the analogy, the metaphor of what you’re doing now compared to what you were doing before. And I haven’t really totally thought this line through yet, but it’s almost like before you were. You were displaying your jewelry on the outside. Now you’re. You’re displaying the jewelry on the inside, if that makes sense.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah, I loved designing jewelry. I loved. I loved it, but I didn’t love selling it. and, you know, when I decided to do the podcast, the Soul Talks podcast, I was just like, I’ve got to make sense of everything that’s happened to me. And in my grief journey, I couldn’t really find very many people who really would talk about the ugly. and so I thought, well, I just want to make a space for people to go. I can sit in that space with her, I can, I can share that pain. And it’s, it’s really awful. And so that was really the motivation was kind of making sense of James life, making sense of my life and my boys lives by saying, I’ve been through this and I am willing to give you everything I’ve got if it helps you. That’s right. So that was a big turning point of getting out there. and then, you know, that sort of has just catapulted and I’ve met so many incredible people, so many people who’ve taught me so much. Healers as well as those grieving, you know, you just, you just get filled up by the goodness of humanity, honestly. So, the most helpful thing I’ve done is to start the podcast, then writing the book, then doing the things that come from the podcast, you know, and it’s. That part of the journey is truly beautiful.

Wendy Valentine: It is, I can vouch for that. It’s, it’s quite amazing. I mean, I think I’ve learned more about myself and my own journey just doing this and just like you said, sharing stories. I mean, I feel like whenever I do an interview, it’s like a little mini workshop for myself. It’s like, oh yeah, like I totally.

Theresa Bruno: Feel the same and I love so much from everybody else’s journey. It’s not just my journey and me sharing it, it’s that now I’m asking others to share theirs and I’m hopefully, just as you are doing with me today, so beautifully drawing it out of them. And yeah, you’re exactly right. I am just in class all the time.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, exactly. Life class. So it’s funny, I was thinking about the name of your podcast, the Soul Talks. And I was like, yes, the soul does talk, but the soul talks all the time. But rarely do we listen.

Theresa Bruno: Right.

Wendy Valentine: What is, what is your, what is your soul telling you now?

Theresa Bruno: so one of the things, I totally believe what you just said and a good friend of mine always, says, you know, spirit whispers. Spirit doesn’t jump up and down and scream and holler and beat us over the head. So you have to get really still, and listen to spirit. So spirit whispers. I’m, I’m not in a place of, I know what I. Some of the things I would love to achieve with, the journey I’m on with the podcast in the book and wherever that all goes. But I’m holding it in not that place of it’s about a success or it’s about a Certain number of followers or likes or it’s. It’s really trying to listen and say, what. What is this meant to be in this world? Why did I get the opportunity to have this story.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: Tell it. To have people who are listening. What is it meant to be? And I don’t know what’s next. I don’t, I don’t know where it will go. I’m just, really humbled that I get to tell it.

Wendy Valentine: After going through those experiences. Has it helped you to kind of go in with what you were just saying? To detach from what’s to come or not to come completely? To surrender?

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. Just to be here today in this moment to love those I love really hard, you know?

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: And then just kind of. It tells me. But I mean, you know, I’m a believer. And you have dreams, you put them out there and you work for them. I’m not saying that they’re just going to happen because you have it in your head and you do nothing about it.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: I’m in a listening place because I’ve made some big moves in the last 18 months, and it’s, you know, it’s doing its thing and kind of waiting for. Waiting for it to tell me.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Isn’t that nice, though? Instead of trying to push it or rush it or we. We expect everything to be like this instant.

Theresa Bruno: Right.

Wendy Valentine: And just wait for its time. If it ever. Whatever that is.

Theresa Bruno: Whatever that is. And this may not be for everything. You know, this may be something I do for a few years, and then I’ll feel like I’ve put my story out there and it’s enough. Or maybe it’s something I do for a very long time. I don’t know. But right now it is very joyful for me. and I, you know, there isn’t a day, honestly, that I don’t have somebody reach out to me. dm M Me. M what? In. Or get in touch in some way and say things that, like. And these are hard to hear, but every single day I’ll get a message that says, my husband just committed suicide last week. How do I get to this day? Or I lost my daughter a year ago and I still can’t get out of bed. And I’m like, okay, God, okay, universe, you’re telling me I. I have a message that’s helpful, and maybe I can give people just, you know, something to answer that question. How do I get through this day? And so as long as I feel like it’s needed, I’ll do this.

You mentioned something earlier about you having the opportunity to share the story

Wendy Valentine: You mentioned something earlier about you having the opportunity to actually share the story. Like, in other words, like, this happened for you, for others, instead of it, you know, the victim mode of, oh, this happened to me, my husband killed himself, I lost my business. Wow. Because that. You have that option, right? When anything happens, like anything tragic happens, you have that option to be like, what was me? Somebody get out the violin, like, ah, and. And your life could take a totally different turn. Or you have that option of, you know what, I want to pull up my bootstraps. I’m going to heal from this and I’m going to move on.

Theresa Bruno: Right. And it’s a long healing. I mean, everybody knows that. It doesn’t.

Wendy Valentine: Yes, yeah, there is that.

Theresa Bruno: And it’s not little, it’s like a grain.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Theresa Bruno: Not big, it’s like a grain. Some little something that pushes you to go, okay, I can take that next step. And I want to, you know, I can actually wash my hair. You know, one day I’ll put on makeup again. It’s just there’s something that starts. I, I do believe as human beings we, we have resilience just in our DNA. And so something like this happens to you and that resilience starts talking to you, you know, and it talks to you pretty gorgeously going, all right, you got this. It’s awful, but you’re not dead. You got this. You know, it’s not killing you. And that, you feel like it is, but it really isn’t. And so I think, you know, just listening to your own resilience is something that guides you.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, I mean, I mean, think like with the dark night of the soul, as they call it, those are great opportunities to have those conversations with your soul. The soul talks.

Theresa Bruno: Yeah. Well, and I would say five years later, and I know we’re just about times up with your show. I always thought I was a spiritual person. I had a big belief system. I was a very prayerful person. I meditated, I did yoga, all those things. My m. True spiritual journey I think happened the day James died. And so my life spiritually has taken on a really different, look. and, and I. It. It. That in and of itself is a journey and that’s where a lot of the tools have come from. But I never expected to go to have this journey. You know, I thought I was. That it was good. I thought, yeah, had it kind of worked out. and where this has taken me is, I am a better. I think I’M a better person for it.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Interesting. With his loss, you became more alive.

Theresa Bruno: I did. I did. And he’s still with us.

Wendy Valentine: M. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Behind. He’s by that Christmas tree back there.

Theresa Bruno: There you go.

Wendy Valentine: Thank you so much. this is. This is my kind of talk, the Soul Talks.

Theresa Bruno: Well, there you go. And you do it extremely well. But again, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity. And, you know, you’re just putting out really good stuff in the world. Thank you.

Wendy Valentine: Thank you. You too. So where can we find you? And especially, like, well, we want to make sure we can get your book when it comes out, too, so.

Theresa Bruno: Thank you. Thank you. So, website. Soul Talks, with Teresa.com and Instagram, Soultalks podcast. And, you know, you can listen on Apple or Spotify, and you can watch on YouTube.

Wendy Valentine: Yes, I know. I was listening to a few before, so they’re really good. I like it.

Theresa Bruno: All right, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Thank you so much. Yeah. Happy holidays, and, everyone, enjoy the rest of your day.

Theresa Bruno: Just wishing everyone peace and thank you.