Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, Welcome to Lisa's book Club, a podcast where I
interview best selling authors from the New England area, pulling
back the curtain on what it's really like being a
best selling author. They're guilty pleasures, latest projects, and so
much more. Well, Welcome into Lisa's book Club podcast. I
have a very special guest because she's actually been a
friend of mine for years, Carrie Brett, and she is
(00:27):
an author, she has a podcast, and she's a professional photographer.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome in, Thanks for having me, and I'm so excited
to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
We've been talking about doing this for a really long time.
But I knew Carrie when you were shooting for The
Improper Bostonian, Right.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
That's right. I photographed Natty her cover and you came
to that at my studio. That was a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It was a long time ago. And then I know
your father everybody, Bill Brett, Boston Globe photographer, and he
came out with a book when you told that you
were thinking about writing a book. What did he say
to you?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
My dad's always supported my creative ambitions. He didn't understand
online dating, but he knew that I was passionate about it,
and he's not a reader. My dad, although he reads
probably five newspapers a day, he supported me and he
(01:25):
really didn't know what I was up to. But honestly,
when I started the podcast, I was just swapping out
the microphone for my camera. And when I realized that
I was always a storyteller by using a camera, I thought,
you know what, I think I'm going to try to
take a chance or take a shot at writing.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Right. And you made a career out of making people
look good, But you say in the book that the
real story behind the photographer is the unknown, right, right.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
So ironically I was giving highlight reels of everyone I photographed,
making them look unbelievable, and the whole time my life
was falling apart. I was doing really well professionally, but
my life was kind of in shambles, and all I
really wanted was to find love. And I think it's
(02:19):
shocking to the improper that I worked there for twenty
eight years and I did my job, and I was
the silent soldier, and I never asked for help and
I never told anyone because I was in the media.
So it's you have to keep up that facade that
everything's perfect. And I couldn't anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, So this was six years in the making this book.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So in twenty eighteen, I went up to the Apple
Store at Derby Street and I bought a iPad and
what I called a JK. Rowling trapper Keeper, and I
decided I would start a book. I never thought the
book would be about me.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So the book for everyone is called Shot at Love,
and it's your journey through dating and your journey through
using Tinder as your go to app, which I was
surprised about when I read that, because I always hear
like Tinders like just for hookups and stuff like that,
but you tell a very different story about your experience.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Absolutely. So in around twenty fourteen twenty fifteen, I was
in a long term relationship that had fallen apart and
I was completely devastated. And I had a twenty five
year old photography assistant who couldn't stand watching me cry
every day at my studio and he said, well, why
don't you go on Tinder? And I didn't know what
(03:48):
that was and it seemed ridiculous, but I was so
desperate yeah that I said, Okay. So I had good photographs,
I put them up and all of a sudden, it
was like I almost broke that Internet because I wasn't
Kim Kardashian, but I was someone who didn't have any
(04:09):
competition or Carrie Prett, and exactly it was like, oh,
I have forgotten who I was. Yeah, and I actually
have worth. I remember I was on a date one
time and it was with a famous person. I didn't
realize that I was in a planet, but here I
was on this date and this person was telling me
(04:32):
about their past and everything. And as I was sitting
across from them at the table, on the back wall
behind him was all the covers that I had photographed,
and I remember thinking, I feel really low, but I
kept looking at the wall, being like I have done
something with my life.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Right. But so this book's funny because you go through.
You dated a musician, you dated a builder, you dated
a painter, so you kind of went through. You know,
you have you know how to dating history. But I
think that online dating gets such a bad rap. But
for you, you present such a different picture of it.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Right. Well, I'm really positive by nature, yeah, and I
love everyone. And my father's the same way. That's why
he has so many fans because he sees the good
in everyone, and I feel like that's one of my gifts.
I have a huge heart and I lead by my
heart and that makes great images because I use my
(05:31):
compassion to create the work that I do. But because
I'm so open and caring, those skills that I had
as a photographer really hurt me in dating. But dating
apps are just a tool. They're just a mean to
an ends, and people are so afraid of it that
(05:53):
they limit themselves. And it's just a way like coming
on a radio station or going to a book club,
coming out and meeting other people. And I've found an
incredible community from your book club. So if you look
at the book club and a dating app, all it
does is expand your universe.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, I love in your book you quote Mel Robbins,
and Mel Robbins says no one is coming to save you,
and that is such a classic line from Mel. But
it's so right. You need to save yourself. So whether
you're looking you know, whether you're just out of a
relationship or you've had your heart broken, it's up to
(06:35):
you to motivate yourself and to put yourself out there.
And that's what you did, and that's what this book
is about and you used the dating app Tinder as
you're sort of your vehicle to do it, which I
think is so cool.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Absolutely so Tinder is how I rebuilt my life one swipe,
one day at a time. I put myself out there
and I continue to take chances, and if I have
a tender fail with some of the chances, I learned something.
So I just looked at the heartbreak as motivation. You know.
(07:11):
It's like we were talking earlier about how you're looking
to get these authors and they say no, and you're like,
why wouldn't you come on my show? And this is
kiss wenta wait. So it fuels you to keep trying
to keep striving. And that's really what the rejection did
for me. I could have sat home and cried and
(07:32):
gone deeper in my depression. And it is humbling, honestly,
and I think the humbling experience that I went through,
I was able to write a book like this that
really landed, and the feedback's been unbelievable. I didn't think
(07:52):
it was just going to be for women. I have
a huge fan club of divorced dads, and more men
actually listened to my show than women. That's because they
really need the help, right, And because I'm an entrepreneur,
I can connect really with any age group and men
and women because everybody have the countries single.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
But don't you think that that if you present yourself
and you're whether you're using a dating app or not
or some other you know, way to meet people, that
if you go into it with this open mind of hey,
I'm meeting someone new that I didn't even know existed
until like a few days ago. And if you can
just go into it like I'm going to learn something
(08:35):
new and I'm we're going to make a connection or not,
but you're still going to maybe make a new friendship
out of it. And so like if you lower your
expectations and just go into it like, hey, like I'm
out and I'm meeting someone really cool and I'm lucky
that I get to do this.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Right, And that's the way you should approach online dating, right,
that's energetic. You know my boyfriend who I've them with.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Oh, you gave him the punchline. I was going to
say that this whole thing ended up with like a
really happy ending right with Scott.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
But he's so good. He's also very positive and optimistic,
and I look back at our first date and I
was literally crying into a paper napkin, that's how bad
it was. And he came with him, pouring with sweat
over a brick oven fire and so desperate the night
(09:29):
before Easter where I do the walk Walk of Shame
on a train and he saw my heart and he
really was like, I know you're a total disaster right now,
but there has to be something good in you. And
so today is his birthday actually, and yeah, and I
said to him, Okay, this is really I'm so excited
(09:52):
about this, and he said, just go have fun. And
so I think if you just get out of your
head right and just say, this is going to be
a great podcast interview, I hope for the best. You
know all that. I mean, we know each other, we've
been in the media for but you just don't know
what's going to happen. And I think that's the fun
(10:12):
thing about chot at Love my show was I started
the podcast to get a book deal, but look at
the amazing people I brought into my life from my podcast,
which I never would have had if I didn't join Tinder.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Right, So it comes full circle. You also mentioned in
the book that you need to be in a place
where you are open to believing in love, like that's
the biggest thing.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Absolutely. So I say that I'm the ted Lasso of
dating coaches. And I did a lot. I have sixty
five thousand words of the things that I did wrong
in the book, and I make a lot of fun
of myself with myself deprecating humor. But the one thing
that I had, and I think it's because I ended
up with the psychic healer from my friend Kelly Doyle
(11:02):
sent me to my friend Jill Jardine, and Jill was
the one who said to me, carmically, Carrie your due
and you will find love. And love is never going
to be your problem. You have too much of it,
like God gave you too much creativity, too much love,
and it's going to mirror back to you. And that
(11:23):
made sense to me. And when I left Jill, I
called my friend Marian Hancock in the car and she said,
we love Marien.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
We have her on the morning show all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
I called on to BEV and I said to her,
what do you think about this? I'm sitting in the car.
Do you think I'll find love? And she said, you
will by this summer and it was I think February
at the time, and I had proof from Marian Hancock,
who is very psychic, and the psychic healer, my friend
(11:56):
Jill Jardine, and sure enough it unfolded that what way,
But even if I didn't have a medium and a
psychic in my back pocket, I had that belief And
if you want my help, because I have effectively helped
a lot of people find love, it all comes down
to that belief system.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I totally agree. And you actually start your book with
a Ted Lasso quote. I hope that either all of
us or none of us are judged by the actions
of our weakest moments, but rather by the strength we
show when and if we're given a second chance. Yeah,
and it's so true. So yeah, you can give yourself
a second chance, a third chance. But all you need
(12:39):
to be is open to meeting new people.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That's right. And look at what the book club did
for you.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
I know it's really I was just saying to produce
a Riley like three years ago. I was like, I
really want Jody Pico to come to my book club,
and I was like a dog with a bone. I
was not going to give this up. And a big
shout out to Lisa Genova, who's another author of Lisa's
Book Club, an amazing author. She's been on with us
twice and she was able to make that connection. But yeah,
(13:07):
it's kind of like you just have to stick it out.
You have to believe in yourself or whatever you're doing.
And if you're looking for love and you're looking for dating,
you have to just keep after it. You can't just
keep after it. And again from your book, it's basically
just staying open and not having that expectation that this
person's going to be that person they could be, but
(13:28):
then if they're not, then keep moving right.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And now Michael Lozier, who wrote The Law of Attraction,
became a friend of mine. He blurved the back of
the book, It's all about the energetic right and anything
can happen, and life is super magical. And I joke
that I'm the seventh Brady member. And I lived vicariously
through the Brady Bunch as a child and had a
really wild imagination. But I was so attached to the
(13:54):
pop culture and television in these stars, I'm not surprised
that I went on to pull them into my life
as an adult and be friends with a lot of
these people that were on television, And.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
So aren't you photographing one of them?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Well, I just photographed Peter Brady Christopher Knight.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
And then who was the other person, Perry From.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I just yes, So that was my idea. I photographed
Christopher Knight because I wanted to have him on my
show because I used a photograph of the two of
us at a Journey Forward event in two thousand and
nine on Tender.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
But then you've also photographed Parry from Yes, yes, so
can you tell us how that happened?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Absolutely so. I in the meantime of my pursuit of
tracking down Christopher Knight, I ended up becoming friends with
his wife, Kara, And Chris has two charities that are
very important to him. One is Journey Forward that's here
in Canton and the other where I met him in
(14:57):
two thousand and nine, and the other one is the
True Love Foundation, which is about William Syndrome and his
friend Callie Truelove, who is one of the stars in
season three. So I want show of love on the spectrum,
Love on the specrumrat. So I decided to pitch the
publisher that we could link these two stories together because
(15:20):
four of the stars from Love on the Spectrum actually
were from Boston.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, we had Perry on the show recently. She's a doll.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
She's a doll.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
We really had a great time with her. Matt Sure
from WBZ did a big story about her too and
was posting on Instagram. Well, if you want to find
Carrie Brett and if you want Carrie's help, you can
listen to her podcast. Her book is Shot at Love.
How can they reach out to you? If they want
more information.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
They can DM me, Carrie Underscore Brett. You can find
my book on Shot at lovebook dot com and listen
to my podcast because I have two hundred episodes of
so much information and great I'm going to have the
ex wife of the Wolf of Wall Street on tomorrow.
(16:05):
We're maybe talking about what's going on right now with
the kisscam scenario.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Well, a lot of positivity and a lot of hope.
So thanks Kerry, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Loved it.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Hey, we announced another Lisa's book Club date. It's with
Jody Pico. She's sold over forty million books, eight of
which went to the number one bestseller list on the
New York Times right out of the gate. She will
be joining me August twenty eighth at Big Night Live.
If you want to purchase a ticket, you can just
go to my Instagram. There are a few tickets left
(16:40):
on ticket Master, but we would love to see you
August twenty eighth, Big Night Live. Jody Peacup