In this episode of the Empower You Podcast Authorship Series, host Kenston Henderson interviews Dawn Marie Bornheimer, a former classroom teacher turned regional director of partnerships at health‑simulation company Cognito. Dawn discusses her collaborative book, The Strength of Our Anchors, which she curated by interviewing 20 women authors and selecting nine to share personal stories about postpartum challenges, mental health, loss, cancer, and relationship struggles—primarily aimed at a female readership. She explains how a prior contribution to another anthology sparked the idea to create her own project, emphasizing the desire to give others a platform. Dawn outlines the barriers she faced, including deciding what story to tell, navigating personal privacy, and managing contributors’ readiness, and describes how journaling, self‑honoring, and accepting “no” helped her move forward. She offers practical advice for aspiring writers: start now, use journaling or voice recording, attend workshops, and leverage personal expertise. The conversation concludes with details on purchasing the book on Amazon, noting its nautical‑themed cover and a quote about transformation after a storm, and both host and guest encourage listeners to support the project and continue sharing stories.
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Hello and welcome to the Empower You Podcast Authorship Series brought to you by Live of Life. In each episode, we interview a self-published author to talk about their journey to becoming an author and to reveal tips to help future authors release their story to the world. I'm your host Kenston Henderson, Chief and Empowerment Officer, Live of Life. In today's episode, we have as our featured author Don Bornheimer. Don is a published author and industry leader with a unique combination of interpersonal, business, and strategic skills. Her 18 years of professional experience have taken her from classroom teacher to world-class sales and marketing executive. Currently the regional director of partnerships for Cognito, a health simulation company that developed role-play simulations where users engage in conversations with virtual humans and learn how to lead similar conversations in real life that help result in improved social, emotional, and physical health. As part of Dawn's mission is to serve others, she is an active contributor to serve several for-purpose organizations to include the All Men Foundation, Give Her Courage, Elevate Network, Leaders in Virginia. Whether it is to support through sport, fundraising, public speaking, or empowering others to share their stories, Dawn seeks to live with intention and purpose daily. Well, welcome, Dawn.
Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.
I'm thankful to have you on this episode. Listen, you authored, uh, or collaborated author on the book called The Strength of Our Anchors. Tell us more about that.
Yeah, it was actually an exciting project. I had the opportunity to be the person who brought everyone together, so I interviewed about 20 authors. I selected 9 And those women shared stories of overcoming. So they gave us an opportunity to take a snapshot of time in their life where they were moving through something and the tools that they developed through the process, and they shared that story with the world. So I had an opportunity to write the introduction and to just invite them into the process and help their voices be heard and pull that project together with the help of Dr. Sharon Porter and Perfect Time Publishing.
That's cool. That's cool. So, you know, so what really was it that inspired you to write this book? Like, was there something that was like, I need to put this together?
You know, it's interesting. I had been invited to a collaboration the year before. And what that means for me at the time was that I had to write a chapter in someone else's book. And I had the opportunity to kind of dip my toe in the water, see what story I wanted to share. We all have so many stories to share. We all have a beautiful opportunity to be a page page in somebody else's playbook. And so I was gifted an opportunity to do that in 2018. And it was just such a beautiful opportunity for me to share some of myself with others. And the feedback I received was so meaningful, so powerful. We did some book signings, and we really just had an opportunity to share a part of ourselves with others. And when I saw the gifts that it brought to so many people's lives, I realized I needed to create that same path for others. So the following year, I felt inspired to pull together a project of my own.
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So tell me, is this book for a certain audience or a broad range?
No, I'll be honest in saying it's probably more for a female reader, someone identifies as a female. They will really connect with some of the stories. We have women that have shared stories of postpartum, mental health, different struggles around depression, different struggles around loss, cancer diagnosis, different relationship challenges. And so all from the female perspective. And so just to be, you know, clear, I, I have men and women who have read the book, but mostly in support of me. The women that I hear from though say it was right on time for them oftentimes.
That's cool, that's cool. Now tell me, what barriers did you face when going through the book writing process, and how did you get through it?
You know, I think some of the barriers for me were overcome in that first contribution, right? The idea that I didn't have to take on a whole book by myself. I was able to just sit down and share one story. One of the things that I did to help alleviate some of the challenges of deciding the what behind what story I was going to tell was really to just sit down and start journaling. I started creating a practice around the journaling piece. Which started to allow me to just see what was coming through me, where the common themes were. And I think then I was able to narrow down. But I would say one of those barriers was really just deciding what I was going to write. I think the second barrier that I needed to overcome was the idea that one day it was going to be in print, right? It was going to be available to all. It was going to be an asset that someone could read and access. For me personally, my first contribution was called Shifting My Identity. And I really needed to be self-honoring, but also recognize that it was my story to tell. And I needed to, even if my family was involved or other people that were in my life at different points in time, that it was designed to be from my perspective, but not necessarily to share parts of their story. So I had to toe the line a little bit on deciding what that looked like for me and what felt correct. And then also, I think, after that was published, The feedback just felt so good, and I knew that I could create that for others. But when I went to put together the Strengths of Our Anchors, I knew that I wanted to have people that were all in, that were truly ready. And so I think one of the barriers I had to overcome in that moment was that it was OK for people to say no. And I also needed to recognize the signs of when people were just not quite ready. I may have believed they had a powerful story to share, but they have to share that in their own time. And so being able to invite people to the opportunity, but recognizing that some people just won't be ready, um, was something I needed to kind of embrace and move through, which is why we did 20 interviews and I ended up with 9 contributors.
Wow. Wow.
Wow.
Audience, if you're listening, I hope you're listening because Dawn is dropping some, some huge nuggets of wisdom, uh, that you can definitely take with you, um, and activate. On your project as well. And so, Dawn, what, what is one nugget of advice you can leave with our audience, those who are looking to write their story and share with the world that— but they may be a little stuck?
I think we just have to get started, right? I think you just have to be willing to get started, and whatever started looks like for you is okay. I know people that voice record some of their stories. I know people that sit down and just start journaling like I did. I know people that start by just joining a class or taking a workshop somewhere that they can uncover what is the story within them that they're meant to share. And I'm speaking as if everyone has a personal story to share. You might be choosing to write about a topic of interest. You might be choosing to write about something that you're a subject matter expert in. So during my day job, I work in mental health, and so I could speak on trauma-informed practices. I could speak on bullying in the workplace. I could speak on clinical training for physicians. Like, I have all of this depth and breadth of knowledge that I could also write something about. For me, being published meant sharing part of me and empowering others to share their story. But for you, it may be a different topic. You may want to write a children's book. So I would suggest that you just consider where you want to start and what you have to share that's on your heart that is meant for others to read and begin there.
Wow, wow, wow. Eat it up, audience, eat it up. This is, this is good. This is all good. Um, so Dawn, where can people find your— find and purchase your book?
So the easiest place to purchase my book is on Amazon. You can look for The Strength of Our Anchors, um, and then just search by my name. Um, the COVID is beautifully designed. My cousin is an artist, and we actually took a photograph of a painting that is on, um, my wall in my home. So you'll see kind of a nautical-themed painting on the front, and then the collaboration of all the women is listed on the back. And there's a quote on the COVID that I just want to read to you. It says, "When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same as the person who walked in. That's what the storm is all about." And so just, you know, honor yourself when you have an opportunity to read the book. And I'm so grateful for anyone that wants to support our project because the ladies did a beautiful job of just stepping forward, being vulnerable, and being willing to share a part of themselves with all of you.
That's good. That's good. Audience, definitely go out and support Dawn and the rest of the amazing women in this project. And so, Dawn, this is, you know, this has been an amazing time that we had together. And so I appreciate you for coming on this episode. And I know you're going to continue to do amazing, amazing more work locally and globally. So keep doing what you're doing. Because it is affecting lives in a positive way. So thank you again for, for being on this episode.
No, thank you so much, and I just want to acknowledge you for even coming up with this idea. There's so many people out there that have taken the time and put their love and labor into these projects, and it's so nice that you're calling those forward and giving people an opportunity to learn about local authors like myself.
