Ep. 198 | The Threats You Never See Coming w/ Author, Liz Lazarus

As a college student, she woke to an attacker kicking through her bedroom door. Years later, she found herself in an entirely different fight, trying to protect her aging mother during a years-long guardianship battle.

Those experiences taught her some hard lessons about what it really means to protect yourself and the people you love.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

* Why your instincts deserve your attention

* How small actions can buy critical time when something goes wrong

* Why women sometimes ignore red flags and what we need to do differently

* What stalking victims taught Liz about documenting threatening behavior

* Why every family should have important legal and healthcare decisions settled before a crisis

* The difference between owning a firearm and actually being prepared

* How to keep fighting while accepting that some things are simply outside our control

Liz turned some of the hardest experiences of her life into stories that now help other people become more aware and prepared.

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In this episode of Defenders LIVE, Lora sits down with engineer, firearms instructor, and thriller author Liz Lazarus, whose fiction is rooted in experiences she never expected to live through herself. As a college student, Liz woke in the middle of the night to an attacker kicking through her bedroom door. She fought back and survived, but the experience changed the way she thought about vulnerability, preparation, intuition, and self-protection. Years later, she faced a very different kind of fight when a guardianship battle left her struggling to protect her aging mother within a system she expected to help.

Liz shares what both experiences taught her about listening to your instincts, recognizing red flags, documenting threatening behavior, preparing your family’s affairs before a crisis, and accepting that owning a firearm is not the same as being prepared to use one responsibly. Lora and Liz also talk about the helplessness that comes when you’ve done everything you can and still cannot control the outcome, and how faith, perseverance, and preparation help us navigate those moments.

Being a defender isn’t about controlling everything that might happen. It’s about recognizing what is within your control and preparing before you’re forced to respond.

Watch more at Defenders-LIVE.com or subscribe for future conversations.

More at lizlazarus.com.

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