Dear 'GMA' Advice Guru Top 20 Finalists: Liz Pryor

Nov. 26, 2010 — -- Liz Pryor from Studio City, Calif., is a finalist in the Dear GMA Advice Guru Contest. Read her application below!

Essay

Dear GMA, What you describe for this position is what I love, and what I do. I wanted to take this opportunity to give you my advice on the credentials the person should have, who ends up with this incredible job. The ideal candidate for the GMA advice guru-needs to: a. Have written and published a book to help women, b. Already be expert at giving advice in other media, c. Be experienced and comfortable on camera, d. Have expertise in multi-tasking as a single mom of three, and e. Have lived a good amount of life. Preferably, she should have been married over ten years, and divorced three, have a decade of commercial acting experience from earlier years in life, come from a large all-American family in the Midwest, have a passion for good living, and presently live in L.A. My entirely unbiased advice is to hire me. My name is Liz Pryor, I'm an author, and a professional giver of advice both on radio and online.

What's the best advice you have ever given? What was the result?

A friend of mine was getting ready to tell her children, ages 10,13 and 14, that she and her husband were getting divorced. She was a mess, and asked, did I have any advice on how to make this easier for the kids. I suggested she write each of them a letter, say in the letter all the things she knew they would feel and fear, and reassure them everything was going to be alright. I told her to put the letters on their pillows in their bedrooms. When she asked why, I told her to trust me and do it. She did it. And when the kids were told the shattering news, they all ran into their bedrooms and slammed their doors. Her ten year-old sleeps with his letter, and several months later she found her old oldest, reading hers in bed.