How a Publisher Built a Legacy by Betting on Overlooked Voices

And then find opportunities where it can then be shared across other platforms.

“I don't know about you, but there's something about...”

Lisa Dine Cassner is a purpose-driven entrepreneur, executive editor, and the founder of Running Well Press, drawing from her journey of overcoming personal adversity. She empowers underrepresented writers to share their unique stories, creating a lasting legacy of authentic representation, creative freedom, and transformative literature. I'm going to find those artists who are putting out great stuff.

I'll acquire it. They keep the licensing. They basically keep the copyright, but they give me the right to represent them in ebook, paperback, audiobook, TV, film, you name it. It's about those brands. It's about those stories that people are putting out there. I can help guide those people in refining what they have put either on the page

“or on the screen or what have you, and make it the ultimate that it can be.”

We can help that person realize... The living your legacy podcast, for those who live to leave a legacy. Welcome back to another episode of the Women in Power Podcast for Insight Success.

I'm Raged Harris. Joining me today is yet again another powerful woman of awesomeness.

I'm not just talking about her awesome shirt. I love her laugh. Lisa, Castor, how are you, Lisa? I'm fabulous. How are you doing? Fantastic. It's Friday. Yes! Yes! So what brings you up into these neckola woods?

You guys. Oh my god, you guys are amazing. I love all the work you're doing. Oh, cool. Very cool. Very proud and champion of our success in a very short time. And it's all of you folks. You all believe and we're thriving together. So it's a very much an energy piece of power.

Let's not go that way. It's going to be a very, it's going to be a different podcast, very, very soon. But you are a woman in power. We're literally about to film your episode. In our studios, you're in Miami. How do you feel? I feel fantastic. I mean, even just all the prep was so fabulous, kind of revisiting like how we got here and my sense are quite similar to yours.

Where, cool. Although I get that this is a woman in power episode, it's not about the individual. It's about the community and how we all really lift each other up. And we really make things magic. And we're doing it. Hell, yeah. It's quite interesting. Like, even when I found the gig working with Rudy, I found the funnel like this dark back door, back door, back door entrance where it's like,

ha, this is a great way to like the funnel out the nonsense and that don't quite get how to

unbored. Hell, yeah. And then when I finally got the call for him, Jen was like,

ah, ha, what took you so long? And then, and then, yada, yada, yada, like a sign filled with say, yada, yada, yada. We've landed here. And now I'm front of you and it's very divine. And we recognize that here. And we have the opportunity to film those moments on camera and tell that story through inside success. Um, but let's talk about you. What, what are we going to learn about you in your episode? Um, we're going to learn about how I came up where I came up

and what actually brought me to running a licensing content creation and distribution company,

“but also how other people like, how do you make your magic happen, right? Are you real?”

No. Dude, we're going to talk. We're going to make action to figure us together. You have no idea. I'm going to blow your mother fucking mind. I just came from Tandy. Go Comic-Con. Hells, yeah, we are. I'm going to blow this woman's fucking mind. You have no idea who the fuck you're talking to. And that's three f thumbs in a row. You're blowing my mind. Just so you know, we just published Scott Levis memoir. He's, you know, who Scott is? I'm aware of your expression as soon as I

mentioned him. So Scott for those who may not know. So Scott, many call him the original Spider-Man. So he is the Spider-Man and the famous Peter Parker were a half-Peter Parker half-spitey. That's Scott. Scott actually wanted a Oscar for creating the modern day airbag. Of course,

Scott is dope. Like he is the coolest dude. So if you ever feeling like hang out. Oh, that would be awesome. Comic Con is such an amazing energy. It's such a crate. I've been to four Comic Cons.

But I've never explored Comic Con as as a fan. I always worked at Comic Con. I worked at PlayStation.

So I was I was a booth display unit. I know the words. I was the host. Hey, what's going on?

“That's it. Here's a product. I'm cool. That's what I did for like five years. I play”

station when I was an influencer. But I was part of the social media team and that was an entire different rapture. Let's just call it that. A different rapture. I love the word rapture. I hell yeah, irony. Anyways, um, you clearly are thriving in that energy. And when you hear licensing, it's just like, oh, it's like, I'm an artist. I got published. I'm a developer. I launched. Like, it's the stamp of approval. Like, I'm licensed. I created something now. I can like,

sell it and make money off my art. Talk about that journey from going to like an artist to a successful artist and like locking them in to rise in a send. Well, honestly, oh, so much of it was, uh, I was in. That's just publishing, but like, entertainment in general for years and years and years. And I knew

all these people that were, can fab. I mean, like, they were amazing. Their art was incredible.

But they couldn't get published. They couldn't get their stuff out there. And I was like, dude, this doesn't make any damn sense, right? And, uh, I met my now husband and we were totally

“just hanging out at a cafe and I was basically complaining because that's what you do. And yes,”

yes. And, you know, I was like, dude, like, I don't get it. Like, why is this, why is it this way? And he was like, well, well, why don't you just start your own publishing company? Yeah. And I'm like, what the heck? That's, that's how this works. It's going to how we do that here. For real? And I had already been around for a while. So I just basically used my connections. I used the fact that I was being asked to, to speak at conferences and post workshops and all that.

I mean, kind of fabulousness for sure. And, uh, basically what I would do is, I mean, you know,

they, you know, the deal, right? Like, you go, they happy hour. You sit down. I'm like, yo, you want to be here? Right. And then it's totally okay. So tell me, how do you make your decisions? And that's when I started realizing A, the biases that exist within the industry, understandably so, right? But it acts as a barrier to those artists who may be doing something a little off the norm. Yep. Right. Oh, yeah. Um, or what's considered the norm? And then I also realized,

in today's market, it's not about the individual product. It's not the ebook. It's not the paperback. It's not the TV show. It's not the audio book. It's whatever that brand is, whatever that story is that you're putting out there. People want it where they are. Yep. Like, think about it. Right. When you're going out and you're buying something for entertainment, you're not looking at it and saying, you know, I really want to watch a TV show in Netflix. No, you're saying,

you know, I love this show. It is so freaking fun. And then you're finding out about like, where else can I find it? Yeah. And you're not asking yourself, can I get myself a movie? You're asking yourself, you know, I really enjoy like ghost and space. So where can I where where is it? Right. And that completely changes the market, right? That completely changes the industry. Oh, yeah. When you look at it from that perspective, instead of from a can I put an ebook out

there, right? For sure. So that's when I decided, all right, we'll do running wild. We'll have it

“where when great name, by the way, that's what you're great. Yeah. Yeah. So I was at this one conference”

and someone came out to you. They're like, what made you decide on that type, on that calling yourself, hurting wild? And I was like, because I'm doing it over the fuck I want. Yeah, that's quite obvious. Right. It's in the name. If you go feel it when you say it, that's the point of the name, running wild. It's the when you say it's what you feel when you say it. That's the logo. Exactly. Right. Yeah. It's simply dope. Like, why didn't someone else come up with this? Come on, people?

Oh, oh. I heart you. Nerds, North. Totally same. Yeah, dude. We're sure. And carry on. Sorry. So yeah, so I was like, you know what, I'm going to find those artists who are putting out great stuff. I'll acquire it. They keep the licensing. They basically keep the copyright, but they give me the right to represent them in ebook, paperback, audiobook, TV, film, you name it. Oh my god. And that's

And I'm going to tell you what you already know. Right. No, it's not. It's about those brands. It's about those stories that people are putting out there. The number of writers, the number of artists that are represented at Comic-Con, it is insane. Because they're working across everything. I'm not the only one who had this epiphany. Yeah. And I just love that people are not only going out there and leveraging those resources that exist, but they're saying, you know what, how can

I help you? How can I make it your magic happen? And really lifting each other up. And the amount of

“that that's going on is crazy. Oh, absolutely. One of my mentors and secret best friends,”

Cliff Plezinski. Sweet. Oh, dude. He's kicking it into the Carolina's now with his amazing, his amazing wife, amazing energy. I haven't seen him in a minute. I'm going to get him in this chair one day. He should. I definitely will legacy makers a retro gaming whatever it doesn't matter. We'll brand it something neat. But my birthday lands around Comic-Con at time. Actually, I 27th

Emilio, I'm sure you can tell. Sweet. He would always write it on the presidential sweet next

door and invite everyone from the press in the media, personally, my favorite con is GDC. I love game developer's conference on the bay. But I found the tribe of nerds that in dorks and geeks, and all these like folks that are larking in real life, and the normals don't realize it. I'm larking right now, and I'm getting paid a fortune. I am in cosplay, but in reality, this is why truly I am and people are paying me a fucking fortune. I am Batman, and then you realize these

comic books are download data like dude, work up, be Batman, be the hero. These people need you. Yeah. You need you like wake up like if you're the nerd that's getting picked on. You're in

“the comic. This story is about you. Yes. Wake up and read the pages in a sand and that's why”

all these Marvel movies and all this content, it's like, that's why they exist. That's why they exist. And then you just feel this art draw. Oh, Marvel's going through this phase. Star Wars is going through this phase. And you're like, well, that's how energy kind of works and fluctuations. That's fair. It's a heartbeat. It's a thung. It's up and down. Peaks and valleys are heartbeat. It's the way of the world. I was a 22nd employee at Patreon. Do not mess with me. Jack. Jack,

conty was my Rudy Moore like for a year. Do not fame. I worked in the bay. I saw and thrived an amazing

beautiful pure energy. That is now here in Miami and in Austin, a lot of New York. But that's why Miami is booming. But back to the West Coast, believing yourself is seeing in it in television. Like when when you see a movie, my fair line in a force awakens, which is by the way, I feel like the force awakens is Disney's cause playing as Star Wars. It's like, look at us, make a Star Wars movie. Look at us go. And this is not a Star Wars movie. This is someone pretending to be making a Star Wars movie.

It was really cute. But there was cool messaging in there. One of them was the forces real all of it. Han Solo delivers that line. He says that line. But Hal and Solo is also the character of the Kylo Rin kills his father. In that writing, it was speaking to me. I'm like, well,

I grew up with my dad that it's sort of abandoned me. He handed me the first recording on sci-fi

channel of Star Wars. With the commercials of everything blew my mind. But I somehow in my life as I was ascending how to kill off my own father and remove him from my reality so I can grow. And in many ways when I saw that movie in Star Wars, I'm like, there it is. There's that the connection. I was also on, I was medicated. It was midnight. It was the front row. It was just blasted Star Wars, but it rang to me. Where do you see that on the artist that you represent? Is that

“what you look for? They're why they're their passion, their fire. Is that what you're protecting?”

And then helping them ascend, like, what's your philosophy? My philosophy is to bring forward whatever that magic is that someone has created and lifted up. Absolutely. Right. And then find opportunities where it can then be shared across other platforms. I don't know about you, but there's something about when someone's putting their real on either on the page or on the screen. That you can feel that it's real. Right. And when you know that, and honestly, I've been blessed.

Right. Like I have been to a bajillion different conferences. I mean, like all the big ones. I've, I went to Breadlo Friter's Conference several times. The current Pulitzer Prize winner, Percival Everett, was one of my mentors. Whiley Lam was another one. I've had several who just, Jamie Ford credits me as being the person who discovered him, which is super kind of him. I'm just putting

which sold in the Mill Young. Right. That was one of those breakthrough books that it took him

“forever to get it published, but when it did, it was as if suddenly back to the creative energy. Right.”

It was as if somebody said, Oh, wait. I forgot about this one. Here. And he just exploded. Right. I'm because I've had those experiences and because I've had those opportunities and because I've been blessed to be coached by so many insane. I mean, sick creative people. I can recognize it. Right. When it's presented to me, and I can help guide those people in refining what they have put either on the page or on the screen or what have you and make it the ultimate that it can be.

And I can say that with pride, because we've had several books that were named best of the year by some of the biggest reviews period. We've had several stories that were named completely ground

“breaking in their genre. That's what I'm looking for that. I'm looking for that voice. I'm looking”

for that story. I'm looking for that spirit that energy so that not just me, my whole core team, we can help that person realize, in my opinion, who they were meant to be, right? What they were meant to represent. And then we bring that forward and we keep on lifting that up. How do you -- what's your process? You're onboarding process. How do you find the -- how do you find the -- when a star is born, like when you find the Gaga's or you or you manufacture the Gaga's,

however the path may be, how do you find the real ones versus the frauds, the phonies, or the folks that are too green to even realize that they're on this path that we discovered by someone like you?

Well, first of all, I love the where you find the Gaga's. Like, what's the hell man in the

oven? That's fucking dope. For sure. So we actually take submissions in through it's called submitable.com. It's just search on it, search running wild, you'll find our submission page. I have a team of about seven people who are my core team. Right on. We typically go through the submissions actively. I'm going to say twice a year. We're kind of small. We only publish between 30 and 50 books a year. Right on. I'd say probably next year we're going to be lifting

that up to maybe 60, 70. Cool. And I'm going to say my whole team, we all kind of -- we're very open with each other, right? We're very no bullshit. So if we find something that comes -- some of them comes submit something to your point. Like, it's -- they don't know that they don't know, right? We actually have active conversations around it. And if it's something where we can see that this is the starting point of something fantastic, right? If it's someone we don't know,

we will oftentimes -- we'll just set up a call and talk to them. Just hey, we got it. This -- these are our thoughts. Are you open to it? Right. And then usually it's a real active collaboration between one of my core team members, one of my key editors, and whoever that

artist is. Right. For sure. One of the more recent examples of that is we had this amazing

artist, her name is Amy. And she wrote this one story that when we went through it, my core team, to be honest, they were like, I don't know. Like, I get the energy, I get the feel, but I don't know that she's ready yet. And I was like, "Are I give me her?" She's mine. Her book was named among one of the best of the year of 2024. And I'll tell you, we worked our asses off, right? I sat down with her and I had a very open conversation. This is where this

“is going. This is where I think you can bring this, right? And I want to help you do that. So here's”

some guidance. If you're open to it, do this and then come back to me and we'll go back and basically start from square one. Really? Wow. We start from the beginning. You give me a complete picture. And what's interesting is, when I ask a lot of leading questions. Right.

spirit? Where are they in that narrative? Right. Exactly. Which is what we're going to do in your

“episode. Right. And this is in a segue. Please continue. I'm fine. To me, that's how it should be.”

I shouldn't tell you what to do. I should ask you leading questions so that I then get a sense of where are we? What are we going to accomplish? What do we want to accomplish? Because a lot of times and I know you know this. Right. A lot of times people will start something and they don't know why they're starting it. Right. They just know that they've got this energy. They've got this spirit and they need to get it done. And they want to get it on the page. Right. And by asking those leading

questions, it gets them to understand what their objective is, what their purpose is. And it's almost like by verbalizing it all of a sudden they go, oh, shit. That's why. Okay. Bam. And then it's just like magic. It's like someone hit a button and suddenly they go through and completely I mean completely revise what they've sent us. And then we take it from there. I completely agree. This is revision three of this set. Rudy, our fearless leader. He, he's very much a box comes

“from the fram as on rips at a part. Takes it apart, sets it up. You have to. That's it, that's it.”

Things start missing. He works in chaos. And very, I'm the ink to his yang. Like he literally painted the walls and I go, right. Well, here's where we're going to run cable. We're going to run tape here. And then the energy was, well, these aren't really studios. These are showrooms. These are places of zen. People need to walk and then feel an energy right away. Yes. So even by the design, when you walk into our building, very much to the fault of Miami Beach, every building here's

very old age looks like something out of Miami Vice to a, to a, to a beauty. All right. That theme song just went off my hand. Of course, did that. You're welcome. Yeah, and then I'm so amped that GTA 6 and is in Miami. I see. Miami has no idea what it's going to do to the city culturally to have grant that photo sex in Miami. Anyways, so what we fabricate here is to your point, the energy that feeling to help you ascend and feel something so we can capture it. How when, when, when

when you find an artist, where have you found an artist that had just has a clever name? A good title and has bubbles of ideas. Do you help them launch those ideas, give them life help them write it out? Like, what is your process? And if an artist is ready to go, how do you kind of

“level out where to start? Oh, wow. That is like the most fabulous question. Yeah. Honestly, my whole”

core team are all artists. They've all been around for a hot minute, right? And we all lift each other up. We all will come to each other and say, look, I had this idea for blah, blah, blah. I totally want to do it. What do you think? How does that sound? And we will brainstorm out what that, what is that arc look like, right? And what is the the smartest way to put it to market if that makes sense. And we do that a lot of times with artists who submit work to us. We have some, I would say,

I want to call them writers, but that's not accurate. They create environments and create worlds and put it out in a multitude of ways, right? And we've got people who've been with us since we started in 2016. Wow. And I mean, it's a totally different world. It's a totally new reality. If I come to Lisa, if I go to Ben, if I go to Peter, right, my core team members, if I go to T. He, and I say, I want to do blah, blah, blah. Then we're going to egg and have a

convoy about it and be most likely Lisa's going to say, yes, it doesn't mean I'm going to say,

yes, this hot second. For sure. But it means that you're going to be in the top priority because

you are, we're family. Yes. Right. I mean, you got to feel it. And everybody knows it. Yeah. Everyone who is within our patrons or tart was very much a tribe. It was a family of vibe. The office was designed to be a vibe. If you're in headphones, you're locked in, don't disturb them. There was a culture to it. There was a secret to it. It felt so tribal, like lunch, jam sessions, like instruments everywhere. I was just like, I would be in tears.

I was like, dude, I'm from Miami, born and raised here. I'm living, I'm living a movie. And like, I grew up watching Full House. I'm like, I want that life. Where's my uncle, Jesse?

And like, my grandma didn't make me my first Mac in G, until like I was 12. Like, I grew up

Q Ben. So it's just like, I want pancakes. I want all these American things. So like, when I moved

really amed. Like, it was just like a spark and energy, where I was just like within six months, I was

“head-hunter by PlayStation. And I was looking at my badge and like, what the fuck? Like, I was”

part of the PS4 launch team. Like, that is awesome. They brought me on board when PS3 was like, tanking. They rebranded. And they just went, they went for it. They're like, we got to go back to

our roots. We're for gamers. Like, 90s hits. Like, and they basically picked me off of the litter

and go, regulates here. His name keeps popping up. He works at the struck doid. And they're like, the biggest fuck you journalist of journalist, a video game company ever bigger than Kentucky. Bigger than in Gadget at the time. You know, this is a different tribe. Like, there was Perez Hilton and then there was the RSS struck doid in 2008. And here I am going, hey guys, with a multi camera set up just like this. Hell yeah. In 2007 on stick cam. Nice. Only two people were watching

it had more gear than this. And it was a Wayne's World Meets video game. Some boy, I jumped over to Justin TV, which then became twitch. And boy, then we all rise. Hell yeah. And then when you're dating Ninja's wife back in the day, you know, things were good. So anyways, not the just name drop.

No, I gotta tell you. The first time I had someone who had written an Oprah book club pick,

“actively come to me because her, like, her bestie was like, if you want to publish,”

you need to go to running wild. And here's Lisa's digits. Yeah. Right. Michael Street 2. I was like, how the fuck is this possible? And that's when I started realizing like, there are a lot of people in the industry who have had very similar realizations. Oh yeah. Like, you want to start a show with you? This is the boom, you've been chosen. Once you've found that community, once you've found those people that you know your real,

right, this is no bullshit. You don't lose that. Yeah, here's your super power. Welcome to the club. Exactly. Rule number one about five club. No one talks about five club. Welcome to the club.

But now you have been poisoned. You have been given the gift. Your job is you can't just

start telling everyone your superhero. You have great power. Comes great responsibility, my friends. That's what that means. Like, dude. Oh my god. Like, you've been given the gift. Now I'll just dude, I've got, again, not to drop. No, it's all good. I've got, like, production companies. I've got, like, major players in the industry who actively come to me for my advice. Dude, I was the story, I was the story, I was the story director to power Rangers.

Nice. Dude, the mobile version, the mobile version, and the desktop version. Like, I have the power coins on my neck. Yeah. Like, I was sitting in a conference call with a writer of the comic or the game. And Anne Hasbro, like, cutting apart the the story boards, uh, because you got to be in budget. And uh, and I, and I literally stopped a call. Right before we, we started going, look, can I say something? This whole story should have really been from the

perspective of the Ranger Slayer Kimberly, because they all turn evil. Of course you do. And and I given the whole pitch in 30 seconds in the silence. And the writer till his day goes, Ray, who fuck yourself? And everyone starts laughing and I'm like, I'm in. That was it. That was, that was, that was it. And then we stayed in the club way after our meeting until like, they were knocking on the door going, hey, we had to take this call. And we were casting the

voice of Zordon. Nice. And I'm like, I knew I peaked at that level. But yeah. No, no, no, I didn't. Wait, wait, wait, wait, reset. You did not peaked. That was one peak. Because there's, there's, oh, I'm aware, but I won't say, I will, I won't. Don't limit your self that way. Oh, I won't reveal it on this episode. Oh, well, what happens next? That's the, that's the twist. Oh, yeah, that's the, don't, don't, don't, don't. So back to you, my love. Thank

you. And I'm, you're very gracious for just bouncing this energy back and forth. But I really want to bring it back to you and focus on you before we step you on to your show floor. Because we're, I'm sure we're way over time. Oh, sorry. So what, um, where can people find you? How can people land on you, part of their journey? Because you're very much that person, the hands out the water and the race. Right. To help them people going forward. Right. You're the next big

stepping stone. You're the rock meets Vince McMahon to do a video for you. How do we find you? How do people get in contact with you? How do people get trained by you? Um, all you got to do is go to

“Lisa D. Cassner K. A. S. T. N. E. R. dot com or running wild publishing dot com. Um, honestly, if you”

just search on my name, I'm fucking everywhere. Right on. Like no joke. Seriously. I'm everywhere. Okay. That's awesome. Well, I look forward to learning more about you. I look forward to watching this edited episode. Um, for Insight's Access and a woman in power, I'm Reggetares.