If you're ready to seriously transform your life, this week’s podcast is for YOU! Meet Brianna Brown Keen, who is a tremendous force in this world. She has literally written a guidebook on how to manifest the life that you want to live.
She's created Manifesting Your Mission, which is all about supporting and cultivating your goals, happiness, passion, purpose, intuition, and your personal mission. Brianna has birthed an actual methodology, as well as tools to help you discover what you really want to create in your life and make it happen. She's on a literal mission to help as many people as possible be the best versions of themselves.
In addition to her work as a coach and author, Brianna is also an award winning actress who has appeared on both the small and silver screen over 300 times. She has produced stage, as well as feature film projects, and is the Chair of the National Women’s History Museum. Brianna has also founded The New Hollywood, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting socially-conscious storytellers, entrepreneurs and change-makers through goals, grants, and mentorship.
Brianna leads by example. She’s been there, done that. She believes our world would be a kinder, more harmonious place if we all had more support and tools to live our purpose and pursue our passions. She has so much to share!
MORE FROM BRIANNA BROWN KEEN
Visit theseekingcenter.com for more from Robyn + Karen, plus mega inspo -- and the best wellness + spiritual practitioners, products and experiences on the planet!
You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter
If you're ready to seriously transform your life, this week’s podcast is for YOU! Meet Brianna Brown Keen, who is a tremendous force in this world. She has literally written a guidebook on how to manifest the life that you want to live.
She's created Manifesting Your Mission, which is all about supporting and cultivating your goals, happiness, passion, purpose, intuition, and your personal mission. Brianna has birthed an actual methodology, as well as tools to help you discover what you really want to create in your life and make it happen. She's on a literal mission to help as many people as possible be the best versions of themselves.
In addition to her work as a coach and author, Brianna is also an award winning actress who has appeared on both the small and silver screen over 300 times. She has produced stage, as well as feature film projects, and is the Chair of the National Women’s History Museum. Brianna has also founded The New Hollywood, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting socially-conscious storytellers, entrepreneurs and change-makers through goals, grants, and mentorship.
Brianna leads by example. She’s been there, done that. She believes our world would be a kinder, more harmonious place if we all had more support and tools to live our purpose and pursue our passions. She has so much to share!
MORE FROM BRIANNA BROWN KEEN
Visit theseekingcenter.com for more from Robyn + Karen, plus mega inspo -- and the best wellness + spiritual practitioners, products and experiences on the planet!
You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter
Robyn: [00:00:00] I'm Robyn Miller Brecker,
Karen: and I'm Karen Loenser. Welcome to seeking center. The podcast,
Robyn: join us each week as we have the conversations and weed through the spiritual and holistic clutter for you, we'll boil it down to what you need to know. Now
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We'll talk to the trailblazers who will introduce you to the practices, products, and experiences. That may be just what you need to hear about to transform your life.
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Robyn: If you're ready to seriously transform your life, you are listening to the right podcast at the right time. Today we are talking to a tremendous force in this world who has literally written a guidebook on how to manifest the life that you want to live. Meet Brianna Brown Keene. She's an [00:01:00] award winning actress who has appeared on both the small and silver screen over 300 times.
She's produced stage as well as feature film projects. She's the chair of the National Women's Museum. She founded the New Hollywood. A 501C3 nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting socially conscious storytellers, entrepreneurs, and changemakers. And she's created Manifesting Your Mission, which is all about supporting and cultivating your goals, happiness, passion, purpose, intuition, and your personal mission.
Brianna's birthed and actual methodology and tools to help you discover what you really want to create in your life. and make it happen. She's going to tell you all about it. Brianna leads by example. She's been there, done that. And she's on a literal mission to help as many people as possible be the best versions of themselves.
She believes our world would be a kinder, more harmonious place if we all had more support and tools to live our purpose and pursue our passions. [00:02:00] Brianna also happens to be a friend. So hi, friend. Let's get talking. That is quite the intro.
Karen: And it's nice to meet you, Brianna.
Robyn: Thank you, Karen. So nice to meet you. Brianna, let's start at the beginning because life wasn't always this glamorous and this full. So you had a dark night of the soul at a really young age, and some people may not even understand what that means. So can we start there?
Brianna: Sure , let's just dig in. Let's dig in.
Robyn: We're seeking
Karen: the center.
Brianna: I would say that, I'm a big believer that obstacles are opportunities if we allow them to be. And so many things that were hardships when I was younger propelled me to be the woman that I am today and to feel the desire and urgency to create the things that have not only benefited me, but also benefited others.
So to, wind back from my resume, thank you for reading my resume to, when I was younger, ironically, I didn't get along well With groups of girls at the time. I wasn't very social. I was [00:03:00] more awkward. I was bullied a lot, from second grade until middle of my freshman year of high school.
It was a patterning of bullying and I didn't understand it at the time. I took on the identity of something was wrong with me. I'm different, as people often do when they're, being put to the side and, someone's, Being unkind. But I really took that on as part of my identity, not knowing that was just either something I needed to learn, like my soul's lessons that needed to unfold, or things that I had not learned how to speak up for myself, or my mother's Stories around women, me taking that on, And also I didn't come from money I wasn't wearing the cool clothes. There were things that were easier targets. Not that's okay to target someone for those things, right? Cystic acne, things like that. When you're just going through puberty and you just don't know who you are.
And it progressed from some simple small things to just more Parents home to the point that my parents literally wanted me to not stay at that school. And it escalated so much that I nearly [00:04:00] ended my life and had to be hospitalized. So at a young age of 14, I had a real dark, Period of not knowing what to do. And some of that was also amplified.
I found out later from medication I've been put on that Paxil, which at the time they didn't know actually could heighten suicidal tendencies in adolescence. So Just note to parents, be very careful with what you're medicating your children because you don't know what years later could be, not necessarily as beneficial as people thought.
Here I was a culmination of all these different things happening all at once, not having tools, not knowing how to speak up, being bullied so severely being in the hospital. And I had a moment, a literally 180 moment from, I don't want to live. Banging my head on the ground, literally wanting to die to having what felt like white light going through my body.
And in that moment, I had a real sense of calm and u that everything was going to be okay. So a real I want to die. I'm, it, and it had to be locked up to everything's going to be fine. And [00:05:00] in that moment, I had this just sense that everything was going to be fine. I have a purpose.
And from that, when I, cause I wasn't in the hospital that long, I was only there for a week. I went back to my school. I stood up to the bullies. I spoke in class about things that had happened to me in a broad stroke way, cause there were a lot of rumors like about what had happened.
And then from that moment on I became an overachiever and when I left high school and I came out to Los Angeles at 19 to pursue acting, which by the way, the irony is I never made a single play in middle school, I was too shy. I couldn't like. Speak beyond the page. I literally didn't make , the middle school plays and I'm telling you they had everyone in those plays.
Karen: It wasn't Broadway level,
Brianna: I did not make it. So from the fact that I then even had the desire to then go do plays when I'd been rejected but I had this kind of Knowing and I had a teacher just, putting in my ear. You can sing. Let's just try out.
So I tried out that opened up just a world for me. I then felt led to finding representation in Minnesota. So at 14, [00:06:00] I found representation in Minnesota when I'm cold calling through a yellow pages. Now this is I'm so aging myself, but this is pre YouTube, this is pre internet on your phone, like this is, I was figuring it all out, and I had to find representation in Minnesota, I found representation at 19, they brought me out to Los Angeles because I was doing well On different auditions and whatnot, and I started cultivating, I needed a tribe, and so the irony was, groups of women didn't serve me when I was younger, even though I was on a lot of team sports, but I knew I needed a tribe of like minded individuals in Los Angeles, especially very pre Me Too where it's you're new in L.
A., and there's just all these predators that are like, you don't know what you're doing, let me take you under my wing, and I don't know how to be in a real relationship, so let me date children. there's a small demographic
that does that.
But that felt very overwhelming.
So I wanted to have a group of people who I felt were like minded. And I just slowly started to find women and men, because I don't, I obviously don't think all men are bad. I'm married to an amazing man and I have amazing male friends. But I think that I cultivated a group which then we [00:07:00] turned it into a non profit of women supporting women and giving back and doing all sorts of different charity events and and then going and doing mentorship events and now we're helping formerly homeless moms with goals, grants, and mentorship.
And it's just continued to evolve all the while that I've been acting, and doing jobs and being on screen and doing, movies. Cause there's a lot of work that has to be done, but then there's a lot of downtime. And I'm a big believer in Julia Cameron's whole, artist way of either creative energy needs to be going forward motion or it turns negative and detrimental.
that began that and then through all of that, I created a guidebook and so on and so forth, but yeah, it was a very dark night of the soul and also, what I find really interesting is during that period of time where I was 14, I did have a checkup at the hospital and my mom was driving me to, get checked up and I said to her, mom, I want to be an actress.
And she looked in the the rear view mirror, have such a vivid memory of this. She looked in the rear view mirror, again, never made a middle school play, ladies.
Suburbs of Minnesota, right? Never been to Los Angeles or [00:08:00] New York, So huh? And also didn't know a single person who made a living as an artist. And she looks and she goes, huh, in the rearview mirror and she goes, why? And I said, mom, I want to be an actress because artists can be more powerful than politicians.
Karen: Wow. Now, as they are, I said
Brianna: they can be, right? Yes. Don't be meticulous about that. Can be. And I do think that there is a real opportunity with any sort of platform of what you're putting out into the world. And I think most people aren't ready for that platform and the responsibility of that platform.
But I think to have more and more conscious people, obviously ladies are amplifying, are putting out really positive, thought out, conscious messages that inspire everyone is really important.
Karen: Can you just go back for a minute to that moment in the hospital when you saw that light and you felt that light going through you?
What do you name that as? think that was? And what was that impact that it had
Robyn: on you at that
Brianna: moment? Based on my background, like at the time I was very [00:09:00] Christian, so I would have said it was God or Spirit or the Holy Spirit, But I just knew it was something much bigger than me.
And I also, from that point on, there were times where I would just know things, or... There were times when I'd done, especially performances... There was a Christian performance that I had done when I was in high school and I could feel energy moving through. I was like, this is bigger than me.
And it was very overwhelming. It was very scary for me. I had people coming up to me after performances literally giving me things, saying you changed my life. And I was like I just sang a song.
Robyn: It feels like That was a real unlocking for you to allow that energy to move through you and then to be aware enough to do something with it all.
Totally shift
Brianna: your direction. It shifted me from being someone who was, oh, I felt very average. I didn't want to be seen. Because of the bullying, I was so sexually harassed, I would wear huge, baggy shirt. It was already the time where people would wear clothes that were quadruple too big, right?
If ladies, you remember that time?
Robyn: I went through the [00:10:00] phase,
Karen: I know.
Brianna: I wanted to be completely desexualized. I didn't want anyone to think anything sexual around me and who I was. I just didn't want the rumors to continue.
And don't know, it just, it opened me up to finding who I was versus trying to fit in with a crowd. I think that was a huge blessing in not needing to conform. I was like I'm already an outsider, so who am I? And then not going to find my tribe, that way, right?
Than trying to fit.
Karen: Yeah, it seems like almost a moment that you just
Robyn: surrendered,
like
Karen: what you were saying you either wanted to check out or
Robyn: not just
Karen: like Robyn said, it was that unlocking moment that just allowed everything to shift and your whole trajectory in your
Brianna: journey changed. I became very much a just a complete type A overachiever and also there became like a thing around me where it's and don't mess.
Karen: Wow.
Robyn: What did those bullies say when you actually then came back with this new
Brianna: energy and they apologized to the degree that they could apologize for the ones who vandalized my house.[00:11:00]
And the other people were just like, whatever. And it was definitely a motivating factor to be like, I'm gonna use this. It wasn't that conscious, though. At the time, it wasn't like I had this moment. I'm like, now I'm enlightened,
Karen: Totally.
Brianna: But I did think that there was something different and I was going about it differently and also don't mess with me. And I think it's also why I can play villains really well, ironically, because I'm really nice. But I can play a villain.
Karen: I love that.
Brianna: Yes! Because I can tap into a rage and don't mess with me.
That makes sense!
Robyn: Okay, so then you move to Hollywood at 19. And it's not like it was. Easy.
Brianna: No, it was easier at first. Like when I was brought out, by May representation. I was incubated. I, I was brought to my auditions and it was like, for this two month period, a pilot season is what, at the time, what they would call it.
and that was, I booked a movie in Romania and I booked a commercial and I booked, small part on Freaks and Geeks where I was the first line of the pilot, so I had these things that said, okay, you should stay. So when I went home for a couple months, just figure out, okay, I guess I'm going to stay.
stay because I didn't, [00:12:00] I went out with the idea of I need to see if this is a thing that I can do because I'll always regret it if I don't check it out because I had representation bringing me to Los Angeles. But I didn't foresee leaving college, I didn't foresee That wasn't really part of the plan, but I also had a knowing I don't do this.
I will always regret it. So I checked it out and I did well enough where I was like, you should stay. So then it was, Oh my God. , I'd never been away from home that long. So the school I went to was St. Olaf, which is, very close to home. I, it's not like I went to Florida or something.
So for me, again, I went from Suburbs to a small town college to now big city LA at 19 being very naive when I look back. I was , street smarts, but also like naive. and then just figuring it out. And that was a pull yourself up by your bootstraps. my parents, they didn't really want me to be there, but they also knew if they said no, I would do it anyway.
So they're like, cool, you're going to do this. But. Sink or swim. So it was very much okay, how do I love the term now. How do I do adulting?
How do I make money? Okay. And [00:13:00] make enough to pay my bills. I've never paid bills. How do I do all of this? And I need to figure out how to be in an acting class.
And I need to figure... That's a whole other ball of kookiness some of these acting teachers that are just crazy. All this out, and what are all these dynamics, and... It was a big learning curve, and, while I'm trying to audition and figure out life, then I had a back injury.
So then I was on disability for a period of time because I was told I bulged three discs in my back. I'd been food running at a job. I was told I would never run again. And I think my parents were maybe she'll come home. But I was too stubborn and I'm trying to figure it out.
But that was also a blessing because then Eventually I was like, I have to figure this out and I learned about, acupuncture and Eastern medicine and Qigong and I healed my back, without surgery or without cortisone shots or any of that. And I went from being told I would never run again to later being on a soccer team, running half marathons in a marathon, so I'm a big believer of try until you figure it out. Like seeking until I
unlock
Robyn: it and then to the next [00:14:00] thing, right? And so how did the artist's way come into your lap at a young age?
Brianna: It's very common in LA and New York and the artist circles. Oh, the artist's way, Julie Cameron's, it's like your, your little artist Bible, you know that.
And the war of art. By Steven Pressfield, you know for writers and There were a couple tools that I just heard about and so like I started it and I knew Because again, I have a team mentality having played soccer having been on theater having done choir I do well in a team environment and I knew that i'm good at leading a team I just have that Ability to be like, all right, let's keep going.
Let's move it along. And so I decided I'm not going to do it as well on my own, but if I have a group of people, I can hold them accountable and that will hold me accountable. So I started forming unofficially artists way groups with my managers, clients with friends.
And I just used it as a tool to just get unstuck to figure out the muck there's also a lot of in Los Angeles, especially that age, there's just so much noise and there's so many alternative facts. And there's all these things that you just like, what's the right path?
I don't [00:15:00] know. And the blind leading the blind in a business, that's not linear. It's not like medical school or something, a business school where I'm going to go get my master's or my a path in, in Los Angeles, you can meet people that say they're actors and they've never been on a set.
It is interesting, So just finding my way and all that and that was a really great way for me to center myself and understand a lot of the people that I was around like, oh, you're an energy vampire or realizing a lot of the people I was around were really stuck or at the time I didn't realize like we're going down addiction.
they later when they have major addiction and trying to save some of those people and then realizing like I can't save someone on their journey. That's their journey. I'm not going to enable it and I'm not going to ignore it. But I also to what degree is it my responsibility?
And that took a lot of learning boundaries and being like, That's toxic behavior. I can't be around that and that I think that's the battle of most artists. And that's again, why I later formed a goal group because it went from the artist way, which was great.
And I think it's a wonderful tool to then say, okay, but let's do goals. So I'm focusing on career. I'm focusing [00:16:00] on, health. I'm focusing on my spiritual life. I have all these different. Parts of my being as you both know and be able to set it up in a system And hadn't found something that I liked Enough and so then I just created a version and then I can't
Karen: Yeah, I can't like when this arrived This book that's
Robyn: It's huge and it's incredible and it's so well done.
I'm so grateful to be talking about it today. So I want to talk about how you really did come up with this methodology because it is a great book. Before we even
Karen: get there, Brianna, one of the things that I'm noticing about your story is that since you had that experience as a young person and came out of that, it's like you have followed your intuition
Robyn: the whole time.
Karen: It was almost like that was a gift that you were given
Brianna: by that experience. Can you talk about your definition of intuition and how you use it in your daily life? I use my intuition all the time. Sometimes it's been hard to differentiate like what's anxiety and what's intuition, Because I can go to anxiety, especially if I'm caffeinated[00:17:00]
but intuitions that small still voice That is connecting. I believe connects us to the divine. It connects us to a knowing that's It's more than what we know and I'm always like, if my intuition says turn left, not right. Yes. Stop. and that's saved me so many times.
Only a few years ago, like someone was about to follow me into a parking garage, and my body just said stop. And then he passed. And I got chills, I moved back to where I was and a car drove past and said, are you okay? I saw that he was going to follow you. So we have that for real dangerous moments, of course, but then the little knowings and, sometimes I get little hits of create this. thing and I feel the desire and then suddenly I have the energy around it.
I'm not always ready to run with that energy, but usually it'll come in a couple of different forms. Yes. Okay, or I hear it and I hear it from a couple of different places. I'm like, I get it. You want me to do this?
Karen: Yes.
Brianna: Okay, I've rewritten the manifesting your mission guidebooks so many different times over the years.
And now it's more set. I'm doing another revision for this year. Just some small tweaks and adding in some more things that I love, but [00:18:00] I remember , writing it. I'm in the thick of it and I'm just doing it. And I remember being like, why am I doing?
Karen: It's I'm
Brianna: like, okay, let's just keep going, but I'm compelled to do it.
And so I think our intuition can help lead us, toward our passion. As long as we are willing to be uncomfortable because growth is often uncomfortable. Yeah. As you both know, so I think the more I practice intuition, the more I practice. Kismet moments, the more I listen, with a real sense of paying attention, the more I'm led.
Karen: I love the way you put that. I think for anybody, I love what you said about the energy around that feeling. I think that is such a good telling. Way to know if it's intuition or anxiety, If you're feeling excited,
then it's leading you down the right
Brianna: path Yeah, and also I think Because I had that experience and then I had a couple other experiences or there were things where I just have known things early on, and I write about this in my book when I was leading one of the Artist's Way groups.
And, I'm just facilitating the group, right? I'm just like, we're hanging out. I'm just keeping time. I'm not doing anything fancy at that point. I'm having us read the [00:19:00] chapter and go through it. One of the young men in the group, he had said, do computer tech, during the day, but I'm really an actor and I want to make sure I'm focusing my acting when I'm away at work.
And again, this is one of those vivid memories. And I said to him, off the top of my head why don't you take something to remind you being an actor putting on your desk so you can look at it every day? And then I said, I don't know, maybe like a porcelain penguin from a play you did.
And he stopped and he looked at me and he said, I have a porcelain penguin from a play
I did. And I'm like,
okay that's for you.
Karen: Yes. That's how it happens though. It
Robyn: when you allow yourself to really be in that flow of the energy that we're talking about it's incredible and insane what will come through.
Karen: That's specific.
Brianna: It's fun as I've coached people where I'm like getting in that space and it just... Wow. we're okay. This is what's coming to me. Let's talk about it, so the more I do it, the more I trust it. And so I think like what we were saying when you were asking about intuition, Karen it's, I think it's like learning a language.
it's born at first and then later it [00:20:00] becomes more second nature, It's letting ourselves just, the layers unfold that it's not like, how come I'm not intuitive?
Karen: No, that's
Brianna: great.
That's a really good
Karen: definition. So it
was following your intuition, how the book came about. Yeah.
Brianna: I didn't like the other cool books that I saw, which I'm not knocking other tools.
Cause there's always a million tools and new tools. but what I had seen that I felt didn't work is so many of them were very much about like achievement. And I think that's really great at a certain point in people's lives, but as I was seeing a lot of the women in my group and men, but head into being parents, there was a different need to focus on receiving and self care and boundary.
I was realizing like a lot of those things weren't giving the same emphasis of goals. It was like goal equals something that you get, make money and you get an award for. And I'm like but repairing that relationship with your sibling. Can be a bigger achievement than getting a raise. Or let's not compare them, but
Robyn: let's just applaud both.
Yeah. How do you define goal?
Brianna: And that's the fun thing. I break it up into different areas of your life so you can have goals in different areas. So I [00:21:00] really am a believer in let's spread it out. Let's not, like when you go to a liberal arts college, they say, don't do everything left side of your brain or right side of your brain, like balance it out a little bit.
So that your classes aren't all tech or all art. Not that those aren't great, but like it's better your first few years just to have it be a little bit of both. And so when i'm doing the guidebook with setting up the goals for the year, it's what are personal goals? What are a few of your personal goals?
What are a few of your professional goals? What are your fun goals? So that's important too. Like a vacation is a goal. Enjoy it You know hit those bucket list things, and what are your habits that you want to really work on and then it goes into deeper stuff of but what's really going on so that you're dealing with the wildfires in your life or the campfires that maybe you need to pay attention to so they never become a forest fire, And because I find that a lot of times when people say oh this thing in my career is so Great, but they're not focusing on their marriage and their marriage falls apart guess what their career is going to suffer and so if we're not if we're not looking at life From more of a bird's eye point of view at the different areas of our life and seeing okay, Hey, if I don't take care of my health, I may come up with an [00:22:00] autoimmune disease.
And then guess what? This thing that I said is so important. It's not going to get the time and energy it needs. Or if I don't take care of that now, I'm going to be screwed come retirement and so that's a big Hey, and that's the way my brain is always. Yeah.
worked where I'm like, I want to be set up to win. I want to hook myself up when I'm older at this point. Or when I was younger at 25, I was like, if I want to have kids in my mid thirties, I want to make sure that I at 25, I need to do X, Y, Z. So I can have both a career and a family. I just.
Thought that way, and so when I'm working with someone and they're, wanting to do something, you know Often they're saying I want a relationship, but they're so career focused I'm like there's no room for a relationship so maybe you either just don't really want it and that's okay or Maybe you're scared to have it and let's deal with that and let's also create some space so that if you're dating someone they Actually can get to know you not see you every three four weeks Hard to build a relationship.
Karen: Yeah. And so with your
Robyn: guidebook, you're actually, you've created on a high level, let's talk about there's a structure to it that helps people be accountable [00:23:00] to themselves.
Brianna: So you could do it without me at all. I set it up in a way that works with our groups. So I put it seasonally because worked it based on like how we had worked as a group. And what it worked and how often and when to revamp things, when to really celebrate things. when was the times to sprint? When was the time to slow down and let yourself slow down just so you're not having burnout and so all of that's in there so , depending on how deep someone chooses to get into it, you keep reframing hurdles and obstacles and things that are triggering as an opportunity for awakening and there's room to write that out, but it's, so you can be your own, Coach, You can do it yourself. because I, that for me, what helps with me is getting it out on the page and being able to see what I needed to see. And then of course, I referenced tons and tons of people that I think are, Excellent at whatever area that they're excellent at, because I think we need to hear things in stereo.
I do too,
Robyn: so does, we all
Karen: do.
Brianna: if I'm having an issue about my health, for example, I want to hear from several different sources, see what's common, listen to my intuition and then pick a lane , [00:24:00] And I found that's worked for every area of my life where I've been in struggle.
And when, especially when I couldn't afford a mentor or I couldn't afford a coach or, some of these things, like some books were, I would just devour books on subjects to try and work on whatever goal I was. Trying to work through and at the time, especially in my 20s, I was like, can there just not be so many landmines?
Brianna: I moved out to LA and 19. And by the way, I'm not saying my story was the worst of the worst. Please note that. But I just remember saying here I was at 19. Doe
Karen: eyed, coming to Los Angeles, dealing with
Brianna: all these different circumstances and different culture and all the Me Too circumstances on top of having a back injury and then I get over the back injury and dating these guys that were just so many lessons to, having other health issues and trying to lose weight and be healthy and, Dealing with all of that to then being in a financial crisis with the real estate crisis and having to figure out what is all this, but looking back in time, I'm like, Oh, my God, I would never have been able to [00:25:00] write all of that.
I would have never been able. To talk to someone about different areas of life and business. Had these things not happened? I was forced to learn a lot really quickly
so it forced me to be a better business person. So actually what a huge blessing, now, while I think that, some people could be more moral who, I'm like, thank you that I learned so much. And now I have so much more to give.
Karen: One of the words that I'm fascinated by is
Brianna: the word mission.
Karen: Why did you choose that word for your title? What is the difference between a mission versus like your purpose versus a goal?
Brianna: why is that your word, Brianna? I had been asked to speak at an event. And the woman who had asked me to speak she said, I'd love you to do your topic on manifesting your mission.
Karen: That's a topic.
Brianna: Sat with it and I was like, okay, yeah, I can see how that makes sense. I can see, yes, because with goal setting, Going into purpose. I think your purpose is part of your mission, but you never finish Manifesting your purpose or your mission to the day you die.
You're building a legacy What that legacy is that's for you to [00:26:00] create it doesn't have to be epic for everyone else to applaud it can be epic in your own, internal way giving yourself credit for all of those things along the way and that's part of what the guidebook helps you Acknowledge because I know for myself if you ask me, what are you up to?
I'm like, I don't know I mean I can spout out some stuff But if I really then wrote down what i'm up to I would have a laundry list to read All right,
Karen: yep It doesn't
Brianna: register or my brain will go to problem versus blessing. Yeah. I write those blessings down.
I write those kismet moments. I applaud those, because I think often many of us, myself included we'll be like, oh, I'll remember that. I'll remember that compliment. Oh, I'll remember that nice thing that happened. I'll remember that kismet moment. probably not.
Why don't you write it down? And then review it. And then you're like, oh, life is working for me. Can you
Robyn: explain what a Kismet moment is
Brianna: listening? Kismet is a synchronicity it's serendipity it's that things are meeting at the same time that is an aha. For example, I remember , I was going to shoot a show in Atlanta and I was really in turmoil over a situation where I needed to set [00:27:00] boundaries.
Like, how do I speak up? How do I set these boundaries? This is a difficult conversation. And as I was driving in the car, we were passing on the freeway, a big billboard that said boundaries.
Karen: Yep.
Brianna: I get it. Okay. So it's time to have that conversation. No more ruminating about it. And swirling all this energy. it's not fixing anything. That was my sign that yes. In the moment okay, it's time to deal. Let's set that. Yeah.
Robyn: And so for some people it's signs,
Brianna: sometimes it's literally a sign. Yeah. Sometimes it's something that someone says or there's so many times where it's like a different I just, I get such a kick outta it. I write 'em down all the time.
Robyn: I think the way you explained it is very helpful and sometimes it is like what we say, synchronicities, it's just the right thing happening at the right time and you happen to look up at that time, right?
And you saw that
Brianna: literal sign.
Robyn: And sometimes it is It could be the name of somebody helping you in a store and you see their name on, let's say they're wearing a name tag and that name resonates with you for whatever. there's so many different ways.
Karen: can be subtle,
Brianna: It doesn't have to be in your [00:28:00] face obvious but like intuition, the more you pay attention to it, the more you acknowledge it, the more it happens.
Robyn: Yes. And so I think writing them down is key because we very
Brianna: quickly forget. Yeah. And then the key to review it, right?
Like in school, we take notes, we listen to a lecture, we take notes, we review our notes, we take it fast. At the end of the year, we have a, we have to go through exams. I believe the same thing is true in our lives. Yes.
Robyn: I would say most people don't do that. think For
Brianna: me,
I'm in a town that's all about connections, and I came here with no connections. So I fast tracked over so many people by working smarter.
Robyn: And so that would be one of the things that you help people create are monthly check ins, right?
And that's a time to look at everything that's good and maybe not so good,
Brianna: maybe didn't feel so good. Yeah, definitely. I think as I mentioned earlier, these uglier, darker moments, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. often gold, We don't understand it at the moment. We don't understand it, and we don't need to understand it and we don't need to be okay with it, and it doesn't mean that other people's way of being is okay or justified, but looking [00:29:00] at extracting what we can learn, our part, What we can take responsibility for, what do we need to let go of, and maybe it's that person, or situation, or whatever the thing is.
it helps fast track so you don't repeat the pattern over and over and over again. Because most of us, myself included, we're just like gerbils in a wheel until we get the lesson. see it with other people more than ourselves. I can see it with a friend of mine, who's struggling in relationship and I'm just like, Ugh, if you only loved yourself more, you wouldn't be putting up with this crap.
You would date differently, right? But that's her journey and it's not for me to figure out. It's not my responsibility to figure it out. I can lovingly, encourage or if my opinion is being asked, we all have our blinders on. trying to get still and get quiet helps us see beyond our periphery.
Yeah, and then you
Robyn: see it, then you actually, you see the patterns, because you've literally written them down, so you can go back. Yeah,
Brianna: you get sick of your own baloney, right? Yes. Yeah, I think it's important to slow down and look at this. And also, I found that I know people who are so busy all the time, and part of that's trauma blocking.
Because if [00:30:00] you keep going and going and you're busy, and productive, you're like, what are you not dealing with? What do you not want to feel? Why can't you slow down, Or emotional eating what are you stuffing? What are you not wanting to feel? let yourself feel it, and you might collapse on the ground and sob but we gotta get it out.
Better out than in. Let's move through it. The only way out is through. All those things, all those cliches that we all know but do we give ourselves the space to look at it? And I found that when I do that, I learn things much faster in my body, but in my whole body and my being versus, I can know something.
I can regurgitate a lot of information but if I don't know it, then it doesn't matter. And I think that's one of my big pet peeves, like kind of community. of, life coaches and people that are self help, is the number of people that I know, who I know enough about their personal life, I'm like, You don't even embody that.
Let's not pretend you're an expert on relationships when you've never been engaged or married or have children.
Come on.
Robyn: I also think the important thing to point out, too, is you have to want. To your point, You can say you want to change something in your life. You also have [00:31:00] to then show up and do the work.
And what you help people do is do the work because it doesn't just happen
Brianna: by snapping your fingers. Oh, I think all the magic stuff does happen, but you got to do the work along the way. That's the right way to put it. Yes. Yes. The more you're doing the work along the way, the more stuff you will, think of that bag and manifest it, which I did for my birthday.
And I was very excited about that.
Karen: if someone's listening to this podcast
Robyn: right now and they're thinking,
Karen: Oh, I have this intuition that maybe I should be an actress or this intuition that I should move. How would you suggest they take that moment of intuition and create a goal around that?
Brianna: What's the bridge?
There's so many things that I would need to know about their circumstances before I could really say, do this, and this, Like there was a younger actress who a friend of mine asked me to speak to and she's in college and , she was asking about what she should do for acting.
And for her I had said, I think you should finish college and I think you should get a degree in business. So continue to do it in the arts. Great. But I said, I think you also need to get a business degree because [00:32:00] so much of the entertainment industry is changing in a way where you need to be your own creator.
You need to create your own marketing. You need to understand business because it's not like when I started where acting was just acting. Once reality TV came into the, N suddenly you needed to be a persona, not just a character that you could just be, only in interviews would they ever hear about you, or maybe they would get a picture of you walking in with a latte, and they're like, they drink lattes too, or
Karen: whatever.
Brianna: Yes. We know way too much. We see, but cleavage and we see everything, right? Like we just, you're like, I know what you ate. I know where you are. I know all of the things in real time. It's so different now because the industry's merged and the expectations merged. So I think that with that needing to understand marketing, needing to understand business, needing to understand that it is a business.
If you're just doing theater, I would say you get to be more of just an artist. But if you're choosing to do film and television, you're actually more of a business person the majority of the time than you are acting. When you're on set between action and cut, you get to be an artist. Within [00:33:00] those, between like, where your marks are.
Where you're allowed to be. On set for the camera. And then, obviously in acting class you get to hone your craft and all of that. But I have a community as well with my friend Elizabeth Bojkovic. She's a big casting director and casting executive. And we created a thriving community for younger actors.
Specifically because of All of the craziness in this business, and you could just take a lot of dead end turns and I have said, as we've spoken at USC or we've spoken within our monthly community that knowing how to act is this much of the business.
You have to be excellent at this much. Like this takes 10, 000 hours to get your to be great at that, but then to understand how to put yourself out there, how to deal with rejection, how to make sure your marketing tools are correct, how to be prepared when you're on a red carpet, there's all these different things at different levels of the business as you gain more and more success to be able to have longevity, to go and make a living year after year, decade after decade, which in that, in our union, less than 2 percent make a living.
What is your side gig and, for me, when I had a son, I was like, [00:34:00] I don't want to pursue it the same way. I didn't want to be living in Atlanta, living on airplanes, either not seeing my husband a majority of the time, or, not seeing my son a majority of the time I was like this, it didn't fit the same way that it fit for the first.
almost 20 years of my career. and so I was like, how do I make it make sense now that my priorities have changed? Suddenly like I had my little boy and I'm he's my everything. I love this kid. How do I make this make sense? And then finding my new identity in that.
And what is my purpose now when now I can only get this much
done in this month, I need to get this much done in this
much time because I'm momming it, and other people don't. and that's okay too. So I'm not negating that, but I realized I needed to shift what I wanted because of the lifestyle I wanted to have.
As a mom,
Robyn: and that can apply to anyone in any business really right in any who's ever had a certain type of career. And then something shifts that for them you realize and then how do I make those bigger changes. How do I do that.
Karen: The goals change. They naturally change and [00:35:00] that's okay. My mission can actually evolve and change based on how my life.
Is going. Yeah, I love that you give people that openness to be able to adjust those along the way. They don't have to be these hard and fast things that they achieved by the end of the year that you can adapt them as the month unfolds or
Brianna: as the year unfolds. Yeah. And there's a time in the middle of the year to like really reevaluate like if you have an ailing parent, suddenly certain things that were so important to you are not as important.
Or maybe they need to be more important because of the circumstances. We don't know, that's why every year I go through my goals with a fresh way of being where I'm like, all right, what am I continuing? What am I letting go of? What am I moving forward at?
Or what do I need to put more energy towards? So I actually finish that. Cause some of the things. you're like I'm going to finish editing my speaking reel and why have this and this come up suddenly that's not as important, but I'll get to it. , there's a pin in it, and I think that those
Robyn: check, like what you're talking about, whether it's monthly or then maybe looking at the year. It's really also looking at what is fulfilling me. Because that's at the end of the game doesn't matter what you do. Are you [00:36:00] fulfilled and finding we would say finding balance in so many of the different areas of our lives is what ends up helping us feel fulfilled.
And we all have our different goals. But that's really at the end of the we're talking about what is fulfillment.
Brianna: Yeah. And also I became acutely aware of it when I was a mother, I was aware of it before when I was running my business and having a nonprofit and, doing a bunch of different things about my time.
Because I did the opposite when I was younger. I just gave away all my time. I was at everyone's everything to my detriment and I got sick. But as a mom, I realized I only have a finite amount of time and a finite amount of energy. And so what are my priorities? And those are going to change at different phases of the year.
. I used to set goals that were a out of my control and that'd be devastated if they didn't happen.
And I realized a lot of those are, more intentions and it's a more like a guiding light of what I want, but what are the things within my control that I can feel good about? Yeah, I did that. And it may be a stretch. but not where it's far fetched and I realized that too with, when I was on a soap opera, one of my goals when I , [00:37:00] got on General Hospital, I was a Daytime Emmy, and I loved that goal, and I worked really hard, that motivated me to really make my scenes interesting, and my character was named one of the best villains in 50 Years of Airing of General Hospital, and it was a very fun role, and There's so many ridiculous things that this character did.
Robyn: But Totally imagine. Giving
Brianna: HIV invested blood from one spouse to another. Oh my god!
Karen: Hold on. How do I have syringes?
Brianna: Where are my syringes? My hair was perfectly done and backcombed. My makeup was immaculate. I just got out of a coma.
Karen: you did.
Brianna: Of course. And now I'm gonna tie you up and I'm gonna take your blood, which has H i v and give it to your husband, which kind of doesn't make sense because he probably would have h i v considering
Karen: Totally right.
So funny.
Brianna: This needs to make total sense for me . anyway, as I go down the funny stories it was about Daytime Emmys. So that was like, oh, that was the goal. And then I saw the process of how they determine who gets just to be put in how it even works. And I'm like, wait a minute, your peers have to [00:38:00] judge your work.
I don't even watch the other soap operas. How would I even know? Like the whole way, I was like, this is so backwards. And then I realized this is out of my control. So that no longer is the goal. And I was glad that like it was named Best Storyline. On People Magazine's 50 Years, One of the Best Villains.
Oh, look, great. I'm like great. That's the thing. it doesn't need to look in the form that I need. I thought, what am I going to do? Be like sad because I have something that's completely out of
Robyn: my control. That's so sad. And so many people end up being attached to what that is without really looking at it.
And then they are really sad. They really feel like failures.
Brianna: But it's also ego and also identity. Oh, entire sense of self is identifying as this thing. And I think for any of us who've had the awakening of being a parent, you're like, oh, my identity's cracking open. These things that I once was is a part of me, but I have all, these other responsibilities now, too.
And my identity, and I think that, there's not enough conversation around your identity blossoming. At that phase, we become so much more, right? And we're often the heads of our family. Like how, what are we, what culture am I creating? What traditions are we creating? Like [00:39:00] all these things that you feel like before you're like, I could just focus on work.
And
Karen: your goal could be getting a good night's sleep or an hour sleep, right? your goals can be that immediate to start with,
Brianna: It can be simple habits and they're just as valid as bigger goals. Yeah. It's just knowing the reality of someone's bandwidth and then a beautiful recipe, putting in enough of each thing so that you're like, this is manageable.
And if you're going at too fast of a pace, like a runner, like if you're running a race and you're going too fast of a pace, if you sprint, you'll collapse. At a certain point if you're doing a long distance race. how do you do it in a pacing that feels delicious? I could do this forever and then know when you got to turn up the dial to get past that finish line or, get, and then when is it time to slow down?
Cause you're about to have an injury. Yes. And I have someone who's run, I liken goal setting to that analogy because. It just makes me realize okay, right now, like last fall, I did not expect my son to be sick nonstop from school. I was like, it was a kind of a joke.
Like I had clients where I'm like, my son is sick again. So if he interrupts us again. I don't know what to tell you. He's sick again this [00:40:00] week and it's not like he has a bad immune system. He's just, in preschool and that was really jarring last fall of Oh my God, I thought I'd have a lot more time to get all these things done.
It's okay, that's not what's supposed to be right now. Just readjust. I'll just have to slow the pacing. And then on this period, this day, or, I can get a lot done, whatever the things are. So we adjust. So we just have a lot more fluidity within the rigid well and then
Robyn: something that I know that you've talked about even in our conversation today is working smarter and part of that working smarter is knowing what to put your attention to on a given daily basis.
What are a couple of tools that you use to evaluate what is important? I know you have a few that you
Brianna: talk about in the book. Yeah. A couple like go to's that I've coined is three to one, do three productive things to one numb and a numb is. So much of the things that we have normalized but are actually probably dysfunctional, Watching some TV is good. Watching hour after hour after hour of TV a night, maybe not as good, right? It's borderline. Social media. Overeating, like overspending, anything that's in excess worth just paying [00:41:00] attention. I'm not saying don't go have fun, but to what degree, and is that a priority or is it a budget priority or, is it health priority, whatever the things are, right?
Three productive to one numb. So many people wake up and they turn on their phones first. now you're letting other people dictate how your day goes. We've all heard this. We all know this, but that doesn't mean we always do this, right? Like, when I start off my day...
I get up, I'll do some sort of grounding. I'd love to say I do some really long, lengthy morning routine, but that is not the case right now. There's been other phases where I did, and I'm so proud of that. But my son, he needs his mommy right away. And it's okay, that's the phase that we're in.
So I'm going to take a few deep breaths and get grounded and I'll do some meditation later. And, I'll do what I need to do, but I will do my check in with my ladies that, I do a check in on my goals for the day, and how I'm doing and what I'm grateful for, and I'm, so I start my day off on what's my priority for me versus being bombarded with everybody's everything, and I think it's such a blessing that we can be so connected to one another with our phones, but also such a curse.
I'm like, I'm not an OB on
Karen: call. OB on call.
Brianna: You are not about to deliver a baby and I need to be there.
Karen: Totally.
Brianna: But there is [00:42:00] this constant, we are so accessible to one another. Yes. Boundaries. Setting those, and it's that thing that I learned so much later in life, like you teach people how to treat you, If you want to stand up to a bully, you got to stand up to them. There's a certain I will teach you how to treat me. And if I don't, I'll be steamrolled by certain people.
Robyn: Yeah, and they are, believe them.
Brianna: Yes, and you're like, oh, okay, that's where you're at.
bad. Just, okay, , maybe you're not inner circle, maybe you're outer circle. That's right. Maybe you are in exile. so I think that, that's something, three to one is a great one just to be like, Throughout the day and also timing your numbs, It's very easy because of AI to with social media to just suddenly be like, how did 20 minutes go, We're not dealing, we say oh, willpower. It's not willpower. We're dealing with something that's smarter than us. anyone that hasn't seen the Netflix documentary Social Dilemma if you haven't seen it, you and your children must see it. and then watch it again. Because we're not in control of ourselves with the dopamine hits. with all the feelings that we're getting from these devices. That it's the wild west.
We have a lot of wild west things happening. I [00:43:00] don't know if any documentary from a long time ago. It was called the human experiment and it was all plastics and and you're like oh yeah, we were just like experimented on just yeah, I think this will be fine.
We'll see. Oh, It's an older documentary, but it's worth seeing. And , in Europe, the regulations on all sorts of chemicals, additives, it's so much higher. And so there's all sorts of health issues, autoimmune issues, hormone disruption, that's worth hey, this is rooted in a lot of these things not being regulated in our culture and or people just not having the knowledge that this is toxic.
Robyn: That's right.
Brianna: So I have a big belief that there's a lot of things in our world that are normalized that are actually very dysfunctional. So it's not actually in our highest good to be. Living in that way, or it's worth evaluating. Yes. To your
Robyn: point, just like the given, just because social media is there, and it is easy to lose 20 minutes, 30 minutes just scrolling, realize there's something else behind there that's keeping you there.
It knows the way your physical and emotional body is going to react to it. be educated on
Karen: it. It doesn't mean never. It's just
Robyn: be educated on it.
Brianna: Yeah. [00:44:00] If you notice, you're always buying stuff on social media. Just remember, you're the product.
Exactly. They talk about that in the Social Dilemma.
Karen: Brianna, there's one on your list that I
Brianna: absolutely want you to talk about, which is, if it's not a
Karen: hell yes,
Brianna: There was this woman named Dallas Travers, who I coached with a million, million years ago. I did a few sessions with her when I was an actor and she like helped actors at the time.
And I was, running around ragged, trying to be a good friend, which really was at the time I was trying to create community and a sense of family, I didn't understand that's what I was doing. And I didn't have strong boundaries then.
And, I was running around a million auditions. I also, had my nonprofit, I, at the time I had several investment clubs that I was running. Like I had all of these. Irons in the fire. And I came into a session with her and she looked at me and she's you look tired. And we chatted and I was telling her certain things.
And at the time too, I would allow other people's chaos to be something that I need to some, I felt a need to somehow be involved in or now I have a really healthy, lovely boundary in it where it's I can see it as theirs. And if. You want my advice? Great. And if you don't take it, that's on you and you'll figure out your path.
But at the time, I would [00:45:00] feel more, I don't know, I was into the drama of it, I don't know, right? Like at that time, I just wasn't as conscious around it all. And she said to me, Brianna, how about before you say yes to anything else, it needs to either be a hell yes or a hell no. And it really stuck with me because I think it can be so easy to be like, of course I'll go to your thing and of course I'll do this and of course I'll do that.
And, What might really need to happen is you might need some solo time, or you might need to be out with your partner and be on a date because your marriage isn't doing great, or you might need to spend some time with your kid because your kid's struggling I'm not saying, clear your schedule at all times, but it is worth noting with everything that's going on, do I need to be doing everything for everyone, and really, Why?
Robyn: Yeah. And don't you think also your body feels it too when it's to that hell yes or hell no, and and letting that
Brianna: lead. Yeah, if it's if it's not a hell yes, and it's then maybe not right now. Exactly,
Robyn: That's okay. So tell us how Manifesting Your Mission has expanded and how people can find all the different ways to , it's utilizing the guidebook and [00:46:00] more.
Brianna: Yeah to start off with, the guidebook's amazing, and you can do it solo, you can do it with, you get a couple people together, you can have your own little groups and hold each other accountable, highly recommend that.
So you can buy that on my website, it's called manifestingyourmission. org. it's also expanded, if you're a younger artist, I have a thriving community that meets monthly in person and also by Zoom, so people can be anywhere. So if you are an artist or, in a younger artist, meaning a professional age, so you'd be a young adult.
That's something that, you can be part of as well. I have my mastermind community, which is like. Bad these badass women that are all, crushing it. That's an invitation only usually those people have coached with me, so I know them they're like on board with all of it I do private coaching, on mondays and then I have my group coachings on fridays So I have a 12 week program that I do as well and then I can sprinkle in stuff when needed based on what someone's working on.
But I think it's just grown organically from, me doing workshops or doing a speaking engagement around it. And then I realized there was like, just more of a need for it. In different ways. Like some people do really well being like, I'm going to have three months of focus.[00:47:00]
All right, let me do a 12 week. And some people are like, I like it a little more personal and, spread out. And I think it's fun to just. See what works for someone and or if you're a really good solo person, like . Yeah. Just do it on your own or do it with a friend. and I
Robyn: love that you offer those things because I do think some people need the handholding.
Brianna: And what I realized too is there's nothing wrong with that. I work out better if I have a trainer 'cause they're gonna push me to a whole other level than if I push myself And if I'm spending all this energy leading and all these other things, there's certain things where I get to be like, now you motivate me.
Help me motivate it beyond what I already know. Yes. Ironically, I coach a lot of coaches.
So that's also fun too because I have psychologists. I have coaches. and I have entrepreneurs. I have actors and artists and people in the entertainment industry.
And so it's fun to be like, we all want additional support with whatever we're working on. And often we think we're working on professional things, but we really need to work on some personal things. Oh yeah.
Robyn: Definitely. Yeah. And then let's also talk about the nonprofit you started, which I mentioned in the intro, which is the new Hollywood.
Brianna: Yeah. originally the goal group started as the nonprofit 501 C3 [00:48:00] nonprofit, the new Hollywood and we support. Socially conscious storytellers and change makers through and entrepreneurs through grant schools and mentorship. And we have mentorship events that we've done that are more entertainment based.
We've done a fiscal sponsorship program for different socially conscious projects. And the program we're really pushing out right now, which is it's been around for two years now. We first started with foster kids, but now we're working with these women who've gone through harvest homes, so they're formerly homeless moms.
And they go through a monthly coaching with us. And it's really fun to see these ladies who have, they've just been through hell and back. The trauma I've heard is stories that I will never forget. That's. It's horrifying to me and just knowing that how far they've been able to get on their own and then to be able to be an additional support for them and we create fun challenges where they use the guidebook, they show up, they listen to things, they do a legit amount of reading.
these women are like, they're single moms, they're figuring it out, they're like willing to put in the time and energy
that's been really fulfilling. We're doing a big walk for it right now in October 14th. We have a walk in, in Santa Monica and we're raising money [00:49:00] for the program. And it's at the new Hollywood backslash donate backslash. And we have a video and it's showing their testimonials, just talking about how their lives have changed.
And , it's a total passion project, and I'm really proud of it and a small portion of the proceeds from the guidebook for manifesting your mission go toward the new
Robyn: Hollywood. And I'll tell you, just from watching the video that you do have up there, it made me actually cry.
And so I'm grateful that you are doing it and that it's being received in that way, even by the different women who've been a part of it. And I know you've done this for many years. I love what one of the women said was that they would never have Known about these types of resources or tools without the new Hollywood and without using manifesting your mission.
And I know that for Karen and I, that is such a goal is to get this information and these resources and these tools and these and products and
practitioners and all
of it. And for really the information out there to people, especially to those where this may not at [00:50:00] all be part of. The daily dialogue in their communities.
And so the difference, you can see the difference.
Brianna: Yeah. And also just knowing, when you're in struggle and survive mode, there is not much bandwidth for personal development.
Karen: Oh, yes.
Brianna: There's such a sea of information and misinformation that you have to be a detective.
So to have someone like myself or other people be able to help fast track you and say, no, read this book. like right now the challenge we're doing is on abundance. And so we're diving into a lot of finance, money, budget, not so sexy topics, and being like, Alright, let's get in there.
Let's like, open up the wound, let's look at it, and let's not just put a band aid on a bullet wound. We got to extract the bullet, we need to, mend it, we need to disinfect, we need to deal with it properly. We have to look at it first. And so there are some common small things when we're doing this where I'm like, Oh my goodness, you need to get rid of your storage unit. I'm looking at your budget, that's crazy. Or, wow, you're spending this much on a coffee? Do you know how much that is annually? And then their minds are blown. Oh my God. I didn't even think about that. And I'm not saying don't indulge [00:51:00] in luxuries.
And if you need certain necessities, you need them, but. What actually is a necessity and what actually is a luxury and to what degree and can it be a budget priority? So we're diving into all of those things and then just so to create financial literacy Because if you don't know and you come from poverty and you come from abuse and you come from the system some of these people have been through foster care.
They've been incarcerated. they didn't they weren't homeless Because they were couchsurfing. They were exactly Yes. And they were pregnant and terrified. And I'm like, the fact that they even survived, I remember talking to some of them and a lot of them have guilt for surviving because it just goes to show so many people they've known have died and you're like, Whoa, Whoa.
Or where other people in their family and friends are not proud of them for then going on and finishing their
Robyn: degree.
Karen: Wow. There was
Brianna: one woman, she was on the verge of being homeless again while trying to go get her master's. And it was like, how do we help you figure all of this out? And why was it hard for her to find a job and like looking at all that? And it's Oh, because you've been incarcerated. Oh, because of this.
And you find out all of these systems that make everything [00:52:00] so much more complicated when you are at the poverty level. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Things are not like intuitive and simplified.
Robyn: That's right.
Brianna: So to say, okay, it's not your fault you didn't know this. How would you have known this?
You know what I mean? You didn't come out of the womb knowing this. And
Robyn: As you're helping and your team helps others. all that you're learning about the system and the complicated.
Brianna: There's different hoops of like, why is this complicated for the scholarship that doesn't come in at this point.
But this, all of the things and the fact that most people are 500 away from not being able to pay their bills, like that's, yeah, there's a real need for people to understand how to have longevity in business. And I was able to learn that by being an actress, by having it being in a consistently inconsistent career.
So all of these things have prepared me. To do these, things and be able to share this wisdom or share other people's wisdom. And then be like, this is how it's been applicable to me. This is what you might want to try. Listen to this resource, let's have a plan.
And also let's have a plan of action that doesn't feel overwhelming. So you're not just trying a million things all at once and not going anywhere.
Robyn: And what I love too, and I get from you and you can see that [00:53:00] even from those women too. It's so soul to soul, right? Because this can happen to anybody, you never know what circumstances are going to happen in your life.
And So by this organization that you've created by this guidebook you've created, you're really helping people get back on track, or make their lives better. So if you're not on track, you can get on track. And otherwise you can make your current life even better.
Brianna: Yeah. You can always do 1 percent change of growth. You can always tweak, you can always polish, And you can always savor more. We'd always celebrate more. So if you're not in surviving, you just want to up level thriving, then it's okay, how can I do that? And make it more importantly, how do I make it fun?
Doesn't need to be that's the key to It doesn't need to be super complicated and it doesn't need to be like some of the stuff I've read where I'm like I feel like I'm in a lecture, like a boring lecture and that's fine, but I want something that feels inspiring and I want to feel proactive and I want to feel the desire, the juices to do it versus I have to, right?
I'm really grateful that I've. been able to find, another part of my mission, I've been manifesting it. [00:54:00] Yes, you have. in all of these things and then to help those that are really in need and that, and these women are, they're total rock stars.
Robyn: you can tell, and I know that I just saw a few of them.
Oh my goodness, Brianna, thank you so much for everything that you are doing, that you have created, that you will be doing. You really are a force in this world, as we said at the beginning. And I'm just grateful to know you and call you a friend as well.
Brianna: Thank you, Robyn. Thank you for having me on and all that you're doing.
Robyn: We just scratched the surface today, you can now take this conversation and actually do something with all of it by getting the manifesting your mission guidebook for yourself. Visit manifestingyourmission.
org and a portion of all proceeds go to the new Hollywood programs where manifesting your mission guidebooks and workshops are donated to support underprivileged foster and homeless youth. And Brianna is launching a podcast in March of 2024 called Manifesting Your Mission with Brianna Brown Keene.
She's also creating course modules around [00:55:00] wellness and abundance that will launch also in 2024. You can follow Brianna on Instagram at Brianna Brown Keene, and you can find out more about Brianna and the New Hollywood. We'll have all links for everything we talked about in our show notes. So thank you.