Podcast Introduction:
[00:00:00] Brianna: And years ago I did this activity where I found my why and when you figure out what your why is and you go down to the very depth of why you do what you do, it's really insightful.
[00:00:12] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath depth and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention. Gratitude and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.
Are you ready to make 2024 the best year ever? If you want 2024 to be the year that you live fully, boldly, and more passionately, then I'd love for you to be part of my 12-week group coaching program called Live The With. I have taken the best benefits from my one-on-one coaching programs and added them to a group program.
It is going to be a 12-week program in which we have daily meditation, and weekly breath work, and twice a month we are going to have very specific content in a group coaching format. If you are ready to finally manifest the life of your dreams, to become a magnet for the blessings that you are seeking to reduce stress and burnout and create optimal health, to learn to stop listening to the limiting beliefs doubts, and fears that are holding you back and finally create The habits and routines that allow you to take daily aligned, inspired action towards the life of your dreams.
Then I'd love for you to apply for this program. You can get all the details at anetakuzma.Com backslash live the with. There is an opportunity for you to apply to be a part of the program. We'll schedule a quick call with me. And if this sounds like you are an energetic match, I'd love for you to be a part of this program.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and I look forward to hearing from you.
Welcome back to the Live The Width Of Your Life podcast. My guest this week is Brianna Brown, she is a former educator turned mompreneur who believes in inspiring and encouraging others to live their most badass life. She followed her dream to be an educator and spent 10 years in public education as a teacher, a school counselor, and a librarian.
While she loved being in the space, she always dreamed of helping other women achieve their dreams. Along the way, she discovered her why, which was to help others feel accepted and validated for who they are and to celebrate the accomplishments they make daily. She then decided to follow her own passions and move towards helping women who are struggling to find their place in the world and wishing to improve their lives.
She is the creator of the Badass Book Besties, which is a community platform that focuses on enriching the lives of women through encouraging a conversation around a love of books and learning. She's an avid reader. She has two book clubs and she's also the host of a podcast called Badass Books and Besties, where she empowers you to become the most badass woman that you can be.
We just geeked out on our conversation. We are both avid readers. We'd love books. We were both English literature majors and just had a really great time kind of talking about different things that we're enjoying reading and our evolution as readers over time, things that we've learned, I think you're going to enjoy this conversation, especially if you also love to read. Take a listen.
Podcast Interview:
[00:03:37] Aneta: Hi Brianna. Thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:03:40] Brianna: Yes, I am so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
[00:03:43] Aneta: Of course. And for those that aren't familiar with Brianna Brown and her podcast, Living your Most Badass Life, can you tell us a little bit about your journey and anything else that you'd like for the audience to know?
[00:03:59] Brianna: Yeah. Well, I'm so happy to be here and share my story because I feel like I've come so far to where I am today. I started off as an educator because I absolutely love teaching. I love books, I love learning, and I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher, so I spent 10 years in the educational space.
I was a teacher, a school counselor, and then a librarian, and I just. Went through all of the different places and thought, where is my niche? Where do I want to be? And I realized that while I loved teaching, I realized that the public school system wasn't really where I wanted to be. You know, I loved being with students.
I loved hanging out with the adults and talking about books, but I realized that. The educational system is so much different than I expected and didn't really allow for true creative expression in my opinion. Now, I'm in a different school system, so maybe there are school systems out there that really allow that, but it just got to the point where I wasn't able to be truly authentic with what I wanted to teach and how I wanted to teach it.
I wanted to do a lot of creative writing and book clubs and all of that. And so after I spent all of that time, I had my second child, so I have two kids, and I thought, I can't really do this anymore. I have to be able to stay at home. I want to be able to grow with my children and expand in some way.
And so whenever I had my first daughter, I started selling Usborne books and more. Which is the children's book company. And I never thought I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It just wasn't in my bag at the time. And as I started, selling those books, I thought, I really like this doing something on my own.
I really like sharing the books. I really like sharing this message. And so then after I had my second child, I thought, okay, this is something I want to do. This is something I'm really intrigued by. And so then I slowly started to build the idea of, I really love books and I really love teaching. I think I'm going to have a book club. I thought, let's do it.
So I created the Badass Book Besties, and it's a place where I connect with other women over books and I get to teach the messages that are within the self-improvement books. And I get to have fun with women and I think, okay. I did love teaching, but I really love being with adults a lot more. So yeah, so now I'm just living out my passion for reading books and talking about them.
[00:06:40] Aneta: I love that because I'm obsessed with books. I was an English lit major undergrad, and so I loved that I could take something that allowed me to read books every single week, like a new book. I think it's amazing. And how interesting that you were able to, you said you were living out your passion, so you knew that you liked teaching, you liked elements of that. But you also loved books. And so how, did the idea come to you to say, how can I bring these two things together? And did you have it all figured out or were you like, let's just see what happens if I start a book club?
[00:07:15] Brianna: That is such a great question and I love that you said that you were an English major because I was as well. And I spent so many years wrapped up in that lifestyle that I really stopped reading after college. Because you're fed such a heavy content of literature my passion just slowly dwindled and I really, really missed it. And I would collect books all the time. I mean, I'm obviously surrounded by books and I just kept buying them, adding them to my bookshelf, and then one day I heard a podcast and it was a professor who said that people who really enjoy reading usually go into English majors or history majors or something of that sort.
And then their passion for reading dwindles, and they don't. Enjoy it as much. And he says, you've got to pick up a book and you've got to recognize that it's okay. You don't have to read the classics, you can read whatever you want. And I thought, thank goodness. What a weight lifted off my shoulders. It's almost like I needed permission, which is so strange to think about, in life you need permission to do your passions. And so after I started reading I was like, I really miss writing about it. So I started a book blog, which I don't have anymore, but I was like, I really need to share this message and share these books. And as I started doing that, I realized, I really like writing about them. I really like continuing to read What can I do with this?
A couple of years ago, I joined a business course called Made to Do This with Cathy Heller, and I thought, what can I do? What can I do to take what I love and make it into something I can spread my message and build a business off of it? And that's where the book club came from. I thought, okay, I'm taking my passion, I'm taking what I love. And it's really been a process because if you would've asked me, probably five years ago if I wanted to start a business and where I am today, I would think really that's where I would end up.
But now, I couldn't think of anything different I would want for my life. So it's definitely been a process to get here, but something I'm so happy that has come to this point. And I believe it all started with that first, somebody asking me, hey, would you like to sell children's books? So you never know what impact you're going to have on somebody. You never know what one question can change the whole trajectory of your life.
[00:09:45] Aneta: Well, and also you had to be open to that. Sometimes we miss those cues or those signals because we're not present, we're not mindful. We have in our minds, our own plans and we're not necessarily open to those moments of magic as I like to call them. I think that was awesome that you were available, but I want to go back to this idea because this really resonated with me when you said that, it's almost like you needed permission to be able to read whatever you wanted. Because I too read the classics and I felt like, and then I was a women's studies minor, so I read a lot of material that was very much about society and social norms. So we are constantly engaged in discussions about really important, relevant things.
And I remember one day my sister, she's eight years younger, but she's an avid reader and she's a teacher actually. And, she was over and we were talking, she was talking about some books, so she was reading and they were fiction. And I said I don't know. I said, you know, I'm reading the autobiography of Gandhi right now. And she just laughed at me and she's like, why? She's like, it was a good autobiography, but I think her point was like, you don't need to read something serious or heavy or even time-consuming all the time. You can read anything that is joyful and delightful and different purposes. And so that was like her permission. She was giving me permission to do the same thing, where not everything had to be something that I would've read, in school.
[00:11:17] Brianna: Yeah. I love that so much that we both had that same moment of, well thank you. I can read whatever I want. Because that's exactly how I felt. I loved being in college and analyzing the literature and taking Shakespeare and romantic lit and British lit and loving it and feeling so in awe of all the words. And then afterward I felt like, man. And I would collect some of them. And it wasn't even until recently that I looked at my bookshelf and thought, okay, are we going to read these? You can let them go. It's okay. Someone else may want them. Let's look at them.
Are you actually going to dive into those because you kind of feel like you have to? And that's another thing that when I was an English major, I would meet other readers who would have knowledge of all of these authors and all of these amazing books. And I thought, oh no, I don't read those. Am I a real reader? Am I qualified? And it's so amazing how once I heard that and got that permission as we're calling it, I was like, wow, I am a reader. I don't have to read Charles Dickens every day to be a reader and enjoy it.
[00:12:32] Aneta: So I think starting last year, and then this year I also did the same thing. My bookshelves were overflowing with the classics because I didn't get rid of anything from college. I kept every single book that I read, which was a lot. Yes. And I also looked through them and I'm like, am I really ever going back to read this again? And maybe I could just send it back, give it, you know, I love selling it back to bookstores and somebody else can enjoy it.
And just because it's not sitting on my bookshelf anymore doesn't mean that. I'm disrespecting it. The classic or that I didn't read it, to begin with, but I felt the same way as you where I think I'm supposed to hang onto this as if one piece of literature, we weighed it more because it was a classic or something that we had to read for our English literature class versus maybe something that you read now that's fiction for fun and it doesn't have to be that way. I've definitely evolved my thinking around, adding a sort of weight to books. I think that there is a time and a season for anything. It doesn't have to all be, like you said, Shakespeare or Canterbury Tails.
[00:13:40] Brianna: Absolutely. And it's so funny because I actually used the, and I don't always agree with a hundred percent of her methods, but Marie Kondo said to literally go through every single book that you have and see if you actually want it. And it was the funniest turn of events. So I had in college the complete works of Shakespeare and it was this huge, thick book and I thought, okay, I really loved Shakespeare in college. I really do love Shakespeare, but am I ever going to go back and sit here with this big book? And read it and I thought, it's okay, you love Shakespeare, you can let it go. This is a great book for someone to have. I thought it very cosmic and very just still to this day makes me laugh is, I sold the book to a bookstore, an awesome bookstore at local, and a few months later, my mom and I went to that bookstore and she said hey, check out this great Shakespeare book that I found.
And she literally bought it and I thought, Well, I guess the book was meant to stay in our family because now we have another copy of it, and so I always wondered if it was the exact same book, but I thought, well, maybe some books aren't worth getting rid of. But it definitely helped me feel so much better to know that every single book on my shelf, if I just randomly picked it, I would want to read it because I did get rid of a lot of books that I had collected because I almost felt bad that, I'm sorry, I don't want to read you. I'm just interested in another genre or another topic.
[00:15:18] Aneta: Yes. So speaking of that, are you, currently reading a specific type of genre or is it more eclectic?
[00:15:27] Brianna: That's such a great question because somebody asked me recently what we read in my book club and I thought everything because I don't really have a specific genre that I read. I really love almost everything. I think the only thing I wouldn't read is science fiction or a lot of fantasy stuff. And I know I'll probably make some people out there really disappointed, but I'm not like, if you give me Lord of the Rings, I'm probably not going to be interested in it.
I haven't read Harry Potter. I'm very sorry. But it's just not my forte. And I've read so many different books in the book club from nonfiction, and autobiography, to dramatic books, comedy, and romance. I feel like it spans all over. I just think though, it'd probably be a shorter list to say what I wouldn't read, and that's very science fiction or too much fantasy.
I mean, my favorite book growing up was Twilight, and so that's definitely some fantastical elements, but I think I'm willing to read anything and everything, but those things.
[00:16:36] Aneta: That's really funny. You said Twilight, because when my sister said, hey, this is what I'm reading, that's what she was reading was the Twilight books and I didn't think I'd ever read them. And then I remember like reading them all in like one weekend I couldn't go to sleep because I had to keep reading. It was so strange. Yeah. Not the best-written books at all. Like even reading it, you're like, I probably would've fixed this but, there's just this element where you just couldn't put it down so you could see why it was so successful, which just goes to show that you can't predict what will necessarily impact more people or what is going to be commercially successful versus not. So do you like to read self-help books? Are there things that you started reading when you were starting your business that maybe you didn't read earlier on?
[00:17:20] Brianna: Yes. One of my biggest passions that I realized in starting the book club is I had so many books on my good reads that were related to self-help or transformation, and I realized I wasn't diving into them and I thought, I have so many books on this list that I have not read. And so I used the book club as an accountability measure. And so I opened up a second book club and it's called the Lotus Academy and it's inside of the Badass Book Besties membership. But it's all about transformation because the lotus flower, you know, grows in the muddiest dirtiest waters and then becomes the most beautiful flower. And I thought that's a great representation of what I want this book club to represent. So when I started it, the first book that we read was, You Are a Badass.
I thought it was very fitting. And as soon as I got into it, I thought, this is what I've been dreaming about. I needed this. And I thought, why did I not open this up before? Because it does take a lot out of you. I mean, you really have to read it, digest it, analyze it, figure out how to apply it to your life, and then remember how to apply it. And there was a book I had read many years ago. The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F by Mark Manson is an awesome, fantastic book. And so I've read them along the way, but now that I have the book club, I'm actually going to start reading more consistently because those are really important, I absolutely believe in self-growth, self-improvement, all of that to really expand to who you want to be in life.
[00:18:57] Aneta: I love those two books. I love that they're so direct and I think both Jen and Mark were just really, obviously what they wrote struck a nerve and worked. Because they became commercially successful, like very successful. And I think Jen's book is been out there. I don't even remember how many years ago she wrote it. Over 10, I think.
[00:19:19] Brianna: Yeah. It's been a while.
[00:19:20] Aneta: It's been a long time and it's still very relevant today, which is great. I also found that I loved self-help books. I read so much fiction growing up. And then for a while, I turned to non-fiction and now I feel like I'm bringing in some more lighter fiction as well. Do you like to only read, or do you like also audiobooks? How do you feel about that?
[00:19:42] Brianna: It's funny because sometimes when I'm really needing to get into a book and I don't have the time to sit down and read, I have done audio, but I find that I'll be listening and then suddenly go off somewhere else.
Yeah. And think, oh no, I have to get back to reading. But it's different because a podcast, I'm totally, I dive in. I'm listening. Yeah, I'm engaged. I can pause it, and think about it. But when it comes to a book, it's almost like reading the words is so much better for me because then I can really get into the content.
But one of the books that we had read, I ended up doing the audio because the sentence structure was just too much for me and I thought maybe I just needed to hear this being said versus reading it. And that was The Handmaid's Tale. Mm-hmm. That one has incredibly long sentences, you know, multiple viewpoints, and it was very hard to read it at times and I thought, I've got to listen to that one.
So that's one that I actually listened to the audio and got through it a lot better because there's a lot that you don't really need. To hear, to get the gist of it. But most of the time I'm reading and I would say that I read handbooks in my hand, but sometimes I do find that I have to do like Kindle versions or something. Just to be able to read it if I need it from the library or something like that. So, but audiobooks, I wish I could focus more on them, but usually only podcasts on audio.
[00:21:11] Aneta: Yeah. I'm with you. For some reason, I think I'm very judgmental of people's voices, which I hate about myself, but, I really have to enjoy the person's voice who is reading it. Because when we read, and you're a reader, it's your own voice. And so even if you don't like your own voice, it's very familiar. And so it's not jarring at all. And so I do find that if it's a really good narrator or if it's maybe the person who wrote the book and you're already familiar with their voice, you're like I like this. I know Elizabeth Gilbert, and I want to hear her read her book. But sometimes it just doesn't always jive. So going back to what you were saying about the Kindle, do you know the Libby app? I'm sure you're familiar with the Libby app. Yes. Game Changer. My sister also told me about that because it's a wonderful way to be able to download books from the library alone, but you can read them on your Kindle.
And when I go on vacation, like I just don't weigh myself down with books. I always bring a Kindle cause I'm like, I want to read 10 books I'm going to download and I'm going to have something available for whatever mood I'm in. So do you travel with a Kindle or some other electronic device?
[00:22:19] Brianna: Absolutely. And I feel like one of the greatest things about reading it on the Kindle is that I can easily copy any quotes that I really want to write down for later, but also look up words as I'm reading. It's my favorite to go, what does that word mean? That's cool or let me go ahead and Google that, you can really learn more and dive into the book.
And so I definitely take it traveling and that's what the best thing about having it on your phone I usually read on my phone is just having the ability to carry it everywhere. Especially when you are in an airport or on the road in the passenger seat, of course not driving and breathing, but it just makes it so much more accessible.
And I do want to go back to when you said the audiobooks because it's very funny. The Handmaid's Tale was read, her voice was very much older sounding and made me very tired. So I'd have to pause and say, walk around because her voice was really just motherly, grandmotherly. And I thought I couldn't do this too much. So it does make a difference.
[00:23:23] Aneta: Yeah. It's so interesting. I remember reading The Handmaid's Tale in college. It was written in 1989. And, we read it in my woman's studies class, and so when it came out, as the show and I always remind my husband, I'm like, she only wrote one book, so all this other stuff was beyond that but to be able to think that she wrote about this dystopian society so many years ago, and for it to come out now is just the power and the creativity that these authors have. It's amazing.
[00:23:54] Brianna: Yeah, it's incredible how there are so many books that have really expanded time. I mean, I think about, 1984 or Animal Farm. Just those books that you can read, or even Fahrenheit 451 are very relevant right now. So many of those, I guess we're talking about classics again.
[00:24:10] Aneta: Yes, we are.
[00:24:12] Brianna: Of course, English majors would always go back to the classics, but it is amazing how some authors really are timeless and can see things from that perspective. And that's why if I ever meet someone who is not a reader, I think what do you do with your life? Because there are so many books to read. There are so many great things. And of course, if you don't read out there, it's okay. You just have to find the right book. I assure you.
[00:24:38] Aneta: I knew we would geek out. I mean, I'm with you. I think if you're a reader and you love books, it's just so amazing to be able to talk about them. So tell me how you were able to turn this passion into a podcast as well.
[00:24:53] Brianna: Yes. So whenever I would be on Facebook or with my friends or just talking in general life, I realized that I became super passionate about just being inspiring. And years ago I did this activity where I found my why and when you figure out what your why is and you go down to the very depth of why you do what you do, it's really insightful. And so when I just went online and anybody can go online, how do you find you're why? And you know, answer certain questions. And I got down to the fact that acceptance is why I do what I do. I really want to be accepted by others. I really want to accept them for who they are. I really want to hear their stories.
I want to dive into who they are as a person and in return have them find out from me. Because people have such incredible stories to tell. And when I was a little girl, I talked a lot. I was always in trouble for talking, always. I mean, we used to get our card pulled in elementary school and I would get in trouble in the cafeteria, I don't know why they didn't allow us to talk very much in the cafeteria seems silly now. But constantly in trouble, and my grandmother had this little tape recorder and I would record my voice and I would read books and it was W B R I and I loved hearing myself talk.
So having a podcast just seemed absolutely natural because I thought I wanted a radio show. And then when the idea of podcasts came around, I thought I'd really like to do that. And I decided to take what I'm passionate about. Accepting others, helping share their story, and being able to spread the message of inspiration and motivation, and then create living your most badass life. And, I started it in November of last year, on the 22nd of November, and that's a really important date to me because it was when my grandmother passed away when I was in high school, and she was the one person in my life that was such a light and who helped me feel like I could be authentic. She loved me with such passion and really taught me the meaning of being who you are loving life and keeping in contact with people. And I thought, okay, this is the perfect day to launch my podcast. To say this is an honor for her to really live out her badass life because the motto is to inspire and encourage women to live fully, to live with intention, and to just celebrate life. And so when I have that podcast, I share my own insights, but I also interview women and men. I haven't interviewed men yet, but really it's for women, just to find out their story.
Because when you hear what people have to say and realize that they've overcome adversity, they've pushed through life, they've become whoever they are, I think it's worth celebrating from the tiny things that they've done to the grandiose because everybody has a message worth sharing. And it's just you feel so inspired after talking with people. I always feel like I'm just buzzing when I have conversations with others and I thought having a podcast is the perfect way to share the message and to get it out there to the world.
[00:28:19] Aneta: I love it. So inspiring. I think that it is amazing to be able to connect with people in so many ways. I think that the world is big, but it's also very small. And so when we're able to connect this way, you realize, wow, there's someone else who loves books as much as I do, or wants to inspire people or wants to talk about these things. Yeah. And it's wonderful to be able to make those connections because sometimes it does feel like we're on this island by ourselves. And then when you open yourself up you're like, wow, there's some other people that I wouldn't have met during ordinary circumstances. So I do think that the podcast really does open up a world of possibilities.
[00:28:58] Brianna: Yes. And it's amazing because when you have a podcast, you realize at first I thought, am I going to have enough to say?
And I started creating a list of all the topics that I wanted to eventually discuss. I'm like, I've got to have a list because I'm very organized, type A, I really need all that. And I came up with the list and I've had 21 weeks, and I've probably looked at that list one time.
[00:29:24] Aneta: Isn't it interesting?
[00:29:26] Brianna: I thought, wow. So if somebody is out there and they're thinking about starting a podcast, trust me when I say that you'll eventually find things to talk about because there is so much to share and so much value that you can offer others. I love having a podcast. Of course. I love hearing myself talk
[00:29:43] Aneta: No, it's so true. And so I want to ask you a couple of questions about books because I do think that there are others out there who probably love reading as much as we do, or maybe who are interested. So for those who are not avid readers, I hate to put you on the spot, but I'm sure you can come up with a couple of things. Are there some books that you would say either fiction or non-fiction, that you think everybody should read?
[00:30:07] Brianna: That is such a good question because people have such a wide variety of books that they are interested in and there have been some books that have just really opened me up and made me feel such passion and love. And one of them that I was absolutely obsessed with is Untamed by Glennon Doyle. So definitely a self-help book, but that is so accessible for women to really hear a different story. I believe a lot of readers will resonate with what she says, and so even if you don't like reading, they're written in vignette format, so they're very short chapters and some of them are a little bit longer.
But if you are like, let me just get some basic different things to learn from her. Always wholeheartedly recommend that book because it really changed the way that I thought and realized that, the patriarchy is a mess. And so that's one that I would recommend to just encourage someone. But one book that I really loved and everybody in the book club loved it. And it's such a beautiful segue into understanding people and the beauty of people and how you can really feel at peace with wherever you are. And that's Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen, I believe. She is a fantastic author and she was recommended to us by one of the book club members because she's read other books.
It is so incredible. And she has a quote in there that says there are birds and then there are other birds. Maybe they don't sing, maybe they don't fly. Maybe they don't fit in. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be another bird than just the same old thing. And I thought goosebumps. Yeah, I have, I totally have goosebumps as well.
And it's just a book that makes you feel so warm and fuzzy that you think this is why. People write books, and this is why people read to feel the emotion behind the characters. Because I almost felt like those characters were in my life. Like I knew them personally, the way that she described them. And so those are two books that I feel like if you really just want something to get you excited and you feel like you want to find that perfect book, those are two that. Are just amazing. And then of course, I'm going to also offer, if you really want to feel incredible, I recommend Walk Two Birds or Walk Two Birds. I'm talking about a bird book Walk Two Moons. This book, for some reason the author is escaping me right now, but Walk Two Moons is such a great book. It's young adolescent literature, so incredibly easy to read, but also about family also about emotions because I think you have to experience emotions while reading to really learn to love it.
And that book is about a young girl who was trying to find her mother who left many years ago. And so she and her grandparents travel across the country to go see her mother and find her. And the plot twists and how it ends. We'll just have you thinking of this book for years to come because it's one of those books that when I was sharing it with someone, I started getting teary-eyed because it's such a beautiful book. I love it so much. And that's Walk Two Moons. Sharon Creach, that's what it is. Sharon Creach. I couldn't think of it at the time, but definitely, my three beautiful books that everybody needs to read.
[00:33:36] Aneta: Thanks for sharing those. I've read Untamed, I hadn't read the other two, so I'll definitely need to check it out. And are there any, besides the two that you mentioned, any other self-help books or non-fiction that really impacted you?
[00:33:49] Brianna: So I definitely recommend the Mark Manson book because I feel like, as you said, it's very direct, very in your face. One book that will really have you questioning the things that you know in life is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Locks. And she has a very intriguing story of how years ago she had cervical cancer, and so the doctors took a part of her cervix in order to test the cells the cells kept reproducing and reproducing, and they are still reproducing to this day, even though she's been dead for many, many, many years.
And it's a medical mystery how they keep reproducing, but they use it to create everything in our lives. It's created, I believe, penicillin, because what they do is they take the knowledge that they learned from these cells. And they'll add in like, let's try this. Does this kill the cell? Does this help it grow? They've just learned so much different medical science knowledge from this woman, but she did not allow the cells to be taken from her body. And so her family had no knowledge of it. They had no knowledge that this had been done. And so, It's just an intriguing story to think do we have control over our own bodies when we go to a doctor or when we have a medical procedure?
Can they take parts of us without permission? And it's really interesting because there wasn't a law that said you couldn't do that after you pass on. You definitely have to have different forms that you fill out and you actually have to have permission. But if you're living, you don't. So it's a very crazy story that really just had me thinking, wow, how incredible, because her family very poor, did not have a lot. She had multiple children and they all lived a very hard life trying to survive. And the people who are researching made millions off of it and the family never saw a dime. And I thought, how interesting to think that you can take the cells from someone without their permission and literally learn so much, gain so much value for the medical field and their family never knew about it.
And there's a part in the book where Her children go to a lab and they see the cells that are from their mother, and I thought, that's probably was such a beautiful moment for them to experience that, to see their mother in a different form and to know that her cells had made incredible medical just. Knowledge to be available is just an incredible story.
[00:36:42] Aneta: I love the diversity of the books that you are reading, which I think is, is so beautiful. So how do you feel about the diversity and fiction, nonfiction, and even things? Tied to, like you just said, a book around the medical ethical questions, like how has that impacted you in terms of your own personal growth and development as a human being?
[00:37:03] Brianna: It's interesting because when you look up different books, like when I am choosing books for the book club, I'll try to merge it with, you know, whatever that theme is for the month, and I find that sometimes it's very hard. To find recommended books online that are by diverse authors. So when I came onto Black History Month, I said, okay, let me look up some different books.
And there was top 10 books. Okay, well let me look up a different website. And then, when it was Native American History Month, I dove into, okay, where can I find these particular books? And it's actually harder to find those. And I thought, okay. Let me analyze my personal good reads, and I was amazed to see so many similar authors, I thought, if I am just picking a book off of its description and its title, and I'm getting similar authors.
How can I expose myself to different books if this is what is always being presented to me? So I think that when it comes to reading diverse authors, you actually have to really go into and search for what you're interested in reading and then purposely go find that because what is out there is available is by the same, similar author types, you know? So I think it's important to really do that. And I have a bookstore near me, and it started as an online store and then now it has a bookstore and it's called Fem Fire Books. And that's her mission is just to spread diverse books. And so I like to go in there and just search through what she has because I know that the authors that she's representing in her store are all going to be diverse. And I think that's such an important thing to expose yourself to diverse books.
[00:38:53] Aneta: It is. And as you said, it's not easy because there's so much that picks and selects books for us based on past reads, and so you might get similar things because they'll be entertaining. But if the goal is not just to be entertained or to like a common structure, but to actually be challenged, you do have to work a little bit harder at it.
[00:39:16] Brianna: Most definitely. And it was almost disappointing to me because I thought, all of my books are by the same type of authors. How did that happen? But I do think that it takes a little bit of extra effort to really think, okay? I want to read diverse authors. Let me do a Google search. How can I do this? Look up other recommendations. I think there are different hashtags you can follow on Instagram. That's how one of my friends finds books she just looks up the hashtags of the type of books that she's interested in. And I think that's a really good idea because I never use it for search purposes. I use Google but the younger ones use Instagram.
[00:39:57] Aneta: Yeah. So, Brianna, I want to go back to this idea. When you were younger, did you always know that you wanted to be a teacher, or did you just say, oh, this seems like the next logical step based on my interests?
[00:40:10] Brianna: So I always loved reading aloud to my teddy bears, and when my friends would come over, I would play school. I even have a childhood friend that said, you were really bossy. I had to do schoolwork when I came over and when I was little, I remember going into this classroom and one of the teachers was getting rid of all these old work worksheets and stuff. And I was, I want to take them home. I want to take them home. I think I was in fifth or sixth grade and I took them all and I organized them by topic and I made files I was destined to be a teacher because I was obsessed with teaching others reading aloud. I absolutely loved it. And I do have a family of teachers as well my aunt was a teacher and I have another aunt who ended up being a teacher.
So I feel I was just surrounded by that mindset, but I also loved school-related shows. I really loved it when they had school shows on TV, and I think I really enjoyed that environment and just being in that teaching role because I felt like it was such a great opportunity to share my message in different ways.
And I even had a fifth-grade teacher at Mrs. Breeze. I wish I could find her because she really impacted me because she loved what I created. And she was so encouraging and inspiring and I always wanted to find her and say, thank you for always encouraging and inspiring me. And I became a teacher as well. Thank you for how wonderful you made me feel in fifth grade at Tim Aquin Elementary. So if you're listening. And so, I always loved it. I really loved teaching others and pretending to play school. It was always something I was interested in.
[00:42:03] Aneta: And yet you chose to leave. So, are there days where you still struggle with that or do you feel like you made the right choice based on what you needed to do next?
[00:42:13] Brianna: I was just thinking about this recently because I told my husband, I said, I am so glad I left teaching because I have finally been able to become truly authentic in my own personal way because as a teacher it was so different than what I expected. There was a lot of lack of freedom of expression. I constantly had to change grades. We have to ensure that the students are passing. So there were a lot of ethical things that I just did not agree with, and there was a lot of, it was not about the students at times. There were a lot of times that people would come into my classroom and say, this is what you're teaching and this is how you're going to teach it, and you need to make sure that you teach to the test.
And that was just not what I wanted. I wanted to hang out with students, read books, talk about them, write papers, and enjoy school. And the way that it is in my area, it's just not that way. In the schools that I've taught at, and I'm sure there might be a teacher listening or a teacher out there who really feels like he or she has the ability to teach what they want, but I always felt that sense of control and one of my favorite years teaching.
Was when the principal allowed me to teach creative writing in my own way, and we just did fun activities together. And when they finally took the writing test, it was just natural and so many of them passed because they just naturally became a writer. It wasn't, okay, we're going to practice test questions and we're going to see how this particular person asks the question. And teaching to the test is just not my interest. And so I'm so thankful I left because now I impact people on a different level. I don't have to worry about being forced to teach in this particular way or this particular content. And the only thing that I miss is just being able to teach more often with students.
But even then, It's a lot of work as well. I spent every night doing lesson plans every Sunday, grading papers, and having to figure out what grade I would get because they couldn't fail. So if they didn't do well, I'd have to figure out a way to make sure that it was a passing grade. It's very stressful for a teacher to figure out how to be very politically correct for that school to receive a good grade.
[00:44:56] Aneta: Wow. Yeah. I could see that would be challenging. Well, I could talk to you for hours about Yeah. Books and about our similarities. So I'm so grateful that you're able to share all the things that really impacted you. I ask everyone a final question on my show, which is about living the width of your life. So what does it mean to you to live the width of your life?
[00:45:19] Brianna: So I really love this quote because it reminds me of the quote, it's about the measure of the breaths that we take like living with more intention. And I think it means fully embracing who you are. Life is not perfect, but you can be in your own way and you cannot let life pass you by. Whatever you want in your life, whatever you wish to come true, you have to do it. And it's just like in that you are a badass book, you have limitless options. And when you realize that your life can completely shift in a new direction. Find the person that you admire and see if you can start living in that way. If you have something you want to do. You cannot make excuses anymore. You cannot say, I'm to this or I'm not enough of that. You are enough. You can do it. And so this is your life. And don't let it pass you by because there are so many opportunities to just be incredible and to live life with a hundred percent intention. Beauty and love and share it with the world.
[00:46:22] Aneta: That's beautiful. Thank you, Brianna. And how can the audience best support you and where can we find you?
[00:46:28] Brianna: Yes, so I am on Facebook and Instagram at Badass Book bestie, and that's B E S T I E, so you can find me on there. I also have a business page on Facebook for my podcast, but they don't like the word badass. So you're not allowed to use those words in your title. So I had to call it the Bookaholic Bestie podcast.
So it's a book A H O L I C podcast. So it's kind of funny because I'm sure listeners say, wait a minute, I thought her name was that, but Facebook does not allow it. But I'm usually the most on Facebook. Instagram a little bit, but you can find me at Badass Book Bestie. I also have a website for my podcast, mostbadasslifepodcast.com.
And of course, the Living Your Most Badass Life. And then if you are interested in the book Club membership, you can find me at badassbookbesties.com. So multiple ways to, find goodness.
[00:47:29] Aneta: I love it. We will include all of those links in the show notes. Brianna, I want to thank you for coming on today, and also I just think that it's really inspiring to say, you know what, even though you had a plan for your life and you loved teaching so much, you were able to say, how can I live more authentically and intentionally and to be able to create a life and a business out of that? So congratulations on doing that.
[00:47:53] Brianna: Yeah. Thank you so much and thank you so much for having me, because it's wonderful to be able to share the beauty of going out there and doing whatever is possible. If you're interested in something, because when I left teaching, there was that idea that I thought people would judge me for leaving, and I think that once you recognize that, whatever you're passionate about, you will find other people to support you. And it's okay because not once has anybody judged me, but I felt so nervous about it. But maybe they did and they just didn't tell me. But I promise that if you dream it, you can do it.
[00:48:27] Aneta: I love it. And with that, we'll close. Thank you so much for your time today.
[00:48:31] Brianna: Yes, thank you.
[00:48:33] Aneta: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living.