fashion nova ceo

fashion nova ceo

   07.16       Fashion 2017

---

my guest today is brandy word stanton abeautiful and powerful soul who pushed through her life's obstacles to claim her authentic self and now is empowering others to do the same. brandy is a mentor and life strategist. she's currently a ceo and program director of blu ambition where she works with clients to find,develop and, as she likes to point out, mind their business. i'm tajci at 19 i was a superstar and i was lost inside. i left it all behind switchedcontinents and started all over. years later i found myself lost againthis time in

the american dream. this is a story aboutawakening. about living the life you were created for. about going inward and discovering the joyous andpurposeful person you and i were both meant to be. this is waking up in america. brandy i'm so glad you are on waking up in america here with us. thank you so much -thank you i'm happy to be here with you. -i'm really excited because when i first saw your pictureon

on facebook ... in our group where we we met -sure -i just lovedyour light and the beauty of who you are. it just shows... even in that little profile picture it's amazing. -thank you, thank you for saying that, 'cause there was a time where i didn't alwaysfeel that. people said it but i didn't believe it... like really? -yes! i'm so glad you say that becausethat's what we're here to talk about and i know that there's all these people out there who say the same thing "i just don't see it"maybe nobody has even said that

to them and to have the courage to embrace it and to show up in the world with it and to say: this is who i am, world! and then to make this world a better place. -absolutely -so set it up for it forus what was your background beforethat waking up moment that we're going to get into. -i was born raised here in tennesseeso i'm a native. so this has always been home for me. i grew up in a small town it's not small anymore. i grew up in mount juliet.

i'm a country girl and i was raised bystrong parents who worked and worked hard. they worked in factories and taught us to go to school and make good grades and took us to church and you know that "southern bible belt" background and i've always been strong and outspoken sensitive at the same time. i own that i wear my feelings onmy sleeve. i'd always go after mind i make reallygood grades and i had goals and

you know went to college and i had mydaughter when i was in college so i was a single mom for a really long time and at that point i kinda became a mom and that was my identity. i've got to be a mom 'cause i've got to make money and i've gotta put a roof over thischild's head and i have to feed her and i have to try to teach her. i'm responsible for the adult that she's gonna become. so i kindafocused everything into that -which isvery honorable and beautiful!

-well, yes that's what i was taught you were supposed to do. so i finished school and immediately went into the workforce. and i got a wonderful job doing adoptions in social services and you know the tennessee's foster care systemhas grown by leaps and bounds 'cause that's a very hard job being responsible for other people a lot of people are responsible for... you might be responsible for money or customer service

but in the social services field you're responsible for the livesof precious children -yeah -so it's a beautiful thing but it'salso very challenging at the same time. -and you mentioned since you are, you said you're a sensitive person, here you are... a young mom single mom working with foster carechildren to get them to good families... did thatwear on you? how did that feel? -that did wear on me it was difficult for my daughter duringthat time. children at that age don't

necessarily have the ability for abstract thinking, they don'tnecessarily think about humanity and the world atthat point their world is themselves and theirfamily and the home that they live in and maybe their communityso to ask her to understand to fullyunderstand that those children needed mommy morethan she did in that moment an that was hard for her and working long hours and...there was a great flexibility

so i could go to things, but thenthere was but you never knew... that waschallenging for her and i always knew that i didn't want itto be that way. and so i left social services for ashort time -alright so ...even though you're a single mom you have a safe job it's hard but it's still security. -exactly -and you are doinggreat work i mean you're not just punchingpaper you're you helping... so have that fulfillment as well and

you still had the courage -yes -to know that something isnot right. something that you didn't like and had the courage to make that to makea shift to make a change. -you know that pull doesn't go away -when you say pull? -that ...from your soul you know your soul is always going tocommunicate with you whether you realize it or not. it's always going to try to pull you to where you need to be. -yes -you know and idid that

and i went to a business venture and it didn't work. and i went back tosocial services because that's what i knew. at least i'd get a paycheck, i'd have benefits and we could live but whathappened at that point was i was making significantly less thani had been making at the previous organization. and it got to the point where i couldn't really live on my own so i ended up moving in with someoneelse, had a roommate

totally grateful. i needed that at thetime with what i was making. and i've learneda lot of things on second go-around with social servicesthat i really needed to learn but i got to apoint i believe i was thirty going on thirty-one and i looked, and i'm like... this is... i'm grateful to have this friendwho has allowed us to come in and stay with her so i could save some money and not be so stretched but iwanna be on my own.

and i don't what to be doing this.there was still that fire in the belly saying:you're thirtysomething and and i thought there was more than this. i thought i was going to be doingsomething different not necessarily better because that's great honorable work -yes, absolutely -to help children to have forever families there is nothing wrong with that. -it's beautiful and very needed. -but itgot to the point to where i didn't like doing it and it took meawhile to wrap my head around,

people tell you: you do this well, why don't you want to do it? people tell you, you're good at this, why don't you wanna do it? and it's where i learned just because you're good at something doesn't mean you're supposed to be doing it. and so then i started to go after well, what is it that i want to do? and i looked at going back to school and becoming a therapist and i was like, that's not it! and that's when i found, through a coworker

the holistic life coaching program at radiant heath institute and they werewonderful i went through the training and i'm soexcited, i am so stoked, i'm doing my practicums and i realized, okay this is good. this isreally good. i don't like doing this either. andthat's why i said i'm a coach who doesn't coach. i'vejust... life is too short for me to do somethingthat does not feel truly authentic, that does not make me

bubble with joy. life is just too short for me to do anything less -you're soaware of that you seem to be, at that point, soaware that, you say life is too short this is so hard for most of us for most people... to not only it's hard to get unstuck,it's hard to get that courage to break out of a safe job the pays you and that you're doing well. for the sakeof our our viewers who a lot of them say: okay, i knowsomething's off

i want out. i'm scared and so we work through the scare part how do i know? so you went from one thing to life coaching and you had thecourage again to say oops! and you invested your time and probably some resources. -absolutely! but i'm okay with that because i was supposed to do that andthat's what i get now. i spent a lot of time when i finally had that shift when ifinally woke up from the sleep that i was in that i needed become acutely

aware of self and i mean 'cause i was 30 something years old and i didn'tknow who i was. i needed to meet myself i needed to become best friends with myselfand i realized that nothing else was going to come until i dealt with self. so i startedwith awareness and that's where you know the first place i pointpeople to you is awareness. because if you aren't going to become aware and accept and be accountable for where you are

and the part you played to get yourself thereand to that blame from everybody else and have some accountability for yourself then you're not gonna go any further.-so give me an example because a lot of people will look at me, when i talk about it... a lot of people look at you and say: okay whatdoes that mean? what does that mean to be aware of myself? what does that mean? ... give me some sort of example. -where i started and luckily i had a friend who served as agreat spiritual mentor who pointed me to books and... once i realized: okay thisis literally my rock bottom, this is what rock bottom feels like forme. -and what was it? what did it look like?

-me not doing something that i love, not liking myself, just notbeing happy with anything about my life. this is not my stuff, this is somebodyelse's. -even though it lookedpretty good -right but it wasn't for me -yeah, that'sbeautiful! -when i realized that, okay i'm becomingaware of some things, and i read. i read ferociously. i read books. i absorbed information, and just took some time for myself. istopped watching television

i stopped ripping and running and going here andthere and everywhere and i took care of me: what ii needed to do to take care of my mind, what i needed to do take care mybody, what i needed to do to take care of my spirit. not everybody would be able to do thatbut i knew that if i wanted to affect change inmy life quick, fast and in a hurry, i was gonnahave to get get it together. and i did have themental fortitude at time to be able to do that. so if i could just speak truth, do my best,

not take anything personally, it helped me to change. i started just envisioning and walkingaround in... i had this happy bubble and i was responsible for what came outof that bubble and i was responsible for setting boundaries and not letting other people's actions affectand come inside my bubble. you have to get real about you, the light and the dark. -so you have to do a lotof self-examination!

-yes -that's a process thatmost of us would like to avoid -and that's why people don't change andthat's why people don't take that leap because they can evaluate and make plansbased on all the good that they want to do and the positive goals they have but ifyou don't deal with the shadow self and figure out how to turn those weaknessesinto strengths. or, you know i ask people all the time have you ever danced with the devilin the pale moonlight? that you're gonna have to getreal with the light and the dark side of you. becausethe only way to be able to neutralize those things is to stop shoving them under a rug

which is what we're conditioned to do, let's pretend they are not there, or blame everybody else -or numbing -we need to meet them and what you'll find is that when youcan accept those shadow behaviors, that shadow self, that evil twin you have, the less likely you are to see that evil twin. so i'm aperfect example of taking accountability andlearning how to deal with your shadow self because me being ultra-sensitive to energies

i would be reallysnappy with people and short with people and i had to takeresponsibility for the part of me that is strong and caring and if i see something in the bigger picture thatsomeone else doesn't seem and tell them that comes off as bossy i think thatsometimes you just need to flip them. sometimes you just need toknow that's a part of you and know what triggers it so that you can be aware. but either way youhave to take responsibility -i totally understand this, that yourstrengths

turn into these (i don't want to say weaknesses)but people don't see them as strengthsbecause maybe they're coming in a situation where you know you just might get somethingdon't you come across as bossy where it's really, you're a motivator, you're helpingto get the situation so your strengths are just misused or misplaced -yes, your giftsand talents can definitely be masked by your own stuff -yeah -you know and so i think that's a lot of times whathappens, is that you have... i would read things about...there's all these personality

assessments there's astrology or whateverpeople are into and i would read things about myself andi'm like that's not characteristic of me. the dark was but the light wasn't and what i had torealize is because i was just so you know, i was human. i was messy. i was in my stuff and so it was that shadow self becausei wasn't happy and i wasn't at peace and i didn't have joy andthat's what happened

-that's beautifully said when you are human you aremessy -yeah we're humans, we are messy! -yes, and we have to show up as that and not be you know try to portray thatwe are not -yeah and you have to be gentle withyourself -yes -you have to be gentle with yourself inthe process because do i still snap-on people?absolutely! 'cause there are days that i don't feel good, but ido my best that i can that day -right and then youyour self awareness tells you it's not because i mean because i'mtired, i'm hungry, or

maybe you are able to findthat cause. so brandy now. you are a ceo and program director of blu ambition . -yes picture offered itself with ambition in everything you do. itdoesn't just mean okay go start business that's notwhat it's about you are your business you are the ceo. you have a brand. it is you. that is your business. so when i tellpeople to mind their business

that's what i mean. mind your business. it's not about other people. it's about you minding you. it's yourbusiness and when you start to see it is that you have a mission, youset your vision and you run that like a business, then you can take better care of yourself. 'cause it's not about being selfish. i have a business to run. that is me, thatis my life, it affects my partner, my children, myfamily, the people i come in contact with. i havea responsibility to take care of myself so that i can be better for those people-and the world -yes -consequentially

yes. you have on your bio, that you love to sing and dance. don't you? -i do, i absolutely do! i love to do those things because it's just my way of creative expression -and see i think, being a musician obviously,i think that's in all of us. we all are born to sing and danceour lives you know. i think it's so naturalto us and art, any kind ofexpression creative... it's part of who we are -yes, yes! i love it i do some

hand lettering now. i've tried toexperience... we kind of are told what our gifts are and we kinda stick with them and so i was always told i'm not good atmath and i'm not crafty and i can't draw but i learned that i can do those things -yes yeah -you know i'm not picasso but i can draw a pretty picture and just expanding my realm of creative expression but singing and dancing is always the "go to" -you share with me "we could be heroes" song

-yes -i love that song -i do too -doesn't it say exactly what we're talking about, the dark side? -it absolutely does -i'm going to ask you so sing. can you give us a little bit? -i will do my best... ok. we go hideaway in daylight we go undercover, wait out the sun got a secret side in plain sight where the streets are empty that's where we run everyday people doeveryday things but i

can't be one of them i know you hear me nowwe are a different kind we can do anything we could be heroes we could be heroes me and you we could be... -heroes that was so wonderful i have to jump up and... that was beautiful. oh my gosh you can sing! -i haven't sang in so long -stop saying that

feels sogood to be you doesn't it? -it does, it really does, and its amazing how when you just accept yourself and start being you and going toward you know the authenticgoals you have, your vision for your life how it will start to matter less and less every day what other people want you to do, it's a struggle, its a battle 'cause people will not hesitate to let it be known what they think youshould be doing but that's where you... if you getconfidently grounded

in who you are and what you believeand the direction you're going then you can respectfully disagree -yesthank you so much brandy the best gift that you can give you andi can give to the world is to be you thank you so much -thank you