In this week’s conversation, I’m expanding on the discussion started in last week’s episode, EP. 121 Bad Things Happen To Good Girls, around the good girl syndrome. Last week I shared that we think if we are living by the standard of the good girl, then the good girl doesn’t have problems, and so we believe having a problem is a problem, but it’s not.

From childhood, many women are socialized to please others, at the cost of their own well-being or needs. The world is screaming: If you’re good, nothing bad will happen to you. And so we adopt the idea that good girls don’t upset people, good girls don’t put herself first, good girls don’t disappoint others.

We are celebrating women’s month and what better way to celebrate than to highlight some of the amazing high-achieving women I have had the pleasure to work with.

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Zakiya Luna. Dr. Luna is an Associate Professor of Sociology, a Dean’s Distinguished Professorial Scholar, a great friend of mine, an author, and a participant in Deeply Rooted.

Stress has become an unavoidable side effect of life as a high-achieving woman.My goal is not to help you become stress-free but to help you have freedom from stress.

Stress is everywhere; it impacts everyone and pervades all aspects of our lives. And over time it can negatively impact your health and well-being. How you manage stress is related to your thoughts about yourself, your relationship with yourself, your relationship with others, your relationship with your work, and your relationship with your epic sh*t.

I know it is the eve of Valentine’s Day, but guess what? I won’t be talking about love in this episode. Instead, I want to continue the conversation around failure because I want us as black women to drop the mask, do our epic sh*t, and embrace failure along the journey.

Happy Black History Month!

To add to the celebration, I’d like to continue our conversation around failure. In EP. 104 I feel the NEED for SPEED! I shared that as black women, we struggle with failure since historically it’s a safety issue for us to take imperfect action

On this episode, I’m joined by another one of my amazing clients, Janae Young. Janae is a college coach who helps students reach their goal scores and get into their dream schools. She’s been an entrepreneur for six years now, having started her business right after her 15th birthday.

Today we are talking about the dreaded F word, failure. As high-achieving women of color, when we’re getting ready to do our epic shit, it’s not a matter of if we’re going to fail, it’s when. 

On this Breakthrough with Brig Podcast episode, I’m joined by Shiro Bergbauer, a private and group coaching client. Shiro is a wife, mom, Life Coach, and certified registered nurse anesthetist. As a Life Coach, she helps women overcome overwhelm and mom guilt, have better boundaries, and thriving relationships.

It’s that time of year again – when everyone is talking about New Year’s Resolutions, things to improve upon, change or become better in the new year. I’m not a huge fan of resolutions, however, I am a big fan of goals – of dedicated hard work day after day to work towards your epic sh*t.

We often dismiss our thoughts because they seem rational or accurate, but it is not always true. When our minds start saying dreadful things to ourselves, don’t let our minds get away with it.

Today we are doing a throwback of one of my favorite podcast episodes, EP. 38 Let’s Talk Intimacy. This episode is not only one of my favorites but also covers one of the main concepts of my group coaching program, Deeply Rooted.

It’s the holiday season, and with that comes social gatherings. For us, high-achieving women, this also means we will have to face that dreaded question from those who do not support our epic shit – how is that LITTLE THANG you’ve been working on?

We all want our lives to be up-leveled and more fulfilling. So what is in the way of us creating our epic-ness? Let’s explore this.
When it comes to creating our epic shit, there are some things I notice that we don’t do as black women, and it’s costing us.

“Just be grateful for what you have.” Are you familiar with this statement? Today we are challenging this old rule of being grateful for what you have because this is a standard of being that many of us have accepted without question.

I am so excited to bring you another client spotlight episode. You all know how much I love these conversations!
Today we are chatting with Franchelle Caesar. Franchelle is the Financial Coach for spenders.

I believe in the power of being in rooms with people who think at a higher level than you do, because it causes you to rethink your current thoughts and your current reality, then you can have the possibility to change some of those thoughts and start growing.his allows you to get curious, creative and ask questions so that you can obtain the knowledge you currently lack.

Saying “I don’t know” and adopting a growth mindset are powerful means for becoming smarter and more skilled individuals. This allows you to get curious, creative and ask questions so that you can obtain the knowledge you currently lack.

According to dictionary.com, “It is what it is”, is an expression used to characterize a frustrating or challenging situation that a person believes cannot be changed and must just be accepted.

This conversation is a special one because I am joined today by my private client, Dielle Charon, and by the time this episode is released she will be celebrating reaching the $1M mark in her business. I am so excited for her. Congratulations Queen!

Welcome to episode 100! This is an episode of celebrations. Not only are we celebrating our 100th podcast episode, but we are also celebrating over 33K downloads, receiving 36 reviews with 5-star ratings on Apple Podcast, and helping so many amazing high-achieving women of color create their epic shit!

With every life experience,  your relationships, your achievements, and your failures are all open to interpretation. The most important decision you’ll make about every life experience is the meaning you assign to it. And that meaning will either hold you back or push you forward.

Visibility capacity is our ability to allow our full selves to be seen in our life and work.

When it’s out of alignment, it shows up as feeling stuck, uncomfortable, and lacking discipline and willpower. But when our visibility capacity is in full bloom, we stop sabotaging opportunities that shine a light on our brilliance and intentionally seek out and attract visibility opportunities that celebrate our true selves.

When it comes to your epic shit, have you decided that it’s going to be hard? I think we can all agree that accomplishing your epic shit is hard. It requires a great deal of self-responsibility and accountability. Not only that, but you have to be consistent in your new attitudes and behavior required to achieve your goals.

In a world that keeps preaching on and on about self-love, it’s hard to believe that self-love is not easy. In fact, self-love, much like other forms of love, takes work, time, and patience to cultivate.

In a world that keeps preaching on and on about self-love, it’s hard to believe that self-love is not easy. In fact, self-love, much like other forms of love, takes work, time, and patience to cultivate.

As high-achieving women of color, we know what it feels like to walk into a room and be the only one who looked like you. To be asked your opinion on a project that lacks diversity and inclusion. To frequently be asked to participate in conversations where the expectation is that your opinion speaks for all voices from your community. And not be able to talk about specific topics that are important to your culture because no one around you can relate from personal experience.

Listen, ready is not a thang! “Being ready” is a measure of whether we think we will fail or succeed at something, that is all. We can be the most prepped and primed version of ourselves and still not feel “ready” to take that next step. This is because readiness happens in our minds. 

To explain this point I will use the example of a purchase. When it comes to making a purchase, we often get really excited when we are able to get the hook up on that purchase or obtain it from a sale. Notice that in this scenario you experience a dopamine hit. This is because getting the hookup creates a feeling of pleasure and reward, which motivates you to repeat a specific behavior.

Have you ever felt that when bad things happen, that must mean that you are not a good person, like, karma has come to get you? And so you go on a search to find what is wrong in hopes of fixing it so that everything will be good again.

Most of us know that dopamine is called the seeking hormone, the feel-good hormone but did you know that dopamine can also be called the predictive hormone?

How often do we push something to the side when we can’t decide on what to do or what we want, simply because we don’t want to own our decisions?

Today we are discussing one of the most common topics that my clients present to me during our coaching session. It comes in different variations but what it boils down to is that as high-achieving women we want to do more to reach a level of peace but that level is not attainable because as soon as we think we’ve reached the level, there is yet another mountain that we need to climb.

Are you playing squirrel with your decisions? This happens when we make a decision and instead of honoring the decision, we keep remaking the same decision over and over again. We do this because deep down we think that the answer to accomplishing that decision is outside of us.

In episode 85, we talk about failure and understanding and embracing that failure is the way to winning. We do this by looking at failure as data that we can use as a strategy to create epic shit without the drama. 

You know that saying, “If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail”. Well, what if you decided that “I plan to fail therefore I plan to win”?

Since we are the external force that creates the results, I really want us to understand how to move forward in cultivating the life we desire. Listen in to learn more.

Newton’s first law of motion says, a body at rest will remain at rest and a body in motion will remain in motion unless it is acted upon by an external force.

For those of you who are thinking about joining this room full of women and would appreciate some insight on what you can expect, I have a treat for you. After the most recent weekly call with the current cohort, I just asked a couple of the participants to stay on and talk about what their experience has been like and the impact that Deeply Rooted has provided for them thus far. 

As high-achieving women, we are always leveling up and achieving new heights of success. One thing that is certain when you succeed is the various expectations that you place on yourself and that others place on you.

Today we will continue our conversation about the ABCs that you need to accomplish epic shit.
Last week I shared that the C of the ABC is circulation. We must make a decision and commitment to circulate our epic shit into the world so that others can benefit.

What I’ve noticed a lot is that people ask for coaching in one area but haven’t addressed another and so the results that they expect aren’t there. To put it another way, I’ll equate it to CPR. To effectively complete CPR you must work on the ABCs (airway, breathing, chest compressions) in that order. If you don’t clear the airway first and jump right into chest compressions then you are essentially just circulating unoxygenated blood throughout the body.  

Last week we played the what-if game. What if all these obnoxious thoughts we had on consistent bases had nothing to do with our worthiness yet they continue to hinder us from creating epic shit? Right.

Today we are going to play the what-if game.As high achieving women being marginalized and growing up in the way that we have, we’ve been conditioned with all these negative thoughts in our brains that we have to fight against on a daily basis.

Contrary to what you may have heard, in most cases, you get more benefit from sharing your desire than if you don’t, and the most important person you need to share it with consistently is YOU!

Have you ever thought to yourself, “they don’t get me”? Listen, if you’re a high-achieving black woman, you’re probably talking about some things that some people don’t get.

Do you know how these series get us hooked and cause us to binge-watch? It’s because they end each episode with a cliffhanger that leaves your brain wanting to know and figure out what will happen next. And so you keep watching one episode after another until you’ve binge-watched the series.

If you are old enough to have played Candyman as a child you can remember entering a dimly lit room (usually the bathroom), standing in front of a mirror, and saying the name “Candyman” five times in a row. The expectation is that the monster will show up behind you. This experience caused you to intentionally put yourself in a scary situation.

I always say that safe people create epic shit and do it in a sustainable way but how do you develop an internal feeling of safety? You may wonder if or even believe that a haven of serenity exists inside of you, but it does. Queens, it does. 

Attached to form means that you are attached to the way you think something is supposed to look. You have a singular idea of how you are supposed to achieve something. 

You guys know how I am always talking about self-coaching, right? That’s because I truly believe that it is a powerful tool to aid in your growth on your journey to accomplish epic shit.

As a coach of high-achieving women, I find that so many of us have stopped dreaming. Our ancestors sacrificed for us so that we have what they dreamed of and now that we are successful and comfortable we have stopped dreaming. There are many reasons for this that include us not waiting to fail or appear to be greedy. 

As a coach of high-achieving women, I find that so many of us have stopped dreaming. Our ancestors sacrificed for us so that we have what they dreamed of and now that we are successful and comfortable we have stopped dreaming. There are many reasons for this that include us not waiting to fail or appear to be greedy. 

Today’s episode is not only inspiring, it’s downright amazing. You’ll be hearing from my private client, Lenora, as she shares her story of transformation. Even though she was hesitant about coaching she ultimately made the decision to commit to herself and make the investment.

You see, we’ve been taught how to be very harsh with ourselves because other people were very harsh with us for generations. It’s time to stop being so hard on yourself! And I want to help you with this.

What it means to be rootbound is having roots formed into a dense, tangled mass that allows for little or no space for further growth. It’s staying in the container although it stumps your growth.

As high-achieving black women, many of us deal with what is now called Racial Imposter Syndrome. Racial Imposter Syndrome is the feeling that we don’t belong because those around us in our homogenous communities make it known that we are not being black enough for one reason or another.

Today we are talking about all things group coaching and I am so excited to share this with you. It’s all about being rooted. For me being rooted means accepting the various aspects of yourself, from past to present. Feeling aligned with your own values that have developed over time. It means that you are fixed, unmovable, and entrenched in your worthiness.

I have a fun episode for you today!  I want to talk about being a grown a** woman. If you’re a mother, you may have cultivated “the look” that you give to your kids that lets them know that the thing they are asking is not up for negotiation or whatever they are doing stops now.

Are you waiting for people to cosign your belief, goals, and dreams? I have news for you Queen, you don’t need a co-signer to fulfill your dreams! I repeat it’s your dream, you don’t need others’ approval! When you outsource or wait for others to cosign whether or not you can do the thing you are essentially saying that you don’t believe you have a good enough track record to show up for yourself to do the hard things.

Society tells us that when things don’t work out we are supposed to beat ourselves up.  And that is exactly what we do. When we are experiencing frustration with our choices or decisions, we may punish ourselves. This comes in many forms, like restricting ourselves from enjoying good things or engaging in negative self-talk.

Happy New Year! It’s the season of resolutions, goals, and choosing a word for the year. As we start thinking about our goals and strategies for what we want to accomplish this year, I want to remind you that we are not human doings, nor are we human havings, we are human beings.

Today we are chatting with my client and general life coach, Saprina Allen. Come be a fly on the wall and listen in as we discuss her experience with being a coach and also coaching with me.

Our guest today is Mars Lord. Mars is a coach, a birth activist, a doula educator, and the leading voice about black maternal mortality and health in the UK and beyond. She has also spoken to Parliament and can be found on the record in the history books for her work with black maternal health.

Thought work is a tool for revealing your brain to yourself. It helps you bring awareness to the sentences that are floating in your head, the feelings you have because of those thoughts, and the action you take as a result of those feelings. And like any tool, it can be used for us or against us.

In general, we tend to make an effort to be kind to others by reminding ourselves to pause and intentionally reflect on our words and actions, asking ourselves whether they’re of benefit to others.

I love to observe my clients and share with them the patterns that I notice. Their habits, their groove because once we know our patterns, we can prepare for it.

I love to observe my clients and share with them the patterns that I notice. Their habits, their groove because once we know our patterns, we can prepare for it.

Self-discovery is a process where a person is guided, through self-questioning and examination of one’s own thoughts, words, and actions, in order to reach their own conclusions regarding who they truly are. This is at the core of the work that our guest, Ashley Rhodes, focuses on in her practice as a life coach.

Do you find yourself quitting things a lot? Whatever it is we want to achieve in life, no matter how much we want it, there will always be times when we hit a challenging period, our motivation hits a wall and we feel like giving up.

Have you ever noticed that when you are in a difficult situation the motivation that you need to get out of it seems to come easy compared to when you are in a good situation but you desire more?

Black women are forced to conquer dual challenges in the workplace as members of two minority groups. We have to deal with the disadvantages of not just being a woman, but also being black.

Black women are forced to conquer dual challenges in the workplace as members of two minority groups. We have to deal with the disadvantages of not just being a woman, but also being black.

We’ve been taught that our future success is based on how successful we have been in the past. The thing is, if most of us looked to our past to determine our future success, we would not have any hope of creating the desires of our hearts because our brain is going to tell us every little detail about our failures.

Disappointment is the unhappiness you feel from the failure of something hoped for or expected to happen. This is the internal fear that you experience when it comes to wanting and desiring more. For a lot of us, we don’t want to desire because we’re unwilling to experience disappointment.

Why do we give so much credence to what others think of us? The truth is that we are responsible only for ourselves, and our own feelings. We are not responsible for the feelings of others, and we do not cause those feelings to surface.

Why do we give so much credence to what others think of us? The truth is that we are responsible only for ourselves, and our own feelings. We are not responsible for the feelings of others, and we do not cause those feelings to surface.

Why do we give so much credence to what others think of us? The truth is that we are responsible only for ourselves, and our own feelings. We are not responsible for the feelings of others, and we do not cause those feelings to surface.

Our brain will offer us all kinds of thoughts, especially the thoughts it’s used to thinking. But just because these thoughts are familiar doesn’t mean that they are useful. Our brains are doing what it was designed to do. It’s being efficient but we don’t want our minds running loose with destructive or unmonitored thoughts. Therefore we must monitor the thoughts and then manage and redirect them.

Our brain will offer us all kinds of thoughts, especially the thoughts it’s used to thinking. But just because these thoughts are familiar doesn’t mean that they are useful. Our brains are doing what it was designed to do. It’s being efficient but we don’t want our minds running loose with destructive or unmonitored thoughts. Therefore we must monitor the thoughts and then manage and redirect them.

Our brain will offer us all kinds of thoughts, especially the thoughts it’s used to thinking. But just because these thoughts are familiar doesn’t mean that they are useful. Our brains are doing what it was designed to do. It’s being efficient but we don’t want our minds running loose with destructive or unmonitored thoughts. Therefore we must monitor the thoughts and then manage and redirect them.

Are you on the journey to get your life? Then it may be time to think about life coaching. A life coach acts as a guide to assist you in retraining your mind by adopting new ways of thinking.

As I reenter the world of dating I have been self-coaching on how I feel about this process. I find myself pondering the thought of how we show up to a date with the intention to actually get to know the other person and determine if there is a connection

We all know that life comes with unavoidable physical and emotional pain. That seems to be a non-negotiable part of the deal. The negotiable part is how much time you will spend worrying about it.  If you have a legitimate reason to be stressed; then let yourself...

In this episode, I discuss a few random topics that I have on my mind. This is a rant where I coach you through some thoughts that may be blocking your potential.

Did you know that Black women are 80% more likely than women of other races to change their natural hair to meet social norms or expectations at work? Narrow beauty standards make it difficult for black women to freely celebrate their own beauty.

The need to succeed is a natural human desire, yet for Black women, our success is beyond simple bragging rights or a pat on the back. Our success represents something bigger than our own personal victory.

A life coach is someone whose expertise is to support you in enhancing your life. A life coach acts as a guide to assist you in retraining your mind by adopting new ways of thinking, which can involve replacing harmful beliefs with positive and affirming ones in order for you to reach personal and professional fulfillment.

We are not our thoughts. Thoughts are merely thoughts, they do not paint the picture of who we are. It’s not our thoughts themselves that bring things to fruition, it’s our actions. And so it is important to manage our thoughts so that we will take actions that will actually serve us.

Our minds contain many different perspectives, and they can empower or demotivate us. The self-talk in our heads is responsible for so many of our failures and why we think the way we do. Oftentimes we dismiss our thoughts because it seems rational or accurate but it is not always true.

Women swear sometimes so let’s get over it. Patriarchy punishes women for profanity because it wants us to forever remain within the straitjacket of niceness and politeness. Well, I say F**k the patriarchy.

Do you feel like you’ve accomplished a lot, but you still have more big scary goals that you want to achieve? You tell yourself “things are great right now, I don’t want to mess it up by starting something new”. Although you try to push those goals to the side, they remain persistent.

It’s easy to have high aspirations. It’s much less easy to make those dreams and goals a reality. The truth is, many of us struggle with committing to bet on ourselves and go after our dreams and goals. Instead, you settle for the status quo.

You are in for a treat with this episode! I am joined by a special guest, Dr. Koritha Mitchell. Listen in as we discuss homemade citizenship, the concept of creating your own belonging; discursive violence, the cruelty of stereotypes determining people’s impressions regardless of what you do; and know-your-place aggression, the backlash against Black and Brown success.

What do you think it takes to achieve your goals? Hard work? Lots of actions? While these are necessary to becoming successful in reaching our goals, neither of these are possible without a positive mindset. Success in reaching our goals is determined by our mindsets. When you believe that we can achieve a goal our energy and actions will reflect that also.

When we know how our mind works, we begin to see our thoughts in a new, truly empowering way. When we truly see the nature of thought for ourselves, our thoughts no longer have the weight they used to.

Relationships are challenging and when you enter a relationship while toting along all sorts of baggage and actively hiding parts of yours yourself in an effort not to appear as the angry black woman, this can cause stress, anxiety, and resentment.

The angry black woman stereotype shapes how others read and interpret the actions of Black women including how we treat our men. The angry black woman is portrayed as a woman who is stubborn and unreasonably quick to anger who enjoys emasculating the men close to them.

In this episode we will focus on how the black woman’s experience is unique to that of black men and white women because even at home when we are relieved of the racial burden we are still carrying the load of the gender bias due to the Patriarchy. The patriarchy punishes women for having an opinion about anything because it wants us to forever remain within the straitjacket of niceness and politeness.

Today we are continuing the series on the angry black woman stereotype. We are on a mission to reject the labels society has assigned to anger and will instead choose to see anger as an emotion that is part of the human experience and a tool that can help you become a better person. In this episode, we will be focusing on how to use your anger for you.

Today I have another client spotlight for you. This story is amazing and I am sure that you will gain some valuable insight that you can apply in your own life. My guest today is Angela. Angela is a rock star and her transformation has only made her light shine even brighter. You will hear as Angela shares her journey from being a high –achieving woman who focused on all the actions

I love the quote that says “other people’s opinion of me is none of my business”. It is so true. When others say something critical we tend to feel negative emotions about what was said because we make their judgments mean something about us in our minds.

Why do others get the right to be angry and not black women? Why are we charged with managing how others see us as if that is even possible? We are entitled to feel our anger and any other emotion. This is part of our experience and should not be shunned because of society’s narrative. If you have been conforming to this cultural stereotype, then I want to encourage you to start today by giving yourself permission to be angry.

Is your mind stuck running on a hamster wheel that you can’t get off of? This is when your mind goes round and round with intrusive repetitive thoughts leaving you stressed out and exhausted. In today’s episode, my client Marcia will share with you her experience on the mental hamster wheel and how she used coaching with me to put her thoughts in check

If we want to evolve and grow into something more, the best gift that we can give ourselves is to love ourselves where we are, accepting ourselves where we are, and saying I want to choose something different as opposed to needing to change. The word need suggests that the desire is a requirement, duty, or lack of something deemed necessary

Happy Black Girl Magic day #BlackGirlMagic! Today we celebrate the beauty, power, and resilience of Black women. This episode is especially important to me because as you know my passion is to serve high-achieving Black women. #BlackGirlMagic is all about celebrating yourself and celebrating your sisters.

Did you know that the most important relationship that you can cultivate is the one with yourself? Having a relationship with yourself is, like any relationship, difficult and full of ups and downs.

Have you ever had the thought “I am not capable or qualified enough for it”? This is often referred to as the imposter syndrome or limiting self-belief.

When we set goals it’s inevitable that we will struggle with mind drama. Mind drama is the drama that we create in our minds by setting a goal that our brain doesn’t yet know how to achieve

Now that we’re well on our way to shifting our goal relationship status from convenience to committed, how do we maintain that commitment to be able to c? The key ingredient to staying motivated on our journeys and to remain in the space of constantly seeking whatever...

Today we are continuing our conversation about our goal relationship status. So last week we discussed three goal relationship statuses, the committed (‘til death do us part), the live-in (I’m good until you try me, then I’m out), and the booty call (you’re my little secret, no one knows you exist).

Commitment is one of the key ingredients for being successful in your goals. If you’re not fully committed to a goal, then the goal is just convenience. You’ll give up too quickly, work with less determination, and make unintentional decisions.

As we move into the goal-setting season, I want to challenge us to take some time to recognize where we are and what we have available to us before setting those goals.

We may believe that self-love is simply a state of feeling good because of the actions that support our physical and mental growth. But it’s a bit more dynamic than that.

Amazing things can happen when we start loving ourselves more. This means loving ourselves through all seasons of life. Good things and bad things happen to everyone, but the individuals who are most happy are the ones who manage both with ease and grace.

Celebrating ourselves means taking time to recognize and acknowledge what we’ve done. Unfortunately, many of us don’t take the time to celebrate our life and our daily accomplishments.

Do you keep on promising yourself that “one day” you’ll go after your goals, but you just can’t seem to push yourself outside of your comfort zone?

We have thousands of thoughts running through our minds at any moment and so whatever we choose to focus on and think is what our brain will seek evidence to prove.

In today’s episode, I want to share with you a concept called the motivational triad. This concept is crucial because it explains how our brain works and why we do some cray-cray things.

Do you know that you have greatness within yourself? Yes, you are a masterpiece. Society tells us we need more, something outside of us to COMPLETE US.

Welcome to Breakthrough with Brig! I am so happy that you are here. Thank you for taking this journey with me. This podcast will focus on the use of thought work to help you break through barriers and become your best self. I strongly believe that MIND MANAGEMENT is...