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Speaking of Curves: Talking all things Creative with Influencer, Brianna of The B Word
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Oct 31, 2024
Heyyyy Boo, Hey! How are you doing today? Today we are back with a fun and high-energy guest, Brianna of The B Word! Join us at 12 pm EST as we chat with the uber creative and talented LA Based influencer, Brianna! This series is all about supporting our indies and creatives, especially now! So, grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair as we chat with her about all things plus size fashion and visual creativity...
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0:05
hello hello hello welcome to speaking of cards i'm marie denae the creator of the curvy
0:11
fashionista the curry fashion says your plus size fashion resource destination and we have this facebook live series
0:18
that we've been doing um and if you're over on twitter and you're just joining in on periscope hey because like that's something else
0:24
that's new that we've added but um we've started this series at the beginning of the pandemic and the
0:29
beginning of verona um to really support and show love to different business owners influencers
0:36
creatives in this space because it's really important that you know we keep all of
0:41
our creatives and business owners who were here before like to help support them so they're here after
0:47
pandemic especially because most indies and creators are literally like the backbone of the
0:54
plus size fashion space right and so i wanted to find a way to you know figure out how can we have
1:00
these conversations kind of keep each other motivated create like a positive space of like
1:05
conversation encouragement and support so um we've been doing this series i think since april
1:12
and you know twice a week not always but i try um tuesdays and thursdays so as you guys
1:17
join in please make sure you let us know where you're tuning in from uh tag a homie invite a girlfriend over
1:24
like we're gonna talk and today's guest is someone who i have been watching for a very long time
1:30
who i admire and she's all the way on the west coast what's up california california live um and she is a
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creative she's done creative directing on photo shoots she's done um videos she's got a whole
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video series she's done um she's classically trained in school like
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this girl is like doing a lot and she definitely wants to know so i kind of wanted to talk about it especially
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um amongst creatives and influencers because this space is for us has been really challenging and i
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wanted to talk about a little bit so do me a favor and welcome miss
2:08
brianna from the b word hello darling hi good morning thank you for having me
2:14
oh my gosh thank you for joining me i am so happy to be here from california
2:20
like you said from l.a it is nine in the morning so you got uh you got your coffee yet
2:25
yeah yes i got my coffee i have my water i'm here you're ready to go okay so um let's talk
2:32
a little bit about the b word so the b word is your platform is your baby but like who are you like at his core
2:41
man okay so the b word is my plus size fashion blog that i started five years ago now um i know right
2:48
but hey hi everybody i'm seeing these comments um but i who am i so brianna from the b
2:56
word it's so funny like starting something and then people knowing you for something and then you're like wait
3:01
who was i before that um so i grew up plus size always into fashion fashion was my sort of creative outlet
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um and if you grew up plus size you know that there was nothing in stores for us
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so i had to get really creative um and that's really where my love for creativity fashion
3:21
uh came from i went to school for musical theater and then i've been in l.a for 10 years
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does that mean you could sing yes yeah that's why i uh it's so weird when people are like do
3:32
you sing can you sing for us and i'm always like oh my god this is so funny but yes this is who i was before the b word
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i was that girl who musical theater opera vocal performance that's what my degree is in
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yeah i know it's weird it's funny that now people know me for the b word versus all that so you've been
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trying to find some ways to kind of marry the two together so yeah
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platform but then you also have your creative musically trained opera musical theater
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background and so you bring them together and over the past like you just wrapped a season
4:07
of the word can you tell me that for people who don't know what is the word
4:12
okay so the word is my igtv series and we're actually in pre-production for season two
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we started season one filming december 2019 we filmed it's a 16 episode season
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they're about three minutes long each and it's different plus-sized people talking about different topics
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and it's just an opinion show it's funny it's quick it's a good time and we sort of got hit with
4:38
coronavirus like everybody so midway through the season we had to be do virtual filming so that was
4:46
definitely a pivot but it is like i love making the show i love
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featuring other plus-size people everyone who works on the show is like brianna where do you find these people
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and i'm like these are just my friends who are in the plus-size community who are incredibly talented but
5:03
never get the shine ever so um lana tawana's already ready she's
5:08
like oh i'm gonna how can we get involved with the word like how can we oh my god
5:15
how can we be a guest what right okay so you can watch all the episodes on igtv
5:21
on the b word they're all up there all 16. and we just did a casting call actually
5:27
for the last four episodes which were during august which is my be in your skin month so that was really really fun to
5:34
get submissions from all over because we filmed virtually so i've been actually getting this question a lot of like when can i be on
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the word and i will have to do another open casting call for season two um wait what is b in your skin because
5:47
this is i know what it is but some people don't know like i have been following along in like this hashtag campaign
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and i love the the daily prompts that you had on the video a little bit about like being your skin
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so being your skin is something that i started at the beginning of the b word too um again i started the b word with like
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no plan or strategy it was just sort of out of now most of us right and it's just out
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of passion and love and like okay what did i want to see and so i am six feet tall and a size 20. so
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everywhere i go people ask me oh my god how are you so confident where did you get that how can i be confident
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so i wanted to put together a sort of challenge based on like
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30 days to abs challenge or like those workout challenges i wanted to create one for
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self-confidence and self-esteem and uh that's really how being your skin came
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about it's my hashtag uh and in august i do a 31 day challenge so every day has
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a different prompt we do different themes photo challenges i feature people we do videos
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it's a lot of work but i'm so proud of that work and uh so it's a whole month on how to
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build body confidence tools resources and uh interviews shout out to tall
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girls yes being six feet tall people see you anywhere you go
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right not only just being plus signs with looks to you but being plus size and tall like you want to
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take up space confidently and so when you talk about your being your skin and being confident and this like you
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know for me what what caught my attention is like you were sharing this also on twitter i'll be on twitter y'all like that yes you don't interact with me
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you'll find me on twitter right yes i found you i found the hashtag and i started following along and some of
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the prompts had me thinking had me kind of second guessing and kind of rethinking and reframing
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kind of how i see myself in my body and so for you um you know
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what like how did you get these like how did you learn these steps or where did you get these prompts from
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because confidence like you know you can see a whole bunch of stuff online
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but like for you you've tailored them and you've put a lot of thought into some of these like give us like an
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example of one of your your prompts that you had if you can remember yeah you actually said reframe and that's exactly and that's
8:11
something i talk about a lot um is how to reframe how we see ourselves in media
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which to me when i started being your skin i was doing research and i couldn't find
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anything online about body confidence that didn't have to do with weight loss or diet culture or working out
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or oh just work out and you'll be confident and i was like well that's not my story so i had to go back into okay
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what did i do how did i gain my confidence what did i do and it was
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really having to dissect my own like personal trauma and my own personal
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experience and break it down into ways that i could ask questions that made people think or
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people at least open their mind to okay maybe maybe i was taught all these wrong um
9:00
ideals and uh how can i change that and bring that on into my life
9:05
and so you've now married be in your skin the b word the word and now you have the platform but even
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on top of that you have worked on different campaigns yeah have do social media consulting
9:18
like you have a lot like under your belt like yes then is like next for you
9:24
like where do you see yourself kind of going from there wow i mean it's interesting i definitely
9:30
feel like in a transition so this is a deep question marie but
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right i would love to be acting more and performing more and be
9:44
more like an entertainment mogul my dream in life is to be like the issa rae the reese
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witherspoon um the sandra bullock where we have our own i'm an actor who has my own production company
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so i i create what i want to create versus an actor you gave me a part and i get to
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be in your movie i'm creating the movie i'm writing the movie i'm producing i'm directing
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you know i want a one-woman show that's what i want it all so i'm excited all right we'll get it we'll
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get it in so tell me this then um i want to switch this i want to switch
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um just switch it up a little bit because you talked about being six foot and being size 20. so
10:28
where do you get your clothes this is a real question
10:35
where do you get your clothes especially with the inseam because i get this question asked often now i in my head i'm tall
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yeah i'm only five eight so i'm like too tall to be short and too short to be tall i'm in that weird gray space of height
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and so sometimes things barely graze like as yeah maxi dress it barely grazes
10:56
my um the top of my feet where do you go who do you shop yeah asos is my big
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number one torrid for pants i found that pretty little thing pants actually run really really long so
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that's been nice um it's kind of just trial and error i
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was a big what not to wear fan growing up and so there were they their phrase was you just have to
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try it on so that's sort of what my mom always told me and we i feel like i'm a
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professional shopper the way that i have searched together and shopped in person
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yes it had to be so often like you just had to figure it out exactly and i am also into making my own
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clothes so that's something that i like yeah i mean i like to pay people to make my clothes at this point
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but in college i worked in the costume shop so i do know how to sew i'm not the greatest
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but hey i can make a mean pillow cover yeah okay
12:00
that's all you're gonna get from me though yeah okay okay for you guys who are just joining
12:06
in and you're kind of figuring out what's going on i'm gonna read your name the creator of the kirby fashionista um and today's special guest
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we're here at speaking of curves and it's a bi-weekly interview series where we're meeting and talking with different
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business owners influencers creatives in the plus size community whom you guys need to know and today's
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special guest is brianna of the b word and not only is she a
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classically trained musical theater person she's also a um producer
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with aspirations of owning and running her own you guys speak this into existence that you gotta keep right
12:42
right of owning her own production company yes um she has a uh series on
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instagram called the word where she features a three-minute series featuring other
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plus-sized people across the space um and you have your blog uh
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the word blog.com so i'm gonna drop the link too so you guys can like
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thank you of course good morning tani tandy said good morning we just want to
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say good morning yes so let's see how do i get her
13:18
okay there we go good morning tani good morning to y'all out there or afternoon right because like over
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here you know i got my coffee and it's like 12 something but yeah
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it's this is my last cup of coffee for the day so let's talk rhona let's talk rona and
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and mental health and how we're feeling like so this pivot for you as an influencer like
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did you have moments of like what the hell what the f and how am i going to live kind of
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situation because i have that panic moment yeah very much so i mean i was already
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working remotely i did social media management and marketing and consulting but prior so
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i felt okay about that but i was let go from some clients so that was a little scurry and then
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with all of with the word we had sponsorships going and those had to be pulled so
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it was definitely a okay what are we going to do um i also had to move in march
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so that was a crazy situation during the running yeah well i was in
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germany right before when people were buying toilet paper was when we were in germany
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and we woke up the day that we were flying back and to all the news that there was a travel ban
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so we like ran to the airport and i was like freaking out my boyfriend was like we're gonna be okay we're gonna be okay
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and i was like oh my god if we can't get back oh my gosh we thank goodness
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we're able to get back naturally we yeah amen we had to move like two weeks later but i moved our
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move up so me and my boyfriend moved in together but we got into our new place right before la was like okay
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so crazy time crazy year um but i feel much better now but
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it's definitely been a roller coaster of all kinds of emotions uh from job in insecurity from emotionally
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taxing to what is going on in our country to i mean social justice issues if
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it's i mean like what a year it's been a year and and one of the
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things that i've learned is that you know it's really challenged how we look at things and
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what we're grateful for and where we actually values and so like some people's values have
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changed or the things that you thought were kind of important are now like at the forefront like are the most
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important so for you have you noticed any of your values or even how you perceive or work with
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brands now moving forward like has that shifted for you yeah
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actually i mean i am really i feel like for a while i've been like okay like
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i i want to act more and i want to do this and i was like nah i was like if the world is ending
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tomorrow did you give it your all to what you really wanted to do so that that has been different and when
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people are like how are you i am just like i'm healthy i have a home i'm grateful i'm good that's what i need
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um and really the bigger picture of my life has shifted a little bit of i want more balance i want more peace of mind
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i want health i want longevity i want i want that versus like oh i'm gonna
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chase money or right you know whatever like it's interesting because
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you know especially like you said you know living life like and not having any regrets and kind of really putting
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yourself out there like i've had a very similar kind of perspective where i had goals and ideas
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of things that i wanted to do and i was like girl you better do that ish now like what you wait
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for like go in and embrace it own it have fun with it and so for me it's been really
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exciting just to kind of see like what you're really made of yeah and i also find that i've been
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working on really giving myself grace right i love that yeah it's been really
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um like really learning how to give myself grace and not ride myself i'm a
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virgo with the moon so i'm like ambitious goal oriented like go go go
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and i really had to lean into my cancer rising hey okay i really learned how to
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you know give myself grace kind of take care of myself more and girl if i don't feel like typing or
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turning on the computer i don't yeah and or if i'm done i'm just like i'm walking away
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um tawanna says relatable content what i
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want out of life and what i appreciate most about life has shifted for sure like yes i mean it's interesting because
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like we're sitting here in the midst of a pandemic in the midst of a you know uncertainty
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with like challenging leadership and we're trying to figure out like you know how my bill is going to get paid we
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all have family members that are like now living with other people right you have people being really creative so
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as you focus on your next season of the world do you find that like where we are
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today is going to impact like you know some of the topics that you you approach in your content absolutely
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that's uh someone recently asked me they're like wow you're way more political on your platform and like why is that and i was
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kind of surprised because to me i was like oh i feel like i've always spoken on these topics but that was a
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good reminder that okay i'm having these conversations in my real life with my friends but maybe that's not
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online or people who are just following me now don't know where i stand and i think that's really important in 2020 and moving
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forward is to um continue to be honest and really uh give a voice to the most
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marginalized intersections especially in our community like nothing but intersectionalities
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right yeah i think that's community is literally about like it's like
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and i think there's like that's where you know when we start feeling like the commodification of body position or the commodification
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of um yeah like the modification of body positivity has like really
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kind of uh made space for people who kind of aren't familiar with this world
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yeah they're kind of like pushing them away like no that that doesn't make any sense stay away or
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like your campaign is like totally like taking the wrong message or you know it's it's really
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frustrating at times it's so frustrating and i mean you are an og
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for for years and that's something that i think people don't understand that people are in this industry for
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years and uh people can just pop up too which is great and amazing but i
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always think that you need to honor respect and always keep you know shouting out
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the people who originated this are in the rooms changing the conversation in the narrative because that's really what
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you're doing and uh people like you well thank you for that honey of course
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you know for me i feel like it's part of my social responsibility i feel like you know i started this literally like
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because i wanted to open up my own boutique and really yeah girl like you know but
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the way that the man plans god laughs yeah so he's like oh that's cute
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but i'm gonna go shift you here because this is your purpose like and so me you know it's really about
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like leveraging and honoring and accepting and receiving the gifts that you've been given and really
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like if anything that this whole pandemic has taught me is about really about being grateful and and not dealing
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and and choosing not to deal with the bs that kind of surrounds everything else like
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you know for me like i've found myself more on twitter because that's just an easy it feels like home for me yeah it also
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means like you know minding my own business like it also means like pushing and
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challenging myself like everyone has this list of goals and dreams like why did i
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start tackling them like yeah like why not and
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now is the time like the world has slowed down like before we would tell it ourselves right that we're too busy
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girl now we got all the time right i know and i feel like i was i'm kind of in that space now where i
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was like doing all my checklists for the past few months and now i've done everything yeah i was like i've done all my
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checklists so brianna you've got to do the things that you've been pushing off so that's sort of where i'm at and what
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does that look like what are the things that you've kind of pushed off let's let's go there it was getting an uh
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representation as an actor so that i'm really searching for more financial literacy and like really
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inviting in abundance if we want to get woo-woo yes
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we don't claim for the both of us and everybody over here yes exactly so financial literacy
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and just like getting my credit score right getting my bank accounts my businesses right
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um there's so much going on personally and with my businesses it's hilarious
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someday i'll talk about it but it's just so getting everything on the foundation of the b word
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in line so keisha said sometimes you have to get out of your own way and just
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go for it okay and i think that this is what like kind of some of the space has like done like as it slowed down and like kind of
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really allows for us to focus and not give us any you know like for those of us who have the means
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to really take those leaps and chances on ourselves yeah and so for you
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like you like i actually got a brand new um accountant and she's already been like in my behind because like you
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you know we start this and we're like oh this is a great hobby oh no this is not a business oh my gosh now i'm probably like
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oh wait i didn't optimize i didn't maximize my deductions
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like oh wait here are all my 1099's and here are my w9s from my independent contractors and like
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whoa you know i mean i didn't start this to be a whole business person but i love business so it's so
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exciting to hire people and all that but yeah it comes with man it comes with a lot to be the boss
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like jay-z and then and then you also have like the responsibility of
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learning how to be a leader because you know then you have to learn how to believe in yourself and trust yourself to lead
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others yeah i mean there's like layers to this and you know i had to do the work a couple years back
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and started going to therapy and really unpacking unpacking suitcases that i didn't even know like that i was that you know i
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didn't know something was hidden over here in the crevice that's why i reacted this way for this right how can i
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you know be the leader and be this person and be this business owner if i'm not addressing like the issues
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that are preventing me from being that [Music] did you find that therapy was helpful in
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taking you to the next level oh hell yeah okay now like i'm
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such a strong advocate for therapy because even when you think you're okay there's still certain things like
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outside stressors like even now in the pandemic like even now like you know or something good could happen
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you know it's not just about going to therapy when something's wrong yeah learning how to process some of the
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good things because sometimes like you know how many people have you given a a compliment to and they're kind of like
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thank you and they don't know how to think about it yeah be like the self-love and self-care
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it's like learning about like how to you know really step into your own tomorrow's my birthday so like i'm
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feeling all this like kind of coming full circle i'm so excited i'm about to be 39 yes and you look amazing
25:24
thank you baby thank you of course i'm like 39 yes no i'm over here like
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do i have any wrinkles listen i have probably been more intense
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about my skincare regimen than now that i've ever been in my whole life i love it i have gotten more
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bowls all these moles are popping up on my like forehead and like maybe but like
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i have so many moles and i'm like mom what is happening now they and now
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they're starting to go like down my face and to my body i'm like okay i can't
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[Laughter] i love it so do me a favor tell me
26:10
like if you could leave if you could leave our readers with a um kind of words of encouragement
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especially kind of through this time as they're trying to figure out their purpose and their like what would you say to
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them i would say without all the noise
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of social media of every outside influences what makes you the happiest
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what brings you the most joy if you would do it for free what is it
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and how can you implement that more into your daily life into your business stuff like that
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that's really where i'm at i want my people to be successful whatever that looks like to them uh
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before i felt like i had a really rigid idea of what success was but really you know
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it's up to you and design you can be the creative director of your own life and that's really really exciting
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and i'm i'm excited for my future too because i'm definitely leaning into what brings me joy versus what brings me
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validation or outside validation or money or money will come yeah
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especially like that outside validation piece like that will kind of really mess with your
27:23
mind i was going to say f with your mind but like yeah mess with your mind mess with your purpose and it kind of will knock you
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off like seeking validation and that can steal your joy absolutely i mean now right now in 2020
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everyone wants to be a influencer but it's like maybe that's not your path and that's cool like what
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is your unique purpose passion and what can you bring goodness into the
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world and how can you do that you just said say that ish do what you
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love exactly i love it i love it and so do me a favor and tell everyone
27:59
where they can find you and where they can follow you okay you can follow me on instagram is
28:05
where i'm mainly hanging out but i'm also on twitter facebook and uh that's all underscore the
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underscore b underscore word underscore lots of underscores but um you can also find me at thebwordblog.com
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and that's linked to all my socials all right so i just dropped your instagram oh
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yes thank you of course and one more time i'm gonna drop your your site um thank you
28:33
and bam thank you all for being here too these comments i love this little feed
28:39
on the side over here um let's see so tawana said this is true
28:44
i do some influencing but i'd rather have a long-lasting impact and emphasis will okay girl
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to want to talk about not an influence or an impactor i'm with it i like that i do
28:57
all right and then moana said um live the life you love love the life you
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live with the feel good yes okay i'm with this is getting me set up for the day
29:08
you guys so thank you i feel like church ministry like we're talking business
29:14
with life love everything right this is why i love doing this because i always end up leaving like feeling inspired and
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motivated okay what else can i tackle for the rest of the day so i mean thank you so much brianna for
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joining us um i really enjoyed having you and especially our conversation you guys
29:32
for those of you guys just tuning in we have just wrapped up with brianna of the be work she was our special guest today we
29:38
were talking about being a creative navigating the rona um learning how to pivot and still find joy and figure out
29:45
like what works for you um you can follow her at the b word um we drop the links in the comments so
29:51
that way it makes it real easy for you um and we will be back on thursday with another guest so tuesdays and
29:58
thursdays at 12 p.m eastern standard time 9 8 uh yeah 9am
30:03
on the west coast um and don't be a stranger drop a comment show some love reach out to her follow her and
30:10
make sure you guys send us some love too we will catch you next week or next thursday
30:16
thank you guys so much for joining us i am marie denae the creator of the curvy fashionista have an amazing day bye
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