Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Music commentary
Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Paging Dr. Paint: How A Healthcare Exec Caught A Case Of Creativity
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Start where it hurts. That’s where Dr. Brandi Florence found a new life—tilting canvases in her garage after losing a cousin, watching color teach her what structure never could. Our Women’s Month spotlight turns into a masterclass in reinvention as Brandi shares how a healthcare executive, researcher, and best-selling author became a multidisciplinary artist whose work charts a five-part journey: breaking, surrender, healing, rise, becoming.
We move through the rooms she knows best—hospital corridors and leadership meetings—naming the quiet friction that keeps women of color from senior seats. Brandi breaks down why sponsorship outperforms mentorship, how she built the FLOW method to move women from insight to influence, and what it takes to stop downplaying your own resume. Then we step into the studio. She explains pour painting as a practice of trust, why “mistakes” become masterpieces to other eyes, and how resin brings depth and light to finished pieces. Pricing, debut-show strategy, and Etsy plans get practical attention, because creativity deserves clarity as much as it craves freedom.
Threaded through is faith, agency, and a refusal to stay small. We talk circles that applaud your floating but resist your sailing, the courage to pivot after 15 years in one lane, and the simple daily choices—time, attention, boundaries—that build a freer life. Brandi’s mantra lands like a bell: see what you can do when you bet on you. If you’ve felt that tug to paint, write, launch, or start over, consider this your sign.
Join us for the LA debut show—tickets are in Brandi’s bio—and explore her work at drbrandyflorence.com, with originals heading to Etsy after the event. If this story moved you, tap follow, share with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Your voice and your gifts belong out loud.
Welcome & Women’s Month Spotlight
SPEAKER_01Yes, girl, you got this. Listen, Linda. Listen.
SPEAKER_02Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Listen Linda podcast, where powerful voices, transformative stories, and purpose-driven leaders come together. Now, tonight's conversation is extra special because we are kicking off Listen Linda International Women's Month Spotlight Series. And we are starting this month with a woman who truly embodies leadership, creativity, and transformation. Joining me tonight is Dr. Brandi Florence, healthcare executive, leadership strategist, an international best-selling author, and now a multidisciplinary artist whose work is opening new conversations around healing, identity, and expression. For more than 15 years, she has navigated complex healthcare systems, researched leadership areas for women of color, and built frameworks to help women move from insight to influence. But tonight, we're exploring another powerful dimension of her journey to be the artist, to be the painter, to be the creative voice that emerged during the season of transition and personal transformation. And she has an upcoming art show happening March 7th. That is Saturday, people. So we're gonna talk about that tonight as well. Dr. Florence, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Lisa Linda podcast.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. It's so crazy when you hear it. You're like, who did all that?
SPEAKER_02Oh girl!
SPEAKER_00Who are you talking about? Not me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, you did that.
SPEAKER_00Really? Yes, yes. Thank you for having me.
Prayer And Intentions For The Talk
SPEAKER_02Oh, you are so welcome. You are so welcome. Before we dive into the art side of your journey, I really want to give the audience a little context because your professional background is incredibly powerful. Um so I want to go and I first I want to start. I always come in because y'all know how I do what I do when I do. I always come in with prayer. So I want to start with prayer, and then after prayer, we're gonna kick out the questions that I want to ask you, okay? So let's bow our heads. Father God, we come to you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, asking that you bless this conversation. You bless everybody whose ears are under the sound of our voice right now, who will be later on, and who catches the replay or hears this on all human platforms. Worldwide, Lord, I thank you so much for just giving me the platform to be able to showcase and highlight some wonderful women and just women all around the world, Lord God. You know what we need, you know how we feel, and you know what's inside of us. And as Jeremiah 29, 11 says, you know the plans you have for us, and we want to walk in our purpose now and forevermore in the ways that you want us to, Lord God. So just bless everybody who's listening to this. Hopefully they are inspired, Lord God, by the phenomenal Dr. Brandi Florence and her testimony and her story of the goodness of your mercy and grace on her life in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Amen. Amen. So thank you so much. Thank you.
Healthcare Roots And Early Calling
SPEAKER_02So you spent more than 15 years working in healthcare leadership and operations. What originally drew you into health care?
SPEAKER_00It was as a kid. I literally remember the conversation. I was like five or six, and I said I wanted to be a doctor or a police officer. And my father said, police officers get shot. And I said, Well, we won't do that. And then it was just my passion for people. So I knew it like five or six, which is crazy, that I wanted to help people. So that is why once I said, I'm gonna be a doctor, it was just the health care was the only way and that I knew, and I didn't think about any other thing, and that was so tunnel vision, and my whole family was Brandy's gonna be a doctor. Brandy's gonna be a doctor. So that is how I went in healthcare, biology pre-med, health administration, and then been working for about 20 years in the healthcare space.
SPEAKER_02Wow, wow, wow. Now your doctoral research examined the lack of advancement for an African American women and to senior executive healthcare leadership roles. What did you discover through that research that people might not realize?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think it's been discussed more widely now, but it's just we have to always show up better. We have to be more educated. We don't have the same opportunities as our colleagues have. And it's always, you know, you're always fighting for a space. The space is very limited. When you sit in these meetings, in these leadership meetings, you start to see that nobody really looks like you. So it's only, you know, it's usually Caucasian male in those spaces. So you start to look around and you're like, what is the problem? These women are educated, they have the experience, but it's just opportunity. And that's when I really learned more about sponsorship. Like you can have a mentor, but it's really having a sponsor of somebody that, you know, mentions your names in rooms that you're not in. And that is something that women of color and women, a lot of women, don't have, like most men do.
SPEAKER_02That part, that part. And it's so important for us, especially to have people like you who actually go in and they put in the work and you do the research and you find out these things and make them available to people because if if if you had never done that, a lot of people wouldn't have known what was going on in that aspect of that. So I I applaud you and appreciate you just for that. Um, and I see that you also created the flow method, which helps women move from insight to influence. What inspired you to create that framework?
SPEAKER_00I think I've been, it's been years back and forth of I'm gonna be a I am a life coach, I'm a professional life coach. So it was more so of it's not just helping people fix their lives. It's more so I'm in these spaces with these leaders. And once I started discovering these other parts of my life, like the painting and the art, then it started to make me realize it's more than just the title, it's more than just the job. And a lot of times we suppress all of those things and we just become this, and you don't explore those. So this is just really an opportunity or framework that I'm starting to create and develop to allow women to tap into all of these things and realizing that we can be all of these things. You don't have to just be the one thing and you can always pivot and change and start over.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And what I love about your story is that while you were building, you know, your whole leadership career, another part of your identity was quietly emerging, right? Um, this is the part of your journey that I think many people will connect with. And I remember talking to you on earlier today and said, I'm gonna talk about that, right? Um your creative practice emerged during a personal transition season for you. Can you take us back to that moment? What was happening in your life when art started just showing up for you?
Research On Advancement And Sponsorship
SPEAKER_00It's the crazy, it's I always say it's crazy. I always say I don't know what happened, but we know it's nothing but God. It was literally a Tuesday in May, I want to say maybe like May 5th or 2nd or something around that. That it was that week. Um, and they told me that one of my cousins who I knew had cancer, but she was always texting me as if, you know, she was doing better. So I didn't realize it was as bad as it was. So they told me she wasn't gonna make it to the weekend. And I remember sitting in my room or in my office, the same office I'm in now, and that Friday, I literally got off work and I went to the art store, the craft store. I bought canvas, I bought pore paint, I got on YouTube, I watched Pinterest, and I just set my garage that weekend. Mind you, I don't even like to color to this day. I don't like to color. Coloring stresses me out, it's too structured, it's too focused. You're trying to stay in the lines. Like, so I sat in the garage, and the first piece I did, I didn't really realize how much the ratio for the paint to the canvas. So then I just kind of started doing some swirls. And then the next day, I looked at it some more and I said, okay, so for this size, what do you need? How much paint? And I just set my garage, and then it started that when I would have a crazy day at work, I would come home and paint. So I started making all the art pieces for my house. And that was, and I still didn't think it was anything. It was just, oh, I had a crazy day, I'm gonna go home and paint. And then at one point I had about 45 pieces just sitting in my garage. And someone said, What are you gonna do? And I was like, I don't know. So in 2024, I just did like a pop-up art show. What I want to see. My birthday's December. So I rented a space, I put up the pieces, I invited people I knew, and they were just all in all, like, you paint? When did you start painting? I didn't even know you painted because what I've learned is I keep so many parts of me silent and quiet that people don't know until I actually do it. And it's a disservice to myself and to others, as you mentioned. Like I'm I'm keeping this to myself, but I also didn't realize that paint was a form of therapy and it's a form of helping you grieve and get through things. Because I've had tragic things happen before, but something about this just switched something, and it became so freeing. And what I liked about it is I remember explaining it to someone, I said, This is a place where I can't mess up, yeah, compared to what I do every day, all day. But this is a space where even if I mess up, I notice it's a mess up, but somebody else, that part, they will say, Oh, that part is so in my mind. I'm like, You have no idea what happened right there. But but if you say it's beautiful, it's a masterpiece.
SPEAKER_02It's a masterpiece, amen. It is a masterpiece. And I used to be, I used to be the same way just to kind of connect with you on that level, because um, as you can see, you you haven't known me that long, but even then, just knowing me and following me, see, I do a lot of different things. And I and and my creativeness, I just I now I let it all out. But a lot of going through growing up in my life, I used to always suppress things a lot because people used to always tell me I do too much. And so um I stopped letting people know certain gifts that I had because I didn't want people to feel like I was trying to overshadow them or them, you know. So I would get myself to get in to circles that I felt like I wanted to be in. Because if I was too much, or if I was too pretty, or if I was too this, then they wouldn't want to be my friend, or you know, those type of things. So now, you know, I don't care who gets mad, they're gonna have to go on Amazon to get a cake so they could be super mad because I'm letting out everything that I got. Um, like my friend Elena says, um I will not take any potential to the grave. It will not go. Everything that I got, God knows whatever God gave me when He when I make it up there and I scan my ticket and He said, What did you do with the oil? I would say, Lord, I was cooking. I was cooking. It's gone. It's all gone. And I want you to do that same thing. And I see that you're doing that, and I'm so happy about just to see people say, you know what? I'm gonna do what makes me happy, right? Um, my friend Elena was the same way. She was in corporate, and she's an actress, and she's a singer, and she's a poet, and she's a writer, and she's spoken word, and she's a speaker. She does all these things, but she was stuck at corporate. But she would go and do little gigs, but now she just said, you know what? I'm just gonna withdraw my 401k and I'm gonna I'm gonna do my thing, but she was scared, and me and her would talk back and forth. And I said, Girl, just bet on you. You can always go back to corporate. You got your degree, you could always, but just put every all the chips on you, and and trust that God gave you those gifts, and she has been in multiple movies, just doing so, so well, and just in that Hollywood, you know, actress space and and and other things as well, right? But it's like when you bet on you, just like now, like you you started doing your art, you started doing your painting. What started off as therapy has has really become a phenomenon because when you told me you paint, I'm like, okay, she painted. But when I went to your empty, I was like, no, girl, you paint, girl. Like, no, like you pay. Like, no, you do that. And see, a lot of people, this is where people get gift and skill mixed up, or they they think that it's one and the same. No, skill is something that you learn. A gift is something that God gives you, and God gave you a gift, he sent you to that hobby lobby. Well, we got a hobby lobby, y'all know what y'all call it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, but he's hobby lobby.
SPEAKER_02Michael's hobby, he sent you to Michael's, you got that stuff. He gave you the garage to do it. He gave you that time to yourself, he gave you that time away from work, and then he said, Look at what you've always had inside of you. I'm now you're ready. Now you have the emotional piece that you needed to push you into that and and and and to that oil space that you had always had in you that you just did not know. And look at what is done in your life, girl.
SPEAKER_00I I did not know. And like you said, that I've been meditating on that scripture. I don't want to get to heaven and you say, What did you do with those talents? Like, you know, I'm not gonna be the one to say, Oh, I buried them because later, and it's so many times that we bury. I tell people, I'm I thrive in structure. School was not not that it wasn't hard. I'm not gonna say that, but I thrive in structure. Uh healthcare hospital, it's already structured. But this was so out not structured that I literally was like, what is happening? I I literally, I think I was just fighting with it. Like, no, I started painting four years ago. And I was like, no, I don't know. This is just so then I'm like, I need to figure out is this just an expensive hab hobby? Or what is it supposed to be? What is this becoming? But people say it's the story. Because when you say the story, they're like, What? What do you what? What do you mean? Because like I said, I've had some tragic things, but it was something about this one that I said, I'm gonna do this. And I just sat in the garage, and and now it's like half my garage is literally like a paint shop. My friends crack up, like, oh, you really one my sorority sister today, she said, You really have a studio up there. I'm like, Yeah, I just that half of that garage. So taking advantage of, like you said, the gifts and realizing that it's a gift and trusting trusting him in the process.
Creating The FLOW Method
SPEAKER_02And you know what? I was I was just um I posted on my word of the day last week about us not really knowing when the hour, our sand and our hourglasses up, right? And and we have to live every moment of the day like it's the last 15 minutes of our life. And then when we look around and say, is this what I want to be doing? And I don't want to be in the like nine to five making their dreams come true and I'm getting the pennies off the dollar. I wanna, I don't care if I make a dime doing what I'm doing. Every day I get up, I'm happy that I might be exhausted. I give myself, I work myself, I am my own slave master. You know, I give myself I work myself. But when I say I'm happy and I love to do what I do, and I think that doing what I love to do every day I get up doing what I love to do, if I left 15 minutes from now, I would leave happy. And that's how we have to live our life. You never know when is your time. It's not promised. So you have to live every single day, like it's the last 15 minutes. And in my last 15 minutes, like Jennifer Lewis said, you're not getting none of my stuff. You better get the happy day. Amen. Now I'm seeing that you study systems, leadership, power, but art feels like a completely different space for you, right? Um what things show up most often in your artwork?
SPEAKER_00It's just peaceful. It's peaceful, and I think it's just for me, it was I was looking at it the other day when preparing for the show, and I was just literally sitting there when our friends caught me, and I just was sitting there just like, I really made this stuff. Like I really made it. I didn't think, you know, like I really painted this, but for me, it's peace, and it shows that what you really, you know, what they say, beauty from ashes, like something tragic. It took something to shift my perspective to say, and it could be me and her the same age. It was something, you know, we grew up together, we, you know, to have some, you know, grew up and experienced all those things together. And it was just like that could have been me. Maybe that was what it was compared to other deaths or you know, experience that I've had, but it was just like, I don't want this to be the end of my story. Like this can't be it. And I'm just like, God, this can't be the end of the story.
Grief As A Spark For Painting
SPEAKER_02And you know what? I think uh I think um, well, I know for a fact, I won't say I think, but I know for a fact that that's what it was. When you say you've had a lot of tragic things to happen to you, but to know that you were just texting your cousin, y'all was just texting, and then you get that information. Another thing I can relate to, I was uh running for Miss Jet Set about five years ago, and I was texting my sister, and I didn't know that my sister had any health issues because she kept a lot of things to herself. She was like my best friend. Well, she's my foster sister, but still my sister, right? And so we would text her all the time. She would um she was supporting me through the whole jet set process, and I I just so having a call one day. And I called her phone because I was like, I need her to buy some more of my votes. I'm traveling. And her girlfriend picked up and said, no, she know it wasn't her girlfriend. I take it back. It was my cousin Farrell. She picked up and said, April gone. I said, okay, well, when she gets back, have her call because you know, I'm I'm trending. She said, no, she had a seizure. Like she's no longer here. And that I didn't know she was sick. She don't tell everybody everything. She's very secretive in those aspects. And that humbled me. That hummeled me. And that's what really drove me into. Because at first I was writing, I did a uh it can't always be night, right? A little poetry book that I did. And but after that, I just went full mode. Like, let me give whatever I got inside of me out. I need it out because I don't want to leave knowing that I could have done more, that I could have gone more places, that I could have done more things. That's why when you were telling me your story, when we first had our first conversation, because y'all don't know, but this is my NASDAQ circle friend uh friend. This is my sister alumni over here. So I had put something in the chat um in the email uh chain, and she responded and we talked, and we just was like, oh, this I was like, that's my girl. I don't know, she knows she's my girl, but that's my girl. And we were talking, and when you was telling me about like all those things that really, really, really impressed me, and it it inspired me to just like, you know what, Jackie, give it everything. Because just like we were talking on the phone, we said, we don't know, we just don't know. And I'm so happy that even if you do still do corporate or whatever, just keep doing what you're doing. I love what y'all what you're doing, which brings me to when people look at your paintings, what emotions do you hope that they experience from seeing them? And before you answer that, I do want to get into her paintings, people, because we're not talking about just regular finger paint, okay? This lady paints, okay. She got it, okay. Look at this phenomenal, phenomenal. When you were painting this, what was your emotion in this painting?
SPEAKER_00Hmm, I don't know. That's the thing. I just get into a zone, I turn on some music and I just pick some colors. And for me, it's just the way that I layer it or the direction or the position, because it's pore paint. So I'm tilting the canvas and moving it in different directions, and that's why it's called paint and flow, because it's just a flow. So I once I get the colors together, I think I'm more excited to see how they they mesh and become. Because I'm pouring a cup and I'm like, oh, these this looks pretty. But yeah, to me, I don't know. I think I just always want them to feel, I guess, joy or peace, or it's interesting to see their stories. Like I have some pieces, and somebody will say, it looks like two faces, and then I'll say, Oh, I do see what you're saying. But I don't look at it, I don't see it until after. When I'm like on the other end, once it settles, what do you see?
SPEAKER_02I see sunlight on on water. Like it looks like God is looking down, like like my vision is like as if I'm God, right? And I'm above the sun. And I look at I see the sun's reflection from a heaven's view on water. That's what I see, right? Um I I right when I saw it, I was like, oh, it looks like God looking down past the sun to the earth, and the water is there. Like, that's what I got from it. Um, I'm a I'm an artsy person. If you come, you look in my house, you'll see like big, huge paintings. Like, I just love art. So I was girl. Now, is this one of the pieces that's going to be at the art show?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02And do you have a name for this piece?
SPEAKER_00That one is I becoming no, I think this is I stayed. I stayed.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so this one is called I stayed. And how much is this one going for?
SPEAKER_00This one is going, I was I was just looking at that. That one is going for$550. And if it has resin, I don't think that one has resin. It was it would be$6.25. Okay. So but these are the prices for the show. So for the show, I'm just I'm giving a price that won't be the regular price on the website. Because it's just like a debut, so it'll really be probably double that price when it's on Etsy.
SPEAKER_02Okay, but this one is on Etsy right now.
SPEAKER_00Not yet. These were just for the show. So these are all for the show, and once what doesn't show from the show will then be put on Etsy. Okay, so these are the sizes are 24 by 48.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Wow, wow. Y'all gonna get to the show and get it. I'm telling you now, you better get to the show and get it. And here's another piece. This piece is phenomenal. This is probably one of my favorite pieces that I saw on, yes, so on your page. Um, tell me what what people say when they when they see this, what do they see? And then I'll tell you what I see.
SPEAKER_00They haven't seen it yet. So this is like how the photographer, only the photographer saw this, and my friends that are helping me get ready for the show, but these will all be shown Saturday. So you're showing stuff that is not anywhere else.
SPEAKER_02Y'all hear that? Clock it, block it, block it. Listen, Linda giving y'all the exclusive of what is going to be at the show. I thought this was on it. Girl, look, look at what I'm showing y'all. Y'all better get down to this show, okay? Oh my goodness, I love this one. So then I can tell you what I see then. So I'm gonna tell you. Okay, so what I saw when I looked at this one, I actually saw, I don't know why. Right, and don't get mad, okay? But when I saw this, I saw Harley Quinn. Like, I could see myself like with a picture of Harley Quinn, the Joker, right here, and then I got this paint somewhere around it. Like it, that's what I saw like, because you know how like the Joker, like Harley Quinn and the Joker, they're very colorful, they're very artistic in that aspect. So now something I was like, oh, I could put this next to a Harley Quinn painting. That's what I saw when I saw this. I love and that I'm a Harley, even though people like, oh, that's this net, look, season saints, please go so well.
SPEAKER_00Among Season Saints, look like Harley Quinn.
SPEAKER_02I am a Harley Quinn fan. I think she is she is uh hilarious. I like her artistic talents, and I also like the fact that she is this is a psychologist, so she's very aware of what's going on. Um and this painting to me gave me artistic, it gave me color, it gave me life out of this painting. Now, what's the name of this painting?
SPEAKER_00It's called Where I Land It.
SPEAKER_02Where I Landed. Is it the story behind it?
Art As Therapy And Freedom
SPEAKER_00No, this the story, the whole art show is like five chapters. So you're going through the breaking, the surrender, the healing, the rise and the becoming. So the colors tell a story where it takes you through the journey. When I first started, of course, it was dark. And the end, it's like now I feel like for me, seeing the brightness and I my word for the year is becoming. So this is this is a part of the fifth chapter, the becoming chapter, where everything gets bright and all the beautiful bright colors, but it doesn't start that way. I think you might have one. One of them is like the dark purples, that's like the beginning of the journey.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, absolutely. And how much is this one?
SPEAKER_00That one, because it has resin, is$7.25.
SPEAKER_02$7.25, which is still really good for art. If anybody is an art connoisseur, you know that these prices are actually very minimum for big art pieces like this. Um, they usually cost double, sometimes triple that, especially if they're original and they're one of a kind and you won't find them anywhere else. So you're doing a service to others just by charging a very, very small amount for these um pieces. This is phenomenal. So if you if you go, you want to look for where I landed. Where I landed. I think this is phenomenal, girl. And then we got my girl. She's sitting in front of where I landed. Bam! Right there with the blue heels on girlfriend. You better go ahead, girl. You better go ahead. I love it. I absolutely love it. I love it so much. Now I want to get back into questions for a second. Okay, what made you decide you were going to be all of who you are instead of a portion of who people were comfortable with?
SPEAKER_00Because the last few years, I've just been feeling like I've been suffocating in my own life. And I've been saying it and I say it, and I told one of my friends, I said, I no longer want to sit in the audience of my life. Like, I really feel like I was just, I'm watching it happen. I'm not participating. Like, yes, I've done all the big things, the school, the house, the things everybody says, but I get to a place where I'm like, it's still something missing. And it's hard to talk to certain people about that because you don't want to sound like you're ungrateful about what you have. And it's like, no, I get it. I'm blessed. I'm not saying that, but I know that there's something more. And it was just, I had a coworker or an employee that passed away. So it's all of these other things. And for me, it was just, I don't even try, I'll never know. And I don't want to leave here like this. Like, I'm like, if this is what God said, this is my whole life, then I don't need to keep reading this thing story. So it's not my I feel like I've always been, whether I realize it or not, a portion of who everybody wanted me to be and who was comfortable who was comfortable, comfortable with me. Like you, I think you were saying something about how, you know, fitting in these spaces. I've always been the youngest one in my group, but I've always been the one doing the most. So it's like I downplayed so many of my accomplishments because I want you to feel bad. But in reality, I was making myself feel bad, and then it's it's gotten me to the point where I question what I can do because I've downplayed it for so long, and I forget about it until I actually say it or talk about it, or like what you read today, you're like, oh yeah, I did do that. So I need to just see me like others see me and just own all of it. It's all of me, it's for a reason. I'm not fighting this internal, like something's missing for a reason. For no reason, should I say.
Interpreting The Work And Process
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And and I can look, I think me and you, we like Siamese twins, girl, just on different parts of the world. Because if you notice, a lot of my a lot, well, you don't notice, but people who know me know I I I travel, I've always traveled in spaces where women were always older than me. And even like I'm the youngest out of like all my siblings, with with the exception of one. And but I'm the most accomplished. And so people, I would hear people say, oh, titles don't mean everything, and you ain't accolades ain't all of that. But it's like, no, I have children who are looking up to me. So you have passed that mark in in the space where you are now. I'm not there. I'm I'm in the part where I'm supposed to be gaining and achieving these things. You have passed that. So it's not okay when you have older people who who who look at you and and you're you're you're afraid to accomplish more, at least say that you've accomplished more because you don't want to feel want them to feel like they haven't done enough. That's a them problem. Let me let you know that right now. That's a them problem. If they didn't do everything they were supposed to do when they were your age, I'm learning this now. I'd be 37 on the 11. But I'm learning this now. I'm not gonna stop accomplishing. You just ain't gonna have to like me. Okay, Brandy. You just gonna have to find something, somebody else. You don't have to cut me off then. If me, me uh achieving everything that God wants me to achieve and put me on a platform to be able to bring others with me, right? With the with the things that I'm accomplishing, it's opening doors for other people to do the same. And if you cannot appreciate that, you ain't my audience and you ain't a part, you don't, I don't need to be, I don't want to be in a circle, I want to be free, right? And it's not saying like I understand when people say circles, but sometimes circles will box you in and you can't get out because they don't want you to go like um Wale said in his song. I don't know if you know it, but he said some people want to see you float, but they don't want to see you sail, they just want you to stay right where you are. But the moment you start sailing and moving past them, then it becomes a problem for them. But that's a them problem. I love what you're doing, I love it. If you ain't never had the child either, you met one, because one thing about me, I love to see women, especially us, women of color, doing doing what we set out to do, and not letting people put barriers around what we can accomplish and what we can accomplish, right? Like you going out and you say, you know what, today I'm gonna paint. And then you say, you know what, I decide I'm a painter. And you go to God and He say, I'm a painter. And he said, Girl, I've been knew you as a painter. I knew you was a painter when I made you. I knew you was a painter. But you needed to see, you know what? I may not have, I don't know when my next breath is gonna be. So let me just give this. And and in doing that, you're healing. That's how it is with me and my writing, Brandy. Like when I write, I heal. So anything I go through, I hear to tell my mother-in-law the other day I was calling her the runaway grandma, right? Because God barely sees us sometimes. So I call the runaway grandma. I say, I know what to do for you. I'm gonna write a book called The Runaway Grandma. I write a book about everything, I don't care what people think about it. Look, Jackie's gonna write one thing they say, Jackie's gonna write a book, she's gonna write a poem, she's gonna write a song, she's gonna sing a song, she could hang out with a house. I know everything that the little girl in me wanted to do. And I um I love that about you. I love that. Uh, one last question before we go into um um the uh lightning round. Um, the last question that I have for you. Um, before we go into lightning round, I want to make sure I get it. I got it because I have to stay on track. I will get out track in a minute. And my my audience know that I have to reel myself back in. Um what would you say to the woman watching tonight who has a creative gift but keeps telling herself it's too late or that dream just is not practical? What would you say to her?
SPEAKER_00If it's a dream or something inside of you that you keep thinking about, then I say you have to try it and at least at least give it a try, tap into it, explore it. And that's the only way we're gonna find out if it works, or if it's really meant to be. But that's the thing, if it's something that's nagging inside of you, like they say, if it's on your spirit, it's a reason it's on your spirit, and it's never too late. You hear the stories, I just saw something yesterday on like Instagram that I was told and said, Most millionaires didn't even start till they were after their 50s, so it goes down to Sam Waltons and everybody else, and we need to stop looking at this false narrative online that it's too late because that's even for me like, is it too late to pivot? I've been doing this for so long, I can't do this. It's like, why not? Why can't you? You know, and it I was talking to someone that's like, I wanted you, and he said, do it. You're just like, oh, it really isn't that simple. Just do it and see.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Just like I tell people, I'm not just govern, because God gives us the meaning over our life. We don't have to allow anything to happen. I could be on the phone with you if I don't like what you're saying. It's a red button right there. I will hit it so fast. I will hit it so fast, girlfriend. If somebody is irritating me or they irritating my spirit, I will block you. I will block you off everything. I ain't got it because you know why? It's my life. I don't have to ever see you again, and I'm okay with that. Like some people feel they are so um conditioned to chaos, right? Because of how we grow up, that they feel like either they have to stay there or they they don't want to move, they they have to stay in the hood that they grew up in, or they have to be surrounded by chaos. Some people just can't wake up and have a good day. They have found the smallest thing to complain about when everything else is going great. And so I love that you said that because we have, like Pastor Winston said, we have dominion over our own life. We choose what we want in life, everything down to what we want to eat, what we want to drink, what we want to wear, where we want to go, who we want in our life. Okay. Um, no, nobody is mandatory or nothing is mandatory unless you deem it mandatory. I was just telling my kids that the other day, I got dominion over you. So it don't matter, you know, it matters what the teachers say. Let me not say that. Okay, it matters what the teachers say, but the end all be all, if you're gonna be in trouble, this that's over here. They can't tell you that you in trouble. They can never say that. They can say, we're gonna tell your parents, but they don't, they are not the uh end all be all, don't begin or end with them, and that's the same with us. With us, once we become adults, the end all be all begins with and ends with you. You don't like a job, quit. You know what I'm saying? Go find something else or or work for yourself, you know. It's not easy, but what is easy? I would rather put everything that I have and go bankrupt into me than to put everything I have into someone else's dream, right? Like I was telling my sister, she was like, should I feel bad for going and getting into my 401k? Why? You you're the lender and the borrower in that situation. That's a win-win. You go get out of your 401k right now, Brandy. Guess what? You go draw some money out of your 401k, you're paying yourself back with interest. You ain't doing nothing else. That's your money that you're borrowing for you are the lender and the borrower, and that is biblical. You don't want to be the borrowing.
SPEAKER_00Think about that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, think it think about that. Instead of going to payday loans or SBA and getting all these crazy interest rates, why not pull from your 401k, borrow from yourself, and you're paying yourself back with interest? That's a win-win. You got it now and you're gonna have it later. So that's all I try to tell people that like create generational wealth. Make sure that you're doing things. And yeah, I see so much talent and potential, especially in writing on Facebook. I'm like, why are these people not putting this in a book? Do they remember what happened when TikTok went off for 24 hours? They lost their mind. So you're putting everything on Facebook, put it in a book so it can have face value to it, so you can create generational wealth. Those books are gonna sell, sell, sell to the end of time. Like, why are you not doing that? Like, I just you know, that's whole love story, but I appreciate what you said when you said that. Um yes, do what you need to do, whether it it succeeds or if it fails. Nothing beats um failure but a try. Nothing beats failure but a try. And you won't know if you're gonna succeed if you never do it. If you never do it. So I appreciate that so much. Okay, Dr. Florence. Before we wrap up, I do want to do that right now for you because I always do this with everybody who comes on to the Listen Linda podcast. So just answer with the first thing that comes to mind, okay? Coffee or tea while painting music or silence while painting.
SPEAKER_00Music.
Pricing, Resin, And The Debut Show
SPEAKER_02The first emotion you hope people feel when they see your art. One word that describes this new artistic chapter. Of your life and describes the woman you are the one called If you are speaking directly to women who are learning to trust themselves again. What would it say?
SPEAKER_00See what you can do when you bet on you.
SPEAKER_02That is powerful. That is powerful. See what you can do when you bet on you. That might be my my word of the day next week. So if you see it on TikTok, just know it was inspired by Dr. Brandi Force. I'm gonna have to make sure I uh c tag her and collaborate with her on that one so she can get some of the streams off of that. See what you can do when you bet on you. Now, can you let the audience know? And I'm gonna put it right here on the banner so people can where is your art show located? Is it a private spot? Do they have to DM you or is it a a location?
SPEAKER_00You have to go on my either my Facebook or my Instagram or TikTok and it's a link. It's a ticketed event. But it's in Los Angeles. It is in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_02But it's a ticketed event. Is there a space that that they can go to or yes?
SPEAKER_00If you go on my any of my Instagram, it's in if you go on my Instagram, it's in my bio or my TikTok, it's in the bio. The link is in the bio to purchase the ticket.
SPEAKER_02And what's your Instagram name?
SPEAKER_00Dr. Brandy Florence. Dr. Brandy Florence. That's my TikTok. My Instagram. I think my uh Facebook is just Brandy Florence.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so I want you all to follow Dr. Brandy Florence right here and click on the link in her bio on Instagram and grab your ticket to this event. You do not want to miss it, even if you don't think that, like, you know, my money ain't there, right? But just get a ticket and go and just get that experience. Go in for healing. Hopefully, you come about the pocket, amen. But if you don't, just go like I go to art shows and art basils all the time. And it's just it is another way and it's another form of healing. It's another form of release. Just to go in and look at some of the pieces and just have that quiet time to just go in and relax and mingle and network with some wonderful people who love art in the same way that we all do. Um, Dr. Florence, it's been such a pleasure to have you. Thank you so much for joining us tonight and sharing your journey with us. Your story reminds us that we are allowed to evolve, we are allowed to explore new dimensions of ourselves. And sometimes the very thing that brings healing also becomes the thing that brings purpose. And I appreciate that about you so much. I love your story. I love it, girl. We gotta get you. Oh, but you she will be in this month's edition of the Listen Linda magazine. So again, if you can't, if you for some reason you can't check her out, go check out my medium digest column right now. She is pinned at the top for International Women's History Month. Um, her Etsy um website is there as well. So if you if you might want to go to her Etsy Etsy website, if you if you are not in the California area, you might want to go to her Etsy website to check out some more of her paintings and and purchase there as well. Um, do you have a username or or or a website that they can go to? You know, is it like a link or how is that link in your bio as well?
SPEAKER_00Dr Brandyflorence.com is my website and it links you to my Etsy page.
SPEAKER_02So Dr. Brandy Florence.
unknownOkay.
Choosing Wholeness Over Approval
SPEAKER_02Yes, so if you can't make it to the LA area on Saturday, but you are interested in some of her pieces, um, or to check out more of her pieces, go to www.bland dr brandiflorence. Drbrandyflorence.com to check out some of her pieces. Um, if you want to connect with Dr. Florence, attend her upcoming art show, or explore her artwork, please make sure to follow her on IG and visit her website. Okay. Thank you all so much for tuning in to the Listen Little Podcast. Thank you again, Dr. Brandy, for coming in and just um blessing us and uh and kicking off of International Women's History Month spotlight. It was a joy, always a pleasure. Always, always, always a pleasure. And remember, people, your voice, your story, and your platform matter. And until next time, keep listening. Just go and like the video that's about to play now at the end. Always remember that God did that. You can purchase my album now on www.listenlindapresents one.com. I have it in vinyl and cd or stream it on any platform under list. Just look for the artist listen linda and stream my stuff. Stream my stuff. Amen. You all have a great rest of your night. Peace. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Let me test it real quick. It's glowing love. It's a glowing. All the stones were the four months. Only one that gets to cut it.
