Overcoming Imposter Syndrome While Building a Wellness Brand with Emily Brazier

Today, Jazzmyn sits down with Emily Brazier — therapist, creator, and founder of the rapidly growing Sunnyside Run Club in Portland, Maine. In less than a year, Emily went from posting her first video to building a 120+ member in-person community, partnering with local businesses, and launching her mental-health-centered brand, Sunnyside Wellness.

Together we explore:

⭐ What happens when you stop chasing trends and start building community

⭐ How Emily overcame imposter syndrome and visibility fears

⭐ The surprising path from therapist → creator → community leader

⭐ Why people crave in-person connection more than ever

⭐ How to start a run club (or any local event) even if you feel unqualified

⭐ The power of showing up before you feel ready

Emily also shares the story behind her merch line “It’s not always sunny and that’s okay,” how her grandmother inspired Sunnyside Wellness, and why creating offline community is deeply connected to mental health.

If you're a therapist, creator, or entrepreneur craving more visibility, purpose, and connection — this episode will give you permission to expand your brand beyond the screen.

Where to Find Emily

Instagram & TikTok: @_healingwithemily_
Sunnyside Wellness IG : @sunnysidewellnessme

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Are you sitting with thousands of hours of B-roll content and telling yourself, I'll start posting tomorrow? Are you in your head worrying about your friends and family thinking your friends produced to be visible? Are you chasing trends instead of building influence? Welcome to the visibility standard where the visionaries of today are changing the roles of their industry and letting their voice be heard. I'm your host, Jasmine, and we are setting the standards.

SPEAKER_00: 0:46

Thank you, Hap for having me. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_01: 0:50

So you have been on social media, what, two, three years?

SPEAKER_00: 0:55

No, I'm just about to hit a year now.

SPEAKER_01: 0:59

What?

SPEAKER_00: 1:00

Yeah, you are crushing it. Thank you. How did you get started? I had just been seeing everyone. There were a couple people who therapists like in the social media space thought I saw and I just really like their content. And I was like, well, I want to do that. But I think I was like always kind of scared. But then when I thought about like my vision for my business and my brand and everything, I was like, I need to start something now. I need to start putting my name out there now. And so last October, literally on Halloween, I just made the decision to post my very first video and just has been growing since then.

SPEAKER_01: 1:41

So like literally like you're about to hit a year. Yeah. So exciting. And now you're building a run club.

SPEAKER_00: 1:49

Yes, which has been even more exciting and has been so amazing to see and be a part of. What was the process like? Yeah. I had been seeing a bunch of run clubs in the Portland, Maine area, and was always like interested in them, wanted to try them out, but the times never really worked with my schedule, or they met at a bar or a brewery, and I'm not much of a drinker. And so I was like, I don't know about it. And I was like, I wonder what it would be like if I started my own, but didn't really think I didn't really know how to do it or what that would look like. And, you know, felt really inspired by some people, especially you yourself. And so after we had like that phone call together where you just heard how much you were crushing it, I was like, I felt so good leaving it that I was like, I'm just gonna like bite the bullet on this run club thing, and ended up just making a little flyer and posting it, was gonna meet at like a local community trail. And then over 30 people ended up showing to the first one. And I just decided that since there was a demand that I was gonna make it a regular recurring thing, and we've been doing it weekly since, and we've been averaging about like 25 to 30 people at each run, which has been absolutely insane to me. We're almost going on two months now, and we have over 120 members on Strava, which is insane.

SPEAKER_01: 3:32

So exciting. I mean, it's a run club, so there's like that fitness movement element, but there is a huge emphasis on community.

SPEAKER_00: 3:41

Yeah, yeah. I really wanted it to be a space where people could just show up as they are and have no expectations about running because realistically everyone can just like go and run on their own. They're coming to this space because like they're craving connection or community. And so it's been so cool to see how the friendships that have been made in Run Club and then also just like seeing how it's branched out from there. And so, yeah, even though it's about we're we're moving in and people are leaving feeling better than when they came because they're connecting with other people.

SPEAKER_01: 4:21

And it's that reminder that even after COVID, like people are gravitating towards in-person events. Like we've gotten comfortable with online, with virtual events, with connecting through social media, but there is something so special about being able to connect with people in person to see them feel the energy and move with that.

SPEAKER_00: 4:45

Absolutely. I mean, like when I started, I was obviously really nervous, and I didn't even realize how much I was craving that sense of community until I was there. And since then, I've been really like wanting to enhance this community connection more. And so we've been pairing with like local businesses, local small businesses like coffee shops, fitness studios, breweries, whatever, to just kind of give back to our community that we have here. And that's been even special because I've been meeting so many cool business owners and feeling inspired by them as well.

SPEAKER_01: 5:29

When you started as a therapist, did you imagine yourself also building a personal brand?

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

Absolutely not. I think when I started as a therapist, I was like so surprised that I was a therapist because this was not a path that I saw for myself for the longest time. Like I did not decide I wanted to be a therapist until honestly my last year of grad school when I did my internship at a private practice and was like, oh, this is what I want to do. So this was not a path that I saw for myself at all. And so just seeing where I'm at right now, I think if you had asked a younger version of myself, she would be like, you're lying. This isn't real.

SPEAKER_01: 6:15

Oh my gosh, what was the original dream?

SPEAKER_00: 6:18

I mean, so I started undergrad with criminology and psych, thinking that I was gonna do something working in the juvenile justice system that switched in 2020 around the George Floyd movement. I decided that like my version of helping people was gonna be through a different path, opted to choose clinical social work, still thought I was gonna work with like children and adolescents, maybe doing like some clinical case management type stuff, working at a nonprofit. And I really thoroughly enjoyed the work that I did at our homeless center for the youth who are experiencing homelessness. But obviously, that is a high-demand job. I noticed myself feeling really burnt out, mental health didn't do the best there. And so when I was done there and moving into my last year of grad school or my last like internship, I was like, I'm gonna try something totally different. And I tried private practice, I tried a totally different population than I was used to and found out that I actually loved it so much more because I was able to prioritize myself. So was it hard to let go of that original career path? I think it was it was hard in the sense of I felt confused and I felt even I felt that imposter syndrome coming in because I was like, I'm a therapist, like what? This is so confusing. And I think that imposter syndrome lingered for a long time because when I was working in undergrad, I was working as a behavioral health professional, worked as a case management after, as a children's case manager after, and then at the homeless center for the youth, I was like still working with children adolescents. So, like that was my bread and butter. I felt so confident in that. And so when I chose to go the different route, private practice working with adults and specifically like the perinatal population, I felt like such an imposter because it was something that was like fresh for me. And I didn't have these years of experience that I did in undergrad and grad school. And so I think that getting rid of the imposter syndrome was the hardest part about that shift. And I think imposter syndrome still lingers now. I don't know if it ever goes away.

SPEAKER_01: 8:51

And you work towards something very specific for a long time. And so to give yourself that space to say, you know what, I'm gonna try something different. I'm going to try something that aligns more closely with maybe the direction that I'm going, that's a really big leap.

SPEAKER_00: 9:09

I'm so glad I did it because truly, if I hadn't did that leap, hadn't done that leap, I wouldn't be where I'm at today.

unknown: 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:22

Now you're a rhyme club. Now you've got merch too.

SPEAKER_00: 9:25

Oh my gosh. Yeah. So when I launched my business this past spring, or I guess when I was creating my business, which is Sunnyside Wellness, which will be my private practice that I'll probably start jumping into next summer, I wanted to add another layer to it, which was like mental health merch, but I wanted it to be in a way that related to our brand Sunnyside Wellness. And so I started doing merch with the saying it's not always sunny and that's okay, which is kind of like an ode to that saying it's okay to not be okay. And so I just wanted it to be a reminder if people were out and about wearing the merch that even if like a stranger happened to read it and they saw it and they could feel a little bit better. Just like it's my way to like normalize mental health. Yes, yeah, absolutely. I think like it can be a conversation starter sometimes too, right? Because I have sometimes people ask me, like, oh, what does that mean? And I'm like, well, let's think about it, right? Like, like you don't always have to be okay to like be okay. I think a lot of times that we feel like we need to mask negative feelings, sadness, mental health. And so if we just start having a conversation of like it's normal, then it can inspire people.

SPEAKER_01: 10:53

Why is community building so important to you?

SPEAKER_00: 10:58

I think I've always just had a strong like craving to have give back to the community because I lived a really privileged life and giving back was something that let me redo that. You can cut this out, right? I don't know how I want to word this. Is it okay that I'm thinking about this right now? I feel like, yeah, I don't know how to say this without that's a big question. Say it again.

SPEAKER_01: 11:40

Welcome. Welcome to the other side of the microphone. What is the question again? Why is community building so important to you?

SPEAKER_00: 11:49

Okay. I have a different different thing. Yeah, it's so important to me because I think having sense of community is so crucial for your mental health. And I think it's one way that we can make the access to mental health or conversations around mental health or promoting mental health a little bit better. And so I wanted to create community in that sense of like creating this run club can get people out, meeting people, having conversations, moving their bodies, which all of these things have links to try and go against depression, right? We know that isolation and loneliness are risks for depression. And so if I can create a space and hold a space for people to connect, then hopefully it is promoting like mental well-being in our community.

SPEAKER_01: 12:50

It's that idea that we don't heal in silos, we don't heal in isolation, but really being around people, being seen by others, allows us the space to experience that acceptance and love that we wouldn't necessarily experience on our own.

SPEAKER_00: 13:05

Yeah. And I think like meeting people who hold similar values to you and can connect with you when times get tough is really important. And I've been able to see that in just the space that I've created already where people can connect through Run Club and then connect after and be able to like support another one another in really difficult times.

SPEAKER_01: 13:28

I mean, what's so impressive about the Run Club is it was meant to be a one-off, like a bi-weekly, maybe once a month, but it has people have really gravitated to it and local businesses have gravitated to it. It is something that people are now seeking out, and it's just a reminder, we never know what's going to resonate with other people until we put it out there.

SPEAKER_00: 13:52

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when I thought of this idea to create a run club, like you and I were FaceTiming each other. And I was like, should I do this thing? Like, hell yeah, right. And I think like for me, I was obviously really intimidated and scared, but decided to do it anyways and decided to just like bite the bullet and was like, I'll figure it out as we go. And then having that first event and then having people ask me, like, when is the next one? When is the next one? Are there gonna be more? Are you gonna continue it? I was like, holy crap, like there is a huge want for this in this community. And so I felt really cool being able to provide that, like on a regularly occurring basis. And so now that we're meeting every single week, it's been so fun. And I've been benefiting from it. I leave there feeling so happy. My cup is filled. I've been meeting so many cool people, people from all around the country, pretty much, um, who've like recently moved here and have been like kind of like afraid to make new friends or scared or like don't know how. And they just show up in this space and then they're meeting people. Um, so it's been, I don't know, it's been filling my cub. My cup has been full, overflowing. And I think a lot of it has just been my sense of community has been is the strongest that it has ever been.

SPEAKER_01: 15:18

Now, do people have to be runners to join this run club?

SPEAKER_00: 15:22

No, absolutely not. One of the things that I talk about in my videos when I post about is if you run, if you want to run, if you want to get into running or you like want to walk, you're welcome. Like it is not a space for sleep. So like we're not getting together and like working on PRs or anything like that. We're just getting together and having conversations. And so people of all paces, even if it's walking, are welcome. Just ask that you just like bring good energy.

SPEAKER_01: 15:56

What's your vision for sunny side wellness?

SPEAKER_00: 16:01

Yeah. When I started this business, I really, really wanted it to be more than just like a business. I wanted it to be a part of the community. I wanted it to be a place that connects people, a place that gives back the initial ideas for it to be the home of my private practice where I see clients, but I also envision it being a space in the future where we have a physical location and can be able to provide a whole array of different wellness activities from yoga, Pilates, or Reiki healing or acupuncture, just like a whole wellness space, like a one-stop shop for wellness. But also I want it to be a space where we can host the community, bring them together, and have it be like a big part of this like Portland Maine community alone. And so one of those visions was doing like frequent fundraisers, whether that was like twice a year or once a year, that was something that felt like really important for me. Because obviously, being in private practice, it is a little bit more flexible with compensation and time. And for me, like community lately has been what has felt both a combination of something like self-care for me because it's making me feel fulfilled and it's inspiring me and making me feel good, but also it's like serving a purpose and my like professional sense of wanting to give back. And so yeah. What's been the most challenging aspect? The most challenging aspect so far has ultimately just been trying to figure this all out. When I made the decision to start Sunnyside wellness this year, it wasn't because I wanted to start my brand right now, it was because I felt like time was quickly fleeting. And the person who Sunnyside's name is an o to my grandmother, her health started to decline. And this felt like something that I just needed to make happen now. And the only problem with that is I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know how to even like sign up for my LLC. I didn't even know what I needed to do. And so I kind of jumped into it blindly and have been figuring out as I go. And I think the most challenging aspect has been like the imposter syndrome that comes in because I have this business now, but I'm not really doing a ton with it other than my run club. And I feel confusing or like feel like I should be using it because I put so much time and energy into creating it. And so I think that's been a little bit difficult because I'm like, what am I doing? But yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:08

No, it's so tricky because we start businesses with one intention, we have one vision, one goal in mind, and then life happens and it it flourishes into something that we would not have ever pictured. And I think that's part of the beauty of like entrepreneurship and building a brand is that it gets to ebb and flow as met as much as we let it, and I think that's the key word too, is like allowing that process to happen naturally.

SPEAKER_00: 19:43

Yeah. I mean, I know you and I had talked about I had put so much energy into just the physical like creation of this business that when I was done with it, when I had finished and I had put it out there, I had launched it, I was like, I'm tired. I couldn't even think about like now what at that phase. And so, like finding the motivation to think about what was next was probably really difficult. And I think that's where that imposter syndrome came in because I'm like, oh my God, I just spent all this time doing this whole thing, creating this whole thing. It's like my like baby now. And I just felt so confused on what am I gonna do? And then I mean, part of the reason why I feel like community is so important is because when you meet people, you get inspired, right? And when I had a conversation with you, I got inspired, and that's what sparked that motivation for me to figure out what was next with my business. And then Run Club came about. Voila.

SPEAKER_01: 20:48

It's like sometimes we think the hardest aspects of starting the business is website, getting the website up, finding a name, creating the logo, getting the paperwork started. And those aspects are hard, but it is so much harder to clarify the messaging around your business. What is it that you want people to resonate with? What is it that you want people to gravitate towards? What are the offerings that you're thinking about with your business? That is its own process that no one is necessarily prepared for. Grad school certainly does not prepare you if you are a clinician listing or someone in the wellness space. There is no education that prepares you for imagining a world outside of one-to-one clinical work.

SPEAKER_00: 21:35

No, absolutely. They, I mean, in private practice, I mean in grad school, they had there was no conversations on what it's like to open a private practice. There was no conversations of business, right? And I think that's doing students a huge disservice, right? Because I think private practice especially is a field where you're able to truly care for yourself in a way that you're not able to if you're working at a larger organization or a nonprofit. Uh, I think like private practice has allowed my mental health to thrive and allow me to prioritize myself in a way that I didn't know was possible, right?

SPEAKER_01: 22:18

Yeah, it's especially now that a lot of private practitioners are on social media. There's this reimagining of what the work can look like. You don't need to sacrifice yourself for the work, you don't need to compromise your own energy, your own like free time. Like, yes, we want to be thoughtful of our clients' schedules, and we have to keep in mind our own schedules if we want to show up and offer that quality care. And so social media has given private practice a megaphone that it didn't have before.

SPEAKER_00: 22:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 23:05

Yes. Period. Well, Emily, where can people find you if they want to learn more?

SPEAKER_00: 23:15

Yeah, so you can find me on both Instagram and TikTok at underscore healing with Emily underscore, or you can follow my business page, which is at SunnysideWellness me.

SPEAKER_01: 23:30

You're showing up, you're putting yourself out there, and you are a building an in-person community, and I'm so excited to see how it continues to evolve.

SPEAKER_00: 23:39

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me too.

SPEAKER_01: 23:42

Of course.