We’re looking forward to introducing you to Brandilyn Hallcroft. Check out our conversation below.
Brandilyn, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Integrity, without question.
Intelligence is great and energy helps you move through the world, but integrity is what makes someone genuinely stand out. It is shockingly rare, and when you meet a person who consistently does what they say, owns their mistakes, and treats people with honesty and respect, you notice immediately. Integrity creates trust. It builds long term relationships in both business and life. And to me, it says far more about a person than their résumé or how charismatic they are on a good day.
I work in industries where people often talk a good game, but integrity is what separates the dependable from the performative. It’s the trait that lets you sleep at night knowing you stayed aligned with who you are. And honestly, it is the one thing that cannot be faked for long. When someone has integrity, everything else they do becomes more meaningful and more impactful.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
A creative at heart, I divide my world between design, storytelling, and my passion project, Journals to Healing. What began as a personal outlet has grown into a platform that helps people reconnect with themselves through guided journaling, honest reflection, and real-life healing tools. It is deeply personal work for me and something I pour a lot of heart into.
I’m also the author of two books, Unshakeable and Entangled, both inspired by my own experiences with rebuilding, boundary setting, and learning how to trust myself again after navigating some very human, very messy chapters. Writing has become one of the most meaningful creative lanes in my life, and the Journals to Healing brand is where those messages really come alive through journals, books, and upcoming podcast content.
Professionally, I run Metro Designs, where I support companies with branding, marketing, visual storytelling, and clear communication. My projects range from magazine features and family stories to financial content, business profiles, and full-scale creative direction. I love taking something complex or chaotic and shaping it into something people instantly understand and connect with.
What makes my work unique is that everything I create, whether it’s a journal, a book, or a brand identity, comes from a place of authenticity and lived experience. My creative world and my healing work feed into each other, and I think that blend is what gives my projects depth, purpose, and staying power.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a kid, I genuinely believed I wasn’t smart enough to write. In fourth grade, I was told I had a reading comprehension disorder and dyslexia, and at that age, you don’t hear that as information; you hear it as a limitation. I carried the idea that I was somehow “disabled” in a way that meant writing wasn’t for me, storytelling wasn’t for me, and anything involving words belonged to other people.
Fast forward to now, and I’m a published author with two books, 12 journals, and an entire brand built around writing and reflection. I didn’t just overcome those obstacles; I turned the very thing I thought disqualified me into one of my biggest strengths. The irony still makes me laugh a little. What I once believed made me less capable actually forced me to think more deeply, express myself more creatively, and communicate with more heart and clarity.
So the belief I let go of was the idea that my early struggles defined my future. They didn’t. They just shaped me into someone who works harder, thinks differently, and refuses to count herself out ever again.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I was never the type to hide my pain. I’ve always been someone who wears my heart on my sleeve, sometimes to a fault. But even though the world could see it, I didn’t understand it. For a long time, my pain controlled me quietly in the background. It shaped my reactions, my fears, my patterns, and the way I navigated relationships. I wasn’t hiding it, but I was definitely letting it steer the ship.
That shifted about five years ago when everything finally clicked. I started digging into my own behavior and realized that many of my responses weren’t actually about the present moment at all. They were echoes of old wounds I never processed. Once I saw that, the whole picture changed. The awareness alone was powerful. Understanding the origin of my pain gave me the ability to stop repeating those old habits and start choosing differently.
That’s really the moment my pain stopped being something that held me back and became something I could learn from, grow through, and eventually help others with. It became fuel instead of weight, and that shift changed the entire trajectory of my life and my work.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
A lot of smart people are getting it wrong by chasing money, status, and stuff like it’s the whole point of being alive. We’re so conditioned to measure success by what we own or how impressive something looks on paper that people forget the things that actually matter. When I look back at my life, the moments that shaped me have nothing to do with things. I can’t tell you what I got for Christmas when I was five, but I can vividly remember the experience of my first day of kindergarten. I remember the people who loved me, the things I survived, the joyful moments, and the heartbreaks that taught me more than any material item ever could.
Even now, one of my favorite reminders of how beautiful life can be is the trip to Paris that a former boss gifted me. That experience still carries me through hard days. Not the shoes in my closet. Not the balance in my bank account. It’s the memories, the connections, the lessons, and the moments that change you.
Smart people are working so hard to collect things that don’t last, and forgetting to live the experiences that actually do.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: When do you feel most at peace?
I feel most at peace when I’m at home with everything quiet. There’s something about shutting down the electronics, letting the world go silent for a while, and just settling onto my bed with my pets that feels like an emotional exhale. It’s the only space where my mind isn’t being pulled in five different directions. No deadlines, no noise, no pressure to be “on.” Just stillness.
My pets have this calming presence that reminds me to slow down and exist in the moment. They don’t ask for much. They just want closeness. And there’s something grounding about that simplicity. That quiet time at home is where I reconnect with myself, reset my energy, and remember who I am outside of the chaos of work and life. It’s honestly the most peaceful part of my day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.metro-designs.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/journalstohealing/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandilyn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557160593488
- Other: https://www.journalstohealing.com/
https://www.tiktok.com/@journalstohealing
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
