We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anne Brashier. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anne below.
Hi Anne, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re very focused on here – improving our ability to make decisions. Everyday, we’re faced with decisions that can impact the future of our careers, businesses, relationships and more and so one of the most impactful areas for personal development, in our view, is decision-making. Can you talk to us about how you developed or improved your decision-making skills?
I developed my decision-making skills while performing comedy and I honed those skills while meditating,
In a live comedy show, it’s easy to immediately know if a decision is funny or not. I performed improvised comedy for over a decade, so I got the chance for countless audiences to let me know if my choices had moved a show into surprising, entertaining directions, or not.
Driving home from shows, I rewound each decision, digging into what had earned a laugh. I would wake up the next day and think “Oh, THAT would have been a more fun choice!!”
Over years of practice and reflection, that recognition moment started to come sooner. First on my drive home, then right as I walked off stage. Eventually I could recognize the more innovative choice as I was making it, like a professional quarterback or a chess master. I could listen to my intuition when I was under pressure.
On stage, my goal at any moment was clear: be entertaining. However, as I moved from performing to producing, my goals became murky. I found myself taking an endless string of exhausting, unfulfilling jobs. I knew I wanted to direct, but I couldn’t see the path to make that happen. After being laid off from 2 different production gigs, I had no clue how to move forward, I needed to recalibrate my compass so that my small decisions built a more clear path to my big dreams.
When a friend described how meditating with a mantra made her feel, I realized I needed that feeling. I needed a few guideposts to bring me back to the person I wanted to be. After a lot of long quiet walks, I decided on a mantra to test out. I knew that I wanted to act with more integrity, to nurture more joy, and to be more generous. I repeated these three words whenever I was stressed or overwhelmed : integrity, joy, generosity.
Integrity. Joy. Generosity.
Those words started to guide all my decisions. Which choice would be more generous? How would I act in that moment with integrity? How could I find more joy on any given day?
Again, after years of practice and reflection, those words now run through my head anytime I need to make a decision.
On set, after 12 hours, with 50 people needing my attention, those words guide me to be the most effective and innovative director that I can be. That mantra has helped me build a tiny moment for myself to listen to the instincts that I built in front of an audience,
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
As the Creative Director of Film and Motion at a boutique production agency, I collaborate with a wide range of creative folks to find innovative ways to tell a brand’s story. Every day, I combine my scrappy independent film background, my gutsy performance art background, and my meticulous digital production background to find elegant solutions to creative challenges. At MOD, our projects range from live action documentaries to 3D animated event installations. No matter what medium I’m directing, I am passionate about exceeding client expectations while elevating our creative work. In addition to my commercial work as Creative Director at MOD, I also have 2 short films wrapping their festival runs, and 3 other shorts in post production. I am always on the lookout for new stories to tell, and new ways to tell them.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. A mentor in grad school reminded me of the importance of The Golden Rule. Treating others as I wish to be treated inevitably leads me to act with more integrity and generosity.
2. Through trial and error, I have learned the value of taking care of myself by being honest about what fulfills me. Whether it’s movie nights or therapy or pickleball or volunteering, it’s vital to have a range of ways to feed all the multifaceted parts of yourself.
3. But seriously, therapy is almost always a good idea.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents taught me that life is short.
It is true that I received my mother’s love of music and my fathers sense of humor.
But it is also true that they both died young and suddenly, teaching me to treat every day as precious.
My mom died when she was 38 from a sudden heart attack. My dad died in a car accident at 53.
By the time I was 25, I was an orphan with a keen understanding that life is random and short. I knew I was just a tiny blip in the bigger picture. Luckily, I had some great therapists, and a dedicated passion about the transformative power of storytelling. The more I honestly talked about my dark, scary feelings about death, the more I discovered I was not alone. Storytelling gave me a place to put all those feelings. Writing and directing stories about grief connected me to collaborators who became lifelong friends.
in my early 20′;s, I had to make a choice: Would I always wish for my parents to. be alive, or could I love the version of myself who did not have living parents?
In order to survive, I had to choose love. Even though it meant loving the fact that they had died.
People often ask me how I have so much energy, so much passion,. The strange fact is that I work to fall deeply in love with the present moment, because my parents taught me that the next moment is not guaranteed.
Contact Info:
- Website: annebrashier.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annebrashiercreative/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebrashier/
Image Credits
Vlad Radu, Catalina Parra, John Hanle
