Your Voice Matters: Presence, Service, and Leadership with Tricia Brouk

You're listening to One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most with Outfluencer, Dr. Wayne Pernell. Welcome to One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most. I'm Dr. P, Dr. Wayne Pernell, your host, guide, and coach on this journey. Today, I am thrilled to have someone quite dear to me as a returning guest. Tricia Brooke is my friend, my mentor, and one of the people who has most influenced my growth as a speaker. You could see part of that journey of our work together in the award-winning documentary Big Stages. Tricia's path has been nothing short of amazing. She grew up on a farm in a small Missouri town, dreaming of New York and dancing with baristas. At 20, she moved to New York and eventually made that dream real. Across more than 3 decades in dance, theater, film, television, and live events, she became an award-winning director, producer, author, and leadership and human connection authority. Through the Big Talk Academy, she has since guided thousands of speakers and thought leaders toward bigger stages and more meaningful impact. Her newest book, Being Smart Is Stupid, challenges leaders to trade the need to be the smartest person in the room for something far more powerful: wisdom, presence, and humanity. Tricia Brooke, welcome back to One Sharp Sword.

Yay! Dr. P. Wayne, I'm so happy to be here with you. When was the last time we were here together? Several years ago, maybe 5 years ago?

Yeah, it was a few years ago. And we talked about your other book. Um, so this, we get a chance to dive into all the stuff you're doing now. Um, before we do that, I want to— I really, I really love the journey, and I want to take our viewers and listeners on that path. You know, you, you were doing so much amazing stuff now. You started as a Missouri farm girl selling strawberries and learning to hunt squirrels. And yet something inside you, you knew you belonged in New York. You knew that. And I'm— it's one of the things I don't think you and I have talked about this. Where did that certainty come from? Like, there was this sense of, I know I'm bigger than this, which I think everybody has. But nobody really acknowledges. You had this certainty and it was a true calling versus a fantasy. How did you know? What happened for you?

That's a great question. I— how do I say this? Yes, I was selling strawberries on the side of the road, which was essentially— I was an entrepreneur from when I was born.

Right.

I was selling strawberries. I was selling corn on the cob and deciding how much I wanted to sell each pint for. The decision that I made to look toward New York as a reality for myself, it wasn't something that I contemplated. It was a given. And that given came to me because I looked around my environment and what I saw was not for me. It wasn't that it wasn't acceptable for others, it just wasn't for me. And my grandmother had an 8th grade education. She never learned to drive a car. And I thought, that's not something that I want in my life, where I am cooking dinner for everybody every day. I'm cleaning the house for everybody every day. I mean, my parents both worked, so I had that role model as well. My mother was always working. But the awareness of how the life of the person in Missouri at that point was not for me. And again, it wasn't a judgment. I wasn't repulsed by it. I just knew it wasn't my truth.

That's huge, right? For a preteen to feel that and then into teenage years where There's so much change. And to be landed in, this isn't who I am. It's like, that is so good. You knew this calling from the start.

I did. And it was because of dance. I enrolled into a dance program with Lillian and Sharon De Noyer, who at 7, I I said, I'm going to dance on pointe. I'm going to be a ballerina. I want to be in the top-level class. Like, I went in knowing exactly this is how I'm designing this, and you got to get on board. And thankfully, my teachers were like, your feet are not— you can't put your growing little baby feet into pointe shoes yet. You— it's too soon. Your bones are too, are too soft. So luckily, they knew what they were doing.

Yeah.

And they said, you can't be on pointe until you're— maybe it was 11, I don't remember. But they started training me, and then I rapidly moved up into the higher level classes and rapidly moved into doing classical pointe work. And when it came to my confidence and my awareness of what was possible, it was because Sharon McGuire, Lillian De Noyer's daughter, started taking me to New York during the summer. So we would come to New York and I'd study at the Broadway Dance Center or STEPS, and we would bounce around the city. And I got a taste of it when I was very young.

This was before you were 13, right?

Oh yeah.

Yeah, because at 13 you You actually, right, you started in dance at 7. At 13, you won Miss Dance of St. Louis.

The Petite Junior Miss Dance, the baby version.

Yeah. That's amazing, right? So you talk about, in some of your writing, you talk about the joy of that. You know, that you worked your way to it, you won. But that joy of winning only lasted a couple of weeks.

Is that from— that's from being smartest stupid, and that, that is directly related to, as high achievers, we can create our own suffering very easily if we don't allow ourselves to detach from the outcome.

So is it a, is it a superpower to go, you know, yay us, and then I'm on to the next? Or is it from some wound where you can't let yourself, or some combination? Like, how do you— you know, there are the highest athletes don't spend much time in either regret about a bad move or celebrating the win, because what's next is what's next. So was that the same for you? Like, I got there, and then what?

I think there were 2 things. As a 13-year-old, I did not know that I was practicing Buddha nature or detachment.

Mm-hmm.

But I also knew that there was always more. Okay, there's a Petite Junior Miss Dance competition I just won. Well, there's the Junior Miss Dance competition. So that's next. And then there's the Miss Dance competition. So that's next. So I need to now be in training for the next one. I can't just hang out at the pancake house and have blueberry pancakes for the next 6 months. I got to be in training because there's more. When it comes to what you just shared about an athlete, I think that if you are an elite athlete or high performer and you allow a mistake to happen and you're on the field, you can't win that game because you're obsessed with your mistake and that's going to completely mess with your mindset.

Right.

And if you are in too long of a celebration, you forget the importance of training. So that sweet spot of letting go and not looking to the future is the practice of being in the now. And that's something that a dancer has to be in the now, because you've got to hit that triple pirouette, you've got to make sure that you and your partner Are in sync, or one of you is going to get hurt. You have to be in the now, and I say this a lot: being a dancer and training as a classical professional dancer since I was seven years old gave me the grit, the discipline, and the high risk tolerance to be a very successful entrepreneur. Because I heard no all the time.

And you had your vision, you had your focus on what's next. What's next? There's always more. That's a, you know, I pause along the way during my interviews to say, this is a leadership lesson right here that, you know, that it— you called it a sweet spot. There is a sweet spot of celebration. Great. Look what I achieved. There's a sweet spot of, oh, I missed that one. Awesome. Next, right? And it's like, and you know, in, in tennis, it's you, you learn to go bounce, hit, bounce, hit. You're not paying attention to anything else. Bounce, hit. It's like, where's the ball going, right? So in, in life, I think it's a beautiful practice because you're not You're not thinking about where did the ball bounce, you know, 4 minutes ago.

Can you imagine if that's what you were focused on? That ball that I did not hit over the net, the next ball is going to hit you right between the eyes.

Exactly right. And that is, that is the life lesson. So there's a reality of attaining your dream. You ended up going on in New York. You Danced with Baryshnikov through the Linda— Lucinda, sorry, Lucinda Childs Dance Company. And while that is kind of the dream, there's this reality of, dang, this is hard work. Like, this is really, really hard work. It's gritty, it's painful, it's even bloody sometimes too, right?

Oh, yeah. I have had both knees done. I've had a foot done. The part about hard work doesn't really come into the forefront when you're in it. Being able to dance around the world at the Paris Opera House, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Palermo Opera House. We've talked about this. I danced in Lisbon, in Sintra. On an outdoor stage with a castle in the foreground as my center. And that is, that is a gift. And complaining about my bloody feet or my torn calf muscles would have been a mistake because that's what you do as an athlete. You are icing, you are constantly getting massages, you are Going to bed early and not staying out late because you are an athlete and you have to get up early and take ballet class in order to prepare for the next performance. So the sacrifices that I made in my personal life and in my social life and in my physical health did not feel like sacrifices because I had the privilege of entertaining people on. Thousands of stages across the globe.

Some of the biggest stages in some of the most— the prettiest areas of the world. Amazing. With huge dance companies. I mean, widely acclaimed, right? So amazing. I just— I, every time I think of Baryshnikov, I think of this one thing I saw years ago where it was like, who is this Baryshnikov guy? Oh, anyway, um, we're gonna, we're gonna forward to more current. It was a few years ago, um, that 9/11 happened, and you performed Antigone, which is about conscience. It's about moral versus political law. It's about Pride and power and leadership and a resistance to authority, which is so poignant. What, what happened for you in that time? What was, what was your change? What was like— you experienced a lot, right? The cost of speaking up and—

And talking.

I think, you know, the, the leadership lesson is what happens when leaders don't listen.

Right.

So yeah, please.

I talk about this in my keynote, Being an Influential Voice: Communicating Effectively for Impact. I tell this story, and the story is that on September 10th, I performed downtown with the David Gordon Pick-up Performance Company between the 2 towers.

Wow, they existed September 10th.

Yes, and it was a perfect September day. Actually, that's not true. It was raining that day. The perfect September day was the next day. So it was raining and we were downtown and we were performing a summer series, and this is something they did every summer, and we happened to be the dance company that was asked to perform. There's a stage set up. It was raining so hard that I don't know if we ended up leaving early because of that, but what I do remember is we had to show ID to use the bathroom. We had to bring our identification into the World Trade Center to use the bathroom. That's how strict the security was then. And I thought that was interesting. And then on September 11th, we all know what happened. And I lived on 11th Street at the time, and in order to get below Houston— because they closed Lower Manhattan down from Houston Street all the way to the World Trade Center, Ground Zero— and I had to present that same ID to get home, to get into my apartment, and The, the city was, was very, very quiet. And I remember getting a call from Big Dance Theater. I was also performing with them at the time at the Kitchen, and we were doing Antigone. And they said, we're gonna do the show. And I, I believe it was a few days later. It wasn't September 12th, but it was a few days later. soon enough for me that I thought, why?

Wow.

The kitchen is on the West Side Highway, and the only thing that's on the West Side Highway at this point were ambulances and fire trucks. That was it. The West Side Highway was completely closed. And I was thinking, why were— why would we perform Antigone When the city is in a state of grief and profound mourning. And we did, we went to the theater and it was profound and surreal. We were outside prior to going in to warm up. We all were outside looking at the West Side Highway and just cheering on the fire trucks. And plotting the ambulances and just hoping that they would find people. And then we went into the theater and we all got ready. We did our warm-up, we put on our costumes, we put on our makeup, not knowing if anybody, anybody would be at the theater. And we performed Antigone. And I remember Taking our bow and getting the applause. And then we all went out into the lobby afterwards.

Hmm.

And everyone stayed. They stayed in the lobby and applauded us for a second time when we came out. And I'll never forget that because what it made me realize in that moment is that We were influential voices because they said to us, thank you for reminding us the power of art and for making us feel normal in this moment and for showing us the beauty of humanity through art.

Art becomes service. You've talked about that. This is a place where, right, and And, you know, for me, I've been a huge fan of live theater. And it's like, it really is. There's a connection, there's a community. And I think even this, or maybe especially this, is a leadership moment, right? Where it's, you have the opportunity to connect with people in a very real way. Do it.

Right.

It's like, just do it.

Yeah, and the show must go on is a real, a real thing. When we show up and do the thing, when we, when we keep our word, when we make a connection with someone that we say we're going to, that is the show must go on. And that's what it means to be an influential voice, keeping your word.

Mm-hmm.

Making sure that you are connecting in that way. Look, being a performer and being a speaker is hard. You have to rehearse, you have to be in a state of readiness, you have to be in shape, you have to know how to take care of your voice, you have to hydrate, you have to eat right. This is a, this is a very high-pressure, high-performance, high-productive job.

Yeah.

And when you take it that seriously and you show up 110% every single time, that's when you have impact and you change people's lives. And we changed those people's lives by doing the performance when we were sad, when the city was quiet, when we were all in grief and mourning. But it's our job to serve that audience. Yeah.

So great. I want to ask you about how you got into doing— helping TEDx speakers. I know that you were asked by a friend to help her become basically this TEDx speaker, and you turned it into a one-woman show, which allowed you to draw from theater. And I don't know, like, what did you do? What did you stop doing? What did you have her stop doing? And then I want to make this a 2-part question because I think that they overlap. When you talk with speakers, when you coach speakers to really be present on the stage, there's a lot of— we've all seen speakers who are overly dramatic. And they will share their story, and they will weep, or you know it's the and you talk about share from the scar, not from the wound. Like give yourself that distance. And so I would love to get your insights on how do you know that a person's healed enough to actually say there's a scar versus wow, I'm still living in this wound. So. How did you get into doing the TEDx thing? Then you became, uh, you, you ended up running a Lincoln Square TEDx thing, and, uh, and, and now you are coaching speakers to be their absolute best and sharing from the scar, being vulnerable but not being so in it that we now have to care about them instead of Caring about the story.

Many years ago— let me close the gap a little bit— I was dancing. I transitioned from being a professional dancer into producing, directing, choreographing for film, television, and theater. And also I own a fitness company, so I've been an entrepreneur this entire time. And a friend of mine, Petra Kolber, she said, I love your work. I would love for you to direct this TED Talk that I have coming up. And I didn't know anything about public speaking. I didn't know anything about the TED organization. Maybe I saw a couple TED Talks. I don't remember. I wasn't on social media. I had zero awareness of that as a profession or as a skill set. So I approached her work as a speaker, as an actor doing a one-person show. So we did script analysis, we did performance choreography and blocking, and it was very easy for me to approach it that way. And she crushed it. That's when she planted the seed. You should do this. People hire speaking coaches for this exact sort of thing. And going back to what you asked, what did I ask her to stop doing? I asked her to stop trying to be a speaker and to embody performance in an authentic way, like an actor plays a scene. And that's how I approach speaking now. And before I knew it, word out on the street was I was working with speakers in this new way, and I had all these speakers coming into my space and into my awareness, but no place to put them. And I thought, well, what's the best stage for a speaker? A TEDx stage. Everybody wants to do a TED Talk, so I will produce a TED Talk and have applications go out and make it available for people to apply to step onto a TEDx stage. And I did that for a couple of years. Uh, graduated, outgrew the TED organization, created my own Speakers Who Dare platform. In the meantime, I was working with speakers inside of the Big Talk Academy program and realized that unlike dance, because it's a fleeting moment, when I work with speakers, what they share from the stage has a ripple effect And then that ripple effect goes on and on and on. So I'm actually leaving a legacy by working with thought leaders in this way. And by choice, I don't have children. So what's my legacy? My legacy is all of the incredible speakers and thought leaders that I've been able to support in learning how to more effectively communicate for impact.

Incredible.

When it comes to speaking and being vulnerable and storytelling as part of the art of speaking, because I do believe speaking is an art form, I worked with Sandra Joseph, who was— she's in the Guinness Book of World Records. She played Christine in The Phantom of the Opera more times than anybody else. And she suffers from paralyzing stage fright. So she was on Broadway doing Christine, 8 shows a week for years, and she approached me to work with her. And she tells a story about her father dying in the talk, and every time she began to tell the story, she would cry. And I said, Sandra, you've got In rehearsal, you can do that. I'm going to let you work through that. But if we don't get to a place where you are no longer becoming emotional, then we can't tell this story. Because like you said, we need to speak from the scar, not the wound, because our job is to take care of the audience. And that means if you become emotional, they have to take care of you, and you are robbing the audience of their emotional experience. It does not mean you, you should not have emotion. Having emotion as a speaker and becoming emotional are 2 very different things. And I teach vulnerability in that way. You want to be healed from any kind of trauma. You're not working this stuff out in front of an audience. It's not your therapy session. And if you can't manage your emotions, then it's too soon to tell the story.

It's beautiful, right? Have emotion versus be emotional. And I think, I think of organizational leaders who are overly dramatic and emphatic, and it's like, well, that's not believable. Then there are the ones that are just swept by the drive, and therefore, uh, there's, there's an, uh, overwhelming sense of emotion that comes through, and it's like it's not receivable.

Hmm.

And so being able to balance that and go, okay, there's an emotion that becomes inspirational and aspirational, even if it's the hardest emotion, right? Even if it's— even if you're sharing something hugely vulnerable, The bounce from that can be hugely, wonderfully, beautifully inspirational, which I think is is part of the point. The oh, what did you say? It's communicating for impact was the was the phrase, and it's like be be very specific with yourself about what impact you want to you were communicating for.

Yeah.

Do you want to fast forward a little bit and talk about the book, Being Smart Is Stupid? So—

I'd love to.

Yeah. So it's, it's such a, dare I say, fun book. It's, it's, it's fun. It's challenging. It's right. It's because even the title is sort of a fun book. It's, it pokes you, right? So You're, you are picking on or, or challenging high achievers in the way they show up. So talk a little bit about that.

What's—

how does real wisdom come through for real leaders? Hmm.

I would love to say that the reason that I wrote the book Is because I have 3 companies. I have teams who have been with me for upwards of 7 years. And when you're working with a remote team of contractors, that is very unusual. When I put on a new show, a play, want to do a reading of something, I call my handful of actors and they say yes to me before they even know what the project is.

Hmm.

And people kept asking me, how is it that you have been able to run 3 companies and work with the same actors and performers for decades? And I couldn't answer the question. I mean, my fitness company has existed for 30 years, and I have clients that are still with me, and I have trainers who have been with me for decades. And so I thought I need to deconstruct my leadership style and skills in service of other thought leaders and other professionals. And it came down to what I call Buddha nature. I practice Eastern philosophies, and I am very conscious of suffering and attachment and detachment. And letting go, and I thought if I can figure out a way to talk about leadership through the lens of Buddha nature versus ego nature, maybe I can have an impact and create a little bit of change inside of corporations where leadership is just handed down by. Generations of white men who have inherited leadership styles. It's not their fault. It's just how we, we inherit things. So if I can talk about it in a way that is potentially a new concept, maybe we can shift how everything is happening when it comes to leadership, and we can make some better decisions in service of oneness, because we are all connected.

Beautiful. So good. Yeah, so good. I, I see difficulty in organizations when there is attachment to outcome and attachment to ego around the outcome. Because it, right, it, the outcome of a process is a celebration of look what I did. Versus look what we did versus we had this, we got this result. We, we were aiming here, we got this result. It's just information, right? That's the detachment.

Yes, it is. That is the detachment. And you're using the language we already touches on one of the pillars, which is the oneness part. As a leader, when you make it clear that we're all involved in this, that every person's participation supports the success or the failure, then everybody is— they have skin in the game. And also they see that you as a leader have skin in the game and that you are connected to everyone else. My team is very involved in everything that I do at The Big Talk and now at The Wise Leopard. And I can't do that without them. I am certainly the face of the brand, and I'm doing most of the training, if not all of the teaching. But behind the scenes, there's a million things that are going on so that they can enable me to be on camera and to be the person who is sharing the IP and the information.

Yeah.

But it is very much a we. In our company. Are you—

I want to rephrase this because it's not an are you. How do you practice your own stop, tune in, listen, and learn, the STILL practice? How does that show up for you? And the listen and learn is such— that leverages everything around leadership, I think. So Versus judgment, right? Where it's like, this didn't turn out the right way, or this did, and let's reproduce this, you know, 700 times. It's what do we learn from this? So if you could talk about maybe how you use this or in your own decision-making and how leaders listening to this or watching this could also make use of that.

It's this first pillar of the book, and I honestly thought it was really cheesy when I wrote it because it's so simple. It's an acronym, STILL, the STILL method: stop, tune in, and listen and learn.

Yeah.

Intuit, listen, and learn.

Yeah.

But I keep hearing from readers that this is something they go to over and over again, and I guess it is because it is so simple. For me, it's innate. It's something that I always do just because I've been doing these pliés of practicing Buddha nature and my— and the Eastern studies and philosophies my whole life. The way I do it is it's daily and it's frequent. And it's because if I get a hit in my body, something's not right, something's off. Or I'm about to react to something, I get still. Because if I react quickly or I make a decision before I get still and I tune into what my body is telling me, I will more than often not make a mistake, make the wrong decision. I'll send that email and wish I hadn't. I'll send a text message to my husband and I shouldn't have. We've all done that. Those are all reactions. And getting still is so easy before you make that decision and send that email, before you respond, even if you're in the room with somebody.

Yeah.

Just stop. What am I feeling? I'm feeling anger. I'm feeling ego. I'm feeling hurt. Mostly it's hurt, probably, or ego. Okay.

Where it comes from, right?

That's where— and intuit, what do I need to do right now? I need to leave the room, or I need to sleep on it. And then listen to that answer that you've just intuited, and then learn from your actions, which, when you tune in and you get still, has a better result. And if you practice that method, you'll, you'll start to elevate as a leader.

That's great. It's a— it's, it's so important. Uh, we used to call that the 24-hour rule. Like, if you are somebody who delays giving an answer, force yourself to provide something. Most people are the opposite, which is what you're talking about, which is If you're somebody who's super reactive, and that does come from ego, I'm hurt is actually an ego statement because if you're triggered by something, there's something in you that's reacting. So give yourself that time to just be still, to just listen, to just feel. Yeah, love that. Let's let's come to current. Shall we? Which is, uh, and I didn't talk much about your film and, and stage production. Was there anything that you wanted to say about that? I skipped right over that. Is there— do you want to go back and then we'll come back to Wise Leopard?

Well, I think touching on it briefly, being a producer or a director for a musical or a play or a film is exactly the same thing as being an entrepreneur and running a company. You have to be really organized. You have to know how to hire and who to hire. And as a director, I need to hire the right actors and then get out of the way. When it comes to being a CEO, I need to hire the right team and then get out of their way. They have the— they are the experts in their lane. And The actors are the experts in their lane. They should know more about the characters than I do. And I happen to be a Virgo also, so I'm extremely organized, which makes me a really good director and a really good CEO because I can manage a bunch of things and stay organized. So I think when it comes to leadership skills, if you are not organized as a leader, that doesn't mean you can't lead well. It means you need somebody to organize for you. So hire that person and read Being Smart Is Stupid because it's going to give you these 9 pillars of how to incorporate leadership through Buddha nature. And this is not a book about becoming a Buddhist. It is a book about leadership and the 9 pillars. And anybody who reads this can see themselves in the stories that I tell surrounding these 9 pillars.

It's a great book. And It does encourage you as the reader to get out of the way, even your own way. The— it certainly Buddha concepts are woven into it or inserted into it. And you can find them if you're reading it. I just, I love that it's, it's allow your ego to just take a backseat for a minute, While you look at a bigger picture.

And when you do that, you can, you can coexist, befriend, or even eliminate some suffering, which is really important because life is hard, y'all.

Too true. Talk about The Wise Leopard. I, uh, I was so excited when you were developing this. And it's, you know, it's a company mostly focused for women in their, uh, Midlife. In their midlife season. And we haven't celebrated that enough, I think. So I was, that was, I was really excited when you developed, uh, the Wise Leopard. Talk a little bit about that. And, um, the, what is it, a misting product that you have out now? Like, is that a thing? Where, where are, where is it all at this point?

Oh, thank you. Thank you for, uh, asking about the Wise Leopard. Um, I am a prolific creator, as you know. And when I turned 50, it was during COVID And my OB-GYN was like, okay, so you may be having some changes in your body. But we're not going to make any adjustments until next year, because COVID's a lot. So let's just, let's just manage a pandemic right now, and then we'll revisit this in a year. And I remember thinking, I'm going to be fine. And I was fine. And what I realized was, there were a lot of women who were not fine.

Mm-hmm.

But the women who were having vitality, and sensuality, and power, were not being Celebrated. It was all of the women who were struggling that were being highlighted, and I wanted to give everyone a voice. And that's what I do with the big talk. I give everyone a voice. Everyone's voice matters. So I co-authored a book with Dr. Alexandra Stockwell called *The Invitation: Vital Conversations About Menopause*, and we just had a conversation because I wanted. People to hear from every point of view. We, we interviewed women who were struggling, and Alexandra and I talked about what it's like in our lives, which was not struggle. But I also was experiencing heat fluctuation, and there was nothing out there to empower women in a community To talk about being sophisticated and being sensual and being vital. So I was like, I need to create this community, and I'm going to call it the Wise Leopard because it's all about wisdom. And leopards are unique and individual, and they hang out alone. But if we come together in the Wise Leopard community, we can empower one another. And I was speaking on stages, and I would burst into flames because nobody understood. You got to have the air conditioning on when a woman in midlife is talking on a stage, y'all. And I thought, there's got to be a better way so that it's not like grab the Kleenex, dab your face, or or having embarrassment around you know hot flash. So I thought, I'm going to create something that is empowering for women, that smells good, that is good for your skin. I never thought in a million years I would start a product or a company like this, but I did, and I am. And the Savannah Cooling Mist is what we offer. It is an organic and natural, all botanical. I handpicked every ingredient. There's no additional fragrance. The fragrance imprint is simply from the botanicals, and it has a cooling effect on your skin, and it's sexy, and it's beautiful, and it smells amazing, and it feels great. And The Wise Leopard is my third company. I'm not going anywhere in terms of the Big Talk, but it's just— it's a beautiful addition to the suite of companies and portfolios that I have because it empowers women in midlife to use their voices and to be seen and heard.

So good. It's so good. I mean, there are so many voices that— I think there are so many people that question, do I have anything to say? Like, will it matter? And I love how you continue to say your voice matters, every voice matters, and you've got your own unique story, you've got to bring it out. And with the Wise Leopard, you've created this community of women going through a very natural part of growth, really. Right? It's a new season. Beautiful.

Yeah. Let's stop being ashamed of what it's like to be in your 50s or even your late 40s. Let's embrace the powerful wisdom of these incredible women and what they have to offer the world. We are not done, y'all. Why do I keep saying y'all today? It's like I went to Texas or something. I've never said y'all so many times in my life.

I, I don't know. It's all inclusive. All y'all. There you go.

That's right. That's right.

Let's talk about, I mean, well, if there's anything else you want to say about that, I'm happy to have you talk even further. I mean, so far, there are some amazing books that I would highly recommend that people get, and we'll put that in the show notes. The Wise Leopard, people can find you Through is it wiseleopard.com?

Thewiseleopard.com.

Yeah. Thewiseleopard.com. Okay. And now you are co-producing a film called Dog Years, and it's sort of like you've returned to your roots in some ways by by going back to film production. What is that like for you? Because this is— it's a huge demand. You're running 3 companies, and it's like, well, I think I'll do this film project too.

Well, I am an investor in the film and a co-producer, and the— I am not involved in the heavy lifting of the making of this film in any way. This is simply— I believe in Mary who is the writer-director. I believe in the story that she wrote. It is a love story. I love the cast, Leah Lewis, Xolo Maridueña, Xochitl Gomez, Brian David Gilbert. And I believe in the storytelling. So when I was approached to participate in this project, I loved the diversity of the casting. I loved the diversity of the crew. That was important to me. And I believe in this young writer-director, Mary, who is so talented and so smart. And I love supporting women in this way. Part of my vision board is to produce and invest in female filmmakers. And when this project came across my desk, I was like, check, this is, this is part of what I'm doing, I'm meant to do.

Mm-hmm.

And it's not coming out until 2027, but it is a really wonderful love story of 2 high school kids who were best friends in high school, played by Leah Lewis and Xolo Maridueña. Liv and Ollie, and they come back 7 years later to their hometown for a New Year's Eve party, and they revisit what happened— what would have happened if. It's a very beautiful story, and it's gorgeous. The cinematography is spectacular.

So great. I can't wait to see it. It's so great. It's, uh, it's— there's so much. Let's, uh, we've touched on— we have touched on so much, and there's, uh, there's such a depth, and there's so much more to talk about. In the last few minutes as we wrap together. If there were a leadership lesson, um, that any of our listeners could carry into practice, um, you know, overcoming ego, overcoming the fear, overcoming the noise that distracts us all What would be kind of the lesson that you would want our listeners and viewers to, to get?

I'm not sure if this is the capital T lesson, but this is coming through right now, Wayne, because it's you and I having this conversation. Being able to mentor you for over 5 years Hmm. Made me a better leader. Being able to support you in all the different facets and journeys and stages, literal and figurative, that you were in and on gave me the opportunity to flex my leadership and my, my mentorship muscles in a way that I never could have imagined. Because of who you were. So I would say that lesson is work with people who make you better.

That's so great. You know, it was a— and, and I think we continue to do this maybe for each other at this point, where it's this sense of full-on trust. And for me, in your mentorship, you know, I'm out there and I'm speaking And I'm leading organizations. And, you know, it's— there's clout and gravity with what I do. And to be in a place of surrender was an amazing thing, right? Where it's like, I don't have to know it all. And there were times when it was very clear I didn't know any of it, right? And it was— it's— that was very growthful. So I think you're right. Pick people that, you know, even in my coaching practice now, I'm picking people that I want to work with.

Mm-hmm.

Because I know that while I challenge them, they're going to challenge me in a very different way. They won't— they won't know necessarily they're challenging me. It's so great. It's so great. And I think as leaders, we need to do that. How is this person helping me grow to that next level?

Yeah.

It's huge. It's really good. Beautiful. Is there anything we touched on that you want to say more about?

Is there anything we didn't touch on that you hoped we could talk about and that you want to insert at this I am just so grateful for our friendship and for this opportunity to speak with you, Wayne, and to share with your listeners. And if you have any interest in working with me, I do a free workshop every month. It's trishabrooke.com/workshops. And I, I say that because right now, having an experience with someone, a real person, and not an AI version of someone is really important. And when you're thinking about your leadership and your speaking and your connection to humanity, having a mentor, a human being who can give you an experience, is something that is invaluable right now. The climate is changing so dramatically when it comes to work and when it comes to information. And I think listening to podcasts like this and really doing your research on who it is you're going to be spending time with is super important. And that's why I hope that you'll get in touch with me so that I can support you on your journey.

Please, please, I can't endorse that enough. Please, trishabrooke.com/workshops. That's plural. Brooke is B-R-O-U-K, and Tricia— oh yeah, because there's different ways of spelling that too— triciabrook.com/workshops. You offer— I will just say that your free workshops offer so much value. There's so much material in there that if you are even considering dancing around being a speaker or a better presenter, you'll get a ton out of the free stuff. And then should you choose to invest further, you'll get tons upon tons of amazing guidance. And yes, there's nothing like being in a, in a direct relationship with I think that's fabulous. Amazing. Good stuff. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for having me. I love you.

I love you too. This is so good. Yay! All right, well, Tricia Brooke has been my guest. This is One Sharp Sword. I'm Dr. P, Dr. Wayne Pernell, your host, guide, and coach on this journey. We will see you again here next time. Please like and Share this. Uh, you know, there are people that, that need to hear this, so please pass this along. Hope you enjoyed it. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most with Outfluencer Dr. Wayne Pernell. For more information, please go to onesharpsword.com.