Interview #18 Bryanna Mehling - Navigating Life's Peaks

Transcript, Aug. 13, 2025

Rick Barron (00:01)

Hi everyone, I'm Rick Barron, your host, and welcome to my podcast, That's Life, I Swear. My guest today is Bryanna Mehling, the founder and CEO of Bright Peak Consulting. Her mission and energy truly resonate with the idea of living life to the fullest. 

As a life and leadership coach, Bryanna has dedicated her life to guiding individuals and teams towards lives of joy, love, empowerment, and a deep belief in themselves. Now, Bryanna 's journey to this calling wasn't just a career move. It was a very soulful mission. 

She's here to share the why and the how that led her to create a space for others to grow, to expand, and to see themselves with newfound clarity. She recently launched a podcast called Hey, Are You Free? that expands on what we're going to be covering today.

We're going to explore how Bryanna 's powerful presence and coaching style create a container for information where authenticity, creativity, and joy are not only possible, but inevitable. So, whether you're a leader, a dreamer, or someone who wants to embrace the fullest expression of yourself, you're in for a treat. I have a quote that I love, ride the lightning, bring the thunder. 

Trust me. Bryanna is all that. Please join me as I have my conversation with Bryanna Mehling. 

Bryanna, welcome to the show.

Bryanna Mehling (01:43)

Thanks Rick. Thank you for that beautiful introduction.

Rick Barron (01:47)

No worries. Well deserved. Gosh. So why don't you kind of walk us through with a quick introduction of yourself and how you got started and where you are today.

Bryanna Mehling (02:01)

God, we could talk for hours on that one. It's like the most dreaded question, you know? It's like, how do you sum up your 42 years of life into like a minute? 

No, you know, I think that if I looked at my life holistically, when I was younger and in my teens and in my twenties, I was very angry and I had some really good anger coping skills where I just ignored everything and ran away from it all and didn't deal with it. 

And I thought that life was, you know, great and perfect. And then I had a baby, as many of us children change our lives. And she really was this mirror for me to start to recognize all the things that I had just been compartmentalizing and burying that was no longer gonna serve me. 

And so, through that when she was two, she was diagnosed autistic. So, she is autistic, nonverbal with intellectual developmental disabilities. And so, I've been parenting her now for nine years. So, through my journey of learning and exploring my daughter, I've been able to like learn and explore myself. And this beautiful piece of her being nonverbal has given me, basically has opened up my ability to tap into my own energetic self and to understand myself at a level of who I am inside, what I'm feeling, what are my sensory preferences, what's going on with me. And so, it's interesting how she, as a humanist, kind of served as my roadmap to grow and develop.

And then I'm grateful I have a 22-month-old son who I keep saying, thank God we went through parenting my daughter first because we've learned a lot along the way. A lot of the tools and things that we've needed have now put into place for him and he seems to be working with them beautifully. 

So that's been wonderful. Through all of that, I went from having very unhealthy relationships with my parents to having these beautiful, magical relationships that if you looked back 15 years ago, we are all surprised that this is where we are today. 

And so, it's not short of any of the work that we've all done. But I do selfishly pride myself in being the human that had showed up differently first. I believe in energy attracts like energy and that if you want people around you to shift, you have to shift first. And that is hard work.  

So, I'm very proud of myself for being able to show up and do that hard work in order to build the relationships I've always dreamed of as a child, to build the family dynamics that I dreamed of as a child. And so that covers my kind of family side. And then on my leadership side, I've had some really great leaders and I've had some really toxic experiences as well. And it was a toxic, toxic experience that led me into building my own business, leaning into coaching.

My background is in leadership development, employee engagement. How do we enhance that employee experience so that people can feel valued and supported and safe in order to show up and do their best work? Because I feel like that's all we're looking for, right? We're all looking to show up to be our best selves in places. 

And so, I've got to do that on the work side, we'll split that up. And so coaching and where I'm at now has really, all of this has culminated into how do I help others live in the peace, the peace of the ride? 

Because we have, my company is Bright Peak Consulting, so we have these peaks and these valleys of life, and they happen no matter who we are, what we do, how we handle things, and so how do we find that peace and that joy and that love for ourselves as we go through this journey of life that is hard. It is what it is. It's not always easy.  I'm gonna pause right there and put that bow on it.

Rick Barron (06:27)

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, no, that's great. I I guess that's kind of a good segue. I I know in the introduction; I talked about how you wanted to share about the why and the how that you got here. And I think in some respect, you just shared some of that, but is there more there to add as to the how and why, where you are today and starting this consulting business that.

I know you have a real passion for it. It's absolutely genuine. It's not just, hey, I just want to have a job. You really want to do something. So, can you expand on that?

Bryanna Mehling (07:13)

Yeah, know, someone, I feel like someone asked me this recently and the first word that came to mind then and it came to mind now is it really started out a desperation. It started out of a place of like, I can no longer be working in an organization and for a human being that creates an environment where I don't feel safe any longer. And so, it came from, gotta get the fuck out of this.

And it came from doing Excel spreadsheets to like, how am I gonna financially make this work with my husband? How am I gonna convince him? Like if my tears aren't enough, how am I gonna convince him that quitting my job, starting my own business, quote unquote, figuring out life, like what's next for me? And I'm still in the figuring out moment. 

And so, I'm in the throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks moments, which is fun and exciting but can sometimes feel like a nomad, a little lost in the sauce.  So that's the first word that comes to mind for me is it started from a place of like, I refuse to be treated like this any longer. 

And I see the value in myself and what I bring to the table. And it was, how do I enhance who I am? I think that's kind of where I start from even when I'm having moments where I'm feeling down and I'm feeling defeated and I'm feeling like, man, what am I doing? What I find is when I start to say yes to things, I'm like, okay, let me try something different. 

My intuition is saying like, let's start a podcast. How fun is that? When am I ever gonna have time again to like understand podcasting or learn podcasting and share my story? And so, what I do is, and it's one of the big things I work with my clients on is what can we start saying yes to know that can change our environment, that can change our energetic field, that can put new people into our world? And so, I'm just a big believer of like, let's start saying yes. And I feel like that's been the last three years for me.

Rick Barron (09:29)

Wow. Now know you talk to individuals and teams and in the time that you've been going through this process with those two groups, is there any particular theme that comes up, let's say with groups, say business groups or whatever they may be that seems to, you know, I'm hearing the same thing over here and over here and over here. 

So there seems to be kind of a consensus as to why some groups may be unhappy, maybe things that you encountered that you'd say, I'm with you, I've been there. Has that ever come across with when you talk to them?

Bryanna Mehling (10:13)

Yeah, my short answer is communication and relationship building is that we know that if we looked at the research, if we spend time with our people and we get to know them and their core and who they are and their strengths and what motivates them, we will have a better time leading and developing them in order to grow and develop the business we're working for. 

Like that's the formula. Invest in our people, we will ultimately invest in our business. And so, people will say, though, they don't have time. They don't have time and they don't have money to invest. And when I say time, we don't have time to do one on ones. We don't have time to do morning hellos. And so, we don't have time to share our story. I was just talking to a leader the other day and they said, I recognize I haven't shared my why with the team.

Rick Barron (10:53)

Hmm.

Bryanna Mehling (11:12)

And I said, that's beautiful that you recognize it. How do we start sharing that now? Because if we want our teams to start opening up to us, we have to, as leaders, start opening up to them. We have to create a safe space where they are not gonna feel judged for their thoughts, for their desires, for what, when they start to say, hey, this is what I'm struggling with, it needs to be in a very safe place.  

So, I would say the theme is, communication and relationship building and collaborating and spending the time getting to know the people.

Rick Barron (11:48)

Yeah, I mean, it all comes down from the top, I would imagine, because I know back in the day when I was in high tech, I had a director that in my eyes, she was a leader and she was a manager. And I find that those two skills combined are hard to find. But I know that she always, always made it a point to schedule a one-on-one.

And you could talk about anything with her. And she would say, you know, everything we say in this room is between us and that's where it stops. And, you know, at first, I was kind of apprehensive about it. And then I thought, well, yeah, I'm going to give this a shot. So, I opened up and she was really very receptive. She didn't say anything to make me feel like, well, that's kind of odd. You would say that, you know, we'll put you in that mood. It's.

She made you feel comfortable to express your thoughts. And I think that's what people today, even more so in the workforce are holding back because we're in this rush mode. You know, you got AI coming into the picture and people are so worried about, gosh, what am I doing now? And could I lose my job tomorrow? So, I think to that end, maybe some people are just so concerned about taking care of themselves that they forget, wait a minute, I have a team over here.

I had to let them know we're not in individual boats; we're in the same boat.

Bryanna Mehling (13:22)

And it's beautiful how you can years later remember that story and that feeling that you felt with that leader that created this safe space for you. I'll tell you a whole flip side of that story is where I felt unsafe is I was vulnerable enough to open up to a leader to share, hey, when you said X, Y, and Z, it was the first time working with you that made me go, I wonder what's out there in the market.

Rick Barron (13:27)

Mm-hmm.

Bryanna Mehling (13:51)

Like if I go on Indeed, I wonder what's out there. And could I have said it differently? Absolutely. But showing up authentically to someone to say, hey, this didn't work for me and it actually caused me disengagement, right? The feedback that I got and the story that was told about me was that I do not accept feedback.

Rick Barron (13:51)

Hmm.

Bryanna Mehling (14:11)

And that to me, that was the beginning of an end for me, but it was like, here I am just trying to say, hey, this didn't work for me. I don't feel good about it. It made me start thinking that this isn't the right place for me. And then it got turned around and it was like, Byanna doesn’t accept feedback and she's hard to work with. And it's like, that's not it at all. I want feedback. 

So, I think your story and my story is, both types of leaders can make an impact. And I think I love working with people to say, what type of leader do you wanna be? I just did an activity with a client yesterday, last week. And I said, tell me what a successful leader to you looks like. So that we can start to imagine the type of leader that we wanna be. And it's to do something like that without judgment is beautiful. Cause I'm not saying you're not there yet. I'm saying, let's picture what this leader looks like to you. 

And then let's talk about how do we get there? What are we doing really well that keeps us in this area? And what do we need to do differently? So, I love being able to take that approach because it is both of those leaders, both types of leaders make an impression.

Rick Barron (15:23)

Absolutely. I think too, going back to what you said earlier, where the person said that, you know, you didn't take, I'm paraphrasing here, ⁓ criticism or feedback well. And I guess, you know, when you said, well, no, that's not me. You'd probably want to be able to tell and talk to that boss. Well, how did you read that I didn't accept criticism? And maybe it's the way I answered, gave you the perception that I don't take it very well. Because I think people need to understand as best as they can each individual's strengths and weaknesses. And there's nothing wrong.

Bryanna Mehling (16:05)

But that takes psychological safety though, right? Like there's not many relationships in our life. And I don't know if we necessarily always learn this as we're younger either. So, we're also learning it as an adult and putting it into practice. 

How many relationships in our lives are we able to comfortably show up to and say, hey, I really didn't like the way that you spoke to me. It didn't make me feel good. Like, can we talk about it? Like, there's, probably I started practicing on my husband in that way, because your marriage is supposed to be this safe place, right? And I expanded out to my family. 

I think I shared a story with you yesterday about me and my mother, and it was like the first time she was able to share information with me that didn't cause me to like clam up and feel like a trauma response. And I was like; this is so beautiful. Like, yes, I ended up crying, but I cried from this beautiful place of, I had this wonderful exchange with my mom about what she saw was going on with me and how I could help or how she could help. But it takes a lot of trust. It takes a lot of trust to show up in a relationship where you can share with someone that something's not working.

And so that's where we talk about psychological safety, either in the workplace or at home. But not only that, it's getting comfortable inside yourself to one, even understand it. Right. How do we become self-aware to even know what's happening in our body? Right. When my shoulders clam up and my heart feels heavy, what's going on? I have to do some of that energetic digging. And then how do I get comfortable now?

Even going to the person, even if I have psychological safety, how do I get comfortable showing up and sharing? And so yeah, that's a little bit of a tangent, but that's what came up for me.

Rick Barron (18:00)

No, no, that's all right. That's great. So, we talked about groups. What about individuals that you've come across? And I guess just kind of add to that. I guess you could probably use the same thing with groups. And you've done this, I think you said almost three years plus. What have you been learning about the human psyche and why they, you know, feel or act the way that they do or they're afraid to open up be expressive or be an introvert or whatever. What have you come across?

Bryanna Mehling (18:37)

Now I'm not a doctor, so this is just, these are just Byanna 's opinions, you know. So, I just wanna make sure that I don't get quoted as a doctor here. 

I think what's coming up for me is this spending time getting to know yourself and getting to really understand and being able to articulate what's happening. And I'll share kind of this, is, so part of my coaching certification, I got certified in energy leadership index. And so, I won't go too much into it, but it's an attitudinal assessment.

I'm also certified in Discs and I've worked in Strengths before as well. And so, one of the beautiful things about these types of assessments, especially when I work with clients is not only the awareness, but new language. It gives language to people so that they can actually start to articulate, hey, I'm feeling, 

I have a lot of fear going on right now and it's leading into this anger piece, right, or I feel like I'm people pleasing and I need to work on setting boundaries. So even just things like that is getting to know yourself, but in a way where you can start to articulate it and understand it, where it makes sense to you and it might make sense to your people, right? We all have our people. 

So that's really where I start and I find that client start is, let me just start talking about what's happening with me and sharing it where I feel necessary, but I gotta get the language first.

Rick Barron (20:26)

Sure. In the time that you've been talking to all of these individuals, is there any one time where you had an individual that after you've worked with them, that it left an impression on you that, well, I am so happy I got to meet this individual because I learned so much. And without mentioning names, can you describe what that might've been?

Bryanna Mehling (20:51)

You know, I think for me that's, yeah, you know, no, I think that's all my clients that I work with. And I think me as a human, I really truly genuinely like meeting new people. 

And I'm inspired by people who, I had this one client who we were working on career transition and they were doing everything right about applying for jobs, anything that they had the Excel spreadsheet, every day they'd apply for jobs, they'd follow up, they'd change their resume, like they were doing everything right. 

But we worked on their energetic field of releasing the anger that they needed to release towards the process and creating some structures so they didn't feel like they were being overwhelmed. so, I'm just, every time I work with a client, I find that I also start to do things that I'm working with the client on. And so, I'm like, we're working on time blocking this week. Man, I really need to get better at time blocking. And so, I just love that when I work and meet with other people, all of their stories inspire me. And it just, hopefully I'm adding as much value to their life as they're adding to mine.

Rick Barron (22:11)

Now you mentioned a term time blocking. What is that?

Bryanna Mehling (22:16)

Yeah, so you might already do it and just not know it. And this might not even be the professional term, but it's the Bryanna term. Yeah, so to me, time blocking in Bryanna language is when we're looking at our calendar, I like it from like a two-week perspective. And we're saying, this is when I'm doing bills, this is my podcast with Rick. And for you Rick, I actually, have the podcast and then I have a buffer. I've added a buffer so that

Rick Barron (22:23)

I'll take it.

Bryanna Mehling (22:46)

I know that before and after I'm gonna just need time to prep or digest, right? And so ⁓ it's really executing on your calendar. And I have a client that does like yoga at this time in the morning, breakfast at this time. This is my down, like scheduling downtime. Some of us feel like, we can't fit it in. But when we look at the calendar as a whole, where can I fit it in? Where is it important? And so that’s kind of what I mean by time blocking.

Rick Barron (23:17)

No, I like that concept. think it's, I think a lot of people overlook that to take time off for themselves just to decompress. Because I've been in situations where I've been really uptight and my wife would say, look, I want you to take five minutes. What happened, happened. Just decompress and we'll talk about it.

Bryanna Mehling (23:30)

Yes.

Rick Barron (23:45)

When I do that and I come back and we talk about what the occurrence was and then she'll ask me to reevaluate what got you upset. And the more I dissected what had happened, I realized, okay, I jumped too quickly to make a snap judgment. And I realized in myself, okay, how can I do this better the next time? And just.

For example, and I'm just paraphrasing here, just hear it out, think about it. Now, how do I respond? But don't respond in a manner that's going to get you uptight, which then causes the other person to get uptight. I think, no, I mean, I'm being very honest here. I think that sometimes, you know, many of us realize we put ourselves in a situation that we didn't have to, instead of just saying,

Okay, before I blow my stack, let's just review what just happened here. And I think to a certain degree that I think that's what happens with a lot of people, not only outside of the workforce, but inside the workforce.

Bryanna Mehling (24:55)

Yeah, and think we have to plan. When we plan for the downtime, we give ourselves space to think, to recover, to tell ourselves that it is okay. If I know I'm gonna have a really busy morning, then my afternoon might look different. 

And so, it's trying to figure out what we need as a life structure in order to find the fluidness and the balance. it's a very like your story of I had this high moment or a high frustration, I needed to come down. And you can look at that from many different angles and come to the conclusion of yes, because we flow. 

And if we structure the flow, then we won't have, we'll still have unexpected moments, but we'll better prepare for them, this is what I'm saying.

Rick Barron (25:52)

Sure.

No, no, no, that's good. So, as you talk to individuals, I'm sure you come across people who are introverts and they're even when they're there with you in private, they're, I imagine sometimes they're almost afraid or don't understand how to express themselves. How do you, how do you deal with someone like that to help them to open up? Is that, guess mainly what building trust?

Bryanna Mehling (26:09)

Yeah, I think when I start working with clients, I like to spend time getting to know them. What are your values? I have one of my clients that are always like, I know exactly what you're gonna ask me or like, I came prepared for this session. I'm like, wonderful. 

Because it really is coming into coaching the question of what would be a win for you today out of our session. Like what are you looking to get out of our session? That's what I really love for myself about coaching is like I'm coming in there with an action item or something that I'm looking to get.

And sometimes for me with my coach, I'm like, I really just need to get everything that's in my brain out and I need a platform to do that. And that's also beautiful.

But so, I think for me, it's coming in with what is it that I'm looking to get out of this session specifically, but we also do a bigger holistic picture of what are we looking to get out of working together? What's this goal around why are you here? 

And so, with people who are introverted or need some more time to process, the coaching structure, I believe, gives that because we really do spend time getting to know each other, building trust. I love to share when reasonable, own stories and that and I love to, it's something that I feel really confident about is I'll say to you, know, here's something that's coming up for me, can I share it with you? 

So, asking for that permission to share what's coming up and also my clients very quickly learn that when I'm sharing something with them and it's coming from my intuition, there's no judgment with it. It's hey, I'm gonna share this with you, what comes up for you when I hear this?

Like, and sometimes they're like, no, actually that's not it. It's actually X, Y, and Z, you know? Or, my God, you nailed it on the head. You said it exactly right. And so, I tend to lead from a very intuitive place, especially in my coaching practice. And so ⁓ I feel like that really supports the diverse group of individuals when you're talking about introverted.

Rick Barron (28:32)

So, when the time you started talking to clients, have you found yourself that over the time period that you first started to where you are today, that you've learned and modified your techniques? And if so, what have some of those been?

Bryanna Mehling (28:52)     

Wow, yeah, absolutely. I think there's a level of confidence. Now, I've been in leadership for many years, 15 plus years of leadership. Coaching is fairly new for me from that perspective. I've been in talk therapy a really long time. And I've done a lot of energetic work and stuff. I think one of the things is like, what's happened over time is my confidence and my belief in.

I always feel like, well, what makes me an expert? And I had a coach actually say to me, because you are an expert at restarting, like you are an expert at living through these experiences that you can share with other people. And that was kind of a big aha moment for me. was earlier this year. 

So, I think my confidence, my comfortability, my knowing in myself that with the, we connect, and clients, there's so many coaches out there, and so you have to look for somebody that you connect with and relate to, and like feel that energetic pull too as well. And so, for me, I think that has shifted over the last three years for sure. And other things that have shifted is I think it's getting comfortable, making sure we're staying on track, right? 

Getting comfortable with, what it is that you are looking to get out of our session together. Like what are you looking to walk away with? And then really wrapping it up in a bow at the end and making sure that the client is getting exactly what they're looking for. Or if it changes throughout the session, just re-verifying, hey, this is what we said we're working on, this is coming up for you, is this something you wanna work on now and explore? And so, I think that has gotten, I wouldn't say, I haven't changed it, but I think it's gotten stronger.

Rick Barron (30:50)

Okay, now you recently started and I call this out your podcast and I love them. I've heard, you know, all of them that you have out there right now. So, what was the springboard to wanting to get this podcast started?

Bryanna Mehling (30:55)

Yeah. You know that word desperation? Because I'm starting to learn my springboard. It starts with that. No, no, no, that's a joke. But so, hey, are you free? So, comes from years of talking with my girlfriend Christina, who is a consistent guest on the podcast. 

And we were like; this could be a podcast episode, this could be a podcast episode. And in the first episode, we talk about how we came up with the, are you free? But it really is when you have to call your girlfriend and you're like, hey, are you free? I had to text my girlfriend the other day, actually, literally, hey, are you free? And she was like; I told the kids I have to call you. Like, I know something's going on. And so, the premise was born years ago, but it comes from this desire of a few things.

I'll share the business side first, which is how in today's day and age with social media and what's out there, how do I share who I am, what it's like to work with me? Someone can get to know me quick enough. I don't love writing. I'm not someone that's drawn to like blogs, things like that. I am a talker and I love to connect with people. 

And so, was like, again, the idea of, are you free? The timing ended up being perfect. I was like, all right, I'm doing it. Like I'm pulling the lever and I'm doing it. It's time. We've been talking about it. I'm just gonna make it work. Like we're gonna figure it out. And so, but it came from this place for me of I want others to feel seen, heard, safe, valuable. I don't hold anything back in the sense of like about my life or what I go through or what an experience was like.

And so, and I allow others to share that story. One of the episodes I have recorded but not edited yet is about, talking to another woman with a neurodivergent daughter who's a couple of years older than mine. 

And I share with them how I felt like intimidated and I felt like I wasn't being a good parent after talking to them. And so I'm just, and I go through all those emotions and we talk about it. And so, as I'm saying, hey, I am here to hold space for others so that they can become who they dream to be. I also wanna share like, I'm doing the same thing. I'm still learning and growing and developing and trying to be who I want to be. And so, it's just, it's a culmination of my stories and others, but it really came out of that dream to just have a platform that allows me to share.

Rick Barron (33:56)

No, that's great. I think you called it out about, and having heard the podcast you've done thus far, you do present yourself as an open book. 

And I think when you share that with other individuals, whether it's on a podcast or, you know, dealing with a client to show that you're opening up yourself to your world has to give that person a sense of comfort to know, well, if she's going to share that with me, I guess it's okay. 

I can share with her my feelings, my, my thoughts, because I think that's where that trust factor comes into play because sometimes, they could be talking to people, you know, such in your profession and well, your business card says you do this, but as we're talking, I'm not getting it, you know, and I think that's a compliment to you that you can take that process and embellish it with your clients to make them understand you are in a safe place. And I think I'm telling you, as I'm talking, we're here for each other. So let the communication cascade.

Bryanna Mehling (35:15)

Yeah, I think too what comes up for me when you share that perspective is there's also, in my life, I try my hardest and, in my business, I definitely try my hardest to release judgment. And so, when we live in a life full of judgment, we can feel like judging of ourselves and feeling like a victim. We can have a lot of anger and blame towards other people. We can have worry. 

So high levels of judgment lead to more catabolic emotions in that way. And so, when we can release the judgment, whether it's again, judgment of ourselves, what type of parent am I being, what, you know, and it can actually, in judgment of others, and having more sympathy and empathy and all that, we can start to live in more of that peace and joy and collaboration and love. 

And so, I really have over the last I think I probably started 10 years ago or so. I didn't know that until I went through coaching of that. was on this journey of releasing judgment.

Rick Barron (36:26)

Going back to the groups, you shared some of the themes that come up.

What do you share with leaders and teams about creating environments where authenticity and creativity aren't just buzzwords, but they're values that are lived in the work environment? How do you go about doing something like that with them? I imagine that can't be easy, because each group's going to be very different.

Bryanna Mehling (36:56)

Yeah, honestly, goes back to that, who do you want to be as a leader? And if you want to be a leader that creates that environment, we talk about, okay, what do you got to do to create that environment? What do you have to start saying yes to, to create that environment? 

And so, one of the things that I love as corny as this sounds, I am a huge believer on like team building, whether like it's...first of all, I love planning team building events. I love facilitating team building events. Like if I could have a team building weekend, it would be like a dream of mine. But I am such a big believer in team building that when we built leadership development programs at the end of each session, we had team building exercises. I mean, team building is like, take your team out to lunch.

I like Friday lunches together. I mean, it's that simple, but so again, I go back to when you wanna change the dynamics of your team, you have to get to know your team. You can't know your team so well and still have these dynamics that you're looking to change. I feel like that's kind of impossible to exist. And so, if you wanna change the dynamics, then you need to get to understand your team. 

And teamwork is beautiful, because you start to see people's strengths, you start to see who sits back, who leans forward, you start to say what worked for us here, what didn't work for us. And you get to have these beautiful conversations around the group dynamic. And I can hear my voice already like elevated, because I get amped with this. like team building.

Rick Barron (38:31)

No, I mean, I was back, like I said, back in the day when I was in high tech, we had team building events. And my wife told me one that, that she was in part, a part of where, was somewhere in the forest, but it was a place where they had various types of obstacles set up. 

So, they had to wear a helmet and they were learning how to climb a ladder. And there were some, you know, some roadblocks, but and every process that you took or every obstacle that you took on, you picked two members of your team to help support you. 

And then when you went to another obstacle, you picked another two. So, the thrust was to understand not only teamwork, but also having faith in those individuals and faith in yourself that you can believe in them.

Bryanna Mehling (39:27)

The old school trust falls. Yeah. Yeah.

Rick Barron (39:30)

Yes, absolutely.

And you know, my wife said she found it so interesting that, you know, around the table when they were having their lunch that everyone was asked to share what they felt when they went through this and people were very open about it. And my wife said that one lady even got very emotional and that she was one individual who used to be sort of a just very hard to work with.

You know, it almost seems like she had an act to grind with everybody. But it was at that time that when she opened up about the obstacles and the team members that were there to help her, she then got emotional and she started to cry and she apologized to everyone for being, you know, so difficult. And she said, from this, I learned so much. And I thought, you know, sometimes that's what it takes to make people understand.

Hey, I'm not here to make your life difficult. I'm here to work with you. We're a team. sometimes these team building events, whether it's lunch or obstacles or whatever, it really does help. It really does.

Bryanna Mehling (40:43)

It takes you out of that normal day-to-day grind and allows you to explore something different about the humans that you spend the majority of your time with.

Rick Barron (40:55)

Well, that's true. You know, you know, five days a week, eight hours a day. And, you know, it just, just, it just works out that way. But, so in terms of your coaching, what do you find the most enjoyable aspect of it?

Bryanna Mehling (41:11)

You know, for me, it's those, the aha moments that my clients get. You know, I actually just had a potential client. We had a discovery call the other day and it was just, I felt so good in it and I knew she had felt good in it. And she wrote me like, it's business therapy. And I'm like, yes, yes. You know, and so it's these aha moments. And I really do, love work.

I'll work with anybody and that's probably my hardest thing is like I can't narrow down a niche. I just, if it fits, it fits, you know?  But for me, I love working in small businesses because it can be such a beautiful transition for these leaders of small businesses and small business owners. 

And so, it's these aha moments that people get when they're like, I just, needed that. That makes so much sense to me. It's, I can do this. Like this is something that's gonna work for me. And then what's even really cool is I have one client who I've worked with, I think six, we've done six sessions and it was around session number five where they were like, everything I put in place is working.

I'm feeling, this is working. This is feeling really good. I'm feeling like I have a flow. I'm feeling like, you know, even though I'm going through stuff, I'm still moving forward. And that was just so beautiful because really when we, my coaching is of what can we, how can we structure, for lack of a better word, how can we work to structure your life in a way that lifts you up?

Rick Barron (42:57)

Gosh. Again, going back to the times you've been doing this, I know I keep asking this question. What have you learned about yourself going through all this? What lessons have you learned or things that came to mind that you probably never would have learned had you not taken this path or this journey, if you will.

Bryanna Mehling (43:23)

Now, if you asked me this a month ago, it might've been a different answer. If you asked me this a month from now, it might be a different answer. So, what comes to mind is that I'm still on my own journey. Like I still need my own support system. And so, for me, one of the best times of my life, even though was going through a lot of hard stuff, I felt supported the most when I was going through my coaching program, because we did coach every other week for almost a year. 

And so, I just know how much coaching supports the growth of the lifestyle that we try to create. And so, where I am right now in my life, I told you I have a 22-year-old month old son, I have a pre-teen, autistic daughter, and so we're like in the spectrum of life here. And so, what I'm learning right now is everything that I'm working with my clients is, I also need to pause right now and take care of myself in that sense. And I need to be very open and honest and transparent, probably mostly with me, about I can't do everything. So, what's my priorities?

What can I say yes to? What do I have to say no to? Like for example, I said I have seven episodes recorded and I haven't got to editing them yet, but my children have taken the forefront with the great old hand foot mouth virus that's been going around the country that made like the New York Times. 

And so I think I'm also learning saying yes, getting comfortable saying yes, getting comfortable saying no, setting those boundaries for myself and not feeling guilty about it and not feeling like, my God, I should have done all these things. But instead feeling, I'm really grateful that I got to spend this time with my children. I'm really grateful that I was able to share this information with my mom today or something. But just the increase of gratitude that has to come with the accepting of the balance.

Rick Barron (45:46)

No, I think that's well said because I you I hear you, you've started this business, been at it for three years, then you started a podcast. And you and I both understand that, you know, some people see podcasting, I can do that. Yeah, you can do that. But there's a lot more involved than you realize that.

Bryanna Mehling (46:07)

Someone told me it would be 15 to 20 hours a week and I laughed. I was like, no way, like that's for people that are just like slow or something, I don't know. And I was like, no, if I was really doing it consistently, I'm like, nope, that's about right. It might even be more for me, you know? So, I was like, that can't even be accurate, but you don't, which is the beauty of saying yes to learning something new and like continuing to get your mind working and that's, and so.

Rick Barron (46:12)

Yeah

Bryanna Mehling (46:37)

Like you say yes and you have to figure out all the dynamics and we use Riverside and shout out to Riverside and you know, how to post it, where to post it, all the technical side of it and then learning how to be an editor. I will tell you; I use this term like resume builder. It is something that makes me feel good when I'm still going out into the world and saying, hey, I'm available for corporate roles, shall the right one come to play.

And guess what? Like I haven't been not doing anything over the last three years. Like I've been building a business. I started a podcast. Cause I, this might be for a whole other conversation, but as a working mother of two, it is feeling like the workforce is not set up for us. And it's a unicorn role where we can find something that balances at all where we don't feel like we're giving up one thing or the other. And so, I'll say that from like a primary parent standpoint. And so, I forgot where I was going with this.

Rick Barron (47:48)

Prioritize!

Bryanna Mehling (47:49)

Feel like I'll hear, yeah, exactly. Exactly what you have to prioritize. So yeah, so I'll pause there until it comes back to me.

Rick Barron (47:58)

No, that's, I'm not, think you said a lot there. mean, you know, the person I spoke to a few days ago, I think she put it so well. This is the lady I told you about, she started a podcast called the Mom-demic Diaries. And she talks to mothers who had to deal with, you know, taking care of their children during that terrible time period. But she expressed that, yeah, priorities had to be established.

And at times it's difficult. I think, you know, going back to your clients, whether it's a group or a single client, I think they each have to prioritize what are you wanting to, you know, achieve, but also what do you want to get out of your life? You know, you can't, you just can't do it all. 

I mean, yeah, some people have that gift, but you know, I think it's a matter of having just to take some time out, take a deep breath and understand deeply, okay, who am I? Where do I want to be tomorrow? 

And then tomorrow after that, and understand that you have to take care of yourself first, because if you fall apart, then those who are dependent upon you are going to say, hey, I lost her or I lost him. So those are things that we all have to evaluate.

Bryanna Mehling (49:28)

Yeah, and I don't know if you're like me, but I didn't grow up learning how to take care of myself. Right? So, you know, I didn't have, I didn't have people who talked to me about them being an adult and what it was like to have to take care of yourself and put yourself as a priority. And so, like I said earlier, I think a lot of us adults out here are still learning. Like we're learning how to take care of ourselves. 

We're learning how to advocate for ourselves in this world, in this environment. so coaching is beautiful in a way because it really gives you a space to do that, whether it's in your life, with your family, with your business. It's so, ⁓ it can like transcend genres, I will say, because it's empowered by the human going through it.

Rick Barron (50:15)

Absolutely. So, you know, you've only just started. mean, three years, that's a good amount of time. But if you had to, you know, maybe think in small steps, where do you see yourself in the next year or two with this? Where do you hope to be?

Bryanna Mehling (50:38)

I hate that question.

Rick Barron (50:40)

I'll edit it out.

Bryanna Mehling (50:43)

I'll totally answer it, but it gives me such bad anxiety. I'll know, think this is where me being authentic, right, comes into play, which is like, I don't know. Here's what I will tell you. The way that I will answer that has changed over the last couple of years in the sense of now that I will answer that with, I wanna feel peaceful, I wanna feel joyful, I wanna be present with my family, I want to feel like I'm flourishing, whether that's excelling in my own business or with an organization where I am connected to their mission and their values. I want to be yeah, joyful, flourishing, peaceful, present. And I wanna feel like love. That's how I'll answer that question.

Rick Barron (51:36)

That's great. I mean, I agree with you. That is a tough question to answer because you don't know. I mean, you could take a while stab at it, but for the most part, there's always that expression, want to live one day to the next. But being that as it may.

Bryanna Mehling (51:57)

Well, and I think that's why I said before, I'm in this space, I like naming my seasons. So, for my daughter, I mean, we're in her medical era, which is helping me stay focused. It's making sure we stay in her medical era. 

And so, for me, I feel like this is my era where I haven't quite named it yet, but I keep saying like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks, which is I'm more looking to create a beautiful experience with whatever comes through to me in that sense. But you asked my 20-year-old self, what did you want to do when you grew up? And it was like, I'm gonna be CEO and I'm gonna run this and blah, blah. And it was like, no girl, you gotta figure out how to be happy with your life. Like you got a lot more work to do. I think that, and also, I'm like, in my mind I'm like, I'd probably answer an interview question the same exact way. And so, the right company might hire me. The wrong company would be like, no, she's too much.

Rick Barron (53:04)

Well, I think some companies will not see the and understand that it was a very genuine answer. Seriously, some people just won't look at it that way. But to me, it's genuine. Yeah. I love that.

Bryanna Mehling (53:18)

And they're not my people, Rick. I'm learning that in my life, right? Which is, yeah, there's what, billions of people in this world? Like, those aren't my people. And I think that's a lot of what the last three years have taught me in the sense of when I worked for a local organization.

And so, my life was very local and centralized and small. And when I, I almost said when I broke free when it was like the genie moment. And I started my coaching program. I I still remember being like, I didn't know you a week ago and you're this amazing human being. And so I would, at one point of my three years, I was like just reaching out to people on LinkedIn. 

I was talking to them; hey I'd love to get to know you. was having all these great conversations and I still do. I don't have as many because priorities. I probably could talk to people all day long but I need to make sure I'm also moving forward. So, I'm trying to be respectful to myself. But I think getting this whole open up of this world, I have a friend now that we talk, it's a business colleague, kind of someone I can bounce ideas off of in Australia.

I'm like, how did that happen? And so again, I go back to from me saying yes, and that's why I'm just such a believer in what can I say yes to if I wanna change my life? And so, there's things where we look at what's happening in the situation and some of the question can be, do I have to change my situation or do I have to change my mindset? And those are two different strategies.

And so, I love working with people to say, are we working on changing the situation? Are we working on changing your view of the situation and how you show up and what you need to do differently in that situation? And that creates different paths when we answer those questions. And so, again, lost my train of thought because I'm 42 and can't think straight. Yeah, so there we go.

Rick Barron (55:29)

I love talking to you. So, in the scheme of all things, whether it's teams or individuals who enlist your services, what do you hope they will walk away from and having engaged with you? I'm not going to say work, but engaged.

Bryanna Mehling (55:53)

Yeah, because I think even if it's a discovery conversation, you know, it doesn't have to be a full work, but just saying like, hey, I'd really like to have a discovery call with Bray to see if this is a partnership. I want them to walk away with feeling more. I'm feeling well, first of all, I want them to walk away with what they want to walk away with. We'll say that. But feeling uplifted, engaged, energized, starting to like, know, sometimes before you do things, I talk about like the research phase. Like I'm a huge person of like, I'm in my research phase. 

That's another phase in our peaks and valleys. I'm like, crap, I gotta get into my research phase before I can start to make any decisions, before I can like create a plan. So, I use that a lot too in parenting, because I feel like parenting is just project management plus the love, right? So, it's like, okay, I'm in my research phase.

Rick Barron (56:46)

I love that.

Bryanna Mehling (56:51)

And so, again, I lost track of my own thoughts, but I want people to start to say like, what can I do differently now? And even if this is just one part of their research phase, if I'm just one part of the research phase, then I just add a spice to their recipe. I find that to be beautiful.

Rick Barron (57:17)

I love that. So, we're gonna end this conversation with this speed round set of questions. And I've had some very interesting answers to some of the people I've spoken to so far in past interviews. So, we'll take a first stab at this. 

So, question number one, what was the best live concert you ever attended and why?

Bryanna Mehling (57:43)

Oh God, you saw my, if anyone could see my face while you were telling me you were about to do a speed round, I was like, bleh. I have not attended many concerts. And so, I've done Usher and I've done Beyonce. Like I don't think I'd go to a concert now because I have such bad anxiety about all the crowds. 

But I do remember that this was like where Usher like was coming out on stage and he tripped and fell and did like a little somersault. And so like, I don't know. But I love, ⁓ I love a good, if I had to put my dream out there, I'd love to do like a very intimate, I love Neo. My husband always laughs at me, because we say like, hey, G-O-O-G-L-E, play Neo Radio. And so like, I could like an intimate, like 20-person venue, I'd be back.

Rick Barron (58:15)

My God, that's cool. I love that. 

Okay, what do you wish you had more time to do?

Bryanna Mehling (58:42)

Ooh, acupuncture, massage therapy, self-care, Yoga, walks.

Rick Barron (58:55)

I love that answer. Had one lady tell me what she wished she had more time to do and she said very simple, cleaning.

Bryanna Mehling (59:11)

Thank God my husband's the cleaner. And he's at the point where like he doesn't love my cleaning. So, I've just stopped cleaning altogether. I'm like, well, if you don't love it and you don't want to accept it, then it's on you.

Rick Barron (59:21)

Okay, third question. There's two more after that. What was your first paying job?

Bryanna Mehling (59:28)

Ooh, I worked as an ice cream scooper. Yeah, I feel like that's like, you know, a great first job, ice cream scooper. It's great.

Rick Barron (59:39)

Okay, if your husband wrote a book about you, what do you think the title would be?

Bryanna Mehling (59:46)

My gosh. He'd probably say something that should not be said on air. I don't know. I don't know. I have to skip that one. I got to think about it. I'll ask him and send you a message later… "My complicated wife, by Michael Mehling" I prefer complex. Lol

Rick Barron (59:53)

That's okay. Okay. Last question. 

So, what would you attempt to do if you knew you couldn't fail?

Bryanna Mehling (1:00:12)

Feel like I'd be right where I'm at right now.

Rick Barron (1:00:15)

I love that.

Bryanna Mehling (1:00:16)

Yeah, yeah, I feel like I'd be right where I'm at. Failure doesn't scare me. don't, like, I think for me, I don't love the word failure. I think there's like judgment to that in the sense, you know? And so, like I actually have tried to, I'm a recovering high achiever. We haven't said that yet. So like I've tried to embrace the beauty of mistakes.

Like even, know, for someone struggles to hit send, I'm like, just, I always talk about flexing the muscle, so if I need to practice not being a high achiever, where can I practice that safely, which is hitting send or having a grammar error, like, know. So where can I practice that? 

And so, I'm trying to lean into being okay, making mistakes and learning from them and not having this level of perfection.

So that's why I call myself this recovering high achiever. So, but I would do what I'm doing right now if all the, if I'm in fear, it's money. If all the money in the world was flowing in, I would do this. I would live the life that I'm living today.

Rick Barron (1:01:25)

I love those answers. Minus the title of the book, but I'll overlook that. So, Rihanna, I got to tell you, this conversation has been enlightening. mean, I love, I love your openness. 

I love your passion, you know, and I wish you all the luck in the world on what you're doing. And I really think you're going to succeed. No, I'm not going to say, I think. I know you're going to succeed. 

No, I'm really proud of what you've done. as you said, you there's you got a lot of balls in the air, but I think in time, you'll find a process by how you can pace yourself and, you know, tackle it all. And, like I say, prioritize what really should I be addressing first? And it'll come in time. It will come in time and you'll know it. 

Bryanna Mehling (1:01:59)

Thank you.

Rick Barron (1:02:27)

I really want to thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and sharing your world. Seriously. And I think that's what people are going to find ⁓ when they get to meet you in groups or as a separate client. And I encourage everyone and I'll provide the link to Byanna 's ⁓ podcast, please, because it's worth listening to and she has a lot more coming up. So be patient. But to that and I want to wish everybody a thank you for listening in and we'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.

Bryanna Mehling (1:03:04)

Bye everyone.