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The wildest origin story we’ve heard starts with a liger and ends with a microphone. Brenna Lawrence—VP of Business Development at Brown & Brown, relentless networker, and newly minted TEDx speaker—joins us to unpack how she turned fear into a lever for growth, community, and real change. This isn’t a highlight reel; it’s a field guide for showing up as your whole self and still delivering results.
We dive into how Brenna treats sales as courtship—earning the next conversation by listening more than pitching, and building trust on LinkedIn through authenticity and consistency. She walks through the nuts and bolts of DisruptHR (5 minutes, 20 auto-advancing slides) and how that constraint sharpened her message. With help from mentors, she built a TEDx talk that threads mindset with mission, tackling the stigma around domestic violence and bringing resources straight to the places people will actually see them—bathrooms, break rooms, and industry events. It’s marketing with a heart: meet the audience where they are, repeat the message with care, and make help easy to reach.
We also get practical about culture and leadership. Brenna’s family motto—don’t be a dick—translates to radical candor at work: open communication, clear boundaries, and zero tolerance for energy vampires. She shares how she raises confident kids (ban negative self-talk, praise effort, ask “What do you think?”) and why she swapped the myth of balance for sway—be all-in at work, then be fully home. Her “buffalo mindset” story is worth the listen alone: face the storm, shorten the pain, grow faster. Along the way, we spotlight The Helm (a Charleston collective for executive moms), Brown & Brown’s Power of She, and Brenna’s own platform, “Hey, Hold That Door,” a call to succeed and then make room for the next woman through.
If you’re hungry for a playbook that blends business development, public speaking, and purpose-driven advocacy—without the buzzword fluff—you’ll feel at home here. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a push to pitch or present, and drop a review with the bold move you’re making next.
Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association
Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Sponsor: SCRA; South Carolina Research Authority
Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Rachel Backal, Tom Keppeler
Produced and edited: RMBO Advertising
Photographer | Co-host: Kelli Morse
Art Director: Taylor Ion
Score by: The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary and Mathew Chase
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