We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brenda Hardwick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brenda below.

Brenda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I worked for the state government for twenty-seven years. It was a promising career, although not the path I initially planned to take. I retired and started my own business after leaving that job, but it was in the spring of 2008 when I was desperately engaged in trying to move up the ladder and secure a position in management, either within state government or somewhere else when things changed.

The head HR person for my department at that time, told me, to my face, that “performing a job for years doesn’t mean that you know how to do a job” and that I wasn’t qualified to move up into the position I had applied for.

Eighteen years of great performance reviews, scheduled pay raises, and contributions to a team that had won awards in our field of expertise, essentially amounted to nothing, according to this person. This was the defining moment.

After being angry, tearful, and feeling totally defeated, I started looking for a way out of there. But didn’t have a clue as to how that would happen. Several changes in the management team, my division, and some other unfortunate occurrences later, I found myself a little closer to where I’d wanted to be, but nowhere near that pinnacle of management.

Then my husband died. This was the proverbial “other shoe dropping”. Having already earned six degrees, I didn’t really want to return to school, but I did. I took stock of where I was in that job and decided that I didn’t want to die at my desk like others I had witnessed doing just that. I went back to school and received my certification in Integrative Nutrition, which I thought was going to be my business. I gave my boss two years notice that I was leaving. And, I started planning my exit.

What I learned from all of this is that I have control over where I’m at and what I’m doing. Whether I do something or I don’t, both are decisions. Depending on others to ‘see’ me and know and recognize what I have to give is a crapshoot. I had to throw it in their faces. I took ahold of the opportunities that materialized in front of me that were outside the box of what my ‘normal’ had become. I left all of those who looked through me behind.

My energy healing business, The Light Of Nature, is thriving. I’ve written and self-published four books and number five is slated for release in the next month through my company, Shine Your Light Publishing. I am currently carrying less debt than I’ve ever had my whole life. And there’s nobody but me watching the clock that I use to chart my days.

Brenda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an Angel Communicator, Energy healer and Author. I’ve been able to see Angels since I was three, but spent most of my life telling them “whatever you guys” until my husband died about nine years ago. At that point, I knew that things had to change. I didn’t want to work and die at my government job where I was helping people, but not in the best way I could.

So, I returned to school, thinking I would become a health coach and help that way. But, the Angels had other ideas. I began my business calling myself a Tarot reader and quickly learned that I wasn’t reading the cards but hearing the person’s Angels speak. Their words always matched the cards, but I didn’t need the cards.

Now my clients come to see me to hear what their Angels need them to the know and to receive the healing energy they need to receive. I’m a Master in two types of Reiki-Shamanic and Dragon, and I am connected to the Seraphim, the high Angels. The Angels send their healing energy through me to provide what my clients need. My client list has grown through word-of-mouth, referrals and advertisement. I’ve also done some speaking events that expanded my client reach.

As an author, I have two metaphysical self-help titles available and I’m working on a third. I also have two fantasy titles available. All of them can be purchased on Amazon or my author website.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

When I first started my business, I was still working my government job. I spent weekends attending every metaphysical fair and venue that I could. I shook hands and spoke with other healers to learn how they worked, what they did, and who was running the fairs so I could meet them too. I gave ‘free samples’ of the healing work that I do, sharing the energy with folks who I heard talking about their headaches, body aches, etc. I shared healing energy with anyone willing to accept it.

I knew I’d reached the point of saturation when I was asked to take a client at a fair but didn’t have a table there. That healer left her table, handed her client over to me and I worked on her because she said that the client needed me, not her. From that point on, I began to sign up for my own spaces at fairs. I went from working out of my home to see private clients, to sharing an office and then secured my own office.

I started my own MeetUp and guest-hosted with other healers at theirs whenever I could. It was all about getting my name out there. Having people learn what I do and what I can do for them.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My whole life has been about being resilient. The oldest of a blended family of eight, I survived my parent’s divorce, almost dying at the age of ten, being on my own at sixteen because I refused to leave Denver with my mother, and then becoming a mother myself shortly after that. I graduated from college with two children after not graduating from highschool. I navigated through three marriges, two divorces and then became widowed.

I started writing at the age of ten and had a few poems published. I had my first business experience at the age of twelve, and survived cancer in my thirties. Resilience is where I’ve lived. Trying to put words to even one of these stories remains very emotional. Suffice it to say that because I was determined to be other than what the people around me saw as my only possibilities, I rose above each challenge to be where I am today. I am blessed to still be here. I am blessed to be able to use my life experiences to help others travelling similar roads, and I am happy to do it.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.thelightofnature.com and https://www.brendahardwickauthor.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendahauthor/
• Facebook: – https://www.facebook.com/thelightofnature and https://www.facebook.com/BrendahAuthor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendahauthor-3968
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrendaMHardwick
• Other: https://www.meetup.com/The-Light-Of-Nature-Meetup/

Image Credits
Brenda Hardwick