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

Bruce, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

My journey as a content creator began with less than 400 followers. I started posting and sharing my artwork on TikTok and Instagram which was a slow build. Soon after I started sharing my personal story of overcoming from mental health and addiction recovery. Within the first month of sharing these stories my TikTok platform exploded and I gained 100,000 followers. Since then I have been advocating for others going through a similar journey and I now have a following of over 1.5 Million followers across all platforms. This dedication and consistency of showing up has led to many other amazing opportunities such as becoming a certified Motivational Speaker, a published author with WILEY publishing to now being a certified life coach. Throughout the year of 2024, my book was published and I have won five different awards through the Cheer Choice Awards and the Telly Awards for content creation, Motivation and Inspiration, a Mindfulness Award and A Peoples Choice Award. I wouldn’t change a thing of how the progression happened. I find everything happens when the moment is right. Stay disciplined and active in what you love and the right things will follow.

Bruce, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

At first I didn’t really have a brand, which led me directionless. This wasn’t working. So when I decided to spend my full time and energy on the things I loved, then thats direction I ended up following. My brand now is simply positivity and inspiration. You can find me on all social media under the user name @bwb.positivity. As a keynote speaker for many different retreats and organizations, I provide great motivation/inspiration showing that others can overcome and recover from their own mental health struggles and addictions. I follow up with my real life experiences and offer possible tips and tricks that they can apply to their own lives. This flows in nicely with my life coaching career. I simply provide my clients with possible solutions and motivational tools to build better living habits that can help them with their anxiety, lack of motivation for their careers, mental health and addiction issues. I also provide this type of work daily on my social media accounts, just a daily friendly reminder and daily inspiration. You may also find all of my services on my website bwbart.com

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Being born into detox from drugs and alcohol, the odds were really stacked against me. The first three years of my life, my sisters and I survived horrific physical and sexual abuse as well as extreme neglect. Thankfully I was removed and placed into the foster care system where I was quickly adopted. My Adoptive parents gave me everything I needed from unlimited love to trauma therapy. Because of my earlier years, the consequences from that were great, like being born with several learning disabilities. I had a bad stammer and couldn’t pronounce my R’s. I was behind in my cognitive growth. I was also born gay. Now when you combine all of these things, you can only imagine how badly I was bullied in school growing up. However, I did find a safe space in art and in musical theatre.

Despite having all the love and help that I received, my earlier years of life would soon catch up with me. Later on in life when I was 16 years of age, I ran away from home for an entire summer. I went to many different cities. Over the course of this summer I would re-introduce my addictions that I was born with, like hard drugs, alcohol and even sex. After my summer of “fun” was over, I was placed into a juvenile detention center, and group homes for long periods of time. With these major consequences from my actions, I quickly got my act together and by the grace of God, graduated high school.

At 18 years old I moved from Montana to New York City where I was sure to eventually make it on Broadway. Well lets just say, I was easily pulled back into my addictions. Meth being the big one. I found myself in a very dark place in my life, surviving as a sex worker and constantly high or drunk. This went on for years. However, like anything, the good or the bad, there are consequences and mine almost killed me. I was borderline AIDS, had Acute Hep-C and phenomena all at the same time. Enough was enough. I checked into rehabs, got myself into therapy and really started to show up and take action for the first time in my life. I mean where I really truly wanted to get help and become better. Im not saying it was easy, because it wasn’t. However, I did it. in spite of all the odds, I have over come and recover. Now I advocate for millions of people online that they too can overcome, be who are they are and they too can blossom. I wouldn’t change a thing. I am truly very grateful.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love my career as a creative/entertainer. Being a person in the arts, whether it is visual art, writing, performance, or even being a social media personality, this means I can live life fully through that art. I can paint a story on a canvas, where I can fully release that story, for good or bad and turn it into something so beautiful. Seeing how it impacts others and how they resonate or relate to it is fully rewarding. In performance art, I get to briefly live as someone else and tell their story. This helps me reflect on my own story and how I can relate to others. It gets me out of me and allows a broader prospective on life and the ways other may live. What a gift that is. As a personality on social media, I can bring ALL of these aspects to life and share with others all of these amazing and unforgettable lessons of living. So I guess the overall theme here is being a creative comes down to life. Fully and authentically living. By sharing this through art, performance or simply online, I hold a great responsibility to show others that they too can do the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bwbart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwb.positivity/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bruce.brackett2/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bwb.positivity
• Other: https://www.threads.net/@bwb.positivity

Image Credits

The Cheer Choice Awards
Jenna Hokanson
Paul McCarthy
Bruce W. Brackett