We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachele Brooke Smith (Palafox) a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachele Brooke, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I am an actress, film producer, inspirational speaker, wellness advocate, and co-founder of Relationship Renegades, where my husband/partner, Emilio Palafox, and I are on a mission to help the world set new baselines for what’s possible in life, love, & relationships.

I’ve been on a mission of empowerment ever since I was young, as I went through one of the most profound life experiences…
Of going from a super insecure, anxious, and unhealthy competitive gymnast to landing the lead role in the sequel to the film that changed my life as a little girl, (Center Stage), and literally doing what everyone told me impossible.… This was an incredibly long, hard, challenging manifestation journey, a wild ride of emotions, and an experience that changed me forever. And to this day I am extremely passionate about continuing to create my “impossible” and help other people around the world, do the same. To find what lights them up, create a life & relationships they love, and become the HERO of their own story.

Since then I’ve been in 45 hit Feature Films & TV shows (with 3 new lead roles in films coming out in 2024)
I play a lot of HERO type characters in film, and I help people be the HERO of their own life’s story, off screen.

I do this in a variety of ways but, especially, through the company my husband and I created called, Relationship Renegades

We created, Relationship Renegades, as an answer to a “soul calling” we both had after finally learning how to attract, maintain, and sustain and experience what a HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP felt like, and wanting to do all we could to help others find and create the same for themselves. This came from both of our deep passions, from our individual “pain to purpose stories” of years being filled with a serious of very unhealthy relationships. As well as, watching every one around us struggle immensely when it came to “Relationships” and realizing that there was a HUGE lack of education and media around what a healthy relationship was, what it meant, and how to create one, This lead us both down a journey or self discover, study, and commitment to creating a company to help solve the loneliness epidemic and help co-create world where healthy relationships are the new norm.

At Relationship Renegades we believe in edutainment: acting, improv, dancing, comedy sketches, & play… mixed with powerful messaging, deep conversation, and integration techniques to create, real, powerful life & relationship transformation. We are rebelling against traditional toxic relationship media, to captivate, and empower radical change & healing…
and most importantly, provide the missing piece off integration, identity transformation and habit formation.

Rachele Brooke, 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 feel so grateful everyday that I get to live my childhood dream. That through a crazy road of many challenging twists and turns, that I get to wake up everyday and continually create a life that I really love living. Below is the story of how I went from being an all to stressed out, not very happy, and not very healthy young girl in Phoenix, Arizona to being the lead actress in several hit films and TV shows. In fact, my first lead in a film, Center Stage Turn It Up, was literally my childhood dream come true! Coincidence… I think not, but more on that later. This road has come with many struggle, tears, and seemingly impossible to overcome challenges, and it is far from over. I have learned so many amazing life lessons along the way that have helped get back up again after extreme struggle, create a happy and healthy lifestyle for myself, and always remain unbreakable.

Here is a video I created telling this story of how I did what everyone told me was impossible

Before discovering my love and obsession with storytelling, acting, and performing, I was a very competitive gymnast (and as I said before a very stressed out little girl). Yes, being a young competitive gymnast was incredibly demanding, but it wasn’t necessarily the stress or demand I received from others that made me live in this awful and pretty constant place of worry, fear, and anxiety… it was the personal stress and artificial pressure I put on myself. I was anything but my best friend and biggest supporter. I felt this extreme pressure to be the best at whatever I was doing, so much so that the concept of just hanging out with my friends was a pretty foreign one to me. This overwhelming stress ended up taking a pretty sever toll on my physical health and is something I still deal with today. It was so bad that I stayed home sick half the school year and would throw up on a weekly basis, not because of an eating disorder but because of how nervous I felt all the time.. and mind you this was from the ages of about 8-12 years old… crazy right? While most other young girls where playing with babies I was just hoping I wouldn’t be getting hurt or yelled at at practice that night. I really feel like I learned the power of my thoughts and my mind in a negative way and I used this power to my benefit so i didnt have to deal with life. I knew if I was sick, (and not just faking sick but really sick,) I could stay home with my mom (and my best friend) in my safe warm bed… and what kid doesn’t want to feel safe? And on that same note, what kid wishes they were sick all of the time so they don’t have to go to gymnastic practice? After breaking my hand during one of the best competitions of my life, and having to have surgery, I began to realize how truly unhappy I was and even though it was ridiculously hard, seemingly almost impossible at the time to quit…I eventually did find the strength to do so. It was all I knew, it was my life, my friends lives, and my moms life. For the first time, I had felt incredibly lost. I went from being extremely dedicated to something for a long time, to feeling like I had nothing. I went from having a goals, dreams, purpose, passion, and a schedule to nothing and on top of all that, I felt like I had lost my best friend, my mom, myself, and my close friends (my team). I spent countless days crying alone in my room feeling so alone, so scared, so helpless… I don’t think I will ever forget how sad and lost I was back then.

Around that same time I went with my family to see the movie “Center Stage” by Nicholas Hytner. This particular film was so powerful for me (especially since the only reason I really even liked gymnasts was the dance and performance element of it). Throughout the film had crazy goosebumps, chills, and was filled with a ridiculous amount of inspiration, I literally never wanted to get up from my seat. I wanted to stay right there in that magical moment and that magical theatre forever and I did for quite a while just there feeling so overwhelmed with this new drive and passion for life again… sitting alone in a dark theater and I started visualizing and seeing myself up on that screen playing characters like I just saw (I actually still do this practice after every impactful movie I see) I probably would have stayed there all night but by this point my family was looking all over for me and worried about where I was. I walked out of that theater a changed girl, I knew right then and there… that is what I want with my life. I want to act, to tell stories of overcoming struggle and challenge, to make people laugh, to dance, to perform, to inspire, to change lives just like those actors in that movie did for me. That film and that moment really did change my life and have not and will never forget it.
I had always loved movies but, wow, this was a whole new level of obsession. Could movies really be that powerful? I went from feeling so sad, lost, and alone, to feeling more alive, full of joy and wonderment, than ever before. I wanted to act, dance, and perform more than anything and I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. After that moment there really was no looking back, I just knew that performing and storytelling was what I was born to do.
Right after seeing “Center Stage” I pretty much lived and breathed dance and acting. For the first time in a very long time, I felt so free, so happy, and so driven. Yes, I was still a perfectionist to a fault, and yes I still put a ton of artificial pressure on myself to be the best at everything, but I i wasn’t living in fear anymore. I was living for my absolute love of music, movement, creativity, and storytelling.

I was constantly fighting against ingrained stiffness that comes along with previous years of gymnastics training. For some reason I just believed I was really good however it took a very very long time before anyone really gave me a shot. I wanted to be good so bad, it hurt, and got very little sleep all through high school in pursuit of that goal. I even got the “Rat” award at my studio because I would stay and practice well after my daily 5-10pm classes where over.
The plan was to go to my dream college that had one of the best performing arts programs, then go to LA to follow my dream of being a lead actress.
Fun fact: That plan failed big time and I didn’t get into my dream college! (even though everyone thought I would be a shew in)
After a few weeks of complete devastation, and for some reason not feeling right or happy about going to ASU (which I did get into with a scholarship and all my friends where going there) I saw an opportunity to audition for a super intense performing arts scholarship program in LA. I flew last minute to LA with my mom, auditioned alongside hundreds of kids from all over the world, got in (oh my gosh, kinda freaking out… yay!!!!), and then found out I had 2 weeks to move to LA and be all set up and ready to go. Nervous excited energy flooded my body, this was epic, this was amazing, this was freaking scary… especially since I just got out of high school, I didn’t know LA at all, and I didn’t really know anyone there, or have a clue where or who I would live with.

That program was one of the most difficult and best experiences of my life. Looking back on it, I really don’t know how I did it. There was no excuses, no vacation days, no sick days… you had to be there six days a week all day long and if you had to miss you had to make it up some how. From about 9am to about 7pm was jam packed full of the best (and emotionally and physically challenging) class Hollywood, maybe even the world, had to offer. As challenging as it was, ahhhaahh i just loved it so much, in fact there a lot of days when I wish I could go back to that time where all I had to worry about was showing up for class. During this program you were not allowed to audition, have an agent, or work at all in the entertainment industry because if you did it would take you out of training and you were not allowed to miss class. As soon as I finished the program, I got signed to an amazing dance agency (yay!) but got turned down from acting agents because I didn’t have an acting reel (how could I have, I had been in a perform arts program where you couldn’t work or do anything else ever since I moved to LA ). To say the least, I was extremely discouraged and very confused on what to do next. A couple weeks later I saw a sign on the wall for auditions for the lead girl in “Center Stage: Turn It Up”, the sequel to the very film that changed me as a little girl (which by the way, I don’t think I had ever seen a sign on the wall like this posting about auditions, let alone an audition for my literal childhood dream) My heart dropped. I couldn’t believe it. My initial reaction was there was no way this could be happening. Is this some sort of joke? I am a being punked? Where’s Ashton? It seemed so surreal, almost not even possible. Center Stage was my movie, it was the whole reason I started acting and dancing. How was it even possible that they would be casting the sequel to this movie at the exact moment in my life when I for the first time actually could audition for it, was prepared and ready for it, and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to even be able to be aware of it? (most auditions you never even hear about, hence why you have to have an agent to know about them)

Crazy enough I almost didn’t even go. I went home trying to justify all the reason why I shouldn’t go… how I would make a fool of myself, how all those acting agents turned me down, how I wasn’t ready, how I really hadn’t even done an acting audition before. I almost convinced myself but then, something happened, this overwhelming feeling and voice came over me that said “you have to go” and I swear it pushed me out the door. I ended up having to go in and audition 6 different times and what felt like a roller coster ride of crazy emotions that comes along with your childhood dream seeming so close but yet so far away… lots of tears, prayers, and sleepless nights…. then finally about a month of this whole process got the call that Sony Pictures wanted to book me to play the lead character in their new film and the sequel to Center Stage. I would be playing Kate Parker and I would be leaving to film in Vancouver for a couple months, and I would be leaving in a couple days.
(AHHHHHH HAAAAAA YAHHHHHHHHH!!!!) Yes, that was me screaming in my car!

It was a literal childhood dream come true. I was about to play the lead in the sequel to the movie that changed my life as a little girl, I was going to get to be “that girl” that inspired me so much. This crazy, beautiful, overwhelming, and to me somewhat miraculous experience was what has shaped my entire brand, company, and movement.

From this experience I went on to play in about 45 other films and tv shows (with 3 new ones coming out next year) and all of those journeys mirrored similar experiences and lessons in manifestation, belief, and personal growth that I one day, could write whole book about. but nothing shook or changed me as much as the journey I went on to find my dream guy and create our company together, called Relationship Renegades.

Even though I was living my childhood dream of being an actress, I felt really lonely, unsupported, and found myself in a serious of very unhealthy relationships. This led me down a deep dark path and several soul crushing moments, that in the moment, I really couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel. After my 5th blowout of a toxic relationship, I finally said ENOUGH… I can’t do this anymore and went on a deep healing journey working with coaches, going to retreats, intensives, workshops, and studying all I could find about “How to create a healthy relationship,” After several years of this and making some massive changes in my own life… I found the greatest gift ever.. what it felt like to be in a HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP with ME, and from that place all of my relationships started to elevate. And shortly after that my absolute DREAM GUY showed up, and my whole life took off. I finally understood how powerful a “healthy partnership” was and how it as the foundation for everything a really ever wanted. What it felt like to feel safe, seen, heard and loved and to know how to create that space for others.

Since that experience, all both my husband and I wanted to do was to help others find, feel, and create the same for themselves.

We are constantly speaking on stages, putting out free content, as well as have online programs, wearable reminders, group coaching programs, in person events, and are working on several big visions items like a documentary and tv series.

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

Powerful Life + Manifestation Lessons I learned from doing my first big movie, Center Stage 🎬 (the thing that everyone told me was impossible)

This lead role was my first acting job ever 🤯and it was the lead role in the sequel to the film that changed my life a little girl!!! It was the whole reason why I started acting & dancing.

– I had vision boards of Center Stage. (The 1st one)

– I would daydream about being in a movie like Center Stage, and would write about it in my journal, regularly. I would write out phrases, daily like, “I’m so grateful to be in a movie like Center Stage one day” (this was a future gratitude practice I had started when I was really young… basically it’s practicing gratitude for “things in our future reality” that we want to call in… and living from the place as if they’ve already happened)

– I would watch the movie, Center Stage, on repeat to keep me inspired even when I felt super discouraged.

– I did everything I possibly could to keep myself inspired and to keep believing, even when it was really hard.

– I focused on letting go of outcomes I couldn’t control and spent all my energy on doing the brave thing every day.

– No matter how discouraged or insecure I felt, or what people said to me, I kept following my deep passions, my joy, and all the things that lit me up so much. (Dancing, acting, creating, performing etc)

– When really challenging things happened that seemed like the worst things… I kept doing my best to surrender to the flow of life, and trust and believe that somehow, someway, everything was working out for my highest good. (I couldn’t see it then but looking back on it now, everything really was)

Also some of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned whether it was through manifesting movie roles or my dream relationship with my dream partner
👉 Dreams do come true, never settle.
👉 The “Higher Love” you’re looking for is worth the work, & the wait. (And the tears)
👉 You attract at the level you’re being… so focus your energy on BEING the kind of person you want to attract.
👉 If you want a great relationship, spend time with, and STUDY from people and coaches who are living examples of “how to have healthy, conscious relationships”
👉 Great Relationships do take work, but they should NOT feel hard all the time.
👉 If you’re NOT 100% in, get out asap!
👉 Get super clear about what you want & spend time with with your dream partner, daily (ex. write letters to them, experience what it feels like to be together in meditation/visualization).
👉 Spend time in places and doing things your dream partner would do/be in. (You might run into them that way :)
👉 Become a master at creating a space within yourself, and with loved ones, where you both feel safe, seen, heard, & loved (no matter what). This ability will be a life/relationship saver when your dream partner shows up.
👉 Look for the lessons life is trying to teach you, and learn them fast so you don’t keep repeating old patterns.
👉 Protect & Nurture your BELIEFS in your ability to create what you desire, on a daily basis.
👉 Let go, surrender, and ENJOY today as much as you can. Tomorrow is NOT promised and you will never get this chapter of life again.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Powerful lessons I learned on my journey to creating a HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP with me and my body, that changed the game for me when it comes to heath, wellness, weight-loss, and relationships (especially. as an actress and entrepreneur )

-The lie of the perfect body is killing us! Especially, as a actress , dancer , etc I battled with body image and emotional eating issues for most of my life… its a really complex and deep rooted issues I’ve had to work really hard to heal, but one of the biggest reasons so many of us suffer so badly with issues like this, is pressures society puts on us and the unrealistic standards we hold ourselves too that make it impossible for us to feel good about ourselves or at peace within our own bodies. Side note (even the most beautiful people in the world, that you consider flawless struggle with this) the only way to unscramble from the narrative

-Healing old wounds , A lot of time weight gain can be a response to trauma
If you try to loose weight from an unhealthy place, it will usually backfire in some way. Flip the scrip from I’m trying to loose weight to look perfect, or fit in, or get love or acceptance… To I’m so freaking grateful to have this amazing body, and no matter what it looks like.. it allows me to do so many amazing things… walk, run, dance, play, feel, express , see , hear , smell, taste ,touch.. and its on loan, I’m not gonna have it forever, and its one of the most amazing peices of technology and or intelligences there is! “If I don’t take care of my body, where am I going to live” “the more I take care of my body, the more my body takes care of me.

Stress is killing us, if we’re constantly in a state of fight or flight , our body can’t digest our food properly ,
Weight loss is NOT about NOT eating , its about learning how to nourish and support your body so it can do all the amazing things its supposed to do.

Everyone is unique and it’s learning what works best for you (there is no one right way to eat, move, live etc )

Learning how to love and appreciate myself and my body enough to only feed it whole organic real foods and do my very best to stay away from unhealthy seed oils, processed foods

“The stronger you are the harder you are to kill” (in every sense of the word) Building muscle is one of the best anti-aging things you can do. The more muscle tone you have the more your body burns fat with you doing. Focus on doing things things that actually make you stronger. Lift , push , and pull heavy things

Weight-loss is not about not just going working out its about moving more throughout the day , doing things like walking, dancing, biking just moving … the more you live

Contact Info:

• Website: Rachelebsmith.com RelationshipRenegades.com
• Instagram: @rbrookesmith @relationship.renegades
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/RacheleBrookeSmith
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelebrookesmith
• Twitter: @RacheleBsmith
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@rachelebsmith