#E57 Personal Branding, Entrepreneurship & The Future of Humanity - Q&A With Briar Prestidge
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Q) When did your entrepreneurial career really start?
A) So if I'm going to be keeping it real with you and I'm all about keeping it real, I would say my entrepreneurial career started with a worm farm in New Zealand. Yep. You heard correctly, little squiggly, grubby little worms and me naturally dressed in my cowgirl hat, sparkly pink betty boop shirt and cowboy boots, used to strut down through my farm to my worm empire. It was my dad's million dollar idea. He had a few of these and you must be asking, well, how can worms be a million dollar ideas? Well, let me assure you, he had these massive containers, probably about eight meters long, where there were literally thousands and thousands of these little things. I used to feed them last night's dinner. And also, this is a kind of weird piece of information, which I'm sure you'd be interested in, but worms also like eating soggy newspaper.
So I used to put the newspaper out and feed my worms and we used to package them into bags and sell them to the community to give their soil nutrients. So yeah, that's how it all started. Me, a young entrepreneur in training, dressed in sequin, feeding a worm empire, how strangely iconic. From then I learned that it was quite easy to make a quick buck in life. And I then evolved to become a clown. So at about 11 years old, I taught myself how to make balloon animals. So I used to make these awesome swords that you could fight with. It was quite cool. Ladybug bracelets, poodles, they were the best. They had all these little bops all over them and giraffes. I had about 10 that I used to do. I used to dress as a clown and then at school community fairs, I used to turn up as a clown, no shame, a genius in a colorful wig and make about a hundred to $200 a day.
So that really was where my entrepreneurial career started. My sister, she was four years younger than me and she liked to do everything just like me. So she kept me really on my toes. For instance, I remember school calf club day, which is where you have animals and you raise them and then once a year you take them to this fair and compete. So my sister and I, we were rearing sheep, little lambs. And I remember she wanted to call her lamb the name that my lamb was called. So one day mine would be called thunder. Then her lamb would be called thunder. The next day my lamb would be called socks, and then her lamb would be called socks. And it was beyond annoying. I complained to my parents literally every single day about it. But sweet, sweet karma. On the day of calf club, she called hers dog and she was like, "dog, dog" and her sheep obviously ran in the complete opposite direction because it didn't know its name.
She was the exact same when it came to hobbies. So I wanted to be a famous actress growing up. I saw myself on Hollywood or as a weather girl on the evening news. My sister copied me. She did acting, she did singing, she did tap dancing. And she was cuter, milder, and probably sweeter than I would ever be. So naturally she kept me on my toes. She taught me from a very early age that like most people in life, I'm quite mundane and nothing special. And if I want something, I have to really work for it. I have to stay consistent and I have to go out there and get it. It was a great lesson.
Q) How hard was it becoming as successful as you are today?
A) Honestly, I'm still trying to process being called successful as I don't really think about it. And growing up in New Zealand, nobody ever talked about doing something big or being successful with their life like that just didn't happen. You know how some people like to spin their entrepreneurial career into this, like rags to riches fairytale? Well, mine's definitely not that cute. There's been a lot of hard work, a lot of sweat and tears and trials and tribulations to get to where I am today. I've probably closed as many businesses as I've started and there's been some times I didn't feel I could go on and I would literally just write my to-do list the night before and then say to myself when I woke up, okay, just wake up, put one foot in front of the other and just execute what's on your to-do list.
Don't think too much about the future, don't get so overwhelmed. And that's really got me to where I am in life, literally just putting one foot in front of the other. And I think that's really cool advice for entrepreneurs. Be strategic, think about where you want to go in the future, but then break it down into small actionable steps and don't get overwhelmed. I think the most important part is that I've been brave to take risks. I've been brave to step out of my comfort zone because on the other side of your comfort zone, beyond the fear, that's where growth and achievement lies. But I would say over the years it's been messy, it's been real, but most importantly it's been earned. But yeah, I don't really want to be put on a pedestal and I probably have way too much going on my brain to stay up there.
But I think it's really important that instead of focusing on other people, you focus it on yourself and you think about the kind of person that you want to become and pour all of your energy and your creativity and your epicness into yourself and really go after and chase your future.
Q) Who were the mentors that expanded your world and how did you connect with them?
A) So I think the best thing about doing a podcast over the years is that I've got to meet and speak with so many wonderful people and fascinating people from futurists through to transhumanists, through to robotics engineers and people who have really challenged my worldview and even changed my worldview in some instances. So an example of this is death. I remember when I was about eight, nine years old, and when we find out about death, it is this horrifying and terrifying thought to think that one day we might not be on this earth. And over the years, as I've been talking to experts such as Dr. Aubrey De Gray, David Sinclair is another one who says this, they believe that we might even be able to solve aging at the molecular level or cryonics.
That could be another way that we could overcome our human limitations. So when I traveled to Arizona in May, I visited the Alco life extension facility and it was a surreal experience walking through all these metal canisters. I had about 200 bodies around me that had preserved themselves so that in the coming 50 or 100 or 200 years once technology has evolved, that they might be revived and whatever ailment they died of could be fixed. And initially when I thought about it, I was like do I want to be frozen in the future? Like, is this something that I would want or will I miss out on whatever afterlife perhaps that awaits me?
But I see it as almost being a bit of a science experiment in some ways. So maybe it might not be me who gets revived, but I could help the generations after me or the generations after that. And another way we might even be able to solve death is through artificial intelligence. So technology is now evolving at this super exponential rate, and this means that in 20 years’ time, the rate of change that we see today is going to be four times faster even. And this is really crazy to think like, let's think back to smartphones for instance. These smartphones completely revolutionized how we live, communicate, work and socialize. And in the future, the rate of change is going to be four times faster. And after I went to the Alco facility, I got to go stay with two amazing mentors of mine, Natasha Vitmore and Max Moore, who are philosophers and just have really interesting perspectives about the future.
All of the conversations that I've had with these sorts of people, they've really kept my mind open to possibility. When we think back to all of today's luxuries that we enjoy, such as smart phones or Uber Eats or all of the technology that we have around us, even like electricity, like when we think back to how people in the olden days might've reacted seeing this, they would've thought it was magic. Galileo, he was imprisoned in the 16th or 17th century for telling people that the earth revolved around the sun. So we really do need to explore and keep our minds open to possibility and be open to hearing opinions that are different from our own, because I think the truth sometimes lies somewhere in the middle.
Q) Would you have done anything differently on your journey to success?
A) I think this is the interesting thing with life, and quite often we are scared to take risks or we're scared to chase that business idea that's been gathering dust in our heads or chase after our dreams because we're scared about what other people might think of us. But when I look back over my career, of course there are some things that I would've done differently, but in saying that, no, not really. Like any kind of failure that I experienced, like if anything, they made me the strong and kick women that you see today. I think that's the interesting thing with life, we're often so scared of failure, but when I think back now I don't know if there's anything I would've done differently.
Q) What's the boldest decision you've made in your career? Was it a game changer or a total risk?
A) Well, let's just say, my last full-time job I held, I was fired from it, well half fired, half walked out, and I had about one month's salary in my bank account and I moved into a small windowless made room that barely fit my bed. And it was kind of like, go hard or go back to New Zealand, let's start my first business. So I would say that's definitely the boldest decision I've made in my career. I don't know if I would do it now. I think that's the beautiful thing about when you're growing up. If anyone listening to this is young and in their early twenties, like that's the best time to really try and go after it. You don't have a lot of responsibility and what's the worst that can happen? Maybe I might have ended up on a plane going back to New Zealand, but I would've been there for a year or so and then I would've gone again.
Q) You have such a strong identity online about who you are and what you want to achieve. What do you think is the most fundamental personal brand traits that sets you apart?
A) I love personal branding. As you all know, I run a personal branding agency. And for me, we need to remember that our personal brand, it goes beyond our online identity, like your personal brand is you. And I think back to this period of time when I lived in New York and I was working in real estate and I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, but I thought of myself as kind of like a recipe. So I thought about the kind of person that I wanted to become and all of the things I needed to change about myself in order to get there. For instance, exercising, I never used to exercise, but I was like, listen, if I want to become that person, that vision of myself, then I'll need to run. I'll need to lift weights, I'll need to take care of myself, I'll need to read books, I'll need to become more confident. I was not a confident person growing up.
I remember a networking event I went to, I did what Beyoncé does. So Beyoncé turns into Sasha Fierce, Briar turns into Briar Prestige. This is a popular NLP technique, neurolinguistics programming. And the idea is that you kind of step into this character and we teach this a lot in public speaking training as well. So if something happens, like you trip on the stage, you fall on the mic, like you stay in character, it helps separate your ego and this kind of nervousness that you might feel because you're kind of yourself but a character of yourself. So I used to use this technique at a lot of networking events growing up until it became this very natural aspect of myself. It helps you really get out of this internal kind of funk that you feel.
I remember I got a haircut. I chopped my long hair. Growing up, I was into this like rock chick phase. So I went from wearing pretty pink sequined skirts to like full on rock chick, like ACDC shirt. I had 30 piercings in my ears. I had a nose ring, a lip ring, and this long ginger scraggly hair down to my waist. And again, I knew if I wanted to be that person in my life, then I would need to change. I traded in my Doc Martens for some cute little kitten heels and change my wardrobe. You don't have to spend a lot on your wardrobe, by the way. I remember I went to secondhand stores and I got this amazing coral dress for like $8 and I literally wore it for three years and everyone always complimented me on it. It's about just being put together. The main thing is you wash your hair, you have nice hair, you've got clean shoes, and you have clean clothes and then confidence. Confidence completely changes an entire outfit.
So the offline aspect of your personal brand is so important. And then as we live in a very digital world these days, the online aspect is also important. I get as much satisfaction from my online personal brand as almost what I used to when I was painting a picture growing up. I love the creativity of it. I love being that vehicle in order to share all of these amazing scientists and technological experts and all of these very philosophical opinions with my audience. And to me, I don't really think so much about myself when I'm doing my personal branding. And when it comes to my personal brand, I think that the thing that I try and do, which, which sets me apart, is I try and make it very authentic to myself. So I love sequins. I love being glamorous, I love dressing up and then I love learning and I love science and I love nerdy stuff and I love space.
I remember when I first started my business, it was a total boys club and no one in the technology space was dressing up. Everyone was wearing gray and uninspired sweaters and flat shoes. I really felt at the time, like technology and science and fashion just couldn't coexist. I even had a talk show called Deals and High Heels, which was all about women and the problems that women might face in society or the challenges that they face and how they can overcome it. And, it was a lot of fashion and things. I went through this period of time where I was like, oh my God, I just want to produce a podcast or have a show about technology so bad, like that's really where my interest lies. I didn't think I could combine the two. But you can, like you can do anything in life. You don't have to follow the rules.
Q) Have you talked to any microchip recipients that were not paralyzed but had depression or another illness?
A) 'm going to assume that we're talking about brain computer interface microchips with this question, and no, I haven't. In fact, I believe where the likes of Neuralink and Secron and other companies are at in regards to their trials, is that they're only operating right now on people that have some kind of paralysis or blindness or some kind of problem that they're facing. I did actually submit my application into Neuralink and it was declined. So watch this space.
Q) If money was no object and you didn't need to work, run a business, what would you do instead?
A) I would just create my personal brand online, my podcasts, my docuseries, my online content, my writing, my book. That to me is what I love the most.
Q) By creating digital twins of ourselves, we are essentially duplicating our consciousness and creating a copy of a human being. What happens when someone hacks your digital twin or even corrupts, deletes them? Does that constitute a murder and will this lead to human rights for digital persons?
A) I don't know who sent me this question, but I can tell they put a lot of thought into it and I don't know the answer.
Q) Are you optimistic about the future?
A) Yes, very much so and I think we all should be because there's always going to be challenges and trials and tribulations, but it's just life. And to be honest, I don't think we would want our future to be this utopian future where we all hold hands and we're all like, oh, we're not working. This is so amazing. I've got no challenges in my life because in some ways one might argue that when humans face challenges in life, that's what makes it exciting. This is what helps us level up. It gives us some kind of purpose and meaning, and it makes us into a better person.
Q) How do we ensure that longevity and cyborg research and subsequent treatments, products and tools are safe and will actually benefit humanity?
A) By exploring, by curiously exploring, but keeping ethics at the forefront of everything we do. Just because we're scared about things or just because we think that that things that we're developing, an aspect of them is not going to be good, which is certainly the case. That's the case with everything that we do, doesn't mean that we should pause innovation. And the way that I see it is we can't even pause innovation anyway. If you stop, someone else is just going to keep building on in their garage. So we have no choice in life. We have to just go out there, explore and keep ethics in the forefront.
Q) Many of the people working in the futurism space are extremely wealthy white technology geeks. How can we ensure that we aren't going to have an even greater disparity between the haves and the have nots in terms of wellness and longevity?
A) Again, it's always a challenge, but we have a very big thing wrong with our society these days. And that's the fact that we live in a sick care system and it's not a healthcare system. We wait until we're sick and we've got something wrong with us, maybe it's a disease or we're dying and then we go out and see a doctor about it. And in the future, I very much look forward to a day where it's more proactive, where we see people for tests and we get our bloods tests and we take supplements and we keep ourselves healthy. So I very much look forward to a future where we have a lot more focus on longevity and we have a lot more of a proactive approach when it comes to things. So we see people on an ongoing basis every three months for a blood test, or we wear a wearable to monitor our vitals or we even have a health chip that checks our nutrients and lets us know what we're low in.
Because when we think about it, cancer doesn't just start like three months earlier. The decisions that we're making and the way that we're living our life, like 10, 15 years earlier, that's when it's starting. So ultimately it just comes down to society, it comes down to our societal constructs. The US especially. We have to change how we're doing things, like we shouldn't be spending thousands of dollars because that's what it costs to get some kind of treatment or to pay for our insurance every month in the US. The governments need to completely rethink how it's constructed. It should be free, everyone should be able to access healthcare. Why isn't it like this?
Q) Where do you get your style inspiration from? I'm obsessed with your nails too.
A) Who wrote this one? Thank you. I think I just have my very own unique style that inspires itself. So for instance, I use this platform called Best Kept Shared, and the ladies on there, they're constantly curating me dresses that they think I might like to wear and enjoy. So I like what I like, anything asymmetrical, big shoulders, tailored lines, sequins of course. Anything pink, anything bright colors, I'm a spring, I got my colors done a couple of years ago and I am spring coloring. So I do try and dress to my skin tone and hair tone and what looks good for me.
Q) What's the most fulfilling part of what you do every day?
A) I would say it's my team. I love having my team. I love being creative. I love nurturing talents and I love watching them grow. That gives me so much fulfillment.
Q) If you could switch lives with anyone for a day, who would it be?
A) Could I say somebody in the future, maybe myself in like 200 years’ time? I'm curious Wolfgang, Cynthia. Let's say what she's like and what kind of bodily modification she has. Wolfgang Cynthia. She's my digital twin by the way.
Q) If you look back in 50, 60 years’ time, what would you have wanted to achieve?
A) Immortality.
Q) So many of us are stuck in the cycle of comparison, especially with social media, how do you stay true to your path and avoid falling into that trap of feeling like you have to be someone else to succeed.
A) Focus on yourself. I think if you're focusing on yourself then you don't fall into this trap of comparison and monitor your content on social media and the time that you're spending there. Like, is what you're consuming even healthy? Is it making you feel some kinds of like jealousy inside or are you actually learning and being inspired from those that you follow? Create your life, create the content that you're ingesting. I think that's very important.
Q) What's your favorite planet?
A) Mars, because one day I hope to live there and I hope to get manicures and breed an entire planet of gingers because apparently they're going extinct.
Q) Coffee or tea?
A) Coffee, definitely.
Q) Cats or dogs?
A) Cats definitely. I have now four. I never thought I'd have so many cats, but I do because they're little bush cats and they were orphans and I felt like I had to adopt them.
Q) What's your go-to karaoke song?
A) Bohemian Rhapsody. So it's funny that I was actually singing Galileo, Galileo before, ironically. I know the entire lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody off by heart. "Is this the real life?" What I love most about Bohemian Rhapsody is you have all kinds of expression and types of singing. You've got the opera stuff and then you've got the rock. Like I'm apparently pretty good I hear.
Q) Beach vacation or mountain retreat?
A) I'm somewhere in the middle of this. I like the beach for short periods of time. I like the mountains for short period of time. I'm definitely a city girl, which makes sense because I live in Dubai, New York and I go to London all the time.
Q) Sweet or savory?
A) Savory, definitely. I do not have a sweet tooth. I'm very lucky for that. I have always been the kind of person to enjoy pizza, raw pasta, raw sushi or anything good like that. And not chocolate or lollies or sweets.
Q) Summer or winter.
A) When I think of summer or winter, I think of the hot summers I face in Dubai, like the really hot ones where it's like 50 degrees Celsius. And when I think of winter, I think of the deathly cold temperatures of New York during the winter where it's like a negative 10 degrees Celsius and it's like being frozen in cranics. So I would say like autumn or spring, somewhere nice and comfortable.
Q) Favorite emoji?
A) I'm going through the jewel phase. I like the little blue jewel.
Q) Dream car.
A) I actually don't know much about cars, which is quite funny considering I drive a supercar, so I don't know one of the supercars, one of the very cool supercars. Ferrari. Are Ferrari's cool? I'll go with Ferrari. My boyfriend will probably tell me that Ferrari is not cool. I don't know, whatever my boyfriend suggests for me.
Q) What's your spirit animal?
A) Cats, I actually do hope that maybe in another life I might come back as a house cat. There's something very nice about their lifestyles that I quite enjoy. They just sleep all day. They get fed, they're often living rent free with like two bank accounts, rolling them, like amazing. Go with the cats.
Q) Sneakers or heels?
A) Heels. Unless I'm at the gym, of course, in which it's sneakers.
Q) First concert you ever attended?
A) It was ACDC.
Q) What's your hidden talent?
A) I think I shared my hidden talent before. I'd say it's probably balloon animals. I wonder if I've got another hidden talent. I can tap dance.
Q) Tattoos or piercings?
A) think piercings. I've always been into piercings. I once had my finger pierced.
Q) Teleportation or time travel?
A) Whatever is not going to hurt my body. I sometimes think of teleportation or time travel, like it depends what kind of process you're going through to go into the future.
Q) What's the one thing you want people to take away from this podcast Q and A?
A) I want you to remember this. Becoming the protagonist of your life story isn't about creating this life that's free from challenges because that's not realistic. And I think we would all be quite di lulu to think otherwise. I think it's about acknowledging where you are at, understanding your potential for growth and being curious about the kind of person you could become. And then from that, creating small but conscious daily habits that help shape your long-term narrative. I think it's about starting small, but just starting because we all have so much more power than what we realize.
Q) Do you think that the future is going to be some sort of fairytale utopia?
A) I don't even think we would want a future that is some kind of fairytale utopia. Can you imagine if we were all like not working and we're all holding hands and skipping around in a circle, dancing joylessly. And I don't know, I think it's just a little bit stupid and delusional to think that, and I'm somewhat of a cynical realist I would say. And I don't even think that as human beings we would want our life to be like that. One might argue that we build character when we're faced with certain challenges in our life. It's like almost through an appreciation of our own fragility. When I look back in my life, any tougher times that I faced, they forced me to step up, to leave my comfort zone and built me into the strong and kick-ass women that you see today. I don't think I would want to go back and have them taken away from me.
Thank you everybody for all my wonderful questions. I'll admit some of them were quite challenging and tough to answer, but I hope there are some little nuggets of Briar wisdom in there or perhaps some different ways of thinking that might open you up to new perspectives. And I really do appreciate everybody following, liking and engaging with this podcast because I've got some big dreams for it. And by you guys supporting it, you guys really help us get bigger and even better guests and I really do thank you for that. Have a good day.
