Female Disruptors: Jessica Brodkin of Mystical Muses On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be careful of your thoughts and the stories that you tell yourself. The stories that you tell yourself are very important. You may not even realize your repetitive thoughts like “I am so stressed all the time.” or “My love life never works out.” Your relationship with yourself is the longest one you’ll have, and for most people it’s challenging. I often tell my clients and friends to talk to themselves the way they would talk to a dear friend.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Brodkin of Mystical Muses.
Jessica Brodkin is the cofounder and Creative Director of the Mystical Muses NFT project. She is an MIT and Johns Hopkins graduate who worked at the CIA for eleven years before becoming a stand up comedian and reiki healer in NYC. Her story and work has been featured in the NYPost, CNBC, SiriusXM, AMC, and TruTV.
Mystical Muses collection brings defining characteristics of the divine feminine **mythical, whimsical, goddess like, even fabricated, or enhanced, maybe fictional*, into one universally identifiable NFT collection, where each holder can create or purchase a muse that speaks to their personality or embodiments of aspirational avatar personality. Inspired by Jessica’s transformation, and healing experience, the Mystical Muses collection has brought an intuitive and whimsical ethereal element to the NFT world.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My career has been absolutely wild and I’m grateful for it. When I was a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology I was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency where I worked for eleven years as an analyst. After a few years, I decided to become a stand up comedian at night while continuing to work for the CIA. Some of my management was supportive and some were not, but many attended my shows without asking me first!
I had a lot of physical and mental health issues while I was working at the CIA. I used to have migraines, non-epileptic seizures, depression, and anxiety. I passed out at a friend’s house from migraine-related pain and woke up with him waving his hands over me and all of my pain was gone. I asked him what he was doing and he said “Reiki.” I said “What’s that?” and that was the beginning of my journey into energy healing. After a year or two of treatments, I no longer had any mental or physical health problems and I discovered that my family has been healers for generations and that I also had the gift. I moved to NYC to follow my dream of being a comedian and opened up a healing practice that became wildly popular and gained a lot of media attention.
After being a professional healer for seven years, my intuition guided me to get into NFTs and to create a collection that was an umbrella and vehicle for transformation. Our collection brings together comedy, healing, beautiful art, and wild divine feminine energy while helping the environment by being carbon negative. I recruited my dear friend Ryan Dacalos who has an arts, animation, and design background to be my business partner. We combined our skills, creativity, and talents to creat the Mystical Muses NFT collection. We partnered with Nori, a carbon removal company, that removes 0.2 tons of carbon from the atmosphere for every NFT sold, so we are also healing the planet.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Working in Web 3 is inherently disruptive. Web 3 is the next generation of the internet and is heralding a new era of humanity’s relationship with technology that is more fair, decentralized, and brings ownership of one’s content.
The NFT and crypto space is part of web 3 and it is a male dominated space with a lot of uncertainty, a lot of unknown, some scammers, and also a lot of really amazing visionary people. I am here to be a part of the new world of technology, art, and business. NFTs are the intersection of all three and I believe that they are the future. I believe that it’s possible to create and succeed as an ethical business that gives back to the community and creates value and offers positive transformation for its community members.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My first office in Manhattan didn’t have online booking and I had to book by phone. However, they didn’t answer the phones very often and my clients would ask to see me at the last minute. So I just winged it and used empty rooms, but then the owners would come in during my healing sessions and yell at me for using the wrong rooms. It wasn’t very relaxing for any of us.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I have been mentored mostly by my fellow healers and by a few people in the crypto space.
One of my mentors has been David Wright, the first person who initiated me into Reiki. I think that understanding yourself, your triggers, traumas, negative beliefs, and just being able to regulate your nervous system is the most important thing.
I’ve had a lot of mentors but even more importantly colleagues and peers who were going through it all together, learning from one another and supporting each other to grow our businesses and practices. We are all open with each other through trading healing sessions to mindset hacks, and even technical support.
Starting a business for some of us is a calling and something our soul wants us to do. My career and my businesses have really taught me so much and changed me for the better as a person. My work has been instrumental to my self-actualization and helping other people and benefiting their lives has been incredibly rewarding and meaningful.
I was told over and over again by my mentors to meditate, take care of my body, my mind, and my nervous system. I was told to find a way to connect to the universe every day. It’s been a game changer in terms of keeping my mental health strong while dealing with the uncertainties of starting a company.
Be careful of the company you keep. You want to have people in your corner who support you, but also those who are able to give you feedback. Be the person who is able to receive that feedback.
Even when I couldn’t directly have mentors in the new space that I was entering, I closely watched how other businesses conducted themselves. I watched the generosity that was clearly demonstrated by successful projects. I found their way of being to be inspirational and decided to emulate and create a project that benefits people and the planet.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Mathematics is a system that withstood the test of time and has innovations, but really just within its own system. The scientific method has stood the test of time and is really important to public health and innovation.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Imagine the reality that you want to achieve as if it has already happened in the past and live from that moment. This is the heart of manifesting. Time is relative. Reality is relative. If you can imagine it, then it can be real.
Face your shadow, which means face your subconscious and unconscious programming and negative beliefs that are causing you suffering. This is what allows for breakthroughs in life and business.
Be careful of your thoughts and the stories that you tell yourself. The stories that you tell yourself are very important. You may not even realize your repetitive thoughts like “I am so stressed all the time.” or “My love life never works out.” Your relationship with yourself is the longest one you’ll have, and for most people it’s challenging. I often tell my clients and friends to talk to themselves the way they would talk to a dear friend.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I want to make beautiful high-end wearable art (digitally and physically) that is sustainably made and use a large portion of the funding to help climate change. I want to work with large scale luxury brands to create bags, purses, and other products that help the ocean and planet. Climate change is one of my biggest concerns for our future generations and of course the present day. I do believe that there are technical and social solutions for climate change.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I remember working at the CIA and being told by my female boss that I was an alpha. I was punished for not obeying orders. I watched my male colleagues be rewarded for the same behavior. This was many years ago, and now there is a lot of talk about women in business being masculine or toxic “girl boss” energy. There is a lot of evidence that women CEOs are punished more severely than men for the same behavior. We have not courted investors yet, but we have been told that women have a harder time getting funding for their businesses.
Socially and physically women face a lot more challenges.Gender roles absolutely impact businesses and our lives. Our society doesn’t honor cycles and rest. Women traditionally support men. A man can work long hours and have a family and a partner and be rewarded for being a great father while spending a lot less time with his family than a woman does. I have male clients and friends who have been stay at home fathers while their wives worked and these men were and are still socially punished. I could talk about this all day. But I also understand and recognize that I have a lot of privileges that other people don’t.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
So many books, podcasts, and courses changed my life.
The Power of Now had the biggest impact on me and any teachings and writing of Pema Chodron or Thich Nan Hanh. Their books got me out of a deep depression and kept me out of that depression. They changed the way that I view the world and allowed me to ride the ups and downs of life. I’ve recommended their books to so many people and I frequently read short excerpts during my monthly meditation circles.
Conscious Millionaire by J.V. Crum III was a transformative book and podcast because I really learned that I can create businesses that are beneficial to society and not be discouraged to start a business because of the corporate greed and unethical behavior of other businesses. I truly believe that you can create what you want.
I love the teachings of Gala Darling who taught me how to use a technique called EFT Tapping to help reprogram my mind. It has been a game changer for me and helped me grow my business by changing my limiting beliefs.
I also recommend a book called Honoring Darkness by one of my favorite people Winnie Wang. Her book is about how to do shadow work which is how to process the parts of our psyche that we don’t want to face.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I want people to know that they can create the life of their dreams in a way that benefits society. I want people to create sustainable lifestyles, heal their trauma, take care of each other, themselves, and the planet. We have a hard time with balance and cycles. I do think we can have it all while also making the world a better place. Our lives and our businesses can be a win-win.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Everything you can imagine is real.” — Pablo Picasso
I’ve had a lot of ups and downs and struggles in my life. I’ve conquered a lot of demons and eventually came out on top. Even through the difficult times I created and experienced things that people told me were impossible. I was laughed at for majoring in Political Science at MIT. My entire family is engineers. I was told I wouldn’t get a job, and I got into the CIA. I was told that people can’t be full time healers, and make a living doing healing. I did it and I was featured in CNBC as someone who made six-figures as a healer. Now, I’m in the NFT space in a new frontier.
These are career examples, but they don’t have to be. Question everything and do what you want in a way that benefits society and also creates a healthy life for yourself. There is nothing as good and as sweet as peace and purpose. It’s a discipline to get there and stay there.
How can our readers follow you online?
People can follow me on my personal twitter and instagram and check out my NFT collection.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Jessica Brodkin of Mystical Muses On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.