Kevin Hart and Tabitha Brown: Veganism and Authenticity

Gold Minds – a podcast series where Kevin Hart interviews successful individuals, unearthing valuable information for his audience, is a must-listen if you’re searching for nuggets of wisdom and inspiration. If you’re new to the podcast and you want it give it a try, a good place to start is the Tabitha Brown episode.

Tab’s episode is inspiring, delving into “America’s Mom’s” spirituality, health, her rise as a social media influencer, growing her business empire, and freedom (of the soul).

The “multi-hyphenate” divulges lessons learned in the journey. But no topic they discuss is as profound as that of being authentic to yourself.

During her year and a half of sickness, she prayed a lot, did some soul-searching, and came to the realization that there was more to her life.

On her journey of transformation into her authentic self, she says it began with a prayer. “My prayer to God was that ‘if you heal me, you can have me.’ What that meant was that I couldn’t live my life my way anymore.”

Tabitha adds context, saying, “I had to live it the way God intended me to live it. How he created me to live it. And so I started, really, every day looking at myself, and I was like, ‘What have I created? Who is this Tabitha I created?’ I moved to L.A. from North Carolina, trying to be an actress and pursue fame.”

She adds, “And I did everything that I saw or was told to conform to or fit into that box. And that was not who God created. That was who I created.”

“I always cover my accent because I was always told to. I always wear my hair one way – long and straight – because I was told to. I was always a certain size because I was told to. And that’s not freedom.” While reflecting on her endeavor to live to conform to what a budding actor should be, she noted that she had been “suffocating the true” self.

After noting her failure to live up to her authentic self, she began to make changes. “And so I had to start taking those layers off. I got to a place where I started taking these layers off, and I’m still taking these layers off.”

Naturally, the process of embracing her authentic self didn’t come without some challenges. She had to sever some relationships along the way. However, her foundational relationships – her husband, kids, and father – were always supportive.

Importantly, by being authentic, she organically built a huge following that naturally gravitated towards her sense of humor and content.

Her transition to veganism was also an organic experience. After watching a documentary about diet and health, she decided to take a 30-day vegan diet challenge. During that time, her health improved considerably. She divulges that a migraine she had been suffering from vanished. Her energy levels improved as well.

Around the same time, she would start live streaming herself cooking vegan food on Facebook daily.

Besides hosting the Facebook live cooking stream, Tabs would also review vegan dishes she tried. Her audience was typically small. However, one morning in late 2017, she reviewed a Whole Foods TTLA sandwich that went viral, marking her entry into social media influencing.

In the nearly one-hour podcast with Kevin Hart, Tabitha discusses how she handles business. She takes us through how she organically expanded her business beyond social media.

On that episode of Gold Minds with Kevin Hart, Tabitha inspires and provides insights about herself that you might not have known. I loved every minute of it.

Give it a listen!

You might learn a thing or two about business and life.