Kenny Brown is a Mindset Coach, Lead SEL Instructor, and founder of Vibe Tribe University (VTU), a wellness platform for BIPOC students. With three degrees in business and accounting, and over 15 years of leadership experience, Kenny specializes in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Financial Literacy, Mental Health & Wellness, and Spiritual Alignment.
Drawing from his background as a former financial risk management professional, athlete, and music industry talent manager, he empowers individuals to navigate challenges and unlock their potential. At the Aware Human Summit on January 25th at Culture Lab ATL, Kenny will share insights on the connection between emotional intelligence and financial success.
Can you talk about your journey and what led you to your current profession?
Man, I’ve worn a lot of different hats throughout my life. I have changed careers multiple times, just trying to align with different versions of myself. I’ve learned that there’s a lot of dimensions to us as humans. You don’t have to be all of one thing. I went from being a collegiate athlete, professional athlete, to going into working in the music industry, to working as a bank regulator under the Obama Administration or during the Obama administration, and then also going into now social, emotional learning, mindset coaching, and really just the wellness and healthcare space.
I was going through some transitions in my life a couple of years ago, 5 years ago, before I started Vibe Tribe University, and I was having to be my own best friend, and that focus was really based on healing, emotional healing, mental healing, physical healing. And I really took a journey to where I had to be my own best friend, and I realized that I’m not the only one that’s going through this. And I think that I have a framework. I think I have a process, and I think I got some gold that other people can also benefit from.
And so, I created a platform and also went out and created a form of ministry called Vibe Tribe University, and then me as a mindset coach, I just went out to do really just to partner with people to help them unlock those inner conflicts or disagreements that they have that’s impacting their ability to be fulfilled and walk fully in life. So this is where I’m at man. And so I’ve created something for, not just for me, but for other people due to my personal journey and my personal kind of struggles that I went through.
What does it mean to be your own best friend?
Just be the person that you want to, that you need. Be the person that you need right? A lot of times our best friends serve purposes of balance. They serve purpose of reflection, and giving us a mirror to see ourselves clearly. They keep us accountable. They motivate us. They, you know they’re there for us to be empathetic and compassionate. They give us a safe space to just be ourself, and whether it’s good, bad, flawed, or indifferent, whatever it is, so what I had to do is just give myself a little more grace. Give myself a little bit more mercy, a little more kindness, a better self-talk.
Pay attention to how I talk to myself, pay attention to how I think about myself, pay attention to how I’m showing up, and if it’s in alignment with who I say that I am, you know. Am I as advertised? Or am I fake right? And these are hard questions that I had to really ask myself in route to being my best friend, and reconnecting with my own truth.
And so what I found is that this is what a lot of people are afraid to do is reconnect with their own truth, and tell themselves some hard truth. So, instead of me depending on the external factors and external people to do it for me. What I decided, I said, you know, I’m gonna go to God. I’m gonna go to self. I’m gonna go to my family, my close friends, right? So I focused on my relationship with God first, and then that helped my relationship with self. And then that helped my relationship with other people.
So, being my best friend was really more so, just instead of me looking outside for people and other things. I already have what I need inside of me. I can do this for myself without having to be bitter at other people for not showing up for me. Let me show up for myself, and that’s what I teach other people to do.
Why was it important to include God first in your journey?
I’m a man of faith. I’m a man after God’s own heart. I grew up in the Church. I’m a Christian faith-based leader, faith based ministry. But I’ve also grown up in multiple different countries. I was educated in 3 different countries before high school.
I’ve had a chance to live in a Muslim country, live in a Buddhist country and live in a predominantly Christian country I’ve embraced multiple different dialects and different religious beliefs, although I have that on my own, and I think that’s allowed me to be a lot more open minded and diverse in terms of the people that I can connect to the relatability as well as my ability to articulate and translate or translate comparable spiritual concepts that exist in almost every book, regardless of what you believe. There’s some commonalities between what we all believe. We just say it in different forms. So I look at religion a lot of times like I look at music.
Music has a lot of different genres. You got R&B, rock, hip hop, country, soul, gospel. There’s a lot of different dialects of music. There’s a lot of different dialects of religion. There’s a lot of different dialects of the way that we communicate with God, and it’s not a one size fits all, and I understand that the belief system is you believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus Christ, but I’m not Jesus Christ, so I’m not sitting here trying to tell people what they believe is wrong. That’s they’re gonna have to answer that for themselves. And one thing, I teach people all the time is when you get to the gates, I guarantee you God’s not gonna ask you about nobody else but you.
As a mindset coach, what are three tips that would change a person’s life if they follow these behavior changes?
I mean well, one tip is, if you can change your mind, you can change your life right? It all starts with thought, and that’s genuinely what I believe in is what I teach is what I coach is what I live. You know it’s what I don’t preach for people to do something that I don’t do. I teach what I do. So that’s the first thing. If you can change your mind, you can change your life. It all starts with what you think and how you think.
The next thing is that self awareness and self-discipline is key, no matter how much information that we give you, no matter how good you think your attitude is. If you don’t take action, you’re going to be in the same spot that you was before right. You can pray all day you can travail all day. You can sit there and minister to other people all day. You can get in front of these cameras and stuff all day. But one thing I know for sure is, if you don’t walk for yourself, then you’re not going to live out the results of what you’re trying to get right. And don’t be mad at God when you didn’t move. So that’s the second thing.
And I think the third thing would be, make sure that your priorities are in the right order. God first, then you, then other people. True righteousness. I guess my message would be true righteousness is not just good standing with God. It’s good standing with God and people. And a lot of times people take the one sided approach and say, As long as God loves me, as long as God please with me, and then they treat other people like trash, or it’s the other way. As long as people are validating me, then I don’t really need God like that. Who’s God supposed to what he’s supposed to do for me when on earth in my real life. This is what’s going on. So we become a lot filled with ego. My message in all 3 of these things, all 3 of those things I just gave is to tame your ego and get back into your soul.
What does it mean to you to be aware?
I mean, it’s to be conscious. To to be aware is to be exposed to it. To be aware, is to to consider it and keep it in thought. Keep it in mind. To be aware is to be is to have some type of communication or relationship with the information right. You can give me some information that I completely ignore. And I’m gonna say I’m not aware of that, because I don’t remember what you told me right. But if I have a relationship with the information that you gave me, and I’m actually, you know, in tune with it, then I’m aware, regardless if I use it or not.
You’re going to be aware that you got a doctor’s appointment at 12 o’clock. But that don’t necessarily mean you’re going to show up. So, just simply being being exposed to it doesn’t always mean that you’re going to embrace it and actually do something with information. So when I think about awareness, I think about not just exposure, but action that comes after that.
What do you do for self-care while helping all these people?
Man I teach. I told you I teach, I preach what I teach, I mean I preach what I do. You know what I’m saying. And so for me, I’m a lot of journaling. I do a lot of journaling, a lot of self-reflection. I spend a lot of time on my own, and reading a lot of books. I also study my word. Every morning I meditate a lot, just to make sure that my visions and my conscience is clear, and that I can kind of get in touch with my energy and my manifestations for the day. I really believe affirmations. Although I’m not like a chant type of person, I will, I do believe in self-talk and the power of self-talk, and seeing your thoughts written down on paper to see how you actually talk to yourself, and how you feel about yourself, because you can. We oftentimes can be the weapon formed against ourself that’s causing us not to prosper. And so, essentially, that’s what I believe.
Sometimes we can be the weapon formed against ourself that’s causing us not to prosper. Self-sabotage. It’s a real thing, right, and if we’re not aware of it. Aka, we’re not, you know, we’re not conscious, and we’re not doing nothing about it. When we become conscious. Then, we really can’t complain about it. Because we are the thing that’s standing in our way. And so this is kind of what my focus is as a mindset coach, as well as the founder of Vibe Tribe university is to really turn that focus back in on self without convicting or condemning yourself.
Really giving ourselves grace, giving ourselves a little more compassion, giving ourselves a little more kindness, a little more patience, the same things that we want from other people give it to ourselves. So that’s what I mean. We got to be our own best friend. This world is cold, man. This world can be hard, and the people that love you the most can also do the most damage to you. So before we get discouraged and be frustrated constantly at what other people are doing. Let’s look ourselves in our own mirror and come to our own conclusions and our own understanding about self. But let’s not do it just on our own. Let’s do it with the wisdom of God. Let’s do it through the lens of the Lord, and then let him show us something that we can’t unsee.
I’m with the truth. People hate the truth, because once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and you got to do something about it.
What does your mental health support system look like?
Man, first and foremost I got, I got spiritual mentors. My pastor, my other spiritual brothers and sisters that I look up to that I trust that I value because they’re real people. They’re not just pastors, deacons and things like that. These are real people that have their own struggles, that’s real and transparent with their testimony and their experience. I also have therapists, my own therapist, I believe in therapy.
I teach, coach and encourage therapy, not just through even. It doesn’t even have to be a formal therapist through your benefits or through your insurance plan. It can be somebody that’s gifted with the gift of a spiritual gift of some sort that can really deliver a message that’ll save your soul. And at least by changing your mind.
So therapy therapy is good for me, my family and friends, my pastors and my mentors, my best friends that I can. Also they serve as mirrors for me, and, truth be told, romantic relationship as well. Your romantic relationship, the woman that you’re dating, or the person that you’re dating or dealing with provide the best mirrors for you in a lot of cases, especially when you show up as your true self.
You just got to be willing to see or to accept what they show you about yourself, and that’s been some of the best things for me. This allowed me to just lean into some uncomfortable conversations, lean into some uncomfortable truths about myself, lean in to things that I need to face, or else I’m not going to complete this this level to get to the next one.
What can people expect from you at the Aware Human Summit on January 25th?
I’m doing a segment on money management, and how it affects on emotional intelligence, and how it affects our ability to manage money. I currently teach this program. We have a program under my organization, Vibe Tribe university. And it’s our emotional intelligence and financial literacy program. We’re teaching about the relationship between managing your emotions and the financial choices that you make on a day to day basis.
What I found and what we found as an organization is simply going out and teaching people about money and the terminology of money, and how to manage money is that’s that’s beneficial it is, but it don’t make. It’s not going to be useful if they don’t know how to manage their thoughts and their emotions right if you choose. I can tell you all the stuff about budgeting all day, but if you keep going to target with nothing but vibes, then it don’t matter what I tell you. So what I’m saying, and that’s what that’s kind of the analogy that I use to all my students. So I can sit here as a CPA and as an accounting subject matter expert, and tell you all the good things that you need to do to get your personal financials together.
But the reality is that if you go in with straight vibes and you just going with impulse, or you go in with irrationality on every occasion. Then the Financial Advisor ain’t gonna help you. So what I’m trying what we’ve done and what I plan on doing is teaching people or exposing people to the relationship that these 2 things have to each other. And the realization is, if you can’t control your mind, you can’t control your money.
Why did you call it Vibe Tribe University?
Man. Listen! I’m all about vibes, vibrations. I came out of the music industry. And so, you know, with that kind of being the energy I came from. I was just like, you know, vibes man, I’m just all about vibes. Positive vibes, you know. Vibration really just vibration. I’m all about energy. I’m all about spirit. I’m all about the feel of things, you know, and but also the facts of what it truly is, not just how it feels. So what I realized is that in order for us to get our vibration right, our energy right, our our vibrato together right our voice together. Then we first got to get our mind right, and then we got to get our hearts right, and then once we get our posture together, then at that point our vibration is going to be good, right? What you attract so within is so without right? The things that’s going on inside of you are going to be reflected and mirrored back to you on the outside of you.
The things that you need that you’re putting out in this world won’t come back to you tenfold. This ain’t magic. Manifestation is not magic. It’s just the relationship you have with your own energy. So what I help people do is come in tune with the control that you have over your own energy and curate that vibration. So you’re confident when you put it out in the world. You’re confident about what’s going to come back to you. It’ll reduce the anxiety that you have. It’ll soothe the depression that you’ve been going through. It’ll make you feel more secure and not like an imposter. If you’re dealing with that, it’ll give you more fulfillment. That’s beyond money. Girls, jewels, physical fitness. It’ll just give you an internal satisfaction and fulfillment that can’t nobody take away from you. So I help people get their vibe right. We call it Vibe Tribe University. Because of that, if you can change your mind, you can change your life, and that’s how you change the vibe.
I appreciate y’all, man, y’all make sure y’all come check out the Aware Human Summit. You know we coming the 25th man, 1/25/25. We’re going to bring something live. We’re going to bring something that you can use right now. I hope y’all join my mindset my segment, we’re going to talk about emotions and money management man. I’m trying to give you the tools that can change your life today. I may not be able to give you a million dollars, but I can give you a million dollar mindset. Come see me.
