1: What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage it?
Abandoning myself, or loss of self-integrity. A mantra I adopted right before I started building a startup was “I’m always on my side.” It doesn’t mean that I’m always right, or that I don’t take in new information and change my mind, it simply means that I am mindful of putting my sense-of-self over someone else’s sense of me. This has been incredibly helpful when deciding who to take advice from and how to make important decisions.
2: How do you define success?
I define success to the degree with which I can authentically be me in powerful arenas - and still win, e.g. grow a business. I’ve worked in a variety of powerful arenas, including Capitol Hill, Fortune 500 companies, and more recently Silicon Valley venture-backed startups. When I was younger, I often subdued or hid parts of myself, specifically the emotional parts like sadness or anger. As I’ve grown and learned, I’m more aware that these arenas weren’t built by people like me, so of course me being authentic would appear different, and sometimes risky. Success for me has been embracing those differences, integrating my emotions to use as a strength to better connect with a market, a customer, or an employee to help us achieve our business goals. And ultimately proving that this style of leadership can also win.
3: Who are your real-life heroes?
Trailblazers that have made their mark in their respective crafts, including Meryl Streep, John Batiste, Iris Van Herpin, Mary Wolsencraft, Rick Rubin, and Maya Angelou. And trailblazers I know personally, who I have learned from directly, including Kevin Courtney, Jeff Flake, Sonia Syngal, Whitney Bowers, Bahja Johnson, and Ty Haney.
4: What is the best gift you've given yourself?
Education and travel! They’re experiences that nobody can take away - and imbued an invaluable confidence that I am capable of figuring things out in new situations. Some of my favorite travel experiences include seeing a tiger in the wild in India, hiking to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and opening a bed & breakfast in Spain. They’re the gifts that keep on giving, for example, now building a startup, everyday presents challenging new situations that we simply need to figure out. There isn’t a playbook.
On the more material side, I recently bought myself an emerald tennis bracelet. Every time I look at it, it reminds me of Glinda in the Wizard of Oz, reminding Dorothy at the end of her journey that “you’ve always had the power, my dear, you just had to learn for yourself.” It reminds me to trust myself.
5: What was the last win you celebrated?
Our TYB team recently launched a new app and a community for Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty brand. Not only did our team work really hard to make it all come together, but the Rare Beauty team, led by trailblazer CMO Katie Welch, worked just as hard. The outcome is a safe space for their community to connect and be celebrated for all of their efforts to grow the brand. To celebrate, our entire team took a week off over the holidays to rejuvenate.
About Breana:
Breana started her career in Washington, D.C., ultimately learning that she could make a bigger impact in the business world. After co-founding the Gap Inc technical innovation center, she joined Skillz, the first play-to-earn gaming company to go public. Breana is currently the COO and Member of the Board at TYB, a gamified community rewards platform, with customers like Rare Beauty and Procter & Gamble. She is an Advisor to Watch Duty, a non-profit consumer app that notifies you of nearby wildfires and an investor in women-founded venture funds, including Alante Capital and Phenomenal Ventures. She is passionate about building technology for consumers so they can have access to better products and experiences.
