Nikki Brianne shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Nikki, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
Silence. I try not to pierce the air with sound and instead allow my mind to expand in the stillness of the morning. There’s something sacred about those early hours — it’s like you can literally feel the moment when the world begins to wake up and people start to rejoin the collective consciousness.
When I wake, I begin with meditative breathing, grounding myself before I move. Then I head to the restroom, where I nurture my skin and tend to my hair — bathing and grooming slowly, with intention. I finish with a thorough self-massage, which helps me feel fully present in my body and aligned before I step into the day.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My Journey:
I’m Nikki Brianne — a filmmaker, photographer, and visual storyteller dedicated to creating media that blends creativity, intention, and purpose. Over the years, my work has evolved from exploring business ventures to fully embracing my creative roots, mapping processes for producing meaningful media that aligns artistry with impact.
Today, I focus on helping entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and creative brands communicate their purpose and the problems they solve through visual storytelling. My approach is rooted in structure, alignment, and intention — principles that guide both my creative work and my entrepreneurial philosophy.
Current Work and Focus:
I’m completing my associate’s degree in Digital Cinematography and preparing to release my latest short film, The Million Dollar Plan: Episode 1 — The Switch, next month. This cinematic series is designed for entrepreneurs, illustrating how building self-sustaining systems with multiple income streams can support your life and free your time. The project integrates the law of reciprocity, a concept I first explored in my 2013 novel, showing in real time how effort, intention, and aligned action create tangible results.
Alongside filmmaking, I continue my photography work, capturing travel, lifestyle, and brand imagery. My portfolio reflects a philosophy of balance — much like the golden ratio — where creative expression and logical structure meet.
What Sets My Work Apart:
What distinguishes my work is the fusion of storytelling, intention, and strategy. Whether I’m producing a film or directing a photoshoot, I consider energy, timing, and alignment as essential components. My projects aren’t just visually compelling — they are designed to teach, inspire, and guide action.
The Core Lesson:
The greatest lesson I’ve learned is that alignment and intention drive results. Whether through visual storytelling or business creation, energy precedes action, and understanding universal laws — like reciprocity — allows for work that is sustainable, impactful, and regenerative. Every project I take on continues this mission: transforming intention into form, for myself and for the people I serve.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
Something that has truly served me — but that I now recognize needs to be released — is my limiter, my inner restrictor.
I’ve always been deeply curious, constantly in search of truthful input. For years, as I’ve studied life, human behavior, and the psychology of “why,” I’ve had to process everything through a kind of internal filter — a mechanism that slowed me down, made me question, and pushed me to go deeper before taking action.
That limiter forced me to refine my thoughts, to sit with my ideas longer, and to search for meaning beneath the surface. In many ways, it was a teacher. It built patience, depth, and precision. But now, I can feel that its job is complete.
As I move forward and start executing the visions I’ve been preparing for, I notice that the pauses between inspiration and action are getting shorter. The waiting periods are dissolving. Where I once would have heard “not yet,” I’m now hearing “it’s time.”
I’ve entered a new season of receiving and applying — learning how to use what I’ve asked for with gratitude and responsibility. The restrictor helped me build humility, awareness, and discipline. But now it’s time to release it — to move fully into creation, to trust the flow, and to watch my spiritual gifts operate freely and purposefully.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
That’s a loaded question for me — because it’s framed as if suffering teaches and success does not. I don’t see it that way. I think of them as two different perspectives of the same event, both governed by the Law of Relativity and the Law of Polarity. Each moment, whether painful or pleasant, only has meaning in contrast to the other. What we call suffering is simply a lesson viewed from one side of the spectrum.
The concept of suffering depends entirely on perspective. For me, it began with love. I’ve always been an affectionate person — the kind who hugs deeply, gives fully, and loves without hesitation. But as I got older, the world taught me that not everyone knows what to do with genuine love. When my mother began to grow distant, it felt like my heart was being pulled apart. That experience shaped me profoundly. I carried that feeling of loss and abandonment for years, fumbling in the dark and trying to understand why love could hurt so deeply.
But now I see it differently. That time of isolation — what I once labeled as suffering — was actually my limiter still at work, preparing me. It forced me inward. It taught me how to love myself, how to sit in silence, how to recognize my own energy and spirit without external validation. I discovered who I was, unfiltered by anyone else’s influence.
When you reach the end of your thoughts, when you believe no one is coming to save you, something divine happens — you awaken a strength that only truth can give you. That strength has been priceless. It shaped the way I think, create, and love today.
So yes, what I once called suffering was simply the other side of success. It was the refining fire that taught me gratitude, discipline, and alignment with universal law. And for that, I’m grateful. It’s hard to teach someone the world, but my mother did — in her own way. So, thank you, Mom. You gave me everything I needed to remember who I am.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
I love this question — because the answer is yes.
The time I spent alone in thought and deep self-talk evolved into writing and poetry. That became my voice — my colorful way of seeing and describing the world. I’ve spent my life collecting the puzzle pieces of existence just to understand the big picture.
In 2012, I published my poetry book “Naked Words Surrendered” as a timestamp of my thought process at that point in time. Back then, I truly felt like no one thought the way I did — like I must be the only one seeing life through this lens. But I made a decision: if everyone else wanted to wear masks and live behind them, then I would do the opposite. I would live my life naked — spiritually, mentally, emotionally — and wear that with dignity and pride.
I wanted to be able to look in the mirror, stripped of everything artificial, and be in love with what I saw.
The book is divided into three parts: my conflict with myself and my journey to acceptance; my conflict with the world — a system that often feels unnatural and out of rhythm with nature; and my conflict with people, their thought processes, and how they choose to interact. Through all of it, I learned this: hiding is exhausting, and pretending doesn’t align with my spirit.
Hide what, and for whom? For others who are hiding too?
Nah. I’m good on that.
The public version of me is the real me — the me who chose to live naked, in truth, without disguise. I like me. And that’s the most liberating part of it all.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If immortality were real, what would you build?
Best question of the interview — because for me, there is no “if.” Immortality is real. It’s a working logic I discovered as a child while reading The Book of Bible Stories.
The story of the forbidden fruit always stood out to me. The ultimate punishment was death, but even then, I didn’t see it as the end — I saw it as a clue. It told me we were never meant to die. Death came as a result of choice, not as our original purpose.
I’ve always believed that many people choose their own version of mortality through how they live, think, and perceive life. But me — I’ve always been fascinated by the continuity of existence. What would it mean to truly live without end?
So what would I build?
Because this concept entered my awareness so early, I began building systems that allow continuous creation — self-sustaining frameworks that hold my ideas, develop them, and expand them in harmony with natural law. I realized young that there was so much I wanted to learn — film, photography, writing, herbalism, breathwork, healing, travel, cooking, and communication — and the key wasn’t more time, but a different relationship with time itself.
That realization became my spark: if you can’t fit everything into one lifetime, maybe you were never meant to have just one. So I built an evolving process — one that lets each idea mature and regenerate like nature does, freeing me to keep learning, exploring, and evolving alongside it.
A perfect example of this is my project, The Million Dollar Plan: Episode 1 — The Switch. This series documents the manifestation and development of a business journey in real time — a living system capturing ideas, execution, and growth. It’s a project designed to evolve, teach, and expand, much like the philosophy of immortality itself.
To me, immortality isn’t about living forever in one form — it’s about maintaining perfect continuity, alignment, and regeneration. It’s the art of staying in rhythm with the universe’s design.
That’s what I would build: a living system of creation that never stops growing, just like life itself.
Contact Info:
- Website: My Website
- Instagram: IG link
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikki-b-leake-22204162/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MillionDollarPlanTV
- Other: Insurance Agent Link in Bio
Image Credits
Captured through the lens of Nikki Brianne, filmmaker & visual storyteller
