The Author’s Mic™ with Terraine Brown: Mental Health, Women’s Coaching & Redefining Self-Worth
The Author’s Mic™ - Behind the Shades: Healing, Coaching & Honoring Our Stories
In this episode of The Author’s Mic™, I sit down with coach and podcast host Terraine Brown, creator of the Behind the Shades podcast and the Parent’s Conference that I had the honor of speaking at.
We talk about mental health, relationships, women’s self-worth, and what it really looks like to build a space where people can tell the truth about their lives and still feel seen.
🎧 Watch/listen to the full episode:
https://youtu.be/lVVlwJLUT2A
From Immigrant Roots to the Mic
Terraine grew up as the child of immigrant parents in Toronto, trying to make sense of a world that didn’t always make sense to him. Church became his first “stage” — giving Bible readings and talks — which slowly opened the door to deeper conversations about life, faith, and eventually mental health.
Over time, he realized two big things:
People were hungry for honest conversations.
His own struggles in relationships weren’t unique.
He talks candidly about his 20s: struggling to make relationships work — at home, at work, romantically — and feeling like he didn’t have that one solid voice to guide him. The first woman who really poured into him was his grandmother, but she lived far away. That gap — needing guidance and not always having it — became the seed of his work.
Eventually that turned into: The Behind the Shades podcast A coaching practice focused on women Conferences that center parents, caregivers, and healing
Why His Coaching Focused on Women (Even Though It Was Meant for Men)
Originally, Terraine thought his work would focus on men. But something interesting happened:
Men were more likely to come on the podcast to tell their story… and then dip.
Women wanted to tell their story and build a tribe.
As he kept working, listening, and paying attention, he noticed how often women — especially women 40+ — were still being told that their value sits in their age, their looks, their weight, their relationship status.
He disagrees.
In the episode, he breaks it down like this:
- In your 20s, the world pushes you to think your value is all about how you look.
- In your 30s, that value should begin to shift: your growth, your choices, your career, your family, your inner life.
- In your 40s and beyond, you move from proving to knowing — and that’s a whole different kind of power.
His coaching centers women who want to stop repeating the same painful relationship patterns and start redefining what they deserve.
The SOAR Model: Start, Stop, Obtain, Acknowledge, Relinquish
One of the most powerful parts of the conversation is when Terraine shares the coaching framework he’s developed, called SOAR:
- S – Start
- O – Obtain
- A – Acknowledge
- R – Relinquish
Women come to him saying things like:
- “I want to stop being ghosted.”
- “I want to stop being used.”
- “I want to stop being abused.”
He walks them through:
- What do you need to stop?
- Stop chasing validation.
- Stop accepting scraps of love.
- Stop staying loyal to people who keep hurting you.
- What do you want to start?
- Start being valued.
- Start being loved in a healthy way.
- Start feeling appreciated for who you are, not just what you give.
- What do you want to obtain and acknowledge?
- Obtain peace of mind.
- Acknowledge your own patterns and your own power.
- What do you need to relinquish?
- Old stories about not being enough.
- Old attachments to people who don’t pour back into you.
His clients are often 40+, but the message is universal: your value can’t stay trapped in the mirror or in someone else’s opinion of you.
Behind the Shades & The Parents Conference
If you’ve ever felt like you were carrying everything on your shoulders as a parent, caregiver, grandparent, or blended-family MVP, this part is for you.
In October 2024, Terraine’s grandmother — the woman who raised him for the first five years of his life — passed away. She was his “mom and dad,” and her loss hit hard.
Out of that grief came a question:
How do I honor her and all the other parents doing the unseen work?
That question turned into a virtual Parents Conference — timed between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day — that celebrates:
- Biological parents
- Stepparents
- Blended families
- Caregivers who stepped into the role without a title
That’s how we originally connected. I spoke at his conference, and now he’s here on The Author’s Mic™ sharing the heart behind it.
You can also find the conference content and his ongoing work under Behind the Shades on his platform.
👉 Find Terraine online:
Stop People Pleasing” – Terraine’s Advice for Navigating a Wild World
At the end of the episode, I ask Terraine what advice he has for women (and really, anyone) trying to make it through this very loud, very chaotic world.
Here are his three big takeaways:
Stop people pleasing.
Your expectations should be your expectations — not your family’s, not your friends’, not social media’s. You’re allowed to “spring clean” your relationships, even if that means creating distance from people you’ve known for years.
Tie your value to your behavior, not your body.
Who you are as a person — your integrity, your compassion, your boundaries — will outlast looks, trends, age brackets, and numbers on a scale.
Pay attention to energy, not just history.
Loyalty does not automatically equal good character.
Just because someone has been in your life for 10+ years doesn’t mean they deserve a front-row seat if they’re still harming you.
As he puts it: Stop watering dead plants.
Listen to the Episode
If any of this hits home — especially if you’re over 40, tired of shrinking yourself, and ready to re-write how you show up in relationships and in your own story — this is an episode you’ll want to sit with.
🎧 Watch/listen now:
Want to Be a Guest on The Author’s Mic™?
If you’re an author (or on your way to becoming one) and you’d like to share your story, I’d love to hear from you.
👉 Be a guest on The Author’s Mic™:
https://brightheadedpublishing.com
(click the “Be a Guest on Author’s Mic” tab)
While you’re there, you can:
Download my free 44-page guide, “So You Wanna Write a Book – A Real-Talk Guide to Getting It Done Without Losing Your Mind.”
Learn more about my books You Sound White and Weight For It.
Check out the Indie Reader Society book club — a space for readers and indie authors to connect in real, meaningful ways.
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