Building Purpose-Driven Ventures: Amber Brandner’s Journey from ICU Nurse to Studio Principal

Anthony Codispoti : Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is the principal at A-Frame Venture Studio, Amber Brandner. They are a venture studio that builds purpose-driven consumer goods and tech focused on health and well-being through a holistic approach. Amber works in encompassing brands, products, partnerships, experience, and people with a collective offering, strategic support for responsible and sustainable growth. Amber is a passionate leader with a deep curiosity and our collective potential, a creative force working at the intersection of venture, narrative, and collective intelligence. Her work lives where systems meet soul, designing ventures, environments, and ecosystems that foster authentic collaboration, emotional depth, and regenerative growth. She is co-owner at Merth Water where they are on a mission to improve emotional well-being and healthy hydration. Amber currently serves on the advisory board for the Center for Applied Ethics and Values in Emerging Technology at UCSC. She’s also an alumni entrepreneur in residence at UCSD’s Office of Innovation and Commercialization and a mentor at Blackstone Launchpad. She is the director of the docuShort Between Narratives, a poetic inquiry into the space between paradigms, and brings a systems literate, humanity-centered lens to every project she joins.

Her leadership skills have developed at organizations such as TEDx, the National Science Foundation, World Economic Forum, and Singularity U. Amber brings a wealth of hands-on expertise to her role, emphasizing impact-driven strategies and community-focused development. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, AdVac Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. Imagine being able to give your employees free access to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications in a way that puts more money in your staff’s pockets and the company’s too. As an example, one recent client with 450 employees boosted net profits over $412,000 a year. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at adbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the principal at A-Frame Venture Studio, Amber Brander. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Thank you for having me. So Amber, as I look at your career path, it’s very fluid and multi-dimensional. I see you, nurse, venture studio founder, building community art spaces, you’re shaping, you know, future forward businesses. I want to try and walk through some of those major chapters with you. You started in ICU working with cardiac patients, managing code blue teams, and even training in palliative care. That’s a high stakes, deeply human environment. Can you take me back to that time? What did those experiences teach you?

Amber Brandner : Yeah, well, connecting the dots is always fun. I love looking back and thinking, you know, how did this one connect to the next one? Those golden nuggets. Yeah, I started in ICU when I was 19 years old, and I went into nursing really, thinking, you know, I think I was the first in my family to go to college. So it was a very kind of pragmatic choice of I’m good at science, I like people, let me, you know, do this thing. It’s a good living. And so I chose that path for that kind of reason. And I chose ICU specifically because it was the most challenging. And I guess that I just maybe liked the idea of a bit more control around things and being able to help people in the worst situations. But for a while, after I left nursing, I actually wanted really to separate myself from that identity. I would feel like, especially in the first couple of years, people saying like, my nurse friend, Amber, I’m like, I am not your nurse friend.

Anthony Codispoti : You didn’t want that to be like that much of your identity?

Amber Brandner : Yeah, I mean, I felt, I’ve always felt like what we do is not who we are. Okay. And I think that when you have a role like a nurse, people often kind of hold it up as like that is, you know, that’s your profession becomes a huge part of your identity. And when I left nursing after having been in it since I hadn’t been 19, it felt like I had to kind of like rebrand myself for myself, like I was trying to understand who I was after leaving that. But I struggled to the point of like, what did I gain from that?

At first, I was like, Oh, I’m like hiding this part of myself. And then I realized over the years, it was just like how much came in from like multi stakeholder conversations, having like, all these different physicians for different organ systems, right, plus case managers, plus your social workers, and every day having to really look at the big picture and bring everybody up to speed and manage the needs of everybody and communicate clearly. You know, when I left that, I went into kind of a large scale event production with TEDx. And I remember hosting these events and people being like, Amber, you’re so calm, like, you know, what’s going on? I’m like, nobody is dying, nobody’s trying to die.

Anthony Codispoti : You know, everything here is really low stakes.

Amber Brandner : So you end up like being able to, yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing it taught me is perspective and the brevity of life, you know, being 19 years old and being with people who are passing or have regrets in their life or family members who wish they had been more present and there with their family before their loved one was ill. It taught me massively about the inequalities in our society and how that shows up in so many ways from compliance of your health regimen to preventative care to the dignity that you have in your dying. And the palliative care piece, I mean, it’s still part of life, right? Like this is still a phase of life. So, yeah, I mean, I learned a lot from it.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, and then at some point, you started moving more towards creative strategy, systems design, social entrepreneurship, which is kind of more where you find yourself today. I’m curious, as you kind of look back and connect those dots, was there a specific moment, maybe a slow realization that told you it was kind of time to shift this focus?

Amber Brandner : So two parts. One, one was the adult away from nursing, which happened after a couple of night shifts I worked, and I had a car accident. And after, well, in that car accident, I felt essentially like I had been kind of given an opportunity. It was kind of a wake up call. My car was totaled, and I didn’t have a scratch on me. You know, many years later, I’m like, my knee hurts.

I think that was related, but kind of walked out of it saying, like, am I okay going up to another car saying, you know, am I actually here? And, you know, I was 26, and I really had been thinking for years, like, I want to learn Spanish, I want to travel, I want to do this yoga training, I want to, you know, see more of the world, all these things. And I had just kind of always put it off thinking, like, well, when this bill is paid, when this is done, when I get to this point, then I’ll do those things. And for me, that accident was something that just was, I think there were kind of taps and whispers ahead of that. And it was a bit of the like shaking me to awake.

And so I left that accident and, you know, tried going back in and just going to work and doing the thing and getting a new car. And I just like in the depths of my soul knew that that wasn’t right. So I ended up traveling for nine months.

In South America, it was, you know, a journey to kind of get to that point. I had a panic attack before I ever left. I had never really like internationally traveled by myself. It was the fear of the unknown.

It was totally the fear of the unknown. And then, you know, a month into it, I was just like, Oh, this is great. I’m awesome.

Like, no worries. And I thought I was going to be there for a few months and I extended and I taught myself how to build websites during that time, because I had started filming and, you know, learning how to film and edit. And I had met up with someone there who was in film in Hollywood. And so we worked on several projects together. I think I even played with like de-daying and stuff like that.

I took Spanish classes and did a yoga teacher training in Guatemala and, you know, did all these things that I felt like, you know, if not now when. And that was like, that came kind of simultaneously. So just before that, and this is this is the big piece. So actually, while I was still a nurse, while I was still working in the ICU, I should say, I went to this art show at the very first co-working space that I can remember in San Diego. And at that art show, I met this guy, Pete, and he mentioned that there was going to be a meeting for TEDx. And basically, I invited myself to a meeting for the organization committee for TEDx in San Diego. And because I went to that, and because I was surrounded by people for a season of my life, where I saw, oh, wow, like, these are actually my people, these creators, these storytellers. And I got to see a part of myself. I think that that like cracked something open. And then the events that followed that were just divinity, if you want to call it that.

Anthony Codispoti : So at that point, you kind of didn’t really identify as being a creator or a storyteller until you were sort of wrapped in that community?

Amber Brandner : I think it gave me the reflection, exactly. I think there was always, you know, that maybe that aspect of myself was always there. And I had painted and loved like creating, right?

But I had always kind of othered that from my identity. And I honestly think that the thing I found in the TED community was just that life was like about the possibility and that like, all these things, these solutions existed. And it was about being able to like create a stage for those things to be shared with the world.

And if more people knew about them, then we could solve some of our challenges. And what I started to feel was like I was getting people at the wrong point in their life. I was working in the end. And I was working in this like triage one at a time.

Anthony Codispoti : And I really felt like, yeah, so I really felt like that break when I traveled for nine months, it basically like deprogrammed, you know, all of that.

Amber Brandner : Yeah, just very like rigid structure that I had kind of like gone into things with this map of life of like, that’s not what it’s gonna be like.

Anthony Codispoti : And then scary. So did this like, I give up control, I don’t know where it’s going.

Amber Brandner : Yeah, I think, man, it’s been like such a spectrum, right? I feel like I came from this very like, I’m gonna take every class I can at night and summer and do these, and then my degree and then this is the next thing and I’ll be married by this age. And, you know, right, like having it all mapped out, like we think we do.

But very structured and very rigid, like the ICU is. And I went from that to like this totally other side of like, I’m just gonna travel, I’ll barter my work. I can do this, I’m gonna make a documentary about this musical instrument, because I think it’s interesting and, you know, just very like free, but then also in that a bit of for sure, feeling like, wait, who am I? Like, am I a producer? Am I a like, am I not entrepreneur? And actually, that’s like next chapter there of understanding what entrepreneur meant, and being able to see that in myself.

But I like the word producer because it is to create. And I think we could all like identify with that in some way. I’d say that I’ve now kind of oscillated back into a center point where it’s like, no, you need some of the structure, right? It’s good to have routines. It’s good to use a calendar.

It’s like all of these things. And it’s good to have like a lookout and have those visions of what you’re building. But at the same time, not to be too rigid, right?

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, you know, you hit on something that has always been a really interesting concept to kind of wrestle with. And it’s this, it’s one thing to say like, we are not, you know, what our job is, right? We are, we are more than that. But for so many of us, myself included, it’s hard to sort of pull that apart. And so it can feel very confusing, very disorienting when you had something that anchored at least a portion of your identity, like nursing. And now you’re sort of jumping out into this great unknown.

And there’s some excitement there. But it’s also like, yeah, how do I fit into this world? Like, what’s my title? What’s my role? What do I contribute? What do I take? And I hear you kind of wrestling with some of these things. Yeah.

Amber Brandner : And what, what will people pay me for that I do also, right? That’s a, that’s a question. I mean, I started out kind of working in this like, film storytelling piece, because it just kind of came upon, I guess, in tandem with the TEDx production. But what I loved around TEDx was helping to tell, like helping people tell their story.

And just the power of the narratives that we, and how our stories shape our reality. And so I got to meet a lot of amazing people while I did that work. And I guess somehow over the course of time and experiences, I started working with some startup teams as well around kind of I met Brant Cooper, who recently passed away, but has been a mentor and a very, very good friend of mine for over a decade. And I met him when I was producing TEDx.

I think it was about our second, the second time I had worked in this, and I was directing with Patty Stitzen, a friend of mine as well still. And, you know, he had just written the Lean Entrepreneur and was a New York Times bestselling author and kind of like consulted with all these large corporations around innovation. And basically, like, I met him and he’s like, Oh, this is natural to you.

Like this whole lean methodology and agile method and just the way that you think about things. This is very natural for you. And pairing that with sort of the passion for storytelling and narrative building. Yeah, it’s sort of kind of came not just like, Oh, this is easy, but it developed, it evolved. And I think that’s the thing is that we are, you know, it’s like Alan Watts says, like, Who are you really?

There is nothing else to know. I think that maybe that’s like the journey in life, right? And so while we have all these different things that we do and identities, you know, it’s not a static thing. Like we are dynamic individuals, all of us.

Anthony Codispoti : So would you say that your time with TEDx and with Brent Cooper helped to inspire the decision to start a frame venture studio?

Amber Brandner : Oh, my gosh, there’s been so many things that have led up to a frame. I mean, I’ve worked with nonprofits. And I’ve seen the kind of the challenges around that, right, the model of doing good, but requiring and being dependent on donations. I’ve seen and worked with founders who have been very impact driven, but not focused on the capital side of things.

And I’ve worked also in working closely with investors in kind of Web three blockchain space, or, you know, looking at more kind of traditional tech, where it’s very much about your returns and on the investment and just very, very cut and dry, and not at all worried about the impact that it has on people or planet. And so I think that there was there was always this feeling of like, why do we have to choose between like doing good and making money. So I felt like there should be some way to do both. And then I think that honestly, it’s been years, it’s probably been, I don’t know, four, five years since I’ve like had the vision, and really understood that a venture studio was probably like the vehicle to carry out what I saw. But I have felt like I have met so many amazing people who are just so talented in their creations and expertise that I enjoy creating with. And again, it’s like, I love and am excited by the potential of what we create together. And so, you know, to be able to create a space and a way of creation, like how we create, to be able to experiment with that, to be able to really build an ecosystem and a system around that, that has been like, if you can figure that out, then like only, you know, you can you can see how those things can kind of move through. And it wasn’t just me, it was like finding the right person, which is my partner, Brad. And that was like, you know, the ignition.

Anthony Codispoti : So I want to wrap my head better around what it means to be a venture studio. Do you have clients? Do you have portfolio companies? What are the services? What are they bringing to the table? How are you helping kind of paint a picture for us?

Amber Brandner : Yeah, yeah, it’s, I mean, it’s evolved. And I think that a venture studio isn’t a once this fits all kind of thing. So this is what we’re doing. But usually, a venture studio has a group of exited founders, or a specific kind of group of talent that’s come together, and are able to build. Sometimes they’re building just as as their own group, sometimes maybe they have people that are coming in externally.

The way that we’ve been building and designed a frame is that we work in a few different ways. So one is internal builds. So that includes acquisitions.

So for instance, Merth was an acquisition. And transforming that from a single bottom line into a triple bottom line business. We also from outside of acquisitions build from the ground up from the idea all the way through launch and scale. And so that can come from our team, which is several of the things that in motion now. So those are kind of one channel is these internal innovations, this internal builds. Secondarily, we have this new team that just joined us, but this founders and residents, where we have people that have built something.

They’re usually a smaller team, maybe a solo or two founders. And, you know, every startup needs certain things. And we’ve really built a frame to be able to fill those gaps and be that strong support structure, as well as sort of this like advisory board, and still yet getting your hands in a bit more. And so we can come in and kind of operate as this like supercharged team with these founders. And so we support that company, usually with a stake of equity that we’re taking in that company. So they become part of our portfolio. But they also become part of the A frame family, where we’re able to support everything that comes their way.

And, you know, we get to essentially make these decisions based on value aligned organizations as well, because there’s something to like when all of these come together, that shared resource pool gets even stronger and stronger as well as lessons that we learn. And then the third piece is services. So we actually have a marketing company, a global marketing agency called Unusual Agency, which is led by our third principle.

So it’s myself, Brad Harris and Luke Tobin, who are the three principles at A frame. And Luke’s background is deep in agency building. He’s had several successful exits from agencies that he’s built.

The last one just sold, I believe, to Brazil, South America. And so he has a family office in the UK and is leading the charge in building the unusual agency. And so that agency services our companies, right, our internal builds, it gets to service these founders and residents, they get a great deal at the marketing that everybody needs. And then we can also, when it’s not a fit for the studio for us to actually be equity partners, we can still offer services.

Or maybe a company just doesn’t want to part with equity, right? And all they need is marketing. In that case, we can service them. And so we have that revenue stream that’s like immediate, we have these like longer term builds that we’re building because we see these trends and these gaps in the world. And then we have things like more immediate, where it’s something like Merth, where it’s an acquisition and we’re able to transform that.

But we’ve already found product market fit, we already understand, like, the product is out there. And so that also kind of happens to the founders and residents, because they’ll be at different stages. But anyway, sorry, long winded answer. But it’s a it’s been complex to understand.

Anthony Codispoti : So you guys are, there’s a lot of design, a lot of marketing services, you, you guys have had a lot of experience in helping to build and launch brands before. So that’s a big part of the value that you’re bringing to the table. Are you also able to help them get access to capital?

Because I understand it correctly, that’s not something that A-frame does. You’re not investing capital, you’re investing your skills into them, sometimes in exchange for equity. But do you have sort of partners or other folks in your network that you can often introduce them to?

Amber Brandner : Yeah, so in some cases, I mean, I think that’s what’s really cool about working with Luke as well, he has that investment, he’s actively investing. And so in some cases, it may be that there’s a company that he is investing in that actually would make sense. And it’s going to have a higher likelihood of success in working with us.

So there’s a strategic reason as well that, you know, Luke’s involvement makes sense not only for us, but for him. You know, I think that a big part of what we are looking at in the near future is raising a fund. So that when ideas have gone through the validation process and passed certain gates, we’re able to allocate cash to those, as well as to those portfolio brands that are already in the portfolio. I would say the other piece is that we are working with every brand being investor ready. So that is definitely a gap for many of the brands that we work with and that are coming on there looking at, you know, yes, they need to be resourceful, they need to raise, and yet, you know, they may be there, they’re not going to pass due diligence, they need help with their P &L, they need help on really making that picture clear, or maybe their marketing, their marketing analytics aren’t there, they don’t have the story there for an investor to fully buy in, or they just haven’t reached a point where they’re actually investable yet, and so we’re going to help them get to that point. So that’s always part of the trajectory.

Where the capital comes from depends on, you know, where they’re at in their journey, as well as I guess where we are, where we’re at as well, because we’re, like I said, looking at that fund, but we have been building relationships with investors throughout kind of the life cycle of investment, so, you know, whether it’s pre-seed or really looking at like Series A or larger investments, we’re building those relationships so that we have that pipeline to support.

Anthony Codispoti : What’s the difference between single bottom line and triple bottom line?

Amber Brandner : Well, profit would be a single. People on planet is usually the other two lines, and I mean the difference is intention, I would say, is that, you know, you, I mean some people think this doesn’t make sense, but I think everything you do makes an impact, whether you’re measuring it or not. And if you are intentional around what you’re creating, you can create something that is going to bring strong returns for your investors, a great exit for the founder or you know long-term success for them, but they’re also going to impact and improve lives. They’re not going to do harm to the environment, they’re going to thoughtfully make decisions. It does take effort, it takes maybe a bit more time in some cases, but I think having that thoughtfulness and that intention is what we need now.

Like we cannot sustain venture capital, venture you know all of this can’t sustain in the way that it’s been done and our planet can’t sustain our lives as humans here will not sustain if we continue doing things the way that they’ve been done. So tell me about Murthwater. Yeah Murth is the brand I mentioned that was an acquisition. So the story of Murth is it was originally, it’s these cute little emojis on the cans. Okay each one had each one of these flavors had a face on it and it was sold in stores like Arawan and you know several other small markets and there was a lot of testing being done in the grocers and speaking with the clients and the feedback was that it really turned their kids heads which was interesting because it was at that time very much the founder had really built it out as sort of a seltzer, maybe a mixer.

It was more of an adult male demographic that they were targeting but all this data was showing us that kids really liked it and of course I mean it was cute and it looked like the cans themselves could be a toy. So we found Murth actually, my partner Brad had recently exited his last company and was looking at what was next and you know it was Murth that we found after he had spoke with hundreds of founders and kind of loved going on a choir and kind of learning about about the pain points of these founders and opportunities and looking at this and so Murth was one where it was a really great founder he just couldn’t dedicate the time to really taking it to the next level. There was strong traction, there was a good brand already built and we thought that it would be pretty turnkey but it ended up that you know that triple bottom line question. We looked at it and really found that we had to do some product innovation as well. So we took Murth from something that was made with natural flavors and like pure cane sugar that was actually like benefit at the time in that first iteration for them and really no nutritional value in there and we took it and transformed the product into a hydrating bubbly water that is made with 100% organic fruit juice, no added natural flavors or artificial flavors and it has a hydration blend that’s crafted by Buoy which is a leading hydration supplement which has 87 trace minerals, ocean electrolytes and vitamin complex and so it’s clinically been trialed to show greater hydration, improve things in chronic illnesses like pots and so we felt really confident about partnering with Buoy and providing something that was not only going to taste great and kind of quench your thirst but actually hydrate you and so I mean that’s what that’s what Murth is but the mission of it like the the core behind it and the the word Murth means the emotions of happiness and joy and one thing that I was I was really aware of and our team was aware of is that we don’t want to be toxic positivity in fact we really need to be able to talk about our feelings and when you look at some of the challenges at the root cause of what’s happening in our world in schools and with children I think that you can see that we need language people need to be able to express themselves and need to be able to connect you’re dealing with the constant technology and you know the challenge of actually looking each other in the eye the generations are losing the ability to express themselves with one another so Murth really stands at the center point of time spent outdoors emotional well-being and communicating those feelings and hydration and so our tagline is feel all the little feels we have these cute little fruit characters and they talk about their emotions and they introduce new words of vocabulary and everything is really set around being in the outdoors so our brand aesthetic is even built around things like Cotopaxi and Patagonia and it should belong in the outdoors so it’s on drink mirth.com if anybody wants to look at it but I’ll take a

Anthony Codispoti : break so

Amber Brandner : we are live on drink mirth.com right now for pre-sales and we’ll be shipping in August so very excited it’s an it’s the awkward in between moment right now where you know want to like hand it out to people and don’t have it in my hand yet but it’s honestly been such a joy to work on it because I just believe in the mission so deeply and I think it’s strangely like something that doesn’t exist.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah it’s super interesting do you still have relationships with some of the retailers that were carrying sort of the previous iteration of the product do you do you feel like you have a shot at getting back into that shelf space?

Amber Brandner : Yeah we absolutely could you know there’s a bit of a methodology here though of within a frame of being really strong in indirect to consumer and kind of proving through D2C channels first and creating demand for shelf space what you deal with a lot of times is brands will go to retailers too early they’re playing paying high slotting fees and you know really middlemen and trying to get on the shelves or they’re dealing with them not having enough runway to fulfill the production needs and so we’re really focused on having just a stellar D2C channel to start and then yes we have those relationships and others we’re looking at some after-school programs things like that that would be a larger account but we’re yeah just really excited to kind of look at it’s a it’s a drink that’s for kind of a family it’s a family-friendly drink it’s not just for kids I mean we’re all kind of chronically dehydrated to truth be told so to have something that’s a refreshing hydrating drink

Anthony Codispoti : with a positive message attached to it right

Amber Brandner : yeah I mean with with something that we’re really building this world around mirth where it’s not just about it happens to be a drink you know and when we’re hydrated we can feel more and we are healthier and all of that but I think at the core of it yeah it’s it’s about feeling all the little feels including feeling hydrated

Anthony Codispoti : and you know you hit upon something sort of from the business perspective that I think a lot of people may not realize especially if they haven’t taken a product into retail stores before which is you know just getting the contract with the store you want to go in Target or Walmart wherever you’re gonna go that’s a big deal that’s a huge undertaking but now the store wants to see if the product sells through right and that that is incumbent upon the brand to drive that sort of demand there so that’s why your strategy is interesting like let’s build the brand recognition let’s build the demand 3d to see and then when we can show hey we’re selling X number of units gives you a little bit more leverage when you go to have some of these conversations with retailers and it gives them more comfort to want to move forward because you can show them that the demand the brand recognition already exists

Amber Brandner : absolutely they’re not taking such a big risk with you right yeah it’s it’s interesting we’ve looked at several other channels you know vending machines for instance there’s like the smart vending movement we have a friend doing that so we’ll trial some of that talked about like bodega experiments where you kind of take a small batch and and try it in different locations where you have kind of like the ideal target demographic maybe it’s in Lake Tahoe in the summer right it’s really advantage for us because we have this very diverse and dispersed team geographically within a frame there’s about 20 of us probably and so we have folks all over that can kind of not only be advocates for it but kind of like walk it into stores even and so we’re really lucky to have that and to have the expertise of people like Chris who’s the founder of Knox Knox provisions which is the binocular company now sold in REI but you know he’s taken brands from online into retail as well

Anthony Codispoti : and he’s been there

Amber Brandner : yeah exactly we have a lot of great playbooks and it’s like you know it’s not one-size-fits-all but when you have sort of this in psychopedia you’re able to be like okay like let’s let’s talk to Chris on this one so

Anthony Codispoti : very helpful I’m kind of curious Amber you’ve got a lot of different experiences you you appear to me to have a variety of skill sets but if you were to try to narrow it down how would you define your super power no don’t put me in a box

Amber Brandner : no I mean it was fun I was talking to somebody about like the challenge of defining yourself and it’s like I’ve really gotten to the point where I’ll say like I’m a vessel I’m a vessel and you know the form that it’s gonna come through might might change but that’s that’s what I am but um but no I mean I guess if I’m if I’m gonna like narrow it down it’s that I’m I’m listening to the space between the words and I’m I’m listening to what it is that wants to be created whether it’s like through that person or through the market and I think that the way that I want to create is highly intentional and highly collaborative that humanity-centered design is a term that I fell in love with and that I went deeper into because it encompassed so much of my approach towards creating value so I guess in like in essence it’s like I’m looking at how do we create the most value together for all stakeholders and there’s some strategy there’s like you know a lot of creativity in there I love thinking about how we’re going to tell a story or you know what that what that brand’s voice sounds like so there’s definitely a strong piece of the creative but I’m also I love like looking at yeah just from the very conception of idea like how are we actually going to get this going and it’s it’s interesting because it’s like we’re working in consumer goods and tech and a lot of a lot of studios are gonna pick a very kind of narrow linear path you know we’re an AI studio I mean we have AI that we’re working with we have developers in our team but what we’re centered around is our values and this idea that we can improve health and well-being through what we create and you know through really honoring that like also all of us are these dynamic creators and so we’re able to I think create things in a way that is very meaningful to the world I don’t know if that answered your question I probably just avoided it in that answer but

Anthony Codispoti : your your answer was summed up in your physical reaction as you heard the question coming out of my mouth I don’t know if you realized it but there was like a little twitch or like a mini seizure that took place there so let’s let’s shift gears because I you know I appreciated one of the things that you were saying about mirth and you know one of the messages is you know sort of feel all the feels and you know sometimes you know as we go through life there’s hardships and that’s easier said than done I would be curious Amber to hear about a serious challenge that you have overcome in your life whether it’s personal or professional how you got through that and what you learned

Amber Brandner : yeah for sure I mean gosh there’s still challenges right I think that I mean I’ve I have lost myself at times in in the work I’ve just straight up lost myself at times and I think one of the biggest challenges has just like been to be okay with being interested in who I’m becoming and you know not comparing myself there’s because I’ve been driven by this I don’t know I honestly like the the the driving force of everything I’ve done is around this idea of like I know that we’re capable of meeting the the needs of today I know that we’re capable of so much more than we’re giving ourselves credit for I know that like what we believe is our reality right now is really constructed from each of our point of views and the words that we choose and the beliefs that we have and how we choose to share that and where we’re giving our attention and so I think it can become really overwhelming to kind of like see all the possibility and then feel like oh my gosh how you know how am I going to ever kind of like answer this calling personally because I know that it takes all of us so it’s this it’s this crazy thing of like it isn’t ever going to be just me it’s always about all of us and so I think that getting out of my own way and anytime that like ego comes in where and usually that’s in the shape of fear but anytime that that comes in like being able to get back to a place where I’m remembering like for one it’s not just me I’m not alone in this you know and also yes it is very big but it’s one step at a time and like how do I because the anxiety that can come with or the overwhelm that can come with taking on something real is is intense so I’ve dealt with anxiety I’ve had periods of depression I have luckily had yoga in my life which definitely is a core piece of mental health for me you know I’ve had economic struggles I did not come from a well-to-do family you know I as I mentioned like went to college worked hard and because I didn’t have any safety net that feeling of scarcity has played a part in my life at times and I I get it when founders you know are struggling in that way and when they’re working full time and trying to get something started at the same time so I don’t know if there’s one struggle I mean I think that identity crises have been a big part like the the sort of the feeling of who am I to be in this room

Anthony Codispoti : hmm not feeling worthy not feeling good enough

Amber Brandner : yeah I mean I think that that that thing of imposter syndrome you know people talk about the whole time but it’s a it’s like as long as you’re pushing yourself you’re going to have that because you’re gonna be constantly putting yourself in rooms where you’re being called upon you’re calling upon yourself to be more to to be able to kind of rise to the occasion right and so I’ve had plenty of moments where I have felt like yeah you know this this feeling of I I guess like it’s a feeling of like being found out like oh man I don’t feel that so much anymore to be quite honest because I guess maybe it’s a combination of feeling comfortable in my own skin and also just like having done the work literally just doing this work for so long like no like I know something now but

Anthony Codispoti : you know this idea of imposter syndrome it comes up with a lot of people I know a lot of folks that have been on this show a lot of very successful well-accomplished people one of my guests Gary Frye actually wrote a book called silence the imposter because it this is a very powerful thing there’s sort of this disconnect between what you know you can do and examples of what it is that you’ve done and there’s sort of this negative voice that comes in and diminishes those things and disqualifies you you know before you even start on things and so it’s interesting I can’t remember the name of the particular guest I had on several months ago who actually developed a positive relationship with his imposter syndrome said it was he had actually turned it around to be a superpower it was the thing that kept him every morning hopping out of bed ready to prove himself again pushing himself forward he just kind of looked at it as this little kick in the butt rather than it being sort of like this like thing that kind of weighed him down made him question himself it was kind of fuel for the productive fire so to speak

Amber Brandner : like having a disapproving parent or something that you’re like I’m gonna prove you I can do it I have a very supportive mother but

Anthony Codispoti : you can’t imagine other people have been through that scenario sure as I think that’s that’s a good way to frame it and you mentioned yoga is something that’s been really helpful to you kind of when you go through these times of struggle is there anything else that you found that you can sort of rely on go back to

Amber Brandner : sorry I’ve got a I’ve got my little girl Maya barking in the background yes I I think that community honestly has been the biggest thing to have people that you can talk to and you know when when you’re not alright that you can really just drop in with throughout many years long-term relationships are important to have people who have been with you through different seasons of life be able to remind you like no you’re not you’re not a loser remember all those great things

Anthony Codispoti : you did find the internal voice to give your encouragement it is so helpful to have people that you know love and trust who can provide you that voice

Amber Brandner : right yeah it’s I mean family you know my mom is still someone who I can call and sometimes it’s just her holding space you know saying that she’s thinking of me or something but just that knowing you’re not alone exercise is really important I mean just to be able to sweat sometimes it’s a good cry I mean I think you know I mentioned kind of the mental health piece of things and everybody has their path but for me it’s like I got to feel it I got to feel it I got to be with it I got to let it move through me I got to recognize like I am not this feeling but this feeling is with me right now and that’s okay

Anthony Codispoti : this is kind of lend into the book idea that you had mentioned to me in an off air

Amber Brandner : the naked truth of the creative life my forever nonwritten book I’ve actually started writing a little bit and I’ve done some I’ve actually done some interviews around it but I mean I think we all there’s that saying of like don’t compare your insights to someone else’s outsides right and I think especially in entrepreneurship and in business it’s like very easy to see the success to be quite honest just to go back to this like thing of feeling like somebody would find out truth be told I think early on that there was this perception that I had like made it or that I had like had more money than I had or something like that and I never like put that out there but there was just because I was doing what I was doing and I didn’t care if I had to be in cheese burritos to do what I wanted like to be doing this thing I was going to do it I was going to live my life I think that that perception of success that people had where it was like there is you have to define what your happiness is you have to define for yourself what success is because who cares what the rest of the world is going to look at you and see but we do tend to fall into that trap of like oh this person has made it their successful etc and we often don’t see all the moments of falling apart all the times we almost gave up the times we had to have a friend remind us that we’re not a loser and you know I think that yes the book is like actually it involves some some some beautiful photography is the the image that I have of like each of these people in their kind of rawness in their moment and sharing their story of kind of the naked truth of like the the lows that we hit and you know we know ourselves or the world knows that’s usually for the highs but we know ourselves often for the lows I mean how often do we do that like look at ourselves and think of it as like the things we could have done better the opportunity we missed you know the conversation we should have had so

Anthony Codispoti : I’m glad you’re giving voice to this and I hope to be able to read that book someday you know it’s part of the message that I try to help my guests communicate on this show which is yeah there’s sort of this natural human tendency where we compare our messy insides to what appear to be you know other people’s polished exteriors not knowing what’s really going on what the full story is what they’re dealing with what they went through to kind of get to wherever it is you think that they are so and I wonder if maybe this might be the answer to my final question but before I ask it I want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you or to follow your story Amber what would that be

Amber Brandner : hmm I mean I’m on LinkedIn as Amber brandner that’s B R A N D N E R I have a website amber Bradner comm we have a frame venture studio comm and I’m amber at AFBS dot bc

Anthony Codispoti : and we’ve got drink mirth dot com where you can place pre-orders now most important one yeah recording now and kind of the middle part of June 2025 and orders to hopefully be shipped in August sometime so the last question I’ve got for you Amber we’ve had a nice conversation here today hope to stay in touch maybe a year from now we’re sitting down together and you’re celebrating something what’s that thing you hope to be celebrating

Amber Brandner : me a year from now if I’m looking at the trajectory we have we’re raising raising and have our first few checks for a fund you know it is a necessary piece of the puzzle and I think it would it is probably around that in terms of the timeline I think the other thing is just to feel balanced and feel satisfied and happy and healthy I think those things are oh so important I mean ultimately you know without without feeling good without feeling kind of centered and and that creative life force moving through you it’s very hard to create right anything worthy and so I think that being being in that place as often as possible would be something to celebrate I love it

Anthony Codispoti : Amber brandner from a frame Ventures studio and Murthwater I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today I really appreciate it

Amber Brandner : yeah thank you so much it was a pleasure chatting with you today

Anthony Codispoti : folks that’s a wrap on another episode of the inspired stories podcast thanks for learning with us you