Brandie June Chernow, MBA ’11 and BA ’05 is a double-Bruin with an undergraduate degree in Theater plus an MBA in Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Social and Digital Media. Brandie is also a storyteller and a wonderful person in our network.

Brandie’s currently running a Kickstarter campaign and it’s our pleasure to share her effort with you here. In her own words:

On the surface, I probably don’t look like a ‘typical’ MBA alumni. I’m currently running a Kickstarter, but not for a new business or technical innovation, but rather a Jem and the Holograms parody musical I wrote and am producing that will be premiering this summer at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. (Check it out! It will be something fun to do after finals!) The truth is that long before I started my journey at Anderson, I was a storyteller. And while I went to Anderson to learn about business, I was most pleased (and even surprised) to realize how an MBA has improved my ability to be a creative person.

I was an actor as a kid and majored in Theatre when I getting my BA at UCLA. The plan was to stay in Hollywood and be a working actor after college. The plan didn’t quite work out. I stayed in LA, but wasn’t getting enough paying roles to support myself. I got tired of the crummy survival jobs that I took to make ends meet. I needed a change and a reliable career. When I got accepted into Anderson, I assumed my creative work would be replaced with a business career.

I was and wasn’t correct. Business school didn’t kill my creative life the way I was afraid it would. I still loved to tell stories, and now was getting to tell stories in different ways. I discovered how a good marketing plan was a story and shifted my professional goals to include marketing. I now work as the Marketing Director of the Kids & Family Department at Shout! Factory, where I create the best release strategies possible for the movies and T.V. series I manage at the company.

And not only do I still find the time to create my own stories, but I have a better set of skills to share and market those stories. In 2021, my debut novel, GOLD SPUN, was published. It’s a Rumpelstiltskin retelling featuring a miller’s daughter who is a con artist. I used my business acumen to develop a marketing and promotional plan around the release and pitched myself and my book to various podcasts, speaking events, and signings. The exposure was so much more than what I would have received had I done nothing. (And I credit some of my time management skills from my days as a FEMBA while holding down full-time employment!)

And it hasn’t ended there. As I mentioned, I’m currently producing TRULY OUTRAGEOUS, a new musical. I’m participating as both a creative (the writer) and the business professional (the producer) to create a new work of art. I definitely had some preconceived notions of what a ‘typical’ MBA student needed to be, and for a long time I struggled to fit my creative self into that mold. But the truth is that Anderson accepts a wide variety of people who have a variety of backgrounds, skills, and goals. And each of us gets to create our own story. Mine involves telling stories, and I have no plans to ever stop.