If you have an Instagram account, you’ve more than likely encountered the figurative firecracker that is Brodie Kane.
She’s loud, she’s sometimes lewd, she loves life, she’s the kind of mate you’d love to have a drink with at the pub while you’re swapping dating app stories and keeping one eye on the rugby.
She’s also unafraid to voice her opinion, be completely and openly herself and, when the moment calls for it, be unashamedly vulnnies – all to her 30,000 + followers.
Formerly of both the telly and the radio, Brodie, like so many of us, found herself without a job when she was made redundant just before we lockdown (the first one, for all you Aucklanders).
But since then she’s founded one podcast (the excellent Kiwi Yarns) embarked on a nationwide tour for another (The Girls Uninterrupted, formerly Girls on Top) and set out on a road trip for ‘the travel show that no one asked for’ to deliver an accidentally purchased bar leaner from Christchurch to Auckland.
And now, as her own boss of her burgeoning media empire, Brodie says although she’s not going to go so far as to say ‘everything happens for a reason’ – “that shit’s annoying” – she’s pretty happy where the cards have fallen, despite the alternating feelings of excitement, fear, anxiety and joy.
How are you today?
Oh, that’s literally the first question?
Yup, we’re very literal at Capsule.
Right – how am I? I tell you what, I’m flustered today. I’ve been away on a fabulous holiday with my friends in Queenstown, which is amazing, and now I’m flustered! I will get it done, but I’m in that, my mind is running at 17 million miles an hour.
But, I am good. Good, thank you for asking!
You’re welcome! Like I say, it’s crazy, crazy times, and we loved your lockdown posts that were hilarious but very relatable at the same time. We’re guessing you’re quite an optimistic person?
I try to look at things in the whole glass half full way, and I do think that’s kind of an important thing to do. It’s not always easy. I do like to think I am, but that’s not to say that you know… I do get scared, I do have days where I feel really shit about things, and I think it’s important to own those feelings as well.
If you’re a person like me who is very open and honest, it can be misconstrued as ‘She’s always so positive and optimistic’ but it’s more about being open and honest to what you might be feeling. That helps, I think, when you’re having those shit days. Like today – why am I feeling this way? Well, Brodie, you’ve just had five amazing days away, you’re tired and you drank a lot of alcohol. Your body is going, mate, sort it out!
So it’s just about explaining and reasoning with yourself, and talking things through as to why you might be feeling the way you’re feeling?
Exactly! I mean, sometimes you try and kid yourself but it usually catches up on ya. Ha!
Shit happens sometimes and I think, I’m not going to say that bullshit ‘everything happens for a reason’ thing, but when life deals you a card like that, you just have to stop and say, ‘Ok, that’s happened. What now?’
You do share a lot on social media, and you have a large following – does it help you in times of anxiety or stress to just get in front of a camera and vent?
I’m just used to being in the public eye, especially with my last job in radio. I don’t think anything I post on instagram, I wouldn’t have said on the radio. Why do I share? I just kind of think that it’s a bit of an entertainment package for people. But with the entertainment package comes all of the things, it’s not just me always with makeup on and nice clothes,. There’s always the good side of life that we like to portray, and we all like to put our best foot forward! But with me and social media I think it would be too exhausting!
And to be honest most of the chats happen because Im at home alone and there’s no one to talk to – stuff happens and I’m like, ‘I really need to tell someone! Oh well, I’ll jump on the ‘gram!’ It started more like that.
It’s a fine line, I find, what you share and how much you share. It’s important to have things that you don’t share. I’ll share stuff that I think will perhaps like someone else. I did a post in lockdown when I was having a really, really tough time, and not because I needed support or anything, but because I wanted to let people know that it’s normal to be feeling fucking weird – even if you’re a person who normally thinks the you have your shit together and you’re all of a sudden all over the place.
There are so many amazing people who are taking about their feelings – Bryce Casey, Sir John Kirwan – and it’s incredible.
Yeah, I mean this year just sucks – you’re in the media too, and like us you found yourself without a job.
{Laughs.] Yuuuup!
And it was right before lockdown? That must have really sucked.
Yeah, well, look. When I look at it now compared to when it happened, the emotions are completely different. The weird thing is when it happens so publicly, people either don’t know what to say and they’re really awkward, or they really express their emotions about it.
It was really tough, and it actually really hurt. I loved that job, I absolutely loved that job, and it was worth getting up every morning for. I hate mornings, but to get up at stupid o’clock for that was fine. I miss it, but you know what? Shit happens sometimes and I think, I’m not going to say that bullshit ‘everything happens for a reason’ thing, but when life deals you a card like that, you just have to stop and say, ‘Ok, that’s happened. What now?’
The unfortunate thing is that it happened in an industry that isn’t in great shape, so it’s not like there are many other opportunities out there. I think being made redundant and then going straight into lockdown was almost kind of perfect. It was weird.
It was a rollercoaster the first few weeks though, where it was like, ‘Oh my God oh my God what am I going to do’, but then I just think that sitting down and taking some time, and thinking about what do I wanted to do, what can I do and what did I want to try to do was actually quite nice. Actually nice isn’t the right word – it was fucked up timing but it also wasn’t.
The most important thing is to never take it personally. A couple of close people around me said that to me early on, and I really did hold onto it. That piece of advice really, really helped because I get how when your sense of pride, and your source of passion and energy is taken away… well, I can see how it could eat away at you.
Do you reckon you’ve grown, you know, as a person from it all?
You know what, I don’t think there is a hard and fast answer. There are days where I’m excited, and days where I’m terrified. There are days where I think ‘Omg this is all so cool’ and the next day it’s it’s like ‘I’m doing all this work and I’m not even getting paid and I have a mortgage’. it’s a mixture of both. But you’ve got to give things a crack, and right now I’m taking a risk. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
You have your own media company now, as well as a new podcast Kiwi Yarns, plus your Girls Uninterrupted podcast too. You’ve got a lot on your plate!
I guess I’m trying to ‘pivot’ and figure out the way to do all of the things that I’m qualified to do by myself. I know there’s not a great deal of jobs in the media industry right now, so it’s my chance to become my own little media company – right from my little room in Christchurch!
