Mike Brown Talks Hit Podcast ‘The Art of Letting Go’ & Helping Others

After five years of working as a music educator, Mike Brown officially stepped away from the classroom to work full-time on his podcast, The Art of Letting Go.

Debuting in 2017, the queer artist initially began the podcast out of necessity due to therapy becoming too expensive. In the beginning, Brown shared his journey of healing in real-time, while displaying Black male vulnerability, navigating his own sexuality, and overcoming many other introspective topics along the way. The Art of Letting Go has evolved from a passion project to a purposed mission, helping others to conquer their biggest challenges and leaving them feeling both inspired and healed.

Additionally, while Brown continues to move forward with the podcast, he is now working to help others create their own podcasts to share their journeys. He took some time to talk more about The Art of Letting Go and his goals with OFM.

For those who have never heard of your podcast before, why should they check it out?

They should check it out because it has been my journey of healing and growing. It started as a mental health podcast. Therapy was too expensive for me, so this was my way of figuring things out. As I’ve grown, my audience has grown with me.

So, this has very much been a therapeutic outlet for you.

It has, and I would say it’s gotten pretty serious in the last year or so. I was an elementary school music teacher, and I quit my job last year to really focus and put all my energy into it because it started out as a passion project. I didn’t know where it was going to go or how it was going to end up, but I’ve seen some success from it.

Going from a full-time teacher to a full-time podcaster, I can only imagine what a transition that was.

Yeah, it was a tough transition in the beginning. I quit my job at the end of the school year, so I treated the summer like the summer, but once August rolled back around and I wasn’t seeing that paycheck every two weeks, it got a little scary (laughs).

I love that one of the core topics of the podcast is the idea of Black male vulnerability. Can you talk more about how the podcast has helped you explore that aspect of yourself?

I’m usually a person that people come to for things, and I wasn’t very outwardly expressive about what I was going through. So, having that space of just expressing myself really showed other people that it was safe to express themselves as well. I started bringing friends on, and we would have these conversations that we normally wouldn’t have in public. To have them on a public platform, it was gratifying, and it showed other people that you can have more than surface level conversations with your friends. You can express yourself and express feelings of love amongst men without it being sexual. It’s been very beautiful.

Have you always had a passion and desire to have a creative career?

Yes. I’ve been making songs my entire life, and I moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to really pursue music. It’s definitely been a journey of ups and downs, and podcasting gave me an alternative of creating because I still add music to my podcasts. I still have to come up with ideas of what the show is going to be about, who I’m going to talk to, what I’m going to say, and what I’m going to ask, so it still feels like an extension of creating for me. But yes, I’ve always been creative. I’ve always painted, wrote stories, everything. It’s been a way for me to express myself when words weren’t there to be that tool.

What has been your absolute favorite part about doing the podcast so far?

Honestly, connecting with people. I’m just sharing my journey, and people are letting me know how it affects them. Like I said, when I started this, it was initially for me. It wasn’t for popularity or anything. It was to really work through some feelings I had, and I didn’t have a space to express them. So, to express something and hear back, hey, whatever you talked about on this day really helped me, that has been the best part of this for me. Building community with other people who are healing themselves and trying to grow.

The Art of Letting Go is coming up on its 200^th episode?

Yes! We’ll probably reach 200 around the summertime, and it’s very exciting because I remember starting this podcast with a co-host, who was a straight Christian man. He ended up having a baby, and I had to decide if I wanted to take this on by myself or let it go. No pun intended (laughs). I decided to keep it going, and to be here today, seeing how many people this podcast has affected and seeing how many people have started their own podcast, it’s amazing.

My goal now is to really start supporting other people in creating their podcast. I want to help at least a thousand Black, Brown, and queer people who start podcasts to share their stories. It’s exciting right now. Everybody has a podcast, and people get mad about everybody having a podcast, but for me, being able to share your journey through audio is almost like having a Facebook page or Instagram. Everybody should be able to express themselves in that way.

How would you say The Art of Letting Go has evolved since the beginning?

Oh, man. In the beginning, The Art of Letting Go was me navigating my sexuality. I recently came out during that time, so I was trying to navigate that, and I had just gotten out of a relationship. It was really a journey of self-discovery in the beginning, and today, it has evolved to conversations of inspiration. We still have conversations rooted in letting things go, but it’s become a source of personal development and freedom. In this phase, as I quit my job, I’m navigating what it’s like to be an entrepreneur and giving that experience with people. It’s a real-life journey, and it’s delivered in such an authentic way. I think that’s what connects people to it. It’s almost like an audio journal.

Out of all the healing conversations and reflections you’ve had with guests, is there one that stands out the most?

The first one that comes to mind is my mom because she was very open about some of her mental health challenges. Recording that episode with her and seeing where she is today, seeing her be in therapy and do the work within her life, it was special. Also, so many other people connect to that experience of having parents with mental health challenges. I never want to exploit my family members or friends, but my mom was open to having a conversation. Not only was it very helpful to us, but to many other people as well.

In February, you did your first live episode at the Soho Warehouse in Los Angeles. How did that go?

It was amazing! I did it with an artist by the name of YawnyBlew, and the conversation was based around POC queer relationships because it’s not something I see common here in Los Angeles. It’s interesting because you would think with LA being such a big city, there would be spaces for everybody. It’s really not, and I felt there was an opportunity there. So, we had this conversation, and being in the spirit of my podcast, I do a lot of self-reflecting and self-awareness. We talked about romantic relationships, platonic relationships, and then we tied it all back into yourself and how you fit in the role of all these relationships. Like, why do you attract what you attract? It was beautiful, and it was nice to see that this is something people are looking for.

Can we expect more live episodes in the future?

Yes, definitely. More live episodes and more exploring. Like I said, in the beginning, I was exploring my sexuality from the place of trying to figure things out. Now that I’m a lot further in my journey, I want to express more of that. I feel like I talk about a lot of things on the podcast, but recently, I’ve been finding myself and wanting to talk more about where I am presently with my sexuality.

What are some other future goals you hope the podcast achieves?

In the future, I would like to start a podcast network based around The Art of Letting Go. I want to help other people share their journeys. I’ve learned how to produce a show and I like the format of it a lot, so I want to do it for other people. I’ve been working on a scripted podcast, their stories of queer people, but rooted in everyday life. They humanize us because I feel like so much of our journeys are rooted in sex and sexuality, but we’re people, and I want to showcase, highlight, and share inspirational stories of people overcoming adversity or whatever it may be. Everything I do is rooted in wanting to help and inspire people.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you’d like to mention or plug?

A lot more live shows, and I’m doing some virtual podcasting courses. Like I said, I’m to get other people to start podcasts, so I’m doing virtual courses through Zoom. Those are the main things right now, but I’m also working on some new music. Slowly but surely. I put out a song with YawnyBlew in January called “Damn Disconnected,” and that’s kind of where we are today!

For more information and to stay up-to-date, visit theartoflettinggopodcast.com, or follow the podcast on Twitter (@just_mikebrown), Instagram (@theartoflettinggopodcast), and TikTok (aolgpodcast). New episodes drop every Tuesday, and they are available on Spotify and all other streaming platforms.

Photos courtesy of Sara Corona and Western Studio