Despite her busy schedule, Brandy Vega listened when an Apostle said she needed to do more with her spiritual gifts. Later she found out why she needed to act on his words.

WARNING: This post (and podcast ) mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or thoughts of suicide, visit Good Deed Revolution to find resources.

Creating the Ideal Career

Brandy Vega has always worked hard. Without financial support from her parents, she had no choice but to self-fund her education and career, especially given her lofty goal of becoming the "next Katie Couric" on national television. So upon learning that the military had a broadcast journalism program and would pay for the training, Brandy enlisted at 17 years old and headed out.

Within a few years, she returned as a reservist and landed an on-air reporting job for FOX News. Her career went according to plan (maybe even better than planned) until she got pregnant and found herself telling bedtime stories instead of national news.

Not to be deterred, Brandy took some baby steps backward and worked various jobs in TV as an employee and a freelancer for different clients, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then, about ten years later, she left the grind she had formerly aspired to and took a job as the Vice President of Media & Marketing for a company based in Utah. Later, in an even more dramatic leap of faith, Brandy left the stability of the corporate world and started her own video production company--Vega Media Studios.

Somewhere in that mix, she had a second child, fostered (and later adopted) another, and became a surrogate mother too.

With so many work and personal projects underway, it's hard to imagine someone telling her she wasn't doing enough.

But that's what happened.

While working on a broadcast for The Church on the impact of social media and how critical it is that we use this tool for good, Elder David A. Bednar approached Brandy with a question.

He asked, "What spiritual gifts did Heavenly Father give you?"

Brand replied, "Well, I knew I wanted to be in journalism and broadcasting at ten years old, and so here I am. I'm helping you and The Church get their message across to the world."

Brandy recalls, "He said, basically, that's not enough. Heavenly Father gave you those gifts so you could reach all ends of the Earth. ... You need to do more with the gifts He gave you."

Gulp.

That's when Brandy started Good Deed Revolution, a non-profit organization initially dedicated to sharing inspirational stories of good deeds performed throughout the world. But the mission changed after Brandy's daughter attempted suicide.

In this podcast episode, Brandy shares more about her career journey, the hardships she had to overcome, and how those original aspirations led to developing the skills and connections she would eventually need to make a more significant impact by sharing her own story rather than simply publicizing big moments in other people's lives.

Mentioned in this intervi

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