How to Turn a Layoff into Your Full‑Time Creative Career ft. Kaisha Huguley

Brown Ambition

iHeartPodcasts

Education, Self-improvement, Business

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of Brown Ambition, MandiMoney sits down with actor, content creator, and entrepreneur Kaisha Huguley (aka Kaisha Creates) for a real conversation about layoffs, self-belief, and choosing yourself—especially when the plan falls apart. Kaisha opens up about being laid off from her 9–5, navigating seasonal depression, and the mindset shifts that helped her bet on herself and build multiple income streams. From acting and content creation to brand deals and financial planning with a partner, this episode is packed with honesty, strategy, and encouragement for anyone moving through an uncertain career season.

Whether you’ve been laid off, are considering entrepreneurship, or just need a reminder that your worth isn’t tied to a job title this one’s for you.

What We Get Into

00:00 – Introduction & personal reflections
00:37 – Welcome to Brown Ambition
00:47 – Meet today’s guest: Kaisha Huguley
01:01 – Kisha’s journey & career coaching work
02:06 – A word for listeners navigating layoffs
03:13 – Celebrating Brown Ambition’s renewal
04:14 –Kaisha s layoff story
07:18 – Choosing full-time entrepreneurship
09:43 – Balancing acting & content creation
16:12 – Seasonal depression & career uncertainty
24:20 – Teaching, social media, and staying afloat
28:52 – Pitching yourself & securing brand deals
40:47 – Corporate burnout & workplace realities
42:03 – Choosing entrepreneurship every day
43:39 – Financial uncertainty & faith in the process
44:30 – Podcasting, debt payoff & money transparency
45:21 – Financial planning as a couple
55:31 – Managing money as an entrepreneur
57:17 – Retirement, investing & long-term planning
01:09:32 – Reflecting on the entrepreneurial journey
01:13:42 – Gratitude, community & paying it forward
01:16:30 – Final thoughts & wrap-up

Key Takeaways

A layoff can be an ending and a beginning
Self-belief is a muscle—you build it through action
Multiple income streams don’t mean chaos when you plan intentionally
Mental health and financial health go hand in hand
Entrepreneurship is a daily choice, not a one-time leap

Stay Connected
- Email your questions: brownambitionpodcast@gmail.com.
- Send a voice note or DM on IG: @brownambitionpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Maybe this season is for you to feel shitty.
0:03.6	Like, maybe this is the time where you feel bad and it's okay and it will pass.
0:09.3	If I could tell myself anything a year ago, I would tell myself that Keisha really is going to be okay.
0:15.2	But I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned is that I need to trust myself more.
0:20.0	I think that I didn't trust my ability to actually be able to do what I'm doing.
0:25.2	You know, I'm not talented enough.
0:26.5	I don't have enough followers.
0:27.8	I don't have enough this when I had everything.
0:31.0	I just didn't see it that way.
0:32.9	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:35.6	Guaranteed human. Hey, hey, VA fam. Welcome back to Brown Ambition. It's your girl,
0:45.9	Mandy Money, and I'm so excited for y'all to be here this week. I've got a really special show for you
0:51.6	today. I got to sit down with actor and creator, a true multi-hyphenate, Kayasha Hugely. If you haven't heard of Kayisha, where have y'all been? Please go check her out. Her handle is at Kaisha Creates. But I actually met Keisha a year ago. I was at an event and she walked up to me and you know how it is when you meet someone who you've been following on social media. It was a bit jarring, but she looked at me with this look in her eyes and she said, Mandy, I've recently been let go from my job and I'm going through kind of a tough time and y'all know I love talking and doing career coaching and helping people out when I can. So I immediately was like I got my two-year-old with me. We're at this event. It's a little bit hectic, but let's exchange emails. And I had the chance to sit down with Kaisha and do like a one-on-one coaching session with her a year ago. And I always like to check in on anyone that I've coached before. And Kaisha reached back out to me recently and said, you know,
1:45.5	Mandy, it's been a year. I'd love to tell you how things have been going. It's been going really well.
1:50.7	And Keisha is someone who moved to New York with a big dream of being an actor. And like anyone
1:56.7	reasonable, decided to get a full-time job because it is so expensive here, right? So she's working
2:02.7	nine to five, still trying to pursue her dream of acting. And so when she was let go, it really
2:07.5	truly pulled the financial rug out from under her. And I know this is a season. We're in the
2:12.7	dead of winter. It is the beginning of the year. And I know right now there are people listening on Brown Ambition who dealt with a layoff in the holiday season. It's just that time when companies like to let people go. And so I really want to dedicate this show to anyone who was going through that valley in their career, in their life. Maybe they're grieving a chapter that has closed and they're trying
2:34.9	to figure out what comes next. I know that Keisha's story, her resilience, her light and her
2:41.8	spirit are really going to inspire you. And I just feel really lucky and very privileged that
2:46.7	Keisha decided to come down into the studio and tell me and tell us a little bit more about her journey.
	...

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