Buried Treasure: Laura Brody on Disability, Art & Boundaries
What happens when being the person everyone relies on becomes the very thing that is wearing you down?
Laura Brody joins Joan for a conversation about identity, art, boundaries, and what happens when the roles that once made you feel valuable no longer fit.
Laura is a costume designer, curator, and founder of Opulent Mobility. For years, being the fixer the person who could manage, mediate, and keep things moving became deeply connected to how she understood herself. But eventually, she began to see an important distinction: the core parts of who she was weren’t the problem. The question was where she was putting her energy.
That realization opened the door to a different kind of creative life one that made more room for her own stories, her values, and work that challenges the way we think about disability, beauty, usefulness, and what gets discarded.
If you’ve built your identity around being capable, useful, or the person who holds everything together, Laura’s story asks a powerful question: what if your next leap isn’t about becoming someone completely different but about deciding where the person you already are belongs?
In This Episode:
How being “the fixer” became part of Laura’s identity
What happens when a role other people value starts costing you too much
Why Laura realized the core parts of herself weren’t what needed fixing
How boundaries changed where she chose to put her energy
How Opulent Mobility reframes disability, mobility, beauty, and value
Why the idea of “buried treasure” became bigger than the materials Laura creates with
Connect with Laura
🌐 Opulent Mobility 🌐Dreams by Machine
🎥 Laura / Opulent Mobility on YouTube
🎙️ Have a leap story? Email leap@theleaplounge.com or DM @thejoanrussell.
✨ Work with Joan:
Book a Free 30-Minute Consultation
📣 Instagram:@theleaplounge | @thejoanrussell
📣 LinkedIn:Joan Russell
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