Who the heck is this
Dr. Katja Brunkhorst
Scholar, rock musician, mother, yoga student and teacher and, last but certainly not least, published author, copywriter, coach and founder of branding agency Bright Idea.
I’m a free spirit who gets a kick out of creating connections between people, am passionate about being a mother and a musician; and I feel blessed I get to deal with words and languages in many different registers for a living. Exciting encounters and travels, whether in books or in real life, keep me young; I need to learn new things constantly – those pertaining to yoga, particularly – and incorrect punctuation in other people’s texts can really get my goat.
Those many different roles, however, share one motivation behind them: Being fascinated with communication in all its forms, how it sounds – and how it can work. I call language home.
"Working with Katja, I got myself back."
Dr. Gudrun Khünl-Brady, Vienna
Teacher healer...
Teach from the scar, not the wound.
Most of the time, that’s true – but sometimes, it works the other way round, too. I’m not just a fan of #lifelonglearning; I’ve been teaching for quite a while now, whether at university, in yoga classes, or in my group coachings and masterminds. I firmly believe that my own not-always-easy life (and therapy) experiences are a big part of what helps my clients and students succeed. I get you! And I've got you. #woundedhealers
...fighter writer...
Anger is an Energy. #spiritedrebellion
Maybe, like me, you believe the world needs more heart and smarts. Empathy and Education! My core messages often come to me naturally as songs, and they’re the essence of who we are as teacher, healer, fighter, writer, mother, lover: sisters in spirit, affirming ourselves and rewriting the values that shape our world. Let’s write for our lives by remembering what’s worth fighting for!
Headline for this section
...mother lover.
Pathos and passion? Absolutely, I’m all in!
For our daughters: let’s finally integrate our aggression, dismantle the patriarchy, and love the Earth as deeply as if we’re part of her—because we are—and start seriously protecting the climate. For me, it’s all connected. To do this, we teacher-healer-fighter-writer-mother-lovers need to stay visible, get loud, and honour our emotions. Let’s become unfuckable with!
Are you a fellow serial expert,
Human Disco Ball?
Recently, I came across the term “Skillionaire” and immediately adopted it for myself and my people. I’m definitely more creative than I sometimes care to be (give it a rest already, brain!), but no, I don’t always come up with everything myself.
What I do, though, as a recovering academic, is always cite my sources. #values Here are the three sources that fuel my work! Feel free to dive in, read up, listen, or watch from this list of must-reads & listen-worthy gems:
Literally, my professional title means "friend of the word" or "lover of language." It refers to a scholar focused on the study of language, literature, and texts. My doctoral thesis is titled Related-Transformed: Nietzsche's Presence in Rilke, and you can find the book in any good university library worldwide. Or here:
Finding my own voice and singing my own songs, in harmony with others. Since I was 19, I’ve pretty much always been in a band! Starting with punk rock in K-Town, then Britpop in London, or surf-indie in Cologne. Give it a listen here – there’s everything from Kyuss covers to my own musical renditions of Rilke poems in French!
Spiritual but not "woo-woo" – I've been into star wisdom (aka serious astrology) for decades. Plus, while I haven't partied with Prince since 1999, I've been on the yoga path since then; in 2017, I completed my four-year BDY/EYU training and have since done countless advanced courses. My focus? Mantra, so I can reclaim the role of DJ in my own thought disco.
27 moves - where was I again
When and for how long?
Hallo Welt!
I step into this crazy thing called life through the portal in Grünstadt/Pfalz, with roots in Cologne and the Spreewald region, plus a younger brother by my side. As a teenager, I spend half a year in Denver, Colorado, return as a punk/hippie, and, smitten with Axl Rose and with Sweet Child o’ Mine followed by Smells Like Teen Spirit on constant MTV rotation, start the first of many bands, So Be It, at 18. Naturally named after a line from Shakespeare, because in 1992, I began studying English, German, Spanish, and politics in Mainz. #nerdalert
London, Baby!
My formative decade starts here - what better time to live and make music in the capital during COOL BRITANNIA? Oh yeah, and I did do a bit of studying too at Queen Mary, University of London. East End, innit! Multi-cultural heaven.
Move to Cologne
Finishing my PhD thesis would take another 3 years! I also crashed at my then soap star brother's flat, founded another band and finally stopped smoking.
From Munich to Paris
That year, I used to sneak into the loo to cry in a job in a soul-sucking ad agency job when I got an offer to be an academic again: as part of an EU project digitising the works of my beloved Nietzsche affiliated with the École Normale Superieure in Paris and offices in Schwabing, I traveled lots with my Italian and Norwegian colleagues.
Osnabrück, of all places!
The EU job was starting to disintegrate as everyone lived and worked from different countries - I did the last year in Berlin, floating from sublet to sublet. Then, I applied for a postgrad job at a uni in a town I wasn't sure existed. The interview went well and afterwards, I cried in the all the way back to the station: I was going to have to move to the sticks.
Bright Idea
After two more toxic bosses—one at the university and yet another in advertising—complete with workplace bullying, mobbing, and burnout, I decided: that’s it, I have to start my own thing. Since then, I’ve been flying solo in my career, occasionally teaming up with my web designer husband, Hans, as Bright Idea. “On the side,” our amazing daughter was born in 2010, and from 2013 to 2017, I completed my BDY training…since then, I’ve taken countless courses in yoga, writing, coaching, and online business with big names like Natalie MacNeil, Waylon Lewis, and Mark Darby. #nevernotlearning 🤓 My band, Jetsun, released an EP that’s still up on all major platforms, though we broke up during The Rona (told you I’m not woo; others in the band were, though). I’m currently on the lookout for a new band—hit me up if you’re interested and prioritize science over opinions!