Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandee Huddleston.
Hi Brandee, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve spent my whole adult work-life reading rooms and helping people feel like they belong in them; in a classroom, at a party, on a cruise ship, or inside a book. I’ve never been a one-lane person, and for a long time I thought that was a flaw. I’ve worked booths at video game conferences, run an entire movie theater, managed parties down to the last balloon, and spent over a decade as an elementary school teacher. None of that looks like a prim and proper line. However in practice, every single one of those jobs taught me the same thing: how to read a room and make a stranger feel like they belong in it. Gamers, moviegoers, party guests, seven-year-olds — different rooms, same skill.
Teaching is really where everything started coming together. After a decade of reading books to kids and paying attention to what actually got them excited, my husband Courtney and I started coming up with a character on one of our road trips around Texas. That turned into Uno the One-Legged Spider, which we made together. I wrote it, he illustrated it. That book became our flagship title, and our company’s bookshelf has grown so much since then. We have five books out now, with two more coming later this year.
Around the same time, I decided to lean into the other big part of who I am, which is that I love to travel. I became a travel consultant and now run Big Blue Marble Go, where I book trips through Virgin Voyages as a Gold Tier agent, along with group trips, couples’ trips, and solo travel from a variety of suppliers. So, it’s not really one clean story — it’s a bunch of different jobs, a pandemic that made me rethink what I wanted my life to look like, and two businesses that both come from the same place: teaching, and paying attention to people.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it hasn’t been smooth, and I’d rather just say that plainly. Teaching during the pandemic was one of the hardest stretches of my life. I was trying to keep a classroom of kids engaged through a computer screen while my own family was losing people to COVID. There wasn’t a lesson plan for that. Some mornings I really didn’t want to log on, but I did it anyway, because the kids needed me to. It’s also where the decision to build something of my own actually took root — not because it was easy or safe, but because I’d just watched, up close, how fast “later” can disappear.
Since then, the struggle has just changed shape. Nobody tells you, when you leave a stable teaching career, exactly how steep the learning curve of small business ownership is — financially, spiritually, and physically, all at once. Financially, because a decade of teaching benefits doesn’t transfer to author royalties or commission-based travel bookings, and some months that gap is genuinely hard. Spiritually, because you have to keep believing in a book or a trip that hasn’t found its audience yet, on faith, before the proof shows up. And physically, because building two businesses at once means there is no off switch — I’m often mothering a manuscript and a client’s itinerary in the same afternoon. It’s a lot. I wouldn’t undo a minute of it, but I want people to know it was genuinely hard, not just a cute pivot story.
We’ve been impressed with The Readers Huddle & Big Blue Marble Go, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I run two businesses, and even though they look different, they come from the same place.
The Readers Huddle is my children’s book business. My husband Courtney illustrates and I write, and we have five books out now with two more coming later this year. Our flagship title is Uno the One-Legged Spider, about a spider whose missing legs are just part of who he is, not something he needs fixed or something anyone should feel sorry about. Kirkus Reviews gave it a great review, calling it a gentle, encouraging story about determination and difference. I’m really proud of that book because it came directly out of ten-plus years of watching what kinds of stories actually connect with kids. It wasn’t a wild guess, and it set the tone for everything we’ve written since. This is the side of my work I’d love readers to follow most closely, because I believe stories help to unlock the imagination. We have many books on the horizon and our company is not slowing down.
Big Blue Marble Go is my travel consulting business. I am certified for all things travel, but more importantly I LOVE to travel frequently. I have had the opportunity to visit over 20 countries and even got married in a palace in Scotland! I enthusiastically curate group trips, couples’ escapes, and solo travel always ensuring that it is done with personalized care. When it comes to booking my clients, foresight and top service are a must! Though I enjoy all kinds of travel, I love being a Gold Tier First Mate specializing in Virgin Voyages cruises. What sets me apart are my exciting travel experiences and constant desire to keep learning about the travel industry to stay apprised of safety, and trends. I lead with the golden rule in every interaction. Whether I’m booking a honeymoon cruise or a girls’ trip, I treat every client’s dream trip like it’s the only one on my desk that day.
What I want readers to take away is that these aren’t two random side hustles. They’re both an extension of a teacher’s instinct: pay close attention to what genuinely delights someone, and then go build that thing, whether it’s on a page or on an itinerary.
What matters most to you? Why?
Connection, and specifically, connection led with empathy, care, and compassion. Every hat I’ve ever worn, from theater management to party planning to teaching to authorship to travel consulting, has really just been the same value wearing different clothes. As a part of humanKIND, we should treat people the way we want to be treated and take the time to actually SEE one another.
That matters most to me because I watched what happens when it’s missing. During the pandemic, I saw how much a small act of being genuinely seen could carry someone through a terrible day. I try to build that into everything: into a book that tells a kid their difference isn’t a flaw, and into a trip that gets someone to the place they’ve been dreaming about. Different formats, same golden rule underneath.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thereadershuddle.com/purchasebooks
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thereadershuddle/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReadersHuddle/
