Hannah Brown keeps climbing the media ladder, one rung at a time. The former Bachelorette, “Dancing with the Stars” champion, “Special Forces” winner, author and YouTuber just added another layer to the empire: Podcaster.

“Better Tomorrow with Hannah Brown” launched today (the first episode featuring Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson), growing the Alabama native’s brand after a flurry of multimedia achievements that began in 2019 as a contestant during season 23 of “The Bachelor.”

“One of my biggest goals in this season of life is building real, true community,” Brown posted on Instagram. “So this is me, putting it all out there on my new podcast, ‘Better Tomorrow.’ I am so honored to hold this space for all of us to learn and grow together!”

READ: Hannah Brown: ‘I don’t ever want to lose my connection to Alabama’

Described as “a lifestyle podcast,” the show seeks to answer big questions like “Am I better today than I was yesterday? And how can I learn to be better tomorrow?”

The official description: “Each week, Hannah will build on those questions, discussing topics like confidence, love and making time for yourself, all through the relatable experiences of the ultimate Everywoman. There will be advice, intimate emotional explorations and reveals, and lasting takeaways. Hannah will push the envelope as she challenges, inspires, and guides herself and her audience across these topics through the lens of a progressive, empowered woman who even with her faith doesn’t know all the answers and is still actively defining and deciding what all that means.”

Brown never hesitates to use her public platform for self-reflection, often looking inward and sharing openly about depression, family tragedies, medical scares and her own controversies.

The former Miss Alabama USA and Tuscaloosa native first landed on the reality TV radar during season 23 of “The Bachelor,” attempting to win the heart of Colton Underwood. The fan favorite brought rare levity to the dating series, eventually influencing ABC producers to cast her as lead of “The Bachelorette” in what many regarded as one of the franchise’s best outings.

She parlayed that into a “Dancing with the Stars” (which she won), a popular YouTube channel, a book deal and an appearance on Fox’s reality competition show “Special Forces” (which she won). With pageants, television, social media, streaming and literature under her belt, podcasting feels like a logical progression, a field her fellow “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” alums have transitioned only to invite her as an occasional guest.

Brown (who now lives in Nashville after a stint in Los Angeles) spoke to AL.com at length about “Better Tomorrow,” her path to self-discovery, when mental health became important to her, her competitive side, what she misses about California, why she’s glad to return to the South, Charity Lawson’s “Bachelorette” season and her beloved Crimson Tide. Read the conversation below.

(The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.)

In your promo for “Better Tomorrow,” you say you want it to be “raw and unfiltered.” Your fans have watched a journey of self-discovery and reflection for years now, whether that’s on television, your YouTube channel, your Instagram stories and now your podcast. What is so important to you about looking inward and having honest conversations about yourself that ultimately improves self-care?

Hannah Brown: It’s so important to me for multiple reasons. I wanted to say it’s not because I’m in the public eye, it’s just who I am and that’s always going to be important to me. But then there also is this other part of it that is important that I have these conversations because I have so many people that are looking to me, and I do have this responsibility to kind of be a role model for some people. I take that very seriously, and it’s something I’m very fortunate to have. For me, what I’ve realized that has helped me excel or to move through life in hard situations is to continue to just get down to who I truly am, peel off the layers and really take that journey that sometimes is not the easiest, but it’s always the the one that pays off the most. And that’s getting to know yourself more. So to be able to have this space of a podcast that is my own, to be able to have truly unfiltered conversations — I’ve been on a lot of different shows, and I think a lot of people have been able to see sides of me that are truly raw and authentic, but those moments were selected for people to see. And with this podcast, I’m getting to really just put it all out there, and it’s me who’s choosing what parts you’re going to see as we take serious and fun conversations and really being able to get down to what can we learn from all of this and how can we apply it to our life

When did mental health and wellness become important to you? Was it after your work in television began, or was this something you learned about and developed before you ever appeared on any TV show?

I think in college it started to become something that was important to me. I did struggle, as I think a lot of people do, with that transition of life from being with your parents then being on your own for the first time and figuring out who you are. For me college was definitely that time where I noticed it was something that I needed to focus on and to nurture. It wasn’t until after the shows I realized it’s not just something good to do, it’s important and pivotal for me to be able to blossom into the person I was always meant to be. So mental health has become huge for me because it’s the only way I feel like I can fully know, learn how to express myself.

I think it’s a two-part thing. I definitely feel like I started going on the journey of asking these myself questions that nobody’s ever asked me before, create community that fosters that of a safe space to be able to just talk about life circumstances and how I’m feeling — I found that in college. But then really after the show was when I found the importance, for me at least personally, to have professionals that really can help me with their expertise to grow and take it to the next level and really heal in some ways that I couldn’t always just do on my own. Maybe there’s somebody else who’s also in college and hasn’t had that support and is trying to find that. Maybe they can use my podcast to realize there are other resources and options for them out there.

You are obviously a competitive person, and mental health plays a huge role in competition. But from your pageant days to your Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons to Dancing with the Stars and Special Forces, how did you balance the importance of winning with working on your mental health when environments like those can be so challenging on it?

Well that’s a huge part of my healing journey so far, actually. I hadn’t really realized that a lot of my life has been spent in competition and what that can do for your brain, in some ways good and some ways bad. And so how do I learn how to be at peace with who I am? Not everything is a competition. There are going to be times when you lose and when you win, and how to do that in a way that it doesn’t change how I feel about myself. I think for a long time, whatever the scorecard said it was, that’s how much I believed I was worth. That is not a great place to be, so that is something I’ve really gone on the journey with, uncovering and discovering and almost growing out of the past two years. That was something I hadn’t really, for some reason, noticed in my life, that I put myself in situations where it was win-lose. Really diving into that has been a journey I’ve been on, and I’m excited to continue to do it and share it with other people.

How are you checking that competitive box now? Is it the podcast? Are you scratching that itch?

Not right now. I cannot think of the podcast that way, and I don’t think of the podcast that way. If I do, I get so in my head. It’s basically contradicting of why I want to do this in the first place. It’s a safe space to have conversations. It cannot be a competition of who’s doing whatever. I’ve gotten in my head so many times: “Another podcast. Is somebody going to listen? What are the numbers going to be?” It does not matter. I’m excited to have a community who is on the same journey with me. I am not going to have all the answers, but I’m excited to have conversations with people who can maybe help us along the way. It is not about competition, it is about community.

That is what this podcast is for, and the itch that it is scratching for me, because it is something that I’ve really been longing for. And I feel like in all aspects of my life it’s really aligning right now. I just moved back to the South. I’m in Nashville right now. I feel like community in my life is so important, just us moving here and finding community and friends that help our life flourish, and we can help each other. It feels like true community. And then also in the work that I’m doing and the projects I have going on, it’s like how can I facilitate having a space for other people and to find their support within the group, but then also for me to really, for the first time I think, be more — I don’t know if I can say hands-on because it’s more like you’re hearing my voice — but as close as possible to the people who have supported me along the way.

What are some of your own favorite podcasts you listen to that maybe inspired you to pursue it?

“Call Her Daddy” is the biggest podcast for women. I love the conversations that [Alex Cooper] has been having. The guests she has on are really inspiring. I also love Jay Shetty “On Purpose,” I think he’s awesome and has amazing guests and really great questions and can have beautiful conversations with people. I also love Emma Chamberlain’s “anything goes,” because I think she’s just a genius at everything she does because she’s being completely authentic to herself and she’s really leaned into that and made this amazing career for herself. I also love how she can have this stream of consciousness that I don’t think anybody else can do like her. And we all are leaned in and want to listen and feel like she’s talking to us.

So I’ve studied a lot of different people and how they run their podcast — what I love, what I don’t, what I’d like to change, what I want to add into how we do “Better Tomorrow.” But I also love “Smartless,” because I love ones that are funny and have just really interesting people on there that also make me laugh. “Absolutely Not” by Heather McMahan. I wish I could be that funny, but I think there just some people who’ve understood that some people just need something in the background that makes them laugh, that brightens their day. So I look at things like “Smartless” or “Absolutely Not” and think I want to take that out even though I’m not as funny or talented in that way. I do think what I can bring is some lightness to somebody’s day and that they feel better after they listen to the podcast than before they started. I listen to a lot, but I’m listening to them in a different way than I did before. It’s really just to be inspired and to see what I like in those and what I can bring so that my audience will also have those moments of “Oh, I really feel better after this” or “That was really insightful,” and to make sure that I’m stepping up to the table and doing that for them.

What’s something you loved about living in California?

I loved my time in Santa Monica, I really did. One of the biggest things was being able to look out my window and see the ocean, that was really nice. But I loved living in California because there was so much creativity around me, and I felt inspired every single day by people who were chasing their dreams and making them happen. That was really cool. I’m so thankful for how I grew up, but it was such a shock and exciting when I moved to Los Angeles because it was such a melting pot of so many different people and beliefs. And sometimes that made my challenge myself in a way that I never really had to in Alabama or didn’t surround myself with people that were different from me. When I was in Los Angeles, everyone was different from me.

Having that unique opportunity to, if you want to have conversation or community there, find the pieces that are relatable, because I think we can find something with anyone that we meet that we can relate to. You just have to try a little bit harder sometimes with different people. So I love that. I’m very thankful for my time there, what it taught me, and how it really made me into the person I am today. I feel like I had a lot of growth in the few years that I was in California. To be able to bring that back home has been really nice, and that’s also just why I love Nashville because I think it’s another melting pot city. So much going on. Everywhere you look there’s inspiration, but then it still has what I think the South has that nowhere else does, that hospitality and community that I think is really unique and you don’t find in other places in the United States. I think the South just has this way of bringing people together that’s really beautiful, and I’m so glad to be back and part of that.

What do you think about Charity Lawson’s season of “The Bachelorette” so far? Are you watching?

I actually have been watching. From my season, it’s definitely been on and off for me. I watched Matt James’ season because he was a friend and then sporadically would watch a few episodes here and there of other leads. But Charity I am obsessed with. I just think she is so authentically herself. That’s always going to be a theme with me, because I think that is what we all gravitate towards, sometimes when we don’t even know it. But she is somebody that I think is so herself and I think also really ready for this experience, and I just have loved it. I’m rooting her on. I’m enjoying her season. It’s been so fun to watch. Where I think there have been some seasons that have been lacking sometimes in the past for me, this one has been really nice. I think the guys she has on are really entertaining, for better or for worse, and she’s just handling it amazingly.

READ: ‘Bachelorette’ Charity Lawson on all her favorite Auburn things, if we’ll hear ‘War Eagle’ this season

Now we’ve had Alabama and Auburn “Bachelorette” leads. We’ve heard Roll Tide and War Eagle on the show. Nobody can escape the Iron Bowl and college football. I asked Charity if she could have had a divided household relationship. Just curious: Would that have ever been a dealbreaker for you?

You know, when I was in college I did date a guy from Auburn. It was actually kind of fun. It was still high stakes. We went to the Iron Bowl together. We had a good time with it. It wasn’t too serious, but it was fun to be able to also experience Auburn, in a way. I’m from Tuscaloosa, and he was from Auburn, so I got to experience that town. I’m proud to be from Alabama, and I think I represent everyone in Alabama, but I’m still always going to yell “Roll Tide!” because it’s in my blood. So yeah, I could totally do it. I don’t have to worry about that now, but I just have to get my boyfriend [Adam Woolard] to say “Roll Tide.” He went to Arkansas. I try to forgive him for it, but we’ll get him there soon.

Speaking of college football, do you ever get back to Tuscaloosa for home games?

I went to one game last year. I would love to, now that I’m closer, go to more games, so hopefully that’ll happen this fall. I’m excited to be closer, and to be able to go there and to cheer on the Tide. But I’m also glad I now am like in this new chapter of life and experience all different types of sports. I live right by the new soccer stadium here in Nashville. I’ve never been a soccer fan before, and it’s been really cool to get into that now. But yeah, I’ll always be an Alabama football fan. That’ll always be my first sport to love and enjoy, so hopefully I’ll get to continue to do that this upcoming fall.

MORE: Hannah Brown’s gameday routine

When you visit Tuscaloosa, what are your favorite stops? Do you and your family have a favorite restaurant y’all have to have together when you’re in town or that you might want Adam to try?

I love Heritage House coffee. I just always feel at peace there. A lot of great memories of meeting with girlfriends having awesome conversations and community there. I also love Five and Chuck’s. I think those are always two places we try to get in to eat when I’m there for a little bit. Always need to have some barbecue, some Dreamland. Those are probably the big stops for us.

Hannah Brown’s new podcast “Better Tomorrow with Hannah Brown” is now available on Apple and YouTube.

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