Sunni Brown

Sunni (Sun) Brown is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, expert facilitator, former Innovator-in-Residence at MURAL, and an American Zen chaplain in training. She founded creative consultancy Sunni Brown Ink and recently founded the Center for Deep Self Design in Austin, TX. She was named one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” and one of the “10 Most Creative People on Twitter” by Fast Company. 

Her TED talk has drawn over 1.6 million views. Her work on visual thinking has been featured in every major U.S. publication, including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, WIRED, and Entrepreneur, as well as being featured twice on CBS Sunday Morning and The TODAY Show. Sun’s two globally-beloved books—Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers, and The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently—have been translated into 25 languages and counting, and she’s working on Gamestorming 2.0 for remote and VR environments with her co-author, Dave Gray. 

She is widely credited with the rise of visual thinking as a tool for deeper inquiry. She is designing a system of visual Collaborative Intelligence™ for remote and hybrid teams using MURAL. As a facilitator, Sun and her team have designed and led hundreds of group experiences in diverse industries. CDSD reflects her evolution after more than a decade of interactive, facilitative work. 

Drawing on her expertise in creatively solving external challenges in business, Sun turned her attention toward supporting writers and speakers in meeting internal challenges as they approach the page and the stage. She is crafting a method of inner science called Deep Self Design™, which will be featured in a third book (the most difficult to write), part memoir and part how-to.

Like many on the contemplative path, Sun began her investigation of inner science in 2007 after a series of personal crises catalyzed a personal and spiritual awakening. Sun trained for thousands of hours in za-zen, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, the Right Use of Power, and two mind-body practices called Hakomi and Internal Family Systems. 

She continues to be a devout student of the American Zen tradition (an innovative branch of Sōtō that integrates Western psychology). She is the highest-level practitioner of a revolutionary, evidence-based therapy called Internal Family Systems, developed by one of her mentors, Dr. Richard Schwartz. She has trained for 14 years (the path is ongoing) with two revered teachers, Dr. Margaret Syverson, Sōtō Zen Priest with Dharma Transmission, and Dr. Flint Sparks, Sōtō Zen Priest, and former Clinical Psychologist.