Speaker 1: Hey guys, and welcome back to this week's episode of
Speaker 1: the Let's Be Real Podcast. I'm your host is always
Speaker 1: Sammy J and welcome. We're so glad to have you here.
Speaker 1: This week, I got to chat with the incredible entrepreneur
Speaker 1: Danielle Pearson. You may know her from being the founder
Speaker 1: and CEO of the new zet or the co founder
Speaker 1: and co CEO of the new mental health startup with
Speaker 1: Selena Gomez and the TV called Wonder Mind, and she
Speaker 1: is just breaking barriers and is so inspiring. So I
Speaker 1: am so excited for this conversation and I hope you
Speaker 1: guys like it. Hi, Danielle, and thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming to Let's Be Real podcast. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: We have so much to talk about, and I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you just taking the time because I know you're
Speaker 1: incredibly busy. Well I'm sure you are even more busy,
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for having me on this
Speaker 1: incredible podcast, and just it's truly an honor, So yes,
Speaker 1: thank you again. First and foremost, you are just a
Speaker 1: very smart business woman and entrepreneur and I have spreneurial
Speaker 1: bug as well, and so I have to ask when
Speaker 1: was the first time you're like, oh, I want to
Speaker 1: create something. Well, you definitely are a badass entrepreneur yourself.
Speaker 1: It's funny how people think, you know, or at least
Speaker 1: thought before all of these new entrepreneurs came into the scene,
Speaker 1: but people would think an entrepreneur was somebody who literally
Speaker 1: had like a store or like, you know, a product. Um,
Speaker 1: but even you know, my twin sister is a writer
Speaker 1: and she has books, like she's an entrepreneur. You have
Speaker 1: this incredible podcast, You're an entrepreneur. It's like it looks
Speaker 1: in so many different ways, and so I always kind
Speaker 1: of had the bug. Um. My parents are both hustlers.
Speaker 1: My mother is an immigrant from Columbia. She grew up
Speaker 1: like poverty level core and so she essentially the dream
Speaker 1: and I think it's still is, like the dream job
Speaker 1: in Columbia is to become an oral surgeon. And so
Speaker 1: my mother, in order to do that, had to win
Speaker 1: the only scholarship every single year at the Columbia um
Speaker 1: you know, university, and then also in elementary school, middle school,
Speaker 1: high school, like you know, all the way up until
Speaker 1: graduating at school, there was only one scholarship and it
Speaker 1: was for the best student of class, So my mom
Speaker 1: had to hustle her ass off and be that best student,
Speaker 1: and so I come from that kind of drive. Then
Speaker 1: my father also grew up a pretty you know, poverty
Speaker 1: level core as well in Niagara Falls, and his father
Speaker 1: worked at a factory and had you know, many kids
Speaker 1: and a wife to support. And so my dad uh
Speaker 1: just literally started from like uh, fixing cars to Washington
Speaker 1: cars to selling cars and then you know, finally having
Speaker 1: his own dealership. And so both of my parents are
Speaker 1: incredibly entrepreneurial. The drivers in your d n A. It
Speaker 1: really is um and so that I always knew that
Speaker 1: I wanted to do something and probably have a business.
Speaker 1: I hated school. It just was not for me. My sister,
Speaker 1: my twin sister, was completely the opposite. She definitely got
Speaker 1: more of my mom's jeans, where she was, you know,
Speaker 1: the best student. She went to an ivy league school.
Speaker 1: I was much more like my dad where you know,
Speaker 1: I hated school and I just didn't realize why I
Speaker 1: had to learn about you know, mitochondria and and at
Speaker 1: am fifteen different times over my you know, high school
Speaker 1: and middle school career. When I knew I was not
Speaker 1: going to be a scientist, and I didn't really apply
Speaker 1: myself as much until the final years of high school,
Speaker 1: where I realized, if I don't get my ship together,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be stuck in this town forever and
Speaker 1: I want to go do big things. And so that's
Speaker 1: when I really focused my energy, became a really good
Speaker 1: student and was able to go to be you. And
Speaker 1: so when I went to be you, I knew again
Speaker 1: that I wasn't happy with you know, the things I
Speaker 1: was learning. I wasn't learning about business. It was going
Speaker 1: to be two years of like normal classes and then
Speaker 1: I was going to learn about business. And finally, my
Speaker 1: sophomore year of college, I was like, Okay, if I
Speaker 1: want to do something for myself, I want. I was
Speaker 1: just begging for that kind of passion and something I
Speaker 1: could put everything towards because I didn't have it. And uh,
Speaker 1: I thought, okay, I'm going to write down the things
Speaker 1: I'm good at. I made that list. It was completely blank.
Speaker 1: I was good at absolutely nothing. I highly doubt that.
Speaker 1: I truly like I'm not being you know, funny or anything.
Speaker 1: I was not good at anything. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: who I was. I truly was like a chameleon. In
Speaker 1: the worst way. I would be whoever I thought people
Speaker 1: wanted me to be. I didn't know who I was, like,
Speaker 1: really didn't have any skills. And then I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: well what do I love to do? Like, what are
Speaker 1: my passions? And the one thing that I always loved
Speaker 1: was reading magazines, Like I would just be just you know,
Speaker 1: encompassed in a magazine when I opened it. And so
Speaker 1: I thought, well, what if I could make my own
Speaker 1: magazine and maybe that would help me get an internship
Speaker 1: or a job at a magaze zeene or maybe you know,
Speaker 1: this works out for me and I can do this
Speaker 1: after college and work for myself because I knew no
Speaker 1: one would hire me with my bad grades. Um, so
Speaker 1: I thought, maybe I can hire myself Dan, Yeah I can.
Speaker 1: I tell you that we have so much in common.
Speaker 1: I grew up in school with learning differences and thought
Speaker 1: I was incapable of learning for so long and O
Speaker 1: C D and anxiety as well. Okay, so we are
Speaker 1: the same person because we are the same person as
Speaker 1: you're talking about this. Yeah, I have a d H
Speaker 1: D O C D UM and anxiety and depression, et cetera.
Speaker 1: So yes, with a d H D N o c D.
Speaker 1: I got you. I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: School is hard. Yeah, school was so freaking hard. Yes.
Speaker 1: How did you not let your lack of confidence in
Speaker 1: the classroom affect what you want to do outside of
Speaker 1: the classroom. Yes, so it's really funny. I actually did
Speaker 1: not get diagnosed with a d h D until about
Speaker 1: six months ago. Did everything just makes sense afterwards? Oh?
Speaker 1: I completely made sense. And um I realized and when
Speaker 1: talking to my you know, psychiatrists, that the kind of
Speaker 1: a d h D I had, and I think it's
Speaker 1: different for a lot of people. So I don't want
Speaker 1: to blanket statement. This is like, I care about what
Speaker 1: I care about, and I can do that and be
Speaker 1: very specific, and especially with the O c D combined,
Speaker 1: I can then obsess over that. But if I don't
Speaker 1: care about something, it is almost impossible to focus on it.
Speaker 1: It's not going to get done. Yeah, it's it's almost
Speaker 1: just like it just you can't do it feels genuinely incapable. No,
Speaker 1: it's true. There are assets to in their negative sides
Speaker 1: to it. I'm in college right now, so I'm also
Speaker 1: realizing the negative sides to it. When my brain can't
Speaker 1: process textbook readings, so when I have to do them,
Speaker 1: it takes me forever. But like when there's like something
Speaker 1: with the podcast or something that I love, it's just
Speaker 1: like I love it. Yes, yeah, No, So I was
Speaker 1: very similar and I didn't know that when I was there.
Speaker 1: I don't even think I grew up in Flora Jackson, Florida.
Speaker 1: I don't even I went to a private school. I
Speaker 1: didn't even think, like, you know, people would even know
Speaker 1: what a d h D was back then, learning differences
Speaker 1: aren't talked about. And something that's so unfortunate is that
Speaker 1: so October was Learning Disability Awareness Month, and I think
Speaker 1: it's really important that we talked about these issues because
Speaker 1: so many times, and I've talked to people about this,
Speaker 1: like you kind of get used to the feeling of
Speaker 1: not being able to learn. And I hope that people
Speaker 1: listening know like that you are capable of learning, you
Speaker 1: just have to find that passion. And I think it's
Speaker 1: so cool like what you did with the news that
Speaker 1: the newsletter you created and how you built upon that
Speaker 1: was the news that the outlet for all your creativity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So to answer your first question and go into that
Speaker 1: in school, you know, identical twin sister is a rock
Speaker 1: star school, top of the class, um, you know, so smart,
Speaker 1: and I was her biggest cheerleader, and that's all she
Speaker 1: cared about. She went to school and she just did grades,
Speaker 1: like didn't care about anything else. That was her thing.
Speaker 1: She wanted to go to Ivy League school. And so
Speaker 1: my sister was incredibly impressive. UM for me because I
Speaker 1: didn't like school and I basically just had to like
Speaker 1: get through it. Um. I was a BNC student, and
Speaker 1: so my parents would judge us equally by like, if
Speaker 1: my sister got straight a's great, if I got these
Speaker 1: and seas fantastic. So it we weren't on the same
Speaker 1: playing field, and I appreciate that they everyone knew that
Speaker 1: I was different. Yeah, However, I realized my junior year
Speaker 1: my sister was getting all of these incredible pamphlets and
Speaker 1: you know, info and reach out from these huge schools
Speaker 1: and these big cities. And I wanted to go to
Speaker 1: a big city and I was getting nothing. You know, surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1: They don't send it to like the BNC students. They
Speaker 1: send it to, you know, the people who are really impressive.
Speaker 1: And so I realized, Wow, if I don't get on
Speaker 1: this train. And even though I don't care about you
Speaker 1: know how big a triangle is and you know how
Speaker 1: many uh you know, different elements there are an atom
Speaker 1: and all these things I knew I was never going
Speaker 1: to use. I was like, I need to start caring
Speaker 1: because that is the catalyst to me getting out of
Speaker 1: the city and moving into a big city and making
Speaker 1: my dreams come true. So it find a way out, yes,
Speaker 1: And so essentially I I thought I was done, Like
Speaker 1: my people would call me the dumb twin and like
Speaker 1: I really thought I was just like incapable. But then
Speaker 1: I there was this one class, a history class that
Speaker 1: I really really liked because it was almost like learning
Speaker 1: about a story or like reading a story. And I
Speaker 1: got an eight plus on one of the tests and
Speaker 1: everyone else failed it, and I was like, wait, I
Speaker 1: can do this. So I decided to. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if this has to do do with a D H
Speaker 1: D or O C D, but I can do things
Speaker 1: in sprints. And so I said, Okay, the second I
Speaker 1: get to school at eight o'clock AM until I leave
Speaker 1: at three thirty or three forty five, the only thing
Speaker 1: I'm going to do is be an incredible student. So
Speaker 1: during class, like I will follow along with the textbook,
Speaker 1: take every no, ask every question. During my lunch break,
Speaker 1: I didn't really have a lot of friends and so
Speaker 1: and my sister and I had different lunch breaks, so
Speaker 1: I would go to the library first while everyone would
Speaker 1: eat in the cafeteria like study and do all my stuff,
Speaker 1: then go to the cafeteria at the very end and
Speaker 1: eat when no one else was there so I have
Speaker 1: to sit alone, and you know, basically took every inch
Speaker 1: of my day at school and made it into you know,
Speaker 1: me learning. And then when I got home, I would
Speaker 1: just watch TV like I don't think I did one essay,
Speaker 1: one you know, study session, one homework ever at home
Speaker 1: because I was like, okay, if I do all of
Speaker 1: this in this time and like, you know, just get
Speaker 1: it all banged out, then I can have my free time.
Speaker 1: And junior year and senior year. It ended up working
Speaker 1: so well like that that I ended up getting all
Speaker 1: a's and a pluses, and my parents were like, what
Speaker 1: is going on here? But it truly was because like
Speaker 1: I refused to let these things that don't interest me
Speaker 1: be the reason why I can't go to a big
Speaker 1: city and do what I want to do, like, I
Speaker 1: just need to get on the path and like, you know,
Speaker 1: not rebel anymore. And so that's what I did, Um,
Speaker 1: and I ended up going to be you. And uh,
Speaker 1: that's again really when I started thinking about what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do and uh and thinking, you know, I
Speaker 1: have four years. I was so lucky. The ultimate gift
Speaker 1: my parents gave me was they paid for my college education,
Speaker 1: so I didn't have to have a job while I
Speaker 1: was in college. And so I immediately thought, Okay, I
Speaker 1: have four years for basically the only time in my
Speaker 1: life that we're all I'm responsible for is going to
Speaker 1: class and like partying or making friends or whatever. I'm
Speaker 1: going to take these four years and actually try to
Speaker 1: get a job or create my own job so that
Speaker 1: when I graduate, I'm like set up. Because when in
Speaker 1: your life are you ever going to have four years
Speaker 1: where you don't have you know, a family responsibilities or anything.
Speaker 1: And so I almost thought, you know, to not take
Speaker 1: advantage of that and try to build a career and
Speaker 1: build a wife for myself was would just be a
Speaker 1: massive you know, disappointment and disadvantaged for me. Daniel, your
Speaker 1: story is so amazing and so inspiring. We have to
Speaker 1: take a quick break, but when we come back, I
Speaker 1: want to hear about your college experience and what you
Speaker 1: think the keys were for the News that to become
Speaker 1: so successful in your new company with Selena Gomez and Nandy,
Speaker 1: Tiffy Wondermind and much more. We'll be right back before
Speaker 1: we talk more about college and post college. I'm curious
Speaker 1: back in high school because of everything you were dealing
Speaker 1: with with socializing hard did you find and did your
Speaker 1: anxiety and O c D affect that? Yes, But I
Speaker 1: realized I had O c D um Like I realized
Speaker 1: something was wrong with me when I was about six
Speaker 1: years old and my ster and I had like these
Speaker 1: canopy beds, and one side of my canopy broke because
Speaker 1: I was probably hanging off of it like a fucking monkey,
Speaker 1: and as you should, yes, and my uncle came in
Speaker 1: and taped it with black tape. And so I sat
Speaker 1: there going to sleep. And as you know, one of
Speaker 1: the you know things that O gets different for everybody
Speaker 1: is like a semmetry, and so there was black tape
Speaker 1: on one side and not on the other. And I
Speaker 1: stayed up that entire night just looking back and forth,
Speaker 1: and I ended up having like an anxiety attack over it.
Speaker 1: My parents had no idea what was going on. And
Speaker 1: then after that I developed rituals were like, you know,
Speaker 1: I had to close the door a certain way, and
Speaker 1: you know, all of these different things that kind of
Speaker 1: take over your life. And because my mother is Latina
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I don't want to speak for
Speaker 1: the whole culture, but at least, you know, and in
Speaker 1: her belief system, you know, people didn't really go see
Speaker 1: psychiatrists or anything. My dad is this very manly man
Speaker 1: from you know, Niagara Falls, New York. Going to see
Speaker 1: a psychiatrist or therapist was definitely not a thing that
Speaker 1: he was going to be okay with and so they
Speaker 1: kind of just ignored it and like looked at it
Speaker 1: as almost like a cork for me trying to get attention.
Speaker 1: And then my uh, freshman year of high school, we
Speaker 1: took a health class and we started learning about mental
Speaker 1: health illnesses. And when we got to O c D
Speaker 1: and we started talking about it, I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I have O c D. And it was
Speaker 1: just such a like aha moment because I had no
Speaker 1: idea what it was. I know it was a mental illness,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I asked my parents, can I
Speaker 1: please go get help for this? And the answer was no,
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, that's so hard, especially after I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: my mom feels very bad about it now, but she drew.
Speaker 1: I can't blame her, like just a stigma like that
Speaker 1: was ten years ago or longer, and so you know,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't what she was raised thinking about. And like,
Speaker 1: no one wants to think that their child has a problem,
Speaker 1: which is why Wonder Mind and everything I do with
Speaker 1: the news that, et cetera is all about, like empowering
Speaker 1: people to speak up for themselves and to think about
Speaker 1: mental health just as you would with your physical health.
Speaker 1: Like no one's embarrassed to say they have high blood pressure,
Speaker 1: So why are you embarrassed to say that you are
Speaker 1: O c D? And why are you embarrassed to take
Speaker 1: medicine for that? Exactly? And so the entire time for
Speaker 1: high school with just depression, no c D and a
Speaker 1: d h D, which I didn't know about at the time,
Speaker 1: it was very hard. From twelve to eighteen. I had
Speaker 1: a pretty traumatic journey during that point in crying almost
Speaker 1: a recent day and whatever. So yes, definitely too the
Speaker 1: toll on me I didn't realize o c D was
Speaker 1: so debilitating until I found out I had o c D.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize what it was. I thought I was
Speaker 1: just making myself like, I go down what I call
Speaker 1: the what if Yes, yes, my undfalls where it's just
Speaker 1: endless and I think, you know, having the courage to
Speaker 1: advocate for yourself is really hard and taking those steps.
Speaker 1: What was the moment or was there a moment where
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, even though my family might not be
Speaker 1: supportive of this now, but I need to do what's
Speaker 1: best for me and go get the proper hope. When
Speaker 1: was that? Yeah? So, as you know, it's incredibly expensive
Speaker 1: to get help, especially for something as specific as o
Speaker 1: c D. You mean, specialists, and these people cost a
Speaker 1: lot of money, and so my parents made very clear
Speaker 1: that they not be okay with me going and UM.
Speaker 1: At that time, it was probably it was my junior year.
Speaker 1: I had just had an entrepreneur project that I worked
Speaker 1: with eight other people who are UM I ended up guy.
Speaker 1: So I had my other business, like the real business,
Speaker 1: this project business, and then all of our classes on
Speaker 1: top of it, and so I basically like just worked
Speaker 1: seven that semester and I did all of the work
Speaker 1: for this project. You know, starting a company with eight
Speaker 1: different people obviously is not the way that a normal
Speaker 1: person starts a company. It's with yourself for one or
Speaker 1: maybe two other people, it's not eight people. So but
Speaker 1: I like did my lane of work. I went to
Speaker 1: every single meeting. I accomplished everything I had to do.
Speaker 1: But when you know, the group members would go and
Speaker 1: you know, get a drink or you know, hang out
Speaker 1: all together, I would go work and do my new
Speaker 1: set stuff. And so that ended up being to my
Speaker 1: detriment because they all became friends. And for some reason,
Speaker 1: the grading system was peer based and someone one person
Speaker 1: on the team had to fail, and so they chose me,
Speaker 1: and they basically said, oh, well, she has another business,
Speaker 1: so you know, there's no way she could have been
Speaker 1: as dedicated as we were. There was literally someone on
Speaker 1: our team that never brought a lot of talked to
Speaker 1: any meeting and he got a C plus draw is
Speaker 1: dropped and so junior year that was yeah, so um eight,
Speaker 1: that was like seventy or eighty percent of our grade.
Speaker 1: And so even though I did totally fine on my
Speaker 1: in the classes, I ended up failing that semester, and
Speaker 1: I basically got a letter from the GAN saying you're
Speaker 1: on academic probation. You essentially have one semester to not
Speaker 1: only retake all the classes you failed, but also take
Speaker 1: all of the additional business classes you're supposed to take
Speaker 1: next semester, and if you don't get this g p A,
Speaker 1: you will be kicked out one semester before graduation. And
Speaker 1: at that point, the news that was doing well. But like,
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't trying to monetize yet. I really
Speaker 1: want to wait until I hit a certain subscriber member
Speaker 1: and work with the best friends in the world, not like,
Speaker 1: you know, the smaller frands that might, you know, give
Speaker 1: me some income. I want to wait. I was really
Speaker 1: patient about waiting and telling you know, advertisers, no, like
Speaker 1: we're not going to monetize until next year or whatever.
Speaker 1: And so at that point I had zero backup plan.
Speaker 1: My mother was in hysterics. She didn't even tell my
Speaker 1: dad because my dad would have freaked out. And here
Speaker 1: I am completely alone, you know, saying, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm going to fail out of college one semester before
Speaker 1: I graduate, and I'm going to have nothing. I put
Speaker 1: all of my eggs in the basket of the news
Speaker 1: that because I knew I would get like you know,
Speaker 1: decencies or whatever in my grades, it was not going
Speaker 1: to be the top recruit for any sort of big company.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, I just have to make
Speaker 1: the news at work and that would be my my job.
Speaker 1: And so at that point it was the loneliest, most oppressing,
Speaker 1: just the lowest point in my life. And my o
Speaker 1: c D became absolutely debilitating. So like constant you know, thoughts, um,
Speaker 1: constant rituals and they called them in truths of thoughts
Speaker 1: as you know um. And there was one day when
Speaker 1: I was looking under my bed that was the way
Speaker 1: one of the rituals I had, and I just to
Speaker 1: make the feeling go away. And I was so angry
Speaker 1: and emotional that I just kept banging my hands on
Speaker 1: the floor until they started bleeding. And my sister saw that,
Speaker 1: and she and my boyfriend basically talked and they were like,
Speaker 1: you need to go see a theratist, like this is
Speaker 1: not okay anymore. And I was essentially crying. Every single day.
Speaker 1: I would go to the computer to try to even
Speaker 1: do my homework and just ball and not even be
Speaker 1: able to focus, and so I was like, there's no
Speaker 1: way I'm gonna get kicked out, Like there, you know,
Speaker 1: there's no way I'm even gonna ever be able to
Speaker 1: make this work. And so I with the little affiliate
Speaker 1: money that I made from the newsette, so we weren't
Speaker 1: monetizing like doing brand partnerships, but I was linking out
Speaker 1: to affiliate, uh you know, sources. So if somebody bought
Speaker 1: a product I recommended, I would get a percentage, and
Speaker 1: I ended up being able to make quite a bit
Speaker 1: of money over the last three years for that. So
Speaker 1: I had a little bit of savings and I used
Speaker 1: that to find a psychiatrist and a therapist, and essentially
Speaker 1: they got me on medicine prozac, and that completely changed
Speaker 1: and pretty much saved my life because all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: all of the additional emotions of like every single day
Speaker 1: crying and just being overly emotional, that all went away
Speaker 1: and I was able. I still could feel emotions, but
Speaker 1: not in a way that a more normal person is
Speaker 1: supposed to feel emotion, not so drastic, no, not in
Speaker 1: a debilitating way, And so I essentially was able to
Speaker 1: because of that and seeing a therapist, I was able
Speaker 1: to basically become a machine that entire semester, wake up
Speaker 1: at five am, do the right the whole news that
Speaker 1: uh until nine thirty or ten am, go to class,
Speaker 1: have like a one hour break where I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: reaching out to people to interview, doing everything. It was
Speaker 1: just me, I like to say, my my first team
Speaker 1: for the news that was three people, me, myself and
Speaker 1: I and so I did everything. Then I would go
Speaker 1: back to class, and then I would go see a
Speaker 1: tutor that I also paid for VM my news at
Speaker 1: savings to help me with the classes that I had
Speaker 1: failed UM and then just go to sleep. And every
Speaker 1: single day it was almost like being in the military
Speaker 1: or something. It was my regiment, no feelings, no room
Speaker 1: for anything, just do it. And somehow with the help
Speaker 1: of um, you know, the tutor and my sister and
Speaker 1: my boyfriend and um you know, the support of someone
Speaker 1: named Sally Ward who works in the administrative department of
Speaker 1: Boston University basically telling me you can't get up, you
Speaker 1: have to do this. And she was just as upset
Speaker 1: as I was that, you know, the teachers didn't step
Speaker 1: in and say, hey, let's look at what you actually did.
Speaker 1: Instead of making you basically, you know, have to redo everything.
Speaker 1: And they actually encouraged me that the teachers that failed
Speaker 1: me encouraged me to stop uh college and just do
Speaker 1: my business because they were like, there's no way you're
Speaker 1: going to be able to do this. And so I
Speaker 1: proved them wrong. I ended up graduating. Yeah, you did,
Speaker 1: you know, and I guess I ended up doing that semester.
Speaker 1: Then the final semester of the you was all about entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: So finally I was taking the classes that I wanted
Speaker 1: to take an entrepreneurship. And my professors were so great
Speaker 1: because they were people that had actually started companies or
Speaker 1: worked at startups whatever, and they just genuinely wanted to
Speaker 1: help the next generation. And so those teachers were so helpful,
Speaker 1: so kind, so you know, willing to give any knowledge,
Speaker 1: and so proud of like what I was doing instead
Speaker 1: of seeing it as like a detriment or like as
Speaker 1: a you know, joke at your superpower. Yes and uh
Speaker 1: and so them with you know, the Health of Sally
Speaker 1: from the administrative Office, I ended up actually getting on
Speaker 1: the dean's list. So I went from getting almost ticked
Speaker 1: out the semester of her, I graduated to being one
Speaker 1: of the best students in the business school, uh the
Speaker 1: next semester, and so I just I literally walked that stage.
Speaker 1: And everyone in my family tried because they knew how
Speaker 1: hard it was for me to get there. And I
Speaker 1: actually had a meeting with the dean of the business
Speaker 1: school i be a few days ago, and she asked
Speaker 1: if I would ever consider being a commencement speaker, and so,
Speaker 1: as full circle, yeah, if that happens, I think my
Speaker 1: parents would actually just I because not only you know,
Speaker 1: did I get past this stage, but like now I'm
Speaker 1: there to like talk to people, and so I just
Speaker 1: feel really strongly that I want to tell, you know,
Speaker 1: the next Breadley in class. Look, do not count yourself
Speaker 1: out if you have a mental illness, if you have
Speaker 1: a learning disability, if you didn't get the grades you
Speaker 1: wanted in college, because you can still kick ass um
Speaker 1: and being able to stand there and say, you know
Speaker 1: that Forbes just named me the youngest wealthy is self
Speaker 1: made a woman of color in America. You know, I
Speaker 1: literally almost failed out of this school, Like if I
Speaker 1: can do it with everything going against me and the
Speaker 1: odds and lack of connections and everything, lack of resources,
Speaker 1: and funding. If I can do it, anyone else can
Speaker 1: do it. I promise. It's so amazing just hearing about
Speaker 1: your evolution and you know, it's just so true and
Speaker 1: people have the odds against you. If you believe in yourself,
Speaker 1: that's all you can do. All you can do is
Speaker 1: do your best. That's really inspiring because I'm currently in
Speaker 1: college and I I sometimes feel lost and I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever felt this, but I
Speaker 1: feel like school sometimes wants to put me in a box,
Speaker 1: like choose one thing, get good at it, and then
Speaker 1: do that. But it's like, but there are so many
Speaker 1: things that I want to do. You know, Yes, I
Speaker 1: love that you've just carved your own path and I
Speaker 1: that's that's exactly what I want to do. Not only
Speaker 1: do you do that, but you also found a way
Speaker 1: to monetize news that and made it so successful. And
Speaker 1: I was just curious, what do you love and what
Speaker 1: advice do you have for creating businesses? Yeah? So um,
Speaker 1: the reason why the news that became successful is truly
Speaker 1: I just refused for it not to be. And it
Speaker 1: was like trying to fit a square peg into one hole.
Speaker 1: I just slammed that square peg into the roundhold so
Speaker 1: many times it became round and fit through and so
Speaker 1: it was a lot of pivoting. So the news that
Speaker 1: is now worth two hundred million dollars UM. And my
Speaker 1: only other partner in the company is my mother, who's
Speaker 1: you know being and she always believed in me, and
Speaker 1: I was able to make her a millionaire and write
Speaker 1: her you know, a multimillion dollar Czech last year just
Speaker 1: for distributions, and so that is the best gift I
Speaker 1: could have ever given her. And like helping the people
Speaker 1: that believed in me and no one else did UM.
Speaker 1: And so I guess I with the news that if
Speaker 1: I would have just stopped with a newsletter it would
Speaker 1: not have been worth two million dollars today, Like you
Speaker 1: know what, we are actively going the media side and
Speaker 1: really excited about it. But what really propelled us to
Speaker 1: success is thinking, Okay, what are superpowers at the news
Speaker 1: that in the newsletter? It's the ability to tell stories
Speaker 1: and engage gen z and millennials, et cetera, which is
Speaker 1: actually really hard for people to do. And also you
Speaker 1: know this empowerment angle of constantly for the news that
Speaker 1: specifically empowering woman, but also UM featuring these incredible, diverse
Speaker 1: women from every background. So we essentially took that ethos
Speaker 1: of empowering people, of amplifying diverse voices of storytelling better
Speaker 1: than anyone else and turned it into an agency model.
Speaker 1: So that's the other part of the business called new Land,
Speaker 1: which we actually kept a secret for the last three
Speaker 1: years because we had so much demand from this one
Speaker 1: huge client that essentially they kept, you know, saying to
Speaker 1: other groups, you know, you need to use this agency,
Speaker 1: or if someone would see one of our ads or
Speaker 1: something and be like, who did that, and then they
Speaker 1: would recommend us that. We literally grew sixteen thousand in
Speaker 1: three years. And the only reason why I know that
Speaker 1: number is because we were recently named number sixteen out
Speaker 1: of inks five thousand most successful companies in America. And
Speaker 1: we literally went from one million in revenue to seven
Speaker 1: million in revenue to forty million in revenue with fifteen
Speaker 1: people last year. And now you know, we've like quadruple
Speaker 1: the team and we're working with other incredible brands. But
Speaker 1: essentially new Land is the agency where we use our
Speaker 1: powers of you know, amplifying diverse voices storytelling, engaging gen
Speaker 1: z and millennials, et cetera, and then take over you know,
Speaker 1: the TikTok's or the Instagram accounts or you know, social
Speaker 1: media campaigns of the biggest brands in the world and
Speaker 1: essentially make them almost like many content destinations instead of
Speaker 1: a billboard. And then we also do massive talent campaigns
Speaker 1: for you know, huge worldwide campaigns and eleven different countries. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we've done, uh a TikTok campaign that got
Speaker 1: over eleven billion views where we had Snoop Dogg create
Speaker 1: an original song, We wrote the song, we had to
Speaker 1: record it. It became a huge TikTok viral hit all storytelling,
Speaker 1: and so that has really propelled our company into such
Speaker 1: a big, you know, a totally different universe that I
Speaker 1: ever thought I would be in, uh, because I wasn't
Speaker 1: afraid to pivot a little bit and say, you know,
Speaker 1: what are we good at? How can we do something
Speaker 1: else with those talents as well. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the time when creating something you're so focused on
Speaker 1: like one small detail, but it's kind of zooming out
Speaker 1: looking at the larger picture and having those different avenues
Speaker 1: of revenue and just having the baseline be being a
Speaker 1: storyteller is really awesome. Yeah, you have to take one
Speaker 1: work with Bright. But when we come back, I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about a new company with Selena
Speaker 1: Gomez and Mandy Tefe, Wondermind, which is making such an
Speaker 1: impact in the world around mental health. We'll be right back,
Speaker 1: and we're back now. You're on the next journey as
Speaker 1: well with wonder Mind, which I am so excited to
Speaker 1: talk to you about. First, I want to ask you
Speaker 1: what mental fitness means to you. Yeah, so essentially, you know, um,
Speaker 1: I am the co founder and co CEO of wonder Mind,
Speaker 1: and the mission of wonder Mind is to um de
Speaker 1: stigmatize and democratize mental health and introduce this concept that
Speaker 1: we call mental fitness. And so my co founder, Selena
Speaker 1: Gomez and many TV and I we basically realized that
Speaker 1: the stigma and the lack of you know, resources for
Speaker 1: people who didn't have you know, I don't have a
Speaker 1: thousand dollars an hour for a session with the best psychiatrist,
Speaker 1: is really the reason why you know, there's so much
Speaker 1: stigma and there's there's such a barrier to entry in
Speaker 1: the mental health space. And so we thought, what if
Speaker 1: we call it mental fitness? So working on your mental
Speaker 1: health in little ways every day, whatever that looks like
Speaker 1: for you, because that's a way lower barrier to entry
Speaker 1: for somebody that might be like, well, I don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, work on my mental health, like that implies
Speaker 1: something's wrong with me. And we're also not just for
Speaker 1: people with diagnosed mental illnesses like myself and yourself were
Speaker 1: for anybody with feelings. And so every single thing that
Speaker 1: we do, from content to the products that we're releasing,
Speaker 1: everything is merchandised by feeling. So I feel anxious, I
Speaker 1: feel lonely, I feel scared, I feel sad at And
Speaker 1: then we have the best psychiatrist, therapist, social workers in
Speaker 1: the world from these diverse backgrounds, essentially looking at all
Speaker 1: of our content, making sure that we're being very responsible
Speaker 1: and anything that's ever a recommendation or a tip or
Speaker 1: somebody you know, explaining what catastrophizing actually means or what
Speaker 1: is the definition of o c V And you're probably
Speaker 1: using it wrong when you say, you know, I'm so
Speaker 1: c D. I left to have all of my pens
Speaker 1: in order. Whatever it is there, that's all coming from
Speaker 1: these licensed therapists and social workers and experts. So we're
Speaker 1: not you know, arm chair therapists at all. But we're
Speaker 1: essentially creating content every single day in the media side
Speaker 1: of Wonder Mind. That is editorializing mental fitness and making
Speaker 1: it fun for you to participate every single day, and
Speaker 1: then also making it like this beautiful, sexy, alluring experience
Speaker 1: that if you are on you know, a piece of
Speaker 1: our content, people aren't like, oh, is that you know
Speaker 1: web MD or psychology today? It really looks fun and
Speaker 1: exciting and engaging. And also talking to the biggest names
Speaker 1: in the world likes Lena Gomez, like Serena Williams, who's
Speaker 1: one of our lead investors, um you know, Camilla Cabeo, etcetera.
Speaker 1: That also is you know, going to help hopefully destigmatize
Speaker 1: mental health and mental fitness and make it so that
Speaker 1: everybody feels just like for physical fitness you work out
Speaker 1: or you you know, eat healthier, whatever you do, how
Speaker 1: to work out the mind, Yeah, that you should also
Speaker 1: work out your mind. The first drop was the three
Speaker 1: times a week newsletter. We have two huge launches coming
Speaker 1: up in the next two months that is going to
Speaker 1: expand that even more. The production side, so creating stories
Speaker 1: with the biggest you know, streamers, and producers in the
Speaker 1: world UH to actually change culture and zeitgeist around you know,
Speaker 1: mental health and mental fitness. And then finally being the
Speaker 1: first company to ever work with the best experts in
Speaker 1: the world in psychiatry to create physical, tangible, non nical
Speaker 1: mental fitness tools that are priced for the masses. So
Speaker 1: everything again is made for UH everyone to be able
Speaker 1: to access, so the content will never be paid. Well,
Speaker 1: do we have incredible brand partners that we work with
Speaker 1: that help us, you know, create this content and have
Speaker 1: it for free for anybody who wants to access it,
Speaker 1: no matter what your background is so amazing. Yes, and
Speaker 1: the products are also going to be an affordable price
Speaker 1: point as well, because we believe everybody should be able
Speaker 1: to practice mental fitness. So what products are we talking about.
Speaker 1: I can't really say a lot about the products, but
Speaker 1: all I can say is, you know, every time that
Speaker 1: we say we're introducing mental fitness products, people are like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? And that is so exciting to
Speaker 1: us because truly, like people don't even know what that
Speaker 1: could encompass. But it's essentially taking um, you know, behavioral therapies,
Speaker 1: et cetera and UH and developing products that are non clinical,
Speaker 1: they are not harmful in any way, etcetera. You know,
Speaker 1: an example I could give you as a stress ball
Speaker 1: that is technically a mental fitness product, but we're going
Speaker 1: way deeper and actually, you know, building a beautiful brand
Speaker 1: for men and women to have these tools at their
Speaker 1: you know, disposal. And I feel like, I'm so glad
Speaker 1: that you mentioned the tool kit thing, because every time
Speaker 1: I go to therapy. I've been to therapy since I
Speaker 1: was seven. I've done exposure therapy for years. That's sewesome.
Speaker 1: We always talk about putting yourself out there and finding
Speaker 1: products and find finding things that are good for you
Speaker 1: and that makes you feel good. Yes, when you're down,
Speaker 1: what makes you feel good? What do you do to
Speaker 1: help yourself? Well? First of all, uh, it's so amazing
Speaker 1: that you've been seeing a therapist since you're seven years old,
Speaker 1: and definitely very jealous of that, and that is one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I, you know, have dedicated myself
Speaker 1: to another company because I truly want I don't want
Speaker 1: anyone to ever all the way I felt, where you
Speaker 1: are completely alone and you have to basically figure out
Speaker 1: your mental health just by you know, scratching everything together
Speaker 1: and having no support. So that's amazing. UM. I think
Speaker 1: people think, you know, when they see the Forbes headline
Speaker 1: that you know, twenty million dollars whatever, you know, that
Speaker 1: I don't have bad days and that I've just made it.
Speaker 1: But I truly have bad days. Almost every day. I
Speaker 1: feel like I get it punched as an entrepreneur, as
Speaker 1: you know, you have punched in the face like fifteen
Speaker 1: times a day, fifty times a day. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of uh personal stuff that I
Speaker 1: deal with as well, and so I definitely do have
Speaker 1: those low moments and they usually come you know, after
Speaker 1: my sprint of a work day or sometimes during And
Speaker 1: the one thing that I do is I really like
Speaker 1: to meditate. I don't do it on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not good meditate tating person. I tried to
Speaker 1: do our best. The only thing that I m able
Speaker 1: to do as a sleep meditation. But I want you
Speaker 1: to know, I it's it's from some app, but like
Speaker 1: that's the only voice that doesn't make me just want
Speaker 1: to like smash my phone. Um. And it's basically like UM,
Speaker 1: engaging every part of your body, so like relax your toes,
Speaker 1: relax your legs, relax your jaw and like for me,
Speaker 1: it's like my jaw was clenched and I didn't even realize. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I basically, um, what do I do? I like I
Speaker 1: my teeth. I like brush my keeth against each other
Speaker 1: while I sleep, like I like grind them together. It's horrible.
Speaker 1: My jaws always tight. And so it basically gives you
Speaker 1: a second to just like be in your body and
Speaker 1: that makes me feel a lot more grounded. Or I'll
Speaker 1: call my mother or my like twin sister, or I'll
Speaker 1: go to my dogs. I have two beautiful poodles that
Speaker 1: I'll just go hug and be like I'm doing this
Speaker 1: all for you, um, and just be you know, so
Speaker 1: happy with that. So those are the things that really
Speaker 1: it's like feelings and touching and you know, from minding
Speaker 1: myself why I'm doing all of this, that really helps me,
Speaker 1: you know, get out of those states. But like you know,
Speaker 1: it's not that easy. Sometimes it lasts a bit longer.
Speaker 1: I know, sometimes I kind of just have to let
Speaker 1: it be and feel it and that sucks. But you
Speaker 1: just kind of have to go through the motions of
Speaker 1: it as sometimes which is never fun. But I feel
Speaker 1: like it just makes you appreciate the good moments more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. I mean you're what you're describing is um
Speaker 1: is called uh what an exposure, So like sitting in
Speaker 1: the discomfort and uh you know that definitely is a
Speaker 1: really good coping mechanism because it helps you become stronger.
Speaker 1: But sometimes, you know, I don't feel strong enough to
Speaker 1: do that, and that's the reality. Oh same here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and those moments I lay in my bed and I
Speaker 1: curl into a ball and I have some fairy lights
Speaker 1: and I look at some good music. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes
Speaker 1: you just need to take a second. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't have the luxury during the workday to really
Speaker 1: just kind of step away from everything, and so I
Speaker 1: just kind of you know again, I do everything like
Speaker 1: a sprint, So I just go through all my calls
Speaker 1: and kind of not think about it. And that's why,
Speaker 1: like at night, that's when it really hits me. Um.
Speaker 1: But I just I like to think about the things
Speaker 1: in my life that are going well and the people
Speaker 1: that I'm hopefully hopefully helping with, you know, stuff like
Speaker 1: the news that and and wonder mind um, and that
Speaker 1: really just puts everything into perspective. So how did wonder
Speaker 1: mine come to be? I know, you met Selena and
Speaker 1: Mandy on a zoom call for the news that at
Speaker 1: what point where you like, hey, we should start a
Speaker 1: company together. Yeah, so Selena, Mandy and I, Um, we're
Speaker 1: on a zoom. I asked, you know, my editorial team
Speaker 1: if I did do the interview. They had no idea
Speaker 1: why I would want to do the interview, because you know,
Speaker 1: I had written the news that every single day for
Speaker 1: I think four or five years, and then I handed
Speaker 1: it over to the editorial team. They're much more talented
Speaker 1: than I am. Um, and so they were like, and
Speaker 1: she like, you know, have of a midlife crisis where
Speaker 1: she wants to write the newsletter again. But the reason
Speaker 1: was because it was a mental health interview and no
Speaker 1: one on my team or in my life knew I
Speaker 1: had any connection to mental health because I had never
Speaker 1: talked about it. It was so embarrassing to me. I
Speaker 1: truly would have rather like died than been vocal about
Speaker 1: my O c D at that point, which I know
Speaker 1: sounds very extreme, but that's truly how I felt. I
Speaker 1: felt like telling anybody I had O c D was
Speaker 1: almost like the most embarrassing thing I could ever say,
Speaker 1: because not only am I like this Latina woman twenty
Speaker 1: something trying to be taken seriously in the business world,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to add o c D on top
Speaker 1: of that, which is not the right mindset that I
Speaker 1: should have had, but that's how I thought. And so
Speaker 1: after listening to Selena and Mandy, who are both incredibly um,
Speaker 1: you know, successful in their own light, and they just
Speaker 1: so happened to be mother daughter saying things to each other,
Speaker 1: some of the stuff for the first time about their
Speaker 1: mental health and their journeys really inspired me at the
Speaker 1: end of the interview to tell them they were like
Speaker 1: the fourth and fifth people I've ever told that I
Speaker 1: had been struggling with those CD and depression, etcetera since
Speaker 1: I was a child, and that, you know, I that
Speaker 1: was the first time I was ever saying and I
Speaker 1: was saying it to, you know, the most famous person
Speaker 1: in the world and this incredibly decorated producer, And so
Speaker 1: at that point we stayed in touch, and Mandy and
Speaker 1: I were basically like, how can we change the world
Speaker 1: and really do something that helps people like that gets
Speaker 1: to the root of everything, not just you know, their
Speaker 1: incredible companies offering therapy, etcetera. But like, what about the
Speaker 1: people who do won't even take that step to get
Speaker 1: a therapist, or what if what about the people who
Speaker 1: already have a therapist? You know, having a therapist is
Speaker 1: almost like having a personal trainer. You see them once
Speaker 1: a week for you know, an hour if you're lucky,
Speaker 1: more resources. Yeah. So, and if you just lean on that,
Speaker 1: you're not going to get a states pack or you know,
Speaker 1: achieve your fitness goals. You have to do the work
Speaker 1: every other day in between sessions. And that's really what
Speaker 1: we want to create. And so Mandy and I had
Speaker 1: so many discussions about it. Selena had always wanted to
Speaker 1: do something to change the world with mental health because
Speaker 1: it was such a big part of her life, and
Speaker 1: so Mandy and I came together and we, you know, well,
Speaker 1: like this is what we want to do, and Selena
Speaker 1: wanted to be involved and it really just went from there.
Speaker 1: That is so amazing. And thank you for creating a
Speaker 1: company in this startup and this and telling stories because
Speaker 1: they need to be told, and breaking the statement is
Speaker 1: so important and I just want to thank you again
Speaker 1: for just taking the time out of your day to
Speaker 1: chat with me about this. Because I as I wish
Speaker 1: more people were as open as you are, because it's
Speaker 1: so refreshing. Well, thank you so much. And you know,
Speaker 1: I almost feel bad that it took me this long
Speaker 1: to be open, and it took me to feel like
Speaker 1: I had already achieved some level of success to then
Speaker 1: be like, okay, but this is really what's under the hood.
Speaker 1: I don't want anyone to ever feel like they have
Speaker 1: off to you know, hit a certain level and then
Speaker 1: be open. That's exactly why, you know, I am in
Speaker 1: love with the our mission for a wonder Mind and
Speaker 1: want to help so many people, and so thank you
Speaker 1: so much for giving me, you know, the platform to
Speaker 1: share what we're doing at the news Thatt and new
Speaker 1: Landing Agency and Wonder Mind, because you know, you are
Speaker 1: someone that I really look up to and and love
Speaker 1: to hear stories from. And the fact that I'm going
Speaker 1: to be on your show is is really a pinch
Speaker 1: me moment. So thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and I'm very excited for the future.
Speaker 1: So make sure you check out the news that Wondermind everything.
Speaker 1: It's some awesome impact driven stuff, which is what we
Speaker 1: need in the world. And thank you for creating something
Speaker 1: that shares the stories of the most incredible people in
Speaker 1: the world. And then me, you know, like, thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. And I'm so impressed you know, you
Speaker 1: are in college, like the fact that you're joining Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, wow, you just you're You're even more successful
Speaker 1: than I ever dreamed of being at twenties. So just
Speaker 1: congratulations on your success and thank you again for having me.
Speaker 1: It was such a pleasure. H