Featuring Daniella Pierson

is just breaking barriers and is so inspiring. So I am so excited for this conversation and I hope you guys like it. Hi, Danielle, and thank you so much for coming to Let's Be Real podcast. I'm so excited. We have so much to talk about, and I really appreciate you just taking the time because I know you're incredibly busy. Well I'm sure you are even more busy, So thank you so much for having me on this incredible podcast, and just it's truly an honor, So yes,

thank you again. First and foremost, you are just a very smart business woman and entrepreneur and I have spreneurial bug as well, and so I have to ask when was the first time you're like, oh, I want to create something. Well, you definitely are a badass entrepreneur yourself. It's funny how people think, you know, or at least thought before all of these new entrepreneurs came into the scene, but people would think an entrepreneur was somebody who literally

had like a store or like, you know, a product. Um, but even you know, my twin sister is a writer and she has books, like she's an entrepreneur. You have this incredible podcast, You're an entrepreneur. It's like it looks in so many different ways, and so I always kind of had the bug. Um. My parents are both hustlers. My mother is an immigrant from Columbia. She grew up like poverty level core and so she essentially the dream and I think it's still is, like the dream job

in Columbia is to become an oral surgeon. And so my mother, in order to do that, had to win the only scholarship every single year at the Columbia um you know, university, and then also in elementary school, middle school, high school, like you know, all the way up until graduating at school, there was only one scholarship and it was for the best student of class, So my mom had to hustle her ass off and be that best student,

and so I come from that kind of drive. Then my father also grew up a pretty you know, poverty level core as well in Niagara Falls, and his father worked at a factory and had you know, many kids and a wife to support. And so my dad uh just literally started from like uh, fixing cars to Washington cars to selling cars and then you know, finally having his own dealership. And so both of my parents are

incredibly entrepreneurial. The drivers in your d n A. It really is um and so that I always knew that I wanted to do something and probably have a business. I hated school. It just was not for me. My sister, my twin sister, was completely the opposite. She definitely got more of my mom's jeans, where she was, you know, the best student. She went to an ivy league school.

I was much more like my dad where you know, I hated school and I just didn't realize why I had to learn about you know, mitochondria and and at am fifteen different times over my you know, high school and middle school career. When I knew I was not going to be a scientist, and I didn't really apply myself as much until the final years of high school, where I realized, if I don't get my ship together, I'm going to be stuck in this town forever and

I want to go do big things. And so that's when I really focused my energy, became a really good student and was able to go to be you. And so when I went to be you, I knew again that I wasn't happy with you know, the things I was learning. I wasn't learning about business. It was going to be two years of like normal classes and then I was going to learn about business. And finally, my sophomore year of college, I was like, Okay, if I

want to do something for myself, I want. I was just begging for that kind of passion and something I could put everything towards because I didn't have it. And uh, I thought, okay, I'm going to write down the things I'm good at. I made that list. It was completely blank. I was good at absolutely nothing. I highly doubt that. I truly like I'm not being you know, funny or anything. I was not good at anything. I didn't even know who I was. I truly was like a chameleon. In

the worst way. I would be whoever I thought people wanted me to be. I didn't know who I was, like, really didn't have any skills. And then I thought, okay, well what do I love to do? Like, what are my passions? And the one thing that I always loved was reading magazines, Like I would just be just you know,

encompassed in a magazine when I opened it. And so I thought, well, what if I could make my own magazine and maybe that would help me get an internship or a job at a magaze zeene or maybe you know, this works out for me and I can do this after college and work for myself because I knew no one would hire me with my bad grades. Um, so I thought, maybe I can hire myself Dan, Yeah I can. I tell you that we have so much in common.

I grew up in school with learning differences and thought I was incapable of learning for so long and O C D and anxiety as well. Okay, so we are the same person because we are the same person as you're talking about this. Yeah, I have a d H D O C D UM and anxiety and depression, et cetera. So yes, with a d H D N o c D. I got you. I know exactly what you're talking about. School is hard. Yeah, school was so freaking hard. Yes.

How did you not let your lack of confidence in the classroom affect what you want to do outside of the classroom. Yes, so it's really funny. I actually did not get diagnosed with a d h D until about six months ago. Did everything just makes sense afterwards? Oh? I completely made sense. And um I realized and when talking to my you know, psychiatrists, that the kind of a d h D I had, and I think it's different for a lot of people. So I don't want

to blanket statement. This is like, I care about what I care about, and I can do that and be very specific, and especially with the O c D combined, I can then obsess over that. But if I don't care about something, it is almost impossible to focus on it. It's not going to get done. Yeah, it's it's almost just like it just you can't do it feels genuinely incapable. No, it's true. There are assets to in their negative sides to it. I'm in college right now, so I'm also

realizing the negative sides to it. When my brain can't process textbook readings, so when I have to do them, it takes me forever. But like when there's like something with the podcast or something that I love, it's just like I love it. Yes, yeah, No, So I was very similar and I didn't know that when I was there. I don't even think I grew up in Flora Jackson, Florida.

I don't even I went to a private school. I didn't even think, like, you know, people would even know what a d h D was back then, learning differences aren't talked about. And something that's so unfortunate is that so October was Learning Disability Awareness Month, and I think it's really important that we talked about these issues because so many times, and I've talked to people about this, like you kind of get used to the feeling of

not being able to learn. And I hope that people listening know like that you are capable of learning, you just have to find that passion. And I think it's so cool like what you did with the news that the newsletter you created and how you built upon that

was the news that the outlet for all your creativity. Yeah, So to answer your first question and go into that in school, you know, identical twin sister is a rock star school, top of the class, um, you know, so smart, and I was her biggest cheerleader, and that's all she cared about. She went to school and she just did grades, like didn't care about anything else. That was her thing. She wanted to go to Ivy League school. And so

my sister was incredibly impressive. UM for me because I didn't like school and I basically just had to like get through it. Um. I was a BNC student, and so my parents would judge us equally by like, if my sister got straight a's great, if I got these and seas fantastic. So it we weren't on the same playing field, and I appreciate that they everyone knew that

I was different. Yeah, However, I realized my junior year my sister was getting all of these incredible pamphlets and you know, info and reach out from these huge schools and these big cities. And I wanted to go to a big city and I was getting nothing. You know, surprise, surprise. They don't send it to like the BNC students. They send it to, you know, the people who are really impressive. And so I realized, Wow, if I don't get on

this train. And even though I don't care about you know how big a triangle is and you know how many uh you know, different elements there are an atom and all these things I knew I was never going to use. I was like, I need to start caring because that is the catalyst to me getting out of the city and moving into a big city and making my dreams come true. So it find a way out, yes, And so essentially I I thought I was done, Like my people would call me the dumb twin and like

I really thought I was just like incapable. But then I there was this one class, a history class that I really really liked because it was almost like learning about a story or like reading a story. And I got an eight plus on one of the tests and everyone else failed it, and I was like, wait, I can do this. So I decided to. And I don't know if this has to do do with a D H D or O C D, but I can do things

in sprints. And so I said, Okay, the second I get to school at eight o'clock AM until I leave at three thirty or three forty five, the only thing I'm going to do is be an incredible student. So during class, like I will follow along with the textbook,

take every no, ask every question. During my lunch break, I didn't really have a lot of friends and so and my sister and I had different lunch breaks, so I would go to the library first while everyone would eat in the cafeteria like study and do all my stuff, then go to the cafeteria at the very end and eat when no one else was there so I have to sit alone, and you know, basically took every inch of my day at school and made it into you know,

me learning. And then when I got home, I would just watch TV like I don't think I did one essay, one you know, study session, one homework ever at home because I was like, okay, if I do all of this in this time and like, you know, just get it all banged out, then I can have my free time. And junior year and senior year. It ended up working so well like that that I ended up getting all a's and a pluses, and my parents were like, what

is going on here? But it truly was because like I refused to let these things that don't interest me be the reason why I can't go to a big city and do what I want to do, like, I just need to get on the path and like, you know, not rebel anymore. And so that's what I did, Um, and I ended up going to be you. And uh, that's again really when I started thinking about what I wanted to do and uh and thinking, you know, I

have four years. I was so lucky. The ultimate gift my parents gave me was they paid for my college education, so I didn't have to have a job while I was in college. And so I immediately thought, Okay, I have four years for basically the only time in my life that we're all I'm responsible for is going to class and like partying or making friends or whatever. I'm going to take these four years and actually try to get a job or create my own job so that

when I graduate, I'm like set up. Because when in your life are you ever going to have four years where you don't have you know, a family responsibilities or anything. And so I almost thought, you know, to not take advantage of that and try to build a career and build a wife for myself was would just be a massive you know, disappointment and disadvantaged for me. Daniel, your

story is so amazing and so inspiring. We have to take a quick break, but when we come back, I want to hear about your college experience and what you think the keys were for the News that to become so successful in your new company with Selena Gomez and Nandy, Tiffy Wondermind and much more. We'll be right back before we talk more about college and post college. I'm curious back in high school because of everything you were dealing with with socializing hard did you find and did your

anxiety and O c D affect that? Yes, But I realized I had O c D um Like I realized something was wrong with me when I was about six years old and my ster and I had like these canopy beds, and one side of my canopy broke because I was probably hanging off of it like a fucking monkey, and as you should, yes, and my uncle came in and taped it with black tape. And so I sat

there going to sleep. And as you know, one of the you know things that O gets different for everybody is like a semmetry, and so there was black tape on one side and not on the other. And I stayed up that entire night just looking back and forth, and I ended up having like an anxiety attack over it. My parents had no idea what was going on. And then after that I developed rituals were like, you know, I had to close the door a certain way, and you know, all of these different things that kind of

take over your life. And because my mother is Latina and um, you know, I don't want to speak for the whole culture, but at least, you know, and in her belief system, you know, people didn't really go see psychiatrists or anything. My dad is this very manly man

from you know, Niagara Falls, New York. Going to see a psychiatrist or therapist was definitely not a thing that he was going to be okay with and so they kind of just ignored it and like looked at it as almost like a cork for me trying to get attention. And then my uh, freshman year of high school, we took a health class and we started learning about mental

health illnesses. And when we got to O c D and we started talking about it, I was like, oh my god, I have O c D. And it was just such a like aha moment because I had no idea what it was. I know it was a mental illness, and so you know, I asked my parents, can I please go get help for this? And the answer was no, And so, yeah, that's so hard, especially after I think, yeah, my mom feels very bad about it now, but she drew.

I can't blame her, like just a stigma like that was ten years ago or longer, and so you know, it just wasn't what she was raised thinking about. And like, no one wants to think that their child has a problem, which is why Wonder Mind and everything I do with the news that, et cetera is all about, like empowering people to speak up for themselves and to think about mental health just as you would with your physical health.

Like no one's embarrassed to say they have high blood pressure, So why are you embarrassed to say that you are O c D? And why are you embarrassed to take medicine for that? Exactly? And so the entire time for high school with just depression, no c D and a d h D, which I didn't know about at the time, it was very hard. From twelve to eighteen. I had a pretty traumatic journey during that point in crying almost

a recent day and whatever. So yes, definitely too the toll on me I didn't realize o c D was so debilitating until I found out I had o c D. I didn't realize what it was. I thought I was just making myself like, I go down what I call the what if Yes, yes, my undfalls where it's just endless and I think, you know, having the courage to advocate for yourself is really hard and taking those steps.

What was the moment or was there a moment where you're like, Okay, even though my family might not be supportive of this now, but I need to do what's best for me and go get the proper hope. When was that? Yeah? So, as you know, it's incredibly expensive to get help, especially for something as specific as o c D. You mean, specialists, and these people cost a lot of money, and so my parents made very clear that they not be okay with me going and UM.

At that time, it was probably it was my junior year. I had just had an entrepreneur project that I worked with eight other people who are UM I ended up guy. So I had my other business, like the real business, this project business, and then all of our classes on top of it, and so I basically like just worked seven that semester and I did all of the work for this project. You know, starting a company with eight different people obviously is not the way that a normal

person starts a company. It's with yourself for one or maybe two other people, it's not eight people. So but I like did my lane of work. I went to every single meeting. I accomplished everything I had to do. But when you know, the group members would go and you know, get a drink or you know, hang out all together, I would go work and do my new set stuff. And so that ended up being to my

detriment because they all became friends. And for some reason, the grading system was peer based and someone one person on the team had to fail, and so they chose me, and they basically said, oh, well, she has another business, so you know, there's no way she could have been

as dedicated as we were. There was literally someone on our team that never brought a lot of talked to any meeting and he got a C plus draw is dropped and so junior year that was yeah, so um eight, that was like seventy or eighty percent of our grade. And so even though I did totally fine on my in the classes, I ended up failing that semester, and I basically got a letter from the GAN saying you're

on academic probation. You essentially have one semester to not only retake all the classes you failed, but also take all of the additional business classes you're supposed to take next semester, and if you don't get this g p A, you will be kicked out one semester before graduation. And at that point, the news that was doing well. But like,

you know, I wasn't trying to monetize yet. I really want to wait until I hit a certain subscriber member and work with the best friends in the world, not like, you know, the smaller frands that might, you know, give me some income. I want to wait. I was really patient about waiting and telling you know, advertisers, no, like we're not going to monetize until next year or whatever. And so at that point I had zero backup plan. My mother was in hysterics. She didn't even tell my

dad because my dad would have freaked out. And here I am completely alone, you know, saying, oh my god, I'm going to fail out of college one semester before I graduate, and I'm going to have nothing. I put all of my eggs in the basket of the news that because I knew I would get like you know, decencies or whatever in my grades, it was not going to be the top recruit for any sort of big company. And I said, you know, I just have to make the news at work and that would be my my job.

And so at that point it was the loneliest, most oppressing, just the lowest point in my life. And my o c D became absolutely debilitating. So like constant you know, thoughts, um, constant rituals and they called them in truths of thoughts as you know um. And there was one day when I was looking under my bed that was the way one of the rituals I had, and I just to make the feeling go away. And I was so angry and emotional that I just kept banging my hands on

the floor until they started bleeding. And my sister saw that, and she and my boyfriend basically talked and they were like, you need to go see a theratist, like this is not okay anymore. And I was essentially crying. Every single day. I would go to the computer to try to even do my homework and just ball and not even be able to focus, and so I was like, there's no way I'm gonna get kicked out, Like there, you know, there's no way I'm even gonna ever be able to

make this work. And so I with the little affiliate money that I made from the newsette, so we weren't monetizing like doing brand partnerships, but I was linking out to affiliate, uh you know, sources. So if somebody bought a product I recommended, I would get a percentage, and I ended up being able to make quite a bit

of money over the last three years for that. So I had a little bit of savings and I used that to find a psychiatrist and a therapist, and essentially they got me on medicine prozac, and that completely changed and pretty much saved my life because all of a sudden, all of the additional emotions of like every single day crying and just being overly emotional, that all went away

and I was able. I still could feel emotions, but not in a way that a more normal person is supposed to feel emotion, not so drastic, no, not in a debilitating way, And so I essentially was able to because of that and seeing a therapist, I was able to basically become a machine that entire semester, wake up at five am, do the right the whole news that uh until nine thirty or ten am, go to class, have like a one hour break where I'm like, you know,

reaching out to people to interview, doing everything. It was just me, I like to say, my my first team for the news that was three people, me, myself and I and so I did everything. Then I would go back to class, and then I would go see a tutor that I also paid for VM my news at savings to help me with the classes that I had failed UM and then just go to sleep. And every single day it was almost like being in the military or something. It was my regiment, no feelings, no room

for anything, just do it. And somehow with the help of um, you know, the tutor and my sister and my boyfriend and um you know, the support of someone named Sally Ward who works in the administrative department of Boston University basically telling me you can't get up, you have to do this. And she was just as upset as I was that, you know, the teachers didn't step in and say, hey, let's look at what you actually did. Instead of making you basically, you know, have to redo everything.

And they actually encouraged me that the teachers that failed me encouraged me to stop uh college and just do my business because they were like, there's no way you're going to be able to do this. And so I proved them wrong. I ended up graduating. Yeah, you did, you know, and I guess I ended up doing that semester. Then the final semester of the you was all about entrepreneurship. So finally I was taking the classes that I wanted

to take an entrepreneurship. And my professors were so great because they were people that had actually started companies or worked at startups whatever, and they just genuinely wanted to help the next generation. And so those teachers were so helpful, so kind, so you know, willing to give any knowledge, and so proud of like what I was doing instead of seeing it as like a detriment or like as

a you know, joke at your superpower. Yes and uh and so them with you know, the Health of Sally from the administrative Office, I ended up actually getting on the dean's list. So I went from getting almost ticked out the semester of her, I graduated to being one of the best students in the business school, uh the next semester, and so I just I literally walked that stage. And everyone in my family tried because they knew how

hard it was for me to get there. And I actually had a meeting with the dean of the business school i be a few days ago, and she asked if I would ever consider being a commencement speaker, and so, as full circle, yeah, if that happens, I think my parents would actually just I because not only you know, did I get past this stage, but like now I'm there to like talk to people, and so I just feel really strongly that I want to tell, you know,

the next Breadley in class. Look, do not count yourself out if you have a mental illness, if you have a learning disability, if you didn't get the grades you wanted in college, because you can still kick ass um and being able to stand there and say, you know that Forbes just named me the youngest wealthy is self

made a woman of color in America. You know, I literally almost failed out of this school, Like if I can do it with everything going against me and the odds and lack of connections and everything, lack of resources, and funding. If I can do it, anyone else can do it. I promise. It's so amazing just hearing about your evolution and you know, it's just so true and people have the odds against you. If you believe in yourself, that's all you can do. All you can do is

do your best. That's really inspiring because I'm currently in college and I I sometimes feel lost and I don't I don't know if you ever felt this, but I feel like school sometimes wants to put me in a box, like choose one thing, get good at it, and then do that. But it's like, but there are so many things that I want to do. You know, Yes, I love that you've just carved your own path and I that's that's exactly what I want to do. Not only do you do that, but you also found a way

to monetize news that and made it so successful. And I was just curious, what do you love and what advice do you have for creating businesses? Yeah? So um, the reason why the news that became successful is truly I just refused for it not to be. And it was like trying to fit a square peg into one hole. I just slammed that square peg into the roundhold so many times it became round and fit through and so it was a lot of pivoting. So the news that

is now worth two hundred million dollars UM. And my only other partner in the company is my mother, who's you know being and she always believed in me, and I was able to make her a millionaire and write her you know, a multimillion dollar Czech last year just for distributions, and so that is the best gift I could have ever given her. And like helping the people that believed in me and no one else did UM.

And so I guess I with the news that if I would have just stopped with a newsletter it would not have been worth two million dollars today, Like you know what, we are actively going the media side and really excited about it. But what really propelled us to success is thinking, Okay, what are superpowers at the news that in the newsletter? It's the ability to tell stories and engage gen z and millennials, et cetera, which is

actually really hard for people to do. And also you know this empowerment angle of constantly for the news that specifically empowering woman, but also UM featuring these incredible, diverse women from every background. So we essentially took that ethos of empowering people, of amplifying diverse voices of storytelling better than anyone else and turned it into an agency model.

So that's the other part of the business called new Land, which we actually kept a secret for the last three years because we had so much demand from this one huge client that essentially they kept, you know, saying to other groups, you know, you need to use this agency, or if someone would see one of our ads or something and be like, who did that, and then they would recommend us that. We literally grew sixteen thousand in

three years. And the only reason why I know that number is because we were recently named number sixteen out of inks five thousand most successful companies in America. And we literally went from one million in revenue to seven million in revenue to forty million in revenue with fifteen people last year. And now you know, we've like quadruple

the team and we're working with other incredible brands. But essentially new Land is the agency where we use our powers of you know, amplifying diverse voices storytelling, engaging gen z and millennials, et cetera, and then take over you know, the TikTok's or the Instagram accounts or you know, social media campaigns of the biggest brands in the world and essentially make them almost like many content destinations instead of a billboard. And then we also do massive talent campaigns

for you know, huge worldwide campaigns and eleven different countries. Uh. You know, we've done, uh a TikTok campaign that got over eleven billion views where we had Snoop Dogg create an original song, We wrote the song, we had to record it. It became a huge TikTok viral hit all storytelling, and so that has really propelled our company into such a big, you know, a totally different universe that I ever thought I would be in, uh, because I wasn't afraid to pivot a little bit and say, you know,

what are we good at? How can we do something else with those talents as well. I think a lot of the time when creating something you're so focused on like one small detail, but it's kind of zooming out looking at the larger picture and having those different avenues of revenue and just having the baseline be being a storyteller is really awesome. Yeah, you have to take one

work with Bright. But when we come back, I want to talk to you about a new company with Selena Gomez and Mandy Tefe, Wondermind, which is making such an impact in the world around mental health. We'll be right back, and we're back now. You're on the next journey as well with wonder Mind, which I am so excited to talk to you about. First, I want to ask you

what mental fitness means to you. Yeah, so essentially, you know, um, I am the co founder and co CEO of wonder Mind, and the mission of wonder Mind is to um de stigmatize and democratize mental health and introduce this concept that

we call mental fitness. And so my co founder, Selena Gomez and many TV and I we basically realized that the stigma and the lack of you know, resources for people who didn't have you know, I don't have a thousand dollars an hour for a session with the best psychiatrist, is really the reason why you know, there's so much stigma and there's there's such a barrier to entry in the mental health space. And so we thought, what if

we call it mental fitness? So working on your mental health in little ways every day, whatever that looks like for you, because that's a way lower barrier to entry for somebody that might be like, well, I don't want to, you know, work on my mental health, like that implies something's wrong with me. And we're also not just for people with diagnosed mental illnesses like myself and yourself were

for anybody with feelings. And so every single thing that we do, from content to the products that we're releasing,

everything is merchandised by feeling. So I feel anxious, I feel lonely, I feel scared, I feel sad at And then we have the best psychiatrist, therapist, social workers in the world from these diverse backgrounds, essentially looking at all of our content, making sure that we're being very responsible and anything that's ever a recommendation or a tip or somebody you know, explaining what catastrophizing actually means or what is the definition of o c V And you're probably

using it wrong when you say, you know, I'm so c D. I left to have all of my pens in order. Whatever it is there, that's all coming from these licensed therapists and social workers and experts. So we're not you know, arm chair therapists at all. But we're essentially creating content every single day in the media side

of Wonder Mind. That is editorializing mental fitness and making it fun for you to participate every single day, and then also making it like this beautiful, sexy, alluring experience that if you are on you know, a piece of our content, people aren't like, oh, is that you know web MD or psychology today? It really looks fun and

exciting and engaging. And also talking to the biggest names in the world likes Lena Gomez, like Serena Williams, who's one of our lead investors, um you know, Camilla Cabeo, etcetera. That also is you know, going to help hopefully destigmatize mental health and mental fitness and make it so that everybody feels just like for physical fitness you work out or you you know, eat healthier, whatever you do, how to work out the mind, Yeah, that you should also

work out your mind. The first drop was the three times a week newsletter. We have two huge launches coming up in the next two months that is going to expand that even more. The production side, so creating stories with the biggest you know, streamers, and producers in the world UH to actually change culture and zeitgeist around you know,

mental health and mental fitness. And then finally being the first company to ever work with the best experts in the world in psychiatry to create physical, tangible, non nical mental fitness tools that are priced for the masses. So everything again is made for UH everyone to be able to access, so the content will never be paid. Well, do we have incredible brand partners that we work with that help us, you know, create this content and have it for free for anybody who wants to access it,

no matter what your background is so amazing. Yes, and the products are also going to be an affordable price point as well, because we believe everybody should be able to practice mental fitness. So what products are we talking about. I can't really say a lot about the products, but all I can say is, you know, every time that we say we're introducing mental fitness products, people are like, what does that mean? And that is so exciting to us because truly, like people don't even know what that

could encompass. But it's essentially taking um, you know, behavioral therapies, et cetera and UH and developing products that are non clinical, they are not harmful in any way, etcetera. You know, an example I could give you as a stress ball that is technically a mental fitness product, but we're going way deeper and actually, you know, building a beautiful brand for men and women to have these tools at their

you know, disposal. And I feel like, I'm so glad that you mentioned the tool kit thing, because every time I go to therapy. I've been to therapy since I was seven. I've done exposure therapy for years. That's sewesome. We always talk about putting yourself out there and finding products and find finding things that are good for you and that makes you feel good. Yes, when you're down, what makes you feel good? What do you do to

help yourself? Well? First of all, uh, it's so amazing that you've been seeing a therapist since you're seven years old, and definitely very jealous of that, and that is one of the reasons why I, you know, have dedicated myself to another company because I truly want I don't want anyone to ever all the way I felt, where you are completely alone and you have to basically figure out your mental health just by you know, scratching everything together

and having no support. So that's amazing. UM. I think people think, you know, when they see the Forbes headline that you know, twenty million dollars whatever, you know, that I don't have bad days and that I've just made it. But I truly have bad days. Almost every day. I feel like I get it punched as an entrepreneur, as you know, you have punched in the face like fifteen

times a day, fifty times a day. Um. You know, I have a lot of uh personal stuff that I deal with as well, and so I definitely do have those low moments and they usually come you know, after my sprint of a work day or sometimes during And the one thing that I do is I really like to meditate. I don't do it on a daily basis. I'm definitely not good meditate tating person. I tried to do our best. The only thing that I m able

to do as a sleep meditation. But I want you to know, I it's it's from some app, but like that's the only voice that doesn't make me just want to like smash my phone. Um. And it's basically like UM, engaging every part of your body, so like relax your toes, relax your legs, relax your jaw and like for me, it's like my jaw was clenched and I didn't even realize. Yeah, I basically, um, what do I do? I like I my teeth. I like brush my keeth against each other

while I sleep, like I like grind them together. It's horrible. My jaws always tight. And so it basically gives you a second to just like be in your body and that makes me feel a lot more grounded. Or I'll call my mother or my like twin sister, or I'll go to my dogs. I have two beautiful poodles that I'll just go hug and be like I'm doing this all for you, um, and just be you know, so

happy with that. So those are the things that really it's like feelings and touching and you know, from minding myself why I'm doing all of this, that really helps me, you know, get out of those states. But like you know, it's not that easy. Sometimes it lasts a bit longer. I know, sometimes I kind of just have to let it be and feel it and that sucks. But you just kind of have to go through the motions of it as sometimes which is never fun. But I feel

like it just makes you appreciate the good moments more. Yeah, for sure. I mean you're what you're describing is um is called uh what an exposure, So like sitting in the discomfort and uh you know that definitely is a really good coping mechanism because it helps you become stronger. But sometimes, you know, I don't feel strong enough to do that, and that's the reality. Oh same here. Yeah, and those moments I lay in my bed and I curl into a ball and I have some fairy lights

and I look at some good music. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes you just need to take a second. Um. You know, I don't have the luxury during the workday to really just kind of step away from everything, and so I just kind of you know again, I do everything like a sprint, So I just go through all my calls and kind of not think about it. And that's why,

like at night, that's when it really hits me. Um. But I just I like to think about the things in my life that are going well and the people that I'm hopefully hopefully helping with, you know, stuff like the news that and and wonder mind um, and that really just puts everything into perspective. So how did wonder mine come to be? I know, you met Selena and Mandy on a zoom call for the news that at what point where you like, hey, we should start a

company together. Yeah, so Selena, Mandy and I, Um, we're on a zoom. I asked, you know, my editorial team if I did do the interview. They had no idea why I would want to do the interview, because you know, I had written the news that every single day for I think four or five years, and then I handed it over to the editorial team. They're much more talented than I am. Um, and so they were like, and she like, you know, have of a midlife crisis where

she wants to write the newsletter again. But the reason was because it was a mental health interview and no one on my team or in my life knew I had any connection to mental health because I had never talked about it. It was so embarrassing to me. I truly would have rather like died than been vocal about my O c D at that point, which I know

sounds very extreme, but that's truly how I felt. I felt like telling anybody I had O c D was almost like the most embarrassing thing I could ever say, because not only am I like this Latina woman twenty something trying to be taken seriously in the business world, I didn't want to add o c D on top of that, which is not the right mindset that I

should have had, but that's how I thought. And so after listening to Selena and Mandy, who are both incredibly um, you know, successful in their own light, and they just so happened to be mother daughter saying things to each other, some of the stuff for the first time about their mental health and their journeys really inspired me at the end of the interview to tell them they were like the fourth and fifth people I've ever told that I

had been struggling with those CD and depression, etcetera since I was a child, and that, you know, I that was the first time I was ever saying and I was saying it to, you know, the most famous person in the world and this incredibly decorated producer, And so at that point we stayed in touch, and Mandy and I were basically like, how can we change the world and really do something that helps people like that gets to the root of everything, not just you know, their

incredible companies offering therapy, etcetera. But like, what about the people who do won't even take that step to get a therapist, or what if what about the people who already have a therapist? You know, having a therapist is almost like having a personal trainer. You see them once a week for you know, an hour if you're lucky, more resources. Yeah. So, and if you just lean on that, you're not going to get a states pack or you know, achieve your fitness goals. You have to do the work

every other day in between sessions. And that's really what we want to create. And so Mandy and I had so many discussions about it. Selena had always wanted to do something to change the world with mental health because it was such a big part of her life, and so Mandy and I came together and we, you know, well, like this is what we want to do, and Selena wanted to be involved and it really just went from there.

That is so amazing. And thank you for creating a company in this startup and this and telling stories because they need to be told, and breaking the statement is so important and I just want to thank you again for just taking the time out of your day to chat with me about this. Because I as I wish more people were as open as you are, because it's

so refreshing. Well, thank you so much. And you know, I almost feel bad that it took me this long to be open, and it took me to feel like I had already achieved some level of success to then be like, okay, but this is really what's under the hood. I don't want anyone to ever feel like they have off to you know, hit a certain level and then

be open. That's exactly why, you know, I am in love with the our mission for a wonder Mind and want to help so many people, and so thank you so much for giving me, you know, the platform to share what we're doing at the news Thatt and new Landing Agency and Wonder Mind, because you know, you are someone that I really look up to and and love to hear stories from. And the fact that I'm going to be on your show is is really a pinch me moment. So thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much, and I'm very excited for the future. So make sure you check out the news that Wondermind everything. It's some awesome impact driven stuff, which is what we need in the world. And thank you for creating something that shares the stories of the most incredible people in the world. And then me, you know, like, thank you for having me. And I'm so impressed you know, you are in college, like the fact that you're joining Oh my gosh, wow, you just you're You're even more successful

than I ever dreamed of being at twenties. So just congratulations on your success and thank you again for having me. It was such a pleasure. H