0:01

Hey guys, and welcome back to this week's

0:03

episode of the Let's Be Real Podcast. I'm your

0:05

host is always Sammy J and welcome.

0:07

We're so glad to have you here. This week,

0:10

I got to chat with the incredible entrepreneur

0:12

Danielle Pearson. You may know her from

0:14

being the founder and CEO of the new zet or

0:17

the co founder and co CEO of the new mental

0:19

health startup with Selena Gomez and the TV

0:22

called Wonder Mind, and she is

0:24

just breaking barriers and is so

0:26

inspiring. So I am so excited for this

0:28

conversation and I hope you guys like it. Hi,

0:32

Danielle, and thank you so much for coming to Let's

0:35

Be Real podcast. I'm so excited. We

0:37

have so much to talk about, and I really appreciate

0:39

you just taking the time because I know you're incredibly

0:41

busy. Well I'm sure you

0:43

are even more busy, So thank you so

0:45

much for having me on this incredible

0:47

podcast, and just it's truly

0:50

an honor, So yes, thank you again.

0:52

First and foremost, you are just a

0:54

very smart business woman and entrepreneur

0:57

and I have spreneurial

1:00

bug as well, and so I have to ask

1:02

when was the first time you're like, oh,

1:04

I want to create something. Well, you

1:07

definitely are a badass entrepreneur

1:09

yourself. It's funny how people

1:11

think, you know, or at least thought

1:14

before all of these new entrepreneurs came

1:16

into the scene, but people would think an entrepreneur

1:18

was somebody who literally had like a store

1:21

or like, you know, a product. Um,

1:23

but even you know, my twin sister

1:25

is a writer and she has books, like

1:27

she's an entrepreneur. You have this incredible

1:30

podcast, You're an entrepreneur. It's like

1:32

it looks in so many different

1:34

ways, and so I always kind

1:36

of had the bug. Um. My

1:38

parents are both hustlers.

1:41

My mother is an immigrant from Columbia.

1:43

She grew up like poverty level

1:45

core and so she essentially

1:48

the dream and I think it's

1:50

still is, like the dream job in Columbia

1:53

is to become an oral surgeon. And

1:55

so my mother, in order to do

1:57

that, had to win the only scholarship

2:00

every single year at the Columbia um

2:02

you know, university, and then also

2:05

in elementary school, middle school, high school,

2:07

like you know, all the way up until graduating

2:09

at school, there was only one scholarship

2:11

and it was for the best student of class, So my mom

2:13

had to hustle her ass off and be

2:15

that best student, and so I come

2:18

from that kind of drive. Then my

2:20

father also grew up a

2:22

pretty you know, poverty level core as well

2:24

in Niagara Falls, and his father worked

2:26

at a factory and had you know, many kids

2:28

and a wife to support. And so

2:31

my dad uh just literally

2:33

started from like uh, fixing

2:35

cars to Washington cars to selling

2:37

cars and then you know, finally

2:40

having his own dealership. And

2:42

so both of my parents are incredibly entrepreneurial.

2:45

The drivers in your d n A. It

2:47

really is um and so that

2:49

I always knew that I wanted to do something

2:52

and probably have a business. I

2:54

hated school. It just was not for

2:57

me. My sister, my twin sister,

2:59

was completely the opposite. She

3:01

definitely got more of my mom's jeans, where she

3:03

was, you know, the best student. She went to an ivy

3:05

league school. I was much more

3:07

like my dad where you know, I

3:10

hated school and I just didn't realize

3:12

why I had to learn about you know, mitochondria

3:15

and and at am fifteen different times

3:17

over my you know, high school and middle

3:20

school career. When I knew I was not going to be

3:22

a scientist, and I didn't really

3:24

apply myself as much until the final

3:26

years of high school, where I

3:28

realized, if I don't get my ship

3:31

together, I'm going to be stuck in

3:33

this town forever and I want to go do

3:35

big things. And so that's when I

3:37

really focused my energy, became a

3:39

really good student and was able

3:41

to go to be you. And so

3:44

when I went to be you, I knew again

3:46

that I wasn't happy with you know,

3:48

the things I was learning. I wasn't learning about

3:50

business. It was going to be two years of like

3:53

normal classes and then I was going to learn

3:55

about business. And finally, my sophomore

3:57

year of college, I

4:00

was like, Okay, if I want to do something for myself,

4:03

I want. I was just begging for

4:05

that kind of passion and something I could put

4:07

everything towards because I didn't have it. And

4:10

uh, I thought, okay, I'm going to write down the things

4:12

I'm good at. I made that list.

4:14

It was completely blank. I

4:17

was good at absolutely nothing. I highly

4:19

doubt that. I truly like

4:22

I'm not being you know, funny

4:24

or anything. I was not good at anything. I

4:26

didn't even know who I was. I truly

4:29

was like a chameleon. In the worst way. I would be

4:31

whoever I thought people wanted me to be. I

4:33

didn't know who I was, like, really

4:35

didn't have any skills. And then I

4:37

thought, okay, well what do I love

4:39

to do? Like, what are my passions? And

4:42

the one thing that I always loved

4:44

was reading magazines, Like I would

4:46

just be just you know, encompassed

4:49

in a magazine when I opened it.

4:52

And so I thought, well, what if I could

4:54

make my own magazine and maybe

4:56

that would help me get an internship

4:59

or a job at a magaze zeene or maybe

5:01

you know, this works out for me and I can

5:03

do this after college and work for myself

5:05

because I knew no one would hire me with my

5:08

bad grades. Um, so I thought,

5:10

maybe I can hire myself Dan, Yeah

5:12

I can. I tell you that we have so much in common. I

5:15

grew up in school with learning differences

5:17

and thought I was incapable of learning for so long

5:20

and O C D and anxiety as well. Okay,

5:22

so we are the same person because we are

5:24

the same person as you're talking about

5:26

this. Yeah, I have a d H D O C D

5:29

UM and anxiety and depression,

5:31

et cetera. So yes, with

5:33

a d H D N o c D. I got

5:35

you. I know exactly what you're talking about.

5:37

School is hard. Yeah,

5:40

school was so freaking hard.

5:42

Yes. How did you not let your

5:44

lack of confidence in the classroom affect

5:47

what you want to do outside of the classroom.

5:49

Yes, so it's really funny. I actually did

5:52

not get diagnosed with a d h D until

5:54

about six months ago. Did

5:57

everything just makes sense afterwards? Oh?

5:59

I completely made sense. And um

6:01

I realized and when talking to my

6:04

you know, psychiatrists, that the

6:06

kind of a d h D I had, and I think it's different

6:09

for a lot of people. So I don't want to blanket statement.

6:11

This is like, I care about what I

6:13

care about, and I can do that and

6:15

be very specific, and especially with the

6:17

O c D combined, I can then obsess over

6:20

that. But if I don't care about something,

6:22

it is almost impossible to

6:24

focus on it. It's not going to get done. Yeah,

6:27

it's it's almost just like it just

6:29

you can't do it feels genuinely

6:32

incapable. No, it's true. There are assets

6:35

to in their negative sides to it. I'm in

6:37

college right now, so I'm also realizing

6:39

the negative sides to it. When my brain

6:42

can't process textbook readings, so when I have to

6:44

do them, it takes me forever.

6:47

But like when there's like something with the podcast

6:49

or something that I love, it's just like

6:51

I love it. Yes, yeah,

6:53

No, So I was very similar

6:56

and I didn't know that when I was

6:58

there. I don't even think I grew

7:00

up in Flora Jackson, Florida. I don't even I

7:02

went to a private school. I didn't even

7:04

think, like, you know, people would even know what a d

7:06

h D was back then, learning differences

7:09

aren't talked about. And something

7:11

that's so unfortunate is that so October

7:13

was Learning Disability Awareness Month, and I think it's

7:15

really important that we talked about these issues because

7:18

so many times, and I've talked

7:20

to people about this, like you kind of get

7:23

used to the feeling of not being able to learn. And

7:25

I hope that people listening know like

7:28

that you are capable of learning, you just have to find

7:30

that passion. And I think it's so cool like

7:32

what you did with the news that the newsletter you created

7:35

and how you built upon that was the

7:37

news that the outlet for all your creativity.

7:39

Yeah, So to answer your first

7:42

question and go into that in school,

7:44

you know, identical twin sister is

7:47

a rock star school, top of the class,

7:49

um, you know, so smart, and I was her biggest

7:51

cheerleader, and that's all she cared about. She

7:53

went to school and she just did grades,

7:56

like didn't care about anything else. That was

7:58

her thing. She wanted to go to Ivy League school.

8:01

And so my sister was incredibly impressive.

8:03

UM for me because I didn't

8:06

like school and I basically just had

8:08

to like get through it. Um. I

8:10

was a BNC student, and so my parents

8:13

would judge us equally by

8:15

like, if my sister got straight a's great,

8:17

if I got these and seas fantastic.

8:20

So it we weren't on the same playing

8:22

field, and I appreciate that

8:24

they everyone knew that I was different.

8:27

Yeah, However, I realized

8:29

my junior year my sister was getting all

8:31

of these incredible pamphlets

8:34

and you know, info and reach out from these

8:36

huge schools and these big cities.

8:38

And I wanted to go to a big city and I was

8:40

getting nothing. You know, surprise, surprise.

8:42

They don't send it to like the BNC students.

8:45

They send it to, you know, the people who are really impressive.

8:47

And so I realized,

8:50

Wow, if I don't get on

8:52

this train. And even though I don't

8:54

care about you know how big

8:56

a triangle is and you

8:59

know how many uh you know, different

9:02

elements there are an atom and all these things I

9:04

knew I was never going to use. I was

9:06

like, I need to start caring because that

9:08

is the catalyst to me getting out of

9:11

the city and moving into a big

9:13

city and making my dreams come true. So

9:15

it find a way out, yes, And so

9:17

essentially I I thought I was done,

9:19

Like my people would call me the dumb twin and

9:22

like I really thought I was just like incapable.

9:24

But then I there was this one class, a history

9:27

class that I really really liked

9:29

because it was almost like learning about a story or

9:31

like reading a story. And I got an

9:33

eight plus on one of the tests and everyone

9:35

else failed it, and I was like, wait, I

9:38

can do this. So I

9:40

decided to. And I don't

9:42

know if this has to do do with a D H D or O C D,

9:45

but I can do things in sprints. And so

9:47

I said, Okay, the second I get to school

9:49

at eight o'clock AM until I

9:51

leave at three thirty or three forty

9:53

five, the only thing I'm going to

9:56

do is be an incredible student.

9:58

So during class, like I

10:00

will follow along with the textbook, take every

10:02

no, ask every question. During my lunch

10:05

break, I didn't really have a lot of friends and so and

10:07

my sister and I had different lunch breaks, so I would go

10:09

to the library first while everyone would

10:11

eat in the cafeteria like study

10:13

and do all my stuff, then go to the cafeteria

10:15

at the very end and eat when no one else was there so

10:17

I have to sit alone, and you know, basically

10:20

took every inch of my

10:22

day at school and made it into

10:25

you know, me learning. And then when I got

10:27

home, I would just watch TV like

10:29

I don't think I did one essay,

10:32

one you know, study session, one

10:34

homework ever at home because

10:36

I was like, okay, if I do all of this in

10:38

this time and like, you know, just

10:41

get it all banged out, then I can have

10:43

my free time. And junior year and

10:45

senior year. It ended up working so

10:47

well like that that I ended up getting

10:50

all a's and a pluses, and my

10:52

parents were like, what is going on here?

10:55

But it truly was because like I refused

10:58

to let these things that don't interest

11:00

me be the reason why I

11:02

can't go to a big city and do what I want to do,

11:05

like, I just need to get on the path and

11:07

like, you know, not rebel anymore. And so

11:10

that's what I did, Um, and I ended

11:12

up going to be you. And uh,

11:15

that's again really when I

11:17

started thinking about what I wanted to do

11:19

and uh and thinking, you know, I have

11:21

four years. I was so lucky. The

11:24

ultimate gift my parents gave me was they paid

11:26

for my college education, so I didn't have

11:28

to have a job while I was in college. And

11:30

so I immediately thought, Okay,

11:32

I have four years for basically

11:35

the only time in my life that we're all

11:37

I'm responsible for is going to class

11:40

and like partying or making friends

11:42

or whatever. I'm going to take these four years

11:45

and actually try to get

11:47

a job or create my own job so

11:50

that when I graduate, I'm like

11:52

set up. Because when in your

11:54

life are you ever going to have four years where

11:56

you don't have you know, a family responsibilities

11:59

or anything. And so I almost

12:01

thought, you know, to not take advantage

12:03

of that and try to build a career and build

12:05

a wife for myself was would

12:08

just be a massive you know, disappointment

12:10

and disadvantaged for me. Daniel, your

12:12

story is so amazing and so

12:15

inspiring. We have to

12:17

take a quick break, but when we come back, I want to

12:19

hear about your college experience and

12:22

what you think the keys were for the News that

12:24

to become so successful in your new company

12:26

with Selena Gomez and Nandy, Tiffy

12:28

Wondermind and much more. We'll

12:31

be right back before

12:38

we talk more about college and post college.

12:40

I'm curious back in high school because

12:42

of everything you were dealing with with socializing

12:45

hard did you find and did your anxiety

12:47

and O c D affect that? Yes,

12:50

But I realized I had O c D

12:52

um Like I realized something was wrong with

12:54

me when I was about six years old and

12:57

my ster and I had like these canopy beds,

12:59

and one side of my canopy broke because I was

13:01

probably hanging off of it like a fucking monkey,

13:04

and as you should, yes, and

13:06

my uncle came in and taped

13:09

it with black tape. And so

13:11

I sat there going to sleep. And

13:14

as you know, one of the you know things that O

13:16

gets different for everybody is like a semmetry,

13:19

and so there was black tape on one side

13:21

and not on the other. And I stayed up that entire

13:23

night just looking back and forth, and I ended

13:25

up having like an anxiety attack over

13:28

it. My parents had no idea what was going on.

13:30

And then after that I developed rituals

13:32

were like, you know, I had to close the door

13:34

a certain way, and you know, all of these different

13:36

things that kind of take over your life. And

13:39

because my mother is Latina and

13:41

um, you know, I don't want to speak for the whole culture,

13:43

but at least, you know, and in her belief

13:46

system, you know, people didn't really go see psychiatrists

13:49

or anything. My dad is this very

13:51

manly man from you know, Niagara

13:53

Falls, New York. Going to see a psychiatrist

13:56

or therapist was definitely not a thing that

13:58

he was going to be okay with and so they

14:00

kind of just ignored it and like looked

14:02

at it as almost like a cork for me trying to get attention.

14:05

And then my uh, freshman

14:08

year of high school, we took a health

14:10

class and we started learning about mental

14:13

health illnesses. And when

14:15

we got to O c D and we started talking

14:17

about it, I was like, oh my god, I

14:19

have O c D. And it was just

14:22

such a like aha moment because I had no idea

14:24

what it was. I know it was a mental illness,

14:27

and so you know, I asked my parents, can

14:29

I please go get help for this? And the answer

14:31

was no, And so, yeah,

14:34

that's so hard, especially after I

14:36

think, yeah, my mom feels very

14:38

bad about it now, but she drew. I

14:41

can't blame her, like just a stigma like that

14:43

was ten years ago or longer,

14:45

and so you know, it just wasn't

14:48

what she was raised thinking about. And

14:50

like, no one wants to think that their child has

14:52

a problem, which is why Wonder

14:55

Mind and everything I do with the news that, et

14:57

cetera is all about, like empowering

14:59

people to speak up for themselves and to

15:02

think about mental health just as you would

15:04

with your physical health. Like no one's

15:06

embarrassed to say they have high blood pressure,

15:08

So why are you embarrassed to say that you are O c D?

15:11

And why are you embarrassed to take medicine for that?

15:13

Exactly? And so the entire

15:15

time for high school with

15:18

just depression, no c D

15:20

and a d h D, which I didn't know about

15:22

at the time, it was very

15:24

hard. From twelve to eighteen.

15:27

I had a pretty traumatic journey

15:29

during that point in crying almost a recent

15:32

day and whatever. So yes,

15:34

definitely too the toll on me I

15:36

didn't realize o c D was so debilitating

15:39

until I found out I had o c D. I

15:41

didn't realize what it was. I thought I

15:43

was just making myself like, I

15:45

go down what I call the what if Yes, yes,

15:47

my undfalls where it's just endless

15:51

and I think, you know, having the courage to advocate

15:53

for yourself is really hard and taking

15:55

those steps. What was the moment or

15:57

was there a moment where you're like, Okay,

16:00

even though my family might not be supportive

16:02

of this now, but I need to do what's best

16:05

for me and go get the proper hope. When

16:07

was that? Yeah? So, as you know, it's

16:09

incredibly expensive to get help, especially

16:12

for something as specific as o

16:14

c D. You mean, specialists, and these

16:16

people cost a lot of money, and

16:19

so my parents made very clear

16:21

that they not be

16:23

okay with me going and UM.

16:26

At that time, it was probably it

16:28

was my junior year. I had just

16:30

had an entrepreneur project that

16:32

I worked with eight other people

16:35

who are UM I ended

16:37

up guy. So I had my other business,

16:39

like the real business, this project

16:41

business, and then all of our classes on top

16:43

of it, and so I basically like just

16:45

worked seven that semester and

16:47

I did all of the work for this project. You

16:50

know, starting a company with eight different

16:52

people obviously is not the way that

16:54

a normal person starts a company. It's with

16:56

yourself for one or maybe two other

16:58

people, it's not eight people. So but

17:00

I like did my lane of work. I went to every single

17:03

meeting. I accomplished everything I had

17:05

to do. But when you know, the group

17:07

members would go and you know, get a drink

17:09

or you know, hang out all together, I would go

17:12

work and do my new set stuff. And

17:14

so that ended up being to my detriment

17:17

because they all became friends. And for

17:19

some reason, the grading system was

17:21

peer based and someone one

17:24

person on the team had to

17:26

fail, and so they chose

17:28

me, and they basically said, oh, well, she has another

17:30

business, so you know, there's no way she could have been

17:32

as dedicated as we were. There was literally

17:35

someone on our team that never brought a lot

17:37

of talked to any meeting and he

17:39

got a C plus draw is dropped

17:42

and so junior year that was

17:44

yeah, so um eight,

17:47

that was like seventy or eighty percent of our

17:49

grade. And so even though I did totally

17:51

fine on my in the classes, I

17:54

ended up failing that semester,

17:56

and I basically got a letter

17:59

from the GAN saying you're on academic

18:01

probation. You essentially have

18:03

one semester to not only retake all the

18:06

classes you failed, but also take

18:08

all of the additional business classes you're supposed

18:10

to take next semester, and if you don't

18:12

get this g p A, you will

18:14

be kicked out one semester before

18:17

graduation. And at

18:19

that point, the news that was doing well.

18:21

But like, you know, I wasn't trying to monetize

18:24

yet. I really want to wait until I hit

18:26

a certain subscriber member and work with the

18:28

best friends in the world, not like, you know, the

18:30

smaller frands that might, you know, give

18:32

me some income. I want to wait. I was

18:34

really patient about waiting and

18:36

telling you know, advertisers, no, like we're

18:39

not going to monetize until next year or whatever. And

18:41

so at that point I had zero backup

18:43

plan. My mother was in hysterics.

18:46

She didn't even tell my dad because my dad would

18:48

have freaked out. And

18:51

here I am completely alone, you

18:53

know, saying, oh my god, I'm

18:55

going to fail out of college one semester

18:57

before I graduate, and I'm going to have nothing.

19:00

I put all of my eggs in the basket of

19:02

the news that because I knew I

19:04

would get like you know, decencies or whatever

19:06

in my grades, it was not going to be the top

19:08

recruit for any sort of big

19:10

company. And I said, you know, I just

19:12

have to make the news at work and that would be

19:14

my my job. And so at

19:17

that point it was the loneliest, most

19:19

oppressing, just the lowest

19:22

point in my life. And my

19:24

o c D became absolutely debilitating.

19:27

So like constant you know,

19:29

thoughts, um, constant rituals

19:31

and they called them in truths of thoughts as you know

19:34

um. And there was one day when I was looking under

19:36

my bed that was the way one of the rituals

19:39

I had, and I just to make

19:41

the feeling go away. And I was so angry

19:44

and emotional that I just kept banging my hands

19:46

on the floor until they started bleeding.

19:49

And my sister saw that, and she

19:51

and my boyfriend basically

19:54

talked and they were like, you need to go see

19:56

a theratist, like this is not okay anymore.

19:59

And I was essentially crying. Every single day. I

20:01

would go to the computer to try to even do my homework

20:03

and just ball and not even be able

20:05

to focus, and so I was like, there's no way I'm gonna

20:07

get kicked out, Like there, you know, there's

20:10

no way I'm even gonna ever be able to make this

20:12

work. And so I with

20:14

the little affiliate money that I made

20:16

from the newsette, so we weren't monetizing

20:18

like doing brand partnerships, but I was linking

20:21

out to affiliate, uh you know, sources.

20:23

So if somebody bought a product I recommended,

20:25

I would get a percentage, and I ended up being able

20:27

to make quite a bit of money

20:30

over the last three years for that. So I

20:32

had a little bit of savings and I used

20:34

that to find a psychiatrist and

20:36

a therapist, and essentially

20:39

they got me on medicine prozac,

20:42

and that completely changed

20:44

and pretty much saved my life because

20:47

all of a sudden, all of the additional

20:49

emotions of like every single day

20:52

crying and just being overly

20:54

emotional, that all went away

20:57

and I was able. I still could feel emotions,

20:59

but not in a way that a more

21:02

normal person is supposed to feel emotion,

21:04

not so drastic, no, not in

21:06

a debilitating way, And so I

21:09

essentially was able to because

21:11

of that and seeing a therapist, I

21:13

was able to basically become a machine

21:16

that entire semester, wake up

21:18

at five am, do the right the whole news

21:20

that uh until nine thirty

21:22

or ten am, go to class, have

21:25

like a one hour break where I'm like, you know,

21:27

reaching out to people to interview, doing everything.

21:29

It was just me, I like to say, my my first

21:31

team for the news that was three people,

21:33

me, myself and I and so I did

21:35

everything. Then I would go back to class,

21:38

and then I would go see a tutor that I also

21:40

paid for VM my news at savings to help

21:42

me with the classes that I had failed UM

21:44

and then just go to sleep. And every

21:46

single day it was almost like being in the

21:48

military or something. It was my regiment,

21:51

no feelings, no room for anything, just

21:53

do it. And somehow

21:56

with the help of um, you

21:58

know, the tutor and my sister

22:00

and my boyfriend and um

22:02

you know, the support of someone named Sally Ward

22:05

who works in the administrative department

22:08

of Boston University basically

22:10

telling me you can't get up, you have

22:13

to do this. And she was just as upset as

22:15

I was that, you know, the teachers didn't

22:17

step in and say, hey, let's look at

22:19

what you actually did. Instead of making you basically,

22:22

you know, have to redo everything. And they actually

22:24

encouraged me that the teachers that failed

22:27

me encouraged me to stop uh

22:29

college and just do my business

22:32

because they were like, there's no way you're going to be able to do

22:34

this. And so I proved

22:36

them wrong. I ended up graduating. Yeah,

22:39

you did, you know, and I guess

22:41

I ended up doing that semester. Then the final

22:43

semester of the you was all about

22:46

entrepreneurship. So finally I

22:48

was taking the classes that I wanted

22:50

to take an entrepreneurship. And

22:52

my professors were so great

22:55

because they were people that had actually started

22:57

companies or worked at startups whatever, and

22:59

they just genuinely wanted to help

23:01

the next generation. And so those

23:04

teachers were so helpful, so

23:07

kind, so you know, willing to

23:09

give any knowledge, and so proud

23:11

of like what I was doing instead of seeing it as like

23:13

a detriment or like as a you know, joke

23:16

at your superpower. Yes

23:18

and uh and so them with

23:21

you know, the Health of Sally from the administrative

23:23

Office, I ended up actually getting on

23:25

the dean's list. So I went from

23:28

getting almost ticked out

23:30

the semester of her, I graduated to being

23:32

one of the best students in the business school,

23:35

uh the next semester, and so

23:37

I just I literally walked that

23:39

stage. And everyone in my family tried because

23:41

they knew how hard it was for me to

23:44

get there. And I actually had

23:46

a meeting with the dean of the

23:48

business school i be a few days

23:50

ago, and she asked if I would ever

23:52

consider being a commencement speaker, and

23:54

so, as full circle, yeah,

23:57

if that happens, I think my parents would actually

23:59

just I because not

24:01

only you know, did I get past this

24:03

stage, but like now I'm there to like talk

24:06

to people, and so I just

24:09

feel really strongly that I want to tell,

24:11

you know, the next Breadley in class. Look,

24:14

do not count yourself out if you have a mental

24:16

illness, if you have a learning disability, if

24:18

you didn't get the grades you wanted in college,

24:20

because you can still kick ass

24:23

um and being able to stand there and

24:25

say, you know that Forbes just named me

24:28

the youngest wealthy is self made

24:30

a woman of color in America. You

24:33

know, I literally almost failed out

24:35

of this school, Like if I can

24:37

do it with everything going against

24:39

me and the odds and lack of connections

24:42

and everything, lack of resources, and funding.

24:45

If I can do it, anyone else

24:47

can do it. I promise. It's so

24:49

amazing just hearing about your evolution

24:52

and you know, it's just so true and people

24:54

have the odds against you. If you believe in yourself,

24:57

that's all you can do. All you can do is do your best.

25:00

That's really inspiring because

25:02

I'm currently in college and I

25:04

I sometimes feel lost and I don't I don't know if

25:06

you ever felt this, but I feel like school sometimes wants

25:08

to put me in a box, like choose one

25:10

thing, get good at it, and then do that.

25:13

But it's like, but there are so many things that I want

25:15

to do. You know, Yes, I love

25:17

that you've just carved your own path and

25:19

I that's that's exactly what I want to do.

25:22

Not only do you do that, but you also found

25:24

a way to monetize news that and

25:26

made it so successful. And

25:28

I was just curious, what do you love and what advice

25:31

do you have for creating businesses? Yeah?

25:33

So um, the reason why the news that became

25:35

successful is truly I

25:38

just refused for it not to be.

25:40

And it was like trying to fit a square

25:42

peg into one hole. I just slammed

25:45

that square peg into the roundhold so many times

25:47

it became round and fit through and

25:50

so it was a lot of pivoting. So

25:52

the news that is now worth two hundred million

25:54

dollars UM. And my only other partner

25:56

in the company is my mother, who's you

25:59

know being and she always believed in me,

26:01

and I was able to make her a millionaire

26:04

and write her you know, a multimillion dollar Czech

26:06

last year just for distributions,

26:08

and so that is the best gift I could

26:10

have ever given her. And like helping

26:13

the people that believed in me and no one else did

26:15

UM. And so I guess

26:18

I with the news that if I would

26:20

have just stopped with a newsletter it would not

26:22

have been worth two million dollars today,

26:24

Like you know what, we are actively going

26:26

the media side and really excited about it. But

26:29

what really propelled us to success

26:32

is thinking, Okay, what are superpowers

26:34

at the news that in the newsletter? It's

26:37

the ability to tell stories and engage

26:39

gen z and millennials, et cetera, which

26:41

is actually really hard for people to do. And

26:44

also you know this empowerment

26:46

angle of constantly for the news

26:48

that specifically empowering woman, but

26:51

also UM featuring these incredible,

26:53

diverse women from every background. So

26:55

we essentially took that ethos

26:58

of empowering people, of amplifying

27:01

diverse voices of storytelling

27:04

better than anyone else and turned

27:06

it into an agency model. So that's

27:08

the other part of the business called new Land,

27:11

which we actually kept a secret for the last three

27:13

years because we had so much demand

27:15

from this one huge client

27:18

that essentially they kept, you know, saying

27:20

to other groups, you know, you need to use this

27:22

agency, or if someone would see one of our ads or

27:24

something and be like, who did that, and then they would recommend

27:27

us that. We literally grew sixteen

27:29

thousand in three

27:31

years. And the only reason why I know that

27:33

number is because we were recently named

27:36

number sixteen out of inks five thousand

27:38

most successful companies in America. And

27:41

we literally went from one million

27:43

in revenue to seven million in revenue to

27:46

forty million in revenue with fifteen people

27:48

last year. And now you know, we've like

27:51

quadruple the team and we're

27:53

working with other incredible brands. But

27:55

essentially new Land is the agency

27:57

where we use our powers

28:00

of you know, amplifying diverse voices

28:03

storytelling, engaging gen z

28:05

and millennials, et cetera, and then take

28:07

over you know, the TikTok's or the

28:10

Instagram accounts or you know, social

28:12

media campaigns of the biggest brands in the world

28:15

and essentially make them almost like many

28:17

content destinations instead of a billboard.

28:20

And then we also do massive talent campaigns

28:22

for you know, huge worldwide campaigns

28:24

and eleven different countries. Uh.

28:27

You know, we've done, uh a TikTok

28:29

campaign that got over eleven billion views

28:31

where we had Snoop Dogg create an

28:33

original song, We wrote the song, we had to

28:35

record it. It became a huge TikTok

28:37

viral hit all storytelling, and

28:40

so that has really propelled our company

28:42

into such a big, you know, a

28:45

totally different universe that I ever thought I would

28:47

be in, uh, because I

28:49

wasn't afraid to pivot a little

28:51

bit and say, you know, what are we good

28:53

at? How can we do something else

28:55

with those talents as well. I

28:58

think a lot of the time when creating something

29:00

you're so focused on like one small detail, but

29:02

it's kind of zooming out looking at the larger

29:05

picture and having those different avenues of revenue

29:07

and just having the baseline be

29:10

being a storyteller is really awesome.

29:12

Yeah,

29:14

you have to take one work with Bright. But when we come

29:16

back, I want to talk to you about a new company

29:18

with Selena Gomez and Mandy Tefe, Wondermind,

29:22

which is making such an impact in the world

29:24

around mental health. We'll be right back, and

29:31

we're back now. You're on

29:33

the next journey as well with wonder Mind, which

29:36

I am so excited to talk

29:38

to you about. First, I want to ask you what mental

29:40

fitness means to you. Yeah,

29:42

so essentially, you know, um,

29:44

I am the co founder and co CEO

29:47

of wonder Mind, and the mission

29:49

of wonder Mind is to um

29:52

de stigmatize and democratize

29:54

mental health and introduce this concept

29:56

that we call mental fitness. And so

29:59

my co founder, Selena Gomez and many

30:01

TV and I we basically

30:04

realized that the stigma

30:06

and the lack of you know, resources

30:09

for people who didn't have you know, I

30:11

don't have a thousand dollars an hour for a session

30:13

with the best psychiatrist, is really the

30:16

reason why you know, there's so much

30:18

stigma and there's there's such a barrier

30:20

to entry in the mental health space. And

30:23

so we thought, what if we call it mental

30:25

fitness? So working on your mental

30:27

health in little ways every day,

30:29

whatever that looks like for you, because

30:31

that's a way lower barrier to entry

30:34

for somebody that might be like, well,

30:36

I don't want to, you know, work on my mental health, like

30:38

that implies something's wrong with me. And

30:41

we're also not just for people

30:43

with diagnosed mental illnesses like

30:45

myself and yourself were for anybody

30:48

with feelings. And so every

30:50

single thing that we do, from content to

30:52

the products that we're releasing, everything

30:54

is merchandised by feeling. So I feel

30:56

anxious, I feel lonely, I feel scared,

30:59

I feel sad at And then we have the

31:01

best psychiatrist, therapist, social

31:04

workers in the world from

31:06

these diverse backgrounds, essentially

31:09

looking at all of our content, making sure

31:11

that we're being very responsible and anything

31:13

that's ever a recommendation or a tip

31:16

or somebody you know, explaining what catastrophizing

31:19

actually means or what is the definition of o

31:21

c V And you're probably using it wrong

31:23

when you say, you know, I'm so c D. I

31:25

left to have all of my pens in order. Whatever

31:28

it is there, that's all coming from

31:30

these licensed therapists and social

31:32

workers and experts. So

31:34

we're not you know, arm chair therapists at

31:36

all. But we're essentially creating

31:39

content every single day in the media side

31:41

of Wonder Mind. That is editorializing

31:44

mental fitness and making it fun for you

31:46

to participate every single day,

31:48

and then also making it like this

31:50

beautiful, sexy, alluring

31:53

experience that if you are

31:55

on you know, a piece of our content, people

31:57

aren't like, oh, is that you know web MD

31:59

or psychology today? It really

32:02

looks fun and exciting and engaging.

32:04

And also talking to the biggest names in the world

32:06

likes Lena Gomez, like Serena Williams,

32:09

who's one of our lead investors, um

32:11

you know, Camilla Cabeo, etcetera. That

32:14

also is you know, going to help

32:16

hopefully destigmatize mental health

32:18

and mental fitness and make it so that everybody

32:21

feels just like for physical fitness you

32:24

work out or you you know, eat healthier, whatever

32:26

you do, how to work out the mind, Yeah,

32:28

that you should also work out your mind. The

32:30

first drop was the three times a week newsletter.

32:33

We have two huge launches coming up

32:35

in the next two months that is

32:37

going to expand that even more. The production

32:40

side, so creating stories with

32:42

the biggest you know, streamers, and producers

32:44

in the world UH to actually

32:46

change culture and zeitgeist around

32:49

you know, mental health and mental fitness. And then

32:51

finally being the first company

32:53

to ever work with the best experts in the world

32:55

in psychiatry to create physical,

32:58

tangible, non nical mental

33:00

fitness tools that are priced

33:03

for the masses. So everything again

33:05

is made for UH everyone

33:08

to be able to access, so the content will never be

33:10

paid. Well, do we have incredible brand partners

33:12

that we work with that help us, you know, create

33:15

this content and have it for free

33:17

for anybody who wants to access it, no matter what

33:20

your background is so amazing. Yes,

33:22

and the products are also going

33:24

to be an affordable price point as well, because

33:26

we believe everybody should be able

33:29

to practice mental fitness. So

33:31

what products are we talking about. I

33:34

can't really say a lot about the products, but

33:37

all I can say is, you know, every time that

33:39

we say we're introducing mental fitness

33:41

products, people are like, what does that mean?

33:43

And that is so exciting to us

33:46

because truly, like people don't

33:48

even know what that could encompass.

33:51

But it's essentially taking um,

33:54

you know, behavioral therapies, et

33:56

cetera and UH and

33:59

developing products that are non clinical,

34:01

they are not harmful in any way, etcetera.

34:04

You know, an example I could give you as a stress

34:06

ball that is technically a mental fitness

34:09

product, but we're going way deeper

34:11

and actually, you know, building a

34:13

beautiful brand for men and women to

34:16

have these tools at their

34:19

you know, disposal. And I feel

34:21

like, I'm so glad that you mentioned the tool kit thing,

34:23

because every time I go to

34:25

therapy. I've been to therapy since I was seven. I've

34:27

done exposure therapy for years. That's sewesome.

34:30

We always talk about putting yourself out

34:32

there and finding products and find

34:34

finding things that are good for you and that

34:37

makes you feel good. Yes, when

34:39

you're down, what makes you feel

34:41

good? What do you do to help yourself? Well?

34:44

First of all, uh, it's so amazing

34:46

that you've been seeing a therapist since you're seven

34:49

years old, and definitely very jealous of that, and

34:51

that is one of the reasons why

34:53

I, you know, have dedicated myself to

34:55

another company because I truly

34:58

want I don't want anyone to ever all the

35:00

way I felt, where you are completely

35:02

alone and you have to basically figure out your mental

35:04

health just by you know, scratching everything

35:07

together and having no support. So

35:09

that's amazing. UM. I think people

35:11

think, you know, when they see the Forbes headline

35:13

that you know, twenty

35:15

million dollars whatever, you know, that

35:18

I don't have bad days and that I've just made

35:20

it. But I truly have bad

35:22

days. Almost every day. I feel

35:24

like I get it punched as an entrepreneur,

35:26

as you know, you have punched in the face like

35:29

fifteen times a day, fifty times a day.

35:31

Um. You know, I have a lot of uh

35:34

personal stuff that I deal with

35:36

as well, and so I definitely do

35:38

have those low moments and they

35:40

usually come you know, after my

35:42

sprint of a work day or sometimes

35:45

during And the one

35:47

thing that I do is I really like to

35:49

meditate. I don't do it on a daily

35:51

basis. I'm definitely not good meditate

35:54

tating person. I tried to do

35:57

our best. The only thing that I m able

36:00

to do as a sleep meditation. But

36:02

I want you to know, I it's

36:05

it's from some app, but like that's the

36:07

only voice that doesn't make me just want to like

36:09

smash my phone. Um. And it's

36:12

basically like UM, engaging

36:14

every part of your body, so like relax

36:16

your toes, relax your legs, relax

36:18

your jaw and like for me, it's like

36:20

my jaw was clenched and I didn't even realize.

36:22

Yeah, I basically, um, what

36:25

do I do? I like I my teeth.

36:27

I like brush my keeth against each other while

36:29

I sleep, like I like grind them together. It's horrible.

36:32

My jaws always tight. And so it basically gives

36:34

you a second to just like be in your body

36:37

and that makes me feel a lot more

36:39

grounded. Or I'll call my

36:42

mother or my like twin sister, or I'll

36:44

go to my dogs. I have two beautiful

36:46

poodles that I'll just go hug

36:48

and be like I'm doing this all for you,

36:51

um, and just be you know, so

36:53

happy with that. So those are

36:55

the things that really it's like feelings

36:58

and touching and you know, from minding

37:00

myself why I'm doing all of this, that

37:03

really helps me, you know, get out

37:05

of those states. But like you

37:07

know, it's not that easy. Sometimes it lasts

37:10

a bit longer. I know, sometimes

37:12

I kind of just have to let it be and

37:15

feel it and that sucks. But you

37:17

just kind of have to go through the motions of

37:19

it as sometimes which is never

37:21

fun. But I feel like it just makes you appreciate

37:23

the good moments more. Yeah, for sure. I

37:25

mean you're what you're describing is um

37:28

is called uh what an exposure,

37:31

So like sitting in the discomfort

37:33

and uh you know that definitely is

37:36

a really good coping mechanism because

37:38

it helps you become stronger. But sometimes,

37:41

you know, I don't feel strong enough to do that,

37:43

and that's the reality. Oh same

37:45

here. Yeah, and those moments I lay

37:47

in my bed and I curl into a ball

37:50

and I have some fairy lights and

37:52

I look at some good music. Yeah. Yeah,

37:54

sometimes you just need to take a second. Um.

37:57

You know, I don't have the luxury during the workday

37:59

to really just kind of step

38:01

away from everything, and so I

38:04

just kind of you know again, I do

38:06

everything like a sprint, So I just go through all

38:08

my calls and kind of not think about it. And

38:10

that's why, like at night, that's when it really hits

38:13

me. Um. But I just I like

38:15

to think about the things in my life that are going well

38:17

and the people that I'm hopefully hopefully

38:19

helping with, you know, stuff

38:21

like the news that and and wonder

38:24

mind um, and that really

38:27

just puts everything into perspective.

38:30

So how did wonder mine come to be? I know, you

38:32

met Selena and Mandy on a zoom call for

38:34

the news that at what point where you like,

38:36

hey, we should start a company together.

38:39

Yeah, so Selena, Mandy and I,

38:41

Um, we're on a zoom. I asked,

38:43

you know, my editorial team if I did do the interview.

38:46

They had no idea why I would want to do the interview,

38:48

because you know, I had written the news that

38:50

every single day for I think four or five years,

38:53

and then I handed it over to the editorial team.

38:55

They're much more talented than I am. Um,

38:58

and so they were like, and she like, you know, have of a

39:00

midlife crisis where she wants to write the

39:02

newsletter again. But the reason was

39:04

because it was a mental health interview

39:07

and no one on my team or in my life

39:09

knew I had any connection to mental health

39:12

because I had never talked about it.

39:14

It was so embarrassing to me. I

39:16

truly would have rather like died

39:19

than been vocal

39:21

about my O c D at that point,

39:23

which I know sounds very extreme,

39:26

but that's truly how I felt. I felt

39:28

like telling anybody I had O c D was

39:30

almost like the most embarrassing thing I could ever

39:32

say, because not only am I like this Latina

39:36

woman twenty something trying

39:38

to be taken seriously in the business world,

39:40

I didn't want to add o c D on top

39:42

of that, which is not the right mindset

39:44

that I should have had, but that's how I thought.

39:47

And so after listening

39:49

to Selena and Mandy, who

39:51

are both incredibly um,

39:53

you know, successful in their own light, and they just so

39:56

happened to be mother daughter saying

39:58

things to each other, some of the stuff for the first

40:00

time about their mental health and their

40:02

journeys really inspired me

40:04

at the end of the interview to tell them they were

40:07

like the fourth and fifth people I've ever told

40:09

that I had been struggling with those CD and depression,

40:11

etcetera since I was a child,

40:14

and that, you know, I that

40:16

was the first time I was ever saying and I was saying it to, you

40:18

know, the most famous person in the world and this incredibly

40:21

decorated producer, And so

40:24

at that point we stayed in touch, and Mandy and I

40:26

were basically like, how can we

40:28

change the world and really do

40:31

something that helps people like that gets

40:33

to the root of everything, not just

40:35

you know, their incredible companies offering

40:37

therapy, etcetera. But like, what about the

40:40

people who do won't even take that step

40:42

to get a therapist, or what if what about

40:44

the people who already have a therapist? You

40:46

know, having a therapist is almost like having a personal

40:48

trainer. You see them once a week for

40:51

you know, an hour if you're lucky, more resources.

40:53

Yeah. So, and if you just lean on

40:55

that, you're not going to get a states pack or

40:57

you know, achieve your fitness goals. You have

41:00

to do the work every other day in between

41:02

sessions. And that's really what we want to

41:04

create. And so Mandy

41:06

and I had so many discussions about it. Selena

41:09

had always wanted to do something to change

41:11

the world with mental health because it was such

41:13

a big part of her life, and so

41:15

Mandy and I came together and we, you

41:17

know, well, like this is what we want to do, and Selena

41:20

wanted to be involved and it really

41:22

just went from there. That is so

41:24

amazing. And thank you for creating

41:27

a company in this startup and this and

41:30

telling stories because they need

41:32

to be told, and breaking the statement is so important

41:34

and I just want to thank you again for just taking

41:36

the time out of your day to chat with me

41:39

about this. Because I as I wish more

41:41

people were as open as you are, because it's so

41:43

refreshing. Well, thank you so much.

41:45

And you know, I almost feel bad

41:48

that it took me this long to be open,

41:50

and it took me to feel like I had already achieved

41:52

some level of success to then be

41:55

like, okay, but this is really what's under the hood.

41:57

I don't want anyone to ever feel like

41:59

they have off to you know, hit a

42:01

certain level and then be open. That's

42:04

exactly why, you know, I am

42:06

in love with the our mission for a wonder Mind and

42:09

want to help so many people, and so thank

42:11

you so much for giving me, you know, the platform

42:13

to share what we're doing at the news Thatt

42:15

and new Landing Agency and Wonder

42:18

Mind, because you know, you

42:20

are someone that I really look up

42:22

to and and love to hear stories from. And

42:24

the fact that I'm going to be on your show is

42:26

is really a pinch me moment. So thank you so much

42:29

for your time. Thank you so much,

42:31

and I'm very excited for the future.

42:33

So make sure you check out the news that Wondermind

42:36

everything. It's some awesome impact

42:39

driven stuff, which is what we need in the world. And

42:41

thank you for creating something that shares

42:43

the stories of the most incredible people

42:45

in the world. And then me, you know, like,

42:48

thank you for having me. And I'm

42:50

so impressed you know, you are in college,

42:52

like the fact that you're joining Oh my

42:55

gosh, wow, you just you're

42:57

You're even more successful than I

43:00

ever dreamed of being at twenties. So just

43:02

congratulations on your success and

43:04

thank you again for having me. It was such a pleasure.

43:07

H