April 1, 2025 • 52 mins
To kick off Financial Literacy Month, we’re joined by stand-up comedian and Creative Director of Mente World, Luis Galilei. Beyond the laughs, Luis has been on the frontlines of mutual aid work in New York, helping shift the narrative around mental health by first addressing the basic needs of our communities. Mente is building spaces where young Americans can find connection and healing amid the mental health crisis. In this episode, we dive into how financial hardships—from childhood struggles to adult money trauma—shape our mental wellbeing, and how breaking free from limiting beliefs can be a path toward both financial and emotional freedom.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Let me talk about talk.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
There we go, he said, he live in life as
a ringo, where you question when you fit in every
time you mingle, and.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
They say you do.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
This would not that my rap is really mad.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This life a yes, hello and welcome to life as
a getting go.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I am drambos of course, and man first and foremost addressing
the elephant in the room. I sound crazy right now,
probably because I am sick as hell. I just got
back from being on the road doing shows in Puerto
Rico and Miami. Was on on the road for about
two weeks. Amazing, amazing, amazing experience. Thank you everybody I
(00:45):
met out there, and all the shows they have to
play were amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
But the lack of sleep and care for my body
definitely took a toll.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
On me, and I woke up yesterday and just feeling
like absolute death. So I sound crazy, Paul. With that said,
it's Financial Literacy Month. April's Financial Literacy month, so the
Tuesday episodes for this month will all be sent around
financial literacy related topics. Today, I'm actually really excited to
take a bit of a different angle than what we've
(01:14):
done in the past. We're actually to talk a bit
about mental health and finances and the effect that our
finances or lack thereof, can have on our mental health.
Maybe certain practices that we have even in times where
we're you know, doing well and we're successful, but old
(01:36):
trauma from our upbringing that doesn't allow us to enjoy
our wins the way that we should. So a lot
of different things we're gonna get into. I'm gonna have
an amazing guest on joining us. He's the Carave director
of Met That World, which is this incredible program and
brand that is sort of doing some out of the
box thinking when it comes to addressing mental health in
(01:57):
the Latin community. I'll let him describe that and get
into more of what they're doing. But I'm really excited
for this episode, excited to have this conversation around finances
and mental health. I think it's incredibly important and one
that I think we don't speak about quite enough.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So Yeah, with that said, let's get into if Your
Army Hit the segment.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
My guest today is a stand up median and creative
director of Ment That World, Luis GALIERL How you feeling,
my bro?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
What's up? I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Man, we out here.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We were just talking about this off Mike, we got
the both got the heck of Levo in the background.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So great mind stick alike out here.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, yeah, no, my mom used to play hector while
I was in her belly. You would like the Bones over, Yeah,
I would listen to.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, that's legendary, man. So I want to I want
to get to a few things for you today. I
think obviously you're you're much of your work right now.
It meant the World is a mental health So let's
kind of start there with the brand that is mint
the World and what that is exactly for anybody who's
not familiar, kind of in your own words.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, uh men, Mente World is a brand that is
Latino led, so the team that operates it is Latino.
But we are putting on experiences and creating what we
call healing content, uh that is meant to be consumed
by all. Essentially what what the The start of it
(03:33):
all was two best friends, our co founders, Victor and
Dan Uh. They were best friends since high school uh
in Dallas, and they've both become you know, professionals, graduated
from good uh universities, but they still found that like
mental health was sort of like a tough thing to
(03:56):
access for them to get like appropriate mental health. So
that's sort of where the kernel of mente was born.
Where now we are doing, we want to kind of
expand the definition of how people feel like they can
address their mental health. A lot of people feel like
it's just therapy, and therapy is not accessible for everyone
(04:18):
because it's expensive. And we are sort of bringing in
so many different aspects of life, entertainment, art, and community
to show people that, like, you can address your mental
health in many different ways. And how we do that is,
you know, creating content that which is what we call healing,
which is like content that has an angle that sort
(04:39):
of shines the light on the positives or negatives that
it has on your mental health. And then experiences like
these comedy shows that we've been throwing in La now
we have one in Miami coming up where we use
a sort of crowd work group therapy, sort of a
(04:59):
pro coach, and people believe it or not get vulnerable
and they reveal things that they're going through after an
hour of comedy. So like we've seen that that hour
of comedy brings their barriers down and they're willing to
get more vulnerable since the endorphins are up and we
solve problems as a community, so that, in the nutshell,
(05:19):
is what we're doing now. Yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I love that, bro.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I think you touched on a couple of things specifically,
you know, it's financial Literacy Month, but I think a
big sort of I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I think for me, when I think about a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Of mental health issues I've struggled with or you know,
friends of mine, you know, finances are always sort of
at the root of a lot of it. You know,
of so many different things. I love how you touched
on the idea of therapy almost being you know, feeling
inaccessible for many people, you know. I know for me,
what helped me back for gating therapy for the longest
(05:54):
time was that I couldn't afford it on my own,
so I had to go through my mom's insurance. But
I felt weird talking to them about it, right, so
I put it off for a long time. And I
think it's really interesting that you're sort of creating these
spaces outside of the traditional norms of therapy and ones
that are far more accessible financially. So at least that's
(06:14):
not an excuse for someone not to address their mental health.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, I mean one of the approaches that we have
is one that's rooted in our sort of grassroots organizing background,
which is something that I learned on the streets, which was,
how can we have anyone open up about their mental
health or listen to sort of you know, policy type
stuff back when I was organizing without addressing a basic
(06:42):
need of theirs first. So this sort of goes back
to like how indigenous cultures used to meet up, right,
they would bring an offering before any sort of any
sort of discussion around you know, joining or conflict was had,
and that's what we do with MENDE. So we've been
able to hold basic need giveaway days and at our
(07:03):
comedy shows we give away stuff so people feel like
they're being taken care of, because how, I mean, how
could you even really expect to talk to talk about
your mental health when you have bills do when you
know that the gas is low, when you know that
you might not have enough for laundry. So we've been
given out like laundry cards, gas cards, grocery cards. So yeah,
(07:26):
it's very big. It's a very big thing because people
think like you know, mental health should be at the
number one it should be your number one priority, which
is true. But in the type of capitalistic society that
we live in and how the American dream, American dream,
you know, functions, it's going to be like, no, this thing,
this mental health is not a priority of mine because
(07:48):
I have to provide or I have to you know,
gain more status, or I have to get the promotion.
So we know that there are a lot of people
that just I mean not a lot of people have
two hungred dollars one hundred dollars twice a month, like
once a month is something, but we we need to
talk more. So if you want to do it and
(08:09):
you want to feel that progress, you need like two
three hundred four hundred dollars a month. That's some half
Oh my god, I got people's sound right now, that's
half of people's rent. Yeah, you know, that's that's a
lot of money for certain people. So we want to
show them that there are different ways that can be free,
that can be on your own personal time where you
(08:32):
can address your mental health.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, I think And it's interesting, it's almost like
I think our parents' generation, because they struggled so much
financially many of them.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
It's almost like a privilege to address your mental health.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Kids, what you're speaking to, right, it's like this as
much of a priority as it needs to be in
as much as you really can't do anything if your
mental health is not in order, it's also a privilege
to be able to address your mental health, right, to
take the time, the money and resources needed to actually
attack that. It's so funny, I think, you know, when
I think about the older generation, kind of a lot
of the reactions around the idea of therapy or mental health
(09:08):
and things like that, you know, and they're immediately sort
of pushed in the direction of saying like, do you
know hard we had to struggle?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
What do you have to struggle about? Essentially?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right, And it's it's sort of so funny, how to
your point, in this capitalistic society that our need for money,
which we inevitably we all need it, you know, oftentimes
supersedes what's best for us at the end.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Of the day.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, and we've become such a such a hard working culture,
especially you know, Latinos in the US. You know, this
is the only place we're referred to as Latinos everywhere
else so here we've been like really put in this
category of hard, hard working, and I like that, but
I also don't love that because it becomes a part
(09:56):
of and you learn this as you go through a
therapeutics sort of journey, but it becomes a part of
your personality. So if you're not struggling, if you're not grinding,
it's almost like life isn't truly happening the way it
should be, which is something that I've personally had to
like sort of like divorce because I will be doing
(10:19):
well and I need to acknowledge myself. But because that's
sort of like acknowledgeableness supposed to come in, I'll seek
out struggle. I'll seek out like you know, so many
men in this world that, like especially Latinos, that like
almost their personality is having financial problems right right, Like
every time you say, yo, what up? How you doing? Oh?
(10:40):
You know, man, just grinding, bro. You know the rents
who need to get to this money, you know, right.
I mean I still say that let's get to this money,
but I mean like, let's get to these I don't know, spirituals, right,
But and it's this culture of pure grind. So anything
that doesn't associate with being productive if is like negative
(11:02):
and addressing your mental health, especially deep traumas or small
things that are blocking you are gonna make you a
little less productive before you before you can become even
more productive, but you know, in a controlled way. So
I completely agree with you. Like Latinos, I think that
machismo has a big part of it. You know, you know,
(11:26):
you always got to grind you always, you don't you
have to grind in silence, you know, like you can't
say nothing. And that's what we talk about in our shows.
We actually had someone talk about how they were working.
They had planned to work over time, and this was
an audience member sharing as we were doing our sort
of crowd word growth therapy thing, and this couple they
(11:46):
had planned a spring break for their kids and it
was supposed to be a whole week long, and he
agreed to it, but in his mind he knew that
they had a wedding coming up later after that, so
he he said to I'm going to work this weekend
over time so I can make more money for that,
but didn't say anything to his partner. So his partner
(12:08):
is they're planning things with the kids for a whole
week of activities, and then he goes the week before, Hey,
I'm not going to be able to make the ones
on the weekend, and she explodes, right because she's like,
what happened? We were doing all this thing. We agreed
to this, and in his mind he's like, Yo, my
intent is to make my family happier with the work
and everything. But now there's a huge miscommunication you get
(12:31):
in an argument. Both people have good intents, and because
we're grinding in silence and not communicating, the machismo sort
of creates this huge problem, this huge weight when you
could have just communicated up top. And financial stuff is
one of the biggest reasons why people get in conflict
with each other, especially within the household, so there's a
(12:53):
huge need to like continue to talk about this stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, even to that point, the sort of the
the way we idolize, the sort of grind lifestyle, right,
and this idea of always doing something right, and to
your point, the idea of productivity and all these different things.
It almost even when you end up getting into a
position where you might be financially secure, it's hard to
(13:18):
shed that mindset and you begin to you know, sort
of sacrifice the freedoms that you've earned through your work
because you can't get out of the obsession with the grind.
You can't get out of the mentality of always thinking that,
like the shoe is about to drop type of thing, right,
And that's what I've sort of struggled with a lot,
is I carry it around. Even when times are good,
I'm still operating from a place of like, you know,
(13:40):
concern that like something is about to.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You know, the rug is about to be pulled from
under me, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And I think that's also a topic of conversation that
so many people we don't have really right, the idea
that like, even when you do find success, many people
find it hard to shed that that sort of fear
of losing it all.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, it's interesting, there's always been there's always like, there's
always been this expectation for people to almost not like
not not live their wins, because if you live your wind,
then there's a potential other one that you're not going for.
(14:20):
Or if you live your wind, you're resting, and you
shouldn't rest, like I think, and we run away from
our problems a lot of the time with work, like
it's funny at our shows as well. Like I'll do
a segment where I ask people what they do for
their mental health, and you be surprised how many people
say work and like work, like your job is not
(14:43):
for your mental health, Like that is your occupation, that's
what brings you money, and that's what distracts you. So
it is a distraction that you might find joy in
certain things, but you need to be doing other things,
living your winds, finding out what you're and your child
likes to do. Like and like you were saying before,
like Latinos, they tend to fit, especially older generations. They
(15:07):
tend to feel like therapy is something that's against them. Right, it's, oh,
it's gonna make you hate your mom or your dad.
But that's the problem with like not being able to
criticize our parents. Like it's not like I don't love you,
like start with that. You know, Mom, I love you,
and you've done everything for me. I just want to
talk about this thing that had an effect right on. Right,
(15:29):
it doesn't mean that I'm ungrateful. It doesn't mean that
I'm ungrateful that you know you like swam here from Venezuela,
Like I don't I trust me. Like, I think that's
one of the things too, Like there's this expectation for
us to suffer as much as they did, but it's
like you did that for us to have a better life,
(15:50):
Like you did that for me. I went to college,
I learned about different things, and now I have this
opinion that the world shouldn't function the way it should.
It doesn't mean I hate you, what doesn't mean where
we came from. I just learned how like we could
all be a bit happier.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, I think one of the one of the
things that sort of flipped the switch for me, you
know a few years ago, was sort of adapting and
accepting the idea that me taking time off for myself
would actually lead to more productivity down the road, right,
So that that flipped that sort of switch in my
(16:26):
mind being flipped where I can then look at time
off as you know, you know sort of and even
that in itself, the fact that I have to contrict
myself into thinking it's it's you know, something for productivity
speaks I think volumes, but you know, understanding that me
taking time off, having time to myself, clearing my mind
and and sort of not working will yield better results
(16:48):
for my work down the road. And I think that
sort of adaption has helped me out so much with
not feeling guilty when I'm taking a day for myself
or I'm not you know where I said I was
going to take a day off and I'm not going
to answer emails. I don't have to fee guilty about
you know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, there's so many examples now, especially how America has
sort of blossomed into a place where you could create
a career out of anything now with social media that
like there is still I feel like a part of us,
especially as gringos. You know that like feels very misunderstood
(17:21):
by our parents in what we do, but we always
compare it back to what they consider is a job.
So if you're doing something that's not necessarily understood as
a job and a grind and a working style man
or woman, then you almost feel like you need to
(17:42):
prove to them that this thing is real. So then
now we're still working towards our parents' expectations, So you
will feel guilty that you're taking a break from your
media job because they never sort of like not like
what like you talk on you talk for like right
(18:02):
are you on the radio? You know you're on like
one of five, I don't know you. So so they
don't necessarily see it as like totally legit, right, Like,
it took a really long time for my family to
like to address my my art as my job. It
was always because I always had another job and they
were like, oh, how's that doing. That's good, Okay, now
(18:22):
how's the little extra stuff doing? The The extra is the.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Main right, And.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
So yeah, yeah, they don't because it doesn't look like
the hard work they did. They don't take it seriously
almost you know, uh, that could be incredibly frustrated. I
definitely got through got through that as well. Arm and
pop it here real quick, will take a break and
then we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
All right, we are back.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
So I think also I i'd seen kind of some
of the work that you guys had done through your
website and sort of talking about the idea of fighting loneliness, right,
and that sort of being this unspoken epidemic that I
think faces that so many young people face, you know,
particularly ironically in an age where we are so hyper connected,
(19:12):
we're also I think so much more disconnected in the
realest sense than ever I think, and I think speaking
specifically to financially, there's nothing lonelier than being the one
like broke friend in the group, you know what I mean,
who can't do the things that everybody else is doing.
And like especially we have a culture we don't speak
about money right in general, But on top of that,
(19:34):
if you're the one friend struggle with money, you can't
do all the things that your peers are doing, that
is incredibly isolating and lonely and can reak havoc on
your mental health and your own self worth, you know,
to a degree.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, I mean self worth is so tied to finances
in today's day. But I would also argue right specifically
for the Latino male, we have been trained. I mean,
I grew up without a father and in I remember
I was really little and one of my earliest memories
(20:10):
of my grandfather talking to me was him telling me
that I'm the man of the house, which is like
I think I was seven, Like I'm nowhere near a man, dude.
But that's why you see a lot of Latinos wanting
to work super early. Like I feel like as immigrants
in general, like we're trying to get our workers permit
at twelve, Like we're trying to work right away, like
(20:31):
let's make money, and there's nothing more lonely than struggling
with something by yourself, like the financial situation. Like look,
I've felt this so many times, Like you look at
your bank account and you feel like less of a person.
And then not only that, because of your conditioning, the
(20:52):
way you were brought up in societal expectations. You don't
say a word. You don't say a word, and that's
caused me to run my credit card debt through the
roof because I'm like, oh, I can't be out and
not and not buy a drink with my friends, or
I can't I want. I want to give my girlfriend
(21:13):
the world. I'm going to go to dad, and I'm
going to pay for it, and it's just going to
go on the credit card, like all this stuff, and
people might look at it like, oh, why would you
do that? That's not financially responsible, like make responsible decisions.
Our school systems do not prepare us for making responsible
financial decisions. There is no sort of real money class
(21:36):
in our high schools and our middle schools. I'm talking
about you know what you would considered low income neighborhoods.
That's where I came from. You don't get taught that.
You don't get taught what like I mean, I didn't
know until I was already financially in debt how to
truly like make appropriate financial decisions. And credit credit doesn't
(22:00):
affect you until you're trying to get an apartment. And
then by that time, if you've had a credit card
since since you were nineteen or whatever, you're not doing well.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Right, Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, you're you're touched on a
couple on a couple of different things. I think specifically
speaking to the men, I think as well, right, because
our role that society tells we're supposed to be the provider,
right to your point, And I think, you know, also
for a young man, you know, it's your ability to
(22:36):
sort of give off the persona of having it all together, right,
and so much of your your self worth a lot
of it comes from the car or the job or
the apartment, right, so much of that, right, And we
bear that burden, and everybody bears a different burden. But
I think for young men specifically, so much of their
value when it comes to the opposite sex comes from
(22:57):
their ability to provide right. And then when you're in
a position where you're not able to live that life
to provide or to your point, you just start doing
you know, bad financial decisions as to as it means
to give off the persona that you are living that
lifestyle and you know in it sort of it takes
a toll on you both financially in the literal sense
(23:18):
mentally because you're not living authentically at that point. And
then again, you know, in today's social media era, you're
watching as everybody else seems to have all their shit
together and you're just the one who's struggling to do
the basic you know, a thing like take your girl
to dinner or or go meet up with friends for drinks,
or you know, have nice clothing or whatever it might be.
(23:39):
It's like that is, especially as a as a man,
so incredibly isolating and deflating and just overall depressing.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I feel, yeah, and it and not only that that,
that's like we're we're talking about, right, the personal problems
that that could cause to us. Now, imagine your entire
not your entire, but a good part of your self
worth is dependent on your ability to provide right and
(24:07):
your ability to provide is part of your financial wellness,
right if your financial wellness is not good, but you
are breaking your back every single day, right, you know,
as they say, to provide, And then still your partner
is not happy. Why because your soul, your sole purpose
(24:28):
is to give money to the table. But a good
in a healthy relationship, there are many different things that
need to be done. So like you're providing, but you're
not sharing how you're doing. You're providing, but you're not,
you know, prioritizing spending time with your partner. So now
you come into the home with basically what I've felt,
(24:50):
and I've seen an expectation to one be left alone
or two to just like be in peace. But then
you you've done nothing to sort of foster the relationship.
Then then the feedback comes in from your partner and
now you don't feel you don't feel you don't feel seen,
you don't feel appreciated. You're like, what you mean, Like
(25:13):
I've been I've been out all day and I've been
working this job and this other job. So I come
here and now you're talking about like we don't spend
enough time together. Yeah, but that's true, right, Like too
many like men have like a self worth only wrapped
around being a provider. And then they then they have
problems in their relationship and they're like, I don't get it.
(25:33):
I don't get why she has to get on me
about this. It's hard of being in a relationship. This
is not you're not her roommate. You know, you guys
aren't roommates. You guys aren't business partners. Like you're not like, oh,
I'm going to provide the finance and you provide this. No,
it's a it's a collaboration. So I feel like a
lot of men feel even more alone because of this,
because they're like, well, I come home and I don't
(25:55):
feel understood. I don't feel understood that like my hard work.
And then she's talking about the kids, or she's talking
about spending time, or that I don't share about how
I feel. And it's like, those are very important things
if you want to be in a relationship, but we
are so tied up around the identification of being a provider.
(26:16):
When a provider is all around, right, you provide space
for your partner to talk to understand, you share right
many different things. But yeah, that creates even more loneliness
because sometimes I've come into situations where I'm like trying,
I'm trying to find things to make myself more victim,
(26:38):
more separated, more alone, because I'm like, no, you guys
don't understand my grind. You guys don't understand that, like
this is against me, and this is against me, and
now I come home and it's like this. So then
you start to like sort of retreat into a corner.
And that's why I feel like men like explode. Sometimes
you explode in anger because you've just been continuously kind
(26:59):
of taking a step back into a corner and then
one day she's like, yo, you freaking got bleach on
my shirt, and you you explode?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, because I think in the short
term it's oftentimes easier to kind of self isolate a
little bit and not share the emotions. But to your point,
those those emotions have to go somewhere, right, They need
to released somewhere. And the more you sort of go
inward and don't share anything and sort of just cut
(27:30):
yourself off from the world, eventually it's all going to
build up, and unfortunately it's gonna come out, probably at
the at the wrong time, on the wrong person.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Almost.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, and how do they know that you're struggling when
I all you do is put on this macho face
and I left that six I'm coming back. How you doing, baby?
Everything's good, everything's good. Worry. So now your partner is
over there, like I'm trying to decipher whether they are okay,
Like is it about me? Is it about work? But
you don't say nothing, and then they are now anxious
(28:01):
because they're trying to guess how you are doing. They
don't want it to affect any other part of the home.
And now you're both kind of on tippy toes around
each other, and that contributes to it. But like, how
is someone supposed to appreciate how much you do when
you don't talk about how it makes you feel? If
you came home and you were like, yo, baby, like damn,
today was really tough and it wasn't because it like
(28:24):
necessarily work, Like I just was thinking about this and
then this happened with my boss and I'm just like ugh,
and then she'll be like, oh, he's had a hard day.
But we go in and we expect someone to read
us because right we talk, we don't talk like a
lot a lot of men in this country are talking
about like how this country's getting soft. Everyone's everyone's going
(28:44):
into mental health and going to therapy. No they're not, right,
No they're not. There's still a lot of there's still
it's like twenty percent of people in the whole country
are in therapy, and men is probably less than that, right,
and that twenty percent is usually in and like big
metropolis is right, like big cities. So like there isn't
(29:04):
this whole thing happening, Like the media tries to make
it seem like it by using buzzwords, but there's still
a lot of us that are not talking at all.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great a great point.
I think the cool thing about what you guys are doing.
You correct me if I'm wrong here, but it feels
like what you're doing is sort of the entry way
for people to sort of dip their toe and explore
this whole thing that is mental health.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I think we're trying
to again, we're trying to like redefine it for people
because addressing your mental health is actually every single part
of your life, right.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
It affects your productivity, it affects the way you walk,
it affects the way.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
You rest, So just letting people know that there is
different ways to address it, so it becomes more of
a priority because addressing your mental health is a lifestyle,
Like you can't just that's the issue with some brands
at the moment, Like you can't just sell the mental
health product, Like you can't just sell it like hey,
(30:06):
you know, put this, you know, use this body wash
and it'll make your depression go away. That's not the
way it functions. It's like an actual whole thing. How
do you wake up? How do you eat? You know,
do you do you chew your food? Like like that,
Like what are you watching? How does it make you feel? Like?
This is a lifestyle thing that you need to start
(30:26):
to like begin to place importance on. So, yes, we
come in with the basic need, We come in with entertainment.
We come with a different way, a culturally accurate way
to associate with people. They feel like they're at home,
and then we introduce this sort of way to view
your mental health and less of a less of a
(30:48):
distant way, like I feel like therapy is like way
over there for people. They're like one you got to
talk to a random person. Two they may not. You
may not be able to find someone that culturally resid
names with you. Three, it's expensive. Four it's another time
block in your week. Like five do you either have
to go or you know, travel whatever it may be.
(31:11):
So it feels so distant, So it feels like people
can't do anything about it. But we remind them that
there are many different things from yoga to meditating, to
comedy shows to music. But really showing them that community,
getting us back to like interacting can really help too.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, I love that aspect of it community because I
think so many of us sort of lack We lack that, right,
We lack the shared space where you come together and
it's like minded individuals especially. I think in the way
we grow up now where people are living all over
the place, right, we're not sort of as tied into
living in the same place forever as previous generations, where
(31:52):
you know, through gentrification or whatever it might be, there's
just not that communal aspect of you know, like, oh
this is a primarily Puerto Rican area or whatever, you know,
like it just doesn't exist as much anymore. And I
think within that, you know, diversity is obviously great, but
you also don't have sort of those cultural ties of
the comfortability of seeing somebody who looks like you, who
(32:14):
understands you, without even having to have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Almost yeah, yeah, I mean we went to ment. They
had a booth at the first ever Corridos festival in
Phoenix is like Mexican Mexican traditional music, and we had
like a bodega, like a deli sort of setup where
(32:39):
we were providing like basic needs, so we were giving shade,
some water, a place to rest, and then we also
had these cool shirts that we were giving away as
part of our like you know, basic need. I mean,
you know, a cool merch tea isn't necessarily a basic need,
but clothing could be considered a basic needs. And once
(32:59):
you make Once we made that exchange and talk to
them about us being like representing mental health and wanting
to talk about it, people opened up. People opened up
right away because they saw a familiar place, like at
the end that everyone understands what a little market is,
and they got something nice and they felt cared for,
(33:20):
and then they saw faces that they could relate to.
They're like, oh, these are my people. I'm gonna talk
about it. And just like you said, like, there's a
lot of us that don't see ourselves. I mean, you know,
the therapy world has been made to look very white,
you know what I mean, made to look white and affluent.
So Latinos we already have a problem believing that we
(33:41):
belong in those spaces, right, we have. We have sort
of what's that called imposter syndrome already. So I mean,
I'm sure you've heard this, but like some there are
many Latinos that consider addressing your mental health as a
green gala, like that's what dingos do. And it's like, well,
I'm a gringo, like I was born, you know what
(34:02):
I mean. But being around other people that are willing
to talk about their mental health, that are part of
your culture, that are part of your city, you know,
just learning that other people from your block, it makes
you feel less alone and you're like, oh, like there's
a lot of value in being around my community, sharing
(34:23):
and then understanding that the same problem you got, the
homie has down the block, your girl has in the
different neighborhood. How are you doing it? I mean I
never got financial literacy classes. And then one time one
of my friends from college, he was a finance major,
and I was just like, yo, bro. He like posted
some video about like financial tips, and I hit him
(34:45):
up and I was like, yo, bro, I need help. Man,
Like I'm down to here. And we sat down with
my dad and he was like, all right, let's make
a plan. This is how much you just saved. This
is how much. He was like, cut up that credit
card right now, and he help me. But if I
never reached out, I think I would have just like
I don't know, I think I would have what's that
(35:06):
thing where you can cancel it and you to your
credit goes down to like negative three million, and then
you're all right? Because it was not it was not cute.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, but it took having the conversation even there, right
Like that, That's the other thing is is allowing yourself
to ask for help. Right And as much as that
like our ego tries to tell us not to do that,
right and to push back against that, you know, there's
no shame in asking for help. And in fact, you
would have been you would have been in an even
(35:36):
worse position had you not have asked for help, right,
had you listened to your ego at that point and
not taken the time to ask somebody who knew, who
knew a piece of information that you.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Didn't know, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
And I think that is also where we get so
caught up or even kind of and a lot of
what we're talking about is our ego takes over and
we sort of to avoid the short term sting to
our ego, we put ourselves in even worse position in
the long run.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah, and there's just been this glorification of the doing
it all yourself, right, oh, the lone wolf you know,
the the YouTube viral video about the one guy that
started an empire by himself. Yeah, yeah, you want to
make millions on selling real estate, Well, this is the
(36:22):
way you do, like do it yourself, be an entrepreneur.
And it really, it really, it really distracts you from
the power of community, from the power of asking help,
because you can feel you're not supposed to feel that alone.
Like I know, a lot of people say, like, you know,
the the journey to the top is a lonely one, now,
(36:43):
you know, like I will completely disagree with that, But
there's a level of loneliness that just comes or comes
with the territory. And there's another level, a bigger percentage
of loneliness that you sort of put on yourself because
you don't want to ask for help. You want to
do it all your So I mean it dates back
to before we had map applications like like Google maps.
(37:06):
Men would get lost right different because they didn't want
to ask for directions. They didn't want to ask for help.
I've been on a bus with my grandfather and we've
ended up where were we wed? We ended up in
northern Westchester, like by Fishkill, because he didn't want to
ask where our stop was. He was like, no, I
can't remember. I can't remember, and I'm a kid. I'm like,
(37:28):
all right, my grandfather knows right. It's like a lot
of us don't ask for help because we were sort
of trained that like the grind and success is a
lonely one. And I feel like women inherently have a
little bit more community as far as like help a
woman out because they are, you know, more oppressed than
than men. But in general, just in America, we're all
(37:52):
trying to do it ourselves and asking for help one
makes you feel less alone, and two might get you
that I get you the help that you actually need.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Are poppeting here one more time? Let's take a quick
break and then we'll be right back. All right, we
are back. And I'm curious too with with uh, you know,
talking about MENTA and all the work you do. What
has been common that maybe some of the more common
issues or common stories you've heard, you know, from the community,
(38:24):
that that seems to sort of be over and over again,
the shared struggle that many of us face.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Well, I would say there's a shared there's a common
there's a common story about a tough masculine figure in
their life. H Like I would say, latinos, I think
we can all relate to having a parent, whether it's
(38:52):
your dad or mom that was very strict, right, So
that creates sort of expectations and effects on your mental health,
on what you see as success, whether you're able to
acknowledge yourself, whether you are searching for that struggle identification
with you know, low self worth. And there's a lot
(39:14):
of economic stuff, Like there's a lot there's been a
lot of stories about how you know, it's tough for
them to even think about their mental health because they
have two jobs or they need to worry about their
bills first, providing first. But like on the positive note,
(39:35):
with the younger crowd and sometimes sometimes like older millennials,
there's been a lot of enthusiasm Like there's been a
lot of enthusiasm around seeing people talk about like a
brand like ment that being there being like, actually, we
don't want to sell you anything, we just want to
talk about like what what are you going through? Like, oh,
(39:55):
we have this event here, we have this event there
that you can go to, And there's a lot of
it excitement around sharing that they are at least going
through something. Another thing that I've seen is the older generations.
It seems like now they're starting to see that like
this is not going to go away, like this sort
(40:17):
of mental health talk, so they're starting to look at it,
whether it's like slightly glancing at it, but like they're like, oh, yeah,
we understand that mental health is an issue right now
and that it's really affecting young people right. And that's
sometimes a little weird for me to hear because I'm like,
I know it's affecting you, yeah, but just because young
(40:40):
people talk about it, they're like, oh, yeah, it's really
affecting my kid. Because another common thing that you see
a lot is because of social media and because of
the Internet. A lot of these kids are educated on
therapy speak, so they know how to they know how
to label certain things, but they're still too young to like,
(41:05):
you know, like I had you know, I got a
bad grade on my test, Mom, I'm depressed. You know,
like those are huge words that conflict with generations, and
we've had a good handful of parents being like like
I want I would love to see like content around
(41:27):
how to parent my kid who knows how to use
therapy speak, because you know, we had this this one
black mother she was talking about how she was disciplining
in her kid because she's like snuck out and that
in the fight. The kid was like, you're traumatizing me.
And you know, as a parent, like if you are
(41:49):
at least attuned to humanity, right, I know many parents
that'd be like, oh, I'm traumatizing you. Oh I'm gonna
show you what trauma It's like yeah, Pocasso like yeah,
And but she was like I had to stop because
she didn't know how to counter that. She was like wait, whoa,
Like that's a big word. Like so we've seen a
lot of that. Like a lot of young kids know
(42:11):
this diverbiage and they use it, it might not be
totally accurate all the time. So like how you navigate
that as an older generation, not trying to like, you know,
stifle them or make them feel like you don't validate them,
but also like I'm not traumatizing you because I'm disciplining
you for sneaking out, you know what I mean. So
(42:31):
those are some of the common the common things that
we've heard.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, No, I think even words like depression are.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Can be incredibly I feel like the previous generation when
they hear a word like depression, they automatically link it
to something like being suicidal almost, you know what I mean,
And it makes it feel, you know, this lack of
unders standing of depression, the various levels of it that
there are. I think a lot of people struggle with that,
(43:07):
and it almost makes you not want to share it
because you automatically think if I tell somebody in depressed,
they think I'm trying to harm myself and I'm not
at that point, I'm just feeling depressed, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
I think that is.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
An interesting point that there needs to be a far
more education on the verbiage. And also I think the
scale of depression, right like the clinical scale of it
is not just doesn't mean just one thing. It doesn't
automatically go to the most extreme version of their varying
levels of as well.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah, I mean we just need to get more. We're
in such a buzzword era. Yeah, and to truly, especially
when it comes to mental health and many different topics. Right,
things are complex, So we need that we need to
stop labeling things with such generality. Like if you've been
if you've been clinically diagnosed by a professional that you
(43:52):
have depression. I think that's fine to then say that
you are depressed, but maybe if you're not. I'm not
saying that you're not depressed. I'm saying lose words to
describe how you feel. Like, like a lot of men
will say they're depressed. But back again, our bank accounts
are low, right, So like, so let's talk about it.
(44:15):
Why why every day do you feel this way? Well,
I'm working, Okay, let's keep going, let's keep talking about it. Well,
you know what, at the end of the day, I
always open up my Chase app and and it's low man. Okay,
all right, So now we've gotten down to a kernel
of where you associate your own self worth, your self
worth is tied to money. Okay, now we need to
(44:37):
work on that, Like where the fuck did that come from?
Who's that standard? Now? How do you? How do you?
In what way can we acknowledge and have you believe
that you are worth and enough? You're worth a lot
and enough.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
Regardless of your bank account, because you're a human being,
because you're kind, because you're doing like so like it's
just about getting or specific and you need to be
in community for that specificity.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Now community whether that's your family or community, whether that's
like at a function like a menta function or anything
that you may be at to sort of feel heard
in that and be specific, Like you'll you'll never I swear,
like sometimes you'll share something like that vulnerable. You may
not get the guidance that you need from the person
(45:26):
or from the entity that you're sharing with. But then
you'll walk around and you'll and and there'll be a sign,
like a sign from the universe like oh check this
out for financial and you're like, oh, okay, you know what,
I'm actually going to go on that website or you know,
I mean, our phones are listening to us all the time,
so like you speak something into your phone and then
you have a financial literacy cost that comes up, and
(45:48):
it goes back to the to the help thing. You
need to admit that you need help like we I
think it's one of the reasons why a lot of
our parents and grandparents never never learn the language is
because this, this this distaste that we have for vulnerability.
Right to learn a new language is to literally go
(46:10):
back to being a baby. You have to learn sounds,
you have to be vulnerable. You're weak, you don't know
how to walk yet in this language, and especially like
I mean, my grandfather never learned English, even though he
said he knew English, but he never wanted to learn
how to pronounce. He never wanted to be in that
sort of state of kid like nis. And that's what
(46:34):
that vulnerability brings you down to. So like, don't be
afraid of feeling weak in front of somebody, because you
have to describe exactly what's going on with you. What okay,
you're depressed, what's going on though? What is it? Because
if you describe how for months and months and months
you seem to have good moments, but then you dive,
(46:55):
and then good moments and then you die. Maybe you
do have chronic depression. But if you have if your
self worth is strictly tied to such a low balance
in your account. Now, now we're talking about more of
a self worth issue. Okay, now now we can talk
about this. Now we can relate. Hey, oh, I actually
the homie Luise has a self worth issue and he's
actually working through it. Maybe I should link you to
(47:17):
a but we're too general when describing things that are
so specific. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Now, I think it's a great, great kind of point
to And also I think it makes it easier to
address what's going on when you're not trying to just
blanket statement everything you know. And I think maybe it
also would allow people to be a little bit more
open to try to figure things out, you know, because
they don't want to. Again, I think there's the terminology
feels very heavy oftentimes, right, and I think that pushes
(47:45):
people away a bit. To your to your point, but
anything that we should know about met their world before
we rapidly want to kind of get let people know about.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Well, if you are in the LA area, Uh, we're
running some really fun comedy shows that you can see
through our profile ment that world at Instagram or my
profile at incup poppy, which is unproven, so we have
(48:16):
that too. We have a show coming up in Miami
on the seventeenth, which is another mental health benefits show.
I would say look out for more content, just keeping
an eye on if you want to go to an
event with like minded people where you feel like you
may not be ready to share, but you're ready to
(48:38):
be in an environment where people are sharing and community
is supporting instead of criticizing. Come by, come by, and big,
bigger things are coming with MENDE. But the more you
guys support our events, the more we can prove to
people investors that this sort of stuff matters, and we
(49:01):
care about this stuff and we want more of these things.
So I would just say support and uh and find
community wherever you guys are.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
I love that, bro, I listen. I love the work
that you're doing and the work that meant that is doing.
I think it's it's really important. So saluted to you
guys for doing this work.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Of course, salute to you too, brotherly man.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Big shots of my guest this week, Luis Galilee, for
hopping on the show. Really enjoyed that conversation. I hope
you guys got a lot out of it. Maybe think
about a lot of things. You know, we'll talk about
it in our conclusion stud.
Speaker 4 (49:36):
Time for conclusion.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
So over all, great conversation I think with Luis, and
it felt good to sort of have this topic of
conversation around finances and mental health specifically.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
I just don't think we talk about it enough.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
I know, we talked about the financial literacy aspects of things,
and there's so much goes into that, but I think
there's a lack of conversation with the toll that finances
can take.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
On our mental health.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
And I also thought, I guess for me, the biggest
takeaway as I really think about it, was a lot
of the conversation around self worth when it comes to
finances and you know, wanting to I don't know why,
I guess as a man, wanting to be that provider.
I know, for me, I think growing up and in
(50:30):
my twenties and early thirties, when my finances were not
in a good place, you know, sort of feeling lesser
than it definitely affected my confidence and how I presented
myself to the world, you know, And I think, you know,
I wish I had people like Luis, you know, that
I could have talked to to sort of understand some
(50:52):
of those feelings about myself and to not let it
seep into how I felt about myself.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
And I think just in general, when we talk about
the idea of community, that stuck out to me so much. Right,
having a group of like minded people that you could
have these deeper conversations with right the place to go
and do that. And I think also even just the
top of the conversation around like therapy and things like
therapy almost being viewed as a privilege, right, And I
(51:21):
know for me, there's been many times when I was
younger where I had to stop doing there because I
couldn't afford it anymore, or whatever the case may be.
And it's like, you know, uh, the fact that there
are programs and brands like meant that who are out
there building spaces that are providing resources for people to
address their mental health without maybe some of the stigma
(51:44):
or the financial burden of something like therapy, I think
is incredible. So big shots to Louise and big shot
to met the world, go check them out on social media.
They're they're doing incredible work. So great way to kick
off Financial Literacy Month, tackling fine answers from a angle
that I think is not spoken about enough, and that
is sort of the mental health aspect of it all.
(52:06):
But that said, I'm going to take my ass back
to bed and try to sleep off the rest of
this nasty ass cold that I've been fighting. So I'm
good for Thursday and that's when I'll catch you off
for our Thursday Trends episode. Till then, to stay safe
and we'll talk soon. Life as a Gringo is a
production of the micro Thura podcast network and iHeartRadio.
Let me talk about talk.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
There we go, he said, he live in life as
a ringo, where you question when you fit in every
time you mingle, and.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
They say you do.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
This would not that my rap is really mad.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This life a yes, hello and welcome to life as
a getting go.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I am drambos of course, and man first and foremost addressing
the elephant in the room. I sound crazy right now,
probably because I am sick as hell. I just got
back from being on the road doing shows in Puerto
Rico and Miami. Was on on the road for about
two weeks. Amazing, amazing, amazing experience. Thank you everybody I
(00:45):
met out there, and all the shows they have to
play were amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
But the lack of sleep and care for my body
definitely took a toll.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
On me, and I woke up yesterday and just feeling
like absolute death. So I sound crazy, Paul. With that said,
it's Financial Literacy Month. April's Financial Literacy month, so the
Tuesday episodes for this month will all be sent around
financial literacy related topics. Today, I'm actually really excited to
take a bit of a different angle than what we've
(01:14):
done in the past. We're actually to talk a bit
about mental health and finances and the effect that our
finances or lack thereof, can have on our mental health.
Maybe certain practices that we have even in times where
we're you know, doing well and we're successful, but old
(01:36):
trauma from our upbringing that doesn't allow us to enjoy
our wins the way that we should. So a lot
of different things we're gonna get into. I'm gonna have
an amazing guest on joining us. He's the Carave director
of Met That World, which is this incredible program and
brand that is sort of doing some out of the
box thinking when it comes to addressing mental health in
(01:57):
the Latin community. I'll let him describe that and get
into more of what they're doing. But I'm really excited
for this episode, excited to have this conversation around finances
and mental health. I think it's incredibly important and one
that I think we don't speak about quite enough.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So Yeah, with that said, let's get into if Your
Army Hit the segment.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
My guest today is a stand up median and creative
director of Ment That World, Luis GALIERL How you feeling,
my bro?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
What's up? I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Man, we out here.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We were just talking about this off Mike, we got
the both got the heck of Levo in the background.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
So great mind stick alike out here.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, yeah, no, my mom used to play hector while
I was in her belly. You would like the Bones over, Yeah,
I would listen to.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, that's legendary, man. So I want to I want
to get to a few things for you today. I
think obviously you're you're much of your work right now.
It meant the World is a mental health So let's
kind of start there with the brand that is mint
the World and what that is exactly for anybody who's
not familiar, kind of in your own words.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, uh men, Mente World is a brand that is
Latino led, so the team that operates it is Latino.
But we are putting on experiences and creating what we
call healing content, uh that is meant to be consumed
by all. Essentially what what the The start of it
(03:33):
all was two best friends, our co founders, Victor and
Dan Uh. They were best friends since high school uh
in Dallas, and they've both become you know, professionals, graduated
from good uh universities, but they still found that like
mental health was sort of like a tough thing to
(03:56):
access for them to get like appropriate mental health. So
that's sort of where the kernel of mente was born.
Where now we are doing, we want to kind of
expand the definition of how people feel like they can
address their mental health. A lot of people feel like
it's just therapy, and therapy is not accessible for everyone
(04:18):
because it's expensive. And we are sort of bringing in
so many different aspects of life, entertainment, art, and community
to show people that, like, you can address your mental
health in many different ways. And how we do that is,
you know, creating content that which is what we call healing,
which is like content that has an angle that sort
(04:39):
of shines the light on the positives or negatives that
it has on your mental health. And then experiences like
these comedy shows that we've been throwing in La now
we have one in Miami coming up where we use
a sort of crowd work group therapy, sort of a
(04:59):
pro coach, and people believe it or not get vulnerable
and they reveal things that they're going through after an
hour of comedy. So like we've seen that that hour
of comedy brings their barriers down and they're willing to
get more vulnerable since the endorphins are up and we
solve problems as a community, so that, in the nutshell,
(05:19):
is what we're doing now. Yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I love that, bro.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I think you touched on a couple of things specifically,
you know, it's financial Literacy Month, but I think a
big sort of I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I think for me, when I think about a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Of mental health issues I've struggled with or you know,
friends of mine, you know, finances are always sort of
at the root of a lot of it. You know,
of so many different things. I love how you touched
on the idea of therapy almost being you know, feeling
inaccessible for many people, you know. I know for me,
what helped me back for gating therapy for the longest
(05:54):
time was that I couldn't afford it on my own,
so I had to go through my mom's insurance. But
I felt weird talking to them about it, right, so
I put it off for a long time. And I
think it's really interesting that you're sort of creating these
spaces outside of the traditional norms of therapy and ones
that are far more accessible financially. So at least that's
(06:14):
not an excuse for someone not to address their mental health.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, I mean one of the approaches that we have
is one that's rooted in our sort of grassroots organizing background,
which is something that I learned on the streets, which was,
how can we have anyone open up about their mental
health or listen to sort of you know, policy type
stuff back when I was organizing without addressing a basic
(06:42):
need of theirs first. So this sort of goes back
to like how indigenous cultures used to meet up, right,
they would bring an offering before any sort of any
sort of discussion around you know, joining or conflict was had,
and that's what we do with MENDE. So we've been
able to hold basic need giveaway days and at our
(07:03):
comedy shows we give away stuff so people feel like
they're being taken care of, because how, I mean, how
could you even really expect to talk to talk about
your mental health when you have bills do when you
know that the gas is low, when you know that
you might not have enough for laundry. So we've been
given out like laundry cards, gas cards, grocery cards. So yeah,
(07:26):
it's very big. It's a very big thing because people
think like you know, mental health should be at the
number one it should be your number one priority, which
is true. But in the type of capitalistic society that
we live in and how the American dream, American dream,
you know, functions, it's going to be like, no, this thing,
this mental health is not a priority of mine because
(07:48):
I have to provide or I have to you know,
gain more status, or I have to get the promotion.
So we know that there are a lot of people
that just I mean not a lot of people have
two hungred dollars one hundred dollars twice a month, like
once a month is something, but we we need to
talk more. So if you want to do it and
(08:09):
you want to feel that progress, you need like two
three hundred four hundred dollars a month. That's some half
Oh my god, I got people's sound right now, that's
half of people's rent. Yeah, you know, that's that's a
lot of money for certain people. So we want to
show them that there are different ways that can be free,
that can be on your own personal time where you
(08:32):
can address your mental health.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, I think And it's interesting, it's almost like
I think our parents' generation, because they struggled so much
financially many of them.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
It's almost like a privilege to address your mental health.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Kids, what you're speaking to, right, it's like this as
much of a priority as it needs to be in
as much as you really can't do anything if your
mental health is not in order, it's also a privilege
to be able to address your mental health, right, to
take the time, the money and resources needed to actually
attack that. It's so funny, I think, you know, when
I think about the older generation, kind of a lot
of the reactions around the idea of therapy or mental health
(09:08):
and things like that, you know, and they're immediately sort
of pushed in the direction of saying like, do you
know hard we had to struggle?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
What do you have to struggle about? Essentially?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Right, And it's it's sort of so funny, how to
your point, in this capitalistic society that our need for money,
which we inevitably we all need it, you know, oftentimes
supersedes what's best for us at the end.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Of the day.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, and we've become such a such a hard working culture,
especially you know, Latinos in the US. You know, this
is the only place we're referred to as Latinos everywhere
else so here we've been like really put in this
category of hard, hard working, and I like that, but
I also don't love that because it becomes a part
(09:56):
of and you learn this as you go through a
therapeutics sort of journey, but it becomes a part of
your personality. So if you're not struggling, if you're not grinding,
it's almost like life isn't truly happening the way it
should be, which is something that I've personally had to
like sort of like divorce because I will be doing
(10:19):
well and I need to acknowledge myself. But because that's
sort of like acknowledgeableness supposed to come in, I'll seek
out struggle. I'll seek out like you know, so many
men in this world that, like especially Latinos, that like
almost their personality is having financial problems right right, Like
every time you say, yo, what up? How you doing? Oh?
(10:40):
You know, man, just grinding, bro. You know the rents
who need to get to this money, you know, right.
I mean I still say that let's get to this money,
but I mean like, let's get to these I don't know, spirituals, right,
But and it's this culture of pure grind. So anything
that doesn't associate with being productive if is like negative
(11:02):
and addressing your mental health, especially deep traumas or small
things that are blocking you are gonna make you a
little less productive before you before you can become even
more productive, but you know, in a controlled way. So
I completely agree with you. Like Latinos, I think that
machismo has a big part of it. You know, you know,
(11:26):
you always got to grind you always, you don't you
have to grind in silence, you know, like you can't
say nothing. And that's what we talk about in our shows.
We actually had someone talk about how they were working.
They had planned to work over time, and this was
an audience member sharing as we were doing our sort
of crowd word growth therapy thing, and this couple they
(11:46):
had planned a spring break for their kids and it
was supposed to be a whole week long, and he
agreed to it, but in his mind he knew that
they had a wedding coming up later after that, so
he he said to I'm going to work this weekend
over time so I can make more money for that,
but didn't say anything to his partner. So his partner
(12:08):
is they're planning things with the kids for a whole
week of activities, and then he goes the week before, Hey,
I'm not going to be able to make the ones
on the weekend, and she explodes, right because she's like,
what happened? We were doing all this thing. We agreed
to this, and in his mind he's like, Yo, my
intent is to make my family happier with the work
and everything. But now there's a huge miscommunication you get
(12:31):
in an argument. Both people have good intents, and because
we're grinding in silence and not communicating, the machismo sort
of creates this huge problem, this huge weight when you
could have just communicated up top. And financial stuff is
one of the biggest reasons why people get in conflict
with each other, especially within the household, so there's a
(12:53):
huge need to like continue to talk about this stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
I mean, even to that point, the sort of the
the way we idolize, the sort of grind lifestyle, right,
and this idea of always doing something right, and to
your point, the idea of productivity and all these different things.
It almost even when you end up getting into a
position where you might be financially secure, it's hard to
(13:18):
shed that mindset and you begin to you know, sort
of sacrifice the freedoms that you've earned through your work
because you can't get out of the obsession with the grind.
You can't get out of the mentality of always thinking that,
like the shoe is about to drop type of thing, right,
And that's what I've sort of struggled with a lot,
is I carry it around. Even when times are good,
I'm still operating from a place of like, you know,
(13:40):
concern that like something is about to.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You know, the rug is about to be pulled from
under me, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And I think that's also a topic of conversation that
so many people we don't have really right, the idea
that like, even when you do find success, many people
find it hard to shed that that sort of fear
of losing it all.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Yeah, it's interesting, there's always been there's always like, there's
always been this expectation for people to almost not like
not not live their wins, because if you live your wind,
then there's a potential other one that you're not going for.
(14:20):
Or if you live your wind, you're resting, and you
shouldn't rest, like I think, and we run away from
our problems a lot of the time with work, like
it's funny at our shows as well. Like I'll do
a segment where I ask people what they do for
their mental health, and you be surprised how many people
say work and like work, like your job is not
(14:43):
for your mental health, Like that is your occupation, that's
what brings you money, and that's what distracts you. So
it is a distraction that you might find joy in
certain things, but you need to be doing other things,
living your winds, finding out what you're and your child
likes to do. Like and like you were saying before,
like Latinos, they tend to fit, especially older generations. They
(15:07):
tend to feel like therapy is something that's against them. Right, it's, oh,
it's gonna make you hate your mom or your dad.
But that's the problem with like not being able to
criticize our parents. Like it's not like I don't love you,
like start with that. You know, Mom, I love you,
and you've done everything for me. I just want to
talk about this thing that had an effect right on. Right,
(15:29):
it doesn't mean that I'm ungrateful. It doesn't mean that
I'm ungrateful that you know you like swam here from Venezuela,
Like I don't I trust me. Like, I think that's
one of the things too, Like there's this expectation for
us to suffer as much as they did, but it's
like you did that for us to have a better life,
(15:50):
Like you did that for me. I went to college,
I learned about different things, and now I have this
opinion that the world shouldn't function the way it should.
It doesn't mean I hate you, what doesn't mean where
we came from. I just learned how like we could
all be a bit happier.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, yeah, I think one of the one of the
things that sort of flipped the switch for me, you
know a few years ago, was sort of adapting and
accepting the idea that me taking time off for myself
would actually lead to more productivity down the road, right,
So that that flipped that sort of switch in my
(16:26):
mind being flipped where I can then look at time
off as you know, you know sort of and even
that in itself, the fact that I have to contrict
myself into thinking it's it's you know, something for productivity
speaks I think volumes, but you know, understanding that me
taking time off, having time to myself, clearing my mind
and and sort of not working will yield better results
(16:48):
for my work down the road. And I think that
sort of adaption has helped me out so much with
not feeling guilty when I'm taking a day for myself
or I'm not you know where I said I was
going to take a day off and I'm not going
to answer emails. I don't have to fee guilty about
you know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, there's so many examples now, especially how America has
sort of blossomed into a place where you could create
a career out of anything now with social media that
like there is still I feel like a part of us,
especially as gringos. You know that like feels very misunderstood
(17:21):
by our parents in what we do, but we always
compare it back to what they consider is a job.
So if you're doing something that's not necessarily understood as
a job and a grind and a working style man
or woman, then you almost feel like you need to
(17:42):
prove to them that this thing is real. So then
now we're still working towards our parents' expectations, So you
will feel guilty that you're taking a break from your
media job because they never sort of like not like
what like you talk on you talk for like right
(18:02):
are you on the radio? You know you're on like
one of five, I don't know you. So so they
don't necessarily see it as like totally legit, right, Like,
it took a really long time for my family to
like to address my my art as my job. It
was always because I always had another job and they
were like, oh, how's that doing. That's good, Okay, now
(18:22):
how's the little extra stuff doing? The The extra is the.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Main right, And.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
So yeah, yeah, they don't because it doesn't look like
the hard work they did. They don't take it seriously
almost you know, uh, that could be incredibly frustrated. I
definitely got through got through that as well. Arm and
pop it here real quick, will take a break and
then we'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
All right, we are back.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
So I think also I i'd seen kind of some
of the work that you guys had done through your
website and sort of talking about the idea of fighting loneliness, right,
and that sort of being this unspoken epidemic that I
think faces that so many young people face, you know,
particularly ironically in an age where we are so hyper connected,
(19:12):
we're also I think so much more disconnected in the
realest sense than ever I think, and I think speaking
specifically to financially, there's nothing lonelier than being the one
like broke friend in the group, you know what I mean,
who can't do the things that everybody else is doing.
And like especially we have a culture we don't speak
about money right in general, But on top of that,
(19:34):
if you're the one friend struggle with money, you can't
do all the things that your peers are doing, that
is incredibly isolating and lonely and can reak havoc on
your mental health and your own self worth, you know,
to a degree.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, I mean self worth is so tied to finances
in today's day. But I would also argue right specifically
for the Latino male, we have been trained. I mean,
I grew up without a father and in I remember
I was really little and one of my earliest memories
(20:10):
of my grandfather talking to me was him telling me
that I'm the man of the house, which is like
I think I was seven, Like I'm nowhere near a man, dude.
But that's why you see a lot of Latinos wanting
to work super early. Like I feel like as immigrants
in general, like we're trying to get our workers permit
at twelve, Like we're trying to work right away, like
(20:31):
let's make money, and there's nothing more lonely than struggling
with something by yourself, like the financial situation. Like look,
I've felt this so many times, Like you look at
your bank account and you feel like less of a person.
And then not only that, because of your conditioning, the
(20:52):
way you were brought up in societal expectations. You don't
say a word. You don't say a word, and that's
caused me to run my credit card debt through the
roof because I'm like, oh, I can't be out and
not and not buy a drink with my friends, or
I can't I want. I want to give my girlfriend
(21:13):
the world. I'm going to go to dad, and I'm
going to pay for it, and it's just going to
go on the credit card, like all this stuff, and
people might look at it like, oh, why would you
do that? That's not financially responsible, like make responsible decisions.
Our school systems do not prepare us for making responsible
financial decisions. There is no sort of real money class
(21:36):
in our high schools and our middle schools. I'm talking
about you know what you would considered low income neighborhoods.
That's where I came from. You don't get taught that.
You don't get taught what like I mean, I didn't
know until I was already financially in debt how to
truly like make appropriate financial decisions. And credit credit doesn't
(22:00):
affect you until you're trying to get an apartment. And
then by that time, if you've had a credit card
since since you were nineteen or whatever, you're not doing well.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Right, Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, you're you're touched on a
couple on a couple of different things. I think specifically
speaking to the men, I think as well, right, because
our role that society tells we're supposed to be the provider,
right to your point, And I think, you know, also
for a young man, you know, it's your ability to
(22:36):
sort of give off the persona of having it all together, right,
and so much of your your self worth a lot
of it comes from the car or the job or
the apartment, right, so much of that, right, And we
bear that burden, and everybody bears a different burden. But
I think for young men specifically, so much of their
value when it comes to the opposite sex comes from
(22:57):
their ability to provide right. And then when you're in
a position where you're not able to live that life
to provide or to your point, you just start doing
you know, bad financial decisions as to as it means
to give off the persona that you are living that
lifestyle and you know in it sort of it takes
a toll on you both financially in the literal sense
(23:18):
mentally because you're not living authentically at that point. And
then again, you know, in today's social media era, you're
watching as everybody else seems to have all their shit
together and you're just the one who's struggling to do
the basic you know, a thing like take your girl
to dinner or or go meet up with friends for drinks,
or you know, have nice clothing or whatever it might be.
(23:39):
It's like that is, especially as a as a man,
so incredibly isolating and deflating and just overall depressing.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I feel, yeah, and it and not only that that,
that's like we're we're talking about, right, the personal problems
that that could cause to us. Now, imagine your entire
not your entire, but a good part of your self
worth is dependent on your ability to provide right and
(24:07):
your ability to provide is part of your financial wellness,
right if your financial wellness is not good, but you
are breaking your back every single day, right, you know,
as they say, to provide, And then still your partner
is not happy. Why because your soul, your sole purpose
(24:28):
is to give money to the table. But a good
in a healthy relationship, there are many different things that
need to be done. So like you're providing, but you're
not sharing how you're doing. You're providing, but you're not,
you know, prioritizing spending time with your partner. So now
you come into the home with basically what I've felt,
(24:50):
and I've seen an expectation to one be left alone
or two to just like be in peace. But then
you you've done nothing to sort of foster the relationship.
Then then the feedback comes in from your partner and
now you don't feel you don't feel you don't feel seen,
you don't feel appreciated. You're like, what you mean, Like
(25:13):
I've been I've been out all day and I've been
working this job and this other job. So I come
here and now you're talking about like we don't spend
enough time together. Yeah, but that's true, right, Like too
many like men have like a self worth only wrapped
around being a provider. And then they then they have
problems in their relationship and they're like, I don't get it.
(25:33):
I don't get why she has to get on me
about this. It's hard of being in a relationship. This
is not you're not her roommate. You know, you guys
aren't roommates. You guys aren't business partners. Like you're not like, oh,
I'm going to provide the finance and you provide this. No,
it's a it's a collaboration. So I feel like a
lot of men feel even more alone because of this,
because they're like, well, I come home and I don't
(25:55):
feel understood. I don't feel understood that like my hard work.
And then she's talking about the kids, or she's talking
about spending time, or that I don't share about how
I feel. And it's like, those are very important things
if you want to be in a relationship, but we
are so tied up around the identification of being a provider.
(26:16):
When a provider is all around, right, you provide space
for your partner to talk to understand, you share right
many different things. But yeah, that creates even more loneliness
because sometimes I've come into situations where I'm like trying,
I'm trying to find things to make myself more victim,
(26:38):
more separated, more alone, because I'm like, no, you guys
don't understand my grind. You guys don't understand that, like
this is against me, and this is against me, and
now I come home and it's like this. So then
you start to like sort of retreat into a corner.
And that's why I feel like men like explode. Sometimes
you explode in anger because you've just been continuously kind
(26:59):
of taking a step back into a corner and then
one day she's like, yo, you freaking got bleach on
my shirt, and you you explode?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, because I think in the short
term it's oftentimes easier to kind of self isolate a
little bit and not share the emotions. But to your point,
those those emotions have to go somewhere, right, They need
to released somewhere. And the more you sort of go
inward and don't share anything and sort of just cut
(27:30):
yourself off from the world, eventually it's all going to
build up, and unfortunately it's gonna come out, probably at
the at the wrong time, on the wrong person.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Almost.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Yeah, and how do they know that you're struggling when
I all you do is put on this macho face
and I left that six I'm coming back. How you doing, baby?
Everything's good, everything's good. Worry. So now your partner is
over there, like I'm trying to decipher whether they are okay,
Like is it about me? Is it about work? But
you don't say nothing, and then they are now anxious
(28:01):
because they're trying to guess how you are doing. They
don't want it to affect any other part of the home.
And now you're both kind of on tippy toes around
each other, and that contributes to it. But like, how
is someone supposed to appreciate how much you do when
you don't talk about how it makes you feel? If
you came home and you were like, yo, baby, like damn,
today was really tough and it wasn't because it like
(28:24):
necessarily work, Like I just was thinking about this and
then this happened with my boss and I'm just like ugh,
and then she'll be like, oh, he's had a hard day.
But we go in and we expect someone to read
us because right we talk, we don't talk like a
lot a lot of men in this country are talking
about like how this country's getting soft. Everyone's everyone's going
(28:44):
into mental health and going to therapy. No they're not, right,
No they're not. There's still a lot of there's still
it's like twenty percent of people in the whole country
are in therapy, and men is probably less than that, right,
and that twenty percent is usually in and like big
metropolis is right, like big cities. So like there isn't
(29:04):
this whole thing happening, Like the media tries to make
it seem like it by using buzzwords, but there's still
a lot of us that are not talking at all.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a great a great point.
I think the cool thing about what you guys are doing.
You correct me if I'm wrong here, but it feels
like what you're doing is sort of the entry way
for people to sort of dip their toe and explore
this whole thing that is mental health.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I think we're trying
to again, we're trying to like redefine it for people
because addressing your mental health is actually every single part
of your life, right.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
It affects your productivity, it affects the way you walk,
it affects the way.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
You rest, So just letting people know that there is
different ways to address it, so it becomes more of
a priority because addressing your mental health is a lifestyle,
Like you can't just that's the issue with some brands
at the moment, Like you can't just sell the mental
health product, Like you can't just sell it like hey,
(30:06):
you know, put this, you know, use this body wash
and it'll make your depression go away. That's not the
way it functions. It's like an actual whole thing. How
do you wake up? How do you eat? You know,
do you do you chew your food? Like like that,
Like what are you watching? How does it make you feel? Like?
This is a lifestyle thing that you need to start
(30:26):
to like begin to place importance on. So, yes, we
come in with the basic need, We come in with entertainment.
We come with a different way, a culturally accurate way
to associate with people. They feel like they're at home,
and then we introduce this sort of way to view
your mental health and less of a less of a
(30:48):
distant way, like I feel like therapy is like way
over there for people. They're like one you got to
talk to a random person. Two they may not. You
may not be able to find someone that culturally resid
names with you. Three, it's expensive. Four it's another time
block in your week. Like five do you either have
to go or you know, travel whatever it may be.
(31:11):
So it feels so distant, So it feels like people
can't do anything about it. But we remind them that
there are many different things from yoga to meditating, to
comedy shows to music. But really showing them that community,
getting us back to like interacting can really help too.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah, I love that aspect of it community because I
think so many of us sort of lack We lack that, right,
We lack the shared space where you come together and
it's like minded individuals especially. I think in the way
we grow up now where people are living all over
the place, right, we're not sort of as tied into
living in the same place forever as previous generations, where
(31:52):
you know, through gentrification or whatever it might be, there's
just not that communal aspect of you know, like, oh
this is a primarily Puerto Rican area or whatever, you know,
like it just doesn't exist as much anymore. And I
think within that, you know, diversity is obviously great, but
you also don't have sort of those cultural ties of
the comfortability of seeing somebody who looks like you, who
(32:14):
understands you, without even having to have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Almost yeah, yeah, I mean we went to ment. They
had a booth at the first ever Corridos festival in
Phoenix is like Mexican Mexican traditional music, and we had
like a bodega, like a deli sort of setup where
(32:39):
we were providing like basic needs, so we were giving shade,
some water, a place to rest, and then we also
had these cool shirts that we were giving away as
part of our like you know, basic need. I mean,
you know, a cool merch tea isn't necessarily a basic need,
but clothing could be considered a basic needs. And once
(32:59):
you make Once we made that exchange and talk to
them about us being like representing mental health and wanting
to talk about it, people opened up. People opened up
right away because they saw a familiar place, like at
the end that everyone understands what a little market is,
and they got something nice and they felt cared for,
(33:20):
and then they saw faces that they could relate to.
They're like, oh, these are my people. I'm gonna talk
about it. And just like you said, like, there's a
lot of us that don't see ourselves. I mean, you know,
the therapy world has been made to look very white,
you know what I mean, made to look white and affluent.
So Latinos we already have a problem believing that we
(33:41):
belong in those spaces, right, we have. We have sort
of what's that called imposter syndrome already. So I mean,
I'm sure you've heard this, but like some there are
many Latinos that consider addressing your mental health as a
green gala, like that's what dingos do. And it's like, well,
I'm a gringo, like I was born, you know what
(34:02):
I mean. But being around other people that are willing
to talk about their mental health, that are part of
your culture, that are part of your city, you know,
just learning that other people from your block, it makes
you feel less alone and you're like, oh, like there's
a lot of value in being around my community, sharing
(34:23):
and then understanding that the same problem you got, the
homie has down the block, your girl has in the
different neighborhood. How are you doing it? I mean I
never got financial literacy classes. And then one time one
of my friends from college, he was a finance major,
and I was just like, yo, bro. He like posted
some video about like financial tips, and I hit him
(34:45):
up and I was like, yo, bro, I need help. Man,
Like I'm down to here. And we sat down with
my dad and he was like, all right, let's make
a plan. This is how much you just saved. This
is how much. He was like, cut up that credit
card right now, and he help me. But if I
never reached out, I think I would have just like
I don't know, I think I would have what's that
(35:06):
thing where you can cancel it and you to your
credit goes down to like negative three million, and then
you're all right? Because it was not it was not cute.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah, but it took having the conversation even there, right
Like that, That's the other thing is is allowing yourself
to ask for help. Right And as much as that
like our ego tries to tell us not to do that,
right and to push back against that, you know, there's
no shame in asking for help. And in fact, you
would have been you would have been in an even
(35:36):
worse position had you not have asked for help, right,
had you listened to your ego at that point and
not taken the time to ask somebody who knew, who
knew a piece of information that you.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Didn't know, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
And I think that is also where we get so
caught up or even kind of and a lot of
what we're talking about is our ego takes over and
we sort of to avoid the short term sting to
our ego, we put ourselves in even worse position in
the long run.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah, and there's just been this glorification of the doing
it all yourself, right, oh, the lone wolf you know,
the the YouTube viral video about the one guy that
started an empire by himself. Yeah, yeah, you want to
make millions on selling real estate, Well, this is the
(36:22):
way you do, like do it yourself, be an entrepreneur.
And it really, it really, it really distracts you from
the power of community, from the power of asking help,
because you can feel you're not supposed to feel that alone.
Like I know, a lot of people say, like, you know,
the the journey to the top is a lonely one, now,
(36:43):
you know, like I will completely disagree with that, But
there's a level of loneliness that just comes or comes
with the territory. And there's another level, a bigger percentage
of loneliness that you sort of put on yourself because
you don't want to ask for help. You want to
do it all your So I mean it dates back
to before we had map applications like like Google maps.
(37:06):
Men would get lost right different because they didn't want
to ask for directions. They didn't want to ask for help.
I've been on a bus with my grandfather and we've
ended up where were we wed? We ended up in
northern Westchester, like by Fishkill, because he didn't want to
ask where our stop was. He was like, no, I
can't remember. I can't remember, and I'm a kid. I'm like,
(37:28):
all right, my grandfather knows right. It's like a lot
of us don't ask for help because we were sort
of trained that like the grind and success is a
lonely one. And I feel like women inherently have a
little bit more community as far as like help a
woman out because they are, you know, more oppressed than
than men. But in general, just in America, we're all
(37:52):
trying to do it ourselves and asking for help one
makes you feel less alone, and two might get you
that I get you the help that you actually need.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Are poppeting here one more time? Let's take a quick
break and then we'll be right back. All right, we
are back. And I'm curious too with with uh, you know,
talking about MENTA and all the work you do. What
has been common that maybe some of the more common
issues or common stories you've heard, you know, from the community,
(38:24):
that that seems to sort of be over and over again,
the shared struggle that many of us face.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Well, I would say there's a shared there's a common
there's a common story about a tough masculine figure in
their life. H Like I would say, latinos, I think
we can all relate to having a parent, whether it's
(38:52):
your dad or mom that was very strict, right, So
that creates sort of expectations and effects on your mental health,
on what you see as success, whether you're able to
acknowledge yourself, whether you are searching for that struggle identification
with you know, low self worth. And there's a lot
(39:14):
of economic stuff, Like there's a lot there's been a
lot of stories about how you know, it's tough for
them to even think about their mental health because they
have two jobs or they need to worry about their
bills first, providing first. But like on the positive note,
(39:35):
with the younger crowd and sometimes sometimes like older millennials,
there's been a lot of enthusiasm Like there's been a
lot of enthusiasm around seeing people talk about like a
brand like ment that being there being like, actually, we
don't want to sell you anything, we just want to
talk about like what what are you going through? Like, oh,
(39:55):
we have this event here, we have this event there
that you can go to, And there's a lot of
it excitement around sharing that they are at least going
through something. Another thing that I've seen is the older generations.
It seems like now they're starting to see that like
this is not going to go away, like this sort
(40:17):
of mental health talk, so they're starting to look at it,
whether it's like slightly glancing at it, but like they're like, oh, yeah,
we understand that mental health is an issue right now
and that it's really affecting young people right. And that's
sometimes a little weird for me to hear because I'm like,
I know it's affecting you, yeah, but just because young
(40:40):
people talk about it, they're like, oh, yeah, it's really
affecting my kid. Because another common thing that you see
a lot is because of social media and because of
the Internet. A lot of these kids are educated on
therapy speak, so they know how to they know how
to label certain things, but they're still too young to like,
(41:05):
you know, like I had you know, I got a
bad grade on my test, Mom, I'm depressed. You know,
like those are huge words that conflict with generations, and
we've had a good handful of parents being like like
I want I would love to see like content around
(41:27):
how to parent my kid who knows how to use
therapy speak, because you know, we had this this one
black mother she was talking about how she was disciplining
in her kid because she's like snuck out and that
in the fight. The kid was like, you're traumatizing me.
And you know, as a parent, like if you are
(41:49):
at least attuned to humanity, right, I know many parents
that'd be like, oh, I'm traumatizing you. Oh I'm gonna
show you what trauma It's like yeah, Pocasso like yeah,
And but she was like I had to stop because
she didn't know how to counter that. She was like wait, whoa,
Like that's a big word. Like so we've seen a
lot of that. Like a lot of young kids know
(42:11):
this diverbiage and they use it, it might not be
totally accurate all the time. So like how you navigate
that as an older generation, not trying to like, you know,
stifle them or make them feel like you don't validate them,
but also like I'm not traumatizing you because I'm disciplining
you for sneaking out, you know what I mean. So
(42:31):
those are some of the common the common things that
we've heard.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, No, I think even words like depression are.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Can be incredibly I feel like the previous generation when
they hear a word like depression, they automatically link it
to something like being suicidal almost, you know what I mean,
And it makes it feel, you know, this lack of
unders standing of depression, the various levels of it that
there are. I think a lot of people struggle with that,
(43:07):
and it almost makes you not want to share it
because you automatically think if I tell somebody in depressed,
they think I'm trying to harm myself and I'm not
at that point, I'm just feeling depressed, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
I think that is.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
An interesting point that there needs to be a far
more education on the verbiage. And also I think the
scale of depression, right like the clinical scale of it
is not just doesn't mean just one thing. It doesn't
automatically go to the most extreme version of their varying
levels of as well.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah, I mean we just need to get more. We're
in such a buzzword era. Yeah, and to truly, especially
when it comes to mental health and many different topics. Right,
things are complex, So we need that we need to
stop labeling things with such generality. Like if you've been
if you've been clinically diagnosed by a professional that you
(43:52):
have depression. I think that's fine to then say that
you are depressed, but maybe if you're not. I'm not
saying that you're not depressed. I'm saying lose words to
describe how you feel. Like, like a lot of men
will say they're depressed. But back again, our bank accounts
are low, right, So like, so let's talk about it.
(44:15):
Why why every day do you feel this way? Well,
I'm working, Okay, let's keep going, let's keep talking about it. Well,
you know what, at the end of the day, I
always open up my Chase app and and it's low man. Okay,
all right, So now we've gotten down to a kernel
of where you associate your own self worth, your self
worth is tied to money. Okay, now we need to
(44:37):
work on that, Like where the fuck did that come from?
Who's that standard? Now? How do you? How do you?
In what way can we acknowledge and have you believe
that you are worth and enough? You're worth a lot
and enough.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
Regardless of your bank account, because you're a human being,
because you're kind, because you're doing like so like it's
just about getting or specific and you need to be
in community for that specificity.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
Now community whether that's your family or community, whether that's
like at a function like a menta function or anything
that you may be at to sort of feel heard
in that and be specific, Like you'll you'll never I swear,
like sometimes you'll share something like that vulnerable. You may
not get the guidance that you need from the person
(45:26):
or from the entity that you're sharing with. But then
you'll walk around and you'll and and there'll be a sign,
like a sign from the universe like oh check this
out for financial and you're like, oh, okay, you know what,
I'm actually going to go on that website or you know,
I mean, our phones are listening to us all the time,
so like you speak something into your phone and then
you have a financial literacy cost that comes up, and
(45:48):
it goes back to the to the help thing. You
need to admit that you need help like we I
think it's one of the reasons why a lot of
our parents and grandparents never never learn the language is
because this, this this distaste that we have for vulnerability.
Right to learn a new language is to literally go
(46:10):
back to being a baby. You have to learn sounds,
you have to be vulnerable. You're weak, you don't know
how to walk yet in this language, and especially like
I mean, my grandfather never learned English, even though he
said he knew English, but he never wanted to learn
how to pronounce. He never wanted to be in that
sort of state of kid like nis. And that's what
(46:34):
that vulnerability brings you down to. So like, don't be
afraid of feeling weak in front of somebody, because you
have to describe exactly what's going on with you. What okay,
you're depressed, what's going on though? What is it? Because
if you describe how for months and months and months
you seem to have good moments, but then you dive,
(46:55):
and then good moments and then you die. Maybe you
do have chronic depression. But if you have if your
self worth is strictly tied to such a low balance
in your account. Now, now we're talking about more of
a self worth issue. Okay, now now we can talk
about this. Now we can relate. Hey, oh, I actually
the homie Luise has a self worth issue and he's
actually working through it. Maybe I should link you to
(47:17):
a but we're too general when describing things that are
so specific. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Now, I think it's a great, great kind of point
to And also I think it makes it easier to
address what's going on when you're not trying to just
blanket statement everything you know. And I think maybe it
also would allow people to be a little bit more
open to try to figure things out, you know, because
they don't want to. Again, I think there's the terminology
feels very heavy oftentimes, right, and I think that pushes
(47:45):
people away a bit. To your to your point, but
anything that we should know about met their world before
we rapidly want to kind of get let people know about.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Well, if you are in the LA area, Uh, we're
running some really fun comedy shows that you can see
through our profile ment that world at Instagram or my
profile at incup poppy, which is unproven, so we have
(48:16):
that too. We have a show coming up in Miami
on the seventeenth, which is another mental health benefits show.
I would say look out for more content, just keeping
an eye on if you want to go to an
event with like minded people where you feel like you
may not be ready to share, but you're ready to
(48:38):
be in an environment where people are sharing and community
is supporting instead of criticizing. Come by, come by, and big,
bigger things are coming with MENDE. But the more you
guys support our events, the more we can prove to
people investors that this sort of stuff matters, and we
(49:01):
care about this stuff and we want more of these things.
So I would just say support and uh and find
community wherever you guys are.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
I love that, bro, I listen. I love the work
that you're doing and the work that meant that is doing.
I think it's it's really important. So saluted to you
guys for doing this work.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Of course, salute to you too, brotherly man.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
Big shots of my guest this week, Luis Galilee, for
hopping on the show. Really enjoyed that conversation. I hope
you guys got a lot out of it. Maybe think
about a lot of things. You know, we'll talk about
it in our conclusion stud.
Speaker 4 (49:36):
Time for conclusion.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
So over all, great conversation I think with Luis, and
it felt good to sort of have this topic of
conversation around finances and mental health specifically.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
I just don't think we talk about it enough.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
I know, we talked about the financial literacy aspects of things,
and there's so much goes into that, but I think
there's a lack of conversation with the toll that finances
can take.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
On our mental health.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
And I also thought, I guess for me, the biggest
takeaway as I really think about it, was a lot
of the conversation around self worth when it comes to
finances and you know, wanting to I don't know why,
I guess as a man, wanting to be that provider.
I know, for me, I think growing up and in
(50:30):
my twenties and early thirties, when my finances were not
in a good place, you know, sort of feeling lesser
than it definitely affected my confidence and how I presented
myself to the world, you know, And I think, you know,
I wish I had people like Luis, you know, that
I could have talked to to sort of understand some
(50:52):
of those feelings about myself and to not let it
seep into how I felt about myself.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
And I think just in general, when we talk about
the idea of community, that stuck out to me so much. Right,
having a group of like minded people that you could
have these deeper conversations with right the place to go
and do that. And I think also even just the
top of the conversation around like therapy and things like
therapy almost being viewed as a privilege, right, And I
(51:21):
know for me, there's been many times when I was
younger where I had to stop doing there because I
couldn't afford it anymore, or whatever the case may be.
And it's like, you know, uh, the fact that there
are programs and brands like meant that who are out
there building spaces that are providing resources for people to
address their mental health without maybe some of the stigma
(51:44):
or the financial burden of something like therapy, I think
is incredible. So big shots to Louise and big shot
to met the world, go check them out on social media.
They're they're doing incredible work. So great way to kick
off Financial Literacy Month, tackling fine answers from a angle
that I think is not spoken about enough, and that
is sort of the mental health aspect of it all.
(52:06):
But that said, I'm going to take my ass back
to bed and try to sleep off the rest of
this nasty ass cold that I've been fighting. So I'm
good for Thursday and that's when I'll catch you off
for our Thursday Trends episode. Till then, to stay safe
and we'll talk soon. Life as a Gringo is a
production of the micro Thura podcast network and iHeartRadio.
Host
DJ Dramos
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