November 10, 2022 • 43 mins
Daniella Pierson, the 27-year old multi-millionaire entrepreneur and founder of The Newsette and co-CEO of the Mental Health start up, Wondermind, with Selena Gomez and Mandy Teefey, joins Sammy Jaye this week to talk about entrepreneurship, growing up with anxiety, OCD and depression and how determination helped her overcome the odds.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey guys, and welcome back to this week's episode of
the Let's Be Real Podcast. I'm your host is always
Sammy J and welcome. We're so glad to have you here.
This week, I got to chat with the incredible entrepreneur
Danielle Pearson. You may know her from being the founder
and CEO of the new zet or the co founder
and co CEO of the new mental health startup with
Selena Gomez and the TV called Wonder Mind, and she
(00:24):
is just breaking barriers and is so inspiring. So I
am so excited for this conversation and I hope you
guys like it. Hi, Danielle, and thank you so much
for coming to Let's Be Real podcast. I'm so excited.
We have so much to talk about, and I really
appreciate you just taking the time because I know you're
incredibly busy. Well I'm sure you are even more busy,
(00:45):
So thank you so much for having me on this
incredible podcast, and just it's truly an honor, So yes,
thank you again. First and foremost, you are just a
very smart business woman and entrepreneur and I have spreneurial
bug as well, and so I have to ask when
was the first time you're like, oh, I want to
(01:05):
create something. Well, you definitely are a badass entrepreneur yourself.
It's funny how people think, you know, or at least
thought before all of these new entrepreneurs came into the scene,
but people would think an entrepreneur was somebody who literally
had like a store or like, you know, a product. Um,
but even you know, my twin sister is a writer
(01:26):
and she has books, like she's an entrepreneur. You have
this incredible podcast, You're an entrepreneur. It's like it looks
in so many different ways, and so I always kind
of had the bug. Um. My parents are both hustlers.
My mother is an immigrant from Columbia. She grew up
like poverty level core and so she essentially the dream
(01:49):
and I think it's still is, like the dream job
in Columbia is to become an oral surgeon. And so
my mother, in order to do that, had to win
the only scholarship every single year at the Columbia um
you know, university, and then also in elementary school, middle school,
high school, like you know, all the way up until
graduating at school, there was only one scholarship and it
(02:11):
was for the best student of class, So my mom
had to hustle her ass off and be that best student,
and so I come from that kind of drive. Then
my father also grew up a pretty you know, poverty
level core as well in Niagara Falls, and his father
worked at a factory and had you know, many kids
and a wife to support. And so my dad uh
(02:32):
just literally started from like uh, fixing cars to Washington
cars to selling cars and then you know, finally having
his own dealership. And so both of my parents are
incredibly entrepreneurial. The drivers in your d n A. It
really is um and so that I always knew that
I wanted to do something and probably have a business.
(02:54):
I hated school. It just was not for me. My sister,
my twin sister, was completely the opposite. She definitely got
more of my mom's jeans, where she was, you know,
the best student. She went to an ivy league school.
I was much more like my dad where you know,
I hated school and I just didn't realize why I
had to learn about you know, mitochondria and and at
(03:16):
am fifteen different times over my you know, high school
and middle school career. When I knew I was not
going to be a scientist, and I didn't really apply
myself as much until the final years of high school,
where I realized, if I don't get my ship together,
I'm going to be stuck in this town forever and
I want to go do big things. And so that's
(03:36):
when I really focused my energy, became a really good
student and was able to go to be you. And
so when I went to be you, I knew again
that I wasn't happy with you know, the things I
was learning. I wasn't learning about business. It was going
to be two years of like normal classes and then
I was going to learn about business. And finally, my
(03:57):
sophomore year of college, I was like, Okay, if I
want to do something for myself, I want. I was
just begging for that kind of passion and something I
could put everything towards because I didn't have it. And uh,
I thought, okay, I'm going to write down the things
I'm good at. I made that list. It was completely blank.
I was good at absolutely nothing. I highly doubt that.
(04:20):
I truly like I'm not being you know, funny or anything.
I was not good at anything. I didn't even know
who I was. I truly was like a chameleon. In
the worst way. I would be whoever I thought people
wanted me to be. I didn't know who I was, like,
really didn't have any skills. And then I thought, okay,
well what do I love to do? Like, what are
my passions? And the one thing that I always loved
(04:44):
was reading magazines, Like I would just be just you know,
encompassed in a magazine when I opened it. And so
I thought, well, what if I could make my own
magazine and maybe that would help me get an internship
or a job at a magaze zeene or maybe you know,
this works out for me and I can do this
after college and work for myself because I knew no
(05:06):
one would hire me with my bad grades. Um, so
I thought, maybe I can hire myself Dan, Yeah I can.
I tell you that we have so much in common.
I grew up in school with learning differences and thought
I was incapable of learning for so long and O
C D and anxiety as well. Okay, so we are
the same person because we are the same person as
you're talking about this. Yeah, I have a d H
(05:27):
D O C D UM and anxiety and depression, et cetera.
So yes, with a d H D N o c D.
I got you. I know exactly what you're talking about.
School is hard. Yeah, school was so freaking hard. Yes.
How did you not let your lack of confidence in
the classroom affect what you want to do outside of
(05:48):
the classroom. Yes, so it's really funny. I actually did
not get diagnosed with a d h D until about
six months ago. Did everything just makes sense afterwards? Oh?
I completely made sense. And um I realized and when
talking to my you know, psychiatrists, that the kind of
a d h D I had, and I think it's
(06:08):
different for a lot of people. So I don't want
to blanket statement. This is like, I care about what
I care about, and I can do that and be
very specific, and especially with the O c D combined,
I can then obsess over that. But if I don't
care about something, it is almost impossible to focus on it.
It's not going to get done. Yeah, it's it's almost
just like it just you can't do it feels genuinely incapable. No,
(06:34):
it's true. There are assets to in their negative sides
to it. I'm in college right now, so I'm also
realizing the negative sides to it. When my brain can't
process textbook readings, so when I have to do them,
it takes me forever. But like when there's like something
with the podcast or something that I love, it's just
like I love it. Yes, yeah, No, So I was
(06:55):
very similar and I didn't know that when I was there.
I don't even think I grew up in Flora Jackson, Florida.
I don't even I went to a private school. I
didn't even think, like, you know, people would even know
what a d h D was back then, learning differences
aren't talked about. And something that's so unfortunate is that
so October was Learning Disability Awareness Month, and I think
(07:15):
it's really important that we talked about these issues because
so many times, and I've talked to people about this,
like you kind of get used to the feeling of
not being able to learn. And I hope that people
listening know like that you are capable of learning, you
just have to find that passion. And I think it's
so cool like what you did with the news that
the newsletter you created and how you built upon that
(07:36):
was the news that the outlet for all your creativity. Yeah,
So to answer your first question and go into that
in school, you know, identical twin sister is a rock
star school, top of the class, um, you know, so smart,
and I was her biggest cheerleader, and that's all she
cared about. She went to school and she just did grades,
like didn't care about anything else. That was her thing.
(07:59):
She wanted to go to Ivy League school. And so
my sister was incredibly impressive. UM for me because I
didn't like school and I basically just had to like
get through it. Um. I was a BNC student, and
so my parents would judge us equally by like, if
my sister got straight a's great, if I got these
and seas fantastic. So it we weren't on the same
(08:21):
playing field, and I appreciate that they everyone knew that
I was different. Yeah, However, I realized my junior year
my sister was getting all of these incredible pamphlets and
you know, info and reach out from these huge schools
and these big cities. And I wanted to go to
a big city and I was getting nothing. You know, surprise, surprise.
(08:42):
They don't send it to like the BNC students. They
send it to, you know, the people who are really impressive.
And so I realized, Wow, if I don't get on
this train. And even though I don't care about you
know how big a triangle is and you know how
many uh you know, different elements there are an atom
(09:03):
and all these things I knew I was never going
to use. I was like, I need to start caring
because that is the catalyst to me getting out of
the city and moving into a big city and making
my dreams come true. So it find a way out, yes,
And so essentially I I thought I was done, Like
my people would call me the dumb twin and like
I really thought I was just like incapable. But then
(09:25):
I there was this one class, a history class that
I really really liked because it was almost like learning
about a story or like reading a story. And I
got an eight plus on one of the tests and
everyone else failed it, and I was like, wait, I
can do this. So I decided to. And I don't
know if this has to do do with a D H
D or O C D, but I can do things
(09:46):
in sprints. And so I said, Okay, the second I
get to school at eight o'clock AM until I leave
at three thirty or three forty five, the only thing
I'm going to do is be an incredible student. So
during class, like I will follow along with the textbook,
take every no, ask every question. During my lunch break,
I didn't really have a lot of friends and so
(10:07):
and my sister and I had different lunch breaks, so
I would go to the library first while everyone would
eat in the cafeteria like study and do all my stuff,
then go to the cafeteria at the very end and
eat when no one else was there so I have
to sit alone, and you know, basically took every inch
of my day at school and made it into you know,
me learning. And then when I got home, I would
(10:28):
just watch TV like I don't think I did one essay,
one you know, study session, one homework ever at home
because I was like, okay, if I do all of
this in this time and like, you know, just get
it all banged out, then I can have my free time.
And junior year and senior year. It ended up working
so well like that that I ended up getting all
(10:50):
a's and a pluses, and my parents were like, what
is going on here? But it truly was because like
I refused to let these things that don't interest me
be the reason why I can't go to a big
city and do what I want to do, like, I
just need to get on the path and like, you know,
not rebel anymore. And so that's what I did, Um,
(11:11):
and I ended up going to be you. And uh,
that's again really when I started thinking about what I
wanted to do and uh and thinking, you know, I
have four years. I was so lucky. The ultimate gift
my parents gave me was they paid for my college education,
so I didn't have to have a job while I
was in college. And so I immediately thought, Okay, I
(11:33):
have four years for basically the only time in my
life that we're all I'm responsible for is going to
class and like partying or making friends or whatever. I'm
going to take these four years and actually try to
get a job or create my own job so that
when I graduate, I'm like set up. Because when in
(11:54):
your life are you ever going to have four years
where you don't have you know, a family responsibilities or anything.
And so I almost thought, you know, to not take
advantage of that and try to build a career and
build a wife for myself was would just be a
massive you know, disappointment and disadvantaged for me. Daniel, your
story is so amazing and so inspiring. We have to
(12:17):
take a quick break, but when we come back, I
want to hear about your college experience and what you
think the keys were for the News that to become
so successful in your new company with Selena Gomez and Nandy,
Tiffy Wondermind and much more. We'll be right back before
(12:38):
we talk more about college and post college. I'm curious
back in high school because of everything you were dealing
with with socializing hard did you find and did your
anxiety and O c D affect that? Yes, But I
realized I had O c D um Like I realized
something was wrong with me when I was about six
years old and my ster and I had like these
(12:59):
canopy beds, and one side of my canopy broke because
I was probably hanging off of it like a fucking monkey,
and as you should, yes, and my uncle came in
and taped it with black tape. And so I sat
there going to sleep. And as you know, one of
the you know things that O gets different for everybody
is like a semmetry, and so there was black tape
(13:20):
on one side and not on the other. And I
stayed up that entire night just looking back and forth,
and I ended up having like an anxiety attack over it.
My parents had no idea what was going on. And
then after that I developed rituals were like, you know,
I had to close the door a certain way, and
you know, all of these different things that kind of
take over your life. And because my mother is Latina
(13:41):
and um, you know, I don't want to speak for
the whole culture, but at least, you know, and in
her belief system, you know, people didn't really go see
psychiatrists or anything. My dad is this very manly man
from you know, Niagara Falls, New York. Going to see
a psychiatrist or therapist was definitely not a thing that
he was going to be okay with and so they
kind of just ignored it and like looked at it
(14:03):
as almost like a cork for me trying to get attention.
And then my uh, freshman year of high school, we
took a health class and we started learning about mental
health illnesses. And when we got to O c D
and we started talking about it, I was like, oh
my god, I have O c D. And it was
just such a like aha moment because I had no
(14:24):
idea what it was. I know it was a mental illness,
and so you know, I asked my parents, can I
please go get help for this? And the answer was no,
And so, yeah, that's so hard, especially after I think, yeah,
my mom feels very bad about it now, but she drew.
I can't blame her, like just a stigma like that
was ten years ago or longer, and so you know,
(14:47):
it just wasn't what she was raised thinking about. And like,
no one wants to think that their child has a problem,
which is why Wonder Mind and everything I do with
the news that, et cetera is all about, like empowering
people to speak up for themselves and to think about
mental health just as you would with your physical health.
Like no one's embarrassed to say they have high blood pressure,
(15:08):
So why are you embarrassed to say that you are
O c D? And why are you embarrassed to take
medicine for that? Exactly? And so the entire time for
high school with just depression, no c D and a
d h D, which I didn't know about at the time,
it was very hard. From twelve to eighteen. I had
a pretty traumatic journey during that point in crying almost
(15:31):
a recent day and whatever. So yes, definitely too the
toll on me I didn't realize o c D was
so debilitating until I found out I had o c D.
I didn't realize what it was. I thought I was
just making myself like, I go down what I call
the what if Yes, yes, my undfalls where it's just
endless and I think, you know, having the courage to
(15:52):
advocate for yourself is really hard and taking those steps.
What was the moment or was there a moment where
you're like, Okay, even though my family might not be
supportive of this now, but I need to do what's
best for me and go get the proper hope. When
was that? Yeah? So, as you know, it's incredibly expensive
to get help, especially for something as specific as o
(16:14):
c D. You mean, specialists, and these people cost a
lot of money, and so my parents made very clear
that they not be okay with me going and UM.
At that time, it was probably it was my junior year.
I had just had an entrepreneur project that I worked
with eight other people who are UM I ended up guy.
(16:37):
So I had my other business, like the real business,
this project business, and then all of our classes on
top of it, and so I basically like just worked
seven that semester and I did all of the work
for this project. You know, starting a company with eight
different people obviously is not the way that a normal
person starts a company. It's with yourself for one or
(16:57):
maybe two other people, it's not eight people. So but
I like did my lane of work. I went to
every single meeting. I accomplished everything I had to do.
But when you know, the group members would go and
you know, get a drink or you know, hang out
all together, I would go work and do my new
set stuff. And so that ended up being to my
detriment because they all became friends. And for some reason,
(17:20):
the grading system was peer based and someone one person
on the team had to fail, and so they chose me,
and they basically said, oh, well, she has another business,
so you know, there's no way she could have been
as dedicated as we were. There was literally someone on
our team that never brought a lot of talked to
any meeting and he got a C plus draw is
(17:41):
dropped and so junior year that was yeah, so um eight,
that was like seventy or eighty percent of our grade.
And so even though I did totally fine on my
in the classes, I ended up failing that semester, and
I basically got a letter from the GAN saying you're
on academic probation. You essentially have one semester to not
(18:05):
only retake all the classes you failed, but also take
all of the additional business classes you're supposed to take
next semester, and if you don't get this g p A,
you will be kicked out one semester before graduation. And
at that point, the news that was doing well. But like,
you know, I wasn't trying to monetize yet. I really
(18:25):
want to wait until I hit a certain subscriber member
and work with the best friends in the world, not like,
you know, the smaller frands that might, you know, give
me some income. I want to wait. I was really
patient about waiting and telling you know, advertisers, no, like
we're not going to monetize until next year or whatever.
And so at that point I had zero backup plan.
My mother was in hysterics. She didn't even tell my
(18:47):
dad because my dad would have freaked out. And here
I am completely alone, you know, saying, oh my god,
I'm going to fail out of college one semester before
I graduate, and I'm going to have nothing. I put
all of my eggs in the basket of the news
that because I knew I would get like you know,
decencies or whatever in my grades, it was not going
to be the top recruit for any sort of big company.
(19:11):
And I said, you know, I just have to make
the news at work and that would be my my job.
And so at that point it was the loneliest, most oppressing,
just the lowest point in my life. And my o
c D became absolutely debilitating. So like constant you know, thoughts, um,
constant rituals and they called them in truths of thoughts
(19:33):
as you know um. And there was one day when
I was looking under my bed that was the way
one of the rituals I had, and I just to
make the feeling go away. And I was so angry
and emotional that I just kept banging my hands on
the floor until they started bleeding. And my sister saw that,
and she and my boyfriend basically talked and they were like,
(19:55):
you need to go see a theratist, like this is
not okay anymore. And I was essentially crying. Every single day.
I would go to the computer to try to even
do my homework and just ball and not even be
able to focus, and so I was like, there's no
way I'm gonna get kicked out, Like there, you know,
there's no way I'm even gonna ever be able to
make this work. And so I with the little affiliate
money that I made from the newsette, so we weren't
(20:18):
monetizing like doing brand partnerships, but I was linking out
to affiliate, uh you know, sources. So if somebody bought
a product I recommended, I would get a percentage, and
I ended up being able to make quite a bit
of money over the last three years for that. So
I had a little bit of savings and I used
that to find a psychiatrist and a therapist, and essentially
(20:39):
they got me on medicine prozac, and that completely changed
and pretty much saved my life because all of a sudden,
all of the additional emotions of like every single day
crying and just being overly emotional, that all went away
and I was able. I still could feel emotions, but
(21:00):
not in a way that a more normal person is
supposed to feel emotion, not so drastic, no, not in
a debilitating way, And so I essentially was able to
because of that and seeing a therapist, I was able
to basically become a machine that entire semester, wake up
at five am, do the right the whole news that
(21:21):
uh until nine thirty or ten am, go to class,
have like a one hour break where I'm like, you know,
reaching out to people to interview, doing everything. It was
just me, I like to say, my my first team
for the news that was three people, me, myself and
I and so I did everything. Then I would go
back to class, and then I would go see a
tutor that I also paid for VM my news at
(21:41):
savings to help me with the classes that I had
failed UM and then just go to sleep. And every
single day it was almost like being in the military
or something. It was my regiment, no feelings, no room
for anything, just do it. And somehow with the help
of um, you know, the tutor and my sister and
my boyfriend and um you know, the support of someone
(22:04):
named Sally Ward who works in the administrative department of
Boston University basically telling me you can't get up, you
have to do this. And she was just as upset
as I was that, you know, the teachers didn't step
in and say, hey, let's look at what you actually did.
Instead of making you basically, you know, have to redo everything.
And they actually encouraged me that the teachers that failed
(22:27):
me encouraged me to stop uh college and just do
my business because they were like, there's no way you're
going to be able to do this. And so I
proved them wrong. I ended up graduating. Yeah, you did,
you know, and I guess I ended up doing that semester.
Then the final semester of the you was all about entrepreneurship.
So finally I was taking the classes that I wanted
(22:50):
to take an entrepreneurship. And my professors were so great
because they were people that had actually started companies or
worked at startups whatever, and they just genuinely wanted to
help the next generation. And so those teachers were so helpful,
so kind, so you know, willing to give any knowledge,
(23:10):
and so proud of like what I was doing instead
of seeing it as like a detriment or like as
a you know, joke at your superpower. Yes and uh
and so them with you know, the Health of Sally
from the administrative Office, I ended up actually getting on
the dean's list. So I went from getting almost ticked
out the semester of her, I graduated to being one
(23:32):
of the best students in the business school, uh the
next semester, and so I just I literally walked that stage.
And everyone in my family tried because they knew how
hard it was for me to get there. And I
actually had a meeting with the dean of the business
school i be a few days ago, and she asked
if I would ever consider being a commencement speaker, and so,
(23:55):
as full circle, yeah, if that happens, I think my
parents would actually just I because not only you know,
did I get past this stage, but like now I'm
there to like talk to people, and so I just
feel really strongly that I want to tell, you know,
the next Breadley in class. Look, do not count yourself
(24:15):
out if you have a mental illness, if you have
a learning disability, if you didn't get the grades you
wanted in college, because you can still kick ass um
and being able to stand there and say, you know
that Forbes just named me the youngest wealthy is self
made a woman of color in America. You know, I
literally almost failed out of this school, Like if I
(24:37):
can do it with everything going against me and the
odds and lack of connections and everything, lack of resources,
and funding. If I can do it, anyone else can
do it. I promise. It's so amazing just hearing about
your evolution and you know, it's just so true and
people have the odds against you. If you believe in yourself,
that's all you can do. All you can do is
(24:58):
do your best. That's really inspiring because I'm currently in
college and I I sometimes feel lost and I don't
I don't know if you ever felt this, but I
feel like school sometimes wants to put me in a box,
like choose one thing, get good at it, and then
do that. But it's like, but there are so many
things that I want to do. You know, Yes, I
love that you've just carved your own path and I
(25:20):
that's that's exactly what I want to do. Not only
do you do that, but you also found a way
to monetize news that and made it so successful. And
I was just curious, what do you love and what
advice do you have for creating businesses? Yeah? So um,
the reason why the news that became successful is truly
I just refused for it not to be. And it
(25:41):
was like trying to fit a square peg into one hole.
I just slammed that square peg into the roundhold so
many times it became round and fit through and so
it was a lot of pivoting. So the news that
is now worth two hundred million dollars UM. And my
only other partner in the company is my mother, who's
you know being and she always believed in me, and
(26:01):
I was able to make her a millionaire and write
her you know, a multimillion dollar Czech last year just
for distributions, and so that is the best gift I
could have ever given her. And like helping the people
that believed in me and no one else did UM.
And so I guess I with the news that if
I would have just stopped with a newsletter it would
(26:22):
not have been worth two million dollars today, Like you
know what, we are actively going the media side and
really excited about it. But what really propelled us to
success is thinking, Okay, what are superpowers at the news
that in the newsletter? It's the ability to tell stories
and engage gen z and millennials, et cetera, which is
actually really hard for people to do. And also you
(26:45):
know this empowerment angle of constantly for the news that
specifically empowering woman, but also UM featuring these incredible, diverse
women from every background. So we essentially took that ethos
of empowering people, of amplifying diverse voices of storytelling better
than anyone else and turned it into an agency model.
(27:08):
So that's the other part of the business called new Land,
which we actually kept a secret for the last three
years because we had so much demand from this one
huge client that essentially they kept, you know, saying to
other groups, you know, you need to use this agency,
or if someone would see one of our ads or
something and be like, who did that, and then they
would recommend us that. We literally grew sixteen thousand in
(27:31):
three years. And the only reason why I know that
number is because we were recently named number sixteen out
of inks five thousand most successful companies in America. And
we literally went from one million in revenue to seven
million in revenue to forty million in revenue with fifteen
people last year. And now you know, we've like quadruple
(27:51):
the team and we're working with other incredible brands. But
essentially new Land is the agency where we use our
powers of you know, amplifying diverse voices storytelling, engaging gen
z and millennials, et cetera, and then take over you know,
the TikTok's or the Instagram accounts or you know, social
(28:12):
media campaigns of the biggest brands in the world and
essentially make them almost like many content destinations instead of
a billboard. And then we also do massive talent campaigns
for you know, huge worldwide campaigns and eleven different countries. Uh.
You know, we've done, uh a TikTok campaign that got
over eleven billion views where we had Snoop Dogg create
(28:33):
an original song, We wrote the song, we had to
record it. It became a huge TikTok viral hit all storytelling,
and so that has really propelled our company into such
a big, you know, a totally different universe that I
ever thought I would be in, uh, because I wasn't
afraid to pivot a little bit and say, you know,
what are we good at? How can we do something
(28:55):
else with those talents as well. I think a lot
of the time when creating something you're so focused on
like one small detail, but it's kind of zooming out
looking at the larger picture and having those different avenues
of revenue and just having the baseline be being a
storyteller is really awesome. Yeah, you have to take one
work with Bright. But when we come back, I want
(29:17):
to talk to you about a new company with Selena
Gomez and Mandy Tefe, Wondermind, which is making such an
impact in the world around mental health. We'll be right back,
and we're back now. You're on the next journey as
well with wonder Mind, which I am so excited to
(29:38):
talk to you about. First, I want to ask you
what mental fitness means to you. Yeah, so essentially, you know, um,
I am the co founder and co CEO of wonder Mind,
and the mission of wonder Mind is to um de
stigmatize and democratize mental health and introduce this concept that
we call mental fitness. And so my co founder, Selena
(30:00):
Gomez and many TV and I we basically realized that
the stigma and the lack of you know, resources for
people who didn't have you know, I don't have a
thousand dollars an hour for a session with the best psychiatrist,
is really the reason why you know, there's so much
stigma and there's there's such a barrier to entry in
(30:21):
the mental health space. And so we thought, what if
we call it mental fitness? So working on your mental
health in little ways every day, whatever that looks like
for you, because that's a way lower barrier to entry
for somebody that might be like, well, I don't want to,
you know, work on my mental health, like that implies
something's wrong with me. And we're also not just for
(30:43):
people with diagnosed mental illnesses like myself and yourself were
for anybody with feelings. And so every single thing that
we do, from content to the products that we're releasing,
everything is merchandised by feeling. So I feel anxious, I
feel lonely, I feel scared, I feel sad at And
then we have the best psychiatrist, therapist, social workers in
(31:04):
the world from these diverse backgrounds, essentially looking at all
of our content, making sure that we're being very responsible
and anything that's ever a recommendation or a tip or
somebody you know, explaining what catastrophizing actually means or what
is the definition of o c V And you're probably
using it wrong when you say, you know, I'm so
(31:25):
c D. I left to have all of my pens
in order. Whatever it is there, that's all coming from
these licensed therapists and social workers and experts. So we're
not you know, arm chair therapists at all. But we're
essentially creating content every single day in the media side
of Wonder Mind. That is editorializing mental fitness and making
(31:45):
it fun for you to participate every single day, and
then also making it like this beautiful, sexy, alluring experience
that if you are on you know, a piece of
our content, people aren't like, oh, is that you know
web MD or psychology today? It really looks fun and
exciting and engaging. And also talking to the biggest names
(32:06):
in the world likes Lena Gomez, like Serena Williams, who's
one of our lead investors, um you know, Camilla Cabeo, etcetera.
That also is you know, going to help hopefully destigmatize
mental health and mental fitness and make it so that
everybody feels just like for physical fitness you work out
or you you know, eat healthier, whatever you do, how
(32:27):
to work out the mind, Yeah, that you should also
work out your mind. The first drop was the three
times a week newsletter. We have two huge launches coming
up in the next two months that is going to
expand that even more. The production side, so creating stories
with the biggest you know, streamers, and producers in the
world UH to actually change culture and zeitgeist around you know,
(32:49):
mental health and mental fitness. And then finally being the
first company to ever work with the best experts in
the world in psychiatry to create physical, tangible, non nical
mental fitness tools that are priced for the masses. So
everything again is made for UH everyone to be able
to access, so the content will never be paid. Well,
(33:10):
do we have incredible brand partners that we work with
that help us, you know, create this content and have
it for free for anybody who wants to access it,
no matter what your background is so amazing. Yes, and
the products are also going to be an affordable price
point as well, because we believe everybody should be able
to practice mental fitness. So what products are we talking about.
(33:34):
I can't really say a lot about the products, but
all I can say is, you know, every time that
we say we're introducing mental fitness products, people are like,
what does that mean? And that is so exciting to
us because truly, like people don't even know what that
could encompass. But it's essentially taking um, you know, behavioral therapies,
(33:56):
et cetera and UH and developing products that are non clinical,
they are not harmful in any way, etcetera. You know,
an example I could give you as a stress ball
that is technically a mental fitness product, but we're going
way deeper and actually, you know, building a beautiful brand
for men and women to have these tools at their
(34:19):
you know, disposal. And I feel like, I'm so glad
that you mentioned the tool kit thing, because every time
I go to therapy. I've been to therapy since I
was seven. I've done exposure therapy for years. That's sewesome.
We always talk about putting yourself out there and finding
products and find finding things that are good for you
and that makes you feel good. Yes, when you're down,
(34:40):
what makes you feel good? What do you do to
help yourself? Well? First of all, uh, it's so amazing
that you've been seeing a therapist since you're seven years old,
and definitely very jealous of that, and that is one
of the reasons why I, you know, have dedicated myself
to another company because I truly want I don't want
anyone to ever all the way I felt, where you
(35:01):
are completely alone and you have to basically figure out
your mental health just by you know, scratching everything together
and having no support. So that's amazing. UM. I think
people think, you know, when they see the Forbes headline
that you know, twenty million dollars whatever, you know, that
I don't have bad days and that I've just made it.
But I truly have bad days. Almost every day. I
(35:24):
feel like I get it punched as an entrepreneur, as
you know, you have punched in the face like fifteen
times a day, fifty times a day. Um. You know,
I have a lot of uh personal stuff that I
deal with as well, and so I definitely do have
those low moments and they usually come you know, after
my sprint of a work day or sometimes during And
(35:46):
the one thing that I do is I really like
to meditate. I don't do it on a daily basis.
I'm definitely not good meditate tating person. I tried to
do our best. The only thing that I m able
to do as a sleep meditation. But I want you
to know, I it's it's from some app, but like
(36:07):
that's the only voice that doesn't make me just want
to like smash my phone. Um. And it's basically like UM,
engaging every part of your body, so like relax your toes,
relax your legs, relax your jaw and like for me,
it's like my jaw was clenched and I didn't even realize. Yeah,
I basically, um, what do I do? I like I
my teeth. I like brush my keeth against each other
(36:29):
while I sleep, like I like grind them together. It's horrible.
My jaws always tight. And so it basically gives you
a second to just like be in your body and
that makes me feel a lot more grounded. Or I'll
call my mother or my like twin sister, or I'll
go to my dogs. I have two beautiful poodles that
I'll just go hug and be like I'm doing this
(36:49):
all for you, um, and just be you know, so
happy with that. So those are the things that really
it's like feelings and touching and you know, from minding
myself why I'm doing all of this, that really helps me,
you know, get out of those states. But like you know,
it's not that easy. Sometimes it lasts a bit longer.
(37:11):
I know, sometimes I kind of just have to let
it be and feel it and that sucks. But you
just kind of have to go through the motions of
it as sometimes which is never fun. But I feel
like it just makes you appreciate the good moments more. Yeah,
for sure. I mean you're what you're describing is um
is called uh what an exposure, So like sitting in
(37:32):
the discomfort and uh you know that definitely is a
really good coping mechanism because it helps you become stronger.
But sometimes, you know, I don't feel strong enough to
do that, and that's the reality. Oh same here. Yeah,
and those moments I lay in my bed and I
curl into a ball and I have some fairy lights
and I look at some good music. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes
(37:55):
you just need to take a second. Um. You know,
I don't have the luxury during the workday to really
just kind of step away from everything, and so I
just kind of you know again, I do everything like
a sprint, So I just go through all my calls
and kind of not think about it. And that's why,
like at night, that's when it really hits me. Um.
But I just I like to think about the things
(38:16):
in my life that are going well and the people
that I'm hopefully hopefully helping with, you know, stuff like
the news that and and wonder mind um, and that
really just puts everything into perspective. So how did wonder
mine come to be? I know, you met Selena and
Mandy on a zoom call for the news that at
what point where you like, hey, we should start a
(38:38):
company together. Yeah, so Selena, Mandy and I, Um, we're
on a zoom. I asked, you know, my editorial team
if I did do the interview. They had no idea
why I would want to do the interview, because you know,
I had written the news that every single day for
I think four or five years, and then I handed
it over to the editorial team. They're much more talented
than I am. Um, and so they were like, and
(38:59):
she like, you know, have of a midlife crisis where
she wants to write the newsletter again. But the reason
was because it was a mental health interview and no
one on my team or in my life knew I
had any connection to mental health because I had never
talked about it. It was so embarrassing to me. I
truly would have rather like died than been vocal about
(39:21):
my O c D at that point, which I know
sounds very extreme, but that's truly how I felt. I
felt like telling anybody I had O c D was
almost like the most embarrassing thing I could ever say,
because not only am I like this Latina woman twenty
something trying to be taken seriously in the business world,
I didn't want to add o c D on top
(39:42):
of that, which is not the right mindset that I
should have had, but that's how I thought. And so
after listening to Selena and Mandy, who are both incredibly um,
you know, successful in their own light, and they just
so happened to be mother daughter saying things to each other,
some of the stuff for the first time about their
mental health and their journeys really inspired me at the
(40:05):
end of the interview to tell them they were like
the fourth and fifth people I've ever told that I
had been struggling with those CD and depression, etcetera since
I was a child, and that, you know, I that
was the first time I was ever saying and I
was saying it to, you know, the most famous person
in the world and this incredibly decorated producer, And so
at that point we stayed in touch, and Mandy and
(40:26):
I were basically like, how can we change the world
and really do something that helps people like that gets
to the root of everything, not just you know, their
incredible companies offering therapy, etcetera. But like, what about the
people who do won't even take that step to get
a therapist, or what if what about the people who
already have a therapist? You know, having a therapist is
(40:47):
almost like having a personal trainer. You see them once
a week for you know, an hour if you're lucky,
more resources. Yeah. So, and if you just lean on that,
you're not going to get a states pack or you know,
achieve your fitness goals. You have to do the work
every other day in between sessions. And that's really what
we want to create. And so Mandy and I had
so many discussions about it. Selena had always wanted to
(41:10):
do something to change the world with mental health because
it was such a big part of her life, and
so Mandy and I came together and we, you know, well,
like this is what we want to do, and Selena
wanted to be involved and it really just went from there.
That is so amazing. And thank you for creating a
company in this startup and this and telling stories because
(41:31):
they need to be told, and breaking the statement is
so important and I just want to thank you again
for just taking the time out of your day to
chat with me about this. Because I as I wish
more people were as open as you are, because it's
so refreshing. Well, thank you so much. And you know,
I almost feel bad that it took me this long
to be open, and it took me to feel like
I had already achieved some level of success to then
(41:54):
be like, okay, but this is really what's under the hood.
I don't want anyone to ever feel like they have
off to you know, hit a certain level and then
be open. That's exactly why, you know, I am in
love with the our mission for a wonder Mind and
want to help so many people, and so thank you
so much for giving me, you know, the platform to
share what we're doing at the news Thatt and new
(42:16):
Landing Agency and Wonder Mind, because you know, you are
someone that I really look up to and and love
to hear stories from. And the fact that I'm going
to be on your show is is really a pinch
me moment. So thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much, and I'm very excited for the future.
So make sure you check out the news that Wondermind everything.
(42:37):
It's some awesome impact driven stuff, which is what we
need in the world. And thank you for creating something
that shares the stories of the most incredible people in
the world. And then me, you know, like, thank you
for having me. And I'm so impressed you know, you
are in college, like the fact that you're joining Oh
my gosh, wow, you just you're You're even more successful
(42:59):
than I ever dreamed of being at twenties. So just
congratulations on your success and thank you again for having me.
It was such a pleasure. H
Hey guys, and welcome back to this week's episode of
the Let's Be Real Podcast. I'm your host is always
Sammy J and welcome. We're so glad to have you here.
This week, I got to chat with the incredible entrepreneur
Danielle Pearson. You may know her from being the founder
and CEO of the new zet or the co founder
and co CEO of the new mental health startup with
Selena Gomez and the TV called Wonder Mind, and she
(00:24):
is just breaking barriers and is so inspiring. So I
am so excited for this conversation and I hope you
guys like it. Hi, Danielle, and thank you so much
for coming to Let's Be Real podcast. I'm so excited.
We have so much to talk about, and I really
appreciate you just taking the time because I know you're
incredibly busy. Well I'm sure you are even more busy,
(00:45):
So thank you so much for having me on this
incredible podcast, and just it's truly an honor, So yes,
thank you again. First and foremost, you are just a
very smart business woman and entrepreneur and I have spreneurial
bug as well, and so I have to ask when
was the first time you're like, oh, I want to
(01:05):
create something. Well, you definitely are a badass entrepreneur yourself.
It's funny how people think, you know, or at least
thought before all of these new entrepreneurs came into the scene,
but people would think an entrepreneur was somebody who literally
had like a store or like, you know, a product. Um,
but even you know, my twin sister is a writer
(01:26):
and she has books, like she's an entrepreneur. You have
this incredible podcast, You're an entrepreneur. It's like it looks
in so many different ways, and so I always kind
of had the bug. Um. My parents are both hustlers.
My mother is an immigrant from Columbia. She grew up
like poverty level core and so she essentially the dream
(01:49):
and I think it's still is, like the dream job
in Columbia is to become an oral surgeon. And so
my mother, in order to do that, had to win
the only scholarship every single year at the Columbia um
you know, university, and then also in elementary school, middle school,
high school, like you know, all the way up until
graduating at school, there was only one scholarship and it
(02:11):
was for the best student of class, So my mom
had to hustle her ass off and be that best student,
and so I come from that kind of drive. Then
my father also grew up a pretty you know, poverty
level core as well in Niagara Falls, and his father
worked at a factory and had you know, many kids
and a wife to support. And so my dad uh
(02:32):
just literally started from like uh, fixing cars to Washington
cars to selling cars and then you know, finally having
his own dealership. And so both of my parents are
incredibly entrepreneurial. The drivers in your d n A. It
really is um and so that I always knew that
I wanted to do something and probably have a business.
(02:54):
I hated school. It just was not for me. My sister,
my twin sister, was completely the opposite. She definitely got
more of my mom's jeans, where she was, you know,
the best student. She went to an ivy league school.
I was much more like my dad where you know,
I hated school and I just didn't realize why I
had to learn about you know, mitochondria and and at
(03:16):
am fifteen different times over my you know, high school
and middle school career. When I knew I was not
going to be a scientist, and I didn't really apply
myself as much until the final years of high school,
where I realized, if I don't get my ship together,
I'm going to be stuck in this town forever and
I want to go do big things. And so that's
(03:36):
when I really focused my energy, became a really good
student and was able to go to be you. And
so when I went to be you, I knew again
that I wasn't happy with you know, the things I
was learning. I wasn't learning about business. It was going
to be two years of like normal classes and then
I was going to learn about business. And finally, my
(03:57):
sophomore year of college, I was like, Okay, if I
want to do something for myself, I want. I was
just begging for that kind of passion and something I
could put everything towards because I didn't have it. And uh,
I thought, okay, I'm going to write down the things
I'm good at. I made that list. It was completely blank.
I was good at absolutely nothing. I highly doubt that.
(04:20):
I truly like I'm not being you know, funny or anything.
I was not good at anything. I didn't even know
who I was. I truly was like a chameleon. In
the worst way. I would be whoever I thought people
wanted me to be. I didn't know who I was, like,
really didn't have any skills. And then I thought, okay,
well what do I love to do? Like, what are
my passions? And the one thing that I always loved
(04:44):
was reading magazines, Like I would just be just you know,
encompassed in a magazine when I opened it. And so
I thought, well, what if I could make my own
magazine and maybe that would help me get an internship
or a job at a magaze zeene or maybe you know,
this works out for me and I can do this
after college and work for myself because I knew no
(05:06):
one would hire me with my bad grades. Um, so
I thought, maybe I can hire myself Dan, Yeah I can.
I tell you that we have so much in common.
I grew up in school with learning differences and thought
I was incapable of learning for so long and O
C D and anxiety as well. Okay, so we are
the same person because we are the same person as
you're talking about this. Yeah, I have a d H
(05:27):
D O C D UM and anxiety and depression, et cetera.
So yes, with a d H D N o c D.
I got you. I know exactly what you're talking about.
School is hard. Yeah, school was so freaking hard. Yes.
How did you not let your lack of confidence in
the classroom affect what you want to do outside of
(05:48):
the classroom. Yes, so it's really funny. I actually did
not get diagnosed with a d h D until about
six months ago. Did everything just makes sense afterwards? Oh?
I completely made sense. And um I realized and when
talking to my you know, psychiatrists, that the kind of
a d h D I had, and I think it's
(06:08):
different for a lot of people. So I don't want
to blanket statement. This is like, I care about what
I care about, and I can do that and be
very specific, and especially with the O c D combined,
I can then obsess over that. But if I don't
care about something, it is almost impossible to focus on it.
It's not going to get done. Yeah, it's it's almost
just like it just you can't do it feels genuinely incapable. No,
(06:34):
it's true. There are assets to in their negative sides
to it. I'm in college right now, so I'm also
realizing the negative sides to it. When my brain can't
process textbook readings, so when I have to do them,
it takes me forever. But like when there's like something
with the podcast or something that I love, it's just
like I love it. Yes, yeah, No, So I was
(06:55):
very similar and I didn't know that when I was there.
I don't even think I grew up in Flora Jackson, Florida.
I don't even I went to a private school. I
didn't even think, like, you know, people would even know
what a d h D was back then, learning differences
aren't talked about. And something that's so unfortunate is that
so October was Learning Disability Awareness Month, and I think
(07:15):
it's really important that we talked about these issues because
so many times, and I've talked to people about this,
like you kind of get used to the feeling of
not being able to learn. And I hope that people
listening know like that you are capable of learning, you
just have to find that passion. And I think it's
so cool like what you did with the news that
the newsletter you created and how you built upon that
(07:36):
was the news that the outlet for all your creativity. Yeah,
So to answer your first question and go into that
in school, you know, identical twin sister is a rock
star school, top of the class, um, you know, so smart,
and I was her biggest cheerleader, and that's all she
cared about. She went to school and she just did grades,
like didn't care about anything else. That was her thing.
(07:59):
She wanted to go to Ivy League school. And so
my sister was incredibly impressive. UM for me because I
didn't like school and I basically just had to like
get through it. Um. I was a BNC student, and
so my parents would judge us equally by like, if
my sister got straight a's great, if I got these
and seas fantastic. So it we weren't on the same
(08:21):
playing field, and I appreciate that they everyone knew that
I was different. Yeah, However, I realized my junior year
my sister was getting all of these incredible pamphlets and
you know, info and reach out from these huge schools
and these big cities. And I wanted to go to
a big city and I was getting nothing. You know, surprise, surprise.
(08:42):
They don't send it to like the BNC students. They
send it to, you know, the people who are really impressive.
And so I realized, Wow, if I don't get on
this train. And even though I don't care about you
know how big a triangle is and you know how
many uh you know, different elements there are an atom
(09:03):
and all these things I knew I was never going
to use. I was like, I need to start caring
because that is the catalyst to me getting out of
the city and moving into a big city and making
my dreams come true. So it find a way out, yes,
And so essentially I I thought I was done, Like
my people would call me the dumb twin and like
I really thought I was just like incapable. But then
(09:25):
I there was this one class, a history class that
I really really liked because it was almost like learning
about a story or like reading a story. And I
got an eight plus on one of the tests and
everyone else failed it, and I was like, wait, I
can do this. So I decided to. And I don't
know if this has to do do with a D H
D or O C D, but I can do things
(09:46):
in sprints. And so I said, Okay, the second I
get to school at eight o'clock AM until I leave
at three thirty or three forty five, the only thing
I'm going to do is be an incredible student. So
during class, like I will follow along with the textbook,
take every no, ask every question. During my lunch break,
I didn't really have a lot of friends and so
(10:07):
and my sister and I had different lunch breaks, so
I would go to the library first while everyone would
eat in the cafeteria like study and do all my stuff,
then go to the cafeteria at the very end and
eat when no one else was there so I have
to sit alone, and you know, basically took every inch
of my day at school and made it into you know,
me learning. And then when I got home, I would
(10:28):
just watch TV like I don't think I did one essay,
one you know, study session, one homework ever at home
because I was like, okay, if I do all of
this in this time and like, you know, just get
it all banged out, then I can have my free time.
And junior year and senior year. It ended up working
so well like that that I ended up getting all
(10:50):
a's and a pluses, and my parents were like, what
is going on here? But it truly was because like
I refused to let these things that don't interest me
be the reason why I can't go to a big
city and do what I want to do, like, I
just need to get on the path and like, you know,
not rebel anymore. And so that's what I did, Um,
(11:11):
and I ended up going to be you. And uh,
that's again really when I started thinking about what I
wanted to do and uh and thinking, you know, I
have four years. I was so lucky. The ultimate gift
my parents gave me was they paid for my college education,
so I didn't have to have a job while I
was in college. And so I immediately thought, Okay, I
(11:33):
have four years for basically the only time in my
life that we're all I'm responsible for is going to
class and like partying or making friends or whatever. I'm
going to take these four years and actually try to
get a job or create my own job so that
when I graduate, I'm like set up. Because when in
(11:54):
your life are you ever going to have four years
where you don't have you know, a family responsibilities or anything.
And so I almost thought, you know, to not take
advantage of that and try to build a career and
build a wife for myself was would just be a
massive you know, disappointment and disadvantaged for me. Daniel, your
story is so amazing and so inspiring. We have to
(12:17):
take a quick break, but when we come back, I
want to hear about your college experience and what you
think the keys were for the News that to become
so successful in your new company with Selena Gomez and Nandy,
Tiffy Wondermind and much more. We'll be right back before
(12:38):
we talk more about college and post college. I'm curious
back in high school because of everything you were dealing
with with socializing hard did you find and did your
anxiety and O c D affect that? Yes, But I
realized I had O c D um Like I realized
something was wrong with me when I was about six
years old and my ster and I had like these
(12:59):
canopy beds, and one side of my canopy broke because
I was probably hanging off of it like a fucking monkey,
and as you should, yes, and my uncle came in
and taped it with black tape. And so I sat
there going to sleep. And as you know, one of
the you know things that O gets different for everybody
is like a semmetry, and so there was black tape
(13:20):
on one side and not on the other. And I
stayed up that entire night just looking back and forth,
and I ended up having like an anxiety attack over it.
My parents had no idea what was going on. And
then after that I developed rituals were like, you know,
I had to close the door a certain way, and
you know, all of these different things that kind of
take over your life. And because my mother is Latina
(13:41):
and um, you know, I don't want to speak for
the whole culture, but at least, you know, and in
her belief system, you know, people didn't really go see
psychiatrists or anything. My dad is this very manly man
from you know, Niagara Falls, New York. Going to see
a psychiatrist or therapist was definitely not a thing that
he was going to be okay with and so they
kind of just ignored it and like looked at it
(14:03):
as almost like a cork for me trying to get attention.
And then my uh, freshman year of high school, we
took a health class and we started learning about mental
health illnesses. And when we got to O c D
and we started talking about it, I was like, oh
my god, I have O c D. And it was
just such a like aha moment because I had no
(14:24):
idea what it was. I know it was a mental illness,
and so you know, I asked my parents, can I
please go get help for this? And the answer was no,
And so, yeah, that's so hard, especially after I think, yeah,
my mom feels very bad about it now, but she drew.
I can't blame her, like just a stigma like that
was ten years ago or longer, and so you know,
(14:47):
it just wasn't what she was raised thinking about. And like,
no one wants to think that their child has a problem,
which is why Wonder Mind and everything I do with
the news that, et cetera is all about, like empowering
people to speak up for themselves and to think about
mental health just as you would with your physical health.
Like no one's embarrassed to say they have high blood pressure,
(15:08):
So why are you embarrassed to say that you are
O c D? And why are you embarrassed to take
medicine for that? Exactly? And so the entire time for
high school with just depression, no c D and a
d h D, which I didn't know about at the time,
it was very hard. From twelve to eighteen. I had
a pretty traumatic journey during that point in crying almost
(15:31):
a recent day and whatever. So yes, definitely too the
toll on me I didn't realize o c D was
so debilitating until I found out I had o c D.
I didn't realize what it was. I thought I was
just making myself like, I go down what I call
the what if Yes, yes, my undfalls where it's just
endless and I think, you know, having the courage to
(15:52):
advocate for yourself is really hard and taking those steps.
What was the moment or was there a moment where
you're like, Okay, even though my family might not be
supportive of this now, but I need to do what's
best for me and go get the proper hope. When
was that? Yeah? So, as you know, it's incredibly expensive
to get help, especially for something as specific as o
(16:14):
c D. You mean, specialists, and these people cost a
lot of money, and so my parents made very clear
that they not be okay with me going and UM.
At that time, it was probably it was my junior year.
I had just had an entrepreneur project that I worked
with eight other people who are UM I ended up guy.
(16:37):
So I had my other business, like the real business,
this project business, and then all of our classes on
top of it, and so I basically like just worked
seven that semester and I did all of the work
for this project. You know, starting a company with eight
different people obviously is not the way that a normal
person starts a company. It's with yourself for one or
(16:57):
maybe two other people, it's not eight people. So but
I like did my lane of work. I went to
every single meeting. I accomplished everything I had to do.
But when you know, the group members would go and
you know, get a drink or you know, hang out
all together, I would go work and do my new
set stuff. And so that ended up being to my
detriment because they all became friends. And for some reason,
(17:20):
the grading system was peer based and someone one person
on the team had to fail, and so they chose me,
and they basically said, oh, well, she has another business,
so you know, there's no way she could have been
as dedicated as we were. There was literally someone on
our team that never brought a lot of talked to
any meeting and he got a C plus draw is
(17:41):
dropped and so junior year that was yeah, so um eight,
that was like seventy or eighty percent of our grade.
And so even though I did totally fine on my
in the classes, I ended up failing that semester, and
I basically got a letter from the GAN saying you're
on academic probation. You essentially have one semester to not
(18:05):
only retake all the classes you failed, but also take
all of the additional business classes you're supposed to take
next semester, and if you don't get this g p A,
you will be kicked out one semester before graduation. And
at that point, the news that was doing well. But like,
you know, I wasn't trying to monetize yet. I really
(18:25):
want to wait until I hit a certain subscriber member
and work with the best friends in the world, not like,
you know, the smaller frands that might, you know, give
me some income. I want to wait. I was really
patient about waiting and telling you know, advertisers, no, like
we're not going to monetize until next year or whatever.
And so at that point I had zero backup plan.
My mother was in hysterics. She didn't even tell my
(18:47):
dad because my dad would have freaked out. And here
I am completely alone, you know, saying, oh my god,
I'm going to fail out of college one semester before
I graduate, and I'm going to have nothing. I put
all of my eggs in the basket of the news
that because I knew I would get like you know,
decencies or whatever in my grades, it was not going
to be the top recruit for any sort of big company.
(19:11):
And I said, you know, I just have to make
the news at work and that would be my my job.
And so at that point it was the loneliest, most oppressing,
just the lowest point in my life. And my o
c D became absolutely debilitating. So like constant you know, thoughts, um,
constant rituals and they called them in truths of thoughts
(19:33):
as you know um. And there was one day when
I was looking under my bed that was the way
one of the rituals I had, and I just to
make the feeling go away. And I was so angry
and emotional that I just kept banging my hands on
the floor until they started bleeding. And my sister saw that,
and she and my boyfriend basically talked and they were like,
(19:55):
you need to go see a theratist, like this is
not okay anymore. And I was essentially crying. Every single day.
I would go to the computer to try to even
do my homework and just ball and not even be
able to focus, and so I was like, there's no
way I'm gonna get kicked out, Like there, you know,
there's no way I'm even gonna ever be able to
make this work. And so I with the little affiliate
money that I made from the newsette, so we weren't
(20:18):
monetizing like doing brand partnerships, but I was linking out
to affiliate, uh you know, sources. So if somebody bought
a product I recommended, I would get a percentage, and
I ended up being able to make quite a bit
of money over the last three years for that. So
I had a little bit of savings and I used
that to find a psychiatrist and a therapist, and essentially
(20:39):
they got me on medicine prozac, and that completely changed
and pretty much saved my life because all of a sudden,
all of the additional emotions of like every single day
crying and just being overly emotional, that all went away
and I was able. I still could feel emotions, but
(21:00):
not in a way that a more normal person is
supposed to feel emotion, not so drastic, no, not in
a debilitating way, And so I essentially was able to
because of that and seeing a therapist, I was able
to basically become a machine that entire semester, wake up
at five am, do the right the whole news that
(21:21):
uh until nine thirty or ten am, go to class,
have like a one hour break where I'm like, you know,
reaching out to people to interview, doing everything. It was
just me, I like to say, my my first team
for the news that was three people, me, myself and
I and so I did everything. Then I would go
back to class, and then I would go see a
tutor that I also paid for VM my news at
(21:41):
savings to help me with the classes that I had
failed UM and then just go to sleep. And every
single day it was almost like being in the military
or something. It was my regiment, no feelings, no room
for anything, just do it. And somehow with the help
of um, you know, the tutor and my sister and
my boyfriend and um you know, the support of someone
(22:04):
named Sally Ward who works in the administrative department of
Boston University basically telling me you can't get up, you
have to do this. And she was just as upset
as I was that, you know, the teachers didn't step
in and say, hey, let's look at what you actually did.
Instead of making you basically, you know, have to redo everything.
And they actually encouraged me that the teachers that failed
(22:27):
me encouraged me to stop uh college and just do
my business because they were like, there's no way you're
going to be able to do this. And so I
proved them wrong. I ended up graduating. Yeah, you did,
you know, and I guess I ended up doing that semester.
Then the final semester of the you was all about entrepreneurship.
So finally I was taking the classes that I wanted
(22:50):
to take an entrepreneurship. And my professors were so great
because they were people that had actually started companies or
worked at startups whatever, and they just genuinely wanted to
help the next generation. And so those teachers were so helpful,
so kind, so you know, willing to give any knowledge,
(23:10):
and so proud of like what I was doing instead
of seeing it as like a detriment or like as
a you know, joke at your superpower. Yes and uh
and so them with you know, the Health of Sally
from the administrative Office, I ended up actually getting on
the dean's list. So I went from getting almost ticked
out the semester of her, I graduated to being one
(23:32):
of the best students in the business school, uh the
next semester, and so I just I literally walked that stage.
And everyone in my family tried because they knew how
hard it was for me to get there. And I
actually had a meeting with the dean of the business
school i be a few days ago, and she asked
if I would ever consider being a commencement speaker, and so,
(23:55):
as full circle, yeah, if that happens, I think my
parents would actually just I because not only you know,
did I get past this stage, but like now I'm
there to like talk to people, and so I just
feel really strongly that I want to tell, you know,
the next Breadley in class. Look, do not count yourself
(24:15):
out if you have a mental illness, if you have
a learning disability, if you didn't get the grades you
wanted in college, because you can still kick ass um
and being able to stand there and say, you know
that Forbes just named me the youngest wealthy is self
made a woman of color in America. You know, I
literally almost failed out of this school, Like if I
(24:37):
can do it with everything going against me and the
odds and lack of connections and everything, lack of resources,
and funding. If I can do it, anyone else can
do it. I promise. It's so amazing just hearing about
your evolution and you know, it's just so true and
people have the odds against you. If you believe in yourself,
that's all you can do. All you can do is
(24:58):
do your best. That's really inspiring because I'm currently in
college and I I sometimes feel lost and I don't
I don't know if you ever felt this, but I
feel like school sometimes wants to put me in a box,
like choose one thing, get good at it, and then
do that. But it's like, but there are so many
things that I want to do. You know, Yes, I
love that you've just carved your own path and I
(25:20):
that's that's exactly what I want to do. Not only
do you do that, but you also found a way
to monetize news that and made it so successful. And
I was just curious, what do you love and what
advice do you have for creating businesses? Yeah? So um,
the reason why the news that became successful is truly
I just refused for it not to be. And it
(25:41):
was like trying to fit a square peg into one hole.
I just slammed that square peg into the roundhold so
many times it became round and fit through and so
it was a lot of pivoting. So the news that
is now worth two hundred million dollars UM. And my
only other partner in the company is my mother, who's
you know being and she always believed in me, and
(26:01):
I was able to make her a millionaire and write
her you know, a multimillion dollar Czech last year just
for distributions, and so that is the best gift I
could have ever given her. And like helping the people
that believed in me and no one else did UM.
And so I guess I with the news that if
I would have just stopped with a newsletter it would
(26:22):
not have been worth two million dollars today, Like you
know what, we are actively going the media side and
really excited about it. But what really propelled us to
success is thinking, Okay, what are superpowers at the news
that in the newsletter? It's the ability to tell stories
and engage gen z and millennials, et cetera, which is
actually really hard for people to do. And also you
(26:45):
know this empowerment angle of constantly for the news that
specifically empowering woman, but also UM featuring these incredible, diverse
women from every background. So we essentially took that ethos
of empowering people, of amplifying diverse voices of storytelling better
than anyone else and turned it into an agency model.
(27:08):
So that's the other part of the business called new Land,
which we actually kept a secret for the last three
years because we had so much demand from this one
huge client that essentially they kept, you know, saying to
other groups, you know, you need to use this agency,
or if someone would see one of our ads or
something and be like, who did that, and then they
would recommend us that. We literally grew sixteen thousand in
(27:31):
three years. And the only reason why I know that
number is because we were recently named number sixteen out
of inks five thousand most successful companies in America. And
we literally went from one million in revenue to seven
million in revenue to forty million in revenue with fifteen
people last year. And now you know, we've like quadruple
(27:51):
the team and we're working with other incredible brands. But
essentially new Land is the agency where we use our
powers of you know, amplifying diverse voices storytelling, engaging gen
z and millennials, et cetera, and then take over you know,
the TikTok's or the Instagram accounts or you know, social
(28:12):
media campaigns of the biggest brands in the world and
essentially make them almost like many content destinations instead of
a billboard. And then we also do massive talent campaigns
for you know, huge worldwide campaigns and eleven different countries. Uh.
You know, we've done, uh a TikTok campaign that got
over eleven billion views where we had Snoop Dogg create
(28:33):
an original song, We wrote the song, we had to
record it. It became a huge TikTok viral hit all storytelling,
and so that has really propelled our company into such
a big, you know, a totally different universe that I
ever thought I would be in, uh, because I wasn't
afraid to pivot a little bit and say, you know,
what are we good at? How can we do something
(28:55):
else with those talents as well. I think a lot
of the time when creating something you're so focused on
like one small detail, but it's kind of zooming out
looking at the larger picture and having those different avenues
of revenue and just having the baseline be being a
storyteller is really awesome. Yeah, you have to take one
work with Bright. But when we come back, I want
(29:17):
to talk to you about a new company with Selena
Gomez and Mandy Tefe, Wondermind, which is making such an
impact in the world around mental health. We'll be right back,
and we're back now. You're on the next journey as
well with wonder Mind, which I am so excited to
(29:38):
talk to you about. First, I want to ask you
what mental fitness means to you. Yeah, so essentially, you know, um,
I am the co founder and co CEO of wonder Mind,
and the mission of wonder Mind is to um de
stigmatize and democratize mental health and introduce this concept that
we call mental fitness. And so my co founder, Selena
(30:00):
Gomez and many TV and I we basically realized that
the stigma and the lack of you know, resources for
people who didn't have you know, I don't have a
thousand dollars an hour for a session with the best psychiatrist,
is really the reason why you know, there's so much
stigma and there's there's such a barrier to entry in
(30:21):
the mental health space. And so we thought, what if
we call it mental fitness? So working on your mental
health in little ways every day, whatever that looks like
for you, because that's a way lower barrier to entry
for somebody that might be like, well, I don't want to,
you know, work on my mental health, like that implies
something's wrong with me. And we're also not just for
(30:43):
people with diagnosed mental illnesses like myself and yourself were
for anybody with feelings. And so every single thing that
we do, from content to the products that we're releasing,
everything is merchandised by feeling. So I feel anxious, I
feel lonely, I feel scared, I feel sad at And
then we have the best psychiatrist, therapist, social workers in
(31:04):
the world from these diverse backgrounds, essentially looking at all
of our content, making sure that we're being very responsible
and anything that's ever a recommendation or a tip or
somebody you know, explaining what catastrophizing actually means or what
is the definition of o c V And you're probably
using it wrong when you say, you know, I'm so
(31:25):
c D. I left to have all of my pens
in order. Whatever it is there, that's all coming from
these licensed therapists and social workers and experts. So we're
not you know, arm chair therapists at all. But we're
essentially creating content every single day in the media side
of Wonder Mind. That is editorializing mental fitness and making
(31:45):
it fun for you to participate every single day, and
then also making it like this beautiful, sexy, alluring experience
that if you are on you know, a piece of
our content, people aren't like, oh, is that you know
web MD or psychology today? It really looks fun and
exciting and engaging. And also talking to the biggest names
(32:06):
in the world likes Lena Gomez, like Serena Williams, who's
one of our lead investors, um you know, Camilla Cabeo, etcetera.
That also is you know, going to help hopefully destigmatize
mental health and mental fitness and make it so that
everybody feels just like for physical fitness you work out
or you you know, eat healthier, whatever you do, how
(32:27):
to work out the mind, Yeah, that you should also
work out your mind. The first drop was the three
times a week newsletter. We have two huge launches coming
up in the next two months that is going to
expand that even more. The production side, so creating stories
with the biggest you know, streamers, and producers in the
world UH to actually change culture and zeitgeist around you know,
(32:49):
mental health and mental fitness. And then finally being the
first company to ever work with the best experts in
the world in psychiatry to create physical, tangible, non nical
mental fitness tools that are priced for the masses. So
everything again is made for UH everyone to be able
to access, so the content will never be paid. Well,
(33:10):
do we have incredible brand partners that we work with
that help us, you know, create this content and have
it for free for anybody who wants to access it,
no matter what your background is so amazing. Yes, and
the products are also going to be an affordable price
point as well, because we believe everybody should be able
to practice mental fitness. So what products are we talking about.
(33:34):
I can't really say a lot about the products, but
all I can say is, you know, every time that
we say we're introducing mental fitness products, people are like,
what does that mean? And that is so exciting to
us because truly, like people don't even know what that
could encompass. But it's essentially taking um, you know, behavioral therapies,
(33:56):
et cetera and UH and developing products that are non clinical,
they are not harmful in any way, etcetera. You know,
an example I could give you as a stress ball
that is technically a mental fitness product, but we're going
way deeper and actually, you know, building a beautiful brand
for men and women to have these tools at their
(34:19):
you know, disposal. And I feel like, I'm so glad
that you mentioned the tool kit thing, because every time
I go to therapy. I've been to therapy since I
was seven. I've done exposure therapy for years. That's sewesome.
We always talk about putting yourself out there and finding
products and find finding things that are good for you
and that makes you feel good. Yes, when you're down,
(34:40):
what makes you feel good? What do you do to
help yourself? Well? First of all, uh, it's so amazing
that you've been seeing a therapist since you're seven years old,
and definitely very jealous of that, and that is one
of the reasons why I, you know, have dedicated myself
to another company because I truly want I don't want
anyone to ever all the way I felt, where you
(35:01):
are completely alone and you have to basically figure out
your mental health just by you know, scratching everything together
and having no support. So that's amazing. UM. I think
people think, you know, when they see the Forbes headline
that you know, twenty million dollars whatever, you know, that
I don't have bad days and that I've just made it.
But I truly have bad days. Almost every day. I
(35:24):
feel like I get it punched as an entrepreneur, as
you know, you have punched in the face like fifteen
times a day, fifty times a day. Um. You know,
I have a lot of uh personal stuff that I
deal with as well, and so I definitely do have
those low moments and they usually come you know, after
my sprint of a work day or sometimes during And
(35:46):
the one thing that I do is I really like
to meditate. I don't do it on a daily basis.
I'm definitely not good meditate tating person. I tried to
do our best. The only thing that I m able
to do as a sleep meditation. But I want you
to know, I it's it's from some app, but like
(36:07):
that's the only voice that doesn't make me just want
to like smash my phone. Um. And it's basically like UM,
engaging every part of your body, so like relax your toes,
relax your legs, relax your jaw and like for me,
it's like my jaw was clenched and I didn't even realize. Yeah,
I basically, um, what do I do? I like I
my teeth. I like brush my keeth against each other
(36:29):
while I sleep, like I like grind them together. It's horrible.
My jaws always tight. And so it basically gives you
a second to just like be in your body and
that makes me feel a lot more grounded. Or I'll
call my mother or my like twin sister, or I'll
go to my dogs. I have two beautiful poodles that
I'll just go hug and be like I'm doing this
(36:49):
all for you, um, and just be you know, so
happy with that. So those are the things that really
it's like feelings and touching and you know, from minding
myself why I'm doing all of this, that really helps me,
you know, get out of those states. But like you know,
it's not that easy. Sometimes it lasts a bit longer.
(37:11):
I know, sometimes I kind of just have to let
it be and feel it and that sucks. But you
just kind of have to go through the motions of
it as sometimes which is never fun. But I feel
like it just makes you appreciate the good moments more. Yeah,
for sure. I mean you're what you're describing is um
is called uh what an exposure, So like sitting in
(37:32):
the discomfort and uh you know that definitely is a
really good coping mechanism because it helps you become stronger.
But sometimes, you know, I don't feel strong enough to
do that, and that's the reality. Oh same here. Yeah,
and those moments I lay in my bed and I
curl into a ball and I have some fairy lights
and I look at some good music. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes
(37:55):
you just need to take a second. Um. You know,
I don't have the luxury during the workday to really
just kind of step away from everything, and so I
just kind of you know again, I do everything like
a sprint, So I just go through all my calls
and kind of not think about it. And that's why,
like at night, that's when it really hits me. Um.
But I just I like to think about the things
(38:16):
in my life that are going well and the people
that I'm hopefully hopefully helping with, you know, stuff like
the news that and and wonder mind um, and that
really just puts everything into perspective. So how did wonder
mine come to be? I know, you met Selena and
Mandy on a zoom call for the news that at
what point where you like, hey, we should start a
(38:38):
company together. Yeah, so Selena, Mandy and I, Um, we're
on a zoom. I asked, you know, my editorial team
if I did do the interview. They had no idea
why I would want to do the interview, because you know,
I had written the news that every single day for
I think four or five years, and then I handed
it over to the editorial team. They're much more talented
than I am. Um, and so they were like, and
(38:59):
she like, you know, have of a midlife crisis where
she wants to write the newsletter again. But the reason
was because it was a mental health interview and no
one on my team or in my life knew I
had any connection to mental health because I had never
talked about it. It was so embarrassing to me. I
truly would have rather like died than been vocal about
(39:21):
my O c D at that point, which I know
sounds very extreme, but that's truly how I felt. I
felt like telling anybody I had O c D was
almost like the most embarrassing thing I could ever say,
because not only am I like this Latina woman twenty
something trying to be taken seriously in the business world,
I didn't want to add o c D on top
(39:42):
of that, which is not the right mindset that I
should have had, but that's how I thought. And so
after listening to Selena and Mandy, who are both incredibly um,
you know, successful in their own light, and they just
so happened to be mother daughter saying things to each other,
some of the stuff for the first time about their
mental health and their journeys really inspired me at the
(40:05):
end of the interview to tell them they were like
the fourth and fifth people I've ever told that I
had been struggling with those CD and depression, etcetera since
I was a child, and that, you know, I that
was the first time I was ever saying and I
was saying it to, you know, the most famous person
in the world and this incredibly decorated producer, And so
at that point we stayed in touch, and Mandy and
(40:26):
I were basically like, how can we change the world
and really do something that helps people like that gets
to the root of everything, not just you know, their
incredible companies offering therapy, etcetera. But like, what about the
people who do won't even take that step to get
a therapist, or what if what about the people who
already have a therapist? You know, having a therapist is
(40:47):
almost like having a personal trainer. You see them once
a week for you know, an hour if you're lucky,
more resources. Yeah. So, and if you just lean on that,
you're not going to get a states pack or you know,
achieve your fitness goals. You have to do the work
every other day in between sessions. And that's really what
we want to create. And so Mandy and I had
so many discussions about it. Selena had always wanted to
(41:10):
do something to change the world with mental health because
it was such a big part of her life, and
so Mandy and I came together and we, you know, well,
like this is what we want to do, and Selena
wanted to be involved and it really just went from there.
That is so amazing. And thank you for creating a
company in this startup and this and telling stories because
(41:31):
they need to be told, and breaking the statement is
so important and I just want to thank you again
for just taking the time out of your day to
chat with me about this. Because I as I wish
more people were as open as you are, because it's
so refreshing. Well, thank you so much. And you know,
I almost feel bad that it took me this long
to be open, and it took me to feel like
I had already achieved some level of success to then
(41:54):
be like, okay, but this is really what's under the hood.
I don't want anyone to ever feel like they have
off to you know, hit a certain level and then
be open. That's exactly why, you know, I am in
love with the our mission for a wonder Mind and
want to help so many people, and so thank you
so much for giving me, you know, the platform to
share what we're doing at the news Thatt and new
(42:16):
Landing Agency and Wonder Mind, because you know, you are
someone that I really look up to and and love
to hear stories from. And the fact that I'm going
to be on your show is is really a pinch
me moment. So thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much, and I'm very excited for the future.
So make sure you check out the news that Wondermind everything.
(42:37):
It's some awesome impact driven stuff, which is what we
need in the world. And thank you for creating something
that shares the stories of the most incredible people in
the world. And then me, you know, like, thank you
for having me. And I'm so impressed you know, you
are in college, like the fact that you're joining Oh
my gosh, wow, you just you're You're even more successful
(42:59):
than I ever dreamed of being at twenties. So just
congratulations on your success and thank you again for having me.
It was such a pleasure. H
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