August 3, 2025 • 39 mins
Tamar Blue, Founder and CEO of MentalHappy, developed an app born from the passion to assist individuals in crisis. MentalHappy facilitates connections among people through support groups addressing various mental wellness topics, led by qualified mental health and wellness professionals. Discover how MentalHappy evolved beyond a personal interest for Tamar Blue, becoming a purpose-driven endeavor fueled by her ambition.
Get Connected with M.A.Y.A.. SUBSCRIBE and SHARE!!
X & IG :@Maya_Akai
Youtube & Facebook:@MayaSpeaks2U
Website: www.Maya-Speaks.com
Take M.A.Y.A. on the go!!! App Available NOW in the Apple App and Amazon Stores!!!!
Search The M.A.Y.A. Experience App!!!
Direct Link: Apple Store:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-m-a-y-a-experience/id1495089277 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K9Q7X1X
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m-a-y-a-my-ambition-your-ambition--4348579/support.
Get Social with M.A.Y.A.
Youtube, Facebook, IG & X @MayaSpeaks2U
Subscribe and Share
www.Maya-Speaks.com
Get Connected with M.A.Y.A.. SUBSCRIBE and SHARE!!
X & IG :@Maya_Akai
Youtube & Facebook:@MayaSpeaks2U
Website: www.Maya-Speaks.com
Take M.A.Y.A. on the go!!! App Available NOW in the Apple App and Amazon Stores!!!!
Search The M.A.Y.A. Experience App!!!
Direct Link: Apple Store:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-m-a-y-a-experience/id1495089277 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K9Q7X1X
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/m-a-y-a-my-ambition-your-ambition--4348579/support.
Get Social with M.A.Y.A.
Youtube, Facebook, IG & X @MayaSpeaks2U
Subscribe and Share
www.Maya-Speaks.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
The information shared on this podcast is for informational and
educational purposes only and is not intended to be a
substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosed treatment. While we discuss
topics related to mental health, well being and emotional support,
we are not providing therapy or medical services. Always seek
(01:11):
the advice of your physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other qualified
mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding
a mental health condition. If you are in crisis, feeling unsafe,
or need immediate support, please contact the mental health professional
or emergency services in your area. The views expressed by
(01:32):
guests and hosts are their own and do not necessarily
reflect those of any affiliated organizations or institutions.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Get Inspired Get Motivated with Maya a Kin and the
Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Something that I take pride and is trying to be
forward thinking, thinking outside the box, challenging myself and as
I challenge myself, hopefully challenge you.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Find Maya on Twitter and Instagram at Maya Underscore a
Kai on Facebook at Maya Akai Presents.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
We're going to talk health, wealth, fitness, mental health, financial,
lots of different things that can empower you as you
seek out the ambition that you're pursuing or get everything.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Maya at Maya akai dot com.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Now mistay everyone. Welcome to another episode of Maya, My Ambition,
Your Ambition. As I like to say, this is a
podcast that looks to embrace the salient topics related to
mental illness from a fresh and forward thinking perspective. The
focus of the podcast is to pull back that veil
of self doubt and sabotage that play so many people
in their lives. But the most important thing is here.
(02:48):
We want to help you to identify your ambition and
harness that motivation to help you yield satisfaction and success
in your daily life. Not just life, but your daily life. So,
if you are a first time listener or viewer, as
I like to say, buckle up for safety, because occasionally
you can get an unexpected bumpy ride, but I guarantee
you you'll still be safe. And of course, if you
(03:09):
are a returning listener, reviewer, welcome back. And you are
more than familiar with how we do things here. So
there's a rule number one we have about this podcast.
Work at your own pace. You'll discover the process. There
are so many different episodes. So I always say, you
know what, it's never about always keeping on pace, but
making sure you work at a pace that works for you.
(03:29):
So I am super excited because here we are at
episode sixty eight, something that I have been looking to
do for a while. I call it the Ambition Show,
and I'm excited because it's featuring Tamar Blue, the CEO
and founder of Mental Happy, something that for me, when
I found out about this, it's kind of like close
close to my heart. I really like what it has
to offer. But it's her story. It's not that The
(03:52):
Ambition Show is so important is because you're gonna meet
people who take their purpose and their passion and it
intersects with their ambition and you're going to see what
the outcome of that is. So before we jump into that,
of course, you know, we've got to do our housekeeping stuff.
You can always find episodes Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition iTunes,
Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Audoball, Spotify, whatever your podcast platform is.
(04:18):
To search Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition and you can
find the episodes. Of course, I'm going to encourage you
to subscribe and share the YouTube channel Maya speaks to you,
and always get social with Maya. You can find me
on x and ig at Maya Underscore a Kai that's
Akai or Facebook Alia speaks to you. So there's so
many different ways to connect with the show. If you
(04:41):
are a returning listener reviewer, that's one thing that you
know that we do here. It's called the toolbox, and
the toolbox is always super important because what the toolbox
is all about, literally, is every episode is to give
you something to work with, and this particular toolbox is
going to be about really what it like like to
have ambition. So what is a toolbox? If you're wondering
(05:03):
For the new people, it's about you open up and
take out the one most important tool I hope you've
gathered since you've been listening to Maya, your EI or
emotional intelligence. And this is your ability to manage your
emotions but more importantly understand others. It's a capacity to
be aware of you, be in control of you, and
express your emotions, but also handle those interpersonal things from
(05:26):
the outside that can be challenging. So every show I
tell people, hey, take out your toolbox, because you're going
to learn something. It's going to be a takeaway that
you could put that. So, now you've got your toolbox open,
you've got your emotional intelligence out. When our guest starts
talking about that passion and purpose and how you get there,
start thinking about yourself because that's the most important thing.
(05:48):
So the month of August, as I had spoke to everybody,
is about the ambition shows. The ambition shows are I'm
going to start to bring on people individuals that are
really going to be able to tell you what it
looks like to have an idea, to have passion but
then to move it forward with purpose and to intersect
with ambition. And they've all created something amazing and doing so.
(06:11):
So with that being said, our first guest today is
absolutely amazing and I'm so excited. So before we bring
her on, let me int you to tomor Blue. She's
a founder and CEO of Mental Happy, which is a
support group act that provides support to over fifteen hundred
mental health providers. It's probably grown, it's hippocompliant. Here's what
(06:34):
for me makes it even more like impressive is that
it helps therapists and other mental health practitioners to reduce
burnout and to improve their ability to touch more lives.
We are not doing therapy one on one is amazing,
but let's be honest, you can't touch as many people
as you'd like to. Well, enter mental happy, which really
is a tool that's unique. So our guest, of course,
(06:56):
she's definitely special in her own way because she brings
so much to the table. You know, I have some
questions to ask her about because yes, she's big on
healthcare innovation and she's been doing it for a while.
But I came across something I'd never heard before, which
was called the Why combinator alone, I was like, God,
so I've got some brain picking to do about that,
because that's something I've never heard of. But she has
stellar accomplishments. She's been Spotlight and Forbes and tech Crunch,
(07:19):
and of course she has an impressive academic background. She
has an MBA but dual degrees in sociology and economics
from Florida State University. That right tells you she's got
a brain to pick. So, without further ado, let's bring
the first guest of the Ambition show onto the stage.
Mark Blue, Welcome to Maya, My ambition, your ambition.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Thank you, thank you everybody. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Thank you. I can always appreciate when people can carve
time out of their Saturdays, you know, to come and talk,
because I know it's probably the one day Saturday and
Sunday that you probably get to decompress. So I want
to say thank you for taking time in your schedule
to talk with my listeners about what you do. Now
us a bit about who is Tamar Blue. How did
(08:04):
you end up creating Mental Happy?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Oh gosh, well, yes, I am the founder of Mental Happy.
Mental Happy is a platform that makes it easy for advocates, providers, therapists,
anybody who is really an expert in leading these psycho
educational type groups to run them easier in terms of finding.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Members for them, collecting.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Payment for your services, and really just running your group
smoothly and even virtually. And it's also a really great
place for people who are looking for different types of
support for different varying reasons of life events that they
may be going through to find that at Mental Happy
with a lot more ease and affordability.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And that was the thing that really impressed me about
the app. As as I dove into it, I was like,
there's here for everybody. There was one grief, a breakup,
There was what about if you're an introverted person to connect,
There was chemic use, and that was just not even
probably the tip of the iceberg about what's offered there.
(09:15):
So you create this amazing sce for prestures to be
able to really like, like you said, I like the
idea when you said about dress burnout, because it can
be a lot trying to do one on ones all
the time, and if your goal is to spread your
message far and wide, then you need a platform to
do that. And instantly I see something so different than
(09:36):
having a group on Zoom or Google meets, Like what
separates Mental Happy Out from people who think those type
of platforms could serve their purpose.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Well, I can tell you from experience that we've been
on all of the platforms. When we were starting out
to really create community and safe support group spaces there,
we were trying to fit ourselves into other platforms that
didn't work for us. We were on social media sites,
and we tried to create groups on social media sites.
(10:06):
We even grew like a really big community of over
ninety thousand people engaged in community and broke those people
down into tiny support groups. Just as you mentioned right,
like whether it's caregiver support, chronic illness, maybe you're going
through a breakup, maybe you're leaving the military and going
back to civilian life, so any life transition thing or
(10:27):
maybe something that happened to you. We were creating support
groups for but it just really wasn't working for us.
We tried meetup, dot com, we tried just using like
you said, zoom links, and every platform had something that
was lacking. Either it was very difficult to collect payment
for the group facilitators that were obviously giving their services
(10:51):
to the group, or even if they were accepting donations,
that was very difficult to collect funds on their behalf.
We were looking for really hip a compliant in app
video to make it easy and simple and medically compliant
for people to get on to video sessions. We wanted
people to have their own app and know that the
(11:15):
app doesn't have any bots, it doesn't have any spammers,
they won't be advertised in any type of way, their
data won't be stolen or you know, screenshots taken. So
we've tried all the platforms that are potentially out there
that people are using for support groups, and when we
sat back and thought about it. We created all the
things that we wanted to create for ourselves. That idea
(11:39):
has grown outside of ourselves, and now it's a place
where you know people who are survivors turned experts, who
are advocates, who are therapists, or even people who are
just deeply passionate about leading these type of meaningful life groups.
Whether you run a nonprofit or some type of agency
for a particular life event, can create these support group
(12:01):
spaces that are expert led support group spaces without any
of that friction that we had experienced in the past. Plus,
it's also really tough for especially providers and practitioners. Maybe
they've run a one on one practice, but they want
to scale up support group services, it could be very
difficult to fill up your group.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Even if you have a group, a good group idea.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
You know, you have all the materials for the group,
but it's still another business vertical to run a support group.
So our platform actually makes it ten x easier, ten
x faster to fill up your group when you're when
you are looking to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
One of the things that I had some feedback when
I had referred to some people a lot to some
groups they were using zoom, and the feedback I got
was there was a lot of distraction and no control
or navigating of the group, and that it kind of
got a little messy, you know, and I you know,
how is it that I'm assuming that probably within mental
(13:01):
happy when you create a support group, I'm assuming you
probably have tons of tools that allows for the group
to be seamless, that if you need to remove someone,
you can do all those things.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Absolutely. So, our technology on the platform flags anything that
feels not good, bad actor behavior, escalating language, negative language,
harmful language. So that's the first layer filter. The second
layer filter is that all the groups are run by someone, right,
so someone is in the group, seeing the messages, seeing
(13:32):
the chat, navigating it, they can alert us and then
we can escalate the situation and maybe possibly remove someone.
And then the other piece of that is that even
when people enter the platform, we filter out for are
you a real person and not a predator or a
body or what have you. We really kind of look
(13:53):
into what's your reason for wanting to join the platform,
because we're very serious about privacy and for people to
feel safe. When you think about a group, people are
typically joining sometimes at their worst, right in life, like
maybe they've hit bottom, maybe they've just been hit with
a diagnosis. Maybe they this is the most lonely they
(14:15):
felt in their lives. So we don't want them to
come to Mental Happy and then experience even more trials
and tribulations on top of what they were already going
through before they got there. So privacy, security and all
those things are something that we're constantly evolving and monitoring
on the platform. The other unique thing about not just
(14:36):
having just video component to a group platform format is
that you build community, and you build trust, and you
learn new ideas and helpful information, and you receive daily
motivation and encouragement. Where yes, you're able to join a
(14:57):
weekly or bi weekly or even monthly support group session
in a virtual format, but even offline from that, right like,
even once that virtual session is done with a zoom,
that's it. You don't connect with those people. There's no
way to reach them. You know, you can't motivate them,
they can't motivate you. But with on the Mental Happy platform,
(15:19):
what you can do is you can still chat with people,
you can still connect with your other support group members,
you can offer each other encouragement, you can offer each
other like helpful tips because you're all going through similar
things at the similar time. So there's real community based
care in that.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Okay, And that actually definitely is an element that doesn't
exist probably if you're using Zoom or even Google Meet.
Like when the meeting's over, the meeting's over. But it
sounds like here there's still an extension for the support
to continue. So what became the thut? Like, what was
the thing that brought the idea of mental happy forward
for you?
Speaker 4 (15:57):
I've always been building support groups. My very first one
was in high school. I built a peer support group
to help support other classmates that felt that maybe they
were isolated, bullied, you know, whatever they were going through.
They can just leave a small suggestion and we'd do
our best to try to get them paired with someone
or try to get them in program so that they
don't feel so isolated. So initially, eons ago, when I
(16:21):
was a kid, it was just something I just fell
into with some other classmates and it just remained a
passion of mine. I focused on groups in the church
that I was in. There were like these supportive groups
and organizations for like recovery, getting people from homelessness and
allowing them to find group support in that regard. So
(16:41):
it's just always been something in me. But what really
unlocked the idea is just how much I started to
really love technology and the ideas of how technology can
make things easier, faster, better, and really fill in a
lot of gaps. Not replacing human beings fully and hope not,
but really making the jobs of human beings easier, which
(17:05):
you know, getting rid of some of the admin and
monotony things so that we can focus on the care
and connection things.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And that's that right there, So you're for you. The
passion was always the idea of helping people, creating support
in those those spaces for people. So then how does
that passion turn into purpose? So obviously, you know, you
go through college, you've got dual degrees and MBA. When
did like, in the back of your head something said, hey,
i'm mental happy, you need to make me. When did
(17:34):
that happen?
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I would say I was working a career. I really
loved it. It was in staffing, and for people who
don't know what staffing is, it's it's basically like you're
an agency or you're working for like a corporate agency
that hires on behalf of other larger organizations, smaller big
we did like mid size to large companies, and I
(17:58):
had a lot of employee because we also kept those
employees on our payroll, so they were effectively like our
employees working out for other companies. And there was just
a lot of life stuff that people were going through
and that you know, you're effectively in staffing kind of
hr too, so you people come to you with a
(18:18):
lot of their things, and it just really got me thinking, like, wow,
you know, there's a real need for people to have
a way to navigate their life things beyond just okay,
you go to the doctor. You know, you go to
annual visits and stuff like that, but people are navigating
all of the life things outside of that doctor's appointment.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
And it's interesting because one of the things I can
honestly say I struggle with is I'll have somebody. And
I was like, you know, support groups can be such
an amazing thing to compliment when you're struggling with something,
to know that you can connect with others who can understand,
and it's something it seems like a simple concept to
have someone look at you and say I get it,
I get it. That often that can be the thing
(19:00):
that starts to help people heal. So now to know
that there's this platform, like huh, I can refer people
because sometimes just finding groups were really hard, especially after COVID,
it was really hard to kind of tie people into
a lot of groups that existed before. So you've got
the passion, clearly, the purpose, okay, but creating this app
(19:20):
clearly could not have been an easy endeavor. And people
always like, well, how did you create a funding? And
then when I was reading your background this why Combinator,
am I saying it right? Yes, y combinator never heard
of it? What is that?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
It's a fantastic tech accelerator as it's known, it's it's
I will just go ahead and say, my humble opinion
is like the best in the world. And it really
started the movement of you know, being early investors in
tech companies, tech enabled companies. And I received one of
my earliest funding for Mental Happy being participating in why
(19:59):
Combinator and really just meeting other technical people, other technical women,
other technical founders, other tech people who are of color.
It was just a really great opportunity to learn so
much about something that I had started to kind of
be interested in I had mental happy.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
It was going at the time, and it was a
little crazy and chaotic, and I didn't understand I understood
a good bit about software, but I had a long
way to go, and they really just kind of gave
me a good foundation to really keep moving forward and
also some initial funding to get that going.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Wow, And how did you There's always feel there's a
million resources in the world. How did you find this?
Because it's like so many things exist and people often
get frustrated because funding can often be one of the
hardest things that take that idea. You know, you need
seed to be able to plant to make something grow.
How did you come across this?
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Well, definitely, we had customers before going into the program,
so it's also great to show like you're able to
build and do this thing and convince other people that
you know they need it, it's working and they're using it,
so that's always very helpful. I found I came across
it because my co founder deeply in tech. He's our
(21:13):
CTO and he's just really he just knew all the
things about tech. So he was just the one telling
us about the program, and we applied and you have
to do an interview and we got accepted.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And that's all she wrote, and here you are amazing.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
I a million other things in there, but to keep
the no no, I believe it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
When I read that, I was like, this sounds unique.
It's it's different. I've never heard of this before. I
did a little research and I was like, oh wow,
this is something different that tons of people would probably
like this exists because you know, the idea of you
can have an idea, but probably one of the biggest
things that attracts most people from pursuing something, it has
to be more than just a dreamy, you know, because
if it stays in the dream state, you're not going
(21:56):
to be able to achieve anything. It has to become
a goal and that goal has to have a plan.
And that's one of the things you know in talking
with people, like when you have ambition, it can't just
sit me. I have this idea, It's like, well, how
do you think you can bring that to fruition? So
in seeing something like this, so you have this amazing
app where do you see it, like in five years.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
That's great, that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Even in a year.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
We have been doing just some small trials with other
countries where people have requested to put their support group
on our platform. There's just been some amazing countries across
the continent Africa. They're interested. We're getting really good pool
from like Australia and UK and other places. So we've
just been doing like some small tests with other countries.
(22:41):
So we definitely want to see the platform broadened so
that people and other cultures, other languages that are wanting
to facilitate groups and join groups, especially in places where
mental health is like very taboo or there aren't you know,
therapists are very scarce. There's not maybe a lot of
therapists that people can actually go see just because the
(23:01):
number a therapists are small, so groups allow them to
really scale their services. Perhaps they live somewhere very rural
and it's difficult to get to a city to go
see a therapist in the city. So definitely in the
next year a couple of years, we want to be
expanded into other places and other languages.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
That's definitely the one piece of this that I thought
was really unique about being able to take the idea
of having a support group and make it acceptable for
people that live in rural areas that just don't really
have those type of options. Like that's telehealth actually opened
that door for many people to be able to get
into therapy or to see someone. So again, this is
(23:41):
another tool for people.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yeah. Absolutely, And people don't think of rural health as
a health disparity. Even transportation is a health disparity, right,
Like if you don't have a vehicle to get to
your annual visit or your regular doctor's appointment, maybe you
were diagnosed with something and now you have to keep
seeing someone. It's very difficult. Things like you have to
(24:06):
now figure out childcare, bus fare and all those things
where you live too far outside of a bus line.
So all of these things, telehealth, from what we do
we consider telehealth, has really opened up the door to
really filling in those gaps in those disparities.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
How did mental happy thrive during COVID Because I feel
like at that moment was that like could that have
been a very explosive moment because everyone was in didn't
have access to get out. I felt like this is
one of those opportunities that growth probably could been an
amazing point at that time.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah, we were actually moving away from other platforms that
we were using to run mental Happy, and we were
starting out. We were just starting out at the top
of twenty twenty to build what effectively is the platform now,
and it was very chaotic. Everybody wanted what we were building,
but we weren't quite there yet. We were still kind
(25:06):
of like building this platform and kind of slowly transitioning
our existing community to test out the platform. So kind
of frustrating of a time for us because a lot
it was a lot of demand, but the platform just
wasn't fully ready to take online, like hundreds of thousands
of people that were knocking down our door at the time,
so we had to just like slowly let people in
so that we can test and make sure that the
(25:29):
software doesn't fail.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
And I can appreciate that because we know what it
looks like when software fails, so we know that could
be frustrating, all right. So if a person is looking
for a support group, kind of how does that work?
Like is a you know, people always liked the idea
of user friendly, So how if someone was looking for
a support group, how would that work?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Pretty easy with mental Happy. We have a website mentalhappy
dot com. You can sign up. It's free to sign
up and look around. You don't pay anything until you
actually click to join a group if you have If
you prefer to use a mobile app, you can download
from the iOS app or Android and that way it's
(26:09):
in your phone, very easy to use, and you get
alerts and notifications and reminders about your sessions and even
new groups that have popped up that you've expressed interest in.
Our system does both like matching you or at least
suggesting groups that you might be interested in, and you
can also search based on just a bevy of life
(26:31):
related keywords on types of groups that you're interested in.
You can also see immediately open sessions. Some groups require
you to give a little bit more information about yourself
before you join. Some groups you can just immediately click
and join. Some groups are free, some groups are donation based,
some groups are one time payments, some groups are monthly subscription.
(26:54):
But the great thing about all of those different types
of groups is that you have full information about that
group before you join, which is something that's pretty uncommon
about when you see, like join you know, support group
for recovery, and there's like really not much information beyond
that other than like email this person or call this
person to sign up. There's fully transparency on what the
(27:16):
group is about, what you're going to gain from it,
what the guidelines of the groups are. Sometimes there's videos
so that you can actually see the group facilitator and
learn a little bit more about them. You can always
see the group facilitators bio and see their background. Also
very uncommon in the support groups, especially if you're looking.
A lot of people find support groups in two major
(27:36):
places churches and hospitals. And hospital they tend to be
run by like a volunteer. You don't know the volunteers
credentials or background, usually have to like call her email.
This is like just all sign up online, no jumping
through hoops, and just such a wide range of affordability
(27:57):
options so that you know that's also not a bear.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Okay, if you wanted to start a support group, what
does that look like?
Speaker 4 (28:05):
It's a pretty simple four step application. Three four step application.
You would put in the group name that you're interested
in your group. You'd write a group description to show
you know what so people can understand what your group
is about. You'd fill out your bio. Our team vets
and looks at all of the groups that are interested
(28:25):
in joining our platform. We really want to make sure
that people are who they say they are, they have
the education that they say they have, and they are
ready to start the group, because once people start joining,
you know, you have to kind of get going, and
people have expectations, they want resources, they want the virtual session.
And then also we look at really just the ensuring
(28:49):
that the copy of the description and everything is okay
and follows the community guidelines. And then once that gets approved,
you'll you'll be ready to just launch and start your group.
And again, you don't just have to be a licensed
therapist or a provider. We have really great people on
the platform who are life coaches, they are advocates, they
(29:11):
run maybe not they've been running a nonprofit for a
long time, or they've been running some type of organization
even though it's for profit for a long time. They're survivors,
so we want maybe they were peer maybe they were
certified peer specialists themselves, and now they want to really
like lead a group. So we have a wide range
of people running groups on the platform.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Nice and I like that variety because you know, you
could get the practitioner clinician was great, but sometimes let's
be honest, the perspective that someone themselves that's a survivor,
you know, may look entirely different. So I like the
fact that there's definitely a diversification of the types of
groups that you have. I like the fact that most
things have seem vetted. You have open groups, you have
(29:53):
close groups, so it's like you have all the bells
and whistles of an actual in person group. But the
thing I really he liked when I was doing the researches,
I love the articles on the site. You have to
like a lot of nice like articles. And I was like,
is like follow up and it kind of I was
reading some different stuff and I was like, you know
a lot of time people really are just looking for
(30:14):
that extra information. So he said, only do you have
like a support group, then you kind of get this
option to read an article that might be in line
with what you're thinking. So I like the fact that
you've got a couple different types of resources that you're
providing to people that are looking for a support group.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah. Absolutely, we really take a lot of time and
care into the blogs and information that we put out.
We really seek out experts and other advice users on
the platform, customers on the platform and just get their
intake on the quality of the content that we put out,
especially of common questions that people may have when they're
(30:49):
starting even when they're maybe starting their support, like what
should I put for my pricing, or if someone's a
participant in a group, what can I expect in a group?
Or just different mental health related things. But on the
resource side, we have you know, five to ten minute
daily life exercises. They're free for anybody to download, so
you don't have to be a part of the community
(31:11):
or even download our app. It's just you go to
the Mental Health Resource Center that's at the bottom of
our website and you have like all these really they're
very popular. Whenever we put them out, it's they just
get like tens of thousands of downloads at a time.
So we really put in a lot of care and
thinking about what are some of the things that we
(31:31):
kind of we always think about, like what should you
have been taught in school? And then we create a
resource based on like what are some of those like
not life knowledge gaps, right, Like how do you small
exercise that you can do in a day to change
your negative thinking to positive thinking? How do you teach
that to your children.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
You know, how you set.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Boundaries for yourself, but not only how do you set
boundaries for yourself, but how do you communicate it to
the people in your lives, your in laws, your partner,
your children. And then we just break that down into
small like you can do this at your desk at work,
five ten minutes. They're wildly popular, so we definitely love
putting out those resources just for the general population.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
I mean, this is such a fantastic resource and that's
why I couldn't wait to share it with people because
often people are looking for something more. And I'll be honest,
one on one therapy can be great, but sometimes people
just need something more to expand what they're learning, to
get connected. I always feel like within group connection is
a thing that can help people transform on the way
that they didn't think Because someone might say something, you'll
(32:36):
be like, I didn't really think of it that way,
you know, So it's a way to really expand and
think outside the box. You know. So fantastic.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Sorry. The way I always describe it to people with
support groups is that it's it's a great place to
come and get a lot of language about what you're
going through because sometimes, you know, in a therapy session
it's maybe fifty minutes and you leave the therapy, which
you should still always do one on one therapy if
(33:06):
you can, if you can manage it, if you can
afford it, if it's available to you. But sometimes you'll
leave and it's like, well, what are what did that
term mean? And you know what if this you know,
type of scenario comes up. Support groups are a really
great place to receive like just broader educational knowledge on
what you're some of the things that you know you
would talk about one on one, and then also it's
(33:28):
a place to find these unique things that relate to
your life specifically. I always remember an example of a
support group participant. She had been a caregiver of her
mother for a long time who had been working on
healing certain cancers, and in the in the group, she
(33:49):
was saying that, you know, even though she had like
a lot of knowledge about being a caregiver and she
had good family support and community, she still felt like
the caregiver journey was a little bit isolating. So she
joined a group and she learned a lot of things.
She was just like, you know, a lot of the
other people in the group taught me things like, you know,
(34:09):
different recipe smoothie recipes to you know, help her mother
get her pills down, or how to rearrange the furniture
in the house, how to make the bathroom more safe,
and you know, just like little things like that that. Yeah,
you learn a lot about medication and diagnoses and stuff
like that through the healthcare and medical system, but how
you live your new normal is something that may be
(34:32):
a little difficult to navigate and finding answers for in
real time.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
One of the things one of the groups that's desperately
needed is what you just describe, which is often referred
to is caregiver fatigue. Yes, a lot of people feel
so isolated and like they don't know where to go
for help. And just being able to lean into a
group of people who understand what you're struggling with another
one of those groups that's so much need it. So
it's good to know I know exactly where to direct people.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Yeah, well, and we have them for care givers and
mental health professionals as well. I've seen like both on
the group. I've seen I've seen people.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, we brought we need a group too. All right,
thank you so much for your time. I know you
took out this Saturday and you could be doing so much,
but thank you for sharing. I appreciate it. Definitely going
to be promoting this. I guarantee you people are going
to start to kind of pay attention and go on
the app and be like, let me see if I
can find, you know, a support group. So I appreciate
you for taking time out to chat with us.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate your time
on a Saturday to listen to me, and I wish
you all well.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
All right, thank you well everyone. That is Mark Blue.
She is the founder and CEO of Menta Happy, which
has a so it has a support group for everyone,
is what I like to say. So make sure you
check it out. It's fantastic. It has so much useful things.
So thank you for everyone to listening to this episode.
Has said, the whole purpose of the podcast is to
(35:58):
help you to identify your ambition and highness, your motivation
to help you acquire the success and satisfaction you seek
in your life. So remember you can always find episodes
of Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition iTunes, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Audible, Spotify,
podcast platforms to search Maya my ambition, your ambition. Of course,
(36:19):
you can always listen to episodes of Maya. The website
is kind of like a good kind of Springboard. Just
to find everything, you can just go to www. Dot
Maya dash speaks dot com and everything Maya is there.
Ma sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel Maya speaks
to you, and always get social with me. You can
find me on x and ig at Maya, underscore a
(36:41):
ki that's Akai, and Facebook at Maya speaks to you.
But of course, like I said, if you just go
to www. Dot Maya Speaks dot com, you can find
all things Maya, including you should check out the inspirational
bog that's there. Once a week I post something I
think you should really marinate on, just one a week,
trying to throw something at you daily, and one that
(37:02):
there now most people had said that was money that
made me really rethink how I was looking at life.
And it's simpling simple, but it speaks volumes. And of
course there is the me on Pause, the Menopause blog.
Everybody fallen into my group so informative about things. For instance,
this current post for the week is adhd and menopause.
(37:23):
Bet you didn't think there was a collation, but there is.
So make sure you jump on Maya dash speaks dot
com and check out the inspiration blog as well as
me on pause. All right, everyone, until next time, Remember
I love saying this, and by the way, this is
not my saying. I still it from Pearl Jam. Your
present becomes your past and your future is no more.
(37:46):
So live every day to the fullest. All right, everybody,
stay safe and keep being absolutely amazing, and I will
see you next week. And wait before we jump out,
I gotta tell you tune in next Saturday, August ninth,
at two pm because the next guest is going to
be equally amazing. Julian Bermudez is coming on and he
(38:08):
is a trauma therapist guru. He is the founder of
Psychedelic Integration Trauma. It's not what you think. Just to
let you know, but I'm gonna tell you something. The
trauma work he does. He has put more than fifteen
years into his process. And I'm like, if you're a
person who has been struggling and you're trying to figure
(38:29):
out how to get from underneath your trauma, Julian might
be somebody you definitely want to meet, but for sure
tune in next Saturday, which is a ninth at two
pm Central Standard time, and you can hear all about
how he approaches his trauma treatment different than a lot
of other clinicians. All Right, everybody, that's it. I appreciate
you for dropping in, and of course we'll see you
(38:51):
next Saturday. Have a good one, Chow.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Whether you're on the go or listening on your cell phone, tablet,
or laptop, you can find the show in the iTunes,
Google and iHeartRadio platforms.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
So new respect, I believe this is going to be
our finest hour.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Just search Maya, my ambition, your ambition, and get ready
to be inspired and motivated to harness your ambition.
The information shared on this podcast is for informational and
educational purposes only and is not intended to be a
substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosed treatment. While we discuss
topics related to mental health, well being and emotional support,
we are not providing therapy or medical services. Always seek
(01:11):
the advice of your physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other qualified
mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding
a mental health condition. If you are in crisis, feeling unsafe,
or need immediate support, please contact the mental health professional
or emergency services in your area. The views expressed by
(01:32):
guests and hosts are their own and do not necessarily
reflect those of any affiliated organizations or institutions.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Get Inspired Get Motivated with Maya a Kin and the
Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Something that I take pride and is trying to be
forward thinking, thinking outside the box, challenging myself and as
I challenge myself, hopefully challenge you.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Find Maya on Twitter and Instagram at Maya Underscore a
Kai on Facebook at Maya Akai Presents.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
We're going to talk health, wealth, fitness, mental health, financial,
lots of different things that can empower you as you
seek out the ambition that you're pursuing or get everything.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Maya at Maya akai dot com.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Now mistay everyone. Welcome to another episode of Maya, My Ambition,
Your Ambition. As I like to say, this is a
podcast that looks to embrace the salient topics related to
mental illness from a fresh and forward thinking perspective. The
focus of the podcast is to pull back that veil
of self doubt and sabotage that play so many people
in their lives. But the most important thing is here.
(02:48):
We want to help you to identify your ambition and
harness that motivation to help you yield satisfaction and success
in your daily life. Not just life, but your daily life. So,
if you are a first time listener or viewer, as
I like to say, buckle up for safety, because occasionally
you can get an unexpected bumpy ride, but I guarantee
you you'll still be safe. And of course, if you
(03:09):
are a returning listener, reviewer, welcome back. And you are
more than familiar with how we do things here. So
there's a rule number one we have about this podcast.
Work at your own pace. You'll discover the process. There
are so many different episodes. So I always say, you
know what, it's never about always keeping on pace, but
making sure you work at a pace that works for you.
(03:29):
So I am super excited because here we are at
episode sixty eight, something that I have been looking to
do for a while. I call it the Ambition Show,
and I'm excited because it's featuring Tamar Blue, the CEO
and founder of Mental Happy, something that for me, when
I found out about this, it's kind of like close
close to my heart. I really like what it has
to offer. But it's her story. It's not that The
(03:52):
Ambition Show is so important is because you're gonna meet
people who take their purpose and their passion and it
intersects with their ambition and you're going to see what
the outcome of that is. So before we jump into that,
of course, you know, we've got to do our housekeeping stuff.
You can always find episodes Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition iTunes,
Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Audoball, Spotify, whatever your podcast platform is.
(04:18):
To search Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition and you can
find the episodes. Of course, I'm going to encourage you
to subscribe and share the YouTube channel Maya speaks to you,
and always get social with Maya. You can find me
on x and ig at Maya Underscore a Kai that's
Akai or Facebook Alia speaks to you. So there's so
many different ways to connect with the show. If you
(04:41):
are a returning listener reviewer, that's one thing that you
know that we do here. It's called the toolbox, and
the toolbox is always super important because what the toolbox
is all about, literally, is every episode is to give
you something to work with, and this particular toolbox is
going to be about really what it like like to
have ambition. So what is a toolbox? If you're wondering
(05:03):
For the new people, it's about you open up and
take out the one most important tool I hope you've
gathered since you've been listening to Maya, your EI or
emotional intelligence. And this is your ability to manage your
emotions but more importantly understand others. It's a capacity to
be aware of you, be in control of you, and
express your emotions, but also handle those interpersonal things from
(05:26):
the outside that can be challenging. So every show I
tell people, hey, take out your toolbox, because you're going
to learn something. It's going to be a takeaway that
you could put that. So, now you've got your toolbox open,
you've got your emotional intelligence out. When our guest starts
talking about that passion and purpose and how you get there,
start thinking about yourself because that's the most important thing.
(05:48):
So the month of August, as I had spoke to everybody,
is about the ambition shows. The ambition shows are I'm
going to start to bring on people individuals that are
really going to be able to tell you what it
looks like to have an idea, to have passion but
then to move it forward with purpose and to intersect
with ambition. And they've all created something amazing and doing so.
(06:11):
So with that being said, our first guest today is
absolutely amazing and I'm so excited. So before we bring
her on, let me int you to tomor Blue. She's
a founder and CEO of Mental Happy, which is a
support group act that provides support to over fifteen hundred
mental health providers. It's probably grown, it's hippocompliant. Here's what
(06:34):
for me makes it even more like impressive is that
it helps therapists and other mental health practitioners to reduce
burnout and to improve their ability to touch more lives.
We are not doing therapy one on one is amazing,
but let's be honest, you can't touch as many people
as you'd like to. Well, enter mental happy, which really
is a tool that's unique. So our guest, of course,
(06:56):
she's definitely special in her own way because she brings
so much to the table. You know, I have some
questions to ask her about because yes, she's big on
healthcare innovation and she's been doing it for a while.
But I came across something I'd never heard before, which
was called the Why combinator alone, I was like, God,
so I've got some brain picking to do about that,
because that's something I've never heard of. But she has
stellar accomplishments. She's been Spotlight and Forbes and tech Crunch,
(07:19):
and of course she has an impressive academic background. She
has an MBA but dual degrees in sociology and economics
from Florida State University. That right tells you she's got
a brain to pick. So, without further ado, let's bring
the first guest of the Ambition show onto the stage.
Mark Blue, Welcome to Maya, My ambition, your ambition.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Thank you, thank you everybody. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Thank you. I can always appreciate when people can carve
time out of their Saturdays, you know, to come and talk,
because I know it's probably the one day Saturday and
Sunday that you probably get to decompress. So I want
to say thank you for taking time in your schedule
to talk with my listeners about what you do. Now
us a bit about who is Tamar Blue. How did
(08:04):
you end up creating Mental Happy?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Oh gosh, well, yes, I am the founder of Mental Happy.
Mental Happy is a platform that makes it easy for advocates, providers, therapists,
anybody who is really an expert in leading these psycho
educational type groups to run them easier in terms of finding.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Members for them, collecting.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Payment for your services, and really just running your group
smoothly and even virtually. And it's also a really great
place for people who are looking for different types of
support for different varying reasons of life events that they
may be going through to find that at Mental Happy
with a lot more ease and affordability.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And that was the thing that really impressed me about
the app. As as I dove into it, I was like,
there's here for everybody. There was one grief, a breakup,
There was what about if you're an introverted person to connect,
There was chemic use, and that was just not even
probably the tip of the iceberg about what's offered there.
(09:15):
So you create this amazing sce for prestures to be
able to really like, like you said, I like the
idea when you said about dress burnout, because it can
be a lot trying to do one on ones all
the time, and if your goal is to spread your
message far and wide, then you need a platform to
do that. And instantly I see something so different than
(09:36):
having a group on Zoom or Google meets, Like what
separates Mental Happy Out from people who think those type
of platforms could serve their purpose.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Well, I can tell you from experience that we've been
on all of the platforms. When we were starting out
to really create community and safe support group spaces there,
we were trying to fit ourselves into other platforms that
didn't work for us. We were on social media sites,
and we tried to create groups on social media sites.
(10:06):
We even grew like a really big community of over
ninety thousand people engaged in community and broke those people
down into tiny support groups. Just as you mentioned right,
like whether it's caregiver support, chronic illness, maybe you're going
through a breakup, maybe you're leaving the military and going
back to civilian life, so any life transition thing or
(10:27):
maybe something that happened to you. We were creating support
groups for but it just really wasn't working for us.
We tried meetup, dot com, we tried just using like
you said, zoom links, and every platform had something that
was lacking. Either it was very difficult to collect payment
for the group facilitators that were obviously giving their services
(10:51):
to the group, or even if they were accepting donations,
that was very difficult to collect funds on their behalf.
We were looking for really hip a compliant in app
video to make it easy and simple and medically compliant
for people to get on to video sessions. We wanted
people to have their own app and know that the
(11:15):
app doesn't have any bots, it doesn't have any spammers,
they won't be advertised in any type of way, their
data won't be stolen or you know, screenshots taken. So
we've tried all the platforms that are potentially out there
that people are using for support groups, and when we
sat back and thought about it. We created all the
things that we wanted to create for ourselves. That idea
(11:39):
has grown outside of ourselves, and now it's a place
where you know people who are survivors turned experts, who
are advocates, who are therapists, or even people who are
just deeply passionate about leading these type of meaningful life groups.
Whether you run a nonprofit or some type of agency
for a particular life event, can create these support group
(12:01):
spaces that are expert led support group spaces without any
of that friction that we had experienced in the past. Plus,
it's also really tough for especially providers and practitioners. Maybe
they've run a one on one practice, but they want
to scale up support group services, it could be very
difficult to fill up your group.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Even if you have a group, a good group idea.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
You know, you have all the materials for the group,
but it's still another business vertical to run a support group.
So our platform actually makes it ten x easier, ten
x faster to fill up your group when you're when
you are looking to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
One of the things that I had some feedback when
I had referred to some people a lot to some
groups they were using zoom, and the feedback I got
was there was a lot of distraction and no control
or navigating of the group, and that it kind of
got a little messy, you know, and I you know,
how is it that I'm assuming that probably within mental
(13:01):
happy when you create a support group, I'm assuming you
probably have tons of tools that allows for the group
to be seamless, that if you need to remove someone,
you can do all those things.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Absolutely. So, our technology on the platform flags anything that
feels not good, bad actor behavior, escalating language, negative language,
harmful language. So that's the first layer filter. The second
layer filter is that all the groups are run by someone, right,
so someone is in the group, seeing the messages, seeing
(13:32):
the chat, navigating it, they can alert us and then
we can escalate the situation and maybe possibly remove someone.
And then the other piece of that is that even
when people enter the platform, we filter out for are
you a real person and not a predator or a
body or what have you. We really kind of look
(13:53):
into what's your reason for wanting to join the platform,
because we're very serious about privacy and for people to
feel safe. When you think about a group, people are
typically joining sometimes at their worst, right in life, like
maybe they've hit bottom, maybe they've just been hit with
a diagnosis. Maybe they this is the most lonely they
(14:15):
felt in their lives. So we don't want them to
come to Mental Happy and then experience even more trials
and tribulations on top of what they were already going
through before they got there. So privacy, security and all
those things are something that we're constantly evolving and monitoring
on the platform. The other unique thing about not just
(14:36):
having just video component to a group platform format is
that you build community, and you build trust, and you
learn new ideas and helpful information, and you receive daily
motivation and encouragement. Where yes, you're able to join a
(14:57):
weekly or bi weekly or even monthly support group session
in a virtual format, but even offline from that, right like,
even once that virtual session is done with a zoom,
that's it. You don't connect with those people. There's no
way to reach them. You know, you can't motivate them,
they can't motivate you. But with on the Mental Happy platform,
(15:19):
what you can do is you can still chat with people,
you can still connect with your other support group members,
you can offer each other encouragement, you can offer each
other like helpful tips because you're all going through similar
things at the similar time. So there's real community based
care in that.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Okay, And that actually definitely is an element that doesn't
exist probably if you're using Zoom or even Google Meet.
Like when the meeting's over, the meeting's over. But it
sounds like here there's still an extension for the support
to continue. So what became the thut? Like, what was
the thing that brought the idea of mental happy forward
for you?
Speaker 4 (15:57):
I've always been building support groups. My very first one
was in high school. I built a peer support group
to help support other classmates that felt that maybe they
were isolated, bullied, you know, whatever they were going through.
They can just leave a small suggestion and we'd do
our best to try to get them paired with someone
or try to get them in program so that they
don't feel so isolated. So initially, eons ago, when I
(16:21):
was a kid, it was just something I just fell
into with some other classmates and it just remained a
passion of mine. I focused on groups in the church
that I was in. There were like these supportive groups
and organizations for like recovery, getting people from homelessness and
allowing them to find group support in that regard. So
(16:41):
it's just always been something in me. But what really
unlocked the idea is just how much I started to
really love technology and the ideas of how technology can
make things easier, faster, better, and really fill in a
lot of gaps. Not replacing human beings fully and hope not,
but really making the jobs of human beings easier, which
(17:05):
you know, getting rid of some of the admin and
monotony things so that we can focus on the care
and connection things.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And that's that right there, So you're for you. The
passion was always the idea of helping people, creating support
in those those spaces for people. So then how does
that passion turn into purpose? So obviously, you know, you
go through college, you've got dual degrees and MBA. When
did like, in the back of your head something said, hey,
i'm mental happy, you need to make me. When did
(17:34):
that happen?
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I would say I was working a career. I really
loved it. It was in staffing, and for people who
don't know what staffing is, it's it's basically like you're
an agency or you're working for like a corporate agency
that hires on behalf of other larger organizations, smaller big
we did like mid size to large companies, and I
(17:58):
had a lot of employee because we also kept those
employees on our payroll, so they were effectively like our
employees working out for other companies. And there was just
a lot of life stuff that people were going through
and that you know, you're effectively in staffing kind of
hr too, so you people come to you with a
(18:18):
lot of their things, and it just really got me thinking, like, wow,
you know, there's a real need for people to have
a way to navigate their life things beyond just okay,
you go to the doctor. You know, you go to
annual visits and stuff like that, but people are navigating
all of the life things outside of that doctor's appointment.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
And it's interesting because one of the things I can
honestly say I struggle with is I'll have somebody. And
I was like, you know, support groups can be such
an amazing thing to compliment when you're struggling with something,
to know that you can connect with others who can understand,
and it's something it seems like a simple concept to
have someone look at you and say I get it,
I get it. That often that can be the thing
(19:00):
that starts to help people heal. So now to know
that there's this platform, like huh, I can refer people
because sometimes just finding groups were really hard, especially after COVID,
it was really hard to kind of tie people into
a lot of groups that existed before. So you've got
the passion, clearly, the purpose, okay, but creating this app
(19:20):
clearly could not have been an easy endeavor. And people
always like, well, how did you create a funding? And
then when I was reading your background this why Combinator,
am I saying it right? Yes, y combinator never heard
of it? What is that?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
It's a fantastic tech accelerator as it's known, it's it's
I will just go ahead and say, my humble opinion
is like the best in the world. And it really
started the movement of you know, being early investors in
tech companies, tech enabled companies. And I received one of
my earliest funding for Mental Happy being participating in why
(19:59):
Combinator and really just meeting other technical people, other technical women,
other technical founders, other tech people who are of color.
It was just a really great opportunity to learn so
much about something that I had started to kind of
be interested in I had mental happy.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
At the time.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
It was going at the time, and it was a
little crazy and chaotic, and I didn't understand I understood
a good bit about software, but I had a long
way to go, and they really just kind of gave
me a good foundation to really keep moving forward and
also some initial funding to get that going.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Wow, And how did you There's always feel there's a
million resources in the world. How did you find this?
Because it's like so many things exist and people often
get frustrated because funding can often be one of the
hardest things that take that idea. You know, you need
seed to be able to plant to make something grow.
How did you come across this?
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Well, definitely, we had customers before going into the program,
so it's also great to show like you're able to
build and do this thing and convince other people that
you know they need it, it's working and they're using it,
so that's always very helpful. I found I came across
it because my co founder deeply in tech. He's our
(21:13):
CTO and he's just really he just knew all the
things about tech. So he was just the one telling
us about the program, and we applied and you have
to do an interview and we got accepted.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And that's all she wrote, and here you are amazing.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
I a million other things in there, but to keep
the no no, I believe it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
When I read that, I was like, this sounds unique.
It's it's different. I've never heard of this before. I
did a little research and I was like, oh wow,
this is something different that tons of people would probably
like this exists because you know, the idea of you
can have an idea, but probably one of the biggest
things that attracts most people from pursuing something, it has
to be more than just a dreamy, you know, because
if it stays in the dream state, you're not going
(21:56):
to be able to achieve anything. It has to become
a goal and that goal has to have a plan.
And that's one of the things you know in talking
with people, like when you have ambition, it can't just
sit me. I have this idea, It's like, well, how
do you think you can bring that to fruition? So
in seeing something like this, so you have this amazing
app where do you see it, like in five years.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
That's great, that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Even in a year.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
We have been doing just some small trials with other
countries where people have requested to put their support group
on our platform. There's just been some amazing countries across
the continent Africa. They're interested. We're getting really good pool
from like Australia and UK and other places. So we've
just been doing like some small tests with other countries.
(22:41):
So we definitely want to see the platform broadened so
that people and other cultures, other languages that are wanting
to facilitate groups and join groups, especially in places where
mental health is like very taboo or there aren't you know,
therapists are very scarce. There's not maybe a lot of
therapists that people can actually go see just because the
(23:01):
number a therapists are small, so groups allow them to
really scale their services. Perhaps they live somewhere very rural
and it's difficult to get to a city to go
see a therapist in the city. So definitely in the
next year a couple of years, we want to be
expanded into other places and other languages.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
That's definitely the one piece of this that I thought
was really unique about being able to take the idea
of having a support group and make it acceptable for
people that live in rural areas that just don't really
have those type of options. Like that's telehealth actually opened
that door for many people to be able to get
into therapy or to see someone. So again, this is
(23:41):
another tool for people.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yeah. Absolutely, And people don't think of rural health as
a health disparity. Even transportation is a health disparity, right,
Like if you don't have a vehicle to get to
your annual visit or your regular doctor's appointment, maybe you
were diagnosed with something and now you have to keep
seeing someone. It's very difficult. Things like you have to
(24:06):
now figure out childcare, bus fare and all those things
where you live too far outside of a bus line.
So all of these things, telehealth, from what we do
we consider telehealth, has really opened up the door to
really filling in those gaps in those disparities.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
How did mental happy thrive during COVID Because I feel
like at that moment was that like could that have
been a very explosive moment because everyone was in didn't
have access to get out. I felt like this is
one of those opportunities that growth probably could been an
amazing point at that time.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah, we were actually moving away from other platforms that
we were using to run mental Happy, and we were
starting out. We were just starting out at the top
of twenty twenty to build what effectively is the platform now,
and it was very chaotic. Everybody wanted what we were building,
but we weren't quite there yet. We were still kind
(25:06):
of like building this platform and kind of slowly transitioning
our existing community to test out the platform. So kind
of frustrating of a time for us because a lot
it was a lot of demand, but the platform just
wasn't fully ready to take online, like hundreds of thousands
of people that were knocking down our door at the time,
so we had to just like slowly let people in
so that we can test and make sure that the
(25:29):
software doesn't fail.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
And I can appreciate that because we know what it
looks like when software fails, so we know that could
be frustrating, all right. So if a person is looking
for a support group, kind of how does that work?
Like is a you know, people always liked the idea
of user friendly, So how if someone was looking for
a support group, how would that work?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Pretty easy with mental Happy. We have a website mentalhappy
dot com. You can sign up. It's free to sign
up and look around. You don't pay anything until you
actually click to join a group if you have If
you prefer to use a mobile app, you can download
from the iOS app or Android and that way it's
(26:09):
in your phone, very easy to use, and you get
alerts and notifications and reminders about your sessions and even
new groups that have popped up that you've expressed interest in.
Our system does both like matching you or at least
suggesting groups that you might be interested in, and you
can also search based on just a bevy of life
(26:31):
related keywords on types of groups that you're interested in.
You can also see immediately open sessions. Some groups require
you to give a little bit more information about yourself
before you join. Some groups you can just immediately click
and join. Some groups are free, some groups are donation based,
some groups are one time payments, some groups are monthly subscription.
(26:54):
But the great thing about all of those different types
of groups is that you have full information about that
group before you join, which is something that's pretty uncommon
about when you see, like join you know, support group
for recovery, and there's like really not much information beyond
that other than like email this person or call this
person to sign up. There's fully transparency on what the
(27:16):
group is about, what you're going to gain from it,
what the guidelines of the groups are. Sometimes there's videos
so that you can actually see the group facilitator and
learn a little bit more about them. You can always
see the group facilitators bio and see their background. Also
very uncommon in the support groups, especially if you're looking.
A lot of people find support groups in two major
(27:36):
places churches and hospitals. And hospital they tend to be
run by like a volunteer. You don't know the volunteers
credentials or background, usually have to like call her email.
This is like just all sign up online, no jumping
through hoops, and just such a wide range of affordability
(27:57):
options so that you know that's also not a bear.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Okay, if you wanted to start a support group, what
does that look like?
Speaker 4 (28:05):
It's a pretty simple four step application. Three four step application.
You would put in the group name that you're interested
in your group. You'd write a group description to show
you know what so people can understand what your group
is about. You'd fill out your bio. Our team vets
and looks at all of the groups that are interested
(28:25):
in joining our platform. We really want to make sure
that people are who they say they are, they have
the education that they say they have, and they are
ready to start the group, because once people start joining,
you know, you have to kind of get going, and
people have expectations, they want resources, they want the virtual session.
And then also we look at really just the ensuring
(28:49):
that the copy of the description and everything is okay
and follows the community guidelines. And then once that gets approved,
you'll you'll be ready to just launch and start your group.
And again, you don't just have to be a licensed
therapist or a provider. We have really great people on
the platform who are life coaches, they are advocates, they
(29:11):
run maybe not they've been running a nonprofit for a
long time, or they've been running some type of organization
even though it's for profit for a long time. They're survivors,
so we want maybe they were peer maybe they were
certified peer specialists themselves, and now they want to really
like lead a group. So we have a wide range
of people running groups on the platform.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Nice and I like that variety because you know, you
could get the practitioner clinician was great, but sometimes let's
be honest, the perspective that someone themselves that's a survivor,
you know, may look entirely different. So I like the
fact that there's definitely a diversification of the types of
groups that you have. I like the fact that most
things have seem vetted. You have open groups, you have
(29:53):
close groups, so it's like you have all the bells
and whistles of an actual in person group. But the
thing I really he liked when I was doing the researches,
I love the articles on the site. You have to
like a lot of nice like articles. And I was like,
is like follow up and it kind of I was
reading some different stuff and I was like, you know
a lot of time people really are just looking for
(30:14):
that extra information. So he said, only do you have
like a support group, then you kind of get this
option to read an article that might be in line
with what you're thinking. So I like the fact that
you've got a couple different types of resources that you're
providing to people that are looking for a support group.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah. Absolutely, we really take a lot of time and
care into the blogs and information that we put out.
We really seek out experts and other advice users on
the platform, customers on the platform and just get their
intake on the quality of the content that we put out,
especially of common questions that people may have when they're
(30:49):
starting even when they're maybe starting their support, like what
should I put for my pricing, or if someone's a
participant in a group, what can I expect in a group?
Or just different mental health related things. But on the
resource side, we have you know, five to ten minute
daily life exercises. They're free for anybody to download, so
you don't have to be a part of the community
(31:11):
or even download our app. It's just you go to
the Mental Health Resource Center that's at the bottom of
our website and you have like all these really they're
very popular. Whenever we put them out, it's they just
get like tens of thousands of downloads at a time.
So we really put in a lot of care and
thinking about what are some of the things that we
(31:31):
kind of we always think about, like what should you
have been taught in school? And then we create a
resource based on like what are some of those like
not life knowledge gaps, right, Like how do you small
exercise that you can do in a day to change
your negative thinking to positive thinking? How do you teach
that to your children.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
You know, how you set.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Boundaries for yourself, but not only how do you set
boundaries for yourself, but how do you communicate it to
the people in your lives, your in laws, your partner,
your children. And then we just break that down into
small like you can do this at your desk at work,
five ten minutes. They're wildly popular, so we definitely love
putting out those resources just for the general population.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
I mean, this is such a fantastic resource and that's
why I couldn't wait to share it with people because
often people are looking for something more. And I'll be honest,
one on one therapy can be great, but sometimes people
just need something more to expand what they're learning, to
get connected. I always feel like within group connection is
a thing that can help people transform on the way
that they didn't think Because someone might say something, you'll
(32:36):
be like, I didn't really think of it that way,
you know, So it's a way to really expand and
think outside the box. You know. So fantastic.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Sorry. The way I always describe it to people with
support groups is that it's it's a great place to
come and get a lot of language about what you're
going through because sometimes, you know, in a therapy session
it's maybe fifty minutes and you leave the therapy, which
you should still always do one on one therapy if
(33:06):
you can, if you can manage it, if you can
afford it, if it's available to you. But sometimes you'll
leave and it's like, well, what are what did that
term mean? And you know what if this you know,
type of scenario comes up. Support groups are a really
great place to receive like just broader educational knowledge on
what you're some of the things that you know you
would talk about one on one, and then also it's
(33:28):
a place to find these unique things that relate to
your life specifically. I always remember an example of a
support group participant. She had been a caregiver of her
mother for a long time who had been working on
healing certain cancers, and in the in the group, she
(33:49):
was saying that, you know, even though she had like
a lot of knowledge about being a caregiver and she
had good family support and community, she still felt like
the caregiver journey was a little bit isolating. So she
joined a group and she learned a lot of things.
She was just like, you know, a lot of the
other people in the group taught me things like, you know,
(34:09):
different recipe smoothie recipes to you know, help her mother
get her pills down, or how to rearrange the furniture
in the house, how to make the bathroom more safe,
and you know, just like little things like that that. Yeah,
you learn a lot about medication and diagnoses and stuff
like that through the healthcare and medical system, but how
you live your new normal is something that may be
(34:32):
a little difficult to navigate and finding answers for in
real time.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
One of the things one of the groups that's desperately
needed is what you just describe, which is often referred
to is caregiver fatigue. Yes, a lot of people feel
so isolated and like they don't know where to go
for help. And just being able to lean into a
group of people who understand what you're struggling with another
one of those groups that's so much need it. So
it's good to know I know exactly where to direct people.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Yeah, well, and we have them for care givers and
mental health professionals as well. I've seen like both on
the group. I've seen I've seen people.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah, we brought we need a group too. All right,
thank you so much for your time. I know you
took out this Saturday and you could be doing so much,
but thank you for sharing. I appreciate it. Definitely going
to be promoting this. I guarantee you people are going
to start to kind of pay attention and go on
the app and be like, let me see if I
can find, you know, a support group. So I appreciate
you for taking time out to chat with us.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate your time
on a Saturday to listen to me, and I wish
you all well.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
All right, thank you well everyone. That is Mark Blue.
She is the founder and CEO of Menta Happy, which
has a so it has a support group for everyone,
is what I like to say. So make sure you
check it out. It's fantastic. It has so much useful things.
So thank you for everyone to listening to this episode.
Has said, the whole purpose of the podcast is to
(35:58):
help you to identify your ambition and highness, your motivation
to help you acquire the success and satisfaction you seek
in your life. So remember you can always find episodes
of Maya My Ambition, Your Ambition iTunes, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon, Audible, Spotify,
podcast platforms to search Maya my ambition, your ambition. Of course,
(36:19):
you can always listen to episodes of Maya. The website
is kind of like a good kind of Springboard. Just
to find everything, you can just go to www. Dot
Maya dash speaks dot com and everything Maya is there.
Ma sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel Maya speaks
to you, and always get social with me. You can
find me on x and ig at Maya, underscore a
(36:41):
ki that's Akai, and Facebook at Maya speaks to you.
But of course, like I said, if you just go
to www. Dot Maya Speaks dot com, you can find
all things Maya, including you should check out the inspirational
bog that's there. Once a week I post something I
think you should really marinate on, just one a week,
trying to throw something at you daily, and one that
(37:02):
there now most people had said that was money that
made me really rethink how I was looking at life.
And it's simpling simple, but it speaks volumes. And of
course there is the me on Pause, the Menopause blog.
Everybody fallen into my group so informative about things. For instance,
this current post for the week is adhd and menopause.
(37:23):
Bet you didn't think there was a collation, but there is.
So make sure you jump on Maya dash speaks dot
com and check out the inspiration blog as well as
me on pause. All right, everyone, until next time, Remember
I love saying this, and by the way, this is
not my saying. I still it from Pearl Jam. Your
present becomes your past and your future is no more.
(37:46):
So live every day to the fullest. All right, everybody,
stay safe and keep being absolutely amazing, and I will
see you next week. And wait before we jump out,
I gotta tell you tune in next Saturday, August ninth,
at two pm because the next guest is going to
be equally amazing. Julian Bermudez is coming on and he
(38:08):
is a trauma therapist guru. He is the founder of
Psychedelic Integration Trauma. It's not what you think. Just to
let you know, but I'm gonna tell you something. The
trauma work he does. He has put more than fifteen
years into his process. And I'm like, if you're a
person who has been struggling and you're trying to figure
(38:29):
out how to get from underneath your trauma, Julian might
be somebody you definitely want to meet, but for sure
tune in next Saturday, which is a ninth at two
pm Central Standard time, and you can hear all about
how he approaches his trauma treatment different than a lot
of other clinicians. All Right, everybody, that's it. I appreciate
you for dropping in, and of course we'll see you
(38:51):
next Saturday. Have a good one, Chow.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Whether you're on the go or listening on your cell phone, tablet,
or laptop, you can find the show in the iTunes,
Google and iHeartRadio platforms.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
So new respect, I believe this is going to be
our finest hour.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Just search Maya, my ambition, your ambition, and get ready
to be inspired and motivated to harness your ambition.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.