Girl Gang the Podcast
Girl Gang the Podcast highlights women building brands and creating their own career paths. Hosted by Amy Will — author of Launching and Building a Brand For Dummies and a serial entrepreneur — the show features founders behind brands like OSEA and the Savannah Bananas, executives and directors at companies like Burberry, British Vogue, NET-A-PORTER, and BuzzFeed, and creators like Sivan Ayla. Each episode breaks down the work behind what they’ve built — from early ideas to the decisions and turning points along the way.
Girl Gang the Podcast
Balancing Mental Health While Working in Creative Industries with Marta Pozzan and Yola Robert
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On today's episode of Girl Gang the Podcast, I chat with Yola Robert and Marta Pozzan. As co-hosts of I AM REAL, Yola and Marta dive deep about mental health with guests and their personal journeys of overcoming obstacles.
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Welcome to girl gang, the podcast. I'm your host, Amy. Well, and the founder of girl gang. This podcast is brought to you by girl gang. The label.com. Head to our website. After the show to browse our directory of female owned businesses and enjoy exclusive discounts from them. Read our online magazine, the edit for interviews with female creatives, plus tips, tools, and rituals to level up your own career. Shop our line of merchandise, including our signature support, your local girl gang collection. For every item sold, we team up with a charity to support women's education, health, and empowerment. Shop today and use code girl gang to receive 20% off at girl gang. The label.com. Show us your listening by tagging us on Instagram at girl gang, the label. Thank you so much for tuning in. Hi, this is Yola. Thank you so much, Amy, for having us on. I am the co-host of, I am reload Marta. I also have a podcast called AIESEC at life and I'm also a journalist and in Ms. Marta , I'm a writer and actor as a content creator and I'm co-hosting the podcast. I am real. So Amy, I know we've connected a lot offline and I first off I'm so thankful that I found Marta and we're doing , I am real , but I moved to LA when I was 19. I didn't know a single soul. I moved from Kansas and I'm growing up in Kansas was really difficult for me because I'm Egyptian, as you know, and there are no Egyptians. I don't know if you went through there on your food tour, but there are not very many Egyptians there. So I got bullied and ostracized a lot for being adoption amongst other things that happened at a really young age that were super traumatizing. And it took a lot for me to get out of a state of being constantly suicidal and depressed and not wanting to live. And one of the things I always wanted to do is move to LA and I thought LA was it. And Martin , and I share that kind of, you know, yeah , we thought, I mean, I'm not gonna speak for Marta , but I thought it was like LA was like heaven compared to the hell I was living in. And so when I, as soon as I could, I moved out here and it was really difficult, a different kind of difficult, difficult that I knew would have would reap benefits at the end, not the kind of difficult that I was enduring as a child, but it was very difficult. And I felt like I sucked at so many things. And I moved out here with a startup . Um, it was an app and , uh , uh , a virtual closet app with AI that would put outfits together for you. And this was in 2013, 14. So it was a little bit ahead of its time to be quite honest. And I see a lot of apps or coming out now that are using , using some of the same technology that I had built into my app, but it ended up failing. I ended up becoming homeless and I was sleeping on friend's couches for months and they were buying me food for me. I couldn't even afford to buy my own food. I mean, I think I had like $19 in my bank account. So, but it's a very similar story. A lot of people that move to LA share. However, I knew that I couldn't move back to Kansas. Like anything was better than there even being homeless in LA. And I figured out one of the strongest skillsets I actually had was writing and people would always ask me to do copywriting ghost writing , right for them, you know, ad copy everything. I even like ghost wrote people's books. And that's how I started to make money to get out of that like really poor state. And then a few months later, I ended up working for a venture capitalists that I had pitched for my startup. And I became his marketing slash business development director. And I started to realize how everyone sucked at life at some point, you know, in one way or another, and no one was perfect and all the , the, the, the way the media portrayed, how everyone was, all the successful people just woke up one day and became successful and became millionaires and billionaires. That was all a lie. Everything was a lie. And I kind of went on this mission to expose that. And that was kind of my pitch to Forbes. It took me two years to get even a reply from a Forbes editor by the way. But when I did get the chance to, it was by luck actually that I was at a, a Bumble event and one of the Forbes women editors were there. And I went up to her. I was like, I deserve to write for Forbes. And she was taken aback and I kind of pitched her my idea of, or my angle of my column. And they tested it for a few months and it did well. So I'm still writing there today, but I want , and so as I started writing for Forbes, even more, it became more and more apparent that these people we idolize are not perfect and they failed so many times, but it's the way they pivoted. And we're able to take those failings and learning lessons and turn them into , uh , successes was what made them successful. So that's why I started my podcast. I suck at life and it's conversation with, you know, celebrities, entrepreneurs, influencers, thought leaders, experts on how to essentially not suck at life, or, you know, take your, overcome your failures and take your learnings to turn them into positives. And through that, I started to realize that I wasn't as open about my mental health and I needed to be because I had gone, even though moving to LA was helped quite a bit because I was in a different environment. I was still struggling with things and I was still struggling with trauma from childhood that I was still working through, but I wasn't sharing it. So I, because of my podcast and the , in the, you know, the community I had built, I realized I needed to be more open about it. And I started being more open about it in my writing as well. So I would say like mid 2018, early 2019 is when I started to really share more of my mental health journey and it's become my why and my purpose, like, no matter what I do, I consider myself a storyteller, whether it be through writing podcasting content , um, speaking, whatever it is, I'm telling stories. My why my purpose is to help people who are suffering from mental health and who are going through this journey, understand that they are in control of their own narrative and that, and to also make other people aware that mental illness is not a sickness and it can actually be your super power if you make it, if you take control of that and you allow it to be your super power. And so Marta and I ended up meeting at an event, a dinner, she was hosting for a brand one time and we just kind of stayed in touch. And we realized we were, you know, shared very similar , uh, backgrounds or the way we kind of, we both started therapy in our teenage years. We both had this kind of, we needed to escape our own environment and take control of our lives and our narratives. And we were both starting to share our stories publicly. And so we started a, we , we Marta started a panel with a basic space called iron real , and she asked me to come speak with her. And it did really, really well. So that's where the, I am real story started, but Martel I'll let you take it from here.
Speaker 2My first job was as a ghostwriter, just like , uh , Yola is actually , uh , for vanity fair. I was in Milan. I was going to college. I was 19. My major was , um, literature in philosophy, Italian literature and philosophy. And I was so bored cause I think I was, my high school was very tough and I had teachers were actually professors. I felt like I did all the work in high school. And like college was, felt like so easy and just didn't feel like I was learning a lot. So I was born in, I needed to get, I wanted to find a job. Um, so I was, I got hired to write for this journalist of vanity fair , to write , you know , uh, for her, without using my name. And then I kind of became her assistant and then I kind of became a host for vanity fair. Cause they had just started, that was 20, 20, 10, 29, I think. And I think they just started their YouTube channel. So that would make me host these like little fashion segments doing fashion week in Milan. And it felt like a dream job, like kinda like the devil wears Prada, but like no money. Like I was getting paid 500 bucks a month, which for 19, I guess, I mean , it was fun. I don't know it was, it was an experience. It was an adventure, but I could've gotten hired and like, you know, have that be my actual job more like as an editor eventually, maybe I just never cared to live in Italy. I never liked it there. I know it was a beautiful country, but I just never liked it. Like for me , for me, it just didn't work for me. And I've always wanted to live in LA since I was 12. And I don't know why, I don't know what was here that I could do or like I just, I had, no, I didn't have a specific vision of what I was going to do, but I just knew that the place where I'm supposed to live as here. So I , um, and I came to visit and I took it UCLA , um, summer class in 20, I was 18 or about to turn 18. So then I actually physically was here for a while and I, that gave me time to realize, yes, it is where I want to be. But then I had to go back to college and Emory . So I graduated really like quickly, even six months before the actual term, I think, cause I just wanted to get out of it. And I either , I thought I had to pay extra to get out of it sooner, something like that. I don't remember, but something where they were like, okay, like I had to say that I was, that I needed to leave earlier, like leave school earlier. So I did and um, came to, I went to London for an MFA in creative writing that I'd never finished and I'm like, I'm done. I have a BA I'm good. I don't need more than this. And I just couldn't even handle reading or holding a book for so long because I was so fed up with school. Cause I think in Europe, I don't know about here, but like it was just like, it was a lot and it was very like, it didn't feel practical at all. It was just like , uh , I'm studying and learning, but it wasn't like, I didn't know, kind of [inaudible] with what I studied because philosophy is very just in your, in your head and like you're thinking thoughts and whatnot, but it's like, what's my job, you know? So I , um, and I didn't know that time. Well, my job would be, I just had an idea, but I didn't really fully know. And when I came to LA and went to acting school for a year, actually just like last week, the school that I went to ask me to be in their commercial for, to promote the school. And I'm like, I don't know about that. Cause I didn't have a good time and I hated it. It was just so, you know, actors are so anxious all the time and being around a bunch every day, there's just so much like one thing is to see them at additions and that's already a lot of pressure, but being around actors every day for a year and a half, every four, I think I had to go to school six days a week. And it was like, like a proper program. And I was like, it was very challenging because I, I like to be alone a lot. And that was the opposite of being alone a lot. I was always with people and doing these crazy, you know, acting method, acting exercises that were just very intense. So it was quite tragic in the beginning. But um, then I, I actually, through the school, I booked a commercial car commercial. I don't remember what was it like Ford? I think so. Yes. And they're in like, you know, doing this commercial and the director was like, Oh, like, you're really cool. I like your sense of fashion. You should meet my wife. And I'm like, okay, like interesting. And who's your wife and his wife was Jamie King. Um, and so kind of like Jamie King helped me so much with a lot of the , everything in LA when I first moved to LA because she, I was her assistant for a few months. She got me a work visa. I met so many people through her, so she was kind like my mentor for a few years. And um, actually I got signed to next models through her and uh, was able to start working on these like, you know, fashion, beauty , um, social media partnerships. And that's how I started doing that full time . So I kind of left the acting aside while I was booking a lot of commercials. Cause that's how I started. So they would just, when you do one thing and they know you for that, they keep paying you for that. So I was doing a lot of that and it wasn't like, I didn't like it that much commercials were very like, like dry. You don't really get to play real characters. And um, so I figured I was making money with like social media posting and with brands and I just kept doing that full time. And only a couple years ago, I started getting back into the acting thing cause I booked a couple of roles in feature films, through friends and people that knew me. And then I started writing again and I, co-wrote a short film that got , um , into an Oscar qualifying film festival last year. And um, I'm S I'm writing, I wrote another one I'm working on a couple more things that I wrote and that I'm gonna act in. So I feel like the whole, you know, the journey kind of like, you know, took me to back to writing in a way, which is how it started, but not writing for myself writing stories now. But at that time it was writing about bags or shoes or designers because she was a fashion editor. Right. So , um, so yeah, and now I'm here again writing, but um, for my own stories and for my shorts. And so , um, and the mental health stuff is something that I've been dealing with my entire life. I had , um, eating disorders, anxiety, panic attacks as a teenager and as a kid. And I never talked about it until last year. I think 2020 was when I really well, 2019 I guess, opened up about it all. And now I think brands like to endorse these stories too, and , you know , share and work with talents that can share these kinds of things and talk about these kinds of things. So I am , I'm happy that I, my suffering brought me to, you know, make money or I talk about it and help other people along with making money and , um, sharing my life and uh, hearing from people's stories. Um, so it's all, it's all creative , uh, life creative process, creative journey, everything is creative for me. Everything has to do with making art either it's visual or words written or audio, whatever it is. So I say, yeah, that that's, that's my mission, I think.
Speaker 3And it probably feels so good to just being so aligned with a purpose that goes back to your childhood. And I think that's something all three of us when we first connected that I just felt like safe chatting with you guys, panic attacks, especially as a kid like you. Um , for me personally, I would just like, feel like I was literally dying. I would be so scared I was dying. And if I wasn't scared of that, it would just be these like hyper level fears you couldn't relate to. And I think what's so important about what you ladies are doing with, I am real and especially now is I think , um, the majority of people, even if they didn't grow up with anxiety or depression or, you know, trying to work on their mental health, everyone kind of got kicked into gear and realizing that the future isn't guaranteed and kind of learning, needing to pivot the last year. So I think there's a lot of people, even if they didn't grow up with it or if they don't have a chemical imbalance, a lot of people are dealing with circumstantial, depression and anxiety. And I mean, if you're like in your twenties or thirties and feeling these things for the first time, it can be really scary. Like I know people that are our age that like straight up think they're having a heart attack and then they're like, Oh, it's a panic attack. I like just people going through these things for the first time. So I applaud you both for figuring out what your voice is and being brave enough to step into that and encouraging other people to talk to it. And people like me, like instead of me feeling like a weirdo, I feel empowered to share stuff in a safe space. So I think it's like really cool. What you both are doing with, I am real.
Speaker 1Yeah. Thank you. I mean, and same to you. I , I think it's interesting because now more than ever people can relate to each other on this level versus what you were saying. When we were like younger, she'd be like, Oh, you're being overdramatic. It's just in your head. Like when I would get panic attacks, like , I'd be like, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. And my dad would be like, stopping a child you're being childish. Or like, you know, like they would always brush it off. And I, I can relate to having the heart attack part because I made my parents get me like EKG. Cause I thought I had problems .
Speaker 3And my first panic attack that I remember was when I was four.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was, I was 13 and my fear was to vomit in front of everybody. So I would simulate my body was stimulate all the feelings you feel when you're about to throw up. And I felt like I needed to leave whenever I was around people. I had to leave cause I had to go throw up. But it was all in my head. I didn't have to throw up at all, but so that brought me to not eat. Cause I was like, if I eat, then I'll throw up. Can you imagine thinking that? So I was confusing, being hungry for being nauseous. I lost like 30 pounds and all this process. And I didn't tell anybody about it. I was, I don't know what it was. I didn't name it until I was 19. And I started doing some research on Google and I, and I read, and there's a name for this kind of like panic attack related to vomiting. And I was like , like, that's what I have. And , and then I started going into therapy. I was, I was going to therapy already when I was 17, but I eat, I couldn't even bring up the whole panic attack thing cause I , I didn't even name it yet. I was like, wait, I have these things, but I don't know what it is. And um, and then it , when I think they went away around like 21, 22.
Speaker 3Yeah. Amy have you. I'm curious because this year and two are not this year and 2020 after the pandemic, I had two big panic attacks. Like the ones I used to get when I was a kid. Did this year. Did you experience those recently at all? Oh my God. Yeah. Honestly, fortunately, as recently as last night, I still deal with them a lot, but I feel like just , um, being able to understand what they are for what they are, you can get through them. Um, and I like , there's a lot of triggers. I'm sure you guys know this too. And, or like know , probably know some of your triggers. And it's like, when I do my triggers, like for me, one is caffeine and I had a debt or something coming up Tuesday. So I had like coffee and a Celsius yesterday, which is really rare. And then it way on , I woke up and was like, Googling like heart palpitations. How many people does this happen to at 32 years old? And it's like, okay, your brain is playing a trick on you. And so then I kind of just try to, like, I listened to a little meditation app. I kind of free myself from the sensation and realize like, you know, a lot of it is in my head. It's normal for a heart to beat fast when you have a lot of caffeine and you're used to like seven or eight hours of sleep , um, if you stayed up till 2:00 AM working and you don't usually do that, you know, lack of sleep caffeine, that kind of stuff are triggers to me. So I still get them very often, but the biggest thing and just like when we were younger, like, I didn't know what the word panic attack was. And when I first had anxiety, like, especially with the misdiagnosis, if you're just like getting rid of Lin or Adderall and being encouraged to focus, but people aren't explaining to you like, Oh, when you feel these like pins and needles, or if you're like terrified of death and like don't want to go to school. Cause you're like thinking about something bad on the way there. Um, when you don't really know what they are. I used to just think when I was younger, like, Oh , I'm so happy I survived and got on the other side of whatever this feeling was, but yeah, last year they definitely high-end . And then , um, my husband has up Lepsy and unfortunately we had a few like episodes that got us to the hospital last year. And so I think just like the visual traumas of that are big triggers too. So that's what I'm currently working on is identifying triggers, working on meditation and just kind of like breathing through it. And the moment you start to get like a crazy Google, like manic search going have all these symptoms be like, okay, this isn't happening to you put the phone down, just breathe. It's going to be really for like a couple hours. Yeah . You kind of have to do that. Um, and you have to understand once you understand your panic attacks here , you know, what you need to do to , uh , what tools you need to use to get through them. So, yeah, and even like, I use cannabis and CBD a lot to calm down, but sometimes like weed can be a trigger. So I think it's all our bodies and our mental state are always changing from outside circumstances and just the way we feel about ourselves and kind of what we're working through. So I like to just kind of always do like emotion and emotional audit on myself and just kind of figure out what I can handle at that moment and be okay that it might change something that might be a tool. It might actually be a trigger two months later if you're like in a, you know, anxious and insecure state and like don't want to be in your head a bunch. So what are some of the tools you, you ladies utilize like kind of pushing through last year and do you feel like this lighter, brighter state coming through as the world is starting to operate again and maybe more opportunities are coming?
Speaker 2I feel like I've developed tools and methods to calm anxiety without really even knowing that I was doing it. And one of these things would be just laying like , um, on your back on the floor, not even on your bed, on the floor or like if you have marble floors in the bathroom, because I think that when it's cold, it's kinda like would make me feel like I'm waking up again. I'm kinda like, you know, bring that feeling of like being alive or being in my body. And then I would do the tapping like this on my, on my chest. You can do it on your shoulders and you can do it on your, I think, yeah, just like this, but I , um, cause I do EMDR. So , um, even if it's not my therapist doing it on me and my knees or when she does the , um, the eye thing, I think just with a tapping, it's almost like a , I don't know , it has a calming sensation. I don't know . It makes me feel like I'm like breathing better meditation apps, podcasts on mental health. Um, maybe I'll just make a drink sometimes. Maybe that's not a good one, but like, I don't know each other for hours, hours. Um, yeah. And just like really training your thoughts cause it's all in the head at the end of the day. And I think
Speaker 1If you can really like, you know, supervise your thought . Yeah. And similarly, I mean, I , I don't do EMDR, which I need to try it, but I do go to therapy. I personally, it's not right for everyone, but I had to get back on medication this year. Um, just cause it was unmanageable without it. I couldn't do basic functions, like brush your teeth or put the dishes away. So that's when you know, it's , um, something to look into if you've been on it before and something to talk to your psychiatrist about. Um, and then definitely meditation and reading, like really reading a lot of books about , um, the conscious mind and understanding how our brain works. Um, the more I understand how the brain works, the more I'm able to control. And just as Marta said, supervise those thoughts. Uh, occasionally I will use CBD and really having people in my life that I can rely on to be there for me when I do get anxious or I do get depressed such as Marcia . Um , my boyfriend, my sister , um, you know , my mom, just having those people be there like unconditionally for you. And I think it's really important. That's the hard thing about the pandemic is you're not around these people regularly anymore, but even just letting them know even just the phone call or a FaceTime can make such a big difference. Um, and talking through those feelings. Cause sometimes like for instance, I'll call Marta and I'm like, I'm anxious. She was like, she talks me through like what the source is from. And after the call I'm like, okay, I feel better. Like we really like unpacked it and like, and went from being like a bunch of squiggly lines in my head to one straight line and it's like exiting my body. So sometimes I like to draw out my anxiety , um, and put it, you know, draw out where like how it's coming from, where it's coming from and the source and how it's going to leave my body. I've never really shared that with anyone. But I do that sometimes.
Speaker 3Yeah. I mean, I'm kind of blown away by that, as you were saying that I was picturing like the freedom. I could feel doing that exercise one time because there's a lot of things that like, I picture it like layers since we really are the only speech I can have a feeling on a feeling. And so a lot of the times, you know, maybe this like surface this surface level anxiety, if you can just figure out how to like map visually to where it's stemming from. I mean, it's like chipping away at it. I love that. And I'm definitely going to try that. Thank you so much for sharing that.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's weird. Cause it's like, I learn this the way I map it out as like something I learned in marketing class and college , um, kind of when you're mapping out like a campaign when you have the over had campaign and then he has different legs and each one of those areas have different legs to it. Um, but sometimes doing that, you realize, and then from there you can be like, Oh, okay, I need to take each little piece apart. It's like reverse engineering essentially. Um, how you need to get back to equilibrium
Speaker 3And especially like you can kind of figure out, maybe there's some basic things that you can work on, not all heal the anxiety. Um, like there's one I was thinking about the other day, like, especially in depressive States, you know, it's sometimes hard to just like get up and shower and especially in the pandemic there's, there was a handful of times where three or four days would go by and I would obviously like, not feel about myself. And so I just consumed by buying like every single skincare product and like going above and beyond to be like, I'm just going to like, like renew everything. And it's like, okay, all of this is great, but if you don't just get up and shower in the morning every morning, like that's where it's stemming from all that other stuff is amazing. And it's great for self care, but no matter how much of that you do, it's just kind of like trying to escape the , uh, just like that, that fear of needing to get up and just keep going when you have those like paralyzing feelings . So I feel like doing it visually, it would be like a really healthy way to get to those places for like myself and a lot of people and see like, where is this coming from? Like where is this shitstorm of seven layers of chaos in my brain coming from where's the core? And like, how can we just start to get there? And it might take a while , but it'd be more hopeful.
Speaker 1I'll try to do a video of like how I do it and I'll send it to you
Speaker 3Please. I would love to do that. Um, yeah, that sounds like an amazing tool to have in the toolkit for sure. I definitely want to touch on to the mentorship side , um, Marta and how, I mean that like our core at girl gang is women can reach their highest potential together. And so the idea of, you know, someone just like going to bat for you and you would have probably like gotten to those places anyways, it just might, you know, help get you there quicker and meet more people experiencing that on the other side. Do you feel like that helps once you to advocate for other women and like see where you can get them ahead in what you do
Speaker 2For sure. I feel like too to become who I am, I've always looked at people and tried to like do what they do and be how they are. And we minister specially because I am a born female. So I would always like find like, who should I be? Like, who should I, you know, whose career whose life should I like, you know, try to like , um , recreate or I feel like it's always been really important to have these like , um, I call them idols, but it's more than that. It's not like, I don't, it's not like I'm like a S like a pop star or anything like that. It's like someone that feel like really represents you and that you just like, listen, you know, like look up their story and learn from, I like always like Googling people's like , uh , backgrounds and like, how do they get to book that movie? Like, how does she get to get that job? So I always do so much research on that because I feel like you can learn so much from people's stories. And each story is so unique. Um, but I've always found people that will mentor me over my life. Not just as like an at a career level, at a personal level, I'd always find these surrogate parents or surrogate and like , you know , like teachers or whatever they, they role , they would play in my life. And I've always spent so much time with like older people when I was a kid, I'd always think that it was so important to hear the adults out and to be like, okay, I'm young. But like, what if I work ahead and think about as , as if I was an adult already, even right now, like, I've always like tried to like learn more than I should maybe at my age, or like, just absorb as, as much as I could do to process everything faster. I had this idea that I wanted to be a little adult, even when I was like still a kid. And I think having that desire to learn from people that, you know, and you feel no more or can share, you know, insightful things with you. It's just always been very important to me. And even now with my writing, I have this dear friend, her name is Michelle. And she, she wrote this movie that Holly Berry directed her first directorial tribute ever. And when I write anything, I always like , you know , run it by her. And I'm like, cause I'm so shy about my writing because I'm not known for that. Although that's what I went to school for. I always share it with her and you know, just her notes or her vision or her, and every time she has some feedback, it's always very helpful. And it's always like , um, I don't show any piece of writing with it before I show it to her, you know, as anybody else. So I feel like I've always been looking for these, you know, protective, like, you know, bigger figures that can like teach you and guide you through life. So think it is very essential for me. It has been me and I'm sure it can be for , for anybody else.
Speaker 3I love that. Yeah. I think it's really cool to just align with people that you look up to and you aspire to be like in one way or another, and you can kind of, I don't know, just co-create your own existence with people that are already doing things you want to do. Um, so I love that instead of being maybe scared or letting our egos get in the way where it's like, no, I just want to be like the brightest delight in every room or like threatened by other people's success. I've always felt the same way as you. I love learning about people's stories, getting inspired by it, and then just directly even asking them like, how did you do that? That's so cool. And it goes such a long way in it. It just, I feel like it benefits everyone.
Speaker 2People appreciate that because it shows that you're eager to learn and to know, and , and it makes them feel respected. And it's a nice feeling. So I, and I appreciate when people ask me like how I did this or that, and I try to always respond and it can only help. So yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah. I definitely, I think when finding a mentor role models that you can work with, like the best way to do it is to , um, to really make them feel appreciated, make them feel human and not like you're just trying to take something from them. Or, you know, I think sometimes we go to these people and we feel like they're larger than life. And we forget they're , they're only human just like us.
Speaker 2I never thought that about anybody. And maybe that's why I think I get to meet important people because I always think about the person before I think about their job or what they're known for. And most people treat them as like super humans or it's not the right approach.
Speaker 1That's the key, they're human, just like us. And , um, you know, we can learn from each other. I learned from, I know, mentor men. Yeah. My mentors have learned from me and I've learned from my mentees. Like it's not a one-way street for sure right now is a really interesting time. Cause you can literally kind of reshape yourself and rebrand yourself to be whatever you want to be. I think in a way the pandemic has taken away all these like boxes where you need to fit into this box and this box and you can't draw outside the lines even more, even though we shouldn't put ourselves into boxes. And so I think, you know, if you are wanting to change a careers or add parallel careers or projects to what you're doing, it's the perfect time to do so. It's also a great time to test and mess up and to figure out what's working and what's not. So it's definitely a time to , it's a time to take advantage of because even though things are starting to open up, people are still home for work. At least I don't see people like going back to offices yet. Um, at least like in LA and like in California and New York and people are still, you know, y'all are going out to eat and stuff there aren't like big events happening or work trips or anything. So I think it's definitely a time to take advantage of like, if you want to write that book, write that book. If you want to become a content creator, create content. When I start a podcast, start a podcast. If you want to start a new business and build a new community, do that. And there are so many different tools that you can use , um, to , to a reasonable cost online to start those things. And you can AB test and play with things, you know, try things out and start small. If it doesn't work, Hey, you can try something else. This is my motto, throw at the wall until something sticks and something will eventually stick. Yes. I love that. I'm like at this kind of
Speaker 3The last couple of months, only real difference in my professional life has been like, my emails have started trickling in again, which it's not even that crazy. I just feel like it's like, I'm so used to not doing things that even doing a little bit, his I'm just like kind of trying to re-imagine like, wait, who am I? Like, I don't have to approach these things the same way as I did in the past, I can set up boundaries. Like there is a healthy amount of like, I don't know, having that time for yourself. Um, and so I've just called this. I feel like it definitely aligns with what you're saying, Yola. I'm just calling it like my flailing season. I'm just going to kind of flail and see what ends up working out. And if I can like land with both feet on the ground grade, but if I don't, everyone else has so much going on in their life, the last thing they're going to do is be consumed at judging what I tried and didn't succeed at. So, yeah.
Speaker 1And the thing is, is that a lot of times you like what you ended up trying and if it fails, it turns into something else you didn't even think about when you originally started. So it never hurts to try.
Speaker 3Yes. You're not going to get to the destination if you don't take any steps. And it just might be like left and right instead of forward sometimes, or maybe a couple back, but I completely agree. And I think that ego shows up in different ways than one of them, which I really found out the last couple of years is being scared to try things is a version of the ego because you don't want to be looked at as not something working out. But I feel like every time I've done something and it hasn't worked, it's led to the next thing. And it's , it's just led to a much fuller life that actually leads to destinations that are worth it. But you can't like protect yourself from little hiccups and falling over and changing. So , um, yeah, I would say anyone that's listening that has just spent this time doing a lot of reflecting and maybe setting up some awesome goals. Like I feel like now is the time to really take some time with yourself, continue to figure out what your one and just like try some stuff and yeah, exactly what you said, like try the podcast if you love following a bunch of bloggers, but I've always been scared to start one, just like do it. Why not? Um, so I think this can kind of be like, we've been in Caterpillar mode for a while , so I'm would love to see some butterflies come out of this instead of being, you know, scared to scared if it doesn't work out or to be judged.
Speaker 1So absolutely thank you .
Speaker 3You ladies so much for taking the time to chat today. If you can let our listeners know where to find out more about you and where to listen to. I am real.
Speaker 2They can check me out. Mark was on, on Instagram and tick-tock and our podcast . I am real it's available on Apple music and Spotify, and you can connect with me at Yola robber on all
Speaker 1Hot forums . And you can also check out, I suck at life on all platforms as well.
Speaker 3Perfect. And I loved your clubhouse the other day. If anyone's on clubhouse, set your notifications up for Yola as well. I can't wait
Speaker 1Doing so many. It's insane. Clubhouse is another crazy place you should just jump
Speaker 3Into because it's the wild wild West, but it's going to be, I think, a game changer for different industries. Yeah. And you can learn so much. I have just like my notifications set up for all on you. And I'm so inspired by and the one I got to like jump in and listen to the other day was great. So yeah. Um , definitely tune in anyone listening that's on clubhouse and yeah. Anyone on it, that's like signed up and hasn't dabbled in it in general. It's a great place to get inspiration, I think. Um, so yeah.
Speaker 1Thank you so much for tuning in. If you liked this episode, please take a moment to leave us a review. It helps us out so much. Remember to had to grow gang the label.com to redeem your 20% off discount with code girl gang. Take a moment to remind the females in your life that they inspire you and support your local girl gang.
