The Evolution of Entrepreneurship (S9 E2)

On Season 9 Episode 2 of the ShermCast, hosts Vaughn Williams and Liam MacMahon take a deep dive into the entrepreneurial mindset with the help of the Northeastern Entrepreneurs Club Co-Presidents Ivanna Hernández and Frank Isaacson and CEO of IDEA: Northeastern's Venture Accelerator, Izabella Pivo. Join them as they discuss what being an entrepreneur means to them. Learn more about E-Club and IDEA below:
@neu_eclub on Instagram, https://www.nuentrepreneursclub.com/
@ideaneu on Instagram, https://www.northeastern.edu/idea/
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Transcript

0:02

And welcome to Season nine, The Shermcast. We're your hosts Liam McMahon. And Vaughn Williams. In this episode, we've featured a plethora of amazing, talented student entrepreneurs. Today we'll be interviewing the Co-Presidents of Entrepreneurs Club and the CEO of Idea. Let's jump right in. Hello. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with the two co-presidents of the Entrepreneurs Club here at Northeastern University. Ivanna Hernandez is a third year marketing analytics major, and Frank Isaacson is a computer science and business Administration major. How are you both doing today? I'm great. How are you guys doing today? I'm doing well as well. How are you guys doing? I'm good. I think we're doing pretty good so far as Liam. So you guys are the co-presidents of Entrepreneurs Club. And so can you tell the audience a little about what you do? Yeah. And little bit what the club is. Okay. BOTH Yeah. Frank do and stay. Yeah, I Go ahead. Um, so a little bit about what we do for a entrepreneur's club. Um, the president's role kind of depends on the president. And we're the first co-president of the club in a really long time. And what we've chosen to do is really start this initiative of bringing the Entrepreneurs Club to Northeastern's. Other campuses we've seen opened in London become a lot more prevalent within Northeastern with these past couple years there being I think it's like there's trying to keep check, but there's like four different programs signing students over there right now. So we felt that the community of clubs out there really should kind of reflect the community that we see here in Boston and offer the same opportunities to students as well. Yeah, a little bit of introduction about our club. So the Entrepreneurs Club is one of the largest student organizations in Northeastern. We have a lot of active members. We often say around like 2000 active members across like our four programs. We had a lot of fun, like every semester planning and like or programs. Both Frank and I have been in like on board before being president. So we both run the accelerator, which is like your Husky startup challenge. So we have a little bit of experience there as well as like being involved in like community or as BP together a last year as well. So really excited about this upcoming year with what Frank was saying also about like or global expansion of the glove. So I think that is our main emphasis for the upcoming year. Interesting. So I am also one of the 2000 members here on campus. So can you go more to just each of the programs here at Entrepreneur's Club? As you were mentioning earlier. Yeah. Yeah, of course. So I'm going to do two. So first of all, the Huskies are a challenge. I think that is like our biggest program accelerator, as I said before. So this is a six booth Bootcamp six workshop venture accelerator that happens every semester. So we have this structure for everyone that like has an idea that probably already started working on that idea or that wants to like find someone else. And I was like to create a team to like work on this idea over the semester. So we have six boot camps that go all the way through like ideation and then problem based, like identifying your problem, identifying your like target market, identify them, building like your business plan as well as like pitching in. Like we go through like everything. Why framing ourselves so that we go through everything so that ventures can be prepared for them to present and compete at Demo Day, which is our like our final like event of the semester. And like centers can win up to $10,000. So that is like one of our events. Oh, I think that is like definitely a highlight. I can go and talk a little bit more about ambassadors. So Ambassadors is the only one that is application based. So is like a cohort of like 25 to like 30 people. They have three different pillars about like building your personal brand and then like networking or like getting introduced to like the entrepreneurial community in Northeastern. So those three pillars are like the core component of this cohort. And like, it's just like a, a group of people that get together and like, learn about entrepreneurship together. And then I think it's like a great introduction to what are clubs about. So yeah, so like Ivanna was saying, those two are really, really cool programs. Both of us were involved that each one of them actually, and the Husky Startup Challenge was something that we wanted to bring over to the other campuses. Notably, I just wanted to make note of that. And then with the other two programs we have, we have Tuesday speaker series, which I know. Liam, you came to our last one with Stacy Madison stage computer chips. It was a blast and we're looking at one more this semester. But essentially what the program is, is me in about our in charge of that. And it's all about reaching out to these CEOs and founders that you never would think that you'd be able to get in a room talking to you. But we somehow they just respond to our email somehow, thank God. And then we get then we have a fireside chat. And we've had founders such as the founder of Tart come in, co-founder of Venmo, the CEO of Staples, CEO of Coca-Cola. Like these just really huge names come in for a fireside chat. Well, an audience watches and then can ask questions afterwards, which is super cool program. And then we also have finally our Engage program, which is really all about kind of equipping you with the tools you need to whether you want to start a business with these tools or not, really just to fill in your multidisciplinary tool kit. So let's say you want to start a business, be your business. Major Well, we have like Python workshops. If you want to learn some coding, let's say you're software and you want to learn how to manage your finances. We have workshops for that. We we had just had one this past semester, ah, this past couple of weeks. About what was it. Oh notion. Yeah. It was all about building out your notion and kind of maximizing your productivity using this cool tool that we students get for free. We had a notion rep actually come in and talk about Super Cool, The most recent Engage workshop, which is already happened at this point, was with the CEO of Sleep Now, which was a Northeastern University venture. Pretty significant. They actually use Scout for their branding and they would deal with the UFC as a marketing partner, which is super cool. And the CEO of Sleep now came in and he's talking about taking a venture from 0 to 100. So Engage is a really big multi-disciplinary platform where we have a lot of different speakers come in. You're wearing a lot of skills. It's really free for anyone who's interested in learning new things. Know from what it seems like just by being an entrepreneurs club alone, you can take like an idea all the ways, like a conception and a full like prototype or even like a full business as the co-presidents. What is it like juggling these four different programs? Like. Oh, we could not do it with our our board or VP is like in the shadow. Bianca and are two cover ups and they directly oversee like some of these programs what we're working on, like some of the global stuff and then test outreach. And then that's what we did last year. We were co VP's, so we were in their shoes, burned out those programs. But like I said, we have a board about 24 people and they're all super motivated individuals that really make these programs happen with. About them. I don't think our quality would be nearly as good as it is or quantity would be nearly as high as it is either. Yeah. Yeah. And to second that like our team. Not just to mention like directors of like each of the programs, but like our operations team and like our marketing team like, or like our connections team, which is like teams that also make all this event happen and like, they are searching for new speakers in there, like making sure Instagram, it's like super, super cute and like has up to date, like everything as well as like all of our social media. So those two teams in, across all of our board really helpful for those like transition or just like putting this four programs together. Fascinating. So speaking of some of these positions, I was doing some research. It looks like you've both been co-directors of the Husky Startup Challenge before. So what was that experience like being the co-director for the Husky Startup Challenge? We both were co-directors in different semesters. I was co-director spring 2022. It was my second semester of like first year. So it was it was definitely an experience I was. Sabri cited for this role. I work alongside with Carson and Vishnu, who were the other co-directors of The Husky Challenge. It was definitely a learning experience. I was exposed to a little bit of this, like accelerator, like content, and just like getting to know like how to start a gear startup and your venture and like working along with other students, like when I was in high school. So then that was like my only, like background or like experience before taking over like this new accelerator. So definitely learning a lot about the content and then working alongside with other directors to like, really be connected with like the ventures that were going through the cohort, helping them as much as we can, looking for mentorship with them as well as like any other like resources and like other things. Northeastern can help these ventures during like that semester. But, but yeah, how about, how about you, Frank? Mine is interesting because I came in as a venture when I was a second semester. My first year. It was COVID and it was all everything was online. Like all the programing was online. And I came in with a venture idea to the Husky Startup Challenge, despite it being online. Like, I love the energy of it. I thought it was amazing and I loved how real it felt like you really could take your venture from 0 to 1 by the end of it, and I really just wanted to get involved the following semester. So I applied and then luckily I was able to be able to help run it in our first semester in-person back from COVID. So the energy was super high. Like I remember it being just so packed and like the first couple of bootcamps as people were really excited, it was just really nice to get in touch with the entrepreneurial enthusiasm at Northeastern, which you don't really know it's there until you actually come to these events. Then you see it happen because it's on the weekends on a Saturday. And I remember distinctly when I went through it, one of the directors said, like, you guys are all doing something that everyone else is in at the time and you're getting up and going to this room on a Saturday to work on your venture. And that that alone is putting you one step closer to doing what you want to do eventually. And it was that moment that I knew that I really wanted to help others do the same thing and then kind of get that enthusiasm and keep it going. So, yeah, similar expansive honors, but really, really great time helping run the program. Yeah. My gosh. And so I think it's fair to assume both you guys are entrepreneurs and so you guys both have your own ventures on things that you're working on. Um, and you also mentioned that you guys got to interview big CEOs if you guys have any stories, but how do those people inspire you to get up and keep going, even when there might be some like hold ups or like pushbacks? Yeah. Yeah. So I can get started with this one. Um, I'll quote back to actually my talk with Stacy this past week or two. So she was really, really like a great speaker to bring in, mostly because of how real she was. And we noted this afterwards, but it was so nice to see someone talk about how like low the lows can really get in entrepreneurship and hearing about some of the issues she had made and really and how successful she still ended up being despite like how low some of her lows were. It really just made me feel like the lows I've experienced with my startups really haven't been that bad. You know what I mean? Like, I've had some times that I was like, I like I used to own a pottery business and I had some times where people would be like, Oh, I feel like your stuff is priced too much. And for me, that was a low at the time. Then hearing about some of Stacey's lows where she had people's wages to pay for and she had to like really make sure she finds money from somewhere for it. That was really eye opening for me, that I can really do this. And then she did do it. She successfully got out of those issues and then was able to make her Stacy's pita chip company and then continually innovate after that. That was really what pushed me to like really keep working on my own ventures. No, that's a great example. I love that thesis and I'm going to talk about. So last semester I had the opportunity to interview the CEO and founder of Today. Her name is Seward. She was she was such a lovely person. She also talk about, like her experience founding today and like how how the scale of of the restaurant or like the coffee shop increases. So and I think the biggest takeaway that I took from that was her like international perspective. So like she was like an international person getting to the United States from like a completely different reason, not because she wanted to open a coffee shop, but because she wanted to. Be involved in some other industry. So then starting this and really believing on her recipes as well as like everything that she was bringing from like back home, recipes from like her family and stuff like that to that actual coffee shop. And then kind of like bringing that or like combining that to like how she's like sharing it to like the Boston community and how. M She also has like no workers and now she has like to, to increase his scale to like be successful in the United States. I think that was like my biggest take away in like one challenge that probably like international students might have that is like, okay, I want to be an entrepreneur, but like, I want to like also figure it out how I can do it in the United States when I'm, I don't know, probably resources are very different or like some limitations that can happen like along the way. And I think she and she's like working with it and like she has killed it like so far and she's doing so great with her coffee shop all around Boston. And the way that she was talking about, like expanding into like other locations and like how, how even though she's like increasing that scale, she's always referencing back like the story that she wants to say or like the back to home feeling that she wants to, like always have across like all her coffee shops. So definitely that. So speaking of going international, it's time to go back to entrepreneurial club expansion, to London, Oakland. So how is that process been overall so far? Oh, my God, yes. Not super excited. We started with all this process. I think that was like our main position when we both got like the position of being co-presidents over the summer has been a lot of work working together, a lot of meetings, a lot of meetings. It me and Frank, a lot of meetings with administration too, with Mosaic, just to like plan this out in the right way and so that everyone can can be like helpful to each other and we can have all the resources like ready as well as like resourcing or like recruiting new people. That will be like part of our team in this new different locations, which I think was like the most challenging part of it, because all these students are in like first year, they're incoming students. They had never been on campus, but then they're super excited and they want to applied to like run the student organization. And it's like the first time that the student organization is going to be on campus. So like, definitely having those interviews was super interesting. Getting to know them a little bit better, getting to know the why they wanted to join Eklavya like why they wanted to like start a club in this two campuses. Super excited about how things are going so far. And yeah. Yes, kind of on top of that, something that we that took most of our planning actually was kind of figuring out how each club might look different in these other areas. And that's mostly up to our conclusion Wise ended up being it's mostly after the board's been selected out there because we want them to completely own it in each of the different colleges because, I mean, there probably will be a time once we hopefully the club expands to whatever campuses Northeastern chooses to expand through in the future. And for one, that would be kind of not being able to be maintained by a normal college student running like a multinational club. That seems absurd. And to it's like it's these it's a great learning experience for these freshmen coming in to get to be able there for us to be able to provide resources to them, to be able to start something from scratch is huge and their culture is going to be different too, than Boston. Like what works out here might not work as well in Oakland or London, and they know better than we do what's going to end up working out there because they're they're in touch with the people that actually go to school there. So the culture there is going to be a little different. We want to emphasize that like E Club, Oakland, Boston and London are each their own. They're under the club umbrella, of course, but they're all just different aspects of it. So it's it's going to be super interesting over the next semester or two. They're going to see how they evolve and change the club brand. And I think adding to like the point of Frank was saying, we're thinking about how our club was going to be unique, unique in both locations. So we were like, which programs we want to start with? Which programs are the ones that make a club stand out? And that is something that we were talking about before, which is like our Husky Star challenge. That is our Venture X litter eater, something that we have been working on like a lot of years like before. So like we know that that is like something that kind of like is unique of each club. So that was like a huge part of the plan, like to launch this program like in two different locations and like for them to then tweak it for them to then add an update like our content and figuring out which industries are the most appealing ones in each of those locations, either like tech or health or like anything that they want to add speakers that they want to embed or like stuff like that. But like, just like making unique things. Like we're already trying to like empower like the new students coming in. What would you tell, like a freshman and entrepreneur club which are going to get their business from, let's say, idea to prototype? Like, what's the advice to you give them? I think the biggest advice that we tell people when they come in to like the Husky setup challenge, for example, first of all, if you come into an idea of the Husky startup challenge, we usually challenge them to rethink it. Think about the root cause of the problem that you're trying to solve in the first place and really focus on making sure that it solves an actual problem that exists out there for people other than maybe yourself, especially if you're trying to eventually monetize it. That's like step number one. And then step number two is something we also emphasize throughout our bootcamps is really utilize Northeastern resources while you're here. Like we think the set of challenges is great because it kind of prepares you for life after in terms of educating you on the idea, ready, stage set, go and where to go after that. Using Scout for design, generate for help with hardware and product development. Like all these different tools within Mosaic, the husky of times is a great kind of launch pad to really connect you with all these different resources and provide you with the advice you need to really take your venture to the next level. And we really emphasize starting with a really rock solid foundation because it's so much easier to change your product when you have a really good problem you're solving because like if your entire product is focused on one small little detail and then and then you find out that details aren't really needed, then you're left with. Much, nothing as opposed to if you're really focused on a problem and let's say that one detail goes away, you're like, all right, how else can I approach this problem? And you have really some solid ground to stand on. Yeah. And I will add to that. How is your idea unique? Like, you know, I think that is like also something that we emphasize in the Husky staff challenge that is like, yes, but like, what are you what is that something new that you are proposing? Why is your idea unique compared to everything else? And I will also add communication as in like you can have the best idea, but like how are you communicating that? How are you telling other people in the easiest way? What are you working on? Because like, yes, as I was saying, you can have the best idea or not, but like the way that you communicate that to others or like the way that you create a community that is like getting to know your venture or like something that that can be can be something that can be like a very important thing throughout like your venture process. Yeah. I love the prioritization of innovation. Like, I just love seeing something new and I love that you guys are imbuing that in to future entrepreneurs. Ask her something really interesting. I said, you use Generate, which is a Sherman Center program, How is the Sherman Center and generate helped Entrepreneur Club with the Husky staff? How have they helped them with their startup? Yeah. Yeah, of course. So it's something that we do or we promote a lot in our Husky Saab challenge is that after that they can definitely apply to be a client in and generate that brings them a lot of like excitement to like start working on their project and have like an idea like set by the end of our program so that they can start building it or they can start like working on it. But as well they know that they can use the north-eastern resources such as standard to have their idea or like to work a little bit more on it. We often have like speakers or like speakers board members from like generate on our or workshops as well to like have like different classes or like workshops about like different skills that we want to like also share with the Husky Surf Challenge cohort. So that is like a great collaboration that we have been doing with. Yeah. Other than that, it's pretty much just been kind of shooting ideas back and forth. But there are board like I remember I talked to Josh Bashar a lot, the last, um, director of Generate and then I'm not, I've not talked to Ryan a bunch just about different strategies and different ideas we have about how we can get more hardware ventures going on, software ventures and just that ideation has just been huge because there's such a really good product focused organization. And then, yeah, they've been invaluable in helping us in terms of speaker support and then helping us really get that kind of technical aspect injected into that startup challenge. That shout out generator, shadow generator. I think it's really important to use the resources here in Northeastern to your advantage, like Generate, for example, our Entrepreneurs Club with the Tuesday Speaker series, just to hear from someone who's been in the position you want to be in to hear what they've done well, what they've done wrong, so you can learn from their mistakes and you can adjust based on that. Or if it's engaged, just learn about useful products and tools that could help you in entrepreneurship Journey or Husky Startup to actually put in the steps to action. Because most people just have an idea that you just want to talk about, but then they don't actually take the steps or action to put that into place. And speaking of like the ultimate put into place, can you go more detail about Demo Day for the Husky Startup Challenge? Yeah, absolutely. So this is our really culminating event of every semester. So it's a semester of the event and it's really the culmination of the hard work that all the ventures have put in throughout the Husky Startup Challenge. We currently have eight ventures that pitch on Demo Day in the Currie Ballroom every semester with an audience of usually about 300 people. That's that's max capacity. So that that's really all we can fit in there. That's a good amount. A good amount of people. Yeah. So we do that. We usually get food and stuff, but it ends up being adventures pitching in front of everyone. There's a great tabling portion beforehand where ventures that audition maybe, but their ventures weren't quite ready for the demo stage yet. As well as other Mosaic organizations get a chance to table and really tell people about either what the organization does or what their startup does and get some good early customer feedback, their ideas and everything. Even the demo day pitching ventures also have the table as well before Demo Day begins. But then once they get into pitching, it's all in order and then they go one by one and there's a bunch of awards going on, one of which is the audience favorite. So if you come to Demo Day, you can actually help allocate the awards. It's $500. Everyone votes on their favorite pitch of the night. And then besides that, we also have the go to award, which was new, I believe, last year, which goes to the venture that really contributed the most to the cohort as in help, the other help, the other ventures out, the most really displayed entrepreneurial spirit and grit throughout the program. And on top of that, we also have the Social Media Challenge Award where we have benches get the opportunity to create a social media like TikTok or Instagram, reel them a post it. You might have seen it before, and whoever gets the most likes comments ends up receiving this award at the end and a lot of fun and talk about the rest of the awards as well as the rest of them on day. Sure looks like I was like thinking about the other awards. But yeah, of course we have a first, second and third place. I think the the amount of money has been changing. Brad I think is a 4040. 500. Refers. For first and then we have. 20 500%. Yes. Amazing. Yeah. No, it's it's a lot. And there's also eight people, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Eight ventures. Yeah. So it's eight ventures. We have six prizes. So it's kind of like, like a really good opportunity there as far as like, who gets the prizes. So our judges are people that have like experience and B.S. professors, so it's all external people. So like, I think that is like what also makes a difference in like the evaluation of this competition, because it's not it's like a little bit outside of like, just like people from the Entrepreneurs Club deciding who wins, but more like this exposure to like the ventures for other people to hear about their ideas. A lot of these ventures often get like, I don't know, comments or like contacts from like investors that attended the event and they can have like huge opportunities like afterwards after like Demo Day because like this investor was like walking around and like, suddenly, like. You just pitched to him and like or to her and like, it's just like, oh, like you get their contacts and like, a lot of opportunities can come after that, so. So that is is a huge a huge to think about that. But yeah. Taking those notes down to so I can remember them for demo day. You know what is it like. It seems like so we have the ideation. Yeah. Do we have actually building the product and now we have funding. It's like all encompassing and I think that's really amazing. But just to touch on you a little, how has. How's Entrepreneur Club influenced you on your own personal ventures, like with Co-op or possible future job opportunities? Yeah, of course. Yeah. So I will probably talk a little bit more about like my car experience and like probably live my professional career in the future. So Interviewers Club has really bring this like confidence or like communication skills as well as like networking and getting to know a lot of people that is very passionate about working on their own venture as far as like, yeah, getting to know people, getting to know someone else that has been like in a position that probably like I will want to be like in the future. So like this connection to have, like had the opportunity of me talking to like CMO's and is like that is great for me because like I am a marketing analytics concentration as we were saying. So like right now I'm trying to discover, so I like to be this like data driven and more like technical side of marketing, but as well as like adding a little bit of like a creative side to it. So to right now I'm a co-op at Wayfair, I'm in the merging search, so it's like underpaid search and we do a lot of like performance metrics and like looking at our like search browsers and like channels where we're for people's ads like to be there. So so yeah, I think, I think definitely like the networking part of like being part of E Club has helped me a lot to like get to know different experiences and get to know or have a lot of advice to like, what do I want to do, like in the future? Yeah. Yes. So for me it's been I'm much more, I would say like started for like I eventually want to start my own business and that's been my goal probably for a while now. And I think that first of all, the enthusiasm is just like crazy, like the energy. The energy is infectious, I think, at all of our events. And that's why I like I keep going to them, not because I have to, but because I love going to events and I wouldn't help with them on if I didn't love going to them. So my past professional experience has been entirely software based. I've done a couple of co-ops in it, and I've really grown to love it being a builder and really building things and especially building from scratch. In fact, at my last copper WOOP, well, I worked there. So one group is like notoriously known for their startup culture, and once I got there, I found this was entirely true. I'd get there at nine and five would come. Not a single soul would get up and it'd be like, like another half hour at least before someone got up, which was a shock because my first call was complete remote, so completely different cultures. But being any club, I had that enthusiasm to just keep going and that drive. And I loved the fact that everyone is so into their work there and you got so much responsibility. And then besides that, I worked at a startup as a software engineer, just a three person team while I was at WOOP. And that enthusiasm I get from going to eco events really kept me going in terms of when things got rough. I'd have a rough day at work and then to come back work some more on a startup. But then the energy just kept me going. That was, I think the biggest thing is seeing people bring their ideas to life is so inspiring to me that it makes me want to continue on with my own ventures, my own passions and that type of thing. And it's it's really incredible. Like the Huskies boot camps, I think are the number one source of inspiration for me these days. Or great to hear all of the things that you two have accomplished so far and will do in the future. So you guys have been just so enthusiastic about the entrepreneur's Club Husky sort of challenge all these events. So what made you actually want to decide to become co-presidents and take that next step up besides just like being an entrepreneur as club to actually managing and leading it? That's a really good question. We talked a bit about this while we were VP is kind of helping operation the club go well, but we really felt like there was a a distinct absence of this community that is an entrepreneur community and these other colleges, at least from what we had heard, and we really felt like we had developed a really strong foundation here in Boston and we wanted to be able to share the wealth with these other college campuses and hearing more and more about it. And we really felt like we were the right people to do this. So it's really more about seeing an opportunity, seeing like a problem is basically very entrepreneurial. I would say looking back on it, we saw a problem and then we we saw that we were in a good position to fix it. And we both had grown to love like the club after working at it for the past two years or so. So yeah, I was pretty natural for us to want to work together again and then pursue this global expansion. Yeah, I think like it definitely said that like startup feeling like we wanted E Club, we knew that like Eco has been here for almost like 13 years. So like the student organization has like, hasn't a lot of history in like everything that we have done and like how we have been building our programs. So we wanted to go a little bit back and like act as a startup, like let's do let's change things up, let's let's expand it. Let's think about like new things that can be implemented to. To the club. So that was definitely something that that was like at the beginning as like our plan. We work really hard over the summer for this to happen. And then now seeing or like talking with our aim with the teams in this two other campuses and is like is so nice to see how this is like working of course is a learning process. Like it's always a learning experience. Like there's some things that we don't know and that they don't know. So like we are really hoping that this entrepreneurialism community can grow step by step in this other campuses so that we can like overall see like a growth like by the end of like this year or something like that. But that and also I think you were like asking about like the difference in between like probably like running some of the programs when we were like vice presidents. So it was like, I think our role really change in like the vision of our club. So like we were really focused on like each of the programs and like making them run and making them probably a little bit of like different from semester to semester. But and now being co-presidents together, we were able to like see the big picture. We're able to now speak like what each club should like, have or what should we change? Or like now we have that time where like that vision to like, be like, okay, let's now do collaboration with this or like that's now look for, I don't know, more sponsors, more like investors for like our ventures or like new opportunities that like our club is definitely capable to do so. So yeah, it's been really fun. So how have you been trying to find these investors, these sponsors, to take Entrepreneurs Club to the next level? Oh, great question. So basically, like email, I would say, as well as a lot of networking events. So probably you all know, but like there is a lot of like networking hours happening like around Boston, like constantly, like probably like every week or so. And if you don't know, definitely like Google it and like some sort of like group can like pop up there. I think it was like since we were like both vice presidents, we really like to go to this type of events. And so like, we will go and they will, will talk to like a lot of people that are working, like in different companies, in like different interests, but they were all looking towards startups or like how like venture capital or like stuff like that. So then just making those connections and like there's always one person that knows another person that might be interested in helping. So like, I think just like talking a lot about our club in this type of like networking events as well as like email has been really helping a lot. Yeah, I can kind of see that. It's mostly been called. That is one of the biggest things I think people underrate. I mean, that's how we get to the speaker series speakers as well. It's just called outreach. And then really talking about the message of our club, looking at other clubs that have successfully raised pretty well and gotten pretty good funding, like Women who Empower has really, really strong funding and they really like good investors, people that are super interested in their mission. I think we've kind of following that blueprint is what we're looking at doing. My gosh. And I think I think for a lot of students, cold outreach would seem it's like intimidating, especially like for me as a journalist, I'm always like cold, outreaching people trying to get their contact information all the time. So it's not about something good about like Rubio for talking about. But for me, I think cold, cold averaging is very important for career advancement because I think people should be empowered to go for what they want. And what you guys want are these big people that are have that were entrepreneurs and are doing great and like the economy right like that. And I think it's very inspiring what you guys are doing. I think it's very impressive, like the repertoire, the the level that this call has grown to. So before we end our episode, we would like to ask you guys, I think this a very good question for the Co-President Entrepreneur Club, but it could be a loaded question. What does being an entrepreneur mean to you guys? That's a really good question. And it's really funny because we asked this actually on our like we already had to answer this once before on the application to get on board the Entrepreneurs Club. So we were. Question Or interviews. Yeah. Exactly. So for this guy, I have answered this question, but that was also four years ago. So but I think it's really evolved for me over the past four years since I've initially it was all about like starting your business, going out on your own. It's become more of a mindset for me now in terms of there's no like task that you're about. First of all, like there's nothing, nothing too small for you to do. Nothing too big either, is the most important part is if if you work at something enough over and over again, it will eventually come come to fruition, I think. And being an entrepreneur pretty much embodies that. Is working on what you're passionate about, what passion project you're building, what I any idea you have? It could even be wanting to like, learn how to play the guitar. If you do a little by little every single day. That's what being an entrepreneur means to me is like taking the time out of your day when you could be doing something else, you could be going out on the town or whatever. But what you're doing is you're spending time on your passion projects and you're chipping away at it day by day. You don't have to sacrifice your entire life. I'm not a huge fan of the whole grind set thing. It's kind of blown up, but I think you can maintain a pretty good balance and just do a little bit every single day to work towards your goals. And I think to me personally, that's a being an entrepreneur means to me is really taking my own passions as a priority for me and not just not just letting it come to me, but like taking it like really going for it on my own and knowing that if I continue to work at it, it will it will occur. Oh, my God. You took a lot of words that I was going to say that were good. I also answered this question probably like a couple of years ago for for Ecolab and for the interview and everything. But I think I'm going to mix and match from what I answered before. For me, I always think when I think about entrepreneurship, I think about this like or like question that is like, why not? You know, it's like having this like, why not like mentality in like, what can go wrong? Like, you know, if you try new things, if you expose yourself to like, learn about new things, learn about new skills or like follow that thing that you're very passionate about. You never know what is going to happen if you don't try it. So for me, it's like three different things I would say. Of course, being passionate about working on something, being authentic and like share your story and like share that uniqueness that you have in your idea or like in that thing that you're working on. And as well as commitment, as Frank was saying, I think is like a combination of this three words that is like, okay, what does that really mean to you? Or how are you going to like apply that to something that you're working on? And this can be like something that is attached to like, like your background, like your story, like bringing your story to life. I will also say that. And but yeah. You both bring great perspectives on what it takes to be an entrepreneur. So for the audience, what does Entrepreneur's Club have planned next for the rest of the semester here in Boston and just in general. To make sure to shout out your guys to social skills first. What's coming out for clubs? So we're really excited because of course Demo Day at the end of the semester, but we're also planning with what the Connections Team. A It's planning this like big event for builders. Like the emphasis of this is like for Builders Connect all the older people that is working on something or that will want to work on something is like a day event with like collaboration with other like student organizations. So keep an eye out for that. In our Instagram, we normally do in our Instagram at any you underscore club, we post one like post every week that has like the information of everything that's going on over that week. So like just to make things more like organizing and everything. But definitely you look out for that freedom of day. That we're hoping to squeeze one more test in the semester depending on room availability and whatnot. Of course, got to have the best rooms for our speakers and they were super excited for that this semester. And also board applications are going to come out sooner rather than later. So would keep an eye out for that if you're interested in really getting involved. And then we also continually have our community meetings once a month. You ever curious about how to become a member of your club? People always are. We have meetings once a month where you can come in, really get to know the community. And our second one of the semester was this past week and then our next one is going to be, I think, the end of October, beginning of November. And I think to follow up and like the app like applications being open also, if you're someone that is like going to Oakland or going to London, please reach out to us. There's definitely like opportunities for that. So definitely DMS or just like talk to someone from me. Oh my gosh. Absolutely inspirational. You guys were phenomenal. Thank you so much for being here. Glad to have you both on the podcast. That was Frank and he via from the Entrepreneurs Club, The Co-Presidents. Make sure to check them out. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All. Bye, guys. Right now, we have the pleasure of interviewing Izabella Pivo. She's the current CEO of the Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Accelerator, also known as IDEA, which is Northeastern University's official venture Accelerator. She's also a business administration and communications major here at Northeastern University. Additionally, she also founded the time management app known as Peace of Mind. How are you doing today, Bella? Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing pretty good, you know. Been a long day, but a lot of fun for tabling at the entrepreneurship fair that happened on Cranston Claude today. It was all of the mosaic orgs and entrepreneurship related type of organizations that also help Northeastern affiliates. And we were just, you know, trying to spread our reach to the community. So what were you tabling for? Just to go a little bit in the depth about that. Yeah, I was obviously tabling for idea. Just explaining to people how to get involved in the process, what being involved in the process really means, telling people that it's a really low barrier to entry to get into idea. Like, you don't even need to have an idea. You just want to have that drive to want to solve a problem that's in the world, you know? And that's what really, I think catches people is that they realize, Oh, you can help me come up with an idea. So I love trying to table that more than like, obviously we have a really great process and a lot of great resources. But I think what scares people is the fact that they don't have an idea yet. So just being able to tell people that there's resources here for you, for if you don't have an idea or if you do have an idea. Speaking of idea, what is it like being the CEO of idea and all the things that go into that? Yeah, it's it's definitely been something unexpected for me personally. I was actually not on the board for idea before becoming CEO. I was very heavily involved with the entrepreneur's club and as you mentioned, previous startup, which is no longer working because Chachi Beattie and I decided to take over. But yeah, I had that venture. But yeah, it's kind of been like an outsider kind of coming in. But there are a lot of from like a venture perspective that I did, I was a venture. There were things that I really wanted to focus on, like the community aspect of things like how were the Ventures talking to one another, how are they getting acclimated to the resources and letting each other know that these exist? And also the educational part of being a venture. I feel like we have a lot of good resources, but there was no way to track kind of that progress to see if founders were learning in a sense. So it's definitely had its stressful points, but it's really rewarding because I do get to help take someone's idea and, you know, mold like a bottle of clay and help them pursue it even further. And like my favorite part about it that I didn't realize that I loved about it was seeing people get excited that they feel like they are not like, empowered, like, you know, to actually actively do something. They came in thinking that they couldn't. And then, you know, we talk to them and we brainstorm, maybe workshop a little bit and they're like, Oh my gosh, I can actually do this. So that's definitely been like my favorite part of the day to day, but also being like a third year and it also typically being a role that's for fourth and fifth years. It's kind of like, oh, a little imposter syndrome being like, Yeah, the joke that I kind of make is like CEO title before, you know, legally allowing to have my first drink, right? Like it's I'm only 20. So it's kind of like, do I have the ability to. Teach, quote unquote, teach people about entrepreneurship because I don't have like a business of my own. But I'm getting over that because I'm being able to see that the things that I tell people or get them in contact with does help them. So I know that my impact is definitely there. Interesting. What is he? Twitter imposter syndrome. And I think entrepreneurship like the original idea. There's a very like, grind set mentality. How do you handle preparing your mental health to be able to create your own business? How do you like imbue that to the people you're helping? Yeah, thank you. I love this question because I've been talking about it a lot and I think it falls along a lot with social entrepreneurship. I think the pandemic really showed a lot of people that there is imposter syndrome, that they may not be as confident as they thought they were, but also that they're in jobs that they don't really like. And so I think that's something the pandemic has really helped with is value alignment. So I think when it comes to being a founder, when you're really passionate about what you're working on and if it's a problem that you're like, No, this is a legit problem. Like I'm facing it. I know people who are facing it. I know that there's a need for this. It feels like, I guess like less daunting because you're super passionate about what you're building and usually your passion is similarly aligned to your values. So I would say like making sure to be aware and really aligned and stick to what your values are are super important. I think that a lot of people are I've heard the phrase of like filling your cup, right? If you try to like fill someone else's cup, but your cup is empty, it's like, what are you pouring from? You know, so I always try to really emphasize to people, fill your own cup first, like you're not going to be the best founder you can be. If you are not feeling your best, you are probably not going to be in a good headspace. And also, when you go to expand your team, you're not going to be a good leader if you're not really prioritizing your mental health and you're not being self aware. Granted, peace of mind did try to solve that. Like people aren't super self aware and like we don't take time for ourselves. So the problem still exists because I hear college students not being able to do that. It's just my personal solution was not the best I found out later. But I would say really align with your values and realize that it's infecting more than just you. It's also the people around you when you become a founder, amongst other things in life. My gosh, Fascinating. I love that. Oh, my gosh. So speaking of the peace of mind, I've been now working out. So how was it like trying to adjust from like your first previous venture idea not working and then trying to move on and learn from that to help improve and move on to some bigger things? Yeah, funny story about like finding out that peace of mind was not going to work. This is poor competitor analysis on my part because I was fully convinced that Google calendar did not have this feature. It was basically like trying to take a task that you want to do multiple times a week and finding that like one hour or 30 minute time. BLOCK Multiple times in your calendar was a ton of other extensions like that. But Google Calendar used to have this feature no longer exists. They took it away, by the way, and it was called scheduling. And so I was driving home from San Francisco back down to L.A., and I see that Google Calendar has this feature and I go, Oh, no. Like, this is peace of mind. I'm finished. And then at that point I was like in second round of like generate interviews and like kind of like a week later, I didn't get accepted as a client. And so I was personally like very upset because having this breakdown. And so I was very upset about that. And I think granted, like as any founder, you're very protective of your baby because especially as a first time founder, you think it's going to like blow up. Newsflash rarely does it ever. But I had to learn that that's important. Like pivoting is important and I had to recenter myself and say, No, I'm not trying to create a solution. I'm focusing on a problem, not a solution. So I shouldn't be upset that the solution didn't work out because the problem still exists. It just needs to pivot into a different solution. Have I found a solution that works? No. I use a little bit of Chatty Beauty to help with like personal stuff. Like, Hey, I need to have a fitness routine. What do I do? I do that, but kind of putting away my ego at the same time of like, not pursuing this, I became a H.S. husky sort of challenge co-director. And so I really focused my efforts on entrepreneurial education and trying to get people to go through like because I knew what it was like to have your idea completely shattered and like kind of was like, I don't want to do entrepreneurship. I made it a point to make sure that other founders that I interacted with didn't get into that mindset because I was like, No. What I learned from this process was so much more important than like the actual startup itself. And so I use the framework of being like pivoting, knowing that your first idea is not the best idea. I use that as a framework moving forward. And then I think naturally through having that entrepreneurial spirit, it just led me to idea CEO in some weird, crazy way. I think. So. I think just being able to own up to it, being quote unquote, like it's not a failure, it's just a lesson, which is also really important. That kind of perspective I think, is really good to have. So definitely changing my perspective, realizing that like one door closes, another one opens. I'm only full of the cheesy lines today, but like, really all of these things have been crucial to me and like, however it best makes sense for you. What works for me is not going to work for. Q But I think that just being able to. Like, let myself, you know, be humbled, like, be humble. My idea wasn't a great idea, and that's fine to admit to. And just getting back to my values, I really am strong on my values. Carry that through me as I continue. I think that's so important to tell the young people, especially entrepreneurs, are pretty much anything. Odds are you're not going to get it on your first try. And it's what really, like, separates people is who is able to get back up and start over and try again. Right. And so you've been describing to us entrepreneurship as more of a mindset. So I think the question we have to use, what is entrepreneurship to you? How would you describe it? I also love this question. Entrepreneurship to me is about finding problems in the world and then making impactful solutions. Like, granted, people always come up to me and be like, Well, what about the use of just some random board game? Okay, great. Like that's fine. Like, yeah, you'll go ahead and like, yeah, make it because you can also make demand like, you know, like. Granted, it's a lot harder. But I think that what a lot of people miss in entrepreneurship is that it's looking at a problem, seeing how many people are experiencing that problem and taking that problem like one bit at a time. Personally, I always go back to social entrepreneurship. Like I feel like where my drive for entrepreneurship comes from the social aspect of things. So looking at the United Nations sustainability development goals and innovating in those areas like one bit at a time. To me those are really large scale problems, but they are impactful to like the rest of society, just working towards the common good. Being problem oriented is the first and foremost thing. It shouldn't be about like, how can I get on Shark Tank the pasta sauce? Or like, how can I be the next unicorn? Like, it's definitely not that an entrepreneurial mindset applies more than just to creating your own business. It comes to like if you're a content creator, for example, like you want to be one, you're constantly testing your audience. That's the same thing as testing a market. So you have to make new content. Maybe this content doesn't work, pivot, or like, you know, let's say you're working, I don't know, like health. And health care. I have very little. Knowledge in healthcare. But like obviously if something about working for a patient like you have to pivot, like all bodies are different. So if a medication is not working for someone, you got to pivot. It's not a full on your abilities as a doctor or whoever. You just it just doesn't work for this person and that's fine. So I think that pivoting mindset and constantly being like, you know what? If a problem arises, I trust myself to know how to find a solution. That's that's what that is to me, entrepreneurship, Absolutely. Especially with like testing social media content as well, because you're going to not find things that work out at first, like you're just not going to be good at producing content. You need to figure out what your audience actually wants to see, see what content's performing well and doesn't. And then it just based on those needs. And speaking of social media, you have quite a bit of the TikTok following over a hundred thousand followers. So can you tell us how you're used to talking to social media in general to help you with your endeavors? Oh, my gosh, thank you for this question. You guys did research. Okay. Put me on the spot here for this. Okay. I am verified on TikTok. How that started, I feel like is actually very entrepreneurial. So how it all starts. I taught myself American Sign Language in sixth grade because my sister's hard of hearing and my nieces and nephews have learning disabilities and the visualization of like the alphabet and words helps them learn better. So I learned from my family. And then I realized that there was no ASL program in my middle and high school, started a club from there. And then I started posting to social media because my club was like, Hey, we have these weekly meetings, but we have no way to see the videos that are like the things that you're teaching us. Can you post it to social media? And at first I was very against it because I think I used to think that social media was toxic. But two sides to every coin, right? It can be good. It also can be bad. Everything in moderation, including moderation, as I would like to say. So I yeah, I started posting on there and then it naturally blew up. So I think it was really just a happy accident of how things happened. And then I realized slowly that, oh, like, oh my gosh, this is getting a lot of attention. I can use this like for, for good. I always was upset by influencers who, like started the trends of like, you have to look this way, you have to be this way. I never really bought into that. I think that like, authenticity is really key. And so I think when it comes to like a social media following, it hasn't been on entrepreneurship, but I think that there is a lack of real ness, quote unquote to say in like social media. I think that something that I heard recently is something called like really debility fatigue, which is where when influencers get really popular, they start becoming unrelatable. So then they lose their audience naturally because they just transition until like a more quote unquote, celebrity lifestyle. And so I think that there is a huge need for more like, relatable social media people. And so I've tried, I've played with the idea, haven't actually, like gone to posting it of like educating people from non business backgrounds of like how to be an entrepreneur and kind of shifting away the mindset of like grinding and hustle culture to be more of like, you know, do something for the sake of creating like create because you want to create like do this because it feels good to you, like solve a problem because you're experiencing it. I feel like social media has taught me a lot, like when it comes to entrepreneurship in general and it is very entrepreneurial. I just always get like really the fear of being seen. Ironically. Idea CEO Right. It's like I and then I'm like, What if I can podcast, right? So it's like, how do you do that? Yeah, so. I'm playing with. But it's definitely I've learned probably the most lessons from social media, and I feel like I use the entrepreneurship skills I got through Mosaic and then also like what social media, like together has really taught me a lot, but it's something that I really use to my advantage now. It's just helped me when it comes to guiding startups. I mean, obviously I can also help with like a marketing campaign, so that's helped a lot to know. What is it? Younger Bella was also like what you said you saw the problem with lack of access to ASL learning, so you created a solution which was teaching people and then you blew up and saw the form and you executed it to perfection essentially. I think so. I think my next question is how has being the CEO of IDEO changed or strengthened some of the ideas you have around entrepreneurship? Yeah, I think it's something that I constantly learn every single day. It's always something that I'm like thinking about. I feel like I learn from the ventures, like every day, Like they teach me something new every day. So, like, I guess. Moving forward as like idiocy. You know, I've tried to be more towards interdisciplinary backgrounds. I think that a lot of a lot of people have really great ideas, but they think that starting a company is like only for business people. And I'm like, That could not be farther from the truth. I created kind of an explanation to say, and there's people that are operators and there's people that are experts, operators, or those are who are business people. They're studying business. They know how to make a revenue model like they know how to go to market. They can do all that strategy stuff and scaling. But people who are what I call experts are students that are studying like theater, environmental science, like pre-med, pre-law, every other major. That is not business. And to me they're called experts because they are in the industries and are experiencing problems. Business people typically, you know, go into consulting finance. Granted, there are problems that exist there. But if you want to make a business that's like in health care as a business person, you're probably not going to find a problem because you're not working in health care. So I think it's extremely crucial for these two groups to join. And so I think that for me, I've tried to shift away from the typical entrepreneurship buzzwords and gear it more towards like low barrier to entry things. And so I think that changing the words that we use in entrepreneurship, in how we describe it has helped a lot of people come from interdisciplinary backgrounds and they're like, Oh, you're right, I didn't know that this research could be scalable. That's like, Yeah, it could be. So I think that where I personally used to think where entrepreneurship was strictly business, people are like those who are just money hungry. It's changed from me interacting with these people who are like, you know, environmental science and they are like, I'm super into policy. And I think that we can change some things when it comes to like building a business, like bunch of different things. So it's definitely changed by just talking to people in my role. Then it's a great perspective of especially trying to get more people into the space of entrepreneurship. So we are doing some more research and we found the whole prize foundation. So tell us about that. What made you decide to bring that to Northeastern? Oh, this is another great story. Thank you so much. Yeah, so the whole prize. But I got an inbound from somebody and he was like, Hey, the whole prize global social entrepreneurship thing. I see that you're involved in entrepreneurship at Northeastern. Got to get involved. And so I kind of just like get on a chat with him. After the chat, he's like, I would love to make you campus director. And I was like, okay. And I was like, Sure. Like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And also, like, keep in mind, I brought the whole prize last semester, but I started working on it a little over a year ago, like in, like August. And so at this point, I had no idea what social entrepreneurship was. I was like, No social work in business, totally separate. I get it. But then when this came along, I was like, Oh, no way. So yeah, for those of you who, like, don't know what the whole prize is, it's a global social pitch competition with the end goal of $1,000,000 granted to a startup. There are six startups. If the first place gets 1 million, the runner ups get 100 K. So even if you're just like one of the six startups, not a bad paycheck, guys. It goes on for an entire year. But different chapters are set up in different universities across the world. So there's over 2000 on campus programs with over 150,000 mentors, and it's a huge entire network. It's also supported by Bill Clinton. He's usually like the keynote speaker. So I realized that there's some social entrepreneurship initiatives here on campus, but it's not super huge because the student body and the rest of the world, I think is still under the impression social work and business are separate. So the whole prize was something that I saw a lot in the Northeastern community where I was like, No, people are interested in social work. Like we are a very like liberal school and I know that a lot of us care about, like, you know, whether that just be like sustainability or even just like social justice issues, we all care about them. And so there was no way for people to work on a business to solve these problems. There were just people who were talking about them and they were like, Yeah, when I go to be a lawyer, like, I'm going to solve like this, this and this, and I wish that people would start sooner. And so I brought the whole prize in Northeastern and I ran it last semester and it became a world Program of the year nominee, one of five programs and also one of five nominees for best regional program in North America. And we did get second place. There is no there's no like certificate officially for that. But like they did, they did tell us. And so woo I was at the I was in Paris, France, September 22nd at the global finals meeting. A ton of different people from literally all over the world to hear about these social issues. So I then started the Sustainable Innovation Network also stands for Sin. The catch line is to help students create for profit for impact companies that make less sin in the world. And so we're bringing the whole prize back to campus bigger, better than ever. And hopefully we either win World Program of the year or regional program of the year. But yeah, that pitch competition will also be for that $1 million to see if you can be a startup that represents Northeastern. The theme this year, which was just announced, is unlimited, which means you can innovate in any sustainable development goal. And come up with a startup idea within that. And pitch for Northeastern. And then you might be selected to represent us on a global scale, which is really cool. Yeah. So that final pitch competition is coming in February, February 24th. Exactly. Yeah. Like, yeah, that's that's the whole prize sucking year, I guess, or second semester going to be run on campus. Oh, my gosh. Wow. From one linked in message to. All right. Yeah. Yeah. That just goes to show go after every opportunity. So I could. Do a whole entire podcast episode on called out founding to LinkedIn. And what can you. Briefly tell us about, like cold outreach approaches and just how to approach brands, companies and just whoever you want to help you with certain things or whatever your goals are? Yeah, So I can fully credit this to my first co-op, which was at a venture capital firm called Glass Wing Ventures. I was on the platform team, so doing a lot of marketing sales, BTR. And so what I learned from that was use the student card. A lot of people like don't realize that like being a student really gives you a lot of advantage. A lot of startup founders really try to go into the DMS and they're like, Hey, I'm a founder. I have a new product that's like, in your industry, can you can you use my product? And it really drives people away because they're like, What am I getting out of this? Like when you do an interview with people, there's rarely ever an incentive you could do like gift cards, but like not a lot of people like, take that. So I always recommend saying, Hey, I'm a student and I'm actually really interested in this industry like I see and really make it personal to them. You can make kind of a template and like change out the names, but really be like, you know what, I actually I go to alumni. I go to alumni first because you're like, Oh my gosh, hey, I'm an undergraduate. I'm a husky. You were previously a husky. I see that you're in this industry. I'm like, super curious to learn a little bit more. As you know, about the co-op program, I'm still kind of discovering if I want to do this or this and like kind of you can even like, like a little bit like they don't know your background much, right? So I always kind of just tell people if you like, yeah, just just be super interested in them and don't even bring up that you have a startup or that you're looking for something. Just be like, Hey, I'm just like looking for a little extra support and you seem like you have a really great background and we already have something in common like, can I like, you know, can what can we like put something on the calendar in the next few weeks, Something of that sort? Always. Just like what I like to call, like, light touch like like touching that. And I've found that I get more of like, responses than I would if, like, even from like an organization, for example, if I was like, Hey, I'm hosting this event and I like, I want a speaker. I wouldn't say, hey, like, we're hosting this event on this date, like, but I would say, Hey, I'm a student. I'm like, I'm part of this organization. Here's a little background. You know, we're always looking to like, expand. People always use expand my network. So maybe you've changed a little bit. Like, you know, like we're really just trying to, like, bring in more industry knowledge and as an expert and like, as a previous husky or whatnot, we think it'd be very valuable if we could just like, you know, pick your brain on something. And then when you get into that conversation, you kind of are like, Oh, well, you know what? I'm so glad that you mentioned that because we're hosting an event and just slowly, like leading into that, because as soon as you make it seem like you're trying to get something from them, they feel used. They feel like they're just, oh, I know that I work at a good company. You're just trying to take my company's title, like, be interested in like in that person, because you also never know who that person would be, you know? Wow. Oh, my God. So it sounds like you have your hand in so many different baskets. And so I think I want to pivot back a little. How does Bella keep her glass full when you're doing it? Thank you for using that against me. Oh, great question. I think a lot of it is one therapy. I just fully want to tell people just to go to therapy. I genuinely think that everyone should be in therapy. If you are on plug for Northeastern real quick, if you are on the Northeastern health plan, you get free telehealth every single week. It might be a lot of paperwork, but just do it. It's it's amazing. It's an hour session. So definitely doing that and like finding ways to, like, manage that. Like, I'm going to be completely honest, I don't have a very pretty notion. Like, I'm still personally trying to figure out if I want to use my notes app or if I want to use OneNote or I want to use like notes. And there's a ton of different things. But I think for me, I, I don't have I, I try not to make myself to do things that I don't want to do because I know myself. I know that if I'm like, really dreading something, there's just no way I'm going to be able to complete it. My brain is just going to totally be off task. I'm not going to like. Be able to give my full. So I really try to notice when my energy levels are about to like, break. And I mean, not I'm not suggesting to get to the point of like breaking don't do that. But like, I really try to manage. I'm like, am I getting really irritable right now and taking a step back and understanding, you know what, I have done a lot of work. I do just have to take a breath because I'm very much known for working until 2 a.m. like I did last night. You know, it's just because it's just how I work and just how I function. I don't have time blocks. I don't schedule myself out like I'm going to work on this, on this, and just doing what feels natural to my body. I'm really trying to just be in tune with like, whatever that kind of system looks like. And to be honest, I'm still actively learning it. But I do take like I've spent 48 hours just in my apartment and did not step foot out the door. I just made meals for the week. I cleaned like I did not touch work for a full 48 hours just over the weekend. And I was like, You know what? This reset me and kind of just like, does it compromise on your social ability? Yeah, but like, I see my friends, like during the week they come to the ideal, they do work. So for me, like prioritizing myself, I've learned over the years, over many, many years is extremely important. And so just realizing when I get to those like irritable moments and not letting that like, you know, I'm, I just also try to be very grateful about, like, the things that I'm doing too. And I feel like that just keeps me, keeps me going, keeps me balanced. Mental health like it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. You real you really want to work on yourself. You really just want to make sure in the right place. And I think people, when looking for like they want to fix all solution for their problems. Yeah. And I think even just like entrepreneurship, there's sometimes there's just not one fix. And so what is it if you isolate a problem that you're experiencing and then you attack it, you know, you help yourself become better. Yeah, I just wanted a time like, you know, time. Yeah. Not trying to tackle everything at once. I definitely try to break things into, like, projects. It also seems that you keep a lot of things in perspective, like you know a lot about yourself, like what you used to be and what you are now. So can you give the audience some like tips and advice, like keep things in perspective and how to figure more about themselves in a way if you can. Oh, my gosh, man. See a piece of me I was trying to solve. I just like, how do you get people to be more self-aware? Oh, wait, that's such a good question. Yeah. I think for me, what first started it for me, I'm a I'm not like a serious individual. I'm a motivated individual. There's you know, there's a difference. I because I really do think like, I really believe in work hard, play hard. And I think that's something that I had to realize because like, I have a lot of anxiety and like, I fully will admit to that, like people who are around me are like, girl sometimes just need to like, breathe out, you know? I even get like short breath in my chest. And so I think like with that, I try to always tell myself not everything is serious. Because what I've noticed with myself is that, you know what? Everything does work out. I view a lot of the things that have happened in my life is like a series of domino effect. I feel like personally, like I can connect every single step of the way leading up to idea idea CEO dating back to like when I used to crush makeup or I used to crush rocks and make makeup out of it when I was four. Like I have like I really try to be like, you know what? I thought that I was going to be a forensic scientist. And then I thought I was gonna be a psychologist. And then I thought I was going to do neuroscience and look at the effects of psychedelics on mental health. I've thought of, like, you know, every single, like, domino effect. And I think from that I realized that I always found a way through it. There was never at one point was I like, yes, I had like breakdowns and I had like a lot of anxiety about things, but never was there a point looking back where the next thing didn't leap the next thing? And like I also I'm not the kind of person that's like everything happens for a reason because like, you know, religion and like all that stuff, I'm like, I'm not really sure because I think that there's some like initiative on your end for that. But like, there was never a point in which I actually truly was like, helpless. I feel like everything kind of just naturally led to the next thing because I think I looked at what I learned in those different, like things that had happened. And so when it comes to people trying to get more of a perspective, one life is not that serious. You are as long as you're not, like, hurting anyone like I, you're doing fine. Like, and really just yeah, don't take yourself super seriously. Which ironically, I'm like, you know, running the stuff, but I don't even take myself seriously. I'm totally aware that I mess up. I know that people have better ideas than mine. I don't think that my best ideas, the best idea, I'm kind of just like throwing things at the wall. And I always ask people, I go, What do you think of this? And I think that being a founder really helped with that perspective. Nice, actually, because I was able to be like, You know what, you're right. You don't like my idea, but you would be someone who uses it. So I have to kind of listen to you and just having the ability to, like, roll things off your shoulder and be like, you know what? That's just like, you know, that's their perspective. Maybe I can use it. I always try. Yeah. Going back to not taking yourself seriously, everything's going to work out. There's like looking back on your life, like you probably didn't know, like the next best thing that was going to happen next, you know? And I just try to realize that too, that I can look back and make those ties and just yeah, I've never been asked that question before, so that's very interesting. Um, wow. Thank you. So before we reach the end of this segment, yeah, we'd start to say thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come and help with this term course and meet with us. Of course. Thank you for asking me. And also, please shout out ideas and how to get involved. I would love to. Yeah. So we recently just actually launched our new software, which it's called Barbell, kind of like a canvas course, but for creating a business. So it takes you through every single step of the way. You need to have no background and business will teach you. So we have community hours that happen every Wednesday at 6 p.m. and I recommend going to those. They're called banter. It stands for brainstorming and networking time with Entrepreneurship Resources. So come to those. And we also make announcements of when our next orientations are our next orientation for all members. Regardless if you've been previously involved an idea or are just new to idea, there's an orientation happening on October 25th 6 p.m.. It's also a Wednesday. We try to keep things on a Wednesday. So yeah, you can either just show up to those or follow our Instagram at IDEO and EU, and we'll also be launching a new website on October 25th. So I would totally plug that. But we don't have that up and running yet. It will be up and running very, very soon. And also if the lab door is open, then please come on in. It either means that I'm in or someone on board is and I'm more than happy to talk to you, or if you just want to use it as a space personnel kind of sucks, gets crowded and then like, totally fine too. Okay, so now I want you to imagine you're speaking to one of your ventures you're helping out with. What would you tell them to keep them moving forward and to keep pursuing their dreams? To to say, like motivated. If you really love the work that you're doing, then it should feel more like play. You know, and as soon as it starts feeling like you dread it and your body is just like, I can't do this, then kind of follow it and just be really curious. Be super curious. And I think being curious about yourself, which means how you're feeling at that time, what you're thinking, maybe like your assumptions being curious about those. And also be curious about how the process is going to unfold. You know, it's like, you know what? Maybe right now you're not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. You're not seeing how you're going to get your pre-seed round. You're not seeing how you're going to be able to get enough developers to do something. That's fine. But being curious about workarounds. I think a lot of people forget that the basis of an entrepreneurial mindset and being a founder is scrappiness. And so I always try to get at when when things go so well for such a long time, and then something like, you know, hits the fan, you're like, Oh my gosh, the world is over. It's like, I can't do this anymore. You've you've been at ground Zero. You've been below Ground Zero before. I am sure that you, with all of this information like now, is more than fine. And so just, you know, saying, you know what, Maybe you don't have to raise your next round right now. Take a breath, take a beat, like it's totally fine to do so. And just to continue to be curious, because if you love what you're doing, then it should it should naturally progress. Don't feel like you're trying to force yourself into something that's kind of like a puzzle. Don't try to force the pieces together just as a match. Just like a puzzle. Don't try to force the pieces together. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for joining with this day. And I hope you have a wonderful semester. Thank you so much for having me. Glad to have you on the podcast. We had an amazing episode today. First to start off with Frank and Ivanna from Entrepreneur's Club and what it means to be an entrepreneur here at Northeastern. And we also got to talk to Bella Pivo, the CEO of IDEA, who came in and talked about her journey to becoming an entrepreneur while also giving amazingly inspiring testimonies on how to protect one's mental health and keep your glass full. We hope that you enjoyed today's episode of the SHRM Cast. Make sure to like and follow. And stay tuned for our next episode of. See You Next Time. Thank you. Bye.