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Can Virtual Reality Teach Your Brain to Calm Down? · Groove with Portia

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Guru Portia, the podcast that uncovers the hidden
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: treasures within grief. I'm your host, Portia, the producer, and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I'm inviting you to join me on a transformative journey
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: where we will exchange laughter. Of course, the best medicine
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of them all. Reflect on cherished memories. Remember that time
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that the little boy grabbed my hand instead of his
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: mother's at the amusement park? Yikes. And of course, discover
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: gratitude while navigating one of life's hardest challenges, loss. So
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: get ready to grew with me, Portia, the producer. Let's
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: dive in. So Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Google Portia.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Portia Booker. And as always, don't forget
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: to like, share, and subscribe to keep up with all
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: things Google Portia. Today, I'm back in my regular studio.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: A couple of days ago, I was actually out on
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: the field doing an interview with someone who also has
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: another powerful story. So make sure you go to my
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel to check out that content. So today, everyone,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I want to have a special conversation about how a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: lot of us who have a storytelling career are tend
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to have our own stories that are often hidden. Today,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be joined by the CEO of Helium.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So those of you who've never heard of Helium, know
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about the balloons. This is a immersive
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  Speaker 1: technology that helps you to self-regulate using VR. So today,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be joined by the CEO of Helium, Ms.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Sarah Hill. Sarah, how are you today? Welcome back to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the group. Portia, how are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing great. Portia, it's great to see you. And
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: delighted to be talking with your listeners today.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Sarah, when I read about Helium and of course about
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: your own story, as I mentioned before we started, both
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of us were in TV and all of us who
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: were in TV have our own stories of covering everybody else's, right?
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  Speaker 1: And I'm curious, Sarah, when did you realize that covering,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I hate to say it, what bleeds, if it bleeds,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: it leads, started to kind of put a leaky hole
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: onto you at some point?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, time passes very quickly in news, right? And in newsrooms,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: you are sent out something different every day. It could
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: be a homicide, a rape. One of the earliest stories
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  Speaker 2: I covered as a young reporter was a triple homicide.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Court cases, domestic violence, parents who've lost children. I mean,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: you as a reporter, you're covering the worst day of
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: somebody's life every single day over and over and over again.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: And there's no at least, you know, uh, back in
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  Speaker 2: the day, uh, when I was, uh, a television news reporter,
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  Speaker 2: you know, there was no real, okay, let's talk with
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  Speaker 2: a therapist, you know, or, or a counselor, uh, to, to,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: to debrief about what you just saw. It was, does
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: anybody want to go to, um, death row and witness
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: this execution? They need witnesses for this execute. You know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, right. Uh, um, it, it's, trauma over and over.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: And that kind of builds up, it builds up in layers,
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  Speaker 2: you know, unless you're able to find some, uh, you know,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: positive non-drugless coping mechanisms. So as far as when did
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I realize it was, it was a slow build, uh,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: but by, you know, 2011, uh, 2012, I was feeling
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  Speaker 2: it right. And, You know, you're you aren't just producing
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: newscasts or anchoring newscasts or reporting newscasts. You're you're also
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: coming up with doing documentaries on the side. And, you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: for me, I just needed to move to something else
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: less stressful, which was entrepreneurship.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Ha ha.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Entrepreneurship is not less stressful, but it's a different kind
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  Speaker 2: of stress in that. You know, you are building something
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: and I've always been a builder and I always enjoy that.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And what I'm doing with Helium, where the root word
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: is heal, is essentially using media as medicine.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And Sarah, I love the transparency because so
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: many people who are former journalists won't talk about it.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: It's almost as though we're in the same boat as veterans,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: where some of us have been scarred by our experiences.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I shared with you that the first day
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  Speaker 1: on the job for me was a homicide in a park.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And three years prior to that, my cousin was murdered.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And so when I think back on that now, I'm like, wow,
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  Speaker 1: how did I even... walk into that newsroom, not in
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the right state of mind, realizing that possibly some of
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: what I went through with my cousin was also wearing
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: on me, right? And Sarah, I love too, that's what
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  Speaker 1: I noticed too in the word helium was the word
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  Speaker 1: heal at the very beginning, because I'm a firm believer
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  Speaker 1: that our stories carry that healing energy and frequency, right?
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  Speaker 1: Somebody needs to hear your story, Sarah, the way that
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: you say it. And the same with me. It's in
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the way that we are and the way that we
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  Speaker 1: show up. And Sarah, for our audience, let's dive into Helium.
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  Speaker 1: For someone who has never experienced Helium, I know everybody's
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: seen virtual headsets or maybe they've tested them. But what's
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: that experience like when someone tests Helium?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Helium is a virtual reality kit. It's a portable,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: non-pharmacological device. coping mechanism that teaches the user how to
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: learn to self-regulate their own brain patterns, their own heart rate,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: their own heart rate variability by actually seeing it and
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: holding it in your hands. So your body has electricity,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: your brain has electricity, your heart has electricity that's coming
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  Speaker 2: out of it. And usually with consumer wearables, whether it
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: be a smartwatch or an EEG brain sensing headband, that
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  Speaker 2: electricity is captured in the form of a number, right?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: That's sequestered to your wrist. It's a number. But with
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: what we do with helium is we take your own
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: vital signs and we visualize them for you. We literally
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: allow you to hold them in the palm of your
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  Speaker 2: hand and interact with them inside the goggles so that
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  Speaker 2: you can learn to self-regulate. Because after all, how are
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: you supposed to learn to control what you can't actually
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: see to know, am I doing this right? And as
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: you know, a non-experienced meditator, I struggled with that. You know,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: when they said, close your eyes and meditate, I saw nothing.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: I did not have that mind's eye that I could,
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  Speaker 2: you know, naturally visualize that. So helium, you know, was
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: for myself as well as the millions of people who
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: struggled with anxiety and were looking for tools beyond, you know,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: close your eyes and meditate. But helium is interactive. It's
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: active and it places you inside these beautiful picturesque landscapes.
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  Speaker 2: And then we're live streaming your own bioinformatics via a
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  Speaker 2: smartwatch or an EEG headband that when you hold out
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  Speaker 2: your hands, you're literally seeing your hands, your heart rate
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: streaming out of your hands or your brain patterns streaming
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: out of your hands. And you're seeing the environments change,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: the colors change, the shape change according to your own bioinformatics.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: So it allows you to see your feelings. So you
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: can learn to self-regulate. And that's a different layer than
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: what is, you know, traditionally out there right now.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah, it makes me think of in the different cartoons,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: where you can see the electricity in their hands when
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a character gets some type of superpower download. That's what
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: it makes me think of essentially. And then also how
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the software is giving people kind of that sensory experience.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I think about, obviously you're seeing a different landscape than
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: maybe where you're used to normally sitting. Maybe it's kind
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of like a 4D type of experience, too, where you're
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: feeling a sensation of possibly not directly, but feeling water
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: touching your feet type of thing where it's reminding you
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  Speaker 1: of components that help you to just breathe.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And the animations look like Dragon Ball Z, if
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: you will. Oh, yeah.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: That's my favorite.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Airbender animation. You know, you're seeing your heart rate
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  Speaker 2: pool in the palm of your hand so that you
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: can learn to self-regulate. And, you know, we work not
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: just with veterans, but other individuals who've experienced trauma. Pain clinics,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: ketamine clinics are using helium to teach the users to
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: learn to self-regulate by seeing that biometric feedback. And so, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that visual is super important. because the mind believes what
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  Speaker 2: it sees. It knows that it's not necessarily in the
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  Speaker 2: Aurora Borealis, or it knows it's not in a beach
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  Speaker 2: or any of the other beautiful stories that we have
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  Speaker 2: inside helium. But the body is relaxing and relaxing like
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: it is because the mind is seeing that. And these
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: aren't just experiences. These are stories, right? I'm a storyteller.
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  Speaker 2: by design. Stories are how we learn. They're how we
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: make sense of the world. So inside Helium, there are
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: beautiful metaphors that, you know, your thoughts do have power.
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  Speaker 2: Your heart rate has power. Your brain waves have power
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  Speaker 2: to control things not only in the virtual world, but
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: then in the real world as well. So ultimately, Helium,
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  Speaker 2: it is a media platform, media as medicine. It is
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  Speaker 2: a story platform and also a technology that is turning
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  Speaker 2: your own biometric data into content.
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  Speaker 1: And I still just love this phrase, Sarah, of media
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  Speaker 1: as medicine, because I don't think people really realize how therapeutic,
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  Speaker 1: for example, let's say if you're just needing something meditative
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: as far as soundscapes, right? You don't want to hear
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: any more music because the lyrics are just too much.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Or if you're used to watching a certain sitcom and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: you're sick of hearing one of the characters' voices, right?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes for me, what I'll do is I'll find something
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: on YouTube that's kind of like those sleep meditations and
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  Speaker 1: just use it for like 15 minutes. I put my
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: headset on and then it's once I'm done, I'm good
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  Speaker 1: to go. Like I feel so much grounded, so much
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  Speaker 1: better than like sporadic all over the place. So we
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: don't realize how much media is contributing to both the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: rise in our anxiety and And also it can help
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: with us feeling grounded all over again. Sarah, for our audience,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: before we continue with the rest of the conversation, if
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: our audience wants to connect with you, learn more about Helium,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: can you share with our audience how they can do that?
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, tryhelium.com. And Helium is spelled H-E-A-L-I-U-M. The root word
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: is heal, tryhelium.com. And to your point about the stories
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  Speaker 2: about how audio media impacts you, it's even to a
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: larger degree with visual media. And, you know, this isn't
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: just anecdotal. This is science. Particularly with Helium, there have
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  Speaker 2: been nine peer-reviewed journals and other research, including with Mayo Clinic,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: showing significant reductions in anxiety and mood improvement very quickly
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: in as little as four minutes. And it's on a spectrum. So, yes,
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  Speaker 2: audio has an impact on your brain. It can calm
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: your brain. Aroma can have a huge impact on your
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: brain as well. We've studied this. Others have studied this.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: And then when you combine those different layers of the audio, visual,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: maybe it's aroma or with helium, you combine the bioinformatics
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: that it has an even greater effect. So when you
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: add that feedback loop to the media, it's calming the mind,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: but then it's also teaching that user to learn to
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: self-regulate because it can see, oh, the stress activity in
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: my brain is going up. I'm breathing more and then
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: I can see it go down. And then the body learns,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: you know, what it needs to do with that self-regulation.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: And then even when you don't have the goggles on,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: and helium has problems. companion mobile app as well. But
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: even when you have the goggles on, those stories create
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: stored memories that you can then go back to in
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: a stressful situation. You can imagine being, because there's an
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: experience inside helium where you're floating through the aurora borealis,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: and then you think you're in space, and then you
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: realize you're not in space. There are whales that come
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: swimming right behind you. And there's a powerful metaphor in that, right?
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: What we think we are in, we might not be in.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, you can summon the whales, right?
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: You can summon a turtle to go to the ocean
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: with your calm thoughts. There are all these different visuals
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: baked into helium that are the glue, you know, to
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: remind you that your thoughts have power and your heart
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: rate has power, your brain patterns have power, and you
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: are in control of that.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Sarah, I love the water analogy because whenever I think
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: of water, I think of cleansing. Also, when I think
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: of whales, I think of how massive they are and
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: how in so many different movies that we watch, I mean,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: think about, I think it was Moana in, you know, the,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: not Moana, Avatar. In Avatar, the gigantic whales that was
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: helping them to get you know, away from the other predators, right?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: We also think about turtles, right? Their shell is their
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: protective mechanism, right? So I see the whole vision, Sarah,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: like 100%. Sarah, one of the things that I realized
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: too is that on your website, it says that helium
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: helps people to come back to the self-regulated space in
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: under four minutes.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: And I'm curious, based on the research that you've brought up,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: what does that research really tell us? And what do
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: you want people to not assume about the research? Because
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, there is the assumption, but then there's
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the actual what this really is.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. So sometimes when I describe helium, you know,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: talking about how your body has electricity and People think, oh,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: that sounds woo-woo, but it's not. Your electricity is coming
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: out of your wrist into your smartwatch. Your body does
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: have electricity and you capture it with your smartwatch or
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: any consumer wearables. But it is clinically validated. So for instance,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: at Mayo Clinic, they looked at a randomized controlled trial.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: They looked at 100 cardiac patients going in for a
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: very stressful procedure before cardiac surgery. to get their chest
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: opened up before cardiac surgery. Used helium and significant reductions
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: in anxiety very quickly in a matter of minutes. And other,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: you know, multiple, there are now nine peer-reviewed journal articles
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: about hearing helium showing a similar thing. And what the
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: majority of them have done, you know, beyond looking at
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: heart rate or brain patterns, specifically inside helium's app, We're
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: looking at the high beta activity or the stress activity
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: in your brain. And your brain has different brain waves, alpha, beta, theta, gamma.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: And via a brain sensing headband, it's a Muse EEG
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: brain sensing headband that's worn on the forehead. There are
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: other EEG headbands out there as well, and it's capturing
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: your alpha, beta, theta, gamma. So what helium is doing
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: is displaying that high beta activity or that stress activity
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: in your brain back to you, allowing you to see it,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: hold it in your hands, interact with it, see when
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: it changes in real time to learn to self-regulate. So
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: in that research, it's looking at brain patterns, heart rate,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: mood improvement, anxiety surveys via the GAD-7 or the PSS,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: the Perceived Stress Scale as well. There are a number
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: of indicators that these institutions have looked at in order
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: to study helium. That said, helium is not diagnostics. It's
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: not a replacement for psychotropic medication, and it's also not
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: a replacement for counseling, which we all know is one
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: of the best things that we can do for ourselves.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: So Helium is that adjunct tool in the therapist's toolkit
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: that they can give the patient to teach them how
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: to learn to self-regulate and also to provide them with
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: narratives and visuals and reminders of things and places, beautiful places,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: that they can go to. One of our customers is
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: some victims of gender-based violence in Iraq via Norwegian church aid.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And so they are providing a valuable service, you know,
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: all around the world. But some of these women have,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: when they, you know, their therapist will say, go to
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: someplace beautiful in your mind or imagine, you know, very calm,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: tranquil place. They struggle with that because they don't have
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the capacity to go to that place because they've never
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: been to a place like that. They can't even fathom
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: what a beautiful place looks like. It hurts your heart
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: to hear that, but you can imagine how that might
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: be in some areas of trauma. So helium is taking them,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: is showing them what that beauty looks like. Inside a
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: peaceful forest with the gentle rain, there's an island called
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Appreciation Island. There's a radiant grove that you're floating through,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: beautiful deserts, lost cities of gold that bakes in in
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: for them that then in a stressful situation, they can
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: go back to that because they have a stored memory,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: a visual of what that is. Just like muscle memory,
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: you know, when you're lifting weight, can you imagine never
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: seeing your arm or knowing, is it going out? Am
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: I making progress? You know, with a lot of mental
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: health interventions, we're flying blind. And so helium is just
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: holding up a mirror to yourself that you're able to
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: see inside yourself what your own vital signs are doing
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: in these experiences so you can learn to self-regulate.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: You know, Sarah, one of the things caught my attention
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: that you mentioned about the importance of counseling. And I'm
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: going to say this to my audience, too, that, you know,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I love that you mentioned that Helium is a tool, right?
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: It's not a replacement. And I think sometimes there's this
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: notion of with the influx of AI that there tends
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: to be this level of, are therapists still relevant? I
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: believe the human connection, no matter what, is still our
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: greatest healer. Because each and every one of us, sometimes
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you need that person to just give you a hug.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Like I shared this story a couple weeks ago. I
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: had to take my dog to the vet. Poor Mr. Fletcher.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: But he's better now. My little furry companion. And there
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: was a gentleman at the counter next to me. And
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: the vet tech handed him a bag. And I knew
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: what was in that bag. His pet was cremated. And
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: so I was like, okay, hurry up, hurry up. Cause
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I knew I could feel that this man needed a hug.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: He was an older gentleman. So I hurried up. He
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: was walking down the steps. I said, excuse me, excuse me.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: So the guy turned around and I said, can I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: offer you a hug? And he just hugged me. He
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: just hugged me. And I could feel Sarah, the tears
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: in this man's throat, because as we know, still in
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: our society, Showing emotion for men. It's getting better But
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: it's not where it could be as far as men
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: feeling more vulnerable and safe to show how they really
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: feel And I gave the guy the opportunity to tell
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: me about his pet He told me it was his
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: cat who was 14 or 15 and you know His
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: dog had transitioned a few months prior, but I was
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: grateful sarah that I recognized In that moment that that
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: man needed someone Because he was alone. But that's why
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I go back to this whole thing about the importance
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: of tools, right? We're only as good as the tools
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that are in front of us. So let's remember that, yes,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: we have AI. Yes, we have tools like Helium. But
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: we also have people and professionals who are here to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: also help us to show us how these tools work.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah, it can be, you know, sent home as homework. essentially,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: or used in a clinic's office. And humans in the
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: loop are super important, even in an age of where
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: people are going to AI to ask questions. But yeah,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: professional counseling is super important. And Helium is not a counselor.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: It's not a replacement for psychotropic meds, professional counseling, any
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: of that. It's a self-awareness tool and an educational tool.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, Sarah, this has been an amazing conversation. We're
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: going to be wrapping up here soon. But before we
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: conclude our conversation for today, Sarah, one of the things
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: that I thought about, and I've never asked this question
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: on the show, so you're the first one I'm going
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to ask this to. When you think about your journey
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: from going from being a TV journalist to entrepreneur, to
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: founding Helium, what do you think your journey has really
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: taught you about finding your groove and resilience?
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: That the path is not linear. I'll say that. You
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: go one place and then you can immediately go another.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: But there is a reason along the way that you
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: were supposed to hit those stops. You know, there was
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: a reason along the way that I was in television
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: and before that in high school as a lifeguard or
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: a waitress, you know, all the different careers that you
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: have along the way. There's something at each stop that
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: you're supposed to learn that can maybe better your groove.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: So to me, you know, in people as they're transitioning
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: from one position to another position, you know, us as
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: former Newsies, that path does not have to be linear.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: It can jig and jag. And sometimes it's better when
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: it jigs and jags because along the way you gather
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: more data that can inform ultimately what you're supposed to do.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean, the transition being open to the pivot,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: hands down.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: For sure. Well, everybody, that was Sarah Hill, CEO of
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Helium that you heard from today on Guru of Portia.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: And that concludes our conversation. And until next time, everybody,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: peace and hair grease, everyone.