Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / SUMMER ‘23 - 6 quick questions with Daniella Pierson, Co Founder of Wondermind (Part 2)

Transcript

SUMMER ‘23 - 6 quick questions with Daniella Pierson, Co Founder of Wondermind (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey, it's Dune here. I'm recording this quick message to let you know that over the next few weeks, we'll be playing some of our favorite episodes from the past year while I spend some time with my best friends and family back in my other home, London. If you missed these episodes the first time around, they are so good and packed with so much value. I know you're going to love them just as much as I did recording them. See you soon. Bye. Welcome back. Here are the six
• 0:39
  So question number one is what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and build these three businesses?
• 0:48
  It's because I truly thought that I was capable of nothing because of my OCD, ADHD, depression. I had no confidence. I was not good at anything. I was a bad student. I was literally the poster child for what a failure looks like growing up. And I was able to do it just from sheer grit and survival mode.
• 1:18
  proof to anybody, no matter what your background is, no matter what mental health issues you may have, learning disabilities, you don't have any connections. Like if I did it, you can do it too. And I felt so many times that it was the end and that I should just give up and maybe even give up living. And
• 1:41
  that would have been such a shame because I never would have imagined the person I grew into. And it, all it took was just believing in myself and truly just being so stubborn and being like, I refuse to have this be my legacy. You know, I'll learn if I'm, if I'm not smart, I'll learn, you know, things I'll,
• 2:04
  I'll learn how to do something and be really good at it. I don't have to be good at every subject in school or whatever it is. So that really is my why every day. In terms of the businesses for the New Zat and New Land, it's –
• 2:19
  to empower women every single day and with Newland to use the biggest brands in the world's media budgets and TikToks, et cetera, to increase representation and diversity and do these incredible campaigns that actually change people's lives. And with Wondermind, it truly is to
• 2:42
  create a world where having a mental illness is just exactly the same as having a, you know, physical illness. No one would ever blink twice if you went to the doctor and you said, and they said, you have high blood pressure, you have to take this medicine. So why are people so judgmental, even people in my family still, you know, so judgmental that I have OCD and I have to take medicine every day.
• 3:06
  So that's my why. I really want to change the world because my world has been changed so much. And if I can save one life, then it would all be worth it. I mean, I'm sure you have. You're changing the world. You are. You're in there. I love that. Thank you for sharing. Thank you. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far can be across any of the businesses?
• 3:35
  My favorite marketing moment, probably, I guess I have two. One's like really just like zero budget marketing moment. And the other one is, you know, more recent. When I first started the news in college, I had ambassador programs. So I would essentially reach out to people and be like, I'm this intern for this really cool company. If you want something to put on your resume, which everyone did, you know.
• 4:02
  almost 10 years ago, all you have to do is refer, you know, 10 friends. And then that turned into, you know, if you refer 25 friends, you get a t-shirt or you get stickers or whatever. And so every morning after I was finished writing the newsette, before classes, I would go to staples with a huge...
• 4:20
  pile of like those envelopes with the cushion of like all the stuff I was sending to ambassadors. And so every person had a handwritten note and, you know, it was just really cool. And like looking back, it really, really felt like I was building something and made me feel like I was literally just putting pen to paper and every single card and getting every single subscriber myself. And then, you know, now...
• 4:50
  Something that would be a lot more flashy, I guess, is we did this campaign about just being out for Mental Health Awareness Month about just being honest with your feelings. And we had posters all over New York and LA and Selena and I posed in front of one of them. And we just had thousands of people tagging us in those posts and truly just painting the town destigmatized.
• 5:20
  That is so cool. Wow. What an amazing, like thrilling moment. Both of those moments, they're so, so different. And so kind of like telling of your journey from the start to where it is now, but so special and profound in different ways. Thank you. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource? Like if you're turning to a podcast or a newsletter or a book to learn something,
• 5:49
  Honestly, podcasts like yours where there's interviews with incredible women and other entrepreneurs who are just detailing their lowest lows and how they got out of there and how they built these businesses, those are always incredibly inspiring to me. I basically built my business while learning everything about business.
• 6:14
  marketing, et cetera. So there were podcasts that I would listen to about like marketing and trying to get more emails and how to optimize your email list and all that stuff. But now I like to, you know, read books about management. So I'll have like a hundred people by the end of the year
• 6:34
  who report technically to me. And so it's a lot different than having 10 people or five people. And so just management books, how to become the best manager, how to make myself feel accessible and try to be accessible to all of these incredible people that have dedicated their days now to work for something that me or me and Selena and Mandy dreamt up.
• 7:00
  How do I make them all feel special and heard and everything when I have so few hours in the day? Really those kind of materials. Amazing. Love that. Wow. Hundreds a lot. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated?
• 7:26
  Honestly, I won't lie. I mean, sometimes I lose the day. Like, truly, even if I do something incredible and, like, you know, 16-year-old me would have died at, like, what I was able to do or whatever. It's just…
• 7:43
  Unfortunately, especially with three businesses, there's just always something next. It's never just like, I made it and it's all great. Again, I chose this for myself, so I absolutely am not
• 7:59
  I work so hard because I want to do as much as I possibly can. But there are very few days where I feel like I won the day, maybe because I'm hard on myself. But I guess when I feel like I truly won the day, it's when I
• 8:20
  am at peace with the fact that I didn't do everything that I knew I needed to do, that I gave myself time to re-nourish myself, and that I spent time with people I love. And sometimes that can be a losing day because I feel like I didn't do enough, but truly those days are when I feel like when I can go to sleep and I can think about all of the
• 8:48
  I didn't do and be okay with it because it was worth it to have the memories and the connections with people I love or doing whatever I did instead. 100%. Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake in business and how much did it cost you?
• 9:13
  I think probably in the early days of the New Zet, I'm like, I'm so careful now, even though we have a lot more money to play with, you know, we just, because I didn't never had the luxury of just getting a huge check until, you know, New Zet was successful. I just, every single penny I look at as, you know, how are we maximizing this? And so I think the biggest money mistake I've ever made was probably
• 9:43
  not firing somebody fast enough that I knew was not working out. And it probably cost me about like a hundred grand in terms of the salary, but also like the opportunity cost of having someone who was going to be efficient. It could have been, you know, much more than that in terms of opportunity cost, but in
• 10:09
  like from salary and also finding someone to replace them and in the time it took whatever you know I think it was probably around 100k or more yeah that's come up on the show quite a lot when it's you know not getting people out of the business fast enough and and trusting that instinct that you needed to let someone go yeah for sure
• 10:32
  Last question. Question number six. What is just a crazy story you can share, good or bad, from the journey of building these businesses?
• 10:43
  I'm sure you've got so many. I guess I'll say a bad one. One story that I like to tell people, because again, you can feel like such a failure as an entrepreneur, as a person who works hard and just has a dream. When I was like 23 and I was trying to raise capital for the New Zet, I was like,
• 11:10
  I had a meeting with the owner and the head honcho of one of the biggest VC firms. And he's very well known and old and, you know, just like the creme of the creme. And I was so excited to have my meeting with him. And...
• 11:30
  I basically did my pitch and then was like, you know, any questions? And he looked at me and just started laughing. And I was like, what's so funny? And he goes, you remind me so much of my granddaughter. And I was like, oh, well, your granddaughter must be like really smart and like a grandchild.
• 11:51
  great entrepreneur. And he was like, and his whole face just dropped. And he was like, no, my granddaughter has no idea what she's talking about, talks way too fast and is not successful. And I was just like...
• 12:04
  What? Right to my face. Yeah. And it was like a moment where I was like, okay. And I just like packed up my stuff and left. And I got into the Uber and I just bursted into tears. And I said, I refuse to spend one more second trying to raise money from people like this instead of just growing my business. And it was the best decision I ever made. But at the moment, I felt...
• 12:29
  I mean, this person was the authority on, you know, who's going to be successful, who's not. And in the moment, I felt completely crushed, but it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
• 12:41
  Yeah, God, so disappointing. So disappointing that people, you know, act and treat others like this, especially when you're coming from a place of authority and like people look up to people like that. But thank God for the silver lining. Love that for you. That'll show them. You know, whenever you feel like something is so wrong and it's the end, it could honestly be the best thing that's ever happened to you. I like to say, you know, everything happens for a reason.
• 13:11
  100%. Daniela, this was so cool. I'm so grateful that you came on the show and shared so openly and so vulnerably. I'm just, I'm so grateful. I love what you're doing and I'm excited to see it grow. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be part of the incredible collective of women that you've interviewed and just thank you so much for your time.
• 13:40
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 14:04
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 14:27
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 14:43
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 15:07
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 15:30
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.