On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Huda and Mona Kattan: ON How Being Transparent & Vulnerable Built An Empire

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

On this episode of On Purpose, I sat down with Mona and Huda Kattan. Sisters Huda and Mona are known for their powerhouse brand: Huda Beauty, and hit reality show on Facebook Watch: Huda Boss. The Kattan sisters reminded us that not all money is worth having. They consistently turn down multi-million dollar deals if they don’t feel it aligns with their brand. This episode is powerful for any influencer, entrepreneur, or future business leader. We discussed the art of patience when pursuing large goals, and that every delay is a blessing. Huda shared how she was embarrassed to show herself without makeup, but did with the hopes it’d give others permission to as well. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Regardless of the progress you've made in life, I believe we could all benefit from wisdom on handling common problems. Making life seem more manageable, now more than ever. I'm Eric Zimmer, host of the One You Feed Podcast, where I interview thought-provoking guests who offer practical wisdom that you can use to create the life you want. 25 years ago, I was homeless and addicted to heroin. I've made my way through addiction recovery, learned to navigate my clinical depression, and figured out how to build a fulfilling life. The one you feed has over 30 million downloads and was named one of the best podcasts by Apple Podcast.

Oprah Magazine named this is one of 22 podcasts to help you live your best life. You always have the chance to begin again and feed the best of yourself. The trap is the person often thinks they'll act once they feel better. It's actually the other way around. I have had over 500 conversations with world-renowned experts and yet I'm still striving to be better.

Join me on this journey. Listen to the one you feed on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Conquer your New Year's resolution to be more productive with the Before Breakfast Podcast in each bite-sized daily episode, time management and productivity expert, Laura Vandercam, teaches you how to make the most of your time, both at work and at home.

These are the practical suggestions you need to get more done with your day. Just as lifting weights keeps our bodies strong as we age, learning new skills is the mental equivalent of pumping iron. Listen to Before Breakfast on the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. What do a flirtatious gambling double agent in World War II?

An opera singer who burned down an honorary to kidnap her lover, and a pirate queen who walked free with all of her spoils, haven't comment. They're all real women who were left out of your history books. You can hear these stories and more on the Womanica podcast. Check it out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. When the teacher was asking about what did you want to be in life, and he said happy, and the teacher was like, what's wrong with you?

But that is so fundamentally important in the time that we live right now, where I think that everyone has their own type of happy. They have their own type of self-fulfillment, and it's not like everyone else. So I definitely think it's really important to kind of understand what it is that makes each person happy and not be so focused on goals. Thank you so much to everyone who's watching or listening right now. I'm so excited to introduce our next guest. I was introduced to her content by my sister over six years ago

and just remembering being completely captivated by her charisma, her energy, and a genuine or authentic feeling that came through the camera. And then very recently I connected with her incredible sister Mona, who's also been on the podcast. And then I was just completely amazed that I had this opportunity to reconnect with this incredible human being, incredible person. And today's the first time we're meeting, and I'm getting to interview her, and I love interviewing people the first time, because I feel it allows us to build a real relationship and bond very quickly. You almost have to be forced to become best friends. So I'm hoping that's what's going to happen.

Her name is Huda Katan. She is the CEO and founder of Huda Beauty and starring in, of course, the reality show that we spoke about on Facebook watch called Huda Boss, which I absolutely love. So Huda, thank you so much for this opportunity. It's an honor to be here with you. No, I'm so grateful that you've taken out the time. I know you're so busy in London,

you're launching products, you're here with your family, and I genuinely want to make everyone aware we're so fortunate to be with you. So thank you. Thank you. This was the most important thing to do here. So happy to be here. That's true. Now you literally, and as an eastern man, you're literally a beauty phenomenon. Thank you. And the way you present it through your work, through your videos, through your media is so refreshing, especially as someone who never really consume content in the beauty world, but definitely looking to that world

because I feel it sets such a standard for how people feel about themselves. And so much of my work is about how people feel. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on the beauty industry itself, but specifically on the role of self-love and how you manage the two. Gosh, where do you begin? I definitely think the beauty industry has come a long way,

and it's funny because I've had conversations around this, especially recently, about the fact that one of the things that I think has been missing in the beauty industry, and we have a lot of it now is the fact that people don't like to show their vulnerable side. And I know you talk about that a lot. You talk about so many things that are sensitive to people. And I think the fact that we really kind of honed in on that,

we showed strong before and afters. When I first started doing my videos, doing some things that were really embarrassing, I was embarrassed to put myself on a video without makeup and not knowing my angles, not knowing those things. It's hard, but you really want to show people that they can be a part of that. And I think it's worked really well for our brand,

just trying to show people that like, look, we're not all perfect. In fact, some of us don't really feel great without makeup and some of us have issues that we're trying to go through, but we're all trying to go through it together. And I think it's really important to be really, really real. And, you know, as a result, to show that really sometimes sensitive, uncomfortable, embarrassed, vulnerable

side of who you are, I think it's very, very important. Yeah, absolutely. There's such a need for that transparency and authenticity. And I know that you've even turned down deals. Oh, yeah. To be able to keep that. Yeah. And when I read that, I thought that was incredible because today in the world, we live in of sponsorships and partnerships. It's so easy to get carried away. Tell us about that and how you've managed to hold on to that. That is not easy.

Let me tell you, when somebody comes to you, like sometimes offering you multi-million dollar deals, and you really want to do that? Could you think, oh, yeah, that's a lot of money. But ultimately, I think there's a great power of focus. I'm a super focused person. I think that anything that duress your focus, anything that you do that is not in your focus,

just basically takes a little piece of that pie of what you're trying to achieve. So I'm a firm believer in focus. And ultimately, could we do paid posts, could we do those things? When people do them, is there anything wrong with them? Absolutely not. But I just think for me personally, it was just,

we identified early on that our goal was to give out free information. We really wanted to give out kind of similar to what you do. You could easily write tons of books. You could easily do so many things. And I'm sure you will. But you give out so much free information. And I feel like that's why I feel like you were the future. It's And I feel like, that's why I feel like you were the future. It's telling you that when you walked in, I feel like you were the future.

I feel like that is the future where people need to be more giving. And I think that can kind of then help you. And when we talk about self-love, I'm like, gosh, that is like, that's like opening Pandora's box. That's good. Well, because there's so much to say about that. And I think if I think about my personal journey with self-love, to get really vulnerable right now, I actually didn't realize for the longest time,

as a child, as I've been dealing with different things in my life, as I've come into being a professional in the beauty industry, and being where I am, I didn't realize that the thing that I was missing the most was self-love. And it's so funny, because you achieve some success, or what you perceive to be successful. And then all of a sudden, you start self-love. And it's so funny because you achieve some success, or what you perceive to be successful. And then all of a sudden, you start self-sabotaging yourself.

Like, I don't deserve this. I don't belong here. I'm not like, not that you're a phony, but you think everybody around you is somehow has some magic that you are missing. And it's the craziest thing because I think, in the day and age that we live in, it's so easily to compare yourself to people.

He go through social media. You see different people, you know, as humans, I think we are given a gift to be able to live by care-sleeping people. But then when you're done with that, you're sometimes left with emotions of emptiness, emotions of, you know, my sister who's genius, she's brilliant, she wants to be,

she's like, you know, comparison is a thief of joy, which I know is a quote, I think by Eleanor Roosevelt. Yes. But it's, it's, she's brilliant. She wants to be, she's like, you know, comparison is a theme of joy, which I know is, is a quote, I think by Eleanor Roosevelt. But it's, it's she's full of great quotes, by the way. She's like a walking like dictionary quotes. But what she said to me, I was like, you know, it's crazy because we can, we can, continuously compare ourselves to other people. We go through social media, we see all these things, and even if you've achieved what you wanted to achieve, you then do that. And then all of a sudden, discounts everything you've done. And then you don't feel worthy of what you're doing.

You don't feel worthy of going to the next step. And I didn't realize that was the thing that I was missing the most for the longest time. That self worth, that value. And I think from the outside looking in, a lot of people might be like, well, that's insane. You know, you have a husband who loves you, you have a daughter, you have a successful business, but then that was missing.

That was like the one thing that was missing. So I never felt like worthy of anything I was doing. And it took me, I think getting our investors to invest in us, where it was like all of a sudden, you know, you don't think you're good enough, you know, for whatever reason. And the industry all of a sudden now is recognizing that you're good enough. Everybody is here.

Like this is something saying, yes, you've made it. You are officially equal to everyone else. No, in fact, you've achieved something that is quite amazing. And then I was depressed. I was really depressed. We got this amazing investment. And I think it was probably one of the lowest times in my life.

And it took me a lot to realize I was missing that self-love. That was the next step that I need to really get into. Thank you for sharing that so openly. Yeah, of course. And it's great for everyone to hear, because I feel almost from an outside perspective, we all have this belief that once we hit a certain level of success, that that feeling goes away,

and then you make a certain amount of money, feeling goes away. And I do want to congratulate you on all your incredible success. But at the same time, it's so beautiful to hear you say that because self love is so often lost. And I was thinking about this yesterday and I'm diving into it totally off the cuff because it's there in my intuition right now to say it that we struggle with self love because often we get known for that which we're not.

So we often get known, but for you, you were getting known for who you were and what you were and what you loved. Where did your self-love process start? What were the things that you started with? If someone's listening right now and they're struggling, where do they start? I really think you need to dig deep, though. You need to find out what is the reason that you've been telling yourself that all of a sudden when you achieve something, you know, my thing was like, okay, something good happens, now something bad's gonna happen. Because I can't push through to the next step.

Like I was putting a ceiling on myself to where I was almost like, you know what, we've achieved so much success. Oh my God, amazing things are gonna happening. Everything's, you know, going perfectly as planned and if not better. And now all of a sudden, no, something bad's gonna happen.

Terrible. That's gonna set me back. You know, and it was like, I had to realize I was putting that ceiling on myself. And I think I really started to need to understand that no, that's not gonna happen. But it was hard. It took a lot of, I think journaling,

I'm a big fan of journaling, a journal like crazy. And I almost started speaking out loud. I actually set some things out loud to myself. Okay, so this is what I think is gonna happen. Really ridiculous things. Like oh my gosh, my house is gonna, something's gonna happen here. I mean, all these worrying thoughts that I had,

I was like oh my god, this is gonna happen here. This is my family, this is gonna happen to my family. And I was like saying it out loud, I was like this is ridiculous. I have all these fears that, as we've made it further that I'm gonna to be taken back and I've had to realize that I was really self-sabotaging myself ultimately because I didn't think I deserved to go farther. And I just need to be really honest with myself so I started journaling a lot.

And you know, some of those issues come from childhood. In fact, I think I'm going to ask you what easing they come from. I think when I grew up in a very interesting circumstance, I think a lot of people go through where you just feel like an outsider, you feel like you don't belong, and I think that kind of stayed with me, where I felt like I never was good enough. And I did maybe when I first started, maybe I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder where I felt like I wasn't good enough and I was trying to prove things and I need to continue to working hard, you know, work as hard as possible so I could be like, you know, like everyone else.

It definitely came from my childhood, you know, but it should have continued with me. Yeah. You know, and that was probably one of the biggest mistakes was taking it with me for so, so long, mean for 20 plus years. And it's hard, I think it's hard to shake. I don't know if I've completely shaken all of it.

I know certainly I have not. But I'm still working on it. Yeah, well two questions. What are you doing to shake it off? What are you doing to work through it? So journaling was one of them you said. A minute. Tell us your journaling process that works for you

as simple as it is or it's complex, that is it, walk us through it. So I am a huge fan of journaling. I don't believe journaling should be their to vent. I think if you're mad at somebody, don't journal. Don't journal, I hate this person because sometimes when I got mad at my husband, I would journal and then I would forgive him.

I'd be like, oh, let me like shut these pages. I have to never see them. Because he's an amazing man, but you know, every once in a while you get mad at people and then you go, you know, when you're mad, it just doesn't make sense. I think journaling should be reserved there, should be as a book of epiphanies.

That's what I like to think of it as. My journals have always been things that I like to, you know, I'm kind of looking at life, I've realized something, I'm like, okay, I need to jot this down. Or maybe sometimes I just need to talk to somebody out loud and quite frankly, sometimes you are, you can be your best friend. So kind of somebody out loud and quite frankly, sometimes you are,

you can be your best friend. So kind of speaking out loud, writing those issues out, you start to kind of unfold some of the answers to your problems. And so I'm a huge fan of journaling. And I think that's what she'd be reserved for. And piffinis and walking your way through, you know, life's whatever dilemmas that it brings.

Well, we ever see the book of a piffinis on our bookshops. I've got it on it. Yeah, have you? I have, I have thought about it, but some of it's really brings. Well, we ever see the book of epiphanies on our bookshelves. I've thought about it. Yeah, have you? I have, I have thought about it, but some of it's really personal. Right, yeah, I can. But yeah, maybe, yeah. I mean, I've been journaling for over 10 years,

so maybe, gosh. That's incredible. Can you, can you, do you date them as well? I do. Can you look back as to what you were doing? I do that all the time. So I put where I was,

and it's so crazy, because I remember looking through some of my journal entries and you know it's crazy the problems that you had then but they still are the same problems just like different levels the problem but still the same fundamental problems like at the basics of them they're still the same and it's really crazy because you think that you've progressed so far but there really is that inner work that you need to do otherwise those issues will continue throughout your entire life. Tell us about one that you saw recently that surprised you. Or anyone that you can remember.

You thought, oh wow, I didn't come remember that I was a few years back or as an experience of feeling. I definitely have a couple that I think make me think about life very differently. When I think when we were trying to build our brand, when we were trying to do different things, when we were trying to, you know, do different things, we always, you know, were waiting for an opportunity. And there was always, like, you know, opportunities that were coming to us that we really wanted to close because we're like, this can change our lives. This is going to change our brand. This is going to change everything.

And sometimes they didn't go through. And, you know, it took me some time to realize that, like, and I think I've talked about this before, but I was my break. I always wanted a break, but I realized that I was my break. You don't need anything to take you to the next level. All you need is your self conviction that you're going to go to the next level, but until you've done that, you're always going to be waiting.

And I don't think it's ever going to change. You're going to be waiting, whether it's 2010, 2011, 2012. You're going to consistently be in that state of waiting. And it took me some realizing, you know, going through my blog to realize that I was my own break. And how did you shake that feeling and that experience of like parental expectations? You studied finance. Yeah.

The kind of path that's paved for you of doing certain traditional aspects. How did you shake that off and stop waiting and realize that you had to be your break? Because I think that's something that so many people struggle with. Yeah, I think it's normal too. I think people just like, you want to please other people. You want to do certain things to make other people happy. But the reality is, I'll be honest, I'm a rebel. I am hardcore rebel. And it's so funny because when I you know, I'll be honest, I'm a rebel. I am hardcore

rebel. Like, and it's so funny because when I found out I did that personality test and I, you know, there's a, there's something called the four tendencies. Have you read it? Yes, yeah, absolutely. I'm a rebel. Okay. Me too. You are. Oh, my God. I am such a rebel. And when I found out I was a rebel, I was like, no, I don't want to be a rebel. You don't want to? No. I was like, that happens. I no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, sure that I got my needs fulfilled. It actually helped me be a better family member. My parents wanted me to marry an Arab Muslim man from like the same town that they were from and I was just like, that's not going to happen. Like, I think for your benefit, because you want me to be happy. And then, you know, slowly but surely they realized that me ultimately

being happy was the right thing. And I did, you know, I did care about, I had the core values that they had. I cared about family, I cared about, you know, being, you know, a good person in society. So as long as I had those values and I could reiterate it to them, then they started giving me a little away. And it wasn't easy, it was not easy. My husband went through a lot. He's a very patient man.

That's awesome. Obviously, this is a shorter interview and I can't wait to really dive deep. Do you want to do one day? I'm really looking forward to like getting into really meaningful deep conversation. But I want to make up so we can cry.

Let's do that. Mona and Ely made me cry at the end of the verse. We were nearly there. But I always at the end of every interview, do a final five in the final five minutes, which are questions that I really want to get. Quick answers, but you can go deep if you want to, because you have awesome insights.

So you said obviously we're cutting this interview short because you so beautifully want to spend time with your daughter which I think is an incredible priority. Thank you. And you said she's your number one priority. She is, oh, how do you make that happen? Like how does that happen for someone who says, busy as you are traveling as much as you are?

Do you know, I started realizing there were certain things that I needed and it wasn't super huge, but there were certain things that I needed with her every single day to feel fulfilled for her and myself. So that is the morning. I like to spend the first 45 minutes of my day with her and then the evening I spend at least the last two hours of our day together, whether you know, and it's funny. It's not that complicated.

But it took me kind of like jotting those things down and when I don't do those things, I'm constantly trying to play catch up. I want to pick her up from school and then I ruined my office time. You know, and so it was just understanding there were certain things that were really good for her, really good for me. I wasn't bothered and I could like fully focus on her. And so that's what I do. I just spend like the morning and the evening with her and it's really like I don't look at my phone. She doesn't look at her phone. We don't usually go out either. I just at home, making popcorn, tickling each other. I know it sounds really basic, but that's what we do.

It's like the best time. Okay. Beautiful thing to share in that. No, it's beautiful. It's great. I think it's wonderful for people to hear that. Yeah, thank you. What's your number one advice to anyone who wants

to begin their self-love journey? If they could do one thing from today, what would be the best place for them to start? I think it's really important to understand, you know, why you do some of the things that you do, you know, if you have a goal, what are the, what is the reason behind the goal? And I think that's really important because people always put out goals. We all know you need to plan, you need to put goals out, you need to, you know, figure out the process in order to achieve your goals,

but do we ever, do we ever think about why we want them? And I think understanding the why really helps us because most of the time you can start getting some of that need right away or you can reframe yourself to figure out how you can really achieve full happiness. I was actually listening to something. You've said so many amazing things. I was listening to something today and it was about that kid who, you know, when the teacher was asking about like, what did you want to be in life? And he said happy. And the teacher was like, what's wrong with you? But that is so fundamentally important in the time that we live right now,

where I think that everyone has their own type of happy. They have their own type of self-affilment. And it's not like everyone else. So I definitely think it's really important to kind of understand what it is that makes each person happy and not be so focused on goals. Is that weird that I'm saying? Don't be so goal oriented.

No, not at all. Not at all. I love paradoxes. Yeah, right. And I think all of us are living paradoxes. Totally. And I think there's this push to be like this or that. Totally.

But you can be both. Absolutely. And that's the beauty and where we live, you know. I remember when I first went to become really successful, I had like this negative picture of, you know, what it meant to be successful, what it meant to have wealth and money. And I was like, I don't want to be like that. Like I want to make sure if we do become successful, I still want to give, I still want to care,

I still, you know, I want to be a philanthropist, I want to do all those things. And so, you know, as we've gone through our journey, that's always been like the most important thing. And so I don't think that, you know, I don't think that people have money or bad, you know, but I think it's really important making sure that you understand why you believe those things and understand how you can kind of counter those things as well. Because there is that equilibrium of where you can exist in both worlds. Yes.

You know, you know, you know, no, no, no, I'm, I'm noting along and I'm sure everyone at home is too, or at work. But the question number three is, what is one business lesson you wish you knew earlier when you started? Oh, patience. Man, I still need to learn that. I need to go back and reread all my journal entries

about patience. We have an Arabic saying that I do like a lot. It's some kulta khirafil khiraf. And it's like every delay has its blessing. And I didn't realize that when I was working, I like wanted things to close right away. And then every time it didn't, I would be devastated. And then when they did, they've been a different opportunity came,

it was always so much better. So I think it's patience is really important. I love that. Yeah, is that it? Yeah. And your fourth one is, I know you have this mantra called, What Would Oprah Do? I love Oprah! I wanted to know where that came from. And what would Oprah do? I love Oprah.

I wanted to know where that came from and give me a situation where it's worth. Well, it definitely changes the way I do things a lot of times. The paid post actually, because Oprah doesn't do paid post. But I think she's just so incredible. You know, she's basically gone through so many hurdles in life where things could have

gone a different way. And in fact, more than likely they should have, but they didn't. And I feel like she gives people like that hope, you know, and the fact that like, what can happen when you do persevere, when you are relentless, when you push through, and when you don't let certain people's conversations or another way they talk to you affect you. So I like to think about her. She's amazing. Yeah. I mean, things probably should have gone another way for her and she made sure they didn't. Absolutely. Wow.

Absolutely. I love seeing the energy and your face probably. I love it. It's all true. It's what I mean her and hug her and then die. No, no, no, we need you. We need you. Fifth and final question.

What big impact do you want to have in the world? What do you want your legacy to be? For me, you know, through this journey and beauty and what we do and as an influencer too, I want to make sure that people know that there are choices that they can make, that they do not have to be a certain aspect of beauty. They don't have to be a certain type of influencer. There's so many opportunities. We've taken our responsibility so seriously as influencers. We always try to show the opposite. I felt like when we were coming out,

it was there was a certain type of influencer. There was a certain type of personality. We always wanted to be the opposite of it, where I make swear like crazy, but I don't want to swear on my post. I just want to think of it more responsibly. I made risks a certain way, but when I'm in the public,

I always try to make sure that I'm representative of what a woman can be. You know, and so I think taking responsibility and trying to show people that you can, you know, they can be whatever they want in the beauty industry. Like I love to see women who are covering the head and just killing it. You know, there's just, there's that paradox that you're talking about, you know, that you can still be so many different kinds of who you are and be in the beauty industry, no matter, you know, if you can still be so many different kinds of who you are and be in the beauty industry,

no matter, you know, if you're any different color, if you have certain, you know, issues that are holding you back, like, we've worked with, you know, we've seen like a lot of people have burned victims and people with, you know, who don't necessarily have hands sometimes to make up on, but they're doing it. And it's like, I think it's just so beautiful. Like, nothing is going to stop them. And I hope that we can continue to share content that proves that and continue to be Examples of that as well. Yeah, that's a point. That's beautiful Thank you so much. Yeah, we've been placing these limitations like you can't be meaningful if you're in the beauty and this If you're in business, you can't be a good person and the more we place these limits

We we live up to them. Yeah, we think oh, I can't so Who put that there? Yeah, I put that there. I literally thought of like who made this stuff up You know, and it's we buy into stuff that just other people made up Just you know, I think it really comes down to starting. I think everything changes And I'm sure you know you can attest to this everything changes when you change it what you think And that's like what you need to start with you know asking yourself those questions about who put the limits there Yeah, why can't you do those things? You know, yeah. And thank you for being such an incredible real model for so many people. Thank you for showing me. Like you. No, no, no, no, thank you for being someone that people can

look up to in so many different ways. It's been an incredible entrepreneur, being an incredible influencer and more than all of that being incredible mother to. Thank you. And Mr. Parynjop. Yeah, an incredible human who's really setting the standard of how a new wave of leaders can be change makers to any industry in the world. Thank you. Thanks for being a rebel. Yeah.

Yeah, rebels are cool, right? Yeah, rebels are cool. Yeah, that was cool. But thank you to everyone who's been watching and listening. This was a short brief snippet insight into her life. I'm so excited to dive deeper, but I want to make sure she goes and spend some time with her daughter too. Thank you. Thank you so much for making time. I am so grateful.

May honor. And I'm excited to spend so much more time with you. Definitely. I'm going to live long friendships. We're going to do the lot of stuff. Thank you so much. A good way to learn about a place is to talk to the people that live there. There's just this sexy vibe and Montreal, this pulse, this energy. What was seen as a very snotty city, people call it Bosedangeless.

New Orleans is a town that never forgets its pay. A great way to get to know a place is to get invited to a dinner party. Hi, I'm Brendan Friends' newdom and not lost as my new travel podcast where a friend and I go places, see the sights, and try to finagle our way into a dinner party. We're kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party. It doesn't always work out. I would love that, but I have like a Chihuahua who is aggressive towards strangers.

I love the dogs. We learn about the places we're visiting, yes, but we also learn about ourselves. I don't spend as much time thinking about how I'm gonna die alone when I'm traveling But I get to travel with someone I love. Oh see we love I love you too and also we could eat as much as I Recit here. I love you too My life's a lot of therapy goes behind that So white. I love it. Listen to not lost on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts

Hey, it's Debbie Brown. And my podcast deeply well is a soft place to land on your wellness journey. I hold conscious conversations with leaders and radical healers and wellness and mental health around topics that are meant to expand and support you on your journey from guided meditations to deep conversations with some of the world's most gifted experts in self-care, trauma, psychology, spirituality, astrology, and even intimacy. Here is where you'll pick up the tools to live as your highest self.

Make better choices. Heal and have more joy. My work is rooted in advanced meditation, metaphysics, spiritual psychology, energy healing, and trauma-informed practices. I believe that the more we heal and grow within ourselves, the more we are able to bring our creativity to life. And live our purpose, which leads to community impact and higher consciousness for all beings. Deeply well with Debbie Brown is your soft place to land, to work on yourself

without judgment, to heal, to learn, to grow, to become who you deserve to be. Deeply well is available now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Big love. Namaste. Our 20s are saying is this golden decade. Our time to be carefree, full in love, make mistakes, and decide what we want from our

life. But what can psychology really teach us about this decade? I'm Gemma Speg, the host of the psychology of your 20s. Each week we take a deep dive into a unique aspect of our 20s, from career anxiety, mental health, heartbreak, money, friendships, and much more to explore the science and the psychology behind our experiences, incredible guests, fascinating topics, important science, and a bit of my own personal experience. Audrey, I honestly have no idea what's going on with my life. Join me as we explore what our 20s are really all about. From the good, the bad, and the ugly, and listen along as we uncover how everything is psychology, including our 20s.

The psychology of your 20s hosted by me, Gemma Speg. Now streaming on the iHot Radio app, Apple podcasts, or whatever, you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, thank you so much for coming back. Apple podcasts or whatever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, thank you so much for coming back. I am genuinely so grateful and excited to introduce you to our next guest. She's a recent friend, but someone I feel like I've known forever. Literally the first time we met, I believe that she was a kindred spirit, long lost friend, and someone that I immediately and instantly had a heart connection with. She's someone that I'm excited to have a friendship with for the rest of my life, and her background and experience is absolutely phenomenal.

And you're going to learn so many incredible insights about business, about entrepreneurship, but also about heart, soul, purpose, meaning, passion. And she is none other than the global president and co-founder of Hooda Beauty. Her name is Mona Katan, a true beauty phenomenon. Thank you so much, Jay. You're incredible.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing you are. So thank you so much. Thank you. This is such an honor. You're so grateful. You're the sweetest. For the moment, we met you. And we literally met in LA maybe a month ago.

I think so. And we got connected through Facebook, which we both worked very closely with. And when they reached out and said that we wanted to connect, I was so happy. Thank you. And then when I met you, your energy from the moment we met just like radiated. Thank you so much. And the reason why I'm so excited to share you with my audience is because I believe that

you're exactly the type of leader, entrepreneur, business person that the world needs to admire and look up to as a world. So blessed. Thank you so much. Thank you. That's so kind. Yeah.

Thank you. I would love to help inspire anyone in any way, Ken. Absolutely. So I mean, the world knows you as an incredible beauty phenomenon. All the incredible work you've done. I want to start off asking you this question of how do you define beauty and what beauty really means to you? It's a big question.

I do really not to sound cliche, but I do really feel that beauty starts from within. I think that in order to feel beautiful you need to feel it inside because no matter how much makeup you have, no matter how much symmetry you have in your face, how perfect your body or your hair is, you're never going to feel great unless you love yourself. And also, I feel like you need to love others as well. You need to just have a happy kind heart. So it really does start from within and I think it's good to take care of both parts inside and outside to really fill your best and have the most confidence. So I really do for myself anyway I like to start from inside myself and just make sure that I'm happy and I have that inner piece before I put

on makeup on. And that's my first thing in the morning I'll put on some meditation music, I'll pray. I'll really count my blessings before I even think about you know makeup and hair and everything else. That's fun. I'm not going to say it's not. That's my second favorite part of the day, but the first part starts with in. That's amazing. I love that. And if anyone is listening right now, I'm sure you can listen to Mona's voice all day. We were just talking about before. You can meditate to your own voice. You don't meditate to your own voice. No. But we'll try it. Tell us a bit more about that.

When did that self-love almost become a part of your life? Like when did that become a priority for you? Was it something that was always there and there from your childhood? I've always been very spiritual. My family is very spiritual. My mom is super spiritual. She just prays all day. That's all she does.

So I've always seen that growing up. So I've always felt that in order to feel completely good about yourself and just to feel common life, you need to have a connection with the higher power, whatever it may be. So I've always prayed for my heart. So I think that my entire life I've always felt that I need to have that connection, but it was really, I think when I turned around 23, 24 that I realized, like, you really need this. It's not an option, like, for me to feel good, I need to have this connection. So I started looking inside out rather than outside in, and it just changed everything. And was there a specific moment at that age, or was it just growing up and starting real life

almost because that's kind of that age? I think I came to a point where I hit everything on my bucket list of like checklists of things that I wanted to achieve for myself like maybe outside and I just don't feel happy so I was like you know there must be something that I need more than this checklist that I have that society kind of creates for you. So I was like I need to look for something deeper. Yeah that's so interesting. I'm sure we all have these long bucket lists. Yes. Tell us about your morning routine,

because you kind of touched on it there. And the reason why I want to unpack that more is, that's amazing, because you lead a, and we'll get to this, but you lead an extremely busy life, you run a huge business, you're always traveling all across the world. And I'm sure it's not perfect all the time

as I know for myself as well. Yeah, and that's cool too. But tell us about how you started forming that program, that morning routine of meditation, meditational music, prayer, et cetera. Tell us about what it looks like. Well, to be honest, it didn't really get organized until about a year ago.

Before that, it was kind of scattered. Like, I had all the same ideas, but I wasn't doing it in an organized way. So it was about a year ago where I just hit this breaking point of like I need some structure in my life. And I need to feel more calm because I just had too much anxiety. There was like so much change in the business and just our family life because we work together. So it was just constant change. And I was like I need to find a way to just find peace. So me and Hedda together we just decided every morning we're going to have our own

little hour together where we talk and we meditate. We give thanks, we count our blessings, and we really try to manifest as well about our goals and everything that we want to achieve together. And it really transformed everything. We play meditation music, we pray. And it's about one hour in the day, and honestly that one hour changes everything. It's changed things so significantly. And even a relationship improved because we talk about everything that's on our mind

and we help each other out. So I think having that with someone or even on your own, it's just important to figure out what's on your mind because sometimes you don't know what's on your mind. Yeah, absolutely. We just like foggy and you have no idea why until you just get it out. That's amazing. It's so special. So it's only one hour. That's a lot of time.

But and I don't think everybody has to have the same sort of structure, but for me it works. It's just that one hour where I probably do about 20 minutes of prayer and 20 minutes of manifesting and then 20 minutes of just like talking and talking about your problems and finding solutions together. And it really has worked for me. I would like to do more, but it's a start. So it's been so transformational and I recommend it to anyone to try and find the hour they can just dedicate to themselves. Yeah, that's so special. And guide us through if you like and

you don't have to, but that kind of manifestation process that you use for your work. Because I think people hear this term everywhere. I think we talked about it last time. Like it's become a popular term, the secret talked about it a lot. And there's been so many almost versions of it. And I'd love to hear about it from someone who I believe is a very sincere practitioner there. I feel like it's a genuine thing for you. I'd love for you to kind of guide us through that process. Well, for us, it's typically just a matter of repeating our goals every single day and kind of speaking about them in the present tense. So we talk about all the things we want to achieve as if it's already happening.

And we spend a good 20 minutes on this every single day and I think that makes you feel a lot closer to your goals. And it's funny because we look back at our journals from like a year ago And it's like I think 60 to 70 percent have happened which kind of blew my mind I was like congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much And we just try to spend more time speaking about our goals and speaking about our problems And it's funny because what's not funny, but unfortunately a lot of people do the opposite They talk about their problems probably 90 percent of the time and 10 percent of the time they talk about what they aspire to achieve. And I just think flipping that around just changes

everything. I don't think you should not acknowledge your problems because we all have them, but I think just focus on everything that you want, the majority of the time, and you'll get more of that. Yeah, absolutely. That's such great advice. Yeah, I think so. That's such great advice. I think so much of our lives is totally the opposite. You're so right. We're complaining, we're comparing, we're criticizing, we're lost in that, that negative world, that, and then that keeps expanding. Yeah, absolutely. And something we started to do recently is,

we just kind of outlined all of our goals and then under each goal, you kind of put together 10 steps that can make this happen. And I'm sure you've talked about this before and you do this, I'm sure, but it's just a matter of like finding ways to achieve that faster. And the more you look at that piece of paper, even though it sounds so simple, it's just the more that will come into reality, I feel. So it's super simple.

I don't know if people have been disappointed because it's like, okay, that's it. But it does make a big difference. It's like simplicity is genius, right? Just keep it simple. Keep looking at your goals all day or peep them, write them down a hundred times a day if you want to. And I just think the more you invest in that,

the faster they're gonna come into reality. Absolutely. It's beautiful to hear how simple it is for you. And one of my favorite quotes from Einstein is, if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough. That's so true. And so hearing you explain it that way, and even though you find it so simple, I'm glad

that it's simple because everyone is listening. I hope you've got your notebooks and your notebooks pads out right now because this is real advice, and I think this is the work that people don't take the time to do. But the beautiful thing about you and Huda is that not only have you written down your goals, repeated them, built this prayer meditation, manifestation morning, you also work really hard. And I think that's sometimes often lost, like the amount of hard work, dedication, the commitment that it takes to build something as incredible as you have. the commitment that it takes to build something as incredible as you have. And guide us through that as well, like the beautiful balance between manifesting and then making things happen,

like actually turning up. It is really hard. The crazy thing is that initially we worked hard first before we were manifesting, so that's where I think we were just putting so much time and effort into everything that we did, and we didn't really see the results very fast. So it became until when we started manifesting and working hard that we actually saw the results fast enough. Because I think both of us have just had really high work ethics since we were children. My father worked since he was seven years old.

He helped support his family as a child. So we always saw him being a workaholic. And till this day he's retired, he's 75, but he just works constantly. Like, no, I think he's in Michigan helping my brother as Pete with his PhD and I'm like, dad, relax. You know, enjoy yourself. He's like, no, no, he just wants to work all the time. So I think no matter what we would have been doing in life, like we'd want to work hard, just gives me satisfaction. I couldn't imagine life otherwise. And again, it doesn't mean it has to be tied to a job or a number, it could be looking hard in charity.

It's just like feeling that I'm making a difference is so important. And I like having fun too, but I actually get more satisfaction on working. I can relate to it. I'm the same life that I'm working on. It just feels good. And I think it's important to have fun

while you're working. That's the best combination ever. So if you can find something, you know, career wise where you can do that, that's great. And it's the best, but my entire life, even when I was in banking and I didn't really like my job, I was working hard. I just don't know otherwise.

And I think that if you want to succeed in anything in life, whether it's a career goal, a relationship goal, a health goal, or a personal goal, you need to put the effort in. You know, manifest and put in the effort and then you're going to get magic. You're going to get there. You have to be patient, but you will get there. And I love that.

I love that you both show the balance and that you've been successful through the collaboration of both because sometimes it's either raw. I notice a lot of individuals or people or teams or companies just trying to manifest. And it's all about prayer. It's all about meditation, but then wondering why there's no result. And then the other side is, I would just hustle. I'm like, I want you to pray all day. You need to also take action. It's just like, I just want to pray all day.

And I'm like, that's beautiful. That's beautiful, yeah. It's such a beautiful soul. But I think my dad's an opposite. He works all day. That's what it worked well together. That's true. And I never thought about that.

So now, but yeah, they're completely opposite. So I think we kind of got inspiration from the two of them, like my mom from her spiritual side, my dad from this practical, like let's work hard side. But I think to find the most success, you have to do both so important. I love that. That's such a beautiful message too.

Because we can get lost on either extreme of hustle and grind or meditation and manifestation and it's the marriage of both, like in your parents' marriage, of bringing them both together. Absolutely. I think about a year and a half ago when we were just so busy just keeping up with all the crazy work that we had, we were definitely lost in our hard work. We're like a hamster and a wheel and we're just constantly just keeping up with our to-do list and we didn't really think strategically and I think having that time in the morning, and then also something that one of our investors

told me about, she was like, you need to schedule the slack time, and I was like, what is slack time? And she was like, time where you schedule nothing. And I was like, what is that? I didn't even know what you mean by that. She was like, you just need to put in an hour or two hours for you to think. And I was like, this is interesting.

But it's so funny, because most people who have you know 95, maybe six jobs they don't schedule time to think. And now that I do that I find it crazy that I didn't do it because you need time to just kind of download all your thoughts, download everything that you had in meetings and just all the progress that you have or the challenges you have and just think about it and reflect and create a plan. Absolutely. I often say that, you know, all of our phones, we know when our batteries at 20% and then it gives us an alert at 10%, but we don't have that for our own check.

That's so deep. We don't have a signal from ourselves to us that, hey, you're on 10% now, hey, you're on 3% now, oh, what, you need to recharge. And often with our willpower, or whenever we maybe we push past that recharge, but we all know our phones die if they don't get recharged. You know, they burn out. We need an app for that.

We do, we do need an app for that. That's so true. They're just being able to give us an alert on our energy levels, on our mental space. I've been taking for the past couple of months, two days a week, where I'm just being creative creative which means I pick up a random book on my shelf or I make notes and there's no real agenda for the day there's no goal or deadline it's just have space to think and I can I can honestly agree that that's

made me more effective and impactful when I have to be on all the time so I love that point. I never thought about that. I'm like, I need to check myself, because I don't really pay attention to when I'm on E or 10%. It's just, I think we've always had that, me and Huda both. We've always had that mentality of just work until exhaustion. But yeah, I think you should check in on yourself some day. Yeah, just just even just sitting and just sensing with our body, like, where am I feeling pain?

Or where am I feeling aches Or where am I feeling aches? Where am I feeling great? Where am I feeling good and then the same with the mind? And I know that in my life, I've often neglected the body by focusing on mastering the mind and then you learn the hard way sometimes. So. I need to do more of that. It's all progress.

I think this year has really been a year of self-awareness for both of us. For myself especially, I just feel like this year I've learned so much about myself. It's been scary. Tell me something that you've learned about yourself, that something that's new and something that's always been there, but you're like, oh yeah. I mean, I learned a lot. You know, it's funny doing the reality show, hit a boss. I wanted to talk about myself. Okay, let's do it. It just made me realise that...

So by the way, if you've not seen Hitta Basta, you have to go and watch it. If you're listening or watching this right now, you have to. Because it's such an authentic reality show. And it really gives you a snapshot into how hard they work, how deeply they work, how meaningful they work. Thank you. So I highly, highly recommend it.

But yes, please, let's let's let's talk about it. Where do I start? I think one thing I realized was just a lot of blockage I had in my life towards relationships and just dating and marriage and things like that. I didn't realize that till the producers, producers just started asking me so many questions and I was just like never thought about these things.

And I realized a lot about my upbringing as well because having parents from the global East, my mom's really conservative, like my entire life, she was just telling me like, dating's wrong. And like, these kind of things are all wrong. So my whole life has been programmed to think, oh my gosh, I'm going on a date. It's wrong. You know, so I just realized I had so much blockage towards that. And I was avoiding meeting people because of that.

So I think that was the first thing that I was like, okay, I need to stop thinking about getting married. My mom's way because it's not going to happen. It's just not something I'm comfortable with. And if I'm not going to do that, I need to be open to meeting someone. So it was kind of an eye opener. Yeah, and it just made me realize I put a lot of negativity towards men and general. I was just like, no, stay away. But then I didn't want an arranged marriage. So it's kind of crazy. Like you can't do both. You have to pick really emerged in between, but you can't like avoid meeting somebody and

then avoid an arranged marriage. And I just think that was something that was really interesting. Yeah, that's super interesting. And I think so many people from an Asian background or an Indian background or you know any of those backgrounds struggle with that and So much pressure so much pressure, right? There's so much pressure and I hear that so often we sometimes feels like the world moved on and everyone's more modern now and thinks More forward, but there are still many of us and a lot of us who are in that space So what's your advice to someone who's listening and like?

a lot of us who are in that space. So what's your advice to someone who's listening? And like, well, I'm in that space right now, you know, like how did you kind of navigate it in your mind with your family, with your relationships with that? And I love what you said, that you'd programmed yourself with a sense of beliefs. But you'd deprogrammed yourself. I think you first need to get rid of all the negativity because, you know, love is a beautiful thing, finding a partner in life is a beautiful thing, mere, it's just a beautiful thing. So I think that regardless of whatever route you want to take, just get rid of all the negativity because it should be positive.

You're not going to attract the right partner if you're thinking if you feel guilty or if you think bad thoughts. So I think remove all of that and just start focusing on the goals that you want in terms of a partner and just highlight what's important to you and the values that you want to find. Because I think if you focus on that, you're going to attract people who would work.

And take everything you've learned, and just I think you should just erase it if I'm honest. So I think all these things that were kind of like middle eastern Asian or program to believe, and ethnicity, backgrounds, even religion, I mean, for me, I feel like it shouldn't be what you're searching for. I feel like it should be the common denominator of just values and goals of life and how you

want to raise your children. If you want to have some of this, I think focusing on that has changed a lot. Because before, I was kind of all over. I was like, my parents want this. I want that. I was just scattered all over. And then I just had blockage. It was like, no, not interested because it's too complicated.

And I was complicating everything. And then just opening up to my parents, I think that I realized all they really went is for you to be happy. All your parents, I think, no matter where you're from, I think even if they think they're trying to control you to follow their footsteps of whatever they took in the end of the day, they're only doing that.

Because I think it's going to make you happy. It's not about a checklist in general. I mean, I'm sure there's some parents who still want you to follow specific traditional things, but I think the meaning behind it all is just to see you be successful and happy and what they think happiness is. So yeah, I had very honest conversations with my parents and thankfully, they were very supportive. Yeah. And it's been good. It's positive. I have the blockage removed, and I'm just a lot more open. And I think my energy is a lot more open as well. Yeah. And it's been good. It's positive. I have the blockage moved and I'm just a lot more open and I think my energy is a lot more open as well. Yeah. So that was the first thing I realized. I was like I need to stop being

negative towards guys. Men are great and you know I think having a partner is important. It's not a necessity but it's great. If you find the right person I think it can add a lot of value in to your life. Absolutely. Yeah, and before I was still talking to guys, but it was all very negative because I had that negative energy towards it, I had that guilt. So it was meeting guys, but it was just like the wrong kind of guy. And I think it was all from the blockage.

So get rid of blockage. Great. And they're over blockage in your life. In any area. Yeah. Anything else you learn? I love that one, by the way. That's your level of self-optivation and self-study is beautiful to see.

Thank you. Because just the way you're speaking about it, and I hope everyone listening, I really want you to take this seriously. Everything Mona is sharing is huge, huge takeaways. I think so. Everything you're sharing is so powerful because I feel all of us are telling ourselves stories in our minds, we're blocking our minds with so many subconscious thoughts. And I'm often talking about how the world's fascinated with learning, but the real need is

unlearning. Like the real need is to unlearn what we believe is true because that's like you said, creating what you're attracting in your life. So please please please, when you listen to Mona on this, on this episode, just look at it from that perspective of what in your life is blocking you, what story in life have you been telling yourself about relationships, about someone you're attracted to, about work, about career, that's actually stopping you from moving you forward. Yeah, it's very true. I'm learning this a big part of it. So I think from the show, it's just like,

I need to unlearn a lot of things. Because you used to watch yourself back. Yeah. I'm not a fan of the past. Oh, my. So who's this person? Like, I just, I think especially in the beginning, I just got super uptight.

And her that makes fun of me, she says, I have like pageant princess syndrome. Oh, yeah. Because I was in the pageant, so as a child. So I was like, really taught to be poised and like, you know Just pose a certain way, I carry myself a certain way, but I really think that that was kind of negative in a way Because I feel like it really taught you to be try to be perfect, which I think is just so unrealistic and I think that You should never encourage people to be perfect

You're setting them up for failure almost and you set them up to be too hard on themselves So that was something that I realized through the show that I needed to get that out of my head, perfect doesn't exist, just be your goofy fun self. And you'll be happier, people will be happier around you. And just, I learned I needed to loosen that more. Yeah. So you're working on it.

But you all do it so beautifully. I always feel when I'm watching your stories, I get so happy. On Instagram, yeah, because I feel like there isn't that, exactly what you said, you're being your fun, and I didn't call you goofy, you, because I feel like there isn't that, exactly what you said, you're being your fun, and I didn't call you goofy, you called yourself goofy. I wanted to give you a second. Yeah, yeah, but you're fun, give yourself, like, I don't feel that there's that filter or there's that lens by which you're thinking, oh,

no, but this is our brand and et cetera. And I think that's why people love you so much. And they're attracted to your energy because it's so genuine and I know the word authentic is so overused but I feel like it's transparent and you're not afraid to... Yeah, I like transparent because you're not afraid for people to see you as you are in that moment and I guess and I'd love to talk to you a bit about that because how do you find it? Because in one sense beauty and the way the media has worked with beauty for years and decades has always been about perfection.

Like I always joke about this. I remember, I remember, I'll of the makeup side of brands that would say, get the natural look. And I'd be like, how do you get the natural look? Like you have a natural look when you wake up, right? And so tell us a bit about how you've managed that balance between building this huge incredible beauty brand Which is built on

Inabuted to out-of-beauty positive energy, but how you maintain that balance between not valuing Perfection but but not selling it like not telling people to be perfect. I think we're really lucky to be To have been Sorry, yeah, I think we're really lucky to have had a beauty start in a time where their social media because I think we're really lucky to have been, sorry, I think we're really lucky to have had a beauty start in a time where there's social media because I think previously it just wasn't possible to share the message that your scars are beautiful, beauty marks are beautiful, asymmetry is beautiful and just, you know, now is such a special time because I feel like

with social media everybody has a voice and that's so amazing and everybody feels like they're included because in the past it was like these big huge conglomerates decided on what the ad advertisements would look like and everybody thought they had to look like that. And I think the conglomerates thought that people wanted that, but they don't realize nobody wants that. Nobody wants to feel like they have to look like a Barbie. You know, that's just, it just makes you feel so insecure in so many ways. I think that now because of social media,

we also have a great looking different, being different. And that's something so special. And I think that's something we're super lucky to be part of now where cosmetics now are all about celebrating yourself. And enhancing your own beauty, you don't have to be like anybody else, just be the best version of yourself. And even if that means some days you don't want to make it at all. And you just want to be in your pajamas and go to the grocery store like that. Do it. Do it

whatever makes you feel good. Because confidence is more beautiful than anything. I'm Dr. Romani and I am back with season two of my podcast Navigating Narcissism. Narcissists are everywhere and their toxic behavior and words can cause serious harm to your mental health. In our first season, we heard from Eileen Charlotte, who was loved by the Tinder Swindler. The worst part is that he can only be guilty for stealing the money from me, but he cannot be guilty for the mental part he did. And that's even way worse than the money he took. But I am here to help. As a licensed psychologist and survivor of narcissistic abuse myself,

I know how to identify the narcissist in your life. Each week, you will hear stories from survivors who have navigated through toxic relationships, gaslightings, love bombing, and the process of their healing from these relationships. Listen to navigating narcissism on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I am Mi'amla, and on my podcast, the R-Spot, we're having inspirational, educational, and sometimes difficult and challenging conversations about relationships. They may not have the capacity to give you what you need.

And insisting means that you are abusing yourself now. You human! That means that you're crazy as hell, just like the rest of us. When a relationship breaks down, I take copious notes and I want to share them with you. Anybody with two eyes and a brain knows that too much Alfredo sauce is just no good for you. But if you're going to eat it, they're not going to stop you. So he's going to continue to give you the Alfredo sauce and put it even on your grits if you don't stop him.

Listen to the R-Spot on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Danny Shapiro, host of Family Secrets. It's hard to believe we're entering our eighth season. And yet, we're constantly discovering new secrets. The depths of them, the variety of them, continues to be astonishing. I can't wait to share ten incredible stories with you, stories of tenacity, resilience, and the profoundly necessary excavation

of long-held family secrets. When I realized this is not just happening to me, this is who and what I am. I needed her to help me. Something was annoying at me that I couldn't put my finger on, that I just felt somehow that there was a piece missing. Why not restart? Look at all the things that were going wrong. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests

for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to season eight of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So we're trying hard to just celebrate that message with everybody right now, but it is a challenge. It still is a challenge. You get a lot of people who say, oh, I don't look like that.

And it's like, we try so hard to make sure people don't feel like they need to look like anybody else. But it's a challenge. And it's, I think something that the beauty industry will always kind of struggle with, because people think it is all about how you look, but it really isn't. It's about how you feel.

And we want to make people feel good. That's a goal. Yeah, absolutely. And you are. I see that from the people like calling on your posts and all the great new products and lines that you're launching. I see that love. I see that genuineness from the people that are following you and it's fine. You will try. You know, I never want to make people feel like they need to look

a specific way. And that's another reason why we try to post videos and photos of ourselves about makeup and looking silly and being ourselves just like every human would do because I feel like when you just show this perfectly filtered Photoshopped image people will feel like they need to be that and they don't. Especially Photoshopped. No. Yeah, Photoshopped. I try to stop photoshopping my photos. I still do sometimes but like I'm trying not to. But again, you're selling the wrong message or just making people think unrealistic thoughts. And even with other things, head on myself have been super open about plastic surgery,

just enhancements, because again, we don't want people to think, oh, we were born this way. Are we look this way naturally? Like, I get my Botoxan fillers on the regular. My doctor's on speed dial. And I'm like, if you want to do that too here's what I did and this is my advice but you don't have to but again it's just a matter of being completely honest because I don't want people to think that oh you know

everybody should just be blessed with natural good looks you know everybody has potential to look a specific way and feel a specific way and you should just feel good in your own skin and if you you want help, we'll help you get there. Yeah. If you want to, but again, we're not trying to encourage people to change themselves, but we just want to be honest about what we do. Yeah, and that's the best, right?

That's all all of us can do is be honest about our choices so that people have that transparency. That's amazing. Absolutely. And that's why I don't know if you've seen but hit us sometimes post like her Photoshop before and after. Yes.

She still puts the Photoshop photo, but she shows you the before just so you know, like this has been touched up. It's just the industry we're in. Yes. Hopefully one day nobody will Photoshop their photos and they'll leave their stretch marks and everything else. But right now it's just... Totally.

It's still the name of the game, but we try to show the before and after so you know it's been enhanced. Yeah, that authenticity is amazing. I think that's beautiful to see that because you're not scared or fearful of putting yourself out of it because you don't need to do that. No one's asking you to do that. And I'm happy to see that. Thank you.

I think the truth is that you set you free. Yes, absolutely. It's like a thing that you're holding onto. Absolutely. Because I always feel you're holding onto this thing that people might find out and might see and then it's uncomfortable. Completely. Yeah, lying is uncomfortable. might see and then it's uncomfortable. Completely. I feel like when you're just fine, it is.

It's super uncomfortable. I feel like as well just holding things back, it's just when you're super honest about everything, you just have this lightness and this freedom to yourself. And I feel like that's when you have more creativity or just you don't have, it's again, like the blockage. You don't have the blockage. Get it all out. Yeah, absolutely.

Now, and I read this all some study the other day that was talking about how this is so simple again, but I have to raise it because if you meditate on it, it makes a lot of sense that when you're lying, you have to remember the lie and the truth. And what that does is it takes a more brain space, it takes a more brain energy and it's stretching you and stretching out your ability to recall. Whereas when you just tell the truth and you share the truth, then you have nothing else stretching you and stretching out your ability to recall, whereas when you just tell the truth and you share the truth, then you have nothing else to remember,

and then it becomes simple. So it's so true. So even from a neuroscientist point of view, it's just making the brain's processing a lot easier. And then obviously we know from a spiritual point of view, it's making your, yeah, exactly the full woman. It's so true. Everyone that has a child, I think that was the last time

I lied, it was like to my parents, and I was like, I can't do this. This is so true. I learned that as a child. I think that was the last time I lied. It was like to my parents, and I was like, I can't do this. This is too much stress in life. I can't carry on, but that's a great point. Yeah, so we just want to be honest with everyone. And again, I think the more honest we are with people, the more we'll be able to help people. And that's the ultimate goal.

It's great to create products. It's great to achieve all these records that we've broken in terms of selling products and everything, but the ultimate goal is to really help people feel better about themselves. I was reading a lot of your interviews and who is as well before today. I always liked doing my research and hearing things that I've had before. And there was a part where who was talking about how you're just such a good judge of character and passions and noticing people's skills and their potential.

And that's how we worked with Hoodie too when you first started out. Like you felt that she was so in love with beauty and her passion was there. Tell us about that journey because I think a lot of people struggle with A identifying themselves but not only have you identified your own, you're helping other people identify theirs. Yeah, well, I mean, I think similarly to you, like my whole life, I kind of grew up with Tony Robbins and all these really inspirational mentors. I never met him, but I feel like he's my mentor anyway.

You're my mentor now, though. I think you've replaced everybody. I just watched your videos all day. You just call me. I know that you're busy, so I'm just like, I just watched your videos all day. You just call me. I know that you're busy, so I'm just like, I just watched your videos. Honestly, from now on, I'm saying it on the record. Thank you. Thanks, seriously.

Thank you. But you know, so I've just always used to watch Tony Robbins. He was like a big one for me. I think I started listening to his videos at like 14 when I went through a hard time. And it was just the thing I always noticed him repeating was passion. Now it's like what do people have passion for? And I would always watch people and just notice

like when their eyes would light up and when they'd spark. And for a height of specifically, it was beauty. She would always spend all of her free time talking about makeup and beauty products. And one day I was just staring at her. It was a little while after she lost her job and she was just trying to figure things out and just try to figure out what she wanted to do in life

and at that time she had left her job and financial recruitment and she was just like looking for another job like that. That my parents would be happy with and you know, another job that would take a box of like, okay, my daughter's successful because she's feeling, you know, a job that everybody expects her to have

and none of us thought outside of that box. And one day I just stared at her and I was like, you need to do beauty. Like I've never seen anyone so passionate about makeup and beauty and just that creative part of your life. You love it so much. And then I just started staring at her. It's kind of weird.

And I was like, I had this like a piphany. And I was like, you have to do this. And I went downstairs and I started talking to my parents. I was like, you guys have to support her was like, I had this like a piphany. And I was like, you have to do this. And I went downstairs and I started talking to my parents. I was like, you guys have to support her to like help her, just give her that support. And then she went down and she told them the same thing. And they were just super supportive. It was the most bizarre thing because my entire life,

my dad has been very pro education. You need to do your bachelor's and master's, your PhD. And then another PhD, like he's just gone back around for himself. So I didn't expect them to be cool about it. And they totally were. And like a week later, she was in LA. So I had a meeting. It was kind of surreal. Wow. And you transitioned also from banking.

So you heard that. Yeah. How did you feel when you were leaving the traditional success pathway? It was really hard. For me, it was harder because I quit. I didn't get fired. So it was like, I made the decision to close that chapter and leave. And it was so hard. I knew I had to because I knew I didn't want to do it. But I actually, I didn't even tell my boss in person. I sent an email and my sister, I had to press the send button. They drafted it and I was so nervous that maybe I'm making a mistake that I was like, I can't do it. Please send the send button. They drafted it and I was so nervous that maybe I'm making a mistake that I was like, I can't do it. Please send the send button. And she sent it right away

and I was like, no, I didn't mean right now. I was like, let's talk about it. But she sent it. We're just waiting there for the response. I was so nervous. And I thought, oh my gosh, I just screwed myself like, I don't know what I'm going to do now. What am I going to do for like my life? And it was definitely really hard hard but I knew in my heart that it wasn't something that I had passion for and I was still figuring myself out. So I didn't start working in Beauty right away. I went into PR and Business Consulting which helped me a lot. It taught me so much about just starting your own business and just marketing yourself and just the way PR works because I had no idea about it. I studied finance.

So it was all like new information for me, but it definitely helped me learn a lot that helped us with head of beauty and another business that I started. I had a business before we went into head of beauty and I had the doll house. Yeah. So that was a great experience. And I learned so much.

And it also taught me, I'm not saying business is easy, but it taught me how not hard it is. You know, it's not unachievable. If you put your mind to it, anything is possible. And I think just having that smaller success with the dollhouse made me realize, okay, anything's possible, let's put our minds together and let's create what you want. And I saw that Huda, you know, her passion with beauty. And then I just told her, like, we need to start a line for you because you have so much input on every product. She's the biggest critic, she's the perfectionist so I know that she could

improve standards on everything. So we started first with the lashes and again it was just I think building yourself with small successes helps you get the confidence for the big ones. So just experiment. That's what I did. I just started experimenting. And to be honest, I was like a serial entrepreneur. A lot of them were failures. Thank God they're in big ones. They were small things.

And I just think learning from all those failures teaches you so much. And we still have challenges all the time. We have so many hiccups all the time. At least one so weak. There was like, oh my god, we're gonna have to close down. This is a disaster, but you just realized from your experience in the past, you're like,

okay, we've got through that, we can probably get through this. Let's pivot, put our minds together and find a solution. And it's been a crazy, crazy journey. Yeah, I saw that episode where you talked about how you'd lost two million or something like that. I was just like, wow, you put this on an episode. I was just like, that's. I was just like, wow, you put this on an episode. I was just like, that's what I was just like, wow, you guys are really transparent.

And again, it's great for people to see the reality of it because it's so easy for us to sit back and be like, oh, Mona and her there, you just have amazing lives and the lives are incredible. And there's no challenges anymore. But then when you put that out and I was like, wow. And it's great for people to see you dealing with that, moving through that. It was like, wow, and it's great for people to see you dealing with that,

moving through that. Yeah, it was embarrassing. Like sometimes talking about your failures, it's embarrassing because I'm actually like, oh gosh, you don't want the whole world to know you messed up. And sometimes it's simple mistakes that have such a huge repercussion, especially the bigger you get, the more those small mistakes make such a big impact.

It can be really negative, but we spoke to our investors about it beforehand and they gave us their blessing. They're like, okay, if you really feel like you want to share this, this is who you are, share it. And we're like, okay, great. So we just want to be super honest. And again, like we want people to know we're achieving this, but anyone can. And any area, whether it's beauty, fashion, anything food, whatever it is, just put your mind to your passion and just keep going, never give up.

Two questions. If someone's out there and they're struggling to find their passion, this is something I'm super passionate about myself. If someone's struggling to find their passion, what's the first thing that they should do? What's your advice? Where do they start?

It's hard because I think I've even struggled with this before and I feel like to a certain extent I still feel this way because I love what I do but I still feel many times there's things that are missing out in my life. So I think you should just spend a lot of time on your own and that's something I've been doing for the past year. I'm like I need to spend time with myself to figure out what makes me sick, what keeps me excited, what would you do for free?

Like what would you do if there was no payment? You know, I think that's how we should all of our lives and figure that out and then just try to spend the most amount of time doing that. And then before you know it, you're going to make a life out of it. Hopefully something that can cover your expenses and wants, and that you can impact the world with. But I think that just figuring out what makes you take and what excites you, like when you're exhausted and you have no sleep, what do you think about? Not people, not the drama. Because sometimes I feel like when we're tired,

we think about the drama, but like think about your dreams. Like if you were five years old again and you were just day dreaming about what you wanted to be when you grew up, what would that be? And just find a way to make that happen as crazy as that sounds. If you know that's Superman, find out, why did you want to be Superman, you know? Or if you want to be a mom, why did you want to be a mom?

Do you like taking care of people? Like, what is it? So find out what gets you excited. Yeah, that's great advice. I always do well. I mean, and happiness to me is how you feel about yourself when you're by yourself. And that's why you're being alone is so important sometimes because when we're not alone, we fill the gaps with different things or we find things that

make us feel happy or give us pleasure or joy or whatever it may be and you can almost mask yourself from finding what it really is whereas when you're on your own, even though it can be uncomfortable to start with, as I'm sure it was, it's just like, oh no, but it does start to make you think, okay, how can I be happy with myself, by myself? And start that journey. It's very true. It was about two years ago. I kind of realized I need to spend more time with myself. And I think everybody should do it. But it was super lonely. And I got kind of depressed, because I really just kind of took myself out of everything and just really spent time alone.

But I did realize so many things I was doing wrong in life and I just kind of recentered myself. So I recommended to everyone, like, have at least a four-hour session at one period once a week by yourself. Yeah. No, yeah, and it's great advice. I highly recommend it to.

I think it's uncomfortable. It is. I think especially we live in a world where it's like loneliness is seen as bad because isolation and loneliness have increased so much. But a lot of that is because we don't know how to be alone. And I think that's great advice especially for people

entrepreneurs, business people who I think feel like they have to be networking all the time, or have to be out and about all the time. But to take that pause, press pause. There's so much power in slowing down. Because then you get faster, but not from being busier, you just get more strategic. So just slow down.

Everything's gonna be fine. I remember once when I was, I think it was about a year and a half ago, my friends kidnapped me. They took me on a birthday surprise. Nice for you. They're so easy. They saw me working like a crazy person, and they're like, you really need to holiday.

So they took me to Sri Lanka. And it was a point right before we got investors. So it was like literally on emails. From when I woke up to when I slept, it was probably the most insane part of my life. And I remember one of my friends was saying, she was like, OK, if you don't answer the email, it's going to happen.

I was like, are you going to get upset? It's not good business. And then she was like, then what's going to happen? And it was like, it's going to make me have less opportunities. And she's like, she just kept asking that question. Then what will happen? And I was like, I don't know. And she's like, you're not going to die, right? And I was like, I don't know. Maybe and she's like, and then what will happen? And I was like, I

guess I die. And then you just realized, like, we build everything up to be so big in our heads, when really, it's not, you know, um, you just need to be calm and just realize no matter what happens, you're going to deal with it and just get ready to have anxiety of the pressure that we put on ourselves. If you're listening and watching to this, I hope you're nodding as much as I am. Because it's such the sense of calm I can feel it in your voice and your energy that it's not a good tip and I want everyone to know that like I'm sitting with my mother right now

like it's not a good tip, it's not just a smart thing to do, it's like she's really practicing this. I'm trying. It's still my moments where I get such anxiety, like catch myself and like why am I anxious and you need to calm down, everything will be okay, like no matter what you're going through it will be okay. Like there's you're going through, it'll be okay. There's always a solution, no matter what. So you just need to calm yourself down so you can find the solutions, because you can't find solutions when you're nervous and when

you're stressed out and you're just... That's the point. There you go. That's a beautiful point. When you're stressed out, you're nervous, all that anxious energy, that's not going to move you forward. Usually, no backwards, because you make bad decisions. There are decisions out of fear. There are decisions out of stress and anxiety. So I really, I think it's been about a year now

where I've just slowed down and I'm just really trying to catch myself every time I sense the anxiety. I'm like, I need to take a breather, just meditate and just pray. Amazing. Yeah. Thank you. That was amazing, amazing reminders.

I wanted to talk to you about your new fragrance fragrance because I know you're very excited about it. Did you guys get it? No, no, no, I'm excited to get it. You're supposed to get it. I really? We've sent it here. She probably stole it and kept it for herself. It might be in LA.

Hopefully it's in sentient. Oh, thank you. I didn't even have a gig. Of course. Yeah, they look amazing. We're so excited for you. They look so much. They look so much. So excited for you. And I started even ever get it. It was good. Yeah, they look amazing. We're so excited for you. I'm so excited for you.

So excited for you. And I started looking into it because I'm so excited. What I loved was your deep dive into the research of fragrances. I love fragrance. Yeah, but you love fragrance. And I think a lot of people want to build fragrances. I have a cool idea or whatever it is, but you do the work.

Like tell us about the process of creating a fragrance. Thank you. It's been very interesting to be very honest. Like I decided probably about eight years ago, seven years ago that I wanted to create a fragrance because I've been a fragrance junkie since I was like 18 probably. And since then, all my money that I made for working, I would save up everything just to buy perfume.

And I was like, this isn't working out for me. I'm so broke. And like every dollar. I saw that video with your wardrobe. Yeah. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look.

It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look.

It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look. It's a look, it's because of your feeling it gives me. I think that with perfume, it really shifts your mind and your emotions and it makes you feel a certain way. So like for myself, when I put on amber or something like musky, I feel like confident. I feel strong.

If I put on rose, I feel feminine and just different. So I think that using it as a mode shifter is really important. Wow. I think it makes a difference. It does. Yeah, so I just wanted to make people fall in love with the feeling they get from fragrance.

It's not about how you smell, it's about how you feel again. And that's something that we try to do with our beauty products. It's just about making you feel your best. And I don't know why, for me, perfume is always in something that makes me feel better. I don't want to say this because I don't want to see it, but if I had to choose between makeup and fragrance, I would definitely choose fragrance. Should we do that out? I don't know maybe. I think she

knows but I'm not sure. Okay you're heading out. But I would definitely choose fragrance any day. See I was an interesting product project. Tell us about this fragrance. So Kayali it's a new line, completely new line and we do want to create a new lifestyle around fragrance. So thereali, it's a new line, completely new line, and we do want to create a new lifestyle around fragrance. So there's a lot coming out next year, which we're super excited about. There's going to be a lot more body care and other things that are going to be different. I can't say too much because they're all killing. She's very like, that's the better way of doing it. Yeah, but we have a lot of things coming out next year to just really make people fall in love with fragrance

and teach them about our tradition as well. And I think it's similar in India as well, where people are very into the oil, is the boh-hawar, the incense. Ood. Yes, the ood. So I think that just making that more global is part of our goal.

We've always tried to make everything that we relate to more understandable on a global level. Because I think there's so much beauty to the way we appreciate fragrance. So I hope that people are on the world just experience it. And if they like it, continue. If they don't, at least they've learned about our culture. And I think it's going to be fun. Yeah, that sounds great.

I run on leave when I was a monk. And I talk about this a lot about how, you know, Daya isn't just what you eat. It's what you smell, it's what you hear, it's what you think about, it's what you see. And I feel that so much of so many cultures are so rich in controlling the senses or giving the senses another feeling. Like a scent can literally change your mood in an instant. Like, you know, the best experience anyone listening or watching

has is of good food. When you smell good food, it changes how you feel. It also makes you hungry, it makes you want to eat. And so, we're so not adept at being aware of our own senses and how they feel. And I know when I walk into space that has beautiful music on or as a beautiful scent, again, I can feel relaxed in an instance. It's why we all love spars and jacuzzi is a master because there's

that there's an experience for the senses. Absolutely. And I feel that I'm so happy that you feel that way too because like sometimes I think it's just like a girly thing. But that's great that you feel it as well because I feel the same way. I feel like having the right center around you, even if it's your home yourself, your hair, whatever, it does make you feel stronger or happier, sleepier, whatever it is. It's a room with your at these, so I feel like it really does work. Another interesting thing as well is I really think that fragrance kind of gives you a bookmark into your life at that moment, because the first time you smell of fragrance, I feel like that is now going to be what you

remember every time you saw that in the future. So I feel like giving the gift of fragrance. That's why I love receiving it as a gift because I'm like, when I open a new fragrance and all the times that I got them in the past, it's like I will immediately remember that point in my life every time I smell it again. So I just think giving that as a present is so nice. So if you can find something. I'm excited. You're going to bookmark a moment in my life. Yes, I am.

Yeah, I get it. We're going to have to find out what fragrance she doesn't have. It's going to be on that job. You're going to love that. Yeah, that's such a, I love that. A fragrance is a bit of a mark. Yeah. That is. Like a scent anyway. Whatever it is, it's like if you can just take it in deeply and just really smell it and just remember that moment every Every time you smell that in the future,

and if it's a year later, you're gonna go back. And I think of that. And one of my best friends in university she gave me the most beautiful fragrance that I still wear to this day. And every time I smell it, I think of her. And I think of that moment when we were in university, just two very inexperienced girls just living life

and just fine-per-cleaned. So I'm like, oh, adolescents, so before they're stressed and everything, but- That's how I feel about sandalwood paste. So sandalwood paste is very commonly used in the tradition I was among, etc, for markings on the body and in- Oh my gosh. And it's so true that whenever I smell that, I literally can transport myself back to the moments. Yeah, so you're so right. It's a powerful. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so I want to share that with the world and just make people fall in love with it, to the moment. It is. Yes. You're so right. It's a powerful.

Yeah, absolutely. I want to share that with the world and just make people fall in love with it because I feel like, I feel like beauty really, it really gets its moment, fashion gets its moment, other things get their moment, but fragrance, I feel like it's really been neglected. You're like representing it. No, we need to fall in love with it. The minority of fragrances. Yeah.

And just really, I want to educate people about it as well and just educate them about the oils, the raw ingredients, the manufacturer we work with here in Venetia. They're super careful about how they have a source ingredients, and they're sustainable as well. So if they pick roses, they plant roses. If they take vanilla, they invest in the vanilla field. So it's important. It's very important to me that the people we work with are careful with what they're

doing to plant it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I read that. So I'm going to move into the final who work with are careful with what they're doing in the planet. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I read that. So I'm gonna move into the final five minutes, which are our final five questions. And one of them is so great. Have you enjoyed it? I was so nervous.

You've been amazing, like, you feel it? I was like, so, I had so much anxiety this morning and I was like, oh no, but then I was like, calm down. It's gonna be great. James, amazing, we're friends, miss, gonna be, you're so amazing to talk to you. Oh, you're the best. No, you are so amazing. You're like sharing so many you're the best. You are, no, you are, you're so amazing.

You're like sharing so many incredible insights. I'm like, I'm taking mental notes right now, and I'm hoping everyone at home is taking notes or wherever you are at work, wherever you're listening and watching because you've shared so many great insights. Like, honestly, so many. I feel like it's off from your videos. No, no, no, no, no, don't talk to me.

Don't say that, it's not a talk. I love your videos. I've become so obsessed recently. To be honest, I've found you, I think on IG, October last year, 2017. I think that was the first time. But recently, I've been overdosing on J-Shedding. And I've actually fallen asleep to your videos, and then I'm like, okay, this is a bit weird because I'm friends with them now.

But you're so amazing, you're so inspirational. You're my new role model. Like I got asked to interview the other day, I mean, I still live here in your ovens because you're out there. So you're like the new one. I'm like, Jay Shetty, you're the man. You're like, you're the sweetest.

And I want you to know that. You can literally call me up. Thank you. I'm not even just saying that. Thank you. You have to test it now. You're so sweet. Thank you.

I said it. No, we've fallen in love with you. It's, you're definitely, I was thinking about Thanksgiving, I was thinking about all the people that I met this year. And, you know, you're definitely without a doubt, like in the top one. Yeah. You know, just, yeah, it's just been so,

it's just been, it's so rare. And we were told by this, as you get older and for everyone who's listening, I'm sure you feel this, as you get older, it's so hard to make real friendships. And we can live about this. As you get older and for everyone who's listening, I'm sure you feel this. As you get older, it's so hard to make real friendships and we get live busier lives as we get older. We're all busier with work and business and family and whatever it may be.

And sort of find people that you're like, oh wow, I think they'd make time for me and I'd make time for you. That feeling is so rare. And I love feeling that. So when I get that feeling now, absolutely. That's true, thank you.

But I've got five questions left. I'm not learning you go yet. I know, it's okay. So these are my questions. The first one was, yeah, I've read that you're fascinated by agriculture and the environment. And so tell us about why that's such an important area for you to want to learn about.

This is something that I also feel guilty about, to be honest, because I was telling you like I have my passion for the video to show it's great, but I always feel like there's something missing and I feel like the world needs our help. And I haven't found my way yet and I feel kind of guilty sometimes. I don't want to feel guilty because it's wrong, but I feel like I need to put more effort into it because I'm not educated enough on the environment and also agriculturally what the world needs. But I feel that I love giving people confidence, but also what is it gonna be worth

if the planets in trouble? So for myself, I would love to dedicate my future years and my life to helping the planet. And I'd love to start now, to be honest. So if you find something interesting in your initiative, I am ready to support. And I think that, you know, people like yourself, like let's work together to find some solutions because the plant needs are helping

It's for the future, you know, it's maybe not for ourselves, but you know, it's for the kids. Yeah Yeah, I don't want them to grow up in a world that's unhealthy and trees and everything I think The condition of just animals and the plants I just want to see people have a great beautiful life And I want to leave the planet better than we entered it. That's such a beautiful way of putting it. And I get really fascinated and so happy when all of us have our thing that we love and we're successful. But then using that as an energy to say, actually, I'm going to make time to serve the planet back and think about another space.

Yeah. I think that's such a wonderful responsibility. I remember it was Muhammad Ali who said that service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth. It's so true. And it's just such a beautiful sentiment. And I love it because I always think of them. Yeah, like how can we serve the planet? We take so much from the planet.

Like Mother Earth is just giving, giving, giving, giving, giving. And to want to give back is just such a noble belief. When I was, when I lived as a monk and we helped build this eco village, so this eco village is a sustainable village that shows what village land could look like and should look like from a sustainability point of view in a way that can maintain most of the planet that's like that. So we need to go there together first. Yeah, it's just built on biotechnology and the cutting edge technology that's bringing

together eco-living and humanity. So we've definitely got to figure that out. Yeah, I feel bad about that because I do feel like I'm not doing enough. Me too. I met somebody yesterday at the B.O.F. Gala and they're working on cosmetic packaging that's recyclable and reusable. So I'm trying to find something I could do business-wise. And then there was this incredible woman. She's actually a Dame. She became a Dame from the Queen. Her name is Ellen, good or last name though, but she's also working on just producing plastic consumption in the world, and also helping people who do produce plastic to make it more un recyclable and everything.

So I feel there's a big space for improvement, but I hope that we can do something. And I would love to learn more about the village. You can see what we do to make this cool. Absolutely, yeah. I make people want to be a part of it. Totally, yeah, no, 100%. OK, beautiful ones.

So we're going to do that. We're going to figure this out. It does. We're going to figure it out together. I hope so. Absolutely, we have to. We have to. Yeah, it's not going to figure this. It needs our help. It does. We're going to figure it out together. Absolutely. We have to. We have to. Yeah, it's not even an choice. Yeah, we have to.

I'm not moving from my extremely deep and meaningful topic to something funnier and lighter. Because it's, I love paradoxes. I love people who can represent like, can laugh and then be serious and change the world, but also, you know, and I think that's important for our wellness. But you're a huge karaoke fan. Oh my god, I am.

And so you never come on here, but you're so the first person that grabs the mic when it comes to karaoke. I am. You're a microphone. Do you want to sing? No, sing for us? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Here's the telephone term, we've got that note. But I'd love to go with you guys. Oh yeah, maybe you too. I'm the shy one when it comes to karaoke. I have a terrible singing voice, by the way. Even funner. Oh yeah, is it?

Okay. For us. We're lucky guys. Yeah, for you. Tell us about what you've ever karaoke sang. And what was the last time you went? Um, okay. Who'd be your ideal karaoke partner actually let's do that?

Probably Huda. Okay. We loved to sing together. Ever since we were children she would make me sing every Disney song with her. But she'd always make me be the boy. Like now? And it's so annoying.

You'd be Aladdin. I'm always Aladdin. Yeah. I'm like it's cool. But also I'm like no now you have to be the boy. I want to be Jasmine but she still does a a let me, but I'd probably go with who that works, we love singing, and I think it's such a good stress release actually. I feel like every time I just sing my heart out, I feel so much lighter.

Yeah. You get all that energy out. Yeah. Yeah, and you also make fun of yourself, so it's good. Well, you can make fun of me now, it sounds like. Yeah. We love to go on the... What would be your song?

That is so hard. A karaoke was never part of my life growing up. So it's such an alien thing to me. And I remember going through a few work events. When it was the thing, I remember one of my friends doing an Elvis song. And he absolutely rocked it. Every guy just stepped back. Like all of us were just like, okay, now we would see it.

You look like they're really annoying to sing with. He was so… He was incredible, Oli Riley, if you're listening to this or watching this, I will never forget that performance in Chicago. He literally grabbed the mic, he was dancing with all the girls, he was incredible in every participant, okay, no. I think one of my friends followed up with Eminem.

I'd do an Eminem song, I guess. I was a huge Eminem, that one was growing up. Yeah, that was my passion growing up. So I could do that, I can wrap, I won't sing. Yeah. Well, I'm down, I need to go. I love it. Okay, awesome. The third question I wanted to ask you is What's your biggest challenge right now and what are you doing to work through it? There's a lot. It's a big one.

My biggest challenge right now, I would probably say just finding more purpose, you know, that kind of haunts me. Sometimes I'm like, okay, I do feel that guilt again and I'm just trying to transform it from guilt into action. I'm trying to figure out what can I do that's more meaningful in life because I love what I do and I don't want anyone to get it wrong. Like I have passion for what I do, but I need more. And so I think just figuring out what that more is and how I can make that happen, it's

something that I still haven't worked out myself. Yeah. Yeah, so we're going to do that. We're going to do that. That's my, that's literally my passion and purpose are just my favorite words and favorite experiences. And I totally believe that purpose is somewhere that everyone should want to get to. And instead of feeling guilt, I really feel you've planted the intention

and the seed of wanting to find it. And that's the perfect start. Like not having down it up to, and first of all, first of all, for everyone who's listening, Mona does plenty of purpose work. Like plenty of work. Like I recently asked her to support some work. I was doing with YouTube, et cetera. and she was just wanting to support it.

So first of all, you do a lot of great work for the world. And so it's not something you're not doing. But I totally get what you're saying. And yeah, don't feel guilty about it. I think I feel guilty a lot. And I think maybe that's something I need to work on. Like in general, I think if that guilt towards not helping people enough, but even with myself, like, it's my natural reaction to full guilty.

I'm not doing good enough, I'm not working hard enough, I'm not achieving enough, I'm not being good enough to people. I just want to do more for everyone. So I think that's my biggest challenge, and I'm trying to work on that. Thank you for sharing that so openly. I think that's part of the big part of Middle East and the Asian culture too. Yeah, your parents make you feel guilty about everything. Everything, right? Yeah, everything.

You're 99%. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I think about something I need to online. Yeah, definitely. So we can work on that together. Yes.

Yes. I love that. That was so fun to do. Yeah. And so that was the third question. Fourth question is, what's the best advice you've ever received? Oh. I don't know. It's so hard. fourth question is what's the best advice you've ever received?

I don't know, it's so hard. Or anything that stays in your mind or a mantra or something that you repeat to yourself that that kind of holds you when you need to do. Well, one mantra that I love, I think it's significant to myself and how to just because we have such hungry appetites for progression, is that every delay has a blessing. It's an Arabic saying, it's a cool to cheered effecheera. And that's just, yeah, and I think that we, one of the biggest struggles we had in life is just being patient.

Because you want so much and you work so hard too, it's not like we just want so much. We're also working so hard. So not seeing things happen fast enough was always frustrating and that frustration would just drain you. So getting rid of that, just saying, there's a reason for this. Be patient.

Understand that you're gonna look back and you're gonna be so grateful that things worked out exactly that way. That's really changed the way I feel about every, every crazy thing that happens every week. Every week there's something that doesn't work out. And I'm like, every delay has less. And it's okay.

So that's helped me a lot. That is a real gift you've given me today. Because I've thought of that often. And I've had that reflection and realization often. But I've never found the right words to say it in. So yeah, my words have always been, don't judge the moment. So I never judge the moment.

Because like you said, that could turn out to be the best thing in the world. But that's a really beautiful gift. Thank you for sharing that with me. Yeah, that's true. I like yours too, that's just the moment because I think we always do. We do label it.

Completely. And I'm trying to like get out of myself and just to like look down and see like what is going on and just try not to judge what I'm in because I think that we all kind of do that. Like whenever we have a problem, we become so absorbed in it. And then we forget about all the rationale we have. And we get so much more about it.

So now I'm trying to not judge this situation and just try to like use my and a little cold brain a bit better. But it's hard. It's just a problem. Yeah, absolutely. My first question is, is there anything that you intuitively feel that you want to share with my audience, that you haven't said today, that there's something and you're just like, this is calling to me because you're such an intuition and heart-based person.

I think you're going to change the world, Jay. I think you guys need to keep watching Jay. I think you're going to do some incredible things and I think that you're going to be, you know, something that you already are, but I think you're just going to continue to do so much greatness for the world and I think everybody just needs to keep watching and sharing and telling their friends about you and I think that people like you are so important because you know me and Hilda always talk about this. People want to be the next medium influencer. People want to be the next reality star fashion model or fashion designer, but we don't have enough people who are like wanting to serve the world, whether it's helping people through spirituality and just life coaching or like doctors and things like that. So I think people like you have such a strong voice. You do it so well. You're so eloquent. You just, you really make me, I can't stop watching

your videos. You know, and I'll honestly, I put the one and I'm like, I'm going to watch one before bed and then I watch 20. So I think that to your audience, I think just keep watching Jay and Cher because you're doing so much greatness for the world. I know this is yours. That's true. You're gonna let me cry.

I'm holding back, yeah, I'm not holding back. I'm holding back right now. Mona, you are amazing. Anyone who's watched and listened to this, please go watch and listen to it back. Tag Mona in and share your greatest insights she gave you she gives so many so you can tag her on Instagram when you share this episode and Mona tell us where they can find you at Monica tongue.

Monica tongue everywhere please please please go and follow her she posts an incredible world and from from everything in her life it's just such a transparent authentic genuine view of an incredible incredible and from everything in our life, it's just such a transparent, authentic, genuine view of an incredible, incredible person. Who I'm excited to see, continue to be a dear friend, and gonna see what you do in the future too. I genuinely feel the same way about both of you that,

it's for me when I found out about your heart behind the success you've had, I was just like, yes, this is what we need in the world, because as the same way you feel that we need change makers and people who are leading that way, we also need people who are doing what majority of the world inspires to do, but doing it so differently. And doing it in a way that's that really makes you a real model for people to follow. Thank you so much. And I mean that for me. And we would love to help support you in any way

because you know, I feel like having great people like you I think a lot of people feel the way we feel like where you're you're dedicating your life to something that I'm not gonna say it's superficial, but a lot of it is and there's that emptiness that you feel so I think having someone like yourself Who can be that person who's actually dedicating your entire life to greatness? I think that's so beautiful and just having more awareness of people like yourself and the causes you stand for. It's important because a lot of people don't know what they can do to help and it could be something so simple and I think a lot of people want to feel better and feel like they're doing something more meaningful. So you're amazing. You're so excited to take over the world together.

Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you Mona, you're amazing. Thank you so much. Please go find out, follow us, share this episode as well. Thank you so much. Thank you Mona, you're amazing. Thank you being here. Thank you so much. Please go find out, follow us, share this episode as well. Thank you so much for watching and listening. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much for listening through to the end of that episode. I hope you're going to share this all across social media. Let people know that you're subscribed to On Purpose. Let me know, post it, tell me what a difference it's making in your life. I would love to see your thoughts. I can't wait for this incredibly conscious community we're creating of purposeful people. You're now a part of the tribe, a part of the squad.

Thank you for being here. I can't wait to share the next episode with you. The world of chocolate has been turned upside down. A very unusual situation. You saw the stacks of cash in her office. Chocolate comes from the cacountry, and recently, Variety's cacao, thought to have been lost centuries ago, were re-discovered in the Amazon.

There was no chocolate on earth like this. Now some chocolate makers are racing deep into the jungle to find the next game-changing chocolate, and I'm coming along. OK, that was a very large crack it up. Listen to the obsessions of wild chocolate. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcast.

The one you feed explores how to build a fulfilling life admits the challenges we face. We share manageable steps to living with more joy and less fear through guidance on emotional resilience, transformational habits and personal growth. I'm your host Eric Zimmer and I speak with experts ranging from psychologists to spiritual teachers offering powerful lessons to apply daily. Create the life you want now. Listen to the one you feed on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

you feed on the iHeart radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm David Eagleman. I have a new podcast called Inner Cosmos on iHeart. I'm going to explore the relationship between our brains and our experiences by tackling unusual questions like, can we create new senses for humans? So join me weekly to uncover how your brain steers your behavior, your perception, and your reality. Listen to Intercosmos with David Eagleman on the IHART Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.