In short
A solo episode focused on “stopping future tripping” (anxiety about what might happen) and shifting to gratitude and present-moment enjoyment. The host also shares life updates about traveling to Mexico for Carmela’s stem cell treatment, advice on starting a business in your 20s (experience, authenticity, low-overhead product testing), wedding planning guidance (wedding as an emotional experience, not content), and practical anxiety tools (reframing, breathwork, noise, journaling, walking, limiting doomscrolling).
Key claims
anxiety is often “in your head,” you can redirect spirals by listing what you love; entrepreneurs should live the brand and show the process rather than chase trends; weddings should keep guests moving and prioritize intimacy over staged photo moments.
Notable examples
the host’s “fun girls trip” reframe for the clinic; a quick 20-minute ceremony with family-style food and minimal speeches; “Miracle Balm” and a Jones Road foundation stick routine; using LabCorp OnDemand for hormone testing.
Guests
none (solo episode).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOSolo Episode: Personal Updates and Reflections
0:45 to 6:13
The host shares personal updates regarding her daughter's stem cell treatment and the importance of being strong during challenging times.
“I'm going to try to do my best to rapid fire on these cues that you sent me.”
Entrepreneurship Insights for the Young
6:13 to 14:03
Advice on starting a business, emphasizing the importance of experience and authenticity.
“And I was like, I'm just going to use this as a selfishly quality time with my girl and you stay home.”
The Importance of Authenticity in Branding
14:03 to 16:15
Learn how authenticity can impact brand messaging and identity.
“Like that speaks volumes of like your experience working in this space with me.”
The Importance of Authenticity in Branding
16:20 to 18:21
Learn how authenticity can impact brand messaging and identity.
“Clean plant protein bars that are packed with fiber and brain boosting nutrients with zero added sugar, you no longer have to choose between healthy or delicious snacks.”
Introduction to Over 50 and Flourishing Podcast
19:28 to 20:31
Get introduced to a podcast focused on midlife challenges and growth.
“Welcome to Over 50 and Flourishing, the podcast for any woman who feels like she's lost her compass in this sea of midlife.”
Creating an Emotional Wedding Experience
20:31 to 28:00
Understand how to craft a memorable and meaningful wedding experience.
“Okay, I want to talk a little bit about weddings, then I'll move bunch of some of these other ones.”
Embracing Genuine Moments on Your Wedding Day
28:00 to 30:00
Learn the importance of personal touches and joy in wedding celebrations.
“And it just was kind of like the guests kept moving.”
Navigating Friendship Changes in Adulthood
30:00 to 34:15
Understand the complexities of friendships and grief as we grow older.
“I do feel like there is so much pressure because of the goddamn internet to see what everybody is doing all the time that you and me and everybody can get really caught up and feeling like we're not doing enough.”
Gratitude Amidst Life's Chapters
34:15 to 36:18
Discover how to maintain gratitude through life's changes and losses.
“you know, having gratitude for the good times and the good things in your life really overshadows any sort of yuckiness.”
Gratitude Amidst Life's Chapters
38:12 to 39:58
Discover how to maintain gratitude through life's changes and losses.
“We've had like a million different functional medicine doctors on the podcast.”
Show all 14 chapters
Addressing Anxiety and Life Expectations
40:12 to 42:09
Explore common anxiety triggers and the pressure of societal expectations.
“This is a whole other episode, but it's, and like the responses I was getting is like, life is so hard.”
Exploring the Purpose of Travel and Happiness
42:09 to 45:58
Discover the importance of enjoyment over obligation in travel and life.
“Like, are you going to have a good time?”
Managing Anxiety with Practical Tips
45:58 to 49:40
Learn practical methods to manage anxiety and enhance well-being.
“that I can make come to fruition if I let them control my brain because you can manifest bad things.”
Dealing with Sadness and Emotional Support
49:54 to 52:10
Understand the importance of processing sadness and supporting each other in relationships.
“And I'm just letting those different feelings arise.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word. My champions! I have sold my chariot on Carvana! Twas a lovely SUV, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it! Tonight, we feast! An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees, may apply. The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
0:45Okay, hello. We're going to do a little solo today. I'm going to do a rapid fire. I'm going to try to do my best to rapid fire on these cues that you sent me. and I want to give some, you know, life updates, which is that when you listen to this podcast, I will be on day three of doing a stem cell treatment for Carmela in Mexico, which is something that I have been working on and researching about for a really long time. I guess I'll just do like a sub stack. on it, but we're working with a clinic that is really incredible that I found through O-Team, which is the intensive that Carmela did in Orange County.
1:37The owner of O-Team and the owner of the stem cell clinic, Omar, they do intensives together all over the world in Paris and Dubai and kind of like a one-two punch for children who have autism and cerebral palsy and a variety of other, you know, diagnoses that parents are working their asses off to help, you know, alleviate symptoms in their children. And so she recommended him to me. I had done research on the various kinds of stem cells in general, because there are different types. And I learned even through a friend of mine who is a big doctor in LA and has a longevity center in Cabo. so he can treat his patients with stem cells there, that the Muse cell is this really incredible stem cell that has kind of like the best chances of working.
2:38So we're going there because they have a pediatric protocol. They do, you know, they work on lots of children and they also do neurofeedback along with a variety of therapies on top of it. So it's kind of a pretty intense. Yeah. I haven't processed it. I'm going to say this here because I'm sure there will be questions about this. I'm going to feel like I'm going to have to like address this on my Instagram as well, but I told Davide not to come. I'm going there just with her because, and I said this about the intensive as well. I am able to beast mode these types of things. And I am able to, in the moment be a very strong mom.
3:24And, you know, I have had to be, you know, in hospitals with her where they've had to take blood and I've had to hold her down and along with the nurse and, you know, do those types of things that are important to make sure that she's okay and, you know, not sick and doesn't have things going on. We don't know, you know, like I've had to do a lot of these things and I can do it and I can cry about it later. I have to be strong for my daughter in those moments. Davide is an unbelievable, unbelievable human being who wears his heart on his chest. And Carmela is like his heart living outside of his body.
4:01Now I understand why people say that. Like when, when anything happens to me, I remember we were dating and I fell off a bike, like on a date, which is so embarrassing. And he lost his mind to that I fell. like if Carmela stubs her toe and she has moved on from said toe stub he is like reeling over the fact that she could be in pain he is extremely emotional when the dog bit me he wasn't like even in that moment I get very sharp and I'm like how bad is it do I need to go to this do we need to do this like well like where Davide is freaking the fuck out he's freaking out he can't see clearly. He is an angel, man.
4:49And if you think that he's obsessed and in love with me, times that by a million. And that is how he feels about our daughter. And I don't want to be in a situation where we are, you know, here and we are doing something. And then I'm also dealing with Dobby Day having an emotional crisis over what is happening. And, and like, I'm going to be able to like take her to treatment and then like go swimming with her and go to dinner and have us like order ice cream in room service and like jump on the bed and you know keep her cozy and happy and take baths with her and make it fun and light and like rebrand this as like a mommy daughter trip where and that's like what she needs because she can she can read my fucking mind and she picks up on the energy of everything around her.
5:38And so I want her to be not around like an emotional dad. Like I want her to just feel my strength through what is probably going to be like a little bit uncomfortable in certain moments. And so that's what we're doing. And it is not because Davide is not unbelievably supportive and in love. And I told him, you stay here, you kick it with Carlo, you do your work. We have a lot of traveling coming up anyway. And I was like, I'm just going to use this as a selfishly quality time with my girl and you stay home. And so it was my decision. So I don't want to hear any like, why isn't nobody with you?
6:27because people can get crazy online and make up stories. And so now you don't have a story to make up. Okay, I'm going to go through these questions. One of them is, and I get a lot of these and I've talked about this before, is like starting a business in your 20s from scratch. I want to be an entrepreneur. I would like to tell you, all of you, everybody on here, I think that you are capable of doing anything. of course. What I would like to see from a brand owner or a business or anything that's going to, you know, get me like interested and dedicated enough is somebody that has had experience.
7:14So, you know, even let's say me, for example, or a brand like Gia or something like she worked at like she worked at Glossier right like those types of jobs give you a little bit of legitimacy and they give you definitely a lot of experience and I would think also that like you know what you're talking about and you know how to develop a product or have had enough life experience to be like, hey, this thing is really missing instead of just being like, oh, I want to do this thing like because I want to be an entrepreneur. And I think that's something that we all need to start really having tough conversations with ourselves about because it is OK to work for somebody else.
8:09And I think that you should. And I think that you should work hard and know what you like and know what you don't like and have a life of taste and travel. And that doesn't mean that you have to have like a lot of money. I'm not saying go on fancy trips. I'm saying like, rip around, like see what the world is like, get different experiences, expose yourself to different cultures and ideas and people and products and find really what it is that is like unbelievably important to you as a person, because I feel this way about influencers as well. And I talked about this and I'll talk about it again.
8:51Like if you have a very particular specific point of view, that is what draws me to other people. It is not somebody who like has the best outfit necessarily, or, you know, I don't know. I just think there's, there's, there wasn't this many people online when I started doing this stuff like 10, 15 years ago. And now everybody's online and thank God for it. But what I'm drawn to is people that have a very distinct point of view and are very much themselves. And that is what comes through and shines online when it comes to products or brands or any of that. So like, instead of being like, oh, I'm going to start a brand, like I would start making a few things.
9:42Cause by the way, like it's insane to pay for production. It's insane to hire people, fabric, seamstresses, like all of it, the overhead is unbelievable. So if I were to start a brand like tomorrow, say it's like a clothing brand in particular, I would start working with a seamstress and showing that process and making garments and, you know, finding fabrics, developing fabrics if I had the opportunity and the finances to do so because the minimums on that are really high. But I would start finding fabrics and I would start creating shapes and silhouettes that are truly particular to me and And I would start wear testing them and I would post them online and I would see if people liked them.
10:29And if they gained a lot of traction, I would go from there and I would start what, you know, what we call like Frankensteining, which is like, cool, like this dress, people are getting, you know, doing a lot of feedback. Does it look good in lace? Should I do it in this material? Should I make it short? Should I make a top out of it? And start slowly developing a brand in that way and having like a really tight, concise collection that has a lot of core pieces. Realization Par does this really, really, really, really, really well, where they'll make a dress and they make that dress fucking forever.
11:02And they just make it in a new fabric. And you know how it fits like that polka dot off the shoulder dress that they make. Like it's, it's seasonless. It's been popping for years. It's gorgeous. It fits really well. And they just keep remaking it. they made it short. They did it in different fabrications. Just I would do it like that. And then I would just see where life takes you. I would not create some collection and try to hire someone to do PR to the, because I cannot tell you, I get pitches in my inbox all day long for like the same thing over and over again, just like repackaged. And, you know, it's really, I want, I want, I want to find things, you know, I want to see a dress that I like have to have on someone who seems like a gal that I want to get a cocktail with.
11:54And so it's really just about like world building. There's no part of me that would tell you ever in your twenties to go like raise a bunch of money and invest in like a large wide production of clothing and to try to like sell them all and like pay PR and like gifted on the right people and like have it kind of like just come out of nowhere. I think that's antiquated. I would show the process, have people fall in love with you and have you become the world and show people your life and who you are and make them fall in love with you because you're lovable. And then where are these fabulous things that people feel like they're going to die if they don't have, you know, That's really it.
12:43I became known for my designs at Reformation because I would post about it and I would post the process of designing the dress and then I would post the celebrities wearing it. And I would, you know, like, then it was like, oh, okay. Then Revolve was like, hey, we want you to work with us. And so it was just like this really natural progression. And I had been at Reformation for what, five years, like from, you know, close to the very beginning to when it was like peak, peak, peak, big deal. And that was important. And it was important. I mean, I think about things that I have learned in all of my jobs, all of the time, all of the time.
13:22And I also think it's really good to see how to be managed. Because if you want to have a business, you're going to have to manage people and you should know how to manage people based on how you have been managed. You know, we live in like a scary time now where people are really willing to like, go online and like talk shit about their bosses, which is fucking diabolically crazy. But, you know, it happens. And so you want to be like the best manager possible and inspire people. And you want to have people that work with you for a long time and then go on to other companies because it's their time to go.
13:57And like for me, like if somebody ever leaves working for me and goes to another great brand, I'm like, fuck yeah. Like that speaks volumes of like your experience working in this space with me. so I think everybody just needs a lot more experience I mean I'm not gonna name names or give examples but I like can't tell you how often people reach out to me and Davide specifically and they will like have a brand and they'll be like okay I'm doing this brand and like they come from listen you know they don't have to worry about their finances and that is no judgment for me. That's fucking awesome.
14:35But it's like, you're going to tell me that you're starting a brand. Let's say it's a soccer brand because I don't want to give away anything. Like, okay. So you're going to tell me you have a made in America soccer brand, but then you're like posting like somebody getting like their nails done in Japan. And you're like inspired by this moment in Japan. What the fuck does that have to do with you? Like, I see these people like doing campaigns that have like nothing to do with their brand message. So if you're going to tell me that you're starting like a made in USA soccer brand, like I want to see like the field that you played on growing up.
15:10I want to hear stories about like the people that were on your team. Like I want to fully develop, I want to like live and die. Like who, I want to know the name of like, you're the coach that inspired you growing up. I want to see you make little uniforms for the team that you were on when you were little. And I want to see you sponsoring that team. And I want content, like, what are we doing here? like just because you're inspired by like some other country that has nothing to do with you you don't need to like do a campaign there I think that's so confusing and weird unless you're promoting like vacation wear then like go on your dream vacation you know what I mean it just all seems really odd to me and really like you're chasing something instead of be like being truly authentically you and that's where I think like having a little bit more life experience is just always going to be helpful for everybody okay so that is my thoughts on starting around I think you should live and breathe and die this thing.
16:03And also good luck.
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19:27That is BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Pia. Welcome to Over 50 and Flourishing, the podcast for any woman who feels like she's lost her compass in this sea of midlife. I'm Dominique Soxa, news anchor, current YouTuber, author, and like you, somebody who is still learning and growing and asking a whole lot of questions. It is never too late to change direction and rediscover the strong, wise, and beautiful woman within. That's why I created Over 50 and Flourishing, a podcast to help us navigate the changes, the challenges, the joy, and the freedom in this season. Here you're going to find honest conversations where we might laugh and cry all in the same hour.
20:11Let's flourish together in mind, body and spirit. Nothing's off the table. New episodes every Monday, wherever you watch or listen.
20:31Okay, I want to talk a little bit about weddings, then I'll move bunch of some of these other ones. Your wedding is not a content moment. Okay. This is my big advice. If you have a wedding that makes your guests feel over the top, warm and fuzzy, and like they are in this beautiful moment with you and your love, and they are emotional and enraptured by your love and your relationship, like then you've had the wedding. Like that is the dream. Like you want to feel like you are being like drowning in a pool of love. Like our wedding felt so intimate and so emotional. And there were a hundred people here and it truly felt like a dinner party.
21:27And this even comes down to like the food, like think about the food, right? Like if you're doing some like big ass wedding and you have to be like, okay, like this is going to be the, like, think about the way that like even dinner is going to happen, right? Like if you're going to do all these course out meals, nobody's eating the fucking steak. Nobody's eating the steak or the chicken. They're, they're over sitting down at that point, right? Like I would keep the food family style. I would keep it fun. I would keep it delicious. I would keep it quick. And you want to kind of like keep things moving.
22:02So like our wedding, we had people arrive, there were cocktails being served out of a giant lemon. We met this family one year when we were on a road trip and they were in like Los Olivos and they were serving lemonade and like something else out of a fucking big ass lemon. And they were like Italian and they were so cute. And I can't even remember anymore. But there was like some really sweet story. I think about like one of their kids was diagnosed with something and this is a way for them to make extra money. Like it was to die for. And we found said lemon on this trip and like one of our first dates.
22:41And so we had an emotional connection to this fucking lemon. So the lemon was at our wedding. So when you arrived, this cute ass lemon was like serving you like, you know, lemon cocktails or whatever it was like a spiked lemonade. It was really cute. Then that was really quick. Then everybody walked into the backyard. We stood in the exact spot where my parents got married. There is now a pool and a jacuzzi there. So we had someone build a piece of wood over the jacuzzi, not someone, and a very important family friend who was like really like a son to my dad. And he's a contractor. And so we got married.
23:20On top of that, everybody stood around. Ceremony is quick. I love a quick ceremony. I love a meaningful, very quick, like emotional ceremony. Everybody's crying, reading our vows. The ceremony could not have been more than 20 minutes. There's no way. Could not have been longer than that. Then everybody turned around and they went to cocktail hour. And cocktail hour was then in our front yard. So now people have traveled through. See how we kept it moving. People saw the lemon. Oh my God. Cute moment, moment, moment, moment. Then they walk through the house. Everything smells good. It's me. Oh my God.
23:55So cute. Okay, cool. We're all gathering here. I walk out on the balcony from my bedroom. Oh my God. Look at her. People are crying. They're screaming. Look at the bride. Look at the bride. Emotional wedding, maybe 15, 20 minutes. Boom. Into cocktail hour. Cocktail hour is gorgeous. Cocktail hour has fabulous cocktails. It is in my front yard. So now we've kept it moving and there are delicious bites being served. I got in, like I grabbed Davide. We walked into our bedroom. He's sobbing. We took a couple of cute photos. Maybe I'm not kidding for five minutes maximum in this room. We walked downstairs.
24:30We told people, a few people, Hey, if you want to throw rice at Pia in Davide, great. If not, no big deal. We didn't like fake a rice throwing moment for photos. So people lined up on either side of the driveway while we walked to our car. We have, we didn't rent a car. We went into our car. But if you're going to rent a car, I would rent something that like definitely has a personal meaning to like your family. You know, was it your dad's favorite car? Was it your mom's favorite car? Was it a car that your grandpa had at some point? Like, was it made in the town where your wedding is? Like, you know, make it meaningful.
25:06I had a vision to fill the backseat with olives and olive branches, which are amazing florist pigs that I did. And then people threw the rice or whatever it was at us. The lemon was in the background because that's where it happened to be. So that ended up being, you know, accidentally super cute. We get in the car. Love that moment. We drove four minutes away to a bridge by our house. We took photos there, maximum of 10 minutes, and we turned around and came back because I cared more about my guests enjoying the wedding than having them wait around forever while I took photos. The only thing I do regret, I didn't do any family photos and I wish that I had a few more, but I have amazing photos of my family having a great time.
25:56So I came into cocktail hour. Then I got to really like talk to my friends. I had cocktails with them. And then we moved to a separate part of the house where we all sat down for dinner. Evan Funky did the dinner. You could also find like any restaurant that you love in your neighborhood and just be like, Hey, what are, you know, my favorite pasta dish or my favorite chicken dish or my favorite, this and my favorite salad and my favorite, this or from your restaurants. Like, can you guys just do it family style for us for this many people. Because like my mom stood up and was like, we just want to let everybody know Evan is a really close friend of Pia and Davide's.
26:33His food is so meaningful to them. We love him. This is an important meal. We'd love if you guys would all sit down and really enjoy this meal. You know, it's meaningful. We also kept the meal quick. So like a salad came out and then the pasta came out and then there was like a porchetta, but the porchetta was like only if you wanted it. Like it was like an option if you were still hungry. And we made it meaningful and everybody sat down and ate their food. There was not speeches during dinner. Then that felt great. Like looking up and seeing everybody. And I walked around and said hi to a few people, but like I sat down and ate my dinner, which I loved.
27:15Like that was important to me. And then photos were happening all through that, which was really cute and magical. Then we moved everybody back over to where the cocktail hour was to do cake cutting and a few speeches. So people are now being served champagne because there are speeches being made. We cut the cake. My mom gave a speech from my fucking dead dad. Didn't see that coming. Everybody's fucking sobbing. While that was happening, the dinner area was being broken down. Tables were being cleared and moved to the side. And then after speeches, we went back over and then it turned into a dance party.
Read the full transcript
27:55Pizza was made later. There was like ice cream being served and like tequila came out because I love tequila. And it just was kind of like the guests kept moving. By the way, there were, I was, there was no like photo moments. Like we had film photographers and digital photographers walking around taking photos of everybody having an awesome time. And those candid images meant more to me than anything. And I'm really happy with my wedding photos. I think they're to die for. And at no point was any of them, was I like doing content for my wedding. And so I'm not judging anybody who does that because it's been, we've grown up it being like very standard to do that.
28:36But I really want you to enjoy your wedding day. I really want you to enjoy your wedding day. And I want people to feel in the images, the joy of your guests, of yourself, of your love. Like that to me is much, much, much more interesting a hundred times over than seeing photos that you know were like planned. There was no mood board for my wedding. There was no, which by the way, it's a good thing to do to make sure that you have the things that you want, but like it could not have been more genuine. I was very type B. I was very stressed. We were working a lot. You know, there was a lot of things that were really hard about my wedding.
29:16That time of our life was came with like a lot of challenges. So my biggest advice is to make your wedding as personal to you as possible, as meaningful as possible, filled with nothing but personal moments like, you know, Chi Chi sat next to us and we had pizza boxes named with things with like gifts for people that had like Chi Chi's face on it. And like the matches had like a screenshot of like a DM that Davide sent me. And like, I still have those matches. I think, you know, there was like, there's like all these like little things that were very specifically us that felt really good. And I think as long as you stick to that, then like, you're going to have kind of like the best wedding ever.
30:02I do feel like there is so much pressure because of the goddamn internet to see what everybody is doing all the time that you and me and everybody can get really caught up and feeling like we're not doing enough. We have to do this thing. And like, I have to talk myself off that ledge often. Right. So I just think like, what's, what's this all for? What is this all for? Like it's for love, right? You're not going to remember you know, like, I want you to look back on your wedding day and think to yourself, like, what a good time you had. Like literally Davide kept looking at me going like, I'm having the fucking best time.
30:38And on the dance floor, he was like, we should make a baby. Like it was, he was floating, like floating. Like I can see the looks on my friend's faces. Like that is what my wedding means to me truly. Like, so when I look back on that day, I'm not like, oh yeah, shit. We spent like two hours taking photos where our like guests waited around for us. So that's my only advice. I get so many questions about people who are losing friends in adult life, like them just disappearing that grief and loneliness. So hard. I know it's so funny how that happens so often where I think it's just like life happens.
31:19I think a lot happens too when people get married and choose their partners and you get to know their partners and maybe it's not a partner that you love. You know, I think like that's like kind of like the first round of things getting weird. I think grief is grief, right? You know, like I unfortunately lost like one of my best friends and like I she's in my dreams all the time and I feel a lot of like love towards her all the time the situation I don't and I know that if we could sit down and talk to each other and like zoom out a lot, we could come to a resolution, but there's like so many other people involved that have gotten in the way of us.
32:14And so I just think if we're supposed to reunite in our life at some point, I would be so grateful for that. Although like a lot of things would have to have happened. But I look back on it with like zero regret that I lived some of like the best moments of my life with like the best person ever. And people fucking change. And that's totally okay. And things happen. And that is totally okay. And so this is my take on anything is like grief can take you over, but you can also just have gratitude for what you did have. So I would have rather, and I say this about any type of relationship, I would have rather loved this person in whatever capacity is this job, this dog, this boyfriend, this best friend, and had that add all the richness and yumminess to my life that it did than not have it at all.
33:19you know what I mean? You just got to look at things with so much gratitude because life does come in chapters. If it's a lot of people in your life, that's clearly a little red flaggy. That has happened to me in my twenties where I was like, wow, I'm having like, kind of like a lot of issues. And I was like, I'm the fucking common denominator. It's time to get on some fucking therapy. It's time to ask some honest friends, you know, what's going on and get some honest feedback about behavior. I think that's also very healthy to do, but it's very normal to have a lot of friendship breakups. I see it happen all of the time.
33:53I see groups of friends being broken in half. I see initial big feelings eventually go away. I see people gain more empathy. I see people put up more boundaries. Like it just happens. It's just how life goes. And so like I said, I'm going to keep saying it. There is just like a really, you know, having gratitude for the good times and the good things in your life really overshadows any sort of yuckiness. And I will ride that all day long.
34:35Okay. I need to tell you about the thing that ended my relationship with my entire makeup bag. for years, my morning was a whole production. I get greasy. So I like, I just feel like I need to overdo it. So it's like primer, foundation, powder, brushes. I had to clean a sponge that I never cleaned. And the result was always kind of the same. I looked like I was wearing makeup. I looked like I had covered myself. And then I found Jones Road Beauty and the Miracle Balm, which Bobby Brown created. And I mean like the actual woman herself. So this is the whole routine. it's fingers and no brushes.
35:11It's 20 seconds. It's a highlighter. It's a blush. It's a bronzer. It's a lip tint. It's an all in one little pot. It doesn't sit on top of my skin. It makes my skin look so good. I do this in the car. I can do this after I drop off my kids or after a workout. And then on my way to a meeting, I do it after Pilates, kind of just like take it everywhere. And now they've launched a foundation stick, which I was really skeptical about because so many brands have foundation sticks and people will say they're so good, but they move around my face a lot. But this really gives you a medium to full coverage that somehow never looks cakey or heavy.
35:44It's dermatologist tested. It's packed with ceramides and squalene and sodium hyaluronate. And so it nourishes your skin while you wear it. And the finish is not too matte. It's not too dewy. It's just like smooth, healthy looking skin. And they have 30 shades. Everything they make is clean. There's no sulfates, no petroleum, no PEGs, no silicones, nothing. Modern day makeup that's clean, strategic and multifunctional for effortless routines. For a limited time, our listeners are going to get a free full-size mascara with their first purchase when you use code BEST at checkout. So just head to jonesroadbeauty.com and use code BEST at checkout.
36:21After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them and please support our show and tell them that we sent to. Your gut isn't just about digestion. It's truly the foundation of how you feel from your energy and mood to your skin health. And that's why Omnibiotic builds formulations for the entire whole picture. Omnibiotic doesn't take a one size fits all approach to gut health. That's why they have targeted formulations specific for various health needs with options for the whole family, from infants to adults. So whether you're looking to support your metabolic health, stress, prenatal health, bloating, or constipation, there's an omnibiotic formula for you.
37:00I've been taking these by the way for years because we had one of the founders on the podcast. These are unbelievably incredible probiotics. Omnibiotic probiotics come in a powder. It's not a capsule. They're freeze dried into single serving powder sachets and you just mix it with water, which reactivates the good bacteria so they can survive the trip through your digestive tract. Probiotics will only work if they survive and Omnibiotic powders are designed to achieve a 83 % survival through the digestive tract compared to an average of 7 % for top 10 leading US capsule brands. Omnibiotic doesn't just study individual strains in a lab.
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38:19And what they do that is so incredible is you're really able to get testing all those tests that get down to the real nitty gritty of what's actually going on with you. But LabCorp On Demand has changed that for everybody. And we're all self-proclaimed experts about something, right? Self-improvement, setting healthy boundaries, prioritizing rest. but when it comes to our own health, all of us, I would say so many of us are like, we don't know. Like, I don't know. I'm just kind of always tired or I'm always bloated, but you deserve to know yourself. So with LabCorp On Demand, if you're trying to better understand your health, there's a convenient way to get closer to the insights that you're searching for.
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40:19and that goes into a lot of the questions that I get about anxiety and I posted a story about it and then I kept getting all these responses that also were stressing me out and I just my Instagram is a happy place so I took it down but like the DMs that I get are full of so much anxiety. This is a whole other episode, but it's, and like the responses I was getting is like, life is so hard. So like, how can we do? And like, that is all so valid and true. But if I look at the accounts of like the women that are DMing me, like these are really privileged questions. They're a lot around travel. It's a lot around sleeping.
41:04It's a lot around like kid stuff So like we have a million layers here and endless nuance and everyone's response is correct based on their life experience. Obviously, this is not like a one size fits all anything. The common denominator that I'm seeing in my DMs is an extreme amount. Like literally someone DMed me and said, I'm pregnant. I'm terrified of giving birth and being a mother. How heartbreaking is that? First of all, thank you for confiding in me. This is like we need to have like a coffee and talk about this. I can't, but I'm like, were you for, like, are you happy to have a baby? Like, do you think that you need to have a baby?
41:44Well, baby's coming. Like, how can we shift this mindset? Because we should. Like it just, when I was traveling, I couldn't even believe the amount of questions I got around travel that were full of so much anxiety that it made me think like, should you even be going on this trip? Like, are you going to have a good time? Are you going on this trip because you think that you need to go on a trip? Or are you going on this trip to enjoy your life? because by the questions I'm getting asked, it doesn't seem like you are going to be enjoying this. What's it all for? These are the questions that I am wanting you to maybe just like ask yourself a little bit because everyone deserves to just enjoy their lives to the best of their ability, right?
42:42And so my initial reaction to somebody telling me, oh, we have a lot of like anxiety driven, I would be like, yeah, well, that's because we're in an economic crisis and being a mother in America is really hard and we don't have maternity. These weren't those questions. These weren't those questions. It's like a different demographic. And so, you know, my advice about anxiety, and this is going to sound very harsh and it might piss you off, but it freed me. I had a doctor, I have a doctor that I still work with, Dr. Lekos, who was just a regular physician for a really long time and got into functional medicine because he realized you cannot treat a patient and totally heal them if they are miserable.
43:30If they have a very stressed life, if they are depressed, if they are mentally, you know, having challenges, it has such a great effect on your body that these are patients that he cannot help. So this, you know, privilege flag here, when you start working with a doctor like him or a functional medicine doctor, a lot of the time they will ask you, like, do you wake up happy? Do you have any practices for helping with your anxiety? and he will in that first call recommend lots of things. Breathwork, the open app is really amazing for that. You know, listening to different frequencies when you go to sleep, brown noise, white noise.
44:12These are all things that are, you know, we all have access to. Journaling, you know, meditation, therapy. Do you work out? Like, is that, you know, helping you mentally? Going on walks? Like every like doctor, hippie dippy scientist, whoever I've had on the podcast, like the common denominator has always been the things that make people happy are getting outside, walking and community. Right. Like scientifically, those are the things that we can all do that are free that make us all feel fantastic and yummy. Okay. So what I would say is when it comes to anxiety, what Dr. Lekho said to me that I ask myself whenever I'm having an anxious moment is, is this real?
45:01Is this real? Am I being physically attacked by somebody? Is my, am I safe? Like, is this, or am I in my head making up things, creating stories, giving myself anxiety over a bunch of things that don't exist because anxiety is not a physical thing, right? It's this like dark cloud that infiltrates our brains and like gets into our bodies and affects us physically. But there are things that we can do to help avoid it. So for me, like it happened to me the other night where I was like thinking, my mind started racing. And I literally said to myself, why are you wasting your time on this? And I just started listing off all the things in my life that I love because the dark spiral was about a bunch of stuff that's not really true.
45:56It's about like weird internal fears that I can make come to fruition if I let them control my brain because you can manifest bad things. So I just thought to myself, I don't even want to put that out there that that's going to happen. And I just started thinking about all the things, everything that day that I loved. I love my husband. I love my job. Like I got really, really specific about lots of really yummy things. And it was quite incredible how quickly it turned around. And then sometimes I'll like drown myself out with like something that makes me feel good, like a movie that's like totally happy or something funny or music or, you know, whatever.
46:37Doom scrolling is not it unless you have a curated scroll that's really happy. Like I make sure that my TikTok doesn't show me anything sad or stressful because I'm constantly telling it what I'm interested and not interested in. Like I double click, you know, the type of content I want to see more of. And if I get a video of a girl being like, let's talk about the top five people we hate or like, you know, women making videos about other women or news or sick children or sick dot, like I say not interested actively all the time. So like for the most part, when I open my phone, like my explore page is only interiors.
47:11It's only stuff that like inspires me. When I open my phone, it's a happy place for me. That really helps with my anxiety. You know what else helps? You know how sometimes Instagram will pop up like things like that, like that you might be interested in. I tell it not to. Like, I don't want to see what everybody in the world is doing. I don't want to because then it'll make me think that I'm supposed to create like a different kind of content. And then I'm like, no, I'm not fucking mapping out like themed content. Like I am who I am. My content is like what I'm actually doing in my life. I'm not doing that.
47:45I'm not playing that game. So I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. I'm happy for everybody. It's great, but I want to focus more on the people that I do follow. And I want to see what they're doing because I love them. And these are people in my life and I'm invested in supporting them and their businesses and like their content and what they're putting out. So I keep it clear. Like I do little things all day long to make sure that I'm not feeling anxious. Sometimes it's just a matter of like, we put the kids in their pajamas, Dabrida gets home from work and we will walk for 15 minutes in our neighborhood at the end of the day.
48:14We do not bring our phones. We do not talk about work. We show the kids the flowers. We show the kids the neighborhood. We like are super cozy in our PJs and comfy clothes at the end of the day. We get the sun on our skin, like all those little things really, really help. Someone DM'd me the other day and said, do you have anxiety over your health and the health of your children? I wanted to write back and be like, I am begging you to stop this train of thought. The anxiety you have over something possibly happening is worse for your health. Like don't do it. So there's, I could go on this for, you know, till the end of days, but I urge all of you to do whatever you can.
49:03BetterHelp is so helpful. That is like so many of my friends, moms who were therapists who like don't fully want to retire, but still want to work because they like love their jobs have become therapists on BetterHelp. It's so affordable. Like get some therapy, like find, do things that bring you joy. The world is fucked and it's scary. Let's just be really happy that we're not living during like the fucking black plague or like any other time in history really, because it's scary now, but it was scarier back then. And I'm really grateful that I'm alive right now. Truly. Okay. How to start a brand?
49:36That's so hard, but I think I already covered that. What do you do when you feel sad? Sometimes I just need to feel sad. That'll build up in me. It's not very frequent, but sometimes, you know, things with Carmela will make me feel sad. Like obviously this trip, I don't know how I feel about it. And I'm just letting those different feelings arise. But what I'm not doing is future tripping about it. So like, you know, I'm obviously like nervous to travel, but in my head, I'm rebranding this, like I said, at the beginning of the podcast, as like a fun girl's trip. So that's what I have like in my brain is that this is going to be like a fun girl's trip.
50:18And we're going to be cozy. We're going to sleep in bed together every night. We're going to take baths together. We're going to go swimming. Like we're going to do tons of fun stuff when we're not in the clinic. And when we're in the clinic, we're surrounded by people who only love us and only want the best for my daughter. And I'm so excited to see the progress that we're going to make over the next six months. And I'm like really grateful for it. And I'm really grateful to like have this time with her and like the privilege of treating her. So I'm not sad about it because my daughter's really happy.
50:55And like, that's the only thing that you wish for your kids anyway. Right. So if I like, you know, there's no, I haven't, it's funny now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't even gone to the place of like, what if this doesn't work? I'm going to the place of like, if we see just the littlest bit of something different, amazing. If not, Carmela is going to progress into being exactly who she's supposed to be. And we will be there for her and get through all of it perfectly, just as we're supposed to, how it was intended. She's extremely privileged to have us as her parents, and we are extremely privileged to have her.
51:36So it just all like is what it is. And that's how I feel about it. So sometimes I'll feel sad about certain things and I'll like look at Davide and I'll just start crying and it's super rare, but I'll just be like, I'm sad. And we know each other enough well now in our relationship where we know when to try to like make the other person not sad and when we try to just fully listen. And so, you know, sometimes like I used to really try to fix it when he would be sad and he would be like, I just need you to listen to me. So now I just listen. And the same thing with me with him, like, you know, or him with me.
52:15Like sometimes he'll say like, what do you need from me right now? And I'm like, I just want you to like cuddle me and like let me cry and put on a Nancy Meyers movie and then we pivot. Or I'll be like, or he'll like walk me through it. which is really nice. But it's like, you know, it's like we have those beautiful moments that help us really like the sadness is something that I just like to feel. And, you know, I think it's good to cry. I like to cry in the shower or in my car. And then I like to keep it moving. That's all for today. I love you guys. I'm really thankful for all of you that listen.
52:50The podcast also kind of feels like LPA where it's this funny thing that like has been happening for a long time but it feels like lately it's getting really good like the lpa sales are like like through the roof and it's so cute to like have these like sales meetings with my team and to just be like wow like at my age i keep saying this but like at my age and so i hope that it inspires anybody who's younger than me to like not think that like your life is over because you're getting older because like the podcast for me right now is like so yummy and kind of like the best it's ever been and makes me really happy.
53:25And I'm so grateful for all of you. And so I would appreciate if you made a review. Remember, mean comments are for mean people. And I love all of you deeply. Goodbye.
53:43And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this week's episode of Everything is the Best. I hope you enjoyed it. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that stuff. Maybe leave a comment. Go ahead and follow me on Instagram at Pia Barancini, and I hope you have a fabulous, fabulous rest of your day. Love you. Ciao.
54:17indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.
From the publisher
Solo episode today! I’m answering your questions and giving a little life update as I head to Mexico with Carmela for her stem cell treatment, what I’m hoping for, and why I’m choosing to approach the trip with gratitude instead of fear.
I’m also getting into my advice for starting a brand in your 20s (hint: get some life experience first), why the best brands are built around a real point of view, and everything I learned from my years at Reformation. Then we talk weddings—why yours should feel personal instead of like a content shoot, the details that made mine so special, and why your guests’ experience matters more than getting the perfect photo.
Plus, friendship breakups, anxiety, social media, sadness, gratitude, and the question I ask myself when I start spiraling: Is this real? Life is going to have hard moments, but I’m learning to stop future tripping, focus on what’s actually in front of me, and let myself enjoy the life I’ve worked so hard to build.
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