​Andrew Pandolfo, Wealth Manager, NAMI Volunteer, and Adoptee

"The story starts with my origin. I was an adoptee when I was seven months old from Vietnam. My entire family is Italian American. I grew up eating spaghetti and meatballs and mostly Italian food.
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I didn't feel that Italian blood in me until I got into high school. My very good friend, Jerry is Laotian, and he had a massive rice cooker on his kitchen counter. We would go over there after high school, eating bowls of rice with soy sauce. Not the best diet, but I came home, and I was like, "Mom, we gotta get a rice cooker. It's so good. It's the best rice I've ever tasted."

My mom was like, "If you want carbs, I'll cook you pasta."

I was like, "Okay. Done." That was the end of the conversation.

My family is extremely important to me. It's one of the things I value the most in my life, and our mental health journey has been really significant. My nana, who I care so deeply about, she used to pick me up every Friday after elementary school. She made a financial decision that went the wrong way, and seeing her deal with that, as her only grandchild was really tough on me. I saw a drastic change in her personality, and I knew something was really stressing her out.
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My father is an alcoholic. He is now five years and four months over today. So, I am truly grateful for his journey.
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Mental health is extremely important to me. I think it's one of the things I truly value. I seek mental health help myself. If it wasn't for the mental health professionals that worked with my family who were able to not only hear my dad's truth, but my grandmother's truth and not have any biases, I don't know where we would be. So, they were truly like the glue that held our family together."

We are grateful to The Truism Centered Life's, 30-Day Relationship Challenge for sponsoring this episode.

​Rachel Maeng Brown, Fellow 2023 Asian Hustle Network Unsung Hero and CEO and Founder of GEN Agency​

Rachel shares her expertise in helping athletes and creators monetize their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). She emphasizes the importance of attending to one's mental health as they continue to increase their visibility in the public eye.

She notes, "When I worked in the Recruiting Department at Rutgers, I would see students come up to these recruits like these 16, 17-year-old kids and be in their faces with signs, like so excited to see them. Being in the public eye and having that experience definitely helped me understand what a lot of influencers and athletes go through on a really high-level.

Mental health resources are important. A lot of people get Imposter Syndrome where you don't feel like you belong here. That's come into the conversation since influencer marketing started in the mental health space."

​Creed Chameleon, Fil-am Rapper

In this raw interview, Creed Chameleon, a Fil-Am hip-hop artist originally from Hawaii and now based in Las Vegas, opens up about his addiction and mental health journey.

Creed made a name for himself in the music industry, earning accolades such as touring on the prestigious Vans Warped Tour and opening for big names like Tech N9ne, Wu-Tang Clan, and Nas. He is now a member of DOTWAV, a super group of talented artists including Bxmbz, Alika Manuel, KennFrancis, Maddmatt, Jojo Flow, and Benny Digital. They released their self-titled mixtape project "DOT WAV." The interview concludes with a freestyle about the Color of Success!

To listen to new music, including tracks with mental health themes:

​Spotify​

​Apple Music​

​YouTube​

​Instagram​

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Angela Jia Kim, Founder of Savor Beauty and author of Radical Radiance: 12 Weeks of Self-Love Rituals​

Angela shares how when she embraced her Korean heritage, her business took off.

She said, "When I launched Savor Beauty, it was under a different name. I didn't even wanna use my last name Kim. I used my married name from my ex-husband who's Swiss.

Then, I just said yes, I learned everything from my Korean mom and I'm not ashamed of it, and I got inspired by pigeon poop in a Korean cream. So, I think that we all have broken parts of ourselves that we sometimes just really ignore, and it deteriorates our mental health because we're denying a very essential part of ourselves."