Infertility, a Traumatic Birth, Depression, and Alcohol: This is Monica's Story

Jon: [00:00:00] Welcome to episode number one of Mommy's New Medicine with Monica Olano. I am Monica's producer, John Gay from Jag in Detroit Podcast. And we thought we'd start with our first episode, getting to know Monica, her story, a little bit about the podcast. So Monica, welcome to your 

Monica: own show. Thank you for welcoming me to my own show.

I'm just gonna wave hi at myself and be awkward and get through this as we go. I think 

Jon: imposter syndrome is a really big thing, as you mentioned on social media leading up to this, about podcasters, and I love that you're putting yourself out there live, raw, and then your story as well, so give us a little background on the idea for the podcast and what you want to talk about in the podcast.

Monica: Yeah, I definitely posted on,, social today with imposter syndrome as I'm going to dive more in. It's definitely one of the. Insecurities that I would say that I have that I think a lot of us do, and my goal with this [00:01:00] podcast is really to show like, hey, we're all insecure, we've all got some challenges going on, some stigmas that are associated with whatever it is we're struggling with.

And I really want to be a platform where we can create a community where we feel comfortable talking about these things and that there's a face that's, I'm willing to be a face for people's journeys. So the things people don't necessarily want to say out loud to other people because they're afraid of the criticism.

 I'll say it for you. So I'm going to put myself completely out there. I've got some crazy life experiences. I've lived quite a few different lives. I'm going to be bringing people in from all those array of lives over time and just really putting myself out there so we can reach my mission of turning stigmas into strengths.

And using our journeys to really create those insecurities and make them our superpowers. 

Jon: I love it. So you mentioned your background and you and I have talked offline , [00:02:00] about what the last several years have been like for you. You and I met probably 10, 12 years ago when I was living in New Orleans.

But in the time since, a lot has gone on with your life and I think that's going to give you a unique perspective for your listeners in this podcast. So tell our listeners the story of the last few years and what you've gone through and some of the stuff you and I have talked about offline. 

Monica: Okay. All right.

The last three years for, oh gosh, four years now have been absolutely crazy and not just for me. I know I am not the only one that went through something with COVID. We've all lived a weird, crazy journey. But just in the last four years alone, I will start with January 1st, 2020. This is pre COVID. , I'm not a big go to the doctor person, any of that, and I was hurting.

And I finally said, I'm gonna go to the doctor on January 1st, it's New Year's Day, who cares, I gotta go. My husband's like, if you're going to the doctor, something's really wrong. So off we go to the emergency room. Surprise! I've got appendicitis. Oh no! [00:03:00] So, on January 1st of 2020, I get admitted to the hospital to get my appendix taken out and every nurse, doctor is like, Oh, well, at least this is the worst thing that can happen to you this year.

Joke's on everybody, because the year got worse for us all. , but that's kind of how 2020 started. I was also, , in the midst of a crazy infertility battle. , so my husband and I got married in 2019. I knew I would probably have some fertility issues just due to other things that had happened along the course of my life.

, but when I went in. You know, for my review, I never expected it to be as bad as what I was told. And after my first round of just the essential basic fertility testing, they looked at me and said, You are never going to have children. , these test results are insane. You should really just go straight to egg donors or adoption.

That's [00:04:00] devastating to hear just a few months into your marriage. Trey and I really wanted kids, devastating. , however, they ran my insurance and unbeknownst to me, I worked for the most amazing company when it comes to fertility benefits. And I had so much coverage. , so my doctor pulled me in. He's like, Hey, we don't ever see this.

Do you want to get experimental and you really want to go for it? Wow. So I said, Yeah, but that also meant like experimental and fertility drugs and fertility. Let me just tell you that's going to be a hot mess. So I will talk about that more in detail on another episode. I'm going to try to bring in some fertility experts.

But we did decide to do one more round in February. If this didn't work, we were just going to call it. This is IVF you're talking about? Fertility. Yeah. Okay. , and so we did our procedure on March 7th of 2020. Cool. We got the first confirmed case of COVID [00:05:00] in New Orleans on March 9th. And as we all know, the world shut down March 14th.

So I was what in the world do I do? Am I pregnant? Am I not? Is this what is happening? And sure enough, I turned out to be pregnant right at the start of COVID with my miracle baby freaking out. So that's kind of a little bit of the fertility journey. , I had my beautiful, wonderful daughter in November 30th, 2020.

, I decided to leave the corporate world a few months. I went back, I think two months after maternity leave. And I was like, Nope, the taste of just being with my daughter was too good and so I decided to stay home with her, but I did stay on the Cobra with the insurer with the company because I knew their insurance was good and we might try for one more kid later.

Yeah. And when we decided to, 8 or 9 months later, because we were on a very short time frame, because Cobra is only 18 months, I believe, that you [00:06:00] can be on it, I knew I was under the, , clock with that, and we were like, you know what, like, let's just say we gave it everything we did to give them a sibling, like, it's not gonna work, it's a miracle we got the first one, and sure enough, first one back, pregnant, twins, my daughter was only 9 months old, so we had, Three kids in 18 months, which is a struggle in itself.

Yeah, , but however my birth with the twins was unexpectedly Traumatic the pregnancy itself was great I I mean it hurt you're carrying twins, but I made it to 38 weeks on the dot Which is pretty far for a double pregnancy, especially I think I was 35 or 36 at the time so I was considered , what is the word?

Word? Geriatric. Geriatric. That is over 

Jon: 35. Geriatric. My, my wife and I have gone through some fertility issues here and ended up working out that we did not end up having kids and we chose not to, but, , I'm really glad that you're [00:07:00] talking about this. You're talking about being vulnerable and talking about some stuff people don't talk about as much and.

It really, we've seen that in talking about this topic, the more it's talked about, the more people are willing to open up about it. So, I'm really glad to hear you discussing it. Okay, I've interrupted you though, so, traumatic birth, what happens? 

Monica: That's okay. No, I do appreciate that, um, interruption actually, because when I was going through the infertility, it is something that people keep very close to their chest that they don't want to tell about.

And, that's hard, because that is a traumatic time in your life. And it's interrupting your workday. You've got to go into those doctor's appointments every day. I feel like a pincushion ultrasounds. Oh, sorry. So you feel like a pincushion. You do. And you don't all of a sudden you're disappearing, not disappearing, but like you're missing this for work and you're missing this and you're missing that.

And your attitude's different, but you don't want to tell people what's going on. And so it just changes the dynamic. And I was in outside sales at the time when I was going through this. So I was talking to people [00:08:00] every day. And I would open up, and surprisingly, other people would open up. That's really where I found, when I talked about it, the amount of infertility journeys that I was told by a surplus of people.

I was like, and it made me feel better. Um, so it's hard, but it's hard to put yourself out there. It's hard to admit these things. So that was, I guess, my first dip in the toe. Of it. So I'm glad you're sharing that too, because a lot of people go through it. We just don't know about it. So be kind to those that might seem like they're off or different because there might be something going on for sure.

Traumatic birth. Yes. So my water broke at six. You think you have time? Um, I did not. That baby, my first baby, baby A was ready to come by like 10 p. m. when I got to the hospital. I was like screaming in pain. I was already at like a four or five. They rushed to get the epidural. They didn't know if that was even going to kick in in time.

Um, so I felt most of things, but then You know, usually twin [00:09:00] pregnancies are induced or planned or C section, and so they were trying to rally the entire team that would be needed for, you know, because they have to have extra, you've got to have it in the operating room, you've got to do this, you've got to do that.

So, I was at a 10, I was ready to push, and they were like, everyone's almost here, everyone's almost here. Um, they get me into the operating room and I don't really want to go over all the full details right now in just an intro. I'm sure I will later. Baby A came out, one push, beautiful little boy. Baby B, my difficult little thing.

Um, things went south and they went south very, very quickly. Um, it was pure panic mode. My husband was being kicked out of the room. I was being moved on to an operating table. And needless to say, things didn't go as planned, and the last thing I remember is the entire team screaming, Get her under now.

Feelings, I [00:10:00] felt the cut in, I'm just gonna tell people, they put, they gave me the wrong medicine, I felt the full cut. Oh my god. Yeah, as they're screaming. Oh my god, you feel that get her under now. My baby hadn't been on the monitor for five minutes I think her heart rate was in the 40s is awful. It is absolutely awful.

What happened that night? It changed me it changed is everything. Um, I have pictures of me after Um, holding both my babies after the recovery room that I have no memory of, um, it was just really hard. Sorry, I didn't think I was going to say anything, but I decided to, um, so that, that changed me and I didn't know that it changed me, you know, because it happened and you have no time to process.

So all of a sudden you wake up and you've got two babies in a room with you that you're now responsible for. Am I going to produce milk? How am I going to feed them? How am I going to take care of [00:11:00] them? I hadn't slept. I hadn't, and there's really not enough support for that. Um, and so there was never, I'm learning now, a chance to recover for myself.

Um, I also didn't find out all the things I'm finding out about from the birth until about six months later when I had to dive in and pull my own records and pull my own things. They are. These things weren't told to us. Like, why? Um, open and upfront. So, I went home not knowing that this traumatic event happened.

Because nobody told me and I have no memory of it and they kicked my husband out of the room. And the only reason this all came to light is because about six weeks in, baby B, my daughter, just became the most difficult child you could ever imagine. Um, everyone says they've had a colicky baby. It wasn't colic.

It wasn't just, Oh, yeah, my baby cried too. I could literally slap [00:12:00] anyone that said, Oh, my baby cried too because this was something different. This girl screamed from the day, the moment she woke up until she would not go to sleep. She would not. It didn't matter if I held her. Nothing worked. Nothing. Um, and I'm undergoing this postpartum anxiety and depression that I didn't even know.

We're trying to deal with this child. And 

Jon: oh, by the way, you've got another one that's nine months old at home, too. 

Monica: Yeah, well, she was, yeah, she was 18 months old when they were born. Then you've got baby A, who, thank God, we called and feed him and forget him. Poor dude, like, he has taken the shaft to his sisters.

Oh, he's 19 months now. This dude, he'll, I, I joke all the time. I'm like, all my kids are going to have therapy eventually. These are the reasons why. That's his reason why. He has been, unfortunately, we try our best, but dude's been pushed to the side sometimes. Um, and you know, going to, they both had torticollis, which is the cranking of the neck.

So we had to go to physical therapy. So [00:13:00] we're in those appointments. Then my daughter had speech therapy. Which seems weird at such a young age, but that's where they send them for bottle feeding issues. Mm hmm. Um, so she had that. So I was constantly going to appointments. My daughter, baby B, couldn't even do the, um, physical therapy sessions because she would scream the whole way through.

And the physical therapists, who I had to go to twice a week, they saw me more than anybody else. They saw me more than my family did. Well, besides Trey, my family did, the pediatrician did. And they were like, no, this is not normal. This is, no baby, like, cries like this on end. We got one diagnosis of silent reflux.

I mean, that made it a little better, but nothing. And I, I wouldn't let it go. Like, I was not letting it go. There was something wrong and I knew there was something wrong. Mother's intuition. And yeah. And I, and I've been, like, I nannied all through high school and college. I worked at, um, it was called Daycare for Exceptional Children in Des Moines.

And it [00:14:00] was children ranging from babies to 21 years old that had a variety of different, um, mental, like DI, I don't wanna say disabilities. That's a good word. I mean, autism Sure. We had feeding tubes. So I've been around a lot. It wasn't just me saying this isn't normal, like I have background, I have experience.

Um, and so I kept fighting. My, uh, pediatrician, who I love dearly, finally said, you know, like, she reviewed some things, she did this, my physical therapist said, hey, talk to them in this specific language, and that did help me get a further diagnosis, and so at eight or nine months, she was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder.

Okay. Which I've never heard of I'm still learning. She was starting occupational therapy. They're saying is this the First signs of autism out of young age and you're just being really pushy about it Um, we don't know. We've started seeing a neurologist. [00:15:00] She's had some MRIs done and she just kind of goes in loops, um, for it.

So long story short, I didn't mean to talk for that long about it, but that is what set me over the edge. So all those things combined and I had no chance to really heal because I was just thrust into it with three kids under 18 months and all of this going on. And I didn't, I don't know what to say, but I didn't have, my family is amazing.

They supported me in the ways that they could, but I didn't have a strong enough support system to. Get through that time on my own, which I had always prided myself in doing everything on my own and not needing help. Um, my mom had said she's a nurse and she came in and she saw me and she's like, this is not good.

She's like, you are in postpartum depression. You are in postpartum anxiety. You need help. She would email my husband separately. And was like, we've got to do something. She's like, you probably need help [00:16:00] too. And so I finally, I emailed my OB. I, um, she started me on something. She sent me to a psychiatrist.

Psychiatrist started me on something. She's like, you need therapy. I always thought therapy was you go and you say, this is why I hate my parents. Yeah, that is honestly what I thought therapy was. I thought you just come out of it with an understanding of why you hate your parents and then you move on.

For sure. Yeah, yeah. And you can blame everything that's happening on them. Um, but really, it finally helped me uncover quite a bit and the medications that they put me on. They always said, Don't drink on them. Don't drink on them. Well, surprise. I come from a family of alcoholics on one side, and I spoiler alert to anyone that doesn't know this, but I started drinking at 14.

Um, I can hide it. Well, sometimes I cannot hide it. Well, sometimes, but In the therapy, it really uncovered [00:17:00] that I, A, I need to stop drinking to give these medicines a chance to work. Sure. I knew I wanted to be better for my husband and my children. I was awful. I was just awful with how much I was drinking to, now I know, suppress the pain and mask everything.

Um, but so I decided 

Jon: Let me stop you there for a second, Monica, because I think this is a good point to hammer this home is You went through a lot, uh, capital L O T, you went through a lot between the traumatic birth, having three little ones at home, the postpartum, uh, and then the struggles with your daughter as far as getting her diagnosed.

It's no wonder that you turned to, um, you know, uh, uh, self medication the way a lot of folks would. So I appreciate you being so open and honest and vulnerable about this. So you, you, I don't want to use the cliché rock bottom, but you hit a point where you're like, Okay, this, something needs to change. So you go to therapy, you realize that part of the problem is the alcohol, and you've got to cut [00:18:00] that out of your life.

So, how does the transition out of alcohol, uh, as you're learning more about yourself and how you tick, play 

Monica: into this? Um, so with the transition out of alcohol, um, let me refocus. I have, we're going to get to the point where I figured out I had ADHD. Fair enough. That got, um, when I transitioned out of alcohol, it was hard.

It was really hard. I tried a lot of different things, but when you've used that for so long, so I was trying different every avenue. I was trying some AA support meetings virtually that I was too scared to share and now I want to go back and be like, look what you can do. Um, I was reading books, Annie's, Grace, um, her book, This Sober Mind, I would put on my headphones and take my kids for a walk and listen to that, it was, or This Naked Mind, I swear by it, um, but I just started learning more, what?

We can link it in the [00:19:00] show notes. Yes. Yes. Um, by the way, sign up on my website for the newsletter because I'm going to send a link to kind of a recap of what I talked about. But also, if I say anything that like a resource that I think will help people, I'm going to put that in there. And the website is?

Uh, www. mommysnewmedicine. com. There is a pop up that will appear right away. Um, you can put in your email address, hit enter, and then it'll never pop up again. Fair enough. Um, but so, I had to find ways to distract myself for that, um, with the not drinking. But I also decided, um, you know, cannabis had just became medically legal in the state of Louisiana, so I went ahead and signed up for my card, um, as you just mentioned, they said, wow, you've been through a lot.

It was not hard to get. Um, two seconds into my story, she's like, what do you need? Um, and then I also started with the [00:20:00] THC seltzers. Um, because as you can imagine, one of the biggest things is New Orleans is a very social town. It's a very party town. It's a very drinking city. Um, cannabis is still a stigma.

And I didn't want to be necessarily empty handed or explaining why I had no alcohol at any of these things. Sure. So I decided, F it, basically, I'm gonna pop open a seltzer, and then if people want to ask why I'm not drinking alcohol, I can talk to them about this seltzer thing. And, oh man, has it turned into a thing.

They, I started in May of 24 drinking them and they are just popping off here. Um, but people don't really know about them. Let me 

Jon: stop you for a second. You said, you said you started in May of 24. You want to restate 

Monica: that? Oh, May of 23. Thank you. 

Jon: So just go back, go back. So go back and say, um, go back and say, I started drinking 

Monica: them in May of 23.

I started, uh, drinking the seltzers in May of 23 when they were really just being [00:21:00] first introduced to the market. They were only available at a few select locations and they're really starting to take off, but people don't really know about them. And so whenever I am open enough to say, Oh, I don't actually drink, um, alcohol anymore, but I drink these seltzers.

My phone has been blowing up about them. So people want to know about them, but they don't necessarily want to talk to their friends about them because cannabis is still a stigma. Um, so that's another goal of this. The whole goal of this podcast is let's get over these stigmas. So cannabis is one of the underlying stigmas that I really want to stress is why is mommy wine culture or having a glass of wine at a play date?

Why is that so accepted when if you really dig into the health benefits of alcohol, and when I say benefits, there are, there are very little. I'm not preaching everyone needs to stop drinking. That is not what I'm saying. But if you really look at what a toxin it is, how it, [00:22:00] it's anxiety inducing. You're drinking it to get rid of anxiety, but it's making your anxiety worse.

Um, so I just really want to say, like, hey, Mommy Wine Culture is a marketing ploy to get you to spend more money. And it's not helpful in the least bit for you. And cannabis does have some health benefits. Now, I'm not gonna, like, preach it as a miracle drug. Because, also, because it's been illegal for so long, there's not really good studies.

On the effects or just all those things and so I'm not preaching it like, Oh, go do drugs by any means, but it was a great alternative for me. It helped give me that little bit of like edge that's off, but I was fully coherent. I started enjoying doing things more. Um, it was just a good transition for me.

So that's how I went from being way too much wine every night. I think the equivalent of [00:23:00] what I was drinking was like six to seven candy bars worth of wine. And I'm embarrassed to say how much that is. So I'm going to let anyone watching and reading this Google and do the math of what that equates to, but I've switched to.

Just really and I don't I don't smoke. I'm not a smoker. But I mean, I'll have my seltzer at 5 p. m And have fun with the kids And I have a gummy occasionally. I told my husband, I want to have a gummy and watch Austin Powers this Friday or Saturday night. Like, how fun does that sound? Instead of getting so drunk, you have a hangover the next day.

You might not remember some of the things, like So anyhow, that is how I'm getting that stigma and trying to turn it into a strength and a superpower. Well, let me put devil's advocate 

Jon: here with you, Monica. What would you say to somebody who says, well, you, you, you gave up one vice for a different vice in switching the alcohol for the THC or the cannabis and Are you, um, somehow incapacitated while being with [00:24:00] your family, being with your kids?

How would you respond to somebody when they ask you something 

Monica: like that? Um, I do appreciate that question because I think that does happen a lot and I actually have heard of someone that that did happen to switching. She did just switch vices and this exact situation to seltzers and cannabis and I'm bringing her on on an episode, fingers crossed.

But, um, yes, that being a fair question. Is, I might have when I first started, I, I knew I was doing whatever I could to not have alcohol. Sure. So, was I maybe having more THC once my kids went to bed than I do now? 100%. But as I kicked the alcohol and started letting my brain repair itself and getting back to what it needed to be, And getting healthy enough to realize that this is all combined with therapy, you know, that I would never have gotten here without [00:25:00] therapy is that literally I read her from a notebook I made while my kids were napping in the car and it said, I am realizing that I used alcohol to numb my brain because my brain doesn't stop.

It is a scary place inside. It goes a million miles a minute, which I now have been diagnosed as. ADHD, which made my whole life and my whole childhood make sense, and I'm not your typical ADHD. You think of a bounce off the walls, hyperactive little boy. That is typically what you set, like, know of, but mine is what is called inattentive ADHD, and it means everything's happening in here.

And so you imagine that little person that can't control their physical body and how much trouble they have in school and social and activity. Well, now imagine that's all going on in the head and nobody else can see it and nobody else knows what's happening. And the only way I ever [00:26:00] knew to relieve that was when I started drinking at 14.

So that is when I got healthy and I realized that. My cannabis naturally just reduced a little bit. Like, I was realizing, okay, like, let's let my brain be what my brain is. And I've spent the last, it's almost been 10 months now, finding out who I am, going through therapy, learning these things. And not exactly what you just said.

I didn't want to just have another vice where I just sat at home and drank seltzers all day. So I had to find what I'm passionate about, what I can help with, and that has naturally led to a decrease in the THC that I consume. So, I may have one little can at five, and that's all I have for the rest of the night.

So I'm by no means, like, incapacitated with my kids. I'm actually in such a level headed, calm state that we have never had more fun together. It 

Jon: is interesting you talk about how you [00:27:00] can't take alcohol, drink alcohol with a lot of these medications that are for ADHD and other mental health issues. Have you talked about, with your therapy team, the THC piece of it?

Have you, uh, are they okay with this? Like, how does that play into it? And we'll also get into the technology piece, which I know is, uh, passionate about you, too. 

Monica: Yeah, I know. I, um, I can talk for hours. So my goal is to make these 30 minute episodes. Um, anyone that's ever thought I'm quiet before, I am when I have no interest in what's going on.

But when I'm passionate, I don't shut up. So, uh, But yes, I was completely open with my therapy team because we have to be, I mean, that is, they're not going to be able to help you. If they don't know what's going on, right? Nobody is going to walk into your life and magically save it. You have got to give just as much and so that was really weird to say, like, I do cannabis on the side, but now that's why I want to be the face for [00:28:00] everybody else because I want them to be able to say that to their doctor because it's gonna help.

And so, um, they were like, Oh, yeah, okay. And That's cool, like, and I explained to them what I did, that it's a seltzer here, maybe a gummy here, that it wasn't, I'm not running out, there's a whole saying like, mommy needs a minute, which I fully support, but that's like going out into the garage and like smoking real quick and then coming back in with your kids, that wasn't me.

Um, so I got more and more comfortable explaining what I was really doing with my medical team and they completely understood, um, very supportive. The only thing I will say is my renewal card came up for my prescription, um, marijuana, I guess you would call it. And I reached out to my psychiatrist who prescribes all my ADHD, my anxiety, my depression medicine.

And I said, Hey, as we've talked about, I also use these. Can you write my prescription so I can have everything centralized into one spot? Sure. And she said that the [00:29:00] hospital itself does not allow her to do that. So there is still some stigma surrounding it. She knows about it. She's supportive. And she still prescribes the other medicines that I need, but the organization as a whole is still kind of staying away from it, that I have to go through a third party resource and pay more money to 

Jon: get it.

Yeah, that is interesting, the medical community and some folks still having that stigma about it. I want to talk to you about the community you're going to build with this podcast as we start to wrap up here, but I want to first ask you, you've also had a lot of technology you've really sort of glommed onto in this journey.

Can you talk about that for 

Monica: a minute or two? Yeah, I'll try to make it brief, but my whole background is a mix of sales and digital marketing. Um, the digital marketing piece came on totally by accident, and it was in 2009 ish, I believe. I got stuck with New Orleans jury duty, which if you've never been called back in the day, y'all, it is.

Eight days. [00:30:00] You have to go eight days, no matter if you are called or not. So for the entire month, I had to go Monday and Wednesday mornings. I had to sit in the basement of the New Orleans courthouse where there is zero internet. Um, and for hours, like some days I was there for four, some days I was there for six, but anyhow.

I bought books on Google Analytics. I bought books on how search engine optimization works, and I've always been a fan of learning. It was on the cusp of everything starting to go into the digital age, and I was doing marketing at my job. So I said, I'm going to be stuck here for hours. Let's learn digital marketing.

Uh, so that's how it all started. It's always stuck with me. It's been an underlying theme in almost every career and corporate change that I've had. And so when I decided to stay home with my daughter, I that brain never stops. Remember that brain never stops. So even though I wasn't in the corporate world, I would still constantly be on linked in because I was fascinating about [00:31:00] what was happening with covid in the corporate world, how the remote work was going, how they were using technology.

And then recently, I knew with my kids starting like their mother's day out program, you know, I was interested in dipping my toe back in the workforce, but I didn't know where and I knew it couldn't be full time. And that's when I got down the rabbit hole of A. I. And so even though I wasn't working, y'all, I've spent the last two years learning anything and everything about technology, the workplace, A.

I. And when I decided to go back, my husband's family has a plethora of businesses around the New Orleans area that they've never really fully achieved digital marketing the way they know that I know that they can. Right. And so I decided to put my energy and my efforts helping them grow their digital marketing, uh, presence.

And so I kind of got a free playground. I got to take everything that I knew. I got to take all these brand new technologies, AI tools that [00:32:00] are in their infancy and just coming out. But I got real world businesses to apply them to. And so it gave me this unique perspective of a industry that's just starting.

And there's ways that we can use this in our day to day life. I am also starting a technology digital AI consultancy. It's called Agility Digital Consultancy. And I'm using the efforts I do here, the efforts I do with my husband's, uh, family's companies to basically build a portfolio and say, Hey, here is what we can do in today's new day of technology, AI, social media.

So that is how that whole portion is intertwining with what I'm doing here. And I think that 

Jon: will come out as we go into more episodes of the podcast. Uh, last question for you here, Monica. So let's talk about the community you're trying to build with this podcast. I know this is not just broadcasting.

As you know, I used to work in radio where you're talking out to a bunch of people and it's a one way conversation. You want this to be more of an engaged community with our listeners [00:33:00] and consumers of the podcast. Let's hit on that 

Monica: for a minute before we wrap up. Absolutely. Um, I appreciate anyone that's listening to this one because this one has been all about me.

Um, that's also why I really appreciate you being my co host because I did not want to get on here and ramble about myself. So thank you for helping me organize this thought. Of course. But yes, I do not want to be on here just preaching. I want to, like I said, be the face for other people as well. And so I truly believe that by sending comments and emailing, commenting on social media, wherever it is you feel comfortable.

If there's anything. That you want to see discussed or you want to share your story just since teasing this trailer, the amount of text and messages I've gotten from people that have undergone something very transformative and they had no way of knowing how to share it. It's just mesmerizing to me. So I want to help get those stories out because my first goal was if I helped one person, this would all [00:34:00] be worth it.

And so to get these messages like we as a community are going to be what helps each other. We are, if we hide at home, we keep it. It's not going to get any better. It's not going to help. So let's engage together. Let's share our stories. Um, and also in terms of community, like, I want to support other people that are doing things.

The drive to go out there and do something on your own is huge. So if there's a way. That I can bring people on to share their stories, but also support what their missions and their goals are, that's going to be even more important to me as well. The name of 

Jon: the podcast is Mommy's New Medicine, and in a narrow focus, yes, we're going to talk a lot about your cannabis journey in future episodes, but I think the medicine in a larger sense is really getting rid of some of these stigmas and putting stuff out into the open that we're really, you know, trying to, uh, You know, like I said, undo some of those stigmas and talk about things that people have been afraid to talk about or have experienced.

We've covered so much [00:35:00] today from, uh, from, uh, you know, your fertility journey, to your mental health journey, to your alcoholism journey, and all of these things. So I think on behalf of the audience, I just want to say that we appreciate your vulnerability, Monica, and putting all of this out there, uh, and being so open about everything you've been going through so that other people will have a safe space to do that as well.

The name of the podcast is Mommy's New Medicine. You can follow it on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're listening or watching right now, and look forward to a great set of episodes with you. 

Monica: Awesome. Thank you. I'm really looking forward to this as well. And welcome to bring everyone on board on our journey in our community.