Unexpected Single Motherhood: Melting Imposter Syndrome Through Purpose

Nicole shares her wisdom melting shame and imposter syndrome amidst multiple life transitions; divorce, starting a company, and an unexpected transition to single motherhood. 

Nicole Manstrangelo traded in her successful corporate career in luxury sales and marketing to join her parents in ownership of our 30-year-old family business.

She implemented “big business” growth strategies that generated immediate and transformative results, and over the course of 7 years, drew the attention of other business owners within the industry and beyond- many of whom were struggling with the same growth challenges her parents were once facing.

Once she recognized this trend in the small business community, she began to volunteer as a mentor, helping owners apply and integrate these same strategies for success in a hybrid marketplace.  Through mentorship, she became aware of the unique needs and challenges faced by many women in business.

In 2021, she founded The Daily Drip, a media platform providing content, resources, programming, and community to help South Florida business leaders become thought leaders. What makes their content unique is that everything is created by a local industry leader within this market- just like YOU.

 Their 'for us by us' approach to content and programming allows them to support the modern business leader while amplifying the voices of their local industry experts and expanding their capacity for impact.

From Palm Beach to South Beach, their community continues to expand, evolve and thrive. Their content reaches more than 4,000 subscribers across the tri county and nearly 34k digitally across all social media platforms. 

Transcript

Becky Gleed  0:03  

It's an incredible morning here. I am thrilled to welcome Nicole Mastrangelo. She is the co founder of The Daily drip, which is a thought leadership platform. Welcome Nicole,

Nicole Mastrangelo  0:17  

thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Rebecca, tell

Becky Gleed  0:21  

our audience what a thought leadership platform is, and tell us a little bit about the daily drip. Yeah, so

Nicole Mastrangelo  0:31  

our media platform looks a lot like other media platforms you might subscribe to, maybe the skim or Forbes or the Atlantic. We have a weekly newsletter. We have a lot of video content. We have a annual magazine publication, we have a podcast. But what makes it all really special and unique is that everything you read, watch or listen to is created by a local industry expert in our South Florida market, so we're a hyper localized media platform in the south Florida region, and we reach about 70,000 business leaders every single month via inbox or social media or events and programming.

Becky Gleed  1:18  

Can you give our audience an example of what that might look like an industry leader, and what's this like, secret sauce of South Florida? Yeah.

Nicole Mastrangelo  1:26  

Well, this is home for me. So, you know, I wanted to really create a way for business leaders to build their professional brand that is so important in today's market, and it's kind of this homework assignment we all never asked for. And yet here it is, we all have to have our own sort of digital character and our own professional presence. And today, marketing is increasingly more and more personal branding than it is professional branding, or, like the the organization's logo kind of takes a back seat to the ambassador they face, right? So I wanted to create a way to help more business leaders, consultants, advisors, subject matter experts to help them do that, because these knowledge workers have so much in here, and it was about really helping them get it out. And that can be from an expertise perspective, but more importantly, a story perspective, like their stories, their insights, their experiences, are invaluable, and they're locked in their head. And unless you know this person, and you get one on one time with them, you can never, kind of get a window into what they know, what they've seen, where they've been, and so through articles, through podcasting, through events and programming, through the magazine, we're able to help extract those Insights, perspectives and stories and share them with our community. And what makes it like 10x is that our audience is very much local. So you could read this powerful story or this incredible article or listen to a podcast from someone, you can theoretically go have lunch with or coffee. You can everything that a contributor creates, we have all their contact info one click connect to them, so you can go and connect on LinkedIn or send them an email or connect in some other way, find their website and start building your relationship with that person. And the relationship starts by learning their story, not getting their business card. So it's usually a very interesting kickoff

Becky Gleed  3:46  

story seems to be emphasized along with an approachable connecting,

Nicole Mastrangelo  3:53  

yeah, because that's how we connect. You know, you don't connect with an introduction or a handshake or a business card and a Hi, my name is, here's what I do. We don't really have an emotional connection. But when you read someone's story, or you hear their story on any given subject, you can relate instantly. You can connect on an emotional level. And so it really fast tracks the relationship building with the person.

Becky Gleed  4:21  

What advice would you give to someone who is a subject matter expert just trying to, you know, maybe get out there, or to tap into the daily drip? What would be some of those first steps?

Nicole Mastrangelo  4:35  

Well, I would highly encourage anybody anywhere to subscribe to our newsletter. It's completely free. It comes every Thursday morning, and it has everything in it, all the latest articles, the latest podcast, episodes, videos, events and programming. A lot of them are virtual, and we do have a lot in person as well, but it gives you an idea of what. Thought leadership looks like how you could begin to present yourself a lot of our demographic, they are, you know, women in law, women in finance, women in accounting, real estate, consulting, sales, health care, HR. So you will likely find someone in your industry or similar to you, and you can kind of see how they're doing it and get some great ideas just by participating as a spectator. And then you can start to think about how you might write an article for your LinkedIn profile or for your website. You may want to do podcasting. You may want to start to create a video series. You may start to dabble and get a little bit more courage as you get inspired.

Becky Gleed  5:51  

Yeah, I'm thinking about women in general. We can be our worst critics, and oftentimes that translate to who am I? You know, who am I? Oh, my God, myself as a subject matter expert, can you Yes,

Nicole Mastrangelo  6:05  

that was the biggest aha moment to me when I started this, four years ago, five years ago now. God, it goes.

Unknown Speaker  6:19  

I'm clapping over here, yeah, but when I

Nicole Mastrangelo  6:21  

started this, you know, I thought the biggest hurdle and the the biggest problem I needed to solve for was the how, the tactical, the systems, the processes, the the the how to write, the best performing blog article, format, how to podcast. Right. From a logistical perspective, I know where this is. I realized very quickly it was about solving for imposter syndrome, because that is the very first thought everyone has in their head, is, who the hell am I? Yep, to speak as an authority and represent my industry, my peers, or, you know, what are people going to think we've had people contribute and not share their work when, when the daily drip has featured it, they won't comment or reshare because they're afraid people in their network are going to think that I think I know everything, or I think you know, you know, my opinion, you know, Trumps yours. And so we've really solved for that through community. That's why, in order to contribute to our platform, you have to become a daily drip member. And there's different ways and access to contribute based on your membership level, and the community is what helps people get over that fear and encourages them, because they've all been there when they're when it was their first submission. They know what those nerves feel like, and they all rally around each other's content. So if you share your vulnerability and your nerves around a particular piece or participating in the podcast, there's a whole support system ready to comment, like, share, let you know what their favorite part was. Let you know how great you did, even if it's private in a text message or in our private LinkedIn chat, there's so much support because at the end of the day, none of us are content creators. We're all experts creating content, and it's new, so we try to help each other

Becky Gleed  8:24  

through it. I love it. I'm hearing the antidote. At least one antidote is community rallying, which is a wonderful case for joining the daily drip. If you haven't already, go ahead and join anything else that you're seeing with imposter syndrome, or, you know, common themes of or even like stories to share around. Maybe someone that you saw with imposter syndrome that was able to recover and do some cool stuff.

Nicole Mastrangelo  8:54  

You know, it's the answer nobody wants to hear, but it's the truth. You just have to do it. You have to rip a mandate off, and you have to do it. Sierra graveyard. She's one of our thought leaders. She's been with us almost five years, and she had this great article that she wrote on exactly the subject. And in the piece she wrote, you have to do it scared like the first time is always going to be brutal, right? You're going to pick yourself apart. You're going to torture yourself, but it's a necessary part of the process. You have to just do it. The first one's going to stink. You're going to get better the second time, the third time, and then before you know it, it becomes fun. It becomes this unique challenge of your comfort zone. And let me tell you, it also becomes, it literally changes the conversations you have. That was another really interesting point of feedback we've gotten. We have Tiffany Doge. She's the CEO and President of children's Harbor, which is a pretty large nonprofit organization, actually. The largest child welfare organization in Florida. And when she started and was contributing, that was something that she shared with me, which was her team was seeing these posts, her donors, her board, friends, colleagues, and now, when she's at events or at meetings or or just on site on campus, the conversations people are having with her are very different, because they're like, Hey, I read that article you wrote that was incredible, the way you said X, Y and Z, or I heard you on that podcast. I cannot believe that you went through that like that story and and she's kind of walking around like, wow, people know me in a different way now. And, and it's kind of having this ripple effect and changing just all the conversations, all the activity. And I think that that's pretty cool. I

Becky Gleed  10:56  

think so too. And from my seat, from a mental health provider, there is a science to sharing these stories, sharing these parts of ourselves can really melt shame. So I'm hearing that too, if, if you have a barrier of shame, and you're sharing the story, which could be a podcast, could be a magazine article, could be, you know, sharing your story in a different platform, but from a science perspective, that can literally melt shame and which can help you then do really incredible work, whether it's through child welfare or thought leadership.

Nicole Mastrangelo  11:30  

It's actually interesting you say that because it is this like two sided catharsis we see happening. It's the catharsis that comes from writing, right? So, like, journaling is a very big tool in mental health, right? And so sometimes just writing the piece and getting these ideas or these feelings out of your mind and onto paper in black and white, in and of itself, is a very healing experience. But then to have it featured and shared, and get this feedback from people you don't even know or people you do know, and this deeper connection or or this shared understanding or experience, it is a whole separate set of healing that happens. Yeah, and so that experience from start to finish has been really profound for a lot of people.

Becky Gleed  12:25  

Yeah, Dan Siegel's work out of California talks about this interpersonal neurobiology of oxytocin interpersonally, and that's what I'm hearing, is through these connections, it's we're getting these oxytocin hits, and I wonder if that's the glue to your community. Oh,

Nicole Mastrangelo  12:42  

my God. I think you just like, proved us by science. I love

Speaker 3  12:48  

it, yeah, yeah, because that scientific method, yeah, it is. It's like, this connection

Nicole Mastrangelo  12:55  

high that comes through content, yeah, and through the feedback loop of what you're sharing and and it's, it's really been a powerful thing that for all the people involved in this organization or on the sidelines, it's this thing they can't put words on. And we've all said it. It's like the daily drip is a feeling. It's yeah thing. And I think you just finally articulated what's

Becky Gleed  13:25  

we'll make it deeper. Um, well, I love this idea of do it scared. And I hope this is a segue into sharing your version of do it scared, because on a personal level, you have quite a story, and part of what I am so grateful for today and excited about is to help our audience learn a little bit more about your story and what you bring to the daily drip on a more personal level. So if we want to back up to your journey to motherhood or your perinatal journey, please. I'd love to hear wherever you want to start of sharing parts of yourself.

Nicole Mastrangelo  14:07  

I thank you for inviting me on to talk about that. It's never the story I thought people would care to hear, right the irony of it all, but I was so happy that I was asked to speak on it at that motherhood village event, and you were there to hear it. And now here we are today, and this has been happening to me more and more, but my my journey to motherhood was kind of not ideal. I went through a pretty traumatic divorce just before giving birth to my son, a separation and then a divorce, and it was just not, you know, what you dream of, you know, hard

Unknown Speaker  14:53  

and messy and, yes, free.

Nicole Mastrangelo  14:57  

It was, it was hard, it was messy, it was it. Was it was challenging, it was scary, and yet, and it was everything that I needed. You know, I think, if I'm being honest, up until that point in my life, I really was not living my life. Life was just kind of happening to me. A lot of the decisions I I was making were just things I thought I should be doing. You know, career choices, lifestyle choices, just everything. All the little things were just what I thought I should be doing, what others had done before me, what I thought would make the people closest to me happy. And you know, it's crazy how you know motherhood can just fundamentally rock you and change you. Because all of a sudden I was like, wow, I've been living this life this way. And look where it ended me. Look where it got me. I am now a new mom and a single mom and going through divorce, and I'm living this life that I that just doesn't fuel me, it doesn't fire me up. It's like, how did I get here? And

Becky Gleed  16:12  

metrics like for knowing that you weren't where you were supposed to be. If there's another mom listening who might be questioning herself, what are maybe some pieces to consider that you knew that's a good question.

Nicole Mastrangelo  16:26  

Pivot. I don't know if it's a metric as much as a feeling. It's just every day I did not feel inspired, I did not feel excited about the work I was doing. I did not feel like I was living in my purpose. I didn't even know what my purpose was. It was kind of like, I'm just one of I'm just here going through the motions. And something about that I knew deep down was wrong, like that wasn't how I was supposed to be living. That's not how we are supposed to be living life, this one precious life that we have. And it was almost like that divorce and that traumatic moment was like permission to reevaluate, permission to make other changes and other big transitions. It was, it was almost like I got the permission I needed, or I got the wake up call I needed, I don't know, but, you know, I went through a lot of of therapy to help me kind of just unpack. How did I get here? It was less about the drama and the trauma of my divorce, and more about how did I get here, like and it wasn't even just about marriage. It was about my career and the work I was doing and where I was living and and who I was. And it was like, how did I get here? None of this fits like, none of this feels good, right? So I spent a lot of time really working on me. It had nothing. It had very little to do with him and the marriage or anything that happened, and more to just try to understand how, how did we get here? And then, you know, my son was a big motivator for me, because who,

Unknown Speaker  18:10  

who's, you know,

Nicole Mastrangelo  18:12  

I did not want him to live his life that way. I did not want him to just go through the motions of his life. I did not want him to wake up one day saying, How did I get here? What? What is this life I've built for myself? This is not what I want. This is not what fires me up. And so I knew like I had to figure this out for him, more for him than for me, it was, it was because I wanted to be an example for him of how to live life on purpose and how to really be in the driver's seat of your experiences, the you know, the life you build for yourself. And so I really, kind of made that decision unconsciously. But it was really because I wanted to be a good example for him,

Becky Gleed  19:04  

and living with purpose modeling for your son, incredible. And was what was that like? The first year postpartum, single mom, post divorce.

Nicole Mastrangelo  19:18  

It was brutal. It was, I shouldn't say, it was brutal. It was very hard. There were moments that were beautiful and happy, but for the most part, it was this incredible year of shame, shame that I you know, that he was brought into this world, in these circumstances, that I didn't feel strong and confident and secure in the life I was building for us, and that I wasn't ready, that things weren't perfect and in place like he came into imperfection, you know, like. Just a lot around that, and a lot of, how the hell did I get here? How is this? How I'm bringing my first child into the world and raising him like there was just a lot of that. It was hard.

Becky Gleed  20:12  

Yeah. Brene Brown has a book on it's called gifts of imperfect. Gifts of Imperfection. I don't know if you've read it for a single mom listening of, how was the imperfection a gift? Like looking back, you know, nine years ago, how are some of those gifts?

Nicole Mastrangelo  20:32  

Oh, my God, it imperfection. Perfectly imperfect has been kind of like the motto of of my life, like, I just believe that God takes these moments to kind of remind me of my false sense of control.

Speaker 4  20:53  

I really do really we have no control.

Nicole Mastrangelo  20:58  

I have this hold on perfection and this hold on control, and it's like I have learned to let go of a lot of that. I have learned that a lot of that holds me back from really experiencing incredible, wonderful things. Because in order to do that, you have to take risks. You have to take leaps of faith. And that doesn't come with control, and it may not wind up perfect. And you know, I think I've, I've really learned to love the parts of my life that are imperfect.

Becky Gleed  21:38  

You're welcome. What were some of the risks you can point to that felt big or scary or

Nicole Mastrangelo  21:47  

uncomfortable? Well, I decided to start my own business in all of this. I don't think there's anything more risky or more scary, but

Becky Gleed  22:00  

is it 90% of all businesses fail in the first year. Is that the stat? You would know that

Nicole Mastrangelo  22:04  

not 90 but it is like 73% 73%

Unknown Speaker  22:08  

okay,

Nicole Mastrangelo  22:10  

you know, I, I to put a little context. I've always been in a business development career role. I've always been in growth and strategy and marketing and sales. So I've had, you know, education through college, and then I've had formal training through my corporate career, and then I went to the school of hard knocks when I left corporate and went into my family business for seven years. I come from an entrepreneurial family. We've been in, you know, the business has been in our family now three generations. So I kind of was hardwired to grow and build something, right? So that part was never scary. I never I, you know, it's funny. I never doubted my ability to create wealth or revenue or solve a problem through business. I knew how to do that, like, fundamentally and conceptually, but I was scared, like, Would I do all that and still feel this way at the end of it, like there's something wrong with me? Am I? Am I just never going to be happy? Am I ever going to feel that, that sense of purpose and fulfillment? And so that was what was scary to me. I knew I could, I could build a consulting agency, and I did. And then when the daily drip became, you know, this vision and this opportunity, I knew I could build it, and I did, you know, like, from logistics, operations, infrastructure, like mechanics, I understand all that you know. So I never, I never doubted my technical acumen. But I did wonder if, like, I was chasing a rainbow, or if I would ever know what it feels like to just be content and living in your purpose, then I can say, now I I absolutely do. I wake up every day with peace and closure and like if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, and I really hope I don't, I have no regrets on

Becky Gleed  24:23  

for someone on a similar path. What are, what were some of your earliest signs that you were on the correct path of purpose? How did you know? Was it kind of tapping into these feelings again? Was there something else that stood out, what helped you recognize

Nicole Mastrangelo  24:41  

I never felt like I was going to work every day. Felt like a gift, like felt exciting. I would work all hours of the day and night the weekends and I and I never really, you know, never felt like overtime. It felt like. It felt like almost divine, like I like, like I was almost like an instrument, and like God was working through me, like this was my purpose. I don't know I'm very like faithful, as you can tell, but I it did feel that way, every vision, every idea, all of a sudden, like things were falling in my lap to make those things happen. It just seemed almost too good to be true and win after win, even the smallest like, like, things that other people wouldn't classify as a win, were wins to me or moments to celebrate for me, and that's how it felt. I felt like I was winning and celebrating, and there was progress and momentum, and it all felt like I was supposed to do it, like this was my calling, this was my purpose. And that's why these things are happening the way they're happening. And working out the way that they're working out is because this is what I'm supposed to be doing and and, you know, I just distinctly remember, you know, the day, or the moment when I was like, Oh, it is real. Like, the pot of gold is real. Like, I didn't do all this for nothing. I'm not crazy. Like, this is a real feeling. And thank God I went for it. Like, thank God I got here. And and that was long before I was making money. That was long before I, you know, I bootstrapped the daily drip. So, you know, it was a very long time before I got my first paycheck, you know, and, but it didn't like that wasn't the measurement. It was. It was the sense of purpose. And I had that sense of purpose long before I got my first paycheck.

Becky Gleed  26:43  

Yes, it sounds spiritual. It sounds, yeah, like you said, divine, and you're able to recognize some of those signs of you're on the right path without the paycheck, didn't even feel like you were going to work incredible.

Nicole Mastrangelo  26:57  

Yeah, it really was. It was a special experience. I would, I would hope for this, for anybody. This is like, this is like a ride. I feel like this is what life is for. Like, this is, this is the experiences and the adrenaline rush and the the moments like this is what it's for. This is what it's all about. Like, everybody should, should be able to have this feeling,

Becky Gleed  27:21  

yeah, I think that stood out to me when I met you, and I was watching you on the panel. Is it really? It's a light. It really is an energy that you can see. And I think when there's that alignment of the purpose, the passion, the enactment, there is this beautiful energy, this overflow that comes from it so incredible and

Nicole Mastrangelo  27:46  

and, you know, keep in mind, I have met so many people who have that passion and that purpose, but they have, like a failure to launch like they they are just paralyzed, Right? They have analysis paralysis, or, you know, their fear of failure or the imposter syndrome. And it's like I could see how there could have been times where that could have gotten the best of me too, and because I've seen it get the best of more people than it should, um, but I always just had the mindset that I was at the bottom, like there was not another rock to go down, like I was at rock bottom. There it was. It could only get better. So, like I would never had that fear was never bigger than my sense of purpose and my my sense of wanting to change that rainbow, because I just thought I've been through hell like I've been through probably the worst case scenario to me, you know, so, so what if they don't answer my call, or they say no, or this fails like it certainly will not hurt worse than this has. And so that was kind of like just the attitude I had. I really went in guns a blazing, like I had. I had no sense of, like, fear of failure, because I already felt like I had failed in a lot of ways. So it was just like, oh, okay, this is why not do this? Yeah,

Becky Gleed  29:21  

or do it scared? As you said, it's scared. Yeah. Well, for someone going through experiencing analysis paralysis, how can they cut through it? Do you have any advice or wisdom?

Nicole Mastrangelo  29:33  

I would say to those people, and I have said to those people, when you're planning, it's being done in a vacuum. You're at your house, you're at your desk, you're in your head, and you're planning out step one, step two, step three, and you are imagining the possible scenarios around step one, step two, step three, and probably a good portion of that. Is correct, but you are underestimating how much of that is way off, and you just cannot properly build anything on paper perfectly. It must go to market. It must go to action. You have to think about what you're imagining in your head or planning on paper as, like, beta phase one, then you have to go and implement it and do something with it. And that's beta phase two. You might have, like, three or four betas before you've now said, Ah, this is the perfect formula. This is the perfect plan. And then you can actually go and hard launch, but understand that the doing is part of the planning. People think that like the doing is because the plan is complete, and they don't understand the doing is part of planning. Yeah, rest on rolling. You've got to you've got to implement some things to test and measure, to learn, to see what people really like. I mean, literally, every single element of the daily drip ended up differently than how it started, sure in the plan, and I would argue, probably 180 degrees only now, because we have so much data and experience and implementation under our belt can we shorten that timeline. But pretty much, you know, you have an idea, and it never works out the way you think it is in real life, and that's just part of the process like that. That's not failure. That's just what it is that that's just building something,

Becky Gleed  31:41  

what's almost normalizing the action piece, and it's going to be bumpy. Data collection is part of the planning process.

Nicole Mastrangelo  31:51  

Go for it. Do it scared, yeah. Like, go in knowing that's part of the planning process. Like, factor that into your timeline. You know, if you're thinking, I'm going to launch something in six months, and I need to be earning revenue, let's just say, in a business context, right? I need to be, you know, generating some kind of cash flow in six months. Your timeline is probably off by a year and a half. You know, you're probably not going to get to that mark you're envisioning till at least 18 months. That's just what it is for anything meaningful and worthwhile. That's just how long it takes. And I would argue it's the same thing like for my divorce, or, you know, that healing process, it was not a six month process, you know, you you can go through the therapy, and you can do all the things and read all the books and all the you know, whatever the meditation or the journaling and all the things. But it's like, you know, you also need time to put yourself out there again, time to build a new routine and new habits, time to shift your mindset, time to do and show yourself you're capable of doing, and then all of a sudden, you're there. You've built this new person. But, you know, I think people's timelines are part of the problem, like the unmet expectations. Like your expectation was wrong from the get go. So I think just people need to give themselves more runway.

Becky Gleed  33:21  

I love that more runway. And speaking of building person and processes and pipelines,

Speaker 4  33:30  

you are now pregnant. I am. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm since remarried,

Nicole Mastrangelo  33:39  

I'm now pregnant. And yeah, it's been a wild, wild five years.

Becky Gleed  33:46  

Yes, I want to make space for that and give time to celebrate you and help our audience understand in 2025 you know, what is it like to be a pregnant person? Do you have any wisdom for anyone you know as a business woman. And I want to also highlight that many, many individuals in the daily drip community are either caregivers or mothers, and so although it's focused on the business person, this just happens to be one of the nuances of the daily drip of who's part of it.

Nicole Mastrangelo  34:24  

Yeah, I think what makes the daily drip content so good, besides the fact that it's written from the voice of ordinary people, is the fact that it really focuses on the human, the woman behind the career, and the woman behind the career is often a mother or a daughter or a sister or a friend. You know, we're many things. We're more than just what we do. And that is the challenge, right? It's like, how do we keep all these balls in the air and all these identities going? Um? Yeah, it's hard and that, and that is, I think, the essence of what the daily drip content is, is this intersection between personal and professional life. And I think, you know, it's been really interesting. It's been really interesting being pregnant. First of all, it, you know, it was a surprise, okay? Second of all, my son is now nine, so it's a much bigger age spread than I ever envisioned, and now I have two children with two different fathers. So that's also very unique, you know, I'm still co parenting, and now I'm going to have this baby. So just nothing about my life looks the way I thought I would. And I think for me, that's been the thing I've had so many people say to me, oh my god, I can't believe it. I'm 39 and I'm pregnant. That's also I never expected to be with a newborn at 40. You know, 3940 right? So all of it is not what I thought. But, you know, a lot of people say, Oh my God. And you know, your business is taking off. Are you worried? Are you scared this is going to be so hard? You know, you know your age. How are you feeling? Like people have said all kinds of things, you know, unintentionally, but it's also people will just come right out say to you, but I think for me, the biggest, you know, I think once you're you've been a mother, and you've kind of experienced that journey like I kind of know what to expect a bit when it comes to not sleeping and toddler years and all of that. So that's really just not taking up space in my mind as much. It's more about wrapping my head around the fact that my my life just does not look anything like I planned. Or, you know, it's this reminder of I have no control over the things, and that that's been the thing I've really had to, you know, wrap my head around, and then, and then also, it's true, like the business is on fire. So it's been also a reality check of, how do I how do I do both, how do I create space for all of these things in my life and and so that's been also a great journey in in like purpose. Living in purpose is is reminding myself, like, this is what I'm doing all this for, like, living your purpose is not about a choice. It's not about choosing one thing or another thing. It's about all the things. When you're living in your purpose, all these things connect and work together and put you right where you're supposed to be, right on time, like, right how it's supposed to happen, and I do believe that, but I would be lying if I didn't say I have to really kind of work on that too. Yeah.

Becky Gleed  38:12  

Do you have any wisdom for mothers running a business? Let's say they're at this intersection. Their business is on fire. And by the way, I'm so happy for you like but also trying to manage the realities of motherhood, especially that first year is a lot of work and is demanding. How do you juggle both?

Nicole Mastrangelo  38:38  

I think for me, it's a mindset like, it's a very abundant mindset, like, I have had no problem canceling initiatives and moving them to 2026 or 2027 or just canceling them all together and saying, You know what, we're not doing this. I've had to be really kind of ruthless and disciplined in the decision making on where we're going to invest time and money and team and resources, what things I'm going to have to be a big part of, what things I'm going to have to let go of. But I think what makes those decisions hard for people is this scarcity mindset, or this fear that if I don't do all the things, I'm missing out. I'm going to lose momentum. I'm never going to get the chance again. I'm never going to it. I'm not going to grow. I'm not going to have the success or the things. And I just, I don't believe that. I've never believed that. Like I just, whether I do something this year or next year, or two years from now or five years from now, it's all going to come. There's, there's, there's so many opportunities and so many people that, you know, if this one doesn't work out, the next one comes, it always comes. So I think it's just a mindset thing of taking a deep breath and realizing it, it's not. About, how am I going to do all the things it's about, how do I just keep going? How do I just put one foot in front of the other? What are the essential parts of my business that need, that are vital? Do I have the right team and the right systems in place? Do I have the right tools? Am I realistic about my capacities and their capacities? And, you know, really just making those decisions, you know, being able to redline things when it when it really needs to be redlined, and being okay with that, not feeling this FOMO, I think that that that's not healthy, and I think that's what prevents a lot that I would say mindset is probably the most important thing before skill set. My business abundance mindset over skill set as an entrepreneur, because your motivators and triggers are going to guide everything you do in business, from the bad deals you make, the bad ways you spend money, the the things you you invest in or don't invest in, like, if you've got a scarcity FOMO mindset, you're going to make a lot of bad decisions, and your business is going to reflect that. But if you are are abundant. And you know that there's the world is big, there's there's so many opportunities and so many people and so many, so much time, right? So again, it's that timeline and that runway, like a lot of that is a head game that we play with ourselves, but you've really gotta be in control of your mind, and it's going to help you make the right decisions, the tough decisions, and just keep putting one foot in front

Becky Gleed  41:49  

of the other. Yes, this balance between mindset and then taking action.

Nicole Mastrangelo  41:53  

Yes, you have to. You cannot. You cannot stay stagnant in business. And I don't even just mean the business staying stagnant. I mean you like you. You cannot put things off to tomorrow. You have to do it today. You have to do it right now. It's like, whatever your gut feeling is about that decision, it's not going to change tomorrow. It's not going to change five days from now. It so, you know, just make the decision, make the hard call, that that that just comes with the territory. You've gotta act. You've gotta

Becky Gleed  42:24  

move. Yeah, beautiful. Tell our audience a little bit more about the daily drip. We started talking about it in the beginning. But if someone's joining your community, what can they expect? I'd also love to hear more about the magazine, the podcast, maybe events. I think I saw some other,

Nicole Mastrangelo  42:42  

yeah, we have, oh my gosh, we have so much going on. But really, at the end of the day, it all boils down to we are just trying to help people amplify their voice, tell their story, share what they know. And we do it through a lot of vehicles, because people gravitate to different mediums, right? Some people love writing. It's really kind of, like we said, cathartic. Other people love the podcast element, and they love these conversations and these really authentic moments that happen, and being a part of them with our events and programs, it's a way for us to help people teach, through speaking engagements, through master classes, webinars, workshops, discussion groups, we provide these formats and this platform to help people Get up on the stage and get the mic and and exercise their voice in that way. And so I think for anybody who is interested in joining, my thought, my what I would say to you is that you're you're going to join this community that's going to be very fun and safe and a way for you to explore your curiosities around these things do not feel like you're going to join and have to produce. It's really an exploration and curiosity. And there's always opportunities coming up, and so then when you feel ready, you'll know time is right, and that's that's when you'll step up to the plate. But it really is an exploration and curiosity alongside other people like you, who are trying to figure out, do I even have something worth saying? Should I say it. How should I say it? What should I say? It's a really fun process.

Becky Gleed  44:46  

What a beautiful invitation for someone who is buying the magazine, what can they expect in terms of content?

Nicole Mastrangelo  44:55  

So the magazine is an annual print edition, and. And it is a print compilation of our best performing content. So what we do is we we take all the content for the year and everything that went viral, we put into print where we can touch it, feel it, look at it, for those people who created that piece. It really is such a special commemorative piece that you know people, they get them for their their husbands and their mothers and their sisters and their friends and their kids, and it's in their office, and it's like, this, this this moment. It's like when you run a marathon, right, like 5k and then you get the medal at the end. And it's like, I did that. That's what our magazine is, very

Becky Gleed  45:40  

cool. And then the podcast tell our audience about the podcast. So

Nicole Mastrangelo  45:44  

the podcast is called her pursuit. We stream new episodes every other Wednesday. You can access them through our newsletter, the free weekly newsletter, and it was our way of having conversations like this more readily, and so my partner, Romy, and I, we decided we were going to dedicate our podcast to sharing our experience of building the daily drip. And we've talked about everything from strategy and strategic partnerships and systems and processes and marketing and sales, and we've talked about the impact it's taken on our health, the toll it's taken on our families and our relationships, the ways we have had to manage stress, or the tough decisions we've had to make, the mindset we've had to strengthen. But it's really just been sharing our journey, and then on those topics, we have people from our community talking about those topics as it relates to their journey and their business and and we're hoping that it just creates this level of transparency and really, like, deglamorizes this, like, whole hustle culture, or this boss being kind of like cheap. Yep, cheap. It's like a very cheap and fast kind of brand image when the reality is very different. So we just try to create a place to have candid conversations about what it's like to build the daily drip, what it's like for you you to build your practice, or someone else to build their firm, and we're all very similar. We have a lot more in common than we so the journey to building a mental health practice or a law firm or the daily drip feels very similar, looks very similar. It's the same, you know, challenges, and then we've all learned the same lessons. So

Becky Gleed  47:41  

yes, the human experience. Yeah, where can folks find you?

Nicole Mastrangelo  47:47  

They can find me on LinkedIn. So Nicole master, Angela, I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, I'm everywhere, YouTube. But they can also find the daily drip on all those platforms, or they can go straight to the daily drip.com, and enjoy our content there, listen to the podcast there, learn about our community. There, subscribe to the newsletter. There, all the things are there,

Becky Gleed  48:10  

yeah. Well, thank you for coming on today. This is an invitation if you haven't already joined the daily drip. Nicole and her co founder are doing incredible work, and thank you for coming on. Thank you so

Nicole Mastrangelo  48:23  

much for having me. I this was a real treat to share this.

Unknown Speaker  48:27  

Likewise, I.