Rosie Mercado, Model & TV Star | Body Positivity, Mental Health & Entrepreneurship

Welcome to the success story podcast, I'm your host, Scott Clary. On this podcast, I have candid interviews with execs, celebrities, politicians, and other notable figures, all who have achieved success through both wins and losses, to learn more about their life, their ideas, and their insights. I sit down with leaders and mentors and unpack their story to help pass those lessons onto others through both experiences and tactical strategy for business professionals, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between, without further ado, another episode of the success story podcast. Thanks again for joining me today, I am sitting down with Rosie Mercado. Now Rosie has been capturing the hearts and imaginations across the globe with her story, her persona, her beauty. She was an expert life coach on a powerful talk show called Face the Truth, produced by Dr. Phil, and J. McGraw's Stage 29 Productions. It was a traditional talk show that dealt with conflict and provides people with a usable take away. She is a proud bilingual Latina. She is a crossover star who also gets hosts and is a correspondent on the leading Spanish language networks, Telemundo and Univision, as well as on the Emmy award winning Dr. Phil Show. And the doctors, the journey of her 240-pound weight loss and life transformation has basically launched her into a prominent voice, a known well-known voice for woman's empowerment. She sees her calling as advocating for people who are marginalized, transforming societal norms that all are valued and appreciated in April of 2019. She was named as top 25 most powerful Latinas, and she is just an absolute delight, full of energy, full of positivity, very excited. Thank you so much for joining us, and I'm really excited to hear a little bit more about your story. Oh, thank you so much. It's always great to have an opportunity to be able to share, and the biggest goal is to create impact and just really pay it forward, and if someone can take you, if it's one person that we impact, then they have a great takeaway and it's transformative, then the job is done, like that's a blessing. I 100% agree, and I think that you've had an incredible story, just as you've evolved over your career, and now you're becoming more of a household name, but I always like to tee it up, sort of bring it back to the roots, so tell me your story. Tell me how you became who you are today, right from the very start. I think from the very start, I mean, I think it comes up when, you know, it's here growing up, you know, being Latina and coming from a Mexican household and coming from invergain parents to come out here with the hunger, with having nothing in their pockets and just building something out of nothing, you know, building with hard work, strong values, a big vision, a big heart, and understanding their priorities and their values along the way, having a strong family value, so coming from that and being able to have learned that and apply that in my own life really gave me the start up to really knock on doors, keep knocking, having thick skin and not giving up, because I got to see my dad as he built his own business, you know, knocking on doors and just always trying to find a way if something didn't work, it's like try a different way, try a different way, keep knocking on doors, door closes down, window opens up, like always find a way to get to where you want, but have a bigger purpose than it just being for you, it was always the purpose of being able to provide for us, it was, you know, getting us to a better place than where they started when they were younger at their age, so having a vision and having that and always being able to pay it forward with the intention of helping others, so growing up, I mean, I was always plus-sized, that was a big thing, you know, I was always a big girl, got criticized a lot, so I felt like I was very much of a loner when I was in high school, got picked up, not picked up, picked on a lot, bullied a lot, I got a lot of shit for my weight and for my hips, and I look back now and I'm like, damn, I wasn't even that big, but I got a lot of shit and really messed with my mind, it messed with my mind and I'm thankful in the sense that I was, you know, you always have to have gratitude for good times, you're always grateful, it's easy to be grateful for the good, but when the bad stuff, when the shit happens, that's when it's hard to be grateful and I think I've learned now that in those moments you have to learn, you know, what is it trying to teach you, and I think, you know, everything in life happens for a reason, and those were moments that for me were prepping me to get to where I am now, and to be able to not only connect, but have a more compassionate heart and understanding to be able to understand what other people go through, you know, getting that constant bully, that pushback, how we get prepped for knocking on doors to understanding what my purpose was and going after it fearlessly, you know, going into auditions and knocking, you know, on different doors for, you know, production companies and going into studios and not knowing what to do and constantly getting know or getting that, you know, I have a beautiful face, but I have a really fat body or, you know, my ethnic background played a role, you know, having been bullied, it kind of sets you up for, okay, like I keep getting knows and some people are really nice about doing it gracefully and some people are really mean and just tell you like, hey, what do you think you're just too fat to get to where you're going? So I'm just, I'm just thankful for the values that my parents showed me and for everything that I went through that got me into a place of understanding body image, understanding how the psychology of that plays, you know, as you're growing up, having failed relationships helped me a lot because it helped me better understand what is it that I'm really looking for. And I think when it comes down to it is that I think you are always showing your purpose along the way. You're always leaning into, you know, what is it that I absolutely loved and I loved talking. I can remember that I loved talking and I didn't have much people to talk to. So having my first opportunity going to radio and not being able to connect with anybody in high school because of the bullying gave me this opportunity that nobody's looking at me. There's a mic in front of me. They don't see my way, but they get to hear me and that's where I understood that my voice mattered. And that was the start of it all. It was the start of it all working for free, working for experience. That was a big one for me. Tell me something, tell me something. When you, when you were first starting your career, was it, it was radio first and then you went into modeling after or was it almost like simultaneous you were trying to expand and do both things at the same time? It never occurred to me that I could ever model. Why? Because I was 420 pounds. I was, I was a really big girl. And, you know, you're 420 pounds. And I wanted to make a border street, you know, because I, I felt like, okay, you know, everybody can't tell me how to beautiful face. Well, I feel like that was like the closest that I could get into TV production. I always loved everything about TV. I loved the behind the scenes. I loved looking. I loved the red carpet. I loved when I saw women on the red carpet interviewing. Oh my god. Juliana Ransick. Like, when I would see, you know, I, you know, when I saw Emmy growing up, you know, and doing, you know, her, her, her shows, you know, doing all these interviews, visiting all these places, you see all these people, you know, doing all these things that you just like, wow, you know, I wish that was me. Never thought in a way that I could do it because I was so heavy. And I kept getting told that I was so heavy. So, the closest that I got to was first makeup artistry. And I did makeup at school. I got paid $25 to make up for proms. And, and, and I helped with my way. And I never thought I was like, I'm making money. It's a senior degree. Here comes a long opportunity that I went right on and went some tickets. And I go with her. And DJ started being the radio, the radio person that I started screwing around in Spanish. And I kind of joined in. And I didn't speak best Spanish either. But he loved it. He loved my personality. He was like, where'd you come back? So that kind of found me. Then one day out of doing makeup, I had my daughter. I had to figure out a way to provide. And I needed to make more money. So there was a sense of how am I going to provide? And that's where the entrepreneurial side started building. My dad says, you know, hey, you're in the makeup business. You're in the radio. You have all these connections to promoting yourself. What else can you offer? You know, what services can you offer? What can you create? I created a makeup line. And as that, you know, came up, money came up. Okay, well, you need money to make, make, you know, make more business and, you know, make more money come your way. So when you don't have it, you got to be smart with it. So I didn't have money to pay models. So everybody kind of told me you have a beautiful face, but you're too fat. Well, the photographer says, well, it's going to cost me just to get a couple of models. I'm going to cost me a couple thousand dollars just to start. And I'm like, oh, my God, I do that. I don't have the money. I don't have that kind of money either by the product or by the models. So he says, do the makeup on your face? And I'll take pictures of your face. Nobody has to know, you know, I don't have to take pictures of the rest of your body, just your face. And when that happened, my picture went viral. My picture went viral because someone posted the picture of my face. And I've always had a thinner face. I've had a big body and a thinner face. That's just the structure of the way. I've always looked within in the face. Never, never have I looked full. My pictures went viral. I had the Miss America pageant reach out to me wanting for me, for me to join in. They did not know that I was, that I was heavy. That was the most like shocking moment when they actually wrote to me and invited me to be part of Miss America. And then I had agencies just like straight size agencies hitting me up saying, we want the model. We want you with us. And when that kind of blew my mind. And when I wrote to them, I'm like, hey, you know, I'm, they're like send us a picture of your full body. When I did, they're like, this is Photoshopped. And I'm like, horrible. I don't get it. It's Photoshopped. Like I told you it was a big girl. They're like, no, they photoshopped the big body on a small face or either that or you photoshopped the hell out of your face to make yourself look really thin. And then silence. So it found me through all of the searching and finding a way to provide for my family, my only family and the first time that I got to do it, I fell in love with it. So it's a crazy journey. How life works out. But I've learned the lesson there was, what is meant for you? Will be for you as long as you keep hustling and looking for opportunities. And as long as your colleagues are really said that it's not from a place of ego, from a place of love and really being able to provide for others, impact others, teach others. It's always about putting that energy out there. What is yours? We'll find you. And that found me. Hey, man, I love that. You're so full of positivity. We're going to talk about, you know, what you've done with with like your education and what you've done with Tony Robbins. And just like the life coach aspect that you're sort of work, that's part of like who you are now. But back then that wasn't really the thing. I'm sure you you had a lot of issues, you know, this like that's not that's and I when I first when I first started speaking, like you were just laughing, like I think that it's it seemed to me like when I brought up, you know, your your journey, there's a lot of things that you look back on. And it's and there's a lot of like, you know, holy shit moments like, you know, the the mindset that you had back then is so different from what you have now, which is understandable, right? Because you don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you're capable of and you don't know. You don't know, I guess what what you can do and how how you know how powerful and how successful you can be when everyone's telling you can't you can't you can't. And this is this is not really meant to be like, I mean, it's not really meant to be like like a motivational podcast by any means, but it's like your story is by definition a motivational story. It's like an upbringing story. And I and I love it. And I guess like how did you so so how did you develop this mindset? Because if I was getting told every day that oh, your face is good, but I send in the photo of my body and they're like, no, that's Photoshop. That is the most demoralizing like like just devastating thing I could think anybody could ever tell me that my actual body looks like it's Photoshop. Someone that's disgusting and somebody would ever say that. Well, not only that, just I mean, just okay. So just imagine so you're so you're doing in your passion, like you were interviewing these stories and just imagine like you were you've interviewed some amazing human beings that have their full of knowledge, love and power. And so just imagine like you are like you want you this is your dream, this is what you want to do the rest of your life and they just tell you hey, you're a shitty host and like and you keep getting that you're a shitty host, you're a shitty host, you're a shitty host, and you know what, we don't love the way that you talk and you just constantly get get that. Obviously that's going to bring you down, but then it comes to a point where you're like, well, I've heard that so many times either one, it's true or two, I'm just going to give up or three, they're not going to hit any more rock bottom. So I might as well like if I really love this, I'm going to think you're how to become better one, two, what, you know, who's doing what I love, you know, the best way possible. What did they do to get there? And then three, I'm so sick of hearing negativity that I need some positivity that I'm going to start feeding my spirit positivity. I'm going to understand that you're angry about something and you're giving me all that negative energy that even if you say that I'm a shitty host, hey, thanks for taking the time and telling me that, but I'm going to keep doing me while I get become better because, look, when I started hosting, when I started modeling, I could tell you the first couple times I did not do the best. It was a learning experience and I got pinches and I got looks and I got like, you know, who do this? This doesn't quite look too well or you know what, Rosie, you're speaking way too fast in English. It's not Spanish, low it down or what did you just say or why did you say that? I think we start off in a place as a novice and you get better and better and better with time experience and investment into yourself and to learning, into feeding your spirit and your soul and constantly listening to what people have to say, even if it's negative, you listen and say, okay, I don't like what I'm hearing, but let me see, how can I become better? And constantly just asking that question and even when it makes you cringe, not giving in because there's someone that I've broken down and cried and I'm like, all right, I'm going to cry. This really sucked at this really hurt. I feel like getting up. What if what they're saying is true? Well, I'm not going to let that become my truth. And even if I am a shitty model right now and you guys don't like it and I'm really fat, I'm going to keep going because I have to do this for me and not for you. What I've noticed too, and I'm seeing it with you as well. A lot of people that got through something, you can tell their moral fiber and their persona is so much stronger than somebody that never had to go through thing. I've noticed that time and time again. And now, like the conviction which you speak about, just really positive personality traits, that is something that is like core to your personality. That a lot of people don't experience that level of understanding of positivity and mindfulness. And I don't even know if it's manifestation, but just understanding the drive and the will that takes to get what you need if they had an easy road there. They don't seek that struggle. Yeah. And I've noticed that a lot that when things like when you put your tears and years of hard work and you get a lot of shit for it and you fight through that and there's this hunger that comes about wanting to get on the other side so bad. Not to prove, sometimes it is to prove other people wrong. You've got to be honest. Sometimes it is to prove people wrong. But I think most of the time it's about proving that's not going to be true. That is not who I am. I'm going to get better. I'm going to get on that other side. And along the way, because I've invested so much time, I refuse to give up because this is, I worked for this years. It's not been overnight. And when you invested that much time and energy money and thought, it is not something that I'm willing to let go. I'm not willing to let it go because number one, it makes me happy too. I love the transformation that I've gone through. The good and the bad because the bad has made me more compassionate and more connected. And the good has given me the moment to celebrate all the hard work and the sacrifices because you got to sacrifice one thing to get the other. And I'm thankful for the bad moments because it gives you that hunger. It gives you that it gives you that fire under your butt to keep going. It really does. And you do not want to hit rock bottom when you go through all that stuff. So very well said, very well said. Now let's keep going through through your career. So when was the point when you were actually after this whole issue with the face and the Photoshop and it wasn't Photoshop, what's next in your career? What's the next stage of your life? Well, the next stage was crazy. My picture went viral because they didn't understand how 420 pound woman could have a beautiful face that looked thin and didn't match the body. So it's like, okay, you're beautiful from the face. But how can you be big? So that was like everybody's kind of like shock back. So when my picture went viral, production company reached out to me and the show was called Kirby Girls and I got to be part of a reality show of, you know, they captured my journey and you know, figuring out am I going to lose weight and am I not going to lose weight? Do I really want to go into modeling, you know, how much do I want it and what the process was of finding myself through that? And that was the first opportunity into television. That was really the first opportunity to television. When I was in radio, it was great because I did bread carpets interviews. I had a lot, but I got to work with you in the vision. But it was always, you know, some camera work and everything. It always came easy because I came from radio. I learned to speak the Spanish, you know, Spanish properly and that helped. But to transition into the American market was a whole different animal. It was completely different. Demands are different. Having a cultural background between Mexican, your values are really shown and your values are really tested when you go into the industry. And you know, that's really been my experience. So I got Kirby Girls and my values were tested. My values were tested in the sense that if you take up all your clothes and you get on the cover magazine, you could go viral and get more work. And those are the kinds of things that came up, you know, as I was going through my career, do I do this to get to the next side? Is that the easy way out? Is that really who I stand for? Do I have an issue? I don't care what anybody else, but do I have an issue? And then the next question is how my kids view it 10 years from now? What will they have to say? And is this the way that I want to work for my careers? This is how I want to get to the next level. So it was really Kirby Girls that set the tone of, where do I want to go? What do I want to do? And how do I want to do it? And from there, that's where everything took off. I started, you know, getting, you know, on Fox, I got a different, you know, red carpets, you know, American red carpets and being able to do correspondents work and figure out stories. What kind of stories do I like? You know, I love transformation. You know, I got to kind of figure out and develop where exactly I wanted to land and keep knocking outdoors and try different things to figure out, you know, what I absolutely loved. And that brought me to where I am now. Now it was, it was radio modeling, you know, television and Spanish television, doing the crossover into reality shows. And then from reality shows, correspondents work in the American market and then from there, you know, finding myself, developing myself and going into life coaching. So, so speak to me, speak to me about life coaching because what was, what was the purpose when you went into life coaching? Was it more of a personal journey or was this something that you took on and you said purposefully, I want to help other people because I went through a ton of stress in my life and I don't want other people to have to deal with that. What was that portion of your life? So, so life coaching for me really came from the sense that I, I have a lot of issues. I need to figure my shit out. I really do. I went through a lot of shit and I'm not saying that I'm perfect by means like they're by by no means in my perfect. I'm a human being constantly choosing to work on me. I have ups and downs emotionally. There's a lot of triggers that I deal with and you know, I think and the thing is I've got to point where I can acknowledge that and that's what this is helping me with. Life coaching came to me about wanting to figure out why do I think the way that I think, why do I do what I do, why do I react the way that I act, you know, and and being able to figure that out and getting to, you know, get understanding my purpose, my goals in every area of my life house that can impact my kids and wanting to be a better human being not only for myself but for my kids because monkeys seem like you do. Like my kids are going to do everything that that they see me do not what I tell them to do. So that for me was my biggest drive and when I started figuring out that and I started feeling better myself, it seems it seems like the law of attraction comes into place. Your energy starts changing and you start attracting as much as you attract the light you attract the darkness and I just started running into different human beings that had struggled and had gone through whether it was failed relationships, divorce, infidelity, weight loss, weight gain, motherhood, you know, going through, you know, parenting as a single parent, parenting, you know, being married and then trying to figure yourself as a mother, as an entrepreneur, as someone that's seeking your life goals and then as a parent and being able to balance all that, the chaos about that and connecting with all these people, it just showed me that I had gone through so much but at the same time I felt like it was my responsibility to pay up orders. I became better. Who can I help along the way? Because I know that those are blessings that I am, you know, helping other people that, if those blessings don't come back to me, someone will be able to help my kids if I'm not around and I think that was the biggest purpose of leaving my imprint in this world before I go. I want to and I appreciate that and I guess that's where where you're at now when you, you know, now you have a brand, you have, you have like a certification in life coaching. It's the best way I can put it from from the man himself from Tony Robbins who basically has done his entire career and I guess he he runs a course now that teaches this and it's all about, you know, helping others. You said marginalized, transforming societal norms and that all and so that all are valued and all are accepted. Now now let me understand what prompted you because you you've now come to terms with who you are as a person. You you're sort of taking these steps to to understand a little bit more about who you are but then you've also gone on this incredible weight loss journey for, you know, you've lost the probable. It says, you know, I'm reading this by as a 240 pounds but obviously I'm sure more than that. If you are you're originally a 400 plus that's insane. That's an incredible achievement but thank you. That's an incredible achievement and it's very very difficult but what how do you how do you work with people who aren't able to or maybe aren't ready to lose that amount of weight because that's also a big deal for people that don't lose the 200 or the 200 plus pound and they and they stay a certain size for their for their entire life but you still have to keep those people feeling like they can they can stay as as they are or is there a point where it's no longer healthy and that's what I'm trying to understand like I think that the the modeling a plus size modeling and all that is a very beneficial thing because I think there's a lot of negativity. I think social media is very bad for mental health but I'm wondering is there is there a threshold that isn't healthy anymore? I think that threshold is it's not in a number because I was 420 pounds and yes I felt tired but did I have high blood for sure you know that's all debatable there's a lot of stuff so through my journey what I've learned is that if you are investing time into working out, investing time into feed your spiritual, your psychological, your emotional you know well-being you are going in the right direction and things will transform on it's no not with the purpose that I have to look at I have to be I have to be 160 pounds at a size 8 or 10 and my body you know my waist has to be a 34 inch waist with a 40 inch hip like I'm not way past that because first of all I'm never going to be that that is not the structure of my body that is for me to maintain that weight the smallest that I got was 175 pounds and it was such a huge struggle for me and I think I've never talked about this this is the first of them to talk about it it was such a huge struggle for me to maintain that that at the end of the day it was basically to be able to stay at 175 I had to be on a liquid diet make sure that I had no bread no carbs and when you don't have any of that stuff at all and you are only on liquids not only are you going to feel weak you're going to feel moody it's going to mess with your mind and I that was a process that I had to go through I was like yes I'm 175 pounds this is the smallest I've ever been yay but I still got fast of having big hips that I was still fat um that why did I get a tummy tuck why did I lose the weight um I still hadn't lost enough weight and that was a big lesson to me it was am I doing this to make other people happy and to fit in or am I doing this because I'm sincerely happy and was this number really you know what did this number teach me so the lesson there was regardless of where you are in your life bigger small people always criticize you health is a state of mind and a state of well-being how much are you investing into your well-being in your state of mind it does not come to a number because I know people who are 250 pounds are completely healthy they don't have any problems they're exercising and that's just where they're at and you know they take care of themselves they're happy they're energetic they can run they do all these things and I know people who are 250 pounds who have a whole bunch of health problems and that is your body telling you this is not healthy it's not society telling you it's your own body saying you have high blood pressure hello first time you got to take care of me you know what you're getting dizzyness hello you got to take care of me hey you know what you're dehydrated you know hello I need water so I think it's about listening to your own body and and really understanding what health needs to you what are you going to obtain from it what are you going to invest in it and understanding that not everybody wants to be a size zero and understanding that not everybody wants to be close eyes it's finding the balance of who you are what you want and what do you want to stand for what your values are I love that message it's very important and I wish that more people would realize this and I 100% blame social media you could see a running theme with my issues of social media for for painting this unhealthy picture I just I thought it was just interesting because I saw the article like where Adele she lost a ton of weight and then she was getting she was getting hated on for losing my yeah I think and I didn't understand when Adele lost a lot of weight and I'm like first of all I understand what Adele went through because I got bashed like I got hate mail for losing weight that and that and it's something when I got hate when I was like hold on and they're like you're a salad you sold out to Hollywood I'm like first of all like my purpose was I couldn't like I yes I didn't have any health problems but I have physical problems I could not keep up with my children I couldn't get in writing I couldn't fit in certain places that is an issue that is my body saying hey hello you need to do something about this in the moment that you feel like you're constantly in jail in your own body that's an issue but her getting a whole bunch of stuff like I understand people's concerns but I think her mind to lose that much weight that's her own personal decision and if that's where she is happy with her body and her mind and her soul then you know it congrats to her for being bold and doing that if she did that for her wonderful if she didn't do it and that's her own personal journey if she didn't do it and she did it because either she was pressured or she had to fit in then she's going to learn from that that'll be a different journey that'll teach her a lot about her own happiness as I learned from my own for me being 200 pounds and being curvy and being able to run on the treadmill and being able to exercise for me it's like hey that's my happiness like I feel good at that weight and people will still will still look at me and say hey you're too fat you gotta lose weight yeah I find that there's just so much there's so much negativity like you mentioned before you you nailed it like both ways like if you're if you're if you're if you prepare yourself as one way no one's gonna be happy if you change still no one's gonna be happier the original group's not gonna be happier like no one's ever happy especially when you're in the public eye no there's always something that there and I think being it and that's what I've learned about the being in the public life there's someone always looking and it's depending on how they feel is how they're going to criticize you or either uplift you if they're having a shitty day they're gonna look at you and see everything that's wrong if they're having a fantastic day they're gonna uplift you so I just learned that look my job is to be happy to make myself happy to make myself healthy and then I will radiate that to my kids and I will be a mirror to my kids and when I'm in good health and good emotions and understanding that I'm walking in gratitude that's going to be a reflection to attract the moment that I'm not healthy I'm gonna start pushing away stuff I'm gonna be able to do things I'm not gonna feel like wanting to do things and it's gonna it's gonna be it showed through my attitude and then it's going to impact my kids and everything else that I do now what how do you how do you take that mindset that you have and as as a life coach is this something that you learned because I don't know how to do this I'm really curious if you know how to do this effectively how do you take that mindset and you impart it on somebody who is way more impressionable and way younger so that they can have that same level of confidence with you you know what I've learned and that's such a great question you cannot force anybody to love you you cannot force anybody to change you cannot force anybody to want what they want they could tell you that they want something but if they really want something bad enough they will be open arms open ears open mind and they will be receptive to the wisdom or to the experiences that you have to offer and just like you right now you are receptive you're open you are hungry you're wanting to learn so if you are like on this path of not only impacting and empowering others but at the same time you're going through growth yourself because just talking to different people to try to understand and learn you're hungry you're wanting that information you're wanting to learn and run with that information not just want it because everybody could give you the solution and the equation on how to solve the problem but if you don't want to do the work the problem will not be solved so what I've learned is to really understand as I'm working with different people in the life coaching is how bad do they want it and is that what they really want because sometimes they say that they want it but that's what their family wants that's what their friends want that's what the husband and wife wants that's what their kids want for them but that's not what they want and I've learned that that wisdom will not be received well if genuinely at their heart they're not willing to change and you have to have that honest talk you're not willing to do the work there will be no change and and I'm going through some of the things that like you're working on and and I don't mind I don't mind bringing them up I appreciate your time so you know you have you have a book uh the girl with the self-esteem issues that is coming out October 13th 2020 you have a podcast launching as well I think coming up this is it all around the same same topic so self-esteem life coaching like love yourself it just really really kind of positivity in these I'm assuming well you know what it's going to be about everything it's going to be about infidelity and marriages and sex and parenting and it's going to be about you know health and losing weight and gaining weight it's going to be about finances it's going to be about kids um I'm talking about every area of my life um and I'm an open book and I am curious and and I have so much hunger to learn um so I am you know I've been so blessed with with this book because not only has been therapeutic but it has also taught me a lot about why I did a lot of things that I did in the past and how if we come in better at understanding triggers and then also celebrating my victories because that's something I had to learn to do also because I was so much you know being being Latina I was proud you work work work work work work but never did I get to celebrate so many victories so many things that I've accomplished and being able to celebrate those momentary parts to keep going to have that energy but we're going to be talking about lots of things you know from the book um you know I think there's just so many I was single for so many years and then you know being married and now having a new baby and and training to motherhood at this age and and just learning about learning about how everything just comes together and being able to part that was it but also receive new wisdom from other people that are just doing amazing things so for me the podcast and the book is about creating an impact educating being able to connect having compassion and understanding that every human being goes through ups and goes through lots of downs and a lot of crazy shit that happens in life and it's about teaching people how to get through that crazy shit you know not about not around it getting through the crazy shit and understanding and what are what what is you know um the life coaching business is is a lot of people sharing like their darkest moments what are what are things that you see um obviously without naming names of course but what are what are really uh horrible things that people are trying to deal with in in 2020 because I think I'm I never grew up in this kind of age when in this so you know so connected always seeing things that seem better seem you know our different lives that are better people that are in quote unquote better shape all on social and and just as a kid I'm curious what do they come to you with what are some of the problems that they're they're seeing and and what is the reality of a kid or or somebody who's just stressed or struggling in 2020 2020 um I think the biggest thing that I have seen um and it's been something that I've seen repetitively um it's quite it's quite crazy how much of this comes up and I went through this personally so I was able to like I'm able to look at them like go to the court and the court is loving connection number one feeling loved and appreciated and being it feeling so disconnected from the world right now and people want a place of belonging they want love in their life whether it's through family or through friends or through that personal love connection but also feeling feeling like trying to find a sense of purpose through all of this you know feeling lost kind of like I you know I'm at this point I'm like I don't know what I want I don't know what I'm doing I don't know where I'm going I feel like I lost myself a sense of what you know feeling lost and I've just seen that houses so feeling lost loving connection I think I think there's so many factors that play into that just because you think about like man like the social stuff like even like COVID like my god kids that are graduating this year like job prospects there's a whole bunch of like employment stats like lack of employment plus on top of lack of employment just people changing jobs every year like there's so much uncertainty like you know you saying like I don't know how I'm gonna have kids like it's gonna be stressful for me because I don't have kids yet well I have a baby that I just had a month ago so yeah I know congratulations by the way yeah thank you having been in the hospital and seeing how much of a go how crazy it is to go in one at a time it was me first and then I had to get changed and get ready for my C-section and then then they let my husband go up but then having this worry okay you know it's everything's expected like it is everything okay with the nurses you can't have people visiting everything via face time everybody's meeting your baby there's not like this personal contact you know it what I'm thankful that they let me have my husband there but I do want to say as as much as people are saying you know that that COVID and it's crazy times I just want to offer a little bit of light and for those that are watching I think everything in life presents a great opportunity and as bad and horrifying as not only COVID but the racism and everything that you know is going on right now you know whether it's politics whether whether it's it's a held everything like this is such a crazy time because everything is getting shifted left and right we're in this transformation and I think a lot of people are waking up and they're getting it tuned and they're understanding the important of connection and respect and love and the importance of health and valuing family and valuing friends but this also presents a great time that even though everything is happening it presents a time to be able to educate yourself to become better as a human being and it presents a time where you can invest in yourself because all this time that people had for quarantine it's either you did nothing you were frustrated or you dealt with your frustration you forced you to look inward it forced you to look at the family that you're living with what's missing what can you do better and it also forced you to think quickly what am I going to do to provide what am I going to do to step up how can I educate myself what can I learn either I go to social media to look at what everybody's doing or I go to social media for a source of inspiration and to become better that's a great lesson I think that this is a great opportunity like you mentioned as portable as times are to just to just like upskill to learn to improve yourself and if there's one thing you know there's one thing that's it's one thing that's coming to light now is that is that everything you do every action you take everything you say everything you say even you think it's in private nothing's private anymore if you if you have views that are considered outdated that's what you put it about certain things I think now is a really good time not just on like the on the so unlike the like the job and the professional development but it's like personal development like you see people getting like just wrong out on social media for things they've done years ago and this is like a wake-up call because people people were it's not like people just became racist or people just became addictive they always were but now if you are it's very public and people will pick up on them so I think that you know it's just a time to think about who you are as a person and how you want to be represented to the world and don't like don't oh it's sorry go yeah and now I think you bring up such a great point you know I think so many people thought you know years ago they think they get away with so much and you need to understand that when you do something bad like you make a bad decision not because it's force upon you not because it's wish upon you this is just the way it is we pay for everything that we do good and bad before we die and that is passed on along to our kids we are teaching our kids right from wrong if we are acting stupid don't expect you know you don't don't expect anything good to come out of that if you are vocalizing hate don't expect it to not catch up to you eventually if you are showing love you know don't think that that's gonna be you know unseen I think everything is coming up to light and I think what's most important is this is a great time to understand who you are as a human being and your values and how your values have impacted you and where they're taking you and if you do not like what you have created the wonderful thing is you have an opportunity not only to apologize to step up to do something and make things right and also create impact and really take action in that part and I think this is what it's taught us it's taught us to be able to look at other people who have done stupid things who you know who regret what they've done but also to give them the opportunity to change things around and if they don't change they're gonna pay the price unfortunately that's just the way it is and that's a really good point though but I really wish what I wish though wasn't people do like when people do try and change I hate cancel culture I hate it hate it hate it I hate cancel culture because I hate that it brings up things that maybe people haven't changed but it brings up things that happened 10 years ago 15 years ago when people were much younger and it it it vilifies them now and I guess I just wish that for the same for the same opportunity for those people that did bad and if they are still bad people if they are if they are still very hateful people then maybe they deserve it but I do believe that there's an opportunity to grow or maybe I guess it's just like a process I don't know it just seems like a very angry culture when people discover anything about anyone I don't like that yeah it just it seems like they feed on that and they want to tear other people down and and that's where I come away and I say like you know even if you did it 10 years ago it shows you a side that you know hopefully you no longer are you learned from that but if you haven't learned that's the only thing that I do that I just do that if you haven't learned from that then you know it gives you an opportunity to kind of wake up and see and and also like speak up about it I just I don't know it's just so hard like it's so hard everybody's going through so much and I just all I know is at the end of the day this is a great opportunity of growth to pay it forward to take action to use your voice because if you think your voice doesn't matter you are wrong your voice has so much power it takes one person to really send up and create change and and to get things going you know one post could go viral in a second whether they're bad it there it holds a lot of power right now so we hold a lot more power than we think very well said um I'm going to ask a couple quick rapid fire like life insight lesson questions that you've learned but before I do that I just wanted to ask is there anything that we didn't touch on that you wanted to speak about or you wanted to bring up no I love talking to you you have such you have such great great great question thank you I appreciate you have really good questions I love that I just I'm curious that's it when I do my podcast it's like that's a good question like I that's I want to go that way so thank you for the inspiration no it's my pleasure I just you know for this like I'm not I'm not like a trained broadcaster like I just I I just asked questions that I want to know the answer to you I just I'm curious that's that's a great thing you're authentic and you're real and you're curious and I think that's that's what's the it's not about training it's about just the passion behind it so I believe that 100 for that thank you that's really really kind I appreciate that um okay so let's let's do some some rapid fire so one question I like to ask everyone is one life lesson that you would tell your younger self don't listen to the negativity that people offer just don't make other people stories your own don't because you lose so many opportunities and it because it creates so much personal pain let it go people tell you something you don't like feel what you got to feel in that moment let it go send love and keep doing you turn that turn that story around and always the third we are on powerful I'm loved I'm gifted I have favor and graced and you know what the best is yet to come I love it I love it that's good lesson um and that was so quick to even think about that some people take a second to think you were like that was like like you were good to go I think you I've got so much shit for everything that I just learned like all right this really suck I don't like what you have to say I'm gonna cry for like a minute and then I'm gonna like that hurt let it go I Rosie who are you remind yourself who you are get together girl that's real yeah I appreciate that all right um last last question before I just get some some contact info out of you so people can go check you out and go find more about who you are but I want to ask one more um what would be a source it could be a book a podcast an audible a person something that you go to to learn from that other people should go check out oh god what do I learn from constantly um I can name you know a couple you know a couple books that I've read um but when I really want to learn and I think it's different for everybody and I respect everybody's opinion on this but this is my personal um I I pray I honestly I go to prayer and I ask for guidance I ask for guidance and I ask for growth and it's always revealed to me within within days within months like some won't you all have a mentor and for me it's about listening to people that have gone through bigger experiences that I have you have Michael Beckwith you have Jay Shetty you have Lewis Tows you have Tony Robbins Gary Oprah Winfrey you have so many inspirational leaders out there but first before I go about anything and I'm going through a hardship I always go into prayer and meditation and that for me is the number one step um to obtain like knowledge and and empowerment because I feel like I'm guided I really feel like I'm guided to find those answers and the people that I need and the podcast that I need and the books that I need um are revealed to me somehow some way it is revealed to me so for me before I do anything power of prayer I love that um so that's that's too good point so not only not only just like finding that inner peace prayer whatever that looks like for whoever because I know a lot of people pray in different ways but also like prayer whatever you want to call it yeah but also the mentorship piece is also very important and you hear that time and time again but you can't drive it home enough like the mentorship is so huge why because why do you want to recreate the wheel like someone's already doing it um I want I want someone what they're doing how did you do it and and it's just like you it's about me curious and ask the questions but okay with so many inspiration there's so many you're an inspiration like there's so many inspirations out there that have to obtain knowledge you know I'm I'm starting my podcast I want to come to you how did you start your podcast I'll tell you I'll I'll give you a rundown like right from the beginning all the all the stuff that I went through yeah this and that's and that's what people people find themselves stuck when they're like well I don't even know how to start so what that I'm not even going to start I just feel stuck and then you get this frustration well I don't have what I want I'm not getting this okay so what are you doing well I don't know how to do it okay but who's done it that's a good question let me figure it out hold on before I do that all right I need to meditate who's done it what do I want I need answers help like just angels help me God help me you know whatever it is for you just help guide me and it seems like someone will come and like did you listen to this podcast or someone will say hey I want you to meet this friend he's done very well in this business he can offer you some advice I know you have some questions something will be revealed to you but you must seek it and you have to have an open mind for it too because if you don't have an open mind for you even if it even if it's in your face you won't you won't see it um I I want to just like you know hard work hard work yeah I shall I'll give you you know I don't want to drag this out because I was a really good point I don't take away from it but at that like a data point on that like if you don't if you're not looking for it you won't see it like there are actual actually like psychological studies done that if you can't see yourself driving for example like some like luxury car I say it porch or whatever you want to you you think porch is like a nice luxury car but you can't see yourself in it you can't see you making up money for it you will actually not see it when a porch goes down the street like you will be less tuned in to seeing porches go by because you don't see yourself in that car whereas if you're always thinking about it always tuned into it you'll actually notice them more often but it's not because there's more of them on the road it's because now you are actually you wake up in mind you're awake to the opportunity it just that silly a silly and you've probably seen that before where or you felt it where you've thought about something and all of a sudden it like you've seen it whatever that thing is like in your life or in in your in your circle or whatever it is like a week later or a couple days later yeah absolutely it's definitely it's definitely happened I know that like when Tesla like for example this is a crazy example but when Tesla first came out I said I want a Tesla I want a Tesla I want a Tesla and and I didn't really see too many of the model the model X is out I just didn't and then all the sudden it's like you get that you get to that point where you're like you manifest that or you manifest an opportunity in that job and then you're like oh there it is there everywhere everywhere because you become awake to it so that's so fun and you mentioned that is so so true and I wish people it's like color red the color red don't think about the color red the first thing you think about is the color red and you see it everywhere yeah well actually that's not my lesson so I actually interviewed Joe Vitale from he was in he was famously made he was made famous excuse me by the movie The Secret and and I thought he's you know he's an incredible individual but he actually told me that lesson it was I think it was I think it was him if I remember correct I have to go back on this in my own podcast was once ago but I think I got it from him but it was it was eye-opening for me to think about it in that in that light question for you yeah so you've interviewed some amazing human like human beings like just some like I look at some of the people that you you you connected with and because you've elevated yourself to that energetic level to be able to attract that into your life um and you've obviously prepped for that but what is the biggest lesson that you've learned interviewing someone like what is there a commonality is there's something that just keeps popping up for you that you've learned interviewing all these people I would say um it depends on on what lesson I'm trying to pull out but yes definitely like in terms of in terms of success um the two drivers would be curiosity and grit so just dealing and just sort of pushing ahead no matter how much negativity or or just you know shit you have to go through but also curiosity and and always trying to find new ways to do things I'd say it's an entrepreneur that's probably the two most successful traits um in terms of just personality or um maybe like in a humble you're like oh my god like I would say self-aware very very self-aware of of their own faults like like like painfully self-aware of of all the things that are wrong with them and and okay verbalizing it like they'll tell you I screw up here I'm not good at this this was a low point in my life you know I was homeless here I I got fired here because of this and that's what prompted me to understand what I had to do to to be better and like those those self-aware moments I think are super super key anybody who is successful I'm I'm almost that's a trend that I've seen across literally everyone I'm like so the people that I've spoken to that are I I don't like to name names some people do have like more more of a following but everyone I've spoken to is incredible but there's some people to have like a little bit more notoriety so like the guy Kawasaki uh grand cardone uh Anthony Scaremochi um I don't blew my mind I just have to say blew my mind yeah yeah so it's very no matter what and they're all different industries right they're all different and in what they do like guy Kawasaki is was what time marketing for Apple then now he does some suffer canva and a couple other you know brand sponsorships Anthony Scaremochi director of communications and then um now he's now he runs his own investment firm in grand cardone is like sales guy turn influencer turn you know he has like a couple billion assets under management as a retail a real estate investor so all very like some differences some similarities like all very successful individuals but it's that self-awareness and I'd say curiosity and grit are things that they all have that would be that would be huge and that's something that I definitely see and not just in the names like I can I can name other people who if you if you aren't in like for example the Silicon Valley San Francisco texting you're not going to know these people because there's CEOs of companies but it's the same it's the same and these are all like you know multi-million dollar billion dollar uh like software SaaS startups it's all the same personality create for sure that's interesting wow well thank you so much for the afternoon this is this has been amazing thank you so much like for an academic question it's always a curiosity of mine to like figure out what people's at home is especially being you know going into the podcast world and to the you've been doing it and just everything that you've created in the people that you've connected to so it's always I find that so intriguing always because there's always like you interview these people that you're like oh my god you got to interview this person what did you learn that from me it's like what did you learn give me that give me the sauce I've also you know when I started this I didn't mean to I didn't mean to start um a podcast that was when I first started this podcast I meant to start a podcast or I might spoke but it was focused on on my background which was sales and marketing like I my whole career was in sales and marketing and I was speaking to a lot of executives and it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it um but I found that the way I learned is to learn from leaders not learn from leaders only in the thing that I'm doing so when I listen to people I listen to like very you know influential politician I listen to world leaders religious leaders um it could be in arts it could be in finance and all again you see all these people have similar traits so that's how I learned so what I wanted to do with this podcast is I pivoted I moved it from just focusing on sales and marketing executive CEOs because I had no reason to ever start something like I never wanted to be like a consultant I guess that's kind of what you do when you do like a very niche down um podcast so just open it up I opened it up to speak to credible people with incredible stories sort of pulling out their playbook and like their insights and their life lessons from whatever you know whatever they've experienced and then you start to see those commonalities and those trends across people of different industries and that's what I think is super powerful for somebody who's earlier on in their career it could be somebody in a company it could be somebody trying to start their own business it could be somebody who just wants to sort of expand their their mind and like learn from the best and the brightest across a couple different industries that's really what I wanted to be and that's what it is right now so you know I speak to yourself who has you know you've done modeling you've done broadcast now you you're doing your own branding you're building out your own persona you're building out a life coaching business but I've also spoken to like again like you know Grand Cardone I don't think has a very similar origin story to yourself but he uh he still has a lot of really interesting lessons that I hope that you can learn from some lessons from yourself some lessons from him and some lessons from all the others so everybody had every human being has something to offer that's the most beautiful thing sometimes it's in not seeing our own value and our own potential that we choose not to share our stories and we you you was out of not doing sales so everything has something to offer and you know what thank you I appreciate it's really kind to you and I'll tell you something too I'll tell you one more thing and and as a marketer you know I've worked in various like executive roles running marketing and sales organizations and as a marketer the number one piece of advice I'd give anybody if they want to build out a company brand or a personal brand is just speak your truth speak who you are speak what you're dealing with if you are if you are uh you know a dog walker and all you do for your entire career you know you're an entrepreneur your dog walker speak about all the things you deal with while building out a dog walking business because somebody else is going to be trying to learn how to do that and that's your tribe and that's who you want to you want to build that audience and that's that's marketing 101 you want to build an audience want to build a tribe right and if you speak about your truth there's going to be somebody who wants to listen to it but but some of people have this like apprehension towards speaking about who they are and I don't really know why I guess it's I guess it's I guess it's a little stressful to put yourself out there but if you do you'll find your tribe and I think that's a really really important lesson because in 2020 age of social media yeah if you don't if you don't have a brand you don't have anything even as an individual you have to have some sort of brand because you already have a brand but if you don't put out content you don't have control over your brand people are going to just assume yeah and I think to your point that people are afraid to speak their truth and what I've noticed and what I've learned about that is people are afraid to speak their truth for the fear of criticism for the fear of being accepted for the fear of being disconnected the fear of not being seen as perfection or you know they they have this this this personality that the point is put it out there it is so relaxing to just walk in and own your shit and just say this is who I am I have nothing to hide and you want to ask me something you know right or wrong I'll answer the question and just know that I'm here learning along the way with you I love it we're okay so wait I you know I I hijacked the last part of that that wasn't cool you shouldn't you shouldn't have done that I like talking too much that's your own fault um but I want I want to get it's all good it's all about learning and I got my own curiosity's too damn and I have to ask my questions okay well next time I'll go on I'll go on your show I want to have you one all right deal deal um I need to know uh where do people go to find out more about you uh your website your social yeah simple rosymercato.com and you can find me on fit on uh Facebook on Instagram on Twitter rosymercato super simple and if you want to count and DM me and you have any questions I'm here to help and I hope that when you do have a chance you're looking for personal you know transformation and growth a little bit of inspiration a good kick in the ass make sure pick up the girl with the self-esteem issues launching up over 13 big thanks to Harper Collins and the whole team and and also to my family at Himalaya with the podcasts that's coming up and I hope to have you on on the podcast podcast with me but there's a lot that we we could talk about yeah yeah no I'll do it I'm pretty sure I'll do it that's that's awesome thank you so much that's all for today thanks again for joining me on another episode of the success story podcast you can download or stream this podcast wherever podcasts are available including iTunes Spotify Google Stitcher I Heart Radio and many others you can also watch this podcast on YouTube if you haven't already please subscribe and share this podcast with your friends family co-workers and peers please leave us a rating on iTunes it takes about 30 seconds as it allows other people to find our podcast and let's our amazing guests reach even more people with their message and remember any rating is fine as long as it contains five stars I'm Scott Clary from the success story podcast signing off