PURSUING PURPOSE WITH TERESA MITCHELL

Christina: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of I Am Christina DiArcangelo. And today with me, I have one of my favorite guests on Teresa Mitchell. Here to talk to me all about fashion and all the wonderful things that she is working on. Welcome, Teresa.

Teresa: Hi. I'm glad to be here. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Christina: So do you want to give a little bit of background to everyone who's listening or viewing all of our wonderful listeners and viewers about who you are and what you're doing currently.

Teresa: Okay. So I've been doing art my entire life. I took about ten years of summer camp classes at PAPA, and through that, I realized that I really wanted to go into fashion design. It all really started when I was young and I saw a movie, and my mom was like, you know, you can do that. And it never left my mind. So when it came to high school and then college, I was like, I'm going to do fashion design. It's what I love, and I believe that I have ideas that I should be putting out there that could change the world. So that's what I'm currently doing. It hasn't been without struggle. But honestly, to where I am now and the things that I'm about to do, such as I am going on my immersion trip, which is going to be like every Friday in the fall this semester, to New York to work with fashion companies and immerse myself within my major and working with Sparkle Sisters. So. yeah.

Christina: That's so awesome. Do you want to tell everyone where you go to school so that they understand the university that you're suited with.

Teresa: I'm currently taking classes at Thomas Jefferson University. I'm going into my second year, so my sophomore year, and this is the year where things really start to pick up, so I'm expecting a busy school year.

Christina: That's so awesome. I just wanted the listeners and viewers to understand that you're local to Philadelphia, you're born and bred, so to speak, and you're going to school at TJU. I call them TJU because I've been working with them on the clinical research side for a number of years because they do clinical research as well as they're one of our leading universities and academic centers in Pennsylvania. We're very proud that you're with TJU because I've worked with TJU over the years, and I've worked with people who have gone to school there, and I've seen the talent that comes out of TJU so I'm excited to see where you end up. I know it's going to be somewhere magnificent because just working with you in the short period of time that I have been doing so far through the ambassador side of Sparkle Sisters, it's been such a pleasure to watch your genius as you start talking about creatives. Because that's the part of what I do that I love the most. I mean, don't tell the clinical research side or the AI tech side of my company or the patient advocacy side. I really love the creativeness that you bring to the table, and we were even working on a project. You're helping Affinity Patient Advocacy with the big we're doing that big event in Miami November 4th. The listeners and viewers have been hearing me talk about it intermittently, but Teresa is working on something special that will only be released at that event. There's actually three things we can't get into too much of it yet because we want it to be a surprise, but there's three different things that she is working on that are apparel related that is going to showcase some of her fashion design as it relates to the nonprofit Affinity Patient Advocacy.

Teresa: Yeah, I'm really excited to be working on it because it was just something that kind of came up in conversation for us because I was like, I feel like I should be also offering some of my education and my background in fashion design to you. And then we just kind of start talking, and then we talked about what it is that I'm working on. The designs. When I was working on them, I did take a real good look at the website and get to understand what the brand was about. And it really sits deep within my heart because I grew up with grandma who could have really used something like this. So I want to be there and have the charity stand out. So I really hope that when my designs come out and you see them, that you also feel that love and that passion.

Christina: Thank you so much for talking about that a little bit, because you're right. When you're working as a creative, I feel like you have to be able to kind of head and heart the approach. Right? It's not just about your head. It's also about your heart and how the project impacts your heart. And with APA, hands down, we help patients feel better. We help provide a voice when they need it the most. Right? And, you know, just from the short period of time that we've been talking together and working together, you're tapped into the entire enterprise of all the companies. Because what Sparkle Sisters does is connected to Christina DiArcangelo is connected to the patient side, which is APA and then all the way down suit. And I think that also launching the superhero that came out, Christina DiArcangelo right at my birthday. I think we're going to be able to do a lot of creative stuff with the superhero whether it's fashion based or even things that we do with Sparkle Sisters and having the tech side hooked in, because that's who developed our website, and they did an amazing job with the gold sparkles and the rotation of the lashes. This website is really I'm very impressed with it, and that was through SAPTM. So you guys get that opportunity when you work in one of the companies to have the interaction with all the other companies and really learn even tech stuff, right? Which normally you wouldn't have access to in the fashion side because you design, you hand it off and they do what they do with it. But what I try to do is keep you involved so you learn those things as they're relatable to what you're trying to do. So you're getting the business acclimate that you might not get if you're in college. I'm not putting TJU down. I mean listen, what I went to college for I use a little bit of all three of the degrees. A lot of the things I learned on the fly by having mentors.

Teresa: Right. And I think that having mentors part is a really big thing about it, especially having people that don't just keep you where you're learning, they take you to other places and other opportunities of where you can become your best self. Because, to be completely honest, I love fashion design, but I cannot solely just sit in a little box and just design clothes. I have to know how to do other things, especially if I'm expecting to design for another company in the future or to have my own brand. So it's really been eye opening and such a great opportunity to work with you. Well, the bonus is also that you're a great person and I enjoy talking to you. So it's been great.

Christina: Thank you, guys. I didn't pay her to say this, any of this. I wasn't even expecting this. You know how we roll, we talk about our guests. And I appreciate you saying that because it's almost like you're a niece. You know to me because I'm a little bit older than you are. But that's kind of how I view, because you know how we are across all these companies. It's a family feeling. It's like you're in the fold and so like even Lijil, right? You got to interact with Lijil a little bit. Who's our web designer for Sparkle Sisters and APA he did the APA website which you know, obviously what he designed worked for you to really understand what APA is about. And you felt like, oh, wow, I get it now. Now I understand. Right? That's why we do these things the way we do them is because that type of organization is more of a heart centered, hey, look it, this is what happens to patients right there in your face when you click on the website, which so happens to be my brother. So I think it's pretty cool. Thank you for saying that. But I think it's pretty cool how we all get along like a family. It's really something I strive for us to be involved with because I don't want people to feel like oh well, Teresa's just Sparkle Sisters and CD say and APA, right? Because you're working on this cool project with us, which you'll continue to work on cool projects with us that you would like to work on. You know, this isn't the one shop done thing. As a matter of fact, you know when we were talking about we have something big coming out for the superhero that Teresa and I were talking about before we can't really talk about yet. But I'm excited. We'll probably shoot a podcast just about the superhero at some point and we'll release the thing that we're working on. But I was thinking, like when we were talking about that there's an opportunity for you there as well to work with those people that worked on this other project because they will also need fashion, especially the lead person. So I can't get too much into it, guys. But it's a teaser and it's the truth. It's going to happen because CD doesn't lie. I say what I mean. And sometimes it could be people are like, damn, but the truth is what it is, right? So I think that your visionary and your ability to really think about things and see things so clearly. And I think that when people leave you alone and you can really think things through, you really produce. I can't wait to see what you're doing when you go to New York on Fridays. I can't wait to hear about it because I'm also going to learn from you, right? Because I don't have this skill set. I like fashion, obviously. I mean, come on. I don't know what you know and what you're going to know and where you're going to go. And I'm really excited. And then also for some of the introductions that I can make you know now I think you're ready for meeting my Auntie Nanas over there in L.A. Because you're at a point where you're okay, I can breathe again because I finished all my internships from the summer. Now I could talk to somebody else.

Teresa: Yeah. And all of that just coming together in a really great way because we haven't only just connected when it comes to the brands and the business part. We've also connected in other ways when it comes to our lives and all the other things and other crazy details about our lives. And another thing that I noticed while you were talking, I was like, oh, wait, that makes so much like because when I was looking at the APA website, it really made me feel like I was like, the colors are calming. And if I was a patient going to the website, I'd be like, oh, this is going to work out for me. It's going to be okay. But when I go to Sparkle Sisters, I feel energized. I have motivation. I want to be better. I want to advocate for myself. And so all of that is just perfect for who I am especially because I have my fashion side. It's very different from APA and Sparkle Sisters in a way. I like more grungy type fashion and I'm more of like the piercings and the weird haircuts and the loud hair color. So that's more me. I know we're not right now, but I had grape box braids not too long ago, and that's like me. So to have the opportunity to also work and find out what else I can do and where my creativity My creativity doesn't just stop at what I'm interested in, I can also make it something completely different and also make it a part of what I love. I think that's really.

Christina: The true acceptance, right? Because I love your creativity and I love that you have differences in fashion. I love that. One of the people I met actually, I thought about you when I met her on Saturday, face to face when we're working on that other thing for the superhero. She had green braided in her hair, bright green. And it made me think of you because I love that creative vision that a lot of the people I get to interact with now. I never got to do this before. Teresa, I always called myself the square bear corporate person, which I was never a square bear, clearly. You can tell by meeting me, I'm not square. I don't sit in a box. I come know, hey, I am Christina DiArcangelo I've always been that way. But, you know I've always been a corporate person. Right? Because that's what I chose to do when I first got out of college. And it's been an interesting switch. Like, once I launched CD and I didn't know where I was going to go with that, I just knew that I needed to help people feel better. Because I know that when I was achieving all these wonderful things professionally, I was dead inside. I was being abused. I was sick with the autoimmune diseases that came in in 2018. I was struggling with a lot of health issues and then a failed marriage, and I had deaths stack up. And it was a lot. It was a lot for me. And so I didn't know what I was going to do with this brand other than empower. Right? Because that I know how to do. I know how to do that in a corporate setting. I know how to do it in a patient setting, as you said yourself. And again, didn't pay her to say that. But CD is three years old now. It's three years old. And look what has happened in three years. There's been 80 some podcasts the e-magazine, the DiArc came out. There's been countless press. I rolled out Sparkle Sisters and put all the merchandise over there. And we're adding more merchandise and new things that we're working on. And we're working with people locally that want to carry the products now. And we had L.A., Alabama and New Orleans pick our press release up for Sparkle Sisters. So I did all this not intentionally. Right? And so you also I feel like we have a lot of commonality, like you alluded to earlier where there's a lot of things that make us the same. And I love that you said that because that is truly my premise for my brand. A podcast, the e-magazine, Sparkle Sisters, we want to create an online sisterhood with Sparkle Sisters. We want to pick people up because it's hard being women. It's hard. The challenges that we run against every day, especially a woman of color like yourself, things that you've gone through that you've talked to me about which were private I'm not going to bring them up here. Don't worry, don't worry. But I know because I have a biracial kid, right? And I'm Northern Italian and Sicilian. People assume I'm white. And if you look up the Italian culture, true Italian women don't like to be called caucasian because we don't feel as though we truly are caucasian. So because I'm light skinned, so to speak, people look at me as being white. And so, you know, I pay attention. So there's a lot there to unpack, I think, Teresa and I think that you are going to be one of those people that are going to be able to push this forward in a succinct pattern because you've seen a lot already in your life. You're going to continue to see things, especially when you go to New York. But these are all things that are going to make you unique and who you are.

Teresa: Yeah, and definitely speaking on how those similarities and you're talking about how you want to give women a voice. Last year around this time was like a right when I started wrapping it up because I was going to college and I didn't think I could really sustain it while I was in college. But I had been a part of an after school program where it was an entrepreneurship program, and I had to create a brand. And my brand was these shoe charms that once I got my profit and I started being able to sustain it It was going to turn into something where I was going to be able to give women good hours and good money to be able to help sustain their needs and their kids and anything else that they needed. Because I grew up seeing that that wasn't something that really wasn't available to my mother and I really wish it had been. And that, again, we want women to be able to do the best they can for themselves. So again, we really are the same. I love it.

Christina: And you're being raised by a single mom and I wasn't raised by a single mom. It was almost like I was raised by a single dad. Not to knock my mom, but my mom had a lot of mental health issues. As you know, we've discussed them privately and my viewers and listeners have heard me talk about the struggles of mental health with my mom and my brother. So I'm not talking out of turn here, and people aren't going to be surprised to hear this, but my dad pretty much took the reins and raised my brother and I because my mom wasn't fully capable, not because she didn't want to, it was because of her mental health, and it was a challenge, right? So I get it. And I'm a single mom, right? And I've been raising my son by myself. And even though I was married when he was born, it was almost as if I was a single parent the whole time anyway, because I was always the one who showed up. I'm the one who took him to the doctors and everything else that needed taking him back to school, to school, back and forth to school when he was in daycare. And so I get it, and I've lost everything. Everybody looks at me and thinks, oh, CD's got it. But 2019 when I finally ended everything with my ex husband at that time, I had $200 left in the bank account, and I've worked on, as you all know, tons and tons of very amazing products, and I've done a lot of my career, but everything was gone, and I had to rebuild myself again. And being a single mom and seeing, well, I wasn't entitled to get certain things because of what I made last year, but that's not what I had, you know what I mean? And so it was really hard. It was not easy. So I love that we share so many things in common and that you understand why it's important to be an ambassador for Sparkle Sisters. It's not just about the merch and the pretty glitter and things like that. It's the thread behind the organization, the golden thread, if you will, that binds us all together as sisters, because it's a sisterhood.

Teresa: It really is. And it's like you can talk to your friends about it, but if they don't share the same experiences, it can feel like you're in the dark. So finding someone who gets it and doesn't just brush it off is really helpful and has been really eye opening, because the last year or so, it didn't feel like I had that. But I went to college. I found myself. 2023. I said, this is the year that I turn things around for myself, and I really get it together because this is a new me. I'm going into a new part of myself. I understand myself better because I'm 19 now. I'm not 15, 13 like I was, and I get myself better, and I'm not completely grown yet, but I think I'm on the right path. And meeting people that get it and see your vision and want to help and also you're helping them is really good.

Christina: I think that's awesome. And I appreciate you saying that, because I think it's important to be like minded when you're working in organizations or you're being mentored by someone, you've got to be able to relate to them in some capacity. Because if you don't, it's going to be harder for you to gain anything out of it. Because in my opinion, it's not just a job. Because you can just do a job, you can go and do something that's just a job. This is passion, this isn't just a job, this is achieving a greater purpose and a greater good. And that's in the Sparkle Sister side and the CD side is to empower and embrace inclusion and show people we are the same. It doesn't matter how you look, there's something that makes you the same with all of us. We all have something that's the same.

Teresa: Yeah, and I think that's really important because at the end of the day, it can feel like you're alone but you're not. Even though some points you will feel like that. You got to find those people who make it worth it. And my last year of life has just been finding those people who make it worth it. And sometimes they're not always people that you expect them to be. It's not the people that you meet in high school. It can literally be some person that you met at a one day program thing and then you start talking for the rest of your life. And that's what I think is really important because the people who matter aren't always the people you expect it to be. And I just wanted to say that because the way we met was it wasn't like some job fair, it wasn't like I went to a cafe and we met, it was simply just an online job search and that's how we came to meet. It wasn't something like this big, extravagant, like oh, this was planned. No, it was not planned, it just happened to work out.

Christina: Yup, I love that. And we're coming close to the end. See, I told you it would go really fast, didn't I? So if you don't mind, I'm going to stop us with that thought because there'll be other opportunities for you to be on again. Because as we do more and more together, we're going to be able to talk about it and share with people because it's important to share all these lessons and you have a lot of lessons that you can share with people. So I'd like to thank you for being on today and taking time to shoot a podcast with me because not everybody wants to do those things, it makes people nervous. And so I appreciate your bravery and courage because like I said, when we talk in our one on ones, it's very similar to what we're doing on the podcast today. So you should not be nervous. Right.

Teresa: Yeah, thank you actually, because it's really big opportunity and of course I always love talking to you because it doesn't feel like business, it just feels like I'm just talking to someone. So it's never a big deal for me at all.

Christina: Thank you so much. And so, like we always say in every one of our podcasts, remember, we are the same. I am Christina DiArcangelo. Thank you.