#1 Way to Find Confidence Within When You Have Low Self- Esteem with Victoria Jackson

This is a iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human on ebay, every find has a story. Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee. Not just a tee, the band tee. You wore it everywhere until your ex stole it. Now you're on ebay and there it is. Same tee from the same tour. The things you love have a way of finding their way back to you. Especially on ebay. Where else can you find that mint trading card you searched everywhere for? Or your first car, the one you wish you never sold? It has to be ebay. Shop ebay for millions of finds, each with a story. Ebay Things people love. It's time to take care of you. Who better to help you do that than the top voices in wellbeing? On Audible, you can level up your parenting career, finances, sleep, relationships, or mindset. The Audible wellbeing collection has everything to inspire and support you every step of the way. Hear the latest from best selling authors Brene Brown, chef Jamie Oliver, and finance expert Rachel Rogers. And you can also listen to me. Plus, find all the best parenting guides, like raising good humans. When you listen, you can imagine more for your mind and body. Membership is only $14.95 a month after 30 days. And you can cancel anytime. Kickstart your wellbeing journey with your first audiobook free when you sign up for a 30 day trial@Audible.com purpose sometimes you just need to go to your happy place. And there's no better happy place than celebrity cruises. They get you closer than close to the history, culture and flavors of Europe. And now they visit more of it than ever. Their elevated Caribbean escapes keep the island bliss going between islands. From quick three and four night getaways to week long journeys and longer. There's nothing more restorative than the wild wonders of Alaska. And celebrity ships are designed to make the most of every view. Celebrity doesn't just build ships. They build the vacations you'll always remember in the places you'll never forget. Book today and see why nothing comes close to celebrity cruises.

My life changed when Allie was diagnosed at 14. She's saying she has an eyeball headache. And I'm thinking, oh, you know, okay, you know, and she says her vision's getting a little fuzzy. And I'm just thinking, well, I'm, you know, I'm sure it's nothing. Well, go see the eye doctor. We'll get you some drops. And ultimately the neurologist is doing a series of tests, wanted to do a spinal tap, a lumbar puncture, and I'm like, why? Like, she's just got something going on with her eyes. What are y' all doing? You know? And so when they called with the results, they basically told myself and my husband that she had four years to live.

Before we jump into this episode, I'd like to invite you to join this community to hear more interviews that will help you become happier, healthier, and more healed.

More.

All I want you to do is click on the subscribe button. I love your support. It's incredible to see all your comments. And we're just getting started. I can't wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me.

The number one health and wellness podcast, Jay Shetty.

Jay Shetty.

The one, the only Jay Shetty.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health and wellness podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every one of you that come back every week to become happier, healthier, and more healed. And that's our mission here, to introduce you to thought leaders, teachers, academics, experts, celebrities, athletes, who are all trying to make the world happier, healthier, and more healed. Today's guest has been dedicated to that in a personal way and in their own mission. I'm excited to introduce you to a.

Dear friend of mine who.

Who I've been wanting to have on the show for a very long time. We've had some beautiful conversations offline. I've really got to know her heart and her soul more than anything, and I'm honored today to get to introduce you to her. Her name is Victoria Jackson, who was known previously as a cosmetics entrepreneur, but transformed into a medical research trailblazer and Women's hall of fame inductee Victoria founded the global powerhouse brand Victoria Jackson Cosmetics. She and her husband, Bill Guthy, founder of the marketing behemoth Guthirenke, established the Guthy Jackson Charitable foundation to fund research on NMO treatments and a potential cure. Victoria's unrelenting determination proved effective. In 2016, the foundation developed the first ever NMO therapeutic. And soon after, three therapies received FDA approval. The unprecedented pace of the accomplishments that her and her affiliations have had on are absolutely phenomenal. And I welcome you to the show. Victoria Jackson and the author of two incredible books that I highly recommend, Saving each Other, which, of course, we'll be diving in today, and this book, the Power of Rare A Blueprint for a Medical Revolution. Please go and grab both of these books. You're gonna be hearing about the insights.

From both of them in this conversation. Victoria welcome to On Purpose.

Thank you. It's so nice to be here. I've been just waiting for the opportunity to talk to you. I'm a. I'm a big manifester. And so when I started listening to you, Jay, I was so inspired, honestly, that I just was like, I've got a. There's going to be a time I'm sitting across from him, we're having this conversation. So thank you so much.

I love that. And our parts have just crossed so organically.

We have a lot of mutual friends.

And we bumped into each other ages.

Ago at this great fundraiser that Ellen did called Gorilla Palooza, which was to raise money for the Diane Fossey and Ellen DeGeneres Fund.

Yeah. It's great what she's doing. Yeah.

Have you been out there yet?

I've not.

It's amazing. I got to go out with them last year, and it was unbelievable. But we met there.

Yes.

And you were one of these people.

And I just want the audience to know, like, you were one of these people that instantly was talking to me from your heart, and I felt it.

Then you were arranging for me to.

Go and meet the Pope.

The next thing I knew, and it.

Didn'T happen because of the pandemic.

Yeah.

But I was so grateful to you for even helping that invite come along my way, and I hope I get to do that in the future. What an honor. Thanks to you.

And I had that very special invite.

To go to the Vatican, which, of.

Course, due to the pandemic, didn't happen. And then we've had these wonderful connections.

Even with your daughter and your home. And anyway, so many. So many different things.

But I feel like your journey is.

Truly unique and incredible in so many ways. And I want to start off with the question of what is your earliest memory from childhood of your own childhood that stays with you, or that is the immediate flashback, when you think, to being a child.

You know, I always think about how I felt like I was always different. I say that I was born early. I was born in the six and a half month, and so I lived in the hospital for three months before I even came home. So I think because I've always struggled so much with anxiety and worry and, you know, all of that, I think I was sort of born early to get a head start on all of it. So when I think of my early years, I really think of, you know, a young person that was really struggling and just trying to really find her place in the world. And seem like since I did come in early and was struggling just to sort of make it through in those very, very early times, because this is going back a while. And, you know, now I know for, you know, preemies, they have a lot more technology than they did then, but I've always been in survival mode, I think, my whole life. So I think that's what I think about is this little person that came into the world and has been in that mode ever since, pretty much.

Do you think that the struggles that you had have changed towards the struggles that young people have today, or do you think that they're the same thing, they're just differently experienced?

I think they're definitely. I think they're the same thing. But, yeah, I mean, obviously I wasn't dealing with social media and things, but, you know, school was social media, you know, your friends, I mean, so they were all. You're still trying to figure out your way in the world. So I think it may look different now, but I think that's probably why even in raising kids, my kids can talk to them on a level of understanding whatever anxiety they're going through, but it's just put out on a different stage now and much bigger stage, and so that makes it a little more difficult.

What was the thing you were most anxious about growing up? What was the thing that kept you up at night that made you uncomfortable, that made you nervous? What was that?

You know, for me, it was, I think because I had parents that were young and trying to figure it out and ultimately got divorced, I didn't feel a lot of love. And I think, you know, even my mom would be the first to say she, you know, having a child that was in the hospital right away, and she's so young, she didn't really know how to, you know, bond with me, and I think that was tough. So I was somebody that was always seeking approval and looking for that love and just trying to figure out who I was. And I always had this really haunting feeling that something was going to happen to me, that there was just somebody was going to get me, something was going to happen. It was just something that I remember early on, just feeling in a unique way.

And how did you process that? What was your antidote? Or.

I mean, I think there's times you're thinking, am I special? Is there a reason I'm here? But it just manifested in a lot of anxiety. And so you're always just feeling like there's some shoe that's going to drop or something that's going to happen. And I. I lived A lot of my early years like that, as I kind of keep going back to this finding my way.

It's interesting how every teenager goes through this phase of finding our way, and then often we either get stuck in a way that our parents expected, or society expected, or we fall into something, or we continue to find our way. And sometimes you're in your 30s or your 40s and you're still trying to find your way, and you kind of feel out of place because everyone else has stability. But I can definitely attest to that. I felt in my teens I was trying to fit in and I was trying to find my way. And I was anxious about did people think I was in with the crowd? And, you know, and I think we all go through this. What was really interesting for me was I think I've kept trying to find my way, which is why I've lived so many different lives, because I've never wanted to not take a step forward. What did you imagine would be your first career path or what did you imagine would be your first venture? And what did it end up being?

Well, you know, as I'm even just sitting here talking to you and I'm looking at a microphone that says on purpose. Purpose was always a big thing. Even when I was young, I was thinking, like, whether it was why am I here? Or what is the way. It was sort of like, what is my purpose? And I didn't really have a skill set that I could sort of point to other than I'd probably say, early on I recognized that I was more of a. Of a creative. You know, I definitely wasn't going to be the academic. I ended up sort of, you know, ditching school a lot due to a lot of kind of unsettling things at home. And so I was, you know, trying to figure out what was the way that I was going to really express myself. And knowing that I didn't come from a family that had money, so I was going to have to figure that out for myself. But I knew that I was creative. And it prob. I started doing makeup. And I think when I started doing my own makeup, doing friends makeup, I thought I genuinely. Because I struggle with such low self esteem, I mean, it's gotten a lot better over the years. And I've written, you know, two prior books before these Redefining Beauty and Make up youp Life, all about self esteem and looking and feeling better. And I really thought once I started to make up people and give them this sense of like, they looked better and felt better I had some passion around that. It was something that I thought, oh, this is a skill set that I can really perfect. And, you know, I love the idea. And I. I'm the kind of person, if I can do it, then I want to show everybody how to do it. It's like, oh, if I can do this, you can do this, and here's how.

So if social media existed, you would have been one of the first beauty influencers. That's what would have happened. Because makeup was one of the big things that took off on social media in the early days.

Absolutely. That's how my infomercials were so successful, because I was actually teaching you on my DVDs how you could actually do your makeup, you know, from start to finish. So that's what I was doing. I was putting all the cosmetics together. Here's how to use them. Long before I had my own radio show, before there were podcasts where I was doing makeovers on the radio. And they said, if you can actually get people to call in and do a makeover on the radio, you can have the airtime. So, yeah, this was the early days, and I love that. I love the teaching aspect of it.

What gave you the confidence?

I think what's really fascinating about that is you're a young person with low self esteem. You're confused about who you are, you have anxiety, but then all of a.

Sudden you feel, I'm passionate about makeup. And actually I feel confident to teach.

Others or share that.

How does that switch happen?

Because I think so many of our listeners are in that position right now.

Where they feel anxious.

Maybe some of them have imposter syndrome. Maybe some of them are listening and they're going, jay, I just don't know.

Where to start, or maybe I know what my passion is, but I'm not good enough. And, you know, we have this lack.

Of belief in ourselves.

How did you switch from I'm anxious to I actually like teaching and sharing?

Yeah, well, by the way, while I was teaching and sharing, I was also anxious, so I managed to pull double duty. At the same time, I just went for it, you know. So for me, for example, I wanted to get in the world of makeup. If you were to look at my portfolio and go through my very early, early, you know, photographs of makeup. Not the best makeup in the world, you know. So, like, I had to learn it and perfect it, and, you know, I had the eye for it, but I had to now hone my skill set to match what my eyes were seeing and ultimately came up. Which was my concept of the no makeup makeup. I was the original person sort of doing that in the. In the late 80s when everybody had on tons of makeup.

Explain that to us. Break that down for people who. Who may not have either been around.

Or may not know fully what that was in the beginning of it. Because I think now. Yeah.

In the 80s, you think about, like, shoulder pads and the music videos that were out there. There was a lot of makeup and my. Who. And there really wasn't even a makeup that existed at the time. Let's talk about just even a foundation, a base color that, you know, you use on your skin now to even out your skin tone that was more natural. Everything was these kind of crazy tones or pinks or oranges. And I wanted to just help women look beautiful, look great, but without feeling like they had makeup on so that they could really look like themselves and not use it as war paint or a way to necessarily be someone else, but just feel confident in themselves. And so I had no idea how to actually create makeup, so I just started as a makeup artist. I started mixing in my garage pots and pans and making up concoctions that I would use on my makeup jobs. And that's really how I started that.

What I love about that, and I want everyone who's listening and watching to know this, is that the first time you do anything, it won't be that great.

Yeah.

And it's okay. And it's good to know that. I think a lot of us think.

Well, before I do something, I've got to have the perfect name, have the.

Perfect branding, have the perfect product, have the perfect service.

And the truth is, 99% of the time, the first thing you put out there.

Yeah.

Is never going to be that great.

If you look at the first version of Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat or.

Anything we use today, the first version of Amazon, the first version of makeup. If you look at all of the.

First versions, they weren't that great.

And I think a lot of us, we're kind of knocking up against that.

Going, I want to put something perfect out before we've even made any progress.

Yeah. And you have to just. You have to just have patience with yourself and patience with the project. But you have the process, but you have to just be willing to even put yourself out there and try. For me, I was like, I want to do makeup. I want to do for magazines and things like that. Okay. How do I start contacting photographers and building a portfolio and just be willing to you know, even women. And they'd be so afraid to do their makeup. And I'm like, what's the worst that's going to happen? You're not going to like it. You wash it off, you know. So I did 20 years of going to the jails. 20 years of going into the jails and doing makeup for women there. Where, think about it, where I would say women would be, I'd go, what do you want your makeup to say? And I'd have women go, I want my make up to say, pull over. You know, like a lot of women that were, you know, working the streets or whatever. And I'd be like, okay, let's change the message on that. Let's talk about, you know, self respect. And I would see the energy of hundreds of gals in there that were, you know, really ready to hear something and how it just evened out, leveled out the room with people that when they saw themselves kind of a before and after, it really changed the whole energy. So I got really passionate about this whole thing. I ultimately called the power of mascara and looking better and feeling better about yourself. But it was all, you know, as I'm teaching it, I'm learning as well. And I've been, I think, you know, due to an incident that happened when I was really young, sort of going back to that, thinking something really bad was going to happen to me. I was one of the early victims in 1973 of the pillowcase Rapist. And that left me with obviously a lot of emotional scars and things that I've spent a lifetime working on. But very claustrophobic. So then going to the jails for 20 years was very claustrophobic. To put yourself in a very uncomfortable situation, to have to. But I was there because I really believed in what I was doing in the message and really was very instrumental and helpful in the other parts of my life. As I say, as you talked about mascara to medicine that were really important.

Hey guys, it's Jay Shetty here and I couldn't be more excited to share this exciting news you asked. We delivered Juni sparkling tea with Adaptogens made by my wife and I are now available in all Sprout locations across the country. Jooni is the perfect midday pick me up. With only 1/3 of the caffeine found in brewed green tea, it provides a gentle energy boost without the crash. It only has 5 calories and 0 grams of sugar, making it the perfect drink. Plus it's made with a delicious blend of Adaptogens and nootropics. That may help boost your metabolism, combat stress, pack your body with antioxidants and stimulate brain function function. Head over to your local sprouts or visit sprouts.com to find the closest location near you.

I. I'm glad you brought that up because we've spoken about that offline before. Could you walk us through and explain a bit more about the Pillowcase Rapist? Just to get a sense of who that was, what that was, etc to get a sense of and, and exactly.

The experience you had?

Because I just, I want people to have that context when we're looking at the rest of your life and the rest of your story as we dive in today.

Right.

Because if someone's unaware, it can be easy to look at your journey. And I think we do this a lot today where we look at a snapshot of someone's life and we think, well, they've done it all, they've made it, they've achieved it, they shouldn't have anything to worry about. And then when you kind of look at someone's life in full perspective, you recognize there's so much more to it. I often give the analogy to people of if you walk into a movie halfway and you see someone's life, you might think they have the best life in the world. But if you didn't see the start of the movie and then the end of the movie, you don't really know their full picture. So for that reason I'd love for you to shed some light and context on that.

Yeah, I think you're exactly right. I mean, there's this snapshot and then there's the film. And I think in my early mind in the reel of the film that was probably playing in my head and as I said, feeling like there was a reason that I was here and that purpose. And if somebody would have told me that ultimately I'd be getting drugs make and working to cure a disease and finding a cure for a disease, I would have never believed it. But I did always have that feeling of somebody, as I said, that was going to get me. And to put a little context to California has had. There was the Pillowcase rapist in the 70s and then as if we all needed another Pillowcase Rapist, there's been another one since. But the Pillowcase Rapist that unfortunately was involved in my early days in life came into the house when my whole family was home, we lived in a duplex, was actually in West Hollywood as again I used to because I felt I was always a target of Potentially something I would get teased a little bit. And I had an older brother that would sometimes tease me. And so. So he's a very nice guy. But sometimes, you know, people just. I think nobody ever thought that anything was gonna happen to me. And one night when I came home, it's that sort of really scary scene you see in a movie where you're in your room, and I had the room off the back of the house. And I look up in the mirror, and I see somebody right behind me, you know, and it's that awful thing. And you're, like, in a ski mask holding something with. It looked like a dish rag hanging over it. And I thought it was my brother maybe playing a joke. And I turn around and I'm like, you know, what are you doing? And I heard in a voice that I knew was completely unrecognizable to me when somebody says, don't move, that it was not a good thing. And at that point, I thought since my whole family was home and it was really late at night, I thought I was really the last victim. And he had, you know, killed my entire family, and I was the last one. And without going into all the horrible details of it, it was definitely a situation where for the first time, I really experienced that disassociation going out of body, where I made a really conscious, which then kind of goes unconscious decision to be above what was happening to my body and to the situation at the time. And obviously thinking about my family. And it was really looking down. And I just thought, wow, I'm 17. I was just about. I thought, to graduate high school. And I thought, I can't believe it ends here. You know, like, this doesn't feel like the end of the story. There's a reason I'm here. And I knew I had a moment where. When I saw part of his calling card and trademark is that when he had me in a position where I could see he was pulling the pillowcase off of my pillow. And what he did was he would then put them over your head and he suffocated. And that would be, you know, obviously, lights out for you. And when I saw that as he was starting to put it over my head, I really made this very decision, like, I am going to. On three. And, you know, where you have that. Where you're thinking, is that you're so freaked out? Like, is the sound going to come out? Am I going to just be screaming in my head? But I was like, on three, I'm going to scream. And I'm going to scream really loud, and this is either going to be the end of me because he did have a knife and he had stabbed my leg and my stomach and part of my face that I thought, well, this could be the end. But I just, in my head, counted to three, and on three, I screamed, and he dropped the knife. Surprisingly, he pulled off his ski mask. I couldn't really identify him, but I guess again, that was another sort of calling card that they knew it was him. And he ran out. And my door in my bedroom, I remember, you know, sometimes would get stuck, and he's like, trying to pull to get out, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. So it was just. And then obviously I ran upstairs to find out that my parents, they were asleep. I was the only victim in the house because he had come in through the. Put his hand up through the dog door that we had. It's. You know, we didn't really have security in the house per se. Then it was really just lock the door. And he had unlocked. I never have a dog door. Again, the door. And that's how he had gotten in.

Well, you. I literally got chills listening to that story because it's so, you know, it's such a horrific, horrendous thing to have to live through, and I'm grateful you shared it with us. Thank you so much for being vulnerable and open and sharing that. How do you not let that let you live in fear for the rest of your life?

What.

What's the next thing you do from something like that? Because that would be. If you didn't do anything ever, it would be completely valid because it's such a painful experience to go through.

Yeah.

How do you respond? How do you react?

What.

What's the first thing you do after something like that?

I mean, obviously, you know, I was hysterical and I was. You know, I was. There was the relief of my parents and being okay, but there was just. I knew that I could never go back in my house. I left. I didn't graduate high school, and I got married as soon as I turned 18. I didn't want to be alone. So for me, it really manifested in fear of being by myself, of somebody getting me again. But I also knew that there just was a reason that I was here. And it was shortly after that, actually, that. That's when I started going to the jails and started to do the work there, because I thought, how does this happen? Like, how do people go down these roads? You know, what. What is it that, you know Makes somebody make the choices in their life. And I just knew that for me, I wanted to find what it is ultimately that I was supposed to be doing. And the closest thing at that time, because I could, wasn't going to be going to college because I didn't graduate high school, was going to beauty school. I thought, I can get my own little scholarship there and go and start doing it through the one way that I knew. The only skill that I thought I had was in this kind of being this creative and wanting to help women look and feel better about themselves. So I started there, really, with no money and that vision, and decided that that's. That's what I was going to do.

It's a tough question, but did you get an answer when you started visiting the prisons of why people did certain things? Did you. Did you find or discover anything or hear anything? And on top of that, did the pillowcase rapist go to prison as well?

Yes, the pillowcase rapist was finally caught in prison. And he's no longer with us. He's gone. Thank goodness. No sadness around that for me. So, yeah, going to the jails, you really see. I mean, there were times that I would go, because after going 20 years and going, you know, every other month, that's a lot of visits. And you hear a lot of different people's stories. And I remember going at times where there was a mom, a daughter and a grandmother, they were all there, and it was just like, wow, how does this happen? And so there was a lot of stories of, you know, in my mind, too, because I didn't want to judge. And I had to make everybody like, everyone's here. As a drunk driver, you know, you're sort of like. I wanted to equalize the room so that even though you may be seeing the teardrops at the end of somebody's eyes, of, you know, maybe what they've done in life, I didn't want to judge. I wanted to just stay to my message, which I could see that doing these makeovers and people seeing themselves differently, especially women who had maybe tattooed like crazy eyebrows or whatever it was that had really sort of changed them into just somebody that they looked different, but who they were inside was very different. I wanted to get to that, and I wanted them to feel that, you know, you may be in jail today, but, you know, when you get out tomorrow or when you get out, you know, there's a whole new world out there, and there can be a whole new you out there. And that was. That really took on the Life of, Of the power of mascara. And obviously it was never about selling them my cosmetics or anything like that, because I'm very much for women and whatever makeup they like, it works.

Absolutely. No. And I think it's incredible how much our appearance does affect our confidence. And I've seen it. There are so many of these great videos on social media of a lot of hairdressers and barbers going onto the streets and doing.

Yeah.

Free cuts for the homeless or. And you hear their reaction. I've seen some of these videos where you hear their reaction before and after and how they feel about looking at themselves in the mirror and how it can be such a boost for confidence as well.

Yes.

And so that. That definitely resonates. How did it go from being your passion and something that you were so connected to as a way of helping people build self esteem to then becoming a very successful business? There's. There's lots of steps in between. What were some of the key things you think transformed it from a great small business to something quite successful?

Well, I think basically it's really in the world of the no makeup makeup, nothing existed. You know, and especially so you think about in, you know, when you're in the jails again, I was trying to strip down people to the essence of who they were. And to me, at the core of that is this no makeup makeup. That's really. And so there was nothing in the world of, say, foundations at the time. That would be kind of the starting point for that. That, to me, was going to be what I built my business around and became. You know, I created over 600 products over the course of 13 years. But my foundation, which I sold millions and millions of units of, was just based on more natural looking skin tone, change shades that look like you didn't have layers of makeup on. So that really came from not only the jobs that I was doing, but from all those years of going to the jails and really wanting to help women look like themselves and not, you know, pile on all the makeup. So when I said as I was making these shades and pots and pans in my garage, I had to find a cosmetic chemistry, you know, like at the time we were looking in the Yellow Pages. Nobody out there knows what the yellow Pages are. That's a directory that used to climb.

On them during Christmas.

Exactly. And you're going in. I found a cosmetic chemist and said, hey, you know, I want to. This is what I want to do. I want to create these shades, these textures, these feels. And I started and Then while I again wanting to teach what I do and never having graduated or gone to college, I thought, you know what? I want to teach this. I'm going to call ucla. They have an extension program. Maybe I could teach some of what I'm doing as a Hollywood makeup artist and teach that. I did that for 10 years as an extension course that was again sold out every quarter. People wanted to learn how to do it, whether it was. I had so many men taking it, you know, guys that maybe just wanted to meet gals, you know, and do their makeup. But it was another way that I could just see people wanted to connect in this way. So I thought, this is great. And then through doing that at ucla, one of my students actually said, you know, I know this group of guys that are selling products through television. And I said, wow, I think I have a great idea of how to sell products through tv, color cosmetics, which no one was doing at the time because this is the late 80s and I hadn't really perfected my kit. But, you know, we do that little bit of that. Fake it till you make it and act as if. So when she put me together with the guys, I basically said, I have this idea for these color kits, you know, peach, pink and red, and I'll put all of the colors and products and things you need together and then I'm going to teach you how to do it. And basically that. Long story short, they decided to roll the dice on that and shoot an infomercial. And the very first infomercial I did with two celebrities at the time, Ally McGraw and Lisa Hartman, we started doing a million dollars a week in sales. I mean, clearly there was an appetite for women wanting to know how to do their makeup and feeling that confidence and reassurance that I tried to give in my 3 hour tutorials that you never see now.

That's incredible. That's. That's amazing. And did you find that building this business and helping these people and helping your customers, but also women that you met in the prisons, did that help how you felt about yourself and what you'd been through, or was there not a correlation? Was healing a part of that? Or was healing having to happen separate?

Yeah, healing is a part of everything. I think we all just, you know, healing happens, whether sometimes we even know it or. Or not. It's on like a cellular level. So, you know, it's whatever piece of what you're doing at the time. I've gone through so many different stages of healing because I've gone through so many different experiences, as I said, you know, as my life has gone from, like, what I look at in the two parts, you know, the mascara, to medicine. So it's all. All of that journey has informed me and my healing in so many different ways.

Did you find that you were saying.

That your experience made you rush into not wanting to be alone, and obviously you got married very young. Did you find that led to some codependency which caused challenges in relationships? Or did you actually. Was that something that you feel your partner was good at navigating and dealing with? Because I can imagine that when you don't want to be alone. And of course, based on the traumatic experience that you had, it's very valid.

But I wonder how that affects the.

Other person as well, and how you navigated that, especially in the early years.

Well, I think it started even earlier because I had, as I said, my parents had a lot of problems together, and my biological dad put me up for adoption when I was nine years old, so my stepdad had adopted me. And so I really, very early on, I'd say, really never felt how to have a relationship with a father, with a man. And the fact that I'm now married, this is my third time. So, yeah, I'd say, did I have codependent problems and being frightened and being afraid to be alone definitely created issues because I was afraid and I was still trying to figure out me. And so I'd definitely say that's been a theme. And even now, I've worked really hard and especially in raising three kids with, you know, when you have your first child, you really have to think about all of your own stuff. And there were times where I always say, you know, I didn't just hang my hat on my son, I hung my wardrobe. You know, I mean, you bring a lot of your stuff, so it's been really a conscious thing. And I think for all of us, thinking about how the past informs us of what we bring to the table and how we have to navigate our relationships, our love relationships, and all of our family relationships. And it can be really challenging. And you can become the quote, unquote identified patient and have. How you sort of navigate that in your. In your world, in your life.

I've often spoken to doctors today and experts, and they talk about how much we need to look at our genetic past and our history in our family of health. And it's so interesting how on the physical level, that's true, and it's true on the emotional level as well. But sometimes it can be so hard to look at the emotional background of our family and how it's affected us because a lot of us go through life believing that our parents are super human in the beginning. Some of us feel that way for a long, long, long time.

Yeah.

And it's almost like the earlier we recognize that our parents are humans just like we are. And we all have challenges and flaws that sometimes the healthier conversations and connection we can have with them as well. Your journey with your children has been a labor of love in so many ways. And I want to talk about Ali, who I had the pleasure of meeting, who, you know is your co author on this book.

Yes.

And has been at the core of your journey and connection to the medical world, from mascara to medicine and looking into that world for you, as you said earlier, you were like, I didn't really feel like I was loved in that way. Walk me through what it feels like when your daughter, who you love so deeply, gets diagnosed with an illness that is very rare. And on top of that, you hear she doesn't have very long to live. Oh, I. I just can't imagine. I'm not a parent, but I can't imagine. And therefore, I can't imagine what that feels like. Can you walk us through what that moment feels like when you've raised someone for, I think, what, 14 years? And, you know.

Yeah, I mean, my life changed. You know, my life changed when Allie was, you know, I have three children. And when Allie was diagnosed at 14, you know, where you. Completely healthy, fine. And, you know, we're going to a premiere, a premiere of a movie. We're going to go see something. And she's saying she has an eyeball headache. And I'm thinking, oh, you know, okay, you know, and she says her vision's getting a little fuzzy. And I'm just thinking, well, I'm, you know, I'm sure it's nothing. Well, go see the eye doctor. We'll get you some drops. And, you know, you don't think anything of it. And then all of a sudden, I find out through going through to the eye doctor that she does an exam and says that she's got this optic neuritis and we need to find out. Optic neuritis is the swelling of the optic nerve. And we need to find out what's going on and go to an ophthoneuro ologist and find out that. And now I'm going. He's saying, you've got to go to a neurologist. And ultimately the neurologist is taking A series, doing a series of tests, wanted to do a spinal tap, a lumbar puncture. And I'm like, why? Like, she's just got something going on with her eyes. What are y' all doing? You know? And it was. It was really scary. And he's decided he's gonna do some blood work. The neurologist and he starts checking boxes. And one of the boxes they check is for something called neuromyelitis optica. And I said, oh, what is that? And he goes, oh, don't worry about it. That would be a nightmare. She's not gonna have that. I don't even know why I've ever checked that box. And of course, you know how that goes. Check that box. And it turned out that that's what Allie had. And so when they called with the results, they basically told myself and my husband that she had four years to live. And it was just life changed. Life changed in my mind right then. I said, okay, well, I'm closing, you know, at that point, I had a billion dollar empire of, you know, my cosmetic world. I'm closing that book, and I'm going to open the book on medicine. And here I am. I make lip gloss. I can cure disease. Yeah, right. But I was going to do it. I was going to find the way and save my daughter. Because it was just. I mean, it takes you to your knees, it takes you to the floor, it just. The air goes out of the room. You know, you're just like. You don't even know where to begin. And you literally just have to start somewhere. And that's where I just thought in that moment, that was my purpose. Everything came back to me. The disassociating wall, you know, the rape was happening. I was like, oh, oh, this is it. This is why I'm here. I'm supposed to cure this. And it was just like that just became the mission from that moment.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Every January, we hear the same message. New year, new you. But the older I get, the more I realize maybe the new year doesn't need a new you. Maybe it just needs a less burdened you. For me, one of the things I've been learning to let go of is pressure. The pressure to show up perfectly for everyone all the time. And the moment I started releasing that pressure, even little by little, it opened up space to actually understand what was going on beneath the surface. We all have blind spots, and sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to help you see what's been draining you or where you could give yourself a little more compassion and clarity. BetterHelp is quality therapists who follow a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the us and honestly, getting started is pretty straightforward. You answer a few quick questions about what you need and they handle the matching for you. They've been doing this for over 12 years, so they usually get the match right the first time, and if the first match doesn't feel like the best fit, you can switch anytime. Through their tailored suggestions, they've supported over 5 million people and work with more than 30,000 therapists. Live sessions average a 4.9 out of 5 rating from more than 1.7 million reviews, which says a lot. So if you're heading into the new year wanting to feel a little lighter and understand yourself a bit more, therapy can be a great place to start. Not to become a completely new version of you, but to feel more grounded in who you already are. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com Jaystop3 that's better. H E L P.com Jstop3 the start of a new year isn't about pressure. It's about purpose. It's a time to pause, reflect and ask what truly matters to you. Not what looks good on paper, but what feels aligned with who you are becoming. When your work is rooted in intention, action flows naturally. Especially when it comes to starting or growing a business. Shopify is here to help turn that clarity into a first meaningful step. Whether you're nurturing a new idea or scaling a growing brand, Shopify provides the tools to build at your own pace. From thousands of customizable templates to AI powered support through Shopify Sidekick. It's like having a co founder, marketing team and finance Advisor all in one. You can sell anywhere your customers are Instagram, TikTok, Facebook without the stress of mastering every platform. And now with tools like ChatGPT integration, your store can be discovered by the right people exactly when they're looking for what you offer. When we built Joony, Shopify was there from day one helping us not get lost in complexity. They scale as you grow, supporting first time founders and global brands alike. Purpose without action is just a thought. Shopify helps you deliver that action and bring your purpose to life. If you're ready to build with intention in 2026, go to shopify.com j and begin this Valentine's Day Celebrate every love story with Pandora. Whether it's romantic, platonic, familial or a gesture of self love. Pandora's versatile designs let you express your unique connections in meaningful ways. Each piece tells a story of love or friendship that transcends materialism, Turning every gift into heartfelt messages that connects hearts from best friends to significant others. Pandora helps you honor the bonds that make life richer and more meaningful. For me, I'm a hopeless romantic. Valentine's Day is all about showing Radhi how much he means to me.

Me.

She's my partner, my inspiration, and my best friend. Finding the perfect piece from Pandora, like a charm that symbolizes her kindness and creativity, lets me share a meaningful message of love and inspiration. Celebrate your love story with a Valentine's Day surprise from Pandora Jewelry. Let your heart guide you to the perfect gift. Choose from styles full of sparkle and heartwarming symbols that capture every moment together, make the feeling last from first sight to forever. On Valentine's Day and every day, Beloved shop Pandora Jewelry today in store and.

Pandora.Net for you, in that moment, it sounds like all of your pains really became your purpose. And that can sometimes be the hardest path to purpose because there are several different paths. There's passion, there's a profession, there's people you love. But then when it's your pain, your pain of seeing your child suffer and getting news like that, what was useful from your cosmetic background that did transfer over into healthcare and medicine, right? Or was it just like, none of this is useful and I need to build a different skill set because I can imagine that that transition is not easy. Mentally, emotionally, and, of course, logistically.

Yeah, it's not easy on any level. Spiritually, I mean, you name it. What I drew upon more than anything was everyone. My whole career, my whole life has always said, oh, even when I was starting my cosmetic company, oh, you can't do that. There's a million cosmetic companies out there. So it was the everyone up to that point always telling me I couldn't do it, that I was like, no, I can do this. I can do this. I didn't know how I was gonna do this, but I thought, no, because as I said, and really it's all about for me is with the power of love and intention, anything's possible. And I loved my daughter, and I was gonna set this intention and I'd been able to manifest whether it's been through my creative visualization. I see it in my head, I make the picture, and then I'm like, I'm going to work to create this, and I need to find this cure. And I'm going to be able to. I'm going to sit and ask all the questions I put together. The first thing I said to myself is I have to learn about this condition. I've got to educate myself. And there I cut to, you know, put a group together and I went to Stanford and I started studying molecular medicine with a group of advisors to understand the process of this particular condition and really start learning. And just sat there with a group of doctors and advisors that I would just pick from. They're in the world of Ms. Or in lupus or rheumatoid arthritis and these other autoimmune diseases. And I just started saying, telling them my personal story and of how can you help me? And basically I was fortunate that I could say I'm, I have a checkbook and if you're willing to work the way I need you to all work, which was everyone was going to have to collaborate and work together and share information because everybody said they don't do that in the medical world. I said, we're going to find a cure and this is going to be a model for how we look at curing disease in the world. And I mean, I set it on a very big stage for myself, but the biggest thing was always to, to find a cure and at least find some therapeutics to help me. As Ali was suffering at the time.

What were some of the biggest roadblocks you mentioned one of them there, collaboration. What were some of the biggest roadblocks you saw in healthcare in curing these seemingly incurable diseases? Because you went in there, of course, as you said, you'd worked hard, first of all to build this incredible company, right? Therefore you had resources. It's not like you just had resources because you inherited them or you had them from somewhere else. But even with that, you had to.

Learn, bring people together, figure it out.

Like what were some of the blocks that you ran up against or that you saw that existed before you were able to create and curate your own team?

I mean, the biggest thing is for me, I needed to get to people's brain trust and I really needed to. The way I thought was in was through their shared humanity and sense of, of their own purpose, like always bringing it back to, well, why did you get into this? You know, why. Why did you decide to be a doctor in the world of Ms. Research or things? So that was the positive side. The reason I had to do that is because it was very clear to me very early on that people don't share or work together. They all wanted Sort of their own spotlight for their, their findings or their published work. But in the world of rare disease, which I found out at the time, they were saying there was maybe 10,000 people worldwide that have this. Since my work, there's over a million people and counting that have this because it's so misdiagnosed, whether it's Ms. Or other things. So I had to get people to work together and share. That was going to be the biggest obstacle. But because I had the power of at least having a checkbook and always feeling very blessed and fortunate for that, that I could say, I will pay you, tell me who you need to get in the room and at the table, but you're all going to work together and share together. So I'd say that was the biggest obstacle. And then finding people and then honestly, what became more and more, as I went down this, through this journey to cure anything, even in a rare disease, I found out that I had to build a blood bank. Now, can you imagine? Here's all of a sudden you're working to, you know, find your way with just getting researchers and scientists to the table. But it became quickly apparent to me that they said, Victoria, for us to do the research, we need to have. We need to have blood specimens. We need the material to do this research. So I thought, wow, now I have to create a repository of blood bank and start collecting blood from patients when I'm hearing it's so rare. And when Allie was first diagnosed, I was trying to just find one person that had this. Now I have to amass an entire blood bank of specimens around the world. And that was seemingly, I thought, how do you start? How do you do that? How I did that?

How do you do that?

How do you do that? I hired a nurse that I said, I'm going to find where these patients are. I'm going to send this nurse with a little cooler. She would show up with a little cooler and she'd go to Alaska or she'd go anywhere, literally taking samples and bringing them back. That's how I started. I now have over 100,000 specimens in my own blood bank and biorepository that is used for drug companies. I mean, it's changed the whole landscape. But if somebody would have told me, honestly, Jay, that I would be like, having to build a blood bank, that I'd be doing that. I mean, even early on when I was trying to get patients to just give their samples, I'd be like, how about if we do like blush for blood, you get a Blush if you give me your blood, because our women. But you get creative and you think about that. And I knew that the biggest way that I could make the difference was getting all these people together in a room, working in the same direction.

Wow.

I mean that, you know, it's so inspiring because it's so. You've just had so many moments in your life that I think it would be natural and it would be completely okay to give up and slow down and just accept. But you. And you also. I'm intrigued because when I've spent time with you, and even today, it's not like you're fighting, it's almost like you're creating. And I don't know. I'd love to hear your thoughts on those two sentiments, because often we think we have to fight to stay alive. You started by saying you've always been a survivor.

Yeah.

What do you think's core to surviving difficult situations? Is it fighting or is it creating opportunity? Or what is it?

You know, I've never looked at it as, for example, put in the. In the mix there, the thought of, like, being a victim. Like, so if you think of being a victim, you think more of fighting. So I don't think of myself as a victim or, you know, it was never like, oh, why is this happening to me?

It was, how did you not have that?

I mean, I wish. There's a lot of times, clearly, I wish that I had not gone through a rape and gone through what I went through. And there's times that I was like, what would it have been like if I graduated high school and I went to college and all of that? But, you know, that wasn't in the cards. That wasn't my journey or. But I've always tried to. I always try to zoom out and look at, you know, why is this, you know, what. What's the way in? Where can I. I always want to do something good and make the good come out of it. That's just how I've always been, and I want to find that way. And I genuinely always want to help in whatever it was, whether it was teaching women makeup, which is now, which is, you know, when I'm sitting there at the pharmaceutical company and showing them the path, why they need to help all these people and how they can. And again, going through their brain trust to get them. I mean, think about having to get pharmaceutical companies. The fact that I got three drugs made. People say that never, ever happens, let alone in a rare disease world. How passionate you have to be about what you're talking about and wanting to. So it's not really fighting for it. It's just helping people find it within themselves. That's what I do. I find that one piece, like what you do so beautifully, you find that thread, that. That thing that binds all of us, that sense of shared sense of humanity and that purpose. I had to find that purpose in the room for all those people.

What did you end up so far? What have you accomplished and how. Obviously I named some of it there, but in the intro. But could you explain what has been accomplished and what you're still pursuing so that we can just understand from a, you know, success point of view, like when you've invented these three drugs and. But what is. Yeah, what have that. What has that achieved? What has that stopped? And then what are you still trying to figure out?

So. And I never. I. I was hateful to get people that invented them because, you know, going to obviously Genentech and were they really, you know, that's what they do. But now what I learned. So I started to. People are always going, how are you doing? This sounds crazy. You're making lip gloss and all of a sudden you're getting these drugs made. There's a lot in between, that little journey there. And that's why I wrote the Power of Rare, a Blueprint for Medical Revolution, which is really. Because there's other moms, dads, families that are going through stories like mine. And I said, I'm going to write down. At least this is what I did. Because people always want to know how did it. I found the biggest magic was always bringing. Early on, I brought people together. I brought together over, gosh, 40 countries together and hundreds of researchers and scientists and patients together. So that's always been so critical in what I do. But what I'm doing now is so people have said, wow, how have you done it? Look at what you've done. Look at autoimmune disease in general. Autoimmune disease right now, which is what Allie has. And yes, she's on a drug now that is more controlling things. But I decided, as I listened to our president, which is great, he talks about cancer and moonshots. I thought, I want to do a cure shot. A cure shot. We don't need to go to the moon to start curing disease here. And autoimmune disease and cancer are opposite sides of the same coin. And I thought people started going, have you looked at what you're doing in the world of autoimmune disease? This particular one using this as a blueprint for curing a lot of other autoimmune diseases. So that's really what I'm passionate about now. And I have to say I have an amazing team that supports me. I couldn't have gone through this journey without Dr. Michael Yeaman who's head of molecular medicine at UCLA. I mean he's the scientist that you know, we've gone everywhere from you know, the Harvard's to the Mayo to we were doing work with Verily at Google looking at biomarkers. I mean he's always by my side and probably one of the smartest people. So I'm very fortunate that I've put together a great team of people and they see how far we've come. So. So I'm actually looking at how this story ends is I'm going to like friggin be a big part in working and curing autoimmune disease around the world. Because you know, Allie said early on in her journey, and her journey is really for her to talk about, but she said mom, this isn't just about you and me anymore. And there was a turning point. I was like, you're right, it's not. And when I see now all the patients and the parents and you know, and I just feel if my voice can help give voice to other people, this is what I'm doing.

And for our viewers and for our listeners, how is Ali?

Ali's doing really well. She passed the bar, she went to law school, she was her own champion. I mean I think early on she was like mom, I don't want to know what I have, don't tell me. Which was really, can you imagine in the early days of walking around thinking oh my gosh, my daughter has four years, doesn't even want to know. But she goes, I know whatever it is mom, you'll figure it out. But Allie's really the one who has figured it out and she's doing really well and she's a champion and you see how the toll it takes even on I have two other children and one at the time was a musician on the road opening for One Direction for years and he's out on the road and I'm going and going to these different institutions and I should say, because as people are going through this and whatever your journey is, even while I was going through this and this was Allie's, there was at one point that I myself became diagnosed with cancer and I had to really sort of go, this can't be Again that visualization I was like, this isn't going to be the movie where the mom's trying to save the daughter, but then she gets cancer and she dies. Or Lorenzo's Oil, which people told me about, where he dies. It was like, no, I'm going to. Whatever the odds are, whatever things happen, there's another way to look at it and another way to persevere and get through it.

What have you learned about. So, like, let's say there are people in the audience who are listening or watching today. They know someone who's struggling with an autoimmune disease or someone in their life or maybe even. And even if they are, I have people in my family and life. Where do they start? What do they do? Where do they get help? Like, what. What are the best places that you've seen or places of support? Especially if people aren't in a, you know, financial. Don't have financial capacity to help solve some of those things?

Well, first and foremost, they have to start within. They have to find their voice and not be a victim of it. But go, what. What can I do in my situation? When I created. I created an app, NMO Resources, and I started to put together, building an actual community for patients to have support groups. So look for other people that are going through what you're going through and start going through that. You know, having people that you surround yourself in life, try to put together a team, even at whatever level. And I know people will look at. And I've heard people like, Victoria, we don't have the money you have and all of that. No, but you have a voice. And, you know, if something you're hearing doesn't feel right, getting those second opinions, advocate for yourself. That's a really, really big part of it and a big part of what I do when I'm doing my patient days where I bring together hundreds of patients together, I'm advocating for them, but I'm getting them ultimately to advocate for themselves because that's what they need to do and seek out. Just do the research, go online, look at the different things and sort of vet them for yourself and see what feels right. It's all about taking action. I'm working on another book right now that'll come out next year, but it's called Worrier to Warrior and Worry. I always say worry weighs more when you carry it alone. So you gotta take that worry and kind of redirect it and channel it and do the things. Become that warrior for yourself. That will ultimately lead you to a better place.

Victoria, you've been so vulnerable and generous and kind today with sharing your journey, sharing challenging moments. And today I just want everyone who's listening watching to know we have only skimmed the iceberg of the amount of work, the depth, the story. And so I highly recommend that both of these books saving each Other and the Power of Rare. If you're truly fascinated by the depths of this story and journey that you dive into those two books because like I said, we've only. We've only touched the tip of the iceberg. But Victoria, we. We end every on purpose interview with a final five or a fast five, which have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum. And I always ruin it by asking for more details, so that, that's up to me. But Victoria, I'd like to ask you your final five. The first question is, what is the best advice you've ever heard or received?

I'd say my mom early on said, wash your face, put on some makeup and just go out there and do it.

I like that. That makes sense. That's the makeup alliance.

And then I started a cosmetic company.

What you tell your kids every day.

Okay, just.

Yeah, that's great.

Second question, what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

You'll never be able to do that. You know, you're aiming too high.

So true. Question number three. How would you define your current purpose?

Oh, gosh. I mean, that's. My purpose is to cure autoimmune disease around the world, but really is my purpose is to just be a good, A good person, a kind person to help people and. And truly just share all the blessings of the good fortune in my life. That's really my purpose.

Question number four. You use this phrase a few times in the interview, like finding your voice. You have to have a voice finding. What is the best way for someone to find their voice when they feel they've had to be quiet. Silence or they never had one in the first place.

Well, I don't believe nobody's had not had a voice in the first place. We all have that. For me, I always encourage people to just to get quiet with yourself, which is different than becoming quiet, but getting quiet with yourself. Kind of a lot of times I use that visualization of just zooming out and hearing myself say it in my mind and then letting the words come out just like they did when I made my scream and I was afraid and those words came out is be willing to do it. Just do it. You know, I'm just. That's so important to Me, Just get quiet, center yourself, think about it, and then just say it. Move it, move through it. Just do it.

Beautiful. And fifth and final question. If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

If we could all just get back to our shared sense of humanity, you know, that really more than not, people are good people. I have seen, and that is one thing, Jay, I'll tell you, working with 40 different countries and all the different researchers and scientists from around the world, when they walk in the doors of my conferences, everybody there is there to really help people. All the politics, all the other stuff, we're there to help people. People and just that if we could just get back to that shared sense of humanity and loving one another, there'd be nothing better than that.

Thank you. Victoria. Is there anything that I haven't asked you today that you deeply want to share or something on your heart or your mind or your soul that you feel called to share?

I don't know. What do you think people hearing this, will they, will they benefit from it? I mean, you're hearing it for the first time.

Meant everything I said. It's so honestly moving to hear a journey of someone, just a. Just a real human story of someone who achieved material success after so much personal tribulation and trauma to then switch to a service based life and now dedicated even further, of course through helping Ali, but now to helping autoimmune diseases.

Right.

As a whole.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if there's a better story arc for a movie. You know, it's like that. You know, I don't know if. It's almost like you couldn't write it.

Yeah.

Because it's so powerful that someone would be able to rise from those situations. Even, you know, third marriage, you said like, like.

Yeah, Bill, yeah, of course.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, like to go through that after what you've been through, to, to have that ability to find love again and create love and then to have a child and kind of have everything picture perfect externally it may seem.

Yeah.

To then have the worst news you could potentially ask for and. Yeah, you know, I, I think it, I think it's going to move and help a lot of people. I, I wouldn't have. I. I mean, I don't know many people who've lived that life, so.

Yeah, well, you know what I mean, honestly, just the fact that you've given me the opportunity, because, you know, there are probably a lot of people that are going through what they Go through. And it's hard to get people to pay attention. Getting press early on was like, forget it. I mean, it's like, it's not sexual, sexy. It's not, you know, people are talking about, whatever. It's always something that. And to me, it's like, this is a great story for how things can actually happen. When you really do see how these doctors and patients and people work together and what's been built, it really is extraordinary. I mean, it's been 15 years now, and just even, you know, just going through the hall of Fame, you know, which was amazing, just to have that experience of having Gloria Steinem induct me into the hall of Fame or the Pope, which we'll get you there, was all extraordinary. You know, who would think that somebody who didn't graduate high school and, you know, is all of a sudden those kinds of things.

How much have you invested now in this journey? How much have you personally invested into this?

I've put in $80 million of my own money.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

And that's. That's. That's important, too.

And that $80 million is really, you know, you look at that. It's hundreds of millions that a pharmaceutical company had to put in, and I had to show them and build on a model to show them how they can make money, you know, And I could have just, you know, become angry or, like, why do I have to do that? They can just do that. But you have to. You have to kind of. I sit in everybody's seat, always in my mind, in the room, and go, how do I get everyone aligned so that we can all keep moving forward? And that was really, really important, is to look at what everybody's needs were in that room, what different countries, different institutions. But then saying to the Mayo Clinic, like, unless you work with Oxford or whoever that is, you know, I'm not writing this check. So everybody had to work with another institution in all the research.

I think that's the most beautiful thing. That it's. You're just using the success you had in service. I mean, what. What better use of success is there than in service to. To others?

Yeah.

And now that you're dedicated to helping, hopefully, prevent and solve autoimmune diseases, I mean. Yeah, I feel like, so you're so right that so many people are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed, diagnosed too late. Like, I'm hearing about it all the time.

That's what this will really help Jay, too, is that because so many people are misdiagnosed with different things. Most of the patients that now have what Allie has, they've been misdiagnosed before the doctors even knew what it was. They were misdiagnosed with Ms. Or so that's why there's so many more patients than originally they thought. And I created. There's an assay that it's literally a blood test that tells you if you have it.

So how accessible is that for everyone?

Anybody can get it. Anybody can get it. I mean, in this case, the doctor Mark checked that box, you know, for that test. But. Yeah, but that's why I created the app and things, because when you go to an emergency room, a lot of people, they wouldn't even know about this condition. And then the. When you're not getting treated, you're just having more and more.

How does the app work? Anyone can use it from home.

The app? Yeah. It's on your phone? Yeah, it's just on your phone.

Can you tell us which what exactly? The name of the app.

The app is called NMO Resources, and you literally download it and it's got everything. I mean, it's. It's extraordinary to see there isn't something like this that exists. And it's totally free. It's got everything from the clinical trial that are going on to support groups. Anywhere in the world where you are, you can find a physician. It talks about what a relapse looks like. I mean, if you're having an attack, you go into an emergency room, you show them the app, everything is right there. I mean, it's really extraordinary. I wanted something that people would have in real time if you had this for all conditions. I mean, people creating something like this is amazing.

Are you trying to do that for other autoimmune diseases as well now?

What I'm doing now, especially in the one with Allie's case, is a lot of times in different conditions, you don't know if you're having a relapse. So I'm working with Verily, which is part of Google, in helping find all the biomarkers. And also I've created something called a relapse navigator, which doctors will be using. That is really kind of a shelf where you can put in the different symptoms and things that you'll be able to. Patients and doctors can know if they're having attacks. So thinking about technology now, with where we're going to be with AI and all of these things, I mean, when I started, I think there was maybe three papers that were published on what it Used to be called, before nmo, Devic's disease. And now there's thousands that have been published since I've been doing this work. Literally thousands.

It's been 15 years that you've been dedicated to.

Fifteen years, yeah. Fifteen years I've been doing this. Fifteen years I've waited to talk to you or to talk in general, just to get, to get the message out there because it's really, really tough. And I know there's a lot of people in the world that are suffering with these kind of conditions and diseases. And there's probably a lot of parents that are trying to figure it out and figure out how to make enough noise or get the attention. Because autoimmune disease is not going away anytime soon until we all really put our focus on it and know that if we can cure autoimmune disease and cancer, I mean, think of. And they are different sides of the same coin. When you treat one, you get the other. So it's. You're much more vulnerable to that.

And what's that gap? Like what is. Because you always feel, I guess we assume that so much money is going towards solving cancer and solving this. Like, if is money. The issue is time. The issue is collaboration. The issue, like what's the.

I think what makes me the craziest is when people give a lot of money, say they're very well intentioned, they're giving money to something, but it's going to maybe to pay for a chair for a professor or, you know, it's not going where it needs to go 100%. You know, we're pretty much. I've put in $80 million of my own money, of our family money. Every penny goes to research and science a lot of places. It just doesn't or it's not put to. Like everything I do is tranched. I have to see results. Everything has to be translational, meaning bench to bedside. If you don't see that it's gonna be really on the critical path to make a difference. I don't fund it. So a lot of money is spent on things that, you know, scientists and God bless them, but they'll research, you know, the head of a pin forever. You know, I mean, you have to sort of be very strategic and you have to go, okay, where is the gold in this that I'm gonna fund it because it's really gonna make a difference.

And why is it important for the people to make a noise? Because like you said, like, they can't help solve it. They can't they necessarily. The solutions don't exist right now. If someone's struggling, what. What's your take for the prevention but also like the living with. For someone who, you know, what if is that obviously some of that for NMO is in the app.

Yeah.

But if it's autoimmune diseases in general.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that basically. Well, I would tell anybody that has an autoimmune disease, look at this and look at the things that we recommend. I mean, obviously you've got to be speaking to your own doctors and following your own medical advice because, you know, I'm not a doctor. I'm like Dr. Mom, you know. But I would say that, you know, there's a lot more research out there and people that are making huge advances that a lot of people don't even know about. So you have to really advocate and do the research and do the deep dive. Don't just go with what the one doctor may say to you. There's a lot of people working in these areas that you may know nothing about. And look at it on the broad spectrum of like, set it on the world stage, look at it globally, see what they're doing in different countries. You know, really educate yourself. That's what I had to do. I mean, I had to really learn it and, and study it and understand it. So you just can't be a victim of it. And I know that's a lot easier said than done, especially when you're in pain and you're struggling and you don't have money. But you gotta find a way. You just gotta find a way. I always find a way.

Yeah. Thank you, Victoria.

Thank you so much. Thankful. Thank you.

I mean, I was moved the whole time. Yeah, exactly. I think it's one of the, you know, it's personal story to me is, is the best way to help inspire and enliven others. And I think everything you shared today will touch people's hearts and move them into action.

So thank you. Well, thank you. Listen, you grateful you gave me this opportunity to.

Well, I'm grateful to call you a friend and you've told me, you know, we've talked about so many of those things before. But even for me to sit and hear you in this way and, and knowing how it's going to impact my community is going to be really beautiful. So.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah. When we do a lot of, you know, I do a lot of research and work in India as well, like worldwide. So, you know, it's just so many people that they Just don't have the access or they don't know or they are too afraid to, you know, so anything that you can do, I mean, you're the best.

I'm here to help. I believe in it. I agree with you. I don't, I don't know if there's any bigger thing to solve than healthcare. Like, I don't, I don't think there's anything more important in the world.

Yeah.

Than solving incurable diseases.

Yeah.

Because everyone should be able to live a healthy and.

Yeah. And, and I think that's why if people go, well, gosh, if she did it and like no experience other, you know, like the way I started and found my way into it. But when you actually, that's when I honestly when people started saying to me, you know, this is actually going to change Ms. Or this is actually going to change lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. And I was like, really, like, then I just thought this is, this is, this is the, this is the work. This is my life's work, you know.

Thank you, Victoria. Thank you to everyone who's been listening.

And watching back at home.

Please make sure that you share this with friends. You know, would be inspired by it, moved by it, and please let me know what really resonated with you and stood out for you. A big thank you to Victoria. Again. Thank you and thank you so much for your friendship and your service. Victoria means the world. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

If this year you're trying to live longer, live happier, live healthier, go and check out my conversation with the world's biggest longevity, Dr. Peter Attia on how to slow down aging and why your emotional health health is directly impacting your physical health.

Acknowledge that there is surprisingly little known about the relationship between nutrition and health.

And people are going to be shocked.

To hear that because I think most people think the exact opposite.

Let's be honest. Life is stressful. It's work, it's relationships and the state of the world. But there's a way to bring that stress level down.

Calm.

It's the number one app for mental wellness with tons of content to manage.

Anxiety, promote concentration and help you unwind.

There's music, meditation and more calm. Makes it easy to de stress. You can literally do a one minute breathing exercise. Personally, I love the soundscapes. Nothing like a little rain on leaves.

To help soothe my nervous system.

I've actually been working with calm for a couple of years now and I'd love for you to check out out my series on reducing overwhelm eight Short Practices Quick relief Right now, listeners of on purpose, get 40% off a subscription to Calm Premium at calm.com j that's C-L-M.com j-A Y for 40% off. Calm your mind. Change your life. Success starts with your drive, and American Public University is here to fuel it. With affordable tuition and over 200 flexible online programs, APU helps you gain the skills and confidence to move forward. Whether you're changing careers, starting fresh, or pursuing a lifelong passion, our programs are designed for people who never stop. You bring the fire. APU will fuel the journey. Learn more at apu. Apu.

Hey, it's Joel and Matt from how to Money if your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back prices, they're still high, and the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right, yeah. Each week we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on, and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence. Listen to how to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of.

Anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings. Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on on me to access my subconscious mind games. A new podcast, Exploring nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic Programming. Is it a self help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.