From Toy Designer to Writing Educator and Founder

Linked In : [00:00:00] Linkedin presents.

Jonathan Fields: [00:00:13] So today I'm so excited to share one of our new features on the SPARKED podcast, Career Transformation Stories. We invite guests to share inspiring stories of career change from reimagining the work that they're currently doing. So it feels so much more alive to leaving behind unfulfilling jobs to find, create, or really even reimagine more inspired, energized, purposeful, meaningful, and joy filled paths. And we're exploring also how they're Sparketype has played a role in this journey. It's all about how to transform work into one of the best parts of your life. Today, you'll meet Gabriela Pereira, who transitioned from her dream job as a toy designer to founding DIY MFA, an educational company for writers, after leaving her initial career due to health concerns, ultimately realizing she could fulfill her maker passion in an entirely new way and a new field. Now, quick note you'll hear us mention something we call Sparketypes in conversation. What is that? Turns out we all have a unique imprint for work that makes us come alive. This is your Sparketype when you discover yours, everything, your entire work life, even parts of your personal life and relationships, they tend to begin to make more sense. And until we know ours, we're kind of fumbling in the dark. And just like today's listener did, you can discover your Sparketype for free at sparketype.com.

Jonathan Fields: [00:01:29] You'll find a link in the show notes. Now our guest today, Gabriela Pereira, is the founder of DIY MFA. It's an online education platform empowering writers to hone their craft outside the traditional MFA system. But Gabriela's journey. It began with an unexpected detour. After achieving her childhood dream of becoming a toy designer, a personal health crisis forced Gabriela to pivot from the corporate world and through deep introspection, she realized that her true callings were creating new offerings while constantly acquiring knowledge. The essence of her primary maker and shadow maven, Sparketypes. Now you'll hear Gabriella's courageous story of leaving that initial path despite societal pressures, and she openly discusses the vulnerabilities that became her strengths as she constructed an intentional new career sparked by learning and making and helping others confidently shape their stories. So get ready to feel inspired by one woman's journey of self-discovery, overcoming obstacles, and ultimately designing a body of work in full expression of who she truly is. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is SPARKED. Hey, and before we dive into today's episode, a quick share. So if you're a coach, a consultant or a leader, and you would just love to stand out more in 2024 and beyond. With a powerful new credential and a set of results driven superpowers, we have got something for you.

Jonathan Fields: [00:03:05] With nearly a million people now discovering their profiles, the Sparketypes have become a global phenomenon. People want their work to light them up, and oftentimes they would love some help along the way, which is why we developed our certified Sparketype advisor training. As a certified advisor, you will discover cutting edge tools that spark profound work life client transformations. Stand out with a highly unique credential and skill set in a crowded market. Find ease and flexibility with templated engagement flows. You'll become a part of a global network of change makers, and you'll rack up 40 ICF continuing education credits. Our fall cohort is enrolling now with visionaries just like you, and we would love to invite you to uplevel your capabilities as a coach or consultant or leader by becoming a certified Sparketype advisor. To learn more about the fall training and see if it's right for you, just click the link in the show notes now or visit sparketype.com. Slash pros. One of my curiosities often when we're just sort of starting out, I've been asking folks, is, was there a story in your mind about about work? What what it was, what it wasn't, what it should or shouldn't be or expectations when you were growing up?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:04:24] Yeah, that's such a great question. You know, for me, it wasn't so much a story as it was a behavior. I was a kid who made things all the time. So like, I remember as a, you know, elementary school kid, my parents said we couldn't use our allowance to buy siblings Christmas gifts because otherwise we'd use up all of our allowance. And so we had to make the gifts. And it was part of my, you know, joy of the holidays was coming up with what I was going to make for my brother and sister, and I would make these elaborate games and these puppets and like all sorts of things. And so it was always about like, I like to build stuff, I like to put things together. I like to take things apart and see how they work and then put them back together in a better way. Mhm.

Jonathan Fields: [00:05:11] Well, you and I share that in common for sure. I've had that impulse from the youngest days. I used to make Franken bikes from bike parts in the junkyard when I was a young kid, just begged my parents to take me to the junkyard on a Sunday morning when they knew everyone was bringing their stuff down. So. So I'm curious also when you. So that impulse is alive and well, you know, in you from the earliest days, was there any sort of either spoken or just assumed expectation sort of within the family about like what was an appropriate approach to work or like, this is what people do or this is what work was about.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:05:42] That is such also a great question. So to give you a good answer for this question, it's important to give you some context. So I'm a first generation American, which means that my family has very much that immigrant, like, pull yourself up by the bootstraps type of mindset. And it was all about like, work was work. And you, you did your work and it wasn't supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be work. And you put bread on the table and, you know, that kind of thing. And also, I was very much a perfectionist as a child and as a teenager. And so I was very much a high achiever. So there was this impulse, this sort of expectation that I was going to go to this, you know, top college and that I was going to, you know, blow everybody's minds. And I was going to be like some big something. And it was going to take the world by storm. And that was a lot of pressure, to be honest, as a, as a teenager. And I don't say that my parents did this like on purpose. I think it was more just like that sort of overarching sort of cloud of feeling around the whole sort of family culture that was sort of just like part of the the way we we were. Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: [00:06:55] I mean, that makes a lot of sense. And how did that land with you? Like, what were the what were the assumptions that you started making about if those were the expectations from the outside in, what was happening on the inside of you? How was that landing with you? So there was.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:07:09] A disconnect, right? Because my inside wanted to make things. I wanted to just throw caution to the wind and just make cool stuff and not really care whether that cool stuff was viable or whether it was going to go anywhere, or whether it was going to be something I could sell or, you know, produce on some mass level. Like, I just wanted to build stuff. And then there's this expectation of like success. And you got to like, go out there and make it big and sort of the traditional what success looks like for most people. And it was definitely a disconnect. And there was a lot of feeling of like being a slacker. Um, even though I wasn't a slacker. Like, I, you know, I went to a great college, I went to graduate school, I went to multiple graduate schools. Like, I did a lot of things that you would consider, like, successful. Um, as you know, a young adult. But there was that feeling of like, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing and sort of trying to, like, do that creative stuff on the sly.

Jonathan Fields: [00:08:13] Um, and I know for you that there was a second through line, sort of like running in your head from the earliest days through line. That ties in with one of my all time favorite movies. Big. Um, so take me there.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:08:27] Yes.So I always like to start. Whenever somebody references big, I like to say toy design is a lot of fun. It is nothing like the movie. Like you don't sit around playing with toys all day long. Like, it's very different. But there was a lot of, like, sewing, a lot of like, you know, making things and designing things and like, putting together like how? Like I learned how a stuffed animal was put together. Like, that was so cool. Um, but I, from a youngest age, wanted to be a toy designer. That was my thing. And it was very perplexing for a lot of the people around me because they're like, you want to do what? Like toy designer? Like, how does that fit in the world of, like, normal, successful stuff? And it was definitely something that every single decision I made in from, like high school through graduate school was always toward this idea of being a toy designer. Like every class I took, every major I took on, every extracurricular I participated in, there was some tie. There's some throughline that tied it all together to becoming a toy designer. And so that was the sort of thread that went through. And it was it was very challenging because, you know, people don't necessarily know what to do with you. Like, I remember when I went to the college career center my senior year and they were like expecting me to say, I want to work in finance or I want to work in, you know, as a consultant. And then I said, I want to be a toy designer. And they started parading me around the office like I was some sort of novelty item, because they had never seen someone who wanted to be a toy designer before.

Jonathan Fields: [00:10:04] That's too funny. Um, funny enough, I actually have another friend who ended up had that same passion as you from a young age and ended up in the space as well, but she was sort of on the other side, deciding she ended up being deeply involved in educational kids programming. But but the early part of her career was sort of like, you know, she would tell the stories of being on the floor with young kids, sort of like testing out different things and like, do they like or do they not like it? What's good, what's working? What's not working? Always with a bit of an educational bent. Also, she ended up being one of the people behind some of the biggest young kids TV shows that have been around for generations now. So when you're going through college and people are kind of raising their eyebrows. And because I would imagine them saying like, fantastic student working so hard, you know, like the world is your opportunity and and you want to design toys. Yeah, yeah. Like I would imagine there were a lot of moments where you had to feel like you almost felt like you were you had to defend yourself.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:11:00] Oh, for.Sure, for sure. And you know, the the way I kind of did that was by saying, you know, trying to turn it into a regular job, like, no, I'm going to go work at a toy company and I'm going to, you know, clock in and clock out and do what normal working people do. And that was sort of the way that I kind of couched it as a way of people being able to understand what I wanted to do. But really my, my vision, my goal was I just wanted to build toys like I had been building toys since I was a little kid, building toys for my brother and sister at Christmas time, all the way until, you know, forever, basically.

Jonathan Fields: [00:11:38] Yeah. So what did you actually get your degree in your undergrad degree.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:11:42] So I got a degree in psychology in English. I almost math majored, but dropped the math major at the very end because you could take all of the fun classes without taking the boring classes. And so. And I figured, like, no one in their right mind wants to take, like, applied topology just for fun. Except for this weird person right here. So I figured, like, you know, you could get into the cool courses in math that you couldn't get into as a non-major in psych in English. And then I went on and got a developmental psychology degree, a master's degree, um, in graduate school, and then eventually went on to get a writing degree as well.

Jonathan Fields: [00:12:22] Got it. Yeah. So, I mean, it's interesting right from the outside looking in, it looks like you're setting up, you know, for potentially some big career in psychology or, you know, communications, you know, with a really strong emphasis in psychology. But in fact, like all of these things, when you actually think about, okay, they're all a part of toy designing too.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:12:43] Yeah, exactly. And I mean, even my master's thesis was all about how the external design, the form and the functional design of toys influenced children's play behaviors. And the stories, like the narratives that they crafted around their their toy playing time.

Jonathan Fields: [00:13:02] Oh, wow. So, so did this. Now I'm curious, you know, because at some point, did this also move beyond I want to make cool stuff and toys just happens to be sort of like a topic of focus area that you're really interested in to. Also, the way that you could create things and what what effect that would have on people, on kids and like was it did it become as interesting, not just the creation process, but also like, and what can this do to and for others when they interact with it?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:13:31] That's really interesting because I always liked working with kids. I don't like babies. I'm very clear about that when they're in the larval stage. I just don't understand them. But once they like, reach that stage where they can kind of take care of themselves on their own, the age my kids are at, by the way, um, you know, like that, that's the fun age and, like, thinking about what you can do to set kids up so that they have the tools they need to succeed as grownups and that they have, like the sort of support network, like, how can toys give kids a window into, like, possibilities and help them to become even more of themselves and really just build their confidence, build their creativity? All of those things like that was definitely a through line, especially in grad school. Like I was really interested, particularly in back in when I was in grad school, it was the early 2000, and it was when gender toys were a really big thing, like you had like the girl toy aisle and the boy toy aisle, and there was very much a divide as to like what was appropriate for different genders, and thankfully that has now become much more fluid. But it was really interesting to me to see like how when you give those gendered cues to a toy, does it then impact the way the kid plays with that toy? Because that can have a really profound impact, right? Like if you're giving a child, what's the difference between a Ken doll and a G.I. Joe? Essentially, it's like just the outer trappings of the same type of toy, and yet they're played with in very different ways.

Jonathan Fields: [00:15:07] Yeah, that's so interesting. So when you when you get out of school, then you have now multiple degrees, you're sort of like, where does this how does your career start to set up?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:15:17] So from there, I ended up getting an internship that then turned into a full time job at a leading toy company just outside of New York City. I was living in New York at the time. I did the reverse commute, um, and it was my dream job. I loved this company. I loved their products. I remember, like having a dream board of like what companies I wanted to work it with. And this was like the company that most took up my dream board. Like it was like all the things aligned, the planets all aligned, and I was just living my dream life for a period of time. And that was just really exciting.

Jonathan Fields: [00:15:51] Yeah. What were you actually doing for them?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:15:54] So I was a product manager. So what that meant was essentially, it's like a glorified babysitter for products. So you kind of take the product from when it's an itty bitty baby idea, and you grow the product and you move all the moving parts. So you're dealing with the engineers. Most of them were overseas, and you're dealing with the manufacturers overseas and making sure that, like, everybody's kind of coordinating with each other and making sure that things like the instruction manual is written correctly and that everything gets tested properly and that there are no small parts if there's a, you know, or you need a small part warning all of those things, and then eventually you work with the marketing people to kind of get the product out the door and onto the shelves. So it's sort of like that as a product manager, you're kind of like that one person shepherding each of those products from beginning to end. And I had 150 products under my purview while I was working in the company.

Jonathan Fields: [00:16:51] So that sounds like the type of job where you're you're like, there may be a lot of things happening, but you're probably never going to get bored.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:16:58] Oh, no.No. And and I mean, to give you an idea of the variety of products, I had musical instruments that you play in the bathtub, other types of bath toys, spy kits, outdoor toys, you know, sort of gross motor, like, you know, jump ropes and stuff like that. And, uh, toddler products all like under my, you know, supervision. So, like when I got bored with one thing, I could very easily just shift gears, like, all right, I'm going to do spy kits for a little while and, and just kind of clear my head and then go back to toddler toys.

Jonathan Fields: [00:17:30] So from the outside looking in, I mean, this sounds like this is the dream job for you, and it sounds like for a period of time it was.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:17:37] It was. And then there was something else going on in the background. You see, I was also, at the time, newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and I was in the process of trying to figure out how I was going to manage this mental health situation. And my doctor and I tried everything. We tried every type of medication. And, you know, for most people, bipolar, you have to have medication involved along with the therapy. It's not something where you can just talk therapy your way through it. And so we tried every single medication under the sun, and only one thing either worked or didn't have horrific side effects. And that one medication unfortunately made my head a little fuzzy. So because I lived in New York City and I had to commute out to new Jersey. I had to drive. There was no like, uh, you know, bus situation. There was no train that would easily drop me off a block from work or what have you. I had to drive. I had to go by car, and I didn't feel safe with my head. A little fuzzy to be on the road. I mean, New York City traffic, even though it's the reverse commute, it's not, you know, super easy to drive. And I had to make a choice. I had to decide was I going to take the medication that I needed and basically have to walk away from my dream job? Or was I going to keep my dream job and turn my back on the medication I needed? Basically, it was a choice between mental health and the job, and I wish I could say that I made the responsible choice from the get go, but I didn't. It took me about a year and a half of trying to muscle through it, to get to a place where I finally realized, like, this is not working and I need to prioritize my mental health.

Jonathan Fields: [00:19:30] Yeah, but it's so interesting, right? Also because, I mean, and tell me if this was your experience from the outside looking in, it feels like it's also more nuanced than that, because on the one hand, you're choosing between your mental health and your job, but your your mental health is. So there's a condition that, you know, you're you're navigating, you're working with, you know, qualified professionals and finding medication that really helps you. But part of mental health for a lot of people, I mean, we know the mental health impact of of doing work that makes you come alive. It gives you a sense of meaning and purpose. So I would imagine this is more nuanced. It's not just, you know, because part of the job itself is also, in a way, supporting your mental health.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:20:13] And on the flip side, the mental health was also eroding my ability to find joy in the job. And so there was kind of that like the push pull, right? Like, yes, on one hand, this was my dream job and there was a lot of guilt surrounding this because I felt like I'm supposed to love this job. Why am I feeling so horrible all the time? And that so there was that tug of war that the job probably could have sustained me, and it did sustain me for about a year and a half, but it wasn't enough to kind of keep me going without, you know, having to really take my mental health and put it front and center and just deal with it.

Jonathan Fields: [00:20:55] Yeah. So at some point you you make a hard decision. Yeah. Um, to, to leave that job was, was this sort of a slow build type of thing where you just eventually realize it's time, or was there something, was there a moment or inciting incident said, okay, I have to actually make the call.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:21:12] It was like overnight. I mean, basically I had a meltdown. I was in the hospital, not like full on hospital, but in the ER. And it was this wake up call where I was like, I need to do something. Like I can't, just, like, clearly I've hit a tipping point and that this was, you know, I kind of pushed the boulder up the hill as far as it could go, and it just came tumbling down.

Jonathan Fields: [00:21:38] Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: [00:21:38] So. So where do you go from there?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:21:41] That's a good question. It took me about a year of just puttering around and not really knowing what I was doing. Um, I took some writing classes. I made a lot of things during that year. I made, like, I'm an avid knitter and crafter. So I had, like, you know, lots of Afghans and blankets and sweaters galore. Um, I made jewelry. In fact, some of my jewelry was even featured in a Madison Avenue boutique, which was kind of cool to see it, like in the window and stuff. Um, so I was making things, but again, it was kind of making things without a direction. And there was that expectation of like, all right, Gabriela, what are you going to start? You know, earning your keep around here when you're going to do something with yourself. And that's when I went to my second grad school, which was an MFA program, Master of Fine Arts in Creative writing, and it was there that I basically it was that graduation. Essentially, I had this light bulb moment where I realized that while I'd had this wonderful experience at the MFA program, I could have learned a lot of those same things on my own. And wouldn't it be great if there was a DIY version of the MFA curriculum that would allow more people to have access to this thing? That up until then, was really just very much siloed into, like academia, ivory tower kind of scenario. And so I started it started out as like a little blog that I just kind of puttered around on, and then it grew into a full on business, and now it's my full time job.

Jonathan Fields: [00:23:17] Yeah. Which is amazing. And this would probably also be a good time to mention that your your primary shadow Sparketype are the maker and the maven, which is the maker. For those listening who don't know, this is an impulse to create basically, you know, this is like you come up with ideas, but you're the person who doesn't just leave them as ideas. You're just like, how do I make this real in the world? And The Maven is all about learning. It's knowledge acquisition. So, you know, it seems like both of these are really alive and well in you. It's like you go deep into a learning process and then and then learning process. It sounds like it tends to light a flame in you that says, ooh, there's something to be made here also.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:23:54] Exactly, exactly. And like when I make things, I also want to understand everything about that thing. So like if I'm going to write an article, I'm going to research all the things because I want to know, like even if it's not completely directly relevant, I want to know all the things so that I can then write this one article. So yeah, maker and Maven are very closely intertwined in my personality.

Jonathan Fields: [00:24:18] Yeah. So so tell me more about what you've built and are continuing to build now then.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:24:22] So I built a company called DIY MFA, which is the do it yourself alternative to a master of Fine Arts and writing. Basically, we help writers get the knowledge without the college, and we do it in a lot of different ways. We do it through a book, which I wrote. We do it through, uh, courses that we've done. We have a sort of series of flagship courses that we offer. We do it through a membership community. So people who want to sort of extend their knowledge behind their courses, beyond the courses, um, can be part of the membership. We do it through sort of one off workshops. I'm always interested in making new things, so I don't like to sit on old curriculum for very long. There are certain courses that are tried and true, and those I don't rebuild just on a whim. But there's always that, you know, radar that I have of like, what's the next thing that I could build? What's the next thing that I could, you know, juicy thing that I could create for for my community.

Jonathan Fields: [00:25:24] Yeah. That is such a common maker trait. I'm often, um, accused as somebody who breaks things that don't need breaking because I'm just like. But but let's see if we can make it better even though it's working. Well, um, largely because, you know, it's just I like to do it. Um, so.

Jonathan Fields: [00:25:41] Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: [00:25:42] So as you're, as you're building this, when you think back to, you know, your whole life for, you know, like literally decades, like being a toy designer, being like, that person is in your mind, and then you're doing it and it's giving you a certain amount of joy. And you're, you know, you're expressing the maker and the maven through all that stuff. And then you make this really hard call to walk away, and then you start building this new thing. Do you feel like you're getting the same like Jones from what you're doing now, or are you satisfying that impulse that, um, that was alive and well in you from the earliest days? Stays. Do you feel like on a similar level but in a different way now or not so much?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:26:20] Yeah. Exactly that. I mean, it's it's like the same parts of my brain that I used as a product manager, the sort of ability to coordinate all of the different moving parts and see how, like, all these moving parts work together to build the thing we want to build. Um, that piece is very much alive and well in DIY MFA. Um, the the whole like impulse to create new things. Like, I'm always coming up with, like, what's the next new workshop we can build or what's the next cool giveaway we can create or whatever? There's also that like deep dive of knowledge that I didn't have as much of in the toy design world that, you know, back then it was a lot more about making, and the maven side of me wasn't as nurtured. I kind of had to nurture my inner maven in other ways. That is very much alive and well in DIY MFA, because I'm constantly given opportunities to dive deep and learn about, you know, different areas of the craft of writing or different, uh, just all the things that relate to my nerdy obsessions, you know, like all of those things that I just want to learn about for the sake of learning.

Jonathan Fields: [00:27:32] Now, that makes so much sense to me. When you think about what you're doing now, what's important about what you're doing in the way that you're doing it.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:27:42] So I think the thing that's really important about the work that I do at DIY, MFA is that it gives people hope. There's a lot of people out there who really have this passion, this dream, to see their story out in the world. And it may not be getting, you know, a number one New York Times bestseller spot or something like that. It may not be, you know, international bestseller or turn your book into a movie or something like that. It may just be like a grandparent who wants to gift their grandchildren with the story of their life, but they want to write it in a way that is moving and that is compelling. And that's true to their story, true to their voice. And that's what DIY MFA does, is like, we're you know, we're kind of the we bring the academic rigor of the MFA, but we make it accessible so that anybody can do it. Um, and I think that, I don't know, I think that's kind of special.

Jonathan Fields: [00:28:42] Yeah. I mean, it sounds pretty special to me. When you think of sort of looking back at this, let's use the phrase, the narrative arc of the work that you've been doing. Um, is there anything that sort of pops to your mind that you're looking back at it? You think, well, I might have done that differently had I known what I know now.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:29:00] Yeah. You know. The one thing that I wonder about is that decision to walk away. There was definitely a possibility at the time that I could have come clean and told my boss what was going on, and I didn't. I chose to play my cards close to the vest, and I did that for a number of reasons. This was the early 2000, so folks were not nearly as open minded about neurodivergence and whatnot as they are now, even though we still have a ways to go even now. Um, it was also, you know, bipolar by itself sort of carries a certain stigma. And at that point, I hadn't yet felt comfortable to, you know, reveal the diagnosis in a public way. Of course, now I talk about it very publicly, and it's become part of who I am and sort of my public facing role. But at the time, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it, and so I wanted to keep it close to the vest. Um, and there's a part of me that wonders, like, if I had told my boss, would she have let me telecommute? I mean, this was the early 2000, so it was pre-pandemic, like people were working from home. It would have been a real stretch, but maybe she would have let me work from home. Who knows? It's not like the work I did. You know, most of the people I was working with anyway were overseas. So it's not like me being in new Jersey versus being in Manhattan would have made a huge difference. But, you know, there's that part of me that wonders like, would that have been a different trajectory? Would I still be in a toy company today? I'm kind of glad I didn't, because it probably would have kept me there, and I never would have started DIY MFA if I hadn't had that sort of moment of crisis.

Jonathan Fields: [00:30:46] Yeah, but it is so interesting, right, though, that when we hear you sharing your story, your experience, you know, like here in 2024, it's sometimes easy to forget that a couple of decades ago it was a very, very different work, culture and world, especially when it came to mental health. Yes, you know that. I mean, there's still stigma that like people deal with on a regular basis, but thankfully it's become much more normalized to have open conversations and explore and support. And but, you know, in the early 2000, it was just a very, very different world, especially in the context of of work. You know, it was just sort of like, you know, you become, quote, that person. And nobody wanted to pay attention or understand or or realize, no, this is actually entirely supportable and figureoutable. Um, so it's I think it's important when we hear things like this. Not not to sort of like overlay, sort of like a modern day, you know. Well, you know, but when a modern day lens on what was just a very different environment and circumstance, you know, like 20 years ago. Um, and would have led to understandably very different decisions, you know.

Gabriela Pereira: [00:31:58] And I think it probably would have taken me a lot longer if I had stayed in the sort of more corporate setting to be more public about the bipolar. The fact that I was doing it in sort of my rules and my my turf, as it were, um, made it so that I felt like a certain level of confidence in sharing it. And I think part of that sharing of it was also, you know, a lot of it when I thought about sharing the bipolar the first time, I did so very publicly with my audience, with my community, um, back in 2016. And it was very I was very cognizant of the fact that it had to be of service. It couldn't be about me. It had to be something that was going to serve the audience in some way, that it was going to be of service to others, more than just it's not just me getting something off my chest. And that was very much a part of it. And the I think it's important that these stories are out there now, because it makes it so that people feel like they're there. It's not. You know, you get a diagnosis like this, it's not a death sentence. It's not the end of your life as you know it. There there are things that you can do and that you know, places you can go and support you can get.

Jonathan Fields: [00:33:16] You know, it's so important to share that message. Do you find yourself still just sort of like in different ways and on the side, like finding ways to let the toy designer out? Also, like, are you still making toys here and there, or is that sort of like in the past?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:33:30] You know. It's funny, like I'll occasionally like, I'm, I'm really into decks of cards, so I'll occasionally like design decks of cards and like, I collect them. I have like literally hundreds of decks of cards. And I like to design, like different, you know, images on them and things like that. And think about, like, what are different games that you could play with just an ordinary deck and things like that. So there's there's always that little the card thing is sort of my, my entry point into the toy toy space.

Jonathan Fields: [00:34:03] Mm.

Jonathan Fields: [00:34:03] Love. That feels like a good place for us to wrap up. Also, any any final just thoughts or words of wisdom you might offer to the community?

Gabriela Pereira: [00:34:11] I guess the thing to remember is, you know, it's not over till it's over. Like, you know, you think sometimes that you have a crisis in your life and you think that that's going to be the defining moment and that's going to be the thing that, you know, makes or breaks you. And the truth is, it doesn't it doesn't make or break you at all and just keep going.

Jonathan Fields: [00:34:33] Mm. Thank you. And if you'd like to share your career transformation story on the SPARKED podcast, to inspire others to maybe feel less stuck or unsure about their own career paths, we encourage you to apply to be a guest and check out the form in the show notes, because we believe that everyone deserves to find fulfillment and purpose in their work. And remember, if you're at a moment of exploration, looking to find and do or even create work that makes you come more fully alive, that brings more meaning and purpose and joy into your life. Take the time to discover your own personal Sparketype for free at sparketype.com. It will open your eyes to a deeper understanding of yourself and open the door to possibility like never before. And hey, if you're finding value in these conversations, please just take an extra second right now to follow and rate SPARKED in your favorite podcast app. This is so helpful in helping others find the show and growing our community so that we can all come alive and work in life together. This episode of SPARKED was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and Me, Jonathan Fields. Production and editing by Sarah Harney. Special thanks to Shelley Adelle for her research on this episode. Until next time. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is SPARKED.