Mona Das- edited - Linked Scheduled

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Welcome back to another amazing episode of Investing Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur podcast being hosted over here at PaoloPalooza. But today's guest is a first ever. They're a trailblazer, a change maker, fearless advocate for systematic systematic change because they come from the halls of government to the front lines of entrepreneurship. She's dedicated to her career to breaking barriers and driving impact. As a former Washington state senator, she spearheads nearly 30 bills focused on environmental justice and equality. But her mission didn't just stop there. She's the founder of Canary Revolution and Moxie Money using her business acumen, fundraising expertise, and passion for social justice to create lasting change. And if that wasn't enough, she's also a creator of an award winning documentary documentary doc.

You think I could speak documentary badass women doing kick ass shit. Get ready to be inspired by a leader who is provide proving that business, politics, and purpose can go hand in hand because today, we're sitting now with Mona Diaz. Mona, thank you so much for being here.

It's pronounced Das, just so you know. Das. Oh, I've opposite it's spelled the opposite of sad, I like to say.

I I love that. Das. It is because you are obviously with the energy you bring to it, you're the opposite of sad. You're you're the powerhouse of positivity.

That's right. Powerhouse of positivity. I like it.

So I wanna know first Yeah. We're gonna do we're gonna tackle two questions. I normally ask why you became an entrepreneur or why did you just like throw out the shackles. But I wanna know why did you decide to become a senator and then switch the game to becoming an entrepreneur? So why did you become a senator first?

Well, I started off as an entrepreneur, and then I will tell you this story is my favorite to tell. And I just landed my first TED Talk in Florence, May. So you're gonna hear basically my TED Talk, but here's how it goes. So I do my best thinking in the shower. Oprah Winfrey says it's because it's complete separate sensory deprivation. And so I was visiting my brother one day, and I got out of the shower. And he was with his girlfriend, now wife, mother of my amazing nephews. And I said, I'm gonna be a senator.

And we literally laughed out loud because I'm Indian. Like, I'm very classically Indian. Half my family are doctors. The other half are engineers, and there's no other choices for people growing up in The United States as Indians. Like, that's just your only choices. So when I said I wanted to be a senator, we literally laughed out loud. And it's one of those ideas that I call my BHAGs, big, hairy, audacious goals, that I put on the shelf. And I know we all have those.

The thing that you envision, the universe downloads it or got or source or whatever you call it, download it to your brain, and you go, no. I can't do that. And this was that dream for me. And so this dream sat on the shelf for many, many, many, many years. Fast forward, and I am walking my dog. And believe it or not, my little dog, Cleveland, has more energy than I do. And Hard to believe. He's yeah.

It's very hard to believe. You should've seen him. And so if I would stop on a walk, he would bark and pull. And so I literally oh, I gotta I gotta do the demonstration. I literally oops. My phone was I literally saw a sign, and it was a yard sign. And it said Pramila Jayapal for state senate. And I knew four things when I saw this sign.

Phil, I knew she was a woman. I knew she was Indian. I knew it said senate, and I knew the final one, if she could do it, I could do it. I know. I knew you were gonna feel that way. And this is why I believe, Phil, that representation truly matters. And this is why I show up for every podcast, every interview, every school that invites me to speak because, you know, I could be the inspiration for the next little girl from India. Right? And I forgot to mention that my family came to America with $6 when I was eight months old.

So for me to then become a Washington state senator and that was my first. Like, I didn't do anything before that. Most people do school board and then city council, and then they're in the house. By the time they get to the senate, they're old. And I was 48, I think, which is really young for politics. And, someone told me they thought I looked 35 the other day, but I'm 53 just in case you're wondering.

Again, wrong with the the the black don't crack. Brown I yes. Brown don't age in this regard.

Brown no. Ray brown raisin what is it? Something don't raisin. Brown don't raisin. Oh, I could get it right with raisin. But, anyway, I can't so this dream fueled me for a long time, and then, you know, I saw this sign and I thought, well, gosh. You know, I can do it. And so I'll fast forward, you know, because we don't have too much time today, but I will get to the part where I flipped a seat. That means I sent it from Republican to Democrat.

I won by 950 some votes. I knocked on 8,000 doors personally. My shoes ripped. I my campaign knocked on 30,000 doors. I was the closest flippable district to Seattle. So I had the governor came and knocked doors for me. The senator Cantwell came in. I mean, I literally every rock star politician in my state supported me and knocked on doors for me and 30,000 other door knockers.

So that's how I won. I also won because I have grit and tenacity like you've never seen. I mean, my family came here with nothing. Right? And my father has five college degrees and 38 patent and all this bullshit about what's happening with the current administration. Immigrants are what make our country great, and I know you feel that way too about Canada. And it's one of those things where it's like, you've gotta be kidding me. Immigrants are you know, my dad has 38 patents and five degrees. I don't know any white person that has that.

Like, I just don't. I really don't. I'm sure they're out there, but I don't know them. And so, you know, and then then his this genius's daughter becomes a senator. Right? And then I make 28 laws in four years. Most of my white male colleagues pass zero or one a year, and I passed 28 in four years. I sponsored, like, 800 bills. I mean, like, I think we added up the amount of money that I brought home to my district, and it was something like 3 to 5,000,000.

I mean, I did a lot in four years, but I'll say this. I wanted to make bigger impact, and I realized that I wanted to make global impact. So when I left the senate and the things that I'm responsible for, which I think you'll approve of, especially being, Canadian, is I banned plastic bags for my state. I banned styrofoam for my state. I banned all single use plastics. Because I have a housing background, I was a more in the mortgage industry for seventeen years as an entrepreneur. I did a lot of affordable housing stuff for black and brown people. My district has speaks a 38 languages, so it is little Monas running around.

Many whose parents cannot vote because they're not citizens. And so I was the voice where every immigrant, like, every immigrant in the state would knew about me and would call my office. We had the busiest office and the most mail of any offices in senate, and we would do whatever we could to make sure immigrants had a voice. My entire staff was women of color, and I I love it when people are like, we just can't we just can't find anyone. And I'm like, well, that's funny. I found four. I don't know about you. But, anyway, I digress off that soapbox.

So the best part of my story is what happens next. So I flip a seat. I win by, like, 950 some votes. I raise, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars to win. I knock on all the doors. I have I brought people along on my journey like I am with you. Here's what the yard signs are for. Here's how many doors I knocked a hundred and one doors almost every day, and the hundred and one is significant.

In my Indian culture, adding an extra dollar to gift is good luck. So if I ever raise money for everything, anything, which I do all the time, you'll see all the amounts end in one. So I made it my my mission to knock on a hundred and one doors every time I went out. And let me tell you, that takes about four to six hours. I lost, like, 25 pounds of the of the. So I have to get some water. I'm so thirsty. All day as you know.

So I'm is that we my my, chief of staff and I, he's from, Meehan culture in China and also an immigrant. And we were like, okay. We have to pick out an office. And because there were six new of us senators, I was last name Da, so I got to go first. I was the first in the alphabet alphabet, Olympics. And so we wanted to pick the office. It was the smallest one of our choices, but we were so excited because it was a a view of the dome. And our dome, our capital is a replica of Washington DC.

So there's the the dome, the senate on the right, the house on the left, and it's just smaller, right, in Washington state. So our view was the one of the dome, and that's why we picked it. And, again, smallest office, but, you know, we were just like, we really wanna see that dome because for us, we knew there were gonna be hard days. I mean, I did buy a couch that moved into a bed because there were days that I actually slept there. Right? And, I mean, you're passing bills on the floor till one, two, 03:00 in the morning, and it's it's very tiring. And So I'm just clarifying that. But two weeks later, this is the hair that my office was for Mila Jayapal's old office. The same woman that inspired me to run.

Yeah. This is I I used to I never used to be able to tell this story without crying. So today, I today, I've told it so many times. I'm not crying, but it's so impactful. Right? Like, to know that the juju that she left in there was my for me, like now she's a congresswoman. You know, she's kicking some ass over there. She's the head of the progressive caucus. So if you know who AOC is, is she's AOC's mentor, believe it or not? She is a badass.

So after I left the senate after four years, I just found it to be extremely racist, sexist, misogynistic, and full of hate, which if you Google Mon and Os, which I know you will after this interview, you'll find that I said that publicly and no one had ever done that before, apparently. So it was in 300 newspapers across the country. Oops. So oops. And I I called my senate democratic colleagues those things. So yeah. Anyway, so I left the senate, and then I decided, like, how can I like, I was one little human? Little. I'm, like, five one.

I know I have a really big personality, but I'm, like, five one and a quarter. And I was pushing a boulder up a hill. Right? And I thought, well, what the hell? How can I make a difference? I had launched the pack when I was still in the senate. I I elected eight I elected six black women into the legislature. Washington state is pretty lily ass white. I don't know if you've ever been there. It's not diverse in any way. And so to have another six black women in the senate, in the house, in the legislature was really awesome.

With that pack, I raised half a million dollars in three months four months. So I'm really good at raising money. And I was like, what can I do? How can I make a bigger difference? So, you know, as you do, you just make a movie. So I made a movie. It's called Badass Woman Doing Kick Ass Shit. And if any of your listeners want the sticker oh, it's on I can't see it. I have really cute stickers. So if they message me, my team will send you stickers.

Badass when we're doing kick ass shit stickers. I'll I'll stop the, this thing so you can see them. They're cute. So, basically, the movie was insane. We got a distribution deal, which is unheard of. We are now streaming on, Apple TV, on Amazon Prime. Here's the sticker. Badass woman doing kick ass show.

There we go.

That's an awesome sticker.

Yeah. Most of the best woman in your life. I was just on the marketer's cruise recently, and a guy took the sticker and crossed out the w o to make him badass men. And I I can't I felt the kinda way about it.

No. I can understand.

The fact that men is in the word woman and female male is in the word female is, like, you know, as a raging liberal feminist, it, you know, drives me nuts. But I will say this, the movie won. I think we won now 13 awards, including Cannes Art Festival in France, British Film Festival. We won the Toronto Film I mean, we won, like, we won two tellies, which if you're in the movie business, is like the equivalent of an Emmy. Our movie did awesome. And, you know, it's for the first time anyone's ever done, a movie like that in a long time. It was about eight women who ran for office, all black and brown women. I sent her black and brown women in most of my work.

I don't know if you use the term in Canada. We use it BIPOC, black

and white color. Yeah.

We have that. Yeah. So I sent her black and brown women at whatever I can. So the movie was about eight women running for office. And out of the eight, seven of us won. I'm also in the movie, so I know you're gonna go watch it now. And so yeah. So it's called Badass Women Doing Kick Ass.

The website is bawdkast.com, b a w d k a s. It's the first letter of each word, bodkast.com. And we've got crazy merch, though, you know, everyone that wants this awesome merch can go get it. But then when I realized that that wasn't enough, just making a movie to inspire the next generation and I don't think everyone's gonna run for office, obviously, but the purpose for me for the movie was that so that women, young girls and women could see themselves in any kind of leadership role. Because when I grew up in America in rural Pennsylvania, there was no I mean, I the first woman leader that I ever saw that was black or brown is Michelle Obama, like or Oprah. Right? Like or Beyonce. Like, those are our role models. Right? What and they're awesome.

Like, I'm no no ashamed of them. They're, you know, fantastic role models. Of course. I love all of them. But I wanted young girls to to look and see leaders that look like them. You know? And, so of the eight of them, eight of us in the movie, like I said, seven of us won. And so it's a really inspiring movie. And and what I loved about it the most is I know my story, but the other seven stories that are in the movie, like, they're all similar.

Like, this the the the the weaves of their story, the racism and the sex sexism and patriarchy they experienced in their own states. And these are women from Wisconsin, from Kentucky, from Oregon, and obviously, there's a few from Washington because I know them. But it's a pretty incredible movie, so I would encourage you to to listen to it and and leave us the review. My god. We have, like, four reviews. Well and I'll tell you why. The movie came out on election day, and so I thought it was gonna be a huge celebration. Mhmm.

It wasn't. And so I didn't even wanna promote my own movie because honest to god, I was depressed for, like, four weeks. I couldn't I was I was very involved in the Kamala Harris campaign. I started a new pack, Badass Women doing Badass Women pack, and I raised money for black and brown women in swing states and swing districts, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Washington. And, you know, about 70% of my candidates won, but, you know, who didn't win. And so it was so I I'm you know, we're gonna do a full press movie tour this year. Like, we're gonna do stuff to promote the movie, but I for four weeks, I just couldn't I couldn't function, to be honest.

I can fully understand that. The world, I think, was in in shock.

Yeah. Well and I'll tell you what's so funny, Phil. I was actually in Canada, in Vancouver on election night. I have some friends in grad school. One's Canadian, one's American, and they got married. And so they live up there. And so I was, like, there for a conference. They were so excited to watch the election reelection results with me, Then they weren't.

Yeah. A lot of people were even

It was just go ahead.

I I was gonna say a lot of people were very excited at the beginning, and then by midway, they they had lost that excitement.

I knew I knew from the beginning. I knew you know, and now that I can look back on hindsight, I thought I was gonna raise $5,000,000 because my mission was so clear getting these black and brown women elected. And we did down ballot race it so that it would help get out the vote for Kamala Harris. And I couldn't I raised, like, 75 to a hundred grand, and I'm a really good fundraiser. I was fundraising two about ten hours a week. That means dialing for dollars. Right? And I love doing I love, love, love, love fundraising. I have a sales background.

So I'll tell you what. I only raised 75 to a hundred grand because everybody went back to sleep. We promised ourselves we wouldn't do it, and then we fucking did it. And that is the problem. And now all these people that I called are calling me on their daily. What can I do? What can I do? What can I do? So luckily for these people who didn't give me any money and, you know, half America decided not to fucking vote, I've been working on a project for eight months. It's called the Canary Revolution. And we are launching it on March 6, and it is literally the antithesis to the shit that's happening in Washington, DC.

So we need a revolution. I'm building one. It's called the Canary Revolution. You may or may not know the term canary in the coal mine, so that's where it comes from. Yeah. My business woo woo coach that I call her, Leah, the oracle, she she named she named it. She was like, you're a canary, and that's basically you know? I got very emotional. I started crying really hard when she saw me for who I was, which is definitely canary in the coal mine.

And so canary revolution, monados.org, is where you can sign up for our mailing list. We're gonna launch it on March 6. It's gonna be epic. And we're gonna, you know, help people figure out actions that they can take because everyone's mad. And, you know, every day, Elon Musk, who was not elected, is removing, you know, they're removing things for poor people and black and brown people and farmers now and all of these people that voted for for this man. Well, nobody voted for Elon. All the people that voted for number 47, I can't even say his name. He he should who should not be named? I'm sorry, but the day that they started raiding farms, all those farm workers didn't show up.

So everyone who wants apples and oranges and grapefruits and whatever, I am here to tell you that fruit is literally rotting in the field. The vegetables are rotting in the field, and I don't see white folks signing up to go pick vegetables. No. And so what's gonna happen is they're gonna have to increase the salary from pennies on the dollar to $20.15, $18.20 dollars an hour, thirty dollars an hour. And do those people that were still cared about the cost of eggs, are they gonna pay $30 for a grapefruit? The answer is no. So for all those people, I wanna say this. You don't think your vote matters. This is what happens.

Well, we are running out of time, which I

I'm sure.

I think we could go for another twenty hours. Okay. But I I kind of wanna touch on one thing. Yeah. Because because you're looking to the future and bringing more BIPOC people into the world of politics, which again, brings that diversity, different mindsets. I wanna go back to 10 year old Mona, and I wanna know what advice you would give her so that she can be set for the life, going forward. What advice would you love to be able to

First, I would tell her her boobs will come in. Okay. Sorry. The second thing I would tell her is that, you are little, but you are mighty, and people will eventually listen to you.

I love it. Mona, I want you to tell my audience where they can see the movie, how they can connect with you, and Yeah. Everything like that to support you. So please let them know.

You're so sweet. Well, let me just end with what I always end with. My three mantras are dream big, believe in yourself, and keep going. You can watch my movie at monadas.org, m 0 n a d a s. My last name is the opposite of sat, m o n a d a s dot org. If you go to my website, you can click on every link, you know, whatever streamer you have. You should be able to watch the movie. I don't know that you can watch it from Canada.

I'm working on an international distribution deal, at the moment. My website is, you know, basically everything. I do a lot of speaking. I obviously love being on podcasts, and, the website for the movie is bodkist.com. But if you can get through it from monadoss.org, that's just easier. And I would love for y'all to join the canary revolution. We're gonna we're gonna change some shit.

I love it. Mona, I wanna thank you so much for being here to my audience.

Bill, am I your first senator you've ever interviewed?

You're the only senator I will be interviewing, because I don't think a lot of senators jump into the entrepreneurial world, but you're one of the best. I thank you so much for listening. Make sure to check out the show that's down below and always always invest in yourself.

That's alright, baby.

Thanks for joining us on Invest in Yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. The podcast mogul reminds you that your journey to freedom and success starts with one powerful move, investing in yourself. If today's episode sparked your fire, hit that follow button on Spotify and drop us a comment. Share your wins, your challenges, and what drives you to break free from the corporate grind. Remember, you're your best investment. Always invest in yourself because your potential is limitless. Until next time, keep hustling and take control of your destiny.