Dr. Julia Garcia — psychologist, author, and host of The Journey with Dr. J — built two businesses that didn’t survive.
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The first was a performing arts collective that grew to 20 people before the economics collapsed. The second was a mental health app for young girls experiencing harassment on social media — grant-funded, scrappy, and gaining real traction — until a cross-country move, a young son, no childcare, and an eroded sense of self-worth made it impossible to continue. She never set up a single investor meeting. That one, she says, was the hardest to recover from.
What she learned from both failures shaped her book, The Five Habits of Hope — and a sharp distinction she draws between hope and resilience. Resilience, as she sees it, has been co-opted by a push-past-it culture that encourages people to power through without addressing root causes. Hope is different. It’s a cognitive science with measurable predictors of success: more collaboration, better problem-solving, greater willingness to adapt. Hopeful teams outperform resilient ones — and leaders who build emotionally safe environments are the reason people stay.
Dr. Garcia also turns the tables mid-episode, walking host Mark Graban through a live coaching exercise on honesty, self-worth, and the feelings we suppress instead of process. It’s one of the more candid moments the show has had.