Surviving the Side Hustle

From Trauma to Triumph: Building a Wellness Brand from Personal Pain

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 94

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What happens when your body betrays you despite doing everything "right"? For Diamandia, founder of the eponymous wellness brand, this crisis became the foundation for a transformative business helping thousands reclaim their health.

After experiencing significant trauma, Diamandia found herself gaining weight despite extreme caloric restriction and four-hour daily workouts. "I was calories negative 3000, gaining 10 pounds," she shares. "The math wasn't mathing." This frustrating contradiction led her to discover that inflammation and toxicity were sabotaging her health, manifesting as recurring shingles, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and severe food sensitivities.

The turning point came when she stopped fighting her body and started working with it. Focusing on anti-inflammatory living—from lymphatic drainage to detoxification methods, clean eating to stress reduction—she not only healed but achieved the physical results she'd been chasing for decades. "I've never physically looked the way that I look right now. And I'm 45," she reveals. "Now I push the least, work out the least, and eat the most."

Her business journey began equally unexpectedly. After breaking four fingernails using a poorly designed lymphatic drainage tool, she created her own prototype. With no marketing plan—just some iPhone photos and an Instagram story—she sold out her first launch in 45 minutes. From there, her product line expanded organically as she solved more personal wellness challenges, all while sharing her journey on social media.

The most remarkable validation came when friends who stayed with her and followed her routine experienced dramatic transformations, including one photographer who lost 15 pounds of inflammation in just seven days. These results inspired Diamandia's seven-day reset program and intimate wellness retreats in Costa Rica, where she hosts just five people at a time.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, her message resonates deeply: "Just keep going. I had no idea what I was doing or how to run an e-commerce business, but I knew I was supposed to help people." From hand-packing 9,000 orders from her third-floor apartment to recently expanding to a warehouse, her journey proves that authentic purpose can guide you even when the path isn't clear.

Discover more about Diamandia's transformative approach to wellness at diamandia.com or follow her journey on social media @diamandia.

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Speaker 1:

What's up, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Surviving the Side Hustle. On today's show here we've got Demondia Lingos. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2:

Good, how are you?

Speaker 1:

I'm doing great. I'm excited to kind of dive in and hear a little bit more about your story. I know when we first connected you shared with me a bit and I'm excited to kind of share the story and kind of dive more into some of the different things that you've gone through, some of your experiences and insights, and just kind of really hear all about you. Thank you All right. So to kick it off, would you mind kind of introducing yourself to the audience?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my name is Diamandia. I am the owner of the store Diamandia. Diamandia I am the owner of the store Diamandia, which that has been an interesting process in itself. Trademarking your first name was such a crazy experience. I started my store, my company, a little bit over two years ago.

Speaker 2:

I had no intention in starting an e-commerce company. Um, I had no intention in starting an e-commerce company. I had no intention in doing any of the stuff that I do now and it's basically been unfolding for me for the past like seven years. Um, a lot of that I've been resistant to. A lot of that I've had to accept and really surrender into. Um, this company was built based off of my healing journey with my body. I had suffered from a very intense trauma and was leveled pretty intensely and really had to figure out who I was and what I wanted my life to be like and who I wanted to be Because I was, and what I wanted my life to be like and who I wanted to be because I was, you know, in the ashes. You know I was scorched earth and putting, you know, humpty, dumpty together again. Um, I really got clear and intentional about what I wanted my life to be like and how I wanted to impact the world. Essentially and that was one of the biggest takeaways for me was that I was impacting the world and this trauma occurred because I am supposed to be of service and I am supposed to help other people and I am supposed to be an example of what's possible. If you do the work with yourself and you really go inward and figure out your, you know your intention and your vision and like how you want to show up and it doesn't necessarily show up linearly, like I was very resistant to a lot of it and, um, you know sharing about your body failing and your health and gaining weight and inflammation and really you know ugly parts of yourself that you don't want to talk about. That was the basis of how this company was built.

Speaker 2:

So you know I had gained around 80 pounds. You know I was very fitness oriented I was. You know I worked for the UFC for five years in Las Vegas. I was the kind of a representative of their fitness extension. So if you can imagine being the representative of the fitness element of the largest global sports company and that type of pressure to walk the talk was how I felt it. I'm very much a walk the talk type of person. So if I was to represent them, like what would I need to look like? You know, like I should emulate that mentality. You know that physique and so and it was way before them that I had that mentality as well.

Speaker 2:

But I was very intensely exercising, I was very calorically restricted and I was trying to get to a specific weight and I could never get there. And it had been my whole life of trying to really just tighten everything and get more restrictive and more calorically deficient and trying to lose weight and I never could get there and I was gaining weight. So like my head was exploding because you know, the math wasn't mathing for me, right, and you think, okay, calories in and calories out, that was not the case in any way. It was calories negative 3000, gaining 10 pounds, like it was, like you know. So I was struggling with these issues and I was also in my late 30s as a female and a lot of answers I was getting was you know, this is normal, it's normal for you to, and I was like, no, it's not buying any of this, I'm not buying it. So you know, I really had to go in and let my body, heal and also figure out like and learn about inflammation and what detoxing means. And it was through that process of just sharing through social media For three years I didn't know what I was doing or how I was going to make any money or I didn't have a product.

Speaker 2:

I was just clear that I needed to help other people and I was of service and I was just moving the needle on trying to give back and trying to share and trying to really just explain what I had gone through with the trauma and what I was going through, overcoming that, what my body was going through, and just really organizing content essentially and sharing this content consistently, not having any idea for three years how I was going to monetize or if I was going to monetize or. This was just like a pit where I just threw money into and lit it on fire and eventually it ended up coming to. You know, I ended up coming into a solution for lymphatic drainage and I built my flagship product, the Diamandia Body Gua Sha. But it really wasn't. Until I was using another product, it slipped out of my hand. I broke four fingernails. I was furious, because if you break one nail, it's already a tragedy Four at the same time, like fury Greek fury coming out of me. But it just pushed me to the point where I was angry enough to try to solve a problem. I was like why doesn't that fucking handle here? Why isn't this working? How come the angle doesn't work like this? And I just started creating prototypes and I was shipping the prototypes to my apartment.

Speaker 2:

I was traveling all over the world at the time and using my own prototypes and using myself as this petri dish, as the guinea pig for this lymphatic transition. I was also getting some of the best lymphatic education from. You know a lot of the celebrities. They get a lot of lymphatic treatments and massages, especially before events. I was entering into that world and I was getting educated by these women and I've seen what they were using on their clients. But I was like, okay, I don't have a thousand dollars to get a treatment before and after a flight. That's two grand.

Speaker 2:

And I was like running out of money and really was like, why, how do I do this at home? Like we go get a facial and there's a skincare routine at home. Right, I was spending all this money on lymphatic treatments but there was no lymphatic treatment at home. So it was just kind of like figuring that out and being like I need, I want the same results. I want to detox my body. I feel so good after these treatments how do I do this at home? And just taking what was in the market and not settling for the shit, honestly, and being like this needs to be better, and then just figuring out how to make it better, testing my body through it, and then I eventually put up.

Speaker 2:

I took some photos with my iPhone, threw together a Shopify store like myself on the couch, you know like, and I put a link up on Instagram stories and I sold 545 minutes and I just was like.

Speaker 2:

I was just like your expression was my expression. You know, I I had no idea that this was going to turn into that. I just wanted to help people and I was just sharing and, you know, I was trying to solve a problem in my own body and as I'm sharing more and hearing more from my audience, I just started solving more problems and I just really kept coming back to like how I can be healthier and how I can be a more an anti inflammatory version of myself. I, you know, I say I live an anti inflammatory lifestyle and just taking those modalities of what that means and incorporating into my life and really seeing the results that happen and have happened through that, and then sharing that information and creating programs and creating products to really support for people to be the best version of themselves and really, you know, showcasing themselves and making themselves a priority in their own life and doing the work before they start pouring into other people and being, you know, good and feeling the best that they can in their own skin.

Speaker 1:

Wow, jeez, that's pretty crazy to stumble into that, and congratulations on that first launch of your product. That's pretty incredible and I want to thank you for sharing that story. It sounds like it was a very tough situation and I can imagine it being pretty difficult and dark, and when you're doing everything that everybody in the world tells you to do, like calories out, calories in versus calories out, and then it's still not working for you, that must have been like tough to work through and I felt like I was trapped in my own skin, like I was a prisoner in my body.

Speaker 2:

Wow, and I had no. You know, we take advantage of the fact that we think we have control over our bodies and when we don't, and our bodies do whatever it needs to do, we're not in control anymore. That's like when we lose it. You know, like why is this? I'm doing the things. It's not working. You know what's? It's always, I've always done it this way and it's not working. Now, like I can't tell you how many clients that I have that come and say to me I've been doing this my whole life and it's not working. And I'm like, well, you're not this version of yourself. You haven't been this exact version of yourself in this exact moment of yourself. You haven't been this exact version of yourself in this exact moment ever. So how do you expect something to work from before, when you were 20, you know, and also your body gets used to the shit that you put it through and it doesn't respond the way that it did when you were in your twenties. So you can't pull the same game, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So so where are you at now with your business and where are you trying to get to with your brand and everything?

Speaker 2:

Wow, going to go back, you're only going to go forward, and whatever you like, whatever it is that made you successful to that moment, is usually what's preventing you from the next level up in your business and yourself, and I see that like this personal brand. It's it has been the most challenging for me because it has shown me more of what I'm resisting within myself. It's showing me more of what I am afraid of. It's showing me more like, and every time I have a breakthrough with like oh, I know what I've been avoiding, like, what have I been avoiding Right? So it's, it has definitely shown up and it is such a mirror, obviously because it is my name and it is my struggles, it is my insecurities that are online.

Speaker 2:

Every time I have a moment where I'm like this is what I'm avoiding and I put it out there, something major happens. So I'm a full service wellness brand. At this point, I have, I think, over 20 products functioning. I really want to continue to grow this business and to be able to help as many people as possible. That is my mission is to show people what's possible and help them with any information that I have that I can give that will help them in their next version of themselves.

Speaker 2:

So, from that perspective, that's where I'm trying to go and to grow my audience and, to you know, just keep this message going. It wasn't until I felt you know this good about myself that my body actually started to reflect what I'd always been trying to push it so hard to be Like. I've never physically looked If you just looked at a picture of me, I've never looked the way that I look right now. And I'm 45 and not even as a teenager I was overweight. As a teenager I was overweight my whole life. It's always been a struggle, and I'm 45 and not even as a teenager I was overweight. As a teenager I was overweight my whole life. It's always been a struggle. And now I am the version of myself.

Speaker 2:

I've always been pushing so hard and I push the least, I work out the least, I eat the most, and it's it's like it's mind blowing to me that I'm like I only work out 15 to 20 minutes a day, if that, you know, and I used to work out four hours a day just running 150 flights of stairs before my workout, like you know, just like crazy shit, just crazy shit. And now it's like, okay, focus on what is really reducing inflammation in my body, like what practices? What do I need to be aware of? You know that really. What am I doing? How am I living my life that I'm reducing inflammation? What's coming into my sphere? What are my relationships like? Are they stressing me out? Is work stressing me out? Am I putting clean ingredients into my body? Am I putting organic ingredients? Anti I putting clean ingredients into my body?

Speaker 1:

am I putting organic ingredients, anti-inflammatory ingredients into my body? Am I cleaning my house or the anti-inflammatory you know last toxic cleaning products? You?

Speaker 3:

know and then how I maintain my exercise or how I maintain my mental health other than like.

Speaker 1:

Your stress level has everything to do with the number other than working out and and how you maintain my mental health. Your stress level has everything to do with the number on the scale and how you maintain that stress. I think I heard you say like cleaning products too.

Speaker 2:

A lot of times, people use exercise as a vehicle for stress relief, which I think is wonderful and great, until it gets to a point where your body doesn't recover from the inflammation that you're causing during that stress release. Right, and is that helping or hurting? And then how do you remove toxins from your body? Using the Diamandia body glass shot, using a dry brush every day? Am I using an infrared sauna, red light therapy, but really consistently removing toxins from the body? Because we don't do that as humans. Urination and defecation is the only real way, daily, that we're removing toxins. Sweating, yes, but again, is the sweat promoting inflammation or reducing inflammation? So how are we actually taking toxins out of our body? And we're exposed to thousands of toxins on a daily basis, so we don't. We don't take toxins out of our body, you know.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, cleaning products, candles, those are all toxic, super toxic. Candles and cleaning products and air fresheners probably the most toxic in our then laundry detergent, which is what we wash our clothes and sheets. And then we went where and land right, but for me, like physically, my adrenals failed, can you?

Speaker 1:

tell me. You know I had pushed my body physically to a. Physically, my adrenals failed. Can you talk a little bit about how your journey so like? When did you so? You created your product and I started getting recurring shingles. So I had shingles like four times.

Speaker 3:

Then my thyroid stopped working and I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's and I was having these massive histamine reactions to food, which means I was really toxic.

Speaker 2:

It was a compounded thing where I was keto, I wasn't eating sugar, I was eating protein and vegetables and I was still gaining weight, and I was because I was so toxic and I was so stressed out that I became allergic to things that were healthy for me, like avocados. I started having massive histamine reactions to avocados, like zucchini chicken. At one point, eggs threw me for a loop. Still can't play around with eggs, but it's because you're so toxic that food that you think is really healthy, like having avocado toast with an egg on it for breakfast, even though it's gluten-free. I was allergic to canola oil. I was allergic to the gums that they were putting in the gluten-free breads, and if you have mold toxicity in your gut any gum that is manufactured xanthan gum, carob gum, any of those gums those are genetically modified mold, right. So the binding agents for gluten-free products is a mold derivative. Well, I lost 85 pounds and I so, as through the process of sharing people, started to see my body heal. So, like without me knowing it, I was the proof of the product that eventually I came out with right, and so I started like as I was shifting. As I was using the body wash hot, I started looking for more things that promoted anti-inflammatory living, and I couldn't find specific things like an oil. I really wanted an anti-inflammatory oil that was vegan and cruelty free, it was organic, it had no fragrance in it because I was breaking out in hives like a lunatic and it didn't stain my sheets or my clothes. You know, I had ruined thousands of dollars worth of clothing and sheets because of oils and I couldn't find it, so I made it. And then, well, I was like okay, so I want a dry brush. And I started searching for dry brushes and I couldn't find something that was like the bristles were hard enough but it had the handle that I liked. So I created it, you know.

Speaker 2:

And and then I just started like I wasn't sleeping as well as I wanted and I needed like blackout curtains for my face and I couldn't find an eye mask that stayed on my face. You know you wake up your eye masks across the bed. You know I wanted something that was like on. It was like done, I'm out. No, no more participation in the world. So I created that. No world participation in the world. So I created that, you know, and it was just.

Speaker 2:

It's been really just a process of I can't find anything that's solving this problem A hundred percent. I things are close but they're just like not right and just you know, going into that and then realizing that you know how I'm cooking my food being gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, soy-free, with no oils like no bad oils and no gums people think is very restrictive and learning how to cook. I also didn't know how to cook when I started this health experience I had. I was like boiling water was um, I had to learn how to cook because I couldn't go out to eat. You know how was I going?

Speaker 2:

to eat and then learning how to go out to eat and to order food in a way that I could eat it, and learning how to create recipes and make it so like it wasn't overwhelming and I wasn't cooking for nine hours, then sharing those recipes. It got to the point where I had an email list. I was creating recipes and my friends just wanted me to send them the recipes. So I was emailing everybody these recipes and I was like I'm just going to put them on the website and they could just go to the website. So I just started recipes on the website and then that turned into 150 recipes. Later I'm, you know, cooking and now I have my top 10 recipes and we have a cellulite kit and you know, it's been just really putting myself through the process of being the petri dish and testing it on myself.

Speaker 2:

And then, you know, I lived in Newport, rhode Island, for a very long time and I had a lot of people come stay with me for the summer so destination location and they'd come stay with me for like a couple weeks or a month and they would just be like I want to do what you do and they would do the meditation that I would do? They would do the 15-minute workout with me. They'd use, you know, the Diamandia body wash off with me. Me they would eat the food that I cooked because I was hosting, or we would go out and I would order and I was seeing my friends leave my house with six packs. And it was like it was such a mirror for me because I'm like I'm doing this. That is wild, like you know, like I can't believe it.

Speaker 1:

I can't believe that you're saying there because and it wasn't what they looked like, it wasn't the six pack.

Speaker 2:

I use the six pack and the app definition, because that's what you can visually see when you live in an Instagram world. The receipt is the visual.

Speaker 1:

It was how they felt about themselves.

Speaker 3:

They were dancing around in the living room for no reason.

Speaker 2:

Then I went on a photo shoot with a photographer and I talked about her all the time and I put her out in my content and she wanted to stay with me and that's very rare for like model photographer cohabity. But she was like I just want to do what you do. And I was like, okay, and for some reason I was like let's just take some before, let's take some pictures of you, because I just want to. I have this gut feeling, you know. And so we took some photos of her and we stayed in the house for seven days. She ate like I ate.

Speaker 2:

She used my, she had my Gua Sha for two years sat on the counter because she was with me, she was dry brushing, she was using the Gua Sha, she was meditating, she did the 15 minute workouts with me. I would cook our food or prep our foods or I would. We would go out to eat and I would order. And she lost 15 pounds in seven days and she's 4'11" and she wasn't like not someone you would be like, oh, she looks unhealthy. She looked healthy. Inflammation fell off of her body.

Speaker 1:

Fell off wow you're looking great.

Speaker 2:

That's it, you're done yes, she was dancing around and she was I mean, I remember like I'll never forget this moment she came out of her room crying and she was like you have to put this out as a program and you have to host a retreat. And I was like I started crying too, cause I knew she was right. And then that's, that's how I, that's the reason why I built a seven day reset, which is the program that I have, and now I host retreats in costa rica. And it was because I went down there and I saw, I saw it again. I saw it again. It was like the fifth time, but it was a straight. You know, I couldn't minimize it anymore. I had minimized it, I had blown it off. You know, when I saw it with my friends, I was like okay, I see it, but like maybe it was even worse.

Speaker 1:

You know, you minimize your break and you minimize how you I'm really good at that.

Speaker 2:

Um accepting it and owning it is something I'm working on, so life changing opportunities.

Speaker 3:

I know I couldn't ignore this one. I couldn't ignore it, it was plain as day.

Speaker 1:

And then she was like I'm not stopping, I'm going home a little bit more energy. And she didn't stop. She's like she's been doing it, I mean I haven't talked for a little bit, but we were like 90 days, you know, and I was like we're not taking any more pictures of you like you'll want. It's like you know it's back out and, yeah, like a new human I would imagine we're good.

Speaker 2:

But I'm so proud of her and happy for her because she was so miserable in her skin and that's the feeling that I want people to be able to feel. That like joy, like waking up happy, I'm like trust me, I have my days like it's a struggle sometimes, but like like, overall I'm happy and joyful.

Speaker 3:

And I've never been. I've always gotten up and be like oh.

Speaker 2:

I gotta go run, I gotta yeah, today. You know like I'm, I can't wait. You know it's. It's a totally different and that's what I want other people to feel like. I want them to feel this good and to be happy and, you know, feel good in their skin and be the best version of themselves. Hmm, awesome you are and your head's clear. That's where you find all the information you're not foggy, or on your favorite social channels, so that you can stay up to date.

Speaker 1:

Everyone should feel this way when the new retreat is confirmed and whatever else she's got going on in her life, because she's still doing a lot of traveling and everything too, I guess.

Speaker 2:

Diamandiacom. D-i-a-m-a-n? N? D? I? A? Um, the next retreat is September. I haven't even put the dates up, but it's going to be September. It'll be Wednesday to Wednesday after labor day. Um, in Costa Rica, be Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. It's five people only. I only bring five people down there. You live in a house with me. Uh, it is a very intimate experience. Um, my products are available on the website. You can follow me on Instagram or.

Speaker 2:

YouTube or Tik TOK at Diamandia D II-A-M-A-N-D-I-A. The Diamandia body gloss shop comes in two versions it's this traditional Chinese buying stone version and the stainless steel. Goddess platinum version at this point.

Speaker 3:

Well, I just want to show some appreciation and thank you for taking the time.

Speaker 2:

I know you've got a lot of things going on with clients and products and everything you're delivering to people, changing people's lives.

Speaker 1:

Essentially, those are my info and so I appreciate you taking the time to come on and share your story and a little bit about your experience and your insights. And but before I let you go, though, I got to ask you if you were to boil everything down that you've learned through this whole journey. What would be your number one piece of advice to your younger self?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, as much as I can. So I just it's crazy I just created, I just like put everything in a warehouse which is, you know, I feel like my kids go to college. I, two years, three months, I packed every order myself out of the living room, like third floor, walk up, like you know, schlepping washrooms, like up and down third three flight stairs and then packing every order, then pulling them down the stairs for USPS to come pick up and, you know, dropping everything off the post office every day. It's just I. I nine over 9,000 orders. I've packed every single one myself. Uh, so I just implemented a warehouse and a fulfillment center and it's crazy to think about. Um, but yeah, it's like, here we go.

Speaker 1:

I love that Excellent advice. Thank you again for sharing everything with us. I'm so glad we got to connect and you got a credible story, and I just know you're going to continue to change a lot of people's lives, so thank you. Thank you again. All right guys, that's it for today's episode.

Speaker 2:

Catch you guys later. Just keep going. And I think anyone who's trying to survive the side hustle is just keep going, like I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea how to run an e-commerce business. I had no idea how I was going to generate sales. I didn't even have a product I didn't but I knew that I was supposed to help people. And I just kept coming back to that and just like, even now, when I'm struggling, I'm like I just got to keep going, like doesn't matter, whatever you're feeling, if you feel imposter syndrome, if you're scared, if you are scared, people are going to judge you. Who cares? Just keep going. You'll figure it out and everything will happen and you'll. If you fuck it up, you'll learn a lesson. I've screwed up so many things, trust me, but I keep learning from them. You just got to keep going, just one foot in front of the other. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.