Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. I'm Mina B, and I'm a licensed social worker, mental health educator, and author of owning our struggles.

I'll be chatting with experts, wellness advocates,

and others about the power of community care in improving your mental health. We'll delve

into topics such as friendships, managing difficult relationships, and most importantly,

how to cultivate belonging and support in our lives. Now, let's jump into today's

episode. Over the last 15 years, Cassidy Pope has been a lot of things to a lot of people,

leader of seminal pop punk band Hey Monday, season three winner of The Voice, platinum-selling,

Grammy-nominated country singer-songwriter, ally and activist pushing for social change

and a brighter future in a backward world. But through it all, she's remained fearlessly,

unapologetically herself. Now, Hope returns with a tremendous sense of freedom guiding her, and a forthcoming album set to once again amplify her confessional writing and redefine her plays as a pop-punk mainstay.

Hi, Cassidy. How are you? Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Mina. I'm a fan. So I'm excited.

Oh, well, thank you so much. I'm so excited for us to just dive into today's chat because you are doing such phenomenal things. You are the season three winner of the voice. You are a platinum-selling Grammy-nominated

country singer, songwriter. You're doing so many amazing things, but you're also an ally and an

activist. And you have been very, very vocal about your own mental health journey. And so for listeners who are tuning in, can you

take us on that journey and what made you become an activist for change, especially around mental

health? Yeah, definitely. So I've been a singer since I was four years old and I was exposed to the kind of

cutthroat industry at a very young age. I was about, I think I was

about 11 when I got my first managers. And after a few years, we parted ways. There was a lawsuit.

Very early on things started happening that soured the industry for me, but I just kept going

because it's a passion. And fast forward to, it was probably 2017, I went through a big breakup.

I left the record label that I was on. I parted ways with managers that I had at the time.

And it just kind of jumped started this very big transitional time in my life. I seeked help. I went to therapy.

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