EARLIEST ENTREPRENEURIAL MEMORY: Patenting a card game in middle school. SOMEONE I ADMIRE: All of my teachers, who share their knowledge and wisdom with the world. FAVORITE DISH: Homemade lamb stew .
Vivian Rosenthal
Taking an unorthodox approach to mental health
BRIDGING GAPS BETWEEN TECH AND HUMANITY. High functioning adults face unavoidable stressors within modern life each day, something that Vivian Rosenthal understood personally and professionally, leading her to step back from her high-profile and high-pressure design and technology background to focus on founding Frequency, a breathwork platform. Frequency offers classes both in-person and online that help people recalibrate themselves emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
“What does it mean to be mentally and emotionally resilient?” Vivian asks. “To take care of your mind and emotions and heart? This is what I wanted to discover with my work, the idea of medicine for your mind and emotions.” But it didn’t start here for Vivian who opened a design studio straight out of grad school to build digital products for Fortune 500 companies to help bridge the world between people and technology and their coexistence, “I was really fascinated by how people would continue to find balance in an ever increasingly digital world, where we’re expected to be on all the time. We need to find a way to return to balance, and breathwork is one of the most potent and impactful ways someone can shift their mood on a given day.”
Technology is incredible and has afforded us so much. But on the other hand, consumerism and digital addictions have overtaken us and made it hard to be present with ourselves and our loved ones. And ultimately, being present is the act of both self-love and love of others.
It’s this idea of self-love or self-care that drives Vivian in all her projects. Because in addition to Frequency, she’s also the co-founder of Lavva, a plant-based yogurt line that is low in sugar, high in probiotics, and again, focused on helping people use food as medicine. “We all breathe and we all eat. But often we don’t do these things actively with our physical and mental health in mind. I want to change that.”
CHOOSING LOVE OVER FEAR, PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY. “I’ve always felt different. I’ve never felt very comfortable fitting in, and in my career, I can always see the interesting parallels between entrepreneurs and people who identify with the comfort or discomfort of being different.” In her explorations of breathwork and mental health, Vivian was holding tight to the mantra of choosing love over fear.
Vivian believes she can see a world currently unfolding where perhaps we are starting to be able to move past things like sexuality, and into a place where people--as individuals--are not just accepted for who they are, no matter who they are, but welcomed as well. But that doesn’t mean it’s currently smooth sailing for LGBTQ entrepreneurs. “We should be in a place where everyone’s work and ideas can speak for itself, but we’re not there yet. There is still an underrepresentation and challenges happening between venture capitalists and LGBTQ entrepreneurs, but I do see changes, and I am hopeful that we’ll continue to see more in the coming years.
Vivian believes we’re all creative and we’re all intuitive creatures, but those of us who can’t help themselves but want to create solutions should learn to collaborate and prioritize their efforts. “Pick your cause. Lean into issues that truly matter to you, personally. Tap into whatever makes you sad in our world today and decide to make a difference. I think every entrepreneur can make a difference because we already think differently and thereby have an obligation to impact the world differently one issue at a time.”
