Thank you for joining us for episode 366 of Live Happy Now.

There are many ways to improve your well-being, and this week's guest is truly drawn to mental health.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I have the pleasure of talking with Danny Casal,

who, under the moniker of Cool Man Coffee Dan, is using his art to

provide encouragement, make people laugh, and even explore the challenges of mental health. His work

took off during the pandemic, and now he has millions of followers who rely on his adorable

characters to uplift and inspire them. His new book, Your Special, Advice for Humans from

Coolman Coffee Dan, tackles topics ranging from loneliness and anxiety to grief and self-confidence.

And just like this conversation, his art will make you smile. Danny, welcome to live happy now.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Well, I'm happy for you to come here and to bring all your little animated friends with you.

We have so much to talk about with what you're doing to help spread positivity throughout the world.

Your animations are absolutely adorable.

And your story is amazing.

So can you tell us how that all came together for you?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, thank you. First of all, every day, it's sort of a pinch me to wake up sort of moment. It's all a dream come true, to be honest. You know, when I was younger, doodling in just my classroom in elementary

school and just daydreaming, staring at the clock, wishing that the time would go by faster so I could

get out of there. All I really wanted to do was figure out how I could draw and doodle for a living.

And I had no idea how to do that. I didn't know what the first step was. So once it came

time for me to make a life decision and sort of, you know, go off to college, I settled on going for

film because I was doing videography. I was, you know, running around New York City, filming a music

video here and there for a hundred bucks a pop just to pay some bills.

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