Lead
How Darian Hall Turned a Vulnerable Social Media Post Into a Growing Wellness Movement
He opened up. The wellness world opened up with him
EXPERT OPINION BY SOPHIE MEHARENNA, FOUNDER + NARRATIVE STRATEGIST, @WORDYSOPH
Aug 11, 2026
Darian Hall. Illustration: Inc.; Photos: photographer Daniel Randall; Adobe Stock
Listen to this ArticleMore info
0:00 / 0:00
In 2017, Darian Hall shared a deeply personal story on social media: meeting his father for the first time as an adult and the raw emotions that came with it. He wasn’t trying to make a statement. He was simply sharing an experience honestly and openly.
Little did he know that in doing so, it was the MVP for what would later become HealHaus, a multidisciplinary wellness ecosystem.
Democratizing vulnerability
Since Brené Brown’s viral TED Talk in 2010, the perception of emotional vulnerability has pivoted in mainstream culture from weakness to strength. But that shift hasn’t reached everyone evenly. The spaces built to hold it aren’t proportionally designed to look, sound, or feel like Hall’s own community.
After Hall posted his story, an influx of messages from his peers poured in.
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
“Everyone started opening up about different things that they were going through, which I didn’t realize, even though so many of us had been friends for 15, 20-plus years,” he said. “We had never had these conversations.”
The response revealed that his community wanted a way into wellness and mental health spaces, but nobody had built them a door.
“How do you get someone like me to be open to therapy and inquiring about it or taking a yoga or a breathwork class?” he asked. “We didn’t really have what we felt like was an entry point.”
